Here Captain Jo interrupted us. He had stepped back to steady the wheel, but I fancy that the word _silenzio_ must have reached him, and that, small Italian though he knew, with this particular word the voyage had made him bitterly acquainted. "Dumb!" he shouted. "Dumb as gutted haddocks!" "Dumb!" I echoed, while the two seamen forward heard and laughed. "It is their vow," said the monk, gravely, and seemed on the point to say more. But at this moment Captain Pomery sang out "Gybe-O!" At the warning we ducked our heads together as the boom swung over and the _Gauntlet_, heeling gently for a moment, rounded the river-bend in view of the great house of Constantine, set high and gazing over the folded woods. A house more magnificently placed, with forest, park, and great stone terraces rising in successive tiers from the water's edge, I do not believe our England in those days could show; and it deserved its site, being amply classical in design, with a facade that, discarding mere ornament, expressed its proportion and symmetry in bold straight lines, prolonged by the terraces on which tall rows of pointed yews stood sentinel. Right English though it was, it bore (as my father used to say of our best English poetry) the stamp of great Italian descent, and I saw the monk give a start as he lifted his eyes to it. "We have not these river-creeks in Italy," said he, "nor these woods, nor these green lawns; and yet, if those trees, aloft there, were but cypresses--" He broke off. "Our voyage has a good ending," he added, half to himself. The _Gauntlet_ being in ballast, and the tide high, Captain Pomery found plenty of Water in the winding channel, every curve of which he knew to a hair, and steered for at its due moment, winking cheerfully at Billy and me, who stood ready to correct his pilotage. He had taken in his mainsail, and carried steerage way with mizzen and jib only; and thus, for close upon a mile, we rode up on the tide, scaring the herons and curlews before us, until drawing within sight of a grass-grown quay he let run down his remaining canvas and laid the ketch alongside, so gently that one of the seamen, who had cast a stout fender overside, stepped ashore, and with a slow pull on her main rigging checked and brought her to a standstill. "_Aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum_," said the monk at my shoulder quietly; and, as I stared at him, "Ah, to be sure, this is your Tarentum, is it not? Yet the words came to me for the sound's sake only and their so gentle close. Our voyage has even such an ending." "I had best run on," I suggested, "and warn my father of your coming." "It is not necessary." "Nevertheless," I urged, "they can be preparing breakfast for you, up at the house, while you and your friends are making ready to come ashore." "We have broken our fast," he answered; "and we are quite ready, if you will be so good as to guide us."