action 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 that the upper sails of the frigate were just visible
in the northern board, so far as they could judge, even more distant
than the island of Capraya, while the lugger had beaten up almost as far
to windward as Pianosa, and then seemed disposed to stand over toward
the coast of Corsica, doubtless with an intention to molest the commerce
of that hostile island.

CHAPTER VII.

_Ant_.--"And, indeed sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men
to be wary."

_Clo_.--"Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lose nothing here."

_Ant._--"I hope so, sir, for I have about me many parcels of change."
_Winter's Tale_.

Such was the state of things at Porto Ferrajo at noon, or about the hour
when its inhabitants bethought them of their mid-day meal. With most the
siesta followed, though the sea air, with its invigorating coolness,
rendered that indulgence less necessary to these islanders than to most
of their neighbors on the main. Then succeeded the reviving animation of
the afternoon, and the return of the zephyr, or the western breeze. So
regular, indeed, are these changes in the currents of the air during the
summer months, that the mariner can rely with safety on meeting a light
breeze from the southward throughout the morning, a calm at noon--the
siesta of the Mediterranean--and the delightfully cool wind from the
west, after three or four o'clock; this last is again succeeded at night
by a breeze directly from the land. Weeks at a time have we known this
order of things to be uninterrupted; and when the changes did
occasionally occur, it was only in the slight episodes of showers and
thunderstorms, of which, however, Italy has far fewer than our
own coast.

Such, then, was the state of Porto Ferrajo toward the evening that
succeeded this day of bustle and excitement. The zephyr again
prevailed--the idle once more issued forth for their sunset walk--and
the gossips were collecting to renew their conjectures and to start some
new point in their already exhausted discussions, when a rumor spread
through the place, like fire communicated to a train, that "ze
Ving-y-Ving" was once more coming down