he dose was rather too strong to
be swallowed, and I did not feel disposed to submit to it. "Very good,
adjutant," I replied, "it shall be done." He went away, and I left the
coffee-house a moment after him, but when I reached the end of the
street, instead of going towards the esplanade, I proceeded quickly
towards the sea. I walked along the beach for a quarter of an hour, and
finding a boat empty, but with a pair of oars, I got in her, and
unfastening her, I rowed as hard as I could towards a large caicco,
sailing against the wind with six oars. As soon as I had come up to her,
I went on board and asked the carabouchiri to sail before the wind and to
take me to a large wherry which could be seen at some distance, going
towards Vido Rock. I abandoned the row-boat, and, after paying the master
of the caicco generously, I got into the wherry, made a bargain with the
skipper who unfurled three sails, and in less than two hours we were
fifteen miles away from Corfu. The wind having died away, I made the men
row against the current, but towards midnight they told me that they
could not row any longer, they were worn out with fatigue. They advised
me to sleep until day-break, but I refused to do so, and for a trifle I
got them to put me on shore, without asking where I was, in order not to
raise their suspicions. It was enough for me to know that I was at a
distance of twenty miles from Corfu, and in a place where nobody could
imagine me to be. The moon was shining, and I saw a church with a house
adjoining, a long barn opened on both sides, a plain of about one hundred
yards confined by hills, and nothing more. I found some straw in the
barn, and laying myself down, I slept until day-break in spite of the
cold. It was the 1st of December, and although the climate is very mild
in Corfu I felt benumbed when I awoke, as I had no cloak over my thin
uniform.

The bells begin to toll, and I proceed towards the church. The
long-bearded papa, surprised at my sudden apparition, enquires whether I
am Romeo (a Greek); I tell him that I am Fragico (Italian), but he turns
his back upon me and goes into his house, the door of which he shuts
without condescending to listen to me.

I then turned towards the sea, and saw a boat leaving a tartan lying at
anchor within one hundred yards of the island; the boat had four oars and
landed her passengers. I come up to them and meet a good-looking Greek, a
woman and a young boy ten or twelve year