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By her advice he dined, partaking of some soup, a wing of a chicken, and some preserves, which Giaccomo, the big lackey, brought up to him. And the food did him a great deal of good; he felt so restored that he refused to go to bed, desiring, said he, to thank the ladies that very evening for their kindly hospitality. As Donna Serafina received on Mondays he would present himself before her.
While we were busy with these preparations, I admonished Giaccomo to keep a smart lookout, and I was careful also to do the same myself, in case the guarda-costa should endeavour to cut matters short by sending away a boat after us; but the man assured me that the skipper of the craft knew too well what he was about to risk the loss of a boat's crew by sending them away under such threatening conditions of weather.
We had just comfortably completed our work, and I had established myself at the tiller, with Giaccomo at the mainsheet, and Francois as the French lad called himself at the jib-sheet, when there came a terrific flash of lightning, green and baleful, illumining for a single instant the entire scene, and revealing our pertinacious friend, the "Vigilant," in her old berth astern, with her long tapering yards lowered to the deck, and two stumpy lugs and a pocket-handkerchief of a jib hoisted in their place.
Without more ado Francesca was accordingly assisted by Giaccomo to mount, my wounded arm precluding me from seizing that coveted privilege, after which the Corsican and I sprang into our saddles, and the cavalcade moved forth into the dazzling moonlight, taking our way over the short springy turf in a direction which enabled us to keep the chateau between us and the French, being cautious at the same time to keep as much as possible within the shadow of the trees.
Having made up my mind so far, I took counsel with Giaccomo, who knew the place well, and he immediately ran over a list of craft belonging to the port, any one of which he thought would serve our purpose passably well.
We pulled through a large fleet of fishing-boats, coasting feluccas, and other craft, mostly of a size ranging from two to fifty tons, and at length, just as I was beginning to think our search would be in vain, Giaccomo exclaimed, "There she is!"
After striking the high road we performed the remainder of the journey at a foot-pace, our object being to reach the town by about one o'clock in the morning, by which time Giaccomo assured me the entire inhabitants of the place would be in bed and fast asleep.
I was rather taken with her appearance, and my curiosity, moreover, being strongly excited by the marvellous stories told by Giaccomo respecting her sailing powers, which, he asserted, he had had frequent opportunities of observing, from having been occasionally engaged to accompany her owner on his cruises, I decided forthwith to take possession of her as a lawful prize.
"Too well, signor," he replied. "It has been my lot to be chased by her often, and many an anxious moment has she caused me. She has the name of being the fastest sailer inside the Gut, and she is the terror of every honest smuggler round the coast here." "Ho, ho!" said I. "So that is how the land lies, is it, master Giaccomo? You have been a bit of a smuggler in your time, eh?"
Unfortunately, I also wrote to the bad Genoese poet, Ascanio Pogomas, or Giaccomo Passano, whom I had met at Leghorn. I told him to go to Turin and to wait for me there. At the same time I wrote to M. F , to whom I had commended him, asking him to give the poet twelve Louis for the journey.
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