, as he
walked the streets of Naples, had he stood before a magnificent palace
or a great counting-house, and speculated on the time when it should be
his prerogative to smash in that stout door, and proclaim all within it
his own. "_Spolia di_ M'Caskey," was the inscription that he felt would
defy the cupidity of the boldest. "I will stand on the balcony," said
he, "and declare, with a wave of my hand, These are mine: pass on to
other pillage."

The horrible suspicion that he might be actually a prisoner all this
time gained on him more and more, and he ransacked his mind to think of
some great name in history whose fate resembled his own. "Could I only
assure myself of this," said he, passionately, "it is not these old
walls would long confine me; I 'd scale the highest of them in half an
hour; or I 'd take to the sea, and swim round that point yonder,--it 's
not two miles off; and I remember there's a village quite close to it."
Though thus the prospect of escape presented itself so palpably before
him, he was deterred from it by the thought that if no intention of
forcible detention had ever existed, the fact of his having feared
it would be an indelible stain upon his courage. "What an indignity,"
thought he, "for a M'Caskey to have yielded to a causeless dread!"

As he thus thought, he saw, or thought he saw, a dark object at some
short distance off on the sea. He strained his eyes, and, though long in
doubt, at last assured himself it was a boat that had drifted from her
moorings, for the rope that had fastened her still hung over the stern,
and trailed in the sea. By the slightly moving flow of the tide towards
shore she came gradually nearer, till at last he was able to reach her
with the crook of his riding-whip, and draw her up to the steps.
Her light paddle-like oars were on board; and M'Caskey stepped in,
determined to make a patient and careful study of the place on its
sea-front, and see, if he could, whether it were more of chateau or
jail.

With noiseless motion he stole smoothly along, till he passed a little
ruined bastion on a rocky point, and saw himself at the entrance of a
small bay, at the extremity of which a blaze of light poured forth, and
illuminated the sea for some distance. As he got nearer, he saw that the
light came from three large windows that opened on a terrace, thickly
studded with orange-trees, under the cover of which he could steal on
unseen, and take an observation of all wit