But, while Raoul was so indifferent to the danger he ran, the feeling
was quite the reverse with Ithuel Bolt. The Proserpine was the bane of
this man's life; and he not only hated every stick and every timber in
her, but every officer and man who was attached to her--the king whose
colors she wore and the nation whose interest she served. An active
hatred is the most restless of all passions; and this feeling made
Ithuel keenly alive to every chance which might still render the frigate
dangerous to the lugger. He thought it probable the former would return
in quest of her enemy; and, expressly with a view to this object, when
he turned in at nine he left orders to be called at two, that he might
be on the alert in season.
Ithuel was no sooner awaked when he called two trusty men, whom he had
prepared for the purpose, entered a light boat that was lying in
readiness on the off side of the lugger, and pulled with muffled oars
toward the eastern part of the bay. When sufficiently distant from the
town to escape observation, he changed his course, and proceeded
directly out to sea. Half an hour sufficed to carry the boat as far as
Ithuel deemed necessary, leaving him about a mile from the promontory,
and so far to the westward as to give him a fair view of the window at
which Griffin had taken post.
The first occurrence out of the ordinary course of things that struck
the American was the strong light of a lamp shining through an upper
window of the government-house--not that at which the lieutenant was
posted, but one above it--and which had been placed there expressly as
an indication to the frigate that Griffin had arrived, and was actively
on duty. It was now two o'clock, or an hour or two before the
appearance of light, and the breeze off the adjoining continent was
sufficiently strong to force a good sailing vessel, whose canvas had
been thickened by the damps of night, some four knots through the water;
and as Capraya was less than thirty miles from Porto Ferrajo, abundant
time had been give to the Proserpine to gain her offing; that ship
having come from behind her cover, as soon as the sun had set, and the
haze of evening settled upon the sea.
Ithuel, usually so loquacious and gossiping in his moments of leisure,
was silent and observant when he had anything serious on hand. His eye
was still on the window in which the lamp was visible, the pure olive
oil that was burning in it throwing out a clear, strong flame; when
suddenly a blue-light flashed beneath the place, and he got a momentary
glimpse of the body of the man who held it, as he leaned forward from
another window. The motion which now turned his head seaward was
instinctive; it was just in time to let him detect a light descending
apparently into the water like a falling star; but which, in fact, was
merely a signal lantern of the Proserpine coming rapidly down from the
end of her gaff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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