at--which was a
round one like that of all the crew, and slouched like theirs, but a
little higher,--he advanced, by way of cockade (and as a badge at once
of the national flag he hoisted and of his own rank), a very conspicuous
white lily.

Such was the portly personage that now came up to Bertram, or rather
shouldered him in passing, and summoned him as it seemed to face about
by demanding in the voice of a Stentor:--

"So!--this is the son of a gun that was asking for a passage?"

Bertram turned to face the Captain's side, made his bow, and modestly
replied that he _was_ the person who had been a candidate for that
honour.

Without altering his oblique position, the Captain slightly turned his
head, carelessly glanced his eye over Bertram's person, and replied
thus:

"So!--Humph!--Damn!--And where do you want to go ashore?"

"At Bristol," said Bertram, "or any place on the coast of Wales."

"Bristol?--the devil! Coast of Wales? The devil's grandmother! Was the
like ever heard?--Captain le Harnois to alter his course, the _Trois
fleurs de lys_ to tack and wear--drop her anchor and weigh her anchor,
for a smock-faced vagabond?"

"But I thought, Sir,--that is, I understood,--that the _Fleurs de lys_
was expressly purposing to cruize off the Welch coast?

"Expressly purposing a tobacco-box!--I tell you what, Tom Drum: there's
a d---d deal too many rogues running about these seas--a d---d deal;
and the English police is no great shakes of a police that doesn't look
more sharply after them:--Who the devil are you?"

Bertram was preparing to answer this unceremonious question; but the
Captain interrupted him--

"Aye: I can see with half an eye: an Abram man; a mumper; a knight of
the post; that jumps up behind coaches, and cuts the straps of
portmanteaus: steals into houses in the dusk: waylays poor old people
and women, to rob them of their rags and their halfpence. For as to the
highway, and cutting throats, I think he has hardly metal for that. Or
may be he's a juggler; a rope-dancer; and plays off his _hocus pocus_
on people's pockets?"

"Upon my word, Captain, you put unspeakable wrong upon me."

"With all my heart: God give you health to wear it!"

Touched to the quick by these affronts, Bertram drew out his
pocket-book; and taking out some papers, he presented them with all the
_hauteur_ he could assume to the Captain; saying, at the same time----

"If, Sir, you will do me the honour to run your ey