r you had strolled. In
following what I thought a seaman's instinct, it appears that I did
well.--Do my eyes fail me, or are there no more than three vessels at
anchor yonder?"

"Your eyes are still good, Sir Reginald; Admiral Oakes sailed several
hours since, and he has been followed by all the fleet, with the
exception of the two line-of-battle ships, and the frigate you see;
leaving me to be the last to quit the anchorage."

"Is it a secret of state, or are you permitted to say whither so strong
a force has so suddenly sailed?" demanded the baronet, glancing his dark
eye so expressively towards the other as to give him, in the growing
obscurity, the appearance of an inquisitor. "I had been told the fleet
would wait for orders from London?"

"Such was the first intention of the commander-in-chief; but
intelligence of the sailing of the Comte de Vervillin has induced Sir
Gervaise to change his mind. An English admiral seldom errs when he
seeks and beats an active and dangerous enemy."

"Is this always true, Admiral Bluewater?" returned Sir Reginald,
dropping in at the side of the other, and joining in his walk, as he
paced, to and fro, a short path that Dutton called his own quarter-deck;
"or is it merely an unmeaning generality that sometimes causes men to
become the dupes of their own imaginations. Are those _always_ our
enemies who may seem to be so? or, are we so infallible that every
feeling or prejudice may be safely set down as an impulse to which we
ought to submit, without questioning its authority?"

"Do you esteem it a prejudice to view France as the natural enemy of
England, Sir Reginald?"

"By heaven, I do, sir! I can conceive that England may be much more her
own enemy than France has ever proved to be. Then, conceding that ages
of warfare have contributed to awaken some such feeling as this you hint
at, is there not a question of right and wrong that lies behind all?
Reflect how often England has invaded the French soil, and what serious
injuries she has committed on the territory of the latter, while France
has so little wronged us, in the same way; how, even her throne has been
occupied by our princes, and her provinces possessed by our armies."

"I think you hardly allow for all the equity of the different cases.
Parts of what is now France, were the just inheritance of those who have
sat on the English throne, and the quarrels were no more than the usual
difficulties of neighbourhood. When ou