508 Ten Days' Quarantine : an Anecdote. [MAY, 



exhibited itself in many unpleasant forms during our common voyage. 

 However, from the first, I apprehended that there was some latent and 

 justifying cause for his ill-fellowship, and the roughest acts or words 

 into which he ever was seduced, had, at other times, a full compensation 

 in manners both engaging and sincere, and a warmth of feeling that 

 could not but be returned. On the passage, he had been restless and 

 excited, and almost constantly irritable. Now, his mind had become 

 more composed, but there remained still the former frequent abstracted- 

 ness and anxiety, and a stealthy forgetful manner, as if some absorbing 

 thought overwhelmed those ordinary ones which mere acquaintances are 

 apt to interchange. He never could be persuaded to enliven himself by 

 looking out from the windows upon the harbour and shipping, and town 

 in the distance, and further still the occasional heights and plantations of 

 the country. Nor, on the other hand, did he show any stronger curio- 

 sity with regard to the assemblage of people below us. There were peo- 

 ple of all the Mediterranean sea-ports, varying in dress, countenance, dia- 

 lect, and manners ; but he was not tempted to make a spectacle of them. 

 The conversation with which these our fellow-sufferers whiled away 

 their time, was often amusing ; their occupations, grave or gay, at any rate 

 differed from our own, and as I was entertained, so I expected that he 

 would be, but my calculations were erroneous. He consumed nearly the 

 whole day in a moody and passive indifference, and only with the sun- 

 set did he regain his activity. At that time he usually commenced his 

 exercise. He sauntered along the gallery, and wandered into the furthest 

 rooms, and there I would sometimes hear the echoes of his voice, as if 

 in soliloquy, almost awful amid the solemn silence of the place and hour. 



But though his habits were thus apparently unsocial, he had yet one 

 disposition which made us neighbours for some portion of the four and 

 twenty hours. He could not sleep alone. I did not seek the cause of 

 this whim, but indulged it willingly by allowing him to place his bed in 

 the room which I had from the first selected for my own. One night 

 it was in summer, and the weather far less tolerable than the maximum 

 of our English heat I was startled in my sleep by a stumbling footstep 

 near my bedside. I called out to discover the nature of the intrusion, 

 and my neighbour gave answer. It was in a slow and confused voice, 

 and did not by any means satisfy me. 



" Hang these mosquitos ! What Christian can endure their endless 

 singing in the ear, and the sharp twitch they give you ? and as I live, I 

 think they are not the only curses with which my bed is afflicted ! I am 

 sorry to have disturbed you." 



With this apology, and having buffeted the air in all directions for full 

 five minutes, he returned to his bed, and I again fell asleep. Again I 

 found myself aroused by some fresh interruption. 



" Who's there ?" I cried, but not a breath replied to me. 



" What was that noise?" I repeated; but the former silence was still 

 unbroken. 



" By heaven, I will see, then !" I exclaimed, and bursting from my 

 bed, was about to alarm one of the sentinels, but my purpose was pre- 

 vented. 



" Hush !" said the Italian, " I suppose you must know at last, or you 

 will not be pacified any longer. Be quiet, and listen to me. Can you 

 keep a secret?" 



Confused by the suddenness of this address, from one, too, who must 



