Master and Commander (Aubrey & Maturin, #1)

by Patrick O'Brian

It is weeks since I wrote to the only relative I know of, a gentleman in the county Fermanagh, and never a word has come back at all.’

It was a ham that could only have come from a hog with a long-borne crippling disease, the sort of ham that is reserved for officers who buy their own provisions; and only a man versed in morbid anatomy could have carved it handsomely.

Do you remember the test?’ ‘Which one?’ ‘The test that begins Are you straight?’ ‘I am.’ ‘How straight?’ ‘As straight as a rush.’ ‘Go on then.’ ‘In truth, in trust, in unity and liberty.’ ‘What have you got in your hand?’ ‘A green bough.’ ‘Where did it first grow?’ ‘In America.’ ‘Where did it bud?’ ‘In France.’

I know few men over fifty that seem to me entirely human: virtually none who has long exercised authority.