CHAPTER VII.
_Ant_.--"And, indeed sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men to be wary." _Clo_.--"Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lose nothing here." _Ant._--"I hope so, sir, for I have about me many parcels of change." _Winter's Tale_.
Such was the state of things at Porto Ferrajo at noon, or about the hour when its inhabitants bethought them of their mid-day meal.

With most the siesta followed, though the sea air, with its invigorating coolness, rendered that indulgence less necessary to these islanders than to most of their neighbors on the main.

Then succeeded the reviving animation of the afternoon, and the return of the zephyr, or the western breeze.

So regular, indeed, are these changes in the currents of the air during the summer months, that the mariner can rely with safety on meeting a light breeze from the southward throughout the morning, a calm at noon--the siesta of the Mediterranean--and the delightfully cool wind from the west, after three or four o'clock; this last is again succeeded at night by a breeze directly from the land.

Weeks at a time have we known this order of things to be uninterrupted; and when the changes did occasionally occur, it was only in the slight episodes of showers and thunderstorms, of which, however, Italy has far fewer than our own coast.
Such, then, was the state of Porto Ferrajo toward the evening that succeeded this day of bustle and excitement.