In half a minute, however, he disappeared; then a flag rose steadily, and by a continued pull, to its station.

At first the bunting hung suspended in a line, so as to evade all examination; but, as if everything on board this light craft were on a scale as airy and buoyant as herself, the folds soon expanded, showing a white field, traversed at right angles with a red cross, and having a union of the same tint in its upper and inner corner.
"_Inglese_!" exclaimed 'Maso, infinitely aided in this conjecture by the sight of the stranger's ensign--"Si, Signore; it is an Englishman; I _thought_ so, from the first, but as the lugger is not a common rig for vessels of that nation, I did not like to risk anything by saying it." "Well, honest Tommaso, it is a happiness to have a mariner as skilful as yourself, in these troublesome times, at one's elbow! I do not know how else we should ever have found out the stranger's country.

An Inglese! Corpo di Bacco! Who would have thought that a nation so maritime, and which lies so far off, would send so small a craft this vast distance! Why, Ghita, it is a voyage from Elba to Livorno, and yet, I dare say England is twenty times further." "Signore, I know little of England, but I have heard that it lies beyond our own sea.

This is the flag of the country, however; for _that_ have I often beheld.

Many ships of that nation come upon the coast, further south." "Yes, it is a great country for mariners; though they tell me it has neither wine nor oil.