er uninjured. As he said
nothing, the examination proceeded.

"You know him to be Raoul Yvard, the commander of the French privateer
lugger, le Feu-Follet?" continued the Judge Advocate, deeming it
prurient to fortify his record of the prisoner's confession of identity
with a little collateral evidence.

"Why--I _some_ think"--answered Ithuel, with a peculiar provincialism,
that had a good deal of granite in it--"that is, I kind o'
conclude"--catching an assent from Raoul's eye--"oh! yes--of _that_
there isn't the smallest mite of doubt in the world. He's the captain of
the lugger, and a right down good one he is!"

"You were with him in disguise when he came, into the Bay of Naples
yesterday?"

"I in disguise, 'squire!--What have I got to disguise? I am an American
of different callings, all of which I practyse as convenience demands;
being a neutral, I've no need of disguises to go anywhere. I am never
disguised except when my jib is a little bowsed out; and that, you know,
is a come-over that befals most seafaring men at times."

"You need answer nothing concerning yourself that will tend to criminate
you. Do you know with what inducement, or on what business, Raoul Yvard
came into the Bay of Naples yesterday?"

"To own to you the candid truth, 'squire, I do not," answered Ithuel,
simply; for the nature of the tie which bound the young Frenchman so
closely to Ghita was a profound mystery, in all that related to its more
sacred feelings, to a being generally so obtuse on matters of pure
sentiment.

"Captain Rule is a good deal given to prying about on the coast;
and what particular eend he had in view in this expedition I
cannot tell you. His a'r'n'ds in shore, I must own, be sometimes
onaccountable!--Witness the island of Elby, gentlemen."

Ithuel indulged in a small laugh as he made this allusion; for, in his
own way, he had a humor in which he occasionally indulged, after a
manner that belonged to the class of which he was a conspicuous member.

"Never mind what occurred at Elba. Prisoner, do you wish to question the
witness?"

"Etuelle," asked Raoul, "do you not know that I love Ghita Caraccioli?"

"Why, Captain Rule, I know you think so and say so--but I set down all
these matters as somewhat various and onaccountable."

"Have I not often landed on the enemy's coast solely to see her and to
be near her?"

By this time Ithuel, who was a little puzzled at first to understand
what it all meant, had