`` your grace , you have met temeraire , spoken to him ; you can not imagine they are not thinking creatures , beasts to be put to the slaughter - `` palmerston said , `` tenderhearted womanish folly - `` seconded by gambier , and ward ; `` - the enemy , '' nelson said , over the noise , trying to reply , `` and we must seize the opportunity which has been offered us , to level the distinction between our aerial forces and theirs - `` the sly , underhanded way it had all been managed , proved well enough that the commissioners had expected opposition , and chosen to avoid it ; they were not more ready to be harangued after the fact , and when jane had shortly grown a little louder , they had reached the limits of their tolerance. ``