ness. His present intention was to
cause his vessels to pass before him in review, as a general orders his
battalions to march past a station occupied by himself and staff, with a
view to judge by his own eye of their steadiness and appearance.
Vice-Admiral Oakes was the only officer in the British navy who ever
resorted to this practice; but he did many things of which other men
never dreamed, and, among the rest, he did not hesitate to attack double
his force, when an occasion offered, as has just been seen. The officers
of the fleet called these characteristic reviews "Sir Jarvy's
field-days," finding a malicious pleasure in comparing any thing out of
the common nautical track, to some usage of the soldiers.

Bunting got his orders, notwithstanding the jokes of the fleet; and the
necessary signals were made and the answers given. Captain Greenly then
received his verbal instructions, when the commander-in-chief went
below, to prepare himself for the approaching scene. When Sir Gervaise
re-appeared on the poop, he was in full uniform, wearing the star of the
Bath, as was usual with him on all solemn official occasions. Atwood and
Bunting were at his side, while the Bowlderos, in their rich
shore-liveries, formed a group at hand. Captain Greenly and his first
lieutenant joined the party as soon as their duty with the ship was
over. On the opposite side of the poop, the whole of the marines off
guard were drawn up in triple lines, with their officers at their head.
The ship herself had hauled up her main-sail, hauled down all her
stay-sails, and lay with her main-top-sail braced sharp aback, with
orders to the quarter-master to keep her little off the wind; the object
being to leave a little way through the water, in order to prolong the
expected interviews. With these preparations the commander-in-chief
awaited the successive approach of his ships, the sun, for the first
time in twenty-four hours, making his appearance in a flood of brilliant
summer-light, as if purposely to grace the ceremony.

The first ship that drew near the Plantagenet was the Carnatic, as a
matter of course, she being the next in the line. This vessel,
remarkable, as the commander-in-chief had observed, for never being out
of the way, was not long in closing, though as she luffed up on the
admiral's weather-quarter, to pass to windward, she let go all her
top-sail bowlines, so as to deaden her way, making a sort of half-board.
This simple evolut