Sometimes they would burst into tears when they saw me.

Then I used to wonder why, but I know now that I must have reminded them of girls of their own, whom they would never see again.

Then, till three years ago, there were about twenty white boys who had been taught to dance and sing, and who used to come sometimes, dressed up like women, to amuse the ladies of the harem; but I heard that they were all killed, when the sultan first thought that the English might come here.

One of the slave girls told me that it was done because the sultan had often sworn, to the English, that there were no white captives here, and so he did not wish that any should be found, if they came.
"I don't think that I have anything else to tell you." "Well, I hope that what you have told me will be enough to enable us, some day, to find out who you belong to.

Evidently you were in some place that was besieged, eight years ago, and had to surrender.