e talking together, and Stephen, who was sitting near them drinking his
coffee and smoking his cigarette, heard to his surprise the name of Lord
Cochrane.

"There can be no doubt as to the truth of the news," one said. "Not only
has this English adventurer accepted the offer of Dom Pedro to take
command of his fleet, but they say he is already on his way, and is
expected to arrive at Rio in a few weeks. I am afraid that he will give us
some trouble."

"Not he," another said scornfully. "One of our ships could dispose of the
whole of the insurgent fleet. They are, as we know from our friends there,
but armed merchantmen, the _Pedro Primeiro_ being the only real war-ship
among them. Moreover, their equipments are villainously bad, and their
manning worse, the only real sailors they have being our countrymen, who
will bring the ships over to us when the first gun is fired. Even the
Englishman can do nothing with such ships as these against three
well-appointed fleets like ours."

"He did wonders on the other side," one of the other officers said.

"I grant you he did, but the odds were nothing like so great. The Chilians
are better sailors by far than the people here, and could at least be
relied upon to be faithful. I should think it likely that he will throw up
his command in disgust as soon as he sees what this so-called fleet is,
and how hopeless it is to struggle against such tremendous odds."

"I hope that it may be so, major. I own the force of your arguments, and
the apparent hopelessness of any attempt to meet us at sea; but after what
he did on the other side I cannot but think that he will at least give us
some trouble, and at any rate make our conquest of the insurgent provinces
less easy than we have anticipated. The man's reputation alone will
inspire even those who regard their position as most hopeless, with some
sort of energy. Hitherto I have never thought that there would be any
resistance whatever, but anticipated that they would surrender as soon as
our fleet appeared off their shores and our troops landed; but I think now
that this Englishman may infuse some of his own mad spirit into these
indolent Brazilians, and that they will make at least a show of
resistance."

"All the worse for them," the captain laughed. "There will only be so many
more confiscations and so much more plunder for the troops. I hope myself
that they will resist, for otherwise we shall gain but little prize-money
or plunde