At the very moment, then, when Raoul Yvard and Ghita parted on the hill,
'Maso was seated in his usual place at the table in Benedetta's upper
room, the windows of which commanded as full a view of the lugger as the
hour permitted; that craft being anchored about a cable's length
distant, and, as a sailor might have expressed it, just abeam. On this
occasion he had selected the upper room, and but three companions,
because it was his wish that as few should enter into his counsels as at
all comported with the love of homage to his own experience. The party
had been assembled a quarter of an hour, and there had been time to
cause the tide to ebb materially in the flask, which, it may be well to
tell the reader at once, contained very little less than half a gallon
of liquor, such as it was.

"I have told it all to the podestà," said 'Maso, with an important
manner, as he put down his glass, after potation the second, which
quite equalled potation the first in quantity; "yes, I have told it all
to Vito Viti, and no doubt he has told it to Il Signor Vice-governatore,
who now knows as much about the whole matter as either of us four.
Cospetto!--to think such a thing dare happen in a haven like Porto
Ferrajo! Had it come to pass over on the other side of the island, at
Porto Longone, one wouldn't think so much of it, for _they_ are never
much on the lookout: but to take place here, in the very capital of
Elba, I should as soon have expected it in Livorno!"

"But, 'Maso," put in Daniele Bruno, in the manner of one who was a
little sceptical, "I have often seen the pavilion of the Inglese, and
this is as much like that which all their frigates and corvettes wear,
as one of our feluccas is like another. The flag, at least, is right."