Jack Brace stirs up the War Spirit of Adams.
 
“You must know, John Adams,” said Jack Brace, with a look and a clearing of the throat that raised great expectations in the breasts of the listeners, “you must know that for a long while before the battle Lord Nelson had bin scourin’ the seas, far and near, in search o’ the French and Spanish fleets, but do what he would, he could never fall in with ’em. At last he got wind of ’em in Cadiz Harbour, and made all sail to catch ’em. It was on the 19th of October 1805 that Villeneuve, that was the French admiral, put to sea with the combined fleets o’ France and Spain. It wasn’t till daybreak of the 21st that we got sight of ’em, right ahead, formed in close line, about twelve miles to lee’ard, standin’ to the s’uth’ard, off Cape Trafalgar.
 
“Ha, John Adams, an’ boys an’ girls all, you should have seen that sight; it would have done you good. An’ you should have felt our buzzums; they was fit to bust, I tell you! You see, we’d bin chasin’ of ’em so long, that we could scarce believe our eyes when we saw ’em at long last. They wor bigger ships and more of ’em than ours; but what cared Nelson for that? not the shank of a brass button! he rather liked that sort o’ thing; for, you know, one Englishman is equal to three Frenchmen any day.”
 
“No, no, Jack Brace,” said John Adams, with a quiet smile and shake of the head; “’snot quite so many as that.”
 
“Not quite!” repeated Brace, vehemently; “why, it’s my opinion that I could lick any six o’ the Mounseers myself. Thursday November Christian there—”
 
“He ain’t November yet,” interrupted Adams, quietly, “he’s only October.”
 
“No matter, it’s all the same. I tell ’ee, John, that he could wallop twenty of ’em, easy. There ain’t no go in ’em at all.”
 
“Didn’t you tell me, Jack Brace, that Trafalgar was a glorious battle?”
 
“In coorse I did, for so it was.”
 
“Didn’t the Frenchmen stick to their guns like men?”
 
“No doubt of it.”
 
“An’ they didn’t haul down their colours, I suppose, till they was about blown to shivers?”
 
“You’re about right there, John Adams.”
 
“Well, then, you can’t say they’ve got no go in ’em. Don’t underrate your enemy, whatever you do, for it’s not fair; besides, in so doin’ you underrate your own deeds. Moreover, we don’t allow boastin’ aboard of this island; so go ahead, Jack Brace, and tell us what you did do, without referrin’ to what you think you could do. Mind, I’m king here, and I’ll have to clap you in irons if you let your tongue wag too freely.”
 
“All right, your majesty,” replied Brace, with a bow of graceful humility, which deeply impressed his juvenile audience; “I’ll behave better in futur’ if you’ll forgive me this time. Well, as I was about to say, when you sent that round shot across my bows and brought me up, Nelson he would have fought ’em if they’d had ten times the number o’ ships that we had. As it was, the enemy had thirty-three sail of the line and seven frigates. We had only twenty-seven sail of the line and four frigates, so we was outnumbered by nine vessels. Moreover the enemy had 4000 lobsters on board—”
 
“Lobsters bein’ land sodgers, my dears,” remarked Adams, in explanation, “so-called ’cause of their bein’ all red-coated; but the French sodgers are only red-trousered, coats bein’ blue. Axin’ your pardon, Brace, go on.”
 
The seaman, who had availed himself of the interruption to stir up and stuff down his pipe, resumed.
 
“Likewise one of their line-o’-battle ships was a huge four-decker, called the Santissima Trinidad, and they had some of the best Tyrolese riflemen that could be got scattered throughout the fleet, as we afterwards came to find out to our cost.
 
“Soon after daylight Nelson came on deck. I see him as plain as if he was before me at this moment, for, bein’ stationed in the mizzen-top o’ the Victory—that was Nelson’s ship, you know—I could see everything quite plain. He stood there for a minute or so, with his admiral’s frock-coat covered with orders on the left breast, and his empty right sleeve fastened up to it; for you must know he had lost his right arm in action before that, and also his right eye, but the arm and eye that were left were quite enough for him to work with. After a word or two with the officers, he signalled to bear down on the enemy in two lines.
 
“Then it seemed to have occurred to him that the smoke of battle might render the signals difficult or impossible to make out, for he immediately made one that would serve for everything. It was this: ‘if signals can’t be seen, no captain can do wrong if he places his ship alongside an enemy.’ Of coorse we all knew that he meant to win that battle; but, for the matter of that, every soul in the fleet, from the admiral to the smallest powder-monkey, meant—”
 
“Boasting not allowed,” said Dan McCoy, displaying his fine teeth from ear to ear.
 
The seaman looked at him with a heavy frown.
 
“You young slip of a pump-handle, what d’ye mean?”
 
“The king’s orders,” said Dan, pointing to Adams, while the rest of the Pitcairners seemed awestruck by his presumption.
 
The frown slowly left the visage of Jack Brace. He shut his eyes, smiled benignly, and delivered a series of heavy puffs from the starboard side of his mouth.
 
Then a little squeak that had been bottled up in the nose of Otaheitan Sally forced a vent, and the whole party burst into hilarious laughter.
 
“Just so,” resumed Brace, when they had recovered, “that is exactly what we did in the mizzen-top o’ the Victory when we made out the signal, only we stuck a cheer on to the end o’ the laugh. After that came another signal, just as we were about to go into action, ‘England expects that every man will this day do his duty.’ The effect of that signal was just treemendious, I tell you.
 
“I noticed at this time that some of Nelson’s officers were botherin’ him,—tryin’ to persuade him, so to speak, to do somethin’ he didn’t want to. I afterwards found out that they were tryin’ to persuade him not to wear his orders, but he wouldn’t listen to ’em. Then they tried to convince him it would be wise for him to keep out of action as long as possible. He seemed to give in to this, for he immediately signalled the Temeraire and Leviathan, which were abreast of us, to pass ahead; but in my opinion this was nothin’ more than a sly joke of the Admiral, for he kept carrying on all sail on the Victory, so that it wasn’t possible for these ships to obey the order.
 
“We made the attack in two lines. The Victory led the weather-line of fourteen ships, and Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, led the lee-line of thirteen ships.
 
“As we bore down, the enemy opened the ball. We held our breath, for, as no doubt you know, messmate, just before the beginnin’ of a fi............