t temperate avoided getting frankly drunk like the
sailors of other seas, dissimulating the strength of their alcoholic
beverage with coffee and sugar.

Caragol was the understudy charged with drinking all which the captain
refused, together with certain others which he dedicated to himself in
the mystery of the galley. On warm days he manufactured _refresquets_,
and these refreshments were enormous glasses, half of water and half of
rum upon a great bed of sugar,--a mixture that made one pass like a
lightning flash, without any gradations, from vulgar serenity to most
angelic intoxication.

The captain would scold him upon seeing his inflamed and reddened eyes.
He was going to make himself blind.... But the guilty one was not moved
by this threat. He had to celebrate the prosperity of the vessel in his
own way. And of this prosperity the most interesting thing for him was
his ability to use oil and brandy lavishly without any fear of
recriminations when the accounts were settled. _Cristo del Grao_!...
would that the war would last forever!...

The _Mare Nostrum's_ third voyage from South America to Europe came
suddenly to an end in Naples, where they were unloading wheat and
hides. A collision at the entrance of the port, with an English
hospital ship that was going to the Dardanelles, injured her stern,
carrying away a part of the screw.

Toni roared with impatience upon learning that they would have to
remain nearly a month in enforced idleness. Italy had not yet
intervened in the war, but her defensive precautions were monopolizing
all naval industries. It was not possible to make the repairs sooner,
although Ferragut well knew what this loss of time would represent in
his business. Valuable freight was waiting for him in Marseilles and
Barcelona, but, wishing to tranquillize himself and to pacify his mate,
he would say repeatedly:

"England will indemnify us.... The English are just."

And in order to soothe his impatience he went ashore.

Compared with other celebrated Italian cities, Naples did not appear to
him of much importance. Its true beauty was its immense gulf between
hills of orange trees and pines, with a second frame of mountains one
of which outlined upon the azure heavens its eternal crest of volcanic
vapors.

The town did not abound in famous edifices. The monarchs of Naples had
generally been foreigners who had resided far away and had governed
through their delegates. The best streets, t