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The rumor of his misfortunes awakened the active sympathy of several noble families in the neighborhood, by whom he was most hospitably entertained and his necessities liberally relieved.

A life of ease did not suit his restless temperament, and his high spirit could not endure his being the constant subject of favors, which he had no means of repaying. He set out upon his wanderings with a light purse, a stout heart, and a good sword. His slender means being soon exhausted, he was reduced to great sufferings, so much so, that one day, in passing through a forest, his strength, worn out by grief and exposure, entirely failed him, and he threw himself down by the edge of a fountain, with little hope of ever rising again. Here he was providentially found by a rich farmer, who acted the part of the good Samaritan towards him, and furnished him with the means of prosecuting his journey.

In rambling from port to port in search of a ship of war, he met, near a town in Brittany, one of the villains who had robbed him. They both drew without exchanging a single word, and the prowess of Smith gave him an easy victory over one, whose arm was paralyzed by the consciousness of a bad cause. He obliged him to make an ample confession of his guilt in the presence of numerous spectators. He obtained nothing, how

ever, but the barren laurels of victory, and direct

ed his course to the seat of the Earl of Ployer, whom he had formerly known. By him he was treated with the utmost kindness and hospitality, and his purse liberally replenished. Taking leave of his friendly host, he travelled by a circuitous route to Marseilles, where he embarked for Italy.

New troubles awaited Smith in this passage. The author of the manuscript Latin memoir, alluded to in the Preface, remarks, that it is curious to observe how ingenious Fortune is in contriving peculiar disasters and perils to try the temper of heroes and great men, the ordinary mishaps of life not being sufficient for that purpose; a reflection naturally enough suggested by the adventures of his hero. On board the vessel was a great crowd of Catholic pilgrims of various nations, who were bound to Rome. They encountered a violent storm, which obliged them first to put into the harbor of Toulon, and afterwards to anchor under the small island of St. Mary, which lies off Nice, in Savoy. The enlightened devotees, who were sailing with him, took it into their heads, that the tempest was sent from heaven, as a manifestation of its displeasure at the presence of a heretic, who was, among so many of the true church, like "a dead fly in the compost of spices." They at first confined themselves to angry reproaches, directed not only against Smith himself,

but against Queen Elizabeth, an object of especial dread and aversion to all good Catholics. Their displeasure soon displayed itself by more unequivocal signs. The writer above alluded to says, that Smith disdained to stain his sword with the blood of so base a rabble, but that he belabored them soundly with a cudgel; but this probably belongs to that large class of facts, for which historians and biographers are indebted to their own imaginations.

Be that as it may, the result was, that Smith was thrown into the sea, like another Jonah, as a peace-offering to the angry elements. He was so near the island of St. Mary, that he could reach it without any difficulty by swimming. The next day, he was taken on board a French ship, commanded by Captain La Roche, a friend and neighbor of the Earl of Ployer, who, for his sake, treated Smith with great kindness and consideration. They sailed to Alexandria in Egypt, and, delivering their freight, coasted the Levant. In the course of their voyage they met with a Venetian argosy, richly laden. The captain of the French ship desired to speak her, but his motions were misconstrued by the Venetian ship, which fired a broad-side into her, mistaking her probably for a pirate, or supposing, what was probably true in those troubled times, that he could expect none but the treatment of an enemy

from those of any other than his own nation. An engagement naturally enough ensued, which resulted in the defeat of the Venetian vessel,

after a loss of twenty men, her adversary losing fifteen. Her rich cargo was plundered by the victors, and the most valuable and least bulky portions of it taken on board their own vessel. The valor of Smith had been most signally displayed in this engagement, and he received, as his share of the spoils, five hundred sequins, besides a "little box" (probably of jewels), worth nearly as much more. He was set on shore in Piedmont, at his own request. He made the tour of Italy, and gratified his curiosity by a sight of the interesting objects with which that country is filled. Mindful of his original purpose, he departed from Venice, and travelling through Albania, Dalmatia, and Sclavonia, came to Gratz in Styria, the residence of Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, afterwards Emperor of Germany.

The war was at that time raging between Rodolph the Second, Emperor of Germany, and Mahomet the Third, the Grand Seignior. Smith's desire to display his prowess against the Turks was soon gratified. He met with two of his countrymen, who introduced him to Lord Eberspaught, Baron Kissell, and the Earl of Meldritch, all of them officers of distinction in the Imperial army.

This was in the latter part of the year 1601. The Turkish army, under the command of Ibrahim Bashaw, had besieged and taken, in the month of October, the strong fortress of Canisia, in Hungary, and were ravaging the neighboring country. They were laying siege to Olympach, with twenty thousand men, and had reduced the garrison, commanded by Eberspaught, to great extremities, having cut off all communication and supplies. Smith served as a volunteer in the army of the Baron Kissell, the general of artillery, who annoyed the besiegers from without. He was desirous of sending a communication to the commander of the garrison, but found no one bold enough to undertake so perilous an enterprise. Smith then communicated to him a plan of telegraphic intercourse, which he had before made known to Lord Eberspaught, anticipating that the chances of war would give rise to an emergency, in which a knowledge of it might be highly useful. By Kissell's order, Smith was conveyed at night to a mountain seven miles distant from the town, and communicated with the commander of the garrison, and conveyed to him the following message. "On Thursday at night, I will charge on the east; at the alarm sally you;" an answer was returned, "I will." The besieged were also aided further by Smith's inventive genius. On the eve of the attack, he had several thousand

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