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Louis, imagine my amazement and stupefaction! I thought I recognised the voice of my dead uncle, which in the brazen notes of a trumpet grew louder and louder, adding in a pompous, commanding tone "François! if I catch you, you rascal, you'll soon know what for!" I jump up, run to the window, and see quite distinctly my uncle, Barbassou Pasha himself. "Hullo! you here, my boy?" says he.
Third A careful dissertation upon the advantages of polygamy, and its applicability to the moral regeneration of mankind. I will first confess, without any presumption, that the ingenious system established for the conduct of my harem is all due to my uncle Barbassou, who, as much as any man in the world, was always particularly careful to maintain what the English term "respectability."
Captain Barbassou regarded him with astonishment..... At that moment a huge monster of a black man ran past carrying the medicine chest. "Wretch! Wait till I catch you!" Yelled Tartarin, starting forward with his knife held aloft. Barbassou caught him and held him by his sash. "Calm down for Chrissake." He said, "These are not pirates, there have been no pirates for ages, these are stevedores."
To his fellow passengers, he prepared to lead an assault on the raiders. "Ques aco?... What's the matter with you?" Said Captain Barbassou as he came off the bridge. "Ah!... There you are Captain.... Quick! Quick! Arm your men!" "He!... Do what? Why for God's sake?" "But don't you see?" "See what?" "There, in front of you... the pirates!"
Tartarin hated all these people. Their gaity redoubled his misery. At last, in the afternoon of the third day, there was some unusual activity on board the ship, which roused our hero from his torpor. The bell in the bows rang out... the heavy boots of the sailors could be heard running on the deck... "Engine ahead!... engine astern!." Shouted the hoarse voice of Captain Barbassou.
All at once, and without waiting to hear any more, he turned on his heels, and beat a precipitate retreat by the door. The late Barbassou indulged in a smile at this very intelligible discomfiture of his adversary. He had finished his madeira, and we went out to get our horses again.
"The late Barbassou, retired general, seen fifty years of service, and thirty-nine campaigns, and the husband of your sister-in-law, who is now a bigamist rather an awkward mistake for a lady." My uncle might have gone on speaking for the rest of the day, and had it all his own way. The unfortunate lieutenant stared at him, crushed and dumbfounded by this astounding revelation.
They thrust me, bound fast like a bundle of wood, into a sort of shed, after robbing me of all my gold. I was carefully guarded. At the end of eight days I said to myself, 'Barbassou, your ship lies in the harbour of Aden; you have business to attend to, and you won't get out of your present scrape without conciliatory negotiations.
The apparition of Tartarin, haggard, thinned, dusty, his flaming eyes, and the bristling up fez tassel, sharply interrupted this tender Turkish-Marseillais orgie. Baya piped the low whine of a frightened leveret, and ran for safety into the house. But Barbassou did not wince; he only laughed the louder, saying: "Ha, ha, Monsieur Tartarin! What do you say to that now? You see she does know French."
But my mind was soon set at ease; for Rabassu, who is used to his captain's play, knows how to cheat as cleverly as his master. Their losses soon balanced each other. Putting aside little dissipations of this kind, I should add that "the late Barbassou" is really very steady-going for a man of his temperament.
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