ous marksman in the
_Redoutable's_ mizzen-top hit him, catching sight of the medals on his
breast; for, he would stick 'em on, in spite of the advice of Hardy, who
was his flag-captain, you know."

"That was very foolish of him," interposed Mrs Gilmour. "I suppose he
did it to show off, like most of you men; for you're a consayted lot!
The same as you punish your malacca cane, Captain!"

"Not a bit of it!" retorted the old sailor indignantly, up in arms at
once at the slightest aspersion on his hero's fame. "He wore his medals
because, ma'am, in the first place, he wasn't a bit ashamed of them;
and, secondly, to encourage his men--there, ma'am!"

"That's a settler for you, Polly!" said her brother quizzingly; but, he
didn't laugh, the Captain appeared so very much in earnest in speaking
of Nelson, whom he regarded with the deepest veneration. "I don't
think, my dear, though, it's a subject for joking!"

"I'm very sorry I spoke, sure," pleaded she in extenuation of her
offence, "I didn't mean any harm!"

"Well, well, let it pass," replied the Captain, dismissing the painful
point in dispute with a wave of his arm and continuing his description
of the tragic end of the conqueror of Trafalgar, which Mrs Gilmour's
interruption had somewhat confused in his mind. "We were just where he
was shot, eh?"

"Yes," replied Bob, who had been hanging on his words and was all
attention and had not lost a word of the narrative. "The French
marksman saw his medals."

"Humph!" ejaculated the old sailor, "making sail again with a fair
wind," as he expressed it in his nautical way. "Well, then, the fellow
who shot him was potted immediately afterwards, you'll be glad to hear,
by one of our `jollies'--marines, you know--on the poop, who saw the
chap aiming at Nelson, but fired too late to prevent the fatal leaden
messenger doing its deadly work! The poor Admiral sank down here, just
by that hatchway, and there used to be the stain of his blood, as they
said, on the old timbers of the deck; but those have been removed, and,
indeed, they've restored the ship so often that there's hardly one of
her old planks left in her save this with the memorial plate here."

"But, what was done after Nelson was wounded?" inquired Nellie, who had
been listening as intently as Bob. "Didn't they do anything to help
him?"

"Why, they took him down to the cock-pit, as they called the
midshipmen's berth on the lower deck, where we're going now,