ou've never heerd tell of Lord Howe, who licked the French off
Ushant, somewheres about sixteen years gone by?"

"Never."

"Nor of the great victories gained in the '95 by Sir Edward Pellew, an'
Admiral Hotham, an' Admiral Cornwallis, an' Lord Bridgeport?"

"No, of coorse ye couldn't; nor yet of Admiral Duncan, who, in the '97,
(I think it was), beat the Dutch fleet near Camperdown all to sticks.
Nor yet of that tremendous fight off Cape Saint Vincent in the same
year, when Sir John Jervis, with nothin' more than fifteen sail o' the
Mediterranean fleet, attacked the Spaniards wi' their twenty-seven ships
o' the line--line-o'-battle ships, you'll observe, John Adams--an' took
four of 'em, knocked half of the remainder into universal smash, an'
sunk all the rest?"

"That was splendid!" exclaimed Adams, his martial spirit rising, while
the eyes of the young listeners around kept pace with their mouths in
dilating.

"Splendid? Pooh!" said Jack Brace, delivering puffs between sentences
that resembled the shots of miniature seventy-fours, "that was nothin'
to what followed. Nelson was in that fight, he was, an' Nelson began to
shove out his horns a bit soon after that, _I_ tell you. Well, well,"
continued the British tar with a resigned look, "to think of meetin' a
man out of Bedlam who hasn't heerd of Nelson and the Nile, w'ich, of
coorse, ye haven't. It's worth while comin' all this way to see you."

Adams smiled and said, "Let's hear all about it."

"All about it, John? Why, it would take me all night to tell you all
about it," (there was an audible gasp of delight among the listeners),
"and I haven't time for that; but you must know that Lord Nelson, bein'
Sir Horatio Nelson at that time, chased the French fleet, under Admiral
Brueys, into Aboukir Bay, (that's on the coast of Egypt), sailed in
after 'em, anchored alongside of 'em, opened on 'em wi' both broadsides
at once, an' blew them all to bits."

"You don't say that, Jack Brace!"

"Yes, I do, John Adams; an' nine French line-o'-battle ships was took,
two was burnt, two escaped, and the biggest o' the lot, the great
three-decker, the _Orient_, was blowed up, an' sent to the bottom. It
was a thorough-goin' piece o' business that, _I_ tell you, an' Nelson
meant it to be, for w'en he gave the signal to go into close action, he
shouted, `Victory or Westminster Abbey.'"

"What did he mean by that?" asked Adams.

"Why, don't you see, Westminster Abbey is