the clang of armour filled it. Numbers irresistible, and
relentless power urged them. At the beck of the hand that had called the
horse, the grey sea would have been black with ships, and the pale waves
would have been red with fire. Carne looked at the water way touched
with silver by the soft descent of the winter sun, and upon it, so far
as his gaze could reach, there were but a dozen little objects moving,
puny creatures in the distance--mice in front of a lion's den. And much
as he hated with his tainted heart the land of his father, the land
of his birth, some reluctant pride arose that he was by right an
Englishman.

"It is the dread of the English seaman, it is the fame of Nelson, it is
the habit of being beaten when England meets them upon the sea--nothing
else keeps this mighty host like a set of trembling captives here, when
they might launch forth irresistibly. And what is a great deal worse,
it will keep me still in my ruined dungeons, a spy, an intriguer, an
understrapper, when I am fit to be one of the foremost. What a fool I am
so to be cowed and enslaved, by a man no better endowed than myself with
anything, except self-confidence! I should have looked over his head,
and told him that I had had enough of it, and if he would not take
advantage of my toils, I would toil for him no longer. Why, he never
even thanked me, that I can remember, and my pay is no more than
Charron's! And a pretty strict account I have to render of every
Republican coin he sends. He will have his own head on them within
six months, unless he is assassinated. His manners are not those of a
gentleman. While I was speaking to him, he actually turned his back upon
me, and cleared his throat! Every one hates him as much as fears him, of
all who are in the rank of gentlemen. How would it pay me to throw him
over, denounce my own doings, excuse them as those of a Frenchman and a
French officer, and bow the knee to Farmer George? Truly if it were not
for my mother, who has sacrificed her life for me, I would take that
course, and have done with it. Such all-important news would compel
them to replace me in the property of my forefathers; and if neighbours
looked coldly on me at first, I could very soon conquer that nonsense. I
should marry little Dolly, of course, and that would go half-way towards
doing it. I hate that country, but I might come to like it, if enough of
it belonged to me. Aha! What would my mother say, if she dreamed tha