386 THE RED TARTANE. 



The speaker now finding Flores had completed his labour, threw 

 down a small piece of silver, and taking up his manteau, walked 

 leisurely out of the shop ; at the door he mounted a powerful horse 

 and setting off at a brisk gallop soon disappeared, through volumes of 

 dust by the Calle de Majaderita Angosta. 



* * * * 



We must now claim the privilege of transporting the reader on 

 board the Tartane of the rover, at the moment when, an anchor hav- 

 ing been dropped, she lay almost motionless in the water, sufficiently 

 distant from the frowning batteries of Cadiz not to dread their effects, 

 and yet in full view of the town. The interior of the vessel was 

 clean, and shewed no slight degree of care was bestowed upon its 

 neatness and appearance ; the only living creature to be seen, besides 

 the Gitano, was a round fat monk habited in a blue gown, girt with 

 a cord. The rover was dressed in complete black, in the Croatian 

 style; his deer-skin boots still dripping with water, swelled out 

 gracefully about mid-leg high, and fell over in folds ; a small cloth 

 cap, ornamented with a single black feather, rested on his brows, and 

 a short straight cutlass, with two long barrelled, and richly demas- 

 cened pistols completed his equipment. 



The old man seemed to be in a most painful state of inquietude and 

 anguish : furnished with an enormous glass, he levelled it incessantly 

 at the horizon to seaward, and more particularly at the space which 

 separates Santa Maria from the Isle of Leon, emitting at intervals, 

 groans and sobs enough to have softened a corregidor. His low and 

 shaven forehead was surmounted with a circular line of pale light 

 hair, which seemed almost erect with anxiety ; his eyes rolled in their 

 sockets, and a convulsive movement agitated his lips and double chin. 

 After in vain making several efforts to articulate, his countenance as- 

 sumed the most pitiable expression ; seizing the Gitano by the arm, 

 he pointed with the telescope, which trembled violently in his grasp, 

 to a white speck, barely perceptible, at the entrance of the gulf. 



" Well, well !" demanded the rover, somewhat impatiently, " what 

 do you make out?" 



"It is it is the the " and unable to pronounce the 



rest of the sentence, with his teeth audibly chattering, and his arms 

 folded on his panting breast, he looked fixedly at the object of his 

 fears. 



The Gitano threw a look of contempt at the priest, and walking 

 across the deck, seated himself on the netting ; in a few seconds he 

 appeared absorbed in thought. 



Laying down the glass, the monk covered his face with his hands, 

 as if to collect his faculties ; then, with a violent effort at self-pos- 

 session, he boldly advanced to the commander of the Tartane, who 

 still remained lost in reverie, and thus addressed him : 



"Reprobate! Renegade! Excommunicated apostate ! Son of 

 Satan! " 



" Well !" replied the Gitano, who seemed scarcely to have heard 

 these furious invectives. 



" Well ! thou thrice accursed ! I summon thee in the name of the 

 Superior of San Juan ! my master and thine, " 



