“Indeed, from one pole to the other there is not a prettier girl than you, Stephanette.” “What! Did you make such an extensive voyage to arrive at that discovery, captain? I pity the privateers of the _Holy Terror to the Moors, by the Grace of God_, if the voyages of this poor old polacre have no better results!” “Do not speak ill of my polacre, Stephanette; you will be glad to see its blue and white pavilion when I return from Nice, and how you will watch for my coming from the turret of Maison-Forte!” Luquin’s conceitedness disgusted Stephanette; she replied, with an ironical air: “Well, well! I see that a watchman on the cape of L’Aigle is altogether unnecessary. All the young girls who wait impatiently for the return of Captain Trinque-taille, and all the jealous ones who watch his departure with their eyes fixed on the sea, will be sufficient to discover the pirates. There is nothing more to fear from corsairs.” Luquin took on an air of modest triumph, and said: “By St. Stephen, my patron, I am too sure of your love, and too happy in it, Stephanette, to care if I am expected or regretted by other girls; and although Rose, the daughter of the haberdasher in La Ciotat,--who resembles the flower whose name she bears,--often tells me--” “My faith! Thank you for your confidences, Luquin,” said Stephanette, with a jealous impatience she could not dissimulate. “If I told you all that the patron Bernard or Master Terzarol said to me, it would take till evening.” Captain Luquin frowned when he heard the names of his rivals, and exclaimed: “Thunder of heaven! If I knew that those two rascals dared even to look at your shoes as you pass, I would make a figurehead for my polacre of one, and a weather-cock for my mast of the other! But no! They know that Luquin Trinquetaille is your betrothed, and his name rhymes too well with battle for them to want an issue with me.” “Well, well, my fine bully!” replied Stephanette, recalling the watchman’s advice, and fearing to excite the jealousy of the inflammable captain; “if Bernard and Terzarol talk to me ever so long, I shall reply that every one knows I am too much in love with the most wicked devil in La Ciotat But wait,--see here what Master Peyrou gave me for you. Read that, and do everything he orders. It is late; the sun is setting, and it is getting cold. Let us go back to Maison-Forte; mademoiselle will be anxious.” The two lovers hastened on their way, and, as they walked, Trinquetaille read the following instructions given by the watchman: “Every morning at sunrise the captain will change the charge of his cannon, and will put on the ball one of the red flies affixed to this paper. “After that, make a double cross on the ball with the thumb of the left hand. From sunrise to sunset, cabin-boys must relieve each other on the watch at the top of the mast; they will always look at the east and the south, and every five minutes repeat ‘St Magnus.’