The Two Admirals (39 page)

"I fear I am a wolf in sheep's clothing," he said; "while Oakes admits
the happiness he feels in seeing his ship ploughing through a raging
sea, in a dark night, he maintains that my rapture is sought in a
hurricane. I do not plead guilty to the accusation, but I will allow
there is a sort of fierce delight in participating, as it might be, in a
wild strife of the elements. To me, my very nature seems changed at such
moments, and I forget all that is mild and gentle. That comes of having
lived so much estranged from your sex, my dear; desolate bachelor, as I
am."

"Do you think sailors ought to marry?" asked Mildred, with a steadiness
that surprised herself; for, while she put the question, consciousness
brought the blood to her temples.

"I should be sorry to condemn a whole profession, and that one I so well
love, to the hopeless misery of single life. There are miseries peculiar
to the wedded lives of both soldiers and sailors; but are there not
miseries peculiar to those who never separate? I have heard seamen
say—men, too, who loved their wives and families—that they believed
the extreme pleasure of meetings after long separations, the delights of
hope, and the zest of excited feelings, have rendered their years of
active service more replete with agreeable sensations, than the stagnant
periods of peace. Never having been married myself, I can only speak on
report."

"Ah! this may be so with
men
; but—surely—surely—
women
never can
feel thus!"

"I suppose, a sailor's daughter yourself, you know Jack's account of his
wife's domestic creed! 'A good fire, a clean hearth, the children abed,
and the husband at sea,' is supposed to be the climax of felicity."

"This may do for the sailor's jokes, Admiral Bluewater," answered
Mildred, smiling; "but it will hardly ease a breaking heart. I fear from
all I have heard this afternoon, and from the sudden sailing of the
ships, that a great battle is at hand?"

"And why should you, a British officer's daughter, dread that? Have you
so little faith in us, as to suppose a battle will necessarily bring
defeat! I have seen much of my own profession, Miss Dutton, and trust I
am in some small degree above the rhodomontade of the braggarts; but it
is
not
usual for us to meet the enemy, and to give those on shore
reason to be ashamed of the English flag. It has never yet been my luck
to meet a Frenchman who did not manifest a manly desire to do his
country credit; and I have always felt that we must fight hard for him
before we could get him; nor has the result ever disappointed me. Still,
fortune, or skill, or
right
, is commonly of our side, and has given us
the advantage in the end."

"And to which, sir, do you ascribe a success at sea, so very uniform?"

"As a Protestant, I ought to say to our
religion
; but, this my own
knowledge of Protestant
vices
rejects. Then to say
fortune
would be
an exceeding self-abasement—one, that between us, is not needed; and I
believe I must impute it to skill. As plain seamen, I do believe we are
more expert than most of our neighbours; though I am far from being
positive we have any great advantage over them in tactics. If any, the
Dutch are our equals."

"Notwithstanding, you are quite certain of success. It must be a great
encouragement to enter into the fight with a strong confidence in
victory! I suppose—that is, it seems to me—it is a matter of course,
sir,—that our new Sir Wycherly will not be able to join in the battle,
this time?"

Mildred spoke timidly, and she endeavoured to seem unconcerned; but
Bluewater read her whole heart, and pitied the pain which she had
inflicted on herself, in asking the question. It struck him, too, that a
girl of his companion's delicacy and sensibility would not thus advert
to the young man's movements at all, if the latter had done aught justly
to awaken censure; and this conviction greatly relieved his mind as to
the effect of sudden elevation on the handsome lieutenant. As it was
necessary to answer, however, lest Mildred might detect his
consciousness of her feelings, not a moment was lost before making a
reply.

"It is not an easy matter to prevent a young, dashing sailor, like this
Sir Wycherly Wychecombe, from doing his part in a general engagement,
and that, too, of the character of the one to which we are looking
forward," he said. "Oakes has left the matter in my hands; I suppose I
shall have to grant the young man's request."

"He has then requested to be received in your ship?" asked Mildred, her
hand shaking as she used the spoon it held.

"That of course. No one who wears the uniform could or would do less. It
seems a ticklish moment for him to quit Wychecombe, too; where I fancy
he will have a battle of his own to fight ere long; but professional
feeling will overshadow all others, in young men. Among us seamen, it is
said to be even stronger than love."

Mildred made no answer; but her pale cheek and quivering lips, evidences
of feeling that her artlessness did not enable her to conceal, caused
Bluewater again to regret the remark. With a view to restore the poor
girl to her self-command, he changed the subject of conversation, which
did not again advert to Wycherly. The remainder of the meal was
consequently eaten in peace, the admiral manifesting to the last,
however, the sudden and generous interest he had taken in the character
and welfare of his companion. When they rose from table, Mildred joined
her mother, and Bluewater walked out upon the cliffs again.

It was now evening, and the waste of water that lay stretched before the
eye, though the softness of summer was shed upon it, had the wild and
dreary aspect that the winds and waves lend to a view, as the light of
day is about to abandon the ocean to the gloom of night. All this had no
effect on Bluewater, however, who knew that two-decked ships, strongly
manned, with their heavy canvass reduced, would make light work of
worrying through hours of darkness that menaced no more than these.
Still the wind had freshened, and when he stood on the verge of the
cliff sustained by the breeze, which pressed him back from the
precipice, rendering his head more steady, and his footing sure, the
Elizabeth was casting, under close-reefed top-sails, and two reefs in her
courses, with a heavy stay-sail or two, to ease her helm. He saw that the
ponderous machine would stagger under even this short canvass, and that
her captain had made his dispositions for a windy night. The lights that
the Dover and the York carried in their tops were just beginning to be
visible in the gathering gloom, the last about a league and a half down
channel, the ship standing in that direction to get to windward, and the
former, more to the southward, the vessel having already tacked to
follow the admiral. A chain of lights connected the whole of the long
line, and placed the means of communication in the power of the
captains. At this moment, the Plantagenet was full fifty miles at sea,
ploughing through a heavy south-west swell, which the wind was driving
into the chops of the channel, from the direction of the Bay of Biscay,
and the broad Atlantic.

Bluewater buttoned his coat, and he felt his frame invigorated by a gale
that came over his person, loaded by the peculiar flavour of the sea.
But two of the heavy ships remained at their anchors, the Dublin and the
Cæsar; and his experienced eye could see that Stowel had every thing on
board the latter ready to trip and be off, as soon as he, himself,
should give the order. At this moment the midshipman, who had been
absent for hours, returned, and stood again at his side.

"Our turn will soon come, sir," said the gallant boy, "and, for one, I
shall not be sorry to be in motion. Those chaps on board the Plantagenet
will swagger like so many Dons, if they should happen to get a broadside
at Monsieur de Vervillin, while we are lying here, under the shore, like
a gentleman's yacht hauled into a bay, that the ladies might eat without
disturbing their stomachs."

"Little fear of that, Geoffrey. The Active is too light of foot,
especially in the weather we have had, to suffer heavy ships to be so
close on her heels. She must have had some fifteen or twenty miles the
start, and the French have been compelled to double Cape la Hogue and
Alderney, before they could even look this way. If coming down channel
at all, they are fully fifty miles to the eastward; and should our van
stretch far enough by morning to head them off, it will bring us
handsomely to windward. Sir Gervaise never set a better trap, than he
has done this very day. The Elizabeth has her hands full, boy, and the
wind seems to be getting scant for her. If it knock her off much more,
it will bring the flood on her weather-bow, and compel her to tack. This
will throw the rear of our line into confusion!"

"What should we do, sir, in such a case? It would never answer to leave
poor Sir Jarvy out there, by himself!"

"We would try not to do
that
!" returned Bluewater, smiling at the
affectionate solicitude of the lad, a solicitude that caused him
slightly to forget his habitual respect for the commander-in-chief, and
to adopt the
sobriquet
of the fleet. "In such a case, it would become
my duty to collect as many ships as I could, and to make the best of our
way towards the place where we might hope to fall in with the others, in
the morning. There is little danger of losing each other, for any length
of time, in these narrow waters, and I have few apprehensions of the
French being far enough west, to fall in with our leading vessels before
morning. If they
should
, indeed, Geoffrey—"

"Ay, sir, if they
should
, I know well enough what would come to pass!"

"What, boy?—On the supposition that Monsieur de Vervillin
did
meet
with Sir Gervaise by day-break, what, in your experienced eyes, seem
most likely to be the consequences?"

"Why, sir, Sir Jarvy, would go at 'em, like a dolphin at a flying-fish;
and if he
should
really happen to catch one or two of 'em, there'll be
no sailing in company with the Plantagenet's, for us Cæsar's!—When we
had the last 'bout with Monsieur de Gravelin, they were as saucy as
peacocks, because we didn't close until their fore-yard and
mizzen-top-gallant-mast were gone, although the shift of wind brought us
dead to leeward, and, after all, we had eleven men the most hurt in the
fight. You don't know them Plantagenet's, sir; for they never
dare
say
any thing before
you
!"

"Not to the discredit of my young Cæsars, I'll answer for it. Yet,
you'll remember Sir Gervaise gave us full credit, in his despatches."

"Yes, sir, all very true. Sir Gervaise knows better; and then
he
understands what the Cæsar
is
; and what she
can
do, and
has
done.
But it's a very different matter with his youngsters, who fancy because
they carry a red flag at the fore, they are so many Blakes and Howards,
themselves. There's Jack Oldcastle, now; he's always talking of our
reefers as if there was no sea-blood in our veins, and that just because
his own father happened to be a captain—a
commodore
, he says, because
he happened once to have three frigates under his orders."

"Well, that would make a commodore, for the time being. But, surely he
does not claim privilege for the Oldcastle blood, over that of the
Clevelands!"

"No, sir, it isn't that sort of thing, at all," returned the fine boy,
blushing a little, in spite of his contempt for any such womanly
weakness; "you know we never talk of that nonsense in our squadron. With
us it's all service, and that sort of thing. Jack Oldcastle says the
Clevelands are all civilians, as he calls 'em; or
soldiers
, which
isn't much better, as you know, sir. Now, I tell him that there is an
old picture of one of 'em, with an anchor-button, and that was long
before Queen Anne's time—Queen Elizabeth's, perhaps,—and then you
know, sir, I fetch him up with a yarn about the Hedworths; for I am just
as much Hedworth as Cleveland."

"And what does the impudent dog say to that, Geoffrey?"

"Why, sir, he says the name should be spelt Head
work
, and that they
were all
lawyers
. But I gave him as good as he sent for that saucy
speech, I'm certain!"

"And what did you give him, in return for such a compliment? Did you
tell him the Oldcastles were just so much stone, and wood, and old iron;
and that, too, in a tumbledown condition?"

"No, sir, not I," answered the boy, laughing; "I didn't think of any
answer half so clever; and so I just gave him a dig in the nose, and
that, laid on with right good will."

"And how did he receive that argument? Was it conclusive;—or did the
debate continue?"

"Oh, of course, sir, we fought it out. 'Twas on board the Dover, and the
first lieutenant saw fair play. Jack carried too many guns for me, sir,
for he's more than a year older; but I hulled him so often that he owned
it was harder work than being mast-headed. After that the Dover's chaps
took my part, and they said the Hedworths had no Head
work
at all, but
they were regular sailors; admirals, and captains, and youngsters, you
know, sir, like all the rest of us. I told 'em my grandfather Hedworth
was an admiral, and a good one, too."

"In that you made a small mistake. Your mother's father was only a
general
; but
his
father was a full admiral of the red,—for he lived
before that grade was abolished—and as good an officer as ever trod a
plank. He was my mother's brother, and both Sir Gervaise and myself
served long under his orders. He was a sailor of whom you well might
boast."

"I don't think any of the Plantagenets will chase in that quarter again,
sir; for we've had an overhauling among our chaps, and we find we can
muster four admirals, two commodores, and thirteen captains in our two
messes; that is, counting all sorts of relatives, you know, sir."