1830.] Ten Days' Quarantine: an Anecdote. 511 



him; on the coatless man, to inflict summary punishment for the sup- 

 posed wrong ; and on the mock sentinel, to force his official interference. 



" Stop ! old fellow !" cried the servant of police, suddenly advancing 

 between him and the others ; " stop where you are, or you know the 

 consequences." 



" Consequences ! What d 'ye mean, scoundrel ? Are you about to ruin 

 me and my child, and think to find me a passive looker-on ? Signor 

 Guardiano, I call on you to put this scapegrace in his own cell. I '11 

 complain if you don't." 



" Off! you old fool !" repeated the real guard, standing between the 

 parties like a barrier, and presenting a huge stick towards the captain, 

 to make his injunction still more effectual. 



" If you touch them, or me " 



" What what tell me what then?" spluttered the other, almost voice- 

 less with rage. 



" Oh ! you know what," replied he quite carelessly, and at the same 

 time dictating to my friend the Italian to betake himself immediately to 

 his own quarters, a measure not at all relished by the forlorn captain, who 

 could not yet see through the mistake that had arisen from the assump- 

 tion of the borrowed plumes. In fact, he thought himself cajoled, and 

 could evidently be restrained no longer. On he rushed, and was within 

 a few feet of his daughter, when the guardiano again interposed, with 

 the emphatic words, 



' ' Remember your bill of health." 



cc The devil !" exclaimed the other : " is she in a new quarantine, then ?" 



" Of ten days only," was the calm reply. 



A dead silence followed this announcement; and the truth of the whole 

 began to dawn upon the bewildered man. By coming in contact with 

 my friend, whose expurgation had commenced ten days after her own, 

 the girl had incurred the penalty of this addition to her imprisonment ; 

 and her father, if he had touched any one of his then companions, would 

 have shared the same fate. As the responsible master of a commercial 

 vessel, he knew not how to act. To lose so long a time before he could 

 be released from quarantine, would entail a serious loss ; to leave his 

 ship in the charge of another, or desert his daughter, was impossible. 

 In the mean time they were separated, and his resolution was not made 

 up until the next morning. Judge of my friend's distress, when he learnt 

 that the stern old fellow had determined to set sail immediately, and lose 

 the advantage of his " clean bill of health," by taking his daughter 

 with him ! 



Such, however, was the case ; and here, as it seemed, would terminate 

 the romance of my present story. But my Italian friend was a mad dog, 

 and his passion drove him to acts of sheer childishness. On the night 

 of their embarkation, he managed to escape from the lazaretto from the 

 sea-side, plunged into the water, and swam a considerable distance to- 

 wards their vessel. Whether he had arranged any secret scheme for 

 effecting an entrance upon his reaching it, or whether he hoped to move 

 the father's compassion by such determined proofs of affection, I know not ; 

 but before he could put either to the proof, a shot from one of the land- 

 guards grazed his shoulder and disabled him. He sank, and rose again ; 

 made a little progress with one hand, then sank as before ; and so on, 

 till a boat, that had put off from the lazaretto, brought him back to his 

 old prison in a delirious fever. He knew not that the ship which con- 



