The Two Admirals (14 page)

"Oh! mother, he is a delightful old gentleman! and he is so gentle,
while he is so frank, that he wins your confidence almost before you
know it. I wonder if he could have been serious in what he said about
the noble daring and noble deserving of Prince Edward!"

"That must pass for trifling, of course; the ministry would scarcely
employ any but a true whig, in command of a fleet. I saw several of his
family, when a girl, and have always heard them spoken of with esteem
and respect. Lord Bluewater, this gentleman's cousin, was very intimate
with the present Lord Wilmeter, and was often at the castle. I remember
to have heard that he had a disappointment in love, when quite a young
man, and that he has ever since been considered a confirmed bachelor. So
you will take heed, my love."

"The warning was unnecessary, dear mother," returned Mildred, laughing;
"I could dote on the admiral as a father, but must be excused from
considering him young enough for a nearer tie."

"And yet he has the much admired profession, Mildred," said the mother,
smiling fondly, and yet a little archly. "I have often heard you speak
of your passion for the sea."

"That was formerly, mother, when I spoke as a sailor's daughter, and as
girls are apt to speak, without much reflection. I do not know that I
think better of a seaman's profession, now, than I do of any other. I
fear there is often much misery in store for soldiers' and sailors'
wives."

Mrs. Dutton's lip quivered again; but hearing a foot at the door, she
made an effort to be composed, just as Admiral Bluewater entered.

"I have run away from the bottle, Mrs. Dutton, to join you and your fair
daughter, as I would run from an enemy of twice my force," he said,
giving each lady a hand, in a manner so friendly, as to render the act
more than gracious; for it was kind. "Oakes is bowsing out his jib with
his brother baronet, as we sailors say, and I have hauled out of the
line, without a signal."

"I hope Sir Gervaise Oakes does not consider it necessary to drink more
wine than is good for the mind and body," observed Mrs. Dutton, with a
haste that she immediately regretted.

"Not he. Gervaise Oakes is as discreet a man, in all that relates to the
table, as an anchorite; and yet he has a faculty of
seeming
to drink,
that makes him a boon companion for a four-bottle man. How the deuce he
does it, is more than I can tell you; but he does it so well, that he
does not more thoroughly get the better of the king's enemies, on the
high seas, than he floors his friends under the table. Sir Wycherly has
begun his libations in honour of the house of Hanover, and they will be
likely to make a long sitting."

Mrs. Dutton sighed, and walked away to a window, to conceal the paleness
of her cheeks. Admiral Bluewater, though perfectly abstemious himself,
regarded license with the bottle after dinner, like most men of that
age, as a very venial weakness, and he quietly took a seat by the side
of Mildred, and began to converse.

"I hope, young lady, as a sailor's child, you feel an hereditary
indulgence for a seaman's gossip," he said. "We, who are so much shut up
in our ships, have a poverty of ideas on most subjects; and as to always
talking of the winds and waves, that would fatigue even a poet."

"As a sailor's daughter, I honour my father's calling, sir; and as an
English girl, I venerate the brave defenders of the island. Nor do I
know that seamen have less to say, than other men."

"I am glad to hear you confess this, for—shall I be frank with you, and
take a liberty that would better become a friend of a dozen years, than
an acquaintance of a day;—and, yet, I know not why it is so, my dear
child, but I feel as if I had long known you, though I am certain we
never met before."

"Perhaps, sir, it is an omen that we are long to know each other, in
future," said Mildred, with the winning confidence of unsuspecting and
innocent girlhood. "I hope you will use no reserve."

"Well, then, at the risk of making a sad blunder, I will just say, that
'my nephew Tom' is any thing but a prepossessing youth; and that I hope
all eyes regard him exactly as he appears to a sailor of fifty-five."

"I cannot answer for more than those of a girl of nineteen, Admiral
Bluewater," said Mildred, laughing; "but, for her, I think I may say
that she does not look on him as either an Adonis, or a Crichton."

"Upon my soul! I am right glad to hear this, for the fellow has
accidental advantages enough to render him formidable. He is the heir to
the baronetcy, and this estate, I believe?"

"I presume he is. Sir Wycherly has no other nephew—or at least this is
the eldest of three brothers, I am told—and, being childless himself,
it
must
be so. My father tells me Sir Wycherly speaks of Mr. Thomas
Wychecombe as his future heir."

"Your father!—Ay, fathers look on these matters with eyes very
different from their daughters!"

"There is one thing about seamen that renders them at least safe
acquaintances," said Mildred, smiling; "I mean their frankness."

"That is a failing of mine, as I have heard. But you will pardon an
indiscretion that arises in the interest I feel in yourself. The eldest
of three brothers—is the lieutenant, then, a younger son?"

"
He
does not belong to the family at all, I believe," Mildred
answered, colouring slightly, in spite of a resolute determination to
appear unconcerned. "Mr. Wycherly Wychecombe is no relative of our host,
I hear; though he bears both of his names. He is from the colonies; born
in Virginia."

"
He
is a noble, and a noble-looking fellow! Were I the baronet, I
would break the entail, rather than the acres should go to that
sinister-looking nephew, and bestow them on the namesake. From Virginia,
and not even a relative, at all?"

"That is what Mr. Thomas Wychecombe says; and even Sir Wycherly confirms
it. I have never heard Mr. Wycherly Wychecombe speak on the subject,
himself."

"A weakness of poor human nature! The lad finds an honourable, ancient,
and affluent family here, and has not the courage to declare his want of
affinity to it; happening to bear the same name."

Mildred hesitated about replying; but a generous feeling got the better
of her diffidence. "I have never seen any thing in the conduct of Mr.
Wycherly Wychecombe to induce me to think that he feels any such
weakness," she said, earnestly. "He seems rather to take pride in, than
to feel ashamed of, his being a colonial; and you know, we, in England,
hardly look on the people of the colonies as our equals."

"And have you, young lady, any of that overweening prejudice in favour
of your own island?"

"I hope not; but I think most persons have. Mr. Wycherly Wychecombe
admits that Virginia is inferior to England, in a thousand things; and
yet he seems to take pride in his birth-place."

"Every sentiment of this nature is to be traced to self. We know that
the fact is irretrievable, and struggle to be proud of what we cannot
help. The Turk will tell you he has the honour to be a native of
Stamboul; the Parisian will boast of his Faubourg; and the cockney
exults in Wapping. Personal conceit lies at the bottom of all; for we
fancy that places to which
we
belong, are not places to be ashamed
of."

"And yet I do not think Mr. Wycherly at all remarkable for conceit. On
the contrary, he is rather diffident and unassuming."

This was said simply, but so sincerely, as to induce the listener to
fasten his penetrating blue eye on the speaker, who now first took the
alarm, and felt that she might have said too much. At this moment the
two young men entered, and a servant appeared to request that Admiral
Bluewater would do Sir Gervaise Oakes the favour to join him, in the
dressing-room of the latter.

Tom Wychecombe reported the condition of the dinner-table to be such, as
to render it desirable for all but three and four-bottle men to retire.
Hanoverian toasts and sentiments were in the ascendant, and there was
every appearance that those who remained intended to make a night of it.
This was sad intelligence for Mrs. Dutton, who had come forward eagerly
to hear the report, but who now returned to the window, apparently
irresolute as to the course she ought to take. As both the young men
remained near Mildred, she had sufficient opportunity to come to her
decision, without interruption, or hindrance.

—"Somewhat we will do.
And, look, when I am king, claim thou of me
The earldom of Hereford, and all the moveables
Whereof the king my brother was possessed."

RICHARD III.

Rear-Admiral Bluewater found Sir Gervaise Oakes pacing a large
dressing-room, quarter-deck fashion, with as much zeal, as if just
released from a long sitting, on official duty, in his own cabin. As the
two officers were perfectly familiar with each other's personal habits,
neither deviated from his particular mode of indulging his ease; but the
last comer quietly took his seat in a large chair, disposing of his
person in a way to show he intended to consult his comfort, let what
would happen.

"Bluewater," commenced Sir Gervaise, "this is a very foolish affair of
the Pretender's son, and can only lead to his destruction. I look upon
it as altogether unfortunate."

"That, as it may terminate. No man can tell what a day, or an hour, may
bring forth. I am sure, such a rising was one of the last things
I
have been anticipating, down yonder, in the Bay of Biscay."

"I wish, with all my heart, we had never left it," muttered Sir
Gervaise, so low that his companion did not hear him. Then he added, in
a louder tone, "
Our
duty, however, is very simple. We have only to
obey orders; and it seems that the young man has no naval force to
sustain him. We shall probably be sent to watch Brest, or l'Orient, or
some other port. Monsieur must be kept in, let what will happen."

"I rather think it would be better to let him out, our chances on the
high seas being at least as good as his own. I am no friend to
blockades, which strike me as an un-English mode of carrying on a war."

"You are right enough, Dick, in the main," returned Sir Gervaise,
laughing.

"Ay, and
on
the main, Oakes. I sincerely hope the First Lord will not
send a man like you, who are every way so capable of giving an account
of your enemy with plenty of sea-room, on duly so scurvy as a blockade."

"A man like
me
! Why a man like
me
in particular? I trust I am to
have the pleasure of Admiral Bluewater's company, advice and
assistance?"

"An inferior never can know, Sir Gervaise, where it may suit the
pleasure of his superiors to order him."

"That distinction of superior and inferior, Bluewater, will one day lead
you into a confounded scrape, I fear. If you consider Charles Stuart
your sovereign, it is not probable that orders issued by a servant of
King George will be much respected. I hope you will do nothing hastily,
or without consulting your oldest and truest friend!"

"You know my sentiments, and there is little use in dwelling on them,
now. So long as the quarrel was between my own country and a foreign
land, I have been content to serve; but when my lawful prince, or his
son and heir, comes in this gallant and chivalrous manner, throwing
himself, as it might be, into the very arms of his subjects, confiding
all to their loyalty and spirit; it makes such an appeal to every nobler
feeling, that the heart finds it difficult to repulse. I could have
joined Norris, with right good will, in dispersing and destroying the
armament that Louis XV. was sending against us, in this very cause; but
here every thing is English, and Englishmen have the quarrel entirely to
themselves. I do not see how, as a loyal subject of my hereditary
prince, I can well refrain from joining his standard."

"And would
you
, Dick Bluewater, who, to my certain knowledge, were
sent on board ship at twelve years of age, and who, for more than forty
years, have been a man-of-war's-man, body and soul; would you now strip
your old hulk of the sea-blue that has so long covered and become it,
rig yourself out like a soldier, with a feather in your hat,—ay,
d—e, and a camp-kettle on your arm, and follow a drummer, like one of
your kinsmen, Lord Bluewater's fellows of the guards?—for of sailors,
your lawful prince, as you call him, hasn't enough to stopper his
conscience, or to whip the tail of his coat, to keep it from being torn
to tatters by the heather of Scotland. If you
do
follow the
adventurer, it must be in some such character, since I question if he
can muster a seaman, to tell him the bearings of London from Perth."

"When I join him, he will be better off."

"And what could even
you
do alone, among a parcel of Scotchmen,
running about their hills under bare poles? Your signals will not
manoeuvre regiments, and as for manoeuvring in any other manner, you
know nothing. No—no; stay where you are, and help an old friend with
knowledge that is useful to him.—I should be afraid to do a dashing
thing, unless I felt the certainty of having you in my van, to strike
the first blow; or in my rear, to bring me off, handsomely.

"You would be afraid of nothing, Gervaise Oakes, whether I stood at your
elbow, or were off in Scotland. Fear is not your failing, though
temerity may be."

"Then I want your presence to keep me within the bounds of reason," said
Sir Gervaise, stopping short in his walk, and looking his friend
smilingly in the face. "In some mode, or other, I always need your aid."

"I understand the meaning of your words, Sir Gervaise, and appreciate
the feeling that dictates them. You must have a perfect conviction that
I will do nothing hastily, and that I will betray no trust. When I turn
my back on King George, it will be loyalty, in one sense, whatever he
may think of it in another; and when I join Prince Charles Edward, it
will be with a conscience that he need not be ashamed to probe. What
names he bears! They are the designations of ancient English sovereigns,
and ought of themselves, to awaken the sensibilities of Englishmen."