e to such an event.

Of boats, there were eight in sight, though only seven were drawing
near, and were in line. Six had strong crews, were armed, and were
evidently fitted for action. Of these, three had light boat-guns in
their bows, while the other three carried small-arms-men only. The
seventh boat was the Terpsichore's gig, with its usual crew, armed;
though it was used by the commanding officer himself as a sort of
_cheval de bataille_, in the stricter meaning of the term. In other
words, Sir Frederick Dashwood pulled through the line in it, to give his
orders and encourage his people. The eighth boat, which kept aloof,
quite out of the range of grape, was a shore craft, belonging to Capri,
in which Andrea Barrofaldi and Vito Viti had come, expressly to witness
the capture or destruction of their old enemy. When Raoul was taken in
the Bay of Naples, these two worthies fancied that their mission was
ended--that they might return with credit to Porto Ferrajo, and again
hold up their heads, with dignity and self-complacency, among the
functionaries of the island. But the recent escape, and the manner in
which they had been connected with it, entirely altered the state of
things. A new load of responsibility rested on their shoulders; fresh
opprobrium was to be met and put down; and the last acquisition of
ridicule promised to throw the first proofs of their simplicity and
dulness entirely into the shade. Had not Griffin and his associates been
implicated in the affair, it is probable the vice-governatore and the
podesta would have been still more obnoxious to censure; but as things
were, the sly looks, open jests, and oblique innuendoes of all they met
in the ship, had determined the honest magistrates to retire to their
proper pursuits on terra firma, at the earliest occasion. In the mean
time, to escape persecution, and to obtain a modicum of the glory that
was now to be earned, they had hired a boat, and accompanied the
expedition, in the character of amateurs. It formed no part of their
plan, however, to share in the combat; a view of its incidents being
quite as much, as Vito Viti strongly maintained when his friend made a
suggestion to the contrary, as was necessary to vindicate their conduct
and courage in the judgment of every Elban.

"Cospetto!" he exclaimed, in the warmth of opposition--"Signor Andrea,
your propositions are more in the spirit of an unreflecting boy than in
that of a discreet vice-governato