st, as the
mastiff passes the cur, on his way to encounter another animal, of a
mould and courage more worthy of his powers.

[Footnote 2: The writer believes this noble-minded sailor to have been
the late Admiral Sir Benjamin Caldwell. It is scarcely necessary to say
that the invitation could not be accepted, though quite seriously
given.]

"Make nothing of 'em, hey! Greenly," said Sir Gervaise, as the captain
came down from his perch, in consequence of the gathering obscurity of
evening, followed by half-a-dozen lieutenants and midshipmen, who had
been aloft as volunteers. "Well, we know they cannot yet be to the
westward of us, and by standing on shall be certain of heading them off,
before this time six months. How beautifully all the ships behave,
following each other as accurately as if Bluewater himself were aboard
each vessel to conn her!"

"Yes, sir, they do keep the line uncommonly well, considering that the
tides run in streaks in the channel. I _do_ think if we were to drop a
hammock overboard, that the Carnatic would pick it up, although she must
be quite four leagues astern of us."

"Let old Parker alone for that! I'll warrant you, _he_ is never out of
the way. Were it Lord Morganic, now, in the Achilles, I should expect
him to be away off here on our weather-quarter, just to show us how his
ship can eat us out of the wind when he _tries_: or away down yonder,
under our lee, that we might understand how she falls off, when he
_don't_ try."

"My lord is a gallant officer, and no bad seaman, for his years,
notwithstanding, Sir Gervaise," observed Greenly, who generally took the
part of the absent, whenever his superior felt disposed to berate them.

"I deny neither, Greenly, most particularly the first. I know very well,
were I to signal Morganic, to run into Brest, he'd do it; but whether he
would go in, ring-tail-boom, or jib-boom first, I couldn't tell till I
saw it. Now you are a youngish man yourself. Greenly--"

"Every day of eight-and-thirty, Sir Gervaise, and a few months to spare;
and I care not if the ladies know it."

"Poh!--They like us old fellows, half the time, as well as they do the
boys. But you are of an age not to feel time in your bones, and can see
the folly of some of our old-fashioned notions, perhaps; though you are
not quite as likely to understand the fooleries that have come in, in
your own day. Nothing is more absurd than to be experimenting on the
settled principles of