"Did you ever see the prisoner before this occasion, Signor Viti?" demanded the Judge Advocate, after the preliminary questions had been put.
"Signore, oftener than it is agreeable to remember. I do not think that two grave magistrates were ever more mystified than were the vice-governatore and myself! Eh-h-h--Signori, the wisest sometimes become like sucking children, when there passes a mist before the understanding."
"Relate the circumstances under which this occurred, to the court, Signor Podestà."
"Why, Signori, the facts were just these. Andrea Barrofaldi, as you know, is the vice-governatore of Porto Ferrajo, and I am its unworthy podestà. Of course it is our duty to look into all matters affecting the public weal, and more especially into the business and occupations of strangers who come into our island. Well, it is now three weeks or more since the lugger or felucca was seen--"
"Which was it, a felucca or a lugger?" demanded the Judge Advocate, holding his pen ready to write the answer.
"Ah--there were two; a felucca and a lugger."
"No, Signore; but this felucca was a lugger. Tommaso Tonti wished to mystify me about that, too; but I have not been podestà in a seaport so many years for nothing. No, Signori, there are all sorts of feluccas--ship-feluccas, brig-feluccas, and lugger-feluccas."
When this answer was translated, the members of the court smiled, while Raoul Yvard laughed out honestly.
"Well, Signor Podestà," resumed the Judge Advocate--"the prisoner came into Porto Ferrajo in a lugger?"
"So it was said, Signore. I did not see him actually on board of her, but he professed to be the commander of a certain vessel, in the service of the King of Inghilterra, called ze Ving-y-Ving, and said that his own name was Smees--si--il capitano, or Sir Smees."
"Professed? Do you not know that this lugger was the notorious French privateer, le Feu-Follet?"
"I know they say so now, Signori; but the vice-governatore and I supposed her to be ze Ving-y-Ving."
"And do you not know that the prisoner is actually Raoul Yvard; of your own knowledge, I mean?"
"Corpo di Bacco!--How should I know any such thing, Signor Guideca-Avvocato," exclaimed Vito Viti, who literally translated what he understood to be the title of his interrogator, thereby converting him into a sort of ship-felucca--"how should I know any such thing? I do not keep company with corsairs, except when they come upon, our island and call themselves 'Sir Smees.'"