ch were useful in their way, and manifested scholarship. It is very
seldom that a man of mere letters is qualified for public life; and yet
there is an affectation, in all governments, most especially in those
which care little for literature in general, of considering some
professions of respect for it necessary to their own characters. Andrea
Barrofaldi had been inducted into his present office without even the
sentimental profession of never having asked for it. The situation had
been given to him by the Fossombrone of his day, without a word having
been said in the journals of Tuscany of his doubts about accepting it,
and everything passed, as things are apt to pass when there are true
simplicity and good faith at the bottom, without pretension or comment.
He had now been ten years in office, and had got to be exceedingly
expert in discharging all the ordinary functions of his post, which he
certainly did with zeal and fidelity. Still, he did not desert his
beloved books, and, quite apropos of the matter about to come before
him, the Signor Barrofaldi had just finished a severe, profound, and
extensive course of study in geography.

The stranger was left in the ante-chamber, while Vito Viti entered an
inner room, and had a short communication with his friend, the
vice-governatore. As soon as this was ended, the former returned, and
ushered his companion into the presence of the substitute for the grand
duke. As this was the sailor's first appearance within the influence of
a light sufficiently strong to enable the podesta to examine his person,
both he and Andrea Barrofaldi turned their eyes on him with lively
curiosity, the instant the rays of a strong lamp enabled them to
scrutinize his appearance. Neither was disappointed, in one sense, at
least; the countenance, figure, and mien of the mariner much more than
equalling his expectations.

The stranger was a man of six-and-twenty, who stood five feet ten in his
stockings, and whose frame was the very figure of activity, united to a
muscle that gave very fair indications of strength. He was attired in an
undress naval uniform, which he wore with a smart air, that one who
understood these matters, more by means of experience, and less by means
of books, than Andrea Barrofaldi, would at once have detected did not
belong to the manly simplicity of the English wardrobe. Nor were his
features in the slightest degree those of one of the islanders, the
outline being beaut