The conversation was broken into by the apparition of My Lady, lovely with rosy cheeks and sleepy eyes. It was evident that she had been roused from her slumber, but she was angelically good-tempered over it.
“You want me, Nelson? Why, Donna Rusidda!”
“Princess Lion-Heart has brought us grave news from the Palace. She ran, and by herself; and I am just sending Will here to the boats for help.”
Will left as the Admiral was going over the ground for the third time. Donna Rusidda crossed over to the door, and the Admiral and My Lady were looking out to sea, as she poured out her gratitude to Will in one long kiss, and commended his dear life to the care of Santa Rosalia, whose kindly little lead image she took off her own neck and hung round his.
For what happened after Will’s departure I must depend once more upon the Admiral’s Journal; and the way in which it fills up the gaps is nothing short of marvellous, if it were not the work of the Admiral’s own hand.
Extract from the Admiral’s Journal, Dec. 20th, 1798.
“What a delicately adjusted machine is woman, sensitive to every breath! Having great hopes of the Princess of Favara and Will making a match of it—for she clearly is very well disposed to him, though she refused to admit that she loved him—I had withdrawn to the far end of the apartment when my young lover was about to take his adieux before departing on his perilous mission. I was about to call dear Emma, but she anticipated me by running in front of me to the window. As I went I was curious enough to steal a glance at the Princess, to see what hope there was for Will. From which I augured well. She was more than gracious, she was tender and solicitous, as gentle a piece of girlhood as one could picture. But, when Will went, she came back into the room with trailing robes and haughtily carried chin, as self-possessed as Her Majesty herself, who is most royal.
“Dear Emma—though, I am sure, there is something like a feud between them, and it was in her power, as mistress of the house, to increase the discomfort of the situation—went to meet her with a winning smile of hospitality, and frank eyes that asked no question. The Princess, standing back, looked at her searchingly, then suffered her haughtiness to be disarmed; but she was ill at ease, and sat wild-eyed, like a captive who has been assured of good treatment, but deprived of his weapons, while Emma was outspoken in her generous admiration of the Princess’s heroic deed.”
Will drew his sword as soon as the door of the Ambassador’s palace closed on him, and sped down the hill towards the sea. He made sure that he should have to use it ere he passed the end of the Thuilleries—the fine garden or park which the King had had planted between Pizzofalcone and Mergellina. But no one leapt on him out of the darkness. As he came to the low dwellings at the foot of the rock near the sea, he felt to see that his pistols were loose. More than once he was sure he heard whispers, and the shuffling of feet bound round with rags. Sometimes his left hand clenched the pistol-butt, as he fancied he saw figures rise up before him—though they always melted into the gloom. But, though his brave heart was thumping, he saw no one for sure, till he came to the lamps at the landing, and our own sentry.