It was still quite early in the afternoon when Will presented the momentous document, but we could not go on shore again, for we had had our leave. Now, the Bay of Naples is admittedly one of the most beautiful in the world; but lieutenants of less than a year's standing are not the most devoted admirers of scenery at the best of times, and I do not think that I have ever felt so weary of anything as I did that afternoon of the Bay of Naples, Capri, St. Angelo, Vesuvio, St. Elmo, and the other two castles, the Thuilleries and Pausilippo. I have heard people descant on their beauties by the hour, but I would willingly have seen an earthquake swallow them all that afternoon if it had not interfered with our expedition. As we paced up and down the deck, they stared at us and stared at us till they almost seemed to be moving towards us. I can now quite appreciate the feeling of Vesuvio, if mountains have feelings. We were of course dying to know how many men we were going to have and what we were going to have them for; and Will loved the chance of a brush with anything--and I--I felt that we had had a precious slow time lately. The men who had conquered a whole French fleet on the 1st of August, had been compelled not four months afterwards to watch, with arms folded, a lot of wretched Neapolitans playing skittles with war at Leghorn. Well, when night did at last fall, thirty picked men stepped up to us on the middle deck; and going round them with a lantern, Will questioned each man if he had a pistol. None had. They were as fine men as any we had in the ship, and looked forward to cutlass work, which was always popular with our sailors. A boat was ready to take us ashore. The Captain had satisfied himself as to Will's instructions, and so far everything was plain sailing. When we opened the church door, it was a fortunate thing that Will went first. For a terrible sight rose up before him--two huge ghostly black figures, which seemed, by the light of a dim little oil lamp in front of a saint in a side chapel, to have eyes and mouth, but no nose. Fortunately Will had, from childhood, schooled himself to intrepidity, to prefer death to fear, and so never learnt what fear meant. His hand did not even seek his sword; he stood up square and fearless to await the development. Now, if one of the men had gone first instead of Will, it might have gone ill with our enterprise from the beginning; for the odds are that he would have made a furious assault with his cutlass, if he had not rushed out with a maniac's shriek.