“And did you save the child?”

“Oh yes, sir.”

“And wasn’t the captain pleased?”

“I believe he was, sir.  He gave me a glass o’ grog, sir.  But you was a sayin’ of something, sir, when I interrupted of you.”

“I am very glad you did interrupt me.”

“I’m not though, sir.  I Ve lost summat I ’ll never hear more.”

“No, you shan’t lose it.  I was going to tell you how I think I came to understand a little about the things I was talking of to-day.”

“That’s it, sir; that’s it.  Well, sir, if you please?”

“You’ve heard of Sir Philip Sidney, haven’t you, Old Rogers?”

“He was a great joker, wasn’t he, sir?”

“No, no; you’re thinking of Sydney Smith, Rogers.”

“It may be, sir.  I am an ignorant man.”

“You are no more ignorant than you ought to be.—­But it is time you should know him, for he was just one of your sort.  I will come down some evening and tell you about him.”

I may as well mention here that this led to week-evening lectures in the barn, which, with the help of Weir the carpenter, was changed into a comfortable room, with fixed seats all round it, and plenty of cane-chairs besides—­for I always disliked forms in the middle of a room.  The object of these lectures was to make the people acquainted with the true heroes of their own country—­men great in themselves.  And the kind of choice I made may be seen by those who know about both, from the fact that, while my first two lectures were on Philip Sidney, I did not give one whole lecture even to Walter Raleigh, grand fellow as he was.  I wanted chiefly to set forth the men that could rule themselves, first of all, after a noble fashion.  But I have not finished these lectures yet, for I never wished to confine them to the English heroes; I am going on still, old man as I am—­not however without retracing passed ground sometimes, for a new generation has come up since I came here, and there is a new one behind coming up now which I may be honoured to present in its turn to some of this grand company—­this cloud of witnesses to the truth in our own and other lands, some of whom subdued kingdoms, and others were tortured to death, for the same cause and with the same result.

“Meantime,” I went on, “I only want to tell you one little thing he says in a letter to a younger brother whom he wanted to turn out as fine a fellow as possible.  It is about horses, or rather, riding—­for Sir Philip was the best horseman in Europe in his day, as, indeed, all things taken together, he seems to have really been the most accomplished man generally of his time in the world.  Writing to this brother he says—­”

I could not repeat the words exactly to Old Rogers, but I think it better to copy them exactly, in writing this account of our talk: 

“At horsemanship, when you exercise it, read Crison Claudio, and a book that is called La Gloria del Cavallo, withal that you may join the thorough contemplation of it with the exercise; and so shall you profit more in a month than others in a year.”