An anecdote is told of a captain in the service, since dead, that whilst
carrying out a British ambassador to his station abroad, a quarrel arose
on the subject of precedency. High words were exchanged between them on
the quarter-deck, when, at length, the ambassador, thinking to silence
the captain, exclaimed, "Recollect, sir, _I_ am the representative of
his majesty!" "Then, sir," retorted the captain, "recollect that _here
I_ am _more_ than majesty itself. Can the king _seize a fellow up and
give him three dozen_?" Further argument was useless--the diplomatist
struck.
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