CHAPTER XVII.
"Speak to the business, Master Secretary: Why are we met in council ?" _King Henry VIII._ When the idlers of the Proserpine appeared on deck the following morning, the ship was about a league to windward of Capri, having forged well over toward the north side of the bay during the night, wore round and got thus far back on the other tack.

From the moment light returned lookouts had been aloft with glasses, examining every nook and corner of the bay, in order to ascertain whether any signs of the lugger were to be seen under its bold and picturesque shore.

So great is the extent of this beautiful basin, so grand the natural objects which surround it, and so clear the atmosphere, that even the largest ships loom less than usual on its waters; and it would have been a very possible thing for le Feu-Follet to anchor near some of the landings, and lie there unnoticed for a week by the fleet above, unless tidings were carried to the latter by observers on the shore.
Cuffe was the last to come on deck, six bells, or seven o'clock, striking as the group on the quarter-deck first lifted their hats to him.

He glanced around him, and then turned toward Griffin, who was now officer of the watch.
"I see two ships coming down the bay, Mr.Griffin," he said--"no signals yet, I suppose, sir ?" "Certainly not, sir, or they would have been reported.

We make out the frigate to be the Terpsichore, and the sloop, I know by her new royals, is the Ringdove.