For Will it was well. With the ship crowded with Italians of rank, the Italian-speaking officer was a person of importance, and constantly in attendance on the Admiral, whose state-room had been given up for the Royal party, with whom were My Lady and Sir William. And there was really nothing left to be done. Proper parties were ashore guarding the embarkation of fugitives and securing that treasure. The duty of warping out the Neapolitan men-of-war laid up in the Mole, and jury-rigging them, and taking them to Messina, had been entrusted to the Portuguese, many of whom could hold sufficient conversation with Italians. It was impossible to trust the Neapolitans themselves to remove the ships. It was by no means certain that they would not prevent it, their Marine especially being disaffected and honeycombed with treason. From two of their line-of-battle ships--they were three of the line and three frigates--every man deserted and went on shore. But we sent a party of our seamen with officers from the _Vanguard_, who assisted in navigating them to a place of safety, which was found, almost against our expectation, at Messina. The Admiral having made all possible dispositions--such as taking the ships to new berths out of cannon-shot of the forts, giving orders for the reception of the fugitives on to any of the fleet, getting the Neapolitan men-of-war out of the Mole, or burning them rather than let them fall into the hands of the French, leaving one or two ships to cruise between Capri and Ischia, in order to prevent the entrance of any English ship into the Bay of Naples--remained with the ladies, feeling that they were in a sense his guests. At the same time he was visibly desirous of making the delay, which was mightily irksome to one of his temperament, speed in the society of My Lady. Will was, as I have said, in attendance on him, in which capacity he saw much of the lively Donna Rusidda, who was the Queen's favourite lady-in-waiting, for her beauty and her graciousness, as well as for her high rank. Insensibly at intervals the Admiral and My Lady would draw a little apart. Whenever they did so, Donna Rusidda would assail Will. "W-Will," she began in rapid Italian, interspersed here and there with a word of English: "you want an explanation from me"--he hoped that she was going to say something about his suit to her, but she went on--"of that little _billet doux_ I gave you for your captain. I will give it to you. That was a cipher agreed upon between the Admiral and him to give the number of men and how they should be armed." "Well, dear lady, I have guessed that already." "And the very fine fluid in those wine casks, so generously presented by the King to the Ambassador's wife, was drawn from the river Pactolus," and she added, seeing Will a little mystified by the allusion, "whose sands were of gold." "And I had guessed that." "And the carters were not ordinary carters." "I had guessed that."