any remark, he walked steadily up to Ithuel, removed the wig, and permitted the eel-skin queue to resume its natural position down the back of its owner.

"Ha! - What, veechy!" exclaimed Cuffe, laughing; "you unearth them like so many foxes to-night. Now, Griffin, hang me if I do not think I've seen that chap before! Isn't he the very man we found at the wheel of La Voltigeuse when we boarded her?"

"Lord bless me! Captain Cuffe no, Sir. This fellow is as long as two of that chap ---- and yet I know the face, too. I wish you 'd let me send for one of the young gentlemen, Sir; they 're worth all the rest of the ship at remembering faces.

The permission was given, and the cabin-steward was sent on deck to desire Mr. Roller, one of the oldest midshipmen, and who was known to have the watch, to come below.

"Look at this fellow, Mr. Roller," said Griffin, as soon as the youngster had taken his place in the group, "and tell us if you can make anything of him?"

"It's the lazy-rony, Sir, we hoisted in a bit ago, when we struck the boat on deck."

"Ay, no doubt of that; but we think we have seen his face before: can you make that out?"

Roller now walked round the immovable subject of all these remarks; and he, too, began to think that the singular-looking object was no stranger to him. As soon, however, as he got a sight of the queue, he struck Ithuel a smart slap on the shoulder and exclaimed:

"You 're welcome back, my lad; I hope you 'll find your berth aloft as much to your mind as it used to be. This is Bolt, Captain Cuffe, the fore-top-man, who ran from us when last in England, was caught and put in a guard-ship, from which they sent us word he stole a boat, and got off with two or three French prisoners who happened to be there at the moment on some inquiry or other. Don't you remember it all, Mr. Griffin may recollect that the fellow pretended to be an American."

you

Ithuel was now completely exposed, and he at once perceived that his wisest way was to submit. Cuffe's countenance darkened; for he regarded a deserter with a species of professional horror, and the impressed deserter to whose services England had no other right than that of might, with an additional degree of resentment which was very fairly proportioned to the inward consciousness he felt that a great wrong was done in detaining the man at all. There is nothing extraordinary in these feelings; a very common resource, under such circumstances, being to imagine delinquencies which justify us to ourselves by endeavouring to believe that the subject of any act of our oppression at least merits the infliction.

"Do you dare to deny what this young gentleman has just said, sirrah?" demanded the captain. "I now remember you myself; you are Bolt, the fore-top-man, that ran at Plymouth."

"You'd 'a run too, Captain Cuffe, had you been in my place, had the ship been at Jericho."

"Enough - no impudence, Sir. Send for the master-atarms, Mr. Griffin, and have the fellow ironed; to-morrow we'll look into the affair."

These orders were obeyed, and Ithuel was removed to the place where the master-at-arms usually reigns on board ship. Cuffe now gave the lieutenant his congé, and then withdrew to the innercabin to prepare a despatch for the rear-admiral. He was nearly an hour writing a letter to his mind; but finally succeeded. Its purport was as follows: He reported the capture of Raoul, explaining the mode and the circumstances under which that celebrated privateers-man had fallen into his hands. He then asked for instructions as to the manner in which he was to dispose of his prisoner. Having communicated this important fact, he ventured some suggestions as to the probable vicinity of the lugger, and the hopes he entertained of being able to find out her precise situation, through the agency of Bolt, whose condition he also explained, hinting at the same time at the expediency of bringing both delinquents as speedily as possible to trial, as the most certain manner of making them useful in seizing Le Feu-Follet. The letter concluded with an earnest request that another frigate, which was mentioned, her captain being junior to Cuffe, and a fast-sailing sloop which was lying off Naples, might be sent down to assist him in "heading off" the lugger, as he feared that the latter was too swift to be overtaken by the Proserpine alone, more especially in the light winds which prevailed.

When this letter was written, addressed, and sealed, Cuffe went on deck again. It was now nine o'clock, or two bells, and Winchester had the quarter-deck nearly to himself. All was as tranquil and calm on the deck of that fine frigate as a moonlight night, a drowsy watch, a light wind, and smooth water could render things, in a bay like that of Naples. Gleamings of fire were occasionally seen over Vesuvius, but things in that direction looked misty and mysterious, though Capri loomed up dark and grand a few miles to leeward, and Ischia was visible a confused but distant pile on the lee-bow. An order from Cuffe, however, set every-body in motion. Yard and stay-tackles were overhauled and hooked on, the boatswain's-mate piped the orders, and the first-cutter was hoisted over the waistcloths and lowered into the water. "Away, there, you first-cutters," had been hoarsely called on the berth deck, and the crew were ready to enter the boat by the time the latter was lowered. The masts were stepped, Roller appeared in a pea-jacket to guard against the night air, and Cuffe gave him his instructions.

"Set your sails, and stretch over under the north shore, Mr. Roller," said the captain, who stood in the lee-gangway to give a last word. "You will fetch in about Queen Joan's palace. There, you had better take to your oars and pull up along the land. Remember, Sir, to join us by the first ship which comes out; and if none is sent, to come down with the morning breeze in the boat."

Roller gave the customary "Ay, ay, Sir;" and the boat shoved off; as soon as from under the lee of the ship the luggs were set; and half an hour later the night had swallowed up her form. Cuffe remained an hour longer, walking the deck with his first-lieutenant; and then, satisfied that the night would prove propitious, he went below, leaving orders to keep the ship lying-to until morning.

As for Roller, he pulled alongside of the Foudroyant just as the bells of the fleet were striking eight, or at midnight. Nelson was still up, writing in his cabin. The despatch was delivered, and then the secretary of the admiral, with a clerk or two, were called from their berths; for nothing lagged that this active-minded man had in charge. Orders were written, copied, signed, and sent to different ships by two o'clock, in order that the morning breeze might not be lost; and then, and not till then, did the employés think of rest.

Roller left the flag-ship at two, having eaten a hearty supper in Nelson's own cabin, and repaired on board the Terpsichore, a smart little frigate of thirty-two guns, twelve-pounders, with instructions to her captain to receive him. Two hours later this ship, in company with another still smaller, the Ringdove, 18, left her anchorage under a cloud of canvass, and stood down the bay, carrying studding-sails on both sides, with a light wind at north-west, heading towards Capri.

CHAPTER XVII.

Speak to the business, Master Secretary:
Why are we met in council?

King Henry VIII.

WHEN the idlers of the Proserpine appeared on deck the following morning, the ship was about a league to windward of Capri, having forged well over towards the north side of the bay during the night, wore round, and got thus far back on the other tack. From the moment light returned look-outs had been aloft with glasses, examining every nook and corner of the bay, in order to ascertain whether any signs of the lugger were to be seen under its bold and picturesque shore. So great is the extent of this beautiful basin, so grand the natural objects which surround it, and so clear the atmosphere, that even the largest ships loom less than usual on its waters; and it would have been a very possible thing for Le Feu-Follet to anchor near some of the landings, and lie there unnoticed for a week by the fleet above, unless tidings were carried to the latter by observers on the shore.

Cuffe was the last to come on deck, six-bells, or seven o'clock, striking as the occupants of the quarter-deck first lifted their hats to him. He glanced around him, and then turned towards Griffin, who was now officer of the watch.

"I see two ships coming down the bay, Mr. Griffin," said he : "no signals yet, I suppose, Sir?"

"Certainly not, Sir, or they would have been reported. We make out the frigate to be the Terpsichore, and the sloop I know, by her new royals, is the Ringdove. The first ship, Captain Cuffe, brags of being able to travel faster than anything within the Straits!"

"I'll bet a month's pay the Few-Folly walks away from her, on a bow-line, ten knots to her nine. If she can do that with the Proserpine, she 'll at least do that with Mistress Terpsichore. There goes a signal from the frigate now, Mr. Griffin, though a conjurer could hardly read it, tailing directly on as it does. Well, quarter-master, what do you make it out to be?"

"It's the Terpsichore's number, Sir; and the other ship has just made the Ringdove's."

"Show ours, and keep a sharp look-out; there 'll be something else to tell us presently."

In a few minutes the Terpsichore expressed a wish to speak the Proserpine, when Cuffe filled his main-top-sail and hauled close upon a wind. An hour later, the three ships passed within hail of each other, when both the junior commanders lowered their gigs and came on board the Proserpine to report. Roller followed in the first cutter, which had been towed down by the Terpsichore.

The Terpsichore was commanded by Captain Sir Frederick Dashwood, a lively young baronet, who preferred the active life of a sailor to indolence and six thousand a-year on shore, and who had been rewarded for his enterprise by promotion and a fast frigate at the early age of two-and-twenty. The Ringdove was under a master-commandant, of the name of Lyon, who was just sixty years old, having worked his way up to his present rank by dint of long and arduous services, owing his last commission and his command to the accident of having been a first-lieutenant at the battle of Cape St. Vincent. Both these gentlemen appeared simultaneously on the quarter-deck of the Proserpine, where they were duly received by the captain and all the assembled officers.