y from each of their hardy generations. They had no title, but to
be The Warren of Warrenstown, Meath, was to be entitled to look down
with disdain upon upstart baronets and newly created peers. Sir.
Christopher Aylmer's daughter, Catherine, was honoured to marry
Captain Michael Warren, and her brother, Admiral Lord Aylmer, only too
glad to take charge of her boy Peter later on.

Peter was the youngest of a family, composed with one exception of
boys, and the most ambitious of the lot. When he was nine years old
(he was born in 1703, by the bye), his father, Captain Michael, died,
and three years later the oldest son, Oliver, decided to send Peter to
his uncle Lord Aylmer to be trained for the service. Is it far-fetched
to assume that Oliver found his small brother something of a handful?
If Peter was one-quarter as pugnacious and foolhardy at twelve as he
was at forty, there is small wonder that a young man burdened with the
cares of a large estate and an orphaned family would be not unwilling
to get rid of him,--or at least of the responsibility of him. Their
uncle, the Admiral, apparently liked his little Irish nephew, and
proceeded to train him for a naval career, with such vigourous success
that at fourteen our young hero volunteered for His Majesty's
service,--a thing, we may take it, which had been the high dream of
his boyish life.

And it was real service too. Boys turned into men very quickly in
those days. In Southern and African waters young Peter saw plenty of
action. He had such adventures as our modern boys sit up at night to
read of. For there were pirates to be encountered then,
flesh-and-blood pirates with black flags and the rest of it. And
deep-sea storms meant more in those days of sails and comparatively
light vessels than we can even imagine today. So swiftly did Peter
grow up under this stern yet thrilling education with the English
colours, that after four short years he was a lieutenant. And in
another six, at an age when most young men are barely standing on the
threshold of their life-work, he was posted a full captain and given
his first command!

His ship was H.M.S. _Grafton_, of seventy guns,--no small honour for
a boy of hardly twenty-four,--and it proved to be no empty honour
either. No sooner had he been posted captain than he was ordered into
action. At that time there were signal and violent differences of
opinion between England and other countries,--notably Spain and
France. Gib