1828.] The Adventurers Story. 519 



fidgetty and cross. " Hang this Spalatro !" cried he aloud ; but the 

 echo of his own voice was rather too loud and sudden to be comfortable. 

 So he spoke no more openly. 



" Hang this Spalatro I" thought he to himself, " he's a bad general, 

 however he may answer as a captain. Who could think of enlistihg an 

 amateur like myself, and teaching his gratuitous services with such 

 indifference ? Why didn't I discover the arrangements of the night 

 before I sate myself down as an audience to those two mad ballad-singers ? 

 There they go, or something like them. I can see the lamps. Heavens ! 

 at what a distance ! But stop surely I see something glimmering not 

 far off Can it be a light on shore here ?" 



And turning round, he attempted to approach the quarter whence a 

 faint gleam seemed to sparkle ; but he found that the land was inter- 

 sected by currents of water, more or less deep and wide, and frequent 

 was the immersion which his lower man encountered in this chase. 

 Still he seemed to advance, and, in a sanguine spirit, nothing begrudged 

 the toil and travel : when, lo ! the beacon disappeared ! He was again 

 in utter darkness, numbed with cold, hopeless, and out of humour. He 

 sate down upon a comparatively firm plot of ground, and with the 

 courage of despair halloed towards the faithless luminary. There was 

 no immediate answer ; but as he sate ruminating on his forlorn con- 

 dition, with no disposition to uplift his voice again, a sudden flash of 

 intense light glared full on his face, with such force as to compel him 

 for a moment to avert his head. But this also, like the more distant 

 apparition, passed away. He had not recovered a steady strength of 

 vision, before it was gone, and his nerves were no longer what they had 

 been. Was it a wraith, a devil, or an earth-born monster ? He feared 

 each in succession, and as he heard an indistinct splashing of water at no 

 great distance, his courage utterly forsook him, and he imagined that it 

 was, like Cerberus, all the " three gentlemen at once." The cold and 

 faint-heartedness which now quickly stole upon him, made each par- 

 ticular limb mercurial. He began to blaspheme ; but oaths became him 

 not in his dejection. He strove to whistle : but the chattering of his 

 teeth, reminded him of Judas's bones, rattled about at Easter, in Catholic 

 ceremonials. His voice waxed feeble ; he knew not what manner of man 

 he was ; and, gazing wildly around him, he deemed himself an inhabitant 

 of Chaos. Poor fellow ! he forgot his flask ; no wonder he had for- 

 gotten himself! 



It seemed to him that an eternity had elapsed in this pleasant manner, 

 when the sound of human voices caught his ear. He listened with all 

 his senses, and could presently distinguish a mongrel noise with which 

 he fancied himself familiar. It became more and more distinct, and at 

 last he could for a certainty recognise the 



" El rraso sul boccolo." 



" God bless the brocoli !" shouted the distressful man, straining every 

 faculty to become the better conscious of the approaching ship of 

 promise. And, certes, it did approach, and without long delay, was 

 moored beside the projecting bit of land, whereon stood the newly 

 animated Roberts, like Pygmalion's statue, " timidly expanding into life." 



" Quick, quick, Sir, no loitering," cried the saturnine Lieutenant; 

 " we must away, or your excellency will lose promotion." 



" Where is Signer Spalatro ?" 



" Oh! he's far enough off; but we'll overtake him, if you will but 

 move. Are you coming ?" 



<( Why, to tell you the truth, I shall be well content to go anywhere, 



