The Two Admirals (28 page)

"Sir Wycherly Wychecombe—our unfortunate host, here: the poor man who
is on his death-bed, on this very floor."

Again Bluewater raised his head, and once more his eye sought the face
of his friend. Sir Gervaise had now stopped short, with his hands
crossed behind his back, looking intently at the other, in expectation
of the answer.

"I thought it might be some difficulty from the fleet—some silly fellow
complaining of another still more silly for using such a word. Sir
Wycherly!—the poor man's mind must have failed him."

"I rather think not; if it has, there is 'method in his madness,' for he
persevered most surprisingly, in the use of the term. His nephew, Tom
Wychecombe, the presumptive heir, he insists on it, is a
nullus
; while
this Sir Reginald, who is expected to arrive every instant, he says is
only
half
—or half-
blood
, as it has since been explained to us."

"I am afraid this nephew will prove to be any thing but
nullus
, when
he succeeds to the estate and title," answered Bluewater, gravely. "A
more sinister-looking scoundrel, I never laid eyes on."

"That is just my way of thinking; and not in the least like the family."

"This matter of likenesses is not easily explained, Oakes. We see
parents and children without any visible resemblance to each other; and
then we find startling likenesses between utter strangers."

"
Bachelor's children
may be in that predicament, certainly; but I
should think few others. I never yet studied a child, that I did not
find some resemblance to both parents; covert and only transitory,
perhaps; but a likeness so distinct as to establish the relationship.
What an accursed chance it is, that our noble young lieutenant should
have no claim on this old baronet; while this d—d
nullus
is both
heir at law, and heir of entail! I never took half as much interest in
any other man's estate, as I take in the succession to this of our poor
host!"

"There you are mistaken, Oakes; you took more in
mine
; for, when I
made a will in your own favour, and gave it to you to read, you tore it
in two, and threw it overboard, with your own hand."

"Ay, that was an act of lawful authority. As your superior, I
countermanded that will! I hope you've made another, and given your
money, as I told you, to your cousin, the Viscount."

"I did, but
that
will has shared the fate of the first. It appearing
to me, that we are touching on serious times, and Bluewater being rich
already, I destroyed the devise in his favour, and made a new one, this
very morning. As you are my executor, as usual, it may be well to let
you know it."

"Dick, you have not been mad enough to cut off the head of your own
family—your own flesh and blood, as it might be—to leave the few
thousands you own, to this mad adventurer in Scotland!"

Bluewater smiled at this evidence of the familiarity of his friend with
his own way of thinking and feeling; and, for a single instant, he
regretted that he had not put his first intention in force, in order
that the conformity of views might have been still more perfect; but,
putting a hand in his pocket he drew out the document itself, and
leaning forward, gave it carelessly to Sir Gervaise.

"There is the will; and by looking it over, you will know what I've
done," he said. "I wish you would keep it; for, if 'misery makes us
acquainted with strange bed-fellows,' revolutions reduce us, often, to
strange plights, and the paper will be safer with you than with me. Of
course, you will keep my secret, until the proper time to reveal it
shall arrive."

The vice-admiral, who knew that he had no direct interest in his
friend's disposition of his property, took the will, with a good deal of
curiosity to ascertain its provisions. So short a testament was soon
read; and his eye rested intently on the paper until it had taken in the
last word. Then his hand dropped, and he regarded Bluewater with a
surprise he neither affected, nor wished to conceal. He did not doubt
his friend's sanity, but he greatly questioned his discretion.

"This is a very simple, but a very ingenious arrangement, to disturb the
order of society," he said; "and to convert a very modest and
unpretending, though lovely girl, into a forward and airs-taking old
woman! What is this Mildred Dutton to you, that you should bequeath to
her £30,000?"

"She is one of the meekest, most ingenuous, purest, and loveliest, of
her meek, ingenuous, pure, and lovely sex, crushed to the earth by the
curse of a brutal, drunken father; and, I am resolute to see that this
world, for once, afford some compensation for its own miseries."

"Never doubt that, Richard Bluewater; never doubt
that
. So certain is
vice, or crime, to bring its own punishment in this life, that one may
well question if any other hell is needed. And, depend on it, your meek,
modest ingenuousness, in its turn, will not go unrewarded."

"Quite true, so far as the spirit is concerned; but, I mean to provide a
little for the comfort of the body. You remember Agnes Hedworth, I take
it for granted?"

"Remember her!—out of all question. Had the war left me leisure for
making love, she was the only woman I ever knew, who could have brought
me to her feet—I mean as a dog, Dick."

"Do you see any resemblance between her and this Mildred Dutton? It is
in the expression rather than in the features—but, it is the expression
which alone denotes the character."

"By George, you're right, Bluewater; and this relieves me from some
embarrassment I've felt about that very expression of which you speak.
She
is
like poor Agnes, who became a saint earlier than any of us
could have wished. Living or dead, Agnes Hedworth must be an angel! You
were fonder of her, than of any other woman, I believe. At one time, I
thought you might propose for her hand."

"It was not that sort of affection, and you could not have known her
private history, or you would not have fancied this. I was so situated
in the way of relatives, that Agnes, though only the child of a
cousin-german, was the nearest youthful female relative I had on earth;
and I regarded her more as a sister, than as a creature who could ever
become my wife. She was sixteen years my junior; and by the time she had
become old enough to marry, I was accustomed to think of her only as one
destined for another station. The same feeling existed as to her sister,
the Duchess, though in a greatly lessened degree."

"Poor, sweet Agnes!—and it is on account of this accidental
resemblance, that you have determined to make the daughter of a drunken
sailing-master your heiress?"

"Not altogether so; the will was drawn before I was conscious that the
likeness existed. Still, it has probably, unknown to myself, greatly
disposed me to view her with favour. But, Gervaise, Agnes herself was
not fairer in person, or more lovely in mind, than this very Mildred
Dutton."

"Well, you have not been accustomed to regard
her
as a sister; and
she
has become marriageable, without there having been any opportunity
for your regarding her as so peculiarly sacred, Dick!" returned Sir
Gervaise, half suppressing a smile as he threw a quiet glance at his
friend.

"You know this to be idle, Oakes. Some one must inherit my money; my
brother is long since dead; even poor, poor Agnes is gone; her sister
don't need it; Bluewater is an over-rich bachelor, already;
you
won't
take it, and what better can I do with it? If you could have seen the
cruel manner in which the spirits of both mother and daughter were
crushed to the earth last night, by that beast of a husband and father,
you would have felt a desire to relieve their misery, even though it had
cost you Bowldero, and half your money in the funds."

"Umph! Bowldero has been in my family five centuries, and is likely to
remain there, Master Bluewater, five more; unless, indeed, your dashing
Pretender should succeed, and take it away by confiscation."

"There, again, was another inducement. Should I leave my cash to a rich
person, and should chance put me on the wrong side in this struggle, the
king,
de facto
, would get it all; whereas, even a German would not
have the heart to rob a poor creature like Mildred of her support."

"The
Scotch
are notorious for bowels, in such matters! Well, have it
your own way, Dick. It's of no great moment what you do with your
prize-money; though I had supposed it would fall into the hands of this
boy, Geoffrey Cleveland, who is no discredit to your blood."

"He will have a hundred thousand pounds, at five-and-twenty, that were
left him by old Lady Greenfield, his great-aunt, and that is more than
he will know what to do with. But, enough of this. Have you received
further tidings from the north, during the night?"

"Not a syllable. This is a retired part of the country, and half
Scotland might be capsized in one of its loughs, and we not know of it,
for a week, down here in Devonshire. Should I get no intelligence or
orders, in the next thirty-six hours, I think of posting up to London,
leaving you in command of the fleet."

"That may not be wise. You would scarcely confide so important a trust,
in such a crisis, to a man of my political feelings—I will not say
opinions
; since you attribute all to sentiment."

"I would confide my life and honour to you, Richard Bluewater, with the
utmost confidence in the security of both, so long as it depended on
your own acts or inclinations. We must first see, however, what news the
Active brings us; for, if de Vervillin is really out, I shall assume
that the duty of an English sailor is to beat a Frenchman, before all
other considerations."

"If he
can
," drily observed the other, raising his right leg so high
as to place the foot on the top of an old-fashioned chair; an effort
that nearly brought his back in a horizontal line.

"I am far from regarding it as a matter of course, Admiral Bluewater;
but, it
has
been done sufficiently often, to render it an event of no
very violent
possibility
. Ah, here is Magrath to tell us the condition
of his patient."

The surgeon of the Plantagenet entering the room, at that moment, the
conversation was instantly changed.

"Well, Magrath," said Sir Gervaise, stopping suddenly in his
quarter-deck pace; "what news of the poor man?"

"He is reviving, Admiral Oakes," returned the phlegmatic surgeon; "but
it is like the gleaming of sunshine that streams through clouds, as the
great luminary sets behind the hills—"

"Oh! hang your poetry, doctor; let us have nothing but plain
matter-of-fact, this morning."

"Well, then, Sir Gervaise, as commander-in-chief, you'll be obeyed, I
think. Sir Wycherly Wychecombe is suffering under an attack of
apoplexy—or
(Greek: apoplêxis)
, as the Greeks had it. The diagnosis of
the disease is not easily mistaken, though it has its affinities as well
as other maladies. The applications for gout, or
arthritis
—sometimes
produce apoplexy; though one disease is seated in the head, while the
other usually takes refuge in the feet. Ye'll understand this the more
readily, gentlemen, when ye reflect that as a thief is chased from one
hiding-place, he commonly endeavours to get into another. I much misgive
the prudence of the phlebotomy ye practised among ye, on the first
summons to the patient."

"What the d—l does the man mean by phlebotomy?" exclaimed Sir
Gervaise, who had an aversion to medicine, and knew scarcely any of the
commonest terms of practice, though expert in bleeding.

"I'm thinking it's what you and Admiral Bluewater so freely administer
to His Majesty's enemies, whenever ye fall in with 'em at
sea;—he-he-he—" answered Magrath, chuckling at his own humour; which,
as the quantity was small, was all the better in quality.

"Surely he does not mean powder and shot! We give the French shot; Sir
Wycherly has not been shot?"

"Varra true, Sir Gervaise, but ye've let him blood, amang ye: a measure
that has been somewhat precipitately practised, I've my misgivings!"

"Now, any old woman can tell us better than that, doctor. Blood-letting
is the every-day remedy for attacks of this sort."

"I do not dispute the dogmas of elderly persons of the other sex, Sir
Gervaise, or your
every-day remedia
. If 'every-day' doctors would save
life and alleviate pain, diplomas would be unnecessary; and we might,
all of us, practise on the principle of the 'de'el tak' the hindmaist,'
as ye did yoursel', Sir Gervaise, when ye cut and slash'd amang the
Dons, in boarding El Lirio. I was there, ye'll both remember, gentlemen;
and was obleeged to sew up the gashes ye made with your own irreverent
and ungodly hands."

This speech referred to one of the most desperate, hand-to-hand
struggles, in which the two flag-officers had ever been engaged; and, as
it afforded them the means of exhibiting their personal gallantry, when
quite young men, both usually looked back upon the exploit with great
self-complacency; Sir Gervaise, in particular, his friend having often
declared since, that they ought to have been laid on the shelf for life,
as a punishment for risking their men in so mad an enterprise, though it
did prove to be brilliantly successful.

"That was an affair in which one might engage at twenty-two, Magrath,"
observed Bluewater; "but which he ought to hesitate about thinking of
even, after thirty."

"I'd do it again, this blessed day, if you would give us a chance!"
exclaimed Sir Gervaise, striking the back of one hand into the palm of
the other, with a sudden energy, that showed how much he was excited by
the mere recollection of the scene.