In vain did the infirm and aged
call on the vigorous and more youthful for the customary assistance;
they were avoided like the cases of plague, and were left to hobble up
the terraced street as best they might. Even mothers, after dragging
them at their own sides till fearful of being too late, abandoned their
young in the highway, certain of finding them rolled to the foot of the
declivity, should they fail of scrambling to its summit. In short, it
was a scene of confusion in which there was much to laugh at, something
to awaken wonder, and not a little that was natural.
Ten minutes had not certainly elapsed after the rumor reached the lower
part of the town ere two thousand persons were on the hill, including
nearly all the principal personages of the place, 'Maso Tonti, Ghita,
and the different characters known to the reader. So nearly did the
scene of this evening resemble that of the past, the numbers of the
throng on the hill and the greater interest excepted, that one who had
been present at the former might readily have fancied the latter merely
its continuation. There, indeed, was the lugger, under her foresail and
mainsail, with the jigger brailed, coming down wing-and-wing, and
glancing along the glittering sea like the duck sailing toward her nest.
This time, however, the English ensign was flying at the end of the
jigger yard, as if in triumph; and the little craft held her way nearer
to the rocks, like one acquainted with the coast and fearing no danger.
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