d the boat, with all in her, rose from
the water, and ascended as high as the hammock-cloths in the waist, when
the stay-tackles took the strain, the yard-tackles "eased-off," and the
boat was landed in the waist of the ship as gingerly as if it were made
of glass, and as steadily as if it had no more weight than a seaman's
hammock. Ghita uttered a faint scream when she found herself rising into
the air, and then she hid her face, awaiting the result with dread. As
for Carlo Giuntotardi, the movement aroused him a little from his
customary apathy, and that was all; whereas Ithuel bethought him
seriously of leaping into the water and striking out for the land. He
could swim a league, he thought; but there was the certainty of being
followed by boats and overtaken; a consideration that effectually curbed
his impatience. It is not easy to describe the sensation with which this
man found himself once more standing on the deck of his old prison, with
the additional danger of being detected and treated as a deserter. It
may sound revolting at the present day to suppose a case in which a
foreigner was thrown by violence into the military service of a nation,
and then was put in jeopardy of his life because he used a privilege of
nature to fly from such persecution as soon as circumstances placed the
means in his power. The last age, however, witnessed many scenes of
similar wrongs; and, it is to be feared, in despite of all the mawkish
philanthropy and unmeaning professions of eternal peace that it is now
the fashion to array against the experience of mankind, that the next
age will present their parallels, unless the good sense of this nation
infuse into the federal legislative bodies juster notions of policy,
more extended views of their own duties, and more accurate opinions of
the conditions of the several communities of Christendom than has marked
their laws and reasoning for the few past months[8]. In a word, the
subject of all these tribulations felt an intimate conviction that his
rights, legal and moral, would avail him but little on the present
occasion. Then a man never does wrong, even in defence of that which is
inherently his due, without the secret consciousness that "evil may not
be done, that good may come of it"; and Ithuel had a certain inward
monitor to remind him that, much as he had in the way of justifiable
complaint, he had carried the war into the enemy's country.

[8] The question of impressment is now