Torello’s captivity in Alexandria

Messer Torello d'Istria’s captivity in Alexandria turns a disastrous military defeat into an unexpected reunion: taken prisoner by Saladin, he conceals his identity until the ruler recognizes him as the generous host who once received him in Pavia. Captivity separates Messer Torello d'Istria from his home and leaves him reported dead, yet the memory of hospitality survives the distance between them and changes his standing from an unknown prisoner to an honored guest.

From the Christian army to captivity

Messer Torello d'Istria’s journey begins with a parting from Madam Adalieta. Before he rides away, she gives him a ring from her finger and asks him to remember her if she dies before they meet again. He travels with his company to Genoa, boards a galley, and reaches Acre, where he joins the Christian forces. A severe sickness and mortality soon break out among them. Saladin captures nearly all the surviving Christians without a battle and distributes them among several cities, where they are imprisoned. Messer Torello d'Istria is among those taken and is carried to Alexandria.

His captivity is marked by deliberate concealment as well as confinement. Unknown to his captors, and afraid to make himself known, he does not identify himself. Instead, he turns to the skill he already possesses: he is an accomplished trainer of hawks. This work brings him to Saladin’s attention, and Saladin removes him from prison to serve as his falconer. The change improves his immediate circumstances, but does not restore him to his former life. Saladin calls him only the Christian, while Messer Torello d'Istria does not recognize the ruler as the visitor he once entertained.

Recognition through remembered hospitality

Although neither man initially recognizes the other, a small physical detail breaks through the disguise of circumstance. While discussing hawks, Messer Torello d'Istria smiles and moves his mouth in a way Saladin remembers from the house in Pavia. Saladin studies him and asks where in the West he comes from. Messer Torello d'Istria answers that he is a Lombard from Pavia, but describes himself as poor and of low condition. Saladin’s suspicion grows; the gesture, rather than a name or formal introduction, has recalled their earlier meeting.

Saladin then brings out garments laid in a chamber and asks whether Messer Torello d'Istria recognizes any of them. Among them are clothes Madam Adalieta had given Saladin when he visited Pavia with two companions. Messer Torello d'Istria recognizes their resemblance to garments he once wore for those guests, though he does not think these can actually be the same. Saladin identifies himself as one of the three merchants and names Messer Torello d'Istria in turn. The recognition reveals that the apparently low-status prisoner is the very man whose courtesy had once welcomed Saladin into his home.

Captivity transformed into honor

Saladin responds to the discovery by declaring that Messer Torello d'Istria is henceforth master, not a subordinate in his household. After they rejoice in recognizing one another, Saladin clothes him in royal apparel and presents him to his chief barons. He praises Messer Torello d'Istria’s worth and commands those who value his favor to honor him as they would Saladin himself. The two men who had accompanied Saladin on his earlier visit are especially prominent among those who do so. The captive falconer is thus publicly restored to dignity through the generosity he had once shown as a host.

The elevation also has a cost in attention: Messer Torello d'Istria’s sudden rise in Saladin’s favor causes him partly to forget his affairs in Lombardy. He has reason to hope that the letter he sent has reached his uncle, the Abbot of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, but he remains far from Pavia and unable to return at once. His captivity is no longer simply imprisonment, yet his altered fortune does not undo the uncertainty his absence creates at home.

The false report of death

Before Saladin captures the Christians, a Provençal gentleman named Messer Torello de Dignes dies and is buried in their camp. The similar name causes returning Italians to mistake him for Messer Torello d'Istria. Because the surviving captives cannot correct the report, the error travels home as apparent fact; some people even claim to have witnessed Messer Torello d'Istria’s death and burial. The false identification makes captivity consequential beyond the prison: while he lives in Alexandria, his wife and relatives believe him dead.

Madam Adalieta and the family grieve intensely. After several months, her sorrow lessens, and prominent men in Lombardy seek her in marriage. Her brothers and other relatives press her to accept, though she repeatedly refuses with tears. At last she yields to their insistence on the condition that she remain without going to a husband for as long as she had promised Messer Torello d'Istria. The ring he took with him therefore remains tied to a promise whose meaning has been sharpened by the captivity: distance and a mistaken death threaten their reunion, even as the hospitality that first joined Messer Torello d'Istria and Saladin makes recognition possible.