o was minus an eye. Subsequently
this man entered into a morganatic marriage with the gentle Marie, and
she bore to him several children who were declared to be legitimate,
and this happened notwithstanding the fact that the Emperor her husband
was still living in anguish under a tyranny and cruel despotism
instituted by the British oligarchy. This was the kind of anecdote that
filled the sailors with sympathy for the great man who in the decline
of his days was at the mercy of a lot of little men. Then they had
stories of how he could throw off the thought of his wretched position,
and enter into a frolic with Betsy Balcombe and her sister at the
Briars. He would play for hours with the two little girls, and also
with the other children that became attached to him. The smattering
knowledge and comic rawness of the discourses on this great personality
were always intensely attractive. Faith in the accuracy of their own
views was strong. Long before I was old enough to be allowed to take
part in the forecastle Napoleonic discussions I used to listen to them
with eager interest, and well remember the attention given to even a
wrongly-informed orator. The subject was always made fascinating by
serving up the tales in their own forecastle fashion. None of the other
military notables of Napoleon's time claimed their admiration or
devotion as he did; not even Wellington.

Their views on politics and politicians, and their mode of expressing
them, were extremely queer. The prominent statesmen they talked of most
were Fox, Pitt, Lord John Russell, Palmerston, Peel, Gladstone and
Disraeli; and apart from the fault they had to find with the latter as
a statesman, they believed him to be unwilling to legislate in their
interests, though even they didn't appear to have the ghost of an idea
as to how those interests were to be legislatively served. They knew
there was something the matter, that was all. They also had a strong
antipathy to Disraeli owing to his Hebrew origin. In fact, they
regarded the great Jew in the light of a foreigner, whose intrusion
into English politics was a humiliation to all British-born subjects.
The confusion of opinions as to the character and duties devolving on
members of Parliament was very embarrassing even to themselves, and the
vivacity with which they delivered orations to each other on the merits
or demerits of members was exquisitely droll. The rivalry between Fox
and Pitt was a subject that in