Here we break off finally and close the book. Alike in our stories of the far-off past and the last story of the nearer past, the men whose names have been mentioned, round whom the incidents related centred, are, after all, only typical of their fellows in the Sea Service at the present hour. As occasion will prove too, when the time next comes for Great Britain to stand to her arms once more in defence on the sea of her rights and the honour of the flag against a European foe, the enemy, whosoever he may be, will find the spirit of the Cornwallis's and Rodneys and Faulknors and the Gardiners of the older day--to name no other, no more recent names--burning as brightly as of yore in the breasts of those who in that hour will officer and man the war-ships of the British Fleet. No wonder England holds Dominion o'er the seas-- Still the Red Cross shall face the world, While she has men like these! FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 121: _Pictures of Many Wars_, pp. 177, etc.] [Footnote 122: This is very much the way that the late Admiral Sir W.R. Mends, G.C.B., (then a captain) handled the _Arethusa_ frigate (now a training-ship in the Thames) under sail at the bombardment of Odessa on the 22nd of April 1854, to the enthusiastic admiration of the whole fleet.] [Footnote 123: The first officer to hoist his flag in the _Alexandra_ was the late Admiral of the Fleet Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby, G.C.B. She was afterwards the flagship, also in the Mediterranean, of the late Duke of Edinburgh. Sir Geoffrey Hornby hoisted his flag on board on Monday, the 15th of January 1877, and the _Alexandra_ was his flagship when in the following year, at the most critical moment for Europe of the Russo-Turkish War, Sir Geoffrey, with a division of the Mediterranean Fleet, made the passage of the Dardanelles. Speaking of the close association between the _Alexandra_ and the royal lady who so auspiciously sent the splendid battleship afloat, Sir Geoffrey Hornby's biographer, his daughter, Mrs. Fred. Egerton, says: 'H.R.H. was recognised, so to speak, as the patron saint of the ship. Her birthday, December 1, became the fete day of the ship; a Danish cross, with a garland of oak leaves between the arms of the cross, was adopted as the crest, and a photograph of the Princess, presented by her to the officers, received the place of honour in the wardroom.'] [Footnote 124: One of Lord Beaconsfield's 'purchased squadron,' an ironclad built in England for Turkey, and bought, with the _Belleisle_, _Orion_, and _Neptune_, at the time of the 'scare' of 1878, during the Russo-Turkish War, when the crossing of the Balkans by the Russian armies threatened Constantinople and strained the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Russia almost to breaking-point.] INDEX 'Achille,' The, 272 Admiral of the Red, 281 Affleck, Commodore, 130 'Africa, The,' 277 'Agamemnon, The,' 79, 81 Aix, 223 'Ajax, The' (see under Ships)