The Two Admirals (8 page)

"Hum—there's truth in that, too. But the land is an enemy to be feared,
while the Frenchman is not—hey! Atwood?"

It was, indeed, a goodly sight to view the fine fleet that now lay
anchored beneath the cliffs of Wychecombe. Sir Gervaise Oakes was, in
that period, considered a successful naval commander, and was a
favourite, both at the admiralty and with the nation. His popularity
extended to the most distant colonies of England, in nearly all of which
he had served with zeal and credit. But we are not writing of an age of
nautical wonders, like that which succeeded at the close of the century.
The French and Dutch, and even the Spaniards, were then all formidable
as naval powers; for revolutions and changes had not destroyed their
maritime corps, nor had the consequent naval ascendency of England
annihilated their navigation; the two great causes of the subsequent
apparent invincibility of the latter power. Battles at sea, in that day,
were warmly contested, and were frequently fruitless; more especially
when fleets were brought in opposition. The single combats were usually
more decisive, though the absolute success of the British flag, was far
from being as much a matter of course as it subsequently became. In a
word, the science of naval warfare had not made those great strides,
which marked the career of England in the end, nor had it retrograded
among her enemies, to the point which appears to have rendered their
defeat nearly certain. Still Sir Gervaise was a successful officer;
having captured several single ships, in bloody encounters, and having
actually led fleets with credit, in four or five of the great battles of
the times; besides being second and third in command, on various similar
occasions. His own ship was certain to be engaged, let what would happen
to the others. Equally as captains and as flag-officers, the nation had
become familiar with the names of Oakes and Bluewater, as men ever to be
found sustaining each other in the thickest of the fight. It may be well
to add here, that both these favourite seamen were men of family, or at
least what was considered men of family among the mere gentry of
England; Sir Gervaise being a baronet by inheritance, while his friend
actually belonged to one of those naval lines which furnishes admirals
for generations; his father having worn a white flag at the main; and
his grandfather having been actually ennobled for his services, dying
vice-admiral of England. These fortuitous circumstances perhaps rendered
both so much the greater favourites at court.

—"All with you; except three
On duty, and our leader Israel,
Who is expected momently."

MARINO FALIERO.

As his fleet was safely anchored, and that too, in beautiful order, in
spite of the fog, Sir Gervaise Oakes showed a disposition to pursue what
are termed ulterior views.

"This has been a fine sight—certainly a very fine sight; such as an old
seaman loves; but there must be an end to it," he said. "You will excuse
me, Sir Wycherly, but the movements of a fleet always have interest in
my eyes, and it is seldom that I get such a bird's-eye view of those of
my own; no wonder it has made me a somewhat unreflecting intruder."

"Make no apologies, Sir Gervaise, I beg of you; for none are needed, on
any account. Though this head-land does belong to the Wychecombe
property, it is fairly leased to the crown, and none have a better right
to occupy it than His Majesty's servants. The Hall is a little more
private, it is true, but even that has no door that will close upon our
gallant naval defenders. It is but a short walk, and nothing will make
me happier than to show you the way to my poor dwelling, and to see you
as much at home under its roof, as you could be in the cabin of the
Plantagenet."

"If any thing could make me as much at home in a house as in a ship, it
would be so hearty a welcome; and I intend to accept your hospitality in
the very spirit in which it is offered. Atwood and I have landed to send
off some important despatches to the First Lord, and we will thank you
for putting us in the way of doing it, in the safest and most
expeditious manner. Curiosity and surprise have already occasioned the
loss of half an hour; while a soldier, or a sailor, should never lose
half a minute."

"Is a courier who knows the country well, needed, Sir Gervaise?" the
lieutenant demanded, modestly, though with an interest that showed he
was influenced only by zeal for the service.

The admiral looked at him, intently, for a moment, and seemed pleased
with the hint implied in the question.

"Can you ride?" asked Sir Gervaise, smiling. "I could have brought
half-a-dozen youngsters ashore with me; but, besides the doubts about
getting a horse—a chaise I take it is out of the question here—I was
afraid the lads might disgrace themselves on horseback."

"This must be said in pleasantry, Sir Gervaise," returned Wychecombe;
"he would be a strange Virginian at least, who does not know how to
ride!"

"And a strange Englishman, too, Bluewater would say; and yet I never see
the fellow straddle a horse that I do not wish it were a
studding-sail-boom run out to leeward! We sailors
fancy
we ride, Mr.
Wychecombe, but it is some such fancy as a marine has for the
fore-topmast-cross-trees. Can a horse be had, to go as far as the
nearest post-office that sends off a daily mail?"

"That can it, Sir Gervaise," put in Sir Wycherly. "Here is Dick mounted
on as good a hunter as is to be found in England; and I'll answer for my
young namesake's willingness to put the animal's mettle to the proof.
Our little mail has just left Wychecombe for the next twenty-four hours,
but by pushing the beast, there will be time to reach the high road in
season for the great London mail, which passes the nearest market-town
at noon. It is but a gallop of ten miles and back, and that I'll answer
for Mr. Wychecombe's ability to do, and to join us at dinner by four."

Young Wychecombe expressing his readiness to perform all this, and even
more at need, the arrangement was soon made. Dick was dismounted, the
lieutenant got his despatches and his instructions, took his leave, and
had galloped out of sight, in the next five minutes. The admiral then
declared himself at liberty for the day, accepting the invitation of Sir
Wycherly to breakfast and dine at the Hall, in the same spirit of
frankness as that in which it had been given. Sir Wycherly was so
spirited as to refuse the aid of his pony, but insisted on walking
through the village and park to his dwelling, though the distance was
more than a mile. Just as they were quitting the signal-station, the old
man took the admiral aside, and in an earnest, but respectful manner,
disburthened his mind to the following effect.

"Sir Gervaise," he said, "I am no sailor, as you know, and least of all
do I bear His Majesty's commission in the navy, though I am in the
county commission as a justice of the peace; so, if I make any little
mistake you will have the goodness to overlook it, for I know that the
etiquette of the quarter-deck is a very serious matter, and is not to be
trifled with;—but here is Dutton, as good a fellow in his way as
lives—his father was a sort of a gentleman too, having been the
attorney of the neighbourhood, and the old man was accustomed to dine
with me forty years ago—"

"I believe I understand you, Sir Wycherly," interrupted the admiral;
"and I thank you for the attention you wish to pay my prejudices; but,
you are master of Wychecombe, and I should feel myself a troublesome
intruder, indeed, did you not ask whom you please to dine at your own
table."

"That's not quite it, Sir Gervaise, though you have not gone far wide of
the mark. Dutton is only a master, you know; and it seems that a master
on board ship is a very different thing from a master on shore; so
Dutton, himself, has often told me."

"Ay, Dutton is right enough as regards a king's ship, though the two
offices are pretty much the same, when other craft are alluded to. But,
my dear Sir Wycherly, an admiral is not disgraced by keeping company
with a boatswain, if the latter is an honest man. It is true we have our
customs, and what we call our quarter-deck and forward officers; which
is court end and city, on board ship; but a master belongs to the first,
and the master of the Plantagenet, Sandy McYarn, dines with me once a
month, as regularly as he enters a new word at the top of his log-book.
I beg, therefore, you will extend your hospitality to whom you
please—or—" the admiral hesitated, as he cast a good-natured glance at
the master, who stood still uncovered, waiting for his superior to move
away; "or, perhaps, Sir Wycherly, you would permit
me
to ask a friend
to make one of our party."

"That's just it, Sir Gervaise," returned the kind-hearted baronet; "and
Dutton will be one of the happiest fellows in Devonshire. I wish we
could have Mrs. Dutton and Milly, and then the table would look what my
poor brother James—St. James I used to call him—what the Rev. James
Wychecombe was accustomed to term, mathematical. He said a table should
have all its sides and angles duly filled. James was a most agreeable
companion, Sir Gervaise, and, in divinity, he would not have turned his
back on one of the apostles, I do verily believe!"

The admiral bowed, and turning to the master, he invited him to be of
the party at the Hall, in the manner which one long accustomed to render
his civilities agreeable by a sort of professional off-handed way, well
knew how to assume.

"Sir Wycherly has insisted that I shall consider his table as set in my
own cabin," he continued; "and I know of no better manner of proving my
gratitude, than by taking him at his word, and filling it with guests
that will be agreeable to us both. I believe there is a Mrs. Dutton, and
a Miss—a—a—a—"

"Milly," put in the baronet, eagerly; "Miss Mildred Dutton—the daughter
of our good friend Dutton, here, and a young lady who would do credit to
the gayest drawing-room in London."

"You perceive, sir, that our kind host anticipates the wishes of an old
bachelor, as it might be by instinct, and desires the company of the
ladies, also. Miss Mildred will, at least, have two young men to do
homage to her beauty, and
three
old ones to sigh in the distance—hey!
Atwood?"

"Mildred, as Sir Wycherly knows, sir, has been a little disturbed this
morning," returned Dutton, putting on his best manner for the occasion;
"but, I feel no doubt, will be too grateful for this honour, not to
exert herself to make a suitable return. As for my wife, gentlemen—"

"And what is to prevent Mrs. Dutton from being one of the party,"
interrupted Sir Wycherly, as he observed the husband to hesitate; "she
sometimes favours me with her company."

"I rather think she will to-day, Sir Wycherly, if Mildred is well enough
to go; the good woman seldom lets her daughter stray far from her
apron-strings. She keeps her, as I tell her, within the sweep of her own
hawse, Sir Gervaise."

"So much the wiser she, Master Dutton," returned the admiral, pointedly.
"The best pilot for a young woman is a good mother; and now you have a
fleet in your roadstead, I need not tell a seaman of your experience
that you are on pilot-ground;—hey! Atwood?"

Here the parties separated, Dutton remaining uncovered until his
superior had turned the corner of his little cottage, and was fairly out
of sight. Then the master entered his dwelling to prepare his wife and
daughter for the honours they had in perspective. Before he executed
this duty, however, the unfortunate man opened what he called a
locker—what a housewife would term a cupboard—and fortified his nerves
with a strong draught of pure Nantes; a liquor that no hostilities,
custom-house duties, or national antipathies, has ever been able to
bring into general disrepute in the British Islands. In the mean time
the party of the two baronets pursued its way towards the Hall.

The village, or hamlet of Wychecombe, lay about half-way between the
station and the residence of the lord of the manor. It was an
exceedingly rural and retired collection of mean houses, possessing
neither physician, apothecary, nor attorney, to give it importance. A
small inn, two or three shops of the humblest kind, and some twenty
cottages of labourers and mechanics, composed the place, which, at that
early day, had not even a chapel, or a conventicle; dissent not having
made much progress then in England. The parish church, one of the old
edifices of the time of the Henrys, stood quite alone, in a field, more
than a mile from the place; and the vicarage, a respectable abode, was
just on the edge of the park, fully half a mile more distant. In short,
Wychecombe was one of those places which was so far on the decline, that
few or no traces of any little importance it may have once possessed,
were any longer to be discovered; and it had sunk entirely into a hamlet
that owed its allowed claims to be marked on the maps, and to be noted
in the gazetteers, altogether to its antiquity, and the name it had
given to one of the oldest knightly families in England.

No wonder then, that the arrival of a fleet under the head, produced a
great excitement in the little village. The anchorage was excellent, so
far as the bottom was concerned, but it could scarcely be called a
roadstead in any other point of view, since there was shelter against no
wind but that which blew directly off shore, which happened to be a wind
that did not prevail in that part of the island. Occasionally, a small
cruiser would come-to, in the offing, and a few frigates had lain at
single anchors in the roads, for a tide or so, in waiting for a change
of weather; but this was the first fleet that had been known to moor
under the cliffs within the memory of man. The fog had prevented the
honest villagers from ascertaining the unexpected honour that had been
done them, until the reports of the two guns reached their ears, when
the important intelligence spread with due rapidity over the entire
adjacent country. Although Wychecombe did not lie in actual view of the
sea, by the time the party of Sir Wycherly entered the hamlet, its
little street was already crowded with visiters from the fleet; every
vessel having sent at least one boat ashore, and many of them some three
or four. Captain's and gun-room stewards, midshipmen's foragers,
loblolly boys, and other similar harpies, were out in scores; for this
was a part of the world in which bum-boats were unknown; and if the
mountain would not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must fain go to the
mountain. Half an hour had sufficed to exhaust all the unsophisticated
simplicity of the hamlet; and milk, eggs, fresh butter, soft-tommy,
vegetables, and such fruits as were ripe, had already risen quite one
hundred per cent. in the market.