the discussion, notwithstanding, was to make the two
Italians reluctant converts to the opinion of the Englishman, that the
lugger was the dreaded and obnoxious Feu-Follet. Once convinced,
however, shame, revenge, and mortification united with duty to quicken
their exertions and to render them willing assistants in executing the
schemes of Captain Cuffe. It was, perhaps, fortunate for Raoul and his
associates that the English officers had so strong a desire, as Griffin
expressed it, "to take the lugger alive"; else might she have been
destroyed where she lay by removing a gun or two from its proper
embrasure and planting them behind some natural ramparts among the
rocks. The night was dark, it is true, but not so much so as to render a
vessel indistinct at the short distance at which le Feu-Follet lay; and
a cannonade would have been abundantly certain.

When all parties were of a mind as to the true character of the little
craft in the bay, a consultation was had on the details of the course
proper to be pursued. A window of the government-house that looked
toward the direction of Capraya, or that in which the Proserpine was
expected to arrive, was assigned to Griffin. The young man took his
station at it about midnight, in readiness to burn the blue-lights with
which he was provided the instant he should discern the signals of his
ship. The position of this window was well adapted to the desired
object, inasmuch as the lights could not be seen from the town, while
they were plainly open to the sea. The same was essentially true as to
the signals of the frigate, the heights interposing between her and the
houses, and there being a still greater physical impossibility that
anything lying in the bay should discover an object at sea on the
northern side of the promontory.

In this manner, then, did hour after hour pass away, a light land-breeze
blowing, but coming so directly into the bay as to induce Raoul not to
lift his kedge. Ghita and her uncle, Carlo Giuntotardi, had come off
about ten; but there were still no signs of movement on board the
lugger. To own the truth, Raoul was in no hurry to sail, for the longer
his departure was protracted the longer would he have the happiness of
retaining the lovely girl on board; and the zephyr of the succeeding day
would be almost certain to carry le Feu-Follet up to the island-like
promontory of Monte Argentaro, the point where stood the watch-towers of
which Carlo was the ke