celebrated mountain, had not its dark outlines been visible, exposing a
black mass at the head of the Bay. The ragged mountain-tops, behind and
above Castel a Mare, were also to be traced, as was the whole range of
the nearest coast, though that opposite was only discoverable by the
faint glimmerings of a thousand lights, that were appearing and
disappearing, like stars eclipsed, on the other side of the broad sheet
of placid water. On the Bay itself, little could be discerned; under the
near coast, nothing, the shadows of the rocks obscuring its borders with
a wide belt of darkness.

After looking around them quite a minute in silence, the men dropped
their oars and began to pull from under the point, with the intention of
making an offing before they set their little lugs.

As they came out, the heavy flap of canvas, quite near, startled their
ears, and both turned instinctively to look ahead. There, indeed, was a
vessel, standing directly in, threatening even to cross their very
track. She was close on a wind, with her larboard tacks aboard, and had
evidently just shaken everything, in the expectation of luffing past the
point without tacking. Could she succeed in this, it would be in her
power to stand on, until compelled to go about beneath the very cliffs
of the town of Sorrento. This was, in truth, her aim; for again she
shook all her sails.

"_Peste_!" muttered Raoul; "this is a bold pilot--he hugs the rocks as
if they were his mistress! We must lie quiet, Etooelle, and let him
pass; else he may trouble us."

"'Twill be the wisest, Captain Rule; though I do not think him an
Englishman. Hark! The ripple under his bow is like that of a knife going
through a ripe watermelon."

"Mon Feu-Follet!" exclaimed Raoul, rising and actually extending his
arms as if to embrace the beloved craft. "Etooelle, they seek us, for we
are much behind our time!"

The stranger drew near fast; when his outlines became visible, there was
no mistaking them. The two enormous lugs, the little jigger, the hull
almost awash, and the whole of the fairy form, came mistily into view,
as the swift bird assumes color and proportion, while it advances out of
the depth of the void. The vessel was but a hundred yards distant; in
another minute she would be past.

"_Vive la Republique!_" said Raoul, distinctly, though he feared to
trust his voice with a loud hail.

Again the canvas flapped, and the trampling of feet was heard on the
lugger