Filippo shook his head, positively declining to do so foolish a thing as to mention a contraband article to those whose duty it would be to punish a violation of the revenue laws.  In the meanwhile the sequins remained in the hands of Andrea Barrofaldi, who seemed greatly at a loss to understand the character of the strange being whom chance had thus thrown in his way.  The money was returned to his purse, but his distrust and doubts were by no means removed.

“Answer me one thing, Signor Bolto,” asked the vice-governatore, after a minute of thought; “if you hate the English so much, why do you serve in their ships? why not quit them on the first good occasion?  The land is as wide as the sea, and you must be often on it.”

“I calculate, Signor Squire, you don’t often study charts, or you wouldn’t fall into such a consait.  There’s twice as much water as solid ground on this ’airth, to begin with; as in reason there ought to be, seeing that an acre of good productive land is worth five or six of oceans; and then you have little knowledge of my character and prospects to ask such a question.  I sarve the king of England to make him pay well for it.  If you want to take an advantage of a man, first get him in debt; then you can work your will on him in the most profitable and safe manner!”

All this was unintelligible to the vice-governatore, who, after a few more questions and answers, took a civil leave of the strangers, intimating to Benedetta that they were not to follow him back into the room he had just quitted.

As for Ithuel, the disappearance of the two gentlemen gave him no concern; but as he felt that it might be unsafe to drink any more wine, he threw down his reckoning, and strolled into the street, followed by his companion.  Within an hour from that moment, the three kegs of tobacco were in the possession of a shopkeeper of the place, that brief interval sufficing to enable the man to make his bargain, and to deliver the articles, which was his real object on shore.  This little smuggling transaction was carried on altogether without the knowledge of Raoul Yvard, who was to all intents and purposes the captain of his own lugger, and in whose character there were many traits of chivalrous honor, mixed up with habits and pursuits that would not seem to promise qualities so elevated.  But this want of a propensity to turn a penny in his own way was not the only distinguishing characteristic between the commander of the little craft and the being he occasionally used as a mask to his true purposes.

CHAPTER V.

     “The great contention of the sea and skies
     Parted our fellowship;—­But, hark! a sail!”

     Cassio

Whatever may have been the result of the vice-governatore’s further inquiries and speculations that night, they were not known.  After consuming an hour in the lower part of the town, in and around the port, he and the podesta sought their homes and their pillows, leaving the lugger riding quietly at her anchor in the spot where she was last presented to the reader’s attention.  If Raoul Yvard and Ghita had another interview, too, it was so secretly managed as to escape all observation, and can form no part of this narrative.