Sir John Constantine: Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756Quiller-Couch, Arthur
General
Sir John Constantine: Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756
Quiller-Couch, Arthur
Corsica (France) -- Fiction
"And I, too," said I, meeting her eyes firmly. "To Genoa, is it
not?"
"You guessed it? . . . But you have no right--" she faltered.
I laughed. "But excuse me, my wife, I have all the right in the
world. At what hour will Marc'antonio be ready with the boat?"
CHAPTER XXVIII.
GENOA.
"_Gobbo_. Master young gentleman, I pray you, which is the
way to Master Jew's?
"_Launcelot_. Turn up on the right hand at the next turning,
but at the very next turning of all, on your
left: marry at the very next turning, turn of no
hand, but turn down indirectly to the Jew's
house.
"_Gobbo_. By God's sonties, 'twill be a hard way to hit."
_The Merchant of Venice_.
At eleven o'clock that night we four--the Princess, Marc'antonio,
Stephanu, and I--hoisted sail and stood away from the north shore of
Giraglia, carrying a fair wind with us. Our boat had been very
cunningly chosen for us by Marc'antonio out of the small flotilla
which my father had hired at Cape Corso for the assault. She was
undecked, measured some eighteen feet over-all, and carried a
fair-sized lateen sail; but her great merit for our purpose, lay in
her looks. The inhabitants of Cape Corso (as the reader knows) have
neither the patriotism nor the prejudices of their fellow-islanders;
and this (however her owner had come by her) was a boat of Genoese
build. So Marc'antonio had assured me; and my own observation
confirmed it next day, as we neared the coast off Porto Fino.
We had laid this course of set purpose, intending to work up to the
great harbour coastwise from the southward and enter it boldly,
passing ourselves off for a crew from Porto Fino with a catch of fish
for market. The others had discarded all that was Corsican in their
dress, and the Princess had ransacked the quarters of the late
garrison on Giraglia to rig us out in odds and ends of Genoese
costume. For the rest we trusted to fortune; but an hour before
starting I had sought out my Uncle Gervase and made him privy to the
plot. He protested, to be sure; but acquiesced in the end with a wry
face when I told him that the Princess and I were determined.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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