o, what I
am; but that she need not know. The world calls me and my companions
pirates.--Let them--the lion is a nobler animal than the beast on which
it preys. Ours is a glorious life; you will learn to think so, too.
There is danger, it is true. But there is excitement far higher than
that the gambler, who stakes his fortune on a cast, can enjoy, and who
generally, when he loses, seeks the worst that can befall us--a speedy
death. But I will not now stay to sing the praises of the life I have
destined you to lead, till, grown weary, we some day retire from the
busy scene, and become honoured chiefs and nobles in our own country,
with lands and wealth, and surrounded by our family and dependents. Eh,
Paolo, I draw the picture well! But we will on deck, and see how our
barque speeds over the waters.'

"I repeat his words, to show the character of the man in whose power my
unhappy sister was placed. For myself I feared not, nor grieved--I
could easily break my bonds; but she, alas! hers were indissoluble.
Fortunately for her, she did not guess who he was, nor the character of
his ship. She believed, and I trust, to this day believes, that he
commanded a Greek man-of-war, and is all he represented himself to her.

"We sailed on, meeting with various adventures, till we reached this
island, where, in a neighbouring tower, he at once established my
sister. I felt also that it would be cruelty to undeceive her, and
would answer no good object. My sister, I believe, he really loves, or
did love, as far as his nature would allow; but lately I have fancied
his affection was decaying, and he has always treated me without
severity, and generally with kindness, though my spirit has rebelled
against the shackles which galled me, but which I had no power to shake
off.

"My story is drawing to an end; but I have still more to say. I urged
Zappa, day after day, to allow me to return to my paternal home, and
endeavour to comfort my father, if consolation was still to be found for
him on earth, and to explain to him the cause of my sister's absence,
with the wish of palliating the folly of her conduct in his eyes, vowing
solemnly at the end of four months again to return to the island. To my
surprise, he at last consented to comply with my wish, undertaking to
land me on the coast of Italy, and to call again for me at a spot and a
period he would afterwards fix on. His object in so doing was, not to
allow me to know the