g of stretching along the
messenger."

"Ah! you're a set of uneasy fellows, all round!--You tire of your native
land in twenty-four hours, I find. Well, Mr. Bunting; you can go off,
and say that all is very well. This house is in a sad state of
confusion, as, I presume, you know. Mention this to Captain Greenly."

"Ay-ay-sir; is it your pleasure I should tell him any thing else, Sir
Gervaise Oakes?"

"Why--yes--Bunting," answered the vice-admiral, smiling; "you may as
well give him a hint to get all his fresh grub off, as fast as he
can--and--yes; to let no more men quit the ship on liberty."

"Any thing more, Sir Gervaise?" added the pertinacious officer.

"On the whole, you may as well run up a signal to be ready to unmoor.
The ships can very well ride at single anchors, when the tide has once
fairly made. What say you, Bluewater?"

"A signal to unmoor, at once, would expedite matters. You know very
well, you intend to go to sea, and why not do the thing off-hand?"

"I dare say, now, Bunting, you too would like to give the
commander-in-chief a nudge of some sort or other."

"If I could presume so far, Sir Gervaise. I can only say, sir, that the
sooner we are off, the sooner we shall flog the French."

"And Master Galleygo, what are your sentiments, on this occasion? It is
a full council, and all ought to speak, freely."

"You knows, Sir Jarvy, that I never speaks in these matters, unless
spoken to. Admiral Blue and your honour are quite enough to take care of
the fleet in most circumstances, though there is some knowledge in the
tops, as well as in the cabin. My ideas is, gentlemen, that, by casting
to starboard on this ebb tide, we shall all have our heads off-shore,
and we shall fetch into the offing as easily as a country wench turns in
a jig. What we shall do with the fleet, when we gets out, will be shown
in our ultra movements."

By "ultra," David meant "ulterior," a word he had caught up from hearing
despatches read, which he understood no better than those who wrote them
at the admiralty.

"Thanks to you all, my friends!" cried Sir Gervaise, who was so
delighted at the prospect of a general engagement, that he felt a boyish
pleasure in this fooling; "and now to business, seriously. Mr. Bunting,
I would have the signal for sailing shown. Let each ship fire a
recall-gun for her boats. Half an hour later, show the bunting to
unmoor; and send my boat ashore as soon as you begin to heave on the
capst