16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
'He has qualities.'
'Oh yes. He is not shy; and he stood up very
well for his own people.'
'Some of ours think highly of him and his
ideas.'
'I know they do: we have some hands from
Shelmerston, decent men and prime seamen,
who are little better than democrats – republicans,
if you follow me – and would easily be
led astray by a clever political cove with a fine
flow of words: but the man-of-war's men, particularly
the old Surprises, do not like him.
They call him Monsieur Turd, and they will not
be won round by smirking and leering and the
brotherhood of man: they dislike his notions
as much as I do.'
'They are tolerably chimerical, admittedly,
and it is surprising that a man of his age and
his parts should still entertain them. In 1789 I