pictures hanging in the Governor's palace. I could believe that these were the same liveries, for in Sicily servants' fête-liveries are not made for them, but made for the household, and handed on from one servant to another, as a saddle from horse to horse. I don't know how long the banquet may have lasted, there was such profusion of pastrycooks' viands and fruits and wines. The Governor looked as if he expected Will to die when he took an empty goblet and, dipping it into the clear water, drank it off two or three times filled; though, as we had put into his port for the purpose of getting water for our ships, it did not appear why we should consider it unfit for drink. Had I been enjoying Will's place beside Donna Rusidda, and able to converse with her elegantly, as he was, I think I should have been content for our _barca_ to have swayed gently on the bubbling waters of the spring--to give you some idea of the size of the spring there were four of these _barcas_ floating on it at one time--for the rest of that summer day. But I could see that Will was fidgeting to be off, and presently he asked the Admiral if he and I might leap ashore off the high beak of our _barca_, which was overhanging some part of the bank. He made the excuse of some strange flower or the like. The boatman, seeing our intent, uttered some swift warning in Sicilian, which the Governor very politely translated to Will to tell the Admiral; but Master Will only used general terms of its not being safe, and the Admiral said, "My Lord, a jump like that would not frighten my officers." But, jumping together, we got more than we bargained for: we shot through the bank like a couple of bullets. We were almost up to our middles in thick black slime, of which you could not have dreamed the possibility so near that transparent water. Luckily for us, or I verily believe we might have been swallowed up, the good-natured boatman had unshipped the oars and held them out to us, and we were able to pull ourselves up on to the _barca_, where we sat on the end to dry our blackened legs in the sun, and presently the _barcas_ swung round and dropped down stream. The sun was now so powerful that long before we were back at the mouth of the river we were dry enough to have accepted the invitation of the courteous Sicilians and gone back among them to sit without fear of soiling them, more especially since we had removed our shoes and stockings--there was much naked-foot work on board ship in those days--but Will said that he could not sit beside ladies in such a plight, and I had never any say but Will's say, though I did not know what was in his mind.