elf:

"Sir, I am not in a condition to be pressed by you, I am not a mariner
by calling; and, moreover, I am but just risen from a bed of
sickness."

He glanced over my dress before he answered, with something of a
smile. And, indeed, for a landsman, my costume was something out of
the way, for during the time since I had signed articles to Captain
Sims I had done my best to equip myself in true sea-dog fashion.

"You surprise me, young sir," the lieutenant said presently, when he
had surveyed me. "Your dress tallies but ill with your professions. If
you wore but a cutlass, and had a pistol to your belt, I could have
sworn you to be a smuggler at the least."

I hung my head at this, for it was my own vanity that had led me into
the mess. I could only fall back on my second excuse.

"Nevertheless, you are mistaken, sir," I said. "But however that may
be, be pleased to believe me when I tell you that I am scarce yet
recovered from several severe wounds."

"Indeed! I thought I had seen you coming out of yonder tavern at a
marvellous nimble gait. But my eyes are indifferent bad. Here, Master
Veale, what say you, does this young man look too sick for our
purpose? He says he is not recovered of his wounds."

The man he applied to, who was master of the ship's cutter, answered
him in the same jesting manner.

"I see nothing the matter with un, your honour. But perhaps we had
best carry un aboard and let the ship's doctor feel his pulse."

"I protest against this treatment," I said angrily. "In the name of
his Majesty, I say, unhandle me."

"Nay," quoth the lieutenant, "my hearing is as indifferent as my
eyesight, and I follow you not. Master Veale, if this youngster uses
any blasphemy or indecency let him be gagged till we come aboard
again."

This threat was enough to silence me, if I had not been otherwise
afraid to make a stir. For though I might have got some of the
passers-by to succour me, it being broad daylight, and these
impressments most unpopular among seafaring men, yet I foresaw that it
would quickly come to a question of who I was, and if my name once
became bruited abroad there were friends of my father's in the town
who would have made short work of sending me back to him. And sooner
than face the disgrace of this, as I considered it, I was willing to
try my luck with King George.

I therefore walked along with the pressgang, by the side of Master
Veale, who used me civilly enough when he found