"Never."

"Their lives must be wretched, so confined to the house."

"Aye, but they go out to sea."

"To sea?"

"Yes, in their sailing boat; the two boys are always out fishing,
sailing, and what not."

Hunston pricked up his ears at these tidings.

"Yes, on the water they are allowed full liberty, for brigands and
cats, according to Signor Harvey, are the two animals that fear the
water most."

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Hunston, "very good indeed, but I never knew that
brigands so feared the water."

"So Signor Harvey says," replied Marietta. "Indeed he says that a bar
of soap and a bowl of water would frighten a brigand more than a whole
armoury of firearms."

This was true.

Brigands may look picturesque when seen from a distance.

At close quarters they are, to put it mildly, objectionable.