to change his bearings—­but, as I was saying, if the commander of yonder half-rig is too vain of her good looks, he may yet wreck her, in his pride!  The rogue has a desperate character as a smuggler, though, for my own part, I cannot say that I look on such men with as unfavorable an eye as some others.  This business of trade seems to be a sort of chase between one man’s wits and another man’s wits, and the dullest goer must be content to fall to leeward.  When it comes to be a question of revenue, why, he who goes free is lucky, and he who is caught, a prize.  I have known a flag-officer look the other way, Captain Ludlow, when his own effects were passing duty-free; and as to your admiral’s lady, she is a great patroness of the contraband.  I do not deny, Sir, that a smuggler must be caught, and when caught, condemned, after which there must be a fair distribution among the captors; but all that I mean to say is, that there are worse men in the world than your British smuggler—­such, for instance, as your Frenchman, your Dutchman, or your Don.”

“These are heretodox opinions for a Queen’s servant;” said Ludlow, as much inclined to smile as to frown.

“I hope I know my duty too well to preach them to the ship’s company, but a man may say that, in a philosophical way, before his captain, that he would not let run into a midshipman’s ear.  Though no lawyer, I know what is meant by swearing a witness to the truth and nothing but the truth.  I wish the Queen got the last, God bless her! several worn-out ships would then be broken up, and better vessels sent to sea in their places.  But, Sir, speaking in a religious point of view, what is the difference between passing in a trunk of finery, with a duchess’s name on the brass plate, or in passing in gin enough to fill a cutter’s hold?”

“One would think a man of your years, Mr. Trysail, would see the difference between robbing the revenue of a guinea, and robbing it of a thousand pounds.”

“Which is just the difference between retail and wholesale,—­and that is no trifle, I admit, Captain Ludlow, in a commercial country, especially in genteel life.  Still, Sir, revenue is the country’s right and therefore I allow a smuggler to be a bad man only not so bad as those I have just named, particularly your Dutchman!  The Queen is right to make those rogues lower their flags to her in the narrow seas, which are her lawful property; because England, being a wealthy island, and Holland no more than a bit of bog turned up to dry, it is reasonable that we should have the command afloat.  No, Sir, though none of your outcriers against a man, because he has had bad luck in a chase with a revenue-cutter, I hope I know what the natural rights of an Englishman are.  We must be masters, here, Captain Ludlow, will-ye-nill-ye, and look to the main chances of trade and manufactures!”

“I had not thought you so accomplished a statesman, Master Trysail!”