le lying at anchor with Lord St. Vincent's
ships, one day a boat pulled off from the flagship, and there leaped
therefrom and came swiftly up the ladder--who but young Murray himself.
He saluted the quarter-deck, and he saluted Jack as he reported himself,
smiling all over like the happy boy he was.

"I've come on board to join, sir. Isn't it jolly, just? And I'm promoted
to a lieutenancy."

M'Hearty, Simmons, and every soul in the mess were most pleased to see
him, and that evening Murray was the hero of the hour; and a very long
and strange story he had to tell of his imprisonment, his harsh
treatment, and his making love to the prison-governor's daughter,
through whose cleverness he at last managed to escape, dressed as a
_grisette_.

He kept his messmates laughing till long after seven bells in the first
watch; and it must be said that not this night only, but every other
night, Murray infused into the mess a joy and jollity to which it had
been all winter a stranger.

* * * * *

Meanwhile a greater hero than Jack Mackenzie must hold the stage for a
brief spell--namely, Nelson himself. Napoleon Bonaparte, after lying
awake for a night or two, gave birth to a grand idea. Hyder Ali, in the
south of India, hated the British as one hates a viper, and gladly would
have crushed our power under his heel. But he needed help. It occurred
to Bonaparte to aid him, and so oust us from our Indian Empire, which
was then being quickly built up. It was a pretty idea, and well carried
out at the commencement; for Bonny, as our sailors called him, managed
to sail from France with thirty thousand veteran, well-tried troops; and
having the good luck to elude our fleet, he called at Malta, which he
quickly brought to terms, then made straight for Egypt. Here he landed
from his fleet, which I believe had orders to return, but did not.

With such men as those old troops of Napoleon's the conquest of Egypt
and the Mamelukes was but a picnic, and all very pleasant for Bonny and
his merry men, though sad enough for the country on which these human
locusts had alighted. Cairo fell, and the great warrior now set himself
to rebuild the constitution of the country and create a native army.

Lord St. Vincent sent the brave one-eyed, one-armed Nelson with a fleet
to destroy the French expedition. That he quickly would have done. He
speedily would have cooked his hare, but he had to catch it first. Where
ever