In less than two hours after he
returned from the visit, he died of most terrible convulsions.
"But this is a mere trifle. My mother, distracted to the highest
degree, and yet less afflicted than I, determined to absent herself
for some time from so fatal a place. As she had a very fine estate
in the neighborhood of Gaeta, we embarked on board a galley, which was
gilded like the high altar of St. Peter's, at Rome. In our passage
we were boarded by a Sallee rover. Our men defended themselves like
true Pope's soldiers; they flung themselves upon their knees, laid
down their arms, and begged the corsair to give them absolution in
articulo mortis.
"The Moors presently stripped us as bare as ever we were born. My
mother, my maids of honor, and myself, were served all in the same
manner. It is amazing how quick these gentry are at undressing people.
But what surprised me most was, that they made a rude sort of surgical
examination of parts of the body which are sacred to the functions
of nature. I thought it a very strange kind of ceremony; for thus we
are generally apt to judge of things when we have not seen the
world. I afterwards learned that it was to discover if we had any
diamonds concealed. This practice had been established since time
immemorial among those civilized nations that scour the seas.
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