line, and, as may easily be conceived, every berth
—Yet, stay—it is possible there is one."
(Murmured conference with another clerk.)
"Just so. Happily, signor, one place is of
doubtful occupancy. If the signor is willing
to become the purchaser of that doubt, all may
be well."

I did so—almost gratefully did so—and
with lighter heart quitted the office; a third
clerk—who must have been eavesdropping, so
completely had he, without being visible,
mastered the business, overtook me.

"If the signor desire to be very comfortable,
and at the same time to make sure, I would
recommend him to engage the captain's cabin,"
said the clerk.

"The captain's cabin! Surely the
highly-priced accommodations of the Veloce might
suffice. But, then, the certainty—let us see.
At what price?"

"Twelve francs more."

Moderate enough. The captain was, no doubt,
a hardy seaman, besides being either a most
obliging person or else a most disinterested
servant of the company. I accepted his offer and
his cabin, and at eight o'clock (to be on the safe
side), step into a boat at the quay.

The boatmen paddled off—heading, however,
this way and that, with an indecision so foreign
to their habits as to make me apprehensive
that they might after all bring me alongside too
late—until, after an apparently anxious consultation,
and much eager scanning of the ships in
harbour, one of ftiem uttered a satisfied snort.
He resumed his oar, and we presently shot
between two large merchant vessels, and found
ourselves alongside a black object about the size
of a Lambeth lighter, over whose bulwark leaned
three sooty heads, the lips belonging to which
heads crooned a melancholy song.

Could this be the Veloce? The steward
asserted it as a fact; and the Veloce, with a soft
simmer from her steam-pipe as in corroboration,
announced herself as preparing for the voyage.
The tiny deck was richly carpeted with
coal-dust. The saloon contained, in all, twelve
berths: the remaining space being entirely
occupied by a small table, upon which the passengers
sat, washed, smoked, and dined. As for
the luggage, it descended into the hold, which
was likewise the coal-bunk. The fragment of
a dingy sail rather hinted at than constituted a
limit at which coal ended and baggage began.

I was personally all right, for had I not
the captain's own cabin; solitude, smokelessness,
and the privilege of opening at pleasure a
window as big as a piastre? Inquiring for this
refuge, the steward looked up and down the
deck, as though it might be lying about
somewhere, and finally conducted me to a sort of
hencoop, apparently an excrescence from the
paddle-box: apologising for its being for the
moment occupied by the captain's portfolio and a
pair of sea-boots.

An apartment with the floor in the form of an
inverted cone is not comfortable, and the
difficulty of scrambling into the one berth was
increased by there being no sort of foothold on
the way. After some cogitation as to how the
captain himself achieved it, I could perceive but
one feasible method, and tried it. This was to
get both feet on the handle of the door, cling
firmly to the brass curtain-rod of the berth,
throw the body gradually back till it became
nearly horizontal, draw one leg into the
bed-place, then the other, and finish with one bold
jerk.

The public, for whose especial convenience
the Veloce had deferred her departure till nine
o'clock, evinced the grossest ingratitude; for,
though we waited till past midnight, not a soul
appeared. I was lapsing into slumber when
a sensation as of being collared by an angry
Titan, shaken violently, and dashed upon the
earth, announced that the huge paddles of the
Veloce were in motion directly under my ear.
Her engines were in truth of great power, and
the vibration throughout the little vessel was
fearful; still it was something to be at length
under weigh; and the stunning effect of a severe
contusion on the eye, caught in sneezing,
contributed to produce an insensibility which did
duty for sleep.

At Leghorn, which we reached in less than
ten hours, a small body of volunteers (a
hundred, I think) presented themselves, requiring
passage to Naples. Although the baggage of
these gallant fellows, comprised in one small
box, was not alarming, the captain was obliged
to own that, unless one-half of the volunteers
would consent to be lowered down among the
luggage and the coals, he could not find room.

As well as I remember—for this voyage was
little other than a coaly dream, punctuated with
thumps on the head—nothing occurred to vary
the monotony, until, on the third morning, when
off Gaeta, a large armed steamer stood out, holding
a course to cut us off. There was considerable
excitement among the Italian passengers, which
augmented as the stranger ran up the
Neapolitan flag. We hoisted an article about the
size of a slieet of writing-paper, whose original
three colours had each settled into a different
shade of brown. This hieroglyphic appeared to
satisfy our inquisitive friend, for, after closing
near enough to show that she was of Spanish
build, she altered her course, and returned to
Gaeta. Perhaps, it was well we did not embark
the gallant volunteers.

Vesuvius was yet glowing crimson in the
early twilight, when we took boat, and,
unquestioned as to passport or baggage (happy
change!), rushed away to our hotel.

"What news, what news, O sleepy porter
(for there is no one astir but thee)? Who's
where? How's everything? Speak, speak!"

The porter intimated that there was nothing of
moment—no especial victory—no marked
revolution—not many changes of ministry—nothing,
in short that is, since Monday, the great affair.

"Great affair? What?"

"Has not the signor heard? Ah, no, from
Genoa! Yes, a great battle—a true Solferino
business—on Monday—before Capua. Six