CHAPTER XV.
UP-CHANNEL.
"A wet sheet and a flowing sea," (Sings Allan Cunningham), "A wind that follows fast, And fills the white and rustling sail And bends the gallant mast; And bends the gallant mast, my boys, When, like an eagle free, Away the good ship flies, and leaves Old England on the lee." I quote these famous lines for their spirit rather than their accuracy.

It is not every ship that can so defy the laws of nature as to run off a lee shore with a shore wind; and the _Vesuvius_ bomb, reaching up Channel with a rare nor'-nor'-westerly breeze, kept old England well to windward all the time.

But as Mr.Sturge explained to the Major, later in the day, "Without being a practical seaman, an artist can yet catch the spirit of these things and impart it to his fellow-men." Mr.Sturge was not criticising (by anticipation) Allan Cunningham's lines, but talking, as usual, about himself.

Many circumstances combined to induce a cheerful mood in him.

To begin with, his manacles had been removed.