Moreover, he was gifted with the highest faith in the hand of the Almighty over him (to help him in all his righteous deeds), and over his enemies, to destroy them.

Though he never insisted on any deep piety in his own behavior, he had a good deal in his heart when time allowed, and the linstocks were waiting the signal.

His trust was supreme in the Lord and himself; and he loved to be called "My Lord Admiral." And a man of this noble type deserved to be met with his own nobility.
But the English government, according to its lights--which appear to be everlasting--regarded him as the right man, when wanted, but at other times the wrong one.

They liked him to do them a very good turn, but would not let him do himself one; and whenever he looked for some fair chance of a little snug prize-money, they took him away from the likely places, and set him to hard work and hard knocks.

But his sense of duty and love of country enabled him to bear it, with grumbling.
"I don't care a rope's end," he was saying, with a truthfulness simple and solid as beefsteak is, "whether we have peace or war; but let us have one or the other of them.