heren farmer.
Moreover, the Dutch were unworthy of liberty, as their actions proved--
to begrudge a few fowls, or a fillet of veal, to the very men who came
to rescue them from bondage;--and then their water, too, who ever drank
such stuff? For my part, I never tasted it when I could get anything
better. As to their nasty swamps and fogs, quite good enough for such
croaking fellows as they are, what could induce an Englishman to live
among them, except the pleasure of killing Frenchmen or shooting game?
Deprive us of these pursuits, which the surrender of Flushing
effectually did, and Walcheren with its ophthalmia and its agues, was no
longer a place for a gentleman. Besides, I plainly saw that if there
ever had been any intention of advancing to Antwerp, the time was now
gone by; and as the French were laughing at us, and I never liked to be
made a butt of, particularly by such chaps as these, I left the scene of
our sorrows and disgraces without regret.

The farewell of Voltaire came into my mind. "_Adieu, canaux, canards,
et canaille_," which might be rendered into English thus:--"Good bye,
dikes, ducks, and Dutchmen." So I returned to my father's house, to be
nursed by my sister, and to astonish the neighbours with the history of
our wonderful achievements.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

First came great Neptune, with his three-fork mace
That rules the seas, and makes them rise or fall;
His dewy locks did drop with brine apace
Under his diademe imperiall:
And by his side his queene with coronall,
Fair Amphitrite
...
These marched farre afore the other crew.
SPENSER.

I remained no longer at home than sufficed to restore my strength, after
the serious attack of fever and ague which I had brought with me from
Walcheren. Although my father received me kindly, he had not forgotten
(at least I thought so) my former transgressions; a mutual distrust
destroyed that intimacy which ought ever to exist between father and
son. The thread was broken--it is vain to inquire how, and the
consequence was, that the day of my departure to join a frigate on the
North American station was welcomed with joy by me, and seen unregretted
by my father.

The ship I was about to join was commanded by a young nobleman; and as
patricians were not so plentiful in the service at that time as they
have since become, I was considered fortunate in my appointment. I was
ordered, with about thirty more supernumerary midshipm