cut and slash'd amang the
Dons, in boarding El Lirio. I was there, ye'll both remember, gentlemen;
and was obleeged to sew up the gashes ye made with your own irreverent
and ungodly hands."

This speech referred to one of the most desperate, hand-to-hand
struggles, in which the two flag-officers had ever been engaged; and, as
it afforded them the means of exhibiting their personal gallantry, when
quite young men, both usually looked back upon the exploit with great
self-complacency; Sir Gervaise, in particular, his friend having often
declared since, that they ought to have been laid on the shelf for life,
as a punishment for risking their men in so mad an enterprise, though it
did prove to be brilliantly successful.

"That was an affair in which one might engage at twenty-two, Magrath,"
observed Bluewater; "but which he ought to hesitate about thinking of
even, after thirty."

"I'd do it again, this blessed day, if you would give us a chance!"
exclaimed Sir Gervaise, striking the back of one hand into the palm of
the other, with a sudden energy, that showed how much he was excited by
the mere recollection of the scene.

"That w'ud ye!--that w'ud ye!" said Magrath, growing more and more
Scotch, as he warmed in the discourse; "ye'd board a mackerel-hoy,
rather than not have an engagement. Ye'r a varra capital vice-admiral of
the red, Sir Gervaise, but I'm judging ye'd mak' a varra indeeferent
loblolly-boy."

"Bluewater, I shall be compelled to change ships with you, in order to
get rid of the old stand-by's of the Plantagenets! They stick to me like
leeches; and have got to be so familiar, that they criticise all my
orders, and don't more than half obey them, in the bargain."

"No one will criticise your nautical commands, Sir Gervaise; though, in
the way of the healing airt,--science, it should be called--ye're no
mair to be trusted, than one of the young gentlemen. I'm told ye drew
ye'r lancet on this poor gentleman, as ye'd draw ye'r sword on an
enemy!"

"I did, indeed, sir; though Mr. Rotherham had rendered the application
of the instrument unnecessary. Apoplexy is a rushing of the blood to the
head; and by diminishing the quantity in the veins of the arms or
temples, you lessen the pressure on the brain."

"Just layman's practice, sir--just layman's practice. Will ye tell me
now if the patient's face was red or white? Every thing depends on
_that_; which is the true diagnosis of the malady."

"Red, I thi