i am afraid i am going to faint dead away from even being spoken to by such an august person , but i manage to blurt out some gibberish the sense of which could barely be made out , but which was , essentially , `` my lord , when seaman jones and i were boys together on the dolphin , he and i and several others on the dolphin came together and formed a brotherhood , a club , if you will , such as young boys will do , and we swore great oaths of fraternal loyalty and promised ever to be watchful of each other and seaman jones here has brought me a letter from one of the group , one who was especially dear to me and from whom i have not heard since she ... er , the person was taken from ... and the person made jones swear to deliver it to no hand but mine , so you see ... '' `` ah , '' says lord nelson , and i say no more .