"Rather strange running away to charge that boat as we did!  But don't you take it into your head, my lad, that it is cowardly to retreat at the proper time.  It is madness to go throwing away the lives of your men when you can do no good by fighting.  It might sound very grand and heroic for us to have fought both those boats, and then tried to capture the junks; but we must have been cut to pieces in the attempt, and what then--"