995 But other speculations were, in sooth,
Added to his connection with the sea,
Perhaps not so respectable, in truth:
A little smuggling, and some piracy,
Left him, at last, the sole of many masters
1000 Of an ill-gotten million of piastres.3
126
A fisher, therefore, was he?though of men,
Like Peter the Apostle,4?and he fish'd
For wandering merchant vessels, now and then,
And sometimes caught as many as he wish'd;
1005 The cargoes he confiscated, and gain
He sought in the slave-market too, and dish'd
Full many a morsel for that Turkish trade,
By which, no doubt, a good deal may be made.
2. A reference to the lavish feast with which Achil-4. Christ's words to Peter and Andrew, both fishles entertained Ajax, Phoenix, and Ulysses (Iliad ermen: 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
9.193ff.l. men' (Matthew 4.19).
3. Near-Eastern coins.
.
DON JUAN, CANTO 4 / 707
101
He was a Greek, and on his isle had built
1010 (One of the wild and smaller Cyclades)5
A very handsome house from out his guilt,
And there he lived exceedingly at ease;
Heaven knows what cash he got, or blood he spilt,
A sad6 old fellow was he, if you please,
1015 But this I know, it was a spacious building,
Full of barbaric carving, paint, and gilding.
128
He had an only daughter, call'd Haidee,
The greatest heiress of the Eastern Isles;
Besides, so very beautiful was she,
1020 Her dowry was as nothing to her smiles:
Still in her teens, and like a lovely tree
She grew to womanhood, and between whiles
Rejected several suitors, just to learn
How to accept a better in his turn.
129
1025 And walking out upon the beach, below
The cliff, towards sunset, on that day she found,
Insensible,'?not dead, but nearly so,? unconscious
Don Juan, almost famish'd, and half drown'd;
But being naked, she was shock'd, you know,
1030 Yet deem'd herself in common pity bound,
As far as in her lay, 'to take him in, A stranger'7 dying, with so white a skin.
130
But taking him into her father's house
Was not exactly the best way to save,
