This affair on which he starts now will be, I wot, a very different matter." "How is it, Father," the boy said on the following morning, resuming the conversation from the point which they were at when he went up to change his wet clothes, the day before, "that when England is at peace with Spain, our sailors and the Spanish do fight bloodily, in the West Indies ?" "That, my son, is a point upon which the Roman law telleth us nothing.

I have, in my shelves, some very learned treatises on war; but in none do I find mention of a state of things in which two powers, at peace at home, do fight desperately at the extreme end of the earth." "But, Father, do you think it not lawful to kill the Spaniard, and to take the treasures which he robbeth from the poor heathen of the West ?" "I know not about lawful, my son, but I see no warrant whatsoever for it; and as for heathen, indeed, it appears to me that the attacks upon him do touch, very closely, upon piracy upon the high seas.

However, as the country in general appeareth to approve of it, and as it is said that the queen's most gracious majesty doth gladly hear of the beating of the Spaniards, in those seas, it becometh not me to question the rights of the case." "At any rate, Father, you would not object when the time comes for me to sail with Mr.Francis Drake ?" "No, my boy; thou hast never shown any aptitude whatever for learning.

Thou canst read and write, but beyond that thy knowledge runneth not.

Your mind seems to be set on the water, and when you are not in it you are on it.