bserved from the windows of your uncle's house in Valetta a little sail
no bigger than a pocket-handkerchief, which has grown larger, and
larger, and larger, till it has become a mighty ship with a hundred
great guns looking out of her sides. Who knows but what this may turn
out a big ship sent out by the King of England, with Signor Fleetwood as
captain, to look after you? My heart tells me that she is a friend."

Ada smiled mournfully at her young attendant's over sanguine
prognostications, in which she could so little participate.

"I fear you are wrong in this case, my good Marianna," she answered.
"You observe that the vessel we see is small, but we can already
distinguish three distinct sails, and soon the hull itself will rise out
of the water, and then we shall be better able to judge of its proper
dimensions. I can already see her without the glass. Tell me if the
bulwarks are not in sight."

"Yes, signora, I can distinguish the dark mark of the body of the
vessel, and she seems to come on quickly towards us," answered the
Maltese girl, who was bending down upon a table drawn towards the
window, with her eye to the glass.

The vessel they were looking at was rather to the west of the island,
towards which she was standing close-hauled beating up against an
easterly wind, bound probably up the Dardanelles. The sea was calm, and
glittering in the sunbeams, which gave it the appearance of a plain of
molten silver sprinkled with diamonds--for to nothing else can I compare
its dazzling lustre. The breeze had been uncertain all the morning, now
so light as not to disturb the mirror-like surface of the sea, now
freshening up again so as to send the vessel along rapidly through the
water. It had, however, lately, in shore, given signs of dying away
altogether. The stranger stood on till she fetched up, almost looking
into the mouth of the concealed cove, either totally unconscious of the
danger of her proceeding, or indifferent to the consequences.

The latter could scarcely be the case; for, as Ada again looked at her
through the telescope, she observed that she was a vessel apparently of
little more than a hundred-and-twenty or thirty tons burden. Her rig
was that of a brigantine--the foremast having the top and spars of a
brig, the mainmast carrying fore-and-aft sails like a schooner. When
she had stood in within a quarter of a mile of the shore she tacked,
either fearing to get becalmed should she app