erists, were made at the outer end of this
jigger-yard, A boy appeared on the taffrail, and he was evidently
clearing the ensign-halyards for that purpose. In half a minute,
however, he disappeared; then a flag rose steadily, and by a continued
pull, to its station. At first the bunting hung suspended in a line, so
as to evade all examination; but, as if everything on board this light
craft were on a scale as airy and buoyant as herself, the folds soon
expanded, showing a white field, traversed at right angles with a red
cross, and having a union of the same tint in its upper and
inner corner.

"_Inglese_!" exclaimed 'Maso, infinitely aided in this conjecture by the
sight of the stranger's ensign--"Si, Signore; it is an Englishman; I
_thought_ so, from the first, but as the lugger is not a common rig for
vessels of that nation, I did not like to risk anything by saying it."

"Well, honest Tommaso, it is a happiness to have a mariner as skilful as
yourself, in these troublesome times, at one's elbow! I do not know how
else we should ever have found out the stranger's country. An Inglese!
Corpo di Bacco! Who would have thought that a nation so maritime, and
which lies so far off, would send so small a craft this vast distance!
Why, Ghita, it is a voyage from Elba to Livorno, and yet, I dare say
England is twenty times further."

"Signore, I know little of England, but I have heard that it lies
beyond our own sea. This is the flag of the country, however; for _that_
have I often beheld. Many ships of that nation come upon the coast,
further south."

"Yes, it is a great country for mariners; though they tell me it has
neither wine nor oil. They are allies of the emperor, too; and deadly
enemies of the French, who have done so much harm in upper Italy. That
is something, Ghita, and every Italian should honor the flag. I fear the
stranger does not intend to enter our harbor!"

"He steers as if he did not, certainly, Signor Podesta," said Ghita,
sighing so gently that the respiration was audible only to herself.
"Perhaps he is in search of some of the French, of which they say so
many were seen, last year, going east."

"Aye, that was truly an enterprise!" answered the magistrate,
gesticulating on a large scale, and opening his eyes by way of
accompaniments. "General Bonaparte, he who had been playing the devil in
the Milanese and the states of the Pope, for the last two years, sailed,
they sent us word, with two or thr