as she came down before the wind, wing-and-wing, as seamen term it, or
with a sail fanning like the heavy pinions of a sea-fowl, on each side,
betrayed her pursuits; and, as has been intimated, the mariners on the
shore who watched her movements shook their heads in distrust as they
communed among themselves, in very indifferent Italian, concerning her
destination and object. This observation, with its accompanying
discourse, occurred on the rocky bluff above the town of Porto Ferrajo,
in the Island of Elba, a spot that has since become so renowned as the
capital of the mimic dominion of Napoleon. Indeed, the very dwelling
which was subsequently used by the fallen emperor as a palace stood
within a hundred yards of the speakers, looking out toward the entrance
of the canal, and the mountains of Tuscany; or rather of the little
principality of Piombino, the system of merging the smaller in the
larger states of Europe not having yet been brought into extensive
operation. This house, a building of the size of a better sort of
country residence of our own, was then, as now, occupied by the
Florentine governor of the Tuscan portion of the island. It stands on
the extremity of a low rocky promontory that forms the western ramparts
of the deep, extensive bay, on the side of which, ensconced behind a
very convenient curvature of the rocks, which here incline westward in
the form of a hook, lies the small port, completely concealed from the
sea, as if in dread of visits like those which might be expected from
craft resembling the suspicious stranger. This little port, not as large
in itself as a modern dock in places like London or Liverpool, was
sufficiently protected against any probable dangers, by suitable
batteries; and as for the elements, a vessel laid upon a shelf in a
closet would be scarcely more secure. In this domestic little basin,
which, with the exception of a narrow entrance, was completely
surrounded by buildings, lay a few feluccas, that traded between the
island and the adjacent main, and a solitary Austrian ship, which had