long breath, as
if relieved by hearing the sound of her own voice.

"How! dost thou pretend to be so skilled in vessels as to distinguish
these particulars at the distance of a league?"

"I do not think it a league, Signore--not more than half a league; and
the distance lessens fast, though the wind is so light. As for knowing a
lugger from a felucca, it is as easy as to know a house from a church,
or one of the reverend padri, in the streets, from a mariner."

"Aye, so I would have told 'Maso on the spot, had the obstinate old
fellow been inclined to hear me. The distance is just about what you
say; and nothing is easier than to see that the stranger is a lugger. As
to the nation--"

"That may not be so easily told, Signore, unless the vessel show us her
nag."

"By San Antonio! thou art right, child; and it is fitting she should
show us her flag. Nothing has a right to approach so near the port of
his Imperial and Royal Highness, that does not show its flag, thereby
declaring its honest purpose and its nation. My friends, are the guns in
the battery loaded as usual?"

The answer being in the affirmative, there was a hurried consultation
among some of the principal men in the crowd, and then the podesta
walked toward the government-house with an important air. In five
minutes, soldiers were seen in the batteries, and preparations were made
for levelling an eighteen-pounder in the direction of the stranger. Most
of the females turned aside, and stopped their ears, the battery being
within a hundred yards of the spot where they stood; but Ghita, with a
face that was pale certainly, though with an eye that was steady, and
without the least indications of fear, as respected herself, intensely
watched every movement. When it was evident the artillerists were about
to fire, anxiety induced her to break silence.

"They surely will not aim _at_ the lugger!" she exclaimed. "_That_
cannot be necessary, Signor Podesta, to make the stranger hoist his
flag. Never have I seen _that_ done in the south."

"You are unacquainted with our Tuscan bombardiers, Signorina," answered
the magistrate, with a bland smile, and an exulting gesture. "It is well
for Europe that the grand duchy is so small, since such troops might
prove even more troublesome than the French!"

Ghita, however, paid no attention to this touch of provincial pride,
but, pressing her hands on her heart, she stood like a statue of
suspense, while the men in the