Flying colors

Don't know what came over me, but I've just all at once wondered, Where did the expression "with flying colors" come from? Well? Do you know? Apparently, it's about ships. All colors flying. Colors flying from the masts. Sailing victorious into port.
I would suppose that in the age of masted ships, sailing into port at all would be a bit of a victory after a battle at sea.

Robert Louis Stevenson knew what flying colors meant. This is from St. Ives, Chapter 28, "The Lawyer's Party." (Did you know Stevenson wrote anything but poetry, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? He wrote a huge list of things. See what happens if you start to research phrase origins?)

'Now, sir,' I continued, 'I expect to have to pay for my unhappy frolic, but I would like very well if it could be managed without my personal appearance or even the mention of my real name. I had so much wisdom as to sail under false colours in this foolish jaunt of mine; my family would be extremely concerned if they had wind of it; but at the same time, if the case of this Faa has terminated fatally, and there are proceedings against Todd and Candlish, I am not going to stand by and see them vexed, far less punished; and I authorise you to give me up for trial if you think that best--or, if you think it unnecessary, in the meanwhile to make preparations for their defence. I hope, sir, that I am as little anxious to be Quixotic, as I am determined to be just.'

And now, can you define or explain: "wind of it," "vexed," or "Quixotic?" And do you feel as thoroughly illiterate and yet simultaneously charmed as I do upon reading this sort of prose? That bit of the paragraph is three sentences. I'm tempted to offer a prize to the person who can successfully diagram that second sentence - the one beginning with "I had so much wisdom," and ending with "preparations for their defence."
And how's this for Art? "In the early '90s, Lefens, a painter, goes to the Metheny School for students with cerebral palsy and other disabilities to show slides of his work. As this intensely moving memoir shows, he becomes obsessed with finding ways to help students, who are in wheelchairs and have no use of their arms or hands, learning to express themselves, devising methods that allow them the freedom to paint." "Lefens writes simply and clearly throughout, remaining focused on the students and the task at hand. 'The idea,' he tells them, 'is not to struggle to do things the way that able-bodied people do. The idea is to make art.'" (Publisher's Weekly)