The Two Admirals - Джеймс Фенимор Купер 13 стр.

Really, Mildred, said the mother, at length, after having succeeded in suppressing her emotion, and in drying her eyes, while she smiled fondly in the face of the lovely and affectionate girl; this Admiral Bluewater is getting to be so particular, I hardly know how to treat the matter.

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 gentlemans 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 sailors daughter, and as girls are apt to speak, without much reflection. I do not know that I think better of a seamans profession, now, than I do of any other. I fear there is often much misery in store for soldiers and sailors wives.

Mrs. Duttons lip quivered again; but hearing a foot at the door, she made an effort to be composed, just as Admiral Blue-water 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 kings 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 sailors child, you feel an hereditary indulgence for a seamans 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 sailors daughter, I honour my fathers 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 birthplace.

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.

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.

Chapter VII

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 others 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 Pretenders 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 lOrient, 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 Bluewaters 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-wars-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 Bluewaters fellows of the guards?  for of sailors, your lawful prince, as you call him, hasnt 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 man[oe]uvre regiments, and as for man[oe]uvr-ing 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.

Ay, Charles in particular, returned the vice-admiral, with something like a sneer. Theres the second Charles, for instance St. Charles, as our good host, Sir Wycherly, might call him he is a pattern prince for Englishmen to admire. Then his father was of the school of the Star-Chamber martyrs!

Both were lineal descendants of the Conqueror, and of the Saxon princes; and both united the double titles to the throne, in their sacred persons. I have always considered Charles II. as the victim of the rebellious conduct of his subjects, rather than vicious. He was driven abroad into a most corrupt state of society, and was perverted by our wickedness. As to the father, he was the real St. Charles, and a martyred saint he was; dying for true religion, as well as for his legal rights. Then the Edwards glorious fellows!  remember that they were all but one Plantagenets; a name, of itself, to rouse an Englishmans fire!