As the deck caught, the flames threw a vivid glare over the waters, as the lugger dashed on for the land, as if urged by her prospect of certain destruction. It was an awful moment! The flames spread to the rigging of the lugger, and then the sail, and the sheets being consumed, the fiery mass dashed wildly about, as the flames roared, the strong breeze increasing their force. “Come down below, Bill, she will strike in a few moments, and let us put on the Frenchmen’s garments; who knows but we may do something for freedom yet.” “Curse the villains!” cried Bill; “they have burned the craft, and now I am to be turned into a frog-eating, soup-swilling Frenchman.” In a few minutes they were completely rigged in two French seamen’s garments, and the furious flames hurried them on deck just as the lugger struck upon a reef, gave two or three heavy lurches, heeled over, and sunk in deep water under a lofty cliff, extinguishing the flames of the hull, and leaving the remnants of the burning sail fluttering in the wind. That part of the deck unconsumed was level with the water, but the swell over the bank washed over it. Lieutenant Thornton and Saunders, half blinded by the smoke and flying sparks from the burning sail, threw themselves over the side, a few strokes brought them ashore under the cliff. Landing upon some sharp and slippery rocks, and shaking themselves as they landed and clambered over the rocks, our hero said to his companion— “We must get as far from this spot as we can, and dry ourselves in the morning sun, before we reconnoitre inland.” “Ah! your honour, it was a bad job. I ought to have pitched those two lubbers overboard at first;” and growling and lamenting, Bill followed his officer along the base of the cliff, where we must leave them, and retrace our narrative many years in our next chapter. CHAPTER XV. A few pages respecting the family of the De Bracys will here be necessary for the clear understanding of our story. Early in life Sir Oscar De Bracy and his sister, Anne, were left orphans. On attaining his twenty-first year Sir Oscar, then a lieutenant in the navy, came into possession of the family property. His sister had gone abroad with her aunt, a Mrs. Webb, the widow of a Colonel Webb, who dying, had left his wife a very handsome fortune. Being in delicate health, Mrs. Webb was advised to try a warm climate; so, taking her niece, at that time only seventeen, they proceeded to the Continent, and settled for some time in Naples. The Court of Naples, at this period, was accounted one of the most corrupt in Europe; but Mrs. Webb, being of a retiring disposition, lived in comparative seclusion, in a villa, situated on the River Chiaga, then the favourite drive of the pleasure-seeking Neapolitans.