,
who agreed to row us out to the steamer for two pauls, but after he had
us on board and an oar's length from the quay, he said two pauls
_apiece_ was his bargain. I instantly refused, and, summoning the best
Italian I could command, explained our agreement; but he still persisted
in demanding double price. The dispute soon drew a number of persons to
the quay, some of whom, being boatmen, sided with him. Finding he had us
safe in his boat, his manner was exceedingly calm and polite. He
contradicted me with a "pardon, Signore!" accompanying the words with a
low bow and a graceful lift of his scarlet cap, and replied to my
indignant accusations in the softest and most silvery-modulated Roman
sentences. I found, at last, that if I was in the right, I cut the worse
figure of the two, and, therefore, put an end to the dispute by desiring
him to row on at his own price.

The hour of starting was two, but the boat lay quietly in the harbor
till four, when we glided out on the open sea, and went northward, with
the blue hills of Corsica far on our left. A gorgeous sunset faded away
over the water, and the moon rose behind the low mountains of the
Italian coast. Having found a warm and sheltered place near the chimney,
I drew my beaver further over my eyes, to keep out the moonlight, and
lay down on the deck with my knapsack under my head. It was a hard bed,
indeed; and the first time I attempted to rise, I found myself glued to
the floor by the pitch which was smeared along the seams of the boards!
Our fellow-sufferers were a company of Swiss soldiers going home after a
four years' service under the King of Naples, but they took to their
situation more easily than we.

Sleep was next to impossible, so I paced the deck occasionally, looking
out on the moonlit sea and the dim shores on either side. A little after
midnight we passed between Elba and Corsica. The dark crags of Elba rose
on our right, and the bold headlands of Napoleon's isle stood opposite,
at perhaps twenty miles' distance. There was something dreary and
mysterious in the whole scene, viewed at such a time--the grandeur of
his career, who was born on one and exiled to the other, gave it a
strange and thrilling interest.

We made the light-house before the harbor of Leghorn at dawn, and by
sunrise were anchored within the mole. I sat on the deck the whole day,
watching the picturesque vessels that skimmed about with their lateen
sails, and wondering how soon t