s not a bad goer, and weatherly, I
think, all will call her. But she's thundering French, inside."

"We'll make her English in due time, sir. How are the leaks? do the
pumps work freely?"

"Deuce the l'ake has she, Sir Gervaise, and the pumps suck like a nine
months' babby. And if they didn't we're scarce the boys to find out the
contrary, being but nineteen working hands."

"Very well, Daly; you can haul aboard your main-tack, now; remember,
you're to go into Plymouth, as soon as it is dark. If you see any thing
of Admiral Bluewater, tell him I rely on his support, and only wait for
his appearance to finish Monsieur de Vervillin's job."

"I'll do all that, with hearty good will, sir. Pray, Sir Gervaise,"
added Daly, grinning, on the poop of the prize, whither he had got by
this time, having walked aft as his ship went ahead, "how do you like
French signals? For want of a better, we were driven to the classics!"

"Ay, you'd be bothered to explain all your own flags, I fancy. The name
of the ship is the Victory, I am told; why did you put her in armour,
and whip a kedge up against the poor woman?"

"It's according to the books, Sir Gervaise. Every word of it out of
Cicero, and Cordairy, and Cornelius Nepos, and those sort of fellows.
Oh! I went to school, sir, before I went to sea, as you say yourself,
sometimes, Sir Gervaise; and literature is the same in Ireland, as it is
all over the world. Victory needs armour, sir, in order to be
victorious, and the anchor is to show that she doesn't belong to 'the
cut and run' family. I am as sure that all was right, as I ever was of
my moods and tenses."

"Very well, Daly," answered Sir Gervaise, laughing--"My lords shall know
your merits in that way, and it may get you named a professor--keep your
luff, or you'll be down on our sprit-sail-yard;--remember and follow the
Druid."

Here the gentlemen waved their hands in adieu as usual, and la Victoire,
clipped as she was of her wings, drew slowly past. The Druid succeeded,
and Sir Gervaise simply gave Blewet his orders to see the prize into
port, and to look after his own foremast. This ended the field day; the
frigate luffing up to windward of the line again, leaving the
Plantagenet in its rear. A few minutes later, the latter ship filled and
stood after her consorts.

The vice-admiral having now ascertained, in the most direct manner, the
actual condition of his fleet, had _data_ on which to form his plans for
the futur