suite, drove out of Massa and waited under the shadow of the city
wall. While a footman was absorbing the attention of the coachman
by giving him some minute, unnecessary orders, Madame (as they
called the duchess) slipped out of the carriage door with one of her
ladies, while two others, who were standing ready in the darkness,
took their places. The carriage rolled away towards Florence, while
Madame and her party, stealing along under the dark shadow of the
city wall, made their way to the port, where a steamer was to take
them on board.

That steamer was the "Carlo Alberto," a little vessel which had
been already used by some republican conspirators, and had been
purchased for the service of Marie Caroline. It had some of her
most devoted adherents on board, but the captain was in ignorance.
He thought himself bound for Genoa, and was inclined to disobey
when his passengers ordered him to lay to off the harbor of Massa.
However, they used force, and at three in the morning Marie Caroline,
who was sleeping, wrapped in her cloak, upon the sand, was roused,
put on board a little boat, and carried out to the steamer. She
had a tempestuous passage of four days to Marseilles. The steamer
ran out of coal, and had to put into Nice. At last, in a heavy sea
which threatened to dash small craft to pieces, a fishing-boat
approached the "Carlo Alberto," containing some of the duchess's
most devoted friends. With great danger she was transferred to
it, and was landed on the French coast. She scrambled up slippery
and precipitous rocks, and reached a place of safety. But the delay
in the arrival of her steamer had been fatal to her enterprise.
A French gentleman in the secret had hired a small boat, and put
out to sea in the storm to see if he could perceive the missing
vessel. His conduct excited the suspicion of his crew, who talked