Chapter 7

_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. The zephyr again
prevailed--the idle once more issued forth for their sunset walk--and
the gossips were collecting to renew their conjectures and to start some
new point in their already exhausted discussions, when a rumor spread
through the place, like fire communicated to a train, that "ze
Ving-y-Ving" was once more coming down on the weather side of the
island, precisely as she had approached on the previous evening, with
the confidence of a friend and the celerity of a bird. Years had passed
since such a tumult was awakened in the capital of Elba. Men, women, and
children poured from the houses and were seen climbing the streets, all
hastening to the promenade, as if to satisfy themselves with their own
eyes of the existence of some miracle. In vain did the infirm and aged
call on the vigorous and more youthful for the customary assistance;
they were avoided like the cases of plague, and were left to hobble up
the terraced street as best they might. Even mothers, after dragging
them at their own sides till fearful of being too late, abandoned their
young in the highway, certain of finding them rolled to the foot of the
declivity, should they fail of scrambling to its summit. In short, it
was a scene of confusion in which there was much to laugh at, something