HEREDITARY FRIENDS

children: his eldest son was a general of the artillery,
two of his grandsons sailors.

'One of them/ he said, Vent straight from Eton
into the Navy. He's twenty-one and already
second in command of a destroyer. He's just had
forty-two days afloat without putting in. The other

was in the sick-bay of the------when it was sunk.

The life-boat to which he had been allotted had been
destroyed by the torpedo. He was tossed in
pyjamas from ten feet into another boat they were
lowering, fell into the sea, and was sucked in by the
vessel as she foundered. When he came to the
surface he saw an empty raft floating by and climbed
on to it, A body that still moved feebly passed close
to him and he hoisted it on to the raft and there he
stayed for five hours, practically naked in the storm,
with the unconscious man beside him. Then they
were picked up by an American boat. They are
getting along very well now. But it was quite a
little adventure.5

And then the General was silent, while I myself
thought of the countless boys, French and English,
who, on the seas and above them, were prepared to
face such little adventures.

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