ing
cheerfully to obey it. I had adopted this answer, and gave it to his
lordship when I received an order from him, saying, "Very good, my
lord."

"Mr Mildmay," said his lordship, "I don't suppose you mean anything
like disrespect, but I will thank you not to make that answer again: it
is for _me_ to say `very good,' and not you. You seem to approve of my
order, and I don't like it; I beg you will not do it again, you know."

"Very good, my lord," said I, so inveterate is habit. "I beg your
lordship's pardon, I mean `very well.'"

"I don't much like that young man," said his lordship to his toady, who
followed him up and down the quarter-deck like "the bobtail cur,"
looking his master in the face. I did not hear the answer, but of
course it was an echo.

The first time we reefed topsails at sea, the captain was on deck: he
said nothing, but merely looked on. The second time, we found he had
caught all the words of the first lieutenant, and repeated them in a
loud and pompous voice, without knowing whether they were applicable to
the case or not. The third time he fancied he was able to go alone, and
down he fell--he made a sad mistake indeed. "Hoist away the
fore-topsail," said the first lieutenant. "Hoist away the
fore-topsail," said the captain. The men were stamping aft, and the
topsail-yards travelling up to the mast-head very fast, when they were
stopped by a sudden check with the fore-topsail haulyards.

"What's the matter?" said the first lieutenant, calling to me, who was
at my station on the forecastle.

"Something foul of the topsail-tie," I replied.

"What's the matter forward?" said the captain.

"Topsail-tie is foul, my lord," answered the first lieutenant.

"Damn the topsail-tie!--cut it away. Out knife there, aloft! I _will_
have the topsail hoisted; cut away the topsail-tie!"

For the information of my land readers, I should observe that the
topsail-tie was the very rope which was at that moment suspending the
yard aloft. The cutting it would have disabled the ship until it could
have been repaired; and had the order been obeyed, the topsail-yard
itself would, in all probability, have been sprung, or broken in two on
the cap.

We arrived at Halifax without falling in with an enemy; and as soon as
the ship was secured, I went on shore to visit all my dear Dulcineas,
every one of whom I persuaded that on her account alone I had used my
utmost interest to be sent out on the statio