The Two Admirals (16 page)

"They think it a more delicate service, perhaps, for a gentleman to be
true to the reigning house, when so loud an appeal is made to his
natural loyalty; and therefore class the self-conquest with a victory at
sea!"

"They are so many court-lubbers, and I should like to have an
opportunity of speaking my mind to them. I'll not take the new
commission; for every one must see, Dick, that it is a sop."

"Ay, that's just my notion, too, about the red riband; and I'll not take
that
. You have had the riband these ten years, have declined the
peerage twice, and their only chance is the promotion. Take it you
ought, and must, however, as it will be the means of pushing on some
four or five poor devils, who have been wedged up to honours, in this
manner, ever since they were captains. I am glad they do not talk of
promoting
me
, for I should hardly know how to refuse such a grace.
There is great virtue in parchment, with all us military men."

"Still it must be parchment fairly won. I think you are wrong,
notwithstanding, Bluewater, in talking of refusing the riband, which is
so justly your due, for a dozen different acts. There is not a man in
the service, who has been less rewarded for what he has done, than
yourself."

"I am sorry to hear you give this as your opinion; for just at this
moment, I would rather think that I have no cause of complaint, in this
way, against the reigning family, or its ministers. I'm sure I was
posted when quite a young man, and since that time, no one has been
lifted over my head."

The vice-admiral looked intently at his friend; for never before had he
detected a feeling which betrayed, as he fancied, so settled a
determination in him to quit the service of the powers that were.
Acquainted from boyhood with all the workings of the other's mind, he
perceived that the rear-admiral had been endeavouring to persuade
himself that no selfish or unworthy motive could be assigned to an act
which he felt to proceed from disinterested chivalry, just as he himself
broke out with his expression of an opinion that no officer had been
less liberally rewarded for his professional services than his friend.
While there is no greater mystery to a selfish manager, than a man of
disinterested temperament, they who feel and submit to generous
impulses, understand each other with an instinctive facility. When any
particular individual is prone to believe that there is a predominance
of good over evil in the world he inhabits, it is a sign of
inexperience, or of imbecility; but when one acts and reasons as if
all
honour and virtue are extinct, he furnishes the best possible
argument against his own tendencies and character. It has often been
remarked that stronger friendships are made between those who have
different personal peculiarities, than between those whose sameness of
feeling and impulses would be less likely to keep interest alive; but,
in all cases of intimacies, there must be great identity of principles,
and even of tastes in matters at all connected with motives, in order to
ensure respect, among those whose standard of opinion is higher than
common, or sympathy among those with whom it is lower. Such was the
fact, as respected Admirals Oakes and Bluewater. No two men could be
less alike in temperament, or character, physically, and in some senses,
morally considered; but, when it came to principles, or all those tastes
or feelings that are allied to principles, there was a strong native, as
well as acquired affinity. This union of sentiment was increased by
common habits, and professional careers so long and so closely united,
as to be almost identical. Nothing was easier, consequently, than for
Sir Gervaise Oakes to comprehend the workings of Admiral Bluewater's
mind, as the latter endeavoured to believe he had been fairly treated by
the existing government. Of course, the reasoning which passed through
the thoughts of Sir Gervaise, on this occasion, required much less time
than we have taken to explain its nature; and, after regarding his
friend intently, as already related, for a few seconds, he answered as
follows; a good deal influenced, unwittingly to himself, with the wish
to check the other's Jacobite propensities.

"I am sorry not to be able to agree with you, Dick," he said, with some
warmth. "So far from thinking you
well
treated, by any ministry, these
twenty years, I think you have been very
ill
treated. Your rank you
have, beyond a question; for of that no brave officer can well be
deprived in a regulated service; but, have you had the
commands
to
which you are entitled?—I was a commander-in-chief when only a
rear-admiral of the blue; and then how long did I wear a broad pennant,
before I got a flag at all!"

"You forget how much I have been with you. When two serve together, one
must command, and the other must obey. So far from complaining of these
Hanoverian Boards, and First Lords, it seems to me that they have always
kept in view the hollowness of their claims to the throne, and have felt
a desire to purchase honest men by their favours."

"You are the strangest fellow, Dick Bluewater, it has ever been my lot
to fall in with! D—e me, if I believe you know always, when you
are
ill treated. There are a dozen men in service, who have had separate
commands, and who are not half as well entitled to them, as you are
yourself."

"Come, come, Oakes, this is getting to be puerile, for two old fellows,
turned of fifty. You very well know that I was offered just as good a
fleet, as this of your own, with a choice of the whole list of
flag-officers below me, to pick a junior from; and, so, we'll say no
more about it. As respects their red riband, however, it may go
a-begging for me."

Sir Gervaise was about to answer in his former vein, when a tap at the
door announced the presence of another visiter. This time the door
opened on the person of Galleygo, who had been included in Sir
Wycherly's hospitable plan of entertaining every soul who immediately
belonged to the suite of Sir Gervaise.

"What the d—l has brought
you
here!" exclaimed the vice-admiral, a
little warmly; for he did not relish an interruption just at this
moment. "Recollect you're not on board the Plantagenet, but in the
dwelling of a gentleman, where there are both butler and housekeeper,
and who have no occasion for your advice, or authority, to keep things
in order."

"Well, there, Sir Gervaise I doesn't agree with you the least bit; for I
thinks as a ship's steward—I mean a
cabin
steward, and a good 'un of
the quality—might do a great deal of improvement in this very house.
The cook and I has had a partic'lar dialogue on them matters, already;
and I mentioned to her the names of seven different dishes, every one of
which she quite as good as admitted to me, was just the same as so much
gospel to
her
."

"I shall have to quarantine this fellow, in the long run, Bluewater! I
do believe if I were to take him to Lambeth Palace, or even to St.
James's, he'd thrust his oar into the archbishop's benedictions, or the
queen's caudle-cup!"

"Well, Sir Gervaise, where would be the great harm, if I did? A man as
knows the use of an oar, may be trusted with one, even in a church, or
an abbey. When your honour comes to hear what the dishes was, as Sir
Wycherly's cook had never heard on, you'll think it as great a cur'osity
as I do myself. If I had just leave to name 'em over, I think as both
you gentlemen would look at it as remarkable."

"What are they, Galleygo?" inquired Bluewater, putting one of his long
legs over an arm of the adjoining chair, in order to indulge himself in
a yarn with his friend's steward, with greater freedom; for he greatly
delighted in Galleygo's peculiarities; seeing just enough of the fellow
to find amusement, without annoyance in them. "I'll answer for Sir
Gervaise, who is always a little diffident about boasting of the
superiority of a ship, over a house."

"Yes, your honour, that he is—that is just one of Sir Jarvy's weak
p'ints, as a body might say. Now, I never goes ashore, without trimming
sharp up, and luffing athwart every person's hawse, I fall in with;
which is as much as to tell 'em, I belongs to a flag-ship, and a racer,
and a craft as hasn't her equal on salt-water; no disparagement to the
bit of bunting at the mizzen-topgallant-mast-head of the Cæsar, or to
the ship that carries it. I hopes, as we are so well acquainted, Admiral
Bluewater, no offence will be taken."

"Where none is meant, none ought to be taken, my friend. Now let us hear
your bill-of-fare."

"Well, sir, the very first dish I mentioned to Mrs. Larder, Sir
Wycherly's cook, was lobscous; and, would you believe it, gentlemen, the
poor woman had never heard of it! I began with a light hand, as it might
be, just not to overwhelm her with knowledge, at a blow, as Sir Jarvy
captivated the French frigate with the upper tier of guns, that he might
take her alive, like."

"And the lady knew nothing of a lobscous—neither of its essence, nor
nature?"

"There's no essences as is ever put in a lobscous, besides potaties,
Admiral Bluewater; thof we make 'em in the old Planter"—
nautice
for
Plantagenet—"in so liquorish a fashion, you might well think they even
had Jamaiky, in 'em. No, potaties is the essence of lobscous; and a very
good thing is a potatie, Sir Jarvy, when a ship's company has been on
salted oakum for a few months."

"Well, what was the next dish the good woman broke down under?" asked
the rear-admiral, fearful the master might order the servant to quit the
room; while he, himself, was anxious to get rid of any further political
discussion.

"Well, sir, she knowed no more of a chowder, than if the sea wern't in
the neighbourhood, and there wern't such a thing as a fish in all
England. When I talked to her of a chowder, she gave in, like a Spaniard
at the fourth or fifth broadside."

"Such ignorance is disgraceful, and betokens a decline in civilization!
But, you hoisted out more knowledge for her benefit, Galleygo—small
doses of learning are poor things."

"Yes, your honour; just like weak grog—burning the priming, without
starting the shot. To be sure, I did, Admiral Blue. I just named to her
burgoo, and then I mentioned duff (
anglice
dough) to her, but she
denied that there was any such things in the cookery-book. Do you know,
Sir Jarvy, as these here shore craft get their dinners, as our master
gets the sun; all out of a book as it might be. Awful tidings, too,
gentlemen, about the Pretender's son; and I s'pose we shall have to take
the fleet up into Scotland, as I fancy them 'ere sogers will not make
much of a hand in settling law?"

"And have you honoured us with a visit, just to give us an essay on
dishes, and to tell us what you intend to do with the fleet?" demanded
Sir Gervaise, a little more sternly than he was accustomed to speak to
the steward.

"Lord bless you, Sir Jarvy, I didn't dream of one or t'other! As for
telling you, or Admiral Blue, (so the seamen used to call the second in
rank,) here, any thing about lobscous, or chowder, why, it would be
carrying coals to New Market. I've fed ye both with all such articles,
when ye was nothing but young gentlemen; and when you was no longer
young gentlemen, too, but a couple of sprightly luffs, of nineteen. And
as for moving the fleet, I know, well enough, that will never happen,
without our talking it over in the old Planter's cabin; which is a much
more nat'ral place for such a discourse, than any house in England!"

"May I take the liberty of inquiring, then, what
did
bring you here?"

"That you may, with all my heart, Sir Jarvy, for I likes to answer your
questions. My errand is not to your honour this time, though you are my
master. It's no great matter, after all, being just to hand this bit of
a letter over to Admiral Blue."

"And where did this letter come from, and how did it happen to fall into
your hands?" demanded Bluewater, looking at the superscription, the
writing of which he appeared to recognise.

"It hails from Lun'nun, I hear; and they tell me it's to be a great
secret that you've got it, at all. The history of the matter is just
this. An officer got in to-night, with orders for us, carrying sail as
hard as his shay would bear. It seems he fell in with Master Atwood, as
he made his land-fall, and being acquainted with that gentleman, he just
whipped out his orders, and sent 'em off to the right man. Then he laid
his course for the landing, wishing to get aboard of the Dublin, to
which he is ordered; but falling in with our barge, as I landed, he
wanted to know the where-away of Admiral Blue, here; believing him to be
afloat. Some 'un telling him as I was a friend and servant of both
admirals, as it might be, he turned himself over to me for advice. So I
promised to deliver the letter, as I had a thousand afore, and knowed
the way of doing such things; and he gives me the letter, under special
orders, like; that is to say, it was to be handed to the rear-admiral as
it might be under the lee of the mizzen-stay-sail, or in a private
fashion. Well, gentlemen, you both knows I understand that, too, and so
I undertook the job."

"And I have got to be so insignificant a person that I pass for no one,
in your discriminating mind, Master Galleygo!" exclaimed the
vice-admiral, sharply. "I have suspected as much, these five-and-twenty
years."

"Lord bless you, Sir Jarvy, how flag-officers will make mistakes
sometimes! They're mortal, I says to the people of the galley, and have
their appetites false, just like the young gentlemen, when they get
athwart-hawse of a body, I says. Now, I count Admiral Blue and yourself
pretty much as one man, seeing that you keep few, or no secrets from
each other. I know'd ye both as young gentlemen, and then you loved one
another like twins; and then I know'd ye as luffs, when ye'd walk the
deck the whole watch, spinning yarns; and then I know'd ye as Pillardees
and Arrestee, though one pillow might have answered for both; and as for
Arrest, I never know'd either of ye to got into that scrape. As for
telling a secret to one, I've always looked upon it as pretty much
telling it to t'other."