ions on the interesting subject.

"A sister corsair, by Jupiter Ammon!" cried Cuffe; "a _twin_ sister,
too; for they _are_ as much alike as one cathead is like another. More
too, by Jove, if I am any judge."

"What will you have us do, Captain Cuffe?" inquired the lieutenant. "We
are now going to leeward, all the while, I don't know, sir, that there
is positively a current here, but--"

"Very well, sir--very well--haul up on the larboard tack, as soon as
possible, and get the larboard batteries clear. We may have to cripple
the chap in order to get hold of him."

As this was said, Cuffe descended through the same lubber-hole and soon
appeared on deck. The ship now became a scene of activity and bustle.
All hands were called, and the guns were cleared away by some, while
others braced the yards, according to the new line of sailing.

The reader would be greatly aided, in understanding what is to follow,
could he, perchance, cast a look at a map of the coast of Italy. He will
there see that the eastern side of the Island of Elba runs in a nearly
north and south direction, Piombino lying off about north-northeast from
its northern extremity. Near this northern extremity lies the little
rocky islet so often mentioned, or the spot which Napoleon, fifteen
years later, selected as the advanced redoubt of his insular empire. Of
course the Proserpine was on one side of this islet and the strange
lugger on the other. The first had got so far through the Canal as to be
able to haul close upon the wind, on the larboard tack, and yet to clear
the islet; while the last was just far enough to windward, or
sufficiently to the southward, to be shut out from view from the
frigate's decks by the intervening rocks. As the distance from the islet
to the island did not much exceed a hundred or two yards, Captain Cuffe
hoped to inclose his chase between himself and the land, never dreaming
that the stranger would think of standing through so narrow and rocky a
pass. He did not know his man, however, who was Raoul Yvard; and who had
come this way from Bastia, in the hope of escaping any further collision
with his formidable foe. He had seen the frigate's lofty sails above the
rock as soon as it was light; and, being under no hallucination on the
subject of _her_ existence, he knew her at a glance. His first order was
to haul everything as flat as possible; and his great desire was to get
from under the lee of the mountains of Elba into thi