The Two Admirals

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No one in Wychecombe positively knew the history of Dutton's
professional degradation. He had never risen higher than to be a
lieutenant; and from this station he had fallen by the sentence of a
court-martial. His restoration to the service, in the humbler and almost
hopeless rank of a master, was believed to have been brought about by
Mrs. Dutton's influence with the present Lord Wilmeter, who was the
brother of her youthful companions. That the husband had wasted his
means, was as certain as that his habits, on the score of temperance at
least, were bad, and that his wife, if not positively broken-hearted,
was an unhappy woman; one to be pitied, and admired. Sir Wycherly was
little addicted to analysis, but he could not fail to discover the
superiority of the wife and daughter, over the husband and father; and
it is due to his young namesake to add, that his obvious admiration of
Mildred was quite as much owing to her mind, deportment, character, and
tastes, as to her exceeding personal charms.

This little digression may perhaps, in the reader's eyes, excuse the
interest Admiral Bluewater took in our heroine. With the indulgence of
years and station, and the tact of a man of the world, he succeeded in
drawing Mildred out, without alarming her timidity; and he was surprised
at discovering the delicacy of her sentiments, and the accuracy of her
knowledge. He was too conversant with society, and had too much good
taste, to make any deliberate parade of opinions; but in the quiet
manner that is so easy to those who are accustomed to deal with truths
and tastes as familiar things, he succeeded in inducing her to answer
his own remarks, to sympathize with his feelings, to laugh when he
laughed, and to assume a look of disapproval, when he felt that
disapprobation was just. To all this Wycherly was a delighted witness,
and in some respects he participated in the conversation; for there was
evidently no wish on the part of the rear-admiral to monopolize his
beautiful companion to himself. Perhaps the position of the young man,
directly opposite to her, aided in inducing Mildred to bestow so many
grateful looks and sweet smiles, on the older officer; for she could not
glance across the table, without meeting the admiring gaze of Wycherly,
fastened on her own blushing face.

It is certain, if our heroine did not, during this repast, make a
conquest of Admiral Bluewater, in the ordinary meaning of the term, that
she made him a friend. Sir Gervaise, even, was struck with the singular
and devoted manner in which his old messmate gave all his attention to
the beautiful girl at his side; and, once or twice, he caught himself
conjecturing whether it were possible, that one as practised, as
sensible, and as much accustomed to the beauties of the court, as
Bluewater, had actually been caught, by the pretty face of a country
girl, when so well turned of fifty, himself! Then discarding the notion
as preposterous, he gave his attention to the discourse of Sir Wycherly;
a dissertation on rabbits, and rabbit-warrens. In this manner the dinner
passed away.

Mrs. Dutton asked her host's permission to retire, with her daughter, at
the earliest moment permitted by propriety. In quitting the room she
cast an anxious glance at the face of her husband, which was already
becoming flushed with his frequent applications of port; and spite of an
effort to look smiling and cheerful, her lips quivered, and by the time
she and Mildred reached the drawing-room, tears were fast falling down
her cheeks. No explanation was asked, or needed, by the daughter, who
threw herself into her mother's arms, and for several minutes they wept
together, in silence. Never had Mrs. Dutton spoken, even to Mildred, of
the besetting and degrading vice of her husband; but it had been
impossible to conceal its painful consequences from the world; much less
from one who lived in the bosom of her family. On that failing which the
wife treated so tenderly, the daughter of course could not touch; but
the silent communion of tears had got to be so sweet to both, that,
within the last year, it was of very frequent occurrence.

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

Mrs. Dutton's lip quivered again; but hearing a foot at the door, she
made an effort to be composed, just as Admiral Bluewater 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 king's 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 sailor's child, you feel an hereditary
indulgence for a seaman's 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 sailor's daughter, I honour my father's 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 birth-place."

"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."

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.

----"Somewhat we will do.
And, look, when I am king, claim thou of me
The earldom of Hereford, and all the moveables
Whereof the king my brother was possessed."

RICHARD III.

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 other's 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 Pretender's 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 l'Orient, 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 Bluewater's 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-war's-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 Bluewater's fellows of the guards?--for of sailors,
your lawful prince, as you call him, hasn't 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]uvring 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. "There's 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 Englishman's fire!"

"And yet the only difference between the right of these very
Plantagenets to the throne, and that of the reigning prince, is, that
one produced a revolution by the strong hand, and the other was produced
by a revolution that came from the nation. I do not know that your
Plantagenets ever did any thing for a navy; the only real source of
England's power and glory. D----e, Dick, if I think so much of your
Plantagenets, after all!"

"And yet the name of Oakes is to be met with among their bravest
knights, and most faithful followers."

"The Oakes, like the pines, have been timbers in every ship that has
floated," returned the vice-admiral, half-unconscious himself, of the
pun he was making.

For more than a minute Sir Gervaise continued his walk, his head a
little inclined forward, like a man who pondered deeply on some matter
of interest. Then, suddenly stopping, he turned towards his friend, whom
he regarded for near another minute, ere he resumed the discourse.

"I wish I could fairly get you to exercise your excellent reason on this
matter, Dick," he said, after the pause; "then I should be certain of
having secured you on the side of liberty."

Admiral Bluewater merely shook his head, but he continued silent, as if
he deemed discussion altogether supererogatory. During this pause, a
gentle tap at the door announced a visiter; and, at the request to
enter, Atwood made his appearance. He held in his hand a large package,
which bore on the envelope the usual stamp that indicated it was sent on
public service.

"I beg pardon, Sir Gervaise," commenced the secretary, who always
proceeded at once to business, when business was to be done; "but His
Majesty's service will not admit of delay. This packet has just come to
hand, by the arrival of an express, which left the admiralty only
yesterday noon."

"And how the devil did he know where to find me!" exclaimed the
vice-admiral, holding out a hand to receive the communication.

"It is all owing to this young lieutenant's forethought in following up
the Jacobite intelligence to a market-town. The courier was bound to
Falmouth, as fast as post-horses could carry him, when he heard,
luckily, that the fleet lay at anchor, under Wychecombe Head; and, quite
as luckily, he is an officer who had the intelligence to know that you
would sooner get the despatches, if he turned aside, and came hither by
land, than if he went on to Falmouth, got aboard the sloop that was to
sail with him, for the Bay of Biscay, and came round here by water."

Sir Gervaise smiled at this sally, which was one in keeping with all
Atwood's feelings; for the secretary had matured a system of expresses,
which, to his great mortification, his patron laughed at, and the
admiralty entirely overlooked. No time was lost, however, in the way of
business; the secretary having placed the candles on a table, where Sir
Gervaise took a chair, and had already broken a seal. The process of
reading, nevertheless, was suddenly interrupted by the vice-admiral's
looking up, and exclaiming--

"Why, you are not about to leave us, Bluewater?"

"You may have private business with Mr. Atwood, Sir Gervaise, and
perhaps I had better retire."

Now, it so happened that while Sir Gervaise Oakes had never, by look or
syllable, as he confidently believed, betrayed the secret of his
friend's Jacobite propensities, Atwood was perfectly aware of their
existence. Nor had the latter obtained his knowledge by any unworthy
means. He had been neither an eavesdropper, nor an inquirer into private
communications, as so often happens around the persons of men in high
trusts; all his knowledge having been obtained through native sagacity
and unavoidable opportunities. On the present occasion, the secretary,
with the tact of a man of experience, felt that his presence might be
dispensed with; and he cut short the discussion between the two
admirals, by a very timely remark of his own.

"I have left the letters uncopied, Sir Gervaise," he said, "and will go
and finish them. A message by Locker"--this was Sir Gervaise's
body-servant--"will bring me back at a moment's notice, should you need
me again to-night."

"That Atwood has a surprising instinct, for a Scotchman!" exclaimed the
vice-admiral, as soon as the door was closed on the secretary. "He not
only knows when he _is_ wanted, but when he is _not_ wanted. The last is
an extraordinary attainment, for one of his nation."

"And one that an Englishman may do well to emulate," returned Bluewater.
"It is possible my company may be dispensed with, also, just at this
important moment."

"You are not so much afraid of the Hanoverians, Dick, as to run away
from their hand-writing, are ye? Ha--what's this?--As I live, a packet
for yourself, and directed to 'Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Bluewater, K.B.'
By the Lord, my old boy, they've given you the red riband at last! This
is an honour well earned, and which may be fitly worn."

"'Tis rather unexpected, I must own. The letter, however, cannot be
addressed to me, as I am not a Knight of the Bath."

"This is rank nonsense. Open the packet, at once, or I will do it for
you. Are there two Dick Bluewaters in the world, or another rear-admiral
of the same name?"

"I would rather not receive a letter that does not strictly bear my
address," returned the other, coldly.

"As I'll be sworn this does. But hand it to me, since you are so
scrupulous, and I will do that small service for you."

As this was said, Sir Gervaise tore aside the seals; and, as he
proceeded rather summarily, a red riband was soon uncased and fell upon
the carpet. The other usual insignia of the Bath made their appearance,
and a letter was found among them, to explain the meaning of all. Every
thing was in due form, and went to acquaint Rear-Admiral Bluewater, that
His Majesty had been graciously pleased to confer on him one of the
vacant red ribands of the day, as a reward for his eminent services on
different occasions. There was even a short communication from the
premier, expressing the great satisfaction of the ministry in thus being
able to second the royal pleasure with hearty good will.

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