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Raoul gazed at the beautiful enthusiast with an intensity of love and admiration, which even her truthful simplicity had never before excited. Her mild eyes were kindling with holy ardour, her cheeks were flushed, and something like the radiance of heaven seemed to beam upon her countenance. The young man felt that time pressed; he saw no hope of covercoming her resolution, in season to escape the approaching boats; and it might be, that the two would be safer in some nook of the ruins than in attempting to return to the shore. Then, that never-dying, but latent wish to have Ghita with him, aided his hasty reasoning, and he decided to permit the girl and her uncle to come upon the islet which he was to defend in person.

Some signs of impatience had begun to manifest themselves among his people, before Raoul made up his mind to the course he would follow. But, when he landed, supporting Ghita, that chivalry of character and homage to the sex, which distinguishes the southern Frenchman, changed the current of feeling, and their two acquaintances were received with acclamation. The acts of self-devotion seemed heroic, and that is always enough to draw applause among a people so keenly alive to glory. Still the time to make the necessary dispositions was short. Fortunately the surgeon had taken his post on this islet, as the probable scene of the warmest conflict, and he had contrived to make his preparations to receive the hurt in a cavity of the rock, behind a portion of the ruin, where the person would be reasonably safe. Raoul saw the advantages of this position, and he led Ghita and her uncle to it, without pausing to deliberate. Here he tenderly embraced the girl, a liberty Ghita could not repel at such a moment; then he tore himself away, to attend to duties which had now become urgently pressing.

In point of fact, Sir Frederick Dashwood had made his dispositions, and was advancing to the assault, being already within the range of grape. For the obvious reason of preventing the French from attempting to escape to the shore, he chose to approach from that side himself, an arrangement that best suited Raoul; who, foreseeing the probability of the course, had made his own preparations with an eye to such an event.

Of boats, there were eight in sight, though only seven were drawing near, and were in line. Six had strong crews, were armed, and were evidently fitted for action. Of these, three had light boat-guns in their bows, while the other three carried smallarms-men only. The seventh boat was the Terpsichore's gig, with its usual crew armed; though it was used by the commanding officer himself as a sort of cheval de bataille, in the stricter meaning of the term. In other words, Sir Frederick Dashwood pulled through the line in it, to give his orders and encourage his people. The eighth boat, which kept aloof, quite out of the range of grape, was a shore-craft belonging to Capri, in which Andrea Barrofaldi and Vito Viti had come, expressly to witness the capture or destruction of their old enemy. When Raoul was taken in the Bay of Naples, these two worthies fancied that their mission was ended; that they might return with credit to Porto Ferrajo, and again hold up their heads with dignity and self-complacency among the functionaries of the island. But the recent escape, and the manner in which they had been connected with it, entirely altered the state of things. A new load of responsibility rested on their shoulders; fresh opprobrium was to be met and put down; and the last acquisition of ridicule promised to throw the first proofs of their simplicity and dullness entirely into the shade. Had not Griffin and his associates been implicated in the affair, it is probable the vice-governatore and the podestà would have been still more obnoxious to censure; but, as things were, the sly looks, open jests, and oblique innuendoes of all they met in the ship, had determined the honest magistrates to retire to their proper pursuits on terra firma at the earliest occasion. In the mean time, to escape persecution, and to obtain a modicum of the glory that was now to be earned, they had hired a boat, and accompanied the expedition in the character of amateurs. It formed no part of their plan, however, to share in the combat; a view of its incidents being quite as much as Vito Viti strongly maintained, when his friend made a suggestion to the contrary - as was necessary to vindicate their conduct and courage in the judgment of every Elban.

"Cospetto!" he exclaimed, in the warmth of opposition; "Signor Andrea, your propositions are more in the spirit of an unreflecting boy than in that of a discreet vice-governatore. If we take swords and muskets in the boat, as you appear to wish, the devil may tempt us to use them; and what does either of us know of such things? The pen is a more befitting weapon for a magistrate than a keen-edged sword, or a foul-smelling piece of firearms. I am amazed that your native sensibilities do not teach you this. There is an indecency in men's mistaking their duties; and, of all things on earth, Heaven protect me from falling into such an error! A false position is despicable."

"Thou art warm, friend Vito, and that without occasion: for my part, I think men should be prepared for any emergency that may happen. History is full of examples in which civilians and scholars, ay, even churchmen, have distinguished themselves by feats of arms on proper occasions; and I confess to a philosophical curiosity to ascertain the sensations with which men seek and expose life."

"That's your besetting weakness, Signor Andrea, and the emergency drives me so far to lose sight of the respect that a podestà owes to a vice-governatore, as to feel constrained to tell you as much. Philosophy plays the very devil with your judgment; with about half of what you possess, the Grand Duke couldn't boast of a more sensible subject. As for history, I don't believe anything that's in it, - more especially since the nations of the north have begun to write it. Italy once had histories; but where are they now? For my part, I never heard of a man's fighting who was not regularly bred to arms, unless it might be some fellow who had reason to wish he had never been born."

"I can name you several men of letters in particular, whose fame as soldiers is only eclipsed by that earned by their more peaceful labours, honest Vito Michael Angelo Buonarotti, for instance, to say nothing of various warlike popes, cardinals, and bishops. But we can discuss this matter after the battle is over. Thou seest the English are already quitting their ships, and we shall be in the rear of the combatants."

"So much the better, Corpo di Bacco! who ever heard of an army that carries its brains in its head, like a human being? No, no, Signor Andrea; I have provided myself with a string of beads, which I intend to count over with aves and paters while the firing lasts, like a good Catholic; if you are so hot, and bent on making one in this battle, you may proclaim in a loud voice one of the speeches of the ancient consuls and generals, such as you will find them in any of the old books.”

Vito Viti prevailed. The vice-governatore was obliged to leave the arms behind him, and this too without making any great difference in the result of the day's fighting; inasmuch as the boatmen employed, in addition to asking a triple price for their time and labour, obstinately refused to go nearer to the French than half a league. Distant as this was, however, Raoul, while reconnoitring the enemy with a glass, detected the presence of the two Elbans. He laughed outright at the discovery, notwithstanding the many serious reflections that naturally pressed upon his mind at such a moment.

But this was not the time to indulge in merriment, and the countenance of our hero almost immediately resumed its look of care. Now that he felt certain of the manner in which the English intended to assail him, he had new orders to give to all his subordinates. As has been said, the principal point was to make the different guns support each other: in order to do this effectually, it became necessary to spring the lugger's broadside round more obliquely towards the felucca; which accomplished, Raoul deemed his arrangements complete.

Then followed the pause which ordinarily prevails between preparation and the battle. This, in a vessel, is always a period of profound and solemn stillness. So important to concert, order, and intelligent obedience, in the narrow compass and amid the active evolutions of a ship, does silence become at such moments, that one of the first duties of discipline is to inculcate its absolute necessity; and a thousand men shall be seen standing in their batteries, ready to serve the fierce engines of war, without a sound arising among them all, of sufficient force to still the washing of the gentlest waves. It is true, the French were not now strictly arrayed for a naval action; but they carried into the present conflict the habits and discipline of the peculiar branch of service to which they belonged.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

His back against a rock he bore,
And firmly placed his foot before:
"Come one, come all! this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I!"

Lady of the Lake.

Our battle will be told with greater clearness if the reader is furnished with an outline of its order. As has been more than once intimated already, Sir Frederick Dashwood had made all his preparations to commence the assault from the side of the land, the object being to prevent a retreat to the shore. Raoul had foreseen the probability of this, and, with a special view to prevent the two vessels from being easily boarded, he had caused both to be placed in such positions as left low barriers of rocks between them and that quarter of the bay. These rocks were portions that were not visible at any distance, being just awash, as it is termed, or on a level with the surface of the water; offering the same sort of protection against an attack in boats which ditches afford in cases of assaults on terra firna. This was a material advantage to the expected defence, and our hero showed his discrimination in adopting it. On board the felucca, which was named The Holy Michael, was Ithuel with fifteen men, and two twelve-pound carronades, with a proper supply of small arms and ammunition. The Granite-man was the only officer, though he had with him three or four of the lugger's best men.

Le Feu-Follet was confided to the care of Jules Pintard, her first-lieutenant, who had under his immediate orders some fiveand-twenty of the crew, to work four more of the carronades. The lugger had a part only of her ballast in, and something like a third of her stores. The remainder of both still lay on the adjacent rocks, in waiting for the result of the day. She was thought, however, to be sufficiently steady for any service that might be expected of her while moored, and might even have carried whole sail, in light winds, with perfect safety. All four of her guns were brought over on one side, in readiness to use in battery in the same direction. By this arrangement the French essentially increased their means

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