“I think I have it, Winchester.  You understand; we have not yet been seen to communicate with the town; and luckily our French colors have been flying all the morning Our head, too, is in-shore, and we shall drift so far to the eastward in a few minutes as will shut in our hull, if not our upper sails, from the lugger where she now lies.  As soon as this is done you shall be off with forty picked men for the shore.  Engage a felucca and come out stealing along the rocks as close as you can, as if distrusting us.  In due time we will chase you in the boats, and then you must make for the lugger for protection as fast as you can, when, betwixt the two, I’ll answer for it, you get this Master Yvard, by fair means or foul.”

Winchester was delighted with the scheme, and in less than five minutes orders were issued for the men to be detailed and armed.  Then a conference was held as to all the minor arrangements; when, the ship having become shut in from the lugger by the promontory, as expected, the boats departed.  Half an hour later, or just as the Proserpine, after wearing, had got near the point where the lugger would be again open, the boats returned and were run up.  Presently the two vessels were again in sight of each other, everything on board of each remaining apparently in statu quo. Thus far, certainly, the stratagem had been adroitly managed.  To add to it, the batteries now fired ten or twelve guns at the frigate, taking very good care not to hit her; which the Proserpine returned, under the French ensign, having used the still greater precaution of drawing the shot.  All this was done by an arrangement between Winchester and Andrea Barrofaldi, and with the sole view to induce Raoul Yvard to fancy that he was still believed to be an Englishman by the worthy vice-governatore, while the ship in the offing was taken for an enemy.  A light air from the southward, which lasted from eight to nine o’clock, allowed the frigate to get somewhat more of an offing the while, placing her seemingly beyond the reach of danger.

During the prevalence of the light air mentioned, Raoul Yvard did not see fit to stir tack or sheet, as it is termed among seamen.  Le Feu-Follet remained so stationary that, had she been by compass from any station on the shore, her direction would not have varied a degree the whole time.  But this hour of comparative breeze sufficed to enable Winchester to get out of the harbor with la Divina Providenza, the felucca he had hired, and to round the promontory, under the seeming protection of the guns by which it was crowned; coming in view of the lugger precisely as the latter relieved her man at the helm for ten o’clock.  There were eight or nine men visible on the felucca’s deck, all dressed in the guise of Italians, with caps and striped shirts of cotton.  Thirty-five men were concealed in the hold.