their punishment for every departure from justice.  It would seem, indeed, that a principle pervades nature, which renders it impossible for man to escape the consequences of his own evil deeds, even in this life; as if God had decreed the universal predominance of truth and the never-failing downfall of falsehood from the beginning; the success of wrong being ever temporary, while the triumph of the right is eternal.  To apply these consoling considerations to the matter more immediately before us:  The practice of impressment, in its day, raised a feeling among the seamen of other nations, as well as, in fact, among those of Great Britain herself, that probably has had as much effect in destroying the prestige of her nautical invincibility, supported, as was that prestige, by a vast existing force, as any other one cause whatever.  It was necessary to witness the feeling of hatred and resentment that was raised by the practice of this despotic power, more especially among those who felt that their foreign birth ought at least to have insured them immunity from the abuse, in order fully to appreciate what might so readily become its consequences.  Ithuel Bolt, the seaman just mentioned, was a proof, in a small way, of the harm that even an insignificant individual can effect, when his mind is fully and wholly bent on revenge.  Ghita knew him well; and, although she little liked either his character or his appearance, she had often been obliged to smile at the narrative of the deceptions he practised on the English, and of the thousand low inventions he had devised to do them injury.  She was not slow, now, to imagine that his agency had not been trifling in carrying on the present fraud.

“You do not openly call your lugger le Feu-Follet, Raoul,” she answered, after a minute’s pause; “that would be a dangerous name to utter, even in Porto Ferrajo.  It is not a week since I heard a mariner dwelling on her misdeeds, and the reasons that all good Italians have to detest her.  It is fortunate the man is away, or he could not fail to know you.”

“Of that I am not so certain, Ghita.  We alter our paint often, and, at need, can alter our rig.  You may be certain, however, that we hide our Jack-o’-Lantern, and sail under another name.  The lugger, now she is in the English service, is called the ‘Ving-and-Ving.’”

“I heard the answer given to the hail from the shore, but it sounded different from this.”

“Non—­Ving-and-Ving.  Ithuel answered for us, and you may be sure he can speak his own tongue.  Ving-and-Ving is the word, and he pronounces it as I do.”

“Ving-y-Ving!” repeated Ghita, in her pretty Italian tones, dropping naturally into the vice-governatore’s fault of pronunciation—­“it is an odd name, and I like it less than Feu-Follet.”

“I wish, dearest Ghita, I could persuade you to like the name of Yvard,” rejoined the young man, in a half-reproachful, half-tender manner, “and I should care nothing for any other.  You accuse me of disrespect for priests; but no son could ever kneel to a father for his blessing, half so readily or half so devoutly, as I could kneel with thee before any friar in Italy, to receive that nuptial benediction which I have so often asked at your hand, but which you have so constantly and so cruelly refused.”