en, perhaps, as sturdy broadswords. Yet every one remembers that
story of Saladin and Richard trying their respective blades; how
gallant Richard clove an anvil in twain, or something quite as
ponderous, and Saladin elegantly severed a cushion; so that the two
monarchs were even--each excelling in his way--though, unfortunately
for my simile, in a patriotic point of view, Richard whipped Saladin's
armies in the end.

There happened to be a lord on board of this ship--the younger son of
an earl, they told me. He was a fine-looking fellow. I chanced to stand
by when he put a question to an Irish captain of a gum; upon the
seaman's inadvertently saying sir to him, his lordship looked daggers
at the slight; and the sailor touching his hat a thousand times, said,
"Pardon, your honour; I meant to say _my lord_, sir!"

I was much pleased with an old white-headed musician, who stood at the
main hatchway, with his enormous bass drum full before him, and
thumping it sturdily to the tune of "God Save the King!" though small
mercy did he have on his drum-heads. Two little boys were clashing
cymbals, and another was blowing a fife, with his cheeks puffed out
like the plumpest of his country's plum-puddings.

When we returned from this trip, there again took place that
ceremonious reception of our captain on board the vessel he commanded,
which always had struck me as exceedingly diverting.

In the first place, while in port, one of the quarter-masters is always
stationed on the poop with a spy-glass, to look out for all boats
approaching, and report the same to the officer of the deck; also, who
it is that may be coming in them; so that preparations may be made
accordingly. As soon, then, as the gig touched the side, a mighty
shrill piping was heard, as if some boys were celebrating the Fourth of
July with penny whistles. This proceeded from a boatswain's mate, who,
standing at the gangway, was thus honouring the Captain's return after
his long and perilous absence.

The Captain then slowly mounted the ladder, and gravely marching
through a lane of "_side-boys_," so called--all in their best bibs and
tuckers, and who stood making sly faces behind his back--was received
by all the Lieutenants in a body, their hats in their hands, and making
a prodigious scraping and bowing, as if they had just graduated at a
French dancing-school. Meanwhile, preserving an erect, inflexible, and
ram-rod carriage, and slightly touching his chapeau