Had any moral delinquency of his own been implicated in the remark, he might have found means to steel himself against its consequences; but, as is only too often the case, he was far more ashamed of a misfortune over which he had no possible control, than he would have been of a crime for which he was strictly responsible in morals.

Sir Gervaise smiled at Sir Wycherly's knowledge of law terms, not to say of Latin; and turning good-humouredly to his friend the rear-admiral, anxious to re-establish friendly relations with him, he said with well-concealed irony-- "Sir Wycherly must be right, Bluewater.

A changeling is _nobody_--that is to say, he is not the _body_ he pretends to be, which is substantially being nobody--and the son of nobody, is clearly a _filius nullius_.

And now having settled what may be called the law of the case, I demand a truce, until we get our nuts--for as to Mr.Thomas Wychecombe's having _his_ nut to crack, at least to-day, I take it there are too many loyal subjects in the north." When men know each other as well as was the case with our two admirals, there are a thousand secret means of annoyance, as well as of establishing amity.

Admiral Bluewater was well aware that Sir Gervaise was greatly superior to the vulgar whig notion of the day, which believed in the fabricated tale of the Pretender's spurious birth; and the secret and ironical allusion he had made to his impression on that subject, acted as oil to his own chafed spirit, disposing him to moderation.