"_She_ went out,
too, in an 'extraordinary disappearance,' and perhaps the lady and the
lugger went out together."
Vito Viti muttered an answer; for by this time he had discovered that he
was a very different personage on board the Proserpine from what the
other had appeared to consider him while in his native island. He might
have expressed himself aloud, indeed; but at that instant a column of
smoke glanced out of the bow port of the Minerva--a yellow flag was
shown aloft--and then came the report of the signal gun.
It has been said that vessels of war of four different nations were at
that time lying in the Bay of Naples. Nelson had come in but a short
time previously, with seventeen ships of the line; and he found several
more of his countrymen lying there. This large force had been assembled
to repel an expected attack on the island of Minorca; and it was still
kept together in an uncertainty of the future movements of the enemy. A
Russian force had come out of the Black Sea, to act against the French,
bringing with it a squadron of the Grand Signor; thus presenting to the
world the singular spectacle of the followers of Luther, devotees of the
Greek church, and disciples of Mahomet, uniting in defence of "our
rights, our firesides, and our altars!" To these vessels must be added a
small squadron of ships of the country; making a mixed force of four
different ensigns that was to witness the melancholy scene we are about
to relate.
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