Had oft the master’s happier skill descried,
Yet now, the hour, the scene, th’ occasion known,
Perhaps with equal right preferred his own;
Of long experience in the naval art,
Blunt was his speech, and naked was his heart;
Alike to him each climate, and each blast,
The first in danger, in retreat the last:
Sagacious, balancing th’ opposed events,
From Albert his opinion thus dissents.—
“Too true the perils of the present hour,