as well have attempted to put out Vesuvius with snow-balls, as to stand the canister of that infernal lugger! I don't think there was a square yard in the felucca that was not peppered. The men never behaved better; and down to the moment when we last cheered, I was as sure of le Feu-Follet, as I ever was of my own promotion."

"Ay, they needn't call her le Few-Folly any longer, the Great-Folly being a better name. What the devil did you cheer for at all, sir? did you ever know a Frenchman cheer, in your life? That very cheering was the cause of your being found out, before you had time to close. You should have shouted vive la république, as all their craft do, when we engage them. A regular English hurrah would split a Frenchman's throat."

"I believe we did make a mistake there, sir; but I never was in an action in which we did not cheer; and when it got to be warm-or to seem warm-I forgot myself, a little. But, we should have had her, sir, for all that, had it not been for one thing."

"And what is that, pray? You know, Griffin, I must have something plausible to tell the admiral; it will never do to have it published in the gazette that we were thrashed by our own hallooing."

"I was about to say, Captain Cuffe, that had not the lugger fired her first broadside just as she did, and had she given us time to get out of the range of her shot, we should have come in upon her before she could have loaded again, and carried her, in spite of the breeze that so much favoured her. Our having three men hurt in the launch, made some difference, too, and set as many oars catching crabs, at a most critical instant. Everything depends on chance, in these matters, you know, sir, and that was our bad luck."

"Umph! It will never do to tell Nelson that. Everything was going well, my lord, until three of the launch's people went to work catching crabs with their oars, which threw the boat a-stern.'—No, no, that will never do for a gazette. Let me see, Griffin; after all, the lugger made off from you-you would have had her, had she not made sail, and stood to the southward and westward on a bowline?"

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Yes, sir, she certainly did that. Had she not made sai!,

as you say, nothing could have prevented our getting along. side."

"Well, then, she ran. Wind sprung up, enemy made sail-every attempt to get alongside unsuccessful.-Brave fellows, cheering and doing their utmost.-Not so bad an account, after all-but, how about that d- -d felucca ? You see, she is burned to the water's edge, and will go in a few minutes."

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down

Very true, Captain Cuffe, but not a Frenchman entered her, while we were there-"

66 Yes, I now see how it was-threw all hands into the boats, in chase, the felucca being too unwieldy, and every effort to get alongside unsuccessful. He's a devil of a fellow, that Nelson & Bronte; and I had rather hear the thunder of ten thousand tempests, than get one of his tempestuous letters. Well, I think I understand the affair, now, and shall speak of you all as you deserve. 'T was a gallant thing, though it failed. You deserved success, whatever may have caused you to lose it."

In this Captain Cuffe was nearer right than in anything else he uttered on the occasion.

CHAPTER X.

"O! 'tis a thought sublime, that man can force

A path upon the waste, can find a way
Where all is trackless, and compel the winds,
Those freest agents of Almighty power,

To lend their untamed wings, and bear him on
To distant climes."

WARE.

THE situation of Ghita Caraccioli, on board the lugger, was of the most unpleasant nature, during the fierce struggle we have related. Fortunately, for her, this struggle was very short, Raoul having kept her in profound ignorance of the approach of any danger, until the instant le Feu-Follet commenced her fire. It is true, she had heard the guns

between the felucca and the boats, but this she had been told was an affair in which the privateer had no participation; and the reports sounding distant, to one in the cabin, she had been easily deceived. While the actual conflict was going on, she was on her knees, at the side of her uncle; and the moment it ceased, she appeared on deck, and interposed to save the fugitives, in the manner related.

Now, however, the scene was entirely changed. The lugger had escaped all damage, worthy of notice; her decks had not been stained with blood; and her success had been as complete as could be desired. In addition to these advantages, the result removed all apprehension from the only source of danger that Raoul thought could exist, as between his own vessel and the frigate; or a boat-attack in a calm; for men who had just been so roughly handled in an enterprise so well concealed, would not be likely to renew the attempt while they still smarted under the influence of the late repulse. Affairs of this sort exact all the discipline and resolution that a well-regulated service can afford; and are not to be thought of under the temporary demoralization of defeat. All in the lugger, therefore, considered this collision with the Proserpine at an end, for the moment at least.

Ghita had dined, for the day had now turned some time, and the girl had come on deck to escape the confinement of a very small cabin, leaving her uncle to enjoy his customary siesta. She was seated under the awning of the quarterdeck, using her needle, as was her wont, at that hour, on the heights of Argentaro. Raoul had placed himself on a gun-slide, near her, and Ithuel was busy within a few feet of them, dissecting a spy-glass, with a view to clean its lenses.

"I suppose, the most excellent Andrea Barrofaldi will sing a Te Deum for his escape from our fangs," suddenly exclaimed Raoul, laughing. "Pardie! he is a great histo rian, and every way fit to write an account of this great victory, which Monsieur l'Anglais, là bas, is about to send to his government!"

"And you, Raoul, have you no occasion for a Te Deum, after your escape ?" demanded Ghita, gently, and yet with emphasis. "Is there no God for you to thank, as well as for the vice-governatore ?'

"Peste!-our French deity is little thought of, just now, Ghita. Republics, as you know, have no great faith in religion-is it not so, mon brave Américan? Tell us, Etooell; have you any religion in America?"

As Ithuel had often heard Raoul's opinions on this subject, and knew the prevailing state of France, in this particular, he neither felt nor expressed any surprise at the question. Still, the idea ran counter to all his own notions and prejudices, he having been early taught to respect religion, even when he was most serving the devil. In a word, Ithuel was one of those descendants of Puritanism, who, "Godward," as it is termed, was quite unexceptionable, so far as his theory extended; but who, "manward" was, as the Scribes and Pharisees." Nevertheless, as he expressed it himself, "he always stood up for religion;" a fact that his English companions had commented on in jokes; maintaining that he even "stood up" when the rest of the ship's company were on their knees.

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"I'm a little afraid, Monsieur Rule," he answered, "that in France you have entered the rope of republicanism at the wrong eend. In Ameriky, we even put religion before dollars; and if that isn't convincing, I'll give it up. Now, I do wish you could see a Sunday once in the Granite State, Signorina Ghita, that you might get some notion what our western religion raʼally is."

"All real religion-all real devotion to God, is, or ought to be, the same, Signor Ithuello, whether in the east or in the west. A Christian, is a Christian; let him live and die where he may."

"That's not exactly platform, I fancy. Why, Lord bless ye, young lady-your religion, now, is no more like mine, than my religion is like that of the Archbishop of Canterbury's, or Monsieur Rule's, here!"

"La mienne !" exclaimed Raoul- "I pretend to none, mon brave; there can be no likeness to nothing.' Ghita's glance was kind, rather than reproachful; but it was profoundly sorrowful.

*In what can our religion differ," she asked, "if we are both Christians? Americans, or Italians, it is all the same.' "That comes of knowing nothing about Ameriky," said Ithuel, filled with the conceit of his own opinion of himself,

"In the

and of the part of the world from which he came. first place, you have a Pope, and cardinals, and bishops, and all such things, in your religion; while we have none.'

"Certainly, there is the Holy Father, and there are cardinals; but they are not my religion," answered Ghita, looking surprised. "Bishops, it is true, are appointed of God, and form part of his church; and the bishop of Rome is the head of the church on earth-but nothing more."

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Nothing more!-Don't you worship images, and take off and put on garments at your prayers, and kneel down in a make-believe, profane way; and don't you turn everything into vain ceremonies ?"

Had Ithuel been engaged, body and soul, in maintaining one of the propositions of the Oxford Tracts' controversy, he could not have uttered these words with greater zeal, or with a more self-righteous emotion. His mind was stored with the most vulgar accusations of an exceedingly vulgar set of sectarian distinctions; and he fancied it a high proof of Protestant perfection, to hold all the discarded usages in abhorrence. On the other hand, Ghita listened with surprise; for, to her, the estimation in which the rites of the Romish church were held by the great bulk of Protestants, was a profound secret. The idea of worshipping an image, never crossed her innocent mind; and although she often knelt before her own little ivory crucifix, she had never sup. posed any could be so ignorant as to confound the mere material representation of the sacrifice it was meant to pourtray, with the divine expiation itself.

"It is decent to use proper vestments, at the altar," she replied; and its servants ought not to be clad like other men. We know it is the heart, the soul, that must be touched, to find favour with God; but this does not make the outward semblance of respect that we show even to each her, the less necessary. As to worshipping images—that would be idolatry; and as bad as the poor heathens, them. selves."

Ithuel looked mystified; for he never doubted, in the least, that the worshipping of images was a material part of Catholic devotion; and, as for the pope and the cardinals, he decmed them all as indispensable to the creed of this church; as he fancied it important, in his own, that the priests should