We all understand the bearings of
these islands, which are the bearings of the whole coast down here-away;
but the question is, which way the lugger was steering?"
"I thought I had said, eccellenza, that she was heading across toward
Ischia," answered Raoul, with an air of obtuse innocence.
"If you do, you give an account exactly different from that which has
been sent to the admiral by the good bishop of your own island. May I
never eat another of his own quails if I think _he_ would deceive us;
and it is not easy to suppose a man like him does not know north
from south."
Raoul inwardly muttered a malediction on all priests; a class of men
which, rightly enough, he believed to be united in their hostility to
France. But it would not do to express this in his assumed character;
and he affected to listen, as one of his class ought to give ear to a
fact that came from his spiritual father.
"North from south, eccellenza! Monsignore knows a great deal more than
that, if the truth were said; though, I suppose, these noble signori are
acquainted with the right reverend father's great infirmity?"
"Not we--none of us, I fancy, ever had the honor to be in his company.
Surely, fellow, your bishop is a man of truth?"
"Truth!--Yes, eccellenza, so true is he that if he were to tell me that
the thing I saw myself had not and could not happen, I should rather
believe Monsignore than believe my own eyes. Still, Signori, eyes are
_something_; and as the right reverend father has _none_, or what are as
bad as none, for any use they can be in looking at a vessel half a mile
off, he may not always see what he thinks he sees.
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