The Two Captains Author:Cyrus Townsend Brady Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: " By Jove, sir, she'll be after having the whole ship's company in love with her if you do ! " said Macartney, under his breath. " Certainly I can and will," ... more »answered Nelson, promptly. " And will you land us in Italy ? " "Not that, I am afraid." " Whither are you bound, sir ? " "Toulon." " Toulon ! " " Yes. Have you not heard ? Toulon has declared for King Louis XVII and the Regent. An English fleet under Vice-admiral Lord Hood has already taken possession of the harbor. The Agamemnon, my ship yonder, is a part of that fleet. You will be perfectly safe there. Hullo! What's this?" " This " was the silent Breboeuf supporting in his arms the slighter form of the marquis. Fortunately the old man had sustained no permanent injury. His head, which had been badly cut, was bound in a cloth. He looked a little paler than usual and had lost much blood, but was quite his vivacious imperturbable self again. " This," whispered Macartney, " will be the Marquis de Vaude'mont. The French vice-admiral, you know, sir." " Oh, I see," returned Nelson, sotto vdce, " a shipmate of de Suffren, you said, and he was one of the few great seamen that France has produced. Sir," he said in English to the marquis, " do you understand the English language ? " " I do, sir," answered the marquis, speaking with no less precision than his granddaughter. "I have learned the English tongue from the lips of women and the defiance of men. I have heard the language spoken by your guns." "You gave as good as we sent, sir," said Nelson, politely. Like most English seamen of his time, collectively he hated the French, individually many of them won his respect and affection. "I am honored at meeting such a distinguished officer of the Royal Marine of France. My ship is at your service. I ...« less