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any danger until the instant le Feu-Follet commenced her fire. It is true she heard the guns between the felucca and the boats, but this she had been told was an affair in which the privateer had no participation; and the reports sounding distant

danger that Raoul thought could exist as between his own vessel and the frigate, of a boat-attack in a calm; for men who had just been so roughly handled in an enterprise so well concealed would not be likely to renew the attempt while they still smarted under the influence of the late repul

enjoy his customary siesta. She was seated under the awning of the quarter-deck, using her needle, as was her wont at that hour on the heights of Argenta

uddenly exclaimed Raoul, laughing. "Pardie! he is a great historian and every way fit to write an acc

ape?" demanded Ghita, gently, and yet with emphasis. "Is there

lics, as you know, have no great faith in religion--is it not so, mon

en early taught to respect religion, even when he was most serving the devil. In a word, Ithuel was one of those descendants of Puritanism who, "God-ward," as it is termed, was quite unexceptionable, so far as his theory extended, but who, "manward," was "as

nd. In Ameriky, we even put religion before dollars; and if that isn't convincing I'll give it up. Now, I do wish you could

e, the same, Signor Ithuello, whether in the east or in the wes

dy, your religion, now, is no more like mine than my religion is li

pretend to none, mon brave; the

ther than reproachful; but

asked, "if we are both Christians? Amer

opinion of himself and of the part of the world from which he came. "In the first place, you

" answered Ghita, looking surprised. "Bishops, it is true, are appointed of God and form par

n garments at your prayers, and kneel down in a make-believe, p

n distinctions; and he fancied it a high proof of Protestant perfection to hold all the discarded usages in abhorrence. On the other hand, Ghita listened with surprise; for, to her, the estimation in which the rites of the Roman church are held by the great bulk of Protestants was a profound secret. T

the heart, the soul, that must be touched, to find favor with God; but this does not make the outward semblance of respect that we sh

pped windows. Absurd as all this may seem to-day, and wicked as it will probably appear a century hence, it formed, and forms, no small part of sectarian belief, and entered into the animosities and jealousies of those who seem to think it necessary to quarrel for the love of God. Could we but look back at our own changes of opinion, it would render us less confident of the justic

e Supreme Being? No; if I must have religion--and I know it's necessary and whullsom'--let it be

all things, Ghita; and, most

"Faith and a meek dependence is what makes a proper state of feeling; and yet you dema

ruth for the circumstances that rendered even his scepticism piquant and respectable; "and is i

l of our comprehensions. Did one of thy followers come on this quarter-deck and insist on hearing all thine own motives for the orders given in this little

which she spoke on this occasion produced a sort of awe that prevented the discourse from proceeding further, The girl herself was so much excited, that, after sitting for a minute with her hands before her face, the tears were seen f

ur's sooner than a little religious excitement. I dare say, if it wasn't for images and cardinals and bishops and suc

losely 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

fe 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 l

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 t

rdingly. Keeping his head-yards aback, he knocked his ship round off, until her broadside bore on the lugger, when he let fly every gun of his starboard batteries, the utmost care having been taken to make the shot tell. Twenty-two heavy round-shot coming in at once upon a little craft like le Feu-Follet was a fearful visitation, and the "boldest held their breath for a time" as the iron whirlwind whistled past them. Fortunately the lugger was not hulled; but a grave amount of mischief was done aloft. The jigger-mast was cut in two and flew upward like a pipe-stem. A serious wound was given to the mainmast below the hounds, and the yard itself was shivered in the slings. No less than six shot plunged through both lugs, leaving holes in the canvas that made it resemble a beggar's shirt, and the jib-stay was cut in two half-way between the mast-head a

he one or to carry away the other. It was an advantage, too, that these casualties, particularly the loss of her jigger, rendered le Feu-Follet less weatherly than she would otherwise have been, since, by keeping the frigate directly in her wake, she was less exposed to the chase-guns than she would have been a little on either bow. Of this truth Raoul was soon persuaded, the Proserpine beginning to wo

mast or his mainyard would stand he did not know, but as he was fast gaining he determined to make hay while the sun shone, and get far enough ahead, if possible, before the breeze grew fresh, to enable him to shift his sails and fish his spars without being again brought within the reach of visitors as rude as those who had so la

have been more favorable to le Feu-Follet to have had less wind than even now blew, since her relative rate of sailing was greater in light than in strong breezes. Raoul knew, from Ithuel's statements, that the Proserpine was an exceedingly fast

any formation of the land materially to alter its current. The zephyr, as the afternoon's summer breeze of southern Italy, in particular, was termed by the ancients, is seldom a due west wind, there generally being a little northing in it, as seamen say; and as one gets further up the coast this same wind ordinarily comes round the head of Corsica, blowing from nearly west-northwest. This would have enabled the lugger to lay her course for a deep bay on which lies the town of Biguglia, could she have been jammed up on a wind, as might usually have b

Elba, it was a serious question whether she would be able to weather it, the lugger having gone past, within a cable's length of the cliffs, on the very verge of the breakers and much closer in than the frigate would dare to follow. But the last had taken the breeze further off the land than the first, and might possibly fetch past the promontory on the

; but there is always the danger of rocks to be dreaded near mountainous coasts. The promontory, too, was comparatively low; and this was rather an indication that it ought not to be approached too closely. Wi

u-Follet in her attempt to pass the promontory; "Monsieur Yvard must be determin

reabouts, and even the Proserpine would find sufficient water there,

ast would fall on my shoulders, should his Majesty's ship happen to lay her bones along-shore here. No, no, Grif

a little away to ease her spars, having been jammed up as close as possible previously, in order to weather the extreme end of what was thought to be the dangerous point. The frigate was fully two miles astern; and, instead of losing anything of her vantage-ground, she was kept so near the wind as to be occasionally touching. This was the more safe,

good-enough berth, sir," observed the fidgeting Griffin; "it

ere; if anything, we actually open the highlands of Corsica by this promontory. You see that t

ready in the chains, sir!--sha

his was well, and two or three subsequent casts confirmed it. Orders were now given to drag every bowline, swig-off on every brace, and flatten-in all th

f the watch; "we must do all we can here; for when abreast of the breakers everything must be a rap-

hat distance in her velocity. At length the trial came, and a profound silence, one in which nervousness and anxiety were blended with hope, rei

e as the ship drove on, and the answer to Cuffe's questions was uniformly, "No bottom, sir, with fifteen fathoms out"; but just at this instant arose the regular song from the weather main-chains of "

r!--be brisk, my

x!" followed almost as soon as

"See all clear, gentlemen. M

eh half-e

e you at, sir, on that foreca

eady,

r helm--hard d

r-r-r-dee-e

all the bowlines aft. So--well, there, well. She flew round like a top; but, by Jove,

athoms out--and as good a cast,

e squally in a quarter of the world where a rock makes nothing of pouting its lips fifteen or twenty feet at a time at a mariner. We are past it all, however, and he

ffe, we might ease her about half a point? that would be just her play; and the lugger keeps off a little, I rather s

longer, Biguglia would be too far to windward for him; and as for Bastia, that has been out of the question from the first. There is

ty to get in his foresail, to unbend it, and to bend and set a new one; an operation that took just four minutes by the watch. He would have tried the same experiment with the other lug, but the mast was scarce worth the risk, and he thought the holes might act as reefs, and thus diminish the strain. In these four hours, owing to the disadvantage under which le Feu-Follet labored, there was not a difference of half a knot in the distance run by the two vessels, though each passed over more than thirty miles of water. During this time they had been drawing rapidly nearer to the coast of Corsica, the mountains of which, ragged and crowned with nearly eternal snows, had been glittering in the afterno

l. Both were got up, and the repairs were immediately commenced. The superiority of the lugger in sailing was now so great as to put it out of all question that she was not to be overtaken in the chase; and Raoul at one time actually thought

or running down before it, all of which, however, seemed so much to distrust the appearance of the lugger as to avoid her as far as was possible. This was a matter of indifference to our hero, who knew that they were all probably countrymen; or, at least, smugglers, who would scarcely reward him for the trouble, had he time to bring them to and capture them. Corsica was then again in the hands of the French, the temporary and imperfect possession o

e force of the Proserpine to turn aside to molest the poor fishermen and coasters. A few execrations followed, quite as a matter of course, but the intricacy of the channel and the nec

manifested no intention to give up her pursuit; for she, too, came off the outlet and brought up with one of her bowers about two miles to seaward of the lugger. She seemed to have changed her mind as to the coasters, having let both proceed after a short detention, though, it falling calm, neither was enabled to get