ground; but by a strenuous
effort, she recovered sufficiently to answer with apparent calmness--

"The person, whom you state to be Captain Fleetwood, was removed from
the boat to the hut of a fisherman on the beach, as he was in no
condition to be carried up here."

"By whom--by whom was he removed?" asked the pirate, impatiently. "You
could not have carried him."

"By a man habited as a Maltese, and by your own surgeon, whom I had
summoned to attend on him," replied Ada, firmly.

"Why, that must be Salamonsi's cottage," remarked Zappa, turning to
Vlacco. "Send down forthwith, and let the boy and Signor Paolo be
brought up here; and mark you, if the English captain has recovered the
use of his tongue, let him be conveyed here also--he shall answer for
himself." He said this in Romaic, so Ada did not understand the cruel
order; but Nina did, and, with an imploring look, she stepped to his
side, and besought him to revoke the command; but he roughly repulsed
her, and, turning to the other three prisoners, he asked, in the _lingua
Franca_, often used by him,--"By what right have you, who were
hospitably entertained in this island, attempted to run off with persons
whom you knew were my prisoners?"

On this the Maltese seaman, Pietro, stepped forward, and, with the
volubility for which the islanders are celebrated, made the long
statement which had been previously agreed on, finishing by stating that
he and his two companions had been engaged by the lady to convey her on
board an English ship, and that they had no reason to suppose they were
injuring any one by so doing. As this was all said in Maltese, scarcely
a word of which language Zappa understood, he was not a little puzzled,
and was insisting on having it repeated in some more intelligible
tongue, when Marianna, who was highly delighted with it, not the less so
that she knew it contained scarcely a word of truth, volunteered to
translate it into Italian, and immediately began with such little
additions and touches of her own as she thought would increase the force
and probability of the story.

"That will do," said Zappa, who was not very easily imposed upon, as she
was continuing her own commentaries on what had occurred; then turning
to Captain Vassilato, "What defence have you to make?"

"As you do not understand my language, and I speak but little _lingua
Franca_, I can say no more than my shipmate," he replied between his
teeth, in the language he