most oppressively warm. There, on the other side, moved
sluggishly along under her old, patched, and coal-grimed canvas a
collier brig, with bluff bows, long bowsprit, and short stumpy masts and
yards, the counterpart of the _Betsy Jane_ of glorious memory. Abreast
of her, and sailing two feet to the collier's one, was a river-barge,
loaded down to her gunwale with long gaily painted spreet and tanned
canvas which gleamed a rich ruddy brown in the rays of the setting sun.
Here, again, came a swift excursion steamer, her decks crowded with
jovial pleasure-seekers, and a good brass band on the bridge playing "A
Life on the Ocean Wave," whilst behind her again appeared a clumsy but
picturesque-looking "billy-boy" or galliot from the Humber--the _Saucy
Sue_ of Goole--with a big brown dog on board, who, excited by the
unwonted animation of the scene, rushed madly fore and aft the deck,
rearing up on his hind-legs incessantly to look over the bulwarks and
bark at all and sundry. Then came a large full-rigged ship in tow, her
hull painted a dead-black down to the gleaming copper, the upper edge of
which showed just above the water-line, with the high flaring bow, short
counter, and lofty tapering spars, which needed not the "stars and
stripes" fluttering far aloft to proclaim her an American. And behind
her, again, came a great five-masted ironclad, gliding with slow and
stately motion up the river on her way to Chatham.

"Oh, what a monster of a ship!" exclaimed little Blanche Lascelles as
the ironclad approached near enough to the _Galatea_ to enable those on
board to realise her vast proportions.

"Yes," said Brook, who was standing close by, evidently anxious for an
opportunity to ingratiate himself with the ladies. "Yes, that's the
_Black Prince_; I know her well. Fine ship, ain't she?"

"I think you are mistaken, sir, as to the name of that ironclad,"
remarked Captain Staunton, who was on the poop within ear-shot. "The
_Black Prince_ has only _three_ masts, and she has a raking stem, not a
ram."

"Oh, no; I'm not mistaken," said the individual addressed. "Wait 'til
we see her name; you'll find I'm right."

Another minute or so and the great ship swept close past them, her white
ensign drooping from the peak and her pennant streaming out from her
main-royal mast-head like a fiery gleam in the sunset glow, the look-out
men on her forecastle and the officers on her bridge dwarfed to pigmies
by comparison with t