The Wing-and-Wing Part 25

"_Bon!_" muttered Raoul, quite unconscious he was overheard.

"Nevertheless, we must catch this fellow if we wear out our shoes in the chase."

All this time Andrea Barrofaldi and Vito Viti were profoundly ignorant of what was pa.s.sing between the two officers, though Raoul listened eagerly and so well understood every syllable they uttered. Until this moment the vice governatore had been rather indifferent and inattentive as to what occurred; but the two exclamations of Raoul awakened a vague distrust in his mind, which, while it had no direct object, was certainly pregnant with serious consequences to the Frenchman himself.

Deep mortification at the manner in which they had been duped by this celebrated privateersman, with a desire to absent themselves from the island until the edge was a little taken off the ridicule they both felt they merited, blended with certain longings to redeem their characters, by a.s.sisting in capturing the corsair, were the reasons why these two worthies, the deputy-governor and the podesta, were now on board the Proserpine. Cuffe had offered them cots in his cabin and seats at his table in a moment of confidence; and the offer was gladly accepted.

Andrea had not been on board the ship a day, however, before he became thoroughly convinced of his utter uselessness; a circ.u.mstance that added materially to the awkwardness of his situation. Like all well-meaning and simple-minded men, he had a strong wish to be doing; and day and night he ruminated on the means by himself, or discussed them in private dialogues with his friend the podesta. Vito Viti frankly admonished him to put his faith in heaven, affirming that something worth while would yet turn up in the cruise to render the enterprise memorable; it being a habit with the magistrate to say an ave or two on all trying occasions, and then trust to G.o.d.

"You never knew a miracle, vice-governatore," said Vito Viti one day, when they were discussing the matter by themselves; "you never knew a miracle come to pa.s.s that another was not close on its heels; the first being a mere preparation for the last, and the last always proving to be the most remarkable. Now, when Anina Gotti fell off the cliffs, it was a miracle she didn't break her neck; but, when she rolled over into the sea, it was a much greater she wasn't drowned!"

"It is better to leave these things to the church, neighbor Vito," was the vice-governatore's answer; "nor do I see that there has been any miracle in the affair to start with."

"How!--Do you not call it a miracle, Signor Andrea, that two such men as you and I should be deceived, as we were beyond all doubt, by this knave of a French corsair? I look upon it as so great a miracle myself, that it ought to follow instead of going before its companion."

To this Andrea made an answer suitable to his greater information, and the discourse took its usual direction toward the means of doing something to relieve the two functionaries from the stigma that they mutually felt now rested on their sagacity, and that, too, as this sagacity might be considered conjointly or individually.

It was probably owing to this fever of the mind that the vice-governatore, a man usually so simple and confiding, was now so suspicious and keen-sighted. The presence of Carlo Giuntotardi and Ghita had at first struck him as a little out of the common way; and though he could not distinguish their faces by the light of the moon and at the distance at which they were placed in the yawl, he fancied from the first that his old acquaintances were in the boat the ship was towing.

Now Andrea Barrofaldi certainly had never before that day connected Ghita or her uncle in any manner with Raoul Yvard; but it was beyond dispute that the mysterious manner in which they disappeared from the island had excited some remarks; and in his present state of mind it was not an extraordinary circ.u.mstance that he had some distant and vague glimmerings of the truth. But for Raoul's indiscreet exclamations, however, nothing probably would have come of these indistinct fancies; and we are to refer all that followed to those unguarded outbreakings of the Frenchman's humor, rather than to any very clear process of ratiocination on the part of the vice-governatore.

Just as Cuffe made the declaration last recorded, Andrea stepped up to the spot where he and Griffin were conversing apart and whispered a few words in the ear of the latter.

"The d--l!" exclaimed the lieutenant, in English. "If what the vice-governatore tells me be true, Captain Cuffe, the work is half done to our hands!"

"Aye, the veechy is a good fellow at the bottom, Griffin; though he'll never burn the bay of Naples. What has he to say now?"

Griffin led his captain a little aside and conferred a moment with him alone. Orders were then pa.s.sed to the officer of the watch, when Cuffe and his companions went below like men in a hurry.

Chapter XVI.

"What countryman, I pray?"

"Of Mantua."

"Of Mantua, Sir?--marry, G.o.d forbid And come to Papua, careless of your life?"

_Taming of the Shrew_.

During the momentous five minutes occupied in these private movements, Raoul affected to be gaping about in vulgar astonishment, examining the guns, rigging, ornaments of the quarter-deck, etc.; though, in truth, nothing that pa.s.sed among those near him escaped his vigilant attention.

He was uneasy at the signs of the times, and now regretted his own temerity; but still he thought his incognito must be impenetrable. Like most persons who fancy they speak a foreign language well, he was ignorant, too, in how many little things he betrayed himself; the Englishman, _cateris paribus,_ usually p.r.o.nouncing the Italian better than the Frenchman, on account of the greater affinity between his native language and that of Italy, in what relates to emphasis and sounds. Such was the state of mind of our hero then, as he got an intimation that the captain of the ship wished to see him below. Raoul observed as he descended the ladder, to comply with what sounded very much like an order, that he was followed by the two Elban functionaries.

The cabin-lamp was trimmed, and the privateersman found himself under a strong light as soon as he had crossed the threshold of the apartment.

Cuffe and Griffin were standing near the table, where the vice-governatore and the podesta took their stations also; giving the whole arrangement a most uncomfortable air of investigation and justice.

For an instant Raoul wished that it was a portion of the Holy Inquisition, rather than the tribunal before which he now found himself so unexpectedly arraigned.

"You must be cool," said Griffin, as the other moved slowly up to the table, maintaining the outward signs of steadiness, but cursing in his heart the severe ordeal which he felt he was undergoing; "do me the favor to put this silk handkerchief about your neck."

"S'nore, your eccellenza is pleased to joke; we men of Capri think little of the nights at this season of the year--still, as it seems to be your wish, I will honor myself so much."

In that age a black silk kerchief was the certain mark of a military man. The old-fashioned stock had gone out with all but old-fashioned people, and the new-fashioned subst.i.tute did not make its appearance until many years later; the present usage, indeed, having come in from an imitation of the military mania which pervaded Christendom at the close of the last general war. Black around the neck, properly relieved by the white of the linen, was then deemed particularly military; and even in the ordinary dress, such a peculiarity was as certain a sign as the c.o.c.kade that the wearer bore arms. Raoul knew this, and he felt he was aiding in unmasking himself by complying; but he thought there might be greater danger should he refuse to a.s.sume the kerchief.

"Your eccellenza is making a prince of a very humble boatman," he said, when his neck was fairly enveloped; "and my wife will think some great general is coming, when I enter the door."

"To help the delusion, friend, wear this also," continued Griffin, throwing the other one of his own undress uniform coats, his stature and that of Raoul being very nearly the same.

The true state of the case was now getting to be somewhat unequivocal; nevertheless, as steadiness and compliance were his only hopes, Raoul did as desired and stood with all his upper man decorated in an English naval undress uniform, while the nether remained a la lazzarone.

"What say you now, vice-governatore," resumed Griffin, "here are lights and the dress!"

"I say that this gentleman has done me the honor of several visits in my poor residence at Porto Ferrajo," returned Andrea; "and that never has he been more welcome than he is at this moment. Signor Smees, you are a great lover of masquerades and make a carnival of the whole year.

I trust your distinguished countryman, Sir Cicero, will have it in his power to convince these brave Inglese that all is done in pure pleasantry and without a crime."

"Messieurs," said Raoul, stripping himself of his borrowed plumes, "it is too late to feign any longer. _If_ I am Raoul Yvard, as you say, I am certainly _not_ le Feu-Follet."

"Of course you are aware, Monsieur," observed Griffin, in French, "that you are a prisoner to His Britannic Majesty?"

"Sa Majeste Britannique has not made a conquest equal to his success at the Nile," returned Raoul, ironically; "but he has me in his hands. It is not the first time that I have had the honor to be a prisoner of war, and that, too, in one of his own ships."

"You are not to suppose that such will be your situation now, Monsieur Yvard. We arrest you in a totally different character."

"Not as a friend, I trust, Monsieur; for, I protest, I have not the smallest claim to the character; as witness a short interview off Porto Ferrajo and an interesting incident at the mouth of the Golo."

"Your taunts maybe spared, sir; fortune favored you then, we allow; but now we arrest you as a spy."

"Espion!" repeated Raoul, starting; "that is an office I never contemplated, Monsieur, on coming on board your ship. You will do me the justice to acknowledge that it was only at your own invitation that I came on deck. 'Twould be an infamy to pretend differently."

"We will endure the infamy of our acts, Monsieur Yvard. No one accuses you of having come on board the Proserpine as a spy; but, when an enemy is found rowing about our fleet, which is anch.o.r.ed in a hostile bay, and this in a disguise like yours, it most be a very scrupulous conscience that hesitates to p.r.o.nounce him a spy and liable to the punishment of one."

This was so true that the unfortunate young man now felt the exceeding delicacy of his situation. In coming into the bay he had certainly been led by no other intention than to find Ghita; and yet he could not but confess to himself that he should not have hesitated about profiting, in his public character, by any information incidentally obtained. He had subjected himself to the severest penalties of military law by yielding to his pa.s.sion for Ghita; and he could not discover a single available excuse to plead in mitigation.

"What does the poor devil say, Griffin?" asked Cuffe, who felt regret that so brave an enemy should be reduced to so desperate a strait, notwithstanding his determined hostility to all Frenchmen; "do not bear too hard upon him, at the first go off. Has he any excuse for his disguise?"

"The usual apology, no doubt, sir--a desire to serve his one and undivided republic! If we should believe all such chaps tell us, Captain Cuffe, we might go home and send deputies to the National Convention; if, indeed, they would do us the favor to admit them to seats."

"Gentlemen," said Raoul, in English, "there is no longer any occasion for an interpreter between us; I speak your language sufficiently well to make myself understood."

"I am sorry for your situation, Mr. Yvard," said Cuffe, "and wish with all my heart you had fallen into our hands in open battle instead of in this irregular way."

"In which case, Monsieur le Capitaine, le Feu-Follet would have been in your power also!" returned Raoul, smiling ironically; "but, messieurs, words are idle now; I am your prisoner and must take my chance with you.

There is no necessity, however, for causing others to suffer for my indiscretion. I shall esteem it a favor, messieurs, if you will let the good people in the boat alongside pull ash.o.r.e, without molestation. It is getting late, and we must now be nearly or quite abeam of the place where they wish to land, which is the marina grande of Sorrento."

"Do you wish us to understand that your companions are not French, Monsieur Yvard?"

"Oui, Monsieur le Captaine; there is not a Frenchman among them, I give you _my parole d'honneur_"

"Of that fact it may be well to satisfy ourselves by an examination, Captain Cuffe," put in Griffin, dryly.

"I have sent up to beg Mr. Winchester would get these people on board--"

"There is a young woman in the boat who is unaccustomed to entering ships," interrupted Raoul, hastily, "and I implore your tenderness in her behalf. Let the men come on board, if you think it necessary; but the signorina can never climb this frigate's sides!"