CHAPTER XVIA DARING EXPLOITOn reaching Sheerness the captain at once went ashore, accompanied by Will, and they proceeded to London. Will took up his quarters at the Golden Cross, and next day called at the Admiralty, where he sent in his name to the First Lord.“I have received a most favourable report from Captain Knowles of your conduct in landing on the coast of Holland, and of obtaining despatches of much value. How were you taken prisoner?”“At the attack by a force from theTartaron some batteries on one of the Isles d’Hyères. I was hit in the leg, and, being left behind in the confusion of the retreat, fell into the hands of the French. I was imprisoned for four months at Toulon, and then sent to Verdun. Six months after leaving Toulon I effected my escape in a disguise procured for me by a French girl. I had learned the language while in prison, and, travelling through France in the disguise of a pedlar, reached Dunkirk. There I worked in a fishing-boat for a month, and then, seeing theArtemiscruising off the town, I shut up two of the[pg 301]sailors in their cabin, and frightened the other two into taking me off to her.”“In consideration of the valuable services you have rendered I have much pleasure in appointing you master’s mate.”“Thank you, sir! but I own I had rather hopes of obtaining a lieutenancy.”“A lieutenancy!”the admiral said in a changed tone.“I am surprised to hear you say so, when you have had no service as a master’s mate. What makes you entertain such a hope?”“My past services, sir,”Will said boldly.“Captain Purfleet, will you hand me down the volume of services under the letter G. Ah! here it is.”He glanced at it cursorily at first, and then read it carefully.“You were right, Mr. Gilmore, in entertaining such a hope. I see that you have been highly spoken of by the various officers under whom you have served; that you were most strongly recommended by the admirals both at Malta and in the West Indies for your singular services, and also by Lord Hood for your conduct in Corsica. You were in command of a small craft for nearly a year, and in that capacity you not only took a number of prizes, some of them valuable, but actually captured, in one hard-fought action, two pirates, each of which was stronger than yourself. You have, therefore, well shown your capacity to command. Captain Purfleet, have any appointments been made yet to theJason?”“No, sir.”“Very well, then appoint Mr. Gilmore to be second lieutenant of her. You need not thank me, sir; you owe your commission[pg 302]to your own gallantry and good conduct. I don’t know that I have at any time seen such strong testimonials and so good a record for any officer of your age and standing. I am quite sure that you will do full justice to the appointment that I have made. As theJasonwill not be ready for two months I can grant you six weeks leave.”No sooner was this matter settled than Will took the coach to Fairham. Thence he drove to the village of Porchester, where Marie’s fiancé was confined. Here he put up at a little inn. He had, before starting from London, bought and put on the disguise of a countryman, as he could hardly have stayed in the village as a gentleman without exciting remark or suspicion. He had, however, brought other clothes with him, so that if necessary he could resume them, and appear either as a naval officer or as a civilian. His first step was to make a tour of the great wall which enclosed the castle and the huts in which the prisoners were confined. He saw at once that any attempt to scale the wall would be useless. At the inn he gave out that by the death of a relative he had just come into a few pounds and meant to enjoy himself.The inn he had selected was scarcely more than a tavern, and he had chosen it because he thought it probable that it would be frequented by the soldiers whose camp stood near the walls, and who supplied the guards in the castle. This expectation was fulfilled a short time after his arrival by four or five soldiers coming in.“Will you drink a glass with me?”he said.“I have been telling the landlord that I have come into a little brass, and mean to spend it.”[pg 303]The soldiers, not unwillingly, accepted the invitation, and sat down at a table with him.“It must be slow work,”he said,“keeping guard here, and I expect you would sooner be out at the war.”“That we should,”one of them replied;“there is nothing to do here but to drill all day, and stare across the water when we are off duty, and wish we were at Portsmouth, where there is something to do and something to amuse one. This is the dullest hole I ever was quartered in. Cosham on one side and Fairham on the other are the only places that one can walk to. We expect, however, to be relieved before long, and I never want to see the place again.”“I suppose you take recruits here?”Will said.“Oh yes, we take recruits when we can get them.”“How long is a recruit before he begins to be a soldier, and takes his regular turn as guard and so on?”“Two or three months,”the man said;“that is long enough to get them into something like shape.”“I should like to go in and have a look at the prisoners,”Will said after a little chat.“Well, there is no chance of your doing that,”the soldier replied.“Orders are very strict, and only three or four hucksters are allowed to go in, to sell things to them.”“How many are there of them?”“About three thousand.”He chatted for some time, and then, after calling for another pint of beer all round, sauntered out, leaving the soldiers to finish it. He saw at once that his only possible plan in the time he had at his command was either to bribe some of the guards, which appeared to him too hazardous a plan to[pg 304]adopt, and not likely to lead to success, or to get at one or other of the people who were allowed in.He spent two days watching the gate of the prison. During that time five people in civilian dress went in. One of these was a short fat woman, who carried a large basket with cakes and other eatables. Another was similarly laden. A third, a man of about his own height, took in a variety of material used by the prisoners for making articles for sale. He had needles and thread, scraps of materials of many colours for making patchwork quilts, blocks of wood for carving out model ships, straw dyed various colours for making fancy boxes, glass beads, and other small articles. Will at once fixed on him as being the most likely of the visitors to serve his purpose. He spoke to him after he had left the prison.“My friend,”he said,“do you want to earn fifty pounds?”The man opened his eyes in surprise.“I should certainly like to,”he said,“if I could see my way to do it.”“Well, I will double that if you do as I tell you. I want you, in the first place, to find out the hut in which Lucien Dupres is confined, and give him a letter.”“There will be no great difficulty about that,”the man said.“I only have to whisper to the first prisoner I meet that I want to find a man, and have got a letter from his friends for him, and if he doesn’t know him he will find him out for me. That is not much to do for a hundred pounds.”“No; but in the next place I want you to keep out of the way for a week, and to lend me your clothes and pass. I want to go in and see the man.”[pg 305]“Well, that is a more dangerous business. How could you pass for me?”“I think I could do that without fear. We are about the same height. I should have a wig made to imitate your hair, and should, I imagine, have no difficulty in getting my face made up so as to be able to pass for you. You must be so well known that they will do no more than glance at me as I go in. The only alternative to that will be for you to take to him a rope and other things I will give you. I tell you frankly I want to aid his escape. Mind, a hundred pounds is not to be earned without some slight risk.”“Of the two things I would rather risk carrying the rope and the tools, if they are not too bulky. Mind you, it is a big risk, for I should be liable to be shot for aiding in the escape of a prisoner.”“Well, look here,”Will said,“I will go into Portsmouth this afternoon and find some man who can fake me up. There are sure to be two or three men who make that their business, for young naval officers are constantly getting into scrimmages, and must want to have their eyes painted before they go back on board. Do you go to the prison to-morrow morning. Find out the man, and deliver this letter to him. Then come into Portsmouth in the coach. I will be waiting there till it arrives, and you can go with me, and when I have got myself made up you shall judge for yourself whether I shall pass muster for you. There will be no difficulty in getting whiskers to match yours.”“Very well,”the man said,“I will be on the coach to-morrow.”Will at once changed his clothes to an ordinary walking[pg 306]suit, and went into town. On making enquiries he found that there was a barber who made it his business to paint black eyes and to remove the signs of bruises. He went to him and said:“I hear you are an artist in black eyes.”The man smiled.“You don’t look as if you wanted my services, sir.”“No, not in that way, but I suppose you could make up a face so as to resemble another.”“Yes, sir, I was at one time engaged at a theatre in London in making up the performers, and feel sure that I could accomplish such a job to your satisfaction.”“I have made a bet,”Will said,“that I could disguise myself as a certain man so well that I could take my friends in. Have you a sandy wig in your shop?”“Yes, sir, half a dozen.”“And whiskers?”“I have several sets, sir, and I dare say one would be the right colour.”“Very well, then, I will bring the man here to-morrow, and you shall paint me so as to resemble him as closely as possible. I don’t mind giving you a five-pound note for the job.”“Well, sir, if I am not mistaken I can paint you so that his own mother wouldn’t know the difference.”Will took a bed at the George, and at mid-day went to the inn where the coach stopped. The man was on the outside.“Well, sir, I have found the Frenchman, and given him the letter, so that part of the business is done.”“That is good. What is the number of the man’s hut?”[pg 307]“Number sixty-eight;”and the man carefully described its position.“Very well. Now we will set about the second part.”When they arrived at the shop the barber seated them in two chairs next to each other, in a room behind the shop, and set to work at once. He first produced a wig and whiskers, which, with a little clipping, he made of the size and shape of the hair on the huckster’s face. Then he set to work with his paints, first staining Will’s face to the reddish-brown of the man’s complexion, and then adding line after line. After two hours’ work he asked them to stand together before a glass, and both were astonished; the resemblance was indeed perfect. Will’s eyebrows had been stained a grayish white, and some long hairs had been inserted so as to give them the shaggy appearance of the pedlar. A crow’s foot had been painted at the corner of each eye, and a line drawn from the nose to the corners of the lips. The chin and lower part of the cheeks had been tinted dark, to give them the appearance of long shaving. Both of them burst into a laugh as they looked at the two faces in the mirror.“You will do, sir,”the man said.“It would need a sharp pair of eyes to detect the difference between us.”“Yes, I think that will do,”Will said,“and to aid the deception I will, as I go in, use my handkerchief and pretend to have a bad cold.”“Is there a basket-maker’s near?”Will asked the barber.“Yes, sir, first turning to the right, and first to the left, two or three doors down, there is a small shop.”“I want you at once to go and choose one the size and shape of your own,”Will said to his companion.“When[pg 308]you see one, set the man to work to weave a false bottom to it. I want it to lodge so as to leave a recess four or five inches deep. Have it made with two handles, so that it can be lifted in and out. How long would he be doing it, do you think?”“About an hour and a half, I should say.”“Very well; order the man to send it round to the George, wrapped up in paper, to the address of Mr. Earnshaw. When you have done this, come back here. We cannot go into the street together; our singular resemblance would at once be noticed.”“Now,”Will said to the pedlar when he returned,“meet me on the road a hundred yards from where it turns down to Porchester; bring a stock of goods with you, and I will put them in my basket. Of course you will bring your pass, and the clothes you now have on in a bundle. I will change there; as far as I have seen it is very seldom that anyone passes that way.”Will then went for a walk, and when it became quite dark he took off his wig and whiskers and went into the town again. Here he bought a long rope, very slender, but still strong enough to support a man’s weight, and a grapnel which folded up flat when not in use. Then he went to the George, having wrapped a muffler round his face as if he were suffering with toothache. His basket was standing in thehall.“I shall not return this evening,”he said,“so I will pay my bill.”Then, having bought a suit of ready-made sailor’s clothes, with hat complete, he put them into his basket, hired a vehicle, and drove to Fairham. In the morning at nine[pg 309]o’clock he walked along the main road towards Cosham till he reached the turning to Porchester, went down it a couple of hundred yards, and sat on a grassy bank till he saw the pedlar approaching.“It is a foggy morning,”the huckster said when he came up.“So much the better. I hope it will last over to-morrow, and then they won’t be able to signal the news of the prisoner’s escape. It is only in clear weather that the semaphores can be made out from hill to hill.”The goods were changed from the pedlar’s basket to the one Will had brought.“There, then, is the hundred pounds I promised you; I hope you are perfectly satisfied?”“Perfectly, sir; it is the best two days’ work I have ever done.”“Now for my clothes,”Will said; and no one being in sight he quickly changed into the clothes the pedlar had brought.“We are more alike than ever,”the man said with a laugh,“but you will have to remember that I walk with a limp. I got a ball in my leg in the fighting at Trinidad, and was discharged as being unfit for service. But I got a small pension, and the right to sell things to the prisoners in Porchester Castle.”“I noticed the limp when I saw you first,”Will said,“and there will be no great difficulty in copying it. I regarded it as rather fortunate, as when the soldiers see me limp along they will not look farther.”“Well, sir, I wish you luck. You are the freest-handed gentleman I ever came across.”[pg 310]Will hid his own clothes in a neighbouring bush, and then started, imitating the pedlar’s limp so exactly that the man laughed as he looked after him before starting for Fairham.There were few people in the streets of the quiet little village as Will passed through it. When he neared the castle he overtook the fat apple-woman, who hailed him as a friend, and they walked together into the castle. They showed their passes to the guard at the gate, but he scarcely looked at them. They then separated, and Will, stopping now and then to sell small articles, made his way at last to Lucien’s hut. He had in his letter informed Lucien of his reasons for trying to get him free, and had directed him to be leaning at that hour against the corner of the hut. When Lucien saw the pedlar approaching, if all was clear he was to retire into it, but if there were others inside he was to shake his head slightly. As Will approached the hut he saw a prisoner standing there according to his instructions, but he gave the danger signal and Will passed on. This he did twice, but when Will returned the third time the man went quietly into the hut.“There is not a moment to lose,”Will said as he followed, and he at once lifted up the false bottom and pulled out the rope and grapnel. He had knotted the rope about every foot, to assist the prisoner in climbing, and had covered the iron of the grapnel with strips of flannel so that it would make no noise when it struck the wall.“Hide them in your bed. It will be a very dark night, and you must steal out and make your way to the middle of the south wall. There fling your grapnel up and scale the wall.[pg 311]I shall be there waiting for you. It looks as if it will be very wet as well as very dark, so you ought to be able to avoid the sentinel.”At this moment he heard someone at the door, and adroitly changing his tone said:“You do not like these colours for a bed-quilt? Very well, I am getting a fresh stock from London in a few days, and I have no doubt you will be able to suit yourself. Good-morning!”He then turned and offered some of his goods to the new-comer, who bought a block for carving out a ship, and some twine and other things for rigging her. When he left the hut he went about the yard till he had disposed of a considerable amount of his goods, and then left the prison and made his way back to the spot where he had hidden his clothes. On arriving there he changed at once, rubbed the pigment from his face, threw away the wig and whiskers, hid the basket in a place which he and the pedlar had agreed upon, with the clothes in it and the pass in one of the pockets, and then went back into the village, where he hired a chaise and drove to Fairham.“Landlord,”he said, as he drew up at the principal hotel,“I shall want a post-chaise to-night for London. I shall be at a party to-night and cannot say at what time I may get away, but have the horses ready to put in at twelve o’clock. If they have to wait an hour or two you shall not be the loser.”After ordering dinner, he strolled about the town till he thought it would be nearly ready. Then he asked for a room, and there changed into his naval uniform, which he had brought with him. He ate a good dinner, and then, putting on his cloak, started to walk back to Porchester, carrying[pg 312]with him a bag in which was the sailor’s suit he had bought for Lucien. The night was pitch dark, and the rain had set in heavily, but although his walk was not an agreeable one he was in high spirits. In his letter to Lucien he had told him that if anything should prevent him from making his way to the wall that night he would expect him on the following one. Nevertheless he felt sure that in such favourable circumstances he would be able to get through the sentries without difficulty. He took up a position as near as he could guess at the centre of the south wall, on the narrow strip of ground between it and the lake. He had waited about an hour when he heard a slight noise a few yards on one side of him. He moved towards the sound, and was just in time to see Lucien alight. He grasped him by the hand.Illustration: “HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”“HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”“Thank heaven,”he said in French,“that I have got you free, as I promised your sweetheart I would! Now let us first make our way up the village. I have a suit of sailor’s clothes for you in this bag; you can change into them when we get beyond the houses, and throw those you are wearing into the pond there, with a few stones in them to make them sink.”“Ah, monsieur, how can I thank you?”Lucien said.“I am only paying a debt. Marie risked a good deal to aid me, and I promised solemnly that I would, if it were at all possible, get you out of prison in return, so there is no occasion for any thanks.”Few words passed between them as they walked through the village, and when they had left it behind, Lucien changed his clothes and disposed of his old ones as Will had suggested.[pg 313]“It was necessary to get rid of them,”Will said,“because if they were found in the morning it would show that you had got a change, and instead of looking for someone in a well-worn uniform they would direct their attention to other people.”They tramped along to Fairham, and reached the hotel just as it was about to be shut up, the stage-coach having passed a few minutes before. They had some refreshments, and then took their seats in the chaise. At once the postilions cracked their whips, and the four horses started at a gallop.“We are absolutely safe now,”Will said;“they will not discover that you have gone until the roll-call in the morning, and by that time we shall be within a few miles of London. In such weather as this they will be unable to signal. Before we arrive I will put on civilian clothes again, and as soon as we have discharged the chaise we will go to a clothier’s and get a suit for you. There are so many emigrants in London that your speaking French will attract no attention.”The journey was quickly accomplished. Will was very liberal to the postilions at the first stage, and these hurried up those who were to take the next, and so from stage to stage they went at the top of the horses’ speed, the ninety miles being covered in the very fast time, for the period, of ten hours. At the last stage Will asked for a room to himself for a few minutes and there changed his clothes. They were put down in front of a private house, and, having seen the post-chaise drive off, took their bags and walked on until they reached a tailor’s shop.“I want to put my man into plain clothes while he is with me in town,”Will said to the shopman.[pg 314]“Yes, sir. What sort of clothes?”“Oh, just private clothes, such as a valet might wear when out of livery!”Lucien was soon rigged out in a suit of quiet but respectable garments, and, putting his sailor suit into his bag, they went on. They looked about for a considerable time before they found a suitable lodging, but at last they came upon a French hotel. Entering, Will asked in French for two rooms. They were at once accommodated, and after washing and dressing they went down to the coffee-room, where several French gentlemen were breakfasting. It had been arranged that Will should say that they were two emigrants who had just effected their escape from France.The next day they took the coach to Weymouth, the port from which at that time communication was kept open with France by means of smugglers and men who made a business of aiding the French emigrants who wanted to escape, or the Royalists who went backwards and forwards trying to get up a movement against the Republic. On making enquiries they heard of a man who had a very fast little vessel, and they at once looked him up.“This gentleman wants to go across,”Will said.“What would you do it for?”“It depends whether he will wait till I get some more passengers or not.”“He is pressed for time,”Will said;“what will you run him over for alone?”“Fifty pounds,”the man said. Will thought it advisable not to appear to jump at the offer.“That is rather stiff,”he said;“I should think thirty-five would be ample.”[pg 315]“It seems a good sum,”the man said;“but you see there are dangers. I might be overhauled by a British cruiser.”“You might,”Will said;“but when they learned your business they would not interfere with you.”“Then there are the port authorities,”the man said.“Yes, but a few francs would prevent them from asking inconvenient questions. Besides, my friend is not a royalist, he is only going over to see his friends.”“Well, we will say thirty-five,”the man said with a smile.“When will you want to start?”“He doesn’t care whether he sails this evening or to-morrow morning.”“Well, we will say to-morrow morning at daybreak.”“Where will you land him?”“At Cherbourg or one of the villages near; most likely at Cherbourg if the coast is clear, for I have friends there who work with me.”They went to an hotel for the night. In the morning Will gave Lucien a small package containing a very handsome gold watch and chain which he had bought in London.“Give this to Marie from me,”he said;“I promised that she should have one for her wedding-day. Here are a thousand francs of French money, which will carry you comfortably from Cherbourg to Verdun and give you a bit of a start there. No, you need not refuse it, I am a rich man, and can afford it without in the least hurting myself. Give my love to Marie,”he said,“and tell her that I shall never forget her kindness.”Lucien was profuse in his gratitude, but Will cut him short by hurrying him down to the boat, which was lying at the[pg 316]quay with her sails already hoisted. Will watched the boat till it was well out to sea, and then took the next coach back to London, filled with pleasure that he had been able to carry out his plan and to repay the kindness that Marie had shown him.He had given Lucien the address of his London agent, so that on his arrival at Verdun he could write him a letter saying how he had fared, and when he and Marie were to be married. This letter he received on his return from the next cruise. It contained the warmest thanks of Marie and her lover, and the information that they were to be married the following week, and that the young man had an offer of good employment in the town.When he reached London, Will obtained the address of a respectable solicitor, and called upon him to ask his advice as to advertising to try to discover a family bearing the arms on his seal.“I should advise you,”the lawyer said,“to leave the matter until you return from sea again. Questions of this sort always require a good deal of time to answer. You would have to be present to give information, and when the matter is taken up it should be pressed through vigorously. Of course there would be difficulties to face. The mere fact of this seal being in the possession of your father, that is, if he was your father, would not be sufficient to prove his identity, and there would be all sorts of investigations to make, which would, of course, take time.Ifyou will leave the matter in my hands I will cause enquiries to be made as to the arms. That will probably only take a day or two, and it would perhaps be a satisfaction to you to know the family with which you might[pg 317]be connected. It will be in the subsequent steps that delays will occur.”“Thank you, sir! I should certainly like to know, though I quite see that, as you say, it will be very difficult for me to establish my connection.”The lawyer then took down what particulars Will could give him of his early history. When he returned a week later the lawyer gave him a cordial reception.“I congratulate you, Mr. Gilmore,”he said.“The head of the family carrying those arms is Sir Ralph Gilmore, one of our oldest baronets. He has no male issue. He had one son who died six years ago. There was another son, a younger one, of whom there is no record. He may be alive and he may be dead; that is not known. It is, of course, possible that you were stolen as a child by your reputed father, and that he gave you the family name in order that when the time came he could produce you, but of course that is all guesswork. When you return from sea again I will set people to work to trace, if possible, the wanderings of this person; but as I said, this will take time, and as you will be going to sea in a fortnight the matter can very well stand over. So long as you are on board a ship your parentage can make very little difference to you.”Will had still a fortnight of his leave remaining. He wandered about London for a couple of days, but he found it rather dull now that he had finished his business, as he had no friends in town. On the second day he was walking along one of the fashionable streets of Bloomsbury, considering whether he should not go down by the next coach to Portsmouth, where he was sure of meeting friends,[pg 318]when a carriage passed him, drawn by a pair of fine horses. A young lady who was sitting in it happened to notice him. She glanced at him carelessly at first, and then with great interest. She stopped the carriage before it had gone many yards, and when Will came up, looked at him closely.“Excuse me, sir,”she said as he was passing;“but are you not Mr. Gilmore?”Greatly surprised he replied in the affirmative.“I thought so!”she exclaimed.“Do you not remember me?”He looked at her hard.“Why—why,”he hesitated,“surely it is not—”“But it is!”she cried.“I am Alice Palethorpe!”“Miss Palethorpe!”he exclaimed, grasping the hand she held out.“Is it possible?”“Not Miss Palethorpe,”she said.“To you I am Alice, as I was nearly four years ago. Get into the carriage. My father will be delighted to see you. We have talked of you so often. He made enquiries at the Admiralty when he came home, but found that you were a prisoner in France, and he has been trying to get your name down in the list of those to be exchanged, but he had so little interest that he could not succeed, and, indeed, for the past two years no exchange had taken place.”By this time he was in the carriage, and they were driving rapidly along the busy streets. Presently they stopped before a large house in Bedford Square.“This is our home, for the present at any rate,”she said.“Now come in.”She ran upstairs before him and signed to him to wait at the[pg 319]top.“Father,”she said, bursting into a room,“I have taken a captive; someone you certainly don’t expect to see. Now, you must guess.”“How can I, my dear, when you say I don’t expect to see him? Is it—?”and he mentioned five or six of his friends in Jamaica, any of whom might be returning.“No, father. You are out altogether.”“Then I give it up, Alice.”“It is Will,”she said.Will heard him spring to his feet and hurry to the door.“My dear young friend!”he exclaimed.“At least I suppose it is you, for you have grown out of all recognition.”“Ah, father!”the girl broke in.“You see, he hadn’t changed so much as to deceive me. I felt sure of him the moment I set eyes upon him.”“Well, then, your eyes do you credit,”her father said.“Certainly I should not have recognized him. He has grown from a lad into a man since we saw him last. He has widened out tremendously. He was rather one of the leankindat that time.”“Oh, father, how can you say so? I consider that he was just right.”“Yes, my dear, I quite understand that. At that time he was perfect in your eyes, but for all that he was lean.”“You are quite right, sir, I was, and I really wonder that I have put on flesh so much. The diet of a French prisoner is not calculated to promote stoutness. But your daughter was not only sharper-sighted than you, but even than myself. Till she spoke to me I had not an idea who she was. I saw that she thought she recognized me, but I was afraid it would[pg 320]be rude on my part to look at her closely. Of course now I do see the likeness to the Alice I knew, but she has changed far more than I have. She was a little girl of fourteen then, very pretty, certainly, I thought, but still quite a girl—”and he stopped.“Now, you mean that I have grown into a young woman, and have lost my prettiness?”“I think your looking-glass tells you another story,”he laughed.“If it doesn’t, it must be a very bad one.”“Well, now, do sit down,”her father said.“You must have an immense deal to tell us.”“It is a longish story,”Will replied,“too long to tell straight off. Besides, I want to ask some questions. When did you come home? Have you come for good? If not, how long are you going to stay? though I am sorry to say that the length of your visit can affect me comparatively little, for I am appointed second-lieutenant of theJason, and must join in a few days.”“I congratulate you very heartily, Will,”Mr. Palethorpe said.“You are fortunate indeed to get such promotion so early.”“I am most fortunate, sir. Though just at present I feel inclined to wish that it hadn’t come quite so soon.”“In answer to your question, Will, I can say that we are home for good. I have disposed of my estate and wound up my business, principally, I think, because this little girl had made up her mind that she should like England better than Jamaica.”“I am glad to hear that, sir. I shall have something to look forward to when I return to England.”[pg 321]“Where are you staying?”“At the Golden Cross.”“Well, then, you must go and fetch your luggage here at once. It would be strange indeed if you were to be staying at any house but mine while you are in London.”As he saw that the planter would not hear of a refusal, Will gladly accepted the invitation, and, taking a fly, drove to the hotel, paid his bill, and took his things away.CHAPTER XVIION BOARD THE“JASON”“I won’t ask you for your story till after dinner,”Mr. Palethorpe said.“To enjoy a yarn one needs to be comfortable, and I feel more at home in my arm-chair in the dining-room than I do in this room, with all its fal-lals. You see, I have taken the house furnished. When I settle down in a home of my own, I can assure you it will look very different from this. In fact I have one already building for me. It is at Dulwich, and will be as nearly as possible like my house in Jamaica. Of course there will be differences. I at first wished to have the same sort of veranda, but the architect pointed out that while in Jamaica one requires shade, here one wants light. So they are getting large sheets of glass specially made for putting in instead of wood above the windows. Then, of course, we want good fireplaces, whereas in Jamaica a fire is only necessary for a few[pg 322]days in the year. There are also other little differences, but on the whole it will remind me of the place I had for so many years.”“The house will have one advantage over that in Jamaica, Mr. Palethorpe.”“What is that?”he asked.“You will be able to go to bed comfortably without fear of having the roof taken from over your head by a hurricane.”“Ah! that is indeed a matter to which I have not given sufficient consideration, but it is certainly a very substantial advantage, as we have all good reason to know.”“I never think of it without shuddering,”Alice said.“It was awful! It seemed as if there was an end of everything! I think it was the memory of that night that first set me thinking of going to England.”“Then I cannot but feel grateful to that hurricane, for if you had remained out there it is probable that I should never have met you again.”“I am having a large conservatory built so that we can have greenness and flowers all the year,”Mr. Palethorpe remarked presently.“I should think that would be charming. I hope you will be settled at Dulwich long before I come back from my next cruise.”“Well, I don’t know that I can say the same, Will. I hope your next cruise will be a short one.”When dinner was over, the chairs were drawn up to the fire, and Will related his adventures since his return from the West Indies.[pg 323]“Have you heard of your two favourite sailors?”Alice interrupted.“Dimchurch and Tom Stevens? No, I have not. I shall feel lost without them at sea, and sincerely hope that I may some day run against them, in which case I am sure, if they are free, they will join my ship.”“How terribly cut up they must have been,”the girl said,“when they got down to the beach and found that you were missing!”“I am sure they would be,”he replied.“I expect the rest of the men almost had to hold them back by force.”“Well, go on. You were hit and made prisoner.”Will went on with his story till he came to his escape from Verdun.“What was she like?”the girl asked.“I expect she was very pretty.”“No, not particularly so. She was a very pleasant-looking girl.”“I can imagine she seemed very pleasant to you,”the girl laughed;“and, of course, before you got out of the window and climbed to the top of the house you kissed her, didn’t you?”“Yes, I did,”Will said.“Of course she expected to be kissed. I am not at all used to kissing. In fact, I only experienced it once before, and then I was a perfectly passive actor in the affair.”The girl flushed up rosily.“You drew that upon yourself, Alice,”her father said.“If you had left him alone he would not have brought up that old affair.”[pg 324]“I don’t care,”she said.“I was only thirteen, and he had saved my life.”“You didn’t do it again, my dear, I hope, when you met him in the street to-day.”“Of course not!”she exclaimed indignantly.“The idea of such a thing!”“Very well, let this be a lesson to you not to enquire too strictly into such matters.”“Ah! I will bear it in mind,”she said.“I can assure you, Alice, that it was a perfectly friendly kiss. She was engaged to be married to a young soldier who was a prisoner at Porchester, and during the past week I have been employed in setting him free, as you will hear presently. I promised her I would do so if possible, and of course I kept my word.”“What! you, an English officer, set a French prisoner free! I am shocked!”Mr. Palethorpe said.“I would have tried to set twenty of them free if twenty of their sweethearts had united to get me away from prison.”They laughed heartily at the story of his escape as a pedlar, and were intensely interested in his account of the manner in which he succeeded in getting a despatch from the agent of the British Government at Amsterdam. He continued the narrative until his arrival in England.“Now we shall hear, I suppose, how this British officer perpetrated an act of treason against His Most Gracious Majesty.”“Well, I suppose it was that in the eyes of the law,”Will laughed.“Fortunately, however, the law has no cognizance of the affair, at any rate not of my share in it. I don’t suppose it has been heard of outside Porchester. As His Gracious Majesty[pg 325]has some forty thousand prisoners in England, the loss of one more or less will not trouble his gracious brain.”He then related the whole story of Lucien’s escape.“I should have liked to see you dressed up like a pedlar, with your face all painted, and a wig and whiskers,”the girl said,“though I don’t suppose I should have recognized you in that disguise to-day.”“It was a capitally-managed plan, Will, and had it been for a legitimate object I should have given it unstinted praise. And so you saw him fairly off from England?”“Yes; and by this time I have no doubt he is on the top of a vehicle of some sort, going as fast as horses can gallop to join his sweetheart.”“I wonder,”Alice said mischievously,“whether she will ever tell him of that kiss at the window.”“I dare say she will,”laughed Will,“but perhaps not till they are married. I sent her the gold watch I promised her, and when she holds it up before his eyes I think he won’t grudge her the kiss. Still, I believe these things are not always mentioned.”“No, I suppose not,”she said, with an affectation of not understanding him.“Why should they be?”“I can’t say indeed, if you can’t.”“Well, I am not ashamed of it one little bit, though I own that I never have told anybody. But I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I am sure there were at least half a dozen ladies in Jamaica who would willingly have kissed you for what you did for them.”“Thank you! I should certainly not have willingly submitted to the ordeal.”[pg 326]It was late when the story was finished, and they soon afterwards went to bed.Will spent a delightful week with his friends. Alice had grown up into a charming young woman, full of life and vivacity, and even prettier than she had promised to be as a girl. They went about together to all the sights of London, for Mr. Palethorpe said that he didn’t care about going, and young people were best left to themselves. When the time came for parting, Will for the first time experienced a feeling of reluctance at joining his ship. He and Alice were now almost on their old footing, and Will thought that she was by far the nicest girl he had ever seen; but it was not until he was on the top of the Portsmouth coach that he recognized how much she was to him.“Well,”he said to himself,“I never thought I should feel like this. Some young fellows are always falling in love. I used to think it was all nonsense, but now I understand it. I do not know why her father should object to me, as I am fairly well off. I must see as much of her as I can when I land next time. I hope she won’t meet anyone in the meantime she likes better.”TheJasonwas now lying out in the harbour, and the riggers had taken possession of her. Will at once reported himself and went on board. The other officers had not yet joined, but he at once took up his work with his usual zeal, and spent a busy fortnight looking after the riggers, and seeing that everything was done in the best manner. He was, however, somewhat angry to find that Alice’s face and figure were constantly intruding themselves into the cordage and shrouds.“I am becoming a regular mooncalf,”he said angrily to himself.“It is perfectly absurd that I can’t keep my thoughts[pg 327]from wandering away from my work, and for a girl whom I can hardly dare hope to win. I shall be very glad when we are off to sea. I’ll then have, I won’t say something better, but something else to think of. If this is being in love, certainly it is not the thing a sailor should engage in. I have often heard it said that a sailor’s ship should be his wife, and I have no longer any doubt about it. But I know I’ll get over it when I hear the first broadside fired.”A week later the first lieutenant joined. His name was Somerville.“Ah, Mr. Gilmore,”he said,“I see you have taken time by the forelock and given an eye to everything! I only received my appointment two days ago or I should have joined before. There is nothing like having an officer to superintend things, and I feel really very much obliged to you for not having extended your leave, which, of course, you could have done, especially as, so far as I know, no boatswain has yet been appointed.”“I was glad to get back to work, sir, and it is really very interesting seeing all the rigging set up from the very beginning.”“That is so, but for all that men don’t generally want to rejoin,”the first lieutenant said with a smile.“The difficulty is to get young officers on board. They hang back, as a rule, till the very last moment. Well, if you will dine with me this evening, Mr. Gilmore, at the George, I shall be glad to hear of some of your services. That they are distinguished I have no doubt, for nothing but the most meritorious services or extraordinary interest could have gained you at your age the appointment of second lieutenant in a fine ship like this. I[pg 328]think it a very good thing for the first lieutenant to know the antecedents of those serving with him. Such knowledge is very useful to him in any crisis or emergency.”After dinner that evening Will gave an account of his services, the lieutenant at times asking for more minute details, especially of the capture of the two pirates.“Thank you very much!”Lieutenant Somerville said when he had finished.“Now I feel that I can, in any emergency, depend upon you to second me, which I can assure you is by no means commonly the case, for promotion goes so much by influence, and such incapable men are pushed up in the service that it is a comfort indeed to have an officer who knows his work thoroughly. I hope to goodness we shall have the captain so fine a ship deserves.”“I hope so indeed, sir. I have hitherto been extremely fortunate in having good captains, as good as one could wish for.”“You are fortunate indeed, then. I have been under two or three men who, either from ignorance or ill-temper or sheer indifference, have been enough to take the heart entirely out of their officers.”On the day when theJasonwas ready for commission the captain came down to Portsmouth and put up at the George, and Mr. Somerville and Will called upon him there. He was a young man, some years younger than the firstlieutenant.“Gentlemen,”he began,“I have pleasure in making your acquaintance. I saw the admiral this morning, and he assured me that I could not wish for better officers. I hope we shall get on pleasantly together, and can assure you that if we do not it will not be my fault. We have as fine a ship as men[pg 329]could wish to sail in, and I will guarantee that you will not find me slack in using her. As you may guess by my age, I owe my present position partly to family interest, but my object will be to prove that that interest has not been altogether misplaced. I have already had command of a frigate, and we had our full share of hard service. I am afraid that with a seventy-four we shall not have quite so many opportunities of distinguishing ourselves, but shall generally have to work with the fleet and fight when other people bid us, and not merely when we see a good chance. There is, however, as much credit, if not as much prize-money, to be gained in a pitched battle as in isolated actions. I was kindly permitted by the admiral to read both your records of service, and I cannot say how gratified I was to find that I had two such able and active officers to second me.”“I am sure we are much obliged to you, sir,”Lieutenant Somerville replied,“for speaking to us as you have done. I can answer for it that we will second you to the very best of our power, and I am glad indeed to find that we have a commander whose sentiments so entirely accord with our own.”“Now, gentlemen, we have done with the formalities. Let us crack a bottle of wine together to our better acquaintance, and I hope I shall very often see you at my table on board, for while I feel that discipline must be maintained, I have no belief in a captain holding himself entirely aloof from his officers, as if he were a little god. On the quarter-deck a captain must stand somewhat aloof, but in his own cabin I cannot see why he should not treat his officers as gentlemen like himself.”They sat and chatted for an hour, and when they left,[pg 330]Lieutenant Somerville said to Will:“If I am not much mistaken, we shall have a very pleasant time on board theJason. I believe Captain Charteris means every word he says, and that he is a thoroughly good fellow. He has a very pleasant face, though a firm and resolute one, and when he gives an order it will have to be obeyed promptly; but he is a man who will make allowances, and I do not think the cat will be very often brought into requisition on board.”One day Will was sauntering down the High Street when he saw two country-looking men coming along. One of them looked at him and staggered back in astonishment.“Why,”he exclaimed,“it is Mr. Gilmore! We thought you were in prison in the middle of France, sir.”“So I was, Dimchurch; but, as you see, I have taken leg-bail.”“That was a terrible affair, sir, at them French batteries. When I got down to the shore, and found you were missing, it was as much as they could do to keep Tom here and me from going back. You mayn’t believe me, Mr. Gilmore, but we both cried like children as we rowed to theTartar.”“I am indeed glad to see you again, and you too, Tom. I guessed that if I ever came across the one I should meet the other also. What are you doing in those togs?”“Well, sir, we put them on because we did not want to be impressed by the first ship that came in, but preferred to wait a bit till we saw one to suit us. I see, sir, that you have shipped a swab. That means, of course, that you have got a lieutenancy. I congratulate you indeed, sir, on your promotion.”“Yes, I got it a month ago, and to a fine ship, theJason.”[pg 331]“She is a fine ship, sir, and no mistake. Tom and I were watching her lying out in the harbour yesterday, and were saying that, though we have always been accustomed to frigates, we should not mind shipping in her if we found out something about the captain.”“Well, I can tell you, Dimchurch, that he is just the man you would like to serve under, young and dashing, and, I should say, a good officer and a fine fellow.”“And who is the first lieutenant, sir, because that matters almost as much as the captain.”“He is a good fellow too, Dimchurch, a man who loves his profession and has a good record.”“And who is the second, sir? not that it matters much about him if the captain and first luff are all right. I suppose she has four on board, as she is a line-of-battle ship?”“Yes, she carries four. As to the second, I can only tell you that he is one of the finest fellows in the service, and you will understand that when I say that I am the second lieutenant.”“What, sir!”Dimchurch almost shouted,“they have made you second lieutenant on a line-of-battle ship! Well, that is one of the few times I have known promotion go by merit. I am glad, sir. Well, I will go and sign articles at once, and so, of course, will Tom; and what is more, I will guarantee to find you a score of first-rate hands, maybe more.”“That is good indeed,”Will said.“I will speak to the first lieutenant and get you rated as boatswain, if possible. You have already served in that capacity, and unless the berth is filled up, which is not likely, I have no doubt I can get it for you.”[pg 332]“Well, sir, if you can, of course I shall be glad; but I would ship with you if it was only as loblolly boy.”“The same here,”Tom said;“you know that, sir, without my saying it.”“Is there any berth that I could get you, Tom?”“No, sir, thank you! A.B. is good enough for me. I am not active enough to be captain of the top, but I can pull on a rope, or row an oar, or strike a good blow, with any man.”“That you can, Tom; but I do wish I could get you a lift too. How about gunner’s mate?”“No, thank you, sir! I would rather stop A.B. I should like to be your honour’s servant, but, lor’, I should never do to wait in the ward-room. I am as clumsy as a bear, and should always be spilling something, and breaking glasses, and getting into trouble. No, sir, I will be A.B., but of course I should like to be appointed to your boat.”“That is a matter of course, Tom. Well, I will go round to the dockyard at once and see you sworn in, and then gladden the first lieutenant’s heart by telling him that you will bring a good number of men along with you, for at present we are very short-handed.”“You trust me for that, sir. I know where lots of them are lying hid, not because they don’t want to serve, but because they want a good ship and a good captain. When I tell them that it is a fine ship, and a good captain, and a good first and second, they will jump at it.”Dimchurch was as good as his word, and the following week persuaded thirty first-class seamen to sign on.“At the same time, sir,”he said as they went towards[pg 333]the harbour,“I would rather she had been a frigate. One has always a chance of picking up something then, as one gets sent about on expeditions, while on a battle-ship one is just stuck blockading.”“That is just what I think,”Tom said.“There are no boat expeditions, no chances of picking up a prize every two or three days, or of chasing a pirate. Still, though theTartarwas a frigate, we did not have much fun in her, except when we were on shore. That was good enough, though it would not have been half so good if the sailors had not done it alone. We wanted to show these redcoats what British seamen could do when they were on their metal. I know I never worked half so hard in my life.”“Well, I quite agree with you. It is more pleasant commanding a small craft than being second officer in a large one, although I must say I could not have had a more pleasant captain and first lieutenant than I have now if I had picked them out from the whole fleet. I am sorry that I cannot get leave at present, for I want to make researches about my father. According to what my lawyer said it is likely to be a long job. I hope, however, to get it well in trim on my next spell ashore. It makes really no difference to me now who or what my father was. I have a good position, and what with the prize-money I made before, and shall gain now by my share of the sale of the frigates we took at Corsica, to say nothing of the guns and stores we captured, I have more than enough to satisfy all my wants.”“I have done extraordinarily well too, Mr. Gilmore,”Dimchurch said.“I took your advice, and Tom and I have put all our prize-money aside. He has over a thousand saved, and[pg 334]I have quite sufficient to keep me in idleness all my life, even if I never do a stroke of work again.”Mr. Somerville, on Will’s recommendation, at once appointed Dimchurch boatswain, and he soon proved himself thoroughly efficient.“He is a fine fellow, that sailor of yours,”the lieutenant said,“and will make a first-rate boatswain. He has done good service in bringing up so many hands, and good ones too, and he is evidently popular among the men.”“He is a thoroughly good man, sir. He attached himself to my fortunes when I was but a ship’s boy, and has stuck to me ever since. He and Tom Stevens are, with one exception, the greatest friends I have ever had, and both of them would lay down their lives for me.”“A good master makes a good man,”Lieutenant Somerville said with a smile.“Your greatest friend was, of course, the lady who pushed you on with your education.”“Yes, sir, certainly I regard her as the best friend I ever had.”“Well, there is no better friend for a lad than a good woman, Gilmore. In that sense my mother was my greatest friend. Most mothers are against their sons going to sea. In my case it was my father who objected, but my mother, seeing how I was bent upon it, persuaded him to let me go.”Three weeks after being commissioned the complement of theJasonwas complete, and she was ordered to proceed to the West Indies, to which place they made a fast passage. To their disappointment they fell in with none of the enemy’s cruisers on their way. The voyage, however, sufficed to give the crew confidence in their commander. He was prompt and quick in giving orders, and at the same time pleasant in[pg 335]manner. He paid far more attention than most captains to the comfort of his crew, and, while he insisted upon the most perfect order and discipline, abstained from giving unnecessary work. In cases where punishments were absolutely necessary he punished severely, but when it was at all possible he let delinquents off with a lecture. So, while he was feared by the rougher spirits of the crew, he was regarded with liking and respect by the good men.On their arrival at Carlisle Bay, Barbados, they found that they were in time to join a naval expedition whose object was to recover the islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada, which had been captured by the French the previous year.A fleet had been sent from England under the command of Rear-admiral Christian, consisting of two ships of the line and five frigates, convoying a large fleet of transports with a strong body of troops on board under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie.At Carlisle Bay this fleet were joined by most of the ships on the West Indian station, and on the 21st April, 1796, the augmented fleet, under the command of Sir John Laforey, sailed to Marin Bay, Martinique, where they anchored. On the following day Sir John Laforey resigned his command to Admiral Christian and sailed for England. The fleet then stood across to St. Lucia. The troops were landed at three different points under the protection of the guns of the fleet.The first point was protected by a five-gun battery. The fire of the ships, however, soon silenced it, and the first division made good its landing. The seventy-four-gun shipAlfredwas to have led the second division, supported by the fifty-four-gun shipMadrasand the forty-gun frigateBeaulieu, but[pg 336]the attempt was thwarted by lightness of wind and a strong lee current. On the next day, however, a landing was effected with little opposition. Eight hundred seamen, under the command of Captains Lane of the thirty-two-gun frigateAstreaand Ryves of the bomb-vesselBulldog, were landed to co-operate with the troops. Morne Chabot was attacked and carried that night with the loss of thirteen officers and privates killed, forty-nine wounded, and twelve missing.On the 3rd of May an attempt was made to dislodge the enemy from their batteries at the base of the mountains, but was repulsed with loss, as was an attack on the 17th on the place called Vigie.In the meantime the men had been busy building batteries and planting guns, and when these opened fire on the evening of the 24th of May the enemy capitulated, two thousand marching out and laying down their arms. A great quantity of guns, together with stores of every description, were found in the different forts, and some small privateers and merchantmen were captured in the offing. Eight hundred seamen and three hundred and twenty marines had been landed from the ships of war, and had behaved with their usual courage and promptitude. The manner, indeed, in which they established batteries and planted guns in places deemed almost impracticable astonished the troops, unused as they were to exercises demanding strength and skill.As soon as St. Lucia had surrendered, the expedition moved to St. Vincent. The defence here was decidedly weak, and after some skirmishing, the enemy, composed chiefly of negroes and Caribs, capitulated. Our loss amounted to thirty-eight killed and one hundred and forty-five wounded. Grenada[pg 337]offered a comparatively slight resistance. The monster, Fedon, who was in command there, massacred twenty white people who were in his power in full view of the British, who were on the plain below. He and his men, however, were hotly pursued through the forest by a detachment of German riflemen, and the greater portion of them killed without mercy.A detachment of British and colonial troops from the garrison of Port au Prince in St. Domingo proceeded to besiege the town of Leogane in that island. Covered by the guns of the fleet the troops were landed in two divisions, while theSwiftsure, seventy-four, cannonaded the town, and theLeviathanandAfricathe forts. The place, however, was too strong for them, and at nightfall the ships moved off to an anchorage, while those who had landed were withdrawn on the following morning. Two of the frigates were so much damaged that they were compelled to return to Jamaica to refit. An attack was next made upon the fort of Bombarde, which stood at a distance of fifteen miles from the coast. Will and a detachment from his ship formed part of the force engaged. The road was extremely rough, and was blocked by fallen trees and walls built across it. The labour of getting the cannon along was prodigious.“I must say,”Will said to Dimchurch, who was one of the party,“I greatly prefer fighting on board to work like this. We have to labour like slaves from early morning till late in the evening; but I don’t so much mind that, as the fact that at night we have to lie down with only the food that remains in our haversacks, and what water we may have saved, for supper. Now in a fight at sea one at least gets as much to drink as one wants.”[pg 338]“I quite agree with you, Mr. Gilmore. It’s dog’s work without dog’s food. I don’t mind myself working here with a chopper eight or ten hours a day, but I do like a good supper at the end of it. The worst of it is, that when it is all over it is the troops who get all the credit, while we poor beggars do the greater part of the work. The soldiers are well enough in their way, but they are very little good for hard work. How do you account for that, sir?”“I can only suppose, Dimchurch, that while they get as much food as we do, they have nothing like the same amount of hard work to do.”“That’s it, sir. Why, look at them at Portsmouth! They just go out of a morning and drill on the common for a bit, and then they have nothing else to do all day but to stroll about the town and talk to the girls. How can you expect a man to have any muscle to speak of when he never does a stroke of hard work? I don’t say they don’t fight well, for I own they do their duty like men in that line; but when it comes to work, why, they ain’t in it with a jack-tar. I do believe I could pull a couple of them over a line.”“I dare say you could, Dimchurch, but you must remember that you are much stronger than an ordinary seaman.”“Well, sir, I grant I am stronger than usual, but I should be ashamed of myself if I could not tackle two of them soldiers.”“Yes, but don’t forget they have been cooped up on board a ship for a month, with nothing to keep them in health, and certainly no exercise, while you are constantly doing hard work. If you were to put these men into sailors’ clothes, and give them sailors’ work for six months, they would be just as strong and useful.”[pg 339]“Well, sir, if they are that sort of men why do they go and enlist in the army instead of becoming sailors. It stands to reason that it is because they know that they cannot do work.”“Why, Dimchurch, I have heard that in the great towns girls think as much of soldiers as of sailors.”“Well, that shows how little they know about them. In a seaport, what girl would look at a soldier if she were pretty enough to get a sailor for a sweetheart.”“You are a prejudiced beggar,”Will laughed,“and it is of no use arguing with you. If you had gone as a soldier instead of taking to the sea you would think just the other way.”On the next morning the march was renewed, and in the evening they reached the fort. They had had several severe skirmishes during the day, losing eight killed and twenty-two wounded, but the garrison, consisting of three hundred, surrendered without further resistance as soon as the place was surrounded, and the sailors then rejoined their ships.“Well, I am mighty glad I am back on board,”Dimchurch said to Will the evening they re-embarked.“This marching, and chopping trees, and being shot at from ambushes, doesn’t suit me. There is nothing manly or straightforward about it. Hand to hand and cutlass to cutlass is what I call a man’s work.”“That is all very well, Dimchurch, but though you may capture ships you will never get possession of islands or colonies in that way. If you want them you must land and fight for them.”“Yes, sir, that is all very good, but it seems to me that the hard work of making batteries and mounting guns falls on the[pg 340]sailor, while the soldier gets all the credit. It is not our admiral who sends the despatches, it is the general. He may speak a few good words for the sailors, as a man speaks up for a dog, but all the credit of the fighting, and the surrender, and all that business goes to the soldiers. The sooner we sail away from here, and do some fighting nearer home, where there are no soldiers, and where the sailors get their due, the better pleased I shall be.”“Well, Dimchurch, I hope our turn out here is nearly finished. We may have to take part in a few more attacks on French possessions, but as soon as that work is over I have great hopes that we shall get sailing orders for home again.”Indeed, late in August a fast cruiser arrived with orders that theJasonwas at once to return to Brest and join the Channel fleet. To the great delight of everyone the wind continued favourable throughout the whole voyage, and after an exceptionally speedy passage they joined Admiral Bridport, who was cruising off Ushant on the look-out for the French fleet that was preparing for the invasion of Ireland.The French fleet, under Admiral Morard-de-Galles, got under weigh from Brest on 26th December, 1796. It consisted of seventeen ships of the line, thirteen frigates, six corvettes, seven transports, and a powder-ship, forty-four sail in all, conveying eight thousand troops under the command of Generals Grouchy, Borin, and Humbert. Misfortune, however, dogged the fleet from the very commencement, for theSéduisant, a seventy-four-gun battle-ship, got on shore shortly after leaving Brest, and out of thirteen hundred seamen and soldiers on board six hundred and eighty were drowned.[pg 341]They were noticed by Vice-admiralColpoys’fleet, who sent off two frigates to warn Lord Bridport, and after chasing the French for some distance himself, sailed for Falmouth to report the setting out of the expedition.Admiral Bouvet, with thirty-two sail, managed to reach the mouth of Bantry Bay, but the weather was so tempestuous that he was unable to land his troops. After struggling for some days against this boisterous weather, the fleet scattered, and the majority of the ships returned to Brest. The rest reached the coast of Ireland, but not finding the main portion of their fleet there, they returned to France.The failure of the expedition was as complete as was that of the Spanish Armada, and was due greatly to the same cause. Out of the forty-four ships that sailed from Brest only thirty-one managed to return to France. The British frigates, by the vigilance they displayed, had done good service, cutting off four transports and three ships of war; but the stormy weather had dispersed the expedition, and was accountable for the loss of two battle-ships, three frigates, and a transport. It was curious that although Lord Bridport’s fleet was constantly patrolling the Channel during this time, the two fleets never came in contact.
CHAPTER XVIA DARING EXPLOITOn reaching Sheerness the captain at once went ashore, accompanied by Will, and they proceeded to London. Will took up his quarters at the Golden Cross, and next day called at the Admiralty, where he sent in his name to the First Lord.“I have received a most favourable report from Captain Knowles of your conduct in landing on the coast of Holland, and of obtaining despatches of much value. How were you taken prisoner?”“At the attack by a force from theTartaron some batteries on one of the Isles d’Hyères. I was hit in the leg, and, being left behind in the confusion of the retreat, fell into the hands of the French. I was imprisoned for four months at Toulon, and then sent to Verdun. Six months after leaving Toulon I effected my escape in a disguise procured for me by a French girl. I had learned the language while in prison, and, travelling through France in the disguise of a pedlar, reached Dunkirk. There I worked in a fishing-boat for a month, and then, seeing theArtemiscruising off the town, I shut up two of the[pg 301]sailors in their cabin, and frightened the other two into taking me off to her.”“In consideration of the valuable services you have rendered I have much pleasure in appointing you master’s mate.”“Thank you, sir! but I own I had rather hopes of obtaining a lieutenancy.”“A lieutenancy!”the admiral said in a changed tone.“I am surprised to hear you say so, when you have had no service as a master’s mate. What makes you entertain such a hope?”“My past services, sir,”Will said boldly.“Captain Purfleet, will you hand me down the volume of services under the letter G. Ah! here it is.”He glanced at it cursorily at first, and then read it carefully.“You were right, Mr. Gilmore, in entertaining such a hope. I see that you have been highly spoken of by the various officers under whom you have served; that you were most strongly recommended by the admirals both at Malta and in the West Indies for your singular services, and also by Lord Hood for your conduct in Corsica. You were in command of a small craft for nearly a year, and in that capacity you not only took a number of prizes, some of them valuable, but actually captured, in one hard-fought action, two pirates, each of which was stronger than yourself. You have, therefore, well shown your capacity to command. Captain Purfleet, have any appointments been made yet to theJason?”“No, sir.”“Very well, then appoint Mr. Gilmore to be second lieutenant of her. You need not thank me, sir; you owe your commission[pg 302]to your own gallantry and good conduct. I don’t know that I have at any time seen such strong testimonials and so good a record for any officer of your age and standing. I am quite sure that you will do full justice to the appointment that I have made. As theJasonwill not be ready for two months I can grant you six weeks leave.”No sooner was this matter settled than Will took the coach to Fairham. Thence he drove to the village of Porchester, where Marie’s fiancé was confined. Here he put up at a little inn. He had, before starting from London, bought and put on the disguise of a countryman, as he could hardly have stayed in the village as a gentleman without exciting remark or suspicion. He had, however, brought other clothes with him, so that if necessary he could resume them, and appear either as a naval officer or as a civilian. His first step was to make a tour of the great wall which enclosed the castle and the huts in which the prisoners were confined. He saw at once that any attempt to scale the wall would be useless. At the inn he gave out that by the death of a relative he had just come into a few pounds and meant to enjoy himself.The inn he had selected was scarcely more than a tavern, and he had chosen it because he thought it probable that it would be frequented by the soldiers whose camp stood near the walls, and who supplied the guards in the castle. This expectation was fulfilled a short time after his arrival by four or five soldiers coming in.“Will you drink a glass with me?”he said.“I have been telling the landlord that I have come into a little brass, and mean to spend it.”[pg 303]The soldiers, not unwillingly, accepted the invitation, and sat down at a table with him.“It must be slow work,”he said,“keeping guard here, and I expect you would sooner be out at the war.”“That we should,”one of them replied;“there is nothing to do here but to drill all day, and stare across the water when we are off duty, and wish we were at Portsmouth, where there is something to do and something to amuse one. This is the dullest hole I ever was quartered in. Cosham on one side and Fairham on the other are the only places that one can walk to. We expect, however, to be relieved before long, and I never want to see the place again.”“I suppose you take recruits here?”Will said.“Oh yes, we take recruits when we can get them.”“How long is a recruit before he begins to be a soldier, and takes his regular turn as guard and so on?”“Two or three months,”the man said;“that is long enough to get them into something like shape.”“I should like to go in and have a look at the prisoners,”Will said after a little chat.“Well, there is no chance of your doing that,”the soldier replied.“Orders are very strict, and only three or four hucksters are allowed to go in, to sell things to them.”“How many are there of them?”“About three thousand.”He chatted for some time, and then, after calling for another pint of beer all round, sauntered out, leaving the soldiers to finish it. He saw at once that his only possible plan in the time he had at his command was either to bribe some of the guards, which appeared to him too hazardous a plan to[pg 304]adopt, and not likely to lead to success, or to get at one or other of the people who were allowed in.He spent two days watching the gate of the prison. During that time five people in civilian dress went in. One of these was a short fat woman, who carried a large basket with cakes and other eatables. Another was similarly laden. A third, a man of about his own height, took in a variety of material used by the prisoners for making articles for sale. He had needles and thread, scraps of materials of many colours for making patchwork quilts, blocks of wood for carving out model ships, straw dyed various colours for making fancy boxes, glass beads, and other small articles. Will at once fixed on him as being the most likely of the visitors to serve his purpose. He spoke to him after he had left the prison.“My friend,”he said,“do you want to earn fifty pounds?”The man opened his eyes in surprise.“I should certainly like to,”he said,“if I could see my way to do it.”“Well, I will double that if you do as I tell you. I want you, in the first place, to find out the hut in which Lucien Dupres is confined, and give him a letter.”“There will be no great difficulty about that,”the man said.“I only have to whisper to the first prisoner I meet that I want to find a man, and have got a letter from his friends for him, and if he doesn’t know him he will find him out for me. That is not much to do for a hundred pounds.”“No; but in the next place I want you to keep out of the way for a week, and to lend me your clothes and pass. I want to go in and see the man.”[pg 305]“Well, that is a more dangerous business. How could you pass for me?”“I think I could do that without fear. We are about the same height. I should have a wig made to imitate your hair, and should, I imagine, have no difficulty in getting my face made up so as to be able to pass for you. You must be so well known that they will do no more than glance at me as I go in. The only alternative to that will be for you to take to him a rope and other things I will give you. I tell you frankly I want to aid his escape. Mind, a hundred pounds is not to be earned without some slight risk.”“Of the two things I would rather risk carrying the rope and the tools, if they are not too bulky. Mind you, it is a big risk, for I should be liable to be shot for aiding in the escape of a prisoner.”“Well, look here,”Will said,“I will go into Portsmouth this afternoon and find some man who can fake me up. There are sure to be two or three men who make that their business, for young naval officers are constantly getting into scrimmages, and must want to have their eyes painted before they go back on board. Do you go to the prison to-morrow morning. Find out the man, and deliver this letter to him. Then come into Portsmouth in the coach. I will be waiting there till it arrives, and you can go with me, and when I have got myself made up you shall judge for yourself whether I shall pass muster for you. There will be no difficulty in getting whiskers to match yours.”“Very well,”the man said,“I will be on the coach to-morrow.”Will at once changed his clothes to an ordinary walking[pg 306]suit, and went into town. On making enquiries he found that there was a barber who made it his business to paint black eyes and to remove the signs of bruises. He went to him and said:“I hear you are an artist in black eyes.”The man smiled.“You don’t look as if you wanted my services, sir.”“No, not in that way, but I suppose you could make up a face so as to resemble another.”“Yes, sir, I was at one time engaged at a theatre in London in making up the performers, and feel sure that I could accomplish such a job to your satisfaction.”“I have made a bet,”Will said,“that I could disguise myself as a certain man so well that I could take my friends in. Have you a sandy wig in your shop?”“Yes, sir, half a dozen.”“And whiskers?”“I have several sets, sir, and I dare say one would be the right colour.”“Very well, then, I will bring the man here to-morrow, and you shall paint me so as to resemble him as closely as possible. I don’t mind giving you a five-pound note for the job.”“Well, sir, if I am not mistaken I can paint you so that his own mother wouldn’t know the difference.”Will took a bed at the George, and at mid-day went to the inn where the coach stopped. The man was on the outside.“Well, sir, I have found the Frenchman, and given him the letter, so that part of the business is done.”“That is good. What is the number of the man’s hut?”[pg 307]“Number sixty-eight;”and the man carefully described its position.“Very well. Now we will set about the second part.”When they arrived at the shop the barber seated them in two chairs next to each other, in a room behind the shop, and set to work at once. He first produced a wig and whiskers, which, with a little clipping, he made of the size and shape of the hair on the huckster’s face. Then he set to work with his paints, first staining Will’s face to the reddish-brown of the man’s complexion, and then adding line after line. After two hours’ work he asked them to stand together before a glass, and both were astonished; the resemblance was indeed perfect. Will’s eyebrows had been stained a grayish white, and some long hairs had been inserted so as to give them the shaggy appearance of the pedlar. A crow’s foot had been painted at the corner of each eye, and a line drawn from the nose to the corners of the lips. The chin and lower part of the cheeks had been tinted dark, to give them the appearance of long shaving. Both of them burst into a laugh as they looked at the two faces in the mirror.“You will do, sir,”the man said.“It would need a sharp pair of eyes to detect the difference between us.”“Yes, I think that will do,”Will said,“and to aid the deception I will, as I go in, use my handkerchief and pretend to have a bad cold.”“Is there a basket-maker’s near?”Will asked the barber.“Yes, sir, first turning to the right, and first to the left, two or three doors down, there is a small shop.”“I want you at once to go and choose one the size and shape of your own,”Will said to his companion.“When[pg 308]you see one, set the man to work to weave a false bottom to it. I want it to lodge so as to leave a recess four or five inches deep. Have it made with two handles, so that it can be lifted in and out. How long would he be doing it, do you think?”“About an hour and a half, I should say.”“Very well; order the man to send it round to the George, wrapped up in paper, to the address of Mr. Earnshaw. When you have done this, come back here. We cannot go into the street together; our singular resemblance would at once be noticed.”“Now,”Will said to the pedlar when he returned,“meet me on the road a hundred yards from where it turns down to Porchester; bring a stock of goods with you, and I will put them in my basket. Of course you will bring your pass, and the clothes you now have on in a bundle. I will change there; as far as I have seen it is very seldom that anyone passes that way.”Will then went for a walk, and when it became quite dark he took off his wig and whiskers and went into the town again. Here he bought a long rope, very slender, but still strong enough to support a man’s weight, and a grapnel which folded up flat when not in use. Then he went to the George, having wrapped a muffler round his face as if he were suffering with toothache. His basket was standing in thehall.“I shall not return this evening,”he said,“so I will pay my bill.”Then, having bought a suit of ready-made sailor’s clothes, with hat complete, he put them into his basket, hired a vehicle, and drove to Fairham. In the morning at nine[pg 309]o’clock he walked along the main road towards Cosham till he reached the turning to Porchester, went down it a couple of hundred yards, and sat on a grassy bank till he saw the pedlar approaching.“It is a foggy morning,”the huckster said when he came up.“So much the better. I hope it will last over to-morrow, and then they won’t be able to signal the news of the prisoner’s escape. It is only in clear weather that the semaphores can be made out from hill to hill.”The goods were changed from the pedlar’s basket to the one Will had brought.“There, then, is the hundred pounds I promised you; I hope you are perfectly satisfied?”“Perfectly, sir; it is the best two days’ work I have ever done.”“Now for my clothes,”Will said; and no one being in sight he quickly changed into the clothes the pedlar had brought.“We are more alike than ever,”the man said with a laugh,“but you will have to remember that I walk with a limp. I got a ball in my leg in the fighting at Trinidad, and was discharged as being unfit for service. But I got a small pension, and the right to sell things to the prisoners in Porchester Castle.”“I noticed the limp when I saw you first,”Will said,“and there will be no great difficulty in copying it. I regarded it as rather fortunate, as when the soldiers see me limp along they will not look farther.”“Well, sir, I wish you luck. You are the freest-handed gentleman I ever came across.”[pg 310]Will hid his own clothes in a neighbouring bush, and then started, imitating the pedlar’s limp so exactly that the man laughed as he looked after him before starting for Fairham.There were few people in the streets of the quiet little village as Will passed through it. When he neared the castle he overtook the fat apple-woman, who hailed him as a friend, and they walked together into the castle. They showed their passes to the guard at the gate, but he scarcely looked at them. They then separated, and Will, stopping now and then to sell small articles, made his way at last to Lucien’s hut. He had in his letter informed Lucien of his reasons for trying to get him free, and had directed him to be leaning at that hour against the corner of the hut. When Lucien saw the pedlar approaching, if all was clear he was to retire into it, but if there were others inside he was to shake his head slightly. As Will approached the hut he saw a prisoner standing there according to his instructions, but he gave the danger signal and Will passed on. This he did twice, but when Will returned the third time the man went quietly into the hut.“There is not a moment to lose,”Will said as he followed, and he at once lifted up the false bottom and pulled out the rope and grapnel. He had knotted the rope about every foot, to assist the prisoner in climbing, and had covered the iron of the grapnel with strips of flannel so that it would make no noise when it struck the wall.“Hide them in your bed. It will be a very dark night, and you must steal out and make your way to the middle of the south wall. There fling your grapnel up and scale the wall.[pg 311]I shall be there waiting for you. It looks as if it will be very wet as well as very dark, so you ought to be able to avoid the sentinel.”At this moment he heard someone at the door, and adroitly changing his tone said:“You do not like these colours for a bed-quilt? Very well, I am getting a fresh stock from London in a few days, and I have no doubt you will be able to suit yourself. Good-morning!”He then turned and offered some of his goods to the new-comer, who bought a block for carving out a ship, and some twine and other things for rigging her. When he left the hut he went about the yard till he had disposed of a considerable amount of his goods, and then left the prison and made his way back to the spot where he had hidden his clothes. On arriving there he changed at once, rubbed the pigment from his face, threw away the wig and whiskers, hid the basket in a place which he and the pedlar had agreed upon, with the clothes in it and the pass in one of the pockets, and then went back into the village, where he hired a chaise and drove to Fairham.“Landlord,”he said, as he drew up at the principal hotel,“I shall want a post-chaise to-night for London. I shall be at a party to-night and cannot say at what time I may get away, but have the horses ready to put in at twelve o’clock. If they have to wait an hour or two you shall not be the loser.”After ordering dinner, he strolled about the town till he thought it would be nearly ready. Then he asked for a room, and there changed into his naval uniform, which he had brought with him. He ate a good dinner, and then, putting on his cloak, started to walk back to Porchester, carrying[pg 312]with him a bag in which was the sailor’s suit he had bought for Lucien. The night was pitch dark, and the rain had set in heavily, but although his walk was not an agreeable one he was in high spirits. In his letter to Lucien he had told him that if anything should prevent him from making his way to the wall that night he would expect him on the following one. Nevertheless he felt sure that in such favourable circumstances he would be able to get through the sentries without difficulty. He took up a position as near as he could guess at the centre of the south wall, on the narrow strip of ground between it and the lake. He had waited about an hour when he heard a slight noise a few yards on one side of him. He moved towards the sound, and was just in time to see Lucien alight. He grasped him by the hand.Illustration: “HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”“HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”“Thank heaven,”he said in French,“that I have got you free, as I promised your sweetheart I would! Now let us first make our way up the village. I have a suit of sailor’s clothes for you in this bag; you can change into them when we get beyond the houses, and throw those you are wearing into the pond there, with a few stones in them to make them sink.”“Ah, monsieur, how can I thank you?”Lucien said.“I am only paying a debt. Marie risked a good deal to aid me, and I promised solemnly that I would, if it were at all possible, get you out of prison in return, so there is no occasion for any thanks.”Few words passed between them as they walked through the village, and when they had left it behind, Lucien changed his clothes and disposed of his old ones as Will had suggested.[pg 313]“It was necessary to get rid of them,”Will said,“because if they were found in the morning it would show that you had got a change, and instead of looking for someone in a well-worn uniform they would direct their attention to other people.”They tramped along to Fairham, and reached the hotel just as it was about to be shut up, the stage-coach having passed a few minutes before. They had some refreshments, and then took their seats in the chaise. At once the postilions cracked their whips, and the four horses started at a gallop.“We are absolutely safe now,”Will said;“they will not discover that you have gone until the roll-call in the morning, and by that time we shall be within a few miles of London. In such weather as this they will be unable to signal. Before we arrive I will put on civilian clothes again, and as soon as we have discharged the chaise we will go to a clothier’s and get a suit for you. There are so many emigrants in London that your speaking French will attract no attention.”The journey was quickly accomplished. Will was very liberal to the postilions at the first stage, and these hurried up those who were to take the next, and so from stage to stage they went at the top of the horses’ speed, the ninety miles being covered in the very fast time, for the period, of ten hours. At the last stage Will asked for a room to himself for a few minutes and there changed his clothes. They were put down in front of a private house, and, having seen the post-chaise drive off, took their bags and walked on until they reached a tailor’s shop.“I want to put my man into plain clothes while he is with me in town,”Will said to the shopman.[pg 314]“Yes, sir. What sort of clothes?”“Oh, just private clothes, such as a valet might wear when out of livery!”Lucien was soon rigged out in a suit of quiet but respectable garments, and, putting his sailor suit into his bag, they went on. They looked about for a considerable time before they found a suitable lodging, but at last they came upon a French hotel. Entering, Will asked in French for two rooms. They were at once accommodated, and after washing and dressing they went down to the coffee-room, where several French gentlemen were breakfasting. It had been arranged that Will should say that they were two emigrants who had just effected their escape from France.The next day they took the coach to Weymouth, the port from which at that time communication was kept open with France by means of smugglers and men who made a business of aiding the French emigrants who wanted to escape, or the Royalists who went backwards and forwards trying to get up a movement against the Republic. On making enquiries they heard of a man who had a very fast little vessel, and they at once looked him up.“This gentleman wants to go across,”Will said.“What would you do it for?”“It depends whether he will wait till I get some more passengers or not.”“He is pressed for time,”Will said;“what will you run him over for alone?”“Fifty pounds,”the man said. Will thought it advisable not to appear to jump at the offer.“That is rather stiff,”he said;“I should think thirty-five would be ample.”[pg 315]“It seems a good sum,”the man said;“but you see there are dangers. I might be overhauled by a British cruiser.”“You might,”Will said;“but when they learned your business they would not interfere with you.”“Then there are the port authorities,”the man said.“Yes, but a few francs would prevent them from asking inconvenient questions. Besides, my friend is not a royalist, he is only going over to see his friends.”“Well, we will say thirty-five,”the man said with a smile.“When will you want to start?”“He doesn’t care whether he sails this evening or to-morrow morning.”“Well, we will say to-morrow morning at daybreak.”“Where will you land him?”“At Cherbourg or one of the villages near; most likely at Cherbourg if the coast is clear, for I have friends there who work with me.”They went to an hotel for the night. In the morning Will gave Lucien a small package containing a very handsome gold watch and chain which he had bought in London.“Give this to Marie from me,”he said;“I promised that she should have one for her wedding-day. Here are a thousand francs of French money, which will carry you comfortably from Cherbourg to Verdun and give you a bit of a start there. No, you need not refuse it, I am a rich man, and can afford it without in the least hurting myself. Give my love to Marie,”he said,“and tell her that I shall never forget her kindness.”Lucien was profuse in his gratitude, but Will cut him short by hurrying him down to the boat, which was lying at the[pg 316]quay with her sails already hoisted. Will watched the boat till it was well out to sea, and then took the next coach back to London, filled with pleasure that he had been able to carry out his plan and to repay the kindness that Marie had shown him.He had given Lucien the address of his London agent, so that on his arrival at Verdun he could write him a letter saying how he had fared, and when he and Marie were to be married. This letter he received on his return from the next cruise. It contained the warmest thanks of Marie and her lover, and the information that they were to be married the following week, and that the young man had an offer of good employment in the town.When he reached London, Will obtained the address of a respectable solicitor, and called upon him to ask his advice as to advertising to try to discover a family bearing the arms on his seal.“I should advise you,”the lawyer said,“to leave the matter until you return from sea again. Questions of this sort always require a good deal of time to answer. You would have to be present to give information, and when the matter is taken up it should be pressed through vigorously. Of course there would be difficulties to face. The mere fact of this seal being in the possession of your father, that is, if he was your father, would not be sufficient to prove his identity, and there would be all sorts of investigations to make, which would, of course, take time.Ifyou will leave the matter in my hands I will cause enquiries to be made as to the arms. That will probably only take a day or two, and it would perhaps be a satisfaction to you to know the family with which you might[pg 317]be connected. It will be in the subsequent steps that delays will occur.”“Thank you, sir! I should certainly like to know, though I quite see that, as you say, it will be very difficult for me to establish my connection.”The lawyer then took down what particulars Will could give him of his early history. When he returned a week later the lawyer gave him a cordial reception.“I congratulate you, Mr. Gilmore,”he said.“The head of the family carrying those arms is Sir Ralph Gilmore, one of our oldest baronets. He has no male issue. He had one son who died six years ago. There was another son, a younger one, of whom there is no record. He may be alive and he may be dead; that is not known. It is, of course, possible that you were stolen as a child by your reputed father, and that he gave you the family name in order that when the time came he could produce you, but of course that is all guesswork. When you return from sea again I will set people to work to trace, if possible, the wanderings of this person; but as I said, this will take time, and as you will be going to sea in a fortnight the matter can very well stand over. So long as you are on board a ship your parentage can make very little difference to you.”Will had still a fortnight of his leave remaining. He wandered about London for a couple of days, but he found it rather dull now that he had finished his business, as he had no friends in town. On the second day he was walking along one of the fashionable streets of Bloomsbury, considering whether he should not go down by the next coach to Portsmouth, where he was sure of meeting friends,[pg 318]when a carriage passed him, drawn by a pair of fine horses. A young lady who was sitting in it happened to notice him. She glanced at him carelessly at first, and then with great interest. She stopped the carriage before it had gone many yards, and when Will came up, looked at him closely.“Excuse me, sir,”she said as he was passing;“but are you not Mr. Gilmore?”Greatly surprised he replied in the affirmative.“I thought so!”she exclaimed.“Do you not remember me?”He looked at her hard.“Why—why,”he hesitated,“surely it is not—”“But it is!”she cried.“I am Alice Palethorpe!”“Miss Palethorpe!”he exclaimed, grasping the hand she held out.“Is it possible?”“Not Miss Palethorpe,”she said.“To you I am Alice, as I was nearly four years ago. Get into the carriage. My father will be delighted to see you. We have talked of you so often. He made enquiries at the Admiralty when he came home, but found that you were a prisoner in France, and he has been trying to get your name down in the list of those to be exchanged, but he had so little interest that he could not succeed, and, indeed, for the past two years no exchange had taken place.”By this time he was in the carriage, and they were driving rapidly along the busy streets. Presently they stopped before a large house in Bedford Square.“This is our home, for the present at any rate,”she said.“Now come in.”She ran upstairs before him and signed to him to wait at the[pg 319]top.“Father,”she said, bursting into a room,“I have taken a captive; someone you certainly don’t expect to see. Now, you must guess.”“How can I, my dear, when you say I don’t expect to see him? Is it—?”and he mentioned five or six of his friends in Jamaica, any of whom might be returning.“No, father. You are out altogether.”“Then I give it up, Alice.”“It is Will,”she said.Will heard him spring to his feet and hurry to the door.“My dear young friend!”he exclaimed.“At least I suppose it is you, for you have grown out of all recognition.”“Ah, father!”the girl broke in.“You see, he hadn’t changed so much as to deceive me. I felt sure of him the moment I set eyes upon him.”“Well, then, your eyes do you credit,”her father said.“Certainly I should not have recognized him. He has grown from a lad into a man since we saw him last. He has widened out tremendously. He was rather one of the leankindat that time.”“Oh, father, how can you say so? I consider that he was just right.”“Yes, my dear, I quite understand that. At that time he was perfect in your eyes, but for all that he was lean.”“You are quite right, sir, I was, and I really wonder that I have put on flesh so much. The diet of a French prisoner is not calculated to promote stoutness. But your daughter was not only sharper-sighted than you, but even than myself. Till she spoke to me I had not an idea who she was. I saw that she thought she recognized me, but I was afraid it would[pg 320]be rude on my part to look at her closely. Of course now I do see the likeness to the Alice I knew, but she has changed far more than I have. She was a little girl of fourteen then, very pretty, certainly, I thought, but still quite a girl—”and he stopped.“Now, you mean that I have grown into a young woman, and have lost my prettiness?”“I think your looking-glass tells you another story,”he laughed.“If it doesn’t, it must be a very bad one.”“Well, now, do sit down,”her father said.“You must have an immense deal to tell us.”“It is a longish story,”Will replied,“too long to tell straight off. Besides, I want to ask some questions. When did you come home? Have you come for good? If not, how long are you going to stay? though I am sorry to say that the length of your visit can affect me comparatively little, for I am appointed second-lieutenant of theJason, and must join in a few days.”“I congratulate you very heartily, Will,”Mr. Palethorpe said.“You are fortunate indeed to get such promotion so early.”“I am most fortunate, sir. Though just at present I feel inclined to wish that it hadn’t come quite so soon.”“In answer to your question, Will, I can say that we are home for good. I have disposed of my estate and wound up my business, principally, I think, because this little girl had made up her mind that she should like England better than Jamaica.”“I am glad to hear that, sir. I shall have something to look forward to when I return to England.”[pg 321]“Where are you staying?”“At the Golden Cross.”“Well, then, you must go and fetch your luggage here at once. It would be strange indeed if you were to be staying at any house but mine while you are in London.”As he saw that the planter would not hear of a refusal, Will gladly accepted the invitation, and, taking a fly, drove to the hotel, paid his bill, and took his things away.CHAPTER XVIION BOARD THE“JASON”“I won’t ask you for your story till after dinner,”Mr. Palethorpe said.“To enjoy a yarn one needs to be comfortable, and I feel more at home in my arm-chair in the dining-room than I do in this room, with all its fal-lals. You see, I have taken the house furnished. When I settle down in a home of my own, I can assure you it will look very different from this. In fact I have one already building for me. It is at Dulwich, and will be as nearly as possible like my house in Jamaica. Of course there will be differences. I at first wished to have the same sort of veranda, but the architect pointed out that while in Jamaica one requires shade, here one wants light. So they are getting large sheets of glass specially made for putting in instead of wood above the windows. Then, of course, we want good fireplaces, whereas in Jamaica a fire is only necessary for a few[pg 322]days in the year. There are also other little differences, but on the whole it will remind me of the place I had for so many years.”“The house will have one advantage over that in Jamaica, Mr. Palethorpe.”“What is that?”he asked.“You will be able to go to bed comfortably without fear of having the roof taken from over your head by a hurricane.”“Ah! that is indeed a matter to which I have not given sufficient consideration, but it is certainly a very substantial advantage, as we have all good reason to know.”“I never think of it without shuddering,”Alice said.“It was awful! It seemed as if there was an end of everything! I think it was the memory of that night that first set me thinking of going to England.”“Then I cannot but feel grateful to that hurricane, for if you had remained out there it is probable that I should never have met you again.”“I am having a large conservatory built so that we can have greenness and flowers all the year,”Mr. Palethorpe remarked presently.“I should think that would be charming. I hope you will be settled at Dulwich long before I come back from my next cruise.”“Well, I don’t know that I can say the same, Will. I hope your next cruise will be a short one.”When dinner was over, the chairs were drawn up to the fire, and Will related his adventures since his return from the West Indies.[pg 323]“Have you heard of your two favourite sailors?”Alice interrupted.“Dimchurch and Tom Stevens? No, I have not. I shall feel lost without them at sea, and sincerely hope that I may some day run against them, in which case I am sure, if they are free, they will join my ship.”“How terribly cut up they must have been,”the girl said,“when they got down to the beach and found that you were missing!”“I am sure they would be,”he replied.“I expect the rest of the men almost had to hold them back by force.”“Well, go on. You were hit and made prisoner.”Will went on with his story till he came to his escape from Verdun.“What was she like?”the girl asked.“I expect she was very pretty.”“No, not particularly so. She was a very pleasant-looking girl.”“I can imagine she seemed very pleasant to you,”the girl laughed;“and, of course, before you got out of the window and climbed to the top of the house you kissed her, didn’t you?”“Yes, I did,”Will said.“Of course she expected to be kissed. I am not at all used to kissing. In fact, I only experienced it once before, and then I was a perfectly passive actor in the affair.”The girl flushed up rosily.“You drew that upon yourself, Alice,”her father said.“If you had left him alone he would not have brought up that old affair.”[pg 324]“I don’t care,”she said.“I was only thirteen, and he had saved my life.”“You didn’t do it again, my dear, I hope, when you met him in the street to-day.”“Of course not!”she exclaimed indignantly.“The idea of such a thing!”“Very well, let this be a lesson to you not to enquire too strictly into such matters.”“Ah! I will bear it in mind,”she said.“I can assure you, Alice, that it was a perfectly friendly kiss. She was engaged to be married to a young soldier who was a prisoner at Porchester, and during the past week I have been employed in setting him free, as you will hear presently. I promised her I would do so if possible, and of course I kept my word.”“What! you, an English officer, set a French prisoner free! I am shocked!”Mr. Palethorpe said.“I would have tried to set twenty of them free if twenty of their sweethearts had united to get me away from prison.”They laughed heartily at the story of his escape as a pedlar, and were intensely interested in his account of the manner in which he succeeded in getting a despatch from the agent of the British Government at Amsterdam. He continued the narrative until his arrival in England.“Now we shall hear, I suppose, how this British officer perpetrated an act of treason against His Most Gracious Majesty.”“Well, I suppose it was that in the eyes of the law,”Will laughed.“Fortunately, however, the law has no cognizance of the affair, at any rate not of my share in it. I don’t suppose it has been heard of outside Porchester. As His Gracious Majesty[pg 325]has some forty thousand prisoners in England, the loss of one more or less will not trouble his gracious brain.”He then related the whole story of Lucien’s escape.“I should have liked to see you dressed up like a pedlar, with your face all painted, and a wig and whiskers,”the girl said,“though I don’t suppose I should have recognized you in that disguise to-day.”“It was a capitally-managed plan, Will, and had it been for a legitimate object I should have given it unstinted praise. And so you saw him fairly off from England?”“Yes; and by this time I have no doubt he is on the top of a vehicle of some sort, going as fast as horses can gallop to join his sweetheart.”“I wonder,”Alice said mischievously,“whether she will ever tell him of that kiss at the window.”“I dare say she will,”laughed Will,“but perhaps not till they are married. I sent her the gold watch I promised her, and when she holds it up before his eyes I think he won’t grudge her the kiss. Still, I believe these things are not always mentioned.”“No, I suppose not,”she said, with an affectation of not understanding him.“Why should they be?”“I can’t say indeed, if you can’t.”“Well, I am not ashamed of it one little bit, though I own that I never have told anybody. But I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I am sure there were at least half a dozen ladies in Jamaica who would willingly have kissed you for what you did for them.”“Thank you! I should certainly not have willingly submitted to the ordeal.”[pg 326]It was late when the story was finished, and they soon afterwards went to bed.Will spent a delightful week with his friends. Alice had grown up into a charming young woman, full of life and vivacity, and even prettier than she had promised to be as a girl. They went about together to all the sights of London, for Mr. Palethorpe said that he didn’t care about going, and young people were best left to themselves. When the time came for parting, Will for the first time experienced a feeling of reluctance at joining his ship. He and Alice were now almost on their old footing, and Will thought that she was by far the nicest girl he had ever seen; but it was not until he was on the top of the Portsmouth coach that he recognized how much she was to him.“Well,”he said to himself,“I never thought I should feel like this. Some young fellows are always falling in love. I used to think it was all nonsense, but now I understand it. I do not know why her father should object to me, as I am fairly well off. I must see as much of her as I can when I land next time. I hope she won’t meet anyone in the meantime she likes better.”TheJasonwas now lying out in the harbour, and the riggers had taken possession of her. Will at once reported himself and went on board. The other officers had not yet joined, but he at once took up his work with his usual zeal, and spent a busy fortnight looking after the riggers, and seeing that everything was done in the best manner. He was, however, somewhat angry to find that Alice’s face and figure were constantly intruding themselves into the cordage and shrouds.“I am becoming a regular mooncalf,”he said angrily to himself.“It is perfectly absurd that I can’t keep my thoughts[pg 327]from wandering away from my work, and for a girl whom I can hardly dare hope to win. I shall be very glad when we are off to sea. I’ll then have, I won’t say something better, but something else to think of. If this is being in love, certainly it is not the thing a sailor should engage in. I have often heard it said that a sailor’s ship should be his wife, and I have no longer any doubt about it. But I know I’ll get over it when I hear the first broadside fired.”A week later the first lieutenant joined. His name was Somerville.“Ah, Mr. Gilmore,”he said,“I see you have taken time by the forelock and given an eye to everything! I only received my appointment two days ago or I should have joined before. There is nothing like having an officer to superintend things, and I feel really very much obliged to you for not having extended your leave, which, of course, you could have done, especially as, so far as I know, no boatswain has yet been appointed.”“I was glad to get back to work, sir, and it is really very interesting seeing all the rigging set up from the very beginning.”“That is so, but for all that men don’t generally want to rejoin,”the first lieutenant said with a smile.“The difficulty is to get young officers on board. They hang back, as a rule, till the very last moment. Well, if you will dine with me this evening, Mr. Gilmore, at the George, I shall be glad to hear of some of your services. That they are distinguished I have no doubt, for nothing but the most meritorious services or extraordinary interest could have gained you at your age the appointment of second lieutenant in a fine ship like this. I[pg 328]think it a very good thing for the first lieutenant to know the antecedents of those serving with him. Such knowledge is very useful to him in any crisis or emergency.”After dinner that evening Will gave an account of his services, the lieutenant at times asking for more minute details, especially of the capture of the two pirates.“Thank you very much!”Lieutenant Somerville said when he had finished.“Now I feel that I can, in any emergency, depend upon you to second me, which I can assure you is by no means commonly the case, for promotion goes so much by influence, and such incapable men are pushed up in the service that it is a comfort indeed to have an officer who knows his work thoroughly. I hope to goodness we shall have the captain so fine a ship deserves.”“I hope so indeed, sir. I have hitherto been extremely fortunate in having good captains, as good as one could wish for.”“You are fortunate indeed, then. I have been under two or three men who, either from ignorance or ill-temper or sheer indifference, have been enough to take the heart entirely out of their officers.”On the day when theJasonwas ready for commission the captain came down to Portsmouth and put up at the George, and Mr. Somerville and Will called upon him there. He was a young man, some years younger than the firstlieutenant.“Gentlemen,”he began,“I have pleasure in making your acquaintance. I saw the admiral this morning, and he assured me that I could not wish for better officers. I hope we shall get on pleasantly together, and can assure you that if we do not it will not be my fault. We have as fine a ship as men[pg 329]could wish to sail in, and I will guarantee that you will not find me slack in using her. As you may guess by my age, I owe my present position partly to family interest, but my object will be to prove that that interest has not been altogether misplaced. I have already had command of a frigate, and we had our full share of hard service. I am afraid that with a seventy-four we shall not have quite so many opportunities of distinguishing ourselves, but shall generally have to work with the fleet and fight when other people bid us, and not merely when we see a good chance. There is, however, as much credit, if not as much prize-money, to be gained in a pitched battle as in isolated actions. I was kindly permitted by the admiral to read both your records of service, and I cannot say how gratified I was to find that I had two such able and active officers to second me.”“I am sure we are much obliged to you, sir,”Lieutenant Somerville replied,“for speaking to us as you have done. I can answer for it that we will second you to the very best of our power, and I am glad indeed to find that we have a commander whose sentiments so entirely accord with our own.”“Now, gentlemen, we have done with the formalities. Let us crack a bottle of wine together to our better acquaintance, and I hope I shall very often see you at my table on board, for while I feel that discipline must be maintained, I have no belief in a captain holding himself entirely aloof from his officers, as if he were a little god. On the quarter-deck a captain must stand somewhat aloof, but in his own cabin I cannot see why he should not treat his officers as gentlemen like himself.”They sat and chatted for an hour, and when they left,[pg 330]Lieutenant Somerville said to Will:“If I am not much mistaken, we shall have a very pleasant time on board theJason. I believe Captain Charteris means every word he says, and that he is a thoroughly good fellow. He has a very pleasant face, though a firm and resolute one, and when he gives an order it will have to be obeyed promptly; but he is a man who will make allowances, and I do not think the cat will be very often brought into requisition on board.”One day Will was sauntering down the High Street when he saw two country-looking men coming along. One of them looked at him and staggered back in astonishment.“Why,”he exclaimed,“it is Mr. Gilmore! We thought you were in prison in the middle of France, sir.”“So I was, Dimchurch; but, as you see, I have taken leg-bail.”“That was a terrible affair, sir, at them French batteries. When I got down to the shore, and found you were missing, it was as much as they could do to keep Tom here and me from going back. You mayn’t believe me, Mr. Gilmore, but we both cried like children as we rowed to theTartar.”“I am indeed glad to see you again, and you too, Tom. I guessed that if I ever came across the one I should meet the other also. What are you doing in those togs?”“Well, sir, we put them on because we did not want to be impressed by the first ship that came in, but preferred to wait a bit till we saw one to suit us. I see, sir, that you have shipped a swab. That means, of course, that you have got a lieutenancy. I congratulate you indeed, sir, on your promotion.”“Yes, I got it a month ago, and to a fine ship, theJason.”[pg 331]“She is a fine ship, sir, and no mistake. Tom and I were watching her lying out in the harbour yesterday, and were saying that, though we have always been accustomed to frigates, we should not mind shipping in her if we found out something about the captain.”“Well, I can tell you, Dimchurch, that he is just the man you would like to serve under, young and dashing, and, I should say, a good officer and a fine fellow.”“And who is the first lieutenant, sir, because that matters almost as much as the captain.”“He is a good fellow too, Dimchurch, a man who loves his profession and has a good record.”“And who is the second, sir? not that it matters much about him if the captain and first luff are all right. I suppose she has four on board, as she is a line-of-battle ship?”“Yes, she carries four. As to the second, I can only tell you that he is one of the finest fellows in the service, and you will understand that when I say that I am the second lieutenant.”“What, sir!”Dimchurch almost shouted,“they have made you second lieutenant on a line-of-battle ship! Well, that is one of the few times I have known promotion go by merit. I am glad, sir. Well, I will go and sign articles at once, and so, of course, will Tom; and what is more, I will guarantee to find you a score of first-rate hands, maybe more.”“That is good indeed,”Will said.“I will speak to the first lieutenant and get you rated as boatswain, if possible. You have already served in that capacity, and unless the berth is filled up, which is not likely, I have no doubt I can get it for you.”[pg 332]“Well, sir, if you can, of course I shall be glad; but I would ship with you if it was only as loblolly boy.”“The same here,”Tom said;“you know that, sir, without my saying it.”“Is there any berth that I could get you, Tom?”“No, sir, thank you! A.B. is good enough for me. I am not active enough to be captain of the top, but I can pull on a rope, or row an oar, or strike a good blow, with any man.”“That you can, Tom; but I do wish I could get you a lift too. How about gunner’s mate?”“No, thank you, sir! I would rather stop A.B. I should like to be your honour’s servant, but, lor’, I should never do to wait in the ward-room. I am as clumsy as a bear, and should always be spilling something, and breaking glasses, and getting into trouble. No, sir, I will be A.B., but of course I should like to be appointed to your boat.”“That is a matter of course, Tom. Well, I will go round to the dockyard at once and see you sworn in, and then gladden the first lieutenant’s heart by telling him that you will bring a good number of men along with you, for at present we are very short-handed.”“You trust me for that, sir. I know where lots of them are lying hid, not because they don’t want to serve, but because they want a good ship and a good captain. When I tell them that it is a fine ship, and a good captain, and a good first and second, they will jump at it.”Dimchurch was as good as his word, and the following week persuaded thirty first-class seamen to sign on.“At the same time, sir,”he said as they went towards[pg 333]the harbour,“I would rather she had been a frigate. One has always a chance of picking up something then, as one gets sent about on expeditions, while on a battle-ship one is just stuck blockading.”“That is just what I think,”Tom said.“There are no boat expeditions, no chances of picking up a prize every two or three days, or of chasing a pirate. Still, though theTartarwas a frigate, we did not have much fun in her, except when we were on shore. That was good enough, though it would not have been half so good if the sailors had not done it alone. We wanted to show these redcoats what British seamen could do when they were on their metal. I know I never worked half so hard in my life.”“Well, I quite agree with you. It is more pleasant commanding a small craft than being second officer in a large one, although I must say I could not have had a more pleasant captain and first lieutenant than I have now if I had picked them out from the whole fleet. I am sorry that I cannot get leave at present, for I want to make researches about my father. According to what my lawyer said it is likely to be a long job. I hope, however, to get it well in trim on my next spell ashore. It makes really no difference to me now who or what my father was. I have a good position, and what with the prize-money I made before, and shall gain now by my share of the sale of the frigates we took at Corsica, to say nothing of the guns and stores we captured, I have more than enough to satisfy all my wants.”“I have done extraordinarily well too, Mr. Gilmore,”Dimchurch said.“I took your advice, and Tom and I have put all our prize-money aside. He has over a thousand saved, and[pg 334]I have quite sufficient to keep me in idleness all my life, even if I never do a stroke of work again.”Mr. Somerville, on Will’s recommendation, at once appointed Dimchurch boatswain, and he soon proved himself thoroughly efficient.“He is a fine fellow, that sailor of yours,”the lieutenant said,“and will make a first-rate boatswain. He has done good service in bringing up so many hands, and good ones too, and he is evidently popular among the men.”“He is a thoroughly good man, sir. He attached himself to my fortunes when I was but a ship’s boy, and has stuck to me ever since. He and Tom Stevens are, with one exception, the greatest friends I have ever had, and both of them would lay down their lives for me.”“A good master makes a good man,”Lieutenant Somerville said with a smile.“Your greatest friend was, of course, the lady who pushed you on with your education.”“Yes, sir, certainly I regard her as the best friend I ever had.”“Well, there is no better friend for a lad than a good woman, Gilmore. In that sense my mother was my greatest friend. Most mothers are against their sons going to sea. In my case it was my father who objected, but my mother, seeing how I was bent upon it, persuaded him to let me go.”Three weeks after being commissioned the complement of theJasonwas complete, and she was ordered to proceed to the West Indies, to which place they made a fast passage. To their disappointment they fell in with none of the enemy’s cruisers on their way. The voyage, however, sufficed to give the crew confidence in their commander. He was prompt and quick in giving orders, and at the same time pleasant in[pg 335]manner. He paid far more attention than most captains to the comfort of his crew, and, while he insisted upon the most perfect order and discipline, abstained from giving unnecessary work. In cases where punishments were absolutely necessary he punished severely, but when it was at all possible he let delinquents off with a lecture. So, while he was feared by the rougher spirits of the crew, he was regarded with liking and respect by the good men.On their arrival at Carlisle Bay, Barbados, they found that they were in time to join a naval expedition whose object was to recover the islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada, which had been captured by the French the previous year.A fleet had been sent from England under the command of Rear-admiral Christian, consisting of two ships of the line and five frigates, convoying a large fleet of transports with a strong body of troops on board under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie.At Carlisle Bay this fleet were joined by most of the ships on the West Indian station, and on the 21st April, 1796, the augmented fleet, under the command of Sir John Laforey, sailed to Marin Bay, Martinique, where they anchored. On the following day Sir John Laforey resigned his command to Admiral Christian and sailed for England. The fleet then stood across to St. Lucia. The troops were landed at three different points under the protection of the guns of the fleet.The first point was protected by a five-gun battery. The fire of the ships, however, soon silenced it, and the first division made good its landing. The seventy-four-gun shipAlfredwas to have led the second division, supported by the fifty-four-gun shipMadrasand the forty-gun frigateBeaulieu, but[pg 336]the attempt was thwarted by lightness of wind and a strong lee current. On the next day, however, a landing was effected with little opposition. Eight hundred seamen, under the command of Captains Lane of the thirty-two-gun frigateAstreaand Ryves of the bomb-vesselBulldog, were landed to co-operate with the troops. Morne Chabot was attacked and carried that night with the loss of thirteen officers and privates killed, forty-nine wounded, and twelve missing.On the 3rd of May an attempt was made to dislodge the enemy from their batteries at the base of the mountains, but was repulsed with loss, as was an attack on the 17th on the place called Vigie.In the meantime the men had been busy building batteries and planting guns, and when these opened fire on the evening of the 24th of May the enemy capitulated, two thousand marching out and laying down their arms. A great quantity of guns, together with stores of every description, were found in the different forts, and some small privateers and merchantmen were captured in the offing. Eight hundred seamen and three hundred and twenty marines had been landed from the ships of war, and had behaved with their usual courage and promptitude. The manner, indeed, in which they established batteries and planted guns in places deemed almost impracticable astonished the troops, unused as they were to exercises demanding strength and skill.As soon as St. Lucia had surrendered, the expedition moved to St. Vincent. The defence here was decidedly weak, and after some skirmishing, the enemy, composed chiefly of negroes and Caribs, capitulated. Our loss amounted to thirty-eight killed and one hundred and forty-five wounded. Grenada[pg 337]offered a comparatively slight resistance. The monster, Fedon, who was in command there, massacred twenty white people who were in his power in full view of the British, who were on the plain below. He and his men, however, were hotly pursued through the forest by a detachment of German riflemen, and the greater portion of them killed without mercy.A detachment of British and colonial troops from the garrison of Port au Prince in St. Domingo proceeded to besiege the town of Leogane in that island. Covered by the guns of the fleet the troops were landed in two divisions, while theSwiftsure, seventy-four, cannonaded the town, and theLeviathanandAfricathe forts. The place, however, was too strong for them, and at nightfall the ships moved off to an anchorage, while those who had landed were withdrawn on the following morning. Two of the frigates were so much damaged that they were compelled to return to Jamaica to refit. An attack was next made upon the fort of Bombarde, which stood at a distance of fifteen miles from the coast. Will and a detachment from his ship formed part of the force engaged. The road was extremely rough, and was blocked by fallen trees and walls built across it. The labour of getting the cannon along was prodigious.“I must say,”Will said to Dimchurch, who was one of the party,“I greatly prefer fighting on board to work like this. We have to labour like slaves from early morning till late in the evening; but I don’t so much mind that, as the fact that at night we have to lie down with only the food that remains in our haversacks, and what water we may have saved, for supper. Now in a fight at sea one at least gets as much to drink as one wants.”[pg 338]“I quite agree with you, Mr. Gilmore. It’s dog’s work without dog’s food. I don’t mind myself working here with a chopper eight or ten hours a day, but I do like a good supper at the end of it. The worst of it is, that when it is all over it is the troops who get all the credit, while we poor beggars do the greater part of the work. The soldiers are well enough in their way, but they are very little good for hard work. How do you account for that, sir?”“I can only suppose, Dimchurch, that while they get as much food as we do, they have nothing like the same amount of hard work to do.”“That’s it, sir. Why, look at them at Portsmouth! They just go out of a morning and drill on the common for a bit, and then they have nothing else to do all day but to stroll about the town and talk to the girls. How can you expect a man to have any muscle to speak of when he never does a stroke of hard work? I don’t say they don’t fight well, for I own they do their duty like men in that line; but when it comes to work, why, they ain’t in it with a jack-tar. I do believe I could pull a couple of them over a line.”“I dare say you could, Dimchurch, but you must remember that you are much stronger than an ordinary seaman.”“Well, sir, I grant I am stronger than usual, but I should be ashamed of myself if I could not tackle two of them soldiers.”“Yes, but don’t forget they have been cooped up on board a ship for a month, with nothing to keep them in health, and certainly no exercise, while you are constantly doing hard work. If you were to put these men into sailors’ clothes, and give them sailors’ work for six months, they would be just as strong and useful.”[pg 339]“Well, sir, if they are that sort of men why do they go and enlist in the army instead of becoming sailors. It stands to reason that it is because they know that they cannot do work.”“Why, Dimchurch, I have heard that in the great towns girls think as much of soldiers as of sailors.”“Well, that shows how little they know about them. In a seaport, what girl would look at a soldier if she were pretty enough to get a sailor for a sweetheart.”“You are a prejudiced beggar,”Will laughed,“and it is of no use arguing with you. If you had gone as a soldier instead of taking to the sea you would think just the other way.”On the next morning the march was renewed, and in the evening they reached the fort. They had had several severe skirmishes during the day, losing eight killed and twenty-two wounded, but the garrison, consisting of three hundred, surrendered without further resistance as soon as the place was surrounded, and the sailors then rejoined their ships.“Well, I am mighty glad I am back on board,”Dimchurch said to Will the evening they re-embarked.“This marching, and chopping trees, and being shot at from ambushes, doesn’t suit me. There is nothing manly or straightforward about it. Hand to hand and cutlass to cutlass is what I call a man’s work.”“That is all very well, Dimchurch, but though you may capture ships you will never get possession of islands or colonies in that way. If you want them you must land and fight for them.”“Yes, sir, that is all very good, but it seems to me that the hard work of making batteries and mounting guns falls on the[pg 340]sailor, while the soldier gets all the credit. It is not our admiral who sends the despatches, it is the general. He may speak a few good words for the sailors, as a man speaks up for a dog, but all the credit of the fighting, and the surrender, and all that business goes to the soldiers. The sooner we sail away from here, and do some fighting nearer home, where there are no soldiers, and where the sailors get their due, the better pleased I shall be.”“Well, Dimchurch, I hope our turn out here is nearly finished. We may have to take part in a few more attacks on French possessions, but as soon as that work is over I have great hopes that we shall get sailing orders for home again.”Indeed, late in August a fast cruiser arrived with orders that theJasonwas at once to return to Brest and join the Channel fleet. To the great delight of everyone the wind continued favourable throughout the whole voyage, and after an exceptionally speedy passage they joined Admiral Bridport, who was cruising off Ushant on the look-out for the French fleet that was preparing for the invasion of Ireland.The French fleet, under Admiral Morard-de-Galles, got under weigh from Brest on 26th December, 1796. It consisted of seventeen ships of the line, thirteen frigates, six corvettes, seven transports, and a powder-ship, forty-four sail in all, conveying eight thousand troops under the command of Generals Grouchy, Borin, and Humbert. Misfortune, however, dogged the fleet from the very commencement, for theSéduisant, a seventy-four-gun battle-ship, got on shore shortly after leaving Brest, and out of thirteen hundred seamen and soldiers on board six hundred and eighty were drowned.[pg 341]They were noticed by Vice-admiralColpoys’fleet, who sent off two frigates to warn Lord Bridport, and after chasing the French for some distance himself, sailed for Falmouth to report the setting out of the expedition.Admiral Bouvet, with thirty-two sail, managed to reach the mouth of Bantry Bay, but the weather was so tempestuous that he was unable to land his troops. After struggling for some days against this boisterous weather, the fleet scattered, and the majority of the ships returned to Brest. The rest reached the coast of Ireland, but not finding the main portion of their fleet there, they returned to France.The failure of the expedition was as complete as was that of the Spanish Armada, and was due greatly to the same cause. Out of the forty-four ships that sailed from Brest only thirty-one managed to return to France. The British frigates, by the vigilance they displayed, had done good service, cutting off four transports and three ships of war; but the stormy weather had dispersed the expedition, and was accountable for the loss of two battle-ships, three frigates, and a transport. It was curious that although Lord Bridport’s fleet was constantly patrolling the Channel during this time, the two fleets never came in contact.
CHAPTER XVIA DARING EXPLOITOn reaching Sheerness the captain at once went ashore, accompanied by Will, and they proceeded to London. Will took up his quarters at the Golden Cross, and next day called at the Admiralty, where he sent in his name to the First Lord.“I have received a most favourable report from Captain Knowles of your conduct in landing on the coast of Holland, and of obtaining despatches of much value. How were you taken prisoner?”“At the attack by a force from theTartaron some batteries on one of the Isles d’Hyères. I was hit in the leg, and, being left behind in the confusion of the retreat, fell into the hands of the French. I was imprisoned for four months at Toulon, and then sent to Verdun. Six months after leaving Toulon I effected my escape in a disguise procured for me by a French girl. I had learned the language while in prison, and, travelling through France in the disguise of a pedlar, reached Dunkirk. There I worked in a fishing-boat for a month, and then, seeing theArtemiscruising off the town, I shut up two of the[pg 301]sailors in their cabin, and frightened the other two into taking me off to her.”“In consideration of the valuable services you have rendered I have much pleasure in appointing you master’s mate.”“Thank you, sir! but I own I had rather hopes of obtaining a lieutenancy.”“A lieutenancy!”the admiral said in a changed tone.“I am surprised to hear you say so, when you have had no service as a master’s mate. What makes you entertain such a hope?”“My past services, sir,”Will said boldly.“Captain Purfleet, will you hand me down the volume of services under the letter G. Ah! here it is.”He glanced at it cursorily at first, and then read it carefully.“You were right, Mr. Gilmore, in entertaining such a hope. I see that you have been highly spoken of by the various officers under whom you have served; that you were most strongly recommended by the admirals both at Malta and in the West Indies for your singular services, and also by Lord Hood for your conduct in Corsica. You were in command of a small craft for nearly a year, and in that capacity you not only took a number of prizes, some of them valuable, but actually captured, in one hard-fought action, two pirates, each of which was stronger than yourself. You have, therefore, well shown your capacity to command. Captain Purfleet, have any appointments been made yet to theJason?”“No, sir.”“Very well, then appoint Mr. Gilmore to be second lieutenant of her. You need not thank me, sir; you owe your commission[pg 302]to your own gallantry and good conduct. I don’t know that I have at any time seen such strong testimonials and so good a record for any officer of your age and standing. I am quite sure that you will do full justice to the appointment that I have made. As theJasonwill not be ready for two months I can grant you six weeks leave.”No sooner was this matter settled than Will took the coach to Fairham. Thence he drove to the village of Porchester, where Marie’s fiancé was confined. Here he put up at a little inn. He had, before starting from London, bought and put on the disguise of a countryman, as he could hardly have stayed in the village as a gentleman without exciting remark or suspicion. He had, however, brought other clothes with him, so that if necessary he could resume them, and appear either as a naval officer or as a civilian. His first step was to make a tour of the great wall which enclosed the castle and the huts in which the prisoners were confined. He saw at once that any attempt to scale the wall would be useless. At the inn he gave out that by the death of a relative he had just come into a few pounds and meant to enjoy himself.The inn he had selected was scarcely more than a tavern, and he had chosen it because he thought it probable that it would be frequented by the soldiers whose camp stood near the walls, and who supplied the guards in the castle. This expectation was fulfilled a short time after his arrival by four or five soldiers coming in.“Will you drink a glass with me?”he said.“I have been telling the landlord that I have come into a little brass, and mean to spend it.”[pg 303]The soldiers, not unwillingly, accepted the invitation, and sat down at a table with him.“It must be slow work,”he said,“keeping guard here, and I expect you would sooner be out at the war.”“That we should,”one of them replied;“there is nothing to do here but to drill all day, and stare across the water when we are off duty, and wish we were at Portsmouth, where there is something to do and something to amuse one. This is the dullest hole I ever was quartered in. Cosham on one side and Fairham on the other are the only places that one can walk to. We expect, however, to be relieved before long, and I never want to see the place again.”“I suppose you take recruits here?”Will said.“Oh yes, we take recruits when we can get them.”“How long is a recruit before he begins to be a soldier, and takes his regular turn as guard and so on?”“Two or three months,”the man said;“that is long enough to get them into something like shape.”“I should like to go in and have a look at the prisoners,”Will said after a little chat.“Well, there is no chance of your doing that,”the soldier replied.“Orders are very strict, and only three or four hucksters are allowed to go in, to sell things to them.”“How many are there of them?”“About three thousand.”He chatted for some time, and then, after calling for another pint of beer all round, sauntered out, leaving the soldiers to finish it. He saw at once that his only possible plan in the time he had at his command was either to bribe some of the guards, which appeared to him too hazardous a plan to[pg 304]adopt, and not likely to lead to success, or to get at one or other of the people who were allowed in.He spent two days watching the gate of the prison. During that time five people in civilian dress went in. One of these was a short fat woman, who carried a large basket with cakes and other eatables. Another was similarly laden. A third, a man of about his own height, took in a variety of material used by the prisoners for making articles for sale. He had needles and thread, scraps of materials of many colours for making patchwork quilts, blocks of wood for carving out model ships, straw dyed various colours for making fancy boxes, glass beads, and other small articles. Will at once fixed on him as being the most likely of the visitors to serve his purpose. He spoke to him after he had left the prison.“My friend,”he said,“do you want to earn fifty pounds?”The man opened his eyes in surprise.“I should certainly like to,”he said,“if I could see my way to do it.”“Well, I will double that if you do as I tell you. I want you, in the first place, to find out the hut in which Lucien Dupres is confined, and give him a letter.”“There will be no great difficulty about that,”the man said.“I only have to whisper to the first prisoner I meet that I want to find a man, and have got a letter from his friends for him, and if he doesn’t know him he will find him out for me. That is not much to do for a hundred pounds.”“No; but in the next place I want you to keep out of the way for a week, and to lend me your clothes and pass. I want to go in and see the man.”[pg 305]“Well, that is a more dangerous business. How could you pass for me?”“I think I could do that without fear. We are about the same height. I should have a wig made to imitate your hair, and should, I imagine, have no difficulty in getting my face made up so as to be able to pass for you. You must be so well known that they will do no more than glance at me as I go in. The only alternative to that will be for you to take to him a rope and other things I will give you. I tell you frankly I want to aid his escape. Mind, a hundred pounds is not to be earned without some slight risk.”“Of the two things I would rather risk carrying the rope and the tools, if they are not too bulky. Mind you, it is a big risk, for I should be liable to be shot for aiding in the escape of a prisoner.”“Well, look here,”Will said,“I will go into Portsmouth this afternoon and find some man who can fake me up. There are sure to be two or three men who make that their business, for young naval officers are constantly getting into scrimmages, and must want to have their eyes painted before they go back on board. Do you go to the prison to-morrow morning. Find out the man, and deliver this letter to him. Then come into Portsmouth in the coach. I will be waiting there till it arrives, and you can go with me, and when I have got myself made up you shall judge for yourself whether I shall pass muster for you. There will be no difficulty in getting whiskers to match yours.”“Very well,”the man said,“I will be on the coach to-morrow.”Will at once changed his clothes to an ordinary walking[pg 306]suit, and went into town. On making enquiries he found that there was a barber who made it his business to paint black eyes and to remove the signs of bruises. He went to him and said:“I hear you are an artist in black eyes.”The man smiled.“You don’t look as if you wanted my services, sir.”“No, not in that way, but I suppose you could make up a face so as to resemble another.”“Yes, sir, I was at one time engaged at a theatre in London in making up the performers, and feel sure that I could accomplish such a job to your satisfaction.”“I have made a bet,”Will said,“that I could disguise myself as a certain man so well that I could take my friends in. Have you a sandy wig in your shop?”“Yes, sir, half a dozen.”“And whiskers?”“I have several sets, sir, and I dare say one would be the right colour.”“Very well, then, I will bring the man here to-morrow, and you shall paint me so as to resemble him as closely as possible. I don’t mind giving you a five-pound note for the job.”“Well, sir, if I am not mistaken I can paint you so that his own mother wouldn’t know the difference.”Will took a bed at the George, and at mid-day went to the inn where the coach stopped. The man was on the outside.“Well, sir, I have found the Frenchman, and given him the letter, so that part of the business is done.”“That is good. What is the number of the man’s hut?”[pg 307]“Number sixty-eight;”and the man carefully described its position.“Very well. Now we will set about the second part.”When they arrived at the shop the barber seated them in two chairs next to each other, in a room behind the shop, and set to work at once. He first produced a wig and whiskers, which, with a little clipping, he made of the size and shape of the hair on the huckster’s face. Then he set to work with his paints, first staining Will’s face to the reddish-brown of the man’s complexion, and then adding line after line. After two hours’ work he asked them to stand together before a glass, and both were astonished; the resemblance was indeed perfect. Will’s eyebrows had been stained a grayish white, and some long hairs had been inserted so as to give them the shaggy appearance of the pedlar. A crow’s foot had been painted at the corner of each eye, and a line drawn from the nose to the corners of the lips. The chin and lower part of the cheeks had been tinted dark, to give them the appearance of long shaving. Both of them burst into a laugh as they looked at the two faces in the mirror.“You will do, sir,”the man said.“It would need a sharp pair of eyes to detect the difference between us.”“Yes, I think that will do,”Will said,“and to aid the deception I will, as I go in, use my handkerchief and pretend to have a bad cold.”“Is there a basket-maker’s near?”Will asked the barber.“Yes, sir, first turning to the right, and first to the left, two or three doors down, there is a small shop.”“I want you at once to go and choose one the size and shape of your own,”Will said to his companion.“When[pg 308]you see one, set the man to work to weave a false bottom to it. I want it to lodge so as to leave a recess four or five inches deep. Have it made with two handles, so that it can be lifted in and out. How long would he be doing it, do you think?”“About an hour and a half, I should say.”“Very well; order the man to send it round to the George, wrapped up in paper, to the address of Mr. Earnshaw. When you have done this, come back here. We cannot go into the street together; our singular resemblance would at once be noticed.”“Now,”Will said to the pedlar when he returned,“meet me on the road a hundred yards from where it turns down to Porchester; bring a stock of goods with you, and I will put them in my basket. Of course you will bring your pass, and the clothes you now have on in a bundle. I will change there; as far as I have seen it is very seldom that anyone passes that way.”Will then went for a walk, and when it became quite dark he took off his wig and whiskers and went into the town again. Here he bought a long rope, very slender, but still strong enough to support a man’s weight, and a grapnel which folded up flat when not in use. Then he went to the George, having wrapped a muffler round his face as if he were suffering with toothache. His basket was standing in thehall.“I shall not return this evening,”he said,“so I will pay my bill.”Then, having bought a suit of ready-made sailor’s clothes, with hat complete, he put them into his basket, hired a vehicle, and drove to Fairham. In the morning at nine[pg 309]o’clock he walked along the main road towards Cosham till he reached the turning to Porchester, went down it a couple of hundred yards, and sat on a grassy bank till he saw the pedlar approaching.“It is a foggy morning,”the huckster said when he came up.“So much the better. I hope it will last over to-morrow, and then they won’t be able to signal the news of the prisoner’s escape. It is only in clear weather that the semaphores can be made out from hill to hill.”The goods were changed from the pedlar’s basket to the one Will had brought.“There, then, is the hundred pounds I promised you; I hope you are perfectly satisfied?”“Perfectly, sir; it is the best two days’ work I have ever done.”“Now for my clothes,”Will said; and no one being in sight he quickly changed into the clothes the pedlar had brought.“We are more alike than ever,”the man said with a laugh,“but you will have to remember that I walk with a limp. I got a ball in my leg in the fighting at Trinidad, and was discharged as being unfit for service. But I got a small pension, and the right to sell things to the prisoners in Porchester Castle.”“I noticed the limp when I saw you first,”Will said,“and there will be no great difficulty in copying it. I regarded it as rather fortunate, as when the soldiers see me limp along they will not look farther.”“Well, sir, I wish you luck. You are the freest-handed gentleman I ever came across.”[pg 310]Will hid his own clothes in a neighbouring bush, and then started, imitating the pedlar’s limp so exactly that the man laughed as he looked after him before starting for Fairham.There were few people in the streets of the quiet little village as Will passed through it. When he neared the castle he overtook the fat apple-woman, who hailed him as a friend, and they walked together into the castle. They showed their passes to the guard at the gate, but he scarcely looked at them. They then separated, and Will, stopping now and then to sell small articles, made his way at last to Lucien’s hut. He had in his letter informed Lucien of his reasons for trying to get him free, and had directed him to be leaning at that hour against the corner of the hut. When Lucien saw the pedlar approaching, if all was clear he was to retire into it, but if there were others inside he was to shake his head slightly. As Will approached the hut he saw a prisoner standing there according to his instructions, but he gave the danger signal and Will passed on. This he did twice, but when Will returned the third time the man went quietly into the hut.“There is not a moment to lose,”Will said as he followed, and he at once lifted up the false bottom and pulled out the rope and grapnel. He had knotted the rope about every foot, to assist the prisoner in climbing, and had covered the iron of the grapnel with strips of flannel so that it would make no noise when it struck the wall.“Hide them in your bed. It will be a very dark night, and you must steal out and make your way to the middle of the south wall. There fling your grapnel up and scale the wall.[pg 311]I shall be there waiting for you. It looks as if it will be very wet as well as very dark, so you ought to be able to avoid the sentinel.”At this moment he heard someone at the door, and adroitly changing his tone said:“You do not like these colours for a bed-quilt? Very well, I am getting a fresh stock from London in a few days, and I have no doubt you will be able to suit yourself. Good-morning!”He then turned and offered some of his goods to the new-comer, who bought a block for carving out a ship, and some twine and other things for rigging her. When he left the hut he went about the yard till he had disposed of a considerable amount of his goods, and then left the prison and made his way back to the spot where he had hidden his clothes. On arriving there he changed at once, rubbed the pigment from his face, threw away the wig and whiskers, hid the basket in a place which he and the pedlar had agreed upon, with the clothes in it and the pass in one of the pockets, and then went back into the village, where he hired a chaise and drove to Fairham.“Landlord,”he said, as he drew up at the principal hotel,“I shall want a post-chaise to-night for London. I shall be at a party to-night and cannot say at what time I may get away, but have the horses ready to put in at twelve o’clock. If they have to wait an hour or two you shall not be the loser.”After ordering dinner, he strolled about the town till he thought it would be nearly ready. Then he asked for a room, and there changed into his naval uniform, which he had brought with him. He ate a good dinner, and then, putting on his cloak, started to walk back to Porchester, carrying[pg 312]with him a bag in which was the sailor’s suit he had bought for Lucien. The night was pitch dark, and the rain had set in heavily, but although his walk was not an agreeable one he was in high spirits. In his letter to Lucien he had told him that if anything should prevent him from making his way to the wall that night he would expect him on the following one. Nevertheless he felt sure that in such favourable circumstances he would be able to get through the sentries without difficulty. He took up a position as near as he could guess at the centre of the south wall, on the narrow strip of ground between it and the lake. He had waited about an hour when he heard a slight noise a few yards on one side of him. He moved towards the sound, and was just in time to see Lucien alight. He grasped him by the hand.Illustration: “HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”“HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”“Thank heaven,”he said in French,“that I have got you free, as I promised your sweetheart I would! Now let us first make our way up the village. I have a suit of sailor’s clothes for you in this bag; you can change into them when we get beyond the houses, and throw those you are wearing into the pond there, with a few stones in them to make them sink.”“Ah, monsieur, how can I thank you?”Lucien said.“I am only paying a debt. Marie risked a good deal to aid me, and I promised solemnly that I would, if it were at all possible, get you out of prison in return, so there is no occasion for any thanks.”Few words passed between them as they walked through the village, and when they had left it behind, Lucien changed his clothes and disposed of his old ones as Will had suggested.[pg 313]“It was necessary to get rid of them,”Will said,“because if they were found in the morning it would show that you had got a change, and instead of looking for someone in a well-worn uniform they would direct their attention to other people.”They tramped along to Fairham, and reached the hotel just as it was about to be shut up, the stage-coach having passed a few minutes before. They had some refreshments, and then took their seats in the chaise. At once the postilions cracked their whips, and the four horses started at a gallop.“We are absolutely safe now,”Will said;“they will not discover that you have gone until the roll-call in the morning, and by that time we shall be within a few miles of London. In such weather as this they will be unable to signal. Before we arrive I will put on civilian clothes again, and as soon as we have discharged the chaise we will go to a clothier’s and get a suit for you. There are so many emigrants in London that your speaking French will attract no attention.”The journey was quickly accomplished. Will was very liberal to the postilions at the first stage, and these hurried up those who were to take the next, and so from stage to stage they went at the top of the horses’ speed, the ninety miles being covered in the very fast time, for the period, of ten hours. At the last stage Will asked for a room to himself for a few minutes and there changed his clothes. They were put down in front of a private house, and, having seen the post-chaise drive off, took their bags and walked on until they reached a tailor’s shop.“I want to put my man into plain clothes while he is with me in town,”Will said to the shopman.[pg 314]“Yes, sir. What sort of clothes?”“Oh, just private clothes, such as a valet might wear when out of livery!”Lucien was soon rigged out in a suit of quiet but respectable garments, and, putting his sailor suit into his bag, they went on. They looked about for a considerable time before they found a suitable lodging, but at last they came upon a French hotel. Entering, Will asked in French for two rooms. They were at once accommodated, and after washing and dressing they went down to the coffee-room, where several French gentlemen were breakfasting. It had been arranged that Will should say that they were two emigrants who had just effected their escape from France.The next day they took the coach to Weymouth, the port from which at that time communication was kept open with France by means of smugglers and men who made a business of aiding the French emigrants who wanted to escape, or the Royalists who went backwards and forwards trying to get up a movement against the Republic. On making enquiries they heard of a man who had a very fast little vessel, and they at once looked him up.“This gentleman wants to go across,”Will said.“What would you do it for?”“It depends whether he will wait till I get some more passengers or not.”“He is pressed for time,”Will said;“what will you run him over for alone?”“Fifty pounds,”the man said. Will thought it advisable not to appear to jump at the offer.“That is rather stiff,”he said;“I should think thirty-five would be ample.”[pg 315]“It seems a good sum,”the man said;“but you see there are dangers. I might be overhauled by a British cruiser.”“You might,”Will said;“but when they learned your business they would not interfere with you.”“Then there are the port authorities,”the man said.“Yes, but a few francs would prevent them from asking inconvenient questions. Besides, my friend is not a royalist, he is only going over to see his friends.”“Well, we will say thirty-five,”the man said with a smile.“When will you want to start?”“He doesn’t care whether he sails this evening or to-morrow morning.”“Well, we will say to-morrow morning at daybreak.”“Where will you land him?”“At Cherbourg or one of the villages near; most likely at Cherbourg if the coast is clear, for I have friends there who work with me.”They went to an hotel for the night. In the morning Will gave Lucien a small package containing a very handsome gold watch and chain which he had bought in London.“Give this to Marie from me,”he said;“I promised that she should have one for her wedding-day. Here are a thousand francs of French money, which will carry you comfortably from Cherbourg to Verdun and give you a bit of a start there. No, you need not refuse it, I am a rich man, and can afford it without in the least hurting myself. Give my love to Marie,”he said,“and tell her that I shall never forget her kindness.”Lucien was profuse in his gratitude, but Will cut him short by hurrying him down to the boat, which was lying at the[pg 316]quay with her sails already hoisted. Will watched the boat till it was well out to sea, and then took the next coach back to London, filled with pleasure that he had been able to carry out his plan and to repay the kindness that Marie had shown him.He had given Lucien the address of his London agent, so that on his arrival at Verdun he could write him a letter saying how he had fared, and when he and Marie were to be married. This letter he received on his return from the next cruise. It contained the warmest thanks of Marie and her lover, and the information that they were to be married the following week, and that the young man had an offer of good employment in the town.When he reached London, Will obtained the address of a respectable solicitor, and called upon him to ask his advice as to advertising to try to discover a family bearing the arms on his seal.“I should advise you,”the lawyer said,“to leave the matter until you return from sea again. Questions of this sort always require a good deal of time to answer. You would have to be present to give information, and when the matter is taken up it should be pressed through vigorously. Of course there would be difficulties to face. The mere fact of this seal being in the possession of your father, that is, if he was your father, would not be sufficient to prove his identity, and there would be all sorts of investigations to make, which would, of course, take time.Ifyou will leave the matter in my hands I will cause enquiries to be made as to the arms. That will probably only take a day or two, and it would perhaps be a satisfaction to you to know the family with which you might[pg 317]be connected. It will be in the subsequent steps that delays will occur.”“Thank you, sir! I should certainly like to know, though I quite see that, as you say, it will be very difficult for me to establish my connection.”The lawyer then took down what particulars Will could give him of his early history. When he returned a week later the lawyer gave him a cordial reception.“I congratulate you, Mr. Gilmore,”he said.“The head of the family carrying those arms is Sir Ralph Gilmore, one of our oldest baronets. He has no male issue. He had one son who died six years ago. There was another son, a younger one, of whom there is no record. He may be alive and he may be dead; that is not known. It is, of course, possible that you were stolen as a child by your reputed father, and that he gave you the family name in order that when the time came he could produce you, but of course that is all guesswork. When you return from sea again I will set people to work to trace, if possible, the wanderings of this person; but as I said, this will take time, and as you will be going to sea in a fortnight the matter can very well stand over. So long as you are on board a ship your parentage can make very little difference to you.”Will had still a fortnight of his leave remaining. He wandered about London for a couple of days, but he found it rather dull now that he had finished his business, as he had no friends in town. On the second day he was walking along one of the fashionable streets of Bloomsbury, considering whether he should not go down by the next coach to Portsmouth, where he was sure of meeting friends,[pg 318]when a carriage passed him, drawn by a pair of fine horses. A young lady who was sitting in it happened to notice him. She glanced at him carelessly at first, and then with great interest. She stopped the carriage before it had gone many yards, and when Will came up, looked at him closely.“Excuse me, sir,”she said as he was passing;“but are you not Mr. Gilmore?”Greatly surprised he replied in the affirmative.“I thought so!”she exclaimed.“Do you not remember me?”He looked at her hard.“Why—why,”he hesitated,“surely it is not—”“But it is!”she cried.“I am Alice Palethorpe!”“Miss Palethorpe!”he exclaimed, grasping the hand she held out.“Is it possible?”“Not Miss Palethorpe,”she said.“To you I am Alice, as I was nearly four years ago. Get into the carriage. My father will be delighted to see you. We have talked of you so often. He made enquiries at the Admiralty when he came home, but found that you were a prisoner in France, and he has been trying to get your name down in the list of those to be exchanged, but he had so little interest that he could not succeed, and, indeed, for the past two years no exchange had taken place.”By this time he was in the carriage, and they were driving rapidly along the busy streets. Presently they stopped before a large house in Bedford Square.“This is our home, for the present at any rate,”she said.“Now come in.”She ran upstairs before him and signed to him to wait at the[pg 319]top.“Father,”she said, bursting into a room,“I have taken a captive; someone you certainly don’t expect to see. Now, you must guess.”“How can I, my dear, when you say I don’t expect to see him? Is it—?”and he mentioned five or six of his friends in Jamaica, any of whom might be returning.“No, father. You are out altogether.”“Then I give it up, Alice.”“It is Will,”she said.Will heard him spring to his feet and hurry to the door.“My dear young friend!”he exclaimed.“At least I suppose it is you, for you have grown out of all recognition.”“Ah, father!”the girl broke in.“You see, he hadn’t changed so much as to deceive me. I felt sure of him the moment I set eyes upon him.”“Well, then, your eyes do you credit,”her father said.“Certainly I should not have recognized him. He has grown from a lad into a man since we saw him last. He has widened out tremendously. He was rather one of the leankindat that time.”“Oh, father, how can you say so? I consider that he was just right.”“Yes, my dear, I quite understand that. At that time he was perfect in your eyes, but for all that he was lean.”“You are quite right, sir, I was, and I really wonder that I have put on flesh so much. The diet of a French prisoner is not calculated to promote stoutness. But your daughter was not only sharper-sighted than you, but even than myself. Till she spoke to me I had not an idea who she was. I saw that she thought she recognized me, but I was afraid it would[pg 320]be rude on my part to look at her closely. Of course now I do see the likeness to the Alice I knew, but she has changed far more than I have. She was a little girl of fourteen then, very pretty, certainly, I thought, but still quite a girl—”and he stopped.“Now, you mean that I have grown into a young woman, and have lost my prettiness?”“I think your looking-glass tells you another story,”he laughed.“If it doesn’t, it must be a very bad one.”“Well, now, do sit down,”her father said.“You must have an immense deal to tell us.”“It is a longish story,”Will replied,“too long to tell straight off. Besides, I want to ask some questions. When did you come home? Have you come for good? If not, how long are you going to stay? though I am sorry to say that the length of your visit can affect me comparatively little, for I am appointed second-lieutenant of theJason, and must join in a few days.”“I congratulate you very heartily, Will,”Mr. Palethorpe said.“You are fortunate indeed to get such promotion so early.”“I am most fortunate, sir. Though just at present I feel inclined to wish that it hadn’t come quite so soon.”“In answer to your question, Will, I can say that we are home for good. I have disposed of my estate and wound up my business, principally, I think, because this little girl had made up her mind that she should like England better than Jamaica.”“I am glad to hear that, sir. I shall have something to look forward to when I return to England.”[pg 321]“Where are you staying?”“At the Golden Cross.”“Well, then, you must go and fetch your luggage here at once. It would be strange indeed if you were to be staying at any house but mine while you are in London.”As he saw that the planter would not hear of a refusal, Will gladly accepted the invitation, and, taking a fly, drove to the hotel, paid his bill, and took his things away.
On reaching Sheerness the captain at once went ashore, accompanied by Will, and they proceeded to London. Will took up his quarters at the Golden Cross, and next day called at the Admiralty, where he sent in his name to the First Lord.
“I have received a most favourable report from Captain Knowles of your conduct in landing on the coast of Holland, and of obtaining despatches of much value. How were you taken prisoner?”
“At the attack by a force from theTartaron some batteries on one of the Isles d’Hyères. I was hit in the leg, and, being left behind in the confusion of the retreat, fell into the hands of the French. I was imprisoned for four months at Toulon, and then sent to Verdun. Six months after leaving Toulon I effected my escape in a disguise procured for me by a French girl. I had learned the language while in prison, and, travelling through France in the disguise of a pedlar, reached Dunkirk. There I worked in a fishing-boat for a month, and then, seeing theArtemiscruising off the town, I shut up two of the[pg 301]sailors in their cabin, and frightened the other two into taking me off to her.”
“In consideration of the valuable services you have rendered I have much pleasure in appointing you master’s mate.”
“Thank you, sir! but I own I had rather hopes of obtaining a lieutenancy.”
“A lieutenancy!”the admiral said in a changed tone.“I am surprised to hear you say so, when you have had no service as a master’s mate. What makes you entertain such a hope?”
“My past services, sir,”Will said boldly.
“Captain Purfleet, will you hand me down the volume of services under the letter G. Ah! here it is.”
He glanced at it cursorily at first, and then read it carefully.
“You were right, Mr. Gilmore, in entertaining such a hope. I see that you have been highly spoken of by the various officers under whom you have served; that you were most strongly recommended by the admirals both at Malta and in the West Indies for your singular services, and also by Lord Hood for your conduct in Corsica. You were in command of a small craft for nearly a year, and in that capacity you not only took a number of prizes, some of them valuable, but actually captured, in one hard-fought action, two pirates, each of which was stronger than yourself. You have, therefore, well shown your capacity to command. Captain Purfleet, have any appointments been made yet to theJason?”
“No, sir.”
“Very well, then appoint Mr. Gilmore to be second lieutenant of her. You need not thank me, sir; you owe your commission[pg 302]to your own gallantry and good conduct. I don’t know that I have at any time seen such strong testimonials and so good a record for any officer of your age and standing. I am quite sure that you will do full justice to the appointment that I have made. As theJasonwill not be ready for two months I can grant you six weeks leave.”
No sooner was this matter settled than Will took the coach to Fairham. Thence he drove to the village of Porchester, where Marie’s fiancé was confined. Here he put up at a little inn. He had, before starting from London, bought and put on the disguise of a countryman, as he could hardly have stayed in the village as a gentleman without exciting remark or suspicion. He had, however, brought other clothes with him, so that if necessary he could resume them, and appear either as a naval officer or as a civilian. His first step was to make a tour of the great wall which enclosed the castle and the huts in which the prisoners were confined. He saw at once that any attempt to scale the wall would be useless. At the inn he gave out that by the death of a relative he had just come into a few pounds and meant to enjoy himself.
The inn he had selected was scarcely more than a tavern, and he had chosen it because he thought it probable that it would be frequented by the soldiers whose camp stood near the walls, and who supplied the guards in the castle. This expectation was fulfilled a short time after his arrival by four or five soldiers coming in.
“Will you drink a glass with me?”he said.“I have been telling the landlord that I have come into a little brass, and mean to spend it.”
The soldiers, not unwillingly, accepted the invitation, and sat down at a table with him.
“It must be slow work,”he said,“keeping guard here, and I expect you would sooner be out at the war.”
“That we should,”one of them replied;“there is nothing to do here but to drill all day, and stare across the water when we are off duty, and wish we were at Portsmouth, where there is something to do and something to amuse one. This is the dullest hole I ever was quartered in. Cosham on one side and Fairham on the other are the only places that one can walk to. We expect, however, to be relieved before long, and I never want to see the place again.”
“I suppose you take recruits here?”Will said.
“Oh yes, we take recruits when we can get them.”
“How long is a recruit before he begins to be a soldier, and takes his regular turn as guard and so on?”
“Two or three months,”the man said;“that is long enough to get them into something like shape.”
“I should like to go in and have a look at the prisoners,”Will said after a little chat.
“Well, there is no chance of your doing that,”the soldier replied.“Orders are very strict, and only three or four hucksters are allowed to go in, to sell things to them.”
“How many are there of them?”
“About three thousand.”
He chatted for some time, and then, after calling for another pint of beer all round, sauntered out, leaving the soldiers to finish it. He saw at once that his only possible plan in the time he had at his command was either to bribe some of the guards, which appeared to him too hazardous a plan to[pg 304]adopt, and not likely to lead to success, or to get at one or other of the people who were allowed in.
He spent two days watching the gate of the prison. During that time five people in civilian dress went in. One of these was a short fat woman, who carried a large basket with cakes and other eatables. Another was similarly laden. A third, a man of about his own height, took in a variety of material used by the prisoners for making articles for sale. He had needles and thread, scraps of materials of many colours for making patchwork quilts, blocks of wood for carving out model ships, straw dyed various colours for making fancy boxes, glass beads, and other small articles. Will at once fixed on him as being the most likely of the visitors to serve his purpose. He spoke to him after he had left the prison.
“My friend,”he said,“do you want to earn fifty pounds?”
The man opened his eyes in surprise.
“I should certainly like to,”he said,“if I could see my way to do it.”
“Well, I will double that if you do as I tell you. I want you, in the first place, to find out the hut in which Lucien Dupres is confined, and give him a letter.”
“There will be no great difficulty about that,”the man said.“I only have to whisper to the first prisoner I meet that I want to find a man, and have got a letter from his friends for him, and if he doesn’t know him he will find him out for me. That is not much to do for a hundred pounds.”
“No; but in the next place I want you to keep out of the way for a week, and to lend me your clothes and pass. I want to go in and see the man.”
“Well, that is a more dangerous business. How could you pass for me?”
“I think I could do that without fear. We are about the same height. I should have a wig made to imitate your hair, and should, I imagine, have no difficulty in getting my face made up so as to be able to pass for you. You must be so well known that they will do no more than glance at me as I go in. The only alternative to that will be for you to take to him a rope and other things I will give you. I tell you frankly I want to aid his escape. Mind, a hundred pounds is not to be earned without some slight risk.”
“Of the two things I would rather risk carrying the rope and the tools, if they are not too bulky. Mind you, it is a big risk, for I should be liable to be shot for aiding in the escape of a prisoner.”
“Well, look here,”Will said,“I will go into Portsmouth this afternoon and find some man who can fake me up. There are sure to be two or three men who make that their business, for young naval officers are constantly getting into scrimmages, and must want to have their eyes painted before they go back on board. Do you go to the prison to-morrow morning. Find out the man, and deliver this letter to him. Then come into Portsmouth in the coach. I will be waiting there till it arrives, and you can go with me, and when I have got myself made up you shall judge for yourself whether I shall pass muster for you. There will be no difficulty in getting whiskers to match yours.”
“Very well,”the man said,“I will be on the coach to-morrow.”
Will at once changed his clothes to an ordinary walking[pg 306]suit, and went into town. On making enquiries he found that there was a barber who made it his business to paint black eyes and to remove the signs of bruises. He went to him and said:“I hear you are an artist in black eyes.”
The man smiled.
“You don’t look as if you wanted my services, sir.”
“No, not in that way, but I suppose you could make up a face so as to resemble another.”
“Yes, sir, I was at one time engaged at a theatre in London in making up the performers, and feel sure that I could accomplish such a job to your satisfaction.”
“I have made a bet,”Will said,“that I could disguise myself as a certain man so well that I could take my friends in. Have you a sandy wig in your shop?”
“Yes, sir, half a dozen.”
“And whiskers?”
“I have several sets, sir, and I dare say one would be the right colour.”
“Very well, then, I will bring the man here to-morrow, and you shall paint me so as to resemble him as closely as possible. I don’t mind giving you a five-pound note for the job.”
“Well, sir, if I am not mistaken I can paint you so that his own mother wouldn’t know the difference.”
Will took a bed at the George, and at mid-day went to the inn where the coach stopped. The man was on the outside.
“Well, sir, I have found the Frenchman, and given him the letter, so that part of the business is done.”
“That is good. What is the number of the man’s hut?”
“Number sixty-eight;”and the man carefully described its position.
“Very well. Now we will set about the second part.”
When they arrived at the shop the barber seated them in two chairs next to each other, in a room behind the shop, and set to work at once. He first produced a wig and whiskers, which, with a little clipping, he made of the size and shape of the hair on the huckster’s face. Then he set to work with his paints, first staining Will’s face to the reddish-brown of the man’s complexion, and then adding line after line. After two hours’ work he asked them to stand together before a glass, and both were astonished; the resemblance was indeed perfect. Will’s eyebrows had been stained a grayish white, and some long hairs had been inserted so as to give them the shaggy appearance of the pedlar. A crow’s foot had been painted at the corner of each eye, and a line drawn from the nose to the corners of the lips. The chin and lower part of the cheeks had been tinted dark, to give them the appearance of long shaving. Both of them burst into a laugh as they looked at the two faces in the mirror.
“You will do, sir,”the man said.“It would need a sharp pair of eyes to detect the difference between us.”
“Yes, I think that will do,”Will said,“and to aid the deception I will, as I go in, use my handkerchief and pretend to have a bad cold.”
“Is there a basket-maker’s near?”Will asked the barber.
“Yes, sir, first turning to the right, and first to the left, two or three doors down, there is a small shop.”
“I want you at once to go and choose one the size and shape of your own,”Will said to his companion.“When[pg 308]you see one, set the man to work to weave a false bottom to it. I want it to lodge so as to leave a recess four or five inches deep. Have it made with two handles, so that it can be lifted in and out. How long would he be doing it, do you think?”
“About an hour and a half, I should say.”
“Very well; order the man to send it round to the George, wrapped up in paper, to the address of Mr. Earnshaw. When you have done this, come back here. We cannot go into the street together; our singular resemblance would at once be noticed.”
“Now,”Will said to the pedlar when he returned,“meet me on the road a hundred yards from where it turns down to Porchester; bring a stock of goods with you, and I will put them in my basket. Of course you will bring your pass, and the clothes you now have on in a bundle. I will change there; as far as I have seen it is very seldom that anyone passes that way.”
Will then went for a walk, and when it became quite dark he took off his wig and whiskers and went into the town again. Here he bought a long rope, very slender, but still strong enough to support a man’s weight, and a grapnel which folded up flat when not in use. Then he went to the George, having wrapped a muffler round his face as if he were suffering with toothache. His basket was standing in thehall.
“I shall not return this evening,”he said,“so I will pay my bill.”
Then, having bought a suit of ready-made sailor’s clothes, with hat complete, he put them into his basket, hired a vehicle, and drove to Fairham. In the morning at nine[pg 309]o’clock he walked along the main road towards Cosham till he reached the turning to Porchester, went down it a couple of hundred yards, and sat on a grassy bank till he saw the pedlar approaching.
“It is a foggy morning,”the huckster said when he came up.
“So much the better. I hope it will last over to-morrow, and then they won’t be able to signal the news of the prisoner’s escape. It is only in clear weather that the semaphores can be made out from hill to hill.”
The goods were changed from the pedlar’s basket to the one Will had brought.
“There, then, is the hundred pounds I promised you; I hope you are perfectly satisfied?”
“Perfectly, sir; it is the best two days’ work I have ever done.”
“Now for my clothes,”Will said; and no one being in sight he quickly changed into the clothes the pedlar had brought.
“We are more alike than ever,”the man said with a laugh,“but you will have to remember that I walk with a limp. I got a ball in my leg in the fighting at Trinidad, and was discharged as being unfit for service. But I got a small pension, and the right to sell things to the prisoners in Porchester Castle.”
“I noticed the limp when I saw you first,”Will said,“and there will be no great difficulty in copying it. I regarded it as rather fortunate, as when the soldiers see me limp along they will not look farther.”
“Well, sir, I wish you luck. You are the freest-handed gentleman I ever came across.”
Will hid his own clothes in a neighbouring bush, and then started, imitating the pedlar’s limp so exactly that the man laughed as he looked after him before starting for Fairham.
There were few people in the streets of the quiet little village as Will passed through it. When he neared the castle he overtook the fat apple-woman, who hailed him as a friend, and they walked together into the castle. They showed their passes to the guard at the gate, but he scarcely looked at them. They then separated, and Will, stopping now and then to sell small articles, made his way at last to Lucien’s hut. He had in his letter informed Lucien of his reasons for trying to get him free, and had directed him to be leaning at that hour against the corner of the hut. When Lucien saw the pedlar approaching, if all was clear he was to retire into it, but if there were others inside he was to shake his head slightly. As Will approached the hut he saw a prisoner standing there according to his instructions, but he gave the danger signal and Will passed on. This he did twice, but when Will returned the third time the man went quietly into the hut.
“There is not a moment to lose,”Will said as he followed, and he at once lifted up the false bottom and pulled out the rope and grapnel. He had knotted the rope about every foot, to assist the prisoner in climbing, and had covered the iron of the grapnel with strips of flannel so that it would make no noise when it struck the wall.
“Hide them in your bed. It will be a very dark night, and you must steal out and make your way to the middle of the south wall. There fling your grapnel up and scale the wall.[pg 311]I shall be there waiting for you. It looks as if it will be very wet as well as very dark, so you ought to be able to avoid the sentinel.”
At this moment he heard someone at the door, and adroitly changing his tone said:“You do not like these colours for a bed-quilt? Very well, I am getting a fresh stock from London in a few days, and I have no doubt you will be able to suit yourself. Good-morning!”
He then turned and offered some of his goods to the new-comer, who bought a block for carving out a ship, and some twine and other things for rigging her. When he left the hut he went about the yard till he had disposed of a considerable amount of his goods, and then left the prison and made his way back to the spot where he had hidden his clothes. On arriving there he changed at once, rubbed the pigment from his face, threw away the wig and whiskers, hid the basket in a place which he and the pedlar had agreed upon, with the clothes in it and the pass in one of the pockets, and then went back into the village, where he hired a chaise and drove to Fairham.
“Landlord,”he said, as he drew up at the principal hotel,“I shall want a post-chaise to-night for London. I shall be at a party to-night and cannot say at what time I may get away, but have the horses ready to put in at twelve o’clock. If they have to wait an hour or two you shall not be the loser.”
After ordering dinner, he strolled about the town till he thought it would be nearly ready. Then he asked for a room, and there changed into his naval uniform, which he had brought with him. He ate a good dinner, and then, putting on his cloak, started to walk back to Porchester, carrying[pg 312]with him a bag in which was the sailor’s suit he had bought for Lucien. The night was pitch dark, and the rain had set in heavily, but although his walk was not an agreeable one he was in high spirits. In his letter to Lucien he had told him that if anything should prevent him from making his way to the wall that night he would expect him on the following one. Nevertheless he felt sure that in such favourable circumstances he would be able to get through the sentries without difficulty. He took up a position as near as he could guess at the centre of the south wall, on the narrow strip of ground between it and the lake. He had waited about an hour when he heard a slight noise a few yards on one side of him. He moved towards the sound, and was just in time to see Lucien alight. He grasped him by the hand.
Illustration: “HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”“HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”
“HE WAS JUST IN TIME TO SEE LUCIEN ALIGHT”
“Thank heaven,”he said in French,“that I have got you free, as I promised your sweetheart I would! Now let us first make our way up the village. I have a suit of sailor’s clothes for you in this bag; you can change into them when we get beyond the houses, and throw those you are wearing into the pond there, with a few stones in them to make them sink.”
“Ah, monsieur, how can I thank you?”Lucien said.
“I am only paying a debt. Marie risked a good deal to aid me, and I promised solemnly that I would, if it were at all possible, get you out of prison in return, so there is no occasion for any thanks.”
Few words passed between them as they walked through the village, and when they had left it behind, Lucien changed his clothes and disposed of his old ones as Will had suggested.
“It was necessary to get rid of them,”Will said,“because if they were found in the morning it would show that you had got a change, and instead of looking for someone in a well-worn uniform they would direct their attention to other people.”
They tramped along to Fairham, and reached the hotel just as it was about to be shut up, the stage-coach having passed a few minutes before. They had some refreshments, and then took their seats in the chaise. At once the postilions cracked their whips, and the four horses started at a gallop.
“We are absolutely safe now,”Will said;“they will not discover that you have gone until the roll-call in the morning, and by that time we shall be within a few miles of London. In such weather as this they will be unable to signal. Before we arrive I will put on civilian clothes again, and as soon as we have discharged the chaise we will go to a clothier’s and get a suit for you. There are so many emigrants in London that your speaking French will attract no attention.”
The journey was quickly accomplished. Will was very liberal to the postilions at the first stage, and these hurried up those who were to take the next, and so from stage to stage they went at the top of the horses’ speed, the ninety miles being covered in the very fast time, for the period, of ten hours. At the last stage Will asked for a room to himself for a few minutes and there changed his clothes. They were put down in front of a private house, and, having seen the post-chaise drive off, took their bags and walked on until they reached a tailor’s shop.
“I want to put my man into plain clothes while he is with me in town,”Will said to the shopman.
“Yes, sir. What sort of clothes?”
“Oh, just private clothes, such as a valet might wear when out of livery!”
Lucien was soon rigged out in a suit of quiet but respectable garments, and, putting his sailor suit into his bag, they went on. They looked about for a considerable time before they found a suitable lodging, but at last they came upon a French hotel. Entering, Will asked in French for two rooms. They were at once accommodated, and after washing and dressing they went down to the coffee-room, where several French gentlemen were breakfasting. It had been arranged that Will should say that they were two emigrants who had just effected their escape from France.
The next day they took the coach to Weymouth, the port from which at that time communication was kept open with France by means of smugglers and men who made a business of aiding the French emigrants who wanted to escape, or the Royalists who went backwards and forwards trying to get up a movement against the Republic. On making enquiries they heard of a man who had a very fast little vessel, and they at once looked him up.“This gentleman wants to go across,”Will said.“What would you do it for?”
“It depends whether he will wait till I get some more passengers or not.”
“He is pressed for time,”Will said;“what will you run him over for alone?”
“Fifty pounds,”the man said. Will thought it advisable not to appear to jump at the offer.
“That is rather stiff,”he said;“I should think thirty-five would be ample.”
“It seems a good sum,”the man said;“but you see there are dangers. I might be overhauled by a British cruiser.”
“You might,”Will said;“but when they learned your business they would not interfere with you.”
“Then there are the port authorities,”the man said.
“Yes, but a few francs would prevent them from asking inconvenient questions. Besides, my friend is not a royalist, he is only going over to see his friends.”
“Well, we will say thirty-five,”the man said with a smile.“When will you want to start?”
“He doesn’t care whether he sails this evening or to-morrow morning.”
“Well, we will say to-morrow morning at daybreak.”
“Where will you land him?”
“At Cherbourg or one of the villages near; most likely at Cherbourg if the coast is clear, for I have friends there who work with me.”
They went to an hotel for the night. In the morning Will gave Lucien a small package containing a very handsome gold watch and chain which he had bought in London.
“Give this to Marie from me,”he said;“I promised that she should have one for her wedding-day. Here are a thousand francs of French money, which will carry you comfortably from Cherbourg to Verdun and give you a bit of a start there. No, you need not refuse it, I am a rich man, and can afford it without in the least hurting myself. Give my love to Marie,”he said,“and tell her that I shall never forget her kindness.”
Lucien was profuse in his gratitude, but Will cut him short by hurrying him down to the boat, which was lying at the[pg 316]quay with her sails already hoisted. Will watched the boat till it was well out to sea, and then took the next coach back to London, filled with pleasure that he had been able to carry out his plan and to repay the kindness that Marie had shown him.
He had given Lucien the address of his London agent, so that on his arrival at Verdun he could write him a letter saying how he had fared, and when he and Marie were to be married. This letter he received on his return from the next cruise. It contained the warmest thanks of Marie and her lover, and the information that they were to be married the following week, and that the young man had an offer of good employment in the town.
When he reached London, Will obtained the address of a respectable solicitor, and called upon him to ask his advice as to advertising to try to discover a family bearing the arms on his seal.
“I should advise you,”the lawyer said,“to leave the matter until you return from sea again. Questions of this sort always require a good deal of time to answer. You would have to be present to give information, and when the matter is taken up it should be pressed through vigorously. Of course there would be difficulties to face. The mere fact of this seal being in the possession of your father, that is, if he was your father, would not be sufficient to prove his identity, and there would be all sorts of investigations to make, which would, of course, take time.Ifyou will leave the matter in my hands I will cause enquiries to be made as to the arms. That will probably only take a day or two, and it would perhaps be a satisfaction to you to know the family with which you might[pg 317]be connected. It will be in the subsequent steps that delays will occur.”
“Thank you, sir! I should certainly like to know, though I quite see that, as you say, it will be very difficult for me to establish my connection.”
The lawyer then took down what particulars Will could give him of his early history. When he returned a week later the lawyer gave him a cordial reception.
“I congratulate you, Mr. Gilmore,”he said.“The head of the family carrying those arms is Sir Ralph Gilmore, one of our oldest baronets. He has no male issue. He had one son who died six years ago. There was another son, a younger one, of whom there is no record. He may be alive and he may be dead; that is not known. It is, of course, possible that you were stolen as a child by your reputed father, and that he gave you the family name in order that when the time came he could produce you, but of course that is all guesswork. When you return from sea again I will set people to work to trace, if possible, the wanderings of this person; but as I said, this will take time, and as you will be going to sea in a fortnight the matter can very well stand over. So long as you are on board a ship your parentage can make very little difference to you.”
Will had still a fortnight of his leave remaining. He wandered about London for a couple of days, but he found it rather dull now that he had finished his business, as he had no friends in town. On the second day he was walking along one of the fashionable streets of Bloomsbury, considering whether he should not go down by the next coach to Portsmouth, where he was sure of meeting friends,[pg 318]when a carriage passed him, drawn by a pair of fine horses. A young lady who was sitting in it happened to notice him. She glanced at him carelessly at first, and then with great interest. She stopped the carriage before it had gone many yards, and when Will came up, looked at him closely.“Excuse me, sir,”she said as he was passing;“but are you not Mr. Gilmore?”Greatly surprised he replied in the affirmative.
“I thought so!”she exclaimed.“Do you not remember me?”
He looked at her hard.“Why—why,”he hesitated,“surely it is not—”
“But it is!”she cried.“I am Alice Palethorpe!”
“Miss Palethorpe!”he exclaimed, grasping the hand she held out.“Is it possible?”
“Not Miss Palethorpe,”she said.“To you I am Alice, as I was nearly four years ago. Get into the carriage. My father will be delighted to see you. We have talked of you so often. He made enquiries at the Admiralty when he came home, but found that you were a prisoner in France, and he has been trying to get your name down in the list of those to be exchanged, but he had so little interest that he could not succeed, and, indeed, for the past two years no exchange had taken place.”
By this time he was in the carriage, and they were driving rapidly along the busy streets. Presently they stopped before a large house in Bedford Square.
“This is our home, for the present at any rate,”she said.“Now come in.”
She ran upstairs before him and signed to him to wait at the[pg 319]top.“Father,”she said, bursting into a room,“I have taken a captive; someone you certainly don’t expect to see. Now, you must guess.”
“How can I, my dear, when you say I don’t expect to see him? Is it—?”and he mentioned five or six of his friends in Jamaica, any of whom might be returning.
“No, father. You are out altogether.”
“Then I give it up, Alice.”
“It is Will,”she said.
Will heard him spring to his feet and hurry to the door.
“My dear young friend!”he exclaimed.“At least I suppose it is you, for you have grown out of all recognition.”
“Ah, father!”the girl broke in.“You see, he hadn’t changed so much as to deceive me. I felt sure of him the moment I set eyes upon him.”
“Well, then, your eyes do you credit,”her father said.“Certainly I should not have recognized him. He has grown from a lad into a man since we saw him last. He has widened out tremendously. He was rather one of the leankindat that time.”
“Oh, father, how can you say so? I consider that he was just right.”
“Yes, my dear, I quite understand that. At that time he was perfect in your eyes, but for all that he was lean.”
“You are quite right, sir, I was, and I really wonder that I have put on flesh so much. The diet of a French prisoner is not calculated to promote stoutness. But your daughter was not only sharper-sighted than you, but even than myself. Till she spoke to me I had not an idea who she was. I saw that she thought she recognized me, but I was afraid it would[pg 320]be rude on my part to look at her closely. Of course now I do see the likeness to the Alice I knew, but she has changed far more than I have. She was a little girl of fourteen then, very pretty, certainly, I thought, but still quite a girl—”and he stopped.
“Now, you mean that I have grown into a young woman, and have lost my prettiness?”
“I think your looking-glass tells you another story,”he laughed.“If it doesn’t, it must be a very bad one.”
“Well, now, do sit down,”her father said.“You must have an immense deal to tell us.”
“It is a longish story,”Will replied,“too long to tell straight off. Besides, I want to ask some questions. When did you come home? Have you come for good? If not, how long are you going to stay? though I am sorry to say that the length of your visit can affect me comparatively little, for I am appointed second-lieutenant of theJason, and must join in a few days.”
“I congratulate you very heartily, Will,”Mr. Palethorpe said.“You are fortunate indeed to get such promotion so early.”
“I am most fortunate, sir. Though just at present I feel inclined to wish that it hadn’t come quite so soon.”
“In answer to your question, Will, I can say that we are home for good. I have disposed of my estate and wound up my business, principally, I think, because this little girl had made up her mind that she should like England better than Jamaica.”
“I am glad to hear that, sir. I shall have something to look forward to when I return to England.”
“Where are you staying?”
“At the Golden Cross.”
“Well, then, you must go and fetch your luggage here at once. It would be strange indeed if you were to be staying at any house but mine while you are in London.”
As he saw that the planter would not hear of a refusal, Will gladly accepted the invitation, and, taking a fly, drove to the hotel, paid his bill, and took his things away.
CHAPTER XVIION BOARD THE“JASON”“I won’t ask you for your story till after dinner,”Mr. Palethorpe said.“To enjoy a yarn one needs to be comfortable, and I feel more at home in my arm-chair in the dining-room than I do in this room, with all its fal-lals. You see, I have taken the house furnished. When I settle down in a home of my own, I can assure you it will look very different from this. In fact I have one already building for me. It is at Dulwich, and will be as nearly as possible like my house in Jamaica. Of course there will be differences. I at first wished to have the same sort of veranda, but the architect pointed out that while in Jamaica one requires shade, here one wants light. So they are getting large sheets of glass specially made for putting in instead of wood above the windows. Then, of course, we want good fireplaces, whereas in Jamaica a fire is only necessary for a few[pg 322]days in the year. There are also other little differences, but on the whole it will remind me of the place I had for so many years.”“The house will have one advantage over that in Jamaica, Mr. Palethorpe.”“What is that?”he asked.“You will be able to go to bed comfortably without fear of having the roof taken from over your head by a hurricane.”“Ah! that is indeed a matter to which I have not given sufficient consideration, but it is certainly a very substantial advantage, as we have all good reason to know.”“I never think of it without shuddering,”Alice said.“It was awful! It seemed as if there was an end of everything! I think it was the memory of that night that first set me thinking of going to England.”“Then I cannot but feel grateful to that hurricane, for if you had remained out there it is probable that I should never have met you again.”“I am having a large conservatory built so that we can have greenness and flowers all the year,”Mr. Palethorpe remarked presently.“I should think that would be charming. I hope you will be settled at Dulwich long before I come back from my next cruise.”“Well, I don’t know that I can say the same, Will. I hope your next cruise will be a short one.”When dinner was over, the chairs were drawn up to the fire, and Will related his adventures since his return from the West Indies.[pg 323]“Have you heard of your two favourite sailors?”Alice interrupted.“Dimchurch and Tom Stevens? No, I have not. I shall feel lost without them at sea, and sincerely hope that I may some day run against them, in which case I am sure, if they are free, they will join my ship.”“How terribly cut up they must have been,”the girl said,“when they got down to the beach and found that you were missing!”“I am sure they would be,”he replied.“I expect the rest of the men almost had to hold them back by force.”“Well, go on. You were hit and made prisoner.”Will went on with his story till he came to his escape from Verdun.“What was she like?”the girl asked.“I expect she was very pretty.”“No, not particularly so. She was a very pleasant-looking girl.”“I can imagine she seemed very pleasant to you,”the girl laughed;“and, of course, before you got out of the window and climbed to the top of the house you kissed her, didn’t you?”“Yes, I did,”Will said.“Of course she expected to be kissed. I am not at all used to kissing. In fact, I only experienced it once before, and then I was a perfectly passive actor in the affair.”The girl flushed up rosily.“You drew that upon yourself, Alice,”her father said.“If you had left him alone he would not have brought up that old affair.”[pg 324]“I don’t care,”she said.“I was only thirteen, and he had saved my life.”“You didn’t do it again, my dear, I hope, when you met him in the street to-day.”“Of course not!”she exclaimed indignantly.“The idea of such a thing!”“Very well, let this be a lesson to you not to enquire too strictly into such matters.”“Ah! I will bear it in mind,”she said.“I can assure you, Alice, that it was a perfectly friendly kiss. She was engaged to be married to a young soldier who was a prisoner at Porchester, and during the past week I have been employed in setting him free, as you will hear presently. I promised her I would do so if possible, and of course I kept my word.”“What! you, an English officer, set a French prisoner free! I am shocked!”Mr. Palethorpe said.“I would have tried to set twenty of them free if twenty of their sweethearts had united to get me away from prison.”They laughed heartily at the story of his escape as a pedlar, and were intensely interested in his account of the manner in which he succeeded in getting a despatch from the agent of the British Government at Amsterdam. He continued the narrative until his arrival in England.“Now we shall hear, I suppose, how this British officer perpetrated an act of treason against His Most Gracious Majesty.”“Well, I suppose it was that in the eyes of the law,”Will laughed.“Fortunately, however, the law has no cognizance of the affair, at any rate not of my share in it. I don’t suppose it has been heard of outside Porchester. As His Gracious Majesty[pg 325]has some forty thousand prisoners in England, the loss of one more or less will not trouble his gracious brain.”He then related the whole story of Lucien’s escape.“I should have liked to see you dressed up like a pedlar, with your face all painted, and a wig and whiskers,”the girl said,“though I don’t suppose I should have recognized you in that disguise to-day.”“It was a capitally-managed plan, Will, and had it been for a legitimate object I should have given it unstinted praise. And so you saw him fairly off from England?”“Yes; and by this time I have no doubt he is on the top of a vehicle of some sort, going as fast as horses can gallop to join his sweetheart.”“I wonder,”Alice said mischievously,“whether she will ever tell him of that kiss at the window.”“I dare say she will,”laughed Will,“but perhaps not till they are married. I sent her the gold watch I promised her, and when she holds it up before his eyes I think he won’t grudge her the kiss. Still, I believe these things are not always mentioned.”“No, I suppose not,”she said, with an affectation of not understanding him.“Why should they be?”“I can’t say indeed, if you can’t.”“Well, I am not ashamed of it one little bit, though I own that I never have told anybody. But I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I am sure there were at least half a dozen ladies in Jamaica who would willingly have kissed you for what you did for them.”“Thank you! I should certainly not have willingly submitted to the ordeal.”[pg 326]It was late when the story was finished, and they soon afterwards went to bed.Will spent a delightful week with his friends. Alice had grown up into a charming young woman, full of life and vivacity, and even prettier than she had promised to be as a girl. They went about together to all the sights of London, for Mr. Palethorpe said that he didn’t care about going, and young people were best left to themselves. When the time came for parting, Will for the first time experienced a feeling of reluctance at joining his ship. He and Alice were now almost on their old footing, and Will thought that she was by far the nicest girl he had ever seen; but it was not until he was on the top of the Portsmouth coach that he recognized how much she was to him.“Well,”he said to himself,“I never thought I should feel like this. Some young fellows are always falling in love. I used to think it was all nonsense, but now I understand it. I do not know why her father should object to me, as I am fairly well off. I must see as much of her as I can when I land next time. I hope she won’t meet anyone in the meantime she likes better.”TheJasonwas now lying out in the harbour, and the riggers had taken possession of her. Will at once reported himself and went on board. The other officers had not yet joined, but he at once took up his work with his usual zeal, and spent a busy fortnight looking after the riggers, and seeing that everything was done in the best manner. He was, however, somewhat angry to find that Alice’s face and figure were constantly intruding themselves into the cordage and shrouds.“I am becoming a regular mooncalf,”he said angrily to himself.“It is perfectly absurd that I can’t keep my thoughts[pg 327]from wandering away from my work, and for a girl whom I can hardly dare hope to win. I shall be very glad when we are off to sea. I’ll then have, I won’t say something better, but something else to think of. If this is being in love, certainly it is not the thing a sailor should engage in. I have often heard it said that a sailor’s ship should be his wife, and I have no longer any doubt about it. But I know I’ll get over it when I hear the first broadside fired.”A week later the first lieutenant joined. His name was Somerville.“Ah, Mr. Gilmore,”he said,“I see you have taken time by the forelock and given an eye to everything! I only received my appointment two days ago or I should have joined before. There is nothing like having an officer to superintend things, and I feel really very much obliged to you for not having extended your leave, which, of course, you could have done, especially as, so far as I know, no boatswain has yet been appointed.”“I was glad to get back to work, sir, and it is really very interesting seeing all the rigging set up from the very beginning.”“That is so, but for all that men don’t generally want to rejoin,”the first lieutenant said with a smile.“The difficulty is to get young officers on board. They hang back, as a rule, till the very last moment. Well, if you will dine with me this evening, Mr. Gilmore, at the George, I shall be glad to hear of some of your services. That they are distinguished I have no doubt, for nothing but the most meritorious services or extraordinary interest could have gained you at your age the appointment of second lieutenant in a fine ship like this. I[pg 328]think it a very good thing for the first lieutenant to know the antecedents of those serving with him. Such knowledge is very useful to him in any crisis or emergency.”After dinner that evening Will gave an account of his services, the lieutenant at times asking for more minute details, especially of the capture of the two pirates.“Thank you very much!”Lieutenant Somerville said when he had finished.“Now I feel that I can, in any emergency, depend upon you to second me, which I can assure you is by no means commonly the case, for promotion goes so much by influence, and such incapable men are pushed up in the service that it is a comfort indeed to have an officer who knows his work thoroughly. I hope to goodness we shall have the captain so fine a ship deserves.”“I hope so indeed, sir. I have hitherto been extremely fortunate in having good captains, as good as one could wish for.”“You are fortunate indeed, then. I have been under two or three men who, either from ignorance or ill-temper or sheer indifference, have been enough to take the heart entirely out of their officers.”On the day when theJasonwas ready for commission the captain came down to Portsmouth and put up at the George, and Mr. Somerville and Will called upon him there. He was a young man, some years younger than the firstlieutenant.“Gentlemen,”he began,“I have pleasure in making your acquaintance. I saw the admiral this morning, and he assured me that I could not wish for better officers. I hope we shall get on pleasantly together, and can assure you that if we do not it will not be my fault. We have as fine a ship as men[pg 329]could wish to sail in, and I will guarantee that you will not find me slack in using her. As you may guess by my age, I owe my present position partly to family interest, but my object will be to prove that that interest has not been altogether misplaced. I have already had command of a frigate, and we had our full share of hard service. I am afraid that with a seventy-four we shall not have quite so many opportunities of distinguishing ourselves, but shall generally have to work with the fleet and fight when other people bid us, and not merely when we see a good chance. There is, however, as much credit, if not as much prize-money, to be gained in a pitched battle as in isolated actions. I was kindly permitted by the admiral to read both your records of service, and I cannot say how gratified I was to find that I had two such able and active officers to second me.”“I am sure we are much obliged to you, sir,”Lieutenant Somerville replied,“for speaking to us as you have done. I can answer for it that we will second you to the very best of our power, and I am glad indeed to find that we have a commander whose sentiments so entirely accord with our own.”“Now, gentlemen, we have done with the formalities. Let us crack a bottle of wine together to our better acquaintance, and I hope I shall very often see you at my table on board, for while I feel that discipline must be maintained, I have no belief in a captain holding himself entirely aloof from his officers, as if he were a little god. On the quarter-deck a captain must stand somewhat aloof, but in his own cabin I cannot see why he should not treat his officers as gentlemen like himself.”They sat and chatted for an hour, and when they left,[pg 330]Lieutenant Somerville said to Will:“If I am not much mistaken, we shall have a very pleasant time on board theJason. I believe Captain Charteris means every word he says, and that he is a thoroughly good fellow. He has a very pleasant face, though a firm and resolute one, and when he gives an order it will have to be obeyed promptly; but he is a man who will make allowances, and I do not think the cat will be very often brought into requisition on board.”One day Will was sauntering down the High Street when he saw two country-looking men coming along. One of them looked at him and staggered back in astonishment.“Why,”he exclaimed,“it is Mr. Gilmore! We thought you were in prison in the middle of France, sir.”“So I was, Dimchurch; but, as you see, I have taken leg-bail.”“That was a terrible affair, sir, at them French batteries. When I got down to the shore, and found you were missing, it was as much as they could do to keep Tom here and me from going back. You mayn’t believe me, Mr. Gilmore, but we both cried like children as we rowed to theTartar.”“I am indeed glad to see you again, and you too, Tom. I guessed that if I ever came across the one I should meet the other also. What are you doing in those togs?”“Well, sir, we put them on because we did not want to be impressed by the first ship that came in, but preferred to wait a bit till we saw one to suit us. I see, sir, that you have shipped a swab. That means, of course, that you have got a lieutenancy. I congratulate you indeed, sir, on your promotion.”“Yes, I got it a month ago, and to a fine ship, theJason.”[pg 331]“She is a fine ship, sir, and no mistake. Tom and I were watching her lying out in the harbour yesterday, and were saying that, though we have always been accustomed to frigates, we should not mind shipping in her if we found out something about the captain.”“Well, I can tell you, Dimchurch, that he is just the man you would like to serve under, young and dashing, and, I should say, a good officer and a fine fellow.”“And who is the first lieutenant, sir, because that matters almost as much as the captain.”“He is a good fellow too, Dimchurch, a man who loves his profession and has a good record.”“And who is the second, sir? not that it matters much about him if the captain and first luff are all right. I suppose she has four on board, as she is a line-of-battle ship?”“Yes, she carries four. As to the second, I can only tell you that he is one of the finest fellows in the service, and you will understand that when I say that I am the second lieutenant.”“What, sir!”Dimchurch almost shouted,“they have made you second lieutenant on a line-of-battle ship! Well, that is one of the few times I have known promotion go by merit. I am glad, sir. Well, I will go and sign articles at once, and so, of course, will Tom; and what is more, I will guarantee to find you a score of first-rate hands, maybe more.”“That is good indeed,”Will said.“I will speak to the first lieutenant and get you rated as boatswain, if possible. You have already served in that capacity, and unless the berth is filled up, which is not likely, I have no doubt I can get it for you.”[pg 332]“Well, sir, if you can, of course I shall be glad; but I would ship with you if it was only as loblolly boy.”“The same here,”Tom said;“you know that, sir, without my saying it.”“Is there any berth that I could get you, Tom?”“No, sir, thank you! A.B. is good enough for me. I am not active enough to be captain of the top, but I can pull on a rope, or row an oar, or strike a good blow, with any man.”“That you can, Tom; but I do wish I could get you a lift too. How about gunner’s mate?”“No, thank you, sir! I would rather stop A.B. I should like to be your honour’s servant, but, lor’, I should never do to wait in the ward-room. I am as clumsy as a bear, and should always be spilling something, and breaking glasses, and getting into trouble. No, sir, I will be A.B., but of course I should like to be appointed to your boat.”“That is a matter of course, Tom. Well, I will go round to the dockyard at once and see you sworn in, and then gladden the first lieutenant’s heart by telling him that you will bring a good number of men along with you, for at present we are very short-handed.”“You trust me for that, sir. I know where lots of them are lying hid, not because they don’t want to serve, but because they want a good ship and a good captain. When I tell them that it is a fine ship, and a good captain, and a good first and second, they will jump at it.”Dimchurch was as good as his word, and the following week persuaded thirty first-class seamen to sign on.“At the same time, sir,”he said as they went towards[pg 333]the harbour,“I would rather she had been a frigate. One has always a chance of picking up something then, as one gets sent about on expeditions, while on a battle-ship one is just stuck blockading.”“That is just what I think,”Tom said.“There are no boat expeditions, no chances of picking up a prize every two or three days, or of chasing a pirate. Still, though theTartarwas a frigate, we did not have much fun in her, except when we were on shore. That was good enough, though it would not have been half so good if the sailors had not done it alone. We wanted to show these redcoats what British seamen could do when they were on their metal. I know I never worked half so hard in my life.”“Well, I quite agree with you. It is more pleasant commanding a small craft than being second officer in a large one, although I must say I could not have had a more pleasant captain and first lieutenant than I have now if I had picked them out from the whole fleet. I am sorry that I cannot get leave at present, for I want to make researches about my father. According to what my lawyer said it is likely to be a long job. I hope, however, to get it well in trim on my next spell ashore. It makes really no difference to me now who or what my father was. I have a good position, and what with the prize-money I made before, and shall gain now by my share of the sale of the frigates we took at Corsica, to say nothing of the guns and stores we captured, I have more than enough to satisfy all my wants.”“I have done extraordinarily well too, Mr. Gilmore,”Dimchurch said.“I took your advice, and Tom and I have put all our prize-money aside. He has over a thousand saved, and[pg 334]I have quite sufficient to keep me in idleness all my life, even if I never do a stroke of work again.”Mr. Somerville, on Will’s recommendation, at once appointed Dimchurch boatswain, and he soon proved himself thoroughly efficient.“He is a fine fellow, that sailor of yours,”the lieutenant said,“and will make a first-rate boatswain. He has done good service in bringing up so many hands, and good ones too, and he is evidently popular among the men.”“He is a thoroughly good man, sir. He attached himself to my fortunes when I was but a ship’s boy, and has stuck to me ever since. He and Tom Stevens are, with one exception, the greatest friends I have ever had, and both of them would lay down their lives for me.”“A good master makes a good man,”Lieutenant Somerville said with a smile.“Your greatest friend was, of course, the lady who pushed you on with your education.”“Yes, sir, certainly I regard her as the best friend I ever had.”“Well, there is no better friend for a lad than a good woman, Gilmore. In that sense my mother was my greatest friend. Most mothers are against their sons going to sea. In my case it was my father who objected, but my mother, seeing how I was bent upon it, persuaded him to let me go.”Three weeks after being commissioned the complement of theJasonwas complete, and she was ordered to proceed to the West Indies, to which place they made a fast passage. To their disappointment they fell in with none of the enemy’s cruisers on their way. The voyage, however, sufficed to give the crew confidence in their commander. He was prompt and quick in giving orders, and at the same time pleasant in[pg 335]manner. He paid far more attention than most captains to the comfort of his crew, and, while he insisted upon the most perfect order and discipline, abstained from giving unnecessary work. In cases where punishments were absolutely necessary he punished severely, but when it was at all possible he let delinquents off with a lecture. So, while he was feared by the rougher spirits of the crew, he was regarded with liking and respect by the good men.On their arrival at Carlisle Bay, Barbados, they found that they were in time to join a naval expedition whose object was to recover the islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada, which had been captured by the French the previous year.A fleet had been sent from England under the command of Rear-admiral Christian, consisting of two ships of the line and five frigates, convoying a large fleet of transports with a strong body of troops on board under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie.At Carlisle Bay this fleet were joined by most of the ships on the West Indian station, and on the 21st April, 1796, the augmented fleet, under the command of Sir John Laforey, sailed to Marin Bay, Martinique, where they anchored. On the following day Sir John Laforey resigned his command to Admiral Christian and sailed for England. The fleet then stood across to St. Lucia. The troops were landed at three different points under the protection of the guns of the fleet.The first point was protected by a five-gun battery. The fire of the ships, however, soon silenced it, and the first division made good its landing. The seventy-four-gun shipAlfredwas to have led the second division, supported by the fifty-four-gun shipMadrasand the forty-gun frigateBeaulieu, but[pg 336]the attempt was thwarted by lightness of wind and a strong lee current. On the next day, however, a landing was effected with little opposition. Eight hundred seamen, under the command of Captains Lane of the thirty-two-gun frigateAstreaand Ryves of the bomb-vesselBulldog, were landed to co-operate with the troops. Morne Chabot was attacked and carried that night with the loss of thirteen officers and privates killed, forty-nine wounded, and twelve missing.On the 3rd of May an attempt was made to dislodge the enemy from their batteries at the base of the mountains, but was repulsed with loss, as was an attack on the 17th on the place called Vigie.In the meantime the men had been busy building batteries and planting guns, and when these opened fire on the evening of the 24th of May the enemy capitulated, two thousand marching out and laying down their arms. A great quantity of guns, together with stores of every description, were found in the different forts, and some small privateers and merchantmen were captured in the offing. Eight hundred seamen and three hundred and twenty marines had been landed from the ships of war, and had behaved with their usual courage and promptitude. The manner, indeed, in which they established batteries and planted guns in places deemed almost impracticable astonished the troops, unused as they were to exercises demanding strength and skill.As soon as St. Lucia had surrendered, the expedition moved to St. Vincent. The defence here was decidedly weak, and after some skirmishing, the enemy, composed chiefly of negroes and Caribs, capitulated. Our loss amounted to thirty-eight killed and one hundred and forty-five wounded. Grenada[pg 337]offered a comparatively slight resistance. The monster, Fedon, who was in command there, massacred twenty white people who were in his power in full view of the British, who were on the plain below. He and his men, however, were hotly pursued through the forest by a detachment of German riflemen, and the greater portion of them killed without mercy.A detachment of British and colonial troops from the garrison of Port au Prince in St. Domingo proceeded to besiege the town of Leogane in that island. Covered by the guns of the fleet the troops were landed in two divisions, while theSwiftsure, seventy-four, cannonaded the town, and theLeviathanandAfricathe forts. The place, however, was too strong for them, and at nightfall the ships moved off to an anchorage, while those who had landed were withdrawn on the following morning. Two of the frigates were so much damaged that they were compelled to return to Jamaica to refit. An attack was next made upon the fort of Bombarde, which stood at a distance of fifteen miles from the coast. Will and a detachment from his ship formed part of the force engaged. The road was extremely rough, and was blocked by fallen trees and walls built across it. The labour of getting the cannon along was prodigious.“I must say,”Will said to Dimchurch, who was one of the party,“I greatly prefer fighting on board to work like this. We have to labour like slaves from early morning till late in the evening; but I don’t so much mind that, as the fact that at night we have to lie down with only the food that remains in our haversacks, and what water we may have saved, for supper. Now in a fight at sea one at least gets as much to drink as one wants.”[pg 338]“I quite agree with you, Mr. Gilmore. It’s dog’s work without dog’s food. I don’t mind myself working here with a chopper eight or ten hours a day, but I do like a good supper at the end of it. The worst of it is, that when it is all over it is the troops who get all the credit, while we poor beggars do the greater part of the work. The soldiers are well enough in their way, but they are very little good for hard work. How do you account for that, sir?”“I can only suppose, Dimchurch, that while they get as much food as we do, they have nothing like the same amount of hard work to do.”“That’s it, sir. Why, look at them at Portsmouth! They just go out of a morning and drill on the common for a bit, and then they have nothing else to do all day but to stroll about the town and talk to the girls. How can you expect a man to have any muscle to speak of when he never does a stroke of hard work? I don’t say they don’t fight well, for I own they do their duty like men in that line; but when it comes to work, why, they ain’t in it with a jack-tar. I do believe I could pull a couple of them over a line.”“I dare say you could, Dimchurch, but you must remember that you are much stronger than an ordinary seaman.”“Well, sir, I grant I am stronger than usual, but I should be ashamed of myself if I could not tackle two of them soldiers.”“Yes, but don’t forget they have been cooped up on board a ship for a month, with nothing to keep them in health, and certainly no exercise, while you are constantly doing hard work. If you were to put these men into sailors’ clothes, and give them sailors’ work for six months, they would be just as strong and useful.”[pg 339]“Well, sir, if they are that sort of men why do they go and enlist in the army instead of becoming sailors. It stands to reason that it is because they know that they cannot do work.”“Why, Dimchurch, I have heard that in the great towns girls think as much of soldiers as of sailors.”“Well, that shows how little they know about them. In a seaport, what girl would look at a soldier if she were pretty enough to get a sailor for a sweetheart.”“You are a prejudiced beggar,”Will laughed,“and it is of no use arguing with you. If you had gone as a soldier instead of taking to the sea you would think just the other way.”On the next morning the march was renewed, and in the evening they reached the fort. They had had several severe skirmishes during the day, losing eight killed and twenty-two wounded, but the garrison, consisting of three hundred, surrendered without further resistance as soon as the place was surrounded, and the sailors then rejoined their ships.“Well, I am mighty glad I am back on board,”Dimchurch said to Will the evening they re-embarked.“This marching, and chopping trees, and being shot at from ambushes, doesn’t suit me. There is nothing manly or straightforward about it. Hand to hand and cutlass to cutlass is what I call a man’s work.”“That is all very well, Dimchurch, but though you may capture ships you will never get possession of islands or colonies in that way. If you want them you must land and fight for them.”“Yes, sir, that is all very good, but it seems to me that the hard work of making batteries and mounting guns falls on the[pg 340]sailor, while the soldier gets all the credit. It is not our admiral who sends the despatches, it is the general. He may speak a few good words for the sailors, as a man speaks up for a dog, but all the credit of the fighting, and the surrender, and all that business goes to the soldiers. The sooner we sail away from here, and do some fighting nearer home, where there are no soldiers, and where the sailors get their due, the better pleased I shall be.”“Well, Dimchurch, I hope our turn out here is nearly finished. We may have to take part in a few more attacks on French possessions, but as soon as that work is over I have great hopes that we shall get sailing orders for home again.”Indeed, late in August a fast cruiser arrived with orders that theJasonwas at once to return to Brest and join the Channel fleet. To the great delight of everyone the wind continued favourable throughout the whole voyage, and after an exceptionally speedy passage they joined Admiral Bridport, who was cruising off Ushant on the look-out for the French fleet that was preparing for the invasion of Ireland.The French fleet, under Admiral Morard-de-Galles, got under weigh from Brest on 26th December, 1796. It consisted of seventeen ships of the line, thirteen frigates, six corvettes, seven transports, and a powder-ship, forty-four sail in all, conveying eight thousand troops under the command of Generals Grouchy, Borin, and Humbert. Misfortune, however, dogged the fleet from the very commencement, for theSéduisant, a seventy-four-gun battle-ship, got on shore shortly after leaving Brest, and out of thirteen hundred seamen and soldiers on board six hundred and eighty were drowned.[pg 341]They were noticed by Vice-admiralColpoys’fleet, who sent off two frigates to warn Lord Bridport, and after chasing the French for some distance himself, sailed for Falmouth to report the setting out of the expedition.Admiral Bouvet, with thirty-two sail, managed to reach the mouth of Bantry Bay, but the weather was so tempestuous that he was unable to land his troops. After struggling for some days against this boisterous weather, the fleet scattered, and the majority of the ships returned to Brest. The rest reached the coast of Ireland, but not finding the main portion of their fleet there, they returned to France.The failure of the expedition was as complete as was that of the Spanish Armada, and was due greatly to the same cause. Out of the forty-four ships that sailed from Brest only thirty-one managed to return to France. The British frigates, by the vigilance they displayed, had done good service, cutting off four transports and three ships of war; but the stormy weather had dispersed the expedition, and was accountable for the loss of two battle-ships, three frigates, and a transport. It was curious that although Lord Bridport’s fleet was constantly patrolling the Channel during this time, the two fleets never came in contact.
“I won’t ask you for your story till after dinner,”Mr. Palethorpe said.“To enjoy a yarn one needs to be comfortable, and I feel more at home in my arm-chair in the dining-room than I do in this room, with all its fal-lals. You see, I have taken the house furnished. When I settle down in a home of my own, I can assure you it will look very different from this. In fact I have one already building for me. It is at Dulwich, and will be as nearly as possible like my house in Jamaica. Of course there will be differences. I at first wished to have the same sort of veranda, but the architect pointed out that while in Jamaica one requires shade, here one wants light. So they are getting large sheets of glass specially made for putting in instead of wood above the windows. Then, of course, we want good fireplaces, whereas in Jamaica a fire is only necessary for a few[pg 322]days in the year. There are also other little differences, but on the whole it will remind me of the place I had for so many years.”
“The house will have one advantage over that in Jamaica, Mr. Palethorpe.”
“What is that?”he asked.
“You will be able to go to bed comfortably without fear of having the roof taken from over your head by a hurricane.”
“Ah! that is indeed a matter to which I have not given sufficient consideration, but it is certainly a very substantial advantage, as we have all good reason to know.”
“I never think of it without shuddering,”Alice said.“It was awful! It seemed as if there was an end of everything! I think it was the memory of that night that first set me thinking of going to England.”
“Then I cannot but feel grateful to that hurricane, for if you had remained out there it is probable that I should never have met you again.”
“I am having a large conservatory built so that we can have greenness and flowers all the year,”Mr. Palethorpe remarked presently.
“I should think that would be charming. I hope you will be settled at Dulwich long before I come back from my next cruise.”
“Well, I don’t know that I can say the same, Will. I hope your next cruise will be a short one.”
When dinner was over, the chairs were drawn up to the fire, and Will related his adventures since his return from the West Indies.
“Have you heard of your two favourite sailors?”Alice interrupted.
“Dimchurch and Tom Stevens? No, I have not. I shall feel lost without them at sea, and sincerely hope that I may some day run against them, in which case I am sure, if they are free, they will join my ship.”
“How terribly cut up they must have been,”the girl said,“when they got down to the beach and found that you were missing!”
“I am sure they would be,”he replied.“I expect the rest of the men almost had to hold them back by force.”
“Well, go on. You were hit and made prisoner.”
Will went on with his story till he came to his escape from Verdun.
“What was she like?”the girl asked.“I expect she was very pretty.”
“No, not particularly so. She was a very pleasant-looking girl.”
“I can imagine she seemed very pleasant to you,”the girl laughed;“and, of course, before you got out of the window and climbed to the top of the house you kissed her, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did,”Will said.“Of course she expected to be kissed. I am not at all used to kissing. In fact, I only experienced it once before, and then I was a perfectly passive actor in the affair.”
The girl flushed up rosily.
“You drew that upon yourself, Alice,”her father said.“If you had left him alone he would not have brought up that old affair.”
“I don’t care,”she said.“I was only thirteen, and he had saved my life.”
“You didn’t do it again, my dear, I hope, when you met him in the street to-day.”
“Of course not!”she exclaimed indignantly.“The idea of such a thing!”
“Very well, let this be a lesson to you not to enquire too strictly into such matters.”
“Ah! I will bear it in mind,”she said.
“I can assure you, Alice, that it was a perfectly friendly kiss. She was engaged to be married to a young soldier who was a prisoner at Porchester, and during the past week I have been employed in setting him free, as you will hear presently. I promised her I would do so if possible, and of course I kept my word.”
“What! you, an English officer, set a French prisoner free! I am shocked!”Mr. Palethorpe said.
“I would have tried to set twenty of them free if twenty of their sweethearts had united to get me away from prison.”
They laughed heartily at the story of his escape as a pedlar, and were intensely interested in his account of the manner in which he succeeded in getting a despatch from the agent of the British Government at Amsterdam. He continued the narrative until his arrival in England.
“Now we shall hear, I suppose, how this British officer perpetrated an act of treason against His Most Gracious Majesty.”
“Well, I suppose it was that in the eyes of the law,”Will laughed.“Fortunately, however, the law has no cognizance of the affair, at any rate not of my share in it. I don’t suppose it has been heard of outside Porchester. As His Gracious Majesty[pg 325]has some forty thousand prisoners in England, the loss of one more or less will not trouble his gracious brain.”
He then related the whole story of Lucien’s escape.
“I should have liked to see you dressed up like a pedlar, with your face all painted, and a wig and whiskers,”the girl said,“though I don’t suppose I should have recognized you in that disguise to-day.”
“It was a capitally-managed plan, Will, and had it been for a legitimate object I should have given it unstinted praise. And so you saw him fairly off from England?”
“Yes; and by this time I have no doubt he is on the top of a vehicle of some sort, going as fast as horses can gallop to join his sweetheart.”
“I wonder,”Alice said mischievously,“whether she will ever tell him of that kiss at the window.”
“I dare say she will,”laughed Will,“but perhaps not till they are married. I sent her the gold watch I promised her, and when she holds it up before his eyes I think he won’t grudge her the kiss. Still, I believe these things are not always mentioned.”
“No, I suppose not,”she said, with an affectation of not understanding him.“Why should they be?”
“I can’t say indeed, if you can’t.”
“Well, I am not ashamed of it one little bit, though I own that I never have told anybody. But I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I am sure there were at least half a dozen ladies in Jamaica who would willingly have kissed you for what you did for them.”
“Thank you! I should certainly not have willingly submitted to the ordeal.”
It was late when the story was finished, and they soon afterwards went to bed.
Will spent a delightful week with his friends. Alice had grown up into a charming young woman, full of life and vivacity, and even prettier than she had promised to be as a girl. They went about together to all the sights of London, for Mr. Palethorpe said that he didn’t care about going, and young people were best left to themselves. When the time came for parting, Will for the first time experienced a feeling of reluctance at joining his ship. He and Alice were now almost on their old footing, and Will thought that she was by far the nicest girl he had ever seen; but it was not until he was on the top of the Portsmouth coach that he recognized how much she was to him.“Well,”he said to himself,“I never thought I should feel like this. Some young fellows are always falling in love. I used to think it was all nonsense, but now I understand it. I do not know why her father should object to me, as I am fairly well off. I must see as much of her as I can when I land next time. I hope she won’t meet anyone in the meantime she likes better.”
TheJasonwas now lying out in the harbour, and the riggers had taken possession of her. Will at once reported himself and went on board. The other officers had not yet joined, but he at once took up his work with his usual zeal, and spent a busy fortnight looking after the riggers, and seeing that everything was done in the best manner. He was, however, somewhat angry to find that Alice’s face and figure were constantly intruding themselves into the cordage and shrouds.“I am becoming a regular mooncalf,”he said angrily to himself.“It is perfectly absurd that I can’t keep my thoughts[pg 327]from wandering away from my work, and for a girl whom I can hardly dare hope to win. I shall be very glad when we are off to sea. I’ll then have, I won’t say something better, but something else to think of. If this is being in love, certainly it is not the thing a sailor should engage in. I have often heard it said that a sailor’s ship should be his wife, and I have no longer any doubt about it. But I know I’ll get over it when I hear the first broadside fired.”
A week later the first lieutenant joined. His name was Somerville.
“Ah, Mr. Gilmore,”he said,“I see you have taken time by the forelock and given an eye to everything! I only received my appointment two days ago or I should have joined before. There is nothing like having an officer to superintend things, and I feel really very much obliged to you for not having extended your leave, which, of course, you could have done, especially as, so far as I know, no boatswain has yet been appointed.”
“I was glad to get back to work, sir, and it is really very interesting seeing all the rigging set up from the very beginning.”
“That is so, but for all that men don’t generally want to rejoin,”the first lieutenant said with a smile.“The difficulty is to get young officers on board. They hang back, as a rule, till the very last moment. Well, if you will dine with me this evening, Mr. Gilmore, at the George, I shall be glad to hear of some of your services. That they are distinguished I have no doubt, for nothing but the most meritorious services or extraordinary interest could have gained you at your age the appointment of second lieutenant in a fine ship like this. I[pg 328]think it a very good thing for the first lieutenant to know the antecedents of those serving with him. Such knowledge is very useful to him in any crisis or emergency.”
After dinner that evening Will gave an account of his services, the lieutenant at times asking for more minute details, especially of the capture of the two pirates.
“Thank you very much!”Lieutenant Somerville said when he had finished.“Now I feel that I can, in any emergency, depend upon you to second me, which I can assure you is by no means commonly the case, for promotion goes so much by influence, and such incapable men are pushed up in the service that it is a comfort indeed to have an officer who knows his work thoroughly. I hope to goodness we shall have the captain so fine a ship deserves.”
“I hope so indeed, sir. I have hitherto been extremely fortunate in having good captains, as good as one could wish for.”
“You are fortunate indeed, then. I have been under two or three men who, either from ignorance or ill-temper or sheer indifference, have been enough to take the heart entirely out of their officers.”
On the day when theJasonwas ready for commission the captain came down to Portsmouth and put up at the George, and Mr. Somerville and Will called upon him there. He was a young man, some years younger than the firstlieutenant.
“Gentlemen,”he began,“I have pleasure in making your acquaintance. I saw the admiral this morning, and he assured me that I could not wish for better officers. I hope we shall get on pleasantly together, and can assure you that if we do not it will not be my fault. We have as fine a ship as men[pg 329]could wish to sail in, and I will guarantee that you will not find me slack in using her. As you may guess by my age, I owe my present position partly to family interest, but my object will be to prove that that interest has not been altogether misplaced. I have already had command of a frigate, and we had our full share of hard service. I am afraid that with a seventy-four we shall not have quite so many opportunities of distinguishing ourselves, but shall generally have to work with the fleet and fight when other people bid us, and not merely when we see a good chance. There is, however, as much credit, if not as much prize-money, to be gained in a pitched battle as in isolated actions. I was kindly permitted by the admiral to read both your records of service, and I cannot say how gratified I was to find that I had two such able and active officers to second me.”
“I am sure we are much obliged to you, sir,”Lieutenant Somerville replied,“for speaking to us as you have done. I can answer for it that we will second you to the very best of our power, and I am glad indeed to find that we have a commander whose sentiments so entirely accord with our own.”
“Now, gentlemen, we have done with the formalities. Let us crack a bottle of wine together to our better acquaintance, and I hope I shall very often see you at my table on board, for while I feel that discipline must be maintained, I have no belief in a captain holding himself entirely aloof from his officers, as if he were a little god. On the quarter-deck a captain must stand somewhat aloof, but in his own cabin I cannot see why he should not treat his officers as gentlemen like himself.”
They sat and chatted for an hour, and when they left,[pg 330]Lieutenant Somerville said to Will:“If I am not much mistaken, we shall have a very pleasant time on board theJason. I believe Captain Charteris means every word he says, and that he is a thoroughly good fellow. He has a very pleasant face, though a firm and resolute one, and when he gives an order it will have to be obeyed promptly; but he is a man who will make allowances, and I do not think the cat will be very often brought into requisition on board.”
One day Will was sauntering down the High Street when he saw two country-looking men coming along. One of them looked at him and staggered back in astonishment.
“Why,”he exclaimed,“it is Mr. Gilmore! We thought you were in prison in the middle of France, sir.”
“So I was, Dimchurch; but, as you see, I have taken leg-bail.”
“That was a terrible affair, sir, at them French batteries. When I got down to the shore, and found you were missing, it was as much as they could do to keep Tom here and me from going back. You mayn’t believe me, Mr. Gilmore, but we both cried like children as we rowed to theTartar.”
“I am indeed glad to see you again, and you too, Tom. I guessed that if I ever came across the one I should meet the other also. What are you doing in those togs?”
“Well, sir, we put them on because we did not want to be impressed by the first ship that came in, but preferred to wait a bit till we saw one to suit us. I see, sir, that you have shipped a swab. That means, of course, that you have got a lieutenancy. I congratulate you indeed, sir, on your promotion.”
“Yes, I got it a month ago, and to a fine ship, theJason.”
“She is a fine ship, sir, and no mistake. Tom and I were watching her lying out in the harbour yesterday, and were saying that, though we have always been accustomed to frigates, we should not mind shipping in her if we found out something about the captain.”
“Well, I can tell you, Dimchurch, that he is just the man you would like to serve under, young and dashing, and, I should say, a good officer and a fine fellow.”
“And who is the first lieutenant, sir, because that matters almost as much as the captain.”
“He is a good fellow too, Dimchurch, a man who loves his profession and has a good record.”
“And who is the second, sir? not that it matters much about him if the captain and first luff are all right. I suppose she has four on board, as she is a line-of-battle ship?”
“Yes, she carries four. As to the second, I can only tell you that he is one of the finest fellows in the service, and you will understand that when I say that I am the second lieutenant.”
“What, sir!”Dimchurch almost shouted,“they have made you second lieutenant on a line-of-battle ship! Well, that is one of the few times I have known promotion go by merit. I am glad, sir. Well, I will go and sign articles at once, and so, of course, will Tom; and what is more, I will guarantee to find you a score of first-rate hands, maybe more.”
“That is good indeed,”Will said.“I will speak to the first lieutenant and get you rated as boatswain, if possible. You have already served in that capacity, and unless the berth is filled up, which is not likely, I have no doubt I can get it for you.”
“Well, sir, if you can, of course I shall be glad; but I would ship with you if it was only as loblolly boy.”
“The same here,”Tom said;“you know that, sir, without my saying it.”
“Is there any berth that I could get you, Tom?”
“No, sir, thank you! A.B. is good enough for me. I am not active enough to be captain of the top, but I can pull on a rope, or row an oar, or strike a good blow, with any man.”
“That you can, Tom; but I do wish I could get you a lift too. How about gunner’s mate?”
“No, thank you, sir! I would rather stop A.B. I should like to be your honour’s servant, but, lor’, I should never do to wait in the ward-room. I am as clumsy as a bear, and should always be spilling something, and breaking glasses, and getting into trouble. No, sir, I will be A.B., but of course I should like to be appointed to your boat.”
“That is a matter of course, Tom. Well, I will go round to the dockyard at once and see you sworn in, and then gladden the first lieutenant’s heart by telling him that you will bring a good number of men along with you, for at present we are very short-handed.”
“You trust me for that, sir. I know where lots of them are lying hid, not because they don’t want to serve, but because they want a good ship and a good captain. When I tell them that it is a fine ship, and a good captain, and a good first and second, they will jump at it.”
Dimchurch was as good as his word, and the following week persuaded thirty first-class seamen to sign on.
“At the same time, sir,”he said as they went towards[pg 333]the harbour,“I would rather she had been a frigate. One has always a chance of picking up something then, as one gets sent about on expeditions, while on a battle-ship one is just stuck blockading.”
“That is just what I think,”Tom said.“There are no boat expeditions, no chances of picking up a prize every two or three days, or of chasing a pirate. Still, though theTartarwas a frigate, we did not have much fun in her, except when we were on shore. That was good enough, though it would not have been half so good if the sailors had not done it alone. We wanted to show these redcoats what British seamen could do when they were on their metal. I know I never worked half so hard in my life.”
“Well, I quite agree with you. It is more pleasant commanding a small craft than being second officer in a large one, although I must say I could not have had a more pleasant captain and first lieutenant than I have now if I had picked them out from the whole fleet. I am sorry that I cannot get leave at present, for I want to make researches about my father. According to what my lawyer said it is likely to be a long job. I hope, however, to get it well in trim on my next spell ashore. It makes really no difference to me now who or what my father was. I have a good position, and what with the prize-money I made before, and shall gain now by my share of the sale of the frigates we took at Corsica, to say nothing of the guns and stores we captured, I have more than enough to satisfy all my wants.”
“I have done extraordinarily well too, Mr. Gilmore,”Dimchurch said.“I took your advice, and Tom and I have put all our prize-money aside. He has over a thousand saved, and[pg 334]I have quite sufficient to keep me in idleness all my life, even if I never do a stroke of work again.”
Mr. Somerville, on Will’s recommendation, at once appointed Dimchurch boatswain, and he soon proved himself thoroughly efficient.“He is a fine fellow, that sailor of yours,”the lieutenant said,“and will make a first-rate boatswain. He has done good service in bringing up so many hands, and good ones too, and he is evidently popular among the men.”
“He is a thoroughly good man, sir. He attached himself to my fortunes when I was but a ship’s boy, and has stuck to me ever since. He and Tom Stevens are, with one exception, the greatest friends I have ever had, and both of them would lay down their lives for me.”
“A good master makes a good man,”Lieutenant Somerville said with a smile.“Your greatest friend was, of course, the lady who pushed you on with your education.”
“Yes, sir, certainly I regard her as the best friend I ever had.”
“Well, there is no better friend for a lad than a good woman, Gilmore. In that sense my mother was my greatest friend. Most mothers are against their sons going to sea. In my case it was my father who objected, but my mother, seeing how I was bent upon it, persuaded him to let me go.”
Three weeks after being commissioned the complement of theJasonwas complete, and she was ordered to proceed to the West Indies, to which place they made a fast passage. To their disappointment they fell in with none of the enemy’s cruisers on their way. The voyage, however, sufficed to give the crew confidence in their commander. He was prompt and quick in giving orders, and at the same time pleasant in[pg 335]manner. He paid far more attention than most captains to the comfort of his crew, and, while he insisted upon the most perfect order and discipline, abstained from giving unnecessary work. In cases where punishments were absolutely necessary he punished severely, but when it was at all possible he let delinquents off with a lecture. So, while he was feared by the rougher spirits of the crew, he was regarded with liking and respect by the good men.
On their arrival at Carlisle Bay, Barbados, they found that they were in time to join a naval expedition whose object was to recover the islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada, which had been captured by the French the previous year.
A fleet had been sent from England under the command of Rear-admiral Christian, consisting of two ships of the line and five frigates, convoying a large fleet of transports with a strong body of troops on board under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie.
At Carlisle Bay this fleet were joined by most of the ships on the West Indian station, and on the 21st April, 1796, the augmented fleet, under the command of Sir John Laforey, sailed to Marin Bay, Martinique, where they anchored. On the following day Sir John Laforey resigned his command to Admiral Christian and sailed for England. The fleet then stood across to St. Lucia. The troops were landed at three different points under the protection of the guns of the fleet.
The first point was protected by a five-gun battery. The fire of the ships, however, soon silenced it, and the first division made good its landing. The seventy-four-gun shipAlfredwas to have led the second division, supported by the fifty-four-gun shipMadrasand the forty-gun frigateBeaulieu, but[pg 336]the attempt was thwarted by lightness of wind and a strong lee current. On the next day, however, a landing was effected with little opposition. Eight hundred seamen, under the command of Captains Lane of the thirty-two-gun frigateAstreaand Ryves of the bomb-vesselBulldog, were landed to co-operate with the troops. Morne Chabot was attacked and carried that night with the loss of thirteen officers and privates killed, forty-nine wounded, and twelve missing.
On the 3rd of May an attempt was made to dislodge the enemy from their batteries at the base of the mountains, but was repulsed with loss, as was an attack on the 17th on the place called Vigie.
In the meantime the men had been busy building batteries and planting guns, and when these opened fire on the evening of the 24th of May the enemy capitulated, two thousand marching out and laying down their arms. A great quantity of guns, together with stores of every description, were found in the different forts, and some small privateers and merchantmen were captured in the offing. Eight hundred seamen and three hundred and twenty marines had been landed from the ships of war, and had behaved with their usual courage and promptitude. The manner, indeed, in which they established batteries and planted guns in places deemed almost impracticable astonished the troops, unused as they were to exercises demanding strength and skill.
As soon as St. Lucia had surrendered, the expedition moved to St. Vincent. The defence here was decidedly weak, and after some skirmishing, the enemy, composed chiefly of negroes and Caribs, capitulated. Our loss amounted to thirty-eight killed and one hundred and forty-five wounded. Grenada[pg 337]offered a comparatively slight resistance. The monster, Fedon, who was in command there, massacred twenty white people who were in his power in full view of the British, who were on the plain below. He and his men, however, were hotly pursued through the forest by a detachment of German riflemen, and the greater portion of them killed without mercy.
A detachment of British and colonial troops from the garrison of Port au Prince in St. Domingo proceeded to besiege the town of Leogane in that island. Covered by the guns of the fleet the troops were landed in two divisions, while theSwiftsure, seventy-four, cannonaded the town, and theLeviathanandAfricathe forts. The place, however, was too strong for them, and at nightfall the ships moved off to an anchorage, while those who had landed were withdrawn on the following morning. Two of the frigates were so much damaged that they were compelled to return to Jamaica to refit. An attack was next made upon the fort of Bombarde, which stood at a distance of fifteen miles from the coast. Will and a detachment from his ship formed part of the force engaged. The road was extremely rough, and was blocked by fallen trees and walls built across it. The labour of getting the cannon along was prodigious.
“I must say,”Will said to Dimchurch, who was one of the party,“I greatly prefer fighting on board to work like this. We have to labour like slaves from early morning till late in the evening; but I don’t so much mind that, as the fact that at night we have to lie down with only the food that remains in our haversacks, and what water we may have saved, for supper. Now in a fight at sea one at least gets as much to drink as one wants.”
“I quite agree with you, Mr. Gilmore. It’s dog’s work without dog’s food. I don’t mind myself working here with a chopper eight or ten hours a day, but I do like a good supper at the end of it. The worst of it is, that when it is all over it is the troops who get all the credit, while we poor beggars do the greater part of the work. The soldiers are well enough in their way, but they are very little good for hard work. How do you account for that, sir?”
“I can only suppose, Dimchurch, that while they get as much food as we do, they have nothing like the same amount of hard work to do.”
“That’s it, sir. Why, look at them at Portsmouth! They just go out of a morning and drill on the common for a bit, and then they have nothing else to do all day but to stroll about the town and talk to the girls. How can you expect a man to have any muscle to speak of when he never does a stroke of hard work? I don’t say they don’t fight well, for I own they do their duty like men in that line; but when it comes to work, why, they ain’t in it with a jack-tar. I do believe I could pull a couple of them over a line.”
“I dare say you could, Dimchurch, but you must remember that you are much stronger than an ordinary seaman.”
“Well, sir, I grant I am stronger than usual, but I should be ashamed of myself if I could not tackle two of them soldiers.”
“Yes, but don’t forget they have been cooped up on board a ship for a month, with nothing to keep them in health, and certainly no exercise, while you are constantly doing hard work. If you were to put these men into sailors’ clothes, and give them sailors’ work for six months, they would be just as strong and useful.”
“Well, sir, if they are that sort of men why do they go and enlist in the army instead of becoming sailors. It stands to reason that it is because they know that they cannot do work.”
“Why, Dimchurch, I have heard that in the great towns girls think as much of soldiers as of sailors.”
“Well, that shows how little they know about them. In a seaport, what girl would look at a soldier if she were pretty enough to get a sailor for a sweetheart.”
“You are a prejudiced beggar,”Will laughed,“and it is of no use arguing with you. If you had gone as a soldier instead of taking to the sea you would think just the other way.”
On the next morning the march was renewed, and in the evening they reached the fort. They had had several severe skirmishes during the day, losing eight killed and twenty-two wounded, but the garrison, consisting of three hundred, surrendered without further resistance as soon as the place was surrounded, and the sailors then rejoined their ships.
“Well, I am mighty glad I am back on board,”Dimchurch said to Will the evening they re-embarked.“This marching, and chopping trees, and being shot at from ambushes, doesn’t suit me. There is nothing manly or straightforward about it. Hand to hand and cutlass to cutlass is what I call a man’s work.”
“That is all very well, Dimchurch, but though you may capture ships you will never get possession of islands or colonies in that way. If you want them you must land and fight for them.”
“Yes, sir, that is all very good, but it seems to me that the hard work of making batteries and mounting guns falls on the[pg 340]sailor, while the soldier gets all the credit. It is not our admiral who sends the despatches, it is the general. He may speak a few good words for the sailors, as a man speaks up for a dog, but all the credit of the fighting, and the surrender, and all that business goes to the soldiers. The sooner we sail away from here, and do some fighting nearer home, where there are no soldiers, and where the sailors get their due, the better pleased I shall be.”
“Well, Dimchurch, I hope our turn out here is nearly finished. We may have to take part in a few more attacks on French possessions, but as soon as that work is over I have great hopes that we shall get sailing orders for home again.”
Indeed, late in August a fast cruiser arrived with orders that theJasonwas at once to return to Brest and join the Channel fleet. To the great delight of everyone the wind continued favourable throughout the whole voyage, and after an exceptionally speedy passage they joined Admiral Bridport, who was cruising off Ushant on the look-out for the French fleet that was preparing for the invasion of Ireland.
The French fleet, under Admiral Morard-de-Galles, got under weigh from Brest on 26th December, 1796. It consisted of seventeen ships of the line, thirteen frigates, six corvettes, seven transports, and a powder-ship, forty-four sail in all, conveying eight thousand troops under the command of Generals Grouchy, Borin, and Humbert. Misfortune, however, dogged the fleet from the very commencement, for theSéduisant, a seventy-four-gun battle-ship, got on shore shortly after leaving Brest, and out of thirteen hundred seamen and soldiers on board six hundred and eighty were drowned.
They were noticed by Vice-admiralColpoys’fleet, who sent off two frigates to warn Lord Bridport, and after chasing the French for some distance himself, sailed for Falmouth to report the setting out of the expedition.
Admiral Bouvet, with thirty-two sail, managed to reach the mouth of Bantry Bay, but the weather was so tempestuous that he was unable to land his troops. After struggling for some days against this boisterous weather, the fleet scattered, and the majority of the ships returned to Brest. The rest reached the coast of Ireland, but not finding the main portion of their fleet there, they returned to France.
The failure of the expedition was as complete as was that of the Spanish Armada, and was due greatly to the same cause. Out of the forty-four ships that sailed from Brest only thirty-one managed to return to France. The British frigates, by the vigilance they displayed, had done good service, cutting off four transports and three ships of war; but the stormy weather had dispersed the expedition, and was accountable for the loss of two battle-ships, three frigates, and a transport. It was curious that although Lord Bridport’s fleet was constantly patrolling the Channel during this time, the two fleets never came in contact.