around
its teeming shores, covers it in all directions with boats, almost as
the streets of a town are crowded with pedestrians. The present
occasion, too, was one likely to set everything in motion; and Raoul
judged rightly when he thought himself less likely to be observed in
such a scene than on a smaller and less frequented water. As a matter of
course, while near the mole, or the common anchorage, it was necessary
to pass amid a floating throng; but, once beyond the limits of this
crowd, the size of the bay rendered it quite easy to avoid unpleasant
collisions without any apparent effort; while the passage of a boat in
any direction was an occurrence too common to awaken distrust. One would
think no more of questioning a craft that was encountered, even in the
centre of that spacious bay, than he would think of inquiring about the
stranger met in the market-place. All this both Raoul and Ithuel knew
and felt; and once in motion, in their yawl, they experienced a sense of
security that for the four or five previous hours had not
always existed.

By this time the sun was low, though it was possible, as Raoul
perceived, to detect the speck that was still swinging at the Minerva's
fore-yard-arm; a circumstance to which the young man, with considerate
feeling, refrained from adverting. The Proserpine had been some time in
motion, standing out of the fleet under a cloud of canvas, but with an
air so light as to permit the yawl to gain on her, though the heads of
both were turned in the same direction. In this manner mile after mile
was passed, until darkness came. Then the moon arose, rendering the bay
less distinct, it is true, but scarcely more mysterious or more lovely,
than in the hours of stronger light. The gulf, indeed, forms an
exception in this particular to the general rule, by the extent of its
shores, the elevation of its mountains, the beauty of its water--which
has the deep tint of the ocean off soundings--and the softness of the
atmosphere; lending to it by day all the mellowed and dreamy charms that
other scenes borrow from the illusions of night and the milder
brilliance of the secondary planets. Raoul did not exert himself at the
oar; and, as he sat aft, his companion was obliged to take the stroke
from his movement. It was so pleasant to have Ghita with him, on his own
element, that he never hurried himself while in the enjoyment of her
society. The conversation, it will readily be imagined, was not li