The Wing-and-Wing

ll pre

ore--embarked;

but my

and my

Cors

cion from the lugger among those on shore. It seemed so utterly improbable that a French corsair could answer the signals of an English frigate that even Vito Viti felt compelled to acknowledge to the vice-governatore in a whispe

e less. It is a happiness to be honored with the visit of two cruisers of your great nation on the same day, and I hope you will so far favor me as to accompany your brother commander, when he

Raoul carelessly; "I take her to be la Proserpine, a French-buil

her commander--you doubtle

om I was educated, though we happen ourselves never to ha

have I met that honorable appellation in Shakespeare, and other of your

tion or the smallest remorse; though he had no idea whatever who Milton was; "Milton,

as a Roman, and an ancient, Capitano, and died be

alance. Smiling, as in consideration of the other's provincial view of things, he rejoined, with

t me see--I do not think it is yet a century since our Cicero died. He was born in Devonshire"--this was the county in which Raoul had been impr

of barbarism which were the unavoidable fruits of their origin. As for supposing it possible that one who spoke with the ease and innocence of Raoul was inventing as he went along, it was an idea he was himself much too unpractised to entertain; and the very first thing he did on entering the palace was to make a memorandum which might lead him, at a leisure moment, to inquire into the nature of the writings and the general merits of Sir Cicero,

w threaded his way, wearing his sea cap and his assumed naval uniform in a smart, affected manner, for he was fully sensible of all the advantages he possessed on the score of personal appearance. His unsettled eye, however, wandered from one pretty face to another in quest of Ghita, who alone was the object of his search and the true cause of the awkward predicament into which he had brought not on

, "and point to the different streets, as if inquiring your way through the town.

ight well have fancied the meeting accidental, though he

acid face, "another time I might indulge you. How much worse is your situation now than it was last night! Then you ha

me at the tower--well, he has served in this very ship, and knows her to be la Proserpine, of forty-four." Raoul paus

Brown, or sir anybody else, will send you again to those evil English prison-ships, o

; and le Feu-Follet shines or goes out, exactly as it suits her purposes. The frigate, ten to one, will just run close in and take a near look, and then squa

lf, while her color almost insensibly deepened--"Livorno has few ignorant coun

by many a noble dame at Roma and at Napoli; it has left thee innocent and pure--a gem that gay

s and rich gems?" asked the girl, smiling, the tenderness which

be. I went to Roma on purpose to see the Holy Father, in order to make certain whether our French o

for this was the great point of separation between them--"I know thou found'st him thus, and worthy t

l he was too frank and generous to deceive, while he had ever been too considerate to strive to unsettle her confiding and consoling faith. Her infirmity even, for so he deemed her notions to be, had a charm in his eyes; few men, however loose or sceptical in

!" he said; "in thee I worsh

me, utter not this frightful blasphemy; tell me, rather,

allibility could I see about him; but a set of roguish cardinals and other plotters of mischief, who wer

s. Thou knowest not these sainted men, and thy tongu

and must be looked to; say, w

it is; and must separate. Trust to me to provide the means of anot

er to follow or not; then he hastened to the terrace in front of the government-house again, in order to ascertain the meani

sailing off to leeward in a little cloud, and signals were again flying at her main-royal-mast-head. All this was very intelligible to Raoul, it being evident at a glance that the frigate had reached in nearer both to look at the warlike lugger that she saw in the bay, and to communica

o supply him with those necessary to communicate with the enemy. Ithuel's ingenuity, however, had supplied the deficiency. While serving on board the Proserpine, the very ship that was now menacing the lugger, he had seen a meeting between her and a privateer English lugger, one of the two or three of that rig which sailed out of England, and his observant eye had noted the flags she had shown on the occasion. Now, as privateersmen are not expected to be expert or even very accurate in the use of signals, he had ventured to show these very numbers, let it

event of the frigate's coming close in; but matters now seemed so very serious that he hurried down the hill, overtaking Vito Viti in his way, who was repairing to

own," observed the short-winded podestà, who usually put himself out of breath both in ascending an

hat it is Sir Brown and la Proserpine as I was an hour ago. I see symptoms of

gnor Capitano; but I can hardly believe that so graceful and g

ice are republican prizes. Even should this frigate turn out to be the Proserpine herself, she can claim no better origin. But I think the vice-governatore has not

he signal book of the Proserpine; but his confident manner had an effect on Vito Viti, who was duped by his seeming earn

nore?" demanded the podestà,

ing his broadside to bear on this steep hill, there is not a chamber window that will not open on the muzzles of his guns. You will grant me permission to haul into the inner harbor, whe

sent the latter up the hill with a message to Andrea Barrofaldi, and then he hurried down toward the port, it being much easie

ed to confide blindly in the honesty of the lugger. This was a change of sentiment in the magistrate; and, as in the case of all sudden but late conversions, he was in a humor to compensate for his tardiness by the excess of his zeal. In consequence of this disposition and the character and loquacity of the man, all aided by a few timely suggestions on the part of Raoul, in five minutes it came to be generally understood that the frigate was greatly to be distrusted, while the lugger rose in public favor exactly in the deg

and Il Signor Smees--we may be said to know him--have seen his papers, and the vice-governatore and myself have examined him, as it might be, on the history and laws of his island, for England is an island, neighbors, as well as E

he case, I hasten to haul my vessel into the mouth of your basin, which I wi

, or to the eastward of the entrance. When the reader remembers that the scale on which the port had been constructed was small, the entrance scarce exceeding a hundred feet in width, he will better understand the situation of things. Seemingly to aid the movement, too, the jigger was set, and the wind being south, or directly aft, the lugger's motion was soon light and rapid. As the vessel drew nearer to the entrance, her people made a run with the line and gave her a movement of some three or four knots to the hour, actually threatening to dash her bows against the pier-head. But Raoul Yvard contemplated no such blunder. At the proper moment the line was cut, the helm was put a-port, the lugger's head sheered to starboard, and just as Vito Viti, who witnessed all without comprehending more than half that passed, was shouting his vivas and animating all near him with his cries, the lugger glided past the end of the harbor, on its outside, however, instead of entering it. So completely was every one taken by surprise by this evolution that the first impression was of some mistake, accident, or blunder of the helm

to allow them to appear on the promontory in time to see the Ving-y-Ving pass close under the cliffs beneath them, still keeping he

epublican away from your port in chase; that will

time to interpose by acts, had such a course been contemplated, the lugger keeping too close in to be exposed to shot, and there being, as yet, no new preparation

-like bows caused the water to ripple before them like a swift current meeting a sharp obstacle in the stream. It was only as she sank into the water, in stemming a swell, that anything like foam could be seen under her fore

eighboring rocks, and her speed was essentially increased. Hitherto, her close proximity to the shore had partially becalmed her, though the air had drawn round the promontory, making nearly a fair wind of it; but now the currents

after sail was set, one white cloud succeeding another, until she was a sheet of canvas from her trucks to her bulwarks. Her lofty sails taking the breeze

port. But there flew the respected and dreaded English ensign; and it was still a matter of doubt whether the stranger were friend or enemy. Nothing about the ship showed apprehension, and yet she was clearly chasing a craft which, coming from a Tuscan harbor, an Englishman would be bound to consider entitled to his protection rather than to his hostility. In a word, opinions were divided, and when that is the case, in matters of this nature, decision is obviously difficult. Then, if

ity of the hills, through more than a mile to the leeward. Here she met the fair southern breeze, uninfluenced by the land, as it came through the pass between Corsica and Elba, and got a clear view of the work before her. The studding-sails and royals had been taken in twenty minutes earlier; the bowlines were now all hauled, and the frigate was brought close upon the wind. Still the chase was evidently hopeless, the little Feu-Follet having everything as much to her mind as if she had ordered the weather ex

hin a few hours' run, and there was the whole of the east coast of Corsica, abounding with small bays and havens, in which a vessel of that size might take refuge if pressed. After convincing himself, therefore, by half an hour's further trial in open sailing under the full force of the breeze, of the fruitlessness of his effort, that experienced officer ordered the Proserpine's helm put up, the yar

e menaced attack of the republican frigate, and the escape of the lugger. Some, indeed, still doubted, for every question has its two sides, and there was just enough of dissent to render the discussions lively and the arguments ingenious. Among the disputants, Vito Viti acted a prominent part. Having committed himself so openly by his "vivas" and his public remarks in the port, he felt it due to his own character to justify all he had said, and Raoul Yvard could not have desired a warmer advocate than he had in the podestà. The worthy magistrate exaggerated the vice-g

he listened eagerly, and it was not the least of her causes of satisfaction to find that her own hurried interviews with the handsome privateersman had apparently escaped observation. At length her mind was fully lightened of its apprehensions, leaving nothing but tender regrets, by the return of the horsemen from the mountains. These persons reported tha