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The Wing and Wing by J. Fenimore Cooper

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"That difficulty has been foreseen, Signor Vice-governatore, and I come
well provided with the necessary proofs. I handed you my commission, as
that is a document which, if wanting, might throw a distrust on all
other proofs. But here is a communication from your superior at
Florence, recommending us to the kindness of the authorities of all the
Tuscan ports, which you will readily understand. Captain Cuffe has
furnished me with other proofs, which you can look over at
your leisure."

Andrea Barrofaldi now set about a cautious and deliberate examination of
the papers shown him. They proved to be of a nature to remove every
doubt; and it was not possible to distrust the party that presented
them. This was a great deal toward convicting the Signore Smees of
imposition, though both the vice-governatore and the podesta were of
opinion that Captain Cuffe might yet be mistaken as to the identity of
the lugger.

"It is impossible, Signori," answered the lieutenant; "we know every
English cruiser in these seas, by name and description at least, and
most of them by sight. This is none; and everything about her,
particularly her sailing, betrays her real name. We hear there is a man
in her who once belonged to our own ship, a certain Ithuel Bolt--"

"Cospetto!" exclaimed the podesta. "Then we must set down this Sir
Smees, after all, for an arrant rogue; for this is the very man we met
at Benedetta's the past night. An Americano, Signor Tenente, is he not?"

"Why, the fellow _pretends_ to be some such thing," answered the young
man, coloring, for he was loath to confess the wrong that had been done
the deserter; "but half the British seamen one falls in with nowadays
call themselves Americans, in order to escape serving his Majesty. I
rather think this rascal is a Cornish or a Devonshire man; he has the
twang and the nasal sing-song of that part of the island. If an
American, however, we have a better right to him than the French;
speaking our language and being descended from a common ancestry and
having a common character, it is quite unnatural for an American to
serve any but the English."

"I did not know that, Vice-governatore! I thought the Americani a very
inferior sort of people to us Europeans, generally, and that they could
scarcely claim to be our equals in any sense."

"You are quite right, Signor Podesta," said the lieutenant, briskly;
"they are all you think them; and any one can see that at a glance.
Degenerate Englishmen, we call them in the service."

"And yet you take them occasionally, Signor Tenente; and, as I
understand from this Ithuello, frequently contrary to their wishes and
by force," dryly observed Andrea Barrofaldi.

"How can we help it, Signore? The king has a right to and he has need of
the services of all his own seamen; and, in the hurry of impressing, we
sometimes make a mistake. Then, these Yankees are so like our own
people, that I would defy the devil himself to tell them apart."

The vice-governatore thought there was something contradictory in all
this, and he subsequently said as much to his friend the podesta; but
the matter went no further at the moment, most probably because he
ascertained that the young lieutenant was only using what might be
termed a national argument; the English Government constantly protesting
that it was impossible to distinguish one people from the other, _quoad_
this particular practice; while nothing was more offensive to their
eyes, in the abstract, than to maintain any affinity in appearance or
characteristics.

The result of the discussion, notwithstanding, was to make the two
Italians reluctant converts to the opinion of the Englishman, that the
lugger was the dreaded and obnoxious Feu-Follet. Once convinced,
however, shame, revenge, and mortification united with duty to quicken
their exertions and to render them willing assistants in executing the
schemes of Captain Cuffe. It was, perhaps, fortunate for Raoul and his
associates that the English officers had so strong a desire, as Griffin
expressed it, "to take the lugger alive"; else might she have been
destroyed where she lay by removing a gun or two from its proper
embrasure and planting them behind some natural ramparts among the
rocks. The night was dark, it is true, but not so much so as to render a
vessel indistinct at the short distance at which le Feu-Follet lay; and
a cannonade would have been abundantly certain.

When all parties were of a mind as to the true character of the little
craft in the bay, a consultation was had on the details of the course
proper to be pursued. A window of the government-house that looked
toward the direction of Capraya, or that in which the Proserpine was
expected to arrive, was assigned to Griffin. The young man took his
station at it about midnight, in readiness to burn the blue-lights with
which he was provided the instant he should discern the signals of his
ship. The position of this window was well adapted to the desired
object, inasmuch as the lights could not be seen from the town, while
they were plainly open to the sea. The same was essentially true as to
the signals of the frigate, the heights interposing between her and the
houses, and there being a still greater physical impossibility that
anything lying in the bay should discover an object at sea on the
northern side of the promontory.

In this manner, then, did hour after hour pass away, a light land-breeze
blowing, but coming so directly into the bay as to induce Raoul not to
lift his kedge. Ghita and her uncle, Carlo Giuntotardi, had come off
about ten; but there were still no signs of movement on board the
lugger. To own the truth, Raoul was in no hurry to sail, for the longer
his departure was protracted the longer would he have the happiness of
retaining the lovely girl on board; and the zephyr of the succeeding day
would be almost certain to carry le Feu-Follet up to the island-like
promontory of Monte Argentaro, the point where stood the watch-towers of
which Carlo was the keeper, and in one of which he resided. Under these
circumstances, therefore, it is not surprising that the rising of the
land-breeze was overlooked, or at least disregarded; and that Raoul sat
conversing with Ghita on deck until long past midnight, ere he allowed
her to seek her little cabin, where everything had been properly
arranged for her reception. To own the truth, Raoul was so confident of
having completely mystified all on shore that he felt no apprehensions
from that quarter; and, desirous of prolonging his present happiness as
much as possible, he had very coolly determined not to sail until the
southerly air of the morning should come; which, as usual, would just
suffice to carry him well into the canal, when the zephyr would do the
rest. Little did this hardy adventurer suspect what had occurred on
shore since he quitted it; nor was he at all aware that Tommaso Tonti
was at watch in the harbor, ready to report the slightest indication on
the part of the lugger of a wish to quit the bay.

But, while Raoul was so indifferent to the danger he ran, the feeling
was quite the reverse with Ithuel Bolt. The Proserpine was the bane of
this man's life; and he not only hated every stick and every timber in
her, but every officer and man who was attached to her--the king whose
colors she wore and the nation whose interest she served. An active
hatred is the most restless of all passions; and this feeling made
Ithuel keenly alive to every chance which might still render the frigate
dangerous to the lugger. He thought it probable the former would return
in quest of her enemy; and, expressly with a view to this object, when
he turned in at nine he left orders to be called at two, that he might
be on the alert in season.

Ithuel was no sooner awaked when he called two trusty men, whom he had
prepared for the purpose, entered a light boat that was lying in
readiness on the off side of the lugger, and pulled with muffled oars
toward the eastern part of the bay. When sufficiently distant from the
town to escape observation, he changed his course, and proceeded
directly out to sea. Half an hour sufficed to carry the boat as far as
Ithuel deemed necessary, leaving him about a mile from the promontory,
and so far to the westward as to give him a fair view of the window at
which Griffin had taken post.

The first occurrence out of the ordinary course of things that struck
the American was the strong light of a lamp shining through an upper
window of the government-house--not that at which the lieutenant was
posted, but one above it--and which had been placed there expressly as
an indication to the frigate that Griffin had arrived, and was actively
on duty. It was now two o'clock, or an hour or two before the
appearance of light, and the breeze off the adjoining continent was
sufficiently strong to force a good sailing vessel, whose canvas had
been thickened by the damps of night, some four knots through the water;
and as Capraya was less than thirty miles from Porto Ferrajo, abundant
time had been give to the Proserpine to gain her offing; that ship
having come from behind her cover, as soon as the sun had set, and the
haze of evening settled upon the sea.

Ithuel, usually so loquacious and gossiping in his moments of leisure,
was silent and observant when he had anything serious on hand. His eye
was still on the window in which the lamp was visible, the pure olive
oil that was burning in it throwing out a clear, strong flame; when
suddenly a blue-light flashed beneath the place, and he got a momentary
glimpse of the body of the man who held it, as he leaned forward from
another window. The motion which now turned his head seaward was
instinctive; it was just in time to let him detect a light descending
apparently into the water like a falling star; but which, in fact, was
merely a signal lantern of the Proserpine coming rapidly down from the
end of her gaff.

"Ah! d--n you," said Ithuel, grating his teeth and shaking his fist in
the direction of the spot where this transient gleam of brightness had
disappeared--"I know you, and your old tricks with your lanterns and
night-signals. Here goes the answer."

As he said this he touched a rocket, of which he had several in the
boat, with the lighted end of the cigar he had been smoking, and it went
hissing up into the air, ascending so high as to be plainly visible from
the deck of le Feu-Follet before it exploded. Griffin saw this signal
with wonder; the frigate noted it with embarrassment, for it was far to
seaward of the lamp; and even 'Maso conceived it necessary to quit his
station in order to report the circumstance to the colonel, whom he was
to call in the event of any unusual occurrence. The common impression,
however, among all these parties was that a second cruiser had come
through the canal from the southward in the course of the night, and
that she wished to notify the Proserpine of her position, probably
expecting to meet that ship off the island.

On board le Feu-Follet the effect was different. The. land-breeze of
Italy is a side-wind to vessels quitting the bay of Porto Ferrajo; and
two minutes after the rocket exploded the lugger-was gliding almost
imperceptibly, and yet at the rate of a knot or two, under her jigger
and jib, toward the outer side of the port, or along the very buildings
past which she had brushed the previous day. This movement was made at
the critical instant when 'Maso was off his watch; and the ordinary
sentinels of the works had other duties to attend to. So light was this
little vessel that a breath of air set her in motion, and nothing was
easier than to get three or four knots out of her in smooth water,
especially when she opened the comparatively vast folds of her two
principal lugs. This she did when close under the citadel or out of
sight of the town, the sentinels above hearing the flaps of her canvas,
without exactly understanding whence they came. At this instant Ithuel
let off a second rocket, and the lugger showed a light on her starboard
bow, so concealed, however, on all sides but one, as to be visible only
in the direction of the boat. As this was done she put her helm hard
down and hauled her fore-sheet over flat to windward. Five minutes later
Ithuel had reached her deck, and the boat was hauled in as if it had
been inflated silk, Deceived by the second rocket, the Proserpine now
made her number with regular signal lanterns, with the intention of
obtaining that of the stranger, trusting that the promontory would
conceal it from the vessels in the bay. This told Raoul the precise
position of his enemy, and he was not sorry to see that he was already
to the westward of her; a fact that permitted him to slip round the
island again, so near in as to be complete concealed by the background
of cliffs. By the aid of an excellent night-glass, too, he was enabled
to see the frigate, distant about a league, under everything that would
draw, from her royals down, standing toward the mouth of the bay on the
larboard tack; having made her calculations so accurately as to drop
into windward of her port, with the customary breeze off the land. At
this sight Raoul laughed and ordered the mainsail taken in. Half an hour
later he directed the foresail to be brailed, brought his jigger-sheet
in flat, put his helm hard down, and hauled the jib-sheet to windward.

As this last order was executed, day was just breaking over the
mountains of Radicofani and Aquapendente. By this time le Feu-Follet lay
about a league to the westward of the promontory, and abreast of the
deep bay that has been already mentioned as being in that direction from
the town. Of course she was far beyond the danger of missiles from the
land. The night wind, however, had now failed, and there was every
appearance that the morning would be calm. In this there was nothing
extraordinary at that season; the winds which prevailed from the south
being usually short and light, unless accompanied by a gust. Just as the
sun appeared the south air came, it is true, but so lightly as to render
it barely possible to keep the little lugger in command, by heaving-to
with her head to the southwest.

The Proserpine stood in until the day had advanced far enough to enable
her lookouts to detect le Feu-Follet braving her, as it might be, in the
western board, at the distance of about a league and a half, under her
jib and jigger, as described. This sight produced a great commotion in
the ship, even the watch below "tumbling up," to get another sight of a
craft so renowned for evading the pursuit of all the English cruisers of
those seas. A few minutes later Griffin came off, chopfallen and
disappointed. His first glance at the countenance of his superior
announced a coming storm; for the commander of a vessel of war is no
more apt to be reasonable under disappointment than any other
potentate. Captain Cuffe had not seen fit to wait for his subordinate on
deck; but as soon as it was ascertained that he was coming off in a
shore-boat, he retired to his cabin, leaving orders with the first
lieutenant, whose name was Winchester, to send Mr. Griffin below the
instant he reported himself.

"Well, sir," commenced Cuffe, as soon as his lieutenant came into the
after-cabin, without offering him a seat--"here _we_ are; and out yonder
two or three leagues at sea is the d--d Few-Folly!" for so most of the
seamen of the English service pronounced "Feu-Follet."

"I beg your pardon, Captain Cuffe," answered Griffin, who found himself
compelled to appear a delinquent, whatever might be the injustice of the
stiuation; "it could not be helped. We got in in proper time; and I went
to work with the deputy-governor and an old chap of a magistrate who was
with him, as soon as I could get up to the house of the first. Yvard had
been beforehand with me: and I had to under-run about a hundred of his
lying yarns before I could even enter the end of an idea of my own--"

"You speak Italian, sir, like a Neapolitan born; and I depended on your
doing everything as it should have been."

"Not so much like a Neapolitan, I hope, Captain Cuffe, as like a Tuscan
or a Roman," returned Griffin, biting his lip. "After an hour of pretty
hard and lawyer-like work, and overhauling all the documents, I did
succeed in convincing the two Elban gentry of my own character, and of
that of the lugger!"

"And while you were playing advocate, Master Raoul Yvard coolly lifted
his anchor and walked out of the bay as if he were just stepping into
his garden to pick a nosegay for his sweetheart!"

"No, sir, nothing of the sort happened. As soon as I had satisfied the
Signor Barrofaldi, the vice-governatore--"

"Veechy-govern-the-tory. D--n all veechys, and d--n all the
governatorys, too; do speak English, Griffin, on board an English ship,
if you please, even should your Italian happen to be Tuscan. Call the
fellow vice-governor at once, if that be his rank."

"Well, sir, as soon as I had satisfied the vice-governor that the lugger
was an enemy, and that we were friends, everything went: smoothly
enough. He wanted to sink the lugger as she lay at her anchor."

"And why the devil didn't he do it? Two or three heavy shot would have
given her a stronger dose than she could bear."

"You know, Captain Cuffe, it has all along been your wish to take her
alive. I thought it would tell so well for the ship to have it to say
she had _caught_ le Feu-Follet, that I opposed the project. I know Mr.
Winchester hopes to get her as a reward for carrying her, himself."

"Aye, and that would make you first. Well, sir, even if you didn't sink
her it was no reason for letting her escape."

"We could not prevent it, Captain Cuffe. I had a lookout set upon
her--one of the very best men in Porto Ferrajo, as everybody will tell
you, sir; and I made the signals of the lamp and the blue-lights, as
agreed upon; and, the ship answering, I naturally thought all was as it
should be, until--"

"And who burnt the rockets off here where we are at this moment? They
deceived me, for I took them to be signals of their presence from the
Weasel or the Sparrow. When I saw those rockets, Griffin, I was just as
certain of the Few-Folly as I am now of having my own ship!"

"Yes, sir, those rockets did all the mischief; for I have since learned
that, as soon as the first one was thrown, Master Yvard tripped his
kedge and went out of the bay as quietly as one goes out of a
dining-room when he don't wish to disturb the company."

"Aye, he took _French_ leave, the _b--y sans culotte_" returned the
captain, putting himself in a better humor with his own pun. "But did
you _see_ nothing of all this?"

"The first I knew of the matter, sir, was seeing the lugger gliding
along under the rocks so close in that you might have jumped aboard her;
and it was too late to stop her. Before those lazy _far nientes_ could
have pricked and primed, she was out of gun-shot."

"Lazy what?" demanded the captain.

"_Far nientes_, sir; which is a nickname we give these siesta-gentry,
you know, Captain Cuffe."

"I know nothing about it, sir, and I'll thank you always to speak to me
in English, Mr. Griffin. That is a language which I flatter myself I
understand, and it's quite good enough for all my wants."

"Yes, sir, and for any man's wants. I'm sure, I am sorry I can speak
Italian, since it has led to this mistake."

"Poh--poh--Griffin, you mustn't lay everything to heart that comes wrong
end foremost. Dine with me to-day, and we'll talk the matter over
at leisure."



CHAPTER IX.


"Now in the fervid noon the smooth bright sea
Heaves slowly, for the wandering winds are dead
That stirred it into foam. The lonely ship
Rolls wearily, and idly flap the sails
Against the creaking masts. The lightest sound
Is lost not on the ear, and things minute
Attract the observant eye."

RICHARDSON.

Thus terminated the setting-down, like many others that Captain Cuffe
had resolved to give, but which usually ended in a return to good-nature
and reason. The steward was told to set a plate for Mr. Griffin among
the other guests, and then the commander of the frigate followed the
lieutenant on deck. Here he found every officer in the ship, all looking
at le Feu-Follet with longing eyes, and most of them admiring her
appearance, as she lay on the mirrorlike Mediterranean, with the two
light sails just holding her stationary.

"A regular-built snake-in-the-grass!" growled the boatswain, Mr. Strand,
who was taking a look at the lugger over the hammock cloths of the
waist, as he stood on the heel of a spare topmast to do so; "I never
fell in with a scamp that had a more d--n-my-eyes look!"

This was said in a sort of soliloquy, for Strand was not exactly
privileged to address a quarter-deck officer on such an occasion, though
several stood within hearing, and was far too great a man to enlighten
his subordinates with his cogitations. It was overheard by Cuffe,
however, who just at that instant stepped into the gangway to make an
examination for himself.

"It is a snake-_out_-of the grass, rather, Strand," observed the
captain, for _he_ could speak to whom he pleased, without presumption or
degradation. "Had she stayed in port, now, she would have been _in_ the
grass, and we might have scotched her."

"Well, your honor, we can _English_ her, as it is; and that'll be quite
as nat'ral, and quite as much to the purpose, as _Scotching_ her, any
day," answered Strand, who, being a native of London, had a magnificent
sort of feeling toward all the dependencies of the empire, and to whom
the word scotch, in that sense, was Greek, though he well understood
what it meant "to clap a Scotchman on a rope"; "we are likely to have a
flat calm all the morning, and our boats are in capital order; and,
then, nothing will be more agreeable to our gentlemen than a row."

Strand was a gray-headed seaman, and he had served with Captain Cuffe
when the latter was a midshipman, and had even commanded the top of
which the present boatswain had been the captain. He knew the "cut of
the captain's jib" better than any other man in the Proserpine, and
often succeeded with his suggestions, when Winchester and the other
lieutenants failed. His superior now turned round and looked him
intently in the face, as if struck with the notion the other thus
indirectly laid before him. This movement was noted; and, at a sign
secretly given by Winchester, the whole crew gave three hearty cheers;
Strand leading off as soon as he caught the idea. This was the only
manner in which the crew of a man-of-war can express their wishes to
their commander; it being always tolerated in a navy to hurrah, by way
of showing the courage of a ship's company. Cuffe walked aft in a
thoughtful manner and descended to his cabin again; but a servant soon
came up, to say that the captain desired to see the first lieutenant.

"I do not half like this boat-service in open daylight, Winchester,"
observed the senior, beckoning to the other to take a chair. "The least
bungling may spoil it all; and then it's ten to one but your ship goes
half-manned for a twelvemonth, until you are driven to pressing from
colliers and neutrals."

"But we hope, sir, there'll be no bungling in anything that the
Proserpine undertakes. Nine times in ten an English man-of-war succeeds
when she makes a bold dash in boats against one of these picaroons. This
lugger is so low in the water, too, that it will be like stepping from
one cutter into another to get upon her decks; and then, sir, I suppose,
you don't doubt what Englishmen will do?"

"Aye, Winchester, once on her deck, I make no doubt you'd carry her; but
it may not be so easy as you imagine to get on her deck. Of all duty to
a captain, this of sending off boats is the most unpleasant. He cannot
go in person, and if anything unfortunate turns up he never forgives
himself. Now, it's a very different thing with a fight in which all
share alike, and the good or evil comes equally on all hands."

"Quite true, Captain Cuffe; and yet this is the only chance that the
lieutenants have for getting ahead a little out of the regular course. I
have heard, sir, that you were made commander for cutting out some
coasters in the beginning of the war."

"You have not been misinformed, and a devil of a risk we all ran. Luck
saved us--and that was all. One more fire from a cursed carronade would
have given a Flemish account of the whole party; for, once get a little
under, and you suffer like game in a _batteau_." Captain Cuffe wished to
say _battue_; but, despising foreign languages, he generally made sad
work with them whenever he did condescend to resort to their terms,
however familiar. "This Raoul Yvard is a devil incarnate himself at this
boarding work, and is said to have taken off the head of a master's mate
of the Theseus with one clip of his sword when he retook that ship's
prize in the affair of last winter--that which happened off Alicant!"

"I'll warrant you, sir, the master's mate was some slender-necked chap
that might better have been at home, craning at the girls as they come
out of a church-door. I should like to see Raoul Yvard or any Frenchman
who was ever born take off _my_ head at a single clip!"