ish
seamen as I once seduced from his Britannic majesty's ship Bellerophon,
for a certain patriot service in South America, I would undertake to
make myself master of Harlech castle in ten minutes; and yet,
gentlemen, I doubt not but the king of England could have found five
other men in his service that would have singed our beards and perhaps
retaken it in twenty minutes.

"My lord, I see that you disapprove of this style in a prisoner on his
defence. Let me say then at once--that, though I pay every respect to
the king of so great a nation, and would have been proud to have held a
commission under his majesty, yet, as I do not hold one, nor ever did,
I think it can scarcely be said that I owe him any duty, or can have
committed any treason against him. It is my vanity to call myself an
Englishman; and I sometimes believe that I _am_ one. But I am sure
_that_ is more of my free love to England, than of any claim which
England can show to my services. For I have lived, from the earliest
time I can remember, chiefly upon the sea; possibly was born there: and
that I speak English as my native language cannot prove me an
Englishman; for I speak Spanish and Portuguese as fluently. So far from
having received any favours from England, or the king of England--I
protest that his Britannic majesty is almost the only great potentate
in the Christian world to whom at one time or other I have _not_ sworn
allegiance. For so young a man this may seem a bold assertion: but the
truth is--I have borne arms from my childish days; have seen a good
deal of land service: and, as to naval service, my unhappy lot having
thrown me so early upon the society of sea-rovers, I have positively
sailed under the flag of every maritime state in Christendom. I cannot
see, therefore, how I can be viewed as an English subject: and if I
were to allow myself the magnificent language adopted by my learned
enemy who opened the case for the crown, I might rather claim to be
considered as a foreign power making unsuccessful war upon the king of
England in his castle of Harlech, and now taken prisoner in my final
invasion of his territories. In that case, the learned gentleman will
recollect that--if I should escape from this court by the verdict of
the jury, I shall have a right to consider him as an ally of that great
prince, and to treat him accordingly by land or sea.

"But I am slipping back into that style by which I was sorry to
perceive that I gave