The Gentleman

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Produced by Suzanne Shell, William Flis, Jerry Fairbanks, Mary Musser,
Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

THE GENTLEMAN
A ROMANCE OF THE SEA

BY ALFRED OLLIVANT

AUTHOR OF "BOB, SON OF BATTLE" AND
"REDBOAT CAPTAIN"

1908

TO
THE NAVY

CONTENTS

JULY 1805

BOOK I _THE LITTLE TREMENDOUS_

I
THE DEATH OF BLACK DIAMOND

Chap.
I. THE MAN ON THE GREY

II. THE GALLOPING GENT

III. THE GUNNER OF THE SLOOP

IV. OLD DING-DONG

V. REUBEN BONIFACE'S STORY

VI. THE LUGGER _KITE_

VII. THE MAN IN THE LUGGER

VIII. THE SCENT-BOTTLE

II
MAGNIFICENT ARRY

IX. THE TWO PRIVATEERS

X. THE MAIN-DECK

XI. COMMODORE MOUCHE

XII. BOARDERS

XIII. AFTER THE FIGHT

III
UNDER THE CLIFF

XIV. SUNDAY EVENING

XV. THE VOICE FROM THE POWDER-MAGAZINE

XVI. MAGNIFICENT ARRY GOES ALOFT

XVII. THE GRAVE OF THE LITTLE _TREMENDOUS_

XVIII. OLD DING-DONG'S REVENGE

XIX. OLD DING-DONG HOMEWARD-BOUND

BOOK II

_BEACHY HEAD_

I
THE GAP GANG

XX. THE LAST OF A BRITISH SEAMAN.

XXI. KIT STARTS ON HIS MISSION

XXII. FAT GEORGE & CO

XXIII. THE CLIMB

XXIV. THE CLIMB

II
THE MAN ON THE CLIFF

XXV. THE GENTLEMAN BOWS

XXVI. THE DEAD WOMAN

XXVII. THE HOLLOW IN THE COOMBE

XXVIII. ON THE TOP OF THE WORLD

III
ABERCROMBY'S BLACK COCK

XXIX. THE FLAG OF HIS COUNTRY

XXX. AN OLD SONG

XXXI. THE MAN WITH THE SWORD

XXXII. THE BROKEN SQUARE

XXXIII. FIGHTING FITZ

XXXIV. THE FACE ON THE WALL

IV
THE GARRISON

XXXV. THE SOLDIER'S MOTHER

XXXVI. THE FIGHTING MAN

XXXVII. THE SAINT

XXXVIII. THE SIMPLETON

XXXIX. THE FLAP OF A FLAG.

V
THE BOARDING OF THE PRIVATEER

XL. THE SWIM IN THE DARK

XLI. PIGGY, THE PRIVATEERSMAN

XLII. THE MAN IN THE BOAT

XLIII. A BLACK BORDERER TO THE RESCUE

BOOK III _FORT FLINT_

I
BESIEGED

XLIV. THE ENGLISHMAN

XLV. THE PARSON AT HOME

XLVI. THE PARSON'S STORY

XLVII. THE DESPATCH-BAG

XLVIII. THE DOXIE'S DAUGHTER

II
THE SALLY

XLIX. MAKING READY

L. IN THE DRAIN

LI. VOICES OF THE LOST

LII. HARE AND HOUND

LIII. OLD TOADIE

LIV. THE PARSON'S AGONY

LV. PRETTY POLLY-KISS-ME-QUICK

LVI. THE RACE FOR THE COTTAGE

III
THE SHADOW OF THE WOMAN

LVII. THE PARLEY

LVIII. THE PLANK CAPONIER

LIX. MISS BLOSSOM

LX. THE TWO PRAYERS

LXI. KNAPP'S RETURN

LXII. THE PARSON MUSES

IV
THE GENTLEMAN'S LAST CARD

LXIII. NELSON'S TOPSAILS

LXIV. RUMBLINGS OF THUNDER

LXV. THE DOINGS IN THE CREEK

LXVI. BUGLES

LXVII. THE ACE OF TRUMPS

V
THE FORLORN HOPE

LXVIII. THE BLESSING

LXIX. THE PARSON'S SORTIE

LXX. THE LAST OF OLD FAITHFUL

LXXI. ON THE SHINGLE-BANK

LXXII. THE RACE FOR THE LUGGER

LXXIII. _NOBLESSE OBLIGE_

BOOK IV _NELSON_

I
H.M.S. _MEDUSA_

LXXIV. NATURE, THE COMFORTER

LXXV. ON THE DECK OF THE _MEDUSA_

LXXVI. IN THE CABIN OF THE _MEDUSA_

LXXVII. THE _MEDUSA_ GOES ABOUT

LXXVIII. NELSON'S HEART

LXXIX. IN THE CABIN AGAIN

LXXX. THE _MEDUSA_ DIPS HER ENSIGN

II
KNAPP'S STORY

LXXXI. THE RETURN

LXXXII. BACK TO THE DOOR

LXXXIII. PIPER PRAYS

LXXXIV. IN THE COTTAGE

III
THE WISH AT EVENING

LXXXV. THE SANCTUARY

LXXXVI. TWILIGHT

LXXXVII. HIS CAUSE

LXXXVIII. THE ADVENTURER

LXXXIX. THE LAST POST

SEPTEMBER 1805

The introductory poem appeared originally in the _Pall Mall
Magazine_, and is re-published by permission of the Editor.

OUR SEA

The Sea! the Sea!
Our own home-land, the Sea!
'Tis, as it always was, and still, please God, will be,
When we are gone,
Our own,
Possessing it for Thee,
Ours, ours, and ours alone,
The Anglo-Saxon Sea.

The stripped, moon-shining, naked-bosomed Sea.

No jerry-building here;
No scenes that once were dear
Beneath man's tawdry touch to disappear;
Always the same, the Sea,
Th' unstable-steadfast Sea.
'Tis, as it always was, and still, please God, will be,
When we are gone,
Our own,
Vice-regents under Thee,
Ours, ours, and ours alone,
The Anglo-Saxon Sea.

The mighty-furrowed, moody-minded Sea.

New suns and moons arise;
Perish old dynasties;
For ever rise and die the centuries;
Only remains the Sea,
Our right of way, the Sea.
'Tis, as it always was, and still, phase God, will be,
When we are gone,
Our own,
Our heritage from Thee,
Ours, ours, and ours alone,
The Anglo-Saxon Sea.

Our good, grey, faithful, Saxon-loving Sea._

JULY 1805

"Succeed, and you command the Irish Expedition," said the squat fellow.

"My Emperor!" replied the tall cavalry-man, saluted, and clanked away
in the gloom.

* * * * *

A sweet evening, very fresh, the tide crashing at the foot of the cliff.

In the twilight, above Boulogne, a man was standing, hands behind him.

The moon lay on the water, making a broad white road that led from
his feet across the flowing darkness West.

The dusk was falling. About him the earth grew dark; above him all
was purity and pale stars.

Only the tumble of the tide, white-lipped on the beach beneath, stirred
the silence; while one little dodging ship, black in the wake of the
moon, told of some dare-devil British sloop, bluffing the batteries
upon the cliff.

The rustle of the water beneath, its crashing rhythm and hiss as of
breath intaken swiftly, soothed him. He fell into a waking dream.

It seemed to his wide eyes that the sea rose, heavenward as a wall;
its foot set in foam, its summit on a level with his face. Against
it a silver ladder leaned. He had but to mount that ladder to pluck
the island-jewel, the desire of his heart these many years.

He reached a hand into the night as though to realise his wish; and
even as he did so, the sloop barked.

A mortar hard by boomed; the sea splashed; the sloop scudded seaward,
laughing; and the dreamer awoke.

Behind him, hutted on the cliffs, lay the Army of England: [Footnote:
The Army of England was Napoleon's name for the Army of Invasion.]
such a sword, now two years a-tempering, as even he, the Great
Swordsman, had never wielded.

Beneath him in the dimming basin huddled 3000 gun-vessels, waiting
their call.

Before him, across the moon-white waste, under the North star, lay
that stubborn little land of Bibles and evening bells, of smoky cities,
and hedge-rows fragrant with dog-rose and honeysuckle, of apple-cheeked
children, greedy fighting-men, and still-eyed women who became the
mothers of indomitable seamen--that storm-beaten land which for so
long now, turn he where he would, had risen before him, Angel of the
Flaming Sword, and waved him back.

Between him and it ran a narrow lane of sea, the moon-road white across
it: so narrow he could almost leap it; so broad that now after years
of trying he was baffled still.

Could his Admirals only stop the Westward end of that narrow lane for
six hours, that he and his two-hundred-thousand might take the moon-road
unmolested, he was Master of the World.

But--they could not.

In his hand, fiercely crumpled, lay the despatch that told him
Villeneuve was back in Vigo, shepherded home again.

And by whom?

That little one-eyed one-armed seaman, who for ten years now had stood
between him and his destiny.

One man, the man of Aboukir Bay. [Footnote: On August 1, 1798, Nelson
destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir Bay at the Battle of the Nile.]

BOOK I

_THE LITTLE TREMENDOUS_

I

THE DEATH OF BLACK DIAMOND

CHAPTER I

THE MAN ON THE GREY

The man on the grey was in a hurry.

The stab of his backward heels; the shake and swirl of his bridle-hand;
the flog of his arm in time with the horse's stride, told their own tale.

A huge fellow, his face was red and round as a November sun. Hat and
wig were gone; and his once white neck-cloth was soaked with blood.

He came over the crest of the Downs at a lurching gallop; down
the ragged rut-worn lane, the dusty convolvuluses glimmering up at
him in the dusk; past the squat-spired Church in the high Churchyard
among the sycamores; down the rough and twisted Highstreet of Newhaven
in the chill of that August evening, as no man had ever come before.

A bevy of smoke-dimmed men in the bar of the Bridge, discussing in
awed whispers last night's affair of the Revenue cutter off Darby's
Hole, hushed suddenly at the clatter and rushed out as he stormed past.
He paid no heed. Those staring eyes saw nothing but the brown street
sliding under him, a pair of sweating ears, a flapping mane, and before
him a tumble of old roofs; while beyond in the harbour, the spars of
a sloop of war pricked the evening.

Clear of the little town huddling on the hillside, he drove along the
bank of the slow green river, flogging still.

One thing was clear: the grey was dead-beat.

He was roaring like a furnace, and straight as a rail from tail to
muzzle. Black and white with sweat, he jerked along at a terrible toppling
stagger. Only those vice-like legs and hands plucking, plucking, kept
body and soul together.

Where the river widened, and the sea gleamed misty across the
harbour-mouth, as though he knew his mission was fulfilled, up went
his head, and he fell in thundering ruin.

Where he fell he lay, lank-necked.

The tail twitched once; the body trembled; the great heart broke.

CHAPTER II

THE GALLOPING GENT

I

A boat had just put off from the bank, a tall lad steering. The great
red horseman, strangely active for so huge a man, flung himself clear
of his horse, snatched a pistol from a holster, and came floundering
down the cobbled river-bank, his coat-tails floating.

"Put back, sir!" he bellowed in husky fury. "Put back, my God! or I'll
fire."

He was standing, the water to his tops, with heaving shoulders.

"Don't shout; don't shoot; and don't swear," replied a voice, pure
as a lady's. "And perhaps I'll oblige."

The boy edged the boat into the bank. The huge fellow, in too great
a hurry to wait, floundered out, clutched her by the stern, and scrambled
in.

"My God, sir!" he panted, thrusting a dripping face into the boy's.
"D'you know who you're a-talking to?--I'm a ridin-officer on Government
business."

"And d'you know who _you're_ a-talkin to?" replied the boy, cold as
the other was hot. "I'm a King's officer on King's business. Remove your
face, please. Sit down. And don't shake so, or you'll spill us.--I'm a
midshipman going aboard my ship."

"Then you're just in time for warm work, Mr. Milkshipman," panted the
other.

He bumped down on the thwart opposite the waterman, and thrust
at the oars.

"Row, man, row!" he urged. "The Gallopin Gent's got through."

II

The colour of apple-blossom, coming and going in the lad's cheek, died
away, and left him pale.

He was a splendid stripling, sun in his hair, sun in his eyes; with
something of the lank grace of the fawn about him.

The face was fine almost to haggardness; with long chin, delicate nose,
and eager eyes, very shy.

The boy had broken through the chrysalis of childhood, and not yet
emerged into the fighting male. There was no down on his chin; the
radiance of his cheek was yet undimmed. The soul, rosy behind its clouds,
still tinged them with dawn-lights.

He was a Boy, sparkling Boy; Boy at the age when he is Woman, and Woman
at her best, the playfellow, the tease, the inspiration; free of limb,
as yet untrammelled of mind; with passionate hatreds and heroic adorations.

He was steering now, his eyes on the battered topsails in the mists
before him; and in those eyes a glitter of swords. Had his mother or
Gwen been there, they could have told from that frosty calm, those
jealous-drooping lids, that Master Boy meant mischief.

And so it was.

This fat fellow with the heaving shoulders on the thwart before him,
this chap with the crease across his bald neck, and the black sweat
trickling from his hair, had insulted him.

As woman, he was bent upon revenge; as man, he would go warily, striking
only to strike home.

"That was a fine horse you flogged to death," he began tranquilly,
trailing his fingers in the dead green waters.

"Yes, sir," panted the other, thrusting at the oars. "I don't spare
spur when I'm ridin agin the French. I'm a man, and an Englishman--not
a pink-faced, girl-eyed booby togged out in a cocked hat and a tin
dagger, calling meself a King's officer."

"I guessed that you were not one of us," replied the boy delicately.
"Your manners are too distinguished. But tell me a little more about
your ride. You seemed in rather a hurry. I take it you were riding
for a drink."

The great man swung round. His whole life seemed to have stopped short,
and now hung behind his eyes--an appalling shadow.

For one swift moment the boy thought he would be struck.

Then the big man spoke; and his voice was measured and very still.

"If you think I burst the gamest eart that ever beat in an orse's ide
for a drink, why then, sir," with crushing simplicity, "you think wrong."

He resumed his rowing, and continued with the same surprising dignity.

"I bred that orse; I broke that orse; I loved that orse."

The tide of the boy's being set back with a shock.

"O!" he cried. "O ... I didn't mean ... I really...."

"That's all right, sir," came the other's smothered voice. "I know
you didn't."

He swallowed, and his face grew rigid. Then a light broke all about
it.

"But there!" with husky pride. "He won't bear me no grudge--will
you, old man?" with a hoarse burst of tenderness, flinging his arm
towards the bank, where the dead horse's girths glimmered still in
the dusk. "He know'd I wouldn't have asked it of him, only I had to.
That's my old orse! that's my Robin!--Never asked no questions. Just
took and died and did his duty without the talkin. Maybe some of us
might learn a bit from him."

Taking a great bandana from his pocket, he blew his nose like the report
of a pistol.

"A'ter all," he said, with touching solemnity, "he died for his country,
did my Robin--same as Abercromby at Alexandrya."

III

Behind them on the hill a clock struck eight.

The riding-officer held up his hand.

"Ark!" he cried. "It was going seven in Ditchling as I pelted down
the Beacon. Gallop! gallop! gallop! There's ne'er another orse in England
could ha done it, with big Jerry Ram bumpin on his back all the way;
danged if there be!"

He thumped his knee.

"King George ought to know on it! He died for him. Fair lay down to
it, belly all along the ground. Might ha know'd he was on the King's
business, and the Gentleman with two minutes' start streakin away for
Birling Gap like a bullet from the bow."

"Aw, he'll be out again than?" drawled the waterman, sleepy and Sussex.

"Out again!" shouted Big Jerry, and clapping the handkerchief to his
ear, thrust it beneath the other's eye of mildew. "What's that?--blood,
ain't it?--whose?--mine.--How?--The Gentleman."

"You'll ha met him than, I expagt?" cooed the waterman in his cautious
way.

"He met me more like," replied Big Jerry with the grim humour of the
whole-hearted man, who gives hard knocks and takes them all in good part.

"Not but what we was expectin him, you'll understand."

"You knaw'd he was comin than surely?" came the waterman's slow musical
voice.

"Know'd it!" roared the other. "O course we know'd it. Why's the
_Kite_ been layin in Cuckmere Haven since night afore last?--why
was the Gap Gang strung out all the way from Furrel Beacon to Beachy
Head all day yesterday?--Why was Black Diamond mouchin round in Lewes
this morning?--Why?--why?--why?"

"Why?" asked the boy, breathless.

"Because the Gallopin Gent was comin down with despatches for Boney,
and they were keepin the road for him. That's why," screamed the big
man, bumping up and down in his excitement.

"Only question was which way. Ye see it's most in general all ways
at once with him. Up and down, day and night, all over Sussex, these
weeks past. No stoppin him; no coppin him; no nothin him. Always the
same chap--gentleman, mighty gay, bit o red riband in his button-hole,
and blood chestnut with a white blaze between his knees. Always the
same tale--gave em the go-by somehow. No sayin where or when--only
just when you're least expectin him, then you can make sure of him.
And when you are ready for him, seems he's readier for you."

He mopped his forehead, the laughing puckers gathering about his eyes.

"Look at us this evenin. There we was ridin easy up the Beacon, me
and the orse-patrol--_lookin for him_. Just as we tops the brow
who pops over the wall like a swallow but the Gentleman himself on
his chestnut?"

He threw back his head and chuckled.

"There!--I can't ardly elp laughin. The cheek o the chap!"

"Did he run?" asked the boy, all eyes.

"Run!" snorted the riding-officer. "No run about _im_.... Rode
at us like a rigiment of cavalry, swinging his sword, and laughin fit
to bust himself.... Half the boys bolted--and I don't know as I blame
them: they swear he's old Nick. Dick Halkett, old Job, and me, we stood
it.... Bang he rides at old Job and bowls him over a buster; runs young
Dick through the body; slops me over the pate a good un; and steals
away down the hill, waving his hand and crying--'Adoo! adoo! adoo!
remember me!'--as if we was likely to forget him!"

The big man mopped his bloody ear with a quizzical grin.

"I know'd it was no good follerin. Nothing foaled o mortal mare can
collar that chestnut, once she's away. So I bangs my hat down, catches
the old orse by the ead, and rams him down the hill for Newhaven."

He began to push at the oars again.

"For there's two roads to Birling Gap, my lad: one by land, and one by
sea. We've missed him by land. Now we'll see what the Jack-tars can do."

IV

The boy said nothing. His eyes were on his ship, dim above him in the
mist.

She was in rags and tatters: so much he could see, and little
else. Yet to him she seemed to glow in the dusk. He saw her through
blurred eyes in a cloud of glory, and his heart thrilled to her.

She was his ship; that ship of which he had dreamed ever since he could
dream, this boy born to the sea.

And was he not proud of her?

Shivering like a lover, he brought up alongside; and as he did so he
thrust out a hand to feel the wooden ribs which covered that heart
of valour.

For was she not the little _Tremendous_, of whom the heroic tales
were told!

CHAPTER III

THE GUNNER OF THE SLOOP

Swiftly and silently the _Tremendous_ spread her wings in the dusk.

The riding-officer was going over the side.

"Good luck, sir!" he said. "Make a cop; and Pitt'll thank you on his
knees."

For all answer the block-of-granite little man by the wheel
turned his back.

"Cut the cable!" he barked. "Set studdin-sails alow and aloft! Inboard
side-lights! Boniface, take a party of small-arm men forrad, and keep a
sharp look-out!"

Before the riding-officer had dropped into the dinghy, the
_Tremendous_ began to slap the water, shaking out ragged topsails
as she slid out of the harbour, a misty rain shrouding her.

"There's a row-boat coming up astern, sir," ventured the boy--"rowing
like mad."

"I have ears, sir, and I'm usin em," snapped the other, and stumped
forward, leaning heavily on a stick, thick and surly as himself.

They were the first words he had spoken to the lad, this block-of-granite
little man, across whose knees his father had died at St. Vincent;
and the boy did not find them encouraging.

"Send im victoriush,
Appee and gloriush,
Long to reign o er--i--ush,
Goshave----

"Uncle George!" bawled a bibulous voice. "Row, ye devil, row!--or I'll
split y'up, and chuck y'overboard."

A boat pelted up under the counter of the sloop. The singer rose suddenly,
clutched at a man-rope, and came swinging up the side.

The light of the binnacle-lamp fell upon him.

He was a tall fellow, with bushy black whiskers, a long tallowy nose
that in some old-time battle had been broken, and eyes with a wild
wet gleam in them. Now he sheered up against the bulwark, waving riotously.

"Three cheers for the lirrel _Tremendous_! Ooray! ray! ray!--We're
alf our ship's company short. There's only old Ding-dong left on the
quar'er-deck. I'm drunk as David's sow. And we're off to cur out the
Grand Armee. Ooray! ray! ray!" and he fell hiccoughing away into foolish
laughter.

"Hadn't you better go below?" said a pure treble at his side. "You're
beastly drunk."

The man pulled himself together, and stared through the gloom.

"Lumme!" he whispered. "A tottie!--a tottie for Lushy!... Lemme cuddle
ye, darlin, _do_."

"I'm a midshipman," said the boy briefly. "Shut up; and behave yourself."

The man tried to stand up, and swept off his hat.

"Ow de do, sir? Ow de do? By all means ow de do? Lemme introjuice you all
round. I'm Mr. Lanyon, commonly called Lushy, because? one? me failins:
Gunner aboard this packet by rights, and Actin Fust Lieutenant by the
grace o God--there bein no one else to act, see? This ere," he continued,
smacking the bulwark, "is His--Majesty's--ship--_Tremendous_, well
known and respected between the Lizard and the Nore. Not lookin her
sauciest just now, I grant you: shrouds tore to tatters, mizzen spliced,
bowsprit splintered, plugged fore and aft, and alf her weather bulwark
carried away. But that's _ex tempore_, as the sayin is. We only put
in at dawn to refit, and land wounded."

"Where's she been?" asked the boy.

"Been!" cried the other with rollicking laughter. "That's a good un.
Ere's a kid ain't eard where we been. Been!" the sudden thunder in
his voice. "Why, in Boulong Arbour among Boney's craft. H'in and h'out,
under Nap's nose. Stormed the Arbour Battery; set the gun-vessels afire;
and came out under their guns, colours at the truck, and the bosun's
boy in the mizzenchains singin--

O it's a snug little island,
A right little tight little island."

He clutched the boy's shoulder, and thrust flaming eyes into his.

"Old man's got a game leg since Camperdown. Fust Lieutenant led the
landin party--Mr. Wrot. Dessay you've heard tell of him. Dry Wrot,
they called him. Tubby little bloke, all belly and big voice. Fine
chap to fight, though, be God--only so thirsty, same as me. He took
it in the tummy, crawlin through the embrasure--hand-grenade, I fancies.
I was next man on the ladder." He was marching up and down, his hands
swinging, seeming to smoulder almost in the gloom.

"Pretty work in the battery, be God, as ever I see!--One time we was
bungin round-shot at each other across the casement, like marbles.
Give the Mossoos their due they fought like eroes; but not like h'us,
sir! not like h'us!"

He strode up and down, breathing flame.

"Ah, you should ha seen us. I were in me glory. A bloody massacree,
that's what it were. Bloody massacree. Enough to make a blessed saint
weep for joy. Pommesoul it were."

He turned in his stride, and the lamp showed the tears dribbling down
his face.

"And when we'd mushed up the blanky caboodlum: spiked the guns; sent
the gunners to glory; and blow'd up the battery, who led the boys out?"

He stopped dead.

"Old Lush!--Lushy, the Gunner, Gorblessim!" swelling his chest, and
patting it. "And why?--because there wasn't a quarter-deck officer,
not so much as a middy or mate, left to do it."

He resumed his strut with fighting hands.

"That's our sort aboard the _Tremendous_, sir. We're the
halleloojah lads to fight. And what we are, old Ding-dong made us."

"Who's old Ding-dong?" asked the boy, breathlessly.

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