Degenerate Englishmen, we call them in the service."
"And yet you take them occasionally, Signor Tenente; and, as I
understand from this Ithuello, frequently contrary to their wishes and
by force," dryly observed Andrea Barrofaldi.
"How can we help it, Signore? The king has a right to and he has need of
the services of all his own seamen; and, in the hurry of impressing, we
sometimes make a mistake. Then, these Yankees are so like our own
people, that I would defy the devil himself to tell them apart."
The vice-governatore thought there was something contradictory in all
this, and he subsequently said as much to his friend the podesta; but
the matter went no further at the moment, most probably because he
ascertained that the young lieutenant was only using what might be
termed a national argument; the English Government constantly protesting
that it was impossible to distinguish one people from the other, _quoad_
this particular practice; while nothing was more offensive to their
eyes, in the abstract, than to maintain any affinity in appearance or
characteristics.
The result of the discussion, notwithstanding, was to make the two
Italians reluctant converts to the opinion of the Englishman, that the
lugger was the dreaded and obnoxious Feu-Follet. Once convinced,
however, shame, revenge, and mortification united with duty to quicken
their exertions and to render them willing assistants in executing the
schemes of Captain Cuffe.
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