THE SEA HORSE. 191 



to have further claims upon me, did 

 not choose to court danger; I therefore 

 sent her home, and returned in a hired 

 conveyance, not saying a word of what 

 had happened. 



In the morning a note arrived, bearing 

 the Southampton post-mark, addressed to 

 my wife, wherein the writer spoke of the 

 danger her husband had witnessed. It 

 also stated that he had found, upon inquiry, 

 that the animal I had purchased was a 

 most vicious and ungovernable brute ; and 

 she begged my wife to induce me to part 

 with so dangerous a nag as soon as pos- 

 sible ; this I did not hesitate to do. 



Another movement in our domestic 

 circle was the departure of one of my 

 younger brothers. He, like me, had been 

 sent to sea, and in one of our crack 

 frigates* had sailed up the Mediterranean, 

 where his ship had joined the expedition up 

 the Dardanelles, under Sir John T. Duck- 



* "The Sea Horse." 



