s very pass, through
which the wind drew with more force than it blew anywhere near by.

As the Proserpine was quite a league off in the Canal, le Feu-Follet,
which sailed so much the fastest in light winds, had abundance of time
to effect her object. Instead of avoiding the narrow pass between the
two islands, Raoul glided boldly into it; and by keeping vigilant eyes
on his fore-yard, to apprise him of danger, he succeeded in making two
stretches in the strait itself, coming out to the southward on the
starboard tack, handsomely clearing the end of the islet at the very
instant the frigate appeared on the other side of the pass. The lugger
had now an easy task of it; for she had only to watch her enemy, and
tack in season, to keep the islet between them, since the English did
not dare to carry so large a ship through so narrow an opening. This
advantage Raoul did not overlook, and Cuffe had gone about twice,
closing each time nearer and nearer to the islet, before he was
satisfied that his guns would be of no service until he could at least
weather the intervening object, after which they would most probably be
useless in so light a wind by the distance between them and their enemy.

"Never mind, Mr. Griffin; let this scamp go," said the captain, when he
made this material discovery; "it is pretty well to have cleared the
seas of one of them. Besides, we do not know that this _is_ an enemy at
all. He showed no colors, and seems to have just come out of Porto
Ferrajo, a friendly haven."

"Raoul Yvard did _that_, sir, not once, but twice," muttered Yelverton,
who, from the circumstance that he had not been employed in the
different attempts on le Feu-Follet, was one of the very few
dissentients in the ship touching her fate, "These twins _are_
exceedingly alike; especially _Pomp_, as the American negro said of his
twin children."

This remark passed unheeded; for so deep was the delusion, in the ship,
touching the destruction of the privateer, it would have been as
hopeless an attempt to try to persuade her officers, and people
generally, that le Feu-Follet was not burned, as it would be to induce a
"great nation" to believe that it had any of the weaknesses and foibles
that confessedly beset smaller communities. The Proserpine was put about
again, and, setting her ensign, she stood into the bay of Porto Ferrajo,
anchoring quite near the place that Raoul had selected for the same
purpose on two previous occasions. Th