“4.—At midnight she will send her boats to the island, and they will proceed towards the place already fixed upon in the plan. “5.—The boats will not touch the shore, but will wait off till a light is shown from the beach, when they will approach within hail. “6.—The password from the Nuns is the name of the friend of Louison (_i.e._, _Panizzi_). “7.—The password from the boat will be the name of Louison’s father (_i.e._, _Luigi_). “8.—If the Nuns be prevented coming to the beach between twelve and four o’clock that night, the steamer will put to sea, and return again at the same hour, and the same process will be repeated. “9.—If the second attempt fails, the matter must be deferred. “10.—If the steamer does not appear, it is because difficulties have prevented it. “Now if Madame Settembrini has a short memory, it will be best to commit these points to writing, and enclose them in a wax pill covered with gutta-percha (a piece of which is enclosed), and which she will put in her mouth and swallow, if examined closely at the Convent. But better still if there be nothing in writing.” The plan set forth met with the fullest approbation from Mr. Fagan; he, however, wrote to Panizzi “to be most cautious, for although Mazza had left the Police, _they_, the English, were watched night and day, and were hated by the King’s partisans.” The great difficulty in the undertaking turned out to be the obtaining of a vessel. Owing to the exigencies of the Crimean War, Panizzi, up to the 31st of August, had been unable either to charter or buy a craft suitable for his purpose. At length the desired object was attained in the shape of the screw steamer “Isle of Thanet.” But now comes the melancholy part of the story; failure of skilfully and anxiously concerted plans, waste of money collected with so much pain, arduous and continuous labour miserably thrown away; bitter disappointment to Panizzi, and prolonged incarceration of the wretched inmates of S. Stefano. The ill-fated vessel charged with the restoration to freedom of Settembrini and his companions was but laden, after all, with the destruction of the hopes of all concerned in the attempted liberation. Scarcely had she started from Hull, when she met with a disabling accident which forced her to put back for repairs. These being completed, she set forth a second time, and had proceeded no further than Yarmouth when she was caught in a storm on the 25th of October and totally lost. So ended by no default of skill, but by the merest caprice of fortune, an enterprise which, if we consider the persons engaged, the means within their reach, and the purity of its purpose, must ever be reckoned as a most brilliant attempt; and so did not end, at least with all true lovers of freedom and humanity, the glory of those that had embarked upon it.