The Merry Past I 



him to laugh heartily, and this merry fit was not a 

 little increased when Jack, coming up to him, lifted 

 up the hind part of his jacket, and showing his gold- 

 laced back, exclaimed : " Damn me, old boy, no false 

 colours ! Stem and stern alike, by G — d ! " 



Some of the naval officers of Nelson's day were, on 

 occasion, as unrestrained as the gallant sailors who 

 fought under their orders. In October, 1805, a naval 

 hero, the captain of a man-of-war, and the brother of 

 a nobleman, was brought before the magistrate at 

 Bow Street, from the boxes of Covent Garden Theatre, 

 where he had been kicking up a row. He was charged 

 with violently assaulting a youth of fourteen, the son 

 of a respectable citizen in Coleman Street, who was 

 also at the theatre, and now accompanied his son to 

 the office. The noble commander had evidently been 

 on a Bacchanalian cruise in the course of the evening, 

 and had taken in a full cargo of the Tuscan juice, as 

 his upper works were a good deal damaged. He was 

 towed into the office between two of the Bow Street 

 runners, with some difficulty, and immediately on 

 arriving at that port endeavoured to assume the 

 whole authority of the quarter-deck. The first salute 

 to the bench was a whole broadside of damns and 

 blasts, chiefly applied to the eyes and limbs of the 

 officers. He vaunted his extraordinary pugilistic 

 prowess ; boasted an intimate acquaintance with the 

 Game Chicken, Gulley, Belcher, and other celebrated 

 bruisers of the day ; offered to box the magistrate or 

 any man in the room, for a thousand ; swore great 

 guns that if he had with him his first lieutenant and 



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