"Yes, the French have landed, but not just in the way they like. One of our frigates--I haven't got to hear her name--chased a French privateersman ashore five miles up the coast yesterday afternoon; after taking out of her ten thousand pounds in gold, which the beggars had sneaked from a British West Indiaman off Dungeness two or three nights before, they set her on fire. I had a mind this morning to ride over and view the wreck or what remains of her." "Lucy told me at breakfast this morning that on going to bed last night she noticed a faint tinge in the air as of the rising moon away to the eastward. 'Twas the burning wreck, I presume?" "No doubt. She'd light up a wide area." "I expect the frigate that chased her will be one of the Western squadron," said Captain Acton. "How finely those ships are doing their work! Since they've been sweeping these waters scarce a French picaroon dare put his nose out; when before, the seas swarmed like a tropic calm with bristling fins of sharks." "You have to thank Pellew for the idea of those squadrons," said Sir William. "What a gallant fellow he is! Whenever I hear his name I recall the story told of him when he was a midshipman. He was aboard the _Blonde_. You remember Pownoll?" Captain Acton nodded. "General Burgoyne arrived alongside to ship for America. The yards were manned. The General climbed aboard, and looking aloft spied a youngster standing on his head on the main topsail yard-arm. 'It's only young Pellew, one of my midshipmen,' says Captain Pownoll. 'But suppose he falls, sir?' said the General. 'Why, sir,' answers Pownoll, 'if he falls he'll sink under the ship's bottom and come up t'other side.'" "Yes. Very characteristic. I rank Pellew after Nelson." "Why, no, sir." "Who, then?" "I consider Cochrane possesses all the potentialities of Nelson. Then gallant old Jervis"--the Admiral interrupted himself and gazed with an arch leer at his companion. "As you know, I have had the honour," said Captain Acton with slight sarcasm, "to serve under my Lord St Vincent when he was Sir John Jervis, I may claim to know him." "Oh yes, thoroughly--very thoroughly." "I admit the gallantry of his action with the Pegase. It was as brilliant as a hundred other actions between single ships, not one of which nevertheless brought the victor an earldom. What made Jervis a Lord? Was it his own, or the genius of Nelson? That manoeuvre of the Commodore on the 14th won the battle. We took four ships from the enemy, and two of them were captured by Nelson. But I dislike St Vincent for opinions which he is at no pains to disguise. He objects to the education of the poor." "So do I, sir," said Sir William. "We'll not argue the point. St Vincent objects to inoculation for small-pox because he says that that disease is intended by God to keep the population down." Sir William laughed.