Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General. Charles James Lever

Portsmouth, and Plymouth, and Brest, and Cherbourg “—I’m not sure he didn’t say Calais—“and yet have room for our Italian fleet, which, in two years’ time, will be one of the first in Europe.”

      “The ships are building, I suppose?” said I.

      “They are.”

      “And where?”

      “In America, at Toulon, and in England.”

      “None in Italy?”

      “Pardon me; there is a corvette on the stocks at Leghorn, and they are repairing a boiler at Genoa. Ah! Signor John Bull, take care; we have iron and coal mines, we have oak and hemp, and tallow and tar. There was a winged lion once that swept the seas before people sang ‘Rule Britannia.’ History is going to repeat itself.”

      “Let me be called at eight to-morrow morning, and my coffee be ready by nine.”

      “And we shall want a vetturino for Spezia,” added my Garibaldian; “let him be here by eleven.”