"Mr Simple," replied Mr Falcon, "I respect you, and admire your feelings: still I was to blame, and it is my duty to apologise. Now go down below I would have requested the pleasure of your company to dinner, but I perceive that something else has occurred, which, under any other circumstances, I would have inquired into, but at present I shall not." I touched my hat and went below. In the meantime O'Brien had been made acquainted with the occasion of the quarrel, which he did not fail to explain to Mr Falcon, who, O'Brien declared, "was not the least bit in the world angry with me for what had occurred." Indeed, after that, Mr Falcon always treated me with the greatest kindness, and employed me on every duty which he considered of consequence. He was a sincere friend; for he did not allow me to neglect my duty, but, at the same time, treated me with consideration and confidence. The marine officer came on board very angry at being left behind, and talked about a court-martial on me for disrespect, and neglect of stores intrusted to my charge; but O'Brien told me not to mind him or what he said, "It's my opinion, Peter, that the gentleman has eaten no small quantity of _flapdoodle_ in his lifetime." "What's that, O'Brien?" replied I; "I never heard of it." "Why, Peter," rejoined he, "it's the stuff they _feed fools on_." CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. A LONG CONVERSATION WITH MR. CHUCKS--THE ADVANTAGES OF HAVING A PRAYER-BOOK IN YOUR POCKET--WE RUN DOWN THE TRADES--SWINBURNE, THE QUARTER-MASTER, AND HIS YARNS--THE CAPTAIN FALLS SICK. The next day the captain came on board with sealed orders, with directions not to open them until off Ushant. In the afternoon, we weighed and made sail. It was a fine northerly wind, and the Bay of Biscay was smooth. We bore up, set all the studding sails, and ran along at the rate of eleven miles an hour. As I could not appear on the quarter-deck, I was put down on the sick list. Captain Savage, who was very particular, asked what was the matter with me. The surgeon replied, "An inflamed eye." The captain asked no more questions; and I took care to keep out of his way. I walked in the evening on the forecastle, when I renewed my intimacy with Mr Chucks, the boatswain, to whom I gave a full narrative of all my adventures in France. "I have been ruminating, Mr Simple," said he, "how such a stripling as you could have gone through so much fatigue, and now I know how it is. It is _blood_, Mr Simple--all blood--you are descended from good blood; and there's as much difference between nobility and the lower classes, as there is between a racer and a cart-horse." "I cannot agree with you, Mr Chucks. Common people are quite as brave as those who are well-born. You do not mean to say that you are not brave--that the seamen on board this ship are not brave?"