ed yards. Nothing could be
better--thought the Englishmen; and the French were of that opinion too,
especially as Nelson was not there.

Scudamore had nothing to do with the loose adventure of the fire-ships,
the object of which was to huddle together this advanced part of the
flotilla, so that the catamarans might sweep unseen into a goodly
thicket of vessels, and shatter at least half a dozen at once.

But somehow the scheme was not well carried out, though it looked very
nice upon paper. One very great drawback, to begin with, was that the
enemy were quite aware of all our kind intentions; and another scarcely
less fatal was the want of punctuality on our part. All the floating
coffins should have come together, like a funeral of fifty from a
colliery; but instead of that they dribbled in one by one, and were
cast off by their tow-boats promiscuously. Scudamore did his part well
enough, though the whole thing went against his grain, and the four
catamarans under his direction were the only ones that did their duty.
The boats of the Blonde had these in tow, and cast them off handsomely
at the proper distance, and drew the plugs which set their clock-springs
going. But even of these four only two exploded, although the clocks
were not American, and those two made a tremendous noise, but only
singed a few French beards off. Except, indeed, that a fine old horse,
with a white Roman nose and a bright chestnut mane, who was living in
a flat-bottomed boat, broke his halter, and rushed up to the bows, and
gave vent to his amazement, as if he had been gifted with a trumpet.

Hereupon a dog, loth to be behind the times, scampered up to his side,
and with his forefeet on the gunwale, contributed a howl of incalculable
length and unfathomable sadness.

In the hurly of the combat and confusion of the night, with the dimness
streaked with tumult, and the water gashed with fire, that horse and
this dog might have gone on for ever, bewailing the nature of the sons
of men, unless a special fortune had put power into their mouths. One
of the fire-ships, as scandal did declare, was that very ancient tub
indeed--that could not float on its bottom--the Peggy of Springhaven,
bought at thrice her value, through the influence of Admiral Darling. If
one has to meet every calumny that arises, and deal with it before going
further, the battle that lasted for a fortnight and then turned into
an earthquake would be a quick affair compared wit