"I hope your armament is strong."
"Oh, strong enough to eat up all the Frenchmen in the Antilles," replied I, with true British confidence.
"Bon Dieu! Your strength?"
"We have twelve or fourteen battalions of the line, three three-deckers, six frigates, some of them double-banked, and transports without end."
"How many soldiers, think you?"
"About fifteen thousand," said I gaily.
"And seamen, how many?"
"Rather more than half that number."
"Vive le Roi! the tricolor must certainly go to the wall. How many pieces of cannon?"
"I know not," said I, fearing that I had already been too communicative to a stranger.