"Will," he said (he always called him Will), "ask Mr. Comyn to come to me. I believe he knows a little Italian, and I take it that the Governor will be able to speak Italian as well as Sicilian, though one never knows. These Sicilian magnificoes, though their language is no better than a dialect of Italian, make it a point of honour not to know the mother-language, and hate the people on the mainland better than any one in Europe. However, Comyn can talk a little French too." "If I may interrupt, sir," said Will, "I can speak both languages very well. My mother"--here he blushed--"could not afford me any better schooling than I could have at the village school and of the Rector. But she did her best to make up for it by teaching me these languages. She was brought up in these countries; my father married her while he was serving in the Mediterranean." "Bravo!" said the Admiral. "I do not like employing a black coat on these occasions, especially in a priest-ridden country like this, where the bare sight of a Protestant clergyman fills them with envy, hatred, and malice, because they are no longer able to Inquisition him and burn him. Will, I must promote you lieutenant; we can rig you out from Vassall's sea-chest--he's about your build: we could hardly send a midshipman on an affair of this sort. And you shall go ashore in my barge, so as to observe ceremony. When you get there, demand to be taken with your guard to the Governor, and when you see him----" He turned round to me with more coldness than I thought necessary, and said, "You can leave us, Trinder, and ask the Captain, with my compliments, if he will order my barge to be lowered and manned, with a guard of marines for the officer carrying despatches. And ask Mr. Vassall to come to me." I shall never forget Will as he was rowed away from the flagship, sitting in the stern-sheets of the Admiral's barge. Vassall's uniform--it was his best full-dress parade uniform, and he was richer than most of us, being the son of a wealthy Jamaica planter and careful of his appearance--well, his uniform fitted Will almost as trimly as if it had been made for him; and there Will sat, with that fair, proud face of his, which I would back against the Apollo Belvedere, though I have never seen it, set as stern as a statue's. The Admiral himself could not have had it written in his features more plainly that he had the guns of the squadron behind him--a fine squadron, with which we hoped to break up the French fleet and capture the convoy with "Bony" and all his army on board. There Will sat, as if there were no one in the barge with him--no sea, no land, no walls between him and the Governor of Syracuse. And as the barge sheered off I caught the Admiral's eye looking at him. What would not Sir Horatio have given to have had such a son? CHAPTER V.--In which Will has his first Chance, and his first Escapade, and his first Meeting with the Princess of Favara.