at the summit of his career.

What actually met my eye was very different from this childish
expectation of mine. To the north there was a long low cape, the name
of which has now escaped me. In the evening light it had been of the
same greyish green tint as the other headlands; but now, as the darkness
fell, it gradually broke into a dull glow, like a cooling iron.
On that wild night, seen and lost with the heave and sweep of the boat,
this lurid streak carried with it a vague but sinister suggestion.
The red line splitting the darkness might have been a giant half-forged
sword-blade with its point towards England.

'What is it, then?' I asked.

'Just what I say, master,' said he. 'It's one of Boney's armies, with
Boney himself in the middle of it as like as not. Them is their camp
fires, and you'll see a dozen such between this and Ostend.
He's audacious enough to come across, is little Boney, if he could dowse
Lord Nelson's other eye; but there's no chance for him until then, and
well he knows it.'

'How can Lord Nelson know what he is doing?' I asked.

The man pointed out over my shoulder into the darkness, and far on the
horizon I perceived three little twinkling lights.

'Watch dog,' said he, in his husky voice.

'Andromeda. Forty-four,' added his companion.