appearance, so closely had she been tended, for the last few hours, however, and so sedulously had even the smallest breath of air been improved, that Raoul started with surprise when he found how much nearer she was than when he had last looked at her.  The whole trick was apparent to him at a glance, and he was compelled to acknowledge his own remissness when he perceived that he lay within the reach of the shot of his powerful foe, though still so distant as to render her also a little uncertain, more especially should a set get up.  The felucca had burnt to the water’s edge; but, owing to the smoothness of the water, her wreck still floated and was slowly setting into the bay, there being a slight current in that direction, where she now lay.  The town was basking in the afternoon’s sun, though hid from view, and the whole island of Elba had the appearance of being asleep.

“What a siesta!” said Raoul to Ithuel, as both stood on the heel of the bowsprit, looking curiously at the scene:  “sea, land, mountains, bourgeois, and mariners all dozing. Bien; there is life yonder at the west, and we must get further from votre Proserpine.  Call the hands, Monsieur Lieutenant.  Let us get our sweeps and put the head of le Feu-Follet the other way. Peste! the lugger is so sharp, and has such a trick of going exactly where she looks, that I am afraid she has been crawling up toward her enemy, as the child creeps into the fire that burns its fingers.”

All hands were soon in motion on board le Feu-Follet, the sweeps were on the point of being handled, when the jigger fluttered and the first puff of the expected western breeze swept along the surface of the waters.  To the seamen it was like inhaling oxygen gas.  Every appearance of drowsiness deserted the people of both vessels, and every one was instantly busy in making sail.  Raoul had a proof into what dangerous proximity to the frigate he had got by the sound of the calls on board her, and the stillness of the sea was yet so great that the creaking of her fore-yard was actually audible to him as the English rounded in their braces briskly while laying their foretopsail aback.

At that moment a second respiration of the atmosphere gave birth to the breeze.  Raoul whistled for the wind, and the lugger moved ahead, gliding toward the frigate.  But in half a minute she had gathered sufficient way, her helm was put down, and she came round as easily and as gracefully as the bird turns on his wing.  Not so with the heavier frigate.  She had hauled in her starboard head-braces and had to get the foretopsail aback, and to pay well off with her head to leeward, in order to swing her yards and fill her sails, while le Feu-Follet was slipping through the water, going seemingly into the wind’s eye.  By this single evolution the lugger gained more than a cable’s length on her enemy, and five minutes more would have put her beyond all immediate danger.  But Captain Cuffe knew this as well as