The preparations to show the ensign, which caught the quick and understanding glance of Ghita, and which had not escaped even the duller vision of the artillerists, were made at the outer end of this jigger-yard, A boy appeared on the taffrail, and he was evidently clearing the ensign-halyards for that purpose.  In half a minute, however, he disappeared; then a flag rose steadily, and by a continued pull, to its station.  At first the bunting hung suspended in a line, so as to evade all examination; but, as if everything on board this light craft were on a scale as airy and buoyant as herself, the folds soon expanded, showing a white field, traversed at right angles with a red cross, and having a union of the same tint in its upper and inner corner.

“Inglese!” exclaimed ’Maso, infinitely aided in this conjecture by the sight of the stranger’s ensign—­“Si, Signore; it is an Englishman; I thought so, from the first, but as the lugger is not a common rig for vessels of that nation, I did not like to risk anything by saying it.”

“Well, honest Tommaso, it is a happiness to have a mariner as skilful as yourself, in these troublesome times, at one’s elbow!  I do not know how else we should ever have found out the stranger’s country.  An Inglese!  Corpo di Bacco!  Who would have thought that a nation so maritime, and which lies so far off, would send so small a craft this vast distance!  Why, Ghita, it is a voyage from Elba to Livorno, and yet, I dare say England is twenty times further.”

“Signore, I know little of England, but I have heard that it lies beyond our own sea.  This is the flag of the country, however; for that have I often beheld.  Many ships of that nation come upon the coast, further south.”

“Yes, it is a great country for mariners; though they tell me it has neither wine nor oil.  They are allies of the emperor, too; and deadly enemies of the French, who have done so much harm in upper Italy.  That is something, Ghita, and every Italian should honor the flag.  I fear the stranger does not intend to enter our harbor!”

“He steers as if he did not, certainly, Signor Podesta,” said Ghita, sighing so gently that the respiration was audible only to herself.  “Perhaps he is in search of some of the French, of which they say so many were seen, last year, going east.”

“Aye, that was truly an enterprise!” answered the magistrate, gesticulating on a large scale, and opening his eyes by way of accompaniments.  “General Bonaparte, he who had been playing the devil in the Milanese and the states of the Pope, for the last two years, sailed, they sent us word, with two or three hundred ships, the saints at first knew whither.  Some said, it was to destroy the holy sepulchre; some to overturn the Grand Turk; and some thought to seize the islands.  There was a craft in here, the same week, which said he had got possession of the Island of Malta; in which case we might look out for trouble in Elba.  I had my suspicions, from the first!”