n an exactly contrary direction to
that which, about the same hour, came off from the adjacent continent.
There was no moon, but the night could not be called dark. Myriads of
stars gleamed out from the fathomless firmament, filling the atmosphere
with a light that served to render objects sufficiently distinct, while
it left them clad in a semi-obscurity that suited the witchery of the
scene and the hour. Raoul felt the influence of all these circumstances
in an unusual degree. It disposed him to more sobriety of thought than
always attended his leisure moments, and he took a seat on the taffrail
near Ghita, while her uncle went below to his knees and his prayers.

Every footfall in the lugger had now ceased. Ithuel was posted on a
knight-head, where he sat watching his old enemy, the Proserpine; the
proximity of that ship not allowing him to sleep. Two experienced
seamen, who alone formed the regular anchor-watch, as it is termed, were
stationed apart, in order to prevent conversation; one on the starboard
cathead, and the other in the main rigging; both keeping vigilant ward
over the tranquil sea and the different objects that floated on its
placid bosom. In that retired spot these objects were necessarily few,
embracing the frigate, the lugger, and three coasters, the latter of
which had all been boarded before the night set in, by the Proserpine,
and after short detentions dismissed. One of these coasters lay about
half-way between the two hostile vessels, at anchor, having come-to,
after making some fruitless efforts to get to the northward, by means of
the expiring west wind. Although the light land-breeze would now have
sufficed to carry her a knot or two through the water, she preferred
maintaining her position and giving her people a good night's rest to
getting under way. The situation of this felucca and the circumstance
that she had been boarded by the frigate rendered her an object of some
distrust with Raoul through the early part of the evening, and he had
ordered a vigilant eye to be kept on her; but nothing had been
discovered to confirm these suspicions. The movements of her people--the
manner in which she brought-up--the quiet that prevailed on board her,
and even the lubberly disposition of her spars and rigging, went to
satisfy Raoul that she had no man-of-war's men on board her. Still, as
she lay less than a mile outside of the lugger though now dead to
leeward all that distance, she was to be watc