Chapter Twenty One.“It is not,” says Blake, “the business of a seaman to mind state affairs, but to hinder foreigners from fooling us.”Dr Johnson’s “Life of Blake.”The frigate came to the wind close under our lee, and a boat from her was alongside in a very few minutes. The officer who came to take possession leaped up the side, and was on the deck in a moment. I received him, told him in few words what the vessel was, introducing the captain and Green, both of whom I recommended to his particular notice and attention for the kindness they had shown to me. I then requested he would walk down into the cabin, leaving a midshipman whom he brought with him in charge of the deck, and who, in the mean while, he directed to haul the mainsail up, and make the vessel snug. The prisoners were desired to pack up their things, and be ready to quit in one hour.When lights were brought into the cabin, the lieutenant and myself instantly recognised each other.“Bless my soul, Frank,” said he, “what brought you here?”“That,” said I, “is rather a longer story than could be conveniently told before to-morrow; but may I ask what ship has taken the Yankee? I conclude it is theR—; and what rank does friend Talbot hold in her?”“The frigate,” said he, “istheR—, as you conjectured. We are on the Cape station. I am first of her, and sent out here on promotion for the affair of Basque roads.”“Hard, indeed,” said I, “that you should have waited so long for what you so nobly earned; but come, we have much to do. Let us look to the prisoners, and if you will return on board, taking with you the captain, mate, and few of the hands, whom I will select as the most troublesome and the most careless, I will do all I can to have the prize, ready for making sail by daylight, when, if Captain T— will give me leave, I will wait on him.”This was agreed to. The people whom I pointed out were put into the boat, four of whose crew came aboard the brig to assist me. We soon arranged everything, so as to be ready for whatever might be required. A boat returned with a fresh supply of hands, taking back about twenty more prisoners; and the midshipman who brought them delivered also a civil message from the captain, to say he was glad to have the prize in such good hands, and would expect me to breakfast with him at eight o’clock; in the mean time, he desired that as soon as I was ready to make sail, I should signify the same by showing two lights at the same height in the main rigging, and that we should then keep on a wind to the northward under a plain sail.This was completed by four a.m., when we made the signal, and kept on the weather quarter of the frigate. I took a couple of hours’ sleep, was called at six, dressed myself, and prepared to go on board at half-past seven. I heard her drum and fife beat to quarters, the sweetest music, next to the heavenly voice of Emily, I had ever heard. The tears rolled down my cheeks with gratitude to God, for once more placing me under the protection of my beloved flag. The frigate hove-to; soon after the gig was lowered down and came to fetch me; a clean white cloak was spread in the stern-sheets; the men were dressed in white frocks and trousers, as clean as hands could make them, with neat straw hats and canvas shoes. I was seated in the boat without delay, and my heart beat with rapture when the boatswain’s mate at the gangway piped the side for me.I was received by the captain and officers with all the kindness and affection which we lavish on each other on such occasions. The captain asked me a thousand questions, and the lieutenants and midshipmen all crowded round me to hear my answers. The ship’s company were also curious to know our history, and I requested the captain would send the gig back for Thompson, who would assist me in gratifying the general curiosity. This was done, and the brave, honest fellow came on board. The first question he asked was, “Who fired the first shot at the prize?”“It was Mr Spears, the first lieutenant of marines,” said one of the men.“Then Mr Spears must have my allowance of grog for the day,” said Thompson; “for I said it last night, and I never go from my word.”“That I am ready to swear to,” said Captain Peters, of the privateer: “I have known men of good resolutions, and you are one of them; and I have known men of bad resolutions, and he was one of them whom you sent last night to his long account and it was fortunate for you that you did; for as sure as you now stand here, that moan would have compassed your death, either by dagger, by water, or by poison. I never knew or heard of the man who had struck or injured Peleg Oswald with impunity. He was a Kentucky man, of the Ohio, where he had ‘squatted’, as we say; but he shot two men with his rifle, because they had declined exchanging some land with him. He had gouged the eye out of the third, for some trifling difference of opinion. These acts obliged him to quit the country; for not only were the officers of justice in pursuit of him, but the man who had lost one eye kept a sharp look-out with the other, and Peleg would certainly have had a rifle-ball in his ear if he had not fled eastward, and taken again to the sea, to which he was originally brought up. I did not know all his history till long after he and I became shipmates. He would have been tried for his life; but having made some prize-money, he contrived to buy off his prosecutors. I should have unshipped him next cruise, if it had pleased God I had got safe back.”Peters was giving this little history of his departed mate, the captain’s breakfast was announced, and the two American captains were invited to partake of it. As we went down the ladder under the half-deck, Peters and Green could not help casting an eye of admiration at the clean and clear deck, the style of the guns, and perfect union of the useful and ornamental, so inimitably blended as they are sometimes found in our ships of war. There was nothing in the captain’s repast beyond cleanliness, plenty, hearty welcome, and cheerfulness.The conversation turned on the nature, quality and number of men in the privateer. “They are all seamen,” said Peters, “except the ten black fellows.”“Some of them, I suspect, are English,” said I.“It is not for me to peach,” said the wary American. “It is difficult always to know whether a man who has been much in both countries is a native of Boston in Lincolnshire, or Boston in Massachusetts; and perhaps they don’t always know themselves. We never ask questions when a seaman ships for us.”“You have an abundance of our seamen both in your marine and merchant service,” said our captain.“Yes,” said Green; “and we are never likely to want them, while you impress for us.”“Weimpress for you?” said Captain T—; “how do you prove that?”“Your impressment,” said the American, “fills our ships. Your seamen will not stand it; and for every two men you take by force, rely on it, we get one of them as a volunteer.”Peters dissented violently from this proposition, and appeared angry with Green for making the assertion.“I see no reason to doubt it,” said Green; “I know how our fighting ships, as well as our traders, are manned. I will take my oath that more than two-thirds have run from the British navy, because they were impressed. You yourself have said so in my hearing, Peters—look at your crew.”Peters could stand conviction no longer; he burst into the most violent rage with Green; said that what ought never to have been owned to a British officer, he had let out; that it was true that America looked upon our system of impressment as the sheet-anchor of her navy; but he was sorry the important secret should ever have escaped from an American.“For my part,” resumed Green, “I feel so deeply indebted to this gallant young Englishman for his kindness to me, that I am for ever the friend of himself and his country, and have sworn never to carry arms against Great Britain, unless to repel an invasion of my own country.”Breakfast ended, we all went on deck; the ship and her prize were lying to; the hands were turned up; all the boats hoisted out, the prisoners and their luggage taken out of the prize, and, as the crew of the privateer came on board, they were all drawn up on the quarter-deck, and many of them known and proved to be Englishmen. When taxed and reproached for their infamous conduct, they said it was owing to them that the privateer had been taken, for that they had left the lower studding-sail purposely hanging over the night-head, and towing in the water, by which the way of the vessel had been impeded.Captain Peters, who heard this confession, was astonished; and the captain of the frigate observed to him, that such conduct was exactly that which might be expected from any traitor to his country. Then, turning to the prisoners, he said, “The infamy of your first crime could scarcely have been increased; but your treachery to the new government, under which you had placed yourselves, renders you unworthy of the name of men; nor have you even the miserable merit you claim of having contributed to the capture, since we never lost sight of the chase from the first moment we saw her, and from the instant she hauled her wind, we knew she was ours.”The men hung down their heads, and when dismissed to go below, none of the crew of the frigate would receive them into their messes; but the real Americans were kindly treated.We shaped our course for Simon’s Bay, where we arrived in one week after the capture.The admiral on the station refused to try the prisoners by a court-martial; he said it was rather a state question, and should send them all to England, where the lords of the Admiralty might dispose of them as they thought proper.TheTrue-blooded Yankeewas libelled in the Vice-Admiralty-Court at Cape Town, condemned as a lawful prize, and purchased into the service; and, being a very fine vessel of her class, the admiral was pleased to say, that as I had been so singularly unfortunate, he would give me the command of her as a lieutenant, and send me to England with some despatches, which had been waiting an opportunity.This was an arrangement far more advantageous to me than I could have expected; but what rendered it still more agreeable was, that my friend Talbot, who was the first to shake me by the hand on board the prize, begged a passage home with me, he having, by the last packet, received his commander’s commission. The admiral, at my request, also gave Captains Peters and Green permission to go home with me. Mungo, the black man, and Thompson, the quarter-master, with the midshipman who had been with me in the boat, were also of the party. My crew was none of the very best, as might be supposed; but I was not in a state to make difficulties; and, with half a dozen of the new negroes taken out of the trader, I made up such a ship’s company as I thought would enable me to run to Spithead.We laid in a good stock of provisions at the Cape. The Americans begged to be allowed to pay their part; but this I positively refused, declaring myself too happy in having them as my guests. I purchased all Captain Peters’ wine and stock, giving him the full value for it. Mungo was appointed steward, for I had taken a great fancy to him; and my friend Talbot having brought all his things on board, and the admiral having given my final orders, I sailed from Simon’s Bay to England.There is usually but little of incident in a run home of this sort. I was not directed to stop at St. Helena, and had no inclination to loiter on my way. I carried sail night and day to the very utmost. Talbot and myself became inseparable friends, and our cabin mess was one of perfect harmony, avoided all national reflections, and abstained as much as possible from politics. I made a confidant of Talbot in my love affair with Emily. Of poor Eugenia, I had long before told him a great deal.One day at dinner we happened to talk of swimming. “I think,” said Talbot, “that my friend Frank is as good a hand at that as any of us. Do you remember when you swam away from the frigate at Spithead, to pay a visit to your friend, Mrs Melpomene, at Point?”“I do,” said I, “and also how generously you showered the musket-balls about my ears for the same.”“Your escape from either drowning or shooting on that occasion, among many others,” said the commander, “makes me augur something more serious of your future destiny.”“That may be,” said I; “but I dispute the legality of your act, in trying to kill me before you knew who I was, or what I was about. I might have been mad, for what you knew; or I might have belonged to some other ship; but in any event, had you killed me, and had my body been found, a coroner’s inquest would have gone very hard with you, and a jury still worse.”“I should have laughed at them,” said Talbot.“You might have found it no laughing matter,” said I.“How!” replied Talbot; “what are sentinels placed for, and loaded with hall?”“To defend the ship,” said I; “to give warning of approaching danger; to prevent men going out of the ship without leave; but never to take away the life of a man, unless in defence of their own, or when the safety of the king’s ship demands it.”“I deny your conclusions,” said Talbot; “the articles of war denounce death to all deserters.”“True,” said I, “they do, and also to many other crimes; but those crimes must first of all be proved before a court-martial. Now you cannot prove that I was deserting, and if you could, you had not the power to inflict death on me unless I was going towards the enemy. I own I was disobeying your orders, but even that would not have subjected me to more than a slight punishment, while your arbitrary act would have deprived the king, as I flatter myself, of a loyal and not useless subject; and if my body had not been found, no good could have accrued to the service from the severity of example. On the contrary; many would have supposed I had escaped, and been encouraged to make the same attempt.”“I am very sorry now,” said Talbot, “that I did not lower a boat to send after you; however, it has been a comfort to me since to reflect that the marines missed you.”This ended the subject: we walked the deck a little, talked of sweethearts, shaped the course for the night to make Fayal, which we were not far from, and then retired to our beds.Falling into a sound sleep, it was natural that the conversation of the evening should have dwelt on my mind, and a strange mixture of disjointed thoughts, a compound of reason, and insanity, haunted me till the morning. Trinidad and Emily, the Nine-pin Rock, and the mysterious Eugenia, with her supposed son, the sinking wreck, and the broken schooner, all appeared separately or together—“When nature rests;Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes—”I thought I saw Emily standing on the pinnacle of the Nine-pin Rock, just as Lord Nelson is represented on the monument in Dublin, or Bonaparte in that of the Place Vendôme; but with a grace as far superior to either as the Nine-pin Rock is in majesty and natural grandeur to those works of human art.Emily, I thought, was clad in complete mourning, but looking radiant in health and loveliness, although with a melancholy countenance. The dear image of my mistress seemed to say, “I shall never come down from this pinnacle without your assistance.”“Then,” thinks I, “you will never come down at all.”Then I thought Eugenia was queen of Trinidad, and that it was she who had placed Emily out of my reach on the rock; and I was entreating her to let Emily come down, when Thompson tapped at my cabin door and told me that it was daylight, and that they could see the island of Fayal in the north-east, distant about seven leagues.I dressed myself and went on deck, saw the land, and a strange sail steering to the westward. The confounded dream still running in my head—like Adam, “I liked it not,” and yet I thought myself a fool for not dismissing such idle stuff; still it would not go away. The Americans came on deck soon after; and, seeing the ship steering to the westward, asked if I meant to speak her. I replied in the affirmative. We had then as much sail as we could carry; and, as she had no wish to avoid us, but kept on her course, we were soon alongside of her. She proved to be a cartel bound to New York with American prisoners.In case of meeting with any vessel bound to the United States, the admiral had given me permission to send my prisoners home without carrying them to England. I had not mentioned this either to Peters or Green, for fear of producing disappointment; but when I found I could dispose of them so comfortably, I acquainted them with my intention. Their joy and gratitude were beyond all description; they thanked me a thousand times, as they did my friend Talbot, for our kindness to them.“Lieutenant,” said Peters, “I am not much accustomed to the company of you Englishmen; and if I have always thought you a set of tyrants and bullies it ain’t my fault. I believed what I was told; but now I have seen for myself, and I find the devil is never so black as he is painted.” I bowed to the Yankee compliment. “Howsoever,” he continued, “I should like to have a sprinkling of shot between us on fair terms. Do you bring this here brig to our waters; I hope to get another just like her, and as I know you are a damned good fellow, and would as soon have a dust as sit down to dinner, I should like to try to get the command of theTrue-blooded Yankeeagain.”“If you man your next brig as you manned the last, with all your best hands Englishmen,” said I, “I fear I should find it no easy matter to defend myself.”“That’s as it may be,” said the captain; “no man fights better than he with a halter round his neck: and remember what neighbour Green has said—for he has ‘let the cat out of the bag’—we should have no Englishmen in our service if they had not been pressed into yours.”I could make no return to this salute, because, like the gunner at Landguard fort, I had no powder; and, in fact, I felt the rebuke.Green stood by, but never opened his lips until the captain had finished; then, holding out his hand to me, with his eyes full of tears, and his voice almost choked, “Farewell, my excellent friend,” said he, “I shall never forget you; you found me a villain, and by the blessing of God, you have made me an honest man. Never, never shall I forget the day when, at the risk of your own life, you came to save one so unworthy of your protection; but God bless you! and if ever the fortune of war would send you a prisoner to my country, here is my address—what is mine is yours, and so you shall find.”The man who had mutinied in the boat, and afterwards entered on board the privateer, who was sent home with me to take his trial, held out his hand to Captain Green as he passed him, to wish him good-bye, but he turned away, saying, “A traitor to his country is a traitor to his God. I forgive you for the injury you intended to do me, and the more so as I feel I brought it on myself; but I cannot degrade myself by offering you the hand of friendship.”So saying, he followed Captain Peters into the boat. I accompanied them to the cartel, where, having satisfied myself that they had every comfort, I left them. Green was so overcome that he could not speak, and poor Mungo could only say, “Good-bye, massa leptenant—me tinkee you berry good man.”I returned to my own vessel, and made sail for England: once more we greeted the white cliffs of Albion, so dear to every true English bosom. No one but he who has been an exile from its beloved shores can appreciate the thrill of joy on such an occasion. We ran through the Needles, and I anchored at Spithead, after an absence of fourteen months. I waited on the admiral, showed him my orders, and reported the prisoners, whom he desired me to discharge into the flag-ship. “And now,” said he, “after your extraordinary escape, I will give you leave to run up to town and see your family, to whom you are no doubt an object of great interest.”Here a short digression is necessary.
“It is not,” says Blake, “the business of a seaman to mind state affairs, but to hinder foreigners from fooling us.”Dr Johnson’s “Life of Blake.”
“It is not,” says Blake, “the business of a seaman to mind state affairs, but to hinder foreigners from fooling us.”
Dr Johnson’s “Life of Blake.”
The frigate came to the wind close under our lee, and a boat from her was alongside in a very few minutes. The officer who came to take possession leaped up the side, and was on the deck in a moment. I received him, told him in few words what the vessel was, introducing the captain and Green, both of whom I recommended to his particular notice and attention for the kindness they had shown to me. I then requested he would walk down into the cabin, leaving a midshipman whom he brought with him in charge of the deck, and who, in the mean while, he directed to haul the mainsail up, and make the vessel snug. The prisoners were desired to pack up their things, and be ready to quit in one hour.
When lights were brought into the cabin, the lieutenant and myself instantly recognised each other.
“Bless my soul, Frank,” said he, “what brought you here?”
“That,” said I, “is rather a longer story than could be conveniently told before to-morrow; but may I ask what ship has taken the Yankee? I conclude it is theR—; and what rank does friend Talbot hold in her?”
“The frigate,” said he, “istheR—, as you conjectured. We are on the Cape station. I am first of her, and sent out here on promotion for the affair of Basque roads.”
“Hard, indeed,” said I, “that you should have waited so long for what you so nobly earned; but come, we have much to do. Let us look to the prisoners, and if you will return on board, taking with you the captain, mate, and few of the hands, whom I will select as the most troublesome and the most careless, I will do all I can to have the prize, ready for making sail by daylight, when, if Captain T— will give me leave, I will wait on him.”
This was agreed to. The people whom I pointed out were put into the boat, four of whose crew came aboard the brig to assist me. We soon arranged everything, so as to be ready for whatever might be required. A boat returned with a fresh supply of hands, taking back about twenty more prisoners; and the midshipman who brought them delivered also a civil message from the captain, to say he was glad to have the prize in such good hands, and would expect me to breakfast with him at eight o’clock; in the mean time, he desired that as soon as I was ready to make sail, I should signify the same by showing two lights at the same height in the main rigging, and that we should then keep on a wind to the northward under a plain sail.
This was completed by four a.m., when we made the signal, and kept on the weather quarter of the frigate. I took a couple of hours’ sleep, was called at six, dressed myself, and prepared to go on board at half-past seven. I heard her drum and fife beat to quarters, the sweetest music, next to the heavenly voice of Emily, I had ever heard. The tears rolled down my cheeks with gratitude to God, for once more placing me under the protection of my beloved flag. The frigate hove-to; soon after the gig was lowered down and came to fetch me; a clean white cloak was spread in the stern-sheets; the men were dressed in white frocks and trousers, as clean as hands could make them, with neat straw hats and canvas shoes. I was seated in the boat without delay, and my heart beat with rapture when the boatswain’s mate at the gangway piped the side for me.
I was received by the captain and officers with all the kindness and affection which we lavish on each other on such occasions. The captain asked me a thousand questions, and the lieutenants and midshipmen all crowded round me to hear my answers. The ship’s company were also curious to know our history, and I requested the captain would send the gig back for Thompson, who would assist me in gratifying the general curiosity. This was done, and the brave, honest fellow came on board. The first question he asked was, “Who fired the first shot at the prize?”
“It was Mr Spears, the first lieutenant of marines,” said one of the men.
“Then Mr Spears must have my allowance of grog for the day,” said Thompson; “for I said it last night, and I never go from my word.”
“That I am ready to swear to,” said Captain Peters, of the privateer: “I have known men of good resolutions, and you are one of them; and I have known men of bad resolutions, and he was one of them whom you sent last night to his long account and it was fortunate for you that you did; for as sure as you now stand here, that moan would have compassed your death, either by dagger, by water, or by poison. I never knew or heard of the man who had struck or injured Peleg Oswald with impunity. He was a Kentucky man, of the Ohio, where he had ‘squatted’, as we say; but he shot two men with his rifle, because they had declined exchanging some land with him. He had gouged the eye out of the third, for some trifling difference of opinion. These acts obliged him to quit the country; for not only were the officers of justice in pursuit of him, but the man who had lost one eye kept a sharp look-out with the other, and Peleg would certainly have had a rifle-ball in his ear if he had not fled eastward, and taken again to the sea, to which he was originally brought up. I did not know all his history till long after he and I became shipmates. He would have been tried for his life; but having made some prize-money, he contrived to buy off his prosecutors. I should have unshipped him next cruise, if it had pleased God I had got safe back.”
Peters was giving this little history of his departed mate, the captain’s breakfast was announced, and the two American captains were invited to partake of it. As we went down the ladder under the half-deck, Peters and Green could not help casting an eye of admiration at the clean and clear deck, the style of the guns, and perfect union of the useful and ornamental, so inimitably blended as they are sometimes found in our ships of war. There was nothing in the captain’s repast beyond cleanliness, plenty, hearty welcome, and cheerfulness.
The conversation turned on the nature, quality and number of men in the privateer. “They are all seamen,” said Peters, “except the ten black fellows.”
“Some of them, I suspect, are English,” said I.
“It is not for me to peach,” said the wary American. “It is difficult always to know whether a man who has been much in both countries is a native of Boston in Lincolnshire, or Boston in Massachusetts; and perhaps they don’t always know themselves. We never ask questions when a seaman ships for us.”
“You have an abundance of our seamen both in your marine and merchant service,” said our captain.
“Yes,” said Green; “and we are never likely to want them, while you impress for us.”
“Weimpress for you?” said Captain T—; “how do you prove that?”
“Your impressment,” said the American, “fills our ships. Your seamen will not stand it; and for every two men you take by force, rely on it, we get one of them as a volunteer.”
Peters dissented violently from this proposition, and appeared angry with Green for making the assertion.
“I see no reason to doubt it,” said Green; “I know how our fighting ships, as well as our traders, are manned. I will take my oath that more than two-thirds have run from the British navy, because they were impressed. You yourself have said so in my hearing, Peters—look at your crew.”
Peters could stand conviction no longer; he burst into the most violent rage with Green; said that what ought never to have been owned to a British officer, he had let out; that it was true that America looked upon our system of impressment as the sheet-anchor of her navy; but he was sorry the important secret should ever have escaped from an American.
“For my part,” resumed Green, “I feel so deeply indebted to this gallant young Englishman for his kindness to me, that I am for ever the friend of himself and his country, and have sworn never to carry arms against Great Britain, unless to repel an invasion of my own country.”
Breakfast ended, we all went on deck; the ship and her prize were lying to; the hands were turned up; all the boats hoisted out, the prisoners and their luggage taken out of the prize, and, as the crew of the privateer came on board, they were all drawn up on the quarter-deck, and many of them known and proved to be Englishmen. When taxed and reproached for their infamous conduct, they said it was owing to them that the privateer had been taken, for that they had left the lower studding-sail purposely hanging over the night-head, and towing in the water, by which the way of the vessel had been impeded.
Captain Peters, who heard this confession, was astonished; and the captain of the frigate observed to him, that such conduct was exactly that which might be expected from any traitor to his country. Then, turning to the prisoners, he said, “The infamy of your first crime could scarcely have been increased; but your treachery to the new government, under which you had placed yourselves, renders you unworthy of the name of men; nor have you even the miserable merit you claim of having contributed to the capture, since we never lost sight of the chase from the first moment we saw her, and from the instant she hauled her wind, we knew she was ours.”
The men hung down their heads, and when dismissed to go below, none of the crew of the frigate would receive them into their messes; but the real Americans were kindly treated.
We shaped our course for Simon’s Bay, where we arrived in one week after the capture.
The admiral on the station refused to try the prisoners by a court-martial; he said it was rather a state question, and should send them all to England, where the lords of the Admiralty might dispose of them as they thought proper.
TheTrue-blooded Yankeewas libelled in the Vice-Admiralty-Court at Cape Town, condemned as a lawful prize, and purchased into the service; and, being a very fine vessel of her class, the admiral was pleased to say, that as I had been so singularly unfortunate, he would give me the command of her as a lieutenant, and send me to England with some despatches, which had been waiting an opportunity.
This was an arrangement far more advantageous to me than I could have expected; but what rendered it still more agreeable was, that my friend Talbot, who was the first to shake me by the hand on board the prize, begged a passage home with me, he having, by the last packet, received his commander’s commission. The admiral, at my request, also gave Captains Peters and Green permission to go home with me. Mungo, the black man, and Thompson, the quarter-master, with the midshipman who had been with me in the boat, were also of the party. My crew was none of the very best, as might be supposed; but I was not in a state to make difficulties; and, with half a dozen of the new negroes taken out of the trader, I made up such a ship’s company as I thought would enable me to run to Spithead.
We laid in a good stock of provisions at the Cape. The Americans begged to be allowed to pay their part; but this I positively refused, declaring myself too happy in having them as my guests. I purchased all Captain Peters’ wine and stock, giving him the full value for it. Mungo was appointed steward, for I had taken a great fancy to him; and my friend Talbot having brought all his things on board, and the admiral having given my final orders, I sailed from Simon’s Bay to England.
There is usually but little of incident in a run home of this sort. I was not directed to stop at St. Helena, and had no inclination to loiter on my way. I carried sail night and day to the very utmost. Talbot and myself became inseparable friends, and our cabin mess was one of perfect harmony, avoided all national reflections, and abstained as much as possible from politics. I made a confidant of Talbot in my love affair with Emily. Of poor Eugenia, I had long before told him a great deal.
One day at dinner we happened to talk of swimming. “I think,” said Talbot, “that my friend Frank is as good a hand at that as any of us. Do you remember when you swam away from the frigate at Spithead, to pay a visit to your friend, Mrs Melpomene, at Point?”
“I do,” said I, “and also how generously you showered the musket-balls about my ears for the same.”
“Your escape from either drowning or shooting on that occasion, among many others,” said the commander, “makes me augur something more serious of your future destiny.”
“That may be,” said I; “but I dispute the legality of your act, in trying to kill me before you knew who I was, or what I was about. I might have been mad, for what you knew; or I might have belonged to some other ship; but in any event, had you killed me, and had my body been found, a coroner’s inquest would have gone very hard with you, and a jury still worse.”
“I should have laughed at them,” said Talbot.
“You might have found it no laughing matter,” said I.
“How!” replied Talbot; “what are sentinels placed for, and loaded with hall?”
“To defend the ship,” said I; “to give warning of approaching danger; to prevent men going out of the ship without leave; but never to take away the life of a man, unless in defence of their own, or when the safety of the king’s ship demands it.”
“I deny your conclusions,” said Talbot; “the articles of war denounce death to all deserters.”
“True,” said I, “they do, and also to many other crimes; but those crimes must first of all be proved before a court-martial. Now you cannot prove that I was deserting, and if you could, you had not the power to inflict death on me unless I was going towards the enemy. I own I was disobeying your orders, but even that would not have subjected me to more than a slight punishment, while your arbitrary act would have deprived the king, as I flatter myself, of a loyal and not useless subject; and if my body had not been found, no good could have accrued to the service from the severity of example. On the contrary; many would have supposed I had escaped, and been encouraged to make the same attempt.”
“I am very sorry now,” said Talbot, “that I did not lower a boat to send after you; however, it has been a comfort to me since to reflect that the marines missed you.”
This ended the subject: we walked the deck a little, talked of sweethearts, shaped the course for the night to make Fayal, which we were not far from, and then retired to our beds.
Falling into a sound sleep, it was natural that the conversation of the evening should have dwelt on my mind, and a strange mixture of disjointed thoughts, a compound of reason, and insanity, haunted me till the morning. Trinidad and Emily, the Nine-pin Rock, and the mysterious Eugenia, with her supposed son, the sinking wreck, and the broken schooner, all appeared separately or together—
“When nature rests;Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes—”
“When nature rests;Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes—”
I thought I saw Emily standing on the pinnacle of the Nine-pin Rock, just as Lord Nelson is represented on the monument in Dublin, or Bonaparte in that of the Place Vendôme; but with a grace as far superior to either as the Nine-pin Rock is in majesty and natural grandeur to those works of human art.
Emily, I thought, was clad in complete mourning, but looking radiant in health and loveliness, although with a melancholy countenance. The dear image of my mistress seemed to say, “I shall never come down from this pinnacle without your assistance.”
“Then,” thinks I, “you will never come down at all.”
Then I thought Eugenia was queen of Trinidad, and that it was she who had placed Emily out of my reach on the rock; and I was entreating her to let Emily come down, when Thompson tapped at my cabin door and told me that it was daylight, and that they could see the island of Fayal in the north-east, distant about seven leagues.
I dressed myself and went on deck, saw the land, and a strange sail steering to the westward. The confounded dream still running in my head—like Adam, “I liked it not,” and yet I thought myself a fool for not dismissing such idle stuff; still it would not go away. The Americans came on deck soon after; and, seeing the ship steering to the westward, asked if I meant to speak her. I replied in the affirmative. We had then as much sail as we could carry; and, as she had no wish to avoid us, but kept on her course, we were soon alongside of her. She proved to be a cartel bound to New York with American prisoners.
In case of meeting with any vessel bound to the United States, the admiral had given me permission to send my prisoners home without carrying them to England. I had not mentioned this either to Peters or Green, for fear of producing disappointment; but when I found I could dispose of them so comfortably, I acquainted them with my intention. Their joy and gratitude were beyond all description; they thanked me a thousand times, as they did my friend Talbot, for our kindness to them.
“Lieutenant,” said Peters, “I am not much accustomed to the company of you Englishmen; and if I have always thought you a set of tyrants and bullies it ain’t my fault. I believed what I was told; but now I have seen for myself, and I find the devil is never so black as he is painted.” I bowed to the Yankee compliment. “Howsoever,” he continued, “I should like to have a sprinkling of shot between us on fair terms. Do you bring this here brig to our waters; I hope to get another just like her, and as I know you are a damned good fellow, and would as soon have a dust as sit down to dinner, I should like to try to get the command of theTrue-blooded Yankeeagain.”
“If you man your next brig as you manned the last, with all your best hands Englishmen,” said I, “I fear I should find it no easy matter to defend myself.”
“That’s as it may be,” said the captain; “no man fights better than he with a halter round his neck: and remember what neighbour Green has said—for he has ‘let the cat out of the bag’—we should have no Englishmen in our service if they had not been pressed into yours.”
I could make no return to this salute, because, like the gunner at Landguard fort, I had no powder; and, in fact, I felt the rebuke.
Green stood by, but never opened his lips until the captain had finished; then, holding out his hand to me, with his eyes full of tears, and his voice almost choked, “Farewell, my excellent friend,” said he, “I shall never forget you; you found me a villain, and by the blessing of God, you have made me an honest man. Never, never shall I forget the day when, at the risk of your own life, you came to save one so unworthy of your protection; but God bless you! and if ever the fortune of war would send you a prisoner to my country, here is my address—what is mine is yours, and so you shall find.”
The man who had mutinied in the boat, and afterwards entered on board the privateer, who was sent home with me to take his trial, held out his hand to Captain Green as he passed him, to wish him good-bye, but he turned away, saying, “A traitor to his country is a traitor to his God. I forgive you for the injury you intended to do me, and the more so as I feel I brought it on myself; but I cannot degrade myself by offering you the hand of friendship.”
So saying, he followed Captain Peters into the boat. I accompanied them to the cartel, where, having satisfied myself that they had every comfort, I left them. Green was so overcome that he could not speak, and poor Mungo could only say, “Good-bye, massa leptenant—me tinkee you berry good man.”
I returned to my own vessel, and made sail for England: once more we greeted the white cliffs of Albion, so dear to every true English bosom. No one but he who has been an exile from its beloved shores can appreciate the thrill of joy on such an occasion. We ran through the Needles, and I anchored at Spithead, after an absence of fourteen months. I waited on the admiral, showed him my orders, and reported the prisoners, whom he desired me to discharge into the flag-ship. “And now,” said he, “after your extraordinary escape, I will give you leave to run up to town and see your family, to whom you are no doubt an object of great interest.”
Here a short digression is necessary.
Chapter Twenty Two.Such was my brother too,So went he suited to his watery tomb:If spirits can assume both form and suitYou come to fright us.“Twelfth Night.”Soon after the frigate which had taken me off from New Providence had parted company with the American prize that I was sent on board of, the crew of the former, it appeared had been boasting among the American prisoners of the prize-money they should receive.“Not you,” said the Yankees; “you will never see your prize any more, nor any one that went in her.”These words were repeated to the captain of the frigate, when he questioned the mate and the crew, and the whole nefarious transaction came out. They said the ship was sinking when they left her, and that was the reason they had hurried into the boat. The mate said it was impossible to get at the leaks, which were in the fore peak, and under the cabin deck in the run; that he wondered Captain Green had not made it known, but he supposed he must have been drunk: “The ship,” continued the mate, “must have gone down in twelve hours after we left her.”This was reported to the Admiralty by my captain, and my poor father was formally acquainted with the fatal story. Five months had elapsed since I was last heard of, and all hopes of my safety had vanished: this was the reason that when I knocked at the door, I found the servant in mourning: he was one who had been hired since my departure, and did not know me. Of course he expressed no surprise at seeing me.“Good heavens!” said I, “who is dead?”“My master’s only son, sir,” said the man, “Mr Frank — drowned at sea.”“Oh! is that all?” said I, “I am glad it’s no worse.”The man concluded that I was an unfeeling brute, and stared stupidly at me as I brushed by him and ran upstairs to the drawing-room. I ought to have been more guarded; but, as usual, I followed the impulse of my feelings. I opened the door, when I saw my sister sitting at a table in deep mourning, with another young lady whose back was turned towards me. My sister screamed as soon as she saw me. The other lady turned round, and I beheld my Emily, my dear, dear Emily she too was in deep mourning. My sister, after screaming, fell on the floor in a swoon. Emily instantly followed her example, and there they both lay, like two petrified queens in Westminster Abbey. It was a beautiful sight, “pretty, though a plague.”I was confoundedly frightened myself, and thought I had done a very foolish thing; but as I had no time to lose, I rang the bell furiously, and seeing some jars with fresh flowers in them, I caught them up and poured plentiful libations over the faces and necks of the young ladies; but Emily came in for much the largest share, which proves that I had neither lost my presence of mind nor my love for her.My sister’s maid, Higgins, was the first to answer the drawing-room bell, which, from its violent ringing, announced some serious event. She came bouncing into the room like a ricochet shot. She was an old acquaintance of mine; I had often kissed her when a boy, and she had just as often boxed my ears. I used to give her a ribbon to tie up her jaw with, telling her at the same time that she had too much of it. This Abigail, like a true lady’s maid, seeing me, whom she thought a ghost, standing bolt upright, and the two ladies stretched out, as she supposed, dead, gave a loud and most interesting scream, ran out of the room for her life, nearly knocking down the footman, whom she met coming in.This fellow, who was a country lout, the son of one of my father’s tenants, only popped his head into the door, and saw the ladies lying on the carpet; he had probably formed no very good opinion of me from the manner in which I had received the news of my own demise, and seemed very much inclined to act the part of a mandarin, that is, nod his head, and stand still.“Desire some of the women to come here immediately,” said I; “some one that can be of use; tell them to bring salts, eau de cologne—anything. Fly, blockhead! goose! what do you stand staring at?”The fellow looked at me, and then at the supposed corpses, which he must have thought I had murdered; and, either thunderstruck, or doubting whether he had any right to obey me, kept his head inside the door and his body outside, as he had been in the pillory. I saw that he required some explanation, and cried out, “I am Mr Frank; will you obey me, or shall I throw this jar at your head?” brandishing one of the china vases.Had I been inclined to have thrown it I should have missed him, for the fellow was off like a wounded porpoise. Down he ran to my father in the library: “Oh, sir—good news! bad news—good news!”“What news fool?” said my father, rising hastily from his chair.“Oh, sir, I don’t know sir; but I believe, sir, Mr Frank is alive again, and both the ladiesisdead.”My poor father, whose health and constitution had not recovered the shock of my supposed death, tremblingly leaned over his table, on which he rested his two hands, and desired the man to repeat what he had said. This the fellow did, half crying, and my father, easily comprehending the state of things, came upstairs. I would have flown into his arms, but mine were occupied in supporting my sweet Emily, while my poor sister lay senseless on the other side of me; for Clara’s lover was not at hand, and she still lay in abeyance.By this time “the hands were turned up,” everybody was on the alert, and every living creature in the house, not excepting the dog, had assembled in the drawing-room. The maids that had known me cried and sobbed most piteously, and the newcomer kept them company from sympathy. The coachman, and footman, and groom, all blubbered and stared; and one brought water, and one a basin, and the booby of a footman something else, which I must not name; but in his hurry he had snatched up the first utensil that he thought might be of use; I approved of his zeal, but nodded to him to retire. Unluckily for him, the housemaid perceived the mistake which his absence of thought had led him into; and, snatching the mysterious vessel with her left hand, she hid it under her apron, while with her right hand, she gave the poor fellow such a slap on the cheek as to bring to my mind the tail of the whale descending on the boat at Bermuda.“You great fool!” said she, “nobody wants that.”“There is matrimony in that slap!” said I and the event proved I was right—they wereaskedin church the Sunday following.The industrious application of salts, cold water, and burnt rags, together with chafing of temples, opening of collars, and loosening the stay-laces of the young ladies, produced the happiest effects. Every hand, and every tongue, was in motion; and with all these remedies the eyes of the enchanting Emily opened, and beamed upon me, spreading joy and gladness over the face of creation, like the sun rising out of the bosom of the Atlantic, to cheer the inhabitants of the Antilles after a frightful hurricane. In half an hour, all was right “the guns were secured—we beat the retreat;” the servants retired. I became the centre of the picture. Emily held my right, my father my left; dear Clara hung round my neck. Questions were put and answered as fast as sobs and tears would permit of their being heard. The interlude was filled up with the sweetest kisses from the rosiest of lips and I was in this half hour rewarded for all I had suffered since I had sailed from England in that diabolical brig for Barbadoes.It was, I own, exceedingly wrong to have taken the house, as it were, by storm, when I knew they were in mourning for me but I forgot that other people did not require the same stimulus as myself. I begged pardon; was kissed again and again, and forgiven. Oh, it was worth while to offend to be forgiven by such lips, and eyes, and dimples. But I am afraid this thought is borrowed from some prose or poetry; if so, the reader must forgive me, and so must the author, who may have it again now I have done with it, for I shall never use it any more.My narrative was given with as much modesty and brevity as time and circumstances would admit. The coachman was despatched on one of the best carriage-horses express to Mr Somerville, and the mail-coach was loaded with letters to all the friends and connexions of the family.This ended, each retired to dress for dinner. What a change had one hour wrought in this house of mourning, now suddenly turned into a house of joy! Alas, how often is the picture reversed in human life! The ladies soon reappeared in spotless white, emblems of their pure minds. My father had put off his sables, and the servants came in their usual liveries, which were very splendid.Dinner being announced, my father handed off Emily; I followed with my sister. Emily, looking over her shoulder, said, “Don’t be jealous, Frank.”My father laughed, and I vowed revenge for this little satirical hit.“You know the forfeit,” said I, “and you shall pay it.”“I am happy to say that I am both able and willing,” said she, and we sat down to dinner, but not before my father had given thanks in a manner more than usually solemn and emphatic. This essential act of devotion, so often neglected, brought tears into the eyes of all. Emily sank into her chair, covered her face with her pocket handkerchief, and relieved herself with tears. Clara did the same. My father shook me by the hand, and said, “Frank, this is a very different kind of repast to what we had yesterday. How little did we know of the happiness that was in store for us!”The young ladies dried their eyes, but had lost their appetites: in vain did Emily endeavour to manage the tail of a small smelt. I filled a glass of wine to each. “Come,” said I, “in sea phrase, spirits are always more easily stowed away than dry provisions; let us drink each other’s health, and then we shall get on better.”They took my advice, and it answered the purpose. Our repast was cheerful, but tempered and corrected by a feeling of past sorrow, and a deep sense of great mercies from Heaven.“If Heaven were every day like this,Then ’twere indeed a Heaven of bliss.”Reader, I know you have long thought me a vain man—a profligate, unprincipled Don Juan, ready to pray when in danger, and to sin when out of it; but as I have always told you the truth, even when my honour and character were at stake, I expect you will believe me now, when I say a word in my own favour. That I felt gratitude to God for my deliverance and safe return, I do most solemnly aver; my heart was ready to burst with the escape of this feeling, which I suppressed from a false sense of shame, though I never was given much to the melting mood; moreover, I was too proud to show what I thought a weakness, before the great he-fellows of footmen. Had we been in private, I could have fallen down on my knees before that God whom I had so often offended; who had rescued me twice from the jaws of the shark; who had lifted me from the depth of the sea when darkness covered me; who had saved me from the poison and the wreck, and guided me clear of the rock at Trinidad; and who had sent the dog to save me from a horrible death.These were only a small part of the mercies I had received; but they were the most recent, and consequently had left the deepest impression on my memory. I would have given one of Emily’s approving smiles, much as I valued them, to have been relieved from my oppressed feelings by a hearty flood of tears, and by a solemn act of devotion and thanksgiving; but I felt all this, and that feeling, I hope, was accounted to me for righteousness. For the first time in my life, the love of God was mixed up with a pure and earthly love for Emily, and affection for my family.The ladies sat with us some time after the cloth was removed, unable to drag themselves away while I related my “hair-breadth escapes.” When I spoke of the incident of trying to save the poor man who fell overboard from the brig—of my holding him by the collar, and being dragged down with him until the sea became dark over my head, Emily could bear it no longer; she jumped up, and falling on her knees, hid her lovely face in my sister’s lap, passionately exclaiming, “Oh, do not, do not, my dear Frank, tell me any more—I cannot bear it—indeed, I cannot bear it.”We all gathered round her, and supported her to the drawing-room, where we diverted ourselves with lighter and gayer anecdotes. Emily tried a tune on the pianoforte, and attempted a song; but it would not do: she could not sing a gay one, and a melancholy one overpowered her. At twelve o’clock we all retired to our apartments, and before I slept I spent some minutes in devotion, with vows of amendment which I fully intended to keep.The next morning Mr Somerville joined us at breakfast. This was another trial of feeling for poor Emily, who threw herself into her father’s arms, and sobbed aloud. Mr Somerville shook me most cordially by the hand with both of his, and eagerly demanded the history of my extraordinary adventures, of which I gave him a small abridgment. I had taken the opportunity of an hour’stête-à-têtewith Emily, which Clara had considerately given us before breakfast, to speak of our anticipated union and finding there were no other obstacles than those which are usually raised by “maiden pride and bashful coyness,” so natural, so becoming, and so lovely in the sex, I determined to speak to the greybeards on the subject.To this Emily at last consented, on my reminding her of my late narrow escapes. As soon, therefore, as the ladies had retired from the dinner-table, I asked my father to fill a bumper to their health; and, having swallowed mine in all the fervency of the most unbounded love, I popped the question to them both. Mr Somerville and my father looked at each other, when the former said,—“You seem to be in a great hurry, Frank.”“Not greater, sir,” said I, “than the object deserves.” He bowed and my father began—“I cannot say,” observed the good old gentleman, “that I much approve of matrimony before you are a commander. At least, till then, you are not your own master.”“Oh, if I am to wait for that, sir,” said I, “I may wait long enough; no man is ever his own master in our service, or in England. The captain is commanded by the admiral, the admiral by the Admiralty, the Admiralty by the Privy Council, the Privy Council by the Parliament, the Parliament by the people, and the people by printers and their devils.”“I admire your logical chain of causes and effects,” said my father; “but we must, after all, go to thelace manufactoryat Charing-cross, to see if we cannot have your shoulders fitted with a pair of epaulettes. When we can see you command your own sloop of war, I shall be most happy, as I am sure my good friend Somerville will be also, to see you command his daughter, the finest and the best girl in the county of —.”No arguments could induce the two old gentlemen to bate one inch from thissine quâ non. It was agreed that application should be made to the Admiralty forthwith for my promotion; and when that desirable step was obtained, that then Emily should have the disposal of me for the honeymoon.All this was a very pretty story for them on the score of prudence, but it did not suit the views of an ardent lover of one-and-twenty; for though I knew my father’s influence was very great at the Admiralty, I also knew that an excellent regulation had recently been promulgated, which prevented any lieutenant being promoted to the rank of commander, until he had served two years at sea from the date of his first commission; nor could any commander, in like manner, be promoted before he had served one year in that capacity. All this was no doubt very good for the service, but I had not yet attained sufficientamor patriaeto prefer the public to myself: and I fairly wished the regulation and the makers of it in the cavern at New Providence just about the time of high-water.I put it to the ladies whether this was not a case of real distress, after all my hardships and my constancy, to be put off with such an excuse? The answer from the Admiralty was so far favourable, that I was assured I should be promoted as soon as my time was served, of which I then wanted two months. I was appointed to a ship fitting at Woolwich, and before she could be ready for sea my time would be completed, and I was to have my commission as a commander. This was not the way to ensure her speedy equipment, as far as I was concerned; but there was no help for it; and as the ship was at Woolwich, and the residence of my fair one at no great distance, I endeavoured to pass my time, during the interval, between the duties of love and war; between obedience to my captain, and obedience to my mistress; and by great good fortune I contrived to please both, for my captain gave himself no trouble about the ship or her equipment.Before I proceeded to join, I made one more effort to break through the inflexibility of my father. I said I had undergone the labours of Hercules; and that if I went again on foreign service, I might meet with some young lady who would send me out of the world with a cup of poison, or by some fatal spell break the magical chain which now bound me to Emily. This poetical imagery had no more effect on him than my prose composition. I then appealed to Emily herself. “Surely,” said I, “your heart is not as hard as those of our inflexible parents: surely you will be my advocate on this occasion. Bend but one look of disapprobation on my father with those heavenly blue eyes of yours, and, on my life, he will strike his flag.”But the gipsy replied, with a smile (instigated, no doubt, from head-quarters), that she did not like the idea of her name appearing in theMorning Postas the bride of a lieutenant. “What’s a lieutenant nowadays?” said she—“nobody. I remember when I was on a visit at Fareham, I used to go to Portsmouth to see the dockyard and the ships, and there was your great friend the tall admiral, Sir Hurricane Humbug, I think you call him, driving the poor lieutenants about like so many sheep before a dog; there was always one at his heels, like a running footman; and there was another that appeared to me to be chained, like a mastiff, to the door of the admiral’s office, except when the admiral and family walked out, and then he brought up the rear with the governess. No, Frank, I shall not surrender at discretion, with all my charms, to anything less than a captain, with a pair of gold epaulettes.”“Very well,” replied I, looking into the pier-glass, with tolerable self-complacency; “if you choose to pin your happiness on the promises of a first lord of the Admiralty and a pair of epaulettes, I can say no more. There is no accounting for female taste; some ladies prefer gold lace and wrinkles, to youth and beauty—I am sorry for them all, that’s all.”“Frank,” said Emily, “you must acknowledge that you are vain enough to be an admiral at least.”“The admirals are much obliged to you for the compliment,” said I. “I trust I should not disgrace the flag, come when it will; but to tell you the truth, my dear Emily, I cannot say I look forward to that elevation with any degree of satisfaction. Three stars on each shoulder, and three rows of gold lace round the cuff, are no compensation, in my eyes, for grey hairs, thin legs, a broken back, a church-yard cough, and to be laughed at or pitied by all the pretty girls in the country into the bargain.”“I am sorry for you, my hero,” said the young lady: “but you must submit.”“Well, then, if I must, I must,” said I; “but give me a kiss in the meantime.”I asked for one, and took a hundred, and should have taken a hundred more, but the confounded butler came in, and brought me a letter on service, which was neither more nor less than an order to join my ship forthwith:sic transit, etcetera.Pocketing my disappointment with as muchsang froidas I could muster, I continued to beguile the time and to solace myself for my past sufferings, by as much enjoyment as could be compressed into the small space of leisure time allotted to me. Fortunately, the first lieutenant of the frigate was what we used to call a “hard officer:” he never went on shore, because he had few friends and less money. He drew for his pay on the day it became due, and it lasted till the next day of payment; and as I found he doated on a Spanish cigar, and acorrectglass of cognac grog—for he never drank to excess—I presented him with a box of the former, and a dozen of the latter, to enable him to bear my nightly absence with Christian composure.As soon as the day’s work was ended, the good-natured lieutenant used to say, “Come, Mr Mildmay, I know what it is to be in love; I was once in love myself, though it is a good many years ago, and I am sure I shall get into the good graces of your Polly (for so he called Emily), if I send you to her arms. There is the jolly for you: send the boat off as soon as you have landed, and be with us at nine to-morrow morning, to meet the midshipman and the working party in the dockyard.”All this was perfectly agreeable to me. I generally got to Mr Somerville’s temporary residence on Blackheath by the time the dressing-bell rang, and never failed to meet a pleasant party at dinner. My father and dear Clara were guests in the house as well as myself. By Mr Somerville’s kind permission, I introduced Talbot, who, being a perfect gentleman in his manners, a man of sound sense, good education, and high aristocratic connections, I was proud to call my friend. I presented him particularly to my sister, and took an opportunity of whispering in Emily’s ear, where I knew it would not long remain, that he possessed the indispensable qualification of two epaulettes. “Therefore,” said I, “pray do not trust yourself too near him, for fear you should be taken by surprise, like theTrue-blooded Yankee.”Talbot, knowing that Emily was bespoken, paid her no more than the common attentions which courtesy demands; but to Clara his demeanour was very different: and her natural attractions were much enhanced in his eyes by the friendship which we had entertained for each other ever since the memorable affair of swimming away from the ship at Spithead; from that time he used jocularly to call me “Leander.”But before I proceed any further with this part of my history, I must beg leave to detain the reader one minute only, while I attempt to make a sketch of my dear little sister Clara. She was rather fair, with a fine, small, oval, face, sparkling black and speaking eyes, good teeth, pretty red lips, very dark hair, and plenty of it, hanging over her face and neck in curls of every size; her arms and bust were such as Phidias and Praxiteles might have copied; her waist was slender; her hands and feet small and beautiful. I used often to think it was a great pity that such a love as she was should not be matched with some equally good specimen of our sex; and I had long fixed on my friend Talbot as the person best adapted to command this pretty little tight fast-sailing well-rigged smack.Unluckily Clara, with all her charms, had one fault, and that in my eyes was a very serious one. Clara did not love a sailor. The soldiers she doated on. But Clara’s predilections were not easily overcome, and that which had once taken root grew up and flourished. She fancied sailors were not well-bred; that they thought too much of themselves or their ships; and, in short, that they were as rough and unpolished as they were conceited.With such obstinate and long-rooted prejudices against all of our profession it proved no small share of merit in Talbot to overcome them. But as Clara’s love for the army was more general than particular, Talbot had a vacant theatre to fight in. He began by handing her to dinner, and with modest assurance seated himself by her side. But so well was he aware of her failing, that he never once alluded to our unfortunate element; on the contrary, he led her away with every variety of topic which he found best suited to her taste so that she was at last compelled to acknowledge that he might be one exception to her rule, and I took the liberty of hoping that I might be another.One day at dinner Talbot called me “Leander,” which instantly attracted the notice of the ladies, and an explanation was demanded; but for a time it was evaded, and the subject changed. Emily, however, joining together certain imperfect reports which had reached her ears, through the kindness of “some friends of the family,” began to suspect a rival, and the next morning examined me so closely on the subject that, fearing a disclosure from other quarters, I was compelled to make a confession.I told her the whole history of my acquaintance with Eugenia, of my last interview, and of her mysterious departure. I did not even omit the circumstance of her offering me money; but I concealed the probability of her being a mother. I assured her that it was full four years and a half since we had met; and that, as she knew of my engagement, it was unlikely we should ever meet again. “At any rate,” I said, “I shall never seek her; and if accident should throw me in her way, I trust I shall behave like a man of honour.”I did not think it necessary to inform her of the musket-shots fired at me by order of Talbot, as that might have injured him in the estimation of both Emily and Clara. When I had concluded my narrative, Emily sighed and looked very grave. I asked her if she had forgiven me.“Conditionally,” said she, “as you said to the mutineers.”
Such was my brother too,So went he suited to his watery tomb:If spirits can assume both form and suitYou come to fright us.“Twelfth Night.”
Such was my brother too,So went he suited to his watery tomb:If spirits can assume both form and suitYou come to fright us.“Twelfth Night.”
Soon after the frigate which had taken me off from New Providence had parted company with the American prize that I was sent on board of, the crew of the former, it appeared had been boasting among the American prisoners of the prize-money they should receive.
“Not you,” said the Yankees; “you will never see your prize any more, nor any one that went in her.”
These words were repeated to the captain of the frigate, when he questioned the mate and the crew, and the whole nefarious transaction came out. They said the ship was sinking when they left her, and that was the reason they had hurried into the boat. The mate said it was impossible to get at the leaks, which were in the fore peak, and under the cabin deck in the run; that he wondered Captain Green had not made it known, but he supposed he must have been drunk: “The ship,” continued the mate, “must have gone down in twelve hours after we left her.”
This was reported to the Admiralty by my captain, and my poor father was formally acquainted with the fatal story. Five months had elapsed since I was last heard of, and all hopes of my safety had vanished: this was the reason that when I knocked at the door, I found the servant in mourning: he was one who had been hired since my departure, and did not know me. Of course he expressed no surprise at seeing me.
“Good heavens!” said I, “who is dead?”
“My master’s only son, sir,” said the man, “Mr Frank — drowned at sea.”
“Oh! is that all?” said I, “I am glad it’s no worse.”
The man concluded that I was an unfeeling brute, and stared stupidly at me as I brushed by him and ran upstairs to the drawing-room. I ought to have been more guarded; but, as usual, I followed the impulse of my feelings. I opened the door, when I saw my sister sitting at a table in deep mourning, with another young lady whose back was turned towards me. My sister screamed as soon as she saw me. The other lady turned round, and I beheld my Emily, my dear, dear Emily she too was in deep mourning. My sister, after screaming, fell on the floor in a swoon. Emily instantly followed her example, and there they both lay, like two petrified queens in Westminster Abbey. It was a beautiful sight, “pretty, though a plague.”
I was confoundedly frightened myself, and thought I had done a very foolish thing; but as I had no time to lose, I rang the bell furiously, and seeing some jars with fresh flowers in them, I caught them up and poured plentiful libations over the faces and necks of the young ladies; but Emily came in for much the largest share, which proves that I had neither lost my presence of mind nor my love for her.
My sister’s maid, Higgins, was the first to answer the drawing-room bell, which, from its violent ringing, announced some serious event. She came bouncing into the room like a ricochet shot. She was an old acquaintance of mine; I had often kissed her when a boy, and she had just as often boxed my ears. I used to give her a ribbon to tie up her jaw with, telling her at the same time that she had too much of it. This Abigail, like a true lady’s maid, seeing me, whom she thought a ghost, standing bolt upright, and the two ladies stretched out, as she supposed, dead, gave a loud and most interesting scream, ran out of the room for her life, nearly knocking down the footman, whom she met coming in.
This fellow, who was a country lout, the son of one of my father’s tenants, only popped his head into the door, and saw the ladies lying on the carpet; he had probably formed no very good opinion of me from the manner in which I had received the news of my own demise, and seemed very much inclined to act the part of a mandarin, that is, nod his head, and stand still.
“Desire some of the women to come here immediately,” said I; “some one that can be of use; tell them to bring salts, eau de cologne—anything. Fly, blockhead! goose! what do you stand staring at?”
The fellow looked at me, and then at the supposed corpses, which he must have thought I had murdered; and, either thunderstruck, or doubting whether he had any right to obey me, kept his head inside the door and his body outside, as he had been in the pillory. I saw that he required some explanation, and cried out, “I am Mr Frank; will you obey me, or shall I throw this jar at your head?” brandishing one of the china vases.
Had I been inclined to have thrown it I should have missed him, for the fellow was off like a wounded porpoise. Down he ran to my father in the library: “Oh, sir—good news! bad news—good news!”
“What news fool?” said my father, rising hastily from his chair.
“Oh, sir, I don’t know sir; but I believe, sir, Mr Frank is alive again, and both the ladiesisdead.”
My poor father, whose health and constitution had not recovered the shock of my supposed death, tremblingly leaned over his table, on which he rested his two hands, and desired the man to repeat what he had said. This the fellow did, half crying, and my father, easily comprehending the state of things, came upstairs. I would have flown into his arms, but mine were occupied in supporting my sweet Emily, while my poor sister lay senseless on the other side of me; for Clara’s lover was not at hand, and she still lay in abeyance.
By this time “the hands were turned up,” everybody was on the alert, and every living creature in the house, not excepting the dog, had assembled in the drawing-room. The maids that had known me cried and sobbed most piteously, and the newcomer kept them company from sympathy. The coachman, and footman, and groom, all blubbered and stared; and one brought water, and one a basin, and the booby of a footman something else, which I must not name; but in his hurry he had snatched up the first utensil that he thought might be of use; I approved of his zeal, but nodded to him to retire. Unluckily for him, the housemaid perceived the mistake which his absence of thought had led him into; and, snatching the mysterious vessel with her left hand, she hid it under her apron, while with her right hand, she gave the poor fellow such a slap on the cheek as to bring to my mind the tail of the whale descending on the boat at Bermuda.
“You great fool!” said she, “nobody wants that.”
“There is matrimony in that slap!” said I and the event proved I was right—they wereaskedin church the Sunday following.
The industrious application of salts, cold water, and burnt rags, together with chafing of temples, opening of collars, and loosening the stay-laces of the young ladies, produced the happiest effects. Every hand, and every tongue, was in motion; and with all these remedies the eyes of the enchanting Emily opened, and beamed upon me, spreading joy and gladness over the face of creation, like the sun rising out of the bosom of the Atlantic, to cheer the inhabitants of the Antilles after a frightful hurricane. In half an hour, all was right “the guns were secured—we beat the retreat;” the servants retired. I became the centre of the picture. Emily held my right, my father my left; dear Clara hung round my neck. Questions were put and answered as fast as sobs and tears would permit of their being heard. The interlude was filled up with the sweetest kisses from the rosiest of lips and I was in this half hour rewarded for all I had suffered since I had sailed from England in that diabolical brig for Barbadoes.
It was, I own, exceedingly wrong to have taken the house, as it were, by storm, when I knew they were in mourning for me but I forgot that other people did not require the same stimulus as myself. I begged pardon; was kissed again and again, and forgiven. Oh, it was worth while to offend to be forgiven by such lips, and eyes, and dimples. But I am afraid this thought is borrowed from some prose or poetry; if so, the reader must forgive me, and so must the author, who may have it again now I have done with it, for I shall never use it any more.
My narrative was given with as much modesty and brevity as time and circumstances would admit. The coachman was despatched on one of the best carriage-horses express to Mr Somerville, and the mail-coach was loaded with letters to all the friends and connexions of the family.
This ended, each retired to dress for dinner. What a change had one hour wrought in this house of mourning, now suddenly turned into a house of joy! Alas, how often is the picture reversed in human life! The ladies soon reappeared in spotless white, emblems of their pure minds. My father had put off his sables, and the servants came in their usual liveries, which were very splendid.
Dinner being announced, my father handed off Emily; I followed with my sister. Emily, looking over her shoulder, said, “Don’t be jealous, Frank.”
My father laughed, and I vowed revenge for this little satirical hit.
“You know the forfeit,” said I, “and you shall pay it.”
“I am happy to say that I am both able and willing,” said she, and we sat down to dinner, but not before my father had given thanks in a manner more than usually solemn and emphatic. This essential act of devotion, so often neglected, brought tears into the eyes of all. Emily sank into her chair, covered her face with her pocket handkerchief, and relieved herself with tears. Clara did the same. My father shook me by the hand, and said, “Frank, this is a very different kind of repast to what we had yesterday. How little did we know of the happiness that was in store for us!”
The young ladies dried their eyes, but had lost their appetites: in vain did Emily endeavour to manage the tail of a small smelt. I filled a glass of wine to each. “Come,” said I, “in sea phrase, spirits are always more easily stowed away than dry provisions; let us drink each other’s health, and then we shall get on better.”
They took my advice, and it answered the purpose. Our repast was cheerful, but tempered and corrected by a feeling of past sorrow, and a deep sense of great mercies from Heaven.
“If Heaven were every day like this,Then ’twere indeed a Heaven of bliss.”
“If Heaven were every day like this,Then ’twere indeed a Heaven of bliss.”
Reader, I know you have long thought me a vain man—a profligate, unprincipled Don Juan, ready to pray when in danger, and to sin when out of it; but as I have always told you the truth, even when my honour and character were at stake, I expect you will believe me now, when I say a word in my own favour. That I felt gratitude to God for my deliverance and safe return, I do most solemnly aver; my heart was ready to burst with the escape of this feeling, which I suppressed from a false sense of shame, though I never was given much to the melting mood; moreover, I was too proud to show what I thought a weakness, before the great he-fellows of footmen. Had we been in private, I could have fallen down on my knees before that God whom I had so often offended; who had rescued me twice from the jaws of the shark; who had lifted me from the depth of the sea when darkness covered me; who had saved me from the poison and the wreck, and guided me clear of the rock at Trinidad; and who had sent the dog to save me from a horrible death.
These were only a small part of the mercies I had received; but they were the most recent, and consequently had left the deepest impression on my memory. I would have given one of Emily’s approving smiles, much as I valued them, to have been relieved from my oppressed feelings by a hearty flood of tears, and by a solemn act of devotion and thanksgiving; but I felt all this, and that feeling, I hope, was accounted to me for righteousness. For the first time in my life, the love of God was mixed up with a pure and earthly love for Emily, and affection for my family.
The ladies sat with us some time after the cloth was removed, unable to drag themselves away while I related my “hair-breadth escapes.” When I spoke of the incident of trying to save the poor man who fell overboard from the brig—of my holding him by the collar, and being dragged down with him until the sea became dark over my head, Emily could bear it no longer; she jumped up, and falling on her knees, hid her lovely face in my sister’s lap, passionately exclaiming, “Oh, do not, do not, my dear Frank, tell me any more—I cannot bear it—indeed, I cannot bear it.”
We all gathered round her, and supported her to the drawing-room, where we diverted ourselves with lighter and gayer anecdotes. Emily tried a tune on the pianoforte, and attempted a song; but it would not do: she could not sing a gay one, and a melancholy one overpowered her. At twelve o’clock we all retired to our apartments, and before I slept I spent some minutes in devotion, with vows of amendment which I fully intended to keep.
The next morning Mr Somerville joined us at breakfast. This was another trial of feeling for poor Emily, who threw herself into her father’s arms, and sobbed aloud. Mr Somerville shook me most cordially by the hand with both of his, and eagerly demanded the history of my extraordinary adventures, of which I gave him a small abridgment. I had taken the opportunity of an hour’stête-à-têtewith Emily, which Clara had considerately given us before breakfast, to speak of our anticipated union and finding there were no other obstacles than those which are usually raised by “maiden pride and bashful coyness,” so natural, so becoming, and so lovely in the sex, I determined to speak to the greybeards on the subject.
To this Emily at last consented, on my reminding her of my late narrow escapes. As soon, therefore, as the ladies had retired from the dinner-table, I asked my father to fill a bumper to their health; and, having swallowed mine in all the fervency of the most unbounded love, I popped the question to them both. Mr Somerville and my father looked at each other, when the former said,—“You seem to be in a great hurry, Frank.”
“Not greater, sir,” said I, “than the object deserves.” He bowed and my father began—
“I cannot say,” observed the good old gentleman, “that I much approve of matrimony before you are a commander. At least, till then, you are not your own master.”
“Oh, if I am to wait for that, sir,” said I, “I may wait long enough; no man is ever his own master in our service, or in England. The captain is commanded by the admiral, the admiral by the Admiralty, the Admiralty by the Privy Council, the Privy Council by the Parliament, the Parliament by the people, and the people by printers and their devils.”
“I admire your logical chain of causes and effects,” said my father; “but we must, after all, go to thelace manufactoryat Charing-cross, to see if we cannot have your shoulders fitted with a pair of epaulettes. When we can see you command your own sloop of war, I shall be most happy, as I am sure my good friend Somerville will be also, to see you command his daughter, the finest and the best girl in the county of —.”
No arguments could induce the two old gentlemen to bate one inch from thissine quâ non. It was agreed that application should be made to the Admiralty forthwith for my promotion; and when that desirable step was obtained, that then Emily should have the disposal of me for the honeymoon.
All this was a very pretty story for them on the score of prudence, but it did not suit the views of an ardent lover of one-and-twenty; for though I knew my father’s influence was very great at the Admiralty, I also knew that an excellent regulation had recently been promulgated, which prevented any lieutenant being promoted to the rank of commander, until he had served two years at sea from the date of his first commission; nor could any commander, in like manner, be promoted before he had served one year in that capacity. All this was no doubt very good for the service, but I had not yet attained sufficientamor patriaeto prefer the public to myself: and I fairly wished the regulation and the makers of it in the cavern at New Providence just about the time of high-water.
I put it to the ladies whether this was not a case of real distress, after all my hardships and my constancy, to be put off with such an excuse? The answer from the Admiralty was so far favourable, that I was assured I should be promoted as soon as my time was served, of which I then wanted two months. I was appointed to a ship fitting at Woolwich, and before she could be ready for sea my time would be completed, and I was to have my commission as a commander. This was not the way to ensure her speedy equipment, as far as I was concerned; but there was no help for it; and as the ship was at Woolwich, and the residence of my fair one at no great distance, I endeavoured to pass my time, during the interval, between the duties of love and war; between obedience to my captain, and obedience to my mistress; and by great good fortune I contrived to please both, for my captain gave himself no trouble about the ship or her equipment.
Before I proceeded to join, I made one more effort to break through the inflexibility of my father. I said I had undergone the labours of Hercules; and that if I went again on foreign service, I might meet with some young lady who would send me out of the world with a cup of poison, or by some fatal spell break the magical chain which now bound me to Emily. This poetical imagery had no more effect on him than my prose composition. I then appealed to Emily herself. “Surely,” said I, “your heart is not as hard as those of our inflexible parents: surely you will be my advocate on this occasion. Bend but one look of disapprobation on my father with those heavenly blue eyes of yours, and, on my life, he will strike his flag.”
But the gipsy replied, with a smile (instigated, no doubt, from head-quarters), that she did not like the idea of her name appearing in theMorning Postas the bride of a lieutenant. “What’s a lieutenant nowadays?” said she—“nobody. I remember when I was on a visit at Fareham, I used to go to Portsmouth to see the dockyard and the ships, and there was your great friend the tall admiral, Sir Hurricane Humbug, I think you call him, driving the poor lieutenants about like so many sheep before a dog; there was always one at his heels, like a running footman; and there was another that appeared to me to be chained, like a mastiff, to the door of the admiral’s office, except when the admiral and family walked out, and then he brought up the rear with the governess. No, Frank, I shall not surrender at discretion, with all my charms, to anything less than a captain, with a pair of gold epaulettes.”
“Very well,” replied I, looking into the pier-glass, with tolerable self-complacency; “if you choose to pin your happiness on the promises of a first lord of the Admiralty and a pair of epaulettes, I can say no more. There is no accounting for female taste; some ladies prefer gold lace and wrinkles, to youth and beauty—I am sorry for them all, that’s all.”
“Frank,” said Emily, “you must acknowledge that you are vain enough to be an admiral at least.”
“The admirals are much obliged to you for the compliment,” said I. “I trust I should not disgrace the flag, come when it will; but to tell you the truth, my dear Emily, I cannot say I look forward to that elevation with any degree of satisfaction. Three stars on each shoulder, and three rows of gold lace round the cuff, are no compensation, in my eyes, for grey hairs, thin legs, a broken back, a church-yard cough, and to be laughed at or pitied by all the pretty girls in the country into the bargain.”
“I am sorry for you, my hero,” said the young lady: “but you must submit.”
“Well, then, if I must, I must,” said I; “but give me a kiss in the meantime.”
I asked for one, and took a hundred, and should have taken a hundred more, but the confounded butler came in, and brought me a letter on service, which was neither more nor less than an order to join my ship forthwith:sic transit, etcetera.
Pocketing my disappointment with as muchsang froidas I could muster, I continued to beguile the time and to solace myself for my past sufferings, by as much enjoyment as could be compressed into the small space of leisure time allotted to me. Fortunately, the first lieutenant of the frigate was what we used to call a “hard officer:” he never went on shore, because he had few friends and less money. He drew for his pay on the day it became due, and it lasted till the next day of payment; and as I found he doated on a Spanish cigar, and acorrectglass of cognac grog—for he never drank to excess—I presented him with a box of the former, and a dozen of the latter, to enable him to bear my nightly absence with Christian composure.
As soon as the day’s work was ended, the good-natured lieutenant used to say, “Come, Mr Mildmay, I know what it is to be in love; I was once in love myself, though it is a good many years ago, and I am sure I shall get into the good graces of your Polly (for so he called Emily), if I send you to her arms. There is the jolly for you: send the boat off as soon as you have landed, and be with us at nine to-morrow morning, to meet the midshipman and the working party in the dockyard.”
All this was perfectly agreeable to me. I generally got to Mr Somerville’s temporary residence on Blackheath by the time the dressing-bell rang, and never failed to meet a pleasant party at dinner. My father and dear Clara were guests in the house as well as myself. By Mr Somerville’s kind permission, I introduced Talbot, who, being a perfect gentleman in his manners, a man of sound sense, good education, and high aristocratic connections, I was proud to call my friend. I presented him particularly to my sister, and took an opportunity of whispering in Emily’s ear, where I knew it would not long remain, that he possessed the indispensable qualification of two epaulettes. “Therefore,” said I, “pray do not trust yourself too near him, for fear you should be taken by surprise, like theTrue-blooded Yankee.”
Talbot, knowing that Emily was bespoken, paid her no more than the common attentions which courtesy demands; but to Clara his demeanour was very different: and her natural attractions were much enhanced in his eyes by the friendship which we had entertained for each other ever since the memorable affair of swimming away from the ship at Spithead; from that time he used jocularly to call me “Leander.”
But before I proceed any further with this part of my history, I must beg leave to detain the reader one minute only, while I attempt to make a sketch of my dear little sister Clara. She was rather fair, with a fine, small, oval, face, sparkling black and speaking eyes, good teeth, pretty red lips, very dark hair, and plenty of it, hanging over her face and neck in curls of every size; her arms and bust were such as Phidias and Praxiteles might have copied; her waist was slender; her hands and feet small and beautiful. I used often to think it was a great pity that such a love as she was should not be matched with some equally good specimen of our sex; and I had long fixed on my friend Talbot as the person best adapted to command this pretty little tight fast-sailing well-rigged smack.
Unluckily Clara, with all her charms, had one fault, and that in my eyes was a very serious one. Clara did not love a sailor. The soldiers she doated on. But Clara’s predilections were not easily overcome, and that which had once taken root grew up and flourished. She fancied sailors were not well-bred; that they thought too much of themselves or their ships; and, in short, that they were as rough and unpolished as they were conceited.
With such obstinate and long-rooted prejudices against all of our profession it proved no small share of merit in Talbot to overcome them. But as Clara’s love for the army was more general than particular, Talbot had a vacant theatre to fight in. He began by handing her to dinner, and with modest assurance seated himself by her side. But so well was he aware of her failing, that he never once alluded to our unfortunate element; on the contrary, he led her away with every variety of topic which he found best suited to her taste so that she was at last compelled to acknowledge that he might be one exception to her rule, and I took the liberty of hoping that I might be another.
One day at dinner Talbot called me “Leander,” which instantly attracted the notice of the ladies, and an explanation was demanded; but for a time it was evaded, and the subject changed. Emily, however, joining together certain imperfect reports which had reached her ears, through the kindness of “some friends of the family,” began to suspect a rival, and the next morning examined me so closely on the subject that, fearing a disclosure from other quarters, I was compelled to make a confession.
I told her the whole history of my acquaintance with Eugenia, of my last interview, and of her mysterious departure. I did not even omit the circumstance of her offering me money; but I concealed the probability of her being a mother. I assured her that it was full four years and a half since we had met; and that, as she knew of my engagement, it was unlikely we should ever meet again. “At any rate,” I said, “I shall never seek her; and if accident should throw me in her way, I trust I shall behave like a man of honour.”
I did not think it necessary to inform her of the musket-shots fired at me by order of Talbot, as that might have injured him in the estimation of both Emily and Clara. When I had concluded my narrative, Emily sighed and looked very grave. I asked her if she had forgiven me.
“Conditionally,” said she, “as you said to the mutineers.”
Chapter Twenty Three.In all states of Europe, there are a set of men who assume from their infancy a pre-eminence independent of their moral character. The attention paid to them from the moment of their birth, gives them the idea that they are formed for command, and they soon learn to consider themselves a distinct species and, being secure of a certain rank and station, take no pains to make themselves worthy of it.Raynal.It is now time to make my reader acquainted with my new ship and new captain. The first was a frigate of the largest class, built on purpose to cope with the large double-banked frigates of the Yankees. She carried thirty long twenty-four pounders on her main deck, and the same number of forty-two pound carronades on her quarter gangways and forecastle.I had been a week on board, doing duty during the day, and flirting on shore, at Mr Somerville’s at Blackheath, during the evening. I had seen no captain yet, and the first lieutenant had gone on shore one morning to stretch his legs. I was commanding officer; the people were all at their dinner; it was a drizzling soft rain, and I was walking the quarter-deck by myself, when a shore-boat came alongside with a person in plain-clothes. I paid him no attention, supposing him to be a wine-merchant or a slop-seller come to ask permission to serve the ship. The stranger looked at the dirty man-ropes which the side-boy held off to him, and inquired if there was not a clean pair? The lad replied in the negative; and the stranger, perceiving there was no remedy, took hold of the dirty ropes and ascended the side.Reaching the quarter-deck, he came up to me, and showing a pair of sulphur-coloured gloves bedaubed with tar and dirt, angrily observed, “By G—, sir, I have spoiled a new pair of gloves.”“I always take my gloves off when I come up the side,” said I.“But I choose to keep mine on,” said the stranger. “And why could not I have had a pair of clean ropes?”“Because,” said I, “my orders are only to give them when the side is piped.”“And why was not the side piped for me, sir?”“Because, sir, we never pipe the side until we know who it is for.”“As sure as I shall sit in the House of Peers, I will report you to your captain for this,” said he.“We only pipe the side for officers in uniform,” said I; “and I am yet to learn by what right you demand that honour.”“I am, sir,” said he, (showing his card), ”—, etcetera. Do you know me now?”“Yes, sir,” said I, “as a gentleman; but until I see you in a captain’s uniform I cannot give you the honours you demand.” As I said this, I touched my hat respectfully.“Then, sir,” said he, “as sure as I shall sit in the House of Peers, I shall let you know more of this;” and having asked whether the captain was on board, and received an answer in the negative, he turned round, and went down the side into his boat, without giving me an opportunity of supplying him with a pair of clean ropes. He pulled away for the shore, and I never heard anything more of the dirty ropes and soiled gloves.This officer, I afterwards learned, was in the habit of interlarding his discourse with this darling object of his ambition; but as he is now a member of the Upper House, it is to be supposed he has exchanged the affidavit for some other. While he commanded a ship he used to say, “As sure as I shall sit in the House of Peers, I will flog you, my man;” and when this denunciation had passed his lips the punishment was never remitted. With us, the reverse of this became our by-word; lieutenants, midshipmen, sailors, and marines asserted their claim to veracity by saying, “As sure as I shallnotsit in the House of Peers.”This was the noble lord who, when in command of one of His Majesty’s ships in China, employed a native of that country to take his portrait. The resemblance not having been flattering, the artist was sharply rebuked by his patron. The poor man replied, “Oh no, master, how can handsome face make if handsome face no have got?” This story has, like many other good stories, been pirated, and applied to other cases; but I claim it as the legitimate property of the navy, and can vouch for its origin as I have related.My mess-mates dropped in one after another until our number was completed; and at length a note, in an envelope addressed to the first lieutenant “on service,” and marked on the lower left-hand corner with the name of the noble writer, announced that our captain would make his appearance on the following day. We were of course prepared to receive him in our full uniforms, with our cocked-hats and swords, with the marine guard under arms. He came alongside at half-past twelve o’clock, when the men were at dinner, an unusual hour to select, as it is not the custom ever to disturb them at their meals if it can be avoided. He appeared in a sort of undress frock-coat, fall-down-collar, anchor buttons, no epaulettes, and a lancer’s cap, with a broad gold band.This was not correct, but as he was a lord he claimed privilege; and on this rock of privilege we found afterwards that he always perched himself on every occasion. We were all presented to him, and to each he condescended to give a nod. His questions were all confined to the first lieutenant, and all related to his own comforts. “Where is my steward to lie—where is my valet to sleep—where is my cow-pen—and where are my sheep to be?” We discovered, when he had been one hour in our company, that his noble self was the god of his idolatry. As for the details of the ship and her crew, masts, rigging, stowage, provisions, the water she would carry, and how much she drew, they were subjects on which he never fatigued his mind.One hour having expired since he had come on board, he ordered his boat and returned to the shore, and we saw no more of him, until we arrived at Spithead, when his lordship came on board, accompanied by a person whom we soon discovered was a half-pay purser in the navy—a man who by dint of the grossest flattery and numerous little attentions had so completely ingratiated himself with his patron that he had become as necessary an appendage to the travelling equipage as the portmanteau or the valet-de-chambre. This despicable toady was his lordship’s double; he was the living type of Gnatho of Terence; and I never saw him without remembering the passage that ends “Si negat, id quoque nego.” Black was white, and white was black with toady, if his lordship pleased; he messed in the cabin, did much mischief in the ship, and only escaped kicking because he was too contemptible to be kicked.My fair readers are no doubt anxious to know how I parted with Emily, and truly I am not unwilling to oblige them, though it is, indeed, a tender subject. As soon as we received our orders to proceed to Spithead, Mr Somerville, who had kept his house at Blackheath while the ship was fitting, in hopes that my promotion might have taken place before she was ready, now prepared to quit the place to the renewed application of my father, the answer was that I must go abroad for my promotion. This at once decided him to break up his summer quarters, very wisely foreseeing that unless he did so my services would be lost to my ship; and if he and Emily did not leave me behind at Woolwich I should probably be left behind by my captain: he therefore announced his intended departure within twenty-four hours.Emily was very sorry, and so was I. I kindly reproached her with her cruelty; but she replied with a degree of firmness and good sense, which I could not but admire, that she had but one counsellor and that was her father, and that until she was married she never intended to have any other; that by his advice she had delayed the union: and as we were neither of us very old people, “I trust in God,” said she, “we may meet again.” I admired her heroism, gave her one kiss, handed her into her carriage, and we shook hands. I need not say I saw a tear or two in her eyes. Mr Somerville saw the shower coming on, pulled up the glass, gave me a friendly nod, and the carriage drove off. The last I saw of Emily, at that time, was her right hand, which carried her handkerchief to her eyes.After the dear inmates were gone, I turned from the door of the house in disgust, and ran direct to my boat, like a dog with a tin-kettle. When I got on board I hated the sight of everybody and the smell of everything; pitch, paint, bilge-water, tar, and rum, entering into horrible combination, had conspired against me, and I was as sick and as miserable as the most lovesick seaman can conceive. I have before observed that we had arrived at Spithead, and as I have nothing new to say of that place, I shall proceed to sea.We sailed for the North American station, the pleasantest I could go to when away from Emily. Our passage was tedious, and we were put on short allowance of water. Those only who have known it will understand it. All felt it but the captain, who, claiming privilege, took a dozen gallons every day to bathe his feet in, and that water when done with was greedily sought for by the men. There was some murmuring about it which came to the captain’s ears, who only observed with an apathy peculiar to Almack’s—“you know, if a man has no privilege, what’s the use of being a captain?”“Very true, my lord,” said the toad-eater, with a low bow.I will now give a short description of his lordship. He was a smart, dapper, well made man, with a handsome, but not an intellectual countenance; cleanly and particular in his person; and, assisted by the puffs of toady, had a very good opinion of himself; proud of his aristocratic birth, and still more vain of his personal appearance. His knowledge on most points was superficial—high life, and anecdotes connected with it, were the usual topics of his discourse; at his own table he generally engrossed all the conversation; and while his guests drank his wine, “they laughed with counterfeited glee,” etcetera. His reading was comprised in two volumes octavo, being the Memoirs of the Count de Grammont, which amusing and aristocratical work was never out of his hand. He had been many years at sea, but, strange to say, knew nothing, literally nothing, of his profession. Seamanship, navigation, and everything connected with the service, he was perfectly ignorant of. I had heard him spoken of as a good officer before he joined us; and I must in justice to him say that he was naturally good-tempered, and I believe as brave a man as ever drew a sword.He seldom made any professional remark being aware of his deficiency, and never ventured beyond his depth intentionally. When he came on the quarter-deck, he usually looked to the weather main-brace, and if it was not as taut as a hat would order it to be made so. Here he could not easily commit himself; but it became a by-word with us when we laughed at him below. He had a curious way of forgetting, or pretending to forget, the names of men and things—I presume because they were so much beneath him; and in their stead substituted the elegant phrases of “what’s-his-name,” and “what-do-ye-call-’em,” and “thingumbob.”One day he went on deck, and actually gave me the following very intelligible order: “Mr What’s-his-name, have the goodness to—what-do-ye-call-’em—the—the thingumbob.”“Ay, ay, my lord!” said I. “Afterguard, haul taut the weather main-brace!” This was exactly what he meant.He was very particular and captious when not properly addressed. When an order is given by a commanding officer, it is not unusual to say, “Very good, sir;” implying that you perfectly understand, and are going cheerfully to obey it. I had adopted this answer, and gave it to his lordship when I received an order from him, saying, “Very good, my lord.”“Mr Mildmay,” said his lordship, “I don’t suppose you mean anything like disrespect, but I will thank you not to make that answer again: it is formeto say ‘very good,’ and not you. You seem to approve of my order, and I don’t like it; I beg you will not do it again, you know.”“Very good, my lord,” said I, so inveterate is habit. “I beg your lordship’s pardon, I mean ‘very well.’”“I don’t much like that young man,” said his lordship to his toady, who followed him up and down the quarter-deck like “the bobtail cur,” looking his master in the face. I did not hear the answer, but of course it was an echo.The first time we reefed topsails at sea, the captain was on deck: he said nothing, but merely looked on. The second time, we found he had caught all the words of the first lieutenant, and repeated them in a loud and pompous voice, without knowing whether they were applicable to the case or not. The third time he fancied he was able to go alone, and down he fell—he made a sad mistake indeed. “Hoist away the fore-topsail,” said the first lieutenant. “Hoist away the fore-topsail,” said the captain. The men were stamping aft, and the topsail-yards travelling up to the mast-head very fast, when they were stopped by a sudden check with the fore-topsail haulyards.“What’s the matter?” said the first lieutenant, calling to me, who was at my station on the forecastle.“Something foul of the topsail-tie,” I replied.“What’s the matter forward?” said the captain.“Topsail-tie is foul, my lord,” answered the first lieutenant.“Damn the topsail-tie!—cut it away. Out knife there, aloft! Iwillhave the topsail hoisted; cut away the topsail-tie!”For the information of my land readers, I should observe that the topsail-tie was the very rope which was at that moment suspending the yard aloft. The cutting it would have disabled the ship until it could have been repaired; and had the order been obeyed, the topsail-yard itself would, in all probability, have been sprung, or broken in two on the cap.We arrived at Halifax without falling in with an enemy; and as soon as the ship was secured, I went on shore to visit all my dear Dulcineas, every one of whom I persuaded that on her account alone I had used my utmost interest to be sent out on the station. Fortunately for them and for me, I was not long permitted to trifle away my time. We were ordered to cruise on the coast of North America. It was winter and very cold; we encountered many severe gales of wind, during which we suffered much from the frequent and sudden snow-storms, north-east gales, and sharp frosts, which rendered our running-rigging almost unmanageable, and obliged us to pour boiling water into the sheaves of the blocks to thaw them, and allow the ropes to traverse; nor did the cold permit the captain to honour us with his presence on deck more than once in the twenty-four hours.We anchored off a part of the coast which was not in a state of defence, and the people, being unprotected by their own government, considered themselves as neutrals, and supplied us with as much fish, poultry, and vegetables as we required. While we lay here, the captain and officers frequently went on shore for a short time without molestation. One night, after the captain had returned, a snow-storm and a gale of wind came on. The captain’s gig, which ought to have been hoisted up, was not; she broke her painter and went adrift, and had been gone some time before she was missed. The next morning, on making inquiry, it was found that the boat had drifted on shore a few miles from where we lay; and that having been taken possession of by the Americans, they had removed her to a hostile part of the coast, twenty-two miles off. The captain was very much annoyed at the loss of his boat, which he considered as his own private property, although built on board by the king’s men, and with the king’s plank and nails.“As my private property,” said his lordship, “it ought to be given up, you know.”I did not tell him that I had seen the sawyers cutting an anchor-stock into the plank of which it was built, and that the said plank had been put down to other services in the expense-book. This, however, was no business of mine; nor had I any idea that the loss of this little boat would so nearly produce my final catastrophe; so it was, however, and very serious results took place in consequence of this accident.“Theymustrespect private property, you know,” said the captain to the first lieutenant.“Yes,” answered the lieutenant; “but they do not know that it is private property.”“Very true: then I will send and tell them so;” and down he went to his dinner.The yawl was ordered to be got ready, and hoisted out at daylight, and I had notice given me that I was to go away in her. About nine o’clock the next morning, I was sent for into the cabin; his lordship was still in bed, and the green silk curtains were drawn close round his cot.“Mr Thingamy,” said his lordship, “you will take the what’s-his-name, you know.”“Yes, my lord,” said I.“And you will go to that town, and ask for my thingumbob.”“For your gig, my lord?” said I.“Yes—that’s all.”“But, my lord, suppose they won’t give it to me?”“Then take it.”“Suppose the gig is not there, my lord; and if there, suppose they refuse to give it up?”“Then take every vessel out of the harbour.”“Very well, my lord.—Am I to put the gun in the boat—or to take muskets only?”“Oh, no—no arms—take a flag of truce—Number 8 (white flag) will do.”“Suppose they will not accept the flag of truce, my lord?”“Oh, but they will: they always respect a flag of truce, you know.”“I beg your lordship’s pardon, but I think a few muskets in the boat would be of service.”“No, no, no—no arms! You will be fighting about nothing. You have your orders, sir.”“Yes,” thinks I, “I have. If I succeed, I am a robber; if I fail, I am liable to be hanged on the first tree.”I left the cabin, and went to the first lieutenant. I told him what my orders were. This officer was, as I before observed, a man who had no friends, and was therefore entirely dependent on the captain for his promotion, and was afraid to act contrary to his lordship’s orders, however absurd. I told him that, whatever might be the captain’s orders, I would not go without arms.“The orders of his lordship must be obeyed,” said the lieutenant.“Why,” said I, irritated at this folly, “you are as clever a fellow as the skipper.”This he considered so great an affront, that he ran down to his cabin, saying, “You shall hear from me again for this, sir.”I concluded that he meant to try me by a court-martial, to which I had certainly laid myself open by this unguarded expression; but I went on the quarter-deck, and, during his absence, got as many muskets into the boat as I wanted, with a proper proportion of ammunition. This was hardly completed, before the lieutenant came up again, and put a letter into my hands; which was no more than the very comfortable intelligence, that, on my return from the expedition on which I was then going, he should expect satisfaction for the affront I had offered him. I was glad, however, to find it was no worse. I laughed at his threat; and, as the very head and front of my offending was only having compared him to the captain, he could not show any resentment openly, for fear of displeasing his patron. In short, to be offended at it, was to offer the greatest possible affront to the man he looked up to for promotion, and thus destroy all his golden prospects.As I put this well-timed challenge into my pocket, I walked down the side, got into my boat, and put off. It wanted but one hour of sunset when I reached the part where this infernal gig was supposed to be, and the sky gave strong indications of an approaching gale. Indeed, I do not believe another captain in the navy could have been found who, at such a season of the year, would have risked a boat so far from the ship, on an enemy’s coast and a lee-shore, for such a worthless object.My crew consisted of twenty men and a midshipman. When we arrived off the mouth of the harbour, we perceived four vessels lying at anchor, and pulled directly in. We had, however, no opportunity of trying our flag of truce, for as soon as we came within range of musket-shot a volley from two hundred concealed militiamen struck down four of my men. There was then nothing left for it but to board, and bring out the vessels. Two of them were aground, and we set them on fire, it being dead low water (thanks to the delay in the morning): in doing this, we had more men wounded. I then took possession of the other two vessels, and giving one of them in charge of the midshipman, who was quite a lad, I desired him to weigh his anchor. I gave him the boat with all the men except four whom I kept with me. The poor fellow probably lost more men, for he cut his cable, and got out before me. I weighed my anchor, but had one of my men killed by a musket-ball in doing it. I stood out after the midshipman. We had gained an offing of four miles, when a violent gale and snow-storm came on. The sails belonging to the vessel all blew to rags immediately, being very old. I had no resource except to anchor, which I did on a bank, in five fathom water. The other vessel lost all her sails, and, having no anchor, as I then conjectured and afterwards learned, drifted on shore and was dashed to pieces, the people being either frozen to death, wounded, or taken prisoners.The next morning I could see the vessel lying on shore a wreck, covered with ice. A dismal prospect to me, as at that time I knew not what had become of the men. My own situation was even less enviable; the vessel was frail, and deeply laden with salt: a cargo, which, if it by any means gets wet, is worse than water, since it cannot be pumped out, and becomes as heavy as lead; nothing could, in that event, have kept the vessel afloat, and we had no boat in case of such an accident. I had three men with me, besides the dead body in the cabin, and a pantry as clear as an empty house—not an article of any description to eat. I was four miles from the shore in a heavy gale of wind, the pleasure of which was enhanced by snow and the bitterest cold I ever experienced. We proceeded to examine the vessel, and found that there was on board a quantity of sails and canvas that did not fit, but had been bought with an intention of making up for this vessel, and not before she wanted them; there was also an abundance of palms, needles, and twine: but to eat there was nothing except salt, and to drink nothing but one cask of fresh water. We kindled a fire in the cabin, and made ourselves as warm as we could, taking a view on deck now and then to see if she drove or if the gale abated. She pitched heavily, taking in whole seas over the forecastle, and the water froze on the deck. The next morning we found we had drifted a mile nearer to the shore, and the gale continued with unabated violence. The other vessel lay a wreck, with her masts gone, and as it werein terrorem, staring us in the face.We felt the most pinching hunger; we had no fuel after the second day, except what we pulled down from the bulkheads of the cabin. We amused ourselves below, making a suit of sails for the vessel, and drinking hot water to repel the cold. But this work could not have lasted long; the weather became more intensely cold, and twice did we set the prize on fire in our liberality with the stove to keep ourselves warm. The ice formed on the surface of the water in our kettle, till it was dissolved by the heat from the bottom. The second night passed like the first; and we found, in the morning, that we had drifted within two miles of the shore. We completed our little sails this day, and with great difficulty contrived to bend them.The men were now exhausted with cold and hunger, and proposed that we should cut our cable and run on shore; but I begged them to wait till the next morning, as these gales seldom lasted long. This they agreed to: and we again huddled together to keep ourselves warm, the outside man pulling the dead man close to him by way of a blanket. The gale this night moderated, and towards the morning the weather was fine, although the wind was against us, and to beat her up to the ship was impossible. From the continued freezing of the water the bobstays and the rigging were coated with ice five or six inches thick, and the forecastle was covered with two feet of clear ice, showing the ropes coiled underneath it.There was no more to be done: so, desiring the men to cut the cable, I made up my mind to run the vessel on shore and give myself up. We hoisted the foresail, and I stood in with the intention of surrendering myself and people at a large town which I knew was situated about twelve miles farther on the coast. To have given myself up at the place where the vessels had been captured I did not think would have been prudent.When we made sail on the third morning, we had drifted within half a mile of the shore, and very near the place we had left. Field-pieces had been brought down against us. They had the range but they could not reach us. I continued to make more sail, and to creep along shore, until I came within a few cables length of the pier, where men, women, and children were assembled to see us land; when suddenly a snow-storm came on; the wind shifted, and blew with such violence that I could neither see the port, nor turn the vessel to windward into it; and as I knew I could not hold my own, and that the wind was fair for our ship, then distant about forty miles, we agreed to up helm and scud for her.This was well executed. About eleven at night we hailed her, and asked for a boat. They had seen us approaching, and a boat instantly came, taking us all on board the frigate, and leaving some fresh hands in charge of the prize.I was mad with hunger and cold, and with difficulty did we get up the side, so exhausted and feeble were the whole of us. I was ordered down into the cabin, for it was too cold for the captain to show his face on deck. I found his lordship sitting before a good fire, with his toes in the grate; a decanter of Madeira stood on the table, with a wine-glass, and most fortunately, though not intended for my use, a large rummer. This I seized with one hand and the decanter with the other; and, filling a bumper, swallowed it in a moment, without even drinking his lordship’s good health. He stared, and I believe thought me mad. I certainly do own that my dress and appearance perfectly corresponded with my actions. I had not been washed, shaved, or “cleaned,” I since had left the ship, three days before. My beard was grown, my cheeks hollow, my eyes sunk, and for my stomach, I leave that to those fortunate Frenchmen who escaped from the Russian campaign, who only can appreciate my sufferings. My whole haggard frame was enveloped in a huge blue flushing coat frosted like a plum-cake with ice and snow.As soon as I could speak, I said, “I beg pardon, my lord, but I have had nothing to eat or drink since I left the ship.”“Oh,thenyou are very welcome,” said his lordship; “I never expected to see you again.”“Then why the devil did you send me?” thought I to myself.During this short dialogue, I had neither been offered a chair or any refreshment, of which I stood so much in need; and if I had been able, should have been kept standing while I related my adventures. I was about to commence, when the wine got into my head; and to support myself, I leaned, or rather staggered, on the back of a chair.“Never mind now,” said the captain, apparently moved from his listless apathy by my situation; “go and make yourself comfortable, and I will hear it all to-morrow.”This was the only kind thing he had ever done for me; and it came soà proposthat I felt grateful to him for it, thanked him, and went below to the gun-room, where, notwithstanding all I had heard and read of the dangers of repletion after long abstinence, I ate voraciously and drank proportionately, ever and anon telling my astonished mess-mates, who were looking on, what a narrow escape the dead body had of being dissected and broiled. This, from the specimen of my performance, they had no difficulty in believing. I recommended the three men who had been with me to the care of the surgeon; and, with his permission, presented each of them with a pint of hot brandy and water well sweetened, by way of a night-cap. Having taken these precautions, and satisfied the cravings of nature on my own part, as well as the cravings of curiosity on that of my mess-mates, I went to bed and slept soundly till the next day at noon.Thus ended this anomalous and fatal expedition: an ambassador sent with the sacred emblem of peace, to commit an act of hostility under its protection. To have been taken under such circumstances, would have subjected us to be hanged like dogs on the first tree; to have gone unarmed would have been an act of insanity, and I therefore took upon me to disobey an unjust and absurd order. This, however, must not be pleaded as an example to juniors, but a warning to seniors how they give orders without duly weighing the consequences:The safest plan is always to obey. Thus did his Majesty’s service lose eighteen fine fellows, under much severe suffering, for a boat, “theprivateproperty” of the captain, not worth twenty pounds.The next day, as soon as I was dressed, the first lieutenant sent to speak to me. I then recollected the little affair of the challenge. “A delightful after-piece,” thought I, “to the tragedy, to be shot by the first lieutenant only for calling him as clever a fellow as the captain.” The lieutenant, however, had no such barbarous intentions; he had seen and acknowledged the truth of my observation, and, being a well-meaning north-countryman, he offered me his hand, which I took with pleasure, having had quite enough of stimulus for that time.
In all states of Europe, there are a set of men who assume from their infancy a pre-eminence independent of their moral character. The attention paid to them from the moment of their birth, gives them the idea that they are formed for command, and they soon learn to consider themselves a distinct species and, being secure of a certain rank and station, take no pains to make themselves worthy of it.Raynal.
In all states of Europe, there are a set of men who assume from their infancy a pre-eminence independent of their moral character. The attention paid to them from the moment of their birth, gives them the idea that they are formed for command, and they soon learn to consider themselves a distinct species and, being secure of a certain rank and station, take no pains to make themselves worthy of it.Raynal.
It is now time to make my reader acquainted with my new ship and new captain. The first was a frigate of the largest class, built on purpose to cope with the large double-banked frigates of the Yankees. She carried thirty long twenty-four pounders on her main deck, and the same number of forty-two pound carronades on her quarter gangways and forecastle.
I had been a week on board, doing duty during the day, and flirting on shore, at Mr Somerville’s at Blackheath, during the evening. I had seen no captain yet, and the first lieutenant had gone on shore one morning to stretch his legs. I was commanding officer; the people were all at their dinner; it was a drizzling soft rain, and I was walking the quarter-deck by myself, when a shore-boat came alongside with a person in plain-clothes. I paid him no attention, supposing him to be a wine-merchant or a slop-seller come to ask permission to serve the ship. The stranger looked at the dirty man-ropes which the side-boy held off to him, and inquired if there was not a clean pair? The lad replied in the negative; and the stranger, perceiving there was no remedy, took hold of the dirty ropes and ascended the side.
Reaching the quarter-deck, he came up to me, and showing a pair of sulphur-coloured gloves bedaubed with tar and dirt, angrily observed, “By G—, sir, I have spoiled a new pair of gloves.”
“I always take my gloves off when I come up the side,” said I.
“But I choose to keep mine on,” said the stranger. “And why could not I have had a pair of clean ropes?”
“Because,” said I, “my orders are only to give them when the side is piped.”
“And why was not the side piped for me, sir?”
“Because, sir, we never pipe the side until we know who it is for.”
“As sure as I shall sit in the House of Peers, I will report you to your captain for this,” said he.
“We only pipe the side for officers in uniform,” said I; “and I am yet to learn by what right you demand that honour.”
“I am, sir,” said he, (showing his card), ”—, etcetera. Do you know me now?”
“Yes, sir,” said I, “as a gentleman; but until I see you in a captain’s uniform I cannot give you the honours you demand.” As I said this, I touched my hat respectfully.
“Then, sir,” said he, “as sure as I shall sit in the House of Peers, I shall let you know more of this;” and having asked whether the captain was on board, and received an answer in the negative, he turned round, and went down the side into his boat, without giving me an opportunity of supplying him with a pair of clean ropes. He pulled away for the shore, and I never heard anything more of the dirty ropes and soiled gloves.
This officer, I afterwards learned, was in the habit of interlarding his discourse with this darling object of his ambition; but as he is now a member of the Upper House, it is to be supposed he has exchanged the affidavit for some other. While he commanded a ship he used to say, “As sure as I shall sit in the House of Peers, I will flog you, my man;” and when this denunciation had passed his lips the punishment was never remitted. With us, the reverse of this became our by-word; lieutenants, midshipmen, sailors, and marines asserted their claim to veracity by saying, “As sure as I shallnotsit in the House of Peers.”
This was the noble lord who, when in command of one of His Majesty’s ships in China, employed a native of that country to take his portrait. The resemblance not having been flattering, the artist was sharply rebuked by his patron. The poor man replied, “Oh no, master, how can handsome face make if handsome face no have got?” This story has, like many other good stories, been pirated, and applied to other cases; but I claim it as the legitimate property of the navy, and can vouch for its origin as I have related.
My mess-mates dropped in one after another until our number was completed; and at length a note, in an envelope addressed to the first lieutenant “on service,” and marked on the lower left-hand corner with the name of the noble writer, announced that our captain would make his appearance on the following day. We were of course prepared to receive him in our full uniforms, with our cocked-hats and swords, with the marine guard under arms. He came alongside at half-past twelve o’clock, when the men were at dinner, an unusual hour to select, as it is not the custom ever to disturb them at their meals if it can be avoided. He appeared in a sort of undress frock-coat, fall-down-collar, anchor buttons, no epaulettes, and a lancer’s cap, with a broad gold band.
This was not correct, but as he was a lord he claimed privilege; and on this rock of privilege we found afterwards that he always perched himself on every occasion. We were all presented to him, and to each he condescended to give a nod. His questions were all confined to the first lieutenant, and all related to his own comforts. “Where is my steward to lie—where is my valet to sleep—where is my cow-pen—and where are my sheep to be?” We discovered, when he had been one hour in our company, that his noble self was the god of his idolatry. As for the details of the ship and her crew, masts, rigging, stowage, provisions, the water she would carry, and how much she drew, they were subjects on which he never fatigued his mind.
One hour having expired since he had come on board, he ordered his boat and returned to the shore, and we saw no more of him, until we arrived at Spithead, when his lordship came on board, accompanied by a person whom we soon discovered was a half-pay purser in the navy—a man who by dint of the grossest flattery and numerous little attentions had so completely ingratiated himself with his patron that he had become as necessary an appendage to the travelling equipage as the portmanteau or the valet-de-chambre. This despicable toady was his lordship’s double; he was the living type of Gnatho of Terence; and I never saw him without remembering the passage that ends “Si negat, id quoque nego.” Black was white, and white was black with toady, if his lordship pleased; he messed in the cabin, did much mischief in the ship, and only escaped kicking because he was too contemptible to be kicked.
My fair readers are no doubt anxious to know how I parted with Emily, and truly I am not unwilling to oblige them, though it is, indeed, a tender subject. As soon as we received our orders to proceed to Spithead, Mr Somerville, who had kept his house at Blackheath while the ship was fitting, in hopes that my promotion might have taken place before she was ready, now prepared to quit the place to the renewed application of my father, the answer was that I must go abroad for my promotion. This at once decided him to break up his summer quarters, very wisely foreseeing that unless he did so my services would be lost to my ship; and if he and Emily did not leave me behind at Woolwich I should probably be left behind by my captain: he therefore announced his intended departure within twenty-four hours.
Emily was very sorry, and so was I. I kindly reproached her with her cruelty; but she replied with a degree of firmness and good sense, which I could not but admire, that she had but one counsellor and that was her father, and that until she was married she never intended to have any other; that by his advice she had delayed the union: and as we were neither of us very old people, “I trust in God,” said she, “we may meet again.” I admired her heroism, gave her one kiss, handed her into her carriage, and we shook hands. I need not say I saw a tear or two in her eyes. Mr Somerville saw the shower coming on, pulled up the glass, gave me a friendly nod, and the carriage drove off. The last I saw of Emily, at that time, was her right hand, which carried her handkerchief to her eyes.
After the dear inmates were gone, I turned from the door of the house in disgust, and ran direct to my boat, like a dog with a tin-kettle. When I got on board I hated the sight of everybody and the smell of everything; pitch, paint, bilge-water, tar, and rum, entering into horrible combination, had conspired against me, and I was as sick and as miserable as the most lovesick seaman can conceive. I have before observed that we had arrived at Spithead, and as I have nothing new to say of that place, I shall proceed to sea.
We sailed for the North American station, the pleasantest I could go to when away from Emily. Our passage was tedious, and we were put on short allowance of water. Those only who have known it will understand it. All felt it but the captain, who, claiming privilege, took a dozen gallons every day to bathe his feet in, and that water when done with was greedily sought for by the men. There was some murmuring about it which came to the captain’s ears, who only observed with an apathy peculiar to Almack’s—“you know, if a man has no privilege, what’s the use of being a captain?”
“Very true, my lord,” said the toad-eater, with a low bow.
I will now give a short description of his lordship. He was a smart, dapper, well made man, with a handsome, but not an intellectual countenance; cleanly and particular in his person; and, assisted by the puffs of toady, had a very good opinion of himself; proud of his aristocratic birth, and still more vain of his personal appearance. His knowledge on most points was superficial—high life, and anecdotes connected with it, were the usual topics of his discourse; at his own table he generally engrossed all the conversation; and while his guests drank his wine, “they laughed with counterfeited glee,” etcetera. His reading was comprised in two volumes octavo, being the Memoirs of the Count de Grammont, which amusing and aristocratical work was never out of his hand. He had been many years at sea, but, strange to say, knew nothing, literally nothing, of his profession. Seamanship, navigation, and everything connected with the service, he was perfectly ignorant of. I had heard him spoken of as a good officer before he joined us; and I must in justice to him say that he was naturally good-tempered, and I believe as brave a man as ever drew a sword.
He seldom made any professional remark being aware of his deficiency, and never ventured beyond his depth intentionally. When he came on the quarter-deck, he usually looked to the weather main-brace, and if it was not as taut as a hat would order it to be made so. Here he could not easily commit himself; but it became a by-word with us when we laughed at him below. He had a curious way of forgetting, or pretending to forget, the names of men and things—I presume because they were so much beneath him; and in their stead substituted the elegant phrases of “what’s-his-name,” and “what-do-ye-call-’em,” and “thingumbob.”
One day he went on deck, and actually gave me the following very intelligible order: “Mr What’s-his-name, have the goodness to—what-do-ye-call-’em—the—the thingumbob.”
“Ay, ay, my lord!” said I. “Afterguard, haul taut the weather main-brace!” This was exactly what he meant.
He was very particular and captious when not properly addressed. When an order is given by a commanding officer, it is not unusual to say, “Very good, sir;” implying that you perfectly understand, and are going cheerfully to obey it. I had adopted this answer, and gave it to his lordship when I received an order from him, saying, “Very good, my lord.”
“Mr Mildmay,” said his lordship, “I don’t suppose you mean anything like disrespect, but I will thank you not to make that answer again: it is formeto say ‘very good,’ and not you. You seem to approve of my order, and I don’t like it; I beg you will not do it again, you know.”
“Very good, my lord,” said I, so inveterate is habit. “I beg your lordship’s pardon, I mean ‘very well.’”
“I don’t much like that young man,” said his lordship to his toady, who followed him up and down the quarter-deck like “the bobtail cur,” looking his master in the face. I did not hear the answer, but of course it was an echo.
The first time we reefed topsails at sea, the captain was on deck: he said nothing, but merely looked on. The second time, we found he had caught all the words of the first lieutenant, and repeated them in a loud and pompous voice, without knowing whether they were applicable to the case or not. The third time he fancied he was able to go alone, and down he fell—he made a sad mistake indeed. “Hoist away the fore-topsail,” said the first lieutenant. “Hoist away the fore-topsail,” said the captain. The men were stamping aft, and the topsail-yards travelling up to the mast-head very fast, when they were stopped by a sudden check with the fore-topsail haulyards.
“What’s the matter?” said the first lieutenant, calling to me, who was at my station on the forecastle.
“Something foul of the topsail-tie,” I replied.
“What’s the matter forward?” said the captain.
“Topsail-tie is foul, my lord,” answered the first lieutenant.
“Damn the topsail-tie!—cut it away. Out knife there, aloft! Iwillhave the topsail hoisted; cut away the topsail-tie!”
For the information of my land readers, I should observe that the topsail-tie was the very rope which was at that moment suspending the yard aloft. The cutting it would have disabled the ship until it could have been repaired; and had the order been obeyed, the topsail-yard itself would, in all probability, have been sprung, or broken in two on the cap.
We arrived at Halifax without falling in with an enemy; and as soon as the ship was secured, I went on shore to visit all my dear Dulcineas, every one of whom I persuaded that on her account alone I had used my utmost interest to be sent out on the station. Fortunately for them and for me, I was not long permitted to trifle away my time. We were ordered to cruise on the coast of North America. It was winter and very cold; we encountered many severe gales of wind, during which we suffered much from the frequent and sudden snow-storms, north-east gales, and sharp frosts, which rendered our running-rigging almost unmanageable, and obliged us to pour boiling water into the sheaves of the blocks to thaw them, and allow the ropes to traverse; nor did the cold permit the captain to honour us with his presence on deck more than once in the twenty-four hours.
We anchored off a part of the coast which was not in a state of defence, and the people, being unprotected by their own government, considered themselves as neutrals, and supplied us with as much fish, poultry, and vegetables as we required. While we lay here, the captain and officers frequently went on shore for a short time without molestation. One night, after the captain had returned, a snow-storm and a gale of wind came on. The captain’s gig, which ought to have been hoisted up, was not; she broke her painter and went adrift, and had been gone some time before she was missed. The next morning, on making inquiry, it was found that the boat had drifted on shore a few miles from where we lay; and that having been taken possession of by the Americans, they had removed her to a hostile part of the coast, twenty-two miles off. The captain was very much annoyed at the loss of his boat, which he considered as his own private property, although built on board by the king’s men, and with the king’s plank and nails.
“As my private property,” said his lordship, “it ought to be given up, you know.”
I did not tell him that I had seen the sawyers cutting an anchor-stock into the plank of which it was built, and that the said plank had been put down to other services in the expense-book. This, however, was no business of mine; nor had I any idea that the loss of this little boat would so nearly produce my final catastrophe; so it was, however, and very serious results took place in consequence of this accident.
“Theymustrespect private property, you know,” said the captain to the first lieutenant.
“Yes,” answered the lieutenant; “but they do not know that it is private property.”
“Very true: then I will send and tell them so;” and down he went to his dinner.
The yawl was ordered to be got ready, and hoisted out at daylight, and I had notice given me that I was to go away in her. About nine o’clock the next morning, I was sent for into the cabin; his lordship was still in bed, and the green silk curtains were drawn close round his cot.
“Mr Thingamy,” said his lordship, “you will take the what’s-his-name, you know.”
“Yes, my lord,” said I.
“And you will go to that town, and ask for my thingumbob.”
“For your gig, my lord?” said I.
“Yes—that’s all.”
“But, my lord, suppose they won’t give it to me?”
“Then take it.”
“Suppose the gig is not there, my lord; and if there, suppose they refuse to give it up?”
“Then take every vessel out of the harbour.”
“Very well, my lord.—Am I to put the gun in the boat—or to take muskets only?”
“Oh, no—no arms—take a flag of truce—Number 8 (white flag) will do.”
“Suppose they will not accept the flag of truce, my lord?”
“Oh, but they will: they always respect a flag of truce, you know.”
“I beg your lordship’s pardon, but I think a few muskets in the boat would be of service.”
“No, no, no—no arms! You will be fighting about nothing. You have your orders, sir.”
“Yes,” thinks I, “I have. If I succeed, I am a robber; if I fail, I am liable to be hanged on the first tree.”
I left the cabin, and went to the first lieutenant. I told him what my orders were. This officer was, as I before observed, a man who had no friends, and was therefore entirely dependent on the captain for his promotion, and was afraid to act contrary to his lordship’s orders, however absurd. I told him that, whatever might be the captain’s orders, I would not go without arms.
“The orders of his lordship must be obeyed,” said the lieutenant.
“Why,” said I, irritated at this folly, “you are as clever a fellow as the skipper.”
This he considered so great an affront, that he ran down to his cabin, saying, “You shall hear from me again for this, sir.”
I concluded that he meant to try me by a court-martial, to which I had certainly laid myself open by this unguarded expression; but I went on the quarter-deck, and, during his absence, got as many muskets into the boat as I wanted, with a proper proportion of ammunition. This was hardly completed, before the lieutenant came up again, and put a letter into my hands; which was no more than the very comfortable intelligence, that, on my return from the expedition on which I was then going, he should expect satisfaction for the affront I had offered him. I was glad, however, to find it was no worse. I laughed at his threat; and, as the very head and front of my offending was only having compared him to the captain, he could not show any resentment openly, for fear of displeasing his patron. In short, to be offended at it, was to offer the greatest possible affront to the man he looked up to for promotion, and thus destroy all his golden prospects.
As I put this well-timed challenge into my pocket, I walked down the side, got into my boat, and put off. It wanted but one hour of sunset when I reached the part where this infernal gig was supposed to be, and the sky gave strong indications of an approaching gale. Indeed, I do not believe another captain in the navy could have been found who, at such a season of the year, would have risked a boat so far from the ship, on an enemy’s coast and a lee-shore, for such a worthless object.
My crew consisted of twenty men and a midshipman. When we arrived off the mouth of the harbour, we perceived four vessels lying at anchor, and pulled directly in. We had, however, no opportunity of trying our flag of truce, for as soon as we came within range of musket-shot a volley from two hundred concealed militiamen struck down four of my men. There was then nothing left for it but to board, and bring out the vessels. Two of them were aground, and we set them on fire, it being dead low water (thanks to the delay in the morning): in doing this, we had more men wounded. I then took possession of the other two vessels, and giving one of them in charge of the midshipman, who was quite a lad, I desired him to weigh his anchor. I gave him the boat with all the men except four whom I kept with me. The poor fellow probably lost more men, for he cut his cable, and got out before me. I weighed my anchor, but had one of my men killed by a musket-ball in doing it. I stood out after the midshipman. We had gained an offing of four miles, when a violent gale and snow-storm came on. The sails belonging to the vessel all blew to rags immediately, being very old. I had no resource except to anchor, which I did on a bank, in five fathom water. The other vessel lost all her sails, and, having no anchor, as I then conjectured and afterwards learned, drifted on shore and was dashed to pieces, the people being either frozen to death, wounded, or taken prisoners.
The next morning I could see the vessel lying on shore a wreck, covered with ice. A dismal prospect to me, as at that time I knew not what had become of the men. My own situation was even less enviable; the vessel was frail, and deeply laden with salt: a cargo, which, if it by any means gets wet, is worse than water, since it cannot be pumped out, and becomes as heavy as lead; nothing could, in that event, have kept the vessel afloat, and we had no boat in case of such an accident. I had three men with me, besides the dead body in the cabin, and a pantry as clear as an empty house—not an article of any description to eat. I was four miles from the shore in a heavy gale of wind, the pleasure of which was enhanced by snow and the bitterest cold I ever experienced. We proceeded to examine the vessel, and found that there was on board a quantity of sails and canvas that did not fit, but had been bought with an intention of making up for this vessel, and not before she wanted them; there was also an abundance of palms, needles, and twine: but to eat there was nothing except salt, and to drink nothing but one cask of fresh water. We kindled a fire in the cabin, and made ourselves as warm as we could, taking a view on deck now and then to see if she drove or if the gale abated. She pitched heavily, taking in whole seas over the forecastle, and the water froze on the deck. The next morning we found we had drifted a mile nearer to the shore, and the gale continued with unabated violence. The other vessel lay a wreck, with her masts gone, and as it werein terrorem, staring us in the face.
We felt the most pinching hunger; we had no fuel after the second day, except what we pulled down from the bulkheads of the cabin. We amused ourselves below, making a suit of sails for the vessel, and drinking hot water to repel the cold. But this work could not have lasted long; the weather became more intensely cold, and twice did we set the prize on fire in our liberality with the stove to keep ourselves warm. The ice formed on the surface of the water in our kettle, till it was dissolved by the heat from the bottom. The second night passed like the first; and we found, in the morning, that we had drifted within two miles of the shore. We completed our little sails this day, and with great difficulty contrived to bend them.
The men were now exhausted with cold and hunger, and proposed that we should cut our cable and run on shore; but I begged them to wait till the next morning, as these gales seldom lasted long. This they agreed to: and we again huddled together to keep ourselves warm, the outside man pulling the dead man close to him by way of a blanket. The gale this night moderated, and towards the morning the weather was fine, although the wind was against us, and to beat her up to the ship was impossible. From the continued freezing of the water the bobstays and the rigging were coated with ice five or six inches thick, and the forecastle was covered with two feet of clear ice, showing the ropes coiled underneath it.
There was no more to be done: so, desiring the men to cut the cable, I made up my mind to run the vessel on shore and give myself up. We hoisted the foresail, and I stood in with the intention of surrendering myself and people at a large town which I knew was situated about twelve miles farther on the coast. To have given myself up at the place where the vessels had been captured I did not think would have been prudent.
When we made sail on the third morning, we had drifted within half a mile of the shore, and very near the place we had left. Field-pieces had been brought down against us. They had the range but they could not reach us. I continued to make more sail, and to creep along shore, until I came within a few cables length of the pier, where men, women, and children were assembled to see us land; when suddenly a snow-storm came on; the wind shifted, and blew with such violence that I could neither see the port, nor turn the vessel to windward into it; and as I knew I could not hold my own, and that the wind was fair for our ship, then distant about forty miles, we agreed to up helm and scud for her.
This was well executed. About eleven at night we hailed her, and asked for a boat. They had seen us approaching, and a boat instantly came, taking us all on board the frigate, and leaving some fresh hands in charge of the prize.
I was mad with hunger and cold, and with difficulty did we get up the side, so exhausted and feeble were the whole of us. I was ordered down into the cabin, for it was too cold for the captain to show his face on deck. I found his lordship sitting before a good fire, with his toes in the grate; a decanter of Madeira stood on the table, with a wine-glass, and most fortunately, though not intended for my use, a large rummer. This I seized with one hand and the decanter with the other; and, filling a bumper, swallowed it in a moment, without even drinking his lordship’s good health. He stared, and I believe thought me mad. I certainly do own that my dress and appearance perfectly corresponded with my actions. I had not been washed, shaved, or “cleaned,” I since had left the ship, three days before. My beard was grown, my cheeks hollow, my eyes sunk, and for my stomach, I leave that to those fortunate Frenchmen who escaped from the Russian campaign, who only can appreciate my sufferings. My whole haggard frame was enveloped in a huge blue flushing coat frosted like a plum-cake with ice and snow.
As soon as I could speak, I said, “I beg pardon, my lord, but I have had nothing to eat or drink since I left the ship.”
“Oh,thenyou are very welcome,” said his lordship; “I never expected to see you again.”
“Then why the devil did you send me?” thought I to myself.
During this short dialogue, I had neither been offered a chair or any refreshment, of which I stood so much in need; and if I had been able, should have been kept standing while I related my adventures. I was about to commence, when the wine got into my head; and to support myself, I leaned, or rather staggered, on the back of a chair.
“Never mind now,” said the captain, apparently moved from his listless apathy by my situation; “go and make yourself comfortable, and I will hear it all to-morrow.”
This was the only kind thing he had ever done for me; and it came soà proposthat I felt grateful to him for it, thanked him, and went below to the gun-room, where, notwithstanding all I had heard and read of the dangers of repletion after long abstinence, I ate voraciously and drank proportionately, ever and anon telling my astonished mess-mates, who were looking on, what a narrow escape the dead body had of being dissected and broiled. This, from the specimen of my performance, they had no difficulty in believing. I recommended the three men who had been with me to the care of the surgeon; and, with his permission, presented each of them with a pint of hot brandy and water well sweetened, by way of a night-cap. Having taken these precautions, and satisfied the cravings of nature on my own part, as well as the cravings of curiosity on that of my mess-mates, I went to bed and slept soundly till the next day at noon.
Thus ended this anomalous and fatal expedition: an ambassador sent with the sacred emblem of peace, to commit an act of hostility under its protection. To have been taken under such circumstances, would have subjected us to be hanged like dogs on the first tree; to have gone unarmed would have been an act of insanity, and I therefore took upon me to disobey an unjust and absurd order. This, however, must not be pleaded as an example to juniors, but a warning to seniors how they give orders without duly weighing the consequences:
The safest plan is always to obey. Thus did his Majesty’s service lose eighteen fine fellows, under much severe suffering, for a boat, “theprivateproperty” of the captain, not worth twenty pounds.
The next day, as soon as I was dressed, the first lieutenant sent to speak to me. I then recollected the little affair of the challenge. “A delightful after-piece,” thought I, “to the tragedy, to be shot by the first lieutenant only for calling him as clever a fellow as the captain.” The lieutenant, however, had no such barbarous intentions; he had seen and acknowledged the truth of my observation, and, being a well-meaning north-countryman, he offered me his hand, which I took with pleasure, having had quite enough of stimulus for that time.