The French war lasted even longer than the American war. This was the cause: for a long time the French kings had governed France very badly, and the French nobles oppressed the poor people, and the clergymen did not do their duty rightly, but left the people ignorant. At last the people could bear these bad things no longer, and King Louis the Sixteenth, who was a good king, would have made them better if he could. But the princes and nobles would not let him. Then a number of bad people collected in Paris, and they put the king and queen and all their family in prison, and they cut off the heads of the king and queen and the king’s sister, and of a great many lords and ladies, and after that of every clergyman they could find, and then of everybody who tried to save the life of another; in short, I believe the French people did more wicked things in about three years than any other nation had ever done in a hundred. The name of the most wicked of all was Robespierre. He was killed at last by some of those he meant to kill. England and several other countries then went to war with the French because they had sent armies to attack the neighbouring countries, and had conquered many of them, and that war lasted about twenty-four years. France would have been mastered, I think, if it had not been for a brave and clever but wicked man, called Napoleon Buonaparte, who, from being a simple lieutenant, rose to be Emperor of the French. He chose clever men for judges and generals. He conquered many countries, and used to threaten to come and conquer England. But we had brave sailors, and clever captains and admirals, who never let any of his ships come near us. Lord Howe won the first sea victory in the war; then we had Lord St. Vincent, Admirals Duncan, Hood, Collingwood, Cornwallis, Cochrane, Pellew, and many more, who gained battles at sea, besides more captains than I can tell you, who took parts of fleets or single ships. But the man that will be remembered for ever as the greatest English sailor was Admiral Lord NELSON. He gained three great victories,—at Aboukir in Egypt, at Copenhagen, and at TRAFALGAR near the coast of Spain. In that battle he was killed, but he knew his own fleet had conquered before he died. When he went into battle, the words he gave, to tell all the ships when to begin to fight, were, ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY. These words must never be forgotten by any Englishman. [Illustration: Farmhouse of Hougoumont on the Field of Waterloo.]