of going to any other abode than that which she was accustomed to inhabit periodically, and about which Raoul knew, from her own innocent narrations, nearly as much as she knew herself. "I can say no more than I have said, already," the thoughtful girl answered, after Raoul had began again to row. "It is better on every account that we should part. I cannot change my country; nor can you desert that glorious republic of which you feel so proud. I am an Italian, and you are French; and, more than all, I worship my God, while you believe in the new opinions of your own nation. Here are causes enough for separation, surely, however favourably and kindly we may happen to think of each other in general." "Tell me not, any more, of the heart of an Italian girl, and of her readiness to fly to the world's end with the man of her choice!" exclaimed Raoul, bitterly. "I can find a thousand girls in Languedoc who would make the circuit of the earth, yearly, rather than be separated a day from the seamen they have chosen for their husbands." "Then look among the girls of Languedoc for a wife," answered Ghita, with a smile so melancholy that it contradicted her words. "Better to take one of your own nation and opinion, Raoul, than risk your happiness with a stranger; who might not answer all your hopes when you came to know her better." "We will not talk further of this now, dearest Ghita: my first care must be to carry you back to the cottage of your aunt - unless, indeed, you will at once embark in Le Feu-Follet and return to the towers?" "Le Feu-Follet! she is hardly here, in the midst of a fleet of her enemies! Remember, Raoul, that your men will begin to complain if you place them too often in such risks to gratify your own wishes." "Peste! - I keep them in good-humour by rich prizes. They have been successful, and that which makes yonder Nelson popular and a great man, makes Raoul Yvard popular and a great man also in his little way. My crew is like its captain it loves adventures, and it loves success." "I do not see the lugger: among a hundred ships there is no sign of yours?" "The Bay of Napoli is large, Ghita," returned Raoul, laughing; "and Le Feu-Follet takes but little room. See yonder vaisseaux-de-ligne appear trifling among these noble mountains, and on this wide gulf: you cannot expect my little lugger to make much show. We are small, Ghita mia, if not insignificant!" "Still, where there are so many vigilant eyes there is always danger, Raoul! Besides, a lugger is an unusual rig, as you have owned to me yourself." "Not here, among all these eastern craft. I have always found, if I wished to be unnoticed, it was best to get into a crowd; whereas, he who lives in a village lives in open daylight. But we will talk of these things, when alone, Ghita yonder fisherman is getting ready to receive us." By this time the skiff was near the shore, where a little yawl was anchored, containing a solitary fisherman. This man was examining them as they approached; and recognising Raoul he was gathering in his lines, and preparing to raise his grapnel. In a few minutes the two craft lay side by side: and then, though not without difficulty, owing to a very elaborate disguise, Ghita recognised Ithuel Bolt. A very few words sufficed to let the American into all that it was necessary he should know, when the whole party made its arrangements to depart. The skiff which Raoul, having found it lying on the beach, had made free with, without leave, he anchored in the full expectation that its right owner might find it some day or other; while its cargo was transferred to the yawl, which was one of the lugger's own attendants. The latter was a light, swift-pulling little boat, admirably constructed, and fit to live in a sea-way; requiring, moreover, but two good oars, one of which Raoul undertook to pull himself, while Ithuel managed the other. In five minutes after the junction was made, the party was moving again from the land, in a straight line across the bay, steering in the direction of its southern cape, and proceeding with the steady, swift movement of men accustomed to the toil. There are few portions of the sea in which a single ship or boat is an object of so little notice as the Bay of Naples. This is true of all times and seasons; the magnificent scale on which Nature has created her panorama, rendering ordinary objects of comparative insignificance: while the constant movement, the fruit of a million of souls thronging around its teeming shores, covers it in all directions with boats, almost as the streets of a town are crowded with pedestrians. The present occasion, too, was one likely to set everything in motion; and Raoul judged rightly, when he thought himself less likely to be observed in such a scene than on a smaller and less-frequented water. As a matter of course, while near the mole, or the common anchorage, it was necessary to pass amid a floating throng; but, once beyond the limits of this crowd, the size of the bay rendered it quite easy to avoid unpleasant collisions, without any apparent effort: while the passage of a boat in any direction was an occurrence too common to awaken distrust. One would think no more of questioning a craft which was encountered, even in the centre of that spacious bay, than he would think of inquiring about the stranger met in a market-place. All this both Raoul and Ithuel knew and felt; and once in motion, in their yawl, they experienced a sense of security which, for the four or five previous hours, had not always existed. By this time the sun was low, though it was possible, as Raoul perceived, to detect the speck still swinging at the Minerva's foreyard-arm; a circumstance to which the young man, with considerate feeling, refrained from adverting. The Proserpine had been some time in motion, standing out of the fleet under a cloud of canvass, but with an air so light as to permit the yawl to gain on her, though the heads of both were turned in the same direction. In this manner mile after mile was passed, until darkness came. Then the moon arose, rendering the bay less distinct, it is true, but scarcely more mysterious, or more lovely, than in the hours of stronger light. The gulf, indeed, forms an exception in this particular to the general rule by the extent of its shores, the elevation of its mountains, the beauty of its water - which has the deep tint of the ocean off-soundings - and the softness of the atmosphere; lending to it by day all the mellowed and dreamy charms which other scenes borrow from the illusions of night, and the milder brilliance of the secondary planets. Raoul did not exert himself at the oar; and, as he sat aft, his companion was obliged to take the stroke from his movement. It was so pleasant to have Ghita with him on his own element, that he never hurried himself while in the enjoyment of her society. The conversation, it will be readily imagined, was not lively; but the saddened melancholy of Ghita's voice, as she occasionally hazarded a remark of her own, or answered one of his questions, sounded sweeter in his ears than the music of the ships' bands which was now wafted to them across the water. As the evening advanced, the land-breeze increased, and the Proserpine gradually gained upon the boat. When the latter was about two-thirds of the distance across the bay, the frigate caught the stronger current which came down athwart the campagna, between Vesuvius and the mountains behind Castel à Mare, when she drove a-head fast. Her sails, as seamen express it, were all asleep; or swelled outward, without collapsing; and her rate of sailing was between five and six miles in the hour. This brought them up with the boat, hand-over-hand, as it is called; and Ghita, at Raoul's request, put the helm aside, in order that they might get out of the way of the huge body which was approaching. It would seem that there was some design on the part of the ship in coming so near, for she made a sheer towards the yawl in a way to frighten the timid helmswoman, and to induce her to relinquish her hold of the tiller. "Fear nothing," called out Griffin, in Italian to offer you a tow. Stand by, and catch the line "we intend Heave." A small rope was thrown; and, falling directly across Ithuel's head, that person could do no less than seize it. With all his detestation of the English in general, and of this vessel in particular, the man-of-all-work had the labour-saving propensity of his countrymen; and it struck him as a good thing to make a "king's ship" aid an enemy's privateer by accepting the offer. As he used the line with proper dexterity, the yawl was soon towing on the quarter of the frigate; Raoul taking the helm, and giving the boat the sheer necessary to prevent her dragging in alongside. This was a change so sudden, and so totally unexpected, that Ghita murmured her disapprobation, lest it should lead to a díscovery of the true character of her companions. "Fear nothing, dearest," answered Raoul; "they cannot suspect us; and we may learn something useful by being here. At all events, Le Feu-Follet is safe from their designs just at this moment." "Are you boatmen of Capri?" called out Griffin, who stood on the taffrail of the ship, with Cuffe and the two Italians near him, the first dictating the questions his lieutenant put. "S'nore, sì,” answered Raoul, adopting the patois of the country as well as he could, and disguising his deep mellow voice by speaking in a high, shrill key; "boatmen of Capri that have been to Napoli with wine, and have been kept out later than we intended by the spectacle at the yard-arm of the Minerva. Cospetto! them signori make no more of a prince than we do of a quail in the season on our little island. Pardon me, dearest Ghita; but we must throw dust into their eyes." "Has any strauge sail been seen about your island within the last twenty-four hours?" even the Turks "The bay is full of strange sail, S'nore, coming to see us since the last trouble with the French." "Ay, but the Turks are now your allies, like us English. Have you seen any other strangers?" "They tell me there are ships from the far north, too, S'nore, off the town, - Russians, I believe they call them." "They, too, are allies, but I mean enemies? Has there not been a lugger seen off your island within the last day or two, — a lugger of the French?" "Sì, sì, - I know what you mean now, S'nore. There has been a vessel like that you mention off the island, for I saw her with my own eyes, - sì, sì. last evening, - a lugger, by her wicked looks." It was about the twenty-third hour and we all said she must be French "Raoul!" said Ghita, as if reproaching him for an indiscretion. "This is the true way to befog them," answered the young man. "They have certainly heard of us; and by seeming to tell a |