One day he came on deck, and actually gave me the following very intelligible order.  “Mr, What’s-his-name, have the goodness to—­what-do-ye-call-’em,—­the,—­the thingumbob.”

“Ay, ay, my lord,” said I.  “Afterguard! haul taut the weather main-brace.”  This was exactly what he meant.

He was very particular and captious when not properly addressed.  When an order is given by a commanding officer, it is not unusual to say, “Very good, Sir;” implying that you perfectly understand, and are going cheerfully to obey it.  I had adopted this answer, and gave it to his lordship when I received an order from him, saying “Very good, my lord.”

“Mr Mildmay,” said his lordship, “I don’t suppose you mean anything like disrespect, but I will thank you not to make that answer again:  it is for me to say ‘very good,’ and not you.  You seem to approve of my order, and I don’t like it; I beg you will not do it again, you know.”

“Very good, my lord,” said I, so inveterate is habit.  “I beg your lordship’s pardon, I mean very well.”

“I don’t much like that young man,” said his lordship to his toady, who followed him up and down the quarter-deck, like “the bob-tail cur,” looking his master in the face.  I did not hear the answer, but of course it was an echo.

The first time we reefed topsails at sea, the captain was on deck; he said nothing, but merely looked on.  The second time, we found he had caught all the words of the first lieutenant, and repeated them in a loud and pompous voice, without knowing whether they were applicable to the case or not.  The third time he fancied he was able to go alone, and down he fell—­he made a sad mistake indeed.  “Hoist away the fore-topsail,” said the first lieutenant.  “Hoist away the fore-topsail,” said the captain.  The men were stamping aft, and the topsail yards travelling up to the mast-head very fast, when they were stopped by a sudden check with the fore-topsail haul-yards.

“What’s the matter?” said the first lieutenant, calling to me, who was at my station on the forecastle.

“Something foul of the topsail-tie,” I replied.

“What’s the matter forward?” said the captain.

“Topsail-tie is foul, my lord,” answered the first lieutenant.

“D——­n the topsail-tie! cut it away.  Out knife there, aloft!  I will have the topsail hoisted; cut away the topsail-tie.”

For the information of my land readers, I should observe that the topsail-tie was the very rope which was at that moment suspending the yard aloft.  The cutting it would have disabled the ship until it could have been repaired; and had the order been obeyed, the topsail-yard itself, would, in all probability, have been sprung or broke in two on the cap.