not--refrain--if thou really lov'st me, utter not
this frightful blasphemy; tell me, rather, if thou didst not find the
holy father as I describe him?"

"I found him a peaceful, venerable, and, I firmly believe, a _good_ old
man, Ghita; but _only_ a man. No infallibility could I see about him;
but a set of roguish cardinals and other plotters of mischief, who were
much better calculated to set Christians by the ears than to lead them
to Heaven, surrounded his chair."

"Say no more, Raoul--I will listen to no more of this. Thou knowest not
these sainted men, and thy tongue is thine own enemy, without--hark!
what means that?"

"It is a gun from the frigate, and must be looked to; say, when and
where do we meet again?"

"I know not, now. We have been too long, much too long, together as it
is; and must separate. Trust to me to provide the means of another
meeting; at all events, _we_ shall shortly be in our tower again."

Ghita glided away as she ceased speaking and soon disappeared in the
town. As for Raoul, he was at a loss for a moment whether to follow or
not; then he hastened to the terrace in front of the government-house
again, in order to ascertain the meaning of the gun. The report had
drawn others to the same place, and on reaching it the young man found
himself in another crowd.

By this time the Proserpine, for Ithuel was right as to the name of the
stranger, had got within a league of the entrance of the bay and had
gone about, stretching over to its eastern shore, apparently with the
intention to fetch fairly into it on the next tack. The smoke of her gun
was sailing off to leeward in a little cloud, and signals were again
flying at her main-royal-mast-head. All this was very intelligible to
Raoul, it being evident at a glance that the frigate had reached in
nearer both to look at the warlike lugger that she saw in the bay, and
to communicate more clearly with her by signals. Ithuel's expedient had
not sufficed; the vigilant Captain Cuffe, alias Sir Brown, who commanded
the Proserpine, not being a man likely to be mystified by so stale a
trick. Raoul scarcely breathed as he watched the lugger in anticipation
of her course.

Ithuel certainly seemed in no hurry to commit himself, for the signal
had now been flying on board the frigate several minutes, and yet no
symptoms of any preparation for an answer could be discovered. At length
the halyards moved, and then three fair, handsome flags rose to the en