Then, after receiving the best education that it was at that time possible for a lad to receive, I had entered the navy as a midshipman, at the age of fourteen, and had gone out to the Mediterranean in the old _Colossus_, two-decker, under the command of Sir Percy Fitzgerald, where, for some two and a half years, we spent our time partly in chasing the French up and down the great inland sea, and partly in blockading the port of Toulon, under Sir John Jervis.  It was while engaged upon this latter service that I was so seriously wounded in the head by a flying splinter that I was invalided home to recover, the _Colossus_ being opportunely ordered to England at the same time to undergo a general overhaul and refit.