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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Springhaven, by R. D. Blackmore
+#4 in our series by R. D. Blackmore
+
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+Title: Springhaven
+       A Tale of the Great War
+
+Author: R. D. Blackmore
+
+Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7435]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 30, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPRINGHAVEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Don Lainson
+
+
+
+
+
+SPRINGHAVEN:
+
+A Tale of the Great War
+
+
+BY
+
+
+R. D. BLACKMORE (1825-1900)
+
+
+1887
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WHEN THE SHIP COMES HOME
+
+
+In the days when England trusted mainly to the vigor and valor of
+one man, against a world of enemies, no part of her coast was in
+greater peril than the fair vale of Springhaven.  But lying to the
+west of the narrow seas, and the shouts both of menace and
+vigilance, the quiet little village in the tranquil valley forbore
+to be uneasy.
+
+For the nature of the place and race, since time has outlived
+memory, continually has been, and must be, to let the world pass
+easily.  Little to talk of, and nothing to do, is the healthy
+condition of mankind just there.  To all who love repose and
+shelter, freedom from the cares of money and the cark of fashion,
+and (in lieu of these) refreshing air, bright water, and green
+country, there is scarcely any valley left to compare with that of
+Springhaven.  This valley does not interrupt the land, but comes in
+as a pleasant relief to it.  No glaring chalk, no grim sandstone,
+no rugged flint, outface it; but deep rich meadows, and foliage
+thick, and cool arcades of ancient trees, defy the noise that men
+make.  And above the trees, in shelving distance, rise the crests
+of upland, a soft gray lias, where orchards thrive, and greensward
+strokes down the rigor of the rocks, and quick rills lace the bosom
+of the slope with tags of twisted silver.
+
+In the murmur of the valley twenty little waters meet, and
+discoursing their way to the sea, give name to the bay that
+receives them and the anchorage they make.  And here no muddy
+harbor reeks, no foul mouth of rat-haunted drains, no slimy and
+scraggy wall runs out, to mar the meeting of sweet and salt.  With
+one or two mooring posts to watch it, and a course of stepping-
+stones, the brook slides into the peaceful bay, and is lost in
+larger waters.  Even so, however, it is kindly still, for it forms
+a tranquil haven.
+
+Because, where the ruffle of the land stream merges into the
+heavier disquietude of sea, slopes of shell sand and white gravel
+give welcome pillow to the weary keel.  No southerly tempest smites
+the bark, no long groundswell upheaves her; for a bold point, known
+as the "Haven-head," baffles the storm in the offing, while the
+bulky rollers of a strong spring-tide, that need no wind to urge
+them, are broken by the shifting of the shore into a tier of white-
+frilled steps.  So the deep-waisted smacks that fish for many
+generations, and even the famous "London trader" (a schooner of
+five-and-forty tons), have rest from their labors, whenever they
+wish or whenever they can afford it, in the arms of the land, and
+the mouth of the water, and under the eyes of Springhaven.
+
+At the corner of the wall, where the brook comes down, and pebble
+turns into shingle, there has always been a good white gate,
+respected (as a white gate always is) from its strong declaration
+of purpose.  Outside of it, things may belong to the Crown, the
+Admiralty, Manor, or Trinity Brethren, or perhaps the sea itself--
+according to the latest ebb or flow of the fickle tide of Law
+Courts--but inside that gate everything belongs to the fine old
+family of Darling.
+
+Concerning the origin of these Darlings divers tales are told,
+according to the good-will or otherwise of the diver.  The Darlings
+themselves contend and prove that stock and name are Saxon, and the
+true form of the name is "Deerlung," as witness the family
+bearings.  But the foes of the race, and especially the Carnes, of
+ancient Sussex lineage, declare that the name describes itself.
+Forsooth, these Darlings are nothing more, to their contemptuous
+certainty, than the offset of some court favorite, too low to have
+won nobility, in the reign of some light-affectioned king.
+
+If ever there was any truth in that, it has been worn out long ago
+by friction of its own antiquity.  Admiral Darling owns that gate,
+and all the land inside it, as far as a Preventive man can see with
+his spy-glass upon the top bar of it.  And this includes nearly all
+the village of Springhaven, and the Hall, and the valley, and the
+hills that make it.  And how much more does all this redound to the
+credit of the family when the gazer reflects that this is nothing
+but their younger tenement!  For this is only Springhaven Hall,
+while Darling Holt, the headquarters of the race, stands far
+inland, and belongs to Sir Francis, the Admiral's elder brother.
+
+When the tides were at their spring, and the year 1802 of our era
+in the same condition, Horatia Dorothy Darling, younger daughter of
+the aforesaid Admiral, choosing a very quiet path among thick
+shrubs and under-wood, came all alone to a wooden building, which
+her father called his Round-house.  In the war, which had been
+patched over now, but would very soon break out again, that veteran
+officer held command of the coast defense (westward of Nelson's
+charge) from Beachy Head to Selsey Bill.  No real danger had
+existed then, and no solid intent of invasion, but many sharp
+outlooks had been set up, and among them was this at Springhaven.
+
+Here was established under thatch, and with sliding lights before
+it, the Admiral's favorite Munich glass, mounted by an old ship's
+carpenter (who had followed the fortunes of his captain) on a stand
+which would have puzzled anybody but the maker, with the added
+security of a lanyard from the roof.  The gear, though rough, was
+very strong and solid, and afforded more range and firmer rest to
+the seven-feet tube and adjustments than a costly mounting by a
+London optician would have been likely to supply.  It was a
+pleasure to look through such a glass, so clear, and full of light,
+and firm; and one who could have borne to be looked at through it,
+or examined even by a microscope, came now to enjoy that pleasure.
+
+Miss Dolly Darling could not be happy--though her chief point was
+to be so--without a little bit of excitement, though it were of her
+own construction.  Her imagination, being bright and tender and
+lively, rather than powerful, was compelled to make its own
+material, out of very little stuff sometimes.  She was always
+longing for something sweet and thrilling and romantic, and what
+chance of finding it in this dull place, even with the longest
+telescope?  For the war, with all its stirring rumors and perpetual
+motion on shore and sea, and access of gallant visitors, was gone
+for the moment, and dull peace was signed.
+
+This evening, as yet, there seemed little chance of anything to
+enliven her.  The village, in the valley and up the stream, was
+hidden by turns of the land and trees; her father's house beneath
+the hill crest was out of sight and hearing; not even a child was
+on the beach; and the only movement was of wavelets leisurely
+advancing toward the sea-wall fringed with tamarisk.  The only
+thing she could hope to see was the happy return of the fishing-
+smacks, and perhaps the "London trader," inasmuch as the fishermen
+(now released from fencible duty and from French alarm) did their
+best to return on Saturday night to their moorings, their homes,
+the disposal of fish, and then the deep slumber of Sunday.  If the
+breeze should enable them to round the Head, and the tide avail for
+landing, the lane to the village, the beach, and even the sea
+itself would swarm with life and bustle and flurry and incident.
+But Dolly's desire was for scenes more warlike and actors more
+august than these.
+
+Beauty, however, has an eye for beauty beyond its own looking-
+glass.  Deeply as Dolly began to feel the joy of her own
+loveliness, she had managed to learn, and to feel as well, that so
+far as the strength and vigor of beauty may compare with its grace
+and refinement, she had her own match at Springhaven.  Quite a
+hardworking youth, of no social position and no needless education,
+had such a fine countenance and such bright eyes that she neither
+could bear to look at him nor forbear to think of him.  And she
+knew that if the fleet came home she would see him on board of the
+Rosalie.
+
+Flinging on a shelf the small white hat which had scarcely covered
+her dark brown curls, she lifted and shored with a wooden prop the
+southern casement of leaded glass.  This being up, free range was
+given to the swinging telescope along the beach to the right and
+left, and over the open sea for miles, and into the measureless
+haze of air.  She could manage this glass to the best advantage,
+through her father's teaching, and could take out the slide and
+clean the lenses, and even part the object-glass, and refix it as
+well as possible.  She belonged to the order of the clever virgins,
+but scarcely to that of the wise ones.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+WITH HER CREW AND CARGO
+
+
+Long after the time of those who write and those who read this
+history, the name of Zebedee Tugwell will be flourishing at
+Springhaven.
+
+To achieve unmerited honor is the special gift of thousands, but to
+deserve and win befalls some few in every century, and one of these
+few was Zebedee.  To be the head-man of any other village, and the
+captain of its fishing fleet, might prove no lofty eminence; but to
+be the leader of Springhaven was true and arduous greatness.  From
+Selsey Bill to Orfordness, taking in all the Cinque Ports and all
+the port of London, there was not a place that insisted on, and
+therefore possessed, all its own rights so firmly as this village
+did.  Not less than seven stout fishing-smacks--six of them sloops,
+and the seventh a dandy--formed the marine power of this place, and
+behaved as one multiplied by seven.  All the bold fishermen held
+their line from long-established ancestry, and stuck to the stock
+of their grandfathers, and their wisdom and freedom from prejudice.
+Strength was condensed into clear law with them--as sinew boils
+down into jelly--and character carried out its force as the stamp
+of solid impress.  What the father had been, the son became, as the
+generation squared itself, and the slates for the children to do
+their copies were the tombstones of their granddads.  Thus brave
+Etruria grew, and thus the Rome which was not built in a day became
+the flower of the world, and girt in unity of self seven citadels.
+
+There was Roman blood--of the Tenth Legion, perhaps--in the general
+vein of Springhaven.  There was scarcely a man who pretended to
+know much outside of his own business, and there was not a woman
+unable to wait (when her breath was quite gone) for sound reason.
+Solidity, self-respect, pure absence of frivolous humor, ennobled
+the race and enabled them to hold together, so that everybody not
+born in Springhaven might lament, but never repair, his loss.
+
+This people had many ancient rules befitting a fine corporation,
+and among them were the following:  "Never do a job for a stranger;
+sleep in your own bed when you can; be at home in good time on a
+Saturday; never work harder than you need; throw your fish away
+rather than undersell it; answer no question, but ask another;
+spend all your money among your friends; and above all, never let
+any stranger come a-nigh your proper fishing ground, nor land any
+fish at Springhaven."
+
+These were golden laws, and made a snug and plump community.  From
+the Foreland to the Isle of Wight their nets and lines were sacred,
+and no other village could be found so thriving, orderly, well-
+conducted, and almost well-contented.  For the men were not of rash
+enterprise, hot labor, or fervid ambition; and although they
+counted things by money, they did not count one another so.  They
+never encouraged a friend to work so hard as to grow too wealthy,
+and if he did so, they expected him to grow more generous than he
+liked to be.  And as soon as he failed upon that point, instead of
+adoring, they growled at him, because every one of them might have
+had as full a worsted stocking if his mind had been small enough to
+forget the difference betwixt the land and sea, the tide of labor
+and the time of leisure.
+
+To these local and tribal distinctions they added the lofty
+expansion of sons of the sea.  The habit of rising on the surge and
+falling into the trough behind it enables a biped, as soon as he
+lands, to take things that are flat with indifference.  His head
+and legs have got into a state of firm confidence in one another,
+and all these declare--with the rest of the body performing as
+chorus gratis--that now they are come to a smaller affair, upon
+which they intend to enjoy themselves.  So that, while strenuous
+and quick of movement--whenever they could not help it--and
+sometimes even brisk of mind (if anybody strove to cheat them),
+these men generally made no griefs beyond what they were born to.
+
+Zebedee Tugwell was now their chief, and well deserved to be so.
+Every community of common-sense demands to have somebody over it,
+and nobody could have felt ashamed to be under Captain Tugwell.  He
+had built with his own hands, and bought--for no man's work is his
+own until he has paid for as well as made it--the biggest and
+smartest of all the fleet, that dandy-rigged smack, the Rosalie.
+He was proud of her, as he well might be, and spent most of his
+time in thinking of her; but even she was scarcely up to the size
+of his ideas.  "Stiff in the joints," he now said daily--"stiff in
+the joints is my complaint, and I never would have believed it.
+But for all that, you shall see, my son, if the Lord should spare
+you long enough, whether I don't beat her out and out with the
+craft as have been in my mind this ten year."
+
+But what man could be built to beat Zebedee himself, in an age like
+this, when yachts and men take the prize by profundity of false
+keel?  Tugwell yearned for no hot speed in his friends, or his
+house, or his wife, or his walk, or even his way of thinking.  He
+had seen more harm come from one hour's hurry than a hundred years
+of care could cure, and the longer he lived the more loath he grew
+to disturb the air around him.
+
+"Admirable Nelson," he used to say--for his education had not been
+so large as the parts allotted to receive it; "to my mind he is a
+brave young man, with great understanding of his dooties.  But he
+goeth too fast, without clearing of his way.  With a man like me
+'longside of 'un, he'd have brought they boats out of Bulong.  See
+how I brings my boats in, most particular of a Saturday!"
+
+It was Saturday now, when Miss Dolly was waiting to see this great
+performance, of which she considered herself, as the daughter of an
+admiral, no mean critic.  And sure enough, as punctual as in a
+well-conducted scheme of war, and with nice forecast of wind and
+tide, and science of the supper-time, around the westward headland
+came the bold fleet of Springhaven!
+
+Seven ships of the line--the fishing line--arranged in perfect
+order, with the Rosalie as the flag-ship leading, and three upon
+either quarter, in the comfort and leisure of the new-born peace,
+they spread their sails with sunshine.  Even the warlike Dolly
+could not help some thoughts of peacefulness, and a gentle tide of
+large good-will submerged the rocks of glory.
+
+"Why should those poor men all be killed?" she asked herself, as a
+new thing, while she made out, by their faces, hats, fling of knee
+or elbow, patch upon breeches, or sprawl of walking toward the
+attentive telescope, pretty nearly who everybody of them was, and
+whatever else there was about him.  "After all, it is very hard,"
+she said, "that they should have to lose their lives because the
+countries fight so."
+
+But these jolly fellows had no idea of losing their lives, or a
+hair of their heads, or anything more than their appetites, after
+waging hot war upon victuals.  Peace was proclaimed, and peace was
+reigning; and the proper British feeling of contempt for snivelly
+Frenchmen, which produces the entente cordiale, had replaced the
+wholesome dread of them.  Not that Springhaven had ever known fear,
+but still it was glad to leave off terrifying the enemy.  Lightness
+of heart and good-will prevailed, and every man's sixpence was
+going to be a shilling.
+
+In the tranquil afternoon the sun was making it clear to the coast
+of Albion that he had crossed the line once more, and rediscovered
+a charming island.  After a chilly and foggy season, worse than a
+brave cold winter, there was joy in the greeting the land held out,
+and in the more versatile expression of the sea.  And not beneath
+the contempt of one who strives to get into everything, were the
+creases and patches of the sails of smacks, and the pattern of the
+resin-wood they called their masts, and even the little striped
+things (like frogs with hats on, in the distance) which had grown
+to believe themselves the only object the sun was made to shine
+upon.
+
+But he shone upon the wide sea far behind, and the broad stretch of
+land before them, and among their slowly gliding canvas scattered
+soft touches of wandering light.  Especially on the spritsail of
+the Rosalie, whereunder was sitting, with the tiller in his hand
+and a very long pipe in his mouth, Captain Zebedee Tugwell.  His
+mighty legs were spread at ease, his shoulders solid against a
+cask, his breast (like an elephant's back in width, and bearing a
+bright blue crown tattooed) shone out of the scarlet woolsey, whose
+plaits were filled with the golden shower of a curly beard,
+untouched with gray.  And his face was quite as worthy as the
+substance leading up to it, being large and strengthful and slow to
+move, though quick to make others do so.  The forehead was heavy,
+and the nose thickset, the lower jaw backed up the resolution of
+the other, and the wide apart eyes, of a bright steel blue, were as
+steady as a brace of pole-stars.
+
+"What a wonderful man!" fair Dolly thought, as the great figure,
+looking even grander in the glass, came rising upon a long slow
+wave--"what a wonderful man that Tugwell is!  So firmly resolved to
+have his own way, so thoroughly dauntless, and such a grand beard!
+Ten times more like an admiral than old Flapfin or my father is, if
+he only knew how to hold his pipe.  There is something about him so
+dignified, so calm, and so majestic; but, for all that, I like the
+young man better.  I have a great mind to take half a peep at him;
+somebody might ask whether he was there or not."
+
+Being a young and bashful maid, as well as by birth a lady, she had
+felt that it might be a very nice thing to contemplate sailors in
+the distance, abstract sailors, old men who pulled ropes, or
+lounged on the deck, if there was one.  But to steal an unsuspected
+view at a young man very well known to her, and acknowledged (not
+only by his mother and himself, but also by every girl in the
+parish) as the Adonis of Springhaven--this was a very different
+thing, and difficult to justify even to one's self.  The proper
+plan, therefore, was to do it, instead of waiting to consider it.
+
+"How very hard upon him it does seem," she whispered to herself,
+after a good gaze at him, "that he must not even dream of having
+any hope of me, because he has not happened to be born a gentleman!
+But he looks a thousand times more like one than nine out of ten of
+the great gentlemen I know--or at any rate he would if his mother
+didn't make his clothes."
+
+For Zebedee Tugwell had a son called "Dan," as like him as a tender
+pea can be like a tough one; promising also to be tough, in course
+of time, by chafing of the world and weather.  But at present Dan
+Tugwell was as tender to the core as a marrowfat dallying till its
+young duck should be ready; because Dan was podding into his first
+love.  To the sympathetic telescope his heart was low, and his mind
+gone beyond astronomical range, and his hands (instead of briskly
+pairing soles) hung asunder, and sprawled like a star-fish.
+
+"Indeed he does look sad," said Miss Dolly, "he is thinking of me,
+as he always does; but I don't see how anybody can blame me.  But
+here comes daddy, with dear old Flapfin!  I am not a bit afraid of
+either of them; but perhaps I had better run away."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AND HER TRUE COMMANDER
+
+
+The nature of "Flapfin"--as Miss Dolly Darling and other young
+people were pleased to call him--was to make his enemies run away,
+but his friends keep very near to him.  He was one of the simplest-
+minded men that ever trod the British oak.  Whatever he thought he
+generally said; and whatever he said he meant and did.  Yet of
+tricks and frauds he had quick perception, whenever they were tried
+against him, as well as a marvellous power of seeing the shortest
+way to everything.  He enjoyed a little gentle piece of vanity, not
+vainglory, and he never could sec any justice in losing the credit
+of any of his exploits.  Moreover, he was gifted with the highest
+faith in the hand of the Almighty over him (to help him in all his
+righteous deeds), and over his enemies, to destroy them.  Though he
+never insisted on any deep piety in his own behavior, he had a good
+deal in his heart when time allowed, and the linstocks were waiting
+the signal.  His trust was supreme in the Lord and himself; and he
+loved to be called "My Lord Admiral."
+
+And a man of this noble type deserved to be met with his own
+nobility.  But the English government, according to its lights--
+which appear to be everlasting--regarded him as the right man, when
+wanted, but at other times the wrong one.  They liked him to do
+them a very good turn, but would not let him do himself one; and
+whenever he looked for some fair chance of a little snug prize-
+money, they took him away from the likely places, and set him to
+hard work and hard knocks.  But his sense of duty and love of
+country enabled him to bear it, with grumbling.
+
+"I don't care a rope's end," he was saying, with a truthfulness
+simple and solid as beefsteak is, "whether we have peace or war;
+but let us have one or the other of them.  I love peace--it is a
+very fine thing--and I hate to see poor fellows killed.  All I want
+is to spend the rest of my life ashore, and lay out the garden.
+You must come and see what a bridge I have made to throw across the
+fish-pond.  I can do well enough with what I have got, as soon as
+my farm begins to pay, and I hope I may never hear another shotted
+cannon; but, my dear Lingo, you know as well as I do how much
+chance there is of that."
+
+"Laudo manentem.  Let us praise her while we have got her.  Parson
+Twemlow keeps up my Latin, but you have forgotten all yours, my
+friend.  I brought you down here to see the fish come in, and to
+choose what you like best for dinner.  In the days when you were my
+smallest youngster, and as proud as Punch to dine with me, your
+taste was the finest in the ship, because your stomach was the
+weakest.  How often I thought that the fish would eat you! and but
+for your wonderful spirit, my friend, that must have happened long
+ago.  But your nature was to fight, and you fought through, as you
+always do.  A drumstick for your praise of peace!"
+
+Admiral Darling, a tall, stout man in the sixty-fifth year of his
+age, looked down at his welcome and famous guest as if he knew a
+great deal more of his nature than the owner did.  And this made
+that owner, who thought very highly of his own perception, look up
+and laugh.
+
+"Here comes the fish!" he cried.  "Come along, Darling.  Never lose
+a moment--that's my rule.  You can't get along as fast as I can.
+I'll go and settle all the business for you."
+
+"Why should you be in such a hurry always?  You will never come to
+my age if you carry on so.  You ought to tow a spar astern.  Thank
+God, they don't know who he is, and I'll take good care not to let
+them know.  If this is what comes of quick promotion, I am glad
+that I got on slowly.  Well, he may do as he likes for me.  He
+always does--that's one thing."
+
+Stoutly grumbling thus, the elder and far heavier Admiral descended
+the hill to the white gate slowly, as behooved the owner.  And, by
+the time he halted there, the other had been upon the beach five
+minutes, and taken command of the fishing fleet.
+
+"Starboard there!  Brail up your gaff!  Is that the way to take the
+ground?  Ease helm, Rosalie.  Smartly, smartly.  Have a care, you
+lubber there.  Fenders out!  So, so.  Now stand by, all!  There are
+two smart lads among you, and no more.  All the rest are no better
+than a pack of Crappos.  You want six months in a man-of-war's
+launch.  This is what comes of peace already!"
+
+The fishermen stared at this extraordinary man, who had taken all
+the business out of Master Tugwell's hands; but without thinking
+twice about it, all obeyed him with a speed that must have robbed
+them of a quantity of rust.  For although he was not in uniform,
+and bore no sword, his dress was conspicuous, as he liked to have
+it, and his looks and deeds kept suit with it.  For he wore a blue
+coat (very badly made, with gilt buttons and lappets too big for
+him), a waistcoat of dove-colored silk, very long, coming over the
+place where his stomach should have been, and white plush breeches,
+made while he was blockading Boulogne in 1801, and therefore had
+scarcely any flesh upon his bones.  Peace having fattened him a
+little, these breeches had tightened upon him (as their way is with
+a boy having six weeks' holiday); but still they could not make his
+legs look big, though they showed them sharp and muscular.  Below
+them were brisk little sinewy calves in white silk hose, with a
+taper descent to ankles as fine as a lady's, and insteps bright
+with large silver buckles.  Yet that which surpassed all the beauty
+of the clothes was the vigor of the man inside them, who seemed to
+quicken and invigorate the whole, even to the right sleeve, doubled
+up from the want of any arm inside it.  But the loss of the right
+arm, and the right eye also, seemed to be of no account to the
+former owner, so hard did he work with the residue of his body, and
+so much did he express with it.
+
+His noble cocked hat was in its leathern box yet, for he was only
+just come from Merton; but the broad felt he wore was looped up in
+front, and displayed all the power of his countenance, or rather
+the vigor; for power is heavy, and his face was light and
+quickness.  Softness also, and a melancholy gift of dreaminess and
+reflection, enlarged and impressed the effect of a gaze and a smile
+which have conquered history.
+
+"Why don't 'ee speak up to 'un, Cap'en Zeb?" cried young Harry
+Shanks, of the Peggy, the smartest smack next to the Rosalie.
+"Whoever can 'a be, to make thee so dumb?  Doth 'a know our own
+business afore our own selves?  If 'ee don't speak up to 'un,
+Cap'en Zeb, I'll never take no more commands from thee."
+
+"Harry Shanks, you was always a fool, and you always will be,"
+Master Tugwell replied, with his deep chest voice, which no gale of
+wind could blow away.  "Whether he be wrong or right--and I won't
+say but what I might have done it better--none but a fool like you
+would dare to set his squeak up against Admirable Lord Nelson."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AND HER FAITHFUL CHAPLAIN
+
+
+"I am not a man of the world, but a man of the Word," said Parson
+Twemlow, the Rector of Springhaven; "and I shall not feel that I
+have done my duty unless I stir him up to-morrow.  His valor and
+glory are nothing to me, nor even his value to the country.  He
+does his duty, and I shall do mine.  It is useless to talk to me,
+Maria; I never shall have such a chance again."
+
+"Well, dear, you know best," replied Mrs. Twemlow; "and duty is
+always the highest and best and most sacred consideration.  But you
+surely should remember, for Eliza's sake, that we never shall dine
+at the Hall again."
+
+"I don't care a snap for their dinners, or the chance of Eliza
+catching some young officer; and very few come while this peace
+goes on.  I won't shirk my duty for any of that."
+
+"Nothing would ever make you shirk your duty, Joshua.  And I hope
+that you know me too well to suppose that I ever would dream of
+suggesting it.  But I do want to see you a Canon, and I know that
+he begins to have influence in the Church, and therefore the Church
+is not at all the place to allude to his private affairs in.  And,
+after all, what do we know about them?  It does seem so low to be
+led away by gossip."
+
+"Maria," said the Rector, severely sorry, "I must beg you to leave
+me to my conscience.  I shall not refer to his private affairs.  I
+shall put leading truths in a general way, and let him make the
+home application."
+
+"Put the cap on if it fits.  Very well: you will injure yourself,
+and do no one any good.  Lord Nelson won't know it; he is too
+simple-minded.  But Admiral Darling will never forgive us for
+insulting him while he is staying at the Hall."
+
+"Maria!  Well, I have long given up all attempts at reasoning with
+you.  If I see a man walking into a furnace, do I insult him by
+saying beware?"
+
+"As I am beyond all reason, Joshua, it is far above me to
+understand that.  But if you escape insulting him, what you do is
+far worse, and quite unlike a gentleman.  You heap a whole pile of
+insults upon your own brother clergymen."
+
+"I do not at all understand you, Maria: you fly off in such a way
+from one thing to another!"
+
+"Not at all.  Anybody who is not above paying attention must
+understand me.  When he is at Merton he goes to church, and his
+Rector is bound to look after him.  When he is at sea, he has his
+Chaplain, who preaches whenever the weather permits, and dare not
+neglect his duties.  But the strongest point of all is this--his
+very own father and brother are clergymen, and bound to do their
+best for him.  All these you insult, and in so many words condemn
+for neglecting their duty, because you are unable to resist the
+pleasure of a stray shot at a celebrated man when he comes down
+here for hospitality."
+
+"My dear, you have put the matter in a new light," said the Rev.
+Joshua Twemlow; "I would be the last man in the world to cast a
+slur upon any brother clergyman.  But it is a sad denial to me,
+because I had put it so neatly, and a line of Latin at the end of
+it."
+
+"Never mind, dear.  That will do for some one else who deserves it,
+and has got no influence.  And if you could only put instead of it
+one of your beautifully turned expressions about our debt of
+gratitude to the noble defender of our country--"
+
+"No, no, Maria!" said her husband, with a smile; "be content
+without pushing your victory further than Nelson himself would push
+it.  It may be my duty to spare him, but I will not fall down and
+worship him."
+
+Joshua Twemlow, Bachelor of Divinity, was not very likely to
+worship anybody, nor even to admire, without due cause shown.  He
+did not pretend to be a learned man, any more than he made any
+other pretense which he could not justify.  But he loved a bit of
+Latin, whenever he could find anybody to share it with him, and
+even in lack of intelligent partners he indulged sometimes in that
+utterance.  This was a grievance to the Squire of the parish,
+because he was expected to enjoy at ear-shot that which had passed
+out of the other ear in boyhood, with a painful echo behind it.
+But the Admiral had his revenge by passing the Rector's bits of
+Latin on--when he could remember them--to some one entitled to an
+explanation, which he, with a pleasant smile, vouchsafed.  This is
+one of the many benefits of a classical education.
+
+But what are such little tags, compared with the pith and marrow of
+the man himself?  Parson Twemlow was no prig, no pedant, and no
+popinjay, but a sensible, upright, honorable man, whose chief
+defect was a quick temper.  In parish affairs he loved to show his
+independence of the Hall, and having a stronger will than Admiral
+Darling, he mostly conquered him.  But he knew very well how far to
+go, and never pressed the supremacy of the Church beyond endurance.
+
+His wife, who was one of the Carnes of Carne Castle, some few miles
+to the westward, encouraged him strongly in holding his own when
+the Admiral strove to override him.  That was her manner of putting
+the case; while Admiral Darling would rather have a score of
+nightmares than override any one.  But the Carnes were a falling as
+much as the Darlings were a rising family, and offense comes down
+the hill like stones dislodged by the upward traveller.  Mrs.
+Twemlow knew nothing she disliked so much as any form of haughtiness;
+it was so small, so petty, so opposed to all true Christianity.  And
+this made her think that the Darlings were always endeavoring to
+patronize her--a thing she would much rather die than put up with.
+
+This excellent couple had allowed, however, their only son Erle, a
+very fine young man, to give his heart entirely to Faith Darling,
+the Admiral's eldest daughter, and to win hers to an equal extent;
+and instead of displaying any haughtiness, her father had simply
+said:  "Let them wait two years; they are both very young, and may
+change their minds.  If they keep of the same mind for two years,
+they are welcome to one another."
+
+For a kinder-hearted man than Admiral Darling never saw the sun.
+There was nothing about him wonderful in the way of genius,
+heroism, large-mindedness, or unselfishness.  But people liked him
+much better than if he combined all those vast rarities; because he
+was lively, genial, simple, easily moved to wrath or grief, free-
+handed, a little fond, perhaps, of quiet and confidential brag, and
+very fond of gossip.
+
+"I tell you," he said to Lord Nelson now, as they walked down the
+hill to the church together that lovely Sunday morning, "you will
+not have seen a finer sight than our fishermen in church--I dare
+say never.  Of course they don't all go.  Nobody could expect it.
+But as many as a reasonable man could desire come there, because
+they know I like it.  Twemlow thinks that they come to please him;
+but he finds a mighty difference in his congregation when I and my
+daughters are out of the parish.  But if he goes away, there they
+are all the same, or perhaps even more, to get a change from him.
+That will show which of us they care about pleasing."
+
+"And they are quite right.  I hate the levelling system," the hero
+of the Nile replied.  "A man should go to church to please his
+landlord, not to please the parson.  Is the Chaplain to settle how
+many come to prayers?"
+
+"That is the right way to look at the thing," said the larger-
+bodied Admiral; "and I only wish Twemlow could have heard you.  I
+asked him to dine with us yesterday, as you know, because you would
+have done him so much good; but he sent some trumpery excuse,
+although his wife was asked to come with him.  She stopped him, no
+doubt; to look big, I dare say; as if they could dine with a Lord
+Nelson every day!"
+
+"They can do that every day, when they dine with a man who has done
+his duty.  But where is my pretty godchild Dolly?  Horatia seems
+too long for you.  What a long name they gave me!  It may have done
+very well for my granduncle.  But, my dear Lingo, look sharp for
+your Dolly.  She has no mother, nor even a duenna--she has turned
+her off, she said yesterday.  Your daughter Faith is an angel, but
+Dolly--"
+
+"My Dolly is a little devil, I suppose!  You always found out
+everything.  What have you found my Dolly at?  Perhaps she got it
+at her baptism."  A word against his pet child was steel upon flint
+to Admiral Darling.
+
+"I am not concerned with your opinion," Lord Nelson answered,
+loftily.  "But Horatia Dorothy Darling is my godchild by baptism,
+and you will find her down in my will for a thousand pounds, if she
+behaves well, and if it should please the Lord to send me some of
+the prize-money I deserve."
+
+This was announced in such a manner, with the future testator's
+useful eye bearing brightly on his comrade, and his cocked hat
+lifted as he spoke of the great Awarder of prizes, that no one able
+to smile could help a friendly and simple smile at him.  So Admiral
+Darling forgot his wrath, which never had long memory, and scorning
+even to look round for Dolly, in whom he felt such confidence, took
+the mighty warrior by the good arm and led him toward the peaceful
+bells.
+
+"Hurry; we shall be late," he said.  "You remember when we called
+you 'Hurry,' because of being always foremost?  But they know
+better than to stop the bells till they see me in the church porch.
+Twemlow wanted to upset that, for the parsons want to upset
+everything.  And I said:  'Very well; then I shall square it by
+locking the gate from your shrubbery.  That will give me five
+minutes to come down the hill.'  For my grandfather put up that
+gate, you must know, and of course the key belongs to me.  It saves
+Twemlow a cable's-length every time, and the parsons go to church
+so often now, he would have to make at least another knot a month.
+So the bells go on as they used to do.  How many bells do you make
+it, Mr. Nelson?"
+
+"Eight bells, sir," Lord Nelson replied, saluting like the middy in
+charge of the watch.  And at this little turn they both laughed,
+and went on, with memory of ancient days, to church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+OPINION, MALE AND FEMALE
+
+
+The fine young parsons of the present generation are too fond of
+asking us why we come to church, and assigning fifty reasons out of
+their own heads, not one of which is to our credit or theirs;
+whereas their proper business is to cure the fish they have caught,
+instead of asking how they caught them.  Mr. Twemlow had sense
+enough for this, and treated the largest congregation he had ever
+preached to as if they were come for the good of their souls, and
+should have it, in spite of Lord Nelson.  But, alas! their bodies
+fared not so well, and scarcely a man got his Sunday dinner
+according to his liking.  Never a woman would stay by the fire for
+the sake of a ten-pound leg of mutton, and the baker put his
+shutters up at half past ten against every veal pie and every loin
+of pork.  Because in the church there would be seen this day (as
+the servants at the Hall told every one) the man whom no Englishman
+could behold without pride, and no Frenchman with it--the victor of
+the Nile, and of Copenhagen, and countless other conflicts.
+Knowing that he would be stared at well, he was equal to the
+occasion, and the people who saw him were so proud of the sight
+that they would talk of it now if they were alive.
+
+But those who were not there would exhibit more confidence than
+conscience by describing every item of his raiment, which verily
+even of those who beheld it none could do well, except a tailor or
+a woman.  Enough that he shone in the light of the sun (which came
+through a windowful of bull's-eyes upon him, and was surprised to
+see stars by daylight), but the glint of his jewels and glow of his
+gold diverted no eye from the calm, sad face which in the day of
+battle could outflash them all.  That sensitive, mild, complaisant
+face (humble, and even homely now, with scathe and scald and the
+lines of middle age) presented itself as a great surprise to the
+many who came to gaze at it.  With its child-like simplicity and
+latent fire, it was rather the face of a dreamer and poet than of a
+warrior and hero.
+
+Mrs. Cheeseman, the wife of Mr. Cheeseman, who kept the main shop
+in the village, put this conclusion into better English, when Mrs.
+Shanks (Harry's mother) came on Monday to buy a rasher and compare
+opinions.
+
+"If I could have fetched it to my mind," she said, "that Squire
+Darling were a tarradiddle, and all his wenches liars--which some
+of them be, and no mistake--and if I could refuse my own eyes about
+gold-lace, and crown jewels, and arms off, happier would I sleep in
+my bed, ma'am, every night the Lord seeth good for it.  I would
+sooner have found hoppers in the best ham in the shop than have
+gone to church so to delude myself.  But there! that Cheeseman
+would make me do it.  I did believe as we had somebody fit to do
+battle for us against Boney, and I laughed about all they invasion
+and scares.  But now--why, 'a can't say bo to a goose!  If 'a was
+to come and stand this moment where you be a-standing, and say,
+'Mrs. Cheeseman, I want a fine rasher,' not a bit of gristle would
+I trim out, nor put it up in paper for him, as I do for you,
+ma'am."
+
+And Widow Shanks quite agreed with her.
+
+"Never can I tell you what my feelings was, when I seed him a-
+standing by the monument, ma'am.  But I said to myself--'why, my
+poor John, as is now in heaven, poor fellow, would 'a took you up
+with one hand, my lord, stars and garters and crowns and all, and
+put you into his sow-west pocket.'  And so he could have done, Mrs.
+Cheeseman."
+
+But the opinion of the men was different, because they knew a bee
+from a bull's foot.
+
+"He may not be so very big," they said, "nor so outrageous
+thunderin', as the missus looked out for from what she have read.
+They always goes by their own opinions, and wrong a score of times
+out of twenty.  But any one with a fork to his leg can see the sort
+of stuff he is made of.  He 'tended his duty in the house of the
+Lord, and he wouldn't look after the women; but he kept his live
+eye upon every young chap as were fit for a man-of-war's-man--Dan
+Tugwell especial, and young Harry Shanks.  You see if he don't have
+both of they afore ever the war comes on again!"
+
+Conscious of filling the public eye, with the privilege of being
+upon private view, Lord Nelson had faced the position without
+flinching, and drawn all the fire of the enemy.  After that he
+began to make reprisals, according to his manner, taking no trouble
+to regard the women--which debarred them from thinking much of him--
+but settling with a steady gaze at each sea-faring man, whether he
+was made of good stuff or of pie-crust.  And to the credit of the
+place it must be said that he found very little of that soft
+material, but plenty of good stuff, slow, perhaps, and heavy, but
+needing only such a soul as his to rouse it.
+
+"What a fine set of fellows you have in your village!" he said to
+Miss Darling after dinner, as she sat at the head of her father's
+table, for the Admiral had long been a widower.  "The finest I have
+seen on the south coast anywhere.  And they look as if they had
+been under some training.  I suppose your father had most of them
+in the Fencibles, last summer?"
+
+"Not one of them," Faith answered, with a sweet smile of pride.
+"They have their own opinions, and nothing will disturb them.
+Nobody could get them to believe for a moment that there was any
+danger of invasion.  And they carried on all their fishing business
+almost as calmly as they do now.  For that, of course, they may
+thank you, Lord Nelson; but they have not the smallest sense of the
+obligation."
+
+"I am used to that, as your father knows; but more among the noble
+than the simple.  For the best thing I ever did I got no praise, or
+at any rate very little.  As to the Boulogne affair, Springhaven
+was quite right.  There was never much danger of invasion.  I only
+wish the villains would have tried it.  Horatia, would you like to
+see your godfather at work?  I hope not.  Young ladies should be
+peaceful."
+
+"Then I am not peaceful at all," cried Dolly, who was sitting by
+the maimed side of her "Flapfin," as her young brother Johnny had
+nicknamed him.  "Why, if there was always peace, what on earth
+would any but very low people find to do?  There could scarcely be
+an admiral, or a general, or even a captain, or--well, a boy to
+beat the drums."
+
+"But no drum would want to be beaten, Horatia," her elder sister
+Faith replied, with the superior mind of twenty-one; "and the
+admirals and the generals would have to be--"
+
+"Doctors, or clergymen, or something of that sort, or perhaps even
+worse--nasty lawyers."  Then Dolly (whose name was "Horatia" only
+in presence of her great godfather) blushed, as befitted the age of
+seventeen, at her daring, and looked at her father.
+
+"That last cut was meant for me," Frank Darling, the eldest of the
+family, explained from the opposite side of the table.  "Your
+lordship, though so well known to us, can hardly be expected to
+know or remember all the little particulars of our race.  We are
+four, as you know; and the elder two are peaceful, while the
+younger pair are warlike.  And I am to be the 'nasty lawyer,'
+called to the bar in the fullness of time--which means after dining
+sufficiently--to the great disgust of your little godchild, whose
+desire from her babyhood has been to get me shot."
+
+"LITTLE, indeed!  What a word to use about me!  You told a great
+story.  But now you'll make it true."
+
+"To wit--as we say at Lincoln's Inn--she has not longed always for
+my death in battle, but henceforth will do so; but I never shall
+afford her that gratification.  I shall keep out of danger as
+zealously as your lordship rushes into it."
+
+"Franky going on, I suppose, with some of his usual nonsense,"
+Admiral Darling, who was rather deaf, called out from the bottom of
+the table.  "Nobody pays much attention to him, because he does not
+mean a word of it.  He belongs to the peace--peace--peace-at-any-
+price lot.  But when a man wanted to rob him last winter, he
+knocked him down, and took him by the throat, and very nearly
+killed him."
+
+"That's the only game to play," exclaimed Lord Nelson, who had been
+looking at Frank Darling with undisguised disgust.  "My young
+friend, you are not such a fool after all.  And why should you try
+to be one?"
+
+"My brother," said the sweet-tempered Faith, "never tries to be a
+fool, Lord Nelson; he only tries to be a poet."
+
+This made people laugh; and Nelson, feeling that he had been rude
+to a youth who could not fairly answer him, jumped from his chair
+with the lightness of a boy, and went round to Frank Darling, with
+his thin figure leaning forward, and his gray unpowdered hair
+tossed about, and upon his wrinkled face that smile which none
+could ever resist, because it was so warm and yet so sad.
+
+"Shake hands, my dear young friend," he cried, "though I can not
+offer the right one.  I was wrong to call you a fool because you
+don't look at things as I do.  Poets are almost as good as sailors,
+and a great deal better than soldiers.  I have felt a gift that way
+myself, and turned out some very tidy lines.  But I believe they
+were mainly about myself, and I never had time to go on with them."
+
+Such little touches of simplicity and kindness, from a man who
+never knew the fear of men, helped largely to produce that love of
+Nelson which England felt, and will always feel.
+
+"My lord," replied the young man, bending low--for he was half a
+cubit higher than the mighty captain--"it is good for the world
+that you have no right arm, when you disarm it so with your left
+one."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AS OTHERS SEE US
+
+
+Admiral Darling was very particular in trying to keep his grounds
+and garden tolerably tidy always.  But he never succeeded, for the
+simple reason that he listened to every one's excuses; and not
+understanding a walk or a lawn half so well as the deck of a
+battle-ship, he was always defeated in argument.
+
+"Here's a state of things!" he used to say in summer-time;
+"thistles full of seed within a biscuit-heave of my front door, and
+other things--I forget their names--with heads like the head of a
+capstan bursting, all as full of seeds as a purser is of lies!"
+
+"Your lordship do not understand them subjects," Mr. Swipes, the
+head gardener, was in the habit of replying; "and small blame to
+you, in my opinion, after so many years upon the briny wave.  Ah!
+they can't grow them things there."
+
+"Swipes, that is true, but to my mind not at all a satisfactory
+reason for growing them here, just in front of the house and the
+windows.  I don't mind a few in the kitchen-garden, but you know as
+well as I do, Swipes, that they can have no proper business here."
+
+"I did hear tell down to the Club, last night," Mr. Swipes would
+reply, after wiping his forehead, as if his whole mind were
+perspired away, "though I don't pretend to say how far true it may
+be, that all the land of England is to be cultivated for the public
+good, same as on the continence, without no propriety or privacy,
+my lord.  But I don't altogether see how they be to do it.  So I
+thought I'd better ask your lordship."
+
+"For the public good!  The public-house good, you mean."  The
+Admiral answered nine times out of ten, being easily led from the
+track of his wrath, and tired of telling Swipes that he was not a
+lord.  "How many times more must I tell you, Swipes, that I hate
+that Jacobin association?  Can you tell me of one seaman belonging
+to it?  A set of fish-jobbers, and men with barrows, and cheap-
+jacks from up the country.  Not one of my tenants would be such a
+fool as to go there, even if I allowed him.  I make great
+allowances for you, Swipes, because of your obstinate nature.  But
+don't let me hear of that Club any more, or YOU may go and
+cultivate for the public good."
+
+"Your lordship knows that I goes there for nothing except to keep
+up my burial.  And with all the work there is upon this place, the
+Lord only knows when I may be requiring of it.  Ah!  I never see
+the like; I never did.  And a blade of grass the wrong way comes
+down on poor old Swipes!"
+
+Hereupon the master, having done his duty, was relieved from
+overdoing it, and went on other business with a peaceful mind.  The
+feelings, however, of Mr. Swipes were not to be appeased so
+lightly, but demanded the immediate satisfaction of a pint of beer.
+And so large was his charity that if his master fell short of duty
+upon that point, he accredited him with the good intention, and
+enabled him to discharge it.
+
+"My dear soul," he said, with symptoms of exhaustion, to good Mrs.
+Cloam, the housekeeper, who had all the keys at her girdle, about
+ten o'clock on the Monday morning, "what a day we did have
+yesterday!"
+
+"A mercy upon me, Mr. Swipes," cried Mrs. Cloam, who was also short
+of breath, "how you did exaggerate my poor narves, a-rushing up so
+soft, with the cold steel in both your hands!"
+
+"Ah! ma'am, it have right to be a good deal wuss than that," the
+chivalrous Swipes made answer, with the scythe beside his ear.  "It
+don't consarn what the masters say, though enough to take one's
+legs off.  But the ladies, Mrs. Cloam, the ladies--it's them as
+takes our heads off."
+
+"Go 'long with you, Mr. Swipes!  You are so disastrous at turning
+things.  And how much did he say you was to have this time?  Here's
+Jenny Shanks coming up the passage."
+
+"Well, he left it to myself; he have that confidence in me.  And
+little it is I should ever care to take, with the power of my own
+will, ma'am.  Why, the little brown jug, ma'am, is as much as I can
+manage even of our small beer now.  Ah! I know the time when I
+would no more have thought of rounding of my mouth for such small
+stuff than of your growing up, ma'am, to be a young woman with the
+sponsorship of this big place upon you.  Wonderful! wonderful!  And
+only yesterday, as a man with a gardening mind looks at it, you was
+the prettiest young maiden on the green, and the same--barring
+marriage--if you was to encounter with the young men now."
+
+"Oh," said Mrs. Cloam, who was fifty, if a day, "how you do make me
+think of sad troubles, Mr. Swipes!  Jenny, take the yellow jug with
+the three beef-eaters on it, and go to the third cask from the
+door--the key turns upside down, mind--and let me hear you whistle
+till you bring me back the key.  Don't tell me nonsense about your
+lips being dry.  You can whistle like a blackbird when you choose."
+
+"Here's to your excellent health, Mrs. Cloam, and as blooming as it
+finds you now, ma'am!  As pretty a tap as I taste since Christmas,
+and another dash of malt would 'a made it worthy a'most to speak
+your health in.  Well, ma'am, a leetle drop in crystal for
+yourself, and then for my business, which is to inquire after your
+poor dear health to-day.  Blooming as you are, ma'am, you must bear
+in mind that beauty is only skin-deep, Mrs. Cloam; and the purtier
+a flower is, the more delicate it grows.  I've a-been a-thinking of
+you every night, ma'am, knowing how you must 'a been put about and
+driven.  The Admiral have gone down to the village, and Miss Dolly
+to stare at the boats going out."
+
+"Then I may speak a word for once at ease, Mr. Swipes, though the
+Lord alone knows what a load is on my tongue.  It requires a fine
+gardener, being used to delicacy, to enter into half the worry we
+have to put up with.  Heroes of the Nile, indeed, and bucklers of
+the country!  Why, he could not buckle his own shoe, and Jenny
+Shanks had to do it for him.  Not that I blame him for having one
+arm, and a brave man he is to have lost it, but that he might have
+said something about the things I got up at a quarter to five every
+morning to make up for him.  For cook is no more than a smoke-jack,
+Mr. Swipes; if she keeps the joint turning, that's as much as she
+can do."
+
+"And a little too fond of good beer, I'm afeard," replied Mr.
+Swipes, having emptied his pot.  "Men's heads was made for it, but
+not women's, till they come to superior stations in life.  But, oh,
+Mrs. Cloam, what a life we lead with the crotchets of they gentry!"
+
+"It isn't that so much, Mr. Swipes, if only there was any way of
+giving satisfaction.  I wish everybody who is born to it to have
+the very best of everything, likewise all who have fought up to it.
+But to make all the things and have nothing made of them, whether
+indigestion or want of appetite, turns one quite into the Negroes
+almost, that two or three people go on with."
+
+"I don't look at what he hath aten or left," Mr. Swipes made
+answer, loftily; "that lieth between him and his own stommick.  But
+what hath a' left for me, ma'am?  He hath looked out over the
+garden when he pleased, and this time of year no weeds is up, and
+he don't know enough of things to think nothing of them.  When his
+chaise come down I was out by the gate with a broom in my hand, and
+I pulled off my hat, but his eye never seemed to lay hold of me."
+
+"His eye lays hold of everything, whether he makes 'em feel or no.
+One thing I'm sure of--he was quite up to Miss Dolly, and the way
+she carries on with you know who, every blessed Sunday.  If that is
+what they go to church for--"
+
+"But, my dear soul," said the genial Swipes, whose heart was
+enlarged with the power of good beer, "when you and I was young
+folk, what did we go to church for?  I can't speak for you, ma'am,
+being ever so much younger, and a baby in the gallery in long
+clothes, if born by that time; but so far as myself goes, it was
+the girls I went to look at, and most of 'em come as well to have
+it done to them."
+
+"That never was my style, Mr. Swipes, though I know there were some
+not above it.  And amongst equals I won't say that there need be
+much harm in it.  But for a young man in the gallery, with a long
+stick of the vile-base in his hand, and the only clean shirt of the
+week on his back, and nothing but a plank of pitch to keep him,
+however good-looking he may be, to be looking at the daughter, and
+the prettiest one too, though not the best, some people think, of
+the gentleman that owns all the houses and the haven--presumption
+is the smallest word that I can find to use for it; and for her to
+allow it, fat--fat something in the nation."
+
+"Well, ma'am," said Mr. Swipes, whose views were loose and liberal,
+"it seems a little shock at first to those on trust in families.
+But Dannel is a brave boy, and might fight his way to glory, and
+then they has the pick of the femmels up to a thousand pound a
+year.  You know what happened the miller's son, no further off than
+Upton.  And if it hadn't been for Dannel, when she was a little
+chit, where would proud Miss Dolly be, with her feathers and her
+furbelows?  Natur' is the thing I holds by, and I sees a deal of
+it.  And betwixt you and me and the bedpost, ma'am, whoever hath
+Miss Dolly will have to ride to London on this here scythe.  Miss
+Faith is the lass for a good quiet man, without no airs and graces,
+and to my judgment every bit as comely, and more of her to hold on
+by.  But the Lord 'a mercy upon us.  Mrs. Cloam, you've a-been
+married like my poor self; and you knows what we be, and we knows
+what you be.  Looks 'ain't much to do with it after the first week
+or two.  It's the cooking, and the natur', and the not going
+contrairy.  B'lieve Miss Dolly would go contrairy to a hangel, if
+her was j'ined to him three days."
+
+"Prejudice! prejudice!" the housekeeper replied, while shaking her
+finger severely at him.  "You ought to be above such opinions, Mr.
+Swipes, a superior man, such as you are.  If Miss Faith came into
+your garden reading books, and finding fault here and there, and
+sniffing at the flowers, a quarter so often as pretty Dolly does,
+perhaps you wouldn't make such a perfect angel of her, and run down
+her sister in comparison.  But your wonderful Miss Faith comes
+peeping here and poking there into pots and pans, and asking the
+maids how their mothers are, as if her father kept no housekeeper.
+She provoked me so in the simple-room last week, as if I was hiding
+thieves there, that I asked her at last whether she expected to
+find Mr. Erle there.  And you should have seen how she burst out
+crying; for something had turned on her mind before."
+
+"Well, I couldn't have said that to her," quoth the tender-hearted
+Swipes--"not if she had come and routed out every key and every
+box, pot, pan, and pannier in the tool-house and stoke-hole and
+vinery!  The pretty dear! the pretty dear!  And such a lady as she
+is!  Ah, you women are hard-hearted to one another, when your minds
+are up!  But take my word for it, Mrs. Cloam, no one will ever have
+the chance of making your beautiful Miss Dolly cry by asking her
+where her sweetheart is."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A SQUADRON IN THE DOWNS
+
+
+"My dear girls, all your courage is gone," said Admiral Darling to
+his daughters at luncheon, that same Monday; "departed perhaps with
+Lord Nelson and Frank.  I hate the new style of such come-and-go
+visits, as if there was no time for anything.  Directly a man knows
+the ways of the house, and you can take him easily, off he goes.
+Just like Hurry, he never can stop quiet.  He talks as if peace was
+the joy of his life, and a quiet farm his paradise, and very likely
+he believes it.  But my belief is that a year of peace would kill
+him, now that he has made himself so famous.  When that sort of
+thing begins, it seems as if it must go on."
+
+"But, father dear," exclaimed the elder daughter, "you could have
+done every single thing that Lord Nelson has ever contrived to do,
+if you had only happened to be there, and equally eager for
+destruction.  I have heard you say many times, though not of course
+before him, that you could have managed the battle of the Nile
+considerably better than he did.  And instead of allowing the great
+vessel to blow up, you would have brought her safe to Spithead."
+
+"My dear, you must have quite misunderstood me.  Be sure that you
+never express such opinions, which are entirely your own, in the
+presence of naval officers.  Though I will not say that they are
+quite without foundation."
+
+"Why, papa," cried Miss Dolly, who was very truthful, when her own
+interests were not involved, "you have often said twice as much as
+that.  How well I remember having heard you say--"
+
+"You young people always back up one another, and you don't care
+what you make your poor father say.  I wonder you don't vow that I
+declared I could jump over the moon with my uniform on.  But I'll
+tell you what we'll do, to bring back your senses--we will go for a
+long ride this fine afternoon.  I've a great mind to go as far as
+Stonnington."
+
+"Now how many times have you told us that?  I won't believe it till
+we get there," young Dolly answered, with her bright eyes full of
+joy.  "You must be ashamed of yourself, papa, for neglecting your
+old friend's son so long."
+
+"Well, to tell you the truth, I am, my dear," confessed the good-
+natured Admiral; "but no one but myself has the least idea of the
+quantity of things I have to do."
+
+"Exactly what old Swipes said this very morning, only much more
+impressively.  And I really did believe him, till I saw a yellow
+jug, and a horn that holds a pint, in the summer-house.  He threw
+his coat over them, but it was too late."
+
+"Dolly, I shall have to put you in the blackhole.  You belong too
+much to the rising generation, or the upstart generation is the
+proper word.  What would Lord Nelson say?  I must have him back
+again.  He is the man for strict discipline."
+
+"Oh, I want to ask one thing about my great godfather.  You know he
+only came down with one portmanteau, and his cocked-hat box, and
+two hampers.  But when I went into his bedroom to see, as a
+goddaughter should, that his pillow was smooth, there he had got
+tacked up at the head of his bed a picture of some very beautiful
+lady, and another at the side, and another at the foot!  And Jenny
+Shanks, who couldn't help peeping in, to see how a great hero goes
+to sleep, wishes that she may be an old maid forever if she did not
+see him say his prayers to them.  Now the same fate befall me if I
+don't find out who it is.  You must know, papa, so you had better
+tell at once."
+
+"That hussy shall leave the house tomorrow.  I never heard of
+anything so shameless.  Mrs. Cloam seems to have no authority
+whatever.  And you too, Dolly, had no business there.  If any one
+went to see the room comfortable, it should have been Faith, as the
+lady of the house.  Ever since you persuaded me that you were too
+old for a governess, you seem to be under no discipline at all."
+
+"Now you know that you don't mean that, papa.  You say those cruel
+things just to make me kiss you," cried Dolly, with the action
+suited to the word, and with her bright hair falling upon his snowy
+beard the father could not help returning the salute; "but I must
+know who that lady is.  And what can he want with three pictures of
+her?"
+
+"How should I know, Dolly?  Perhaps it is his mother, or perhaps it
+is the Queen of Naples, who made a Duke of him for what he did out
+there.  Now be quick, both of you, or no ride to-day.  It is
+fifteen long miles to Stonnington, I am sure, and I am not going to
+break my neck.  As it is, we must put dinner off till half past
+six, and we shall all be starved by that time.  Quick, girls,
+quick!  I can only give you twenty minutes."
+
+The Admiral, riding with all the vigor of an ancient mariner,
+looked well between his two fair daughters, as they turned their
+horses' heads inland, and made over the downs for Stonnington.
+Here was beautiful cantering ground, without much furze or many
+rabbit-holes, and lovely air flowing over green waves of land, to
+greet and to deepen the rose upon young cheeks.  Behind them was
+the broad sea, looking steadfast, and spread with slowly travelling
+tints; before them and around lay the beauty of the earth, with the
+goodness of the sky thrown over it.  The bright world quivered with
+the breath of spring, and her smile was shed on everything.
+
+"What a lovely country we have been through!  I should like to come
+here every day," said Faith, as they struck into the London road
+again.  "If Stonnington is as nice as this, Mr. Scudamore must be
+happy there."
+
+"Well, we shall see," her father answered.  "My business has been
+upon the coast so much, that I know very little about Stonnington.
+But Scudamore has such a happy nature that nothing would come much
+amiss to him.  You know why he is here, of course?"
+
+"No, I don't, papa.  You are getting so mysterious that you never
+tell us anything now," replied Dolly.  "I only know that he was in
+the navy, and now he is in a grammar school.  The last time I saw
+him he was about a yard high."
+
+"He is a good bit short of two yards now," said the Admiral,
+smiling as he thought of him, "but quite tall enough for a sailor,
+Dolly, and the most active young man I ever saw in my life, every
+inch of him sound and quick and true.  I shall think very little of
+your judgment unless you like him heartily; not at first, perhaps,
+because he is so shy, but as soon as you begin to know him.  I mean
+to ask him to come down as soon as he can get a holiday.  His
+captain told me, when he served in the Diomede, that there was not
+a man in the ship to come near him for nimbleness and quiet
+fearlessness."
+
+"Then what made him take to his books again?  Oh, how terribly dull
+he must find them!  Why, that must be Stonnington church, on the
+hill!"
+
+"Yes, and the old grammar school close by.  I was very near going
+there once myself, but they sent me to Winchester instead.  It was
+partly through me that he got his berth here, though not much to
+thank me for, I am afraid.  Sixty pounds a year and his rations
+isn't much for a man who has been at Cambridge.  But even that he
+could not get in the navy when the slack time came last year.  He
+held no commission, like many other fine young fellows, but had
+entered as a first-class volunteer.  And so he had no rating when
+this vile peace was patched up--excuse me, my dear, what I meant to
+say was, when the blessings of tranquillity were restored.  And
+before that his father, my dear old friend, died very suddenly, as
+you have heard me say, without leaving more than would bury him.
+Don't talk any more of it.  It makes me sad to think of it."
+
+"But," persisted Dolly, "I could never understand why a famous man
+like Sir Edmond Scudamore--a physician in large practice, and head
+doctor to the King, as you have often told us--could possibly have
+died in that sort of way, without leaving any money, or at least a
+quantity of valuable furniture and jewels.  And he had not a number
+of children, papa, to spend all his money, as I do yours, whenever
+I get the chance; though you are growing so dreadfully stingy now
+that I never can look even decent."
+
+"My dear, it is a very long sad story.  Not about my stinginess, I
+mean--though that is a sad story, in another sense, but will not
+move my compassion.  As to Sir Edmond, I can only tell you now
+that, while he was a man of great scientific knowledge, he knew
+very little indeed of money matters, and was not only far too
+generous, but what is a thousand times worse, too trustful.  Being
+of an honorable race himself, and an honorable sample of it, he
+supposed that a man of good family must be a gentleman; which is
+not always the case.  He advanced large sums of money, and signed
+bonds for a gentleman, or rather a man of that rank, whose name
+does not concern you; and by that man he was vilely betrayed; and I
+would rather not tell you the rest of it.  Poor Blyth had to leave
+Cambridge first, where he was sure to have done very well indeed,
+and at his wish he was sent afloat, where he would have done even
+better; and then, as his father's troubles deepened, and ended in
+his death of heart complaint, the poor boy was left to keep his
+broken-hearted mother upon nothing but a Latin Grammar.  And I fear
+it is like a purser's dip.  But here we are at Stonnington--a long
+steep pitch.  Let us slacken sail, my dears, as we have brought no
+cockswain.  Neither of you need land, you know, but I shall go into
+the schoolroom."
+
+"One thing I want to know," said the active-minded Dolly, as the
+horses came blowing their breath up the hill: "if his father was
+Sir Edmond, and he is the only child, according to all the laws of
+nature, he ought to be Sir Blyth Scudamore."
+
+"It shows how little you have been out--as good Mrs. Twemlow
+expresses it--that you do not even understand the laws of nature as
+between a baronet and a knight."
+
+"Oh, to be sure; I recollect!  How very stupid of me!  The one goes
+on, and the other doesn't, after the individual stops.  But whose
+fault is it that I go out so little?  So you see you are caught in
+your own trap, papa."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A LESSON IN THE AENEID
+
+
+In those days Stonnington was a very pretty village, and such it
+continued to be until it was ravaged by a railway.  With the
+railway came all that is hideous and foul, and from it fled all
+that is comely.  The cattle-shed, called by rail-highwaymen "the
+Station," with its roof of iron Pan-pipes and red bull's-eyes stuck
+on stack-poles, whistles and stares where the grand trees stood and
+the village green lay sleeping.  On the site of the gray-stone
+grammar school is an "Operative Institute," whose front (not so
+thick as the skin of a young ass) is gayly tattooed with a ringworm
+of wind-bricks.  And the old manor-house, where great authors used
+to dine, and look out with long pipes through the ivy, has been
+stripped of every shred of leaf, and painted red and yellow, and
+barge-boarded into "the Temperance Tap."
+
+Ere ever these heathen so furiously raged, there was peace and
+content, and the pleasure of the eyes, and of neighborly feeling
+abundance.  The men never burst with that bubble of hurry which
+every man now is inflated with; and the women had time enough to
+mind one another's affairs, without which they grow scandalous.
+And the trees, that kept company with the houses, found matter for
+reflection in their calm blue smoke, and the green crop that
+promised a little grove upon the roof.  So that as the road went up
+the hill, the traveller was content to leave his legs to nature,
+while his eyes took their leisure of pleasant views, and of just
+enough people to dwell upon.
+
+At the top of the hill rose the fine old church, and next to it,
+facing on the road itself, without any kind of fence before it,
+stood the grammar school of many generations.  This was a long low
+building, ridged with mossy slabs, and ribbed with green, where the
+drip oozed down the buttresses.  But the long reach of the front
+was divided by a gable projecting a little into the broad high-
+road.  And here was the way, beneath a low stone arch, into a porch
+with oak beams bulging and a bell-rope dangling, and thence with an
+oaken door flung back into the dark arcade of learning.
+
+This was the place to learn things in, with some possibility of
+keeping them, and herein lay the wisdom of our ancestors.  Could
+they ever have known half as much as they did, and ten times as
+much as we know, if they had let the sun come in to dry it all up,
+as we do?  Will even the fourteen-coated onion root, with its
+bottom exposed to the sun, or will a clever puppy grow long ears,
+in the power of strong daylight?
+
+The nature and nurture of solid learning were better understood
+when schools were built from which came Shakespeare and Bacon and
+Raleigh; and the glare of the sun was not let in to baffle the
+light of the eyes upon the mind.  And another consideration is that
+wherever there is light, boys make a noise, which conduces but
+little to doctrine; whereas in soft shadow their muscles relax, and
+their minds become apprehensive.  Thus had this ancient grammar
+school of Stonnington fostered many scholars, some of whom had
+written grammars for themselves and their posterity.
+
+The year being only at the end of March, and the day going on for
+five o'clock, the light was just right, in the long low room, for
+correction of manners and for discipline.  Two boys had been horsed
+and brushed up well, which had strengthened the conscience of all
+the rest, while sobs and rubs of the part affected diffused a
+tender silence.  Dr. Swinks, the head-master, was leaning back in
+his canopied oaken chair, with the pride inspired by noble actions.
+
+"What wonderfully good boys!" Dolly whispered, as she peeped in
+through the dark porch with Faith, while her father was giving the
+horses in charge to the hostler from the inn across the way; "I
+declare that I shall be frightened even to look at Mr. Scudamore,
+if this is a specimen of what he does.  There is scarcely a boy
+looking off his book.  But how old he does look!  I suppose it must
+be the effect of so much hard teaching."
+
+"You silly thing," her sister answered; "you are looking at the
+great head-master.  Mr. Scudamore is here at the bottom of the
+school.  Between these big hinges you can see him; and he looks as
+young as you do."
+
+Miss Dolly, who dearly loved any sly peep, kept her light figure
+back and the long skirt pulled in, as she brought her bright eyes
+to the slit between the heavy black door and the stone-work.  And
+she speedily gave her opinion.
+
+"He is nothing but a regular frump.  I declare I am dreadfully
+disappointed.  No wonder the title did not come on!  He is nothing
+but a very soft-natured stupe.  Why, the boys can do what they like
+with him!"
+
+Certainly the scholars of the Virgil class, which Blyth Scudamore
+was dealing with, had recovered from the querimonies of those two
+sons of Ovid, on the further side of Ister, and were having a good
+laugh at the face of "Captain Scuddy," as they called their beloved
+preceptor.  For he, being gifted with a gentle sense of humor,
+together with a patient love of the origin of things, was questing
+in his quiet mind what had led a boy to render a well-known line as
+follows:  "Such a quantity of salt there was, to season the Roman
+nation."  Presently he hit upon the clue to this great mystery.
+"Mola, the salted cake," he said; "and the next a little error of
+conjugation.  You have looked out your words, Smith, but chanced
+upon the wrong ones."
+
+"Oh, Captain Scuddy," cried the head boy, grinning wisely, though
+he might have made just the same blunder himself; "after that, do
+tell us one of your sea-stories.  It will strike five in about five
+minutes.  Something about Nelson, and killing ten great Frenchmen."
+
+"Oh, do," cried the other little fellows, crowding round him.  "It
+is ever so much better than Virgil, Captain Scuddy!"
+
+"I am not Captain Scuddy, as I tell you every day.  I'm afraid I am
+a great deal too good-natured with you.  I shall have to send a
+dozen of you up to be caned."
+
+"No, you couldn't do that if you tried, Captain Scuddy.  But what
+are you thinking of, all this time?  There are two pretty ladies in
+riding-habits peeping at you from the bell porch.  Why, you have
+got sweethearts, Captain Scuddy!  What a shame of you never to have
+told us!"
+
+The youngest and fairest of all the boys there could scarcely have
+blushed more deeply than their classical tutor did, as he stooped
+for his hat, and shyly went between the old desks to the door in
+the porch.  All the boys looked after him with the deepest
+interest, and made up their minds to see everything he did.  This
+was not at all what he desired, and the sense of it increased his
+hesitation and confusion.  Of the Admiral's lovely daughters he had
+heard while in the navy, and now he was frightened to think that
+perhaps they were come here to reconnoitre him.  But luckily the
+Admiral was by this time to the fore, and he marched into the
+school-room and saluted the head-master.
+
+"Dr. Swinks," he said, "I am your very humble servant, Vice-Admiral
+of the Blue, Charles Darling, and beg a thousand pardons for
+intrusion on deep learning.  But they tell me that your watch is
+over in some half a minute.  Allow me to ask for the son of an old
+friend, Blyth Scudamore, late of the Diomede frigate, but now of
+this ancient and learned grammar school.  When his labors are over,
+I would gladly speak with him."
+
+"Boys may go," the head-master pronounced, as the old clock wheezed
+instead of striking.  "Sir, my valued young coadjutor is advancing
+from the fourth form toward you."
+
+The Doctor was nice in his choice of words, and prided himself on
+Johnsonian precision, but his young coadjutor's advance was hardly
+to be distinguished from a fine retreat.  Like leaves before the
+wind, the boys rushed out by a back door into the play-ground,
+while the master solemnly passed to his house, with a deep slow bow
+to the ladies; and there was poor Scudamore--most diffident of men
+whenever it came to lady-work--left to face the visitors with a
+pleasing knowledge that his neckcloth was dishevelled, and his hair
+sheafed up, the furrows of his coat broadcast with pounce, and one
+of his hands gone to sleep from holding a heavy Delphin for three-
+quarters of an hour.
+
+As he came out thus into the evening light, which dazed his blue
+eyes for a moment, Miss Dolly turned away to hide a smile, but
+Faith, upon her father's introduction, took his hand and looked at
+him tenderly.  For she was a very soft-hearted young woman, and the
+tale of his troubles and goodness to his mother had moved her
+affection toward him, while as one who was forever pledged--
+according to her own ideas--to a hero beyond comparison, she was
+able to regard young men with mercy, and with pity, if they had
+none to love.  "How hard you have been at work!" she said; "it
+makes us seem so lazy!  But we never can find any good thing to
+do."
+
+"That's a cut at me," cried the Admiral.  "Scudamore, when you come
+to my age, be wiser than to have any daughters.  Sure enough, they
+find no good to do; and they not only put all the fault of that on
+me, but they make me the victim of all the mischief they invent.
+Dolly, my darling, wear that cap if it fits.  But you have not
+shaken hands with Mr. Scudamore yet.  I hope you will do so, some
+hundreds of times."
+
+"Not all at once, papa; or how thankful he would be!  But stop, I
+have not got half my glove off; this fur makes them stick so."
+
+Miss Dolly was proud of her hands, and lost few chances of getting
+them looked at.  Then with a little smile, partly at herself for
+petulance, partly to him for forgiveness, she offered her soft warm
+rich white hand, and looked at him beautifully as he took it.
+Alack and alas for poor "Captain Scuddy"!
+
+His eyes, with a quick shy glance, met hers; and hers with soft
+inquiry answered, "I wonder what you think of me?"  Whenever she
+met a new face, this was her manner of considering it.
+
+"Scudamore, I shall not allow you any time to think about it,"
+Admiral Darling broke in suddenly, so that the young man almost
+jumped.  "Although you have cut the service for a while, because of
+our stingy peacefulness, you are sure to come back to us again when
+England wants English, not Latin and Greek.  I am your commanding
+officer, and my orders are that you come to us from Saturday till
+Monday.  I shall send a boat--or at least I mean a buggy--to fetch
+you, as soon as you are off duty, and return you the same way on
+Monday.  Come, girls, 'twill be dark before we are home; and since
+the patrols were withdrawn, I hear there's a highwayman down this
+road again.  That is one of the blessings of peace, Scudamore; even
+as Latin and Greek are.  'Apertis otia portis'--Open the gates for
+laziness.  Ah, I should have done well at old Winton, they tell me,
+if I had not happened to run away to sea."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE MAROON
+
+
+If yet there remained upon our southern coast a home for the rarer
+virtues, such as gratitude, content, liberality (not of other
+people's goods alone), faith in a gracious Providence, and strict
+abstinence from rash labor, that home and stronghold was
+Springhaven.  To most men good success brings neither comfort, nor
+tranquillity, nor so much as a stool to sit upon, but comes as a
+tread-mill which must be trodden without any getting to the top of
+it.  Not so did these wise men take their luck.  If ever they came
+from the fickle wave-bosom to the firm breast of land on a
+Saturday, with a fine catch of fish, and sold it well--and such was
+their sagacity that sooner would they keep it for cannibal
+temptation than sell it badly--did they rush into the waves again,
+before they had dried their breeches?  Not they; nor did their
+wives, who were nearly all good women, stir them up to be off
+again.  Especially at this time of year, with the days pulling out,
+and the season quickening, and the fish coming back to wag their
+tails upon the shallows, a pleasant race of men should take their
+pleasure, and leave flints to be skinned by the sons of flint.
+
+This was the reason why Miss Dolly Darling had watched in vain at
+the Monday morning tide for the bold issue of the fishing fleet.
+The weariless tide came up and lifted the bedded keel and the
+plunged forefoot, and gurgled with a quiet wash among the straky
+bends, then lurched the boats to this side and to that, to get
+their heft correctly, and dandled them at last with their bowsprits
+dipped and their little mast-heads nodding.  Every brave smack then
+was mounted, and riding, and ready for a canter upon the broad sea:
+but not a blessed man came to set her free.  Tethered by head and
+by heel, she could only enjoy the poised pace of the rocking-horse,
+instead of the racer's delight in careering across the free sweep
+of the distance.
+
+Springhaven had done so well last week, that this week it meant to
+do still better, by stopping at home till the money was gone, and
+making short work afterward.  Every man thoroughly enjoyed himself,
+keeping sober whenever good manners allowed, foregoing all
+business, and sauntering about to see the folk hard at work who had
+got no money.  On Wednesday, however, an order was issued by
+Captain Zebedee Tugwell that all must be ready for a three days'
+trip when the tide should serve, which would be at the first of the
+ebb, about ten in the morning.  The tides were slackening now, and
+the smacks had required some change of berth, but still they were
+not very far from the Admiral's white gate.
+
+"I shall go down to see them, papa, if you please," Dolly said to
+her father at breakfast-time.  "They should have gone on Monday;
+but they were too rich; and I think it very shameful of them.  I
+dare say they have not got a halfpenny left, and that makes them
+look so lively.  Of course they've been stuffing, and they won't
+move fast, and they can't expect any more dinner till they catch
+it.  But they have got so much bacon that they don't care."
+
+"What could they have better, I should like to know?" asked the
+Admiral, who had seen hard times.  "Why, I gave seven men three
+dozen apiece for turning their noses up at salt horse, just because
+he whisked his tail in the copper.  Lord bless my soul! what is the
+nation coming to, when a man can't dine upon cold bacon?"
+
+"No, it is not that, papa.  They are very good in that way, as
+their wives will tell you.  Jenny Shanks tells me the very same
+thing, and of course she knows all about them.  She knew they would
+never think of going out on Monday, and if I had asked her I might
+have known it too.  But she says that they are sure to catch this
+tide."
+
+"Very well, Dolly.  Go you and catch them.  You are never content
+without seeing something.  Though what there is to see in a lot of
+lubberly craft pushing off with punt-poles--"
+
+"Hush, papa, hush!  Don't be so contemptuous.  What did my
+godfather say the other day?  And I suppose he understands things."
+
+"Don't quote your godfather against your father.  It was never
+intended in the Catechism.  And if it was, I would never put up
+with it."
+
+Dolly made off; for she knew that her father, while proud of his
+great impartiality, candor, and scorn of all trumpery feeling, was
+sometimes unable to make out the reason why a queer little middy of
+his own should now stand upon the giddy truck of fame, while
+himself, still ahead of him in the Navy List, might pace his
+quarter-deck and have hats touched to him, but never a heart beat
+one pulse quicker.  Jealous he was not; but still, at least in his
+own family--
+
+Leaving her dear father to his meditations, which Faith ran up to
+kiss away, fair Dolly put on a plain hat and scarf, quite good
+enough for the fishermen, and set off in haste for the Round-house,
+to see the expedition start.  By the time she was there, and had
+lifted the sashes, and got the spy-glass ready, the flow of the
+tide was almost spent, and the brimming moment of the slack was
+nigh.  For this all the folk of the village waited, according to
+the tradition of the place; the manhood and boyhood, to launch
+forth; old age, womanhood, and childhood, to contribute the comfort
+of kind looks and good-by.  The tides, though not to be compared to
+the winds in fickleness, are capricious here, having sallies of
+irregularity when there has been a long period of northeast winds,
+bringing a counter-flow to the Atlantic influx.  And a man must be
+thoroughly acquainted with the coast, as well as the moon and the
+weather, to foretell how the water will rise and fall there.  For
+the present, however, there was no such puzzle.  The last lift of
+the quiet tide shone along the beach in three straight waves,
+shallow steps that arose inshore, and spent themselves without
+breaking.
+
+"Toorn o' the tide!" the Captain shouted; "all aboord, aboord, my
+lads!  The more 'ee bide ashore, the wuss 'ee be.  See to Master
+Cheeseman's craft!  Got a good hour afront of us.  Dannel, what be
+mooning at?  Fetch 'un a clout on his head, Harry Shanks; or Tim,
+you run up and do it.  Doubt the young hosebird were struck last
+moon, and his brains put to salt in a herring-tub.  Home with you,
+wife!  And take Dan, if you will.  He'd do more good at the
+chipping job, with the full moon in his head so."
+
+"Then home I will take my son, Master Tugwell," his wife answered,
+with much dignity, for all the good wives of Springhaven heard him,
+and what would they think of her if she said nothing?  "Home I will
+take my son and yours, and the wisest place for him to abide in,
+with his father set agin him so.  Dannel, you come along of me.  I
+won't have my eldest boy gainsaid so."
+
+Zebedee Tugwell closed his lips, and went on with his proper
+business.  All the women would side with him if he left them the
+use of their own minds, and the sound of his wife's voice last;
+while all the men in their hearts felt wisdom.  But the young man,
+loath to be left behind, came doubtfully down to the stern of the
+boat, which was pushed off for the Rosalie.  And he looked at the
+place where he generally sat, and then at his father and the rest
+of them.
+
+"No gappermouths here!" cried his father, sternly.  "Get theezell
+home with the vemmelvolk.  Shove off without him, Tim!  How many
+more tides would 'ee lose?"
+
+Young Dan, whose stout legs were in the swirling water, snatched up
+his striped woolsey from under the tiller, threw it on his
+shoulder, and walked off, without a farewell to any one.  The whole
+of Springhaven that could see saw it, and they never had seen such
+a thing before.  Captain Zeb stood up and stared, with his big
+forehead coming out under his hat, and his golden beard shining in
+the morning sun; but the only satisfaction for his eyes was the
+back of his son growing smaller and smaller.
+
+"Chip of the old block!" "Sarve 'ee right, Cap'en!" "Starve 'un
+back to his manners again!" the inferior chieftains of the
+expedition cried, according to their several views of life.  But
+Zebedee Tugwell paid no heed to thoughts outside of his own hat and
+coat.  "Spake when I ax you," he said, urbanely, but with a glance
+which conveyed to any too urgent sympathizer that he would be
+knocked down, when accessible.
+
+But, alas! the less-disciplined women rejoiced, with a wink at
+their departing lords, as Mrs. Zebedee set off in chase of her
+long-striding Daniel.  The mother, enriched by home affections and
+course of duties well performed, was of a rounded and ample figure,
+while the son was tall, and thin as might be one of strong and
+well-knit frame.  And the sense of wrong would not permit him to
+turn his neck, or take a glance at the enterprise which had
+rejected him.
+
+"How grand he does look! what a noble profile!" thought Dolly, who
+had seen everything without the glass, but now brought it to bear
+upon his countenance.  "He is like the centurion in the painted
+window, or a Roman medallion with a hat on.  But that old woman
+will never catch him.  She might just as well go home again.  He is
+walking about ten miles an hour, and how beautifully straight his
+legs are!  What a shame that he should not be a gentleman!  He is
+ten times more like one than most of the officers that used to come
+bothering me so.  I wonder how far he means to go?  I do hope he
+won't make away with himself.  It is almost enough to make him do
+it, to be so insulted by his own father, and disgraced before all
+the village, simply because he can't help having his poor head so
+full of me!  Nobody shall ever say that I did anything to give him
+the faintest encouragement, because it would be so very wicked and
+so cruel, considering all he has done for me.  But if he comes
+back, when his father is out of sight, and he has walked off his
+righteous indignation, and all these people are gone to dinner, it
+might give a turn to his thoughts if I were to put on my shell-
+colored frock and the pale blue sash, and just go and see, on the
+other side of the stepping-stones, how much longer they mean to be
+with that boat they began so long ago."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ACROSS THE STEPPING-STONES
+
+
+Very good boats were built at this time in the south of England,
+stout, that is to say, and strong, and fit to ride over a heavy
+sea, and plunge gallantly into the trough of it.  But as the
+strongest men are seldom swift of foot or light of turn, so these
+robust and sturdy boats must have their own time and swing allowed
+them, ere ever they would come round or step out.  Having met a
+good deal of the sea, they knew, like a man who has felt a good
+deal of the world, that heavy endurance and patient bluffness are
+safer to get through the waves somehow than sensitive fibre and
+elegant frame.
+
+But the sea-going folk of Springhaven had learned, by lore of
+generations, to build a boat with an especial sheer forward, beam
+far back, and deep run of stern, so that she was lively in the
+heaviest of weather, and strong enough to take a good thump
+smiling, when unable to dance over it.  Yet as a little thing often
+makes all the difference in great things, it was very difficult for
+anybody to find out exactly the difference between a boat built
+here and a boat built ten or twenty miles off, in imitation of her.
+The sea, however, knew the difference in a moment between the true
+thing and the counterfeit, and encouraged the one to go merrily on,
+while it sent back the other staggering.  The secret lay chiefly in
+a hollow curve forward of nine or ten planks upon either side,
+which could only be compassed by skilful use of adze and chisel,
+frame-saw and small tools, after choice of the very best timber,
+free from knots, tough, and flexible.  And the best judge of these
+points was Zebedee Tugwell.
+
+Not having cash enough just at present (by reason of family
+expenses, and the high price of bread and of everything else) to
+set upon the stocks the great smack of the future, which should
+sail round the Rosalie, Captain Tugwell was easing his mind by
+building a boat for stormy weather, such as they very seldom have
+inshore, but are likely to meet with outside the Head.  As yet
+there were not many rowing boats here fit to go far in tumbling
+water, though the few that could do it did it well, and Tugwell's
+intention was to beat them all, in power, and spring, and buoyancy.
+The fame of his meaning was spread for as much as twenty leagues
+along the coast; and jealous people laughed, instead of waiting for
+him to finish it.
+
+Young Daniel had been well brought up in the mysteries of his
+father's craft, and having a vigorous turn of wrist, as well as a
+true eye and quick brain, he was even outgrowing the paternal
+skill, with experiments against experience.  He had beautiful
+theories of his own, and felt certain that he could prove them, if
+any one with cash could be brought to see their beauty.  His father
+admitted that he had good ideas, and might try them, if any fool
+would find the money.
+
+Wroth as he had been at the sharp rebuff and contumely of his
+father, young Daniel, after a long strong walk, began to look at
+things more peaceably.  The power of the land and the greatness of
+the sea and the goodness of the sky unangered him, and the air that
+came from some oyster beds, as the tide was falling, hungered him.
+Home he went, in good time for dinner, as the duty of a young man
+is; and instead of laughing when he came by, the maids of
+Springhaven smiled at him.  This quite righted him in his own
+opinion, yet leaving him the benefit of the doubt which comes from
+a shake in that cradle lately.  He made a good dinner, and
+shouldered his adze, with a frail of tools hanging on the neck of
+it, and troubled with nothing but love--which is a woe of self-
+infliction--whistled his way to the beach, to let all the women
+understand that he was not a bit ashamed.  And they felt for him
+all the more, because he stood up for himself a little.
+
+Doubtful rights go cheap; and so the foreshore westward of the
+brook being claimed by divers authorities, a tidy little cantle of
+it had been leased by Admiral Darling, lord of the manor, to
+Zebedee Tugwell, boat-builder, for the yearly provent of two and
+sixpence sterling.  The Admiral's man of law, Mr. Furkettle, had
+strongly advised, and well prepared the necessary instrument, which
+would grow into value by-and-by, as evidence of title.  And who
+could serve summary process of ejectment upon an interloper in a
+manner so valid as Zebedee's would be?  Possession was certain as
+long as he lived; ousters and filibusters, in the form of railway
+companies and communists, were a bubble as yet in the womb of ages.
+
+This piece of land, or sand, or rush, seemed very unlikely to be
+worth dispute.  If seisin corporeal, user immemorial, and
+prescription for levance and couchance conferred any title
+indefeasible, then were the rabbits the owners in fee-simple,
+absolute, paramount, and source of pedigree.  But they, while
+thoroughly aware of this, took very little heed to go into it, nor
+troubled their gentle natures much about a few yards of sand or
+grass, as the two-legged creatures near them did.  Inasmuch as they
+had soft banks of herb and vivid moss to sit upon, sweet crisp
+grass and juicy clover for unlabored victuals--as well as a
+thousand other nibbles which we are too gross to understand--and
+for beverage not only all the abundance of the brook (whose
+brilliance might taste of men), but also a little spring of their
+own which came out of its hole like a rabbit; and then for scenery
+all the sea, with strange things running over it, as well as a
+great park of their own having countless avenues of rush, ragwort,
+and thistle-stump--where would they have deserved to be, if they
+had not been contented?  Content they were, and even joyful at the
+proper time of day.  Joyful in the morning, because the sun was
+come again; joyful in the middle day to see how well the world
+went; and in the evening merry with the tricks of their own
+shadows.
+
+Quite fifteen stepping-stones stepped up--if you counted three that
+were made of wood--to soothe the dignity of the brook in its last
+fresh-water moments, rather than to gratify the dry-skin'd soles of
+gentlefolk.  For any one, with a five-shilling pair of boots to
+terminate in, might skip dry-footed across the sandy purlings of
+the rivulet.  And only when a flood came down, or the head of some
+springtide came up, did any but playful children tread the lichened
+cracks of the stepping-stones.  And nobody knew this better than
+Horatia Dorothy Darling.
+
+The bunnies who lived to the west of the brook had reconciled their
+minds entirely now to the rising of that boat among them.  At first
+it made a noise, and scratched the sand, and creaking things came
+down to it; and when the moon came through its ribs in the evening,
+tail was the quarter to show to it.  But as it went on naturally
+growing, seldom appearing to make much noise, unless there was a
+man very near it, and even then keeping him from doing any harm--
+outside the disturbance that he lives in--without so much as a
+council called, they tolerated this encroachment.  Some of the
+bolder fathers came and sat inside to consider it, and left their
+compliments all round to the masters of the enterprise.  And even
+when Daniel came to work, as he happened to do this afternoon, they
+carried on their own work in its highest form--that of play--upon
+the premises they lent him.
+
+Though not very large, it was a lively, punctual, well-conducted,
+and pleasant rabbit-warren.  Sudden death was avoidable on the part
+of most of its members, nets, ferrets, gins, and wires being alike
+forbidden, foxes scarcely ever seen, and even guns a rare and very
+memorable visitation.  The headland staves the southern storm,
+sand-hills shevelled with long rush disarm the western fury, while
+inland gales from north and east leap into the clouds from the
+uplands.  Well aware of all their bliss, and feeling worthy of it,
+the blameless citizens pour forth, upon a mild spring evening, to
+give one another the time of day, to gaze at the labors of men upon
+the sea, and to take the sweet leisure, the breeze, and the browse.
+The gray old conies of curule rank, prime senators of the sandy
+beach, and father of the father-land, hold a just session upon the
+head borough, and look like brown loaves in the distance.  But
+these are conies of great mark and special character, full of light
+and leading, because they have been shot at, and understand how to
+avoid it henceforth.  They are satisfied to chew very little bits
+of stuff, and particular to have no sand in it, and they hunch
+their round backs almost into one another, and double up their legs
+to keep them warm, and reflect on their friends' gray whiskers.
+And one of their truest pleasures is, sitting snug at their own
+doors, to watch their children's gambols.
+
+For this is the time, with the light upon the slope, and the
+freshness of salt flowing in from the sea, when the spirit of youth
+must be free of the air, and the quickness of life is abounding.
+Without any heed of the cares that are coming, or the prick-eared
+fears of the elders, a fine lot of young bunnies with tails on the
+frisk scour everywhere over the warren.  Up and down the grassy
+dips and yellow piles of wind-drift, and in and out of the ferny
+coves and tussocks of rush and ragwort, they scamper, and caper,
+and chase one another, in joy that the winter is banished at last,
+and the glorious sun come back again.
+
+Suddenly, as at the wave of a wand, they all stop short and listen.
+The sun is behind them, low and calm, there is not a breath of wind
+to stir their flax, not even the feather of a last year's bloom has
+moved, unless they moved it.  Yet signal of peril has passed among
+them; they curve their soft ears for the sound of it, and open
+their sensitive nostrils, and pat upon the ground with one little
+foot to encourage themselves against the panting of their hearts
+and the traitorous length of their shadows.
+
+Ha!  Not for nothing was their fear this day.  An active and
+dangerous specimen of the human race was coming, lightly and
+gracefully skimming the moss, above salt-water reach, of the
+stepping-stones.  The steps are said to be a thousand years old,
+and probably are of half that age, belonging to a time when sound
+work was, and a monastery flourished in the valley.  Even though
+they come down from great Hercules himself, never have they been
+crossed by a prettier foot or a fairer form than now came gayly
+over them.  But the rabbits made no account of that.  To the young
+man with the adze they were quite accustomed, and they liked him,
+because he minded his own business, and cared nothing about theirs;
+but of this wandering maiden they had no safe knowledge, and judged
+the worst, and all rushed away, some tenscore strong, giving notice
+to him as they passed the boat that he also had better be cautious.
+
+Daniel was in a sweet temper now, by virtue of hard labor and
+gratified wit.  By skill and persistence and bodily strength he had
+compassed a curve his father had declared impossible without a
+dock-yard.  Three planks being fixed, he was sure of the rest, and
+could well afford to stop, to admire the effect, and feel proud of
+his work, and of himself the worker.  Then the panic of the conies
+made him turn his head, and the quick beat of his heart was
+quickened by worse than bodily labor.
+
+Miss Dolly Darling was sauntering sweetly, as if there were only
+one sex in the world, and that an entirely divine one.  The gleam
+of spring sunset was bright in her hair, and in the soft garnish of
+health on her cheeks, and the vigorous play of young life in her
+eyes; while the silvery glance of the sloping shore, and breezy
+ruffle of the darkening sea, did nothing but offer a foil for the
+form of the shell-colored frock and the sky-blue sash.
+
+Young Daniel fell back upon his half-shaped work, and despised it,
+and himself, and everything, except what he was afraid to look at.
+In the hollow among the sand-hills where the cradle of the boat
+was, fine rushes grew, and tufts of ragwort, and stalks of last
+year's thistles, and sea-osiers where the spring oozed down.
+Through these the white ribs of the rising boat shone forth like an
+elephant's skeleton; but the builder entertained some hope, as well
+as some fear, of being unperceived.
+
+But a far greater power than his own was here.  Curved and hollow
+ships are female in almost all languages, not only because of their
+curves and hollows, but also because they are craft--so to speak.
+
+"Oh, Captain Tugwell, are you at work still?  Why, you really ought
+to have gone with the smacks.  But perhaps you sent your son
+instead.  I am so glad to see you!  It is such nice company to hear
+you!  I did not expect to be left alone, like this."
+
+"If you please, miss, it isn't father at all.  Father is gone with
+the fishing long ago.  It is only me, Daniel, if you please, miss."
+
+"No, Daniel, I am not pleased at all.  I am quite surprised that
+you should work so late.  It scarcely seems respectable."
+
+At this the young man was so much amazed that he could only stare
+while she walked off, until the clear duty of righting himself in
+her good opinion struck him.  Then he threw on his coat and ran
+after her.
+
+"If you please, Miss Dolly--will you please, Miss Dolly?" he
+called, as she made off for the stepping-stones; but she did not
+turn round, though her name was "Miss Dolly" all over Springhaven,
+and she liked it.  "You are bound to stop, miss," he said, sternly;
+and she stopped, and cried, "What do you mean by such words to me?"
+
+"Not any sort of harm, miss," he answered, humbly, inasmuch as she
+had obeyed him; "and I ask your pardon for speaking so.  But if you
+think twice you are bound to explain what you said concerning me,
+now just."
+
+"Oh, about your working so late, you mean.  I offered good advice
+to you.  I think it is wrong that you should go on, when everybody
+else has left off long ago.  But perhaps your father makes you."
+
+"Father is a just man," said young Tugwell, drawing up his own
+integrity; "now and then he may take a crooked twist, or such like;
+but he never goeth out of fair play to his knowledge.  He hath a-
+been hard upon me this day; but the main of it was to check mother
+of her ways.  You understand, miss, how the women-folk go on in a
+house, till the other women hear of it.  And then out-of-doors they
+are the same as lambs."
+
+"It is most ungrateful and traitorous of you to your own mother to
+talk so.  Your mother spoils you, and this is all the thanks she
+gets!  Wait till you have a wife of your own, Master Daniel!"
+
+"Wait till I am dead then I may, Miss Dolly," he answered, with a
+depth of voice which frightened her for a moment; and then he
+smiled and said, "I beg your pardon," as gracefully as any
+gentleman could say it; "but let me see you safe to your own gate;
+there are very rough people about here now, and the times are not
+quite as they used to be, when we were a-fighting daily."
+
+He followed her at a respectful distance, and then ran forward and
+opened the white gate.  "Good-night, Daniel," the young lady said,
+as he lifted his working cap to her, showing his bright curls
+against the darkening sea; "I am very much obliged to you, and I do
+hope I have not said anything to vex you.  I have never forgotten
+all you did for me, and you must not mind the way I have of saying
+things."
+
+"What a shame it does appear--what a fearful shame it is," she
+whispered to herself as she hurried through the trees--"that he
+should be nothing but a fisherman!  He is a gentleman in everything
+but birth and education; and so strong, and so brave, and so good-
+looking!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+NO PROMOTION
+
+
+Do it again now, Captain Scuddy; do it again; you know you must."
+
+"You touched the rim with your shoe, last time.  You are bound to
+do it clean, once more."
+
+"No, he didn't.  You are a liar; it was only the ribbon of his
+shoe."
+
+"I'll punch your head if you say that again.  It was his heel, and
+here's the mark."
+
+"Oh, Scuddy dear, don't notice them.  You can do it fifty times
+running, if you like.  Nobody can run or jump like you.  Do it just
+once more to please me."
+
+Kitty Fanshawe, a boy with large blue eyes and a purely gentle
+face, looked up at Blyth Scudamore so faithfully that to resist him
+was impossible.
+
+"Very well, then; once more for Kitty," said the sweetest-tempered
+of mankind, as he vaulted back into the tub.  "But you know that I
+always leave off at a dozen.  Thirteen--thirteen I could never stop
+at.  I shall have to do fourteen at least; and it is too bad, just
+after dinner.  Now all of you watch whether I touch it anywhere."
+
+A barrel almost five feet in height, and less than a yard in
+breadth, stood under a clump of trees in the play-ground; and Blyth
+Scudamore had made a clean leap one day, for his own satisfaction,
+out of it.  Sharp eyes saw him, and sharp wits were pleased, and a
+strong demand had arisen that he should perform this feat
+perpetually.  Good nerve, as well as strong spring, and compactness
+of power are needed for it; and even in this athletic age there are
+few who find it easy.
+
+"Come, now," he said, as he landed lightly, with both heels
+together; "one of you big fellows come and do it.  You are three
+inches taller than I am.  And you have only got to make up your
+minds."
+
+But all the big fellows hung back, or began to stimulate one
+another, and to prove to each other how easy it was, by every proof
+but practice.  "Well, then, I must do it once more," said Blyth,
+"for I dare not leave off at thirteen, for fear of some great
+calamity, such as I never could jump out of."
+
+But before he could get into the tub again, to prepare for the
+clear spring out of it, he beheld a man with silver buttons coming
+across the playing-field.  His heart fell into his heels, and no
+more agility remained in him.  He had made up his mind that Admiral
+Darling would forget all about him by Saturday; and though the fair
+image of Dolly would abide in that quiet mind for a long while, the
+balance of his wishes (cast by shyness) was heavily against this
+visit.  And the boys, who understood his nature, with a poignant
+love--like that of our friends in this world--began to probe his
+tender places.
+
+"One more jump, Captain Scuddy!  You must; to show the flunky what
+you can do."
+
+"Oh, don't I wish I was going?  He'll have turtle soup, and
+venison, and two men behind his chair."
+
+"And the beautiful young ladies looking at him every time he takes
+a mouthful."
+
+"But he dare not go courting after thirteen jumps.  And he has
+vowed that he will have another.  Come, Captain Scuddy, no time to
+lose."
+
+But Scudamore set off to face his doom, with his old hat hanging on
+the back of his head--as it generally did--and his ruddy face and
+mild blue eyes full of humorous diffidence and perplexity.
+
+"If you please, sir, his honour the Hadmiral have sent me to fetch
+'e and your things; and hoss be baiting along of the Blue Dragon."
+
+"I am sorry to say that I forgot all about it, or, at least, I
+thought that he would.  How long before we ought to start?"
+
+"My name is Gregory, sir--Coachman Gregory--accustomed always to a
+pair, but doesn't mind a single hoss, to oblige the Hadmiral, once
+in a way.  About half an hour, sir, will suit me, unless they comes
+down to the skittle-alley, as ought to be always on a Saturday
+afternoon; but not a soul there when I looked in."
+
+Any man in Scudamore's position, except himself, would have grieved
+and groaned.  For the evening dress of that time, though less
+gorgeous than of the age before, was still an expensive and
+elaborate affair; and the young man, in this ebb of fortune, was
+poorly stocked with raiment.  But he passed this trouble with his
+usual calmness and disregard of trifles.  "If I wear the best I
+have got," he thought, "I cannot be charged with disrespect.  The
+Admiral knows what a sailor is; and, after all, who will look at
+me?"  Accordingly he went just as he was, for he never wore an
+overcoat, but taking a little canvas kit, with pumps and silk
+stockings for evening wear, and all the best that he could muster
+of his Volunteer equipment.
+
+The Admiral came to the door of the Hall, and met him with such
+hearty warmth, and a glance of such kind approval at his open
+throat and glowing cheeks, that the young man felt a bound of love
+and tender veneration towards him, which endured for lifetime.
+
+"Your father was my dearest friend, and the very best man I ever
+knew.  I must call you 'Blyth,'" said the Admiral, "for if I call
+you 'Scudamore,' I shall think perpetually of my loss."
+
+At dinner that day there was no other guest, and nothing to disturb
+the present one, except a young lady's quick glances, of which he
+endeavored to have no knowledge.  Faith Darling, a gentle and
+beautiful young woman, had taken a natural liking to him, because
+of his troubles, and simplicity, and devotion to his widowed
+mother.  But to the younger, Dolly Darling, he was only a visitor,
+dull and stupid, requiring, without at all repaying, the trouble of
+some attention.  He was not tall, nor handsome, nor of striking
+appearance in any way; and although he was clearly a gentleman, to
+her judgment he was not an accomplished, or even a clever one.  His
+inborn modesty and shyness placed him at great disadvantage, until
+well known; and the simple truth of his nature forbade any of the
+large talk and bold utterance which pleased her as yet among young
+officers.
+
+"What a plague he will be all day tomorrow!" she said to her sister
+in the drawing-room.  "Father was obliged, I suppose, to invite
+him; but what can we do with him all the day?  Sundays are dull
+enough, I am sure, already, without our having to amuse a gentleman
+who has scarcely got two ideas of his own, and is afraid to say
+'bo' to a goose, I do believe.  Did you hear what he said when I
+asked him whether he was fond of riding?"
+
+"Yes; and I thought it so good of him, to answer so straightforwardly.
+He said that he used to be very fond of it, but was afraid that
+he should fall off now."
+
+"I should like to see him.  I tell you what we'll do.  We will make
+him ride back on Monday morning, and put him on 'Blue Bangles,' who
+won't have seen daylight since Friday.  Won't he jump about a bit!
+What a shame it is, not to let us ride on Sundays!"
+
+Ignorant of these kind intentions, Scudamore was enjoying himself
+in his quiet, observant way.  Mr. Twemlow, the rector of the
+parish, had chanced--as he often chanced on a Saturday, after
+buckling up a brace of sermons--to issue his mind (with his body
+outside it) for a little relief of neighbourhood.  And these little
+airings of his chastening love--for he loved everybody, when he had
+done his sermon--came, whenever there was a fair chance of it, to a
+glass of the fine old port which is the true haven for an ancient
+Admiral.
+
+"Just in time, Rector," cried Admiral Darling, who had added by
+many a hardship to his inborn hospitality.  "This is my young
+friend Blyth Scudamore, the son of one of my oldest friends.  You
+have heard of Sir Edmond Scudamore?"
+
+"And seen him and felt him.  And to him I owe, under a merciful
+Providence, the power of drinking in this fine port the health of
+his son, which I do with deep pleasure, for the excellence both of
+end and means."
+
+The old man bowed at the praise of his wine, and the young one at
+that of his father.  Then, after the usual pinch of snuff from the
+Rector's long gold box, the host returned to the subject he had
+been full of before this interruption.
+
+"The question we have in hand is this.  What is to be done with our
+friend Blyth?  He was getting on famously, till this vile peace
+came.  Twemlow, you called it that yourself, so that argument about
+words is useless.  Blyth's lieutenancy was on the books, and the
+way they carry things on now, and shoot poor fellows' heads off, he
+might have been a post-captain in a twelvemonth.  And now there
+seems nothing on earth before him better than Holy-Orders."
+
+"Admiral Darling is kind enough to think," said Scudamore, in his
+mild, hesitative way, blushing outwardly, but smiling inwardly,
+"that I am too good to be a clergyman."
+
+"And so you are, and Heaven knows it, Blyth, unless there was a
+chance of getting on by goodness, which there is in the Navy, but
+not in the Church.  Twemlow, what is your opinion?"
+
+"It would not be modest in me," said the Rector, "to stand up too
+much for my own order.  We do our duty, and we don't get on."
+
+"Exactly.  You could not have put it better.  You get no vacancies
+by shot and shell, and being fit for another world, you keep out of
+it.  Have you ever heard me tell the story about Gunner MacCrab, of
+the Bellerophon?"
+
+"Fifty times, and more than that," replied the sturdy parson, who
+liked to make a little cut at the Church sometimes, but would not
+allow any other hand to do it.  "But now about our young friend
+here.  Surely, with all that we know by this time of the character
+of that Bony, we can see that this peace is a mere trick of his to
+bamboozle us while he gets ready.  In six months we shall be at war
+again, hammer and tongs, as sure as my name is Twemlow."
+
+"So be it!" cried the Admiral, with a stamp on his oak floor, while
+Scudamore's gentle eyes flashed and fell; "if it is the will of
+God, so be it.  But if it once begins again, God alone knows where
+France will be before you and I are in our graves.  They have
+drained all our patience, and our pockets very nearly; but they
+have scarcely put a tap into our energy and endurance.  But what
+are they?  A gang of slaves, rammed into the cannon by a Despot."
+
+"They seem to like it, and the question is for them.  But the
+struggle will be desperate, mountains of carnage, oceans of blood,
+universal mourning, lamentation, and woe.  And I have had enough
+trouble with my tithes already."
+
+"Tithes are dependent on the will of the Almighty," said the
+Admiral, who paid more than he altogether liked; "but a war goes by
+reason and good management.  It encourages the best men of the day,
+and it brings out the difference between right and wrong, which are
+quite smothered up in peace time.  It keeps out a quantity of
+foreign rubbish and stuff only made to be looked at, and it makes
+people trust one another, and know what country they belong to, and
+feel how much they have left to be thankful for.  And what is the
+use of a noble fleet, unless it can get some fighting?  Blyth, what
+say you?  You know something about that."
+
+"No, sir, I have never been at close quarters yet.  And I doubt--or
+at least I am certain that I should not like it.  I am afraid that
+I should want to run down below."
+
+Mr. Twemlow, having never smelled hostile powder, gazed at him
+rather loftily, while the young man blushed at his own truth, yet
+looked up bravely to confirm it.
+
+"Of all I have ever known or met," said Admiral Darling, quietly,
+"there are but three--Nelson and two others, and one of those two
+was half-witted--who could fetch up muzzle to muzzle without a
+feeling of that sort.  The true courage lies in resisting the
+impulse, more than being free from it.  I know that I was in a
+precious fright the first time I was shot at, even at a decent
+distance; and I don't pretend to like it even now.  But I am pretty
+safe now from any further chance, I fear.  When we cut our wisdom-
+teeth, they shelf us.  Twemlow, how much wiser you are in the
+Church!  The older a man gets, the higher they promote him."
+
+"Then let them begin with me," the Rector answered, smiling; "I am
+old enough now for almost anything, and the only promotion I get is
+stiff joints, and teeth that crave peace from an olive.  Placitam
+paci, Mr. Scudamore knows the rest, being fresh from the learned
+Stonnington.  But, Squire, you know that I am content.  I love
+Springhaven, Springhaven loves me, and we chasten one another."
+
+"A man who knows all the Latin you know, Rector--for I own that you
+beat me to the spelling-book--should be at least an Archdeacon in
+the Church, which is equal to the rank of Rear-Admiral.  But you
+never have pushed as you should do; and you let it all off in
+quotations.  Those are very comforting to the mind, but I never
+knew a man do good with them, unless they come out of the Bible.
+When Gunner Matthew of the Erigdoupos was waiting to have his leg
+off, with no prospect before him--except a better world--you know
+what our Chaplain said to him; and the effect upon his mind was
+such, that I have got him to this day upon my land."
+
+"Of course you have--the biggest old poacher in the county.  He
+shoots half your pheasants with his wooden leg by moonlight.  What
+your Chaplain said to him was entirely profane in the turn of a
+text of Holy-Writ; and it shows how our cloth is spoiled by contact
+with yours"--for the Admiral was laughing to himself at this old
+tale, which he would not produce before young Scudamore, but loved
+to have out with the Rector--"and I hope it will be a good warning
+to you, Squire, to settle no more old gunners on your property.
+You must understand, Mr. Scudamore, that the Admiral makes a sort
+of Naval Hospital, for all his old salts, on his own Estates."
+
+"I am sure it is wonderfully kind in him," the young man answered,
+bravely, "for the poor old fellows are thrown to the dogs by the
+country, when it has disabled them.  I have not seen much of the
+service, but quite enough to know that, Mr. Twemlow."
+
+"I have seen a great deal, and I say that it is so.  And my good
+friend knows it as well as I do, and is one of the first to lend a
+helping hand.  In all such cases he does more than I do, whenever
+they come within his knowledge.  But let us return to the matter in
+hand.  Here is a young man, a first-rate sailor, who would have
+been under my guardianship, I know, but for--but for sad
+circumstances.  Is he to be grinding at Virgil and Ovid till all
+his spirit goes out of him, because we have patched up a very
+shabby peace?  It can never last long.  Every Englishman hates it,
+although it may seem to save his pocket.  Twemlow, I am no
+politician.  You read the papers more than I do.  How much longer
+will this wretched compact hold?  You have predicted the course of
+things before."
+
+"And so I will again," replied the Rector.  "Atheism, mockery,
+cynicism, blasphemy, lust, and blood-thirstyness cannot rage and
+raven within a few leagues of a godly and just nation without
+stinking in their nostrils.  Sir, it is our mission from the Lord
+to quench Bony, and to conquer the bullies of Europe.  We don't
+look like doing it now, I confess.  But do it we shall, in the end,
+as sure as the name of our country is England."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," said the Admiral, simply; "but there will
+be a deal of fighting betwixt this and then.  Blyth, will you leave
+me to see what I can do, whenever we get to work again?"
+
+"I should think that I would, sir, and never forget it.  I am not
+fond of fighting; but how I have longed to feel myself afloat
+again!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AT THE YEW-TREE
+
+
+All the common-sense of England, more abundant in those days than
+now, felt that the war had not been fought out, and the way to the
+lap of peace could only be won by vigorous use of the arms.  Some
+few there were even then, as now there is a cackling multitude,
+besotted enough to believe that facts can be undone by blinking
+them.  But our forefathers on the whole were wise, and knew that
+nothing is trampled more basely than right that will not right
+itself.
+
+Therefore they set their faces hard, and toughened their hearts
+like knotted oak, against all that man could do to them.  There
+were no magnificent proclamations, no big vaunts of victory at the
+buckling on of armour, but the quiet strength of steadfast wills,
+and the stern resolve to strike when stricken, and try to last the
+longest.  And so their mother-land became the mother of men and
+freedom.
+
+In November, 1802, the speech from the throne apprised the world
+that England was preparing.  The widest, longest, and deadliest
+war, since the date of gunpowder, was lowering; and the hearts of
+all who loved their kin were heavy, but found no help for it.
+
+The sermon which Mr. Twemlow preached in Springhaven church was
+magnificent.  Some parishioners, keeping memory more alert than
+conscience, declared that they had received it all nine, or it
+might be ten, years since, when the fighting first was called for.
+If so, that proved it none the worse, but themselves, for again
+requiring it.  Their Rector told them that they thought too much of
+their own flesh-pots and fish-kettles, and their country might go
+to the bottom of the sea, if it left them their own fishing-
+grounds.  And he said that they would wake up some day and find
+themselves turned into Frenchmen, for all things were possible with
+the Lord; and then they might smite their breasts, but must confess
+that they had deserved it.  Neither would years of prayer and
+fasting fetch them back into decent Englishmen; the abomination of
+desolation would be set up over their doorways, and the scarlet
+woman of Babylon would revel in their sanctuaries.
+
+"Now don't let none of us be in no hurry," Captain Tugwell said,
+after dwelling and sleeping upon this form of doctrine; "a man
+knoweth his own trade the best, the very same way as the parson
+doth.  And I never knew no good to come of any hurry.  Our lives
+are given us by the Lord.  And He never would 'a made 'em
+threescore and ten, or for men of any strength fourscore, if His
+will had been to jerk us over them.  Never did I see no Frenchman
+as could be turned to an Englishman, not if he was to fast and pray
+all day, and cut himself with knives at the going down of the sun.
+My opinion is that Parson Twemlow were touched up by his own
+conscience for having a nephew more French than English; and 'Caryl
+Carne' is the name thereof, with more French than English sound to
+it."
+
+"Why, he have been gone for years and years," said the landlord of
+the Darling Arms, where the village was holding council; "he have
+never been seen in these parts since the death of the last Squire
+Carne, to my knowledge."
+
+"And what did the old Squire die of, John Prater?  Not that he were
+to be called old--younger, I dare say, than I be now.  What did he
+die of, but marrying with a long outlandish 'ooman?  A femmel as
+couldn't speak a word of English, to be anyhow sure of her meaning!
+Ah, them was bad times at Carne Castle; and as nice a place as need
+be then, until they dipped the property.  Six grey horses they were
+used to go with to London Parliament every year, before the last
+Squire come of age, as I have heered my father say scores of times,
+and no lie ever come from his mouth, no more than it could from
+mine, almost.  Then they dropped to four, and then to two, and
+pretended that the roads were easier."
+
+"When I was down the coast, last week, so far as Littlehampton,"
+said a stout young man in the corner, "a very coorous thing
+happened me, leastways by my own opinion, and glad shall I be to
+have the judgment of Cappen Zeb consarning it.  There come in there
+a queer-rigged craft of some sixty ton from Halvers, desiring to
+set up trade again, or to do some smoogling, or spying perhaps.
+Her name was the Doctor Humm, which seem a great favorite with they
+Crappos, and her skipper had a queer name too, as if he was two men
+in one, for he called himself 'Jacks'; a fellow about forty year
+old, as I hauled out of the sea with a boat-hook one night on the
+Varners.  Well, he seemed to think a good deal of that, though
+contrary to their nature, and nothing would do but I must go to be
+fated with him everywhere, if the folk would change his money.  He
+had picked up a decent bit of talk from shipping in the oyster line
+before the war; and I put his lingo into order for him, for which
+he was very thankful."
+
+"And so he was bound to be.  But you had no call to do it, Charley
+Bowles."  Captain Tugwell spoke severely, and the young man felt
+that he was wrong, for the elders shook their heads at him, as a
+traitor to the English language.
+
+"Well, main likely, I went amiss.  But he seemed to take it so
+uncommon kind of me hitching him with a boat-hook, that we got on
+together wonderful, and he called me 'Friar Sharley,' and he tried
+to take up with our manners and customs; but his head was
+outlandish for English grog.  One night he was three sheets in the
+wind, at a snug little crib by the river, and he took to the brag
+as is born with them.  'All dis contray in one year now,' says he,
+nodding over his glass at me, 'shall be of the grand nashong, and I
+will make a great man of you, Friar Sharley.  Do you know what
+prawns are, my good friend?'  Well, I said I had caught a good many
+in my time; but he laughed and said, 'Prawns will catch you this
+time.  One tousand prawns, all with two hondred men inside him, and
+the leetle prawns will come to land at your house, Sharley.
+Bootiful place, quiet sea, no bad rocks.  You look out in the
+morning, and the white coast is made black with them.'  Now what do
+you say to that, Cappen Tugwell?"
+
+"I've a-heered that style of talk many times afore," Master Tugwell
+answered, solidly; "and all I can say is that I should have punched
+his head.  And you deserve the same thing, Charley Bowles, unless
+you've got more than that to tell us."
+
+"So I might, Cappen, and I won't deny you there.  But the discourse
+were consarning Squire Carne now just, and the troubles he fell
+into, before I was come to my judgment yet.  Why, an uncle of mine
+served footman there--Jeremiah Bowles, known to every one, until he
+was no more heard of."
+
+Nods of assent to the fame of Jeremiah encouraged the stout young
+man in his tale, and a wedge of tobacco rekindled him.
+
+"Yes, it were a coorous thing indeed, and coorous for me to hear of
+it, out of all mast-head of Springhaven.  Says Moosoo Jacks to me,
+that night when I boused him up unpretending:  'You keep your
+feather eye open, my tear,' for such was his way of pronouncing it,
+'and you shall arrive to laglore, laglore--and what is still
+nobler, de monnay.  In one two tree month, you shall see a young
+captain returned to his contray dominion, and then you will go to
+his side and say Jacks, and he will make present to you a sack of
+silver.'  Well, I hailed the chance of this pretty smart, you may
+suppose, and I asked him what the sailor's name would be, and
+surprised I was when he answered Carne, or Carny, for he gave it in
+two syllables.  Next morning's tide, the Doctor Humm cleared out,
+and I had no other chance of discourse with Moosoo Jacks.  But I
+want to know what you think, Cappen Zeb."
+
+"So you shall," said the captain of Springhaven, sternly.  "I think
+you had better call your Moosoo Jacks 'Master Jackass,' or 'Master
+Jackanapes,' and put your own name on the back of him.  You been
+with a Frenchman hob and nobbing, and you don't even know how they
+pronounce themselves, unchristian as it is to do so.  'Jarks' were
+his name, the very same as Navy beef, and a common one in that
+country.  But to speak of any Carne coming nigh us with French
+plottings, and of prawns landing here at Springhaven--'tis as
+likely as I should drop French money into the till of this baccy-
+box.  And you can see that I be not going to play such a trick as
+that, John Prater."
+
+"Why to my mind there never was bigger stuff talked," the landlord
+spoke out, without fear of offence, for there was no other sign-
+board within three miles, "than to carry on in that way, Charley.
+What they may do at Littlehampton is beyond my knowledge, never
+having kept a snug crib there, as you was pleased to call it.  But
+at Springhaven 'twould be the wrong place for hatching of French
+treacheries.  We all know one another a deal too well for that, I
+hope."
+
+"Prater, you are right," exclaimed Mr. Cheeseman, owner of the main
+shop in the village, and universally respected.  "Bowles, you must
+have an imagination the same as your uncle Jerry had.  And to speak
+of the Carnes in a light way of talking, after all their
+misfortunes, is terrible.  Why, I passed the old castle one night
+last week, with the moon to one side of it, and only me in my one-
+horse shay to the other, and none but a man with a first-rate
+conscience would have had the stomach to do so.  However, I seed no
+ghosts that time, though I did hear some noises as made me use the
+whip; and the swing of the ivy was black as a hearse.  A little
+drop more of my own rum, John: it gives me quite a chill to think
+of it."
+
+"I don't take much account of what people say," Harry Shanks, who
+had a deep clear voice, observed, "without it is in my own family.
+But my own cousin Bob was coming home one night from a bit of
+sweethearting at Pebbleridge, when, to save the risk of rabbit-
+holes in the dark, for he put out his knee-cap one time, what does
+he do but take the path inland through the wood below Carne Castle--
+the opposite side to where you was, Master Cheeseman, and the same
+side as the moon would be, only she wasn't up that night.  Well, he
+had some misgivings, as anybody must; still he pushed along,
+whistling and swinging his stick, and saying to himself that there
+was no such thing as cowardice in our family; till just at the
+corner where the big yew-tree is, that we sometimes starboard helm
+by when the tide is making with a nor'west wind; there Bob seed a
+sight as made his hair crawl.  But I won't say another word about
+it now, and have to go home in the dark by myself arter'ards."
+
+"Come, now, Harry!"  "Oh, we can't stand that!"  "We'll see you to
+your door, lad, if you out with it, fair and forcible."
+
+Of these and other exhortations Harry took no notice, but folded
+his arms across his breast, and gazed at something which his mind
+presented.
+
+"Harry Shanks, you will have the manners"--Captain Tugwell spoke
+impressively, not for his own sake, for he knew the tale, and had
+been consulted about it, but from sense of public dignity--"to
+finish the story which you began.  To begin a yarn of your own
+accord, and then drop it all of a heap, is not respectful to
+present company.  Springhaven never did allow such tricks, and will
+not put up with them from any young fellow.  If your meaning was to
+drop it, you should never have begun."
+
+Glasses and even pipes rang sharply upon the old oak table in
+applause of this British sentiment, and the young man, with a
+sheepish look, submitted to the voice of the public.
+
+"Well, then, all of you know where the big yew-tree stands, at the
+break of the hill about half a mile inland, and how black it looms
+among the other stuff.  But Bob, with his sweetheart in his head,
+no doubt, was that full of courage that he forgot all about the old
+tree, and the murder done inside it a hundred and twenty years ago,
+they say, until there it was, over his head a'most, with the gaps
+in it staring like ribs at him.  'Bout ship was the word, pretty
+sharp, you may be sure, when he come to his wits consarning it, and
+the purse of his lips, as was whistling a jig, went as dry as a bag
+with the bottom out.  Through the grey of the night there was
+sounds coming to him, such as had no right to be in the air, and a
+sort of a shiver laid hold of his heart, like a cold hand flung
+over his shoulder.  As hard as he could lay foot to the ground,
+away he went down hill, forgetting of his kneecap, for such was the
+condition of his mind and body.
+
+"You must understand, mates, that he hadn't seen nothing to skeer
+him, but only heard sounds, which come into his ears to make his
+hair rise; and his mind might have put into them more than there
+was, for the want of intarpreting.  Perhaps this come across him,
+as soon as he felt at a better distance with his wind short;
+anyhow, he brought up again' a piece of rock-stuff in a hollow of
+the ground, and begun to look skeerily backward.  For a bit of a
+while there was nothing to distemper him, only the dark of the hill
+and the trees, and the grey light a-coming from the sea in front.
+But just as he were beginning for to call himself a fool, and to
+pick himself onto his legs for trudging home, he seed a thing as
+skeered him worse than ever, and fetched him flat upon his lower
+end.
+
+"From the black of the yew-tree there burst a big light, brighter
+than a lighthouse or a blue thunder-bolt, and flying with a long
+streak down the hollow, just as if all the world was a-blazing.
+Three times it come, with three different colours, first blue, and
+then white, and then red as new blood; and poor Bob was in a
+condition of mind must be seen before saying more of it.  If he had
+been brought up to follow the sea, instead of the shoemaking, maybe
+his wits would have been more about him, and the narves of his
+symptom more ship-shape.  But it never was borne into his mind
+whatever, to keep a lookout upon the offing, nor even to lie snug
+in the ferns and watch the yew-tree.  All he was up for was to make
+all sail, the moment his sticks would carry it; and he feared to go
+nigh his sweetheart any more, till she took up with another
+fellow."
+
+"And sarve him quite right," was the judgment of the room, in high
+fettle with hot rum and water; "to be skeered of his life by a
+smuggler's signal!  Eh, Cappen Zebedee, you know that were it?"
+
+But the captain of Springhaven shook his head.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WHENCE, AND WHEREFORE?
+
+
+At the rectory, too, ere the end of that week, there was no little
+shaking of heads almost as wise as Zebedee Tugwell's.  Mrs.
+Twemlow, though nearly sixty years of age, and acquainted with many
+a sorrow, was as lively and busy and notable as ever, and even more
+determined to be the mistress of the house.  For by this time her
+daughter Eliza, beginning to be twenty-five years old--a job which
+takes some years in finishing--began at the same time to approve
+her birth by a vigorous aim at the mastery.  For, as everybody
+said, Miss Eliza was a Carne in blood and breed and fibre.  There
+was little of the Twemlow stock about her--for the Twemlows were
+mild and humorous--but plenty of the strength and dash and wildness
+and contemptuous spirit of the ancient Carnes.
+
+Carne a carne, as Mr. Twemlow said, when his wife was inclined to
+be masterful--a derivation confirmed by the family motto, "Carne
+non caret carne."  In the case, however, of Mrs. Twemlow, age,
+affliction, experience, affection, and perhaps above all her good
+husband's larger benevolence and placidity, had wrought a great
+change for the better, and made a nice old lady of her.  She was
+tall and straight and slender still; and knew how to make the most,
+by grave attire and graceful attitude, of the bodily excellence
+entailed for ages on the lineage of Carne.  Of moral goodness there
+had not been an equally strict settlement, at least in male
+heredity.  So that Mrs. Twemlow's thoughts about her kith and
+kindred were rather sad than proud, unless some ignorance was shown
+about them.
+
+"Poor as I am," said Mr. Twemlow, now consulting with her, "and
+poor as every beneficed clergyman must be, if this war returns, I
+would rather have lost a hundred pounds than have heard what you
+tell me, Maria."
+
+"My dear, I cannot quite see that," his wife made thoughtful
+answer; "if he only had money to keep up the place, and clear off
+those nasty incumbrances, I should rejoice at his coming back to
+live where we have been for centuries."
+
+"My dear, you are too poetical, though the feeling is a fine one.
+Within the old walls there can scarcely be a room that has a sound
+floor to it.  And as for the roof, when that thunder-storm was, and
+I took shelter with my pony--well, you know the state I came home
+in, and all my best clothes on for the Visitation.  Luckily there
+seems to be no rheumatism in your family, Maria; and perhaps he is
+too young as yet to pay out for it till he gets older.  But if he
+comes for business, and to see to the relics of his property,
+surely he might have a bedroom here, and come and go at his liking.
+After all his foreign fanglements, a course of quiet English life
+and the tone of English principles might be of the greatest use to
+him.  He would never wish to see the Continent again."
+
+"It is not to be thought of," said Mrs. Twemlow.  "I would not have
+him to live in this house for fifty thousand pounds a year.  You
+are a great deal wiser than I am, Joshua; but of his nature you
+know nothing, whereas I know it from his childhood.  And Eliza is
+so strong-willed and stubborn--you dislike, of course, to hear me
+say it, but it is the fact--it is, my dear.  And I would rather
+stand by our daughter's grave than see her fall in love with Caryl
+Carne.  You know what a handsome young man he must be now, and full
+of French style and frippery.  I am sure it is most kind of you to
+desire to help my poor family; but you would rue the day, my dear,
+that brought him beneath our quiet roof.  I have lost my only son,
+as it seems, by the will of the Lord, who afflicts us.  But I will
+not lose my only daughter, by any such folly of my own."
+
+Tears rolled down Mrs. Twemlow's cheeks as she spoke of her
+mysterious affliction; and her husband, who knew that she was not
+weak-minded, consoled her by sharing her sorrow.
+
+"It shall be exactly as you like," he said, after a quiet interval.
+"You say that no answer is needed; and there is no address to send
+one to.  We shall hear of it, of course, when he takes possession,
+if, indeed, he is allowed to do so."
+
+"Who is to prevent him from coming, if he chooses, to live in the
+home of his ancestors?  The estates are all mortgaged, and the park
+is gone, turned into a pound for Scotch cattle-breeding.  But the
+poor old castle belongs to us still, because no one would take the
+expense of it."
+
+"And because of the stories concerning it, Maria.  Your nephew
+Caryl is a brave young fellow if he means to live there all alone,
+and I fear he can afford himself no company.  You understand him so
+much better: what do you suppose his motive is?"
+
+"I make no pretence to understand him, dear, any more than his poor
+father could.  My dear brother was of headstrong order, and it did
+him no good to contradict him, and indeed it was dangerous to do
+so; but his nature was as simple as a child's almost, to any one
+accustomed to him.  If he had not married that grand French lady,
+who revelled in every extravagance, though she knew how we all were
+impoverished, he might have been living and in high position now,
+though a good many years my senior.  And the worst of it was that
+he did it at a time when he ought to have known so much better.
+However, he paid for it bitterly enough, and his only child was set
+against him."
+
+"A very sad case altogether," said the rector.  "I remember, as if
+it were yesterday, how angry poor Montagu was with me.  You
+remember what words he used, and his threat of attacking me with
+his horsewhip.  But he begged my pardon, most humbly, as soon as he
+saw how thoroughly right I was.  You are like him in some things,
+as I often notice, but not quite so generous in confessing you were
+wrong."
+
+"Because I don't do it as he did, Joshua.  You would never
+understand me if I did.  But of course for a man you can make
+allowance.  My rule is to do it both for men and women, quite as
+fairly as if one was the other."
+
+"Certainly, Maria--certainly.  And therefore you can do it, and
+have always done it, even for poor Josephine.  No doubt there is
+much to be pleaded, by a candid and gentle mind, on her behalf."
+
+"What! that dreadful creature who ruined my poor brother, and
+called herself the Countess de Lune, or some such nonsense!  No,
+Joshua, no!  I have not so entirely lost all English principle as
+to quite do that.  Instead of being largeness, that would be mere
+looseness."
+
+"There are many things, however, that we never understood, and
+perhaps never shall in this world," Mr. Twemlow continued, as if
+talking to himself, for reason on that subject would be
+misaddressed to her; "and nothing is more natural than that young
+Caryl should side with his mother, who so petted him, against his
+poor father, who was violent and harsh, especially when he had to
+pay such bills.  But perhaps our good nephew has amassed some cash,
+though there seems to be but little on the Continent, after all
+this devastation.  Is there anything, Maria, in his letter to
+enable us to hope that he is coming home with money?"
+
+"Not a word, I am afraid," Mrs. Twemlow answered, sadly.  "But take
+it, my dear, and read it to me slowly.  You make things so plain,
+because of practice every Sunday.  Oh, Joshua, I never can be sure
+which you are greatest in--the Lessons or the Sermon.  But before
+you begin I will shoot the bolt a little, as if it had caught by
+accident.  Eliza does rush in upon us sometimes in the most
+unbecoming, unladylike way.  And I never can get you to reprove
+her."
+
+"It would be as much as my place is worth, as the maids say when
+imagined to have stolen sugar.  And I must not read this letter so
+loud as the Lessons, unless you wish Lizzie to hear every word, for
+she has all her mother's quick senses.  There is not much of it,
+and the scrawl seems hasty.  We might have had more for three and
+fourpence.  But I am not the one to grumble about bad measure--as
+the boy said about old Busby.  Now, Maria, listen, but say nothing;
+if feminine capacity may compass it.  Why, bless my heart, every
+word of it is French!"  The rector threw down his spectacles, and
+gazed at his wife reproachfully.  But she smiled with superior
+innocence.
+
+"What else could you expect, after all his years abroad?  I cannot
+make out the whole of it, for certain.  But surely it is not beyond
+the compass of masculine capacity."
+
+"Yes, it is, Maria; and you know it well enough.  No honest
+Englishman can endure a word of French.  Latin, or Greek, or even
+Hebrew--though I took to that rather late in life.  But French is
+only fit for women, and very few of them can manage it.  Let us
+hear what this Frenchman says."
+
+"He is not a Frenchman, Joshua.  He is an Englishman, and probably
+a very fine one.  I won't be sure about all of his letter, because
+it is so long since I was at school; and French books are generally
+unfit to read.  But the general meaning is something like this:
+
+
+'MY BELOVED AND HIGHLY VALUED AUNT,--Since I heard from you there
+are many years now, but I hope you have held me in memory.  I have
+the intention of returning to the country of England, even in this
+bad time of winter, when the climate is most funereal.  I shall do
+my best to call back, if possible, the scattered ruins of the
+property, and to institute again the name which my father made
+displeasing.  In this good work you will, I have faith, afford me
+your best assistance, and the influence of your high connection in
+the neighbourhood.  Accept, dear aunt, the assurance of my highest
+consideration, of the most sincere and the most devoted, and allow
+me the honour of writing myself your most loving and respectful
+nephew,
+
+'CARYL CARNE.'
+
+
+Now, Joshua, what do you think of that?"
+
+"Fine words and no substance; like all French stuff.  And he never
+even mentions me, who gave him a top, when he should have had the
+whip.  I will not pretend to understand him, for he always was
+beyond me.  Dark and excitable, moody and capricious, haughty and
+sarcastic, and devoid of love for animals.  You remember his pony,
+and what he did to it, and the little dog that crawled upon her
+stomach towards him.  For your sake I would have put up with him,
+my dear, and striven to improve his nature, which is sure to be
+much worse at six-and-twenty, after so many years abroad.  But I
+confess it is a great relief to me that you wisely prefer not to
+have him in this house, any more at least than we can help it.  But
+who comes here?  What a hurry we are in!  Lizzie, my darling, be
+patient."
+
+"Here's this plague of a door barred and bolted again!  Am I not to
+have an atom of breakfast, because I just happened to oversleep
+myself?  The mornings get darker and darker; it is almost
+impossible to see to dress oneself."
+
+"There is plenty of tinder in the house, Eliza, and plenty of good
+tallow candles," Mrs. Twemlow replied, having put away the letter,
+while her husband let the complainant in.  "For the third time this
+week we have had prayers without you, and the example is shocking
+for the servants.  We shall have to establish the rule you suggest--
+too late to pray for food, too late to get it.  But I have kept
+your help of bacon hot, quite hot, by the fire.  And the teapot is
+under the cozy."
+
+"Thank you, dear mother," the young lady answered, careless of
+words, if deeds were in her favour, and too clever to argue the
+question.  "I suppose there is no kind of news this morning to
+reward one for getting up so early."
+
+"Nothing whatever for you, Miss Lizzie," said her father, as soon
+as he had kissed her.  "But the paper is full of the prospects of
+war, and the extent of the preparations.  If we are driven to fight
+again, we shall do it in earnest, and not spare ourselves."
+
+"Nor our enemies either, I do hope with all my heart.  How long are
+we to be afraid of them?  We have always invaded the French till
+now.  And for them to talk of invading us!  There is not a bit of
+spirit left in this island, except in the heart of Lord Nelson."
+
+"What a hot little patriot this child is!" said the father, with a
+quiet smile at her.  "What would she say to an Englishman, who was
+more French than English, and would only write French letters?  And
+yet it might be possible to find such people."
+
+"If such a wretch existed," cried Miss Twemlow, "I should like to
+crunch him as I crunch this toast.  For a Frenchman I can make all
+fair allowance, because he cannot help his birth.  But for an
+Englishman to turn Frenchman--"
+
+"However reluctant we may be to allow it," the candid rector
+argued, "they are the foremost nation in the world, just now, for
+energy, valour, decision, discipline, and I fear I must add
+patriotism.  The most wonderful man who has appeared in the world
+for centuries is their leader, and by land his success has been
+almost unbroken.  If we must have war again, as I fear we must, and
+very speedily, our chief hope must be that the Lord will support
+His cause against the scoffer and the infidel, the libertine and
+the assassin."
+
+"You see how beautifully your father puts it, Eliza; but he never
+abuses people.  That is a habit in which, I am sorry to say, you
+indulge too freely.  You show no good feeling to anybody who
+differs from you in opinion, and you talk as if Frenchmen had no
+religion, no principles, and no humanity.  And what do you know
+about them, pray?  Have you ever spoken to a Frenchman?  Have you
+ever even seen one?  Would you know one if you even set eyes upon
+him?"
+
+"Well, I am not at all sure that I should," the young lady replied,
+being thoroughly truthful; "and I have no wish for the opportunity.
+But I have seen a French woman, mother; and that is quite enough
+for me.  If they are so, what must the men be?"
+
+"There is a name for this process of feminine reasoning, this
+cumulative and syncopetic process of the mind, entirely feminine
+(but regarded by itself as rational), a name which I used to know
+well in the days when I had the ten Fallacies at my fingers' ends,
+more tenaciously perhaps than the Decalogue.  Strange to say, the
+name is gone from my memory; but--but--"
+
+"But then you had better go after it, my dear," his wife suggested
+with authority.  "If your only impulse when you hear reason is to
+search after hard names for it, you are safer outside of its sphere
+altogether."
+
+"I am struck with the truth of that remark," observed the rector;
+"and the more so because I descry a male member of our race
+approaching, with a hat--at once the emblem and the crown of sound
+reason.  Away with all fallacies; it is Church-warden Cheeseman!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A HORRIBLE SUGGESTION
+
+
+"Can you guess what has brought me down here in this hurry?" Lord
+Nelson asked Admiral Darling, having jumped like a boy from his
+yellow post-chaise, and shaken his old friend's broad right hand
+with his slender but strenuous left one, even as a big bell is
+swung by a thin rope.  "I have no time to spare--not a day, not an
+hour; but I made up my mind to see you before I start.  I cannot
+expect to come home alive, and, except for one reason, I should not
+wish it."
+
+"Nonsense!" said the Admiral, who was sauntering near his upper
+gate, and enjoying the world this fine spring morning; "you are
+always in such a confounded hurry!  When you come to my time of
+life, you will know better.  What is it this time?  The Channel
+fleet again?"
+
+"No, no; Billy Blue keeps that, thank God!  I hate looking after a
+school of herring-boats.  The Mediterranean for me, my friend.  I
+received the order yesterday, and shall be at sea by the twentieth."
+
+"I am very glad to hear it, for your sake.  If ever there was a
+restless fellow--in the good old times we were not like that.  Come
+up to the house and talk about it; at least they must take the
+horses out.  They are not like you; they can't work forever."
+
+"And they don't get knocked about like me; though one of them has
+lost his starboard eye, and he sails and steers all the better for
+it.  Let them go up to the stable, Darling, while you come down to
+the beach with me.  I want to show you something."
+
+"What crotchet is in his too active brain now?" the elder and
+stronger man asked himself, as he found himself hooked by the right
+arm, and led down a track through the trees scarcely known to
+himself, and quite out of sight from the village.  "Why, this is
+not the way to the beach!  However, it is never any good to oppose
+him.  He gets his own way so because of his fame.  Or perhaps
+that's the way he got his fame.  But to show me about over my own
+land!  But let him go on, let him go on."
+
+"You are wondering, I dare say, what I am about," cried Nelson,
+stopping suddenly, and fixing his sound eye--which was wonderfully
+keen, though he was always in a fright about it--upon the large and
+peaceful blinkers of his ancient commander; "but now I shall be
+able to convince you, though I am not a land-surveyor, nor even a
+general of land-forces.  If God Almighty prolongs my life--which is
+not very likely--it will be that I may meet that scoundrel,
+Napoleon Bonaparte, on dry land.  I hear that he is eager to
+encounter me on the waves, himself commanding a line-of-battle
+ship.  I should send him to the devil in a quarter of an hour.  And
+ashore I could astonish him, I think, a little, if I had a good
+army to back me up.  Remember what I did at Bastia, in the land
+that produced this monster, and where I was called the Brigadier;
+and again, upon the coast of Italy, I showed that I understood all
+their dry-ground business.  Tush!  I can beat him, ashore and
+afloat; and I shall, if I live long enough.  But this time the
+villain is in earnest, I believe, with his trumpery invasion; and
+as soon as he hears that I am gone, he will make sure of having his
+own way.  We know, of course, there are fifty men as good as myself
+to stop him, including you, my dear Darling; but everything goes by
+reputation--the noise of the people--praise-puff.  That's all I
+get; while the luckier fellows, like Cathcart, get the prize-money.
+But I don't want to grumble.  Now what do you see?"
+
+"Well, I see you, for one thing," the Admiral answered, at his
+leisure, being quite inured to his friend's quick fire, "and
+wearing a coat that would be a disgrace to any other man in the
+navy.  And further on I see some land that I never shall get my
+rent for; and beyond that nothing but the sea, with a few fishing-
+craft inshore, and in the offing a sail, an outward-bound East
+Indiaman--some fool who wouldn't wait for convoy, with war as good
+as proclaimed again."
+
+"Nothing but the sea, indeed?  The sweep of the land, and the
+shelter of the bay, the shoaling of the shore without a rock to
+break it, the headland that shuts out both wind and waves; and
+outside the headland, off Pebbleridge, deep water for a fleet of
+line-of-battle ships to anchor and command the land approaches--
+moreover, a stream of the purest water from deep and never-failing
+springs--Darling, the place of all places in England for the French
+to land is opposite to your front door."
+
+"I am truly obliged to you for predicting, and to them for doing
+it, if ever they attempt such impudence.  If they find out that you
+are away, they can also find out that I am here, as commander of
+the sea defences, from Dungeness to Selsey-Bill."
+
+"That will make it all the more delightful to land at your front
+door, my friend; and all the easier to do it.  My own plan is to
+strike with all force at the head-quarters of the enemy, because
+the most likely to be unprepared.  About a year ago, when I was
+down here, a little before my dear father's death, without your
+commission I took command of your fishing-craft coming home for
+their Sunday, and showed them how to take the beach, partly to
+confirm my own suspicions.  There is no other landing on all the
+south coast, this side of Hayling Island, fit to be compared with
+it for the use of flat-bottomed craft, such as most of Boney's are.
+And remember the set of the tide, which makes the fortunes of your
+fishermen.  To be sure, he knows nothing of that himself; but he
+has sharp rogues about him.  If they once made good their landing
+here, it would be difficult to dislodge them.  It must all be done
+from the land side then, for even a 42-gun frigate could scarcely
+come near enough to pepper them.  They love shoal water, the
+skulks--and that has enabled them to baffle me so often.  Not that
+they would conquer the country--all brag--but still it would be a
+nasty predicament, and scare the poor cockneys like the very
+devil."
+
+"But remember the distance from Boulogne, Hurry.  If they cannot
+cross twenty-five miles of channel in the teeth of our ships, what
+chance would they have when the distance is nearer eighty?"
+
+"A much better chance, if they knew how to do it.  All our cruisers
+would be to the eastward.  One afternoon perhaps, when a haze is
+on, they make a feint with light craft toward the Scheldt--every
+British ship crowds sail after them.  Then, at dusk, the main body
+of the expedition slips with the first of the ebb to the westward;
+they meet the flood tide in mid-channel, and using their long
+sweeps are in Springhaven, or at any rate the lightest of them, by
+the top of that tide, just when you are shaving.  You laugh at such
+a thought of mine.  I tell you, my dear friend, that with skill and
+good luck it is easy; and do it they should, if they were under my
+command."
+
+If anybody else had even talked of such a plan as within the bounds
+of likelihood, Admiral Darling would have been almost enraged.  But
+now he looked doubtfully, first at the sea (as if it might be thick
+with prames already), and then at the land--which was his own--as
+if the rent might go into a Frenchman's pocket, and then at his old
+and admired friend, who had ruined his sleep for the summer.
+
+"Happily they are not under your command, and they have no man to
+compare with you;" he spoke rather nervously; while Nelson smiled,
+for he loved the praise which he had so well earned; "and if it
+were possible for you to talk nonsense, I should say that you had
+done it now.  But two things surely you have overlooked.  In
+the first place, the French can have no idea of the special
+opportunities this place affords.  And again, if they had, they
+could do nothing, without a pilot well acquainted with the spot.
+Though the landing is so easy, there are shoals outside, very
+intricate and dangerous, and known to none except the natives of
+the place, who are jealous to the last degree about their
+knowledge."
+
+"That is true enough; and even I should want a pilot here, though I
+know every spit of sand eastward.  But away fly both your
+difficulties if there should happen to be a local traitor."
+
+"A traitor at Springhaven!  Such a thing is quite impossible.  You
+would laugh at yourself, if you only knew the character of our
+people.  There never has been, and there never will be, a
+Springhaven man capable of treachery."
+
+"That is good news, ay, and strange news too," the visitor
+answered, with his left hand on his sword, for he was now in full
+though rather shabby uniform.  "There are not many traitors in
+England, I believe; but they are as likely to be found in one place
+as another, according to my experience.  Well, well, I am very glad
+you have no such scoundrels here.  I won't say a single word
+against your people, who are as fine a lot as any in the south of
+England, and as obstinate as any I could wish to see.  Of an
+obstinate man I can always make good; with a limp one I can do
+nothing.  But bear in mind every word you have heard me say,
+because I came down on purpose about it; and I generally penetrate
+the devices of the enemy, though they lead me on a wild-goose-chase
+sometimes, but only when our own folk back them up, either by lies
+or stupidity.  Now look once more, for you are slower as well as a
+great deal wiser than I am.  You see how this land-locked bight of
+Springhaven seems made by the Almighty for flat-bottomed craft, if
+once they can find their way into it; while the trend of the coast
+towards Pebbleridge is equally suited for the covering fleet,
+unless a gale from southwest comes on, in which case they must run
+for it.  And you see that the landed force, by crowning the hill
+above your house and across the valley, might defy our noble
+Volunteers, and all that could be brought against them, till a
+hundred thousand cutthroats were established here.  And Boney would
+make his head-quarters at the Hall, with a French cook in your
+kitchen, and a German butler in your cellar, and my pretty godchild
+to wait upon him, for the rogue loves pretty maidens."
+
+"That will do.  That is quite enough.  No wonder you have written
+poems, Nelson, as you told us the last time you were here.  If my
+son had only got your imagination--but perhaps you know something
+more than you have told me.  Perhaps you have been told--"
+
+"Never mind about that," the great sea-captain answered, turning
+away as if on springs; "it is high time for me to be off again, and
+my chaise has springs on her cables."
+
+"Not she.  I have ordered her to be docked.  Dine with us you shall
+this day, if we have to dine two hours earlier, and though Mother
+Cloam rage furiously.  How much longer do you suppose you can carry
+on at this pace?  Look at me.  I have double your bodily substance;
+but if I went on as you do--you remember the twenty-four-pounder
+old Hotcoppers put into the launch, and fired it, in spite of all I
+could say to him?  Well, you are just the same.  You have not got
+the scantling for the metal you carry and are always working.  You
+will either blow up, or else scuttle yourself.  Look here, how your
+seams are opening!"  Here Admiral Darling thrust his thumb through
+the ravelled seam of his old friend's coat, which made him jump
+back, for he loved his old coat.  "Yes, and you will go in the very
+same way.  I wonder how any coat lasts so much as a month, with you
+inside it."
+
+"This coat," said Nelson, who was most sweet-tempered with any one
+he loved, though hot as pepper when stirred up by strangers--"this
+coat is the one I wore at Copenhagen, and a sounder and kinder coat
+never came on a man's back.  Charles Darling, you have made a bad
+hit this time.  If I am no more worn out than this coat is, I am
+fit to go to sea for a number of years yet.  And I hope to show it
+to a good many Frenchmen, and take as many ships, every time they
+show fight, as there are buttons on it."
+
+"Then you will double all your captures at the Nile;" such a series
+of buttons had this coat, though mostly loose upon their moorings,
+for his guardian angel was not "domestic"; "but you may be trusted
+not to let them drift so.  You have given me a lesson in coast-
+defence, and now you shall be boarded by the ladies.  You possess
+some gifts of the tongue, my friend, as well as great gifts of hand
+and eye; but I will back my daughters to beat you there.  Come up
+to the house.  No turning of tail."
+
+"I spoke very well in the House of Lords," said Nelson, in his
+simple way, "in reply to the speech of his Majesty, and again about
+the Commissioner's Bill; or at least everybody tells me so.  But in
+the House of Ladies I hold my tongue, because there is abundance
+without it."
+
+This, however, he failed to do when the matter came to the issue;
+for his godchild Horatia, more commonly called Dolly, happened to
+be in the mood for taking outrageous liberties with him.  She
+possessed very little of that gift--most precious among women--the
+sense of veneration; and to her a hero was only a man heroic in
+acts of utility.  "He shall do it," she said to Faith, when she
+heard that he was come again; "if I have to kiss him, he shall do
+it; and I don't like kissing those old men."
+
+"Hush!" said her elder sister.  "Dolly, you do say things so
+recklessly.  One would think that you liked to kiss younger men!
+But I am sure that is not your meaning.  I would rather kiss Lord
+Nelson than all the young men in the kingdom."
+
+"Well done, Faith!  All the young men in the kingdom!  How
+recklessly you do say things!  And you can't kiss him--he is MY
+godfather.  But just see how I get round him, if you have wits
+enough to understand it."
+
+So these two joined in their kind endeavour to make the visitor
+useful, the object being so good that doubtful means might be
+excused for it.  In different ways and for divers reasons, each of
+these young ladies now had taken to like Blyth Scudamore.  Faith,
+by power of pity first, and of grief for her own misfortunes, and
+of admiration for his goodness to his widowed mother--which made
+his best breeches shine hard at the knees; and Dolly, because of
+his shy adoration, and dauntless defence of her against a cow
+(whose calf was on the road to terminate in veal), as well as his
+special skill with his pocket-knife in cutting out figures that
+could dance, and almost sing; also his great gifts, when the tide
+was out, of making rare creatures run after him.  What avails to
+explore female reason precisely?--their minds were made up that he
+must be a captain, if Nelson had to build the ship with his one
+hand for him.
+
+"After that, there is nothing more to be said," confessed the
+vanquished warrior; "but the daughters of an Admiral should know
+that no man can be posted until he has served his time as
+lieutenant; and this young hero of yours has never even held the
+King's commission yet.  But as he has seen some service, and is
+beyond the age of a middy, in the present rush he might get
+appointed as junior lieutenant, if he had any stout seconders.
+Your father is the man, he is always at hand, and can watch his
+opportunity.  He knows more big-wigs than I do, and he has not
+given offence where I have.  Get your father, my dears, to attend
+to it."
+
+But the ladies were not to be so put off, for they understood the
+difference of character.  Lord Nelson was as sure to do a thing as
+Admiral Darling was to drop it if it grew too heavy.  Hence it came
+to pass that Blyth Scudamore, though failing of the Victory and
+Amphion--which he would have chosen, if the choice were his--
+received with that cheerful philosophy (which had made him so dear
+to the school-boys, and was largely required among them) his
+appointment as junior lieutenant to the 38-gun frigate Leda,
+attached to the Channel fleet under Cornwallis, whose business it
+was to deal with the French flotilla of invasion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ORDEAL OF AUDIT
+
+
+England saw the growing danger, and prepared, with an even mind and
+well-girt body, to confront it.  As yet stood up no other country
+to help or even comfort her, so cowed was all the Continent by the
+lash, and spur of an upstart.  Alone, encumbered with the pack of
+Ireland, pinched with hunger and dearth of victuals, and cramped
+with the colic of Whiggery, she set her strong shoulder to the
+wheel of fortune, and so kept it till the hill was behind her.
+Some nations (which owe their existence to her) have forgotten
+these things conveniently; an Englishman hates to speak of them,
+through his unjust abhorrence of self-praise; and so does a
+Frenchman, by virtue of motives equally respectable.
+
+But now the especial danger lay in the special strength of England.
+Scarcely any man along the coast, who had ever come across a
+Frenchman, could be led (by quotations from history or even from
+newspapers) to believe that there was any sense in this menace of
+his to come and conquer us.  Even if he landed, which was not
+likely--for none of them could box the compass--the only thing he
+took would be a jolly good thrashing, and a few pills of lead for
+his garlic.  This lofty contempt on the part of the seafaring men
+had been enhanced by Nelson, and throve with stoutest vigour in the
+enlightened breasts of Springhaven.
+
+Yet military men thought otherwise, and so did the owners of crops
+and ricks, and so did the dealers in bacon and eggs and crockery,
+and even hardware.  Mr. Cheeseman, for instance, who left nothing
+unsold that he could turn a penny by, was anything but easy in his
+mind, and dreamed such dreams as he could not impart to his wife--
+on account of her tendency to hysterics--but told with much power
+to his daughter Polly, now the recognised belle of Springhaven.
+This vigilant grocer and butterman, tea, coffee, tobacco, and
+snuffman, hosier also, and general provider for the outer as well
+as the inner man, had much of that enterprise in his nature which
+the country believes to come from London.  His possession of this
+was ascribed by all persons of a thoughtful turn to his ownership
+of that well-built schooner the London Trader.  Sailing as she did,
+when the weather was fine, nearly every other week, for London, and
+returning with equal frequency, to the women who had never been ten
+miles from home she was a mystery and a watchword.  Not one of them
+would allow lad of hers to join this romantic galleon, and tempt
+the black cloud of the distance; neither did Mr. Cheeseman yearn
+(for reasons of his own about city prices) to navigate this good
+ship with natives.  Moreover, it was absurd, as he said, with a
+keen sense of his own cheapness, to suppose that he could find the
+funds to buy and ply such a ship as that!
+
+Truth is a fugitive creature, even when she deigns to be visible,
+or even to exist.  The truth of Mr. Cheeseman's statement had
+existed, but was long since flown.  Such was his worth that he
+could now afford to buy the London Trader three times over, and pay
+ready money every time.  But when he first invested hard cash in
+her--against the solid tears of his prudent wife--true enough it
+was that he could only scrape together one quarter of the sum
+required.  Mrs. Cheeseman, who was then in a condition of absorbing
+interest with Polly, made it her last request in this world--for
+she never expected to get over it--that Jemmy should not run in
+debt on a goose-chase, and fetch her poor spirit from its grave
+again.  James Cheeseman was compelled--as the noblest man may be--
+to dissemble and even deny his intentions until the blessed period
+of caudle-cup, when, the weather being pleasant and the wind along
+the shore, he found himself encouraged to put up the window gently.
+The tide was coming in with a long seesaw, and upon it, like the
+baby in the cradle full of sleep, lay rocking another little
+stranger, or rather a very big one, to the lady's conception.
+
+Let bygones be bygones.  There were some reproaches; but the weaker
+vessel, Mrs. Cheeseman, at last struck flag, without sinking, as
+she threatened to do.  And when little Polly went for her first
+airing, the London Trader had accomplished her first voyage, and
+was sailing in triumphantly with a box of "tops and bottoms" from
+the ancient firm in Threadneedle Street, which has saved so many
+infants from the power that cuts the thread.  After that,
+everything went as it should go, including this addition to the
+commercial strength of Britain, which the lady was enabled soon to
+talk of as "our ship," and to cite when any question rose of the
+latest London fashion.  But even now, when a score of years, save
+one, had made their score and gone, Mrs. Cheeseman only guessed and
+doubted as to the purchase of her ship.  James Cheeseman knew the
+value of his own counsel, and so kept it; and was patted on both
+shoulders by the world, while he patted his own butter.
+
+He wore an apron of the purest white, with shoulder-straps of linen
+tape, and upon his counter he had a desk, with a carved oak rail in
+front of it and returned at either end.  The joy of his life was
+here to stand, with goodly shirt sleeves shining, his bright cheeks
+also shining in the sun, unless it were hot enough to hurt his
+goods.  He was not a great man, but a good one--in the opinion of
+all who owed him nothing, and even in his own estimate, though he
+owed so much to himself.  It was enough to make any one who
+possessed a shilling hungry to see him so clean, so ready, and
+ruddy among the many good things which his looks and manner, as
+well as his words, commended.  And as soon as he began to smack his
+rosy lips, which nature had fitted up on purpose, over a rasher, or
+a cut of gammon, or a keg of best Aylesbury, or a fine red herring,
+no customer having a penny in his pocket might struggle hard enough
+to keep it there.  For the half-hearted policy of fingering one's
+money, and asking a price theoretically, would recoil upon the
+constitution of the strongest man, unless he could detach from all
+cooperation the congenial researches of his eyes and nose.  When
+the weather was cool and the air full of appetite, and a fine smack
+of salt from the sea was sparkling on the margin of the plate of
+expectation, there was Mr. Cheeseman, with a knife and fork, amid a
+presence of hungrifying goods that beat the weak efforts of
+imagination.  Hams of the first rank and highest education, springs
+of pork sweeter than the purest spring of poetry, pats of butter
+fragrant as the most delicious flattery, chicks with breast too
+ample to require to be broken, and sometimes prawns from round the
+headland, fresh enough to saw one another's heads off, but for
+being boiled already.
+
+Memory fails to record one-tenth of all the good things gathered
+there.  And why?  Because hope was the power aroused, and how
+seldom can memory endorse it!  Even in the case of Mr. Cheeseman's
+wares there were people who said, after making short work with
+them, that short weight had enabled them to do so.  And every one
+living in the village was surprised to find his own scales require
+balancing again every time he sent his little girl to Cheeseman's.
+
+This upright tradesman was attending to his business one cold day
+in May, 1803, soon after Nelson sailed from Portsmouth, and he
+stood with his beloved pounds of farm-house butter, bladders of
+lard, and new-laid eggs, and squares of cream-cheese behind him,
+with a broad butter-spathe of white wood in his hand, a long goose-
+pen tucked over his left ear, and the great copper scales hanging
+handy.  So strict was his style, though he was not above a joke,
+that only his own hands might serve forth an ounce of best butter
+to the public.  And whenever this was weighed, and the beam
+adjusted handsomely to the satisfaction of the purchaser, down went
+the butter to be packed upon a shelf uninvaded by the public eye.
+Persons too scantily endowed with the greatest of all Christian
+virtues had the hardihood to say that Mr. Cheeseman here indulged
+in a process of high art discovered by himself.  Discoursing of the
+weather, or the crops, or perhaps the war, and mourning the
+dishonesty of statesmen nowadays, by dexterous undersweep of keen
+steel blade, from the bottom of the round, or pat, or roll, he
+would have away a thin slice, and with that motion jerk it into the
+barrel which he kept beneath his desk.
+
+"Is this, then, the establishment of the illustrious Mr.
+Cheeseman?"  The time was yet early, and the gentleman who put this
+question was in riding dress.  The worthy tradesman looked at him,
+and the rosy hue upon his cheeks was marbled with a paler tint.
+
+"This is the shop of the 'umble James Cheeseman," he answered, but
+not with the alacrity of business.  "All things good that are in
+season, and nothing kept unseasonable.  With what can I have the
+honor of serving you, sir?"
+
+"With a little talk."  The stranger's manner was not unpleasantly
+contemptuous, but lofty, and such as the English shopman loves, and
+calls "aristocratic."
+
+"To talk with a gentleman is a pleasure as well as an honour," said
+Cheeseman.
+
+"But not in this public establishment."  The visitor waved both
+hands as he spoke, in a style not then common with Englishmen--
+though they are learning eloquent gesticulation now.  "It is fine,
+Mr. Cheeseman; but it is not--bah, I forget your English words."
+
+"It is fine, sir, as you are good enough to observe"--the humble
+James Cheeseman was proud of his shop--"but not, as you remarked,
+altogether private.  That can hardly be expected, where business is
+conducted to suit universal requirements.  Polly, my dear, if your
+mother can spare you, come and take my place at the desk a few
+minutes.  I have business inside with this gentleman.  You may sell
+almost anything, except butter.  If any one wants that, they must
+wait till I come back."
+
+A very pretty damsel, with a cap of foreign lace both adorning and
+adorned by her beautiful bright hair, came shyly from a little door
+behind the counter, receiving with a quick blush the stranger's
+earnest gaze, and returning with a curtsey the courteous flourish
+of his looped-up riding-hat.  "What a handsome gentleman!" said
+Polly to herself; "but there is something very sad and very wild in
+his appearance."  Her father's conclusion was the same, and his
+heart misgave him as he led in this unexpected guest.
+
+"There is no cause for apologies.  This place is a very good one,"
+the stranger replied, laying down his heavy whip on the table of a
+stone-floored room, to which he had been shown.  "You are a man of
+business, and I am come upon dry business.  You can conjecture--is
+it not so?--who I am by this time, although I am told that I do not
+bear any strong resemblance to my father."
+
+He took off his hat as he spoke, shook back his long black hair,
+and fixed his jet-black eyes upon Cheeseman.  That upright dealer
+had not recovered his usual self-possession yet, but managed to
+look up--for he was shorter by a head than his visitor--with a
+doubtful and enquiring smile.
+
+"I am Caryl Carne, of Carne Castle, as you are pleased to call it.
+I have not been in England these many years; from the death of my
+father I have been afar; and now, for causes of my own, I am
+returned, with hope of collecting the fragments of the property of
+my ancestors.  It appears to have been their custom to scatter, but
+not gather up again.  My intention is to make a sheaf of the relics
+spread by squanderers, and snapped up by scoundrels."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure," cried the general dealer; "this is vastly
+to your credit, sir, and I wish you all success, sir, and so will
+all who have so long respected your ancient and honourable family,
+sir.  Take a chair, sir--please to take a chair."
+
+"I find very little to my credit," Mr. Carne said, dryly, as he
+took the offered chair, but kept his eyes still upon Cheeseman's;
+"but among that little is a bond from you, given nearly twenty
+years agone, and of which you will retain, no doubt, a vivid
+recollection."
+
+"A bond, sir--a bond!" exclaimed the other, with his bright eyes
+twinkling, as in some business enterprise.  "I never signed a bond
+in all my life, sir.  Why, a bond requires sureties, and nobody
+ever went surety for me."
+
+"Bond may not be the proper legal term.  It is possible.  I know
+nothing of the English law.  But a document it is, under hand and
+seal, and your signature is witnessed, Mr. Cheeseman."
+
+"Ah well!  Let me consider.  I begin to remember something.  But my
+memory is not as it used to be, and twenty years makes a great hole
+in it.  Will you kindly allow me to see this paper, if you have it
+with you, sir?"
+
+"It is not a paper; it is written upon parchment, and I have not
+brought it with me.  But I have written down the intention of it,
+and it is as follows:
+
+"'This indenture made between James Cheeseman (with a long
+description), of the one part, and Montagu Carne (treated
+likewise), of the other part, after a long account of some
+arrangement made between them, witnesseth that in consideration of
+the sum of 300 pounds well and truly paid by the said Montagu Carne
+to Cheeseman, he, the said Cheeseman, doth assign, transfer, set
+over, and so on, to the said Carne, etc., one equal undivided
+moiety and one half part of the other moiety of and in a certain
+vessel, ship, trading-craft, and so forth, known or thenceforth to
+be known as the London Trader, of Springhaven, in the county of
+Sussex, by way of security for the interest at the rate of five per
+cent. per annum, payable half-yearly, as well as for the principal
+sum of 300 pounds, so advanced as aforesaid.'"
+
+"If it should prove, sir, that money is owing," Mr. Cheeseman said,
+with that exalted candour which made a weak customer condemn his
+own eyes and nose, "no effort on my part shall be wanting, bad as
+the times are, to procure it and discharge it.  In every commercial
+transaction I have found, and my experience is now considerable,
+that confidence, as between man and man, is the only true footing
+to go upon.  And how can true confidence exist, unless--"
+
+"Unless a man shows some honesty.  And a man who keeps books such
+as these," pursued the visitor, suggesting a small kick to a pile
+of ledgers, "can hardly help knowing whether he owes a large sum or
+whether he has paid it.  But that is not the only question now.
+In continuation of that document I find a condition, a clause
+provisional, that it shall be at the option of the aforesaid
+Montagu Carne, and his representatives, either to receive the
+interest at the rate before mentioned and thereby secured, or,
+if he or they should so prefer, to take for their own benefit
+absolutely three-fourths of the net profits, proceeds, or other
+increment realised by the trading ventures, or other employment
+from time to time, of the said London Trader.  Also there is a
+covenant for the insurance of the said vessel, and a power of sale,
+and some other provisions about access to trading books, etc., with
+which you have, no doubt, a good acquaintance, Mr. Cheeseman."
+
+That enterprising merchant, importer of commodities, and wholesale
+and retail dealer was fond of assuring his numerous friends that
+"nothing ever came amiss to him."  But some of them now would have
+doubted about this if they had watched his face as carefully as
+Caryl Carne was watching it.  Mr. Cheeseman could look a hundred
+people in the face, and with great vigour too, when a small account
+was running.  But the sad, contemptuous, and piercing gaze--as if
+he were hardly worth penetrating--and the twirl of the black tuft
+above the lip, and the firm conviction on the broad white forehead
+that it was confronting a rogue too common and shallow to be worth
+frowning at--all these, and the facts that were under them, came
+amiss to the true James Cheeseman.
+
+"I scarcely see how to take this," he said, being clever enough to
+suppose that a dash of candour might sweeten the embroilment.  "I
+will not deny that I was under obligation to your highly respected
+father, who was greatly beloved for his good-will to his
+neighbours.  'Cheeseman,' he used to say, 'I will stand by you.
+You are the only man of enterprise in these here parts.  Whatever
+you do is for the good of Springhaven, which belonged to my family
+for centuries before those new-fangled Darlings came.  And,
+Cheeseman, you may trust to the honour of the Carnes not to grind
+down a poor man who has his way to make.'  Them were his words,
+sir; how well I recollect them!"
+
+"Too well almost," replied the young man, coldly, "considering how
+scanty was your memory just now.  But it may save time, and painful
+efforts of your memory, if I tell you at once that I am not
+concerned in any way with the sentiments of my father.  I owe him
+very little, as you must be well aware; and the matter betwixt you
+and me is strictly one of business.  The position in which I am
+left is such that I must press every legal claim to the extremest.
+And having the option under this good document, I have determined
+to insist upon three-quarters of the clear proceeds of this
+trading-ship, from the date of the purchase until the present day,
+as well as the capital sum invested on this security."
+
+"Very well, sir, if you do, there is only one course left me--to go
+into the Court of Bankruptcy, see all my little stock in trade sold
+up, and start in life again at the age of fifty-seven, with a curse
+upon all old families."
+
+"Your curse, my good friend, will not add sixpence to your credit.
+And the heat you exhibit is not well adapted for calculations
+commercial.  There is one other course which I am able to propose,
+though I will not give a promise yet to do so--a course which would
+relieve me from taking possession of this noble ship which has made
+your fortune, and perhaps from enforcing the strict examination of
+your trading-books, to which I am entitled.  But before I propose
+any such concession, which will be a grand abdication of rights,
+one or two things become necessary.  For example, I must have some
+acquaintance with your character, some certitude that you can keep
+your own counsel, and not divulge everything that arrives within
+your knowledge; also that you have some courage, some freedom of
+mind from small insular sentiments, some desire to promote the true
+interests of mankind, and the destruction of national prejudices."
+
+"Certainly, sir; all of those I can approve of.  They are very
+glorious things," cried Cheeseman--a man of fine liberal vein,
+whenever two half-crowns were as good as a crown.  "We are cramped
+and trampled and down-trodden by the airs big people give
+themselves, and the longing of such of us as thinks is to speak our
+minds about it.  Upon that point of freedom, sir, I can heartily go
+with you, and every stick upon my premises is well insured."
+
+"Including, I hope, the London Trader, according to your covenant.
+And that reminds me of another question--is it well-found, well-
+manned, and a good rapid ship to make the voyage?  No falsehood, if
+you please, about this matter."
+
+"She is the fastest sailer on the English coast, built at Dunkirk,
+and as sound as a bell.  She could show her taffrail, in light
+weather, to any British cruiser in the Channel.  She could run a
+fine cargo of French cognac and foreign laces any day."
+
+"It is not my desire," Caryl Carne replied, "to cheat the British
+Revenue.  For that purpose exist already plenty of British
+tradesmen.  For the present I impress upon you one thing only, that
+you shall observe silence, a sacred silence, regarding this
+conversation.  For your own sake you will be inclined to do so, and
+that is the only sake a man pays much attention to.  But how much
+for your own sake you are obliged to keep your counsel, you will
+very soon find out if you betray it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+FOX-HILL
+
+
+When it was known in this fine old village that young Squire Carne
+from foreign parts was come back to live in the ancient castle,
+there was much larger outlay (both of words and thoughts) about
+that than about any French invasion.  "Let them land if they can,"
+said the able-bodied men, in discussion of the latter question;
+"they won't find it so easy to get away again as they seem to put
+into their reckoning.  But the plague of it all is the damage to
+the fishing."
+
+Not that the squadron of Captain Tugwell was shorn as yet of its
+number, though all the young men were under notice to hold
+themselves ready as "Sea-Fencibles."  The injury to their trade lay
+rather in the difficulty of getting to their fishing-grounds, and
+in the disturbance of these by cruisers, with little respect for
+their nets and lines.  Again, as the tidings of French preparation
+waxed more and more outrageous, Zebedee had as much as he could do
+to keep all his young hands loyal.  All their solid interest lay
+(as he told them every morning) in sticking to the Springhaven
+flag--a pair of soles couchant, herring salient, and mackerel
+regardant, all upon a bright sea-green--rather than in hankering
+after roll of drum and Union-Jack.  What could come of these but
+hardship, want of victuals, wounds, and death; or else to stump
+about on one leg, and hold out a hat for a penny with one arm?
+They felt that it was true; they had seen enough of that; it had
+happened in all their own families.
+
+Yet such is the love of the native land and the yearning to stand
+in front of it, and such is the hate of being triumphed over by
+fellows who kiss one another and weep, and such is the tingling of
+the knuckles for a blow when the body has been kicked in sore
+places, that the heart will at last get the better of the head--or
+at least it used to be so in England.  Wherefore Charley Bowles was
+in arms already against his country's enemies; and Harry Shanks
+waited for little except a clear proclamation of prize-money; and
+even young Daniel was tearing at his kedge like a lively craft
+riding in a brisk sea-way.  He had seen Lord Nelson, and had spoken
+to Lord Nelson, and that great man would have patted him on the
+head--so patriotic were his sentiments--if the great man had been a
+little taller.
+
+But the one thing that kept Dan Tugwell firm to his moorings at
+Springhaven was the deep hold of his steadfast heart in a love
+which it knew to be hopeless.  To die for his country might become
+a stern duty, about which he would rather not be hurried; but to
+die for Miss Dolly would be a wild delight; and how could he do it
+unless he were at hand?  And now there were so many young officers
+again, landing in boats, coming in post-chaises, or charging down
+the road on horseback, that Daniel, while touching up the finish of
+his boat with paint and varnish and Venetian Red, was not so happy
+as an artist should be who knows how to place the whole.
+Sometimes, with the paint stirred up and creaming, and the ooze of
+the brush trimmed warily, through the rushes and ragwort and sea-
+willow his keen, unconquerable eyes would spy the only figure that
+quelled them, faraway, shown against the shining water, or shadowed
+upon the flat mirror of the sand.  But, alas! there was always
+another figure near it, bigger, bulkier, framed with ugly angles,
+jerking about with the elbow sticking out, instead of gliding
+gracefully.  Likely enough the lovely form, brought nearer to the
+eyes and heart by love, would flit about beautifully for two sweet
+moments, filling with rapture all the flashes of the sea and calm
+of the evening sky beyond; and then the third moment would be
+hideous.  For the figure of the ungainly foe would stride across
+the delicious vision, huge against the waves like Cyclops, and like
+him gesticulant, but unhappily not so single-eyed that the slippery
+fair might despise him.  Then away would fly all sense of art and
+joy in the touch of perfection, and a very nasty feeling would
+ensue, as if nothing were worth living for, and nobody could be
+believed in.
+
+That plaguesome Polypheme was Captain Stubbard, begirt with a wife,
+and endowed with a family almost in excess of benediction, and
+dancing attendance upon Miss Dolly, too stoutly for his own
+comfort, in the hope of procuring for his own Penates something to
+eat and to sit upon.  Some evil genius had whispered, or rather
+trumpeted, into his ear--for he had but one left, and that worked
+very seldom, through alarm about the bullet which had carried off
+its fellow--that if he desired, as he did with heart and stomach,
+to get a clear widening by 200 pounds of his strait ways and
+restricted means, through Admiral Darling it might be done, and
+Miss Dolly was the proper one to make him do it.  For the
+Inspectorship of Sea-Fencibles from Selsea-Bill to Dungeness was
+worth all that money in hard cash yearly; and the late Inspector
+having quitted this life--through pork boiled in a copper kettle--
+the situation was naturally vacant; and the Admiral being the man
+for whose check the Inspectorship was appointed, it is needless to
+say that (in the spirit of fair play) the appointment was vested in
+the Admiral.
+
+The opinion of all who knew him was that Captain Stubbard was
+fairly entitled to look for something higher.  And he shared that
+opinion, taking loftier aim than figures could be made to square
+with, till the latter prevailed, as they generally do, because they
+can work without victuals.  For although the brave Captain had lost
+three ribs--or at any rate more than he could spare of them (not
+being a pig)--in the service of his country, he required as much as
+ever to put inside them; and his children, not having inherited
+that loss as scientifically as they should have done, were hard to
+bring up upon the 15 pounds yearly allowed by Great Britain for
+each of the gone bones.  From the ear that was gone he derived no
+income, having rashly compounded for 25 pounds.
+
+In the nature of things, which the names have followed, the father
+is the feeder; and the world is full of remarks unless he becomes a
+good clothier also.  But everything went against this father, with
+nine little Stubbards running after him, and no ninepence in any of
+his pockets, because he was shelfed upon half-pay, on account of
+the depression of the times and of his ribs.  But Miss Dolly
+Darling was resolved to see him righted, for she hated all national
+meanness.
+
+"What is the use of having any influence," she asked her good
+father, "unless you employ it for your own friends?  I should be
+quite ashamed to have it said of me, or thought, that I could get a
+good thing for any one I was fond of, and was mean enough not to do
+it, for fear of paltry jealousy.  Mean is much too weak a word; it
+is downright dishonest, and what is much worse, cowardly.  What is
+the government meant for, unless it is to do good to people?"
+
+"Certainly, my dear child, certainly.  To the people at large, that
+is to say, and the higher interests of the country."
+
+"Can there be any people more at large than Captain Stubbard and
+his wife and children?  Their elbows are coming out of their
+clothes, and they have scarcely got a bed to sleep upon.  My income
+is not enough to stop to count, even when I get it paid punctually.
+But every farthing I receive shall go--that is to say, if it ever
+does come--into the lap of Mrs. Stubbard, anonymously and
+respectfully."
+
+"Pay your bills, first," said the Admiral, taking the weather-gage
+of the discussion: "a little bird tells me that you owe a good
+trifle, even in Springhaven."
+
+"Then the little bird has got a false bill," replied Dolly, who was
+not very easy to fluster.  "Who is there to spend sixpence with in
+a little hole of this kind?  I am not a customer for tea, coffee,
+tobacco, snuff, or pepper, nor even for whiting, soles, or conger.
+Old Cheeseman imports all the fashions, as he says; but I go by my
+own judgment.  And trumpery as my income is, very little of it goes
+into his till.  But I should like to know who told you such a
+wicked story, father?"
+
+"Things are mentioned in confidence, and I put them together," said
+the Admiral.  "Don't say another word, or look as if you would be
+happier if you had something to cry about.  Your dear mother used
+to do it; and it beats me always.  I have long had my eye upon
+Captain Stubbard, and I remember well that gallant action when his
+three ribs flew away.  We called him Adam, because of his wife
+coming just when his middle rib went, and his name was Adam
+Stubbard, sure enough.  Such men, in the prime of their life,
+should be promoted, instead of being disabled, for a scratch like
+that.  Why, he walks every bit as well as I do, and his watch-
+ribbon covers it.  And nine children!  Lord bless my heart!  I
+scarcely know which way to turn, with only four!"
+
+Within a short fortnight Captain Stubbard was appointed, with an
+office established at the house of Widow Shanks--though his real
+office naturally was at the public-house--and Royal Proclamations
+aroused the valour of nearly everybody who could read them.  Nine
+little Stubbards soon were rigged too smart to know themselves, as
+the style is of all dandies; and even Mrs. Stubbard had a new belt
+made to go round her, when the weather was elastic.
+
+"These are the things that prove the eye of an All-wise Providence
+over us," said the Captain to the Admiral, pointing out six pairs
+of short legs, galligaskined from one roll of cloth; "these are the
+things that make one feel the force of the words of David."
+
+"Certainly, yes, to be sure!" replied the gallant senior officer,
+all at sea as to the passage suggested.  "Good legs they have got,
+and no mistake; like the polished corners of the temple.  Let them
+go and dip them in the sea, while you give the benefit of your
+opinion here.  Not here, I mean, but upon Fox-hill yonder; if Mrs.
+Stubbard will spare you for a couple of hours, most kindly."
+
+Of the heights that look down with a breezy air upon the snug nest
+of Springhaven, the fairest to see from a distance, and to tread
+with brisk foot, is Fox-hill.  For the downs, which are channelled
+with the springs that form the brook, keep this for their own last
+spring into the air, before bathing in the vigorous composure of
+the sea.  All the other hills fall back a little, to let Fox-hill
+have the first choice of aspect--or bear the first brunt, as itself
+would state the matter.  And to anybody coming up, and ten times to
+a stranger, this resolute foreland offers more invitation to go
+home again, than to come visiting.  For the bulge of the breast is
+steep, and ribbed with hoops coming up in denial, concrete with
+chalk, muricated with flint, and thornily crested with good stout
+furze.  And the forefront of the head, when gained, is stiff with
+brambles, and stubbed with sloes, and mitred with a choice band of
+stanch sting-nettles.
+
+"It would take a better Frenchman," said the Admiral, with that
+brevity which is the happy result of stoutness up steep hill, "than
+any of 'they flat-bottoms,' as Swipes, my gardener, calls them, to
+get through these prickles, Stubbard, without Sark-blewing.  Such a
+wonderfully thin-skinned lot they are!  Did I ever tell you the
+story of our boatswain's mate?  But that takes a better sailing
+breeze than I've got now.  You see where we are, don't you?"
+
+"Certainly, Admiral," replied Captain Stubbard, disdaining to lay
+hand to his injured side, painfully as it yearned for pressure; "we
+have had a long pull, and we get a fine outlook over the country
+for leagues, and the Channel.  How close at hand everything looks!
+I suppose we shall have rain, and we want it.  I could thump that
+old castle among the trees into smash, and your church looks as if
+I could put a shot with a rifle-gun into the bell-chamber."
+
+"And so you could.  What I want to show you is that very point, and
+the importance of it.  With a battery of long twenty-fours up here,
+the landing, the bay, and all the roads are at our mercy.  My dear
+old friend Nelson drew my attention to it."
+
+"It is plain as a pikestaff to Tom, Dick, or Harry:" Captain
+Stubbard was a frank, straightforward man, and much as he owed to
+the Admiral's aid, not a farthing would he pay in flattery.  "But
+why should we want to command this spot?  There is nothing to
+protect but a few common houses, and some half-score of fishing-
+craft, and a schooner that trades to London, and yonder old church,
+and--oh yes, to be sure, your own house and property, Admiral."
+
+"Those must take their chance, like others.  I hope I know better
+than to think of them in comparison with the good of the country.
+But if we fail to occupy this important post, the enemy might take
+us by surprise, and do so."
+
+"Possible, but most improbable.  This little place lies, by the
+trend of the coast, quite out of their course from Boulogne to
+London; and what is there here to tempt them?  No rich town to
+sack, no great commerce to rob, no valuable shipping to lay hands
+on."
+
+"No; but there's my house and my two girls; and I don't want my old
+roof burned, and my daughters put to wait on Boney.  But to think
+of self-interest is below contempt, with our country going through
+such trials.  Neither should we add any needless expense to a
+treasury already overburdened."
+
+"Certainly not.  It would be absolutely wicked.  We have a long and
+costly war before us, and not a shilling should be spent except in
+case of clear necessity."
+
+"I am very glad indeed to find your opinion so decided, so
+untainted with petty self-interest."  As Admiral Darling spoke he
+closed a little silver telescope, with which he had been gazing
+through the wooded coronet of the hill.  "I thought it my duty to
+consult you, Stubbard, before despatching this letter, which, being
+backed by Nelson's opinion, would probably have received attention.
+If a strong battery were thrown up here, as it would be in a
+fortnight from the receipt of this bit of foolscap, the appointment
+of commandant would rest with me, and I could appoint nobody but
+your good self, because of your well-known experience in
+earthworks.  The appointment would have doubled your present pay,
+which, though better than nothing, is far below your merits.  But
+your opinion settles the question otherwise, and I must burn my
+letter.  Let us lose no more time.  Mrs. Stubbard will call me a
+savage, for keeping you away so long."
+
+"Important business," replied the Captain, "will not wait even for
+ladies, or, rather, they must try to wait for it, and give way to
+more reasonable urgency.  Some time is required for considering
+this matter, and deciding what is most for the interest of the
+nation.  Oblige me with your spy-glass, Admiral.  There is one side
+on which I have neglected to look out, and that may of all be the
+most important.  A conclusion arrived at by yourself and Nelson is
+not to be hastily set aside.  Your knowledge of the country is so
+far beyond mine, though I may have had more to do with land-works.
+We ought to think twice, sir, if the government will pay for it,
+about a valuable job of this kind."
+
+With these words Captain Stubbard began to use the telescope
+carefully, forming his opinion through it, and wisely shaking his
+head, now and then, with a longer and longer focus.  Then he closed
+the glass, and his own lips firmly--whereby a man announces that no
+other should open his against them--and sternly striding the yard
+exact, took measurement for the battery.  The hill was crowned with
+a ring of Scotch firs, casting a quiet shade upon the warlike haste
+of the Captain.  If Admiral Darling smiled, it was to the landscape
+and the offing, for he knew that Stubbard was of rather touchy
+fibre, and relished no jokes unless of home production.  His slow,
+solid face was enough to show this, and the squareness of his
+outline, and the forward thrust of his knees as he walked, and the
+larkspur impress of his lingering heels.  And he seldom said much,
+without something to say.
+
+"Well," cried the Admiral, growing tired of sitting so long upon a
+fallen trunk, "what conclusion do you feel inclined to come to?
+'Tis a fine breezy place to clear the brain, and a briny air to
+sharpen the judgment."
+
+"Only one tree need come down--this crooked one at the southeast
+corner."  Captain Stubbard began to swing his arms about, like a
+windmill uncertain of the wind.  "All gentlemen hate to have a tree
+cut down, all blackguards delight in the process.  Admiral, we will
+not hurt your trees.  They will add to our strength, by masking it.
+Six long twenty-fours of the new make, here in front, and two
+eighteens upon either flank, and I should like to see the whole of
+the Boulogne flotilla try to take yonder shore by daylight.  That
+is to say, of course, if I commanded, with good old salts to second
+me.  With your common artillery officers, landlubbers, smell-the-
+wicks, cross-the-braces sons of guns, there had better not be
+anything at all put up.  They can't make a fortification; and when
+they have made it, they can't work it.  Admiral Darling, you know
+that, though you have not had the bad luck to deal with them as I
+have.  I may thank one of them for being up here on the shelf."
+
+"Of one thing you may be quite certain," replied the commander of
+the sea defence; "if we have any battery on this Fox-hill, it shall
+be constructed and manned by blue-jackets.  I have a large draft of
+them now at discretion.  Every man in Springhaven will lend a hand,
+if paid for it.  It would take at least a twelvemonth to get it
+done from Woolwich.  A seaman does a thing before a landsman thinks
+about it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SEA-SIDE LODGINGS
+
+
+To set a dog barking is easier than to stop him by the soundest
+reasoning.  Even if the roof above his honest head, growing loose
+on its nails, is being mended, he comes out to ask about the
+matter, and in strong terms proclaims his opinion to the distance.
+
+After this kind behaved the people about to be protected by this
+battery.  They had dreamed of no danger till they saw their houses
+beginning to be protected, and for this--though it added to their
+importance--they were not truly thankful.  They took it in various
+ways, according to their rich variety of reflection; but the way in
+which nobody took it was that of gratitude and humility.
+
+"Everything upside down," they said, "everything gone clean topsy-
+turvy!  And the deep meaning of it is to rob our fishing, under
+pretence of the Nationals.  It may bring a good bit of money to the
+place, for the lining of one or two pockets, such as John Prater's
+and Cheeseman's; but I never did hold so much with money, when
+shattery ways comes along of it.  No daughter of mine stirs out-of-
+doors after sundown, I can tell them."
+
+Thus were the minds of the men disturbed, or at any rate those of
+the elder ones; while the women, on the whole, were pleased,
+although they pretended to be contemptuous.  "I'll tell you what I
+think, ma'am," Mrs. Cheeseman said to Widow Shanks quite early, "if
+you take a farthing less than half a guinea a week for your dimity-
+parlour, with the window up the hill, and the little door under the
+big sweet-briar, I shall think that you are not as you used to be."
+
+"And right you would be, ma'am, and too right there;" Mrs. Shanks
+sighed deeply as she thought of it.  "There is nobody but you can
+understand it, and I don't mind saying it on that account to you.
+Whenever I have wanted for a little bit of money, as the nature of
+lone widows generally does, it has always been out of your power,
+Mrs. Cheeseman, to oblige me, and quite right of you.  But I have a
+good son, thank the Lord, by the name of Harry, to provide for me;
+and a guinea a week is the agreement now for the dimity-parlour,
+and the three leg'd bed, and cold dinner to be paid for extra, such
+as I might send for to your good shop, with the money ready in the
+hand of my little girl, and jug below her apron for refreshment
+from the Darling."
+
+"Well, I never!  My dear soul, you have taken all my breath away.
+Why, it must be the captain of all the gunners.  How gunpowder do
+pay, to be sure!"
+
+"Lor, ma'am, why, don't you know," replied Mrs. Shanks, with some
+contempt, "that the man with three ribs is the captain of the
+gunners--the man in my back sitting-room?  No dimity-parlour for
+him with his family, not for a guinea and a half a week.  But if I
+was to tell you who the gentleman is, and one of the highest all
+round these parts, truthful as you know me, Mrs. Cheeseman, you
+would say to yourself, what a liar she is!"
+
+"Mrs. Shanks, I never use coarse expressions, even to myself in
+private.  And perhaps I could tell you a thing or two would
+astonish you more than me, ma'am.  Suppose I should tell you, to
+begin with, who your guinea lodger is?"
+
+"That you could never do, Mrs. Cheeseman, with all your time a-
+counting changes.  He is not of the rank for a twopenny rasher, or
+a wedge of cheese packed in old petticoat."
+
+These two ladies now looked at one another.  They had not had a
+quarrel for almost three months, and a large arrear of little
+pricks on either side was pending.  Sooner or later it would have
+to be fought out (like a feud between two nations), with a houseful
+of loss and woe to either side, but a thimbleful of pride and
+glory.  Yet so much wiser were these women than the most sagacious
+nations that they put off to a cheaper time their grudge against
+each other.
+
+"His rank may be royal," said the wife of Mr. Cheeseman, "though a
+going-downhill kind of royalty, perhaps, and yet he might be glad,
+Mrs. Shanks, to come where the butter has the milk spots, and none
+is in the cheese, ma'am."
+
+"If such should be his wish, ma'am, for supper or for breakfast, or
+even for dinner on a Sunday when the rain comes through the Castle,
+you may trust me to know where to send him, but not to guarantee
+him at all of his money."
+
+"They high ones is very apt to slip in that," Mrs. Cheeseman
+answered, thoughtfully; "they seem to be less particular in paying
+for a thing than they was to have it good.  But a burnt child
+dreads the fire, as they say; and a young man with a castleful of
+owls and rats, by reason of going for these hundred years on
+credit, will have it brought home to him to pay ready money.  But
+the Lord be over us! if I don't see him a-going your way already!
+Good-by, my dear soul--good-by, and preserve you; and if at any
+time short of table or bed linen, a loan from an old friend, and
+coming back well washed, and it sha'n't be, as the children sing,
+'A friend with a loan has the pick of your bone, and he won't let
+you very long alone.'"
+
+"Many thanks to you for friendly meaning, ma'am," said the widow,
+as she took up her basket to go home, "and glad I may be to profit
+by it, with the time commanding.  But as yet I have had neither
+sleepers or feeders in my little house, but the children.  Though
+both of them reserves the right to do it, if nature should so
+compel them--the three-ribbed gentleman with one ear, at five
+shillings a week, in the sitting-room, and the young man up over
+him.  Their meaning is for business, and studying, and keeping of
+accounts, and having of a quiet place in bad weather, though feed
+they must, sooner or later, I depend; and then who is there but Mr.
+Cheeseman?"
+
+"How grand he do look upon that black horse, quite as solid as if
+he was glued to it!" the lady of the shop replied, as she put away
+the money; "and to do that without victuals is beyond a young man's
+power.  He looks like what they used to call a knight upon an
+errand, in the picture-books, when I was romantic, only for the
+hair that comes under his nose.  Ah! his errand will be to break
+the hearts of the young ladies that goes down upon the sands in
+their blue gowns, I'm afraid, if they can only manage with the hair
+below his nose."
+
+"And do them good, some of them, and be a judgment from the Lord,
+for the French style in their skirts is a shocking thing to see.
+What should we have said when you and I were young, my dear?  But
+quick step is the word for me, for I expect my Jenny home on her
+day out from the Admiral, and no Harry in the house to look after
+her.  Ah! dimity-parlours is a thing as may happen to cut both
+ways, Mrs. Cheeseman."
+
+Widow Shanks had good cause to be proud of her cottage, which was
+the prettiest in Springhaven, and one of the most commodious.  She
+had fought a hard fight, when her widowhood began, and the children
+were too young to help her, rather than give up the home of her
+love-time, and the cradle of her little ones.  Some of her
+neighbours (who wanted the house) were sadly pained at her
+stubbornness, and even dishonesty, as they put it, when she knew
+that she never could pay her rent.  But "never is a long time,"
+according to the proverb; and with the forbearance of the Admiral,
+the kindness of his daughters, and the growth of her own children,
+she stood clear of all debt now, except the sweet one of gratitude.
+
+And now she could listen to the moaning of the sea (which used to
+make her weep all night) with a milder sense of the cruel woe that
+it had drowned her husband, and a lull of sorrow that was almost
+hope; until the dark visions of wrecks and corpses melted into
+sweet dreams of her son upon the waters, finishing his supper, and
+getting ready for his pipe.  For Harry was making his own track
+well in the wake of his dear father.
+
+Now if she had gone inland to dwell, from the stroke of her great
+calamity--as most people told her to make haste and do--not only
+the sympathy of the sea, but many of the little cares, which are
+the ants that bury heavy grief, would have been wholly lost to her.
+And amongst these cares the foremost always, and the most
+distracting, was that of keeping her husband's cottage--as she
+still would call it--tidy, comfortable, bright, and snug, as if he
+were coming on Saturday.
+
+Where the brook runs into the first hearing of the sea, to defer
+its own extinction it takes a lively turn inland, leaving a
+pleasant breadth of green between itself and its destiny.  At the
+breath of salt the larger trees hang back, and turn their boughs
+up; but plenty of pretty shrubs come forth, and shade the cottage
+garden.  Neither have the cottage walls any lack of leafy mantle,
+where the summer sun works his own defeat by fostering cool
+obstruction.  For here are the tamarisk, and jasmin, and the old-
+fashioned corchorus flowering all the summer through, as well as
+the myrtle that loves the shore, with a thicket of stiff young
+sprigs arising, slow of growth, but hiding yearly the havoc made in
+its head and body by the frost of 1795, when the mark of every wave
+upon the sands was ice.  And a vine, that seems to have been
+evolved from a miller, or to have prejected him, clambers with grey
+silver pointrels through the more glossy and darker green.  And
+over these you behold the thatch, thick and long and parti-
+coloured, eaved with little windows, where a bird may nest for
+ever.
+
+But it was not for this outward beauty that Widow Shanks, stuck to
+her house, and paid the rent at intervals.  To her steadfast and
+well-managed mind, the number of rooms, and the separate staircase
+which a solvent lodger might enjoy, were the choicest grant of the
+household gods.  The times were bad--as they always are when
+conscientious people think of them--and poor Mrs. Shanks was
+desirous of paying her rent, by the payment of somebody.  Every now
+and then some well-fed family, hungering (after long carnage) for
+fish, would come from village pastures or town shambles, to gaze at
+the sea, and to taste its contents.  For in those days fish were
+still in their duty, to fry well, to boil well, and to go into the
+mouth well, instead of being dissolute--as nowadays the best is--
+with dirty ice, and flabby with arrested fermentation.  In the
+pleasant dimity-parlour then, commanding a fair view of the lively
+sea and the stream that sparkled into it, were noble dinners of
+sole, and mackerel, and smelt that smelled of cucumber, and dainty
+dory, and pearl-buttoned turbot, and sometimes even the crisp sand-
+lance, happily for himself, unhappily for whitebait, still unknown
+in London.  Then, after long rovings ashore or afloat, these diners
+came back with a new light shed upon them--that of the moon outside
+the house, of the supper candles inside.  There was sure to be a
+crab or lobster ready, and a dish of prawns sprigged with parsley;
+if the sea were beginning to get cool again, a keg of philanthropic
+oysters; or if these were not hospitably on their hinges yet,
+certainly there would be choice-bodied creatures, dried with a dash
+of salt upon the sunny shingle, and lacking of perfection nothing
+more than to be warmed through upon a toasting-fork.
+
+By none, however, of these delights was the newly won lodger
+tempted.  All that he wanted was peace and quiet, time to go
+through a great trunk full of papers and parchments, which he
+brought with him, and a breath of fresh air from the downs on the
+north, and the sea to the south, to enliven him.  And in good truth
+he wanted to be enlivened, as Widow Shanks said to her daughter
+Jenny; for his eyes were gloomy, and his face was stern, and he
+seldom said anything good-natured.  He seemed to avoid all company,
+and to be wrapped up wholly in his own concerns, and to take little
+pleasure in anything.  As yet he had not used the bed at his
+lodgings, nor broken his fast there to her knowledge, though he
+rode down early every morning and put up his horse at Cheeseman's,
+and never rode away again until the dark had fallen.  Neither had
+he cared to make the acquaintance of Captain Stubbarb, who occupied
+the room beneath his for a Royal Office--as the landlady proudly
+entitled it; nor had he received, to the best of her knowledge, so
+much as a single visitor, though such might come by his private
+entrance among the shrubs unnoticed.  All these things stirred with
+deep interest and wonder the enquiring mind of the widow.
+
+"And what do they say of him up at the Hall?" she asked her
+daughter Jenny, who was come to spend holiday at home.  "What do
+they say of my new gentleman, young Squire Carne from the Castle?
+The Carnes and the Darlings was never great friends, as every one
+knows in Springhaven.  Still, it do seem hard and unchristianlike
+to keep up them old enmities; most of all, when the one side is
+down in the world, with the owls and the bats and the coneys."
+
+"No, mother, no.  They are not a bit like that," replied Jenny--a
+maid of good loyalty; "it is only that he has not called upon them.
+All gentlefolks have their proper rules of behaviour.  You can't be
+expected to understand them, mother."
+
+"But why should he go to them more than they should come to him,
+particular with young ladies there?  And him with only one horse to
+their seven or eight.  I am right, you may depend upon it, Jenny;
+and my mother, your grandmother, was a lady's-maid in a higher
+family than Darling--it depends upon them to come and look him up
+first, and he have no call to knock at their door without it.  Why,
+it stands to reason, poor young man!  And not a bit hath he eaten
+from Monday."
+
+"Well, I believe I am right, but I'll ask Miss Dolly.  She is that
+sharp, she knows everything, and I don't mind what I say to her,
+when she thinks that she looks handsome.  And it takes a very bad
+dress, I can tell you, to put her out of that opinion."
+
+"She is right enough there:" Mrs. Shanks shook her head at her
+daughter for speaking in this way.  "The ugliest frock as ever came
+from France couldn't make her any but a booty.  And the Lord knows
+the quality have come to queer shapes now.  Undecent would be the
+name for it in our ranks of women.  Why, the last of her frocks she
+gave you, Jenny, how much did I put on, at top and bottom, and you
+three inches shorter than she is!  And the slips they ties round
+them--oh dear! oh dear! as if that was to hold them up and buckle
+them together!  Won't they have the groanings by the time they come
+to my age?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+FRENCH AND ENGLISH
+
+
+Admiral Darling was now so busy, and so continually called from
+home by the duties of his commandership, that he could not fairly
+be expected to call upon Mr. Caryl Carne.  Yet that gentleman,
+being rather sensitive--which sometimes means very spiteful--
+resented as a personal slight this failure; although, if the
+overture had been made, he would have ascribed it to intrusive
+curiosity, and a low desire to behold him in his ruins.  But truly
+in the old man's kindly heart there was no sour corner for ill
+blood to lurk in, and no dull fibre for ill-will to feed on.  He
+kept on meaning to go and call on Caryl Carne, and he had quite
+made up his mind to do it, but something always happened to prevent
+him.
+
+Neither did he care a groat for his old friend Twemlow's advice
+upon that subject.  "Don't go near him," said the Rector, taking
+care that his wife was quite safe out of hearing; "it would ill
+become me to say a word against my dear wife's own nephew, and the
+representative of her family.  And, to the utmost of my knowledge,
+there is nothing to be said against him.  But I can't get on with
+him at all.  I don't know why.  He has only honored us with a visit
+twice, and he would not even come to dinner.  Nice manners they
+learn on the Continent!  But none of us wept when he declined; not
+even his good aunt, my wife.  Though he must have got a good deal
+to tell us, and an extraordinary knowledge of foreign ways.  But
+instead of doing that, he seems to sneer at us.  I can look at a
+question from every point of view, and I defy anybody to call me
+narrow-minded.  But still, one must draw the line somewhere, or
+throw overboard all principles; and I draw it, my dear Admiral,
+against infidels and against Frenchmen."
+
+"No rational person can do otherwise"--the Admiral's opinion was
+decisive--"but this young man is of good English birth, and one
+can't help feeling sorry for his circumstances.  And I assure you,
+Twemlow, that I feel respect as well for the courage that he shows,
+and the perseverance, in coming home and facing those vile usurers.
+And your own wife's nephew!  Why, you ought to take his part
+through thick and thin, whatever you may think of him.  From all I
+hear he must be a young man of exceedingly high principle; and I
+shall make a point of calling upon him the first half-hour I get to
+spare.  To-morrow, if possible; or if not, the day after, at the
+very latest."
+
+But the needful half-hour had not yet been found; and Carne, who
+was wont to think the worst of everybody, concluded that the
+Darling race still cherished the old grudge, which had always been
+on his own side.  For this he cared little, and perhaps was rather
+glad of it.  For the old dwelling-place of his family (the Carne
+Castle besieged by the Roundheads a hundred and sixty years agone)
+now threatened to tumble about the ears of any one knocking at the
+gate too hard.  Or rather the remnants of its walls did so; the
+greater part, having already fallen, lay harmless, and produced
+fine blackberries.
+
+As a castle, it had been well respected in its day, though not of
+mighty bulwarks or impregnable position.  Standing on a knoll,
+between the ramp of high land and the slope of shore, it would
+still have been conspicuous to traveller and to voyager but for the
+tall trees around it.  These hid the moat, and the relics of the
+drawbridge, the groined archway, and cloven tower of the keep--
+which had twice been struck by lightning--as well as the windows of
+the armoury, and the chapel hushed with ivy.  The banqueting hall
+was in better repair, for the Carnes had been hospitable to the
+last; but the windows kept no wind off, neither did the roof
+repulse the rain.  In short, all the front was in a pretty state of
+ruin, very nice to look at, very nasty to live in, except for
+toads, and bats, and owls, and rats, and efts, and brindled slugs
+with yellow stripes; or on a summer eve the cockroach and the
+carrion-beetle.
+
+At the back, however, and above the road which Cheeseman travelled
+in his pony-chaise, was a range of rooms still fit to dwell in,
+though poorly furnished, and floored with stone.  In better times
+these had been the domain of the house-keeper and the butler, the
+cook and the other upper servants, who had minded their duty and
+heeded their comfort more truly than the master and mistress did.
+For the downfall of this family, as of very many others, had been
+chiefly caused by unwise marriage.  Instead of choosing sensible
+and active wives to look after their home affairs and regulate the
+household, the Carnes for several generations now had wedded
+flighty ladies of good birth and pretty manners, none of whom
+brought them a pipkinful of money, while all helped to spend a
+potful.  Therefore their descendant was now living in the kitchens,
+and had no idea how to make use of them, in spite of his French
+education; of comfort also he had not much idea, which was all the
+better for him; and he scarcely knew what it was to earn and enjoy
+soft quietude.
+
+One night, when the summer was in full prime, and the weather
+almost blameless, this young Squire Carne rode slowly back from
+Springhaven to his worn-out castle.  The beauty of the night had
+kept him back, for he hated to meet people on the road.  The
+lingering gossips, the tired fagot-bearers, the youths going home
+from the hay-rick, the man with a gun who knows where the hares
+play, and beyond them all the truant sweethearts, who cannot have
+enough of one another, and wish "good-night" at every corner of the
+lane, till they tumble over one another's cottage steps--all these
+to Caryl Carne were a smell to be avoided, an eyesore to shut the
+eyes at.  He let them get home and pull their boots off, and set
+the frying-pan a-bubbling--for they ended the day with a bit of
+bacon, whenever they could cash or credit it--and then he set forth
+upon his lonely ride, striking fear into the heart of any bad child
+that lay awake.
+
+"Almost as good as France is this," he muttered in French, though
+for once enjoying the pleasure of good English air; "and better
+than France would it be, if only it were not cut short so suddenly.
+There will come a cold wind by-and-by, or a chilly black cloud from
+the east, and then all is shivers and rawness.  But if it only
+remained like this, I could forgive it for producing me.  After
+all, it is my native land; and I saw the loveliest girl to-day that
+ever I set eyes on.  None of their made-up and highly finished
+demoiselles is fit to look at her--such simple beauty, such charms
+of nature, such enchanting innocence!  Ah, that is where those
+French girls fail--they are always studying how they look, instead
+of leaving us to think of it.  Bah!  What odds to me?  I have
+higher stakes to play for.  But according to old Twemlow's
+description, she must be the daughter of that old bear Darling,
+with whom I shall have to pick a bone some day.  Ha!  How amusing
+is that battery to me!  How little John Bull knows the nature of
+French troops!  To-morrow we are to have a grand practice-day; and
+I hope they won't shoot me in my new lodgings.  Nothing is
+impossible to such an idiot as Stubbard.  What a set of imbeciles I
+have found to do with!  They have scarcely wit enough to amuse
+oneself with.  Pest of my soul!  Is that you, Charron?  Again you
+have broken my orders."
+
+"Names should be avoided in the open air," answered the man, who
+was swinging on a gate with the simple delight of a Picard.  "The
+climate is of France so much to-night that I found it my duty to
+encourage it.  For what reason shall not I do that?  It is not so
+often that I have occasion.  My dear friend, scold not, but accept
+the compliment very seldom truthful to your native land.  There are
+none of your clod-pates about to-night."
+
+"Come in at once.  The mere sound of your breath is enough to set
+the neighbourhood wondering.  Could I ever have been burdened with
+a more French Frenchman, though you speak as good English as I do?"
+
+"It was all of that miserable Cheray," the French gentleman said,
+when they sat in the kitchen, and Jerry Bowles was feeding the fine
+black horse.  "Fruit is a thing that my mouth prepares for,
+directly there is any warmth in the sun.  It puts itself up, it is
+elevated, it will not have meat, or any substance coarse.  Wine of
+the softest and fruit of the finest is what it must then have, or
+unmouth itself.  That miserable Cheray, his maledictioned name put
+me forth to be on fire for the good thing he designs.  Cherays you
+call them, and for cherays I despatched him, suspended between the
+leaves in the good sun.  Bah! there is nothing ever fit to eat in
+England.  The cherays look very fine, very fine indeed; and so many
+did I consume that to travel on a gate was the only palliation.
+Would you have me stay all day in this long cellar?  No diversion,
+no solace, no change, no conversation!  Old Cheray may sit with his
+hands upon his knees, but to Renaud Charron that is not sufficient.
+How much longer before I sally forth to do the things, to fight, to
+conquer the nations?  Where is even my little ship of despatch?"
+
+"Captain," answered Caryl Carne, preparing calmly for his frugal
+supper, "you are placed under my command, and another such speech
+will despatch you to Dunkirk, bound hand and foot, in the hold of
+the Little Corporal, with which I am now in communication.  Unless
+by the time I have severed this bone you hand me your sword in
+submission, my supper will have to be postponed, while I march you
+to the yew-tree, signal for a boat, and lay you strapped beneath
+the oarsmen."
+
+Captain Charron, who had held the command of a French corvette,
+stared furiously at this man, younger than himself, so strongly
+established over him.  Carne was not concerned to look at him; all
+he cared about was to divide the joint of a wing-rib of cold roast
+beef, where some good pickings lurked in the hollow.  Then the
+French man, whose chance would have been very small in a personal
+encounter with his chief, arose and took a naval sword, short but
+rather heavy, from a hook which in better days had held a big dish-
+cover, and making a salute rather graceful than gracious, presented
+the fringed handle to the carver.
+
+"This behaviour is sensible, my friend, and worthy of your
+distinguished abilities."  Carne's resolute face seldom yielded to
+a smile, but the smile when it came was a sweet one.  "Pardon me
+for speaking strongly, but my instructions must be the law to you.
+If you were my commander (as, but for local knowledge, and
+questions of position here, you would be), do you think then that
+you would allow me to rebel, to grumble, to wander, to demand my
+own pleasure, when you knew that it would ruin things?"
+
+"Bravo!  It is well spoken.  My captain, I embrace you.  In you
+lives the spirit of the Grand Army, which we of the sea and of the
+ships admire always, and always desire to emulate.  Ah, if England
+possessed many Englishmen like you, she would be hard to conquer."
+
+The owner of this old English castle shot a glance at the Frenchman
+for any sign of irony in his words.  Seeing none, he continued, in
+the friendly vein:
+
+"Our business here demands the greatest caution, skill, reserve,
+and self-denial.  We are fortunate in having no man of any keen
+penetration in the neighbourhood, at least of those in authority
+and concerned with public matters.  As one of an ancient family,
+possessing the land for centuries, I have every right to be here,
+and to pursue my private business in privacy.  But if it once gets
+talked about that a French officer is with me, these stupid people
+will awake their suspicions more strongly by their own stupidity.
+In this queer island you may do what you like till the neighbourhood
+turns against you; and then, if you revolve upon a pin, you cannot
+suit them.  You understand?  You have heard me before.  It is this
+that I never can knock into you."
+
+Renaud Charron, who considered himself--as all Frenchmen did then,
+and perhaps do now--far swifter of intellect than any Englishman,
+found himself not well pleased at this, and desired to know more
+about it.
+
+"Nothing can be simpler," the Englishman replied; "and therefore
+nothing surer.  You know the old proverb--'Everything in turn,
+except scandal, whose turn is always.'  And again another saying of
+our own land--'The second side of the bread takes less time to
+toast.'  We must not let the first side of ours be toasted; we will
+shun all the fire of suspicion.  And to do this, you must not be
+seen, my dear friend.  I may go abroad freely; you must hide your
+gallant head until matters are ripe for action.  You know that you
+may trust me not to keep you in the dark a day longer than is
+needful.  I have got the old shopkeeper under my thumb, and can do
+what I please with his trading-ship.  But before I place you in
+command I must change some more of the crew, and do it warily.
+There is an obstinate Cornishman to get rid of, who sticks to the
+planks like a limpet.  If we throw him overboard, we shall alarm
+the others; if we discharge him without showing cause, he will go
+to the old Admiral and tell all his suspicions.  He must be got rid
+of in London with skill, and then we ship three or four Americans,
+first-rate seamen, afraid of nothing, who will pass here as fellows
+from Lancashire.  After that we may run among the cruisers as we
+like, with the boldness and skill of a certain Captain Charron, who
+must be ill in his cabin when his ship is boarded."
+
+"It is famous, it is very good, my friend.  The patience I will
+have, and the obedience, and the courage; and so much the more
+readily because my pay is good, and keeps itself going on dry land
+as well as sea."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+IN THE LINE OF FIRE
+
+
+No wonder there had been a great deal of talking in the village all
+that evening, for the following notice had appeared in a dozen
+conspicuous places, beginning with the gate of the church-yard, and
+ending with two of the biggest mooring-posts, and not even sparing
+the Admiral's white gate, where it flapped between the two upper
+rails.  It was not printed, but written in round hand, with a
+liberal supply of capitals, on a stiff sheet of official paper,
+stamped with the Royal Arms at the top.  And those who were in the
+secret knew that Master Bob Stubbard, the Captain's eldest son, had
+accomplished this great literary feat at a guerdon of one shilling
+from the public service funds every time he sucked his pen at the
+end of it.
+
+
+"By order of His Majesty King George III.  To-morrow being
+Wednesday, and the fishing-boats at sea, Artillery practice from
+Fox-hill fort will be carried on from twelve at noon until three
+P.M. at a mark-boat moored half a mile from the shore.  Therefore
+His Majesty's loyal subjects are warned to avoid the beach westward
+of the brook between the white flagstaffs, as well as the sea in
+front of it, and not to cross the line of fire below the village
+but at their own risk and peril.
+
+"(Signed) ADAM JACKSON STUBBARD, R.N., commanding Fox-hill
+Battery."
+
+
+Some indignation was aroused by this; for Mrs. Caper junior (who
+was Mrs. Prater's cousin) had been confined, out of proper
+calculation, and for the very first time, the moment the boats were
+gone on Monday; and her house, being nearest to the fort, and in a
+hollow where the noise would be certain to keep going round and
+round, the effect upon her head, not to mention the dear baby's,
+was more than any one dared to think of, with the poor father so
+far away.  And if Squire Darling had only been at home, not a woman
+who could walk would have thought twice about it, but gone all
+together to insist upon it that he should stop this wicked
+bombardment.  And this was most unselfish of all of them, they were
+sure, because they had so long looked forward to putting cotton-
+wool in their ears, and seeing how all the enemies of England would
+be demolished.  But Mrs. Caper junior, and Caper, natu minimus,
+fell fast asleep together, as things turned out, and heard not a
+single bang of it.
+
+And so it turned out, in another line of life, with things against
+all calculation, resenting to be reckoned as they always do, like
+the countless children of Israel.  For Admiral Darling was gone far
+away inspecting, leaving his daughters to inspect themselves.
+
+"You may just say exactly what you consider right, dear," said Miss
+Dolly Darling to her sister Faith; "and I dare say it makes you
+more comfortable.  But you know as well as I do, that there is no
+reason in it.  Father is a darling; but he must be wrong sometimes.
+And how can he tell whether he is wrong or right, when he goes away
+fifty miles to attend to other people?  Of course I would never
+disobey his orders, anymore than you would.  But facts change
+according to circumstances, and I feel convinced that if he were
+here he would say, 'Go down and see it, Dolly.'"
+
+"We have no right to speculate as to what he might say," replied
+Faith, who was very clear-headed.  "His orders were definite:
+'Keep within the grounds, when notice is given of artillery
+practice.'  And those orders I mean to obey."
+
+"And so do I; but not to misunderstand them.  The beach is a part
+of our grounds, as I have heard him say fifty times in argument,
+when people tried to come encroaching.  And I mean to go on that
+part of his grounds, because I can't see well from the other part.
+That is clearly what he meant; and he would laugh at us, if we
+could tell him nothing when he comes home.  Why, he promised to
+take us as far as Portsmouth to see some artillery practice."
+
+"That is a different thing altogether, because we should be under
+his control.  If you disobey him, it is at your own risk, and I
+shall not let one of the servants go with you, for I am mistress of
+the household, if not of you."
+
+"What trumpery airs you do give yourself!  One would think you were
+fifty years old at least.  Stay at home, if you are such a coward!
+I am sure dear daddy would be quite ashamed of you.  They are
+popping already, and I mean to watch them."
+
+"You won't go so very far, I am quite sure of that," answered
+Faith, who understood her sister.  "You know your own value,
+darling Dolly, and you would not go at all, if you had not been
+forbidden."
+
+"When people talk like that, it goads me up to almost anything.  I
+intend to go, and stand, as near as can be, in the middle of the
+space that is marked off 'dangerous.'"
+
+"Do, that's a dear.  I will lend you my shell-silk that measures
+twenty yards, that you may be sure of being hit, dear."
+
+"Inhuman, selfish, wicked creature!" cried Dolly, and it was almost
+crying; "you shall see what comes of your cold-bloodedness!  I
+shall pace to and fro in the direct line of fire, and hang on my
+back the king's proclamation, inside out, and written on it in
+large letters--'By order of my sister I do this.'  Then what will
+be said of you, if they only kill me?  My feelings might be very
+sad, but I should not envy yours, Faith."
+
+"Kiss me, at any rate, before you perish, in token of forgiveness;"
+and Dolly (who dearly loved her sister at the keenest height of
+rebellion) ran up and kissed Faith, with a smile for her, and a
+tear for her own self-sacrifice.  "I shall put on my shell-pink,"
+she said, "and they won't have the heart to fire shells at it."
+
+The dress of the ladies of the present passing period had been
+largely affected by the recent peace, which allowed the "French
+babies"--as the milliners' dolls were called--to come in as quickly
+as they were conceived.  In war time scores of these "doxy-
+dummies"--as the rough tars called them--were tossed overboard from
+captured vessels or set up as a mark for tobacco-juice, while sweet
+eyes in London wept for want of them.  And even Mr. Cheeseman had
+failed to bring any type genuinely French from the wholesale house
+in St. Mary's Axe, which was famed for canonical issue.  But
+blessed are the patient, if their patience lasts long enough.  The
+ladies of England were now in full enjoyment of all the new French
+discoveries, which proved to be the right name, inasmuch as they
+banished all reputable forms of covering.  At least, so Mrs.
+Twemlow said; and the Rector went further than she did, obtaining
+for his sympathy a recommendation to attend to his own business.
+But when he showed the Admiral his wife's last book of patterns--
+from a drawer which he had no right to go to--great laughter was
+held between the twain, with some glancing over shoulders, and much
+dread of bad example.  "Whatever you do, don't let my girls see it;
+I'll be bound you won't let your Eliza," said the Admiral, after a
+pinch of snuff to restore the true balance of his principles;
+"Faith would pitch it straight into the fire; but I am not quite so
+sure that my Dolly would.  She loves a bit of finery, and she looks
+well in it."
+
+"Tonnish females," as the magazine of fashion called the higher
+class of popinjays, would have stared with contempt at both Faith
+and Dolly Darling in their simple walking-dress that day.  Dowdies
+would have been the name for them, or frumps, or frights, or
+country gawks, because their attire was not statuesque or classic,
+as it should have been, which means that they were not half naked.
+
+Faith, the eldest sister, had meant to let young Dolly take the
+course of her own stubbornness; but no sooner did she see her go
+forth alone than she threw on cloak and hat, and followed.  The day
+was unsuited for classic apparel, as English days are apt to be,
+and a lady of fashion would have looked more foolish, and even more
+indecent, than usual.  A brisk and rather crisp east wind had
+arisen, which had no respect for persons, and even Faith and Dolly
+in their high-necked country dresses had to handle their tackle
+warily.
+
+Dolly had a good start, and growing much excited with the petulance
+of the wind and with her own audacity, crossed the mouth of the
+brook at a very fine pace, with the easterly gusts to second her.
+She could see the little mark-boat well out in the offing, with a
+red flag flaring merrily, defying all the efforts of the gunners on
+the hill to plunge it into the bright dance of the waves.  And now
+and then she heard what she knew to be the rush of a round shot far
+above her head, and following the sound saw a little silver
+fountain leap up into the sunshine and skim before the breeze; then
+glancing up the hill she saw the gray puff drifting, and presently
+felt the dull rumble of the air.  At the root of the smoke-puffs,
+once or twice, she descried a stocky figure moving leisurely, and
+in spite of the distance and huddle of vapour could declare that it
+was Captain Stubbard.  Then a dense mass of smoke was brought down
+by an eddy of wind, and set her coughing.
+
+"Come away, come away this very moment, Dolly," cried Faith, who
+had hurried up and seized her hand; "you are past the danger-post,
+and I met a man back there who says they are going to fire shells,
+and they have got two short guns on purpose.  He says it will be
+very dangerous till they get the range, and he begged me most
+earnestly not to come on here.  If I were anybody else, he said, he
+would lay hands on me and hold me back."
+
+"Some old fisherman, no doubt.  What do they know about gun
+practice?  I can see Captain Stubbard up there; he would rather
+shoot himself than me, he said yesterday."
+
+While Dolly was repeating this assurance, the following words were
+being exchanged upon the smoky parapet:  "If you please, sir, I can
+see two women on the beach, half-way between the posts a'most."
+"Can't help it--wouldn't stop for all the petticoats in the
+kingdom.  If they choose to go there, they must take their chance.
+A bit more up, and to you, my good man.  Are you sure you put in
+twenty-three?  Steady! so, so--that's beautiful."
+
+"What a noisy thing!  What does it come here for?  I never saw it
+fall.  There must be some mistake.  I hope there's nothing nasty
+inside it.  Run for your life, Faith; it means to burst, I do
+believe."
+
+"Down on your faces!" cried a loud, stern voice; and Dolly obeyed
+in an instant.  But Faith stood calmly, and said to the man who
+rushed past her, "I trust in the Lord, sir."
+
+There was no time to answer.  The shell had left off rolling, and
+sputtered more fiercely as the fuse thickened.  The man laid hold
+of this, and tried to pull it out, but could not, and jumped with
+both feet on it; while Faith, who quite expected to be blown to
+pieces, said to herself, "What pretty boots he has!"
+
+"A fine bit of gunnery!" said the young man, stooping over it,
+after treading the last spark into the springy sand.  "The little
+artillery man is wanted here.  Ladies, you may safely stay here
+now.  They will not make two hits in proximity to each other."
+
+"You shall not go," said Faith, as he was hurrying away, "until we
+know who has been so reckless of his life, to save the lives of
+others.  Both your hands are burned--very seriously, I fear."
+
+"And your clothes, sir," cried Dolly, running up in hot terror, as
+soon as the danger was over; "your clothes are spoiled sadly.  Oh,
+how good it was of you!  And the whole fault was mine--or at least
+Captain Stubbard's.  He will never dare to face me again, I should
+hope."
+
+"Young ladies, if I have been of any service to you," said the
+stranger, with a smile at their excitement, "I beg you to be silent
+to the Captain Stubbard concerning my share in this occasion.  He
+would not be gratified by the interest I feel in his beautiful
+little bombardments, especially that of fair ladies.  Ha, there
+goes another shell!  They will make better aim now; but you must
+not delay.  I beseech you to hasten home, if you would do me
+kindness."
+
+The fair daughters of the Admiral had enjoyed enough of warfare to
+last them till the end of their honeymoon, and they could not
+reject the entreaty of a man who had risked his life to save them.
+Trembling and bewildered, they made off at the quickest step
+permitted by maiden dignity, with one or two kindly turns of neck,
+to show that he was meant to follow them.  But another sulphurous
+cloud rushed down from the indefatigable Stubbard, and when it had
+passed them, they looked back vainly for the gentleman who had
+spoiled his boots.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+AMONG THE LADIES
+
+
+It would have surprised the stout Captain Stubbard, who thought no
+small beer of his gunnery, to hear that it was held in very light
+esteem by the "Frenchified young man overhead," as he called Caryl
+Carne, to his landlady.  And it would have amazed him to learn that
+this young man was a captain of artillery, in the grand army
+mustering across the sea, and one of the most able among plenty of
+ability, and favoured by the great First Consul.
+
+In the gully where the Tugwell boats were built, behind a fringe of
+rough longshore growth, young Carne had been sitting with a good
+field-glass, observing the practice of the battery.  He had also
+been able to observe unseen the disobedient practices of young
+ladies, when their father is widely out of sight.  Upon Faith,
+however, no blame could fall, for she went against her wish, and
+only to retrieve the rebellious Dolly.
+
+Secure from the danger, these two held council in the comfort of
+the Admiral's Round-house.  There Miss Dolly, who considered it her
+domain, kept sundry snug appliances congenial to young ladies, for
+removing all traces of sudden excitement, and making them fit to be
+seen again.  Simple and unfashionable as they were in dress, they
+were sure to have something to do to themselves after the late
+derangement, ere ever they could run the risk of meeting any of the
+brave young officers, who were so mysteriously fond of coming for
+orders to Springhaven Hall.
+
+"You look well enough, dear," said Faith at last, "and much better
+than you deserve to look, after leading me such a dance by your
+self-will.  But one thing must be settled before we go back--are we
+to speak of this matter, or not?"
+
+"How can you ask such a question, Faith?"  Miss Dolly loved a bit
+of secrecy.  "Of course we must rather bite our tongues out, than
+break the solemn pledges which we have given."  She had cried a
+good deal, and she began to cry again.
+
+"Don't cry, that's a darling," said the simple-hearted sister.
+"You make the whole world seem so cruel when you cry, because you
+look so innocent.  It shall be as you please, if I can only think
+it right.  But I cannot see how we gave a pledge of any sort,
+considering that we ran away without speaking.  The question is--
+have we any right to conceal it, when father has a right to know
+everything?"
+
+"He would be in such a sad passion," pleaded Dolly, with a stock of
+fresh tears only waiting, "and he never would look again at poor
+Captain Stubbard, and what would become of all his family?"
+
+"Father is a just and conscientious man," replied the daughter who
+inherited those qualities; "he would not blame Captain Stubbard; he
+would blame us, and no others."
+
+"Oh, I could not bear to hear you blamed, Faith.  I should have to
+say that it was all my fault.  And then how I should catch it, and
+be punished for a month!  Confined to the grounds for a month at
+least, and never have a bit of appetite.  But I am not thinking of
+myself, I am quite sure of that.  You know that I never do that
+much.  I am thinking of that heroic gentleman, who stamped out the
+sparks so cleverly.  All the time I lay on the sand I watched him,
+though I expected to be blown to pieces every single moment.  Oh!
+what a nasty sensation it was!  I expected to find all my hair
+turned grey.  But, thank Heaven, I don't see a streak in it!"  To
+make sure of that, she went to the glass again.
+
+"If all mine had turned grey, 'twould be no odds to nobody--as
+Captain Zeb says about his income--because I am intended for an old
+maid."  Miss Darling, whose beauty still lacked many years of its
+prime, turned away for a moment, because her eyes were glistening,
+and her sister was tired of the subject.  "But for yours there are
+fifty to weep, Dolly.  Especially perhaps this young gentleman,
+towards whom you feel so much gratitude."
+
+"How unkind you are, Faith!  All the gratitude I owe him is for
+saving your life.  As for myself, I was flat upon the sand, with a
+heap of sea-weed between me and the thing.  If it had gone off, it
+would have gone over me; but you chose to stand up, like a stupid.
+Your life was saved, beyond all doubt, by him; and the way you
+acknowledge it is to go and tell his chief enemy that he was there
+observing him!"
+
+"Well, I never!" Faith exclaimed, with more vigour than grace of
+language.  "A minute ago you knew nothing of him, and even wondered
+who he was, and now you know all about his enemies!  I am afraid
+that you stick at nothing."
+
+"I don't stick thinking, as you do, Miss," Dolly answered, without
+abashment, and knowing that the elder hated to be so addressed;
+"but things come to me by the light of nature, without a
+twelvemonth of brown-study.  When I said what you remind me of, in
+such a hurry, it was perfectly true--so true that you need have no
+trouble about it, with all your truth.  But since that, a sudden
+idea flashed across me, the sort of idea that proves itself.  Your
+hero you are in such a hurry to betray can be nobody but the
+mysterious lodger in Widow Shanks' dimity-parlour, as she calls it;
+and Jenny has told me all she knows about him, which is a great
+deal less than she ought to know.  I meant to have told you, but
+you are so grand in your lofty contempt of what you call gossip,
+but which I call good neighbourly intercourse!  You know that he is
+Mr. Caryl Carne, of course.  Everybody knows that, and there the
+knowledge seems to terminate.  Even the Twemlows, his own aunt and
+uncle, are scarcely ever favoured with his company; and I, who am
+always on the beach, or in the village, have never had the honour
+of beholding him, until--until it came to this"--here she imitated
+with her lips the spluttering of the fuse so well that her sister
+could not keep from laughing.  "He never goes out, and he never
+asks questions, any more than he answers them, and he never cares
+to hear what fish they have caught, or anything else, about
+anybody.  He never eats or drinks, and he never says a word about
+the flowers they put upon his table; and what he does all day long
+nobody knows, except that he has a lot of books with him.  Widow
+Shanks, who has the best right to know all about him, has made up
+her mind that his head has been turned by the troubles of his
+family, except for his going without dinner, which no lunatic ever
+does, according to her knowledge.  And he seems to have got 'Butter
+Cheeseman,' as they call him, entirely at his beck and call.  He
+leaves his black horse there every morning, and rides home at night
+to his ancestral ruins.  There, now, you know as much as I do."
+
+"There is mischief at the bottom of all this," said Faith; "in
+these dangerous times, it must not be neglected.  We are bound, as
+you say, to consider his wishes, after all that he has done for us.
+But the tale about us will be over the place in a few hours, at the
+latest.  The gunners will have known where their bad shot fell, and
+perhaps they will have seen us with their glasses.  How will it be
+possible to keep this affair from gossip?"
+
+"They may have seen us, without seeing him at all, on account of
+the smoke that came afterwards.  At any rate, let us say nothing
+about it until we hear what other people say.  The shell will be
+washed away or buried in the sand, for it fell upon the shingle,
+and then rolled towards the sea; and there need be no fuss unless
+we choose to make it, and so perhaps ruin Captain Stubbard and his
+family.  And his wife has made such pretty things for us.  If he
+knew what he had done, he would go and shoot himself.  He is so
+excessively humane and kind."
+
+"We will not urge his humanity to that extreme.  I hate all
+mystery, as you know well.  But about this affair I will say
+nothing, unless there is cause to do so, at least until father
+comes back; and then I shall tell him if it seems to be my duty."
+
+"It won't be your duty, it can't be your duty, to get good people
+into trouble, Faith.  I find it my duty to keep out of trouble, and
+I like to treat others the same as myself."
+
+"You are such a lover of duty, dear Dolly, because everything you
+like becomes your duty.  And now your next duty is to your dinner.
+Mrs. Twemlow is coming--I forgot to tell you--as well as Eliza, and
+Mrs. Stubbard.  And if Johnny comes home in time from Harrow, to be
+Jack among the ladies, we shall hear some wonders, you may be quite
+sure."
+
+"Oh, I vow, I forgot all about that wicked Johnny.  What a blessing
+that he was not here just now!  It is my black Monday when his
+holidays begin.  Instead of getting steadier, he grows more
+plaguesome.  And the wonder of it is that he would tie your kid
+shoes; while he pulls out my jaconet, and sits on my French hat.
+How I wish he was old enough for his commission!  To-morrow he will
+be dancing in and out of every cottage, boat, or gun, or rabbit-
+hole, and nothing shall be hidden from his eyes and ears.  Let him
+come.  'I am accustomed to have all things go awry,' as somebody
+says in some tragedy.  The only chance is to make him fall in love,
+deeply in love, with Miss Stubbard.  He did it with somebody for
+his Easter week, and became as harmless as a sucking dove, till he
+found his nymph eating onions raw with a pocketful of boiled
+limpets.  Maggie Stubbard is too perfect in her style for that.
+She is twelve years old, and has lots of hair, and eyes as large as
+oysters.  I shall introduce Johnny to-morrow, and hope to keep him
+melancholy all his holidays."
+
+"Perhaps it will be for his good," said Faith, "because, without
+some high ideas, he gets into such dreadful scrapes; and certainly
+it will be for our good."
+
+After making light of young love thus, these girls deserved the
+shafts of Cupid, in addition to Captain Stubbard's shells.  And it
+would have been hard to find fairer marks when they came down
+dressed for dinner.  Mrs. Twemlow arrived with her daughter Eliza,
+but without her husband, who was to fetch her in the evening; and
+Mrs. Stubbard came quite alone, for her walkable children--as she
+called them--were all up at the battery.  "Can't smell powder too
+young in such days as these," was the Captain's utterance; and,
+sure enough, they took to it, like sons of guns.
+
+"I should be so frightened," Mrs. Twemlow said, when Johnny (who
+sat at the foot of the table representing his father most
+gallantly) had said grace in Latin, to astonish their weak minds,
+"so nervous all the time, so excessively anxious, the whole time
+that dreadful din was proceeding!  It is over now, thank goodness!
+But how can you have endured it, how can you have gone about your
+household duties calmly, with seven of your children--I think you
+said--going about in that fiery furnace?"
+
+"Because, ma'am," replied Mrs. Stubbard, who was dry of speech, and
+fit mother of heroes, "the cannons are so made, if you can
+understand, that they do not shoot out of their back ends."
+
+"We are quite aware of that"--Miss Twemlow came to her mother's
+relief very sharply--"but still they are apt to burst, or to be
+overloaded, or badly directed, or even to fly back suddenly, as I
+have heard on good authority."
+
+"Very likely, miss, when they are commanded by young women."
+
+Eliza Twemlow coloured, for she was rather quick of temper; but she
+did not condescend to pay rudeness in kind.
+
+"It would hardly be a lady-like position, I suppose," she answered,
+with a curve of her graceful neck--the Carnes had been celebrated
+for their necks, which were longer than those of the Darlings; "but
+even under the command of a most skilful man, for instance Captain
+Stubbard, little accidents will happen, like the fall of a shell
+upon the beach this afternoon.  Some people were close to it,
+according to the rumour; but luckily it did not explode."
+
+"How providential!" cried Mrs. Twemlow; "but the stupid people
+would have gone without much pity, whatever had befallen them,
+unless they were blind, or too ignorant to read.  Don't you think
+so, Faith, my dear?"
+
+"I don't believe a single word of that story," Mrs. Stubbard cut
+short the question; "for the simple reason that it never could have
+happened.  My husband was to direct every gun himself.  Is it
+likely he would have shelled the beach?"
+
+"Well, the beach is the proper place for shells; but if I had only
+known it, wouldn't I have come a few hours earlier?" said Johnny.
+"Even now there must be something left to see; and I am bound to
+understand that sort of thing.  Ladies, I entreat you not to think
+me rude, if I go as soon as ever you can do without me.  I think I
+have got you nearly everything you want; and perhaps you would
+rather be without me."
+
+With many thanks and compliments--such a pretty boy he was--the
+ladies released him gladly; and then Mrs. Twemlow, having reasons
+of her own, drew nigh to Mrs. Stubbard with lively interest in her
+children.  At first, she received short answers only; for the
+Captain's wife had drawn more sour juices than sweet uses from
+adversity.  But the wife of the man of peace outflanked the better
+half of the man of war, drove in her outposts, and secured the key
+of all her communications.
+
+"I can scarcely believe that you are so kind.  My dear Mrs.
+Twemlow, how good you are!  My Bob is a nice boy, so manly and
+clever, so gentle and well-behaved, even when he knows that I am
+not likely to find him out.  But that you should have noticed it,
+is what surprises me--so few people now know the difference!  But
+in the House of God--as you so well observe--you can very soon see
+what a boy is.  When I tell him that he may ride your grey pony, I
+wish you could be there to watch the fine expression of his face.
+How he does love dumb animals!  It was only last Saturday, he
+knocked down a boy nearly three times his own size for poking a pin
+into a poor donkey with the fish.  And Maggie to have a flower-bed
+on your front lawn!  They won't let her touch a plant, at our
+cottage, though she understands gardening so thoroughly.  She won't
+sleep a wink to-night, if I tell her, and I had better keep that
+for the morning.  Poor children!  They have had a hard time of it;
+but they have come out like pure gold from the fire--I mean as many
+of them as can use their legs.  But to be on horseback--what will
+Bob say?"
+
+"You must have met with very little kindness, Mrs. Stubbard, to
+attach any importance to such mere trifles.  It makes me blush to
+think that there can be a spot in England where such children as
+yours could pass unnoticed.  It is not a question of religious
+feeling only.  Far from it; in fact, quite the opposite; though my
+husband, of course, is quite right in insisting that all our
+opinions and actions must be referred to that one standard.  But I
+look at things also from a motherly point of view, because I have
+suffered such sad trials.  Three dear ones in the churchyard, and
+the dearest of all--the Almighty only knows where he is.  Sometimes
+it is more than I can bear, to live on in this dark and most
+dreadful uncertainty.  My medical man has forbidden me to speak of
+it.  But how can he know what it is to be a mother?  But hush!  Or
+darling Faith may hear me.  Sometimes I lose all self-command."
+
+Mrs. Twemlow's eyes were in need of wiping, and stout Mrs.
+Stubbard's in the same condition.  "How I wish I could help you,"
+said the latter, softly: "is there anything in the world that I can
+do?"
+
+"No, my dear friend; I wish there was, for I'm sure that it would
+be a pleasure to you.  But another anxiety, though far less
+painful, is worrying me as well just now.  My poor brother's son is
+behaving most strangely.  He hardly ever comes near us, and he
+seems to dislike my dear husband.  He has taken rooms over your
+brave husband's Office, and he comes and goes very mysteriously.
+It is my duty to know something about this; but I dare not ask
+Captain Stubbard."
+
+"My dear Mrs. Twemlow, it has puzzled me too.  But thinking that
+you knew all about it, I concluded that everything must be quite
+right.  What you tell me has surprised me more than I can tell.  I
+shall go to work quietly to find out all about it.  Mystery and
+secrecy are such hateful things; and a woman is always the best
+hand at either."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+A GRACIOUS MERCY
+
+
+As a matter of course, every gunner at the fort was ready to make
+oath by every colour of the rainbow, that never shot, shell, wad,
+sponge, or even powder-flake could by any possibility have fallen
+on the beach.  And before they had time to grow much more than
+doubly positive--that is to say, within three days' time--the sound
+of guns fired in earnest drowned all questions of bad practice.
+
+For the following Sunday beheld Springhaven in a state of
+excitement beyond the memory of the very oldest inhabitant, or the
+imagination of the youngest.  Excitement is a crop that, to be
+large, must grow--though it thrives all the better without much
+root--and in this particular field it began to grow before noon of
+Saturday.  For the men who were too old to go to sea, and the boys
+who were too young, and the women who were never of the proper age,
+all these kept looking from the best lookouts, but nothing could
+they see to enable them to say when the kettle, or the frying-pan,
+or gridiron, would be wanted.  They rubbed their eyes grievously,
+and spun round three times, if time had brought or left them the
+power so to spin; and they pulled an Irish halfpenny, with the harp
+on, from their pockets, and moistened it with saliva--which in
+English means spat on it--and then threw it into the pocket on the
+other side of body.  But none of these accredited appeals to heaven
+put a speck upon the sea where the boats ought to have been, or
+cast upon the clouds a shade of any sail approaching.  Uneasily
+wondering, the grannies, wives, and little ones went home, when the
+nightfall quenched all eyesight, and told one another ancient tales
+of woe.
+
+Yet there is a salve for every sore, a bung for every bunghole.
+Upon the Sunday morning, when the tide was coming in, and a golden
+haze hung upon the peaceful sea, and the seven bells of the old
+grey church were speaking of the service cheerfully, suddenly a
+deep boom moved the bosom of distance, and palpitated all along the
+shore.  Six or seven hale old gaffers (not too stiff to walk, with
+the help of a staff, a little further than the rest) were coming to
+hear parson by the path below the warren, where a smack of salt
+would season them for doctrine.  They knew from long experience,
+the grandmother of science, that the mist of the sea, coming on at
+breakfast-time, in the month of August (with the wind where it was
+and the tides as they were), would be sure to hold fast until
+dinner-time.  Else, good as they were, and preparing punctually
+once a week for a better world, the hind buttons of their Sunday
+coats would have been towards the church, and the front ones to the
+headland.  For the bodies of their sons were dearer to them,
+substantially dearer, than their own old souls.
+
+They were all beginning to be deaf, or rather going on with it very
+agreeably, losing thereby a great deal of disturbance, and gaining
+great room for reflection.  And now when the sound of a gun from
+the sea hung shaking in the web of vapour, each of these wise men
+gazed steadfastly at the rest, to see his own conclusion reflected,
+or concluded.  A gun it was indeed--a big well-shotted gun, and no
+deafness could throw any doubt on it.  There might not be anything
+to see, but still there would be plenty to hear at the headland--a
+sound more arousing than the parson's voice, a roar beyond that of
+all the gallery.  "'Tis a battle!" said one, and his neighbour
+cried, "A rare one!"  They turned to the parish church the quarters
+of farewell, and those of salutation to the battle out at sea.
+
+It was all over the village, in the time it takes to put a hat on,
+that the British and the French fleets were hammer and tongs at it,
+within the distance you may throw an apple off Springhaven
+headland.
+
+Even the young women knew that this was quite impossible, because
+there was no water there for a collier-brig to anchor; nevertheless,
+in the hurry and scare, the thoughts of that new battery and Lord
+Nelson, and above all in the fog, they believed it.  So that there
+was scarcely any room to stand, at the Watch-point, inside the
+Shag-rock; while in church there was no one who could help being
+there, by force of holy office, or example.
+
+These latter were not in a devout frame of mind, and (but for the
+look of it) would have done more good by joining the other
+congregation.  For the sound of cannon-shot came into their ears,
+like balls of unadulterated pepper, and every report made them look
+at one another, and whisper--"Ah! there goes some poor fellow's
+head."  For the sacred building was constructed so that the sounds
+outside of it had more power than the good things offered in the
+inside.
+
+However, as many, or as few, as did their duty, by joining the good
+company of the minister, found themselves all the better for it,
+and more fresh for a start than the runagates.  Inasmuch as these
+latter had nearly got enough of listening without seeing anything,
+while the steady church-goers had refreshed the entire system by
+looking about without listening.  And to show the truant people
+where their duty should have bound them, the haze had been
+thickening all over the sea, while the sun kept the time on the old
+church dial.  This was spoken of for many years, throughout the
+village, as a Scriptural token of the proper thing to do.
+
+"Well, and what have 'e seen?" asked the senior church-warden--not
+Cheeseman, who was only the junior, and had neither been at church
+nor on the headland--but Farmer Graves, the tenant of the Glebe and
+of Up-farm, the Admiral's best holding; "what have 'e seen, good
+people all, to leave parson to prache to hisself a'most a sarmon as
+he's hathn't prached for five year, to my knowledge?  Have 'e seen
+fat bulls of Basan?"
+
+"Naw; but us have heer'd un roar," replied one who was sure to say
+something.  "Wust of it is, there be no making out what language un
+do roar in."
+
+"One Englishman, I tell 'e, and two Frenchmen," said an ancient tar
+who had served under Keppel; "by the ring of the guns I could swear
+to that much.  And they loads them so different, that they do."
+
+Before the others had well finished laughing at him, it became his
+turn to laugh at them.  The wind was in the east, and the weather
+set fair, and but for the sea-mist the power of the sun would have
+been enough to dazzle all beholders.  Already this vapour was
+beginning to clear off, coiling up in fleecy wisps above the
+glistening water, but clinging still to any bluff or cliff it could
+lay hold on.
+
+"Halloa, Jem!  Where be going of now?" shouted one or two voices
+from the Oar-stone point, the furthest outlook of the Havenhead
+hill.
+
+"To see them Frenchy hoppers get a jolly hiding," Jem Prater
+replied, without easing his sculls.  He was John Prater's nephew,
+of the "Darling Arms," and had stopped behind the fishing to see
+his uncle's monthly beer in.  "You can't see up there, I reckon,
+the same as I do here.  One English ship have got a job to tackle
+two Crappos.  But, by George! she'll do it, mates.  Good bye, and
+the Lord defend you!"
+
+He had nobody but his little brother Sam, who was holding the
+tiller, to help him, and his uncle's boat (which he had taken
+without leave) was neither stout nor handy.  But the stir of the
+battle had fetched him forth, and he meant to see the whole of it
+without taking harm.  Every Englishman had a full right to do this,
+in a case of such French audacity, and the English sea and air
+began to give him fair occasion.  For now the sun had swept the
+mist with a besom of gold wire, widening every sweep, and throwing
+brilliant prospect down it.  The gentle heave of the sea flashed
+forth with the white birds hovering over it, and the curdles of
+fugitive vapour glowed like pillars of fire as they floated off.
+Then out of the drift appeared three ships, partly shrouded in
+their own fog.
+
+The wind was too light for manoeuvring much, and the combatants
+swung to their broadsides, having taken the breath of the air away
+by the fury of their fire.  All three were standing to the north-
+north-west, under easy sail, and on the starboard tack, but
+scarcely holding steerage-way, and taking little heed of it.  Close
+quarters, closer and closer still, muzzle to muzzle, and beard to
+beard, clinched teeth, and hard pounding, were the order of the
+day, with the crash of shattered timber and the cries of dying men.
+And still the ships came onward, forgetting where they were,
+heaving too much iron to have thought of heaving lead, ready to be
+shipwrecks, if they could but wreck the enemy.
+
+Between the bulky curls of smoke could be seen the scars of furious
+battle, splintered masts and shivered yards, tattered sails and
+yawning bulwarks, and great gaps even of the solid side; and above
+the ruck of smoke appeared the tricolor flag upon the right hand
+and the left, and the Union-jack in the middle.
+
+"She've a'got more than she can do, I reckon," said an old man
+famous in the lobster line; "other a one of they is as big as she
+be, and two to one seemeth onfair odds.  Wish her well out of it--
+that's all as can be done."
+
+"Kelks, you're a fool," replied the ancient navyman, steadying his
+spy-glass upon a ledge of rock.  "In my time we made very little of
+that; and the breed may be slacked off a little, but not quite so
+bad as that would be.  Ah! you should a' heard what old Keppel--on
+the twenty-seventh day of July it was, in the year of our Lord
+1778.  Talk about Nelson! to my mind old Keppel could have boxed
+his compass backward.  Not but what these men know how to fight
+quite as well as need be nowadays.  Why, if I was aboard of that
+there frigate, I couldn't do much more than she have done.  She'll
+have one of them, you see if she don't, though she look to have the
+worst of it, till you comes to understand.  The Leader her name is,
+of thirty-eight guns, and she'll lead one of they into Portsmouth,
+to refit."
+
+It was hard to understand the matter, in its present aspect, at all
+as the ancient sailor did; for the fire of the Leda ceased
+suddenly, and she fell behind the others, as if hampered with her
+canvas.  A thrill of pain ran through all the gazing Britons.
+
+"How now, old Navy-Mike?" cried the lobster man.  "Strike is the
+word, and no mistake.  And small blame to her either.  She hathn't
+got a sound thread to draw, I do believe.  Who is the fool now,
+Mike?  Though vexed I be to ask it."
+
+"Wait a bit, old lobster-pot.  Ah, there now, she breezes!  Whistle
+for a wind, lads, whistle, whistle.  Sure as I'm a sinner, yes!
+She's laying her course to board the Frenchman on the weather
+quarter.  With a slant of wind she'll do it, too, if it only holds
+two minutes.  Whistle on your nails, my boys, for the glory of old
+England."
+
+In reply to their shrill appeal--for even the women tried to
+whistle--or perhaps in compulsory sequence of the sun, the wind
+freshened briskly from the sunny side of east.  The tattered sails
+of the brave ship filled, with the light falling through them upon
+one another, the head swung round at the command of helm, the
+pennons flew gaily and the ensign flapped, and she bore down
+smoothly on the outer and therefore unwounded side of the enemy.
+
+"That's what I call judgmatical," old Mike shouted, with a voice
+that rivalled cannon; "whoever thought of that deserves three
+epulets, one on each shoulder and one upon his head.  Doubt if old
+Keppel would have thought of that, now.  You see, mates, the other
+Crappo can't fire at her without first hitting of her own consort.
+And better than that--ever so much better--the tilt of the charge
+will throw her over on her wounds.  Master Muncher hath two great
+holes 'twixt wind and water on his larboard side, and won't they
+suck the briny, with the weight of our bows upon the starboard
+beam?  'Twill take fifty hands to stop leaks, instead of stopping
+boarders."
+
+The smoke was drifting off, and the sun shone bravely.  The battle
+had been gliding toward the feet of the spectators; and now from
+the height of the cliff they could descry the decks, the guns, the
+coils of rope, the turmoil, and dark rush of men to their fate.
+Small fights, man to man, demanded still the power of a telescope,
+and distance made the trenchant arms of heroes, working right and
+left, appear like the nippers of an earwig.  The only thing certain
+was that men were being killed, and glory was being manufactured
+largely.
+
+"She've a doed it, she've a doed it rarely.  There's not a d----d
+froggy left to go to heaven; or if there be so he's a' battened
+down below," old Mike shouted, flourishing his spy-glass, which
+rattled in its joints as much as he did; "down comes the blood,
+froth, and blue blazes, as they call the Republican emrods, and up
+goes the Union-jack, my hearties.  Three cheers! three cheers!
+Again! again! again!"
+
+From the sea far below, and far away, came also the volume of a
+noble English shout, as the flag began to flutter in the quickening
+breeze, and the sea arose and danced with sunshine.  No one, who
+had got all his blood left in him, could think of anything but
+glory.
+
+"My certy, they had better mind their soundings, though!" said the
+old navy-man, with a stitch in his side and a lump in his throat,
+from loud utterance; "five fathoms is every inch of it where they
+be now, and the tide making strong, and precious little wind to
+claw off with.  Jem Prater!  Jem Prater!  Oar up, and give signal.
+Ah, he's too far off to do any good.  In five minutes more they'll
+be on the White Pig, where no ship ever got off again.  Oh, thank
+the Lord, mates, thank the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever!
+The other froggy is stuck hard and fast, and our lads will just
+fetch out in time."
+
+Old Navy-Mike had made no mistake.  The consort of the captured
+frigate, a corvette of twenty-four guns, had boldly stood on with
+the intention of rounding to the wind, crossing the bows of the
+other twain, and retrieving the fortunes of the day perhaps, by a
+broadside into the shattered upper works of the terribly hampered
+British ship.  The idea was clever and spirited, and had a very
+fair chance of success; but the land below the sea forefended it.
+Full of fine ardour and the noble thirst for fame, speeding on for
+the palm of high enterprise and the glory of the native land, alas,
+they stuck fast in a soft bit of English sand!  It was in their
+power now to swear by all they disbelieved in, and in everything
+visible and too tangible; but their power was limited strictly to
+that; and the faster they swore, the faster they were bound to
+stick.
+
+Springhaven dined well, with its enemy so placed, and a message
+from the Leda by Jem Prater, that the fishing fleet was rescued,
+and would be home to early supper, and so much to be talked about
+all dinner-time, that for once in his life nearly everybody found
+it more expedient to eat with his fork than his knife.  Then all
+who could be spared from washing up, and getting ready for further
+cookery, went duly to church in the afternoon, to hear the good
+rector return humble thanks for a Gracious Mercy to the British
+arms, and to see a young man, who had landed with despatches, put a
+face full of gunpowder in at window, to learn whether Admiral
+Darling was there.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A SPECIAL URGENCY
+
+
+Admiral Darling was not in church.  His duty to his country kept
+him up the hill, and in close consultation with Captain Stubbard,
+who was burning to fire his battery.
+
+"I never knew such bad luck in all my life.  The devil has been
+appointed First Lord of the weather ever since I came to
+Springhaven."  As Stubbard declared these great truths he strode
+about in his little fortress, delivering a kick at the heels of
+things which had no right to be lumbering there.  "To think that I
+should never have seen those beggars, when but for the fog I could
+have smashed them right and left.  Admiral, these things make a
+Christian an infidel."
+
+"Nonsense, sir!" said the Admiral, sternly, for a man of his kind
+nature; "you forget that without the fog, or rather the mist--for
+it was only that--those fellows would never have come within range.
+We have very great blessings to be thankful for, though the credit
+falls not to our battery.  The Frenchmen fought wonderfully well,
+as well as the best Englishman could have done, and to capture them
+both is a miracle of luck, if indeed we can manage to secure them.
+My friend, young Honyman, of the Leda, has proved himself just what
+I said he would be; and has performed a very gallant exploit,
+though I fear he is severely wounded.  But we shall know more now,
+for I see a young fellow jumping up the hill, like a kangaroo, and
+probably he comes for orders.  One thing we have learned, Stubbard,
+and must take the hint to-morrow--put a hut on the Haven head, and
+keep a watchman there.  Why, bless my heart, it is Blyth Scudamore
+that's coming!  There is nobody else that can skip like that."
+
+The young lieutenant entered between two guns--the gunners were
+dismissed in great disgust to dinner--with his pleasant face still
+a little grimed with gunpowder, and flushed by his hurry up the
+steep hill-side.
+
+"This for you, sir," he said, saluting the Admiral, presenting his
+letter, and then drawing back; "and I am to wait your convenience
+for reply."
+
+"What next will the service come to," asked the Admiral of Captain
+Stubbard, "when a young man just commissioned gives himself such
+mighty airs?  Shake hands, Blyth, and promise you will come and
+dine with us, unless you are ordered to return on board at once.
+How is your good captain?  I knew him when he wore Nankins.  Jem
+Prater brought word that he was wounded.  I hope it is not
+serious."
+
+"No, sir; not much to speak of.  He has only lost three fingers.
+That was why I wrote this letter--or report, I ought to call it, if
+anybody else had written it.  Oh, sir!  I cannot bear to think of
+it!  I was fifth luff when the fight began, and now there is only
+one left above me, and he is in command of our biggest prize, the
+Ville d'Anvers.  But, Admiral, here you will find it all, as I
+wrote it, from the lips, when they tied up the fingers, of Captain
+Honyman."
+
+"How could you tie them up when they were gone?" Captain Stubbard
+enquired, with a sneer at such a youth.  He had got on very slowly
+in his early days, and could not bear to see a young man with such
+vacancies before him.  "Why, you are the luckiest lad I ever saw!
+Sure to go up at least three steps.  How well you must have kept
+out of it!  And how happy you must feel, Lieutenant Scudamore!"
+
+"I am not at all happy at losing dear friends," the young man
+answered, gently, as he turned away and patted the breech of a gun,
+upon which there was a little rust next day; "that feeling comes
+later in life, I suppose."
+
+The Admiral was not attending to them now, but absorbed in the
+brief account of the conflict, begun by Captain Honyman in his own
+handwriting, and finished by his voice, but not his pen.  Any one
+desirous to read this may do so in the proper place.  For the
+present purpose it is enough to say that the modesty of the
+language was scarcely surpassed by the brilliancy of the exploit.
+And if anything were needed to commend the writer to the deepest
+good will of the reader, it was found in the fact that this
+enterprise sprang from warm zeal for the commerce of Springhaven.
+The Leda had been ordered on Friday last to protect the peaceful
+little fishing fleet from a crafty design for their capture, and
+this she had done with good effect, having justice on her side, and
+fortune.  The particulars of the combat were not so clear, after
+the captain's three fingers were gone; but if one made proper
+allowance for that, there was not very much to complain of.  The
+Admiral considered it a very good report; and then put on his
+spectacles, and thought it still better.
+
+"Why! why! why!" he said--for without affectation many officers had
+caught the style of His then Gracious Majesty--"What's this? what's
+this?  Something on the other side, in a different man's
+handwriting, and mighty difficult to read, in my opinion.
+Stubbard, did you ever see such a scrawl?  Make it out for me.
+You have good eyes, like a hawk, or the man who saw through a
+milestone.  Scudamore, what was his name?  You know."
+
+"Three fingers at five pounds apiece per annum as long as he
+lives!" Captain Stubbard computed on his own: "fifteen pounds a
+year perhaps for forty years, as you seem to say how young he is;
+that comes to just 600 pounds, and his hand as good as ever"--
+("I'll be hanged if it is, if he wrote this!" the Admiral
+interjected)--"and better, I must say, from a selfish point of
+view, because of only two nails left to clean, and his other hand
+increased in value; why, the scale is disgraceful, iniquitous,
+boobyish, and made without any knowledge of the human frame, and
+the comparative value of its members.  Lieutenant Scudamore, look
+at me.  Here you see me without an ear, damaged in the fore-hatch,
+and with the larboard bow stove in--and how much do I get, though
+so much older?"
+
+"Well, if you won't help me, Stubbard," said the Admiral, who knew
+how long his friend would carry on upon that tack, "I must even get
+Scudamore to read it, though it seems to have been written on
+purpose to elude him.  Blyth, my dear boy, can you explain it?"
+
+"It was--it was only something, sir"--the lieutenant blushed, and
+hesitated, and looked away unmanfully--"which I asked Captain
+Honyman to leave out, because--because it had nothing to do with
+it.  I mean, because it was of no importance, even if he happened
+to have that opinion.  His hand was tied up so, that I did not like
+to say too much, and I thought that he would go to sleep, because
+the doctor had made him drink a poppy head boiled down with
+pigtail.  But it seems as if he had got up after that--for he
+always will have his own way--while I was gone to put this coat on;
+and perhaps he wrote that with his left hand, sir.  But it is no
+part of the business."
+
+"Then we will leave it," said Admiral Darling, "for younger eyes
+than mine to read.  Nelson wrote better with his left hand than
+ever he did with his right, to my thinking, the very first time
+that he tried it.  But we can't expect everybody to do that.  There
+is no sign of any change of weather, is there, Stubbard?  My orders
+will depend very much upon that.  I must go home and look at the
+quicksilver before I know what is best to do.  You had better come
+with me, Scudamore."
+
+Admiral Darling was quite right in this.  Everything depended upon
+the weather; and although the rough autumn was not come yet, the
+prime of the hopeful year was past.  The summer had not been a
+grand one, such as we get about once in a decade, but of loose and
+uncertain character, such as an Englishman has to make the best of.
+It might be taking up for a golden autumn, ripening corn, and
+fruit, and tree, or it might break up into shower and tempest,
+sodden earth, and weltering sky.
+
+"Your captain refers to me for orders," said Admiral Darling to
+Scudamore, while they were hastening to the Hall, "as Commander of
+the Coast Defence, because he has been brought too far inshore, and
+one of the Frenchmen is stranded.  The frigate you boarded and
+carried is the Ville d'Anvers, of forty guns.  The corvette that
+took the ground, so luckily for you, when half of your hands were
+aboard the prize, is the Blonde, teak-built, and only launched last
+year.  We must try to have her, whatever happens.  She won't hurt
+where she is, unless it comes on to blow.  Our sands hold fast
+without nipping, as you know, like a well-bred sheep-dog, and the
+White Pig is the toughest of all of them.  She may stay there till
+the equinox, without much mischief, if the present light airs
+continue.  But the worst job will be with the prisoners; they are
+the plague of all these affairs, and we can't imitate Boney by
+poisoning them.  On the whole, it had better not have happened,
+perhaps.  Though you must not tell Honyman that I said so.  It was
+a very gallant action, very skilful, very beautiful; and I hope he
+will get a fine lift for it; and you too, my dear Blyth, for you
+must have fought well."
+
+"But, Admiral, surely you would have been grieved if so many of
+your tenants, and their boats as well, had been swept away into a
+French harbour.  What would Springhaven be without its Captain
+Zebedee?"
+
+"You are right, Blyth; I forgot that for the moment.  There would
+have been weeping and wailing indeed, even in our own household.
+But they could not have kept them long, though the loss of their
+boats would have been most terrible.  But I cannot make out why the
+French should have wanted to catch a few harmless fishing-smacks.
+Aquila non captat muscas, as you taught the boys at Stonnington.
+And two ships despatched upon a paltry job of that sort!  Either
+Captain Honyman was strangely misinformed, or there is something in
+the background, entirely beyond our knowledge.  Pay attention to
+this matter, and let me know what you hear of it--as a friend,
+Blyth, as a friend, I mean.  But here we are!  You must want
+feeding.  Mrs. Cloam will take care of you, and find all that is
+needful for a warrior's cleanup.  I must look at the barometer, and
+consider my despatches.  Let us have dinner, Mrs. Cloam, in twenty
+minutes, if possible.  For we stand in real need of it."
+
+Concerning that there could be no doubt.  Glory, as all English
+officers know, is no durable stay for the stomach.  The urgency of
+mankind for victuals may roughly be gauged by the length of the
+jaw.  Captain Stubbard had jaws of tremendous length, and always
+carried a bag of captain's biscuits, to which he was obliged to
+have recourse in the height of the hottest engagement.  Scudamore
+had short jaws, well set up, and powerful, without rapacity.  But
+even these, after twelve hours of fasting, demanded something
+better than gunpowder.  He could not help thinking that his host
+was regarding the condition of affairs very calmly, until he
+remembered that the day was Sunday, when no Briton has any call to
+be disturbed by any but sacred insistency.  At any rate, he was
+under orders now, and those orders were entirely to his liking.  So
+he freshened up his cheerful and simple-minded face, put his
+sailor-knot neckcloth askew, as usual, and with some trepidation
+went down to dinner.
+
+The young ladies would not have been young women if they had not
+received him warmly.  Kind Faith, who loved him as a sister might--
+for she had long discovered his good qualities--had tears in her
+beautiful eyes, as she gave him both hands, and smiled sweetly at
+his bashfulness.  And even the critical Dolly, who looked so
+sharply at the outside of everything, allowed her fair hand to stay
+well in his, and said something which was melody to him.  Then
+Johnny, who was of a warlike cast, and hoped soon to destroy the
+French nation, shook hands with this public benefactor already
+employed in that great work.
+
+"I shall scarcely have time for a bit of dinner," said Admiral
+Darling, as they sat down.  "I have sent word to have the Protector
+launched, and to give little Billy a feed of corn.  All you young
+people may take your leisure.  Youth is the time that commands time
+and space.  But for my part, if I can only manage this plate of
+soup, and a slice of that fish, and then one help of mutton, and
+just an apple-fritter, or some trifle of that sort, I shall be
+quite as lucky as I can hope to be.  Duty perpetually spoils my
+dinner, and I must get some clever fellow to invent a plate that
+will keep as hot as duty is in these volcanic times.  But I never
+complain; I am so used to it.  Eat your dinners, children, and
+don't think of mine."
+
+Having scarcely afforded himself an hour, the Admiral, in full
+uniform, embarked upon little Billy, a gentle-minded pony from the
+west country, who conducted his own digestion while he consulted
+that of his rider.  At the haven they found the Protector ready, a
+ten-oared galley manned by Captain Stubbard's men, good samples of
+Sea-Fencibles.  And the Captain himself was there, to take the
+tiller, and do any fighting if the chance should arise, for he had
+been disappointed all the morning.  The boat which brought
+Scudamore had been recalled by signal from the Leda, and that
+active young officer having sought her vainly, and thereby missed
+the Protector, followed steadily in Mr. Prater's boat, with the
+nephew, Jem, pulling the other oar, and Johnny Darling, who raged
+at the thought of being left behind, steering vaguely.  And just as
+they rounded the harbour-head, the long glassy sweep of the
+palpitating sea bore inward and homeward the peaceful squadron, so
+wistfully watched for and so dearly welcome.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+YOH-HEAVE-OH!
+
+
+"Her condition was very bad, as bad as could be, without going
+straight to the bottom," the Admiral said to the Rector that night,
+as they smoked a pipe together; "and to the bottom she must have
+gone, if the sea had got up, before we thrummed her.  Honyman
+wanted to have her brought inside the Head; but even if we could
+have got there, she would ground at low water and fill with the
+tide.  And what could we do with all those prisoners?  With our
+fresh hands at the pumps, we very soon fetched the water out of
+her, and made her as tight as we could; and I think they will
+manage to take her to Portsmouth.  She has beautiful lines.  I
+never saw a smarter ship.  How she came to the wind, with all that
+water in her!  The wind is all right for Portsmouth, and she will
+be a fine addition to the Navy."
+
+"But what is become of the other vessel, craft, corvette, or
+whatever you call her?  You say that she is scarcely hurt at all.
+And if she gets off the White Pig's back in the night, she may come
+up and bombard us.  Not that I am afraid; but my wife is nervous,
+and the Rectory faces the sea so much.  If you have ordered away
+the Leda, which seems to have conquered both of them, the least you
+can do is to keep Captain Stubbard under arms all night in his
+battery."
+
+"I have a great mind to do so; it would be a good idea, for he was
+very much inclined to cut up rough to-day.  But he never would
+forgive me, he is such a hog at hammock--as we used to say, until
+we grew too elegant.  And he knows that the Blonde has hauled down
+her colours, and Scudamore is now prize-captain.  I have sent away
+most of her crew in the Leda, and I am not at all sure that we
+ought not to blow her up.  In the end, we shall have to do so, no
+doubt; for nothing larger than a smack has ever got off that sand,
+and floated.  But let our young friend try; let him have a fair
+trial.  He has the stuff of a very fine seaman in him.  And if he
+should succeed, it would be scored with a long leg for him.
+Halloa!  Why, I thought the girls were fast asleep long ago!"
+
+"As if we could sleep, papa, with this upon our minds!"  Dolly
+waved an open letter in the air, and then presented it.  "Perhaps
+Faith might, but I am sure I never could.  You defied us to make
+out this, which is on the other leaf; and then, without giving us
+fair play, you took it to the desk in your Oak-room, and there you
+left it.  Well, I took the liberty of going there for it, for there
+can't be any secret about a thing that will be printed; and how are
+they to print it, if they can't contrive to read it?  How much will
+you pay me for interpreting, papa?  Mr. Twemlow, I think I ought to
+have a guinea.  Can you read it, now, with all your learning, and
+knowledge of dead languages?"
+
+"My dear, it is not my duty to read it, and not at all my business.
+It seems to be written with the end of a stick, by a boy who was
+learning his letters.  If you can interpret it, you must be almost
+a Daniel."
+
+"Do you hear that, papa, you who think I am so stupid?  Faith gave
+it up; she has no perseverance, or perhaps no curiosity.  And I was
+very nearly beaten too, till a very fine idea came into my head,
+and I have made out every word except three, and perhaps even those
+three, if Captain Honyman is not very particular in his spelling.
+Can you tell me anything about that, papa?"
+
+"Yes, Dolly, just what you have heard from me before.  Honyman is a
+good officer; a very good one, as he has just proved.  No good
+officer ever spells well, whether in the army or the navy.  Look at
+Nelson's letters.  I am inclined to ascribe my own slow promotion
+to the unnatural accuracy of my spelling, which offended my lords,
+because it puzzled them."
+
+"Then all is straight sailing, as you say, papa.  But I must tell
+you first how I found it out, or perhaps you won't believe me.  I
+knew that Captain Honyman wrote this postscript, or whatever it is,
+with his left hand, so I took a pen in my own left hand, and
+practised all the letters, and the way they join, which is quite
+different from the other hand.  And here is the copy of the words,
+as my left hand taught my right to put them down, after inking ever
+so many fingers:
+
+"'We never could have done it without Scudamore.  He jumped a most
+wonderful jump from our jib-boom into her mizzen chains, when our
+grapples had slipped, and we could get no nearer, and there he made
+fast, though the enemy came at him with cutlasses, pikes, and
+muskets.  By this means we borded and carried the ship, with a loss
+as above reported.  When I grew faint from a trifling wound, Luff
+Scudamore led the borders with a cool courage that discomfited the
+fo.'"
+
+"Robert Honyman all over!" cried the Admiral, with delight.  "I
+could swear that he wrote it, if it was written with his toes.
+'Twas an old joke against him, when he was lieutenant, that he
+never could spell his own title; and he never would put an e after
+an o in any word.  He is far too straightforward a man to spell
+well; and now the loss of three fingers will cut his words shorter
+than ever, and be a fine excuse for him.  He was faint again, when
+I boarded the Leda, partly no doubt through strong medical
+measures; for the doctor, who is an ornament to his profession, had
+cauterised his stumps with a marlinspike, for fear of inflammation.
+And I heard that he had singed the other finger off.  But I hope
+that may prove incorrect.  At any rate, I could not bear to disturb
+him, but left written orders with Scudamore; for the senior was on
+board the prize.  Dolly, be off to bed, this moment."
+
+"Well, now," said the Rector, drawing near, and filling another
+deliberative pipe, "I have no right to ask what your orders were,
+and perhaps you have no right to tell me.  But as to the ship that
+remains in my parish, or at any rate on its borders, if you can
+tell me anything, I shall be very grateful, both as a question of
+parochial duty, and also because of the many questions I am sure to
+have to answer from my wife and daughter."
+
+"There is no cause for secrecy; I will tell you everything:" the
+Admiral hated mystery.  "Why, the London papers will publish the
+whole of it, and a great deal more than that, in three days' time.
+I have sent off the Leda with her prize to Portsmouth.  With this
+easterly breeze and smooth water, they will get there, crippled as
+they are, in some twenty-four hours.  There the wounded will be
+cared for, and the prisoners drafted off.  The Blonde, the corvette
+which is aground, surrendered, as you know, when she found herself
+helpless, and within range of our new battery.  Stubbard's men
+longed to have a few shots at her; but of course we stopped any
+such outrage.  Nearly all her officers and most of her crew are on
+board the Leda, having given their parole to attempt no rising; and
+Frenchmen are always honourable, unless they have some very wicked
+leader.  But we left in the corvette her captain, an exceedingly
+fine fellow, and about a score of hands who volunteered to stay to
+help to work the ship, upon condition that if we can float her,
+they shall have their freedom.  And we put a prize crew from the
+Leda on board her, only eight-and-twenty hands, which was all that
+could be spared, and in command of them our friend Blyth Scudamore.
+I sent him to ask Robert Honyman about it, when he managed to
+survive the doctor, for a captain is the master of his own luffs;
+and he answered that it was exactly what he wished.  Our gallant
+frigate lost three lieutenants in this very spirited action, two
+killed and one heavily wounded.  And the first is in charge of the
+Ville d'Anvers, so there was nobody for this enterprise except the
+gentle Scuddy, as they call him.  He is very young for such a
+business, and we must do all we can to help him."
+
+"I have confidence in that young man," said Mr. Twemlow, as if it
+were a question of theology; "he has very sound views, and his
+principles are high; and he would have taken holy orders, I
+believe, if his father's assets had permitted it.  He perceives all
+the rapidly growing dangers with which the Church is surrounded,
+and when I was in doubt about a line of Horace, he showed the
+finest diffidence, and yet proved that I was right.  The 'White
+Pig,' as the name of a submarine bank, is most clearly of classic
+origin.  We find it in Homer, and in Virgil too; and probably the
+Romans, who undoubtedly had a naval station in Springhaven, and
+exterminated the oyster, as they always did--"
+
+"Come, come, Twemlow," said the Admiral, with a smile which
+smoothed the breach of interruption, "you carry me out of my depth
+so far that I long to be stranded on my pillow.  When your great
+book comes out, we shall have in perfect form all the pile of your
+discoveries, which you break up into little bits too liberally.
+The Blonde on the Pig is like Beauty and the Beast.  If gentle
+Scuddy rescues her, it won't be by Homer, or Horace, or even holy
+orders, but by hard tugs and stout seamanship."
+
+"With the blessing of the Lord, it shall be done," said the Rector,
+knocking his pipe out; "and I trust that Providence may see fit to
+have it done very speedily; for I dread the effect which so many
+gallant strangers, all working hard and apparently in peril, may
+produce upon the females of this parish."
+
+But the Admiral laughed, and said, "Pooh, pooh!" for he had faith
+in the maids of Springhaven.
+
+For these there was a fine time now in store--young men up and down
+everywhere, people running in and out with some new news, before
+they could get their hats on, the kettle to boil half a dozen times
+a day, and almost as much to see as they could talk of.  At every
+high-water that came by daylight--and sometimes there were two of
+them--every maid in the parish was bound to run to the top of a
+sand-hill high enough to see over the neck of the Head, and there
+to be up among the rushes all together, and repulse disdainfully
+the society of lads.  These took the matter in a very different
+light, and thought it quite a pity and a piece of fickle-
+mindedness, that they might go the round of crab-pots, or of
+inshore lug-lines, without anybody to watch them off, or come down
+with a basket to meet them.
+
+For be it understood that the great fishing fleet had not launched
+forth upon its labours.  Their narrow escape from the two French
+cruisers would last them a long time to think over, and to say the
+same thing to each other about it that each other had said to them
+every time they met.  And they knew that they could not do this so
+well as to make a new credit of it every time, when once they were
+in the same craft together, and could not go asunder more than ten
+yards and a half.  And better, far better, than all these reasons
+for staying at home and enjoying themselves, was the great fact
+that they could make more money by leisure than by labour, in this
+nobly golden time.
+
+Luck fostered skill in this great affair, which deserves to be
+recorded for the good of any village gifted with like opportunity.
+It appears that the British Admiralty had long been eager for the
+capture of the Blonde, because of her speed and strength and
+beauty, and the mischief she had done to English trade.  To destroy
+her would be a great comfort, but to employ her aright would be
+glorious; and her proper employment was to serve as a model for
+English frigates first, and then to fight against her native land.
+Therefore, no sooner did their lordships hear what had happened at
+Springhaven than they sent down a rider express, to say that the
+ship must be saved at any price.  And as nothing could be spared
+from the blockading force, or the fleet in the Downs, or the
+cruising squadron, the Commander of the coast-defence was
+instructed to enrol, impress, or adapt somehow all the men and the
+matter available.  Something was said about free use of money in
+the service of His Majesty, but not a penny was sent to begin upon.
+But Admiral Darling carried out his orders, as if he had received
+them framed in gold.  "They are pretty sure to pay me in the end,"
+he said; "and if they don't, it won't break me.  I would give 500
+pounds on my own account, to carry that corvette to Spithead.  And
+it would be the making of Scudamore, who reminds me of his father
+more and more, every time I come across him."
+
+The fleet under Captain Tugwell had quite lately fallen off from
+seven to five, through the fierce patriotism of some younger
+members, and their sanguine belief in bounty-money.  Captain Zeb
+had presented them with his experience in a long harangue--nearly
+fifty words long--and they looked as if they were convinced by it.
+However, in the morning they were gone, having mostly had tiffs
+with their sweethearts--which are fervent incentives to patriotism--
+and they chartered themselves, and their boats were numbered for
+the service of their Country.  They had done their work well,
+because they had none to do, except to draw small wages, and they
+found themselves qualified now for more money, and came home at the
+earliest chance of it.
+
+Two guineas a day for each smack and four hands, were the terms
+offered by the Admiral, whose hard-working conscience was twitched
+into herring-bones by the strife between native land and native
+spot.  "I have had many tussles with uncertainty before," he told
+Dolly, going down one evening, "but never such vexation of the mind
+as now.  All our people expect to get more for a day, than a month
+of fine fishing would bring them; while the Government goes by the
+worst time they make, and expects them to throw in their boats for
+nothing.  'The same as our breeches,' Tugwell said to me; 'whenever
+we works, we throws in they, and we ought to do the very same with
+our boats.'  This makes it very hard for me."
+
+But by doing his best, he got over the hardship, as people
+generally do.  He settled the daily wages as above, with a bonus of
+double that amount for the day that saw the Blonde upon her legs
+again.  Indignation prevailed, or pretended to do so; but common-
+sense conquered, and all set to work.  Hawsers, and chains, and
+buoys, and all other needful gear and tackle were provided by the
+Admiralty from the store-house built not long ago for the
+Fencibles.  And Zebedee Tugwell, by right of position, and without
+a word said for it--because who could say a word against it?--
+became the commander of the Rescue fleet, and drew double pay
+naturally for himself and family.
+
+"I does it," he said, "if you ask me why I does it, without any
+intention of bettering myself, for the Lord hath placed me above
+need of that; but mainly for the sake of discipline, and the
+respectability of things.  Suppose I was under you, sir, and knew
+you was getting no more than I was, why, my stomach would fly every
+time that you gave me an order without a 'Please, Zebedee!'  But as
+soon as I feels that you pocket a shilling, in the time I take
+pocketing twopence, the value of your brain ariseth plain before
+me; and instead of thinking what you says, I does it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ACCORDING TO CONTRACT
+
+
+When the Blonde had been on the White Pig for a week, in spite of
+all the science of Scudamore, ready money of the Admiral, and
+efforts of the natives, there began to be signs of a change in the
+weather.  The sea was as smooth, and the sky as bright, and the
+land as brown as ever; but the feel of the air was not the same,
+and the sounds that came through it were different.  "Rain afore
+Friday," said Captain Zeb, "and a blow from sowwest afore Sunday.
+'Twill break up the Blunder, I reckon, my lads."
+
+With various aspects they looked at him, all holding sweet converse
+at the Darling Arms, after the manifold struggles of the day.  The
+eyes of the younger men were filled with disappointment and anger,
+as at a sure seer of evil; the elder, to whom cash was more
+important, gazed with anxiety and dismay; while a pair, old enough
+to be sires of Zebedee, nodded approval, and looked at one another,
+expecting to receive, but too discreet to give, a wink.  Then a
+lively discourse arose and throve among the younger; and the elders
+let them hold it, while they talked of something else.
+
+On the following morning two dialogues were held upon different
+parts of Springhaven shore, but each of great import to the
+beautiful captive still fast aground in the offing.  The first was
+between Captain Zebedee Tugwell and Lieutenant Scudamore.  The
+gentle Scuddy, still hoping against hope, had stuck fast to his
+charge, upon whose fortunes so much of his own depended.  If he
+could only succeed in floating and carrying her into Portsmouth,
+his mark would be made, his position secured far quicker than by
+ten gallant actions; and that which he cared for a hundredfold, the
+comfort of his widowed mother, would be advanced and established.
+For, upon the valuation of the prizes, a considerable sum would
+fall to him, and every farthing of it would be sent to her.  Bright
+with youthful hope, and trustful in the rising spring of tide,
+which had all but released them yesterday, according to his firm
+belief, he ran from the Hall through the Admiral's grounds, to meet
+the boat which was waiting for him, while he was having breakfast
+and council with his chief.  Between the Round-house and the old
+white gate he heard a low whistle from a clump of shrubs, and
+turning that way, met Tugwell.  With that prince of fishermen he
+shook hands, according to the manner of Springhaven, for he had
+learned to admire the brave habit of the man, his strong mind, and
+frank taciturnity.  And Tugwell on his part had taken a liking to
+the simple and cheerful young officer, who received his suggestions,
+was kind to all hands, and so manfully bore the daily
+disappointment.
+
+"Nobody in there?" asked Zeb, with one finger pointing to the
+Round-house; "then sit down on this bit of bank, sir, a minute.
+Less chance to be shot at by any French ship."
+
+The bit of bank really was a bit of hollow, where no one could see
+them from the beach, or lane, or even from the Round-house.
+Scudamore, who understood his man, obeyed; and Tugwell came to his
+bearings on a clump of fern before him.
+
+"How much will Government pay the chaps as fetches her out of that
+snug little berth?  For division to self and partners, how much?
+For division to self and family, how much?"
+
+"I have thought about that," the lieutenant answered, with little
+surprise at the question, but much at the secrecy thrown around it;
+"and I think it would be very unsafe to count upon getting a penny
+beyond the Admiral's terms--double pay for the day that we float
+her."
+
+Captain Zebedee shook his head, and the golden sheaf of his
+Olympian beard ruffled and crisped, as to an adverse wind.
+
+"Can't a'most believe it," he replied, with his bright eyes
+steadily settled on Scudamore's; "the English country, as I belongs
+to, can't quite 'a coom to that yet!"
+
+"I fear that it has indeed," Blyth answered, very gravely; "at
+least I am sure of this, Master Tugwell, that you must not look
+forward to any bounty, bonus, or premium, or whatever it is called,
+from the Authorities who should provide it.  But for myself, and
+the difference it will make to me whether we succeed or fail, I
+shall be happy, and will give my word, to send you 50 pounds, to be
+divided at your discretion among the smacks.  I mean, of course, as
+soon as I get paid."
+
+Scudamore was frightened by the size of his own promise; for he had
+never yet owned 50 pounds in the solid.  And then he was scared at
+the wholesale loss of so large a sum to his mother.
+
+"Never fear, lad," honest Tugwell replied, for the young man's face
+was fair to read; "we'll not take a farden of thy hard airnings,
+not a brass farden, so help me Bob!  Gentlefolks has so much call
+for money, as none of us know nothing of.  And thou hast helped to
+save all the lot of us from Frenchies, and been the most
+forwardest, as I hear tell.  But if us could 'a got 50 pounds out
+of Government, why so much more for us, and none the less for they.
+But a Englishman must do his duty, in reason, and when 'a don't
+hurt his self by the same.  There's a change in the weather, as
+forbids more sport.  You shall have the Blunder off to-morrow, lad.
+Wouldn't do to be too sudden like."
+
+"I fear I am very stupid, Master Tugwell.  But I don't see how you
+can manage it so surely, after labouring nine days all in vain."
+
+Zebedee hesitated half a moment, betwixt discretion and the pride
+of knowledge.  Then the latter vanquished and relieved his mind.
+
+"I trust in your honour, sir, of course, to keep me clear.  I might
+have brought 'e off the Pig, first day, or second to the latest, if
+it were sound business.  But with winter time coming, and the
+week's fishing lost, our duty to our families and this place was to
+pull 'e on harder, sir, to pull 'e aground firmer; and with the
+help of the Lord we have a-doed it well.  We wasn't a-going to kill
+the goose as laid the golden eggs.  No offence to you, sir; it
+wasn't you as was the goose."
+
+Master Tugwell rubbed his pockets with a very pleasant smile, and
+then put his elbows on his great square knees, and complacently
+studied the lieutenant's smaller mind.
+
+"I can understand how you could do such a thing," said Scudamore,
+after he had rubbed his eyes, and then looked away for fear of
+laughing, "but I cannot understand by what power on earth you are
+enabled to look at me and tell me this.  For nine days you have
+been paid every night, and paid pretty well, as you yourself
+acknowledge, to haul a ship off a shoal; and all the time you have
+been hauling her harder upon it!"
+
+"Young man," replied Tugwell, with just indignation, "a hofficer
+should be above such words.  But I forgive 'e, and hope the Lord
+will do the same, with allowance for youth and ill-convenience.  I
+might 'a knowed no better, at your age and training."
+
+"But what were you paid for, just answer me that, unless it was to
+pull the Blonde off the sand-bank?  And how can you pretend that
+you have done an honest thing by pulling her further upon the
+bank?"
+
+"I won't ask 'e, sir, to beg my pardon for saying what never man
+said to me, without reading the words of the contraction;" Zeb
+pulled out a paper from his hat, and spread it, and laid a stone at
+every corner; "this contraction was signed by yourself and Squire
+Darling, for and on behalf of the kingdom; and the words are for us
+to give our services, to pull, haul, tow, warp, or otherwise as
+directed, release, relieve, set free, and rescue the aforesaid
+ship, or bark, or vessel, craft, or--"
+
+"Please not to read all that," cried Scuddy, "or a gale of wind may
+come before you are half-way through.  It was Admiral Darling's
+lawyer, Mr. Furkettle, who prepared it, to prevent any chance of
+misunderstanding."
+
+"Provided always," continued Tugwell, slowly, "and the meaning,
+condition, purport, object, sense, and intention of this agreement
+is, that the aforesaid Zebedee Tugwell shall submit in everything
+to the orders, commands, instructions, counsel, directions,
+injunctions, authority, or discretion, whether in writing or
+otherwise, of the aforesaid--"
+
+"I would not interrupt you if I could help it"--Scudamore had a
+large stock of patience (enhanced by laborious practice at
+Stonnington), but who might abide, when time was precious, to see
+Zebedee feeling his way with his fingers along the bottom and to
+the end of every word, and then stopping to congratulate himself at
+the conquest of every one over two syllables?  "But excuse me for
+saying that I know all these conditions; and the tide will be lost,
+if we stop here."
+
+"Very good, sir; then you see how it standeth.  Who hath broken
+them?  Not us!  We was paid for to haul; and haul we did, according
+to superior orders.  She grounded from the south, with the tide
+making upp'ard, somewhere about three-quarter flow; and the Squire,
+and you, and all the rest of 'e, without no knowledge of the Pig
+whatsomever, fastens all your pulley-haulies by the starn, and
+says, 'now pull!'  And pull we did, to the tune of sixteen guineas
+a day for the good of Springhaven."
+
+"And you knew all the time that it was wrong!  Well, I never came
+across such people.  But surely some one of you would have had the
+honesty--I beg pardon, I mean the good-will--to tell us.  I can
+scarcely imagine some forty men and boys preserving such a secret
+for nine whole days, hauling for their lives in the wrong
+direction, and never even by a wink or smile--"
+
+"Springhaven is like that," said Master Tugwell, proudly; "we does
+a thing one and all together, even if us reasons consarning it.
+And over and above that, sir, there is but two men in Springhaven
+as understands the White Pig, barring my own self.  The young 'uns
+might 'a smelt a rat, but they knew better than to say so.  Where
+the Blunder grounded--and she hath airned her name, for the good of
+the dwellers in this village--is the chine of the Pig; and he hath
+a double back, with the outer side higher than the inner one.  She
+came through a narrow nick in his outer back, and then plumped,
+stem on, upon the inner one.  You may haul at her forever by the
+starn, and there she'll 'bide, or lay up again on the other back.
+But bring her weight forrard, and tackle her by the head, and off
+she comes, the very next fair tide; for she hath berthed herself
+over the biggest of it, and there bain't but a basketful under her
+forefoot."
+
+"Then, Master Tugwell, let us lose no time, but have at her at
+once, and be done with it."  Scudamore jumped up, to give action to
+his words; but Tugwell sate aground still, as firmly as the Blonde.
+
+"Begging of your pardon, sir, I would invite of you not to be in no
+sart of hurry hasting forwardly.  Us must come off gradual, after
+holding on so long there, and better to have Squire Darling round
+the corner first, sir.  Not that he knoweth much about it, but 'a
+might make believe to do so.  And when 'a hath seen us pull wrong
+ways, a hundred and twenty guineas' worth, a' might grudge us the
+reward for pulling right ways.  I've a-knowed 'un get into that
+state of mind, although it was his own tenants."
+
+The lieutenant was at length compelled to laugh, though for many
+reasons loth to do so.  But the quiet contempt for the Admiral's
+skill, and the brief hint about his character, touched his sense of
+the ludicrous more softly than the explanation of his own mishaps.
+Then the Captain of Springhaven smiled almost imperceptibly; for he
+was a serious man, and his smiles were accustomed to be interior.
+
+"I did hear tell," he said, stroking his beard, for fear of having
+discomposed it, "that the Squire were under compulsion to go a bit
+westward again to-morrow.  And when he cometh back he would be glad
+to find us had managed the job without him.  No fear of the weather
+breaking up afore Friday, and her can't take no harm for a tide or
+two.  If you thinks well, sir, let us heave at her to-day, as
+afore, by superior orders.  Then it come into your mind to try
+t'other end a bit, and you shift all the guns and heavy lumber
+forrard to give weight to the bows and lift the starn, and off her
+will glide at the first tug to-morrow, so sure as my name is
+Zebedee.  But mind one thing, sir, that you keep her, when you've
+got her.  She hath too many furriner natives aboard of her, to be
+any way to my liking."
+
+"Oh, there need be no doubt about them," replied Blyth; "we treat
+them like ourselves, and they are all upon their honour, which no
+Frenchman ever thinks of breaking.  But my men will be tired of
+waiting for me.  I shall leave you to your plans, Tugwell."
+
+"Ah, I know the natur' of they young men," Captain Zebedee mused,
+as he sate in his hollow, till Scudamore's boat was far away; "they
+be full of scruples for themselves and faith in other fellows.
+He'll never tell Squire, nor no one else here, what I laid him
+under, and the laugh would go again' him, if he did.  We shall get
+to-day's money, I reckon, as well as double pay to-morrow, and airn
+it.  Well, it might 'a been better, and it might be wuss."
+
+About two miles westward of the brook, some rocks marked the end of
+the fine Springhaven sands and the beginning of a far more rugged
+beach, the shingles and flint shelves of Pebbleridge.  Here the
+chalk of the Sussex backbone (which has been plumped over and
+sleeked by the flesh of the valley) juts forth, like the scrags of
+a skeleton, and crumbles in low but rugged cliffs into the flat
+domain of sea.  Here the landing is bad, and the anchorage worse,
+for a slippery shale rejects the fluke, and the water is usually
+kept in a fidget between the orders of the west wind and scurry of
+the tide.
+
+This very quiet morning, with the wind off shore, and scarcely
+enough of it to comb the sea, four smart-looking Frenchmen, with
+red caps on their heads, were barely holding way upon the light gig
+of the Blonde, while their Captain was keeping an appointment with
+a stranger, not far from the weed-strewn line of waves.  In a deep
+rocky channel where a land-spring rose (which was still-born except
+at low water), and laver and dilsk and claw-coral showed that the
+sea had more dominion there than the sky, two men stood facing each
+other; and their words, though belonging to the most polite of
+tongues, were not so courteous as might be.  Each man stood with
+his back to a rock--not touching it, however, because it was too
+wet--one was as cold and as firm as the rock, the other like the
+sea, tumultuous.  The passionate man was Captain Desportes, and the
+cold one Caryl Carne.
+
+"Then you wish me to conclude, monsieur," Carne spoke as one
+offering repentance, "that you will not do your duty to your
+country, in the subject set before you?  I pray you to deliberate,
+because your position hangs upon it."
+
+"Never!  Never!  Once more, Captain, with all thanks for your
+consideration, I refuse.  My duty to my own honour has first place.
+After that my duty to my country.  Speak of it no more, sir; it
+quite is to insult me."
+
+"No, Captain Desportes, it is nothing of that kind, or I should not
+be here to propose it.  Your parole is given only as long as your
+ship continues upon the sand.  The moment she floats, you are
+liberated.  Then is the time for a noble stroke of fortune.  Is it
+not so, my dear friend?"
+
+"No, sir.  This affair is impossible.  My honour has been pledged,
+not until the ship is floating, but until I am myself set free in
+France.  I am sorry not to see things as you see them for me; but
+the question is for my own consideration."
+
+Captain Desportes had resented, as an honest man must do, especially
+when more advanced in years, the other's calm settlement, without
+invitation, of matters which concerned his own conscience.  And as
+most mankind--if at all perceptive--like or dislike one another at a
+glance, Desportes, being very quick and warm of nature, had felt at
+first sight a strong repulsion from the cold and arrogant man who
+faced him.  His age was at least twice that of Carne, he had seen
+much service in the better days of France, and had risen slowly by
+his own skill and valour; he knew that his future in the service
+depended upon his decision in this matter, and he had a large family
+to maintain.  But his honour was pledged, and he held fast by it.
+
+"There is one consideration," Carne replied, with rancour slowly
+kindling in his great black eyes, "which precedes all others, even
+that of honour, in the mind of a trusted officer.  It is not that
+of patriotism--which has not its usual weight with monsieur--but it
+is that of obedience, discipline, loyalty, faith, towards those who
+have placed faith in him.  Captain Desportes, as commander of a
+ship, is entrusted with property; and that confidence is the first
+debt upon his honour."
+
+To Desportes, as to most men of action, the right was plainer than
+the reason.  He knew that this final plea was unsound, but he did
+not see how to contest it.  So he came back to fact, which was
+easier for him.
+
+"How am I to know, monsieur, what would be the wishes of those who
+have entrusted me with my position?  You are placed in authority by
+some means here, in your own country, but against it.  That much
+you have proved to me, by papers.  But your credentials are general
+only.  They do not apply to this especial case.  If the Chief of
+the State knew my position, he would wish me to act as I mean to
+act, for the honour and credit of our nation."
+
+"Are you then acquainted with his signature?  If so, perhaps you
+will verify this, even if you are resolved to reject it."
+
+Carne drew a letter from an inner pocket, and carefully unfolded
+it.  There were many words and minute directions upon various
+subjects, written by the hand of the most minute, and yet most
+comprehensive, of mankind.
+
+"There is nothing in this that concerns you," he said, after
+showing the date, only four days old, "except these few words at
+the end, which perhaps you may like to read, before you make final
+decision.  The signature of the Chief is clear."
+
+Captain Desportes read aloud--"It is of the utmost importance to
+me, that the Blonde should not be captured by the enemy, as the
+Ville d'Anvers has been.  You tell me that it is ashore near you,
+and the Captain and crew upon parole, to be liberated if they
+assist in the extrication of the vessel.  This must not be.  In the
+service of the State, I demand that they consider not at all their
+parole.  The well-known speed and light draught of that vessel have
+rendered her almost indispensable to me.  When the vessel is free,
+they must rise upon the enemy, and make for the nearest of our
+ports without delay.  Upon this I insist, and place confidence in
+your established courage and management, to accomplish it to my
+satisfaction."
+
+"Your orders are clear enough," said Caryl Carne.  "What reason can
+you give, as an officer of the Republic, for disobeying them?"
+
+Desportes looked at his ship in the distance, and then at the sea
+and the sky, with a groan, as if he were bidding farewell to them.
+Carne felt sure that he had prevailed, and a smile shed light, but
+not a soft light, on his hard pale countenance.
+
+"Be in no rash haste," said the French sea-captain, and he could
+not have found words more annoying to the cold proud man before
+him; "I do not recognise in this mandate the voice of my country,
+of the honourable France, which would never say, 'Let my sons break
+their word of honour!'  This man speaks, not as Chief of a grand
+State, not as leader of noble gentlemen, but as Emperor of a
+society of serfs.  France is no empire; she is a grand nation of
+spirit, of valour, above all, of honour.  The English have treated
+me, as I would treat them, with kindness, with largeness, with
+confidence.  In the name of fair France, I will not do this thing."
+
+Carne was naturally pale, but now he grew white with rage, and his
+black eyes flashed.
+
+"France will be an empire within six months; and your honour will
+be put upon prison diet, while your family starve for the sake of
+it."
+
+"If I ever meet you under other circumstances," replied the brave
+Frenchman, now equally pale, "I shall demand reparation, sir."
+
+"With great pleasure," replied Carne, contemptuously; "meanwhile
+monsieur will have enough to do to repair his broken fortunes."
+
+Captain Desportes turned his back, and gave a whistle for his crew,
+then stepped with much dignity into his boat.  "To the Blonde,
+lads," he cried, "to the unsullied Blonde!"  Then he sate, looking
+at her, and stroked his grizzled beard, into which there came
+trickling a bitter tear or two, as he thought of his wife and
+family.  He had acted well; but, according to the measure of the
+present world, unwisely.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+NO CONCERN OF OURS
+
+
+The very next morning it was known to the faithful of Springhaven
+that the glory of the place would be trebled that day, and its
+income increased desirably.  That day, the fair stranger (which had
+so long awakened the admiration of the women, and the jealousy of
+the men) would by the consummate skill of Captain Zeb--who had
+triumphed over all the officers of the British Navy--float forth
+magnificently from her narrow bed, hoist her white sails, and under
+British ensign salute the new fort, and shape a course for
+Portsmouth.  That she had stuck fast and in danger so long was
+simply because the cocked hats were too proud to give ear to the
+wisdom in an old otter-skin.  Now Admiral Darling was baffled and
+gone; and Captain Tugwell would show the world what he could do,
+and what stuff his men were made of, if they only had their way.
+From old Daddy Stakes, the bald father of the village, to Mrs.
+Caper junior's baby--equally bald, but with a crop as sure of
+coming as mustard and cress beneath his flannel--some in arms, some
+on legs, some upon brave crutches, all were abroad in the soft air
+from the west, which had stolen up under the stiff steel skirt of
+the east wind, exactly as wise Captain Zeb predicted.
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Twemlow to the solid Mrs. Stubbard, for a very
+sweet friendship had sprung up between these ladies, and would last
+until their interests should happen to diverge, "this will be a
+great day for my dear husband's parish.  Perhaps there is no other
+parish in the kingdom capable of acting as Springhaven has, so
+obedient, so disciplined, so faithful to their contract!  I am told
+that they even pulled the vessel more aground, in preference to
+setting up their own opinions.  I am told that as soon as the
+Admiral was gone--for between you and me he is a little
+overbearing, with the very best intentions in the world, but too
+confident in his own sagacity--then that clever but exceedingly
+modest young man, Lieutenant Scudamore, was allowed at last to
+listen to our great man Tugwell, who has long been the oracle of
+the neighbourhood about the sea, and the weather, and all questions
+of that kind.  And between you and me, my dear, the poor old
+Admiral seems a little bit jealous of his reputation.  And what do
+you think he said before he went, which shows his high opinion of
+his own abilities?  Tugwell said something in his rough and ready
+way, which, I suppose, put his mightiness upon the high ropes, for
+he shouted out in everybody's hearing, 'I'll tell you what it is,
+my man, if you can get her off, by any of your'--something I must
+not repeat--'devices, I'll give you fifty guineas, five-and-twenty
+for yourself, and the rest to be divided among these other
+fellows.'  Then Zebedee pulled out a Testament from his pocket, for
+he is a man of deep religious convictions, and can read almost all
+the easy places, though he thinks most of the hard ones, and he
+made his son Dan (who is a great scholar, as they say, and a very
+fine-looking youth as well) put down at the end what the Admiral
+had said.  Now, what do you think of that, dear Mrs. Stubbard?"
+
+"I think," replied that strong-minded lady, "that Tugwell is an
+arrant old fox; and if he gets the fifty guineas, he will put every
+farthing into his own pocket."
+
+"Oh, no!  He is honest as the day itself.  He will take his own
+twenty-five, and then leave the rest to settle whether he should
+share in their twenty-five.  But we must be quick, or we shall lose
+the sight.  Quite a number of people are come from inland.  How
+wonderfully quickly these things spread!  They came the first day,
+and then made up their minds that nothing could be done, and so
+they stopped at home.  But now, here they are again, as if by
+magic!  If the ship gets off, it will be known halfway to London
+before nightfall.  But I see Captain Stubbard going up the hill to
+your charming battery.  That shows implicit faith in Tugwell, to
+return the salute of the fair captive!  It is indeed a proud day
+for Springhaven!"
+
+"But it isn't done yet.  And perhaps it won't be done.  I would
+rather trust officers of the navy than people who catch crabs and
+oysters.  I would go up to the battery, to laugh at my husband, but
+for the tricks the children play me.  My authority is gone, at the
+very first puff of smoke.  How children do delight in that vile
+gunpowder!"
+
+"So they ought, in the present state of our country, with five
+hundred thousand of Frenchmen coming.  My dear Mrs. Stubbard, how
+thankful we should be to have children who love gunpowder!"
+
+"But not when they blow up their mother, ma'am."
+
+"Oh, here comes Eliza!" cried Mrs. Twemlow.  "I am so glad, because
+she knows everything.  I thought we had missed her.  My dear child,
+where are Faith and Dolly Darling gone?  There are so many
+strangers about to-day that the better class should keep together."
+
+"Here are three of us at any rate," replied the young lady, who
+considered her mother old-fashioned: "enough to secure one
+another's sanctity from the lower orders.  Faith has gone on to the
+headland, with that heroic mannikin, Johnny.  Dolly was to follow,
+with that Shanks maid to protect her, as soon as her hat was
+trimmed, or some such era.  But I'll answer for it that she loses
+herself in the crowd, or some fib of that sort."
+
+"Eliza!" said her mother, and very severely, because Mrs. Stubbard
+was present, "I am quite astonished at your talking so.  You might
+do the greatest injury to a very lively and harmless, but not over-
+prudent girl, if any one heard you who would repeat it.  We all
+know that the Admiral is so wrapped up in Dolly that he lets her do
+many things which a mother would forbid.  But that is no concern of
+ours; and once for all, if such things must be said, I beg that
+they may not be said by you."
+
+In the present age, Mrs. Twemlow would have got sharp answer.  But
+her daughter only looked aggrieved, and glanced at Mrs. Stubbard,
+as if to say, "Well, time will show whether I deserve it."  And
+then they hastened on, among the worse class, to the headland.
+
+Not only all the fishing-smacks, and Captain Stubbard's galley, but
+every boat half as sound as a hat, might now be seen near the
+grounded vessel, preparing to labour or look on.  And though the
+White Pig was allowed to be three-quarters of a mile from the
+nearest point, the mighty voice of Captain Zeb rode over the
+flickering breadth of sea, and through the soft babble of the waves
+ashore.  The wind was light from southwest, and the warp being
+nearly in the same direction now, the Blonde began to set her
+courses, to catch a lift of air, when the tide should come busily
+working under her.  And this would be the best tide since she took
+the ground, last Sunday week, when the springs were going off.  As
+soon as the hawsers were made fast, and the shouts of Zebedee
+redoubled with great strength (both of sound and of language), and
+the long ropes lifted with a flash of splashes, and a creak of
+heavy wood, and the cry was, "With a will! with a will, my gay
+lads!" every body having a sound eye in it was gazing intently, and
+every heart was fluttering, except the loveliest eyes and quickest
+heart in all Springhaven.
+
+Miss Dolly had made up her mind to go, and would have had warm
+words ready for any one rash enough to try to prevent her.  But a
+very short note which was put into her hand about 10 A.M.
+distracted her.
+
+"If you wish to do me a real service, according to your kind words
+of Saturday, be in the upper shrubbery at half past eleven; but
+tell no one except the bearer.  You will see all that happens
+better there than on the beach, and I will bring a telescope."
+
+Dolly knew at once who had written this, and admired it all the
+more because it was followed by no signature.  For years she had
+longed for a bit of romance; and the common-sense of all the world
+irked her.  She knew as well as possible that what she ought to do
+was to take this letter to her sister Faith, and be guided by her
+advice about it.  Faith was her elder by three years or more, and
+as steadfast as a rock, yet as tender as young moss.  There was no
+fear that Faith would ride the high horse with her, or lay down the
+law severely; she was much more likely to be too indulgent, though
+certain not to play with wrong.
+
+All this the younger sister knew, and therefore resolved to eschew
+that knowledge.  She liked her own way, and she meant to have it,
+in a harmless sort of way; her own high spirit should be her guide,
+and she was old enough now to be her own judge.  Mr. Carne had
+saved her sister's life, when she stood up in that senseless way;
+and if Faith had no gratitude, Dolly must feel, and endeavour to
+express it for her.
+
+Reasoning thus, and much better than this, she was very particular
+about her hat, and French pelerine of fluted lawn, and frock of
+pale violet trimmed on either side with gathered muslin.  Her
+little heart fluttered at being drawn in, when it should have been
+plumped up to her neck, and very nearly displayed to the public;
+but her father was stern upon some points, and never would hear of
+the classic discoveries.  She had not even Grecian sandals, nor a
+"surprise fan" to flutter from her wrist, nor hair oiled into flat
+Lesbian coils, but freedom of rich young tresses, and of graceful
+figure, and taper limbs.  There was no one who could say her nay,
+of the lovers of maiden nature.
+
+However, maidens must be discreet, even when most adventurous; and
+so she took another maid to help her, of respected but not romantic
+name--Jenny Shanks, who had brought her that letter.  Jenny was
+much prettier than her name, and the ground she trod on was
+worshipped by many, even when her shoes were down at heel.
+Especially in this track remained the finer part of Charley
+Bowles's heart (while the coarser was up against the Frenchmen), as
+well as a good deal of Mr. Prater's nephew's, and of several other
+sole-fishers.  This enabled Jenny to enter kindly into tender
+questions.  And she fetched her Sunday bonnet down the trap-ladder
+where she kept it--because the other maids were so nasty--as soon
+as her letter was delivered.
+
+"Your place, Jenny, is to go behind," Miss Dolly said, with no
+small dignity, as this zealous attendant kept step for step with
+her, and swung her red arm against the lady's fair one.  "I am come
+upon important business, Jenny, such as you cannot understand, but
+may stay at a proper distance."
+
+"Lor, miss, I am sure I begs your pardon.  I thought it was a kind
+of coorting-match, and you might be glad of my experience."
+
+"Such things I never do, and have no idea what you mean.  I shall
+be much obliged to you, Jenny, if you will hold your tongue."
+
+"Oh yes, miss; no fear of my telling anybody.  Wild horses would
+never pull a syllable out of me.  The young men is so aggravating
+that I keep my proper distance from them.  But the mind must be
+made up, at one time or other."
+
+Dolly looked down at her with vast contempt, which she would not
+lower herself by expressing, even with favour of time and place.
+Then turning a corner of the grassy walk, between ground-ash and
+young larches, they came upon an opening planted round with ilex,
+arbutus, juniper, and laurel, and backed by one of the rocks which
+form the outworks of the valley.  From a niche in this rock, like
+the port-hole of a ship, a rill of sparkling water poured, and
+beginning to make a noise already, cut corner's--of its own
+production--short, in its hurry to be a brook, and then to help the
+sea.  And across its exit from the rock (like a measure of its
+insignificance) a very comfortable seat was fixed, so that any
+gentleman--or even a lady with divided skirts--might freely sit
+with one foot on either bank of this menacing but not yet very
+formidable stream.  So that on the whole this nook of shelter under
+the coronet of rock was a favourite place for a sage cock-pheasant,
+or even a woodcock in wintry weather.
+
+Upon that bench (where the Admiral loved to sit, in the afternoon
+of peace and leisure, observing with a spy-glass the manoeuvres of
+his tranquil fishing fleet) Caryl Carne was sitting now, with his
+long and strong legs well spread out, his shoulders comfortably
+settled back, and his head cast a little on one side, as if he were
+trying to compute his property.  Then, as Dolly came into the
+opening, he arose, made a bow beyond the compass of any true
+Briton, and swinging his hat, came to meet her.  Dolly made a
+curtsey in the style impressed upon her by her last governess but
+one--a French lady of exceedingly high ancestry and manners--and
+Carne recognised it as a fine thing out of date.
+
+"Jenny, get away!" said Dolly--words not meant for him to hear, but
+he had grave command of countenance.
+
+"This lays me under one more obligation:" Carne spoke in a low
+voice, and with a smile of diffidence which reminded her of
+Scudamore, though the two smiles were as different as night and
+day.  "I have taken a great liberty in asking you to come, and that
+multiplies my gratitude for your good-will.  For my own sake alone
+I would not have dared to sue this great favour from you, though I
+put it so, in terror of alarming you.  But it is for my own sake
+also, since anything evil to you would be terrible to me."
+
+"No one can wish to hurt me," she answered, looking up at him
+bravely, and yet frightened by his gaze, "because I have never
+harmed any one.  And I assure you, sir, that I have many to defend
+me, even when my father is gone from home."
+
+"It is beyond doubt.  Who would not rush to do so?  But it is from
+those who are least suspected that the danger comes the worst.  The
+most modest of all gentlemen, who blushes like a damsel, or the
+gallant officer devoted to his wife and children, or the simple
+veteran with his stars, and scars, and downright speech--these are
+the people that do the wrong, because no one believes it is in
+them."
+
+"Then which of the three is to carry me off from home, and friends,
+and family--Lieutenant Scudamore, Captain Stubbard, or my own
+godfather, Lord Nelson?"
+
+This young man nourished a large contempt for the intellect of
+women, and was therefore surprised at the quickness and spirit of
+the girl whom he wished to terrify.  A sterner tone must be used
+with her.
+
+"I never deal in jokes," he said, with a smile of sad sympathy for
+those who do; "my life is one perpetual peril, and that restrains
+facetiousness.  But I can make allowance for those who like it."
+
+Miss Dolly, the pet child of the house, and all the people round
+it--except the gardener, Mr. Swipes, who found her too inquisitive--
+quick as she was, could not realise at once the possibility of
+being looked down upon.
+
+"I am sorry that you have to be so grave," she said, "because it
+prevents all enjoyment.  But why should you be in such continual
+danger?  You promised to explain it, on Saturday, only you had no
+time then.  We are all in danger from the French, of course, if
+they ever should succeed in landing.  But you mean something more
+than that; and it seems so hard, after all your losses, that you
+should not be safe from harm."
+
+With all her many faults--many more than she dreamed of--fair Dolly
+had a warm and gentle heart, which filled her eyes with tender
+loveliness, whenever it obtained command of them.  Carne, who was
+watching them steadfastly for his own purpose, forgot that purpose,
+and dropped his dark eyes, and lost the way to tell a lie.
+
+"If I may ask you," he said, almost stammering, and longing without
+knowledge for the blessing of her touch, "to--to allow me just to
+lead you to this seat, I may perhaps be able--I will not take the
+liberty of sitting at your side--but I may perhaps be able to
+explain as much of my affairs as you can wish to hear of them, and
+a great deal more, I fear, a great deal more, Miss Darling."
+
+Dolly blushed at the rich tone in which he pronounced her name,
+almost as if it were an adjective; but she allowed him to take her
+hand, and lead her to the bench beneath the rock.  Then, regardless
+of his breeches, although of fine padusoy, and his coat, though of
+purple velvet, he sate down on the bank of the rill at her feet,
+and waited for her to say something.  The young lady loved mainly
+to take the lead, but would liefer have followed suit just now.
+
+"You have promised to tell me," she said, very softly, and with an
+unusual timidity, which added to her face and manner almost the
+only charm they lacked, "some things which I do not understand, and
+which I have no right to ask you of, except for your own offer.
+Why should you, without injuring any one, but only having suffered
+loss of all your family property, and of all your rights and
+comforts, and living in that lonely place which used to be full of
+company--why should you be in danger now, when you have nothing
+more to be robbed of?  I beg your pardon--I mean when all your
+enemies must have done their worst."
+
+"You are too young yet to understand the world," he answered, with
+a well-drawn sigh; "and I hope most truly that you may never do so.
+In your gentle presence I cannot speak with bitterness, even if I
+could feel it.  I will not speak harshly of any one, however I may
+have been treated.  But you will understand that my life alone
+remains betwixt the plunderers and their prey, and that my errand
+here prevents them from legally swallowing up the spoil."
+
+Miss Dolly's idea of the law, in common with that of most young
+ladies, suggested a horrible monster ravening to devour the fallen.
+And the fall of the Carnes had long been a subject of romantic
+interest to her.
+
+"Oh, I see!" she exclaimed, with a look of deep wisdom.  "I can
+quite understand a thing like that, from what I have heard about
+witnesses.  I hope you will be very careful.  My sister owes so
+much to you, and so do I."
+
+"You must never speak of that again, unless you wish to grieve me.
+I know that I have said too much about myself; but you alone care
+to know anything about me; and that beguiles one out--out of one's
+wits.  If I speak bad English, you will forgive me.  I have passed
+so many years on the Continent, and am picking up the language of
+my childhood very slowly.  You will pardon me, when I am misled by--
+by my own signification."
+
+"Well done!" cried the innocent Dolly.  "Now that is the very first
+piece of bad English you have used, to the best of my belief, and I
+am rather quick in that.  But you have not yet explained to me my
+own danger, though you asked me to come here for that purpose, I
+believe."
+
+"But you shall not be so; you shall not be in danger.  My life
+shall be given for your defence.  What imports my peril compared
+with yours?  I am not of cold blood.  I will sacrifice all.  Have
+faith in me purely, and all shall be done."
+
+"All what?" Dolly asked, with a turn of common-sense, which is the
+most provoking of all things sometimes; and she looked at him
+steadily, to follow up her question.
+
+"You cannot be persuaded that you are in any danger.  It is
+possible that I have been too anxious.  Do you speak the French
+language easily?  Do you comprehend it, when spoken quickly?"
+
+"Not a word of it.  I have had to learn, of course, and can
+pronounce very well, my last mistress said; but I cannot make it
+out at all in the way the French people pronounce it, when one
+comes to talk with them."
+
+"It is very wrong of them, and the loss is theirs.  They expect us
+to copy them even in their language, because we do it in everything
+else.  Pardon me--one moment.  May I look at the great enterprise
+which is to glorify Springhaven?  It is more than kind of you to be
+here instead of there.  But this, as I ventured to say, is a far
+better place to observe the operation.  Your words reminded me of
+Captain Desportes, who has been, I think, your father's guest.  A
+very gallant sailor, and famed for the most unexpected exploits.
+Without doubt, he would have captured all three ships, if he had
+not contrived to run his own aground."
+
+"How could he capture his own ship?  I thought that you never dealt
+in jokes.  But if you dislike them, you seem to be fond of a little
+mystery.  I like the French captain very much, and he took the
+trouble to speak slowly for me.  My father says that he bears his
+misfortune nobly, and like a perfect gentleman.  Mr. Scudamore
+admires him, and they are great friends.  And yet, sir, you seem
+inclined to hint that I am in danger from Captain Desportes!"
+
+"Ha! she is afloat!  They have succeeded.  I thought that they had
+so arranged it.  The brave ship spreads her pinions.  How clever
+the people of Springhaven are!  If you will condescend to look
+through this glass, you will see much embracing of the Saxon and
+the Gaul, or rather, I should say, of the Saxon by the Gaul.  Old
+Tugwell is not fond to be embraced."
+
+"Oh, let me see that!  I must see that!" cried Dolly, with all
+reserve and caution flown; "to see Capp'en Zeb in the arms of a
+Frenchman--yes, I declare, two have got him, if not three, and he
+puts his great back against the mast to disentangle it.  Oh, what
+will he do next?  He has knocked down two, in reply to excessive
+cordiality.  What wonderful creatures Frenchmen are!  How kind it
+is of you to show me this!  But excuse me, Mr. Carne; there will be
+twenty people coming to the house before I can get back almost.
+And the ship will salute the battery, and the battery will return
+it.  Look! there goes a great puff of smoke already.  They can see
+me up here, when they get to that corner."
+
+"But this spot is not private?  I trust that I have not intruded.
+Your father allows a sort of foot-path through this upper end of
+his grounds?"
+
+"Yes, to all the villagers, and you are almost one of them; there
+is no right of way at all; and they very seldom come this way,
+because it leads to nowhere.  Faith is fond of sitting here, to
+watch the sea, and think of things.  And so am I--sometimes, I
+mean."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+LONG-PIPE TIMES
+
+
+Daily now the roar and clank of war grew loud and louder, across
+the narrow seas, and up the rivers, and around the quiet homes of
+England.  If any unusual cloud of dust, any moving shade, appeared
+afar, if the tramp of horses in the lane were heard, or neigh of a
+colt from the four-cross roads, people at dinner would start up and
+cry, "The French, the French have landed!" while the men in the
+fields would get nearer the hedge to peep through it, and then run
+away down the ditch.
+
+But the nation at large, and the governing powers, certainly were
+not in any great fright.  Nay, rather they erred, if at all, on the
+side of tranquillity and self-confidence; as one who has been fired
+at with blank-cartridge forgets that the click of the trigger will
+not tell him when the bullet has been dropped in.  The bullet was
+there this time; and it missed the heart of Britannia, only through
+the failure of the powder to explode all at once.
+
+It was some years before all this was known; even Nelson had no
+perception of it; and although much alarm was indulged in on the
+sly, the few who gave voice to it were condemned as faint-hearted
+fellows and "alarmists."  How then could Springhaven, which never
+had feared any enemies, or even neighbours, depart from its habits,
+while still an eye-witness of what had befallen the Frenchman?  And
+in this state of mind, having plenty to talk of, it did not (as
+otherwise must have been done) attach any deep importance to the
+strange vagaries of the London Trader.
+
+That great Institution, and Royal Exchange, as well as central
+embassy of Fashion, had lately become most uncertain in its dates,
+which for years had announced to loose-reckoning housewives the day
+of the week and the hour to buy candles.  Instead of coming home on
+a Saturday eve, in the van of all the fishing fleet, returning
+their cheers and those of customers on the beach, the London Trader
+arrived anywhen, as often in the dark as daylight, never took the
+ground at all, and gave a very wide berth to Captain Zeb Tugwell,
+his craft, and his crews.  At times she landed packages big and
+bulky, which would have been searched (in spite of London bills of
+lading) if there had been any Custom-house here, or any keen
+Officer of Customs.  But these were delivered by daylight always,
+and carted by Mr. Cheeseman's horse direct to his master's cellars;
+and Cheeseman had told everybody that his wife, having come into a
+little legacy, was resolved in spite of his advice to try a bit of
+speculation in hardware, through her sister miles away at Uckfield.
+Most of the neighbours liked Mrs. Cheeseman, because she gave good
+weight (scarcely half an ounce short, with her conscience to her
+family thrown in against it), as well as the soundest piece of
+gossip to be had for the money in Springhaven.  And therefore they
+wished her well, and boxed their children's ears if they found them
+poking nose into her packages.  Mrs. Cheeseman shook her head when
+enquired of on the subject, and said with grave truth that the Lord
+alone can tell how any of poor people's doings may turn out.
+
+Some other things puzzled the village, and would in more sensible
+times have produced a sensation.  Why did Mr. Cheeseman now think
+nothing of as much as three spots on his white linen apron, even in
+the first half of the week?  Why was he seldom at John Prater's
+now, and silent in a corner even when he did appear?  What was
+become of the ruddy polish, like that of a Winter Redstrake, on his
+cheeks, which made a man long for a slice of his ham?  Why, the
+only joke he had made for the last three months was a terrible one
+at his own expense.  He had rushed down the street about ten
+o'clock one morning, at a pace quite insane for a middle-aged man,
+with no hat on his head and no coat on his back, but the strings of
+his apron dashed wild on the breeze, and his biggest ham-carver
+making flashes in his hand.  It was thought that some boy must have
+run off with a penny, or some visitor changed a bad shilling; but
+no, there was no such good reason to give for it.
+
+The yearning of all ages, especially dotage, is for a relapse to
+the infantile state when all playthings were held in common.  And
+this wisest of all places (in its own opinion) had a certain
+eccentric inclination towards the poetic perfection when it will be
+impossible to steal, because there will be nothing left worth
+stealing.  Still everybody here stuck to his own rights, and would
+knock down anybody across them, though finding it very nice to talk
+as if others could have no such standing-point.  Moreover, they had
+sufficient common-sense to begin with the right end foremost, and
+to take a tender interest in one another's goods, moveable, handy,
+and divisible; instead of hungering after hungry land, which feeds
+nobody, until itself well fed and tended, and is as useless without
+a master as a donkey or a man is.  The knowledge of these rudiments
+of civilization was not yet lost at Springhaven; and while
+everybody felt and even proved his desire to share a neighbour's
+trouble, nobody meddled with any right of his, save his right to be
+assisted.
+
+Among them throve the old English feeling of respect for ancient
+families, which is nowadays called "toadyism" by those whom it
+baulks of robbery.  To trade upon this good-will is almost as low a
+thing as any man can do, even when he does it for good uses.  But
+to trade upon it, for the harm of those who feel it, and the ruin
+of his country, is without exception the very lowest--and this was
+what Caryl Carne was at.
+
+He looked at the matter in a wholly different light, and would have
+stabbed any man who put it as above; for his sense of honour was as
+quick and hot as it was crooked and misguided.  His father had been
+a true Carne, of the old stamp--hot-blooded, headstrong, stubborn,
+wayward, narrow-minded, and often arrogant; but--to balance these
+faults and many others--truthful, generous, kind-hearted,
+affectionate, staunch to his friends, to his inferiors genial,
+loyal to his country, and respectful to religion.  And he might
+have done well, but for two sad evils--he took a burdened property,
+and he plunged into a bad marriage.
+
+His wife, on the other hand, might have done well, if she had
+married almost anybody else.  But her nature was too like his own,
+with feminine vanity and caprice, French conceit, and the pride of
+noble birth--in the proudest age of nobility--hardening all her
+faults, and hammering the rivets of her strong self-will.  To these
+little difficulties must be added the difference of religion; and
+though neither of them cared two pins for that, it was a matter for
+crossed daggers.  A pound of feathers weighs as much as (and in
+some poise more than) a pound of lead, and the leaden-headed Squire
+and the feather-headed Madame swung always at opposite ends of the
+beam, until it broke between them.  Tales of rough conflict,
+imprisonment, starvation, and even vile blows, were told about them
+for several years; and then "Madame la Comtesse" (as her husband
+disdainfully called her) disappeared, carrying off her one child,
+Caryl.  She was still of very comely face and form; and the Squire
+made known to all whom it concerned, and many whom it did not
+concern, that his French wife had run away with a young Frenchman,
+according to the habit of her race and kind.  In support of this
+charge he had nothing whatever to show, and his friends disbelieved
+it, knowing him to be the last man in the world to leave such a
+wrong unresented.
+
+During the last three generations the fortunes of the Carnes had
+been declining, slowly at first, and then faster and faster; and
+now they fell with the final crash.  The lady of high birth and
+great beauty had brought nothing else into the family, but rather
+had impoverished it by her settlement, and wild extravagance
+afterwards.  Her husband Montagu Carne staved off the evil day just
+for the present, by raising a large sum upon second mortgage and
+the security of a trustful friend.  But this sum was dissipated,
+like the rest; for the Squire, being deeply wounded by his wife's
+desertion, proved to the world his indifference about it by
+plunging into still more reckless ways.  He had none to succeed
+him; for he vowed that the son of the adulteress--as he called her--
+should never have Carne Castle; and his last mad act was to buy
+five-and-twenty barrels of powder, wherewith to blow up his
+ancestral home.  But ere he could accomplish that stroke of
+business he stumbled and fell down the old chapel steps, and was
+found the next morning by faithful Jeremiah, as cold as the ivy
+which had caught his feet, and as dead as the stones he would have
+sent to heaven.
+
+No marvel that his son had no love for his memory, and little for
+the land that gave him birth.  In very early days this boy had
+shown that his French blood was predominant.  He would bite, and
+kick, and scratch, instead of striking, as an English child does,
+and he never cared for dogs or horses, neither worshipped he the
+gamekeeper.  France was the proper land for him, as his mother
+always said with a sweet proud smile, and his father with a sneer,
+or a brief word now condemned.  And France was the land for him (as
+facts ordained) to be nourished, and taught, and grown into tall
+manhood, and formed into the principles and habitude and character
+which every nation stamps upon the nature of its members.
+
+However, our strong point--like that of all others--is absolute
+freedom from prejudice; and the few English people who met Caryl
+Carne were well pleased with his difference from themselves.  Even
+the enlightened fishermen, imbued with a due contempt for Crappos,
+felt a kindly will towards him, and were touched by his return to a
+ruined home and a lonely life.  But the women, romantic as they
+ought to be, felt a tender interest in a young man so handsome and
+so unlucky, who lifted his hat to them, and paid his way.
+
+Among the rising spirits of the place, who liked to take a larger
+view, on the strength of more education, than their fathers had
+found confirmed by life, Dan Tugwell was perhaps the foremost.  In
+the present days he might have been a hot radical, even a
+socialist; but things were not come to that pass yet among people
+brought up to their duty.  And Dan's free sentiments had not been
+worked by those who make a trade of such work now.  So that he was
+pleased and respectful, instead of carping and contradictory, when
+persons of higher position than his own would discuss the condition
+of the times with him.  Carne had discovered this, although as a
+rule he said little to his neighbours, and for reasons of his own
+he was striving to get a good hold upon this young fellow.  He
+knew that it could not be done in a moment, nor by any common
+corruption; the mind of the youth being keen, clear-sighted, and
+simple--by reason of soundness.  Then Carne accidentally heard of
+something, which encouraged and helped him in his design upon Dan.
+
+Business was slack upon the sea just now, but unusually active upon
+land, a tide of gold having flowed into Springhaven, and bubbled up
+in frying-pans and sparkled in new bonnets.  The fishing fleet had
+captured the finest French frigate--according to feminine history--
+that ever endeavoured to capture them.  After such a prisoner, let
+the fish go free, till hunger should spring again in the human
+breast, or the part that stands up under it.  The hero of the whole
+(unlike most heroes) had not succeeded in ruining himself by his
+services to his country, but was able to go about patting his
+pocket, with an echo in his heart, every time it tinkled, that a
+quantity more to come into it was lying locked up in a drawer at
+home.  These are the things that breed present happiness in a noble
+human nature, all else being either of the future or the past; and
+this is the reason why gold outweighs everything that can be said
+against it.
+
+Captain Tugwell, in his pithy style, was wont to divide all human
+life into two distinctive tenses--the long-pipe time and the short-
+pipe time.  The long-pipe time was of ease and leisure, comfort in
+the way of hot victuals and cool pots, the stretching of legs
+without strain of muscle, and that ever-fresh well-spring of
+delight to the hard worker, the censorial but not censorious
+contemplation of equally fine fellows, equally lazy, yet pegging
+hard, because of nothing in their pockets to tap.  Such were the
+golden periods of standing, or, still better, sitting with his back
+against a tree, and a cool yard of clay between his gently smiling
+lips, shaving with his girdle-knife a cake of rich tobacco, and
+then milling it complacently betwixt his horny palms, with his
+resolute eyes relaxing into a gentle gaze at the labouring sea, and
+the part (where his supper soon would be) warming into a fine
+condition for it, by good-will towards all the world.  As for the
+short-pipe times, with a bitter gale dashing the cold spray into
+his eyes, legs drenched with sleet, and shivering to the fork, and
+shoulders racked with rheumatism against the groaning mast, and the
+stump of a pipe keeping chatter with his teeth--away with all
+thought of such hardship now, except what would serve to fatten
+present comfort.
+
+But fatherly feeling and sense of right compelled Captain Zeb to
+check idle enjoyment from going too far--i. e., further than
+himself.  Every other member of his family but himself, however
+good the times might be, must work away as hard as ever, and earn
+whatever victuals it should please the Lord to send them.  There
+was always a job to be found, he knew that, if a young man or maid
+had a mind for it; and "no silver no supper" was the order of his
+house.  His eldest son Dan was the first to be driven--for a good
+example to the younger ones--and now he was set to work full time
+and overtime, upon a heavy job at Pebbleridge.
+
+Young Daniel was not at all afraid of work, whenever there was any
+kind of skill to be shown, or bodily strength to be proved by it.
+But the present task was hateful to him; for any big-armed yokel,
+or common wood-hewer, might have done as much as he could do, and
+perhaps more, at it, and could have taken the same wage over it.
+Mr. Coggs, of Pebbleridge, the only wheelwright within ten miles of
+Springhaven, had taken a Government contract to supply within a
+certain time five hundred spoke-wheels for ammunition tumbrils, and
+as many block-wheels for small artillery; and to hack out these
+latter for better men to finish was the daily task of Dan Tugwell.
+
+This job swelled his muscles and enlarged his calves, and fetched
+away all the fat he had been enabled to form in loftier walks of
+art; but these outward improvements were made at the expense of his
+inner and nobler qualities.  To hack and hew timber by the cubic
+foot, without any growing pleasure of proportion or design, to knit
+the brows hard for a struggle with knots, and smile the stern smile
+of destruction; and then, after a long and rough walk in the dark--
+for the equinox now was impending--to be joked at by his father
+(who had lounged about all day), and have all his money told into
+the paternal pocket, with narrow enquiries, each Saturday night.
+But worst of all to know that because he was not born with a silver
+spoon in his mouth, he had no heart--no heart that he could offer
+where he laid it; but there it must lie, and be trodden on in
+silence, while rakish-looking popinjays--But this reflection
+stopped him, for it was too bitter to be thought out, and fetched
+down his quivering hand upon his axe.  Enough that these things did
+not tend to a healthy condition of mind, or the proper worship of
+the British Constitution.  However, he was not quite a Radical yet.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+FAIR IN THEORY
+
+
+One Saturday evening, when the dusk was just beginning to smoothe
+the break of billow and to blunt the edge of rock, young Dan
+Tugwell swung his axe upon his shoulder, with the flag basket
+hanging from it in which his food had been, and in a rather crusty
+state of mind set forth upon his long walk home to Springhaven.  As
+Harry Shanks had said, and almost everybody knew, an ancient foot-
+path, little used, but never yet obstructed, cut off a large bend
+of the shore, and saved half a mile of plodding over rock and
+shingle.  This path was very lonesome, and infested with dark
+places, as well as waylaid with a very piteous ghost, who never
+would keep to the spot where he was murdered, but might appear at
+any shady stretch or woody corner.  Dan Tugwell knew three
+courageous men who had seen this ghost, and would take good care to
+avoid any further interview, and his own faith in ghosts was as
+stanch as in gold; yet such was his mood this evening that he
+determined to go that way and chance it, not for the saving of
+distance, but simply because he had been told in the yard that day
+that the foot-path was stopped by the landowner.  "We'll see about
+that," said Dan; and now he was going to see about it.
+
+For the first field or two there was no impediment, except the
+usual stile or gate; but when he had crossed a little woodland
+hollow, where the fence of the castle grounds ran down to the brow
+of the cliff, he found entrance barred.  Three stout oak rails had
+been nailed across from tree to tree, and on a board above them
+was roughly painted:  "No thoroughfare.  Tresspassers will be
+prosecuted."  For a moment the young man hesitated, his dread of
+the law being virtuously deep, and his mind well assured that his
+father would not back him up against settled authorities.  But the
+shame of turning back, and the quick sense of wrong, which had long
+been demanding some outlet, conquered his calmer judgment, and he
+cast the basket from his back.  Then swinging his favourite axe, he
+rushed at the oaken bars, and with a few strokes sent them rolling
+down the steep bank-side.
+
+"That for your stoppage of a right of way!" he cried; "and now
+perhaps you'll want to know who done it."
+
+To gratify this natural curiosity he drew a piece of chalk from his
+pocket, and wrote on the notice-board in large round hand, "Daniel
+Tugwell, son of Zebedee Tugwell, of Springhaven."  But suddenly his
+smile of satisfaction fled, and his face turned as white as the
+chalk in his hand.  At the next turn of the path, a few yards
+before him, in the gray gloom cast by an ivy-mantled tree, stood a
+tall dark figure, with the right arm raised.  The face was
+indistinct, but (as Dan's conscience told him) hostile and
+unforgiving; there was nothing to reflect a ray of light, and there
+seemed to be a rustle of some departure, like the spirit fleeing.
+
+The ghost!  What could it be but the ghost?  Ghosts ought to be
+white; but terror scorns all prejudice.  Probably this murdered one
+was buried in his breeches.  Dan's heart beat quicker than his axe
+had struck; and his feet were off to beat the ground still quicker.
+But no Springhaven lad ever left his baggage.  Dan leaped aside
+first to catch up his basket, and while he stooped for it, he heard
+a clear strong voice.
+
+"Who are you, that have dared to come and cut my fence down?"
+
+No ghost could speak like that, even if he could put a fence up.
+The inborn courage of the youth revived, and the shame of his
+fright made him hardier.  He stepped forward again, catching breath
+as he spoke, and eager to meet any man in the flesh.
+
+"I am Daniel Tugwell, of Springhaven.  And no living man shall deny
+me of my rights.  I have a right to pass here, and I mean to do
+it."
+
+Caryl Carne, looking stately in his suit of black velvet, drew
+sword and stood behind the shattered barrier.  "Are you ready to
+run against this?" he asked.  "Poor peasant, go back; what are your
+rights worth?"
+
+"I could smash that skewer at a blow," said Daniel, flourishing his
+axe as if to do it; "but my rights, as you say, are not worth the
+hazard.  What has a poor man to do with rights?  Would you stop a
+man of your own rank, Squire Carne?"
+
+"Ah, that would be a different thing indeed!  Justice wears a
+sword, because she is of gentle birth.  Work-people with axes must
+not prate of rights, or a prison will be their next one.  Your
+right is to be disdained, young man, because you were not born a
+gentleman; and your duty is to receive scorn with your hat off.
+You like it, probably, because your father did.  But come in,
+Daniel; I will not deny you of the only right an English peasant
+has--the right of the foot to plod in his father's footsteps.  The
+right of the hand, and the tongue, and the stomach--even the right
+of the eye is denied him; but by some freak of law he has some
+little right of foot, doubtless to enable him to go and serve his
+master."
+
+Dan was amazed, and his better sense aroused.  Why should this
+gentleman step out of the rank of his birth, to talk in this way?
+Now and then Dan himself had indulged in such ideas, but always
+with a doubt that they were wicked, and not long enough to make
+them seem good in his eyes.  He knew that some fellows at "the
+Club" talked thus; but they were a lot of idle strangers, who came
+there chiefly to corrupt the natives, and work the fish trade out
+of their hands.  These wholesome reflections made him doubt about
+accepting Squire Carne's invitation; and it would have been good
+for him if that doubt had prevailed, though he trudged a thousand
+miles for it.
+
+"What!  Break down a fence, and then be afraid to enter!  That is
+the style of your race, friend Daniel.  That is why you never get
+your rights, even when you dare to talk of them.  I thought you
+were made of different stuff.  Go home and boast that you shattered
+my fence, and then feared to come through it, when I asked you."
+Carne smiled at his antagonist, and waved his hand.
+
+Dan leaped in a moment through the hanging splinters, and stood
+before the other, with a frown upon his face.  "Then mind one
+thing, sir," he said, with a look of defiance, while touching his
+hat from force of habit, "I pass here, not with your permission,
+but of right."
+
+"Very well.  Let us not split words," said Carne, who had now quite
+recovered his native language.  "I am glad to find a man that dares
+to claim his rights, in the present state of England.  I am going
+towards Springhaven.  Give me the pleasure of your company, and the
+benefit of your opinion upon politics.  I have heard the highest
+praise of your abilities, my friend.  Speak to me just as you would
+to one of your brother fishermen.  By the accident of birth I am
+placed differently from you; and in this country that makes all the
+difference between a man and a dog, in our value.  Though you may
+be, and probably are, the better man--more truthful, more
+courageous, more generous, more true-hearted, and certain to be the
+more humble of the two.  I have been brought up where all men are
+equal, and the things I see here make a new world to me.  Very
+likely these are right, and all the rest of the world quite wrong.
+Englishmen always are certain of that; and as I belong to the
+privileged classes, my great desire is to believe it.  Only I want
+to know how the lower orders--the dregs, the scum, the dirt under
+our feet, the slaves that do all the work and get starved for it--
+how these trampled wretches regard the question.  If they are
+happy, submissive, contented, delighted to lick the boots of their
+betters, my conscience will be clear to accept their homage, and
+their money for any stick of mine they look at.  But you have
+amazed me by a most outrageous act.  Because the lower orders have
+owned a path here for some centuries, you think it wrong that they
+should lose their right.  Explain to me, Daniel, these extraordinary
+sentiments."
+
+"If you please, sir," said Dan, who was following in the track,
+though invited to walk by the side, of Caryl Carne, "I can hardly
+tell you how the lower orders feel, because father and me don't
+belong to them.  Our family have always owned their own boat, and
+worked for their own hand, this two hundred years, and, for all we
+know, ever since the Romans was here.  We call them the lower
+orders, as come round to pick up jobs, and have no settlement in
+our village."
+
+"A sound and very excellent distinction, Dan.  But as against those
+who make the laws, and take good care to enforce them, even you
+(though of the upper rank here) must be counted of the lower order.
+For instance, can you look at a pheasant, or a hare, without being
+put into prison?  Can you dine in the same room with Admiral
+Darling, or ask how his gout is, without being stared at?"
+
+"No, sir.  He would think it a great impertinence, even if I dared
+to do such a thing.  But my father might do it, as a tenant and old
+neighbour.  Though he never gets the gout, when he rides about so
+much."
+
+"What a matter-of-fact youth it is!  But to come to things every
+man has a right to.  If you saved the life of one of the Admiral's
+daughters, and she fell in love with you, as young people will,
+would you dare even lift your eyes to her?  Would you not be kicked
+out of the house and the parish, if you dared to indulge the right
+of every honest heart?  Would you dare to look upon her as a human
+being, of the same order of creation as yourself, who might one day
+be your wife, if you were true and honest, and helped to break down
+the absurd distinctions built up by vile tyranny between you?  In a
+word, are you a man--as every man is on the Continent--or only an
+English slave, of the lower classes?"
+
+The hot flush of wrath, and the soft glow of shame, met and
+deepened each other on the fair cheeks of this "slave"; while his
+mind would not come to him to make a fit reply.  That his passion
+for Dolly, his hopeless passion, should thus be discovered by a man
+of her own rank, but not scorned or ridiculed, only pitied, because
+of his want of manly spirit; that he should be called a "slave"
+because of honest modesty, and even encouraged in his wild hopes by
+a gentleman, who had seen all the world, and looked down from a
+lofty distance on it; that in his true estimate of things there
+should be nothing but prejudice, low and selfish prejudice,
+between--Well, he could not think it out; that would take him many
+hours; let this large-minded man begin again.  It was so dark now,
+that if he turned round on him, unless he was a cat, he would be no
+wiser.
+
+"You do well to take these things with some doubt," continued
+Carne, too sagacious to set up argument, which inures even young
+men in their own opinions; "if I were in your place, I should do
+the same.  Centuries of oppression have stamped out the plain light
+of truth in those who are not allowed it.  To me, as an individual,
+it is better so.  Chance has ordained that I should belong to the
+order of those who profit by it.  It is against my interest to
+speak as I have done.  Am I likely to desire that my fences should
+be broken, my property invaded, the distinction so pleasing to me
+set aside, simply because I consider it a false one?  No, no,
+friend Daniel; it is not for me to move.  The present state of
+things is entirely in my favour.  And I never give expression to my
+sense of right and wrong, unless it is surprised from me by
+circumstances.  Your bold and entirely just proceedings have forced
+me to explain why I feel no resentment, but rather admiration, at a
+thing which any other land-owner in England would not rest in his
+bed until he had avenged.  He would drag you before a bench of
+magistrates and fine you.  Your father, if I know him, would refuse
+to pay the fine; and to prison you would go, with the taint of it
+to lie upon your good name forever.  The penalty would be wrong,
+outrageous, ruinous; no rich man would submit to it, but a poor man
+must.  Is this the truth, Daniel, or is it what it ought to be--a
+scandalous misdescription of the laws of England?"
+
+"No, sir; it is true enough, and too true, I am afraid.  I never
+thought of consequences, when I used my axe.  I only thought of
+what was right, and fair, and honest, as between a man who has a
+right, and one who takes it from him."
+
+"That is the natural way to look at things, but never permitted in
+this country.  You are fortunate in having to deal with one who has
+been brought up in a juster land, where all mankind are equal.  But
+one thing I insist upon; and remember it is the condition of my
+forbearance.  Not a single word to any one about your dashing
+exploit.  No gentleman in the county would ever speak to me again,
+if I were known to have put up with it."
+
+"I am sure, sir," said Daniel, in a truly contrite tone, "I never
+should have done such an impudent thing against you, if I had only
+known what a nice gentleman you are.  I took you for nothing but a
+haughty land-owner, without a word to fling at a poor fisherman.
+And now you go ever so far beyond what the Club doth, in speaking
+of the right that every poor man hasn't.  I could listen to you by
+the hour, sir, and learn the difference between us and abroad."
+
+"Tugwell, I could tell you things that would make a real man of
+you.  But why should I?  You are better as you are; and so are we
+who get all the good out of you.  And besides, I have no time for
+politics at present.  All my time is occupied with stern business--
+collecting the ruins of my property."
+
+"But, sir--but you come down here sometimes from the castle in the
+evening; and if I might cross, without claiming right of way,
+sometimes I might have the luck to meet you."
+
+"Certainly you may pass, as often as you please, and so may anybody
+who sets value on his rights.  And if I should meet you again, I
+shall be glad of it.  You can open my eyes, doubtless, quite as
+much as I can yours.  Good-night, my friend, and better fortunes to
+you!"
+
+"It was worth my while to nail up those rails," Carne said to
+himself, as he went home to his ruins.  "I have hooked that clod,
+as firm as ever he hooked a cod.  But, thousand thunders! what does
+he mean, by going away without touching his hat to me?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+FOUL IN PRACTICE
+
+
+"I hope, my dear, that your ride has done you good," said the
+Rector's wife to the Rector, as he came into the hall with a
+wonderfully red face, one fine afternoon in October.  "If colour
+proves health, you have gained it."
+
+"Maria, I have not been so upset for many years.  Unwholesome
+indignation dyes my cheeks, and that is almost as bad as
+indigestion.  I have had quite a turn--as you women always put it.
+I am never moved by little things, as you know well, and sometimes
+to your great disgust; but to-day my troubles have conspired to
+devour me.  I am not so young as I was, Maria.  And what will the
+parish come to, if I give in?"
+
+"Exactly, dear; and therefore you must not give in."  Mrs. Twemlow
+replied with great spirit, but her hands were trembling as she
+helped him to pull off his new riding-coat.  "Remember your own
+exhortations, Joshua--I am sure they were beautiful--last Sunday.
+But take something, dear, to restore your circulation.  A reaction
+in the system is so dangerous."
+
+"Not anything at present," Mr. Twemlow answered, firmly; "these
+mental cares are beyond the reach of bodily refreshments.  Let me
+sit down, and be sure where I am, and then you may give me a glass
+of treble X.  In the first place, the pony nearly kicked me off,
+when that idiot of a Stubbard began firing from his battery.  What
+have I done, or my peaceful flock, that a noisy set of guns should
+be set up amidst us?  However, I showed Juniper that he had a
+master, though I shall find it hard to come down-stairs tomorrow.
+Well, the next thing was that I saw James Cheeseman, Church-warden
+Cheeseman, Buttery Cheeseman, as the bad boys call him, in the
+lane, in front of me not more than thirty yards, as plainly as I
+now have the pleasure of seeing you, Maria; and while I said 'kuck'
+to the pony, he was gone!  I particularly wished to speak to
+Cheeseman, to ask him some questions about things I have observed,
+and especially his sad neglect of public worship--a most shameful
+example on the part of a church-warden--and I was thinking how to
+put it, affectionately yet firmly, when, to my great surprise,
+there was no Cheeseman to receive it!  I called at his house on my
+return, about three hours afterwards, having made up my mind to
+have it out with him, when they positively told me--or at least
+Polly Cheeseman did--that I must be mistaken about her 'dear papa,'
+because he was gone in the pony-shay all the way to Uckfield, and
+would not be back till night."
+
+"The nasty little story-teller!" Mrs. Twemlow cried.  "But I am not
+at all surprised at it, when I saw how she had got her hair done
+up, last Sunday."
+
+"No; Polly believed it.  I am quite sure of that.  But what I want
+to tell you is much stranger and more important, though it cannot
+have anything at all to do with Cheeseman.  You know, I told you I
+was going for a good long ride; but I did not tell you where,
+because I knew that you would try to stop me.  But the fact was
+that I had made up my mind to see what Caryl Carne is at, among his
+owls and ivy.  You remember the last time I went to the old place I
+knocked till I was tired, but could get no answer, and the window
+was stopped with some rusty old spiked railings, where we used to
+be able to get in at the side.  All the others are out of reach, as
+you know well; and being of a yielding nature, I came sadly home.
+And at that time I still had some faith in your friend Mrs.
+Stubbard, who promised to find out all about him, by means of Widow
+Shanks and the Dimity-parlour.  But nothing has come of that.  Poor
+Mrs. Stubbard is almost as stupid as her husband; and as for Widow
+Shanks--I am quite sure, Maria, if your nephew were plotting the
+overthrow of King, Church, and Government, that deluded woman would
+not listen to a word against him."
+
+"She calls him a model, and a blessed martyr"--Mrs. Twemlow was
+smiling at the thought of it; "and she says she is a woman of great
+penetration, and never will listen to anything.  But it only shows
+what I have always said, that our family has a peculiar power, a
+sort of attraction, a superior gift of knowledge of their own
+minds, which makes them--But there, you are laughing at me,
+Joshua!"
+
+"Not I; but smiling at my own good fortune, that ever I get my own
+way at all.  But, Maria, you are right; your family has always been
+distinguished for having its own way--a masterful race, and a
+mistressful.  And so much the more do the rest of mankind grow
+eager to know all about them.  In an ordinary mind, such as mine,
+that feeling becomes at last irresistible; and finding no other way
+to gratify it, I resolved to take the bull by the horns, or rather
+by the tail, this morning.  The poor old castle has been breaking
+up most grievously, even within the last twenty years, and you, who
+have played as a child among the ruins of the ramparts, would
+scarcely know them now.  You cannot bear to go there, which is
+natural enough, after all the sad things that have happened; but if
+you did, you would be surprised, Maria; and I believe a great part
+has been knocked down on purpose.  But you remember the little way
+in from the copse, where you and I, five-and-thirty years ago--"
+
+"Of course I do, darling.  It seems but yesterday; and I have a
+flower now which you gathered for me there.  It grew at a very
+giddy height upon the wall, full of cracks and places where the
+evening-star came through; but up you went, like a rocket or a
+race-horse; and what a fright I was in, until you came down safe!
+I think that must have made up my mind to have nobody except my
+Joshua."
+
+"Well, my dear, you might have done much worse.  But I happened to
+think of that way in, this morning, when you put up your elbow, as
+you made the tea, exactly as you used to do when I might come up
+there.  And that set me thinking of a quantity of things, and among
+them this plan which I resolved to carry out.  I took the trouble
+first to be sure that Caryl was down here for the day, under the
+roof of Widow Shanks; and then I set off by the road up the hill,
+for the stronghold of all the Carnes.  Without further peril than
+the fight with the pony, and the strange apparition of Cheeseman
+about half a mile from the back entrance, I came to the copse where
+the violets used to be, and the sorrel, and the lords and ladies.
+There I tethered our friend Juniper in a quiet little nook, and
+crossed the soft ground, without making any noise, to the place we
+used to call our little postern.  It looked so sad, compared with
+what it used to be, so desolate and brambled up and ruinous, that I
+scarcely should have known it, except for the gray pedestal of the
+prostrate dial we used to moralise about.  And the ground inside
+it, that was nice turf once, with the rill running down it that
+perhaps supplied the moat--all stony now, and overgrown, and
+tangled, with ugly-looking elder-bushes sprawling through the ivy.
+To a painter it might have proved very attractive; but to me it
+seemed so dreary, and so sombre, and oppressive, that, although I
+am not sentimental, as you know, I actually turned away, to put my
+little visit off, until I should be in better spirits for it.  And
+that, my dear Maria, would in all probability have been never.
+
+"But before I had time to begin my retreat, a very extraordinary
+sound, which I cannot describe by any word I know, reached my ears.
+It was not a roar, nor a clank, nor a boom, nor a clap, nor a
+crash, nor a thud, but if you have ever heard a noise combining all
+those elements, with a small percentage of screech to enliven them,
+that comes as near it as I can contrive to tell.  We know from Holy
+Scripture that there used to be such creatures as dragons, though
+we have never seen them; but I seemed to be hearing one as I stood
+there.  It was just the sort of groan you might have expected from
+a dragon, who had swallowed something highly indigestible."
+
+"My dear!  And he might have swallowed you, if you had stopped.
+How could you help running away, my Joshua?  I should have insisted
+immediately upon it.  But you are so terribly intrepid!"
+
+"Far from it, Maria.  Quite the contrary, I assure you.  In fact, I
+did make off, for a considerable distance; not rapidly as a youth
+might do, but with self-reproach at my tardiness.  But the sound
+ceased coming; and then I remembered how wholly we are in the hand
+of the Lord.  A sense of the power of right rose within me, backed
+up by a strong curiosity; and I said to myself that if I went home,
+with nothing more than that to tell you, I should not have at all
+an easy time of it.  Therefore I resolved to face the question
+again, and ascertain, if possible, without self-sacrifice, what was
+going on among the ruins.  You know every stick and stone, as they
+used to be, but not as they are at present; therefore I must tell
+you.  The wall at the bottom of the little Dial-court, where there
+used to be a sweet-briar hedge to come through, is entirely gone,
+either tumbled down or knocked down--the latter I believe to be the
+true reason of it.  Also, instead of sweet-briar, there is now a
+very flourishing crop of sting-nettles.  But the wall at the side
+of the little court stands almost as sound as ever; and what
+surprised me most was to see, when I got further, proceeding of
+course very quietly, that the large court beyond (which used to be
+the servants' yard, and the drying-ground, and general lounging-
+place) had a timber floor laid down it, with a rope on either side,
+a long heavy rope on either side; and these ropes were still
+quivering, as if from a heavy strain just loosened.  All this I
+could see, because the high door with the spikes, that used to part
+the Dial-court from this place of common business, was fallen
+forward from its upper hinge, and splayed out so that I could put
+my fist through.
+
+"By this time I had quite recovered all my self-command, and was as
+calm as I am now, or even calmer, because I was under that reaction
+which ensues when a sensible man has made a fool of himself.  I
+perceived, without thinking, that the sound which had so scared me
+proceeded from this gangway, or timberway, or staging, or whatever
+may be the right word for it; and I made up my mind to stay where I
+was, only stooping a little with my body towards the wall, to get
+some idea of what might be going forward.  And then I heard a sort
+of small hubbub of voices, such as foreigners make when they are
+ordered to keep quiet, and have to carry on a struggle with their
+noisy nature.
+
+"This was enough to settle my decision not to budge an inch, until
+I knew what they were up to.  I could not see round the corner,
+mind--though ladies seem capable of doing that, Maria--and so these
+fellows, who seemed to be in two lots, some at the top and some at
+the bottom of the plankway, were entirely out of my sight as yet,
+though I had a good view of their sliding-plane.  But presently the
+ropes began to strain and creak, drawn taut--as our fishermen
+express it--either from the upper or the lower end, and I saw three
+barrels come sliding down--sliding, not rolling (you must
+understand), and not as a brewer delivers beer into a cellar.
+These passed by me; and after a little while there came again that
+strange sepulchral sound, which had made me feel so uneasy.
+
+"Maria, you know that I can hold my own against almost anybody in
+the world but you; and although this place is far outside my parish
+boundaries, I felt that as the Uncle of the present owner--so far
+at least as the lawyers have not snapped him up--and the brother-
+in-law of the previous proprietor, I possessed an undeniable legal
+right--quo warranto, or whatever it is called--to look into all
+proceedings on these premises.  Next to Holy Scripture, Horace is
+my guide and guardian; and I called to mind a well-known passage,
+which may roughly be rendered thus:  'If the crushed world tumble
+on him, the ruins shall strike him undismayed.'  With this in my
+head, I went softly down the side-wall of the Dial-court (for there
+was no getting through the place where I had been peeping) to the
+bottom, where there used to be an old flint wall, and a hedge of
+sweet-briar in front of it.  You remember the pretty conceit I
+made--quaint and wholesome as one of Herrick's--when you said
+something--but I verily believe we were better in those days than
+we ever have been since.  Now don't interrupt me about that, my
+dear.
+
+"Some of these briars still were there, or perhaps some of their
+descendants, straggling weakly among the nettles, and mullein, and
+other wild stuff, but making all together a pretty good screen,
+through which I could get a safe side-view of the bottom of the
+timber gangway.  So I took off my hat, for some ruffian fellows
+like foreign sailors were standing below, throwing out their arms,
+and making noises in their throats, because not allowed to scream
+as usual.  It was plain enough at once to any one who knew the
+place, that a large hole had been cut in the solid castle wall, or
+rather, a loophole had been enlarged very freely on either side,
+and brought down almost to the level of the ground outside.  On
+either side of this great opening stood three heavy muskets at full
+cock, and it made my blood run cold to think how likely some fatal
+discharge appeared.  If I had been brought up to war, Maria, as all
+the young people are bound to be now, I might have been more at
+home with such matters, and able to reconnoitre calmly; but I
+thought of myself, and of you, and Eliza, and what a shocking thing
+it would be for all of us--but a merciful Providence was over me.
+
+"Too late I regretted the desire for knowledge, which had led me
+into this predicament, for I durst not rush off from my very sad
+position, for my breath would soon fail me, and my lower limbs are
+thick from the exercise of hospitality.  How I longed for the wings
+of a dove, or at any rate for the legs of Lieutenant Blyth
+Scudamore!  And my dark apprehensions gained double force when a
+stone was dislodged by my foot (which may have trembled), and
+rolled with a sharp echo down into the ballium, or whatever it
+should be called, where these desperadoes stood.  In an instant
+three of them had their long guns pointed at the very thicket which
+sheltered me, and if I had moved or attempted to make off, there
+would have been a vacancy in this preferment.  But luckily a
+rabbit, who had been lying as close as I had, and as much afraid of
+me perhaps as I was of those ruffians, set off at full speed from
+the hop of the stone, and they saw him, and took him for the cause
+of it.  This enabled me to draw my breath again, and consider the
+best way of making my escape, for I cared to see nothing more,
+except my own house-door.
+
+"Happily the chance was not long in coming.  At a shout from below--
+which seemed to me to be in English, and sounded uncommonly like
+'now, then!'--all those fellows turned their backs to me, and began
+very carefully to lower, one by one, the barrels that had been let
+down the incline.  And other things were standing there, besides
+barrels: packing-cases, crates, very bulky-looking boxes, and low
+massive wheels, such as you often see to artillery.  You know what
+a vast extent there is of cellars and vaults below your old castle,
+most of them nearly as sound as ever, and occupied mainly by empty
+bottles, and the refuse of past hospitality.  Well, they are going
+to fill these with something--French wines, smuggled brandy,
+contraband goods of every kind you can think of, so long as high
+profit can be made of them.  That is how your nephew Caryl means to
+redeem his patrimony.  No wonder that he has been so dark and
+distant!  It never would have done to let us get the least
+suspicion of it, because of my position in the Church, and in the
+Diocese.  By this light a thousand things are clear to me, which
+exceeded all the powers of the Sphinx till now."
+
+"But how did you get away, my darling Joshua?" Mrs. Twemlow
+enquired, as behoved her.  "So fearless, so devoted, so alive to
+every call of duty--how could you stand there, and let the wretches
+shoot at you?"
+
+"By taking good care not to do it," the Rector answered, simply.
+"No sooner were all their backs towards me, than I said to myself
+that the human race happily is not spiderine.  I girt up my loins,
+or rather fetched my tails up under my arms very closely, and
+glided away, with the silence of the serpent, and the craft of the
+enemy of our fallen race.  Great care was needful, and I exercised
+it; and here you behold me, unshot and unshot-at, and free from all
+anxiety, except a pressing urgency for a bowl of your admirable
+soup, Maria, and a cut from the saddle I saw hanging in the
+cellar."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+MATERNAL ELOQUENCE
+
+
+Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof; and more than
+sufficient with most of us.  Mr. Twemlow and his wife resolved
+discreetly, after a fireside council, to have nothing to say to
+Carne Castle, or about it, save what might be forced out of them.
+They perceived most clearly, and very deeply felt, how exceedingly
+wrong it is for anybody to transgress, or even go aside of, the
+laws of his country, as by Statute settled.  Still, if his ruin had
+been chiefly legal; if he had been brought up under different laws,
+and in places where they made those things which he desired to deal
+in; if it was clear that those things were good, and their benefit
+might be extended to persons who otherwise could have no taste of
+them; above all, if it were the first and best desire of all who
+heard of it to have their own fingers in the pie--then let others
+stop it, who by duty and interest were so minded; the Rector was
+not in the Commission of the Peace--though he ought to have been
+there years ago--and the breach of the law, if it came to that, was
+outside of his parish boundary.  The voice of the neighbourhood
+would be with him, for not turning against his own nephew, even if
+it ever should come to be known that he had reason for suspicions.
+
+It is hard to see things in their proper light, if only one eye has
+a fly in it; but if both are in that sad condition, who shall be
+blamed for winking?  Not only the pastor, but all his flock, were
+in need of wire spectacles now, to keep their vision clear and
+their foreheads calm.  Thicker than flies around the milk-pail,
+rumours came flitting daily; and even the night--that fair time of
+thinking--was busy with buzzing multitude.
+
+"Long time have I lived, and a sight have I seed," said Zebedee
+Tugwell to his wife, "of things as I couldn't make no head nor tail
+of; but nothing to my knowledge ever coom nigh the sort of way our
+folk has taken to go on.  Parson Twemlow told us, when the war
+began again, that the Lord could turn us all into Frenchmen, if we
+sinned against Him more than He could bear.  I were fool enough to
+laugh about it then, not intaking how it could be on this side of
+Kingdom Come, where no distinction is of persons.  But now, there
+it is--a thing the Almighty hath in hand; and who shall say Him
+nay, when He layeth His hand to it?"
+
+"I reckon, 'a hath begun with you too, Zeb," Mrs. Tugwell would
+answer, undesirably.  "To be always going on so about trash
+trifles, as a woman hath a right to fly up at, but no man!  Surely
+Dan hath a right to his politics and his parables, as much as any
+lame old chap that sitteth on a bench.  He works hard all day, and
+he airns his money; and any man hath a right to wag his tongue of
+night-time, when his arms and his legs have been wagging all day."
+
+"Depends upon how he wags 'un."  The glance of old Tugwell was
+stern, as he spoke, and his eyebrows knitted over it.  "If for a
+yarn, to plaise children or maidens, or a bit of argyment about his
+business, or talk about his neighbours, or aught that consarns him--
+why, lads must be fools, and I can smoke my pipe and think that at
+his age I was like him.  But when it comes to talking of his
+betters, and the Government, and the right of everybody to command
+the ship, and the soup--soup, what was it?"
+
+"Superior position of the working classes, dignity of labour,
+undefeasible rights of mankind to the soil as they was born in, and
+soshallistick--something."
+
+"So--shall--I--stick equality," Mr. Tugwell amended, triumphantly;
+"and so shall I stick him, by the holy poker, afore the end of the
+week is out.  I've a-been fool enough to leave off ropesending of
+him now for a matter of two years, because 'a was good, and
+outgrowing of it like, and because you always coom between us.  But
+mind you, mother, I'll have none of that, next time.  Business I
+means, and good measure it shall be."
+
+"Zeb Tugwell," said his wife, longing greatly to defy him, but
+frightened by the steadfast gaze she met, "you can never mean to
+say that you would lay your hand on Dan--a grown man, a'most as big
+as yourself, and a good half-head taller!  Suppose he was to hit
+you back again!"
+
+"If he did, I should just kill him," Zeb answered, calmly.  "He
+would be but a jellyfish in my two hands.  But there, I'll not talk
+about it, mother.  No need to trouble you with it.  'Tis none of my
+seeking--the Lord in heaven knows--but a job as He hath dutified
+for me to do.  I'll go out, and have my pipe, and dwell on it."
+
+"And I may lay a deal of it on myself," Mrs. Tugwell began to moan,
+as soon as he was gone; "for I have cockered Dan up, and there's no
+denying it, afore Tim, or Tryphena, or Tabby, or Debby, or even
+little Solomon.  Because he were the first, and so like his dear
+father, afore he got on in the world so.  Oh, it all comes of that,
+all the troubles comes of that, and of laying up of money, apart
+from your wife, and forgetting almost of her Christian name!  And
+the very same thing of it--money, money, and the getting on with
+breeches that requireth no mending, and the looking over Church-
+books at gay young ladies--all of it leadeth to the same bad end of
+his betters, and the Government, and the Soshallistick Quality.
+
+"Why, with all these mercies," continued Mrs. Tugwell, though not
+in a continuous frame of mind, as Daniel came in, with a slow heavy
+step, and sat down by the fire in silence, "all these mercies, as
+are bought and paid for, from one and sixpence up to three half-
+crowns, and gives no more trouble beyond dusting once a week--how
+any one can lay his eyes on other people's property, without
+consideration of his own, as will be after his poor mother's time,
+is to me quite a puzzle and a pin-prick.  Not as if they was owing
+for, or bought at auction, or so much as beaten down by sixpence,
+but all at full price and own judgment, paid for by airnings of
+labour and perils of the deep.  And as Widow Shanks said, the last
+time she was here, by spoiling of the enemies of England, who makes
+us pay tremenjious for 'most everything we lives on.  And I know
+who would understand them crackeries, and dust them when I be gone
+to dust, and see her own pretty face in them, whenever they has the
+back-varnish."
+
+Dan knew that the future fair owner and duster designed by his
+mother was Miss Cheeseman, towards whom he had cherished tender
+yearnings in the sensible and wholesome days.  And if Polly
+Cheeseman had hung herself on high--which she might have done
+without a bit of arrogance--perhaps she would still have been to
+this young man the star of fate and glory, instead of a dip,
+thirty-two to the pound; the like whereof she sold for a farthing.
+Distance makes the difference.  "He that won't allow heed shall pay
+dear in his need;" the good mother grew warm, as the son began to
+whistle; "and to my mind, Master Dan, it won't be long afore you
+have homer things to think of than politics.  'Politics is fiddle-
+sticks' was what men of my age used to say; sensible men with a
+house and freehold, and a pig of their own, and experience.  And
+such a man I might have had, and sensible children by him, children
+as never would have whistled at their mother, if it hadn't been for
+your poor father, Dan.  Misguided he may be, and too much of his
+own way, and not well enough in his own mind to take in a woman's--
+but for all that he hath a right to be honoured by his children,
+and to lead their minds in matters touching of the King, and
+Church, and true religion.  Why only last night, no, the night
+afore last, I met Mrs. Prater, and I said to her--"
+
+"You told me all that, mother; and it must have been a week ago;
+for I have heard it every night this week.  What is it you desire
+that I should do, or say, or think?"
+
+"Holy mercy!" cried Mrs. Tugwell, "what a way to put things, Dan!
+All I desire is for your good only, and so leading on to the
+comfort of the rest.  For the whole place goes wrong, and the cat
+sits in the corner, when you go on with politics as your dear
+father grunts at.  No doubt it may all be very fine and just, and
+worth a man giving his life for, if he don't care about it, nor
+nobody else--but even if it was to keep the French out, and yourn
+goeth nearer to letting them in, what difference of a button would
+it make to us, Dan, compared to our sticking together, and feeding
+with a knowledge and a yielding to the fancies of each other?"
+
+"I am sure it's no fault of mine," said Daniel, moved from his high
+ropes by this last appeal; "to me it never matters twopence what I
+have for dinner, and you saw me give Tim all the brown of the baked
+potatoes the very last time I had my dinner here.  But what comes
+above all those little bothers is the necessity for insisting upon
+freedom of opinion.  I don't pretend to be so old as my father, nor
+to know so much as he knows about the world in general.  But I have
+read a great deal more than he has, of course, because he takes a
+long time to get a book with the right end to him; and I have
+thought, without knowing it, about what I have read, and I have
+heard very clever men (who could have no desire to go wrong, but
+quite the other way) carrying on about these high subjects, beyond
+me, but full of plain language.  And I won't be forced out of a
+word of it by fear."
+
+"But for love of your mother you might keep it under, and think it
+all inside you, without bringing of it out, in the presence of your
+elders.  You know what your father is--a man as never yet laid his
+tongue to a thing without doing of it--right or wrong, right or
+wrong; and this time he hath right, and the law, and the Lord, and
+the King himself, to the side of him.  And a rope's-end in his
+pocket, Dan, as I tried to steal away, but he were too wide-awake.
+Such a big hard one you never did see!"
+
+"A rope's end for me, well turned twenty years of age!" cried
+Daniel, with a laugh, but not a merry one; "two can play at that
+game, mother.  I'll not be ropes ended by nobody."
+
+"Then you'll be rope-noosed;" the poor mother fell into the settle,
+away from the fire-light, and put both hands over her eyes, to shut
+out the spectacle of Dan dangling; "or else your father will be,
+for you.  Ever since the Romans, Dan, there have been Tugwells, and
+respected ten times more than they was.  Oh do 'e, do 'e think; and
+not bring us all to the grave, and then the gallows!  Why I can
+mind the time, no more agone than last Sunday, when you used to lie
+here in the hollow of my arm, without a stitch of clothes on, and
+kind people was tempted to smack you in pleasure, because you did
+stick out so prettily.  For a better-formed baby there never was
+seen, nor a finer-tempered one, when he had his way.  And the many
+nights I walked the floor with you, Dan, when your first tooth was
+coming through, the size of a horse-radish, and your father most
+wonderful to put up with my coo to you, when he had not had a night
+in bed for nigh three weeks--oh, Dan, do 'e think of things as
+consarneth your homer life, and things as is above all reason; and
+let they blessed politics go home to them as trades in them."
+
+Mrs. Tugwell's tender recollections had given her a pain in the
+part where Dan was nursed, and driven her out of true logical
+course; but she came back to it, before Dan had time to finish the
+interesting pictures of himself which she had suggested.
+
+"Now can you deny a word of that, Dan?  And if not, what is there
+more to say?  You was smacked as a little babe, by many people
+kindly, when ever so much tenderer than you now can claim to be.
+And in those days you never could have deserved it yet, not having
+framed a word beyond 'Mam,' and 'Da,' and both of those made much
+of, because doubtful.  There was nothing about the Constitooshun
+then, but the colour of the tongue and the condition of the bowels;
+and if any fool had asked you what politics was, you would have
+sucked your thumb, and offered them to suck it; for generous you
+always was, and just came after.  And what cry have bigger folk,
+grown upright and wicked, to make about being smacked, when they
+deserve it, for meddling with matters outside of their business, by
+those in authority over them?"
+
+"Well, mother, I daresay you are right, though I don't altogether
+see the lines of it.  But one thing I will promise you--whatever
+father does to me, I will not lift a hand against him.  But I must
+be off.  I am late already."
+
+"Where to, Dan?  Where to?  I always used to know, even if you was
+going courting.  Go a-courting, Dan, as much as ever you like, only
+don't make no promises.  But whatever you do, keep away from that
+bad, wicked, Free and Frisky Club, my dear."
+
+"Mother, that's the very place I am just bound to.  After all you
+have said, I would have stayed away to-night, except for being on
+the list, and pledged in honour to twenty-eight questions, all
+bearing upon the grand issues of the age."
+
+"I don't know no more than the dead, what that means, Dan.  But I
+know what your father has got in his pocket for you.  And he said
+the next time you went there, you should have it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+PATERNAL DISCIPLINE
+
+
+"The Fair, Free, and Frisky"--as they called themselves, were not
+of a violent order at all, neither treasonable, nor even disloyal.
+Their Club, if it deserved the name, had not been of political,
+social, or even convivial intention, but had lapsed unawares into
+all three uses, and most of all that last mentioned.  The harder
+the times are, the more confidential (and therefore convivial) do
+Englishmen become; and if Free-trade survives with us for another
+decade, it will be the death of total abstinence.  But now they had
+bad times, without Free-trade--that Goddess being still in the
+goose-egg--and when two friends met, without a river between them,
+they were bound to drink one another's health, and did it, without
+the unstable and cold-blooded element.  The sense of this duty was
+paramount among the "Free and Frisky," and without it their final
+cause would have vanished long ago, and therewith their formal one.
+
+None of the old-established folk of the blue blood of Springhaven,
+such as the Tugwells, the Shankses, the Praters, the Bowleses, the
+Stickfasts, the Blocks, or the Kedgers, would have anything to do
+with this Association, which had formed itself among them, like an
+anti-corn-law league, for the destruction of their rights and
+properties.  Its origin had been commercial, and its principles
+aggressive, no less an outrage being contemplated than the purchase
+of fish at low figures on the beach, and the speedy distribution of
+that slippery ware among the nearest villages and towns.  But from
+time immemorial the trade had been in the hands of a few staunch
+factors, who paid a price governed by the seasons and the weather,
+and sent the commodity as far as it would go, with soundness, and
+the hope of freshness.  Springhaven believed that it supplied all
+London, and was proud and blest in so believing.  With these
+barrowmen, hucksters and pedlars of fish, it would have no manifest
+dealing; but if the factors who managed the trade chose to sell
+their refuse or surplus to them, that was their own business.  In
+this way perhaps, and by bargains on the sly, these petty dealers
+managed to procure enough to carry on their weekly enterprise, and
+for a certain good reason took a room and court-yard handy to the
+Darling Arms, to discuss other people's business and their own.
+The good reason was that they were not allowed to leave the
+village, with their barrows or trucks or baskets, until the night
+had fallen, on penalty of being pelted with their own wares.  Such
+was the dignity of this place, and its noble abhorrence of anything
+low.
+
+The vision of lofty institutions, which one may not participate,
+inspires in the lower human nature more jealousy than admiration.
+These higglers may have been very honest fellows, in all but
+pecuniary questions, and possibly continued to be so in the bosom
+of their own families.  But here in Springhaven, by the force of
+circumstances they were almost compelled to be radicals: even as
+the sweetest cow's milk turns sour, when she can just reach red
+clover with her breath, but not her lips.  But still they were not
+without manners, and reason, and good-will to people who had
+patience with them.  This enabled them to argue lofty questions,
+without black eyes, or kicking, or even tweak of noses; and a very
+lofty question was now before them.
+
+To get once into Admiral Darling's employment was to obtain a
+vested interest; so kind was his nature and so forgiving,
+especially when he had scolded anybody.  Mr. Swipes, the head
+gardener for so many years, held an estate of freehold in the
+garden--although he had no head, and would never be a gardener,
+till the hanging gardens of Babylon should be hung on the top of
+the tower of Babel--with a vested remainder to his son, and a
+contingent one to all descendants.  Yet this man, although his
+hands were generally in his pockets, had not enough sense of their
+linings to feel that continuance, usage, institution, orderly
+sequence, heredity, and such like, were the buttons of his coat and
+the texture of his breeches, and the warmth of his body inside
+them.  Therefore he never could hold aloof from the Free and Frisky
+gatherings, and accepted the chair upon Bumper-nights, when it was
+a sinecure benefice.
+
+This was a Bumper-night, and in the chair sat Mr. Swipes,
+discharging gracefully the arduous duties of the office, which
+consisted mainly in calling upon members for a speech, a sentiment,
+or a song, and in default of mental satisfaction, bodily amendment
+by a pint all round.  But as soon as Dan Tugwell entered the room,
+the Free and Friskies with one accord returned to loftier business.
+Mr. Swipes, the gay Liber of the genial hour, retired from the
+chair, and his place was taken by a Liberal--though the name was
+not yet invented--estranged from his own godfather.  This was a
+hard man, who made salt herrings, and longed to cure everything
+fresh in the world.
+
+Dan, being still a very tender youth, and quite unaccustomed to
+public speaking, was abashed by these tokens of his own importance,
+and heartily wished that he had stopped at home.  It never occurred
+to his simple mind that his value was not political, but
+commercial; not "anthropological," but fishy, the main ambition of
+the Free and Frisky Club having long been the capture of his
+father.  If once Zeb Tugwell could be brought to treat, a golden
+era would dawn upon them, and a boundless vision of free-trade,
+when a man might be paid for refusing to sell fish, as he now is
+for keeping to himself his screws.  Dan knew not these things, and
+his heart misgave him, and he wished that he had never heard of the
+twenty-eight questions set down in his name for solution.
+
+However, his disturbance of mind was needless, concerning those
+great issues.  All the members, except the chairman, had forgotten
+all about them; and the only matter they cared about was to make a
+new member of Daniel.  A little flourish went on about large things
+(which nobody knew, or cared to know), then the table was hammered
+with the heel of a pipe, and Dan was made a Free and Frisky.  An
+honorary member, with nothing to pay, and the honour on their side,
+they told him; and every man rose, with his pot in one hand and his
+pipe in the other, yet able to stand, and to thump with his heels,
+being careful.  Then the President made entry in a book, and bowed,
+and Dan was requested to sign it.  In the fervour of good-will, and
+fine feeling, and the pride of popularity, the young man was not
+old enough to resist, but set his name down firmly.  Then all shook
+hands with him, and the meeting was declared to be festive, in
+honour of a new and noble member.
+
+It is altogether wrong to say--though many people said it--that
+young Dan Tugwell was even a quarter of a sheet in the wind, when
+he steered his way home.  His head was as solid as that of his
+father; which, instead of growing light, increased in specific,
+generic, and differential gravity, under circumstances which tend
+otherwise, with an age like ours, that insists upon sobriety,
+without allowing practice.  All Springhaven folk had long practice
+in the art of keeping sober, and if ever a man walked with his legs
+outside his influence, it was always from defect of proper average
+quite lately.
+
+Be that as it may, the young man came home with an enlarged map of
+the future in his mind, a brisk and elastic rise in his walk, and
+his head much encouraged to go on with liberal and indescribable
+feelings.  In accordance with these, he expected his mother to be
+ready to embrace him at the door, while a saucepan simmered on the
+good-night of the wood-ash, with just as much gentle breath of
+onion from the cover as a youth may taste dreamily from the lips of
+love.  But oh, instead of this, he met his father, spread out and
+yet solid across the doorway, with very large arms bare and lumpy
+in the gleam of a fireplace uncrowned by any pot.  Dan's large
+ideas vanished, like a blaze without a bottom.
+
+"Rather late, Daniel," said the captain of Springhaven, with a nod
+of his great head, made gigantic on the ceiling.  "All the rest are
+abed, the proper place for honest folk.  I suppose you've been
+airning money, overtime?"
+
+"Not I," said Dan; "I work hard enough all day.  I just looked in
+at the Club, and had a little talk of politics."
+
+"The Club, indeed!  The stinking barrow-grinders!  Did I tell you,
+or did I forget to tell you, never to go there no more?"
+
+"You told me fast enough, father; no doubt about that.  But I am
+not aboard your boat, when I happen on dry land, and I am old
+enough now to have opinions of my own."
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?  And to upset all the State, the King, the
+House of Lords, and the Parliamentary House, and all as is
+descended from the Romans?  Well, and what did their Wusships say
+to you?  Did they anoint you king of slooshings?"
+
+"Father, they did this--and you have a right to know it;" Dan spoke
+with a grave debative tone, though his voice became doubtful, as he
+saw that his father was quietly seeking for something; "almost
+before I knew what was coming, they had made me a member, and I
+signed the book.  They have no desire to upset the kingdom; I heard
+no talk of that kind; only that every man should have his own
+opinions, and be free to show what can be said for them.  And you
+know, father, that the world goes on by reason, and justice, and
+good-will, and fair play--"
+
+"No, it don't," cried the captain, who had found what he wanted;
+"if it had to wait for they, it would never go on at all.  It goes
+on by government, and management, and discipline, and the stopping
+of younkers from their blessed foolery, and by the ten commandments,
+and the proverbs of King Solomon.  You to teach your father how the
+world goes on!  Off with your coat, and I'll teach you."
+
+"Father," said Dan, with his milder nature trembling at the stern
+resolution in his father's eyes, as the hearth-fire flashing up
+showed their stronger flash, "you will never do such a thing, at my
+age and size?"
+
+"Won't I?" answered Zebedee, cracking in the air the three knotted
+tails of the stout hempen twist.  "As for your age, why, it ought
+to know better; and as for your size, why, the more room for this!"
+
+It never came into Daniel's head that he should either resist or
+run away.  But into his heart came the deadly sense of disgrace at
+being flogged, even by his own father, at full age to have a wife
+and even children of his own.
+
+"Father," he said, as he pulled off his coat and red striped shirt,
+and showed his broad white back, "if you do this thing, you will
+never set eyes on my face again--so help me God!"
+
+"Don't care if I don't," the captain shouted.  "You was never son
+of mine, to be a runagate, and traitor.  How old be you, Master
+Free and Frisky, to larn me how the world goes on?"
+
+"As if you didn't know, father!  The fifteenth of last March I was
+twenty years of age."
+
+"Then one for each year of your life, my lad, and another to make a
+man of thee.  This little tickler hath three tails; seven threes is
+twenty-one--comes just right."
+
+When his father had done with him, Dan went softly up the dark
+staircase of old ship timber, and entering his own little room,
+struck a light.  He saw that his bed was turned down for him, by
+the loving hand of his mother, and that his favourite brother
+Solomon, the youngest of the Tugwell race, was sleeping sweetly in
+the opposite cot.  Then he caught a side view of his own poor back
+in the little black-framed looking-glass, and was quite amazed; for
+he had not felt much pain, neither flinched, nor winced, nor
+spoken.  In a moment self-pity did more than pain, indignation,
+outrage, or shame could do; it brought large tears into his
+softened eyes, and a long sob into his swelling throat.
+
+He had borne himself like a man when flogged; but now he behaved in
+the manner of a boy.  "He shall never hear the last of this job,"
+he muttered, "as long as mother has a tongue in her head."  To this
+end he filled a wet sponge with the red proofs of his scourging,
+laid it where it must be seen, and beside it a leaf torn from his
+wage-book, on which he had written with a trembling hand:  "He says
+that I am no son of his, and this looks like it.  Signed, Daniel
+Tugwell, or whatever my name ought to be."
+
+Then he washed and dressed with neat's-foot oil all of his wounds
+that he could reach, and tied a band of linen over them, and, in
+spite of increasing smarts and pangs, dressed himself carefully in
+his Sunday clothes.  From time to time he listened for his father's
+step, inasmuch as there was no bolt to his door, and to burn a
+light so late was against all law.  But nobody came to disturb him;
+his mother at the end of the passage slept heavily, and his two
+child-sisters in the room close by, Tabby and Debby, were in the
+land of dreams, as far gone as little Solly was.  Having turned out
+his tools from their flat flag basket, or at least all but three or
+four favourites, he filled it with other clothes likely to be
+needed, and buckled it over his hatchet-head.  Then the beating of
+his heart was like a flail inside a barn, as he stole along
+silently for one terrible good-bye.
+
+This was to his darling pet of all pets, Debby, who worshipped this
+brother a great deal more than she worshipped her heavenly Father;
+because, as she said to her mother, when rebuked--"I can see Dan,
+mother, but I can't see Him.  Can I sit in His lap, mother, and
+look into His face, and be told pretty stories, and eat apples all
+the time?"  Tabby was of different grain, and her deity was Tim;
+for she was of the Tomboy kind, and had no imagination.  But Debby
+was enough to make a sound and seasoned heart to ache, as she lay
+in her little bed, with the flush of sleep deepening the delicate
+tint of her cheeks, shedding bright innocence fresh from heaven on
+the tranquil droop of eyelid and the smiling curve of lip.  Her
+hair lay fluttered, as if by play with the angels that protected
+her; and if she could not see her heavenly Father, it was not
+because she was out of His sight.
+
+A better tear than was ever shed by self-pity, or any other
+selfishness, ran down the cheek she had kissed so often, and fell
+upon her coaxing, nestling neck.  Then Dan, with his candle behind
+the curtain, set a long light kiss upon the forehead of his
+darling, and with a heart so full, and yet so empty, took one more
+gaze at her, and then was gone.  With the basket in his hand, he
+dropped softly from his window upon the pile of seaweed at the back
+of the house--collected to make the walls wholesome--and then,
+caring little what his course might be, was led perhaps by the
+force of habit down the foot-path towards the beach.  So late at
+night, it was not likely that any one would disturb him there, and
+no one in the cottage which he had left would miss him before the
+morning.  The end of October now was near, the nights were long,
+and he need not hurry.  He might even lie down in his favourite
+boat, the best of her size in Springhaven, the one he had built
+among the rabbits.  There he could say good-bye to all that he had
+known and loved so long, and be off before dawn, to some place
+where he might earn his crust and think his thoughts.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+SORE TEMPTATION
+
+
+When a man's spirit and heart are low, and the world seems turned
+against him, he had better stop both ears than hearken to the sound
+of the sad sea waves at night.  Even if he can see their movement,
+with the moon behind them, drawing paths of rippled light, and
+boats (with white sails pluming shadow, or thin oars that dive for
+gems), and perhaps a merry crew with music, coming home not all
+sea-sick--well, even so, in the summer sparkle, the long low fall
+of the waves is sad.  But how much more on a winter night, when the
+moon is away below the sea, and weary waters roll unseen from a
+vast profundity of gloom, fall unreckoned, and are no more than a
+wistful moan, as man is!
+
+The tide was at quarter-ebb, and a dismal haze lay thick on shore
+and sea.  It was not enough to be called a fog, or even a mist, but
+quite enough to deaden the gray light, always flowing along the
+boundary of sky and sea.  But over the wet sand and the white frill
+of the gently gurgling waves more of faint light, or rather
+perhaps, less of heavy night, prevailed.  But Dan had keen eyes,
+and was well accustomed to the tricks of darkness; and he came to
+take his leave forever of the fishing squadron, with a certainty of
+knowing all the five, as if by daylight--for now there were only
+five again.
+
+As the tide withdrew, the fishing-smacks (which had scarcely earned
+their name of late) were compelled to make the best of the world
+until the tide came back again.  To judge by creakings, strainings,
+groanings, and even grindings of timber millstones [if there yet
+lives in Ireland the good-will for a loan to us], all these little
+craft were making dreadful hardship of the abandonment which man
+and nature inflicted on them every thirteenth hour.  But all things
+do make more noise at night, when they get the chance (perhaps in
+order to assert their own prerogative), and they seem to know that
+noise goes further, and assumes a higher character, when men have
+left off making it.
+
+The poor young fisherman's back was getting very sore by this time,
+and he began to look about for the white side-streak which he had
+painted along the water-line of that new boat, to distract the
+meddlesome gaze of rivals from the peculiar curve below, which even
+Admiral Darling had not noticed, when he passed her on the beach;
+but Nelson would have spied it out in half a second, and known all
+about it in the other half.  Dan knew that he should find a very
+fair berth there, with a roll or two of stuff to lay his back on,
+and a piece of tarpauling to draw over his legs.  In the faint
+light that hovered from the breaking of the wavelets he soon found
+his boat, and saw a tall man standing by her.
+
+"Daniel," said the tall man, without moving, "my sight is very bad
+at night, but unless it is worse than usual, you are my admired
+friend Daniel.  A young man in a thousand--one who dares to think."
+
+"Yes, Squire Carne," the admired friend replied, with a touch of
+hat protesting against any claim to friendship: "Dan Tugwell, at
+your service.  And I have thought too much, and been paid out for
+it."
+
+"You see me in a melancholy attitude, and among melancholy
+surroundings."  Caryl Carne offered his hand as he spoke, and Dan
+took it with great reverence.  "The truth is, that anger at a gross
+injustice, which has just come to my knowledge, drove me from my
+books and sad family papers, in the room beneath the roof of our
+good Widow Shanks.  And I needs must come down here, to think
+beside the sea, which seems to be the only free thing in England.
+But I little expected to see you."
+
+"And I little expected to be here, Squire Carne.  But if not making
+too bold to ask--was it anybody that was beaten?"
+
+"Beaten is not the right word for it, Dan; cruelly flogged and
+lashed, a dear young friend of mine has been, as fine a young
+fellow as ever lived--and now he has not got a sound place on his
+back.  And why?  Because he was poor, and dared to lift his eyes to
+a rich young lady."
+
+"But he was not flogged by his own father?" asked Dan, deeply
+interested in this romance, and rubbing his back, as the pain
+increased with sympathy.
+
+"Not quite so bad as that," replied the other; "such a thing would
+be impossible, even in England.  No; his father took his part, as
+any father in the world would do; even if the great man, the young
+lady's father, should happen to be his own landlord."
+
+A very black suspicion crossed the mind of Dan, for Carne possessed
+the art of suggesting vile suspicions: might Admiral Darling have
+discovered something, and requested Dan's father to correct him?
+It was certain that the Admiral, so kind of heart, would never have
+desired such severity; but he might have told Captain Tugwell, with
+whom he had a talk almost every time they met, that his eldest son
+wanted a little discipline; and the Club might have served as a
+pretext for this, when the true crime must not be declared, by
+reason of its enormity.  Dan closed his teeth, and English air grew
+bitter in his mouth, as this belief ran through him.
+
+"Good-night, my young friend; I am beginning to recover," Carne
+continued, briskly, for he knew that a nail snaps in good oak, when
+the hammer falls too heavily.  "What is a little bit of outrage,
+after all?  When I have been in England a few years more, I shall
+laugh at myself for having loved fair play and self-respect, in
+this innocent young freshness.  We must wag as the world does; and
+you know the proverb, What makes the world wag, but the weight of
+the bag?"
+
+"But if you were more in earnest, sir--or at least--I mean, if you
+were not bound here by property and business, and an ancient
+family, and things you could not get away from, and if you wanted
+only to be allowed fair play, and treated as a man by other men,
+and be able to keep your own money when you earned it, or at least
+to buy your own victuals with it--what would you try to do, or what
+part of the country would you think best to go to?"
+
+"Dan, you must belong to a very clever family.  It is useless to
+shake your head--you must; or you never could put such questions,
+so impossible to answer.  In all this blessed island, there is no
+spot yet discovered, where such absurd visions can be realized.
+Nay, nay, my romantic friend; be content with more than the average
+blessings of this land.  You are not starved, you are not
+imprisoned, you are not even beaten; and if you are not allowed to
+think, what harm of that?  If you thought all day, you would never
+dare to act upon your thoughts, and so you are better without them.
+Tush! an Englishman was never born for freedom.  Good-night."
+
+"But, sir, Squire Carne," cried Dan, pursuing him, "there is one
+thing which you do not seem to know.  I am driven away from this
+place to-night; and it would have been so kind of you to advise me
+where to go to."
+
+"Driven away!" exclaimed Carne, with amazement.  "The pride of the
+village driven out of it!  You may be driving yourself away,
+Tugwell, through some scrape, or love affair; but when that blows
+over you will soon come back.  What would Springhaven do without
+you?  And your dear good father would never let you go."
+
+"I am not the pride, but the shame, of the village."  Dan forgot
+all his home-pride at last.  "And my dear good father is the man
+who has done it.  He has leathered me worse than the gentleman you
+spoke of, and without half so much to be said against him.  For
+nothing but going to the Club to-night, where I am sure we drank
+King George's health, my father has lashed me so, that I am ashamed
+to tell it.  And I am sure that I never meant to tell it, until
+your kindness, in a way of speaking, almost drove it out of me."
+
+"Daniel Tugwell," Carne answered, with solemnity, "this is beyond
+belief, even in England.  You must have fallen asleep, Dan, in the
+middle of large thoughts, and dreamed this great impossibility."
+
+"My back knows whether it has been a dream, sir.  I never heard of
+dreams as left one-and-twenty lines behind them.  But whether it be
+one, or whether it be twenty, makes no odds of value.  The disgrace
+it is that drives me out."
+
+"Is there no way of healing this sad breach?" Carne asked, in a
+tone of deep compassion; "if your father could be brought to beg
+your pardon, or even to say that he was sorry--"
+
+"He, sir!  If such a thing was put before him, his answer would be
+just to do it again, if I were fool enough to go near him.  You are
+too mild of nature, sir, to understand what father is."
+
+"It is indeed horrible, too horrible to think of"--the voice of
+this kind gentleman betrayed that he was shuddering.  "If a
+Frenchman did such a thing, he would be torn to pieces.  But no
+French father would ever dream of such atrocity.  He would rather
+flog himself within an inch of his own life."
+
+"Are they so much better, then, and kinder, than us Englishmen?"
+In spite of all his pain and grief, Dan could not help smiling at
+the thought of his father ropesending himself.  "So superior to us,
+sir, in every way?"
+
+"In almost every way, I am sorry to confess.  I fear, indeed, in
+every way, except bodily strength, and obstinate, ignorant
+endurance, miscalled 'courage,' and those rough qualities--whatever
+they may be--which seem needful for the making of a seaman.  But in
+good manners, justice, the sense of what is due from one man to
+another, in dignity, equality, temperance, benevolence, largeness
+of feeling, and quickness of mind, and above all in love of
+freedom, they are very, very sadly far beyond us.  And indeed I
+have been led to think from some of your finer perceptions, Dan,
+that you must have a share of French blood in your veins."
+
+"Me, sir!" cried Dan, jumping back, in a style which showed the
+distance between faith and argument; "no, sir, thank God there was
+never none of that; but all English, with some of the Romans, who
+was pretty near equal to us, from what I hear.  I suppose, Squire
+Carne, you thought that low of me because I made a fuss about being
+larruped, the same as a Frenchman I pulled out of the water did
+about my doing of it, as if I could have helped it.  No Englishman
+would have said much about that; but they seem to make more fuss
+than we do.  And I dare say it was French-like of me, to go on
+about my hiding."
+
+"Daniel," answered Caryl Carne, in alarm at this British sentiment;
+"as a man of self-respect, you have only one course left, if your
+father refuses to apologise.  You must cast off his tyranny; you
+must prove yourself a man; you must begin life upon your own
+account.  No more of this drudgery, and slavery for others, who
+allow you no rights in return.  But a nobler employment among free
+people, with a chance of asserting your courage and manhood, and a
+certainty that no man will think you his bondslave because you were
+born upon his land, or in his house.  My father behaved to me--
+well, it does not matter.  He might have repented of it, if he had
+lived longer; and I feel ashamed to speak of it, after such a case
+as yours.  But behold, how greatly it has been for my advantage!
+Without that, I might now have been a true and simple Englishman!"
+
+Carne (who had taken most kindly to the fortune which made him an
+untrue Englishman) clapped his breast with both hands; not proudly,
+as a Frenchman does, nor yet with that abashment and contempt of
+demonstration which make a true Briton very clumsy in such
+doings; while Daniel Tugwell, being very solid, and by no means
+"emotional"--as people call it nowadays--was looking at him, to the
+utmost of his power (which would have been greater by daylight),
+with gratitude, and wonder, and consideration, and some hesitation
+about his foreign sentiments.
+
+"Well, sir," said Dan, with the usual impulse of the British
+workman, "is there any sort of work as you could find for me, to
+earn my own living, and be able to think afterwards?"
+
+"There is work of a noble kind, such as any man of high nature may
+be proud to share in, to which it is possible that I might get an
+entrance for you, if there should be a vacancy; work of high
+character, such as admits of no higgling and haggling, and
+splitting of halfpence, but an independent feeling, and a sense of
+advancing the liberty of mankind, without risking a penny, but
+putting many guineas into one's own pocket, and so becoming fitted
+for a loftier line of life."
+
+"Is it smuggling, sir?" Daniel asked, with sore misgivings, for he
+had been brought up to be very shy of that.  "Many folk consider
+that quite honest; but father calls it roguery--though I never
+shall hear any more of his opinions now."
+
+"Sigh not, friend Daniel; sigh not so heavily at your own
+emancipation."  Carne never could resist the chance of a little bit
+of sarcasm, though it often injured his own plots.  "Smuggling is a
+very fine pursuit, no doubt, but petty in comparison with large
+affairs like ours.  No, Dan Tugwell, I am not a smuggler, but a
+high politician, and a polisher of mankind.  How soon do you think
+of leaving this outrageous hole?"
+
+Despite the stupid outrage upon himself, Dan was too loyal and
+generous of nature to be pleased with this description of his
+native place.  But Carne, too quick of temper for a really fine
+intriguer, cut short his expostulations.
+
+"Call it what you please," he said; "only make your mind up
+quickly.  If you wish to remain here, do so: a man of no spirit is
+useless to me.  But if you resolve to push your fortunes among
+brave and lofty comrades, stirring scenes, and brisk adventures,
+meet me at six to-morrow evening, at the place where you chopped
+down my rails.  All you want will be provided, and your course of
+promotion begins at once.  But remember, all must be honour bright.
+No shilly-shallying, no lukewarmness, no indifference to a noble
+cause.  Faint heart never won fair lady."
+
+The waning moon had risen, and now shone upon Carne's face,
+lighting up all its gloomy beauty, and strange power of sadness.
+Dan seemed to lose his clear keen sight beneath the dark influence
+of the other's gaze; and his will, though not a weak one, dropped
+before a larger and stronger.  "He knows all about me and Miss
+Dolly," said the poor young fisherman to himself; "I thought so
+before, and I am certain of it now.  And, for some reason beyond my
+knowledge, he wishes to encourage it.  Oh, perhaps because the
+Carnes have always been against the Darlings!  I never thought of
+that before."
+
+This was a bitter reflection to him, and might have inclined him
+the right way, if time had allowed him to work it out.  But no such
+time was afforded; and in the confusion and gratitude of the
+moment, he answered, "Sir, I shall be always at your service, and
+do my very best in every way to please you."  Caryl Carne smiled;
+and the church clock of Springhaven solemnly struck midnight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+THE TRIALS OF FAITH
+
+
+He following day, the 27th of October, was a dark one in the
+calendar of a fair and good young lady.  Two years would then have
+passed since Faith Darling, at the age of twenty, had received sad
+tidings, which would make the rest of her life flow on in shadow.
+So at least she thought, forgetful (or rather perhaps unconscious,
+for she had not yet learned the facts of life) that time and the
+tide of years submerge the loftiest youthful sorrow.  To a warm and
+stedfast heart like hers, and a nature strong but self-controlled,
+no casual change, or light diversion, or sudden interest in other
+matters, could take the place of the motive lost.  Therefore, being
+of a deep true faith, and staunch in the belief of a great God,
+good to all who seek His goodness, she never went away from what
+she meant, that faith and hope should feed each other.
+
+This saved her from being a trouble to any one, or damping
+anybody's cheerfulness, or diminishing the gaiety around her.  She
+took a lively interest in the affairs of other people, which a
+"blighted being" declines to do; and their pleasures ministered to
+her own good cheer without, or at any rate beyond, her knowledge.
+Therefore she was liked by everybody, and beloved by all who had
+any heart for a brave and pitiful story.  Thus a sweet flower, half
+closed by the storm, continues to breathe forth its sweetness.
+
+However, there were times when even Faith was lost in sad
+remembrance, and her bright young spirit became depressed by the
+hope deferred that maketh sick the heart.  As time grew longer,
+hope grew less; and even the cheerful Admiral, well versed in
+perils of the deep, and acquainted with many a wandering story, had
+made up his mind that Erle Twemlow was dead, and would never more
+be heard of.  The rector also, the young man's father, could hold
+out no longer against that conclusion; and even the mother,
+disdaining the mention, yet understood the meaning, of despair.
+And so among those to whom the subject was the most interesting in
+the world, it was now the strict rule to avoid it with the lips,
+though the eyes were often filled with it.
+
+Faith Darling at first scorned this hard law.  "It does seem so
+unkind," she used to say, "that even his name should be interdicted,
+as if he had disgraced himself.  If he is dead, he has died with
+honour.  None who ever saw him can doubt that.  But he is not dead.
+He will come back to us, perhaps next week, perhaps to-morrow,
+perhaps even while we are afraid to speak of him.  If it is for my
+sake that you behave thus, I am not quite so weak as to require it."
+
+The peculiar circumstances of the case had not only baffled
+enquiry, but from the very beginning precluded it.  The man with
+the keenest eyes, sharpest nose, biggest ears, and longest head, of
+all the many sneaks who now conduct what they call "special
+enquiries," could have done nothing with a case like this, because
+there was no beginning it.  Even now, in fair peace, and with large
+knowledge added, the matter would not have been easy; but in war
+universal, and blank ignorance, there was nothing to be done but to
+sit down and think.  And the story invited a good deal of thinking,
+because of its disappointing turn.
+
+During the negotiations for peace in 1801, and before any articles
+were signed, orders were sent to the Cape of Good Hope for the
+return of a regiment of the line, which had not been more than
+three months there.  But the Cape was likely to be restored to
+Holland, and two empty transports returning from India were to call
+under convoy, and bring home these troops.  One of the officers was
+Captain Erle Twemlow, then about twenty-five years of age, and
+under probation, by the Admiral's decree, for the hand of the
+maiden whose heart had been his from a time to itself immemorial.
+After tiresome days of impatience, the transports arrived under
+conduct of a frigate; and after another week, the soldiers embarked
+with fine readiness for their native land.
+
+But before they had cleared the Bay, they met a brig-of-war direct
+from Portsmouth, carrying despatches for the officer in command of
+the troops, as well as for the captain of the frigate.  Some
+barbarous tribes on the coast of Guinea, the part that is called
+the Ivory Coast, had plundered and burnt a British trading station
+within a few miles of Cape Palmas, and had killed and devoured the
+traders.  These natives must be punished, and a stern example made,
+and a negro monarch of the name of Hunko Jum must have his palace
+burned, if he possessed one; while his rival, the king of the
+Crumbo tribe, whose name was Bandeliah, who had striven to protect
+the traders, must be rewarded, and have a treaty made with him, if
+he could be brought to understand it.  Both sailors and soldiers
+were ready enough to undertake this little spree, as they called
+it, expecting to have a pleasant run ashore, a fine bit of sport
+with the negroes, and perhaps a few noserings of gold to take home
+to their wives and sweethearts.
+
+But, alas! the reality was not so fine.  The negroes who had done
+all the mischief made off, carrying most of their houses with them;
+and the palace of Hunko Jum, if he possessed one, was always a
+little way further on.  The Colonel was a stubborn man, and so was
+the sea-captain--good Tories both, and not desirous to skulk out of
+scrapes, and leave better men to pick up their clumsy breakages.
+Blue and red vied with one another to scour the country, and punish
+the natives--if only they could catch them--and to vindicate, with
+much strong language, the dignity of Great Britain, and to make an
+eternal example.
+
+But white bones are what the white man makes, under that slimy
+sunshine and putrefying moon.  Weary, slack-jointed, low-hearted as
+they were, the deadly coast-fever fell upon them, and they
+shivered, and burned, and groaned, and raved, and leaped into
+holes, or rolled into camp fires.  The Colonel died early, and the
+Naval Captain followed him; none stood upon the order of their
+going; but man followed man, as in a funeral, to the grave, until
+there was no grave to go to.  The hand of the Lord was stretched
+out against them; and never would one have come back to England,
+out of more than five hundred who landed, except for the manhood
+and vigour of a seaman, Captain Southcombe, of the transport
+Gwalior.
+
+This brave and sensible man had been left with his ship lying off
+to be signalled for, in case of mishap, while his consort and the
+frigate were despatched in advance to a creek, about twenty leagues
+westward, where the land-force triumphant was to join them.
+Captain Southcombe, with every hand he could muster, traced the
+unfortunate party inland, and found them led many leagues in the
+wrong direction, lost among quagmires breathing death, worn out
+with vermin, venom, and despair, and hemmed in by savages lurking
+for the night, to rush in upon and make an end of them.  What need
+of many words?  This man, and his comrades, did more than any other
+men on the face of this earth could have done without British blood
+in them.  They buried the many who had died without hope of the
+decent concealment which our life has had, and therefore our death
+longs for; they took on their shoulders, or on cane wattles, the
+many who had made up their minds to die, and were in much doubt
+about having done it, and they roused up and worked up by the
+scruff of their loose places the few who could get along on their
+own legs.  And so, with great spirit, and still greater patience,
+they managed to save quite as many as deserved it.
+
+Because, when they came within signal of the Gwalior, Captain
+Southcombe, marching slowly with his long limp burdens, found ready
+on the sand the little barrel, about as big as a kilderkin, of true
+and unsullied Stockholm pitch, which he had taken, as his brother
+took Madeira, for ripeness and for betterance, by right of change
+of climate.  With a little of this given choicely and carefully at
+the back of every sick man's tongue, and a little more spread
+across the hollow of his stomach, he found them so enabled in the
+afternoon that they were glad to sit up in the bottom of a boat,
+and resign themselves to an All-wise Providence.
+
+Many survived, and blessed Captain Southcombe, not at first
+cordially--for the man yet remains to be discovered who is grateful
+to his doctor--but gradually more and more, and with that healthy
+action of the human bosom which is called expectoration, whenever
+grateful memories were rekindled by the smell of tar.  But this is
+a trifle; many useful lives were saved, and the Nation should have
+thanked Captain Southcombe, but did not.
+
+After these sad incidents, when sorrow for old friends was tempered
+by the friendly warmth afforded by their shoes, a muster was held
+by the Major in command, and there was only one officer who could
+neither assert himself alive, nor be certified as dead.  That one
+was Erle Twemlow, and the regiment would rather have lost any other
+two officers.  Urgent as it was, for the safety of the rest, to fly
+with every feather from this pestilential coast, sails were handed,
+boats despatched, and dealings tried with Hunko Jum, who had
+reappeared with promptitude, the moment he was not wanted.  From
+this noble monarch, and his chiefs, and all his nation, it was hard
+to get any clear intelligence, because their own was absorbed in
+absorbing.  They had found upon the sands a cask of Admiralty rum,
+as well as a stout residue of unadulterated pitch.  Noses, and
+tongues, and historical romance--for a cask had been washed ashore
+five generations since, and set up for a god, when the last drop
+was licked--induced this brave nation to begin upon the rum; and
+fashion (as powerful with them as with us) compelled them to drink
+the tar likewise, because they had seen the white men doing it.
+This would have made it hard to understand them, even if they had
+been English scholars, which their ignorance of rum proved them not
+to be; and our sailors very nearly went their way, after sadly
+ascertaining nothing, except that the cask was empty.
+
+But luckily, just as they were pushing off, a very large, black
+head appeared from behind a vegetable-ivory tree, less than a
+quarter of a mile away, and they knew that this belonged to
+Bandeliah, the revered king of the Crumbos, who had evidently
+smelled rum far inland.  With him they were enabled to hold
+discourse, partly by signs, and partly by means of an old and
+highly polished negro, who had been the rat-catcher at the factory
+now consumed; and the conclusion, or perhaps the confusion, arrived
+at from signs, grunts, grins, nods, waggings of fingers and
+twistings of toes, translated grandiloquently into broken English,
+was not far from being to the following effect:
+
+To wit, that two great kings reigned inland, either of them able to
+eat up Hunko Jum and Bandeliah at a mouthful, but both of them too
+proud to set foot upon land that was flat, or in water that was
+salt.  They ruled over two great nations called the Houlas, and the
+Quackwas, going out of sight among great rivers and lands with
+clear water standing over them.  And if the white men could not
+understand this, it was because they drank salt-water.
+
+Moreover, they said that of these two kings, the king of the Houlas
+was a woman, the most beautiful ever seen in all the world, and
+able to jump over any man's head.  But the king of the Quackwas was
+a man, and although he had more than two thousand wives, and was
+taller by a joint of a bamboo than Bandeliah--whose stature was at
+least six feet four--yet nothing would be of any use to him, unless
+he could come to an agreement with Mabonga, the queen of the
+Houlas, to split a durra straw with him.  But Mabonga was coy, and
+understanding men, as well as jumping over them, would grant them
+no other favour than the acceptance of their presents.  However,
+the other great king was determined to have her for his wife, if he
+abolished all the rest, and for this reason he had caught and kept
+the lost Englishman as a medicine-man; and it was not likely that
+he would kill him, until he failed or succeeded.
+
+To further enquiries Bandeliah answered that to rescue the prisoner
+was impossible.  If it had been his own newest wife, he would not
+push out a toe for her.  The great king Golo lived up in high
+places that overlooked the ground, as he would these white men, and
+his armies went like wind and spread like fire.  None of his
+warriors ate white man's flesh; they were afraid it would make them
+cowardly.
+
+A brave heart is generally tender in the middle, to make up for
+being so firm outside, even as the Durian fruit is.  Captain
+Southcombe had walked the poop-deck of the Gwalior many a time, in
+the cool of the night, with Erle Twemlow for his companion, and had
+taken a very warm liking to him.  So that when the survivors of the
+regiment were landed at Portsmouth, this brave sailor travelled at
+his own cost to Springhaven, and told the Rector the whole sad
+story, making it clear to him beyond all doubt, that nothing
+whatever could be done to rescue the poor young man from those
+savages, or even to ascertain his fate.  For the Quackwas were an
+inland tribe, inhabiting vast regions wholly unknown to any
+European, and believed to extend to some mighty rivers, and lakes
+resembling inland seas.
+
+Therefore Mr. Twemlow, in a deep quiet voice, asked Captain
+Southcombe one question only--whether he might keep any hope of
+ever having, by the mercy of the Lord, his only son restored to
+him.  And the sailor said--yes; the mistake would be ever to
+abandon such a hope, for at the moment he least expected it, his
+son might stand before him.  He pretended to no experience of the
+western coast of Africa, and niggers he knew were a very queer lot,
+acting according to their own lights, which differed according to
+their natures.  But he was free to say, that in such a condition he
+never would think of despairing, though it might become very hard
+not to do so, as time went on without bringing any news.  He
+himself had been in sad peril more than once, and once it appeared
+quite hopeless; but he thought of his wife and his children at
+home, and the Lord had been pleased to deliver him.
+
+The parson was rebuked by this brave man's faith, who made no
+pretence whatever to piety; and when they said Goodbye, their eyes
+were bright with the goodwill and pity of the human race, who know
+trouble not inflicted as yet upon monkeys.  Mr. Twemlow's heart
+fell when the sailor was gone, quite as if he had lost his own
+mainstay; but he braced himself up to the heavy duty of imparting
+sad news to his wife and daughter, and worst of all to Faith
+Darling.  But the latter surprised him by the way in which she bore
+it; for while she made no pretence to hide her tears, she was
+speaking as if they were needless.  And the strangest thing of all,
+in Mr. Twemlow's opinion, was her curious persistence about Queen
+Mabonga.  Could any black woman--and she supposed she must be that--
+be considered by white people to be beautiful?  Had Captain
+Southcombe ever even seen her; and if not, how could he be in such
+raptures about her attractions?  She did not like to say a word,
+because he had been so kind and so faithful to those poor soldiers,
+whom it was his duty to bring home safe; but if it had not been for
+that, she might have thought that with so many children and a wife
+at Limehouse, he should not have allowed his mind to dwell so
+fondly on the personal appearance of a negress!
+
+The Rector was astonished at this injustice, and began to revise
+his opinion about Faith as the fairest and sweetest girl in all the
+world; but Mrs. Twemlow smiled, when she had left off crying, and
+said that she liked the dear child all the better for concluding
+that Ponga--or whatever her name was--must of necessity and at the
+first glance fall desperately in love with her own Erle.  Then the
+Rector cried, "Oh, to be sure, that explained it!  But he never
+could have thought of that, without his wife's assistance."
+
+Two years now, two years of quiet patience, of busy cheerfulness
+now and then, and of kindness to others always, had made of Faith
+Darling a lady to be loved for a hundred years, and for ever.  The
+sense of her sorrow was never far from her, yet never brought near
+to any other by herself; and her smile was as warm, and her eyes as
+bright, as if there had never been a shadow on her youth.  To be
+greeted by her, and to receive her hand, and one sweet glance of
+her large goodwill, was enough to make an old man feel that he must
+have been good at some time, and a young man hope that he should be
+so by-and-by; though the tendency was generally contented with the
+hope.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+FAREWELL, DANIEL
+
+
+Thoughtful for others as she always was, this lovely and loveable
+young woman went alone, on the morning of the day that was so
+sorrowful for her, to bear a little share of an elder lady's
+sorrow, and comfort her with hopes, or at any rate with kindness.
+They had shed tears together when the bad news arrived, and again
+when a twelvemonth had weakened feeble hope; and now that another
+year had well-nigh killed it in old hearts too conversant with the
+cruelties of the world, a little talk, a tender look, a gentle
+repetition of things that had been said at least a hundred times
+before, might enter by some subtle passage to the cells of comfort.
+Who knows how the welted vine leaf, when we give it shade and
+moisture, crisps its curves again, and breathes new bloom upon its
+veinage?  And who can tell how the flagging heart, beneath the cool
+mantle of time, revives, shapes itself into keen sympathies again,
+and spreads itself congenially to the altered light?
+
+Without thinking about it, but only desiring to do a little good,
+if possible, Faith took the private way through her father's
+grounds leading to the rectory, eastward of the village.  It was
+scarcely two o'clock, and the sun was shining, and the air clear
+and happy, as it can be in October.  She was walking rather fast,
+for fear of dropping into the brooding vein, when in the little fir
+plantation a man came forth on her path, and stood within a few
+yards in front of her.  She was startled for an instant, because
+the place was lonely, and Captain Stubbard's battery crew had
+established their power to repulse the French by pounding their
+fellow-countrymen.  But presently she saw that it was Dan Tugwell,
+looking as unlike himself as any man can do (without the aid of an
+artist), and with some surprise she went on to meet him.
+
+Instead of looking bright, and bold, and fearless, with the freedom
+of the sea in his open face, and that of the sun in his clustering
+curls, young Daniel appeared careworn and battered, not only unlike
+his proper self, but afraid of and ashamed of it.  He stood not
+firmly on the ground, nor lightly poised like a gallant sailor, but
+loosely and clumsily like a ploughman who leaves off at the end of
+his furrow to ease the cramp.  His hat looked as if he had slept in
+it, and his eyes as if he had not slept with them.
+
+Miss Darling had always been fond of Dan, from the days when they
+played on the beach together, in childhood's contempt of social
+law.  Her old nurse used to shut her eyes, after looking round to
+make sure that there was "nobody coming to tell on them," while as
+pretty a pair of children as the benevolent sea ever prattled with
+were making mirth and music and romance along its margin.  And
+though in ripe boyhood the unfaithful Daniel transferred the hot
+part of his homage to the more coquettish Dolly, Faith had not made
+any grievance of that, but rather thought all the more of him,
+especially when he saved her sister's life in a very rash boating
+adventure.
+
+So now she went up to him with a friendly mind, and asked him
+softly and pitifully what trouble had fallen upon him.  At the
+sweet sound of her voice, and the bright encouragement of her eyes,
+he felt as if he was getting better.
+
+"If you please, miss," he said, with a meek salutation, which
+proved his panisic ideas to be not properly wrought into his system
+as yet--"if you please, miss, things are very hard upon me."
+
+"Is it money?" she asked, with the true British instinct that all
+common woes have their origin there; "if it is, I shall be so glad
+that I happen to have a good bit put by just now."
+
+But Dan shook his head with such dignified sadness that Faith was
+quite afraid of having hurt his feelings.  "Oh, I might have
+known," she said, "that it was nothing of that kind.  You are
+always so industrious and steady.  But what can it be?  Is it
+anything about Captain Stubbard and his men, because I know you do
+not like them, and none of the old Springhaven people seem to do
+so?  Have you been obliged to fight with any of them, Daniel?"
+
+"No, miss, no.  I would not soil my hand by laying it on any of
+such chaps as those.  Unless they should go for to insult me, I
+mean, or any one belonging to me.  No, miss, no.  It is ten times
+worse than money, or assault and battery."
+
+"Well, Daniel, I would not on any account," said Faith, with her
+desire of knowledge growing hotter by delay, as a kettle boils by
+waiting--"on no account would I desire to know anything that you do
+not seem to think my advice might help you to get out of.  I am not
+in a hurry, but still my time is getting rather late for what I
+have to do.  By the time I come back from the rectory, perhaps you
+will have made up your mind about it.  Till then, good-bye to you,
+Daniel."
+
+He stepped out of the path, that she might go by, and only said,
+"Then goodbye, miss; I shall be far away when you come back."
+
+This was more than the best-regulated, or largest--which generally
+is the worst-regulated--feminine mind could put up with.  Miss
+Darling came back, with her mind made up to learn all, or to know
+the reason why.
+
+"Dan, this is unworthy of you," she said, with her sweet voice full
+of sorrow.  "Have I ever been hard or unkind to you, Dan, that you
+should be so afraid of me?"
+
+"No, miss, never.  But too much the other way.  That makes it so
+bad for me to say good-bye.  I am going away, miss.  I must be off
+this evening.  I never shall see Springhaven no more, nor you,
+miss--nor nobody else."
+
+"It is quite impossible, Dan.  You must be dreaming.  You don't
+look at all like yourself to-day.  You have been doing too much
+over-time.  I have heard all about it, and how very hard you work.
+I have been quite sorry for you on Sundays, to see you in the
+gallery, without a bit of rest, still obliged to give the time with
+your elbow.  I have often been astonished that your mother could
+allow it.  Why, Dan, if you go away, you will break her heart, and
+I don't know how many more in Springhaven."
+
+"No, miss, no.  They very soon mends them.  It is the one as goes
+away that gets a deal the worst of it.  I am sure I don't know
+whatever I shall do, without the old work to attend to.  But it
+will get on just as well without me."
+
+"No, it won't," replied Faith, looking at him very sadly, and
+shaking her head at such cynical views; "nothing will be the same,
+when you are gone, Daniel; and you ought to have more consideration."
+
+"I am going with a good man, at any rate," he answered, "the
+freest-minded gentleman that ever came to these parts.  Squire
+Carne, of Carne Castle, if you please, miss."
+
+"Mr. Caryl Carne!" cried Faith, in a tone which made Daniel look at
+her with some surprise.  "Is he going away?  Oh, I am so glad!"
+
+"No, miss; not Squire Carne himself.  Only to provide for me work
+far away, and not to be beholden any more to my own people.  And
+work where a man may earn and keep his own money, and hold up his
+head while adoing of it."
+
+"Oh, Dan, you know more of such things than I do.  And every man
+has a right to be independent, and ought to be so, and I should
+despise him otherwise.  But don't be driven by it into the opposite
+extreme of disliking the people in a different rank--"
+
+"No, miss, there is no fear of that--the only fear is liking some
+of them too much."
+
+"And then," continued Faith, who was now upon one of her favourite
+subjects past interruption, "you must try to remember that if you
+work hard, so do we, or nearly all of us.  From the time my father
+gets up in the morning, to the time when he goes to bed at night,
+he has not got five minutes--as he tells us every day--for
+attending to anything but business.  Even at dinner, when you get a
+good hour, and won't be disturbed--now will you?"
+
+"No, miss; not if all the work was tumbling down.  No workman as
+respects himself would take fifty-nine minutes for sixty."
+
+"Exactly so; and you are right.  You stand up for your rights.
+Your dinner you have earned, and you will have it.  And the same
+with your breakfast, and your supper too, and a good long night to
+get over it.  Do you jump up in bed, before you have shut both
+eyes, hearing or fancying you have heard the bell, that calls you
+out into the cold, and the dark, and a wet saddle, from a warm
+pillow?  And putting that by, as a trouble of the war, and the
+chance of being shot at by dark tall men"--here Faith shuddered at
+her own presentment, as the image of Caryl Carne passed before her--
+"have you to consider, at every turn, that whatever you do--though
+you mean it for the best--will be twisted and turned against you by
+some one, and made into wickedness that you never dreamed of, by
+envious people, whose grudge against you is that they fancy you
+look down on them?  Though I am sure of one thing, and that is that
+my father, instead of looking down upon any honest man because he
+is poor, looks up to him; and so do I; and so does every gentleman
+or lady.  And any one who goes about to persuade the working-
+people--as they are called, because they have to use their hands
+more--that people like my father look down upon them, and treat
+them like dogs, and all those wicked stories--all I can say is, any
+man who does it deserves to be put in the stocks, or the pillory,
+or even to be transported as an enemy to his country."
+
+Dan looked at the lady with great surprise.  He had always known
+her to be kind and gentle, and what the old people called
+"mannersome," to every living body that came near her.  But to hear
+her put, better than he could put them, his own budding sentiments
+(which he thought to be new, with the timeworn illusion of young
+Liberals), and to know from her bright cheeks, and brighter eyes,
+that her heart was in every word of it, and to feel himself rebuked
+for the evil he had thought, and the mischief he had given ear to--
+all this was enough to make him angry with himself, and uncertain
+how to answer.
+
+"I am certain that you never thought of such things," Miss Darling
+continued, with her gentle smile returning; "you are much too
+industrious and sensible for that.  But I hear that some persons
+are now in our parish who make it their business, for some reason
+of their own, to spread ill-will and jealousy and hatred
+everywhere, to make us all strangers and foes to one another, and
+foreigners to our own country.  We have enemies enough, by the will
+of the Lord (as Mr. Twemlow says), for a sharp trial to us, and a
+lesson to our pride, and a deep source of gratitude, and charity,
+and good-will--though I scarcely understand how they come in--and,
+above all, a warning to us to stick together, and not exactly hate,
+but still abhor, everybody who has a word to say against his own
+country at a time like this.  And ten thousand times as much, if he
+is afraid to say it, but crawls with crafty poison into simple
+English bosoms."
+
+"There is nothing of that, miss, to my knowledge, here," the young
+fisherman answered, simply; "Springhaven would never stand none of
+that; and the club drinks the health of King George every night of
+their meeting, and stamps on the floor for him.  But I never shall
+help to do that any more.  I must be going, miss--and thank you."
+
+"Then you will not tell me why you go?  You speak of it as if it
+was against your will, and yet refuse to say what drives you.  Have
+you been poaching, Dan?  Ah, that is it!  But I can beg you off
+immediately.  My father is very good even to strangers, and as for
+his doing anything to you--have no fear, Dan; you shall not be
+charged with it, even if you have been in Brown Bushes."
+
+Brown Bushes, a copse about a mile inland, was the Admiral's most
+sacred spot, when peace allowed him to go shooting, because it was
+beloved by woodcocks, his favourite birds both for trigger and for
+fork.  But Daniel only shook his head; he had not been near Brown
+Bushes.  Few things perhaps will endure more wear than feminine
+curiosity.  But when a trap has been set too long, it gets tongue-
+bound, and grows content without contents.
+
+"Daniel Tugwell," said Miss Darling, severely, "if you have not
+been fighting, or conspiring against society, or even poaching, I
+can well understand that you may have reasons for not desiring my
+assistance or advice.  And I only wonder that under such
+circumstances you took the trouble to wait for me here, as you
+appear to have done.  Good-bye."
+
+"Oh, don't be cross, miss! please not to be cross," cried Daniel,
+running after her; "I would tell you all about it this very instant
+moment, if it were behoving to me.  You will hear all about it when
+you get to Parson Twemlow's, for I saw mother going there, afore
+she had her breakfast, though I was not concernable to let her see
+me.  If the Squire had been home, she would have gone up to Hall
+first.  No, miss, no.  I done nothing to be ashamed of; and if you
+turn back on me, you'll be sorry afterwards."
+
+Faith was more apt to think that she had been too sharp than to be
+so in behaviour to any one.  She began at once, with a blush for
+her bad ideas, to beg Dan's pardon, and he saw his way to say what
+he was come to say.
+
+"You always were too good, Miss Faith, too good to be hard upon any
+one, and I am sure you have not been hard upon me; for I know that
+I look disrespectable.  But I couldn't find words to say what I
+wanted, until you spoke so soft and kind.  And perhaps, when I say
+it, you'll be angry with me, and think that I trespass upon you."
+
+"No, I won't, Dan; I will promise you that.  You may tell me, as if
+I were Mr. Swipes, who says that he never lost his temper in his
+life, because he is always right, and other people wrong."
+
+"Well, miss, I'm afraid that I am not like that, and that makes me
+feel so uncomfortable with the difference between us.  Because it
+is all about Miss Dolly, and I might seem so impudent.  But you
+know that I would go through fire and water to serve Miss Dolly,
+and I durstn't go away forever without one message to her.  If I
+was in her own rank of life, God Almighty alone should part us,
+whether I was rich or whether I was poor, and I'd like to see any
+one come near her!  But being only an ignorant fellow without any
+birth or book-learning, I am not such a fool as to forget that the
+breadth of the world lies between us.  Only I may wish her well,
+all the same--I may wish her well and happy, miss?"
+
+"Certainly you may."  Faith blushed at the passion of his words,
+and sighed at their despair.  "You have saved her life.  She
+respects and likes you, the same as my father and I do.  You may
+trust me with your message, Dan."
+
+"I suppose it would not be the proper thing for me to see her once
+before I go; just for one minute, with you standing by her, that I
+might--that she might--"
+
+"No," answered Faith, though it grieved her to say it; "we must not
+think of that, Dan.  It could do you no good, and it might do her
+harm.  But if you have any message, to be useful to her--"
+
+"The useful part of it must be through you, miss, and not sent to
+her at all, I think, or it would be very impertinent.  The kind
+part is to give her my good-bye, and say that I would die to help
+her.  And the useful part is for yourself.  For God's sake, miss,
+do keep Miss Dolly out of the way of Squire Carne!  He hath a
+tongue equal to any woman, with the mind of a man beneath it.  He
+hath gotten me body and soul; because I care not the skin of a dab
+what befalls me.  But oh, miss, he never must get Miss Dolly.  He
+may be a very good man in some ways, and he is wonderful free-
+minded; but any young lady as marries him had better have leaped
+into the Culver Hole.  Farewell, miss, now that I have told you."
+He was gone before Faith could even offer him her hand, but he took
+off his hat and put one finger to his curls, as he looked back from
+the clearing; and her eyes filled with tears, as she waved her hand
+and answered, "Farewell, Daniel!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+CAULIFLOWERS
+
+
+"They cocks and hens," Mr. Swipes used to say in the earlier days
+of his empire--"bless you, my lord, they cocks and hens knows a
+good bit of gardening as well as I do.  They calls one another, and
+they comes to see it, and they puts their heads to one side and
+talks about it, and they say to one another, 'Must be something
+good there, or he wouldn't have made it so bootiful'; and then up
+go their combs, and they tear away into it, like a passel of
+Scotchmen at a scratching-match.  If your lordship won't put a lock
+on the door, you will never taste a bit of good vegetable."
+
+Admiral Darling was at length persuaded to allow Mr. Swipes the
+privilege of locking himself in the kitchen-garden; and then, for
+the purpose of getting at him, a bell was put in the gable of the
+tool-house, with a long handle hanging outside the door in the
+courtyard towards the kitchen.  Thus he was able to rest from his
+labours, without incurring unjust reproach; and gradually as he
+declined, with increasing decision, to answer the bell when it
+rang, according to the highest laws of nature it left off ringing
+altogether.  So Mr. Swipes in the walled kitchen-garden sought
+peace and ensued it.
+
+One quiet November afternoon, when the disappearance of Dan Tugwell
+had been talked out and done with, a sad mishap befell this
+gardener, during the performance, or, to speak more correctly, the
+contemplation of his work.  A yawn of such length and breadth and
+height and profundity took possession of him that the space it had
+so well occupied still retained the tender memory.  In plainer
+words, he had ricked his jaw, not from general want of usage, but
+from the momentary excess.
+
+"Sarves me right," he muttered, "for carrying on so, without
+nothing inside of 'un.  Must go to doctor, quick step, and no
+mistake."
+
+In this strait he set off for John Prater's (for it was a matter of
+luck to get ale at the Hall, and in such emergency he must not
+trust to fortune), and passing hastily through the door, left it
+unlocked behind him.  Going down the hill he remembered this, and
+had a great mind to go back again, but the unanimous demand of his
+system for beer impelled him downwards.  He never could get up that
+hill again without hydraulic pressure.
+
+All might have gone well, and all would have gone well, except for
+the grievous mistake of Nature in furnishing women with eyes whose
+keenness is only exceeded by that of their tongues.  The cook at
+the Hall, a superior person--though lightly esteemed by Mrs. Cloam--
+had long been ambitious to have a voice in the selection of her
+raw material.  If anything was good, who got the credit?  Mr.
+Swipes, immediately.  But if everything was bad, as more often
+happened, who received the blame?  Mary Knuckledown.  Her lawful
+name was "Knuckleup," but early misfortunes had reduced her to such
+mildness that her name became converted--as she expressed it--in
+harmony with her nature.  Facts having generally been adverse to
+her, she found some comfort in warm affection for their natural
+enemies and ever-victorious rivals--words.  Any words coming with a
+brave rush are able to scatter to the winds the strongest facts;
+but big words--as all our great orators know--knock them at once on
+the head and cremate them.  But the cook was a kind-hearted woman,
+and liked both little and big words, without thinking of them.
+
+She had put down her joint, a good aitch-bone, for roasting--than
+which, if well treated, are few better treats--to revolve in the
+distant salute of the fire (until it should ripen for the close
+embrace, where the tints of gold and chestnut vie), when it came
+into her provident mind with a flash that neither horse-radish nor
+cauliflower had yet been delivered by Mr. Swipes.  She must run out
+and pull the long handle in the yard, and remind him gently of her
+needs, for she stood in some awe of his character, as a great
+annalist of little people's lives.
+
+Leaving the small dog Dandolo with stern orders to keep the jack
+steadily going, with a stick on the dresser to intimidate one eye,
+and a sop in the dripping-pan to encourage the other, Mrs.
+Knuckledown ran into the court-yard, just in time to see the last
+swing of the skirt of that noble gardener's coat, as he turned the
+wall corner on his march towards the tap.  She longed to call him
+back, but remembered just in time how fearfully cross that had made
+him once before, and she was yielding with a sigh to her usual bad
+luck, when an eager and triumphant cluck made her look about.  The
+monarch and patriarch of cocks, a magnificent old Dorking, not idly
+endowed with five claws for the scratch, had discovered something
+great, and was calling all his wives, and even his sons, as many as
+yet crowed not against him, to share this special luck of fortune,
+or kind mood of Providence.  In a minute or two he had levied an
+army, some half-hundred strong, and all spurring the land, to
+practise their liberal claws betimes for the gorgeous joy of
+scattering it.  Then the grand old cock, whose name was "Bill,"
+made them all fall in behind him, and strutting till he almost
+tumbled on his head, led the march of destruction to the garden
+door.
+
+But, alas, he had waited for his followers too long, eager as they
+were for rapine.  When he came to his portal of delight, there
+stood, stout as Britannia herself, and sweeping a long knife for
+her trident, the valiant cook, to protect her cauliflowers.  "You
+be off, Bill," she cried.  "I don't want to hurt you, because you
+have been a good bird in your time, but now you be growing
+outrageous."  Bill made a rush for it, but losing a slice of his
+top-heavy comb, retired.
+
+"Now's my opportunity," said Mary to herself, "for to cut my own
+cabbage for once in my life, and to see what that old beast does
+in here.  Oh my!  The old villain, and robber that he is!
+Bamboozlement is the language for it."  Embezzlement she should
+have said, and to one who knew as she did how badly the table of
+the master was supplied, the suspicion was almost unavoidable.  For
+here she saw in plenteous show, and appetising excellence, a many
+many of the very things she had vainly craved from Mr. Swipes.  And
+if it was so now in November, what must it have been two months
+ago?  Why, poor Miss Faith--Mary Knuckledown's idol, because of her
+kindness and sad disappointment--had asked a little while ago for a
+bit of salsify, not for herself--she never thought of herself--but
+for a guest who was fond of it; also the Admiral himself had called
+out for a good dish of skirrets.  But no; Mr. Swipes said the
+weather and the black blight had destroyed them.  Yet here they
+were; Mary could swear to them both, with their necks above-ground,
+as if waiting for the washing!  Cauliflowers also (as the cooks
+call broccoli of every kind), here they were in abundance, ten long
+rows all across the middle square, very beautiful to behold.  Some
+were just curling in their crinkled coronets, to conceal the young
+heart that was forming, as Miss in her teens draws her tresses
+around the first peep of her own palpitation; others were showing
+their broad candid bosoms, with bold sprigs of nature's green lace
+crisping round; while others had their ripe breasts shielded from
+the air by the breakage of their own broad fringe upon them.
+
+Mary knew that this was done by Mr. Swipes himself, because he had
+brought her some in that condition; but the unsuspicious master had
+accepted his assurance that "they was only fit for pigs as soon as
+the break-stalk blight come on 'em"; and then the next day he had
+bought the very same, perhaps at ninepence apiece, from Mr.
+Cheeseman's window, trimmed and shorn close, like the head of a
+monk.  "I'll see every bit of 'un, now that I be here."  Mrs.
+Knuckledown spoke aloud, to keep up her courage.  "Too bad for that
+old beast to keep us locked out from the very place us ought to
+have for pommylarding, because he saith all the fruit would go into
+our pockets.  And what goes into his'en, I should like to know?
+Suppose I lock him out, as he hath locked us out.  He won't be back
+yet for half an hour, anyway.  Wish I could write--what a list I
+would make, if it was only of the things he denieth he hath got!"
+
+Strong in her own honesty and loyalty to her master, the cook
+turned the key in the lock, and left Swipes to ring himself into
+his own garden, as he always called it.  That is to say, if he
+should return, which was not very likely, before she had time for a
+good look round.  But she saw such a sight of things she had longed
+for, to redeem her repute in the vegetable way, as well as such
+herbs for dainty stuffing, of which she knew more than cooks
+generally do, that her cap nearly came off her head with amazement,
+and time flew by unheeded.  Until she was startled and terrified
+sadly by the loud, angry clang of the bell in the gable.  Not only
+was Mr. Swipes come back, but he was in a furious rage outside,
+though his fury was chilled with some shivers of fear.  At first,
+when he found the door locked against him, he thought that the
+Admiral must have come home unexpected, and failing to find him at
+work, had turned the key against him, while himself inside.  If so,
+his situation would be in sad peril, and many acres of lies would
+be required to redeem it.  For trusting in his master's long times
+of absence, and full times of public duty when at home, Mr. Swipes
+had grown more private stock, as he called it, and denied the
+kitchen more, than he had ever done before, in special preparation
+for some public dinners about to be given at the Darling Arms, by
+military officers to naval, and in turn by the latter to the
+former; for those were hospitable days, when all true Britons stuck
+their country's enemy with knife and fork, as well as sword.
+
+But learning, as he soon did at the stables, that the Admiral was
+still away, and both the young ladies were gone for a ride with
+Miss Twemlow, the gardener came back in a rage, and rang the bell.
+"Oh, whatever shall I do?" the trembling Mary asked herself.  "Best
+take the upper hand if I can.  He's a thief, and a rogue, and he
+ought to be frighted.  Does he know I can't write?  No, for certain
+he dothn't.  One of his big lies about me was a letter I wrote to
+poor Jonadab."
+
+With her courage renewed by the sense of that wrong, she opened the
+door, and stood facing Mr. Swipes, with a piece of paper in her
+hand, which a woman's quick wit bade her fetch from her pocket.
+
+"Halloa, madam!" the gardener exclaimed, with a sweep of his hat
+and a low salute, which he meant to be vastly satirical; "so your
+ladyship have come to take the air in my poor garden, instead of
+tending the spit.  And what do your ladyship think of it, so please
+you?  Sorry as I had any dung about, but hadn't no warning of this
+royal honour."
+
+"Sir," said Mrs. Knuckledown, pretending to be frightened a great
+deal more than she was--"oh, sir, forgive me!  I am sure I meant no
+harm.  But the fowls was running in, and I ran up to stop them."
+
+"Oh, that was how your ladyship condescended; and to keep out the
+fowls, you locked out me!  Allow me the royal and unapparelled
+honour of showing your ladyship to her carriage; and if I ever
+catch her in here again, I'll pitch you down the court-yard pretty
+quick.  Be off, you dirty baggage, or I won't answer for it now!"
+
+"Oh, you are too kind, Mr. Swipes; I am sure you are too gentle, to
+forgive me, like of that!  And the little list I made of the
+flowers in your garden, I shall put it in a teapot till the Quality
+wants something."
+
+Mr. Swipes gave a start, and his over-watered eyes could not meet
+those of Mary, which were mildly set upon them.  "List!" he
+muttered--"little list!  What do you please to mean, Miss?"
+
+"Well, the 'dirty baggage' means nothing unparalleled, sir, but
+just the same as anybody else might do.  Some people calls it a
+Inventionary, and some an Emmarandum, and some a Catalogue.  It
+don't interfere with you, Mr. Swipes; only the next time as Miss
+Dolly asks, the same as she was doing the other day--"
+
+"Oh, she was, was she?  The little -----!"  Mr. Swipes used a word
+concerning that young lady which would have insured his immediate
+discharge, together with one from the Admiral's best toe.  "And
+pray, what was her observations, ma'am?"
+
+"It was Charles told me, for he was waiting at dinner.  Seems that
+the turnip was not to her liking, though I picked out the very best
+of what few you sent in, so she looks up from her plate, and she
+says:  'Well, I cannot understand it!  To me it is the greatest
+mistress in the world,' she says, 'that we never can get a bit of
+vegetable fit for eating.  We've got,' she says, 'a kitchen-garden
+close upon two acres, and a man who calls himself head gardener, by
+the name of Swipes'--my pardoning to you, Mr. Swipes, for the young
+lady's way of saying it--'and his two sons, and his nephew, and I
+dare say soon his grandsons.  Well, and what comes of it?' says
+she.  'Why, that we never has a bit of any kind of vegetable, much
+less of fruit, fit to lay a fork to!'  Charles was a-pricking up
+his ears at this, because of his own grumbles, and the master saw
+it, and he says, 'Hush, Dolly!'  But she up and answers spiritly:
+'No, I won't hush, papa, because it is too bad.  Only you leave it
+to me,' she says, 'and if I don't keep the key from that old thief--
+excoose me, Mr. Swipes, for her shocking language--'and find out
+what he locks up in there, my name's not Horatia Dorothy Darling.'
+Oh, don't let it dwell so on your mind, Mr. Swipes!  You know what
+young ladies be.  They says things random, and then goes away and
+never thinks no more about it.  Oh, don't be upset so--or I shall
+have to call Charles!"
+
+Mr. Swipes took his hat off to ease his poor mind, which had lost
+its way altogether in other people's wickedness.  "May I never set
+eyes on that young man no more!" he exclaimed, with more pathetic
+force than reasoning power.  "Either him or me quits this
+establishment to-morrow.  Ah, I know well why he left his last
+place, and somebody else shall know to-morrow!"
+
+"What harm have poor Charles done?" the cook asked sharply; "it
+wasn't him that said it; it was Miss Dolly.  Charley only told me
+conferentially."
+
+"Oh, I know what 'conferentially' means, when anything once gets
+among the womenkind!  But I know a thing or two about Miss Dolly,
+as will give her enough to do at home, I'll warrant, without coming
+spying after me and my affairs.  Don't you be surprised, cook,
+whatever you may hear, as soon as ever the Admiral returneth.  He's
+a soft man enough in a number of ways, but he won't put up with
+everything.  The nasty little vixen, if she don't smart for this!"
+
+"Oh, don't 'e, now don't 'e, Mr. Swipes, that's a dear!" cried the
+soft-hearted Mrs. Knuckledown; "don't 'e tell on her, the poor
+young thing.  If her hath been carrying on a bit with some of them
+young hofficers, why, it's only natteral, and her such a young
+booty.  Don't 'e be Dick-tell-tale, with a name to it, or without.
+And perhaps her never said half the things that Charles hath
+contributed to her."  The truth was that poor Dolly had said
+scarcely one of them.
+
+"Bain't no young hofficer," Mr. Swipes replied, contemptuously;
+"ten times wuss than that, and madder for the Admiral.  Give me
+that paper, Miss, and then, perhaps, I'll tell 'e.  Be no good to
+you, and might be useful to me."
+
+Mary could not give up the paper, because it was a letter from one
+of her adorers, which, with the aid of Jenny Shanks, she had
+interpreted.  "No, no," she said, with a coaxing look; "by-and-by,
+Mr. Swipes, when you have told me who it is, and when you have
+promised not to tell on poor Miss Dolly.  But nobody sha'n't see
+it, without your permission.  We'll have another talk about that
+to-morrow.  But, oh my! look at the time you have kept me, with all
+the good things to make a hangel's mouth water!  Bring me two
+cauliflowers in two seconds.  My beef will want basting long ago;
+and if Dandy hathn't left his job, he'll be pretty well roasted
+hisself by now."
+
+Mr. Swipes went muttering up the walk, and was forced to cut two of
+the finest cauliflowers intended for Cheeseman's adornment to-
+morrow.  This turned his heart very sour again, and he shook his
+head, growling in self-commune:  "You see if I don't do it, my
+young lady.  You speaks again me, behind my back, and I writes
+again you, before your face; though, in course, I need not put my
+name to it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+LOYAL, AYE LOYAL
+
+
+One of the dinners at the Darling Arms, and perhaps the most
+brilliant and exciting of the whole, because even the waiters
+understood the subject, was the entertainment given in the month of
+December, A.D. 1803, not only by the officers of two regiments
+quartered for the time near Stonnington, but also by all the
+leading people round about those parts, in celebration of the great
+work done by His Majesty's 38-gun frigate Leda.  Several smaller
+dinners had been consumed already, by way of practice, both for the
+cooks and the waiters and the chairman, and Mr. John Prater, who
+always stood behind him, with a napkin in one hand and a corkscrew
+in the other, and his heart in the middle, ready either to assuage
+or stimulate.  As for the guests, it was always found that no
+practice had been required.
+
+"But now, but now"--as Mr. Prater said, when his wife pretended to
+make nothing of it, for no other purpose than to aggravate him,
+because she thought that he was making too much money, in
+proportion to what he was giving her--"now we shall see what
+Springhaven can do for the good of the Country and the glory of
+herself.  Two bottles and a half a head is the lowest that can be
+charged for, with the treble X outside, and the punch to follow
+after.  His lordship is the gentleman to keep the bottle going."
+
+For the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, the popular Marquis of
+Southdown, had promised to preside at this grand dinner; and
+everybody knew what that meant.  "Short tongue and long throat,"
+was his lordship's motto in the discharge of all public business,
+and "Bottle to the gentleman on my left!" was the practical form of
+his eulogies.  In a small space like this, there would be no chance
+for a sober-minded guest to escape his searching eye, and Blyth
+Scudamore (appointed to represent the officers of the Leda, and
+therefore the hero of the evening) felt as happy as a dog being led
+to be drowned, in view of this liquid ordeal.  For Blyth was a
+temperate and moderate young man, neither such a savage as to turn
+his wine to poison, nor yet so Anti-Christian as to turn it into
+water.
+
+Many finer places had been offered for the feast, and foremost
+amongst them the Admiral's house; but the committee with sound
+judgment had declined them all.  The great point was to have a
+place within easy reach of boats, and where gallant naval officers
+could be recalled at once, if the French should do anything
+outrageous, which they are apt to do at the most outrageous time.
+But when a partition had been knocked down, and the breach tacked
+over with festoons of laurel, Mr. Prater was quite justified in
+rubbing his red hands and declaring it as snug a box as could be
+for the business.  There was even a dark elbow where the staircase
+jutted out, below the big bressemer of the partition, and made a
+little gallery for ladies to hear speeches, and behold the festive
+heroes while still fit to be beholden.  And Admiral Darling, as
+vice-chairman, entering into facts masculine and feminine, had
+promised his daughters and Miss Twemlow, under charge of the
+rector's wife and Mrs. Stubbard, a peep at this heroic scene,
+before it should become too convivial.  The rescuers also of the
+Blonde, the flesh and bone, without which the master brain must
+still have lain stranded, were to have a grand supper in the
+covered skittle-alley, as the joints came away from their betters,
+this lower deck being in command of Captain Tugwell, who could
+rouse up his crew as fast as his lordship roused his officers.
+
+Admiral Darling had been engaged of late in the service of his
+Country so continually, and kept up and down the great roads so
+much, or in and out of any little port where sailors grew, that his
+own door had nearly forgotten his shadow, and his dining-room table
+the reflection of his face.  For, in those days, to keep a good
+table implied that the table must be good, as well as what was put
+upon it; and calico spread upon turpentine was not yet considered
+the proper footing for the hospitable and social glass.
+
+"When shall Twemlow and I have a hobnob again?" the Admiral asked
+himself many a time.  "How the dear old fellow loves to see the
+image of his glass upon the table, and the ruby of his port
+reflected!  Heigho!  I am getting very stiff in the back, and never
+a decent bit of dinner for'ard.  And as for a glass of good wine--
+oh Lord! my timbers will be broken up, before it comes to mend
+them.  And when I come home for even half an hour, there is all
+this small rubbish to attend to.  I must have Frank home, to take
+this stuff off my hands, or else keep what I abominate, a private
+secretary."
+
+Among the pile of letters that had lain unopened was one which he
+left to the last, because he disliked both the look and the smell
+of it.  A dirty, ugly scrawl it was, bulged out with clumsy
+folding, and dabbed with wax in the creases.  With some dislike he
+tore it open; and the dislike became loathing, as he read:
+
+
+"Hon'd Sir.  These foo lines comes from a umble but arty frend to
+command.  Rekwesting of your pardon sir, i have kep a hi same been
+father of good dawters on the goings on of your fammeley.  Miss
+Faith she is a hangel sir but Miss Dolly I fere no better than she
+ort to be, and wonderful fond of been noticed.  I see her keeping
+company and carryin on dreadful with a tall dark young man as meens
+no good and lives to Widow Shankses.  Too nites running when the
+days was short she been up to the cornder of your grounds to meat
+he there ever so long.  Only you hask her if you dont believe me
+and wash her fase same time sir.  Too other peple besides me nose
+it.  Excoose hon'd sir this trubble from your obejiant servant
+
+"FAX AND NO MISSTAKE."
+
+
+The Admiral's healthy face turned blue with rage and contempt, and
+he stamped with his heel, as if he had the writer under it.  To
+write a stabbing letter, and to dare to deal the stab, and yet fear
+to show the hand that deals it, was at that time considered a low
+thing to do.  Even now there are people who so regard it, though a
+still better tool for a blackguard--the anonymous post-card--is now
+superseding it.
+
+All the old man's pleasure, and cheer, and comfort, and joy in
+having one day at home at last, were dashed and shattered and
+turned into wretched anxiety by this vile scrawl.  He meant to have
+gone down, light of heart, with a smiling daughter upon either arm,
+to the gallant little festival where everybody knew him, and every
+one admired and loved him.  His two pretty daughters would sit
+upstairs, watching from a bow-window (though themselves unseen) all
+the dashing arrivals and the grand apparel.  Then when the Marquis
+made his speech, and the King and Queen and Royal Family rode upon
+the clouds, and the grandeur of Great Britain was above the stars
+of heaven, the ladies in the gallery would venture just to show
+themselves, not for one moment with a dream of being looked at, but
+from romantic loyalty, and the fervour of great sentiments.  People
+pretending not to know would ask, "Who are those very lovely
+ladies?"  And he would make believe to know nothing at all about
+it, but his heart would know whether he knew it or not.
+
+On the very eve of all this well-earned bliss, when it would have
+refreshed his fagged body and soul--which were now not so young as
+they used to be--to hear from some scoundrel without a name, that
+his pet child, the life of his life, was no better than she ought
+to be, which being said of a woman means that she is as bad as she
+can be!  This fine old gentleman had never received such a cowardly
+back-handed blow till now, and for a moment he bent under it.
+
+Then, greatly ashamed of himself, he arose, and with one strong
+word, which even Mr. Twemlow might have used under such provocation,
+he trod the vile stuff under foot, and pitched it with the fire-
+tongs into the fire.  After this he felt better, and resolving most
+stoutly that he never would let it cross his mind again, made a
+light and cheerful answer to the profligate one--his young girl who
+came seeking him.
+
+"Oh, father, and you ought to be dressed!" she cried.  "Shall we
+keep His Majesty the Lord-Lieutenant waiting?  Don't let us go at
+all.  Let us stop at home, papa.  We never see you now, more than
+once in a month; and we don't want to see you from a staircase
+hole, where we mustn't even blow a kiss to you.  I have got such a
+lot of things to tell you, dear father; and I could make you laugh
+much more than they will."
+
+"But, my darling--all these grand things?" said the father, gently
+fingering but half afraid to look at her, because of what had been
+in his own mind; "the sweetest Navy blue, and the brightest Army
+red, and little bits of silver lace so quiet in between them!  I am
+sure I don't know what to call a quarter of it; but the finest ship
+ever seen under full sail, with the sun coming through her from her
+royals to her courses--"
+
+"Now, papa, don't be so ridiculous.  You know that I am not a fine
+ship at all, but only a small frigate, about eighteen guns at the
+outside, I should say--though she would be a sloop of war, wouldn't
+she?--and come here at any rate for you to command her, if you are
+not far too lofty an Admiral."
+
+"Do you love your old father, my dear?" said he, being carried
+beyond his usual state by the joy in her eyes as she touched him.
+
+"What a shame to ask me such a question?  Oh, papa, I ought to say,
+'Do you love me?' when you go away weeks and months almost
+together!  Take that, papa; and be quite ashamed of yourself."
+
+She swept all her breast-knots away anyhow--that had taken an hour
+to arbitrate--and flung back her hair that would never be coiled,
+and with a flash of tears leaping into laughing eyes, threw both
+arms round her father's neck, and pressed her cool sweet lips to
+his, which were not at all in the same condition.
+
+"There, see what you've done for me now!" she cried.  "It will take
+three-quarters of an hour, papa, to make me look fit to be looked
+at again.  The fashions are growing so ridiculous now--it is a
+happy thing for us that we are a hundred years behind them, as
+Eliza Twemlow had the impudence to say; and really, for the
+daughter of a clergyman--"
+
+"I don't care that for Eliza Twemlow," the Admiral exclaimed, with
+a snap of his thumb.  "Let her show herself as much as there is
+demand for.  Or rather, what I mean to say is, let Miss Twemlow be
+as beautiful as nature has made her, my dear; and no doubt that is
+very considerable.  But I like you to be different; and you are.  I
+like you to be simple, and shy, and retiring, and not to care
+twopence what any one thinks of you, so long as your father is
+contented."
+
+Dolly looked at her father, as if there were no other man in the
+world for the moment.  Then her conscience made her bright eyes
+fall, as she whispered:  "To be sure, papa.  I only put these
+things on to please you; and if you don't like them, away they go.
+Perhaps I should look nicer in my great-aunt's shawl.  And my feet
+would be warmer, oh ever so much!  I know where it is, and if you
+prefer the look of it--"
+
+"No, no!" cried the simple old father, as the girl tripped away in
+hot haste to seek for it; "I forbid you to make such a guy of
+yourself.  You must not take my little banter, darling, in such a
+matter-of-fact way, or I must hold my tongue."
+
+"Thank God," he continued to himself, as Miss Dolly ran away, to
+repair her damages; "the simple little soul thinks of nobody but
+me!  How could I be such a fool as to imagine harm of her?  Why,
+she is quite a child, a bigger child than I am.  I shall enjoy my
+evening all the more for this."
+
+And truly there seemed to be no reason why all the guests at that
+great festival, save those who had speeches to make, should not
+enjoy their evening thoroughly.  Great preparations had been made,
+and goodly presents contributed; plenty of serving-men would be
+there, and John Prater (now growing white-headed and portly) was
+becoming so skilful a caterer that if anything was suggested to
+him, he had always thought of it long ago.  The only grief was that
+the hour should be so late--five o'clock, an unchristian time, as
+they said, for who could have manners after starving so long?
+
+There was some sense in this; but the unreasonable lateness of the
+hour could not be helped, because the Lord-Lieutenant had to wait
+upon the King at eight o'clock that morning.  That he could do so,
+and yet be in Springhaven by five, seemed almost impossible; for
+only ten years ago the journey took two days.  But the war seemed
+to make everything go quicker, and it was no use to wonder at
+anything.  Only if everything else went quicker, why should dinner
+(the most important of them all) come slower?  And as yet there was
+nobody to answer this; though perhaps there is no one to ask it
+now.
+
+All things began very beautifully.  The young ladies slipped in
+unobserved, and the elder blessings of mankind came after,
+escorting themselves with dignity.  Then the heroes who had fought,
+and the gallants who had not had the luck yet, but were eager for
+it, came pleasantly clanking in, well girt to demolish ox and
+sheep, like Ajax, in lack of loftier carnage.  The rector said
+grace, and the Marquis amen, and in less than two minutes every
+elbow was up, and every mouth at business.  There was very little
+talking for the first half hour.  In those days emptiness was not
+allowed to make the process of filling a misery.
+
+While these fine fellows were still in the prime of their feeding,
+bent over and upon it, two men with empty stomachs, and a long way
+between them and their victuals, stood afar regarding them.  That
+is to say, just far enough to be quite out of sight from the
+windows, in the gloom of the December evening; but at the same time
+near enough, to their own unhappiness, to see and even smell the
+choice affairs across the road.
+
+"For what, then, hast thou brought me here?" the shorter man
+sharply asked the tall one, both being in an uncomfortable place in
+a hedge, and with briars that scratched them.  "Is it to see other
+people eat, when to eat myself is impossible?  You have promised to
+show me a very fine thing, and leagues have I traversed to please
+you.  Fie, then, what is it?  To see eat, eat, eat, and drink,
+drink, drink, and have nothing for myself!"
+
+"My friend," said the tall man, "I have not brought you here with
+any desire to improve your appetite, which is always abundant, and
+cannot be gratified for several hours, and with poor stuff then,
+compared to what you are beholding.  Those men are feeding well.
+You can see how they enjoy it.  There is not a morsel in their
+mouths that has not a very choice flavour of its own distinguished
+relish.  See, there is the venison just waiting to be carved, and a
+pheasant between every two of them.  If only the wind was a little
+more that way, and the covers taken off the sauce-boats, and the
+gravy--ah, do I perceive a fine fragrance, or is it a desirous
+imagination?"
+
+"Bah! you are of the cold-blood, the wicked self-command.  For me
+it is either to rush in, or rush away.  No longer can I hold my
+nose and mouth.  And behold they have wine--grand wine--the wine of
+Sillery, of Medoc, of Barsac, and of Burgundy!  By the bottles I
+can tell them, and by all the Saints--"
+
+"Be not so excited, for you cannot smack the lips.  It is too late
+now to envy them their solids, because they have made such speed
+with them.  But listen, my dear friend"--and here the tall man
+whispered into the ear of his brisk companion, who danced with
+delight in the ungenial hedge, till his face was scarred with
+brambles.
+
+"It is magnificent, it is droll, it is what you call in England one
+grand spree, though of that you understand not the signification.
+But, my faith, it is at the same time barbarous, and almost too
+malignant."
+
+"Too benevolent Charron," said the tall stern man, "that shall rest
+upon my conscience, not on yours.  The object is not to spoil their
+noisy revel, but to gain instruction of importance.  To obtain a
+clear idea of the measures they adopt--ah, you see, you are as
+quick as lightning.  This urgent message is upon official paper,
+which I have taken from the desk of that very stupid Stubbard.
+Take the horse Jerry holds at the corner, and the officer's hat and
+cape provided are ample disguise for so dark a night.  Take the
+lane behind the hills, and gallop two miles eastward, till you come
+to the shore again, then turn back towards the village by way of
+the beach, and you will meet the Coast-guard on duty, a stupid
+fellow called Vickers.  Your horse by that time will be piping and
+roaring: he can go like the wind, but his own is broken.  The
+moment you see Vickers, begin to swear at your horse.  I have
+practised you in d--ns, for an emergency."
+
+"Ten thousand thunders, I can say d--n now to equal and surpass the
+purest born of all Britons."
+
+"Not so loud, my friend, until by-and-by.  The Coast-guard will
+come to you, and you pull up with your horse hanging down his head,
+as if dead-beaten.  Using your accomplishment again, you say:
+'Here, take this on to Admiral Darling.  My nag is quite done, and
+I must get to Stonnington to call Colonel James.  For your life,
+run, run.  You'll get a guinea, if you look sharp.'  Before he can
+think of it, turn your horse, and make back to the lane, as if for
+Stonnington.  But instead of that, gallop back to our ruins; and
+we'll go up the hill, and see what comes of it."
+
+"It is very good, it is magnificent.  But will not the sentinel
+perceive my voice and accent?"
+
+"Not he; he is a very honest and therefore stupid fellow.  Give him
+no time, answer no questions.  Be all in a rush, as you so
+generally are.  I would do it myself, but I am too well known.
+Say, will you undertake it?  It will be a fine joke for you."
+
+About half an hour after this, the Lord-Lieutenant having hammered
+on the table with an empty bottle, stood up to propose the chief
+toast of the evening--the gallant crew of the Leda, and the bold
+sailors of Springhaven.  His lordship had scarcely had a bottle and
+a half, and was now in the prime of his intellect.  A very large
+man, with a long brocaded coat of ruby-coloured cloth, and white
+satin breeches, a waistcoat of primrose plush emblazoned with the
+Union-jack (then the popular device) in gorgeous silks with a
+margin of bright gold, and a neckcloth pointed and plaited in with
+the rarest lace, worth all the rest put together--what a pity it
+seemed that such a man should get drunk, or at any rate try so hard
+to do it.  There was not a pimple on his face, his cheeks were rosy
+and glistening, but not flushed; and his eyes were as bright and
+clear and deep as a couple of large sapphires.
+
+This nobleman said a few words, without any excitement, or desire
+to create it, every word to the point, and the best that could be
+chosen not to go beyond the point.  There was no attempt at
+eloquence, and yet the speech was eloquent, because it suggested so
+much more than was said.  More excitable natures, overcome by half
+a bottle, resolved to have the other half, in honour of that toast.
+
+Then the Marquis did a very kind and thoughtful thing, for which he
+deserved a bottle of the Royal Tokay, such as even Napoleon could
+not obtain.  When the cheering was done, and every eye was fixed
+upon the blushing Scudamore--who felt himself, under that fixture,
+like an insect under a lens which the sun is turning into a
+burning-glass--the Chairman perceived his sad plight, and to give
+him more time and more spirit, rose again.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "or I would rather call you brother
+Englishmen at this moment, I have forgotten one thing.  Before our
+young hero replies to his health, let us give him that spirited
+song 'Billy Blue,' which is well known to every man here, I'll be
+bound.  Tell the drummer down there to be ready for chorus."  Billy
+Blue, though almost forgotten now (because the enemy would not
+fight him), the blockader of Brest, the hardy, skilful, and ever
+watchful Admiral Cornwallis, would be known to us nearly as well as
+Nelson, if fame were not a lottery.
+
+As the Lord-Lieutenant waved his hand, the company rose with one
+accord, and followed the lead of his strong clear voice in the
+popular song, called
+
+
+                  "BILLY BLUE"
+
+                       1
+
+     "'Tis a terrible time for Englishmen;
+      All tyrants do abhor them;
+      Every one of them hath to fight with ten,
+      And the Lord alone is for them.
+      But the Lord hath given the strong right hand,
+      And the courage to face the thunder;
+      If a Frenchman treads this English land,
+      He shall find his grave thereunder.
+
+                    CHORUS
+
+      Britannia is the Ocean-Queen, and she standeth staunch and
+        true,
+      With Nelson for her faulchion keen, and her buckler Billy Blue.
+
+                       2
+
+     "They are mustering on yon Gallic coasts,
+      You can see them from this high land,
+      The biggest of all the outlandish hosts
+      That ever devoured an island.
+      There are steeds that have scoured the Continent,
+      Ere ever one might say, 'Whoa, there!'
+      And ships that would fill the Thames and Trent,
+      If we would let them go there.
+
+                    CHORUS
+
+      But England is the Ocean-Queen, and it shall be hard to do;
+      Not a Frenchman shall skulk in between herself and her Billy
+        Blue.
+
+                       3
+
+     "From the smiling bays of Devonshire
+      To the frowning cliffs of Filey,
+      Leaps forth every son of an English sire,
+      To fight for his native isley.
+      He hath drawn the sword of his father now
+      From the rusty sheath it rattled in;
+      And Dobbin, who dragged the peaceful plough,
+      Is neighing for the battle-din.
+
+                    CHORUS
+
+      For Albion still is Ocean-Queen, and though her sons be few,
+      They challenge the world with a dauntless mien, and the flag
+        of Billy Blue.
+
+                       4
+
+     "Then pledge me your English palm, my lad;
+      Keep the knuckles for Sir Frenchman;
+      No slave can you be till you change your dad,
+      And no son of yours a henchman.
+      The fight is to come; and we will not brag,
+      Nor expect whatever we sigh for,
+      But stand as the rock that bears the flag
+      Our duty is to die for.
+
+                    CHORUS
+
+      For Englishmen confront serene whatever them betideth;
+      And England shall be Ocean's Queen as long as the world
+        abideth."
+
+
+What with the drum and the fifes of one of the regiments now at
+Stonnington, and the mighty bass of some sea-captains vehement in
+chorus, these rough and rolling lines were enough to frighten a
+thousand Frenchmen, while proving the vigour of British nerve, and
+fortitude both of heart and ear.  When people have done a thing
+well, they know it, and applaud one another to include themselves;
+and even the ladies, who were meant to be unseen, forgot that and
+waved their handkerchiefs.  Then up and spoke Blyth Scudamore, in
+the spirit of the moment; and all that he said was good and true,
+well-balanced and well-condensed, like himself.  His quiet
+melodious voice went further than the Lord-Lieutenant's, because it
+was new to the air of noise, and that fickle element loves novelty.
+All was silence while he spoke, and when he ceased--great uproar.
+
+"That lad will do," said the Marquis to his supporter on the right
+hand; "I was just like him at that age myself.  Let me draw this
+cork--it is the bottle of the evening.  None but my own fellows
+understand a cork, and they seem to have got away somewhere.  What
+the doose are they about--why, halloa, Darling!  What's the meaning
+of all this, at such a time?"
+
+"Well, my lord, you must judge for yourself," said the Admiral, who
+had made his way quietly from the bottom of the table.  "We know
+that false alarms are plentiful.  But this looks like business,
+from the paper it is written on; and I know that old Dudgeon is as
+solid as myself.  Vickers the Coast-guard brought it in, from an
+officer whose horse was blown, who had orders to get somehow to
+Stonnington."
+
+"Is Vickers a knave, or a fool who is likely to be made the victim
+of a very low joke?  There are hundreds of jealous scoundrels eager
+to spoil every patriotic gathering.  Ah, this looks rather serious,
+though, if you can vouch for the paper."
+
+"I can vouch for the paper, my lord, and for Vickers; but not for
+Dudgeon's signature.  Of that I have no knowledge--though it looks
+right enough, so far as I know.  Shall I read it aloud, and let
+officers who are not under my command judge for themselves, as I
+shall judge for those I have the honour to command?"
+
+The Lord-Lieutenant, with his cork just squeaking in the neck of
+the bottle, nodded; and the Admiral, with officers crowding round,
+read aloud as follows, part being in type, and part in manuscript:
+
+
+"Commander of Coast-defence at Hythe, to Vice-Admiral Darling,
+Springhaven.
+
+"French fleet standing in, must have slipped Cornwallis.  Do all
+you can.  Not a moment to lose.
+
+(Signed) "BELLAMY DUDGEON."
+
+
+"Well, it may be true, or it may be a lie," said the Marquis,
+pouring carefully; "my opinion is the latter; but I have nothing to
+do with it officially, according to the new arrangements.  Every
+gentleman must judge for himself.  And I mean to abide by my own
+judgment, which strongly recommends me to finish this bottle."
+
+"Probably you are right enough; and in your place perhaps I should
+do the same," the Admiral answered, quietly; "but be the alarm
+either true or false, I am bound to act otherwise.  All Naval
+Officers present will be good enough to follow me, and prepare to
+rejoin if ordered.  We shall very soon know from the signal-point,
+unless fog has set in suddenly, whether we are bound to beat a
+general alarm."
+
+All the sons of the sea arose quietly, and were despatched with
+brief orders to the right and left, to communicate with their
+signal stations, while Stubbard hurried back to his battery.
+
+"What cold blood they do display!" whispered the Frenchman, who had
+returned with the author of the plot to watch the issue from a
+point of vantage.  "My faith, they march slowly for their native
+land!  Not less than six bottles of great French wine did I
+anticipate to steal through the window, while they fell out
+precipitous.  But there sits a man big enough to leave me nothing--
+not even a remainder of my own body.  Soul of St. Denis, can it be
+that they question the word of a gentleman?"
+
+"Not they!" replied Carne, who was vexed, however; "they are taking
+things easily, according to the custom of the nation.  But two good
+things we have done, friend Charron; we have learned their
+proceedings, and we have spoiled their feasting."
+
+"But not at all; they are all coming back to enjoy it all the
+more!" cried the Frenchman.  "Oh that I were an Englishman, to get
+such a dinner, and to be so loyal to it!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+FAIR CRITICISM
+
+
+Few things can be worse for a very young woman than to want to be
+led by somebody, and yet find nobody fit to do it.  Or at any rate,
+through superior quickness and the knowledge of it, to regard old
+friends and relatives of experience as very slow coaches, and prigs
+or prudes, who cannot enter into quick young feelings, but deal in
+old saws which grate upon them.
+
+Not to moralise about it--for if young ladies hate anything, it is
+such moralising--Miss Dolly Darling was now in that uncomfortable
+frame of mind when advice is most needed, yet most certain to be
+spurned.  She looked upon her loving and sensible sister as one who
+was fated to be an old maid, and was meant perhaps by nature for
+that condition, which appeared to herself the most abject in the
+world.  And even without that conclusion about Faith she would have
+been loth to seek counsel from her, having always resented most
+unduly what she called her "superior air of wisdom."  Dolly knew
+that she was quicker of wit than her sister--as shallow waters run
+more rapidly--and she fancied that she possessed a world of lively
+feelings into which the slower intellect could not enter.  For
+instance, their elder brother Frank had just published a volume of
+poems, very noble in their way, and glowing with ardour for
+freedom, democracy, and the like, as well as exhibiting fine
+perception of sound, and great boldness in matters beyond sounding,
+yet largely ungifted with knowledge of nature, whether human or
+superior.
+
+"Better stick to his law-books," the Admiral had said, after
+singing out some of the rhyme of it to the tune of "Billy Benbow";
+"never sit on the wool-sack by spewing oakum this way."
+
+Faith had tried, as a matter of duty, to peruse this book to its
+cover; but she found it beyond even her good-will, and mild
+sympathy with everything, to do so.  There was not the touch of
+nature in it which makes humble people feel, and tickles even the
+very highest with desire to enter into it.  So Faith declared that
+it must be very clever, and no doubt very beautiful, but she
+herself was so stupid that she could not make out very clearly what
+it was all about.
+
+"Well, I understand every word of it," Miss Dolly cried, with a
+literary look.  "I don't see how you can help doing that, when you
+know all about Frank, who wrote it.  Whenever it is not quite
+clear, it is because he wants us to think that he knows too much,
+or else because he is not quite certain what he wants to mean
+himself.  And as for his talk about freedom, and all that, I don't
+see why you should object to it.  It is quite the fashion with all
+clever people now, and it stops them from doing any mischief.  And
+nobody pays much attention to them, after the cruel things done in
+France when I was seven or eight years old.  If I see Frank, I
+shall tell him that I like it."
+
+"And I shall tell him that I don't," said Faith.  "It cannot do
+anybody any good.  And what they call 'freedom' seems to mean
+making free with other people's property."
+
+These poems were issued in one volume, and under one title--The
+Harmodiad--although there must have been some half-hundred of them,
+and not more than nine odes to freedom in the lot.  Some were
+almost tolerable, and others lofty rubbish, and the critics (not
+knowing the author) spoke their bright opinions freely.  The poet,
+though shy as a mouse in his preface, expected a mountain of
+inquiry as to the identity of this new bard, and modestly signed
+himself "Asteroid," which made his own father stare and swear.
+Growing sore prematurely from much keelhauling--for the reviewers
+of the period were patriotic, and the English public anti-Gallic--
+Frank quitted his chambers at Lincoln's Inn, and came home to be
+comforted for Christmas.  This was the wisest thing that he could
+do, though he felt that it was not Harmodian.  In spite of all
+crotchets, he was not a bad fellow, and not likely to make a good
+lawyer.
+
+As the fates would have it (being naturally hostile to poets who
+defy them), by the same coach to Stonnington came Master Johnny, in
+high feather for his Christmas holidays.  Now these two brothers
+were as different of nature as their sisters were, or more so; and
+unlike the gentler pair, each of these cherished lofty disdain for
+the other.  Frank looked down upon the school-boy as an unlicked
+cub without two ideas; the bodily defect he endeavoured to cure by
+frequent outward applications, but the mental shortcoming was
+beneath his efforts.  Johnny meanwhile, who was as hard as nails,
+no sooner recovered from a thumping than he renewed and redoubled
+his loud contempt for a great lout over six feet high, who had
+never drawn a sword or pulled a trigger.  And now for the winter
+this book would be a perpetual snowball for him to pelt his big
+brother with, and yet (like a critic) be scarcely fair object for a
+hiding.  In season out of season, upstairs down-stairs, even in the
+breakfast and the dinner chambers, this young imp poked clumsy
+splinters--worse than thorns, because so dull--into the tender
+poetic side; and people, who laugh at the less wit the better,
+laughed very kindly, to please the boy, without asking whether they
+vexed the man.  And the worst of it was that the author too must
+laugh.
+
+All this might be looked down at by a soul well hoisted upon the
+guy-ropes of contempt; and now and then a very solid drubbing given
+handsomely (upon other grounds) to the chief tormentor solaced the
+mind of unacknowledged merit.  But as the most vindictive measure
+to the man who has written an abusive letter is to vouchsafe him no
+reply, so to the poet who rebukes the age the bitterest answer it
+can give is none.  Frank Darling could retaliate upon his brother
+Johnny, and did so whenever he could lay hold of him alone; but the
+stedfast silence of his sister Faith (to whom one of his loftiest
+odes was addressed), and of his lively father, irked him far more
+than a thousand low parodies.  Dolly alone was some comfort to him,
+some little vindication of true insight; and he was surprised to
+find how quickly her intelligence (which until now he had despised)
+had strengthened, deepened, and enlarged itself.  Still he wanted
+some one older, bigger, more capable of shutting up the mouth, and
+nodding (instead of showing such a lot of red tongue and white
+teeth), before he could be half as snug as a true poet should be,
+upon the hobs of his own fire.  And happily he found his Anti-
+Zoilus ere long.
+
+One day he was walking in a melancholy mood along the beach towards
+Pebbleridge, doubting deeply in his honest mind whether he ever
+should do any good, in versification, or anything else.  He said to
+himself that he had been too sanguine, eager, self-confident,
+ardent, impetuous, and, if the nasty word must be faced, even too
+self-conceited.  Only yesterday he had tried, by delicate setting
+of little word-traps, to lead Mr. Twemlow towards the subject, and
+obtain that kind-hearted man's comforting opinion.  But no; the
+gentle Rector would not be brought to book, or at any rate not to
+that book; and the author had sense enough to know without a wink
+that his volume had won volumes of dislike.
+
+Parnassus could never have lived till now without two heads--one to
+carry on with, while the other is being thumped to pieces.  While
+the critics demolish one peak, the poet withdraws to the other, and
+assures himself that the general public, the larger voice of the
+nation, will salute him there.  But alas, Frank Darling had just
+discovered that even that eminence was not his, except as a desert
+out of human sight.  For he had in his pocket a letter from his
+publishers, received that dreary morning, announcing a great many
+copies gone gratis, six sold to the trade at a frightful discount,
+and six to the enterprising public.  All these facts combined to
+make him feel uncommonly sad and sore to-day.
+
+A man of experience could have told him that this disappointment
+was for his good; but he failed to see it in that light, and did
+not bless the blessing.  Slowly and heavily he went on, without
+much heed of anything, swinging his clouded cane now and then, as
+some slashing reviews occurred to him, yet becoming more peaceful
+and impartial of mind under the long monotonous cadence and quiet
+repetitions of the soothing sea.  For now he was beyond the Haven
+head--the bulwark that makes the bay a pond in all common westerly
+weather--and waves that were worthy of the name flowed towards him,
+with a gentle breeze stepping over them.
+
+The brisk air was like a fresh beverage to him, and the fall of the
+waves sweet music.  He took off his hat, and stopped, and listened,
+and his eyes grew brighter.  Although the waves had nothing very
+distinct to say in dying, yet no two (if you hearkened well),
+or at any rate no two in succession, died with exactly the same
+expression, or vanished with precisely the same farewell.
+Continual shifts went on among them, and momentary changes; each in
+proper sequence marching, and allowed its proper time, yet at any
+angle traversed, even in its crowning curl, not only by the wind
+its father, but by the penitent return and white contrition of its
+shattered elder brother.  And if this were not enough to make a
+samely man take interest in perpetually flowing changes, the sun
+and clouds, at every look and breath, varied variety.
+
+Frank Darling thought how small his griefs were, and how vain his
+vanity.  Of all the bubbly clots of froth, or frayed and shattered
+dabs of drift, flying beside him or falling at his feet, every one
+was as good as his ideas, and as valuable as his labours.  And of
+all the unreckoned waves advancing, lifting their fugitive crests,
+and roaring, there certainly was not one that fell with weight so
+futile as his own.  Who cared even to hear his sound?  What ear was
+soothed by his long rhythm, or what mind solaced by the magnitude
+of his rolling?
+
+Suddenly he found that some mind was so.  For when he had been
+standing a long while thus, chewing the salt cud of marine
+reflections, he seemed to hear something more intelligible than the
+sea.  With more surprise than interest he walked towards the sound,
+and stood behind the corner of a jutting rock to listen.  In
+another second his interest overpowered his surprise, for he knew
+every word of the lines brought to his ears, for the very simple
+reason that they were his own.  Round the corner of that rock, so
+absorbed in admiration that he could hear no footstep, a very fine
+young man of the highest order was reading aloud in a powerful
+voice, and with extremely ardent gesticulation, a fine passage from
+that greatly undervalued poem, the Harmodiad, of and concerning the
+beauties of Freedom--
+
+
+     "No crown upon her comely head she bore,
+      No wreath her affluent tresses to restrain;
+      A smile the only ornament she wore,
+      Her only gem a tear for others' pain.
+      Herself did not her own mishaps deplore,
+      Because she lives immortal as the dew,
+      Which falling from the stars soon mounts again;
+      And in this wise all space she travels through,
+      Beneficent as heaven, and to the earth more true.
+
+     "Her blessings all may win who seek the prize,
+      If only they be faithful, meek, and strong,
+      And crave not that which others' right denies,
+      But march against the citadel of wrong.
+      A glorious army this, that finds allies
+      Wherever God hath built the heart of man
+      With attributes that to Himself belong;
+      By Him ordained to crown what He began,
+      And shatter despotism, which is the foul fiend's ban."
+
+
+Frank thought that he had never heard nobler reading, sonorous,
+clear, well timed, well poised, and of harmonious cadence.  The
+curved rock gave a melodious ring, and the husky waves a fine
+contrast to it, while the reader was so engrossed with grandeur--
+the grandeur of Frank's own mind!--that his hat could evidently not
+contain his head, but was flung at the mercy of his feet.  What a
+fine, expressive, and commanding face!
+
+If Frank Darling had been a Frenchman--which he sometimes longed to
+be, for the sake of that fair Liberty--the scene, instead of being
+awkward, would have been elegant, rapturous, ennobling.  But being
+of the clumsy English race, he was quite at a loss what to do with
+himself.  On paper he could be effusive, ardent, eloquent,
+sentimental; but not a bit of that to meet the world in his own
+waistcoat.  He gave a swing to his stick, and walked across the
+opening as if he were looking at sea-gulls.  And on he would have
+walked without further notice, except a big gulp in his throat, if
+it had not been for a trifling accident.
+
+Somehow or other the recitative gentleman's hat turned over to the
+wind, and that active body (which never neglects any sportive
+opportunity) got into the crown, with the speed of an upstart, and
+made off with it along the stones.  A costly hat it was, and comely
+with rich braid and satin loops, becoming also to a well-shaped
+head, unlike the chimney-pot of the present day, which any man must
+thank God for losing.  However, the owner was so wrapped up in
+poetry that his breeches might have gone without his being any
+wiser.
+
+"Sir," said Frank Darling, after chasing the hat (which could not
+trundle as our pots do, combining every possible absurdity),
+"excuse me for interrupting you, but this appears to be your hat,
+and it was on its way to a pool of salt-water."
+
+"Hat!--my hat?" replied the other gentleman.  "Oh, to be sure!  I
+had quite forgotten.  Sir, I am very much obliged to you.  My hat
+might have gone to the devil, I believe, I was so delightfully
+occupied.  Such a thing never happened to me before, for I am very
+hard indeed to please; but I was reading, sir; I was reading.
+Accept my thanks, sir; and I suppose I must leave off."
+
+"I thought that I heard a voice," said Frank, growing bold with
+fear that he should know no more, for the other was closing his
+book with great care, and committing it to a pouch buckled over his
+shoulder; "and I fear that I broke in upon a pleasant moment.
+Perhaps I should have pleased you better if I had left this hat to
+drown."
+
+"I seem ungrateful," the stranger answered, with a sweet but
+melancholy smile, as he donned his hat and then lifted it
+gracefully to salute its rescuer; "but it is only because I have
+been carried far away from all thoughts of self, by the power of a
+much larger mind.  Such a thing may have occurred to you, sir,
+though it happens very seldom in one life.  If so, you will know
+how to forgive me."
+
+"I scarcely dare ask--or rather I would say"--stammered the anxious
+poet--"that I cannot expect you to tell me the name of the
+fortunate writer who has moved you so."
+
+"Would to Heaven that I could!" exclaimed the other.  "But this
+great poet has withheld his name--all great poets are always
+modest--but it cannot long remain unknown.  Such grandeur of
+conception and force of language, combined with such gifts of
+melody, must produce universal demand to know the name of this
+benefactor.  I cannot express myself as I would desire, because I
+have been brought up in France, where literature is so different,
+and people judge a work more liberally, without recourse to
+politics.  This is a new work, only out last week; and a friend of
+mine, a very fine judge of literature, was so enchanted with it
+that he bought a score of copies at once, and as my good stars
+prevailed, he sent me one.  You are welcome to see it, sir.  It is
+unknown in these parts; but will soon be known all over Europe,
+unless these cruel wars retard it."
+
+With a face of deep gravity, Caryl Carne put into Frank Darling's
+hand a copy of his own book, quite young, but already scored with
+many loving marks of admiration and keen sympathy.  Frank took it,
+and reddened with warm delight.
+
+"You may not understand it at first," said the other; "though I beg
+your pardon for saying that.  What I mean is, that I can well
+suppose that an Englishman, though a good judge in general, would
+probably have his judgment darkened by insular prejudices, and the
+petty feeling which calls itself patriotism, and condemns whatever
+is nobler and larger than itself.  My friend tells me that the
+critics have begun to vent their little spite already.  The author
+would treat them with calm disdain!"
+
+"Horribly nasty fellows!" cried Frank.  "They ought to be kicked;
+but they are below contempt.  But if I could only catch them here--"
+
+"I am delighted to find," replied Carne, looking at him with kind
+surprise, "that you agree with me about that, sir.  Read a few
+lines, and your indignation against that low lot will grow hotter."
+
+"It cannot grow hotter," cried the author; "I know every word that
+the villains have said.  Why, in that first line that I heard you
+reading, the wretches actually asked me whether I expected my
+beautiful goddess to wear her crown upon her comely tail!"
+
+"I am quite at a loss to understand you, sir.  Why, you speak as if
+this great work were your own!"
+
+"So it is, every word of it," cried Frank, hurried out of all
+reserve by excitement.  "At least, I don't mean that it is a great
+work--though others, besides your good self, have said--Are you
+sure that your friend bought twenty copies?  My publishers will
+have to clear up that.  Why, they say, under date of yesterday,
+that they have only sold six copies altogether.  And it was out on
+Guy Fawkes' Day, two months ago!"
+
+Caryl Carne's face was full of wonder.  And the greatest wonder of
+all was its gravity.  He drew back a little, in this vast surprise,
+and shaded his forehead with one hand, that he might think.
+
+"I can hardly help laughing at myself," he said, "for being so
+stupid and so slow of mind.  But a coincidence like this is enough
+to excuse anything.  If I could be sure that you are not jesting
+with me, seeing how my whole mind is taken up with this book--"
+
+"Sir, I can feel for your surprise," answered Frank, handing back
+the book, for which the other had made a sign, "because my own is
+even greater; for I never have been read aloud before--by anybody
+else I mean, of course; and the sound is very strange, and highly
+gratifying--at least, when done as you do it.  But to prove my
+claim to the authorship of the little work which you so kindly
+esteem, I will show you the letter I spoke of."
+
+The single-minded poet produced from near his heart a very large
+letter with much sealing-wax endorsed, and the fervent admirer of
+his genius read:
+
+
+"DEAR SIR,--In answer to your favour to hand, we beg to state that
+your poetical work the Harmodiad, published by our firm, begins to
+move.  Following the instructions in your last, we have already
+disposed of more than fifty copies.  Forty-two of these have been
+distributed to those who will forward the interests of the book, by
+commending it to the Public; six have been sold to the trade at a
+discount of 75 per cent.; and six have been taken by private
+purchasers, at the full price of ten shillings.  We have reason to
+anticipate a more rapid sale hereafter.  But the political views
+expressed in the poems--as we frankly stated to you at first--are
+not likely to be popular just now, when the Country is in peril,
+and the Book trade incommoded, by the immediate prospect of a
+French invasion.  We are, dear sir, your obedient servants,
+TICKLEBOIS, LATHERUP, BLINKERS, & Co.--To Mr. FRANK DARLING,
+Springhaven Hall."
+
+
+"You cannot call that much encouragement," said Frank; "and it is a
+most trusty and honourable house.  I cannot do what a friend of
+mine has done, who went to inferior publishers--denounce them as
+rogues, and call myself a martyr.  If the book had been good, it
+would have sold; especially as all the poets now are writing vague
+national songs, full of slaughter and brag, like that 'Billy Blue'
+thing all our fishermen are humming."
+
+"You have nothing to do but to bide your time.  In the long-run,
+fine work is sure to make its way.  Meanwhile I must apologise for
+praising you to your face, in utter ignorance, of course.  But it
+must have made you feel uncomfortable."
+
+"Not at all; far otherwise," said the truthful Frank.  "It has been
+the very greatest comfort to me.  And strange to say, it came just
+when I wanted it most sadly.  I shall never forget your most kind
+approval."
+
+"In that case I may take the liberty of introducing myself, I
+trust.  You have told me who you are, in the most delightful way.
+I have no such claim upon your attention, or upon that of the world
+at large.  I am only the last of an ill-fated race, famous for
+nothing except ruining themselves.  I am Caryl Carne, of yonder
+ruin, which you, must have known from childhood."
+
+Frank Darling lifted his hat in reply to the other's more graceful
+salutation, and then shook hands with him heartily.  "I ought to
+have known who you are," he said; "for I have heard of you often at
+Springhaven.  But you have not been there since I came down, and we
+thought that you had left the neighbourhood.  Our little village is
+like the ear of the tyrant, except that it carries more false than
+true sound.  I hope you are come to remain among us, and I hope
+that we shall see you at my father's house.  Years ago I have heard
+that there used to be no especial good-will between your family and
+mine--petty disputes about boundaries, no doubt.  How narrow and
+ridiculous such things are!  We live in a better age than that, at
+any rate, although we are small enough still in many ways."
+
+"You are not; and you will enlarge many others," Carne answered, as
+if the matter were beyond debate.  "As for boundaries now, I have
+none, because the estates are gone, and I am all the richer.  That
+is the surest way to liberate the mind."
+
+"Will you oblige me," said Frank, to change the subject, for his
+mind did not seek to be liberated so, and yet wished its new
+admirer to remain in admiration, "by looking along the shore
+towards Springhaven as far as you can see, and telling me whether
+any one is coming?  My sisters were to follow me, if the weather
+kept fine, as soon as they had paid a little visit at the rectory.
+And my sight is not good for long distances."
+
+"I think I can see two ladies coming, or at any rate two figures
+moving, about a mile or more away, where the sands are shining in a
+gleam of sunlight.  Yes, they are ladies.  I know by their walk.
+Good-bye.  I have a way up the cliff from here.  You must not be
+surprised if you do not see me again.  I may have to be off for
+France.  I have business there, of which I should like to talk to
+you.  You are so far above mean prejudice.  If I go, I shall carry
+this precious volume with me.  Farewell, my friend, if I may call
+you so."
+
+"Do wait a minute," cried the much admiring Frank; "or walk a few
+yards with me towards Springhaven.  It would give me such pleasure
+to introduce you to my sisters.  And I am sure they will be so glad
+to know you, when I tell them what I think.  I very seldom get such
+a chance as this."
+
+"There is no resisting that!" replied the graceful Carne; "I have
+not the honour of knowing a lady in England, except my aunt Mrs.
+Twemlow, and my cousin Eliza--both very good, but to the last
+degree insular."
+
+"It is very hard to help being that, when people have never been
+out of an island.  But I fear that I am taking you out of your
+way."
+
+In a few minutes these two young men drew near to the two young
+women, whose manners were hard put to hide surprise.  When their
+brother introduced Mr. Carne to them, Faith bowed rather stiffly,
+for she had formed without reason a dark and obstinate dislike to
+him.  But the impetuous Dolly ran up and offered him both her
+hands, and said, "Why, Mr. Carne saved both our lives only a few
+days ago."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+NEITHER AT HOME
+
+
+Though Admiral Darling had not deigned to speak to his younger
+daughter about that vile anonymous charge, he was not always quite
+comfortable in his inner mind concerning it.  More than once he
+thought of asking Faith's opinion, for he knew her good sense and
+discretion; but even this was repugnant to him, and might give her
+the idea that he cherished low suspicions.  And then he was called
+from home again, being occupied among other things with a vain
+enquiry about the recent false alarm.  For Carne and Charron had
+managed too well, and judged too correctly the character of
+Vickers, to afford any chance of discovery.  So that, when the
+Admiral came home again, his calm and--in its fair state--gentle
+nature was ruffled by the prosperity of the wicked.
+
+"Oh, he is a fine judge of poetry, is he?" he said, more
+sarcastically than his wont; "that means, I suppose, that he
+admires yours, Frank.  Remember what Nelson said about you.  The
+longer I live, the more I find his views confirmed."
+
+"Papa, you are too bad!  You are come home cross!" cried Dolly, who
+always took Frank's part now.  "What does my godfather know of
+poetry, indeed?  If he ever had any ear for it, the guns would have
+ruined it long ago."
+
+"No mostacchio in my house!" said the master, without heeding her.
+"I believe that is the correct way to pronounce the filthy thing--a
+foreign abomination altogether.  Who could keep his lips clean,
+with that dirt over them?  A more tolerant man than myself never
+lived--a great deal too tolerant, as everybody knows.  But I'll
+never tolerate a son of mine in disgusting French hairiness of that
+sort."
+
+"Papa, you are come home as cross as a bear!" cried Dolly,
+presuming on her favour.  "Lord Dashville was here the other day
+with a very nice one, and I hear that all Cavalry Officers mean to
+have one, when they can.  And Mr. Carne, Frank's friend, encourages
+it."
+
+"The less you have to say about that young man, the better.  And
+the less he has to say to any child of mine, the better, both for
+him and her, I say.  I know that the age is turned upside down.
+But I'll not have that sort of thing at my table."
+
+When a kind and indulgent father breaks forth thus, the result is
+consternation, followed by anxiety about his health.  Faith glanced
+at Dolly, who was looking quite bewildered, and the two girls
+withdrew without a word.  Johnny was already gone to visit Captain
+Stubbard, with whose eldest daughter Maggie and the cannons of the
+battery he was by this time desperately in love; and poor Frank was
+left to have it out with the angry father.
+
+"I very seldom speak harshly, my boy," said the Admiral, drawing
+near his son gradually, for his wrath (like good vegetables) was
+very short of staple; "and when I do so you may feel quite certain
+that there is sound reason at the bottom of it"--here he looked as
+if his depth was unfathomable.  "It is not only that I am not
+myself, because of the many hours spent upon hard leather, and vile
+chalks of flint that go by me half asleep, when I ought to be
+snoring in the feathers; neither has it anything to do with my
+consuming the hide of some quadruped for dinner, instead of meat.
+And the bread is made of rye, if of any grain at all; I rather
+think of spent tan, kneaded up with tallow ends, such as I have
+seen cast by in bushels, when the times were good.  And every loaf
+of that costs two shillings--one for me, and one for Government.
+They all seem to acknowledge that I can put up with that; and I
+make a strict point of mild language, which enables them to do it
+again with me.  And all up and down the roads, everybody likes me.
+But if I was shot to-morrow, would they care twopence?"
+
+"I am sure they would, sir; and a good deal more than that,"
+answered Frank, who perceived that his father was out of his usual
+lines of thinking, perhaps because he had just had a good dinner--
+so ill do we digest our mercies.  "I am sure that there is nobody
+in Sussex, Kent, or Hampshire who does not admire and respect and
+trust you."
+
+"I dare say, and rejoice to see me do the work they ought to do.
+They have long nights in bed, every one of them, and they get their
+meals when they want them.  I am not at all astonished at what
+Nelson said.  He is younger than I am by a good many years, but he
+seems to have picked up more than I have, in the way of common
+sentiments, and such like.  'You may do everybody's work, if you
+are fool enough,' he said to me the last time I saw him; 'and ease
+them of their souls as well, if you are rogue enough, as they do in
+the Popish countries.  I am nearly sick of doing it,' he said, and
+he looked it.  'If you once begin with it, you must go on.'  I find
+it more true every day of my life.  Don't interrupt me; don't go on
+with comfortable stuff about doing good, and one's duty towards
+one's Country--though I fear that you think very little of that.
+If I thought I had done good enough to make up for my back-aches,
+and three fine stumps lost through chewing patriotic sentiments,
+why, of course I should be thankful, and make the best of my
+reward.  But charity begins at home, my boy, and one's shirt should
+be considered before one's cloak.  A man's family is the nearest
+piece of his country, and the dearest one."
+
+"I am sure, sir, I hope," replied Frank, who had never heard his
+father talk like this before, "that nothing is going on amiss with
+us here.  When you are away, I keep a sharp lookout.  And if I saw
+anything going wrong, I should let you know of it immediately."
+
+"No doubt you would; but you are much too soft.  You are quite as
+easygoing as I used to be at your age"--here the Admiral looked as
+if he felt himself to be uncommonly hard-going now--"and that sort
+of thing will not do in these days.  For my own discomforts I care
+nothing.  I could live on lobscouse, or soap and bully, for a year,
+and thank God for getting more than I deserved.  But my children,
+Frank, are very different.  From me you would never hear a grumble,
+or a syllable of anything but perfect satisfaction, so long as I
+felt that I was doing good work, and having it appreciated.  And
+all my old comrades have just the same feeling.  But you, who come
+after us, are not like that.  You must have everything made to fit
+you, instead of making yourselves fit them.  The result will be, I
+have very little doubt, the downfall of England in the scale of
+nations.  I was talking to my old friend St. Vincent last week, and
+he most heartily agreed with me.  However, I don't mean to blame
+you, Frank.  You cannot help your unfortunate nature for stringing
+ends of words together that happen to sound alike.  Johnny will
+make a fine Officer, not in the Navy, but of Artillery--Stubbard
+says that he has the rarest eyes he ever came across in one so
+young, and he wishes he could put them into his Bob's head.  He
+shall not go back to Harrow; he can spell his own name, which seems
+to be all they teach them there, instead of fine scholarship, such
+as I obtained at Winton.  But to spell his own name is quite enough
+for a soldier.  In the Navy we always were better educated.  Johnny
+shall go to Chatham, when his togs are ready.  I settled all about
+it in London, last week.  Nothing hurts him.  He is water-proof and
+thunder-proof.  Toss him up anyhow, he falls upon his feet.  But
+that sort of nature very seldom goes up high.  But you, Frank, you
+might have done some good, without that nasty twist of yours for
+writing and for rhyming, which is a sure indication of spinal
+complaint.  Don't interrupt me; I speak from long experience.
+Things might be worse, and I ought to be thankful.  None of my
+children will ever disgrace me.  At the same time, things would go
+on better if I were able to be more at home.  That Caryl Carne, for
+instance, what does he come here for?"
+
+"Well, sir, he has only been here twice.  And it took a long time
+to persuade him at all.  He said that as you had not called upon
+him, he felt that he might be intruding here.  And Faith, who is
+sometimes very spiteful, bowed, as much as to say that he had
+better wait.  But Dolly, who is very kind-hearted, assured him that
+she had heard you say at least a dozen times:  'Be sure that I call
+upon Mr. Carne to-day.  What will he think of my neglect?  But I
+hope that he will set it down to the right cause--the perpetual
+demands upon my time.'  And when she told him that, he said that he
+would call the next day, and so he did."
+
+"Ah!" cried the old man, not well pleased; "it was Dolly who took
+that little business off my shoulders!  She might have been content
+with her elder sister's judgment, in a family question of that
+sort.  But I dare say she thought it right to make my excuses.
+Very well, I'll do that for myself.  To-morrow I shall call upon
+that young man, unless I get another despatch to-night.  But I hear
+he wants nobody at his ruins.  I suppose he has not asked even you
+to go there?"
+
+"No, sir; I think he took his little place here, because it would
+be so painful for him to receive any friends at that tumble-down
+castle.  He has not yet been able to do any repairs."
+
+"I respect him for that," said the Admiral, with his generous
+sympathies aroused; "they have been a grand old family, though I
+can't say much for those I knew--except, of course, Mrs. Twemlow.
+But he may be a very fine young fellow, though a great deal too
+Frenchified, from all I hear.  And why my friend Twemlow cold-
+shoulders him so, is something of a mystery to me.  Twemlow is
+generally a judicious man in things that have nothing to do with
+the Church.  When it comes to that, he is very stiff-backed, as I
+have often had to tell him.  Perhaps this young man is a Papist.
+His mother was, and she brought him up."
+
+"I am sure I don't know, sir," answered Frank.  "I should think
+none the worse of him if he were, unless he allowed it to interfere
+with his proper respect for liberty."
+
+"Liberty be hanged!" cried the Admiral; "and that's the proper end
+for most of those who prate about it, when they ought to be
+fighting for their Country.  I shall sound him about that stuff to-
+morrow.  If he is one of that lot, he won't come here with my good-
+will, I can assure him.  What time is he generally to be found down
+there?  He is right over Stubbard's head, I believe, and yet friend
+Adam knows nothing about him.  Nor even Mrs. Adam!  I should have
+thought that worthy pair would have drawn any badger in the
+kingdom.  I suppose the youth will see me, if I call.  I don't want
+to go round that way for nothing.  I did want to have a quiet day
+at home, and saunter in the garden, as the weather is so mild, and
+consult poor Swipes about Spring crops, and then have a pipe or
+two, and take my gun to Brown Bushes for a woodcock, or a hare, and
+come home with a fine appetite to a good dinner.  But I never must
+hope for a bit of pleasure now."
+
+"You may depend upon it, sir," said Frank, "that Caryl Carne will
+be greatly pleased to see you.  And I think you will agree with me
+that a more straightforward and simple-minded man is not to be
+found in this country.  He combines what we are pleased to call our
+national dignity and self-respect with the elegant manners, and
+fraternal warmth, and bonhomie--as they themselves express it--of
+our friends across the water."
+
+"You be off!  I don't want to be cross any more.  Two hundred
+thousand friends there at this moment eager to burn down our homes
+and cut our throats!  Tired as I am, I ought to take a stick to
+you, as friend Tugwell did to his son for much less.  I have the
+greatest mind not to go near that young man.  I wish I had Twemlow
+here to talk it over.  Pay your fine for a French word, and be
+off!"
+
+Frank Darling gravely laid down five shillings on his dessert
+plate, and walked off.  The fine for a French word in that house,
+and in hundreds of other English houses at this patriotic period,
+was a crown for a gentleman, and a shilling for a lady, the latter
+not being liable except when gentlemen were present.  The poet knew
+well that another word on his part would irritate his father to
+such a degree that no visit would be paid to-morrow to the admirer
+of the Harmodiad, whose admiration he was longing to reward with a
+series of good dinners.  And so he did his utmost to ensure his
+father's visit.
+
+But when the Admiral, going warily--because he was so stiff from
+saddle-work--made his way down to the house of Widow Shanks, and
+winking at the Royal Arms in the lower front window, where Stubbard
+kept Office and convenience, knocked with the knocker at the
+private door, there seemed to be a great deal of thought required
+before anybody came to answer.
+
+"Susie," said the visitor, who had an especial knack of remembering
+Christian names, which endeared him to the bearers, "I am come to
+see Mr. Carne, and I hope he is at home."
+
+"No, that 'a bain't, sir," the little girl made answer, after
+looking at the Admiral as if he was an elephant, and wiping her
+nose with unwonted diligence; "he be gone away, sir; and please,
+sir, mother said so."
+
+"Well, here's a penny for you, my dear, because you are the best
+little needle-woman in the school, they tell me.  Run and tell your
+mother to come and see me.--Oh, Mrs. Shanks, I am very glad to see
+you, and so blooming in spite of all your hard work.  Ah, it is no
+easy thing in these hard times to maintain a large family and keep
+the pot boiling.  And everything clean as a quarter-deck!  My
+certy, you are a woman in a thousand!"
+
+"No, sir, no.  It is all the Lord's doing.  And you to the back of
+Him, as I alway say.  Not a penny can they make out as I owes
+justly, bad as I be at the figures, Squire.  Do 'e come in, and sit
+down, there's a dear.  Ah, I mind the time when you was like a
+dart, Squire!"
+
+'Well, and now I am like a cannon-ball," said the Admiral, who
+understood and liked this unflattering talk; "only I don't travel
+quite so fast as that.  I scarcely get time to see any old friends.
+But I came to look out for a young friend now, the gentleman you
+make so comfortable upstairs.  Don't I wish I was a young man
+without incumbrance, to come and lodge with such a wonderful
+landlady!"
+
+"Ah, if there was more of your sort, sir, there'd be a deal less
+trouble in the world, there would.  Not that my young gentleman is
+troublesome, mind you, only so full of them outlandish furrin ways--
+abideth all day long without ating ort, so different from a honest
+Englishman.  First I used to think as he couldn't afford it, and
+long to send him up a bit of my own dinner, but dursn't for the
+life of me--too grand for that, by ever so--till one day little
+Susie there comes a-running down the stairs, and she sings out,
+with her face as red as ever a boiled lobster:  'Looky see, mother!
+Oh, do 'e come and looky see!  Pollyon hath got a heap of guineas
+on his table; wouldn't go into the big yellow pudding-basin!'  And
+sure enough he had, your Honour, in piles, as if he was telling of
+them.  He had slipped out suddenly, and thought the passage door
+was bolted.  What a comfort it was to me, I can't configurate.
+Because I could eat my dinner comfortable now, for such a big heap
+of money never I did see."
+
+"I am very glad--heartily glad," exclaimed the smiling Admiral.
+"I hope he may get cash enough to buy back all the great Carne
+property, and kick out those rascally Jews and lawyers.  But what
+makes Susie call him that?"
+
+"Well, sir, the young ones must have a nickname for anything beyond
+them; and because he never takes any notice of them--so different
+from your handsome Master Frank--and some simility of his black
+horse, or his proud walk, to the pictur', 'Pollyon' is the name
+they give him, out of Pilgrim's Progress.  Though not a bit like
+him, for such a gentleman to pay his rent and keep his place
+untroublesome I never had before.  And a fortnight he paid me last
+night, afore going, and took away the keys of all three doors."
+
+"He is gone, then, is he?  To London, I dare say.  It would be
+useless to look for him at the castle.  My son will be disappointed
+more than I am.  To tell you the truth, Mrs. Shanks, in these days
+the great thing is to stick to the people that we know.  The world
+is so full, not of rogues, but of people who are always wanting
+something out of one, that to talk with a thoroughly kind, honest
+person, like yourself, is a real luxury.  When the gentleman comes
+back, let him know that I have called."
+
+"And my Jenny, sir?" cried the anxious mother, running after him
+into the passage; "not a word have you said about my Jenny.  I hope
+she show no sign of flightiness?"
+
+"Jenny is as steady as the church," replied the Admiral.  "We are
+going to put her on a pound a year from next quarter-day, by Mrs.
+Cloam's advice.  She'll have a good stocking by the time she gets
+married."
+
+"There never was such a pleasant gentleman, nor such a kind-hearted
+one, I do believe," said Widow Shanks, as she came in with bright
+eyes.  "What are they Carnes to the Darlings, after all?  As
+different as night and day."
+
+But the Admiral's next visit was not quite so pleasant; for when he
+got back into the village road, expecting a nice walk to his
+luncheon and his pipe, a man running furiously almost knocked him
+down, and had no time to beg his pardon.  The runner's hat was off
+his head, and his hair blowing out, but luckily for itself his
+tongue was not between his teeth.
+
+"Has the devil got hold of you at last, Jem Prater?" the Admiral
+asked, not profanely; for he had seen a good deal of mankind, and
+believed in diabolical possession.
+
+"For Parson! for Parson!" cried Jem, starting off again as hard as
+he could go.  "Butter Cheeseman hath hanged his self in his own
+scales.  And nobody is any good but Parson."
+
+Admiral Darling was much disturbed.  "What will the world come to?
+I never knew such times," he exclaimed to himself, with some
+solemnity; and then set off, as fast as his overridden state
+permitted, for the house of Mr. Cheeseman.  Passing through the
+shop, which had nobody in it, he was led by the sound of voices
+into a little room beyond it--the room in which Mr. Cheeseman had
+first received Caryl Carne.  Here he beheld an extraordinary scene,
+of which he often had to dream thereafter.
+
+From a beam in the roof (which had nothing to do with his scales,
+as Jem Prater had imagined), by a long but not well-plaited cord,
+was dangling the respected Church-warden Cheeseman.  Happily for
+him, he had relied on his own goods; and the rope being therefore
+of very bad hemp, had failed in this sad and too practical proof.
+The weight of its vendor had added to its length some fifteen
+inches--as he loved to pull out things--and his toes touched the
+floor, which relieved him now and then.
+
+"Why don't you cut him down, you old fools?" cried the Admiral to
+three gaffers, who stood moralising, while Mrs. Cheeseman sat upon
+a barrel, sobbing heavily, with both hands spread to conceal the
+sad sight.
+
+"We was afraid of hurting of him," said the quickest-witted of the
+gaffers; "Us wanted to know why 'a doed it," said the deepest; and,
+"The will of the Lord must be done," said the wisest.
+
+After fumbling in vain for his knife, and looking round, the
+Admiral ran back into the shop, and caught up the sharp steel blade
+with which the victim of a troubled mind had often unsold a sold
+ounce in the days of happy commerce.  In a moment the Admiral had
+the poor Church-warden in his sturdy arms, and with a sailor's
+skill had unknotted the choking noose, and was shouting for brandy,
+as he kept the blue head from falling back.
+
+When a little of the finest eau de vie that ever was smuggled had
+been administered, the patient rallied, and becoming comparatively
+cheerful, was enabled to explain that "it was all a mistake
+altogether."  This removed all misunderstanding; but Rector
+Twemlow, arriving too late for anything but exhortation, asked a
+little too sternly--as everybody felt--under what influence of the
+Evil One Cheeseman had committed that mistake.  The reply was
+worthy of an enterprising tradesman, and brought him such orders
+from a score of miles around that the resources of the establishment
+could only book them.
+
+"Sir," he said, looking at the parson sadly, with his right hand
+laid upon his heart, which was feeble, and his left hand intimating
+that his neck was sore, "if anything has happened that had better
+not have been, it must have been by reason of the weight I give,
+and the value such a deal above the prices."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+EVERYBODY'S MASTER
+
+
+The peril of England was now growing fast; all the faster from
+being in the dark.  The real design of the enemy escaped the
+penetration even of Nelson, and our Government showed more anxiety
+about their great adversary landing on the coast of Egypt than on
+that of England.  Naval men laughed at his flat-bottomed boats, and
+declared that one frigate could sink a hundred of them; whereas it
+is probable that two of them, with their powerful guns and level
+fire, would have sunk any frigate we then possessed.  But the
+crafty and far-seeing foe did not mean to allow any frigate, or
+line-of-battle ship, the chance of enquiring how that might be.
+
+His true scheme, as everybody now knows well, was to send the
+English fleet upon a wild-goose chase, whether to Egypt, the west
+coast of Ireland, or the West Indies, as the case might be; and
+then, by a rapid concentration of his ships, to obtain command of
+the English Channel, if only for twenty-four hours at a time.
+Twenty-four hours of clearance from our cruisers would have seen a
+hundred thousand men landed on our coast, throwing up entrenchments,
+and covering the landing of another hundred thousand, coming close
+upon their heels.  Who would have faced them?  A few good regiments,
+badly found, and perhaps worse led, and a mob of militia and raw
+volunteers, the reward of whose courage would be carnage.
+
+But as a chip smells like the tree, and a hair like the dog it
+belongs to, so Springhaven was a very fair sample of the England
+whereof (in its own opinion) it formed a most important part.
+Contempt for the body of a man leads rashly to an under-estimate of
+his mind; and one of the greatest men that ever grew on earth--if
+greatness can be without goodness--was held in low account because
+not of high inches, and laughed at as "little Boney."
+
+However, there were, as there always are, thousands of sensible
+Englishmen then; and rogues had not yet made a wreck of grand
+Institutions to scramble for what should wash up.  Abuses existed,
+as they always must; but the greatest abuse of all (the destruction
+of every good usage) was undreamed of yet.  And the right man was
+even now approaching to the rescue, the greatest Prime-Minister of
+any age or country.
+
+Unwitting perhaps of the fine time afforded by the feeble delays of
+Mr. Addington, and absorbed in the tissue of plot and counterplot
+now thickening fast in Paris--the arch-plotter in all of them being
+himself--the First Consul had slackened awhile his hot haste to set
+foot upon the shore of England.  His bottomless ambition for the
+moment had a top, and that top was the crown of France; and as soon
+as he had got that on his head, the head would have no rest until
+the crown was that of Europe.
+
+But before any crown could be put on at all, the tender hearts of
+Frenchmen must be touched by the appearance of great danger--the
+danger which is of all the greatest, that to their nearest and
+dearest selves.  A bloody farce was in preparation, noble lives
+were to be perjured away, and above all, the only great rival in
+the hearts of soldiers must be turned out of France.  This foul job
+worked--as foul Radical jobs do now--for the good of England.  If
+the French invasion had come to pass, as it was fully meant to do,
+in the month of February, 1804, perhaps its history must have been
+written in French, for us to understand it.
+
+So, at any rate, thought Caryl Carne, who knew the resources of
+either side, and the difference between a fine army and a mob.  He
+felt quite sure that his mother's country would conquer his
+father's without much trouble, and he knew that his horn would be
+exalted in the land, when he had guided the conqueror into it.
+Sure enough then he would recover his ancestral property with
+interest and be able to punish his enemies well, and reward his
+friends if they deserved it.  Thinking of these things, and
+believing that his own preparations would soon be finished, he left
+Widow Shanks to proclaim his merits, while under the bold and able
+conduct of Captain Renaud Charron he ran the gauntlet of the
+English fleet, and was put ashore southward of Cape Grisnez.  Here
+is a long reach of dreary exposure, facing the west unprofitably,
+with a shallow slope of brown sand, and a scour of tide, and no
+pleasant moorings.  Jotted as the coast was all along (whereon dry
+batteries grinned defiance, or sands just awash smiled treachery)
+with shallow transports, gun-boats, prames, scows, bilanders,
+brigs, and schooners, row-galleys, luggers, and every sort of craft
+that has a mast, or gets on without one, and even a few good ships
+of war pondering malice in the safer roadsteads, yet here the sweep
+of the west wind, and the long roll from the ocean following, kept
+a league or two, northward of the mighty defences of Boulogne,
+inviolate by the petty enmities of man.  Along the slight curve of
+the coast might be seen, beyond Ambleteuse and Wimereux, the vast
+extent of the French flotilla, ranged in three divisions, before
+the great lunette of the central camp, and hills jotted with tents
+thick as limpets on a rock.
+
+Carne (whose dealings were quite unknown to all of the French
+authorities save one, and that the supreme one) was come by
+appointment to meet his commander in a quiet and secluded spot.  It
+was early February now, and although the day was waning, and the
+wind, which was drawing to the north of west, delivered a cold blow
+from the sea, yet the breath of Spring was in the air already, and
+the beat of her pulse came through the ground.  Almost any man,
+except those two concerting to shed blood and spread fire, would
+have looked about a little at the pleasure of the earth, and felt a
+touch of happiness in the goodness of the sky.
+
+Caryl Carne waited in the shelter of a tree, scarcely deserving to
+be called a tree, except for its stiff tenacity.  All the branches
+were driven by the western gales, and scourged flat in one
+direction--that in which they best could hold together, and try to
+believe that their life was their own.  Like the wings of a sea
+bird striving with a tempest, all the sprays were frayed alike, and
+all the twigs hackled with the self-same pile.  Whoever observes a
+tree like this should stop to wonder how ever it managed to make
+itself any sort of trunk at all, and how it was persuaded to go up
+just high enough to lose the chance of ever coming down again.  But
+Carne cared for nothing of this sort, and heeded very little that
+did not concern himself.  All he thought of was how he might
+persuade his master to try the great issue at once.
+
+While he leaned heavily against the tree, with his long sea-cloak
+flapping round his legs, two horsemen struck out of the Ambleteuse
+road, and came at hand-gallop towards him.  The foremost, who rode
+with short stirrups, and sat his horse as if he despised him, was
+the foremost man of the world just now, and for ten years yet to
+come.
+
+Carne ran forward to show himself, and the master of France
+dismounted.  He always looked best upon horseback, as short men
+generally do, if they ride well; and his face (which helped to make
+his fortune) appeared even more commanding at a little distance.
+An astonishing face, in its sculptured beauty, set aspect, and
+stern haughtiness, calm with the power of transcendant mind,
+and a will that never met its equal.  Even Carne, void of much
+imagination, and contemptuous of all the human character he shared,
+was the slave of that face when in its presence, and could never
+meet steadily those piercing eyes.  And yet, to the study of a
+neutral dog, or a man of abstract science, the face was as bad as
+it was beautiful.
+
+Napoleon--as he was soon to be called by a cringing world--smiled
+affably, and offered his firm white hand, which Carne barely
+touched, and bent over with deference.  Then the foaming horse was
+sent away in charge of the attendant trooper, and the master began
+to take short quick steps, to and fro, in front of the weather-
+beaten tree; for to stand still was not in his nature.  Carne,
+being beckoned to keep at his side, lost a good deal of what he had
+meant to say, from the trouble he found in timing his wonted stride
+to the brisk pace of the other.
+
+"You have done well--on the whole very well," said Napoleon, whose
+voice was deep, yet clear and distinct as the sound of a bell.
+"You have kept me well informed; you are not suspected; you are
+enlarging your knowledge of the enemy and of his resources; every
+day you become more capable of conducting us to the safe landing.
+For what, then, this hurry, this demand to see me, this exposing of
+yourself to the risk of capture?"
+
+Carne was about to answer; but the speaker, who undershot the
+thoughts of others before they were shaped--as the shuttle of the
+lightning underweaves a cloud--raised his hand to stop him, and
+went on:
+
+"Because you suppose that all is ripe.  Because you believe that
+the slow beasts of islanders will strengthen their defences more by
+delay than we shall strengthen our attack.  Because you are afraid
+of incurring suspicion, if you continue to prepare.  And most of
+all, my friend, because you are impatient to secure the end of a
+long enterprise.  But, Captain, it must be longer yet.  It is not
+for you, but for me, to fix the time.  Behold me!  I am come from a
+grand review.  We have again rehearsed the embarkation.  We have
+again put two thousand horses on board.  The horses did it well;
+but not the men.  They are as brave as eagles, but as clumsy as the
+ostrich, and as fond of the sand without water.  They will all be
+sea-sick.  It is in their countenances, though many have been
+practised in the mouths of rivers.  Those infamous English will not
+permit us to proceed far enough from our native land to acquire
+what they call the legs of the sea.  If our braves are sea-sick,
+how can they work the cannon, or even navigate well for the
+accursed island?  They must have time.  They must undergo more
+waves, and a system of diet before embarkation.  Return, my trusted
+Captain, and continue your most esteemed services for three months.
+I have written these new instructions for you.  You may trust me to
+remember this addition to your good works."
+
+Carne's heart fell, and his face was gloomy, though he did his best
+to hide it.  So well he knew the arrogance and fierce self-will of
+his commanding officer that he durst not put his own opposite view
+of the case directly before him.  This arrogance grew with the
+growth of his power; so that in many important matters Napoleon
+lost the true state of the case through the terror felt by his
+subordinates.  So great was the mastery of his presence that Carne
+felt himself guilty of impertinence in carrying his head above the
+level of the General's plume, and stooped unconsciously--as
+hundreds of tall men are said to have done--to lessen this anomaly
+of Nature.
+
+"All shall be done to your orders, my General," he replied,
+submissively.  "For my own position I have no fear.  I might remain
+there from year to year without any suspicion arising, so stupid
+are the people all around, and so well is my name known among them.
+The only peril is in the landing of stores, and I think we should
+desist from that.  A few people have been wondering about that,
+though hitherto we have been most fortunate.  They have set it down
+so far to smuggling operations, with which in that tyrannical land
+all the lower orders sympathise.  But it would be wiser to desist
+awhile, unless you, my General, have anything of moment which you
+still desire to send in."
+
+"What sort of fellow is that Sheeseman?" asked Napoleon, with his
+wonderful memory of details.  "Is he more to be confided in as a
+rogue or as a fool?"
+
+"As both, sir; but more especially as a rogue, though he has the
+compunctions of a fool sometimes.  But he is as entirely under my
+thumb, as I am under that of my Commander."
+
+"That is very good," answered the First Consul, smiling with the
+sense of his own power; "and at an hour's notice, with fifty chosen
+men landed from the London Trader--ah, I love that name; it is
+appropriate--you could spike all the guns of that pretentious
+little battery, and lock the Commander of the Coast-Defence in one
+of his own cellars.  Is it not so, my good Captain?  Answer me not.
+That is enough.  One question more, and you may return.  Are you
+certain of the pilotage of the proud young fisherman who knows
+every grain of sand along his native shore?  Surely you can bribe
+him, if he hesitates at all, or hold a pistol at his ear as he
+steers the leading prame into the bay!  Charron would be the man
+for that.  Between you and Charron, there should be no mistake."
+
+"He requires to be handled with much delicacy.  He has no idea yet
+what he is meant to do.  And if I understand his nature, neither
+bribes nor fear would move him.  He is stubborn as a Breton, and of
+that simple character."
+
+"One can always befool a Breton; but I hate that race," said
+Napoleon.  "If he cannot be made useful, tie a round shot to him,
+throw him overheard, and get a gentler native."
+
+"Alas, I fear that we cannot indulge in that pleasure," said Carne,
+with a smile of regret.  "It cost me a large outlay of skill to
+catch him, and the natives of that place are all equally stubborn.
+But I have a plan for making him do our work without being at all
+aware of it.  Is it your wish, my General, that I should now
+describe that plan?"
+
+"Not now," replied Napoleon, pulling out a watch of English make,
+"but in your next letter.  I start for Paris in an hour's time.
+You will hear of things soon which will add very greatly to the
+weight and success of this grand enterprise.  We shall have
+perfidious Albion caught in her own noose, as you shall see.  You
+have not heard of one Captain Wright, and the landing-place at
+Biville.  We will have our little Biville at Springhaven.  There
+will be too many of us to swing up by a rope.  Courage, my friend!
+The future is with you.  Our regiments are casting dice for the
+fairest English counties.  But your native county is reserved for
+you.  You shall possess the whole of it--I swear it by the god of
+war--and command the Southern army.  Be brave, be wise, be
+vigilant, and above all things be patient."
+
+The great man held up his hand, as a sign that he wanted his horse,
+and then offered it to Caryl Carne, who touched it lightly with his
+lips, and bent one knee.  "My Emperor!" he said, "my Emperor!"
+
+"Wait until the proper time," said Napoleon, gravely, and yet well
+pleased.  "You are not the first, and you will not be the last.
+Observe discretion.  Farewell, my friend!"
+
+In another minute he was gone, and the place looked empty without
+him.  Carne stood gloomily watching the horsemen as their figures
+grew small in the distance, the large man behind pounding heavily
+away, like an English dragoon, on the scanty sod, of no importance
+to anybody--unless he had a wife or children--the little man in
+front (with the white plume waving, and the well-bred horse going
+easily), the one whose body would affect more bodies, and certainly
+send more souls out of them, than any other born upon this earth as
+yet, and--we hope--as long as ever it endureth.
+
+Caryl Carne cared not a jot about that.  He was anything but a
+philanthropist; his weaknesses, if he had any, were not dispersive,
+but thoroughly concentric.  He gathered his long cloak round his
+body, and went to the highest spot within his reach, about a mile
+from the watch-tower at Cape Grisnez, and thence he had a fine view
+of the vast invasive fleet and the vaster host behind it.
+
+An Englishman who loved his Country would have turned sick at heart
+and faint of spirit at the sight before him.  The foe was gathered
+together there to eat us up on every side, to get us into his net
+and rend us, to tear us asunder as a lamb is torn when its mother
+has dropped it in flight from the wolves.  For forty square miles
+there was not an acre without a score of tents upon it, or else of
+huts thrown up with slabs of wood to keep the powder dry, and the
+steel and iron bright and sharp to go into the vitals of England.
+Mighty docks had been scooped out by warlike hands, and shone with
+ships crowded with guns and alive with men.  And all along the
+shore for leagues, wherever any shelter lay, and great batteries
+protected them, hundreds of other ships tore at their moorings, to
+dash across the smooth narrow line, and blacken with fire and
+redden with blood the white cliffs of the land they loathed.
+
+And what was there to stop them?  The steam of the multitude
+rose in the air, and the clang of armour filled it.  Numbers
+irresistible, and relentless power urged them.  At the beck of the
+hand that had called the horse, the grey sea would have been black
+with ships, and the pale waves would have been red with fire.
+Carne looked at the water way touched with silver by the soft
+descent of the winter sun, and upon it, so far as his gaze could
+reach, there were but a dozen little objects moving, puny creatures
+in the distance--mice in front of a lion's den.  And much as he
+hated with his tainted heart the land of his father, the land of
+his birth, some reluctant pride arose that he was by right an
+Englishman.
+
+"It is the dread of the English seaman, it is the fame of Nelson,
+it is the habit of being beaten when England meets them upon the
+sea--nothing else keeps this mighty host like a set of trembling
+captives here, when they might launch forth irresistibly.  And what
+is a great deal worse, it will keep me still in my ruined dungeons,
+a spy, an intriguer, an understrapper, when I am fit to be one of
+the foremost.  What a fool I am so to be cowed and enslaved, by a
+man no better endowed than myself with anything, except self-
+confidence!  I should have looked over his head, and told him that
+I had had enough of it, and if he would not take advantage of my
+toils, I would toil for him no longer.  Why, he never even thanked
+me, that I can remember, and my pay is no more than Charron's!  And
+a pretty strict account I have to render of every Republican coin
+he sends.  He will have his own head on them within six months,
+unless he is assassinated.  His manners are not those of a
+gentleman.  While I was speaking to him, he actually turned his
+back upon me, and cleared his throat!  Every one hates him as much
+as fears him, of all who are in the rank of gentlemen.  How would
+it pay me to throw him over, denounce my own doings, excuse them as
+those of a Frenchman and a French officer, and bow the knee to
+Farmer George?  Truly if it were not for my mother, who has
+sacrificed her life for me, I would take that course, and have done
+with it.  Such all-important news would compel them to replace me
+in the property of my forefathers; and if neighbours looked coldly
+on me at first, I could very soon conquer that nonsense.  I should
+marry little Dolly, of course, and that would go half-way towards
+doing it.  I hate that country, but I might come to like it, if
+enough of it belonged to me.  Aha!  What would my mother say, if
+she dreamed that I could have such ideas?  And the whole of my life
+belongs to her.  Well, let me get back to my ruins first.  It would
+never do to be captured by a British frigate.  We had a narrow
+shave of it last time.  And there will be a vile great moon to-
+night."
+
+With these reflections--which were upon the whole more to his
+credit than the wonted web of thought--Carne with his long stride
+struck into a path towards the beach where his boat was waiting.
+Although he knew where to find several officers who had once been
+his comrades, he kept himself gladly to his loneliness; less
+perhaps by reason of Napoleon's orders than from the growing charm
+which Solitude has for all who begin to understand her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
+
+
+Though Carne had made light, in his impatient mood, of the power of
+the blockading fleet, he felt in his heart a sincere respect for
+its vigilance and activity.  La Liberte (as the unhappy Cheeseman's
+schooner was called within gunshot of France) was glad enough to
+drop that pretentious name, and become again the peaceful London
+Trader, when she found herself beyond the reach of French
+batteries.  The practice of her captain, the lively Charron, was to
+give a wide berth to any British cruiser appearing singly; but
+whenever more than one hove in sight, to run into the midst of them
+and dip his flag.  From the speed of his schooner he could always,
+in a light wind, show a clean pair of heels to any single heavy
+ship, and he had not yet come across any cutter, brig of war, or
+light corvette that could collar the Liberte in any sort of weather.
+Renaud Charron was a brave young Frenchman, as fair a specimen as
+could be found, of a truly engaging but not overpowering type,
+kindly, warm-hearted, full of enterprise, lax of morals (unless
+honour--their veneer--was touched), loving excitement, and capable
+of anything, except skulking, or sulking, or running away slowly.
+
+"None of your risky tricks to-night!" said Carne, as he stood on
+the schooner's deck, in the dusk of the February evening, himself
+in a dark mood growing darker--for his English blood supplied the
+elements of gloom, and he felt a dull pleasure in goading a
+Frenchman, after being trampled on by one of French position.  "You
+will just make straight, as the tide and shoals allow, for our
+usual landing-place, set me ashore, and follow me to the old
+quarters.  I have orders to give you, which can be given only
+there."
+
+"My commanding officer shall be obeyed," the Frenchman answered,
+with a light salute and smile, for he was not endowed with the
+power of hating, or he might have indulged that bad power towards
+Carne; "but I fear that he has not found things to his liking."
+
+"What concern is that of yours?  Your duty is to carry out my
+orders, to the utmost of your ability, and offer opinion when asked
+for."
+
+The light-hearted Frenchman shrugged his shoulders.  "My commanding
+officer is right," he said; "but the sea is getting up, and there
+will be wind, unless I mistake the arising of the moon.  My
+commanding officer had better retire, until his commands are
+needed.  He has been known to feel the effects of high tossing, in
+spite of his unequalled constitution.  Is it not so, my commander?
+I ask with deference, and anxiety."
+
+Carne, who liked to have the joke on his side only, swore at the
+moon and the wind, in clear English, which was shorter and more
+efficacious than French.  He longed to say, "Try to keep me out of
+rough water," but his pride, and the fear of suggesting the
+opposite to this sailor who loved a joke, kept him silent, and he
+withdrew to his little cuddy, chewing a biscuit, to feed, if it
+must be so, the approaching malady.
+
+"We shall have some game, and a fine game too," said Renaud Charron
+to himself, as he ordered more sail to be made.  "Milord gives
+himself such mighty airs!  We will take him to the cross-run off
+the Middle Bank, and offer him a basin through the key-hole.  To
+make sea-sick an Englishman--for, after all, what other is he?--
+will be a fine piece of revenge for fair France."
+
+Widow Shanks had remarked with tender sorrow--more perhaps because
+she admired the young man, and was herself a hearty soul, than from
+any loss of profit in victualling him--that "he was one of they
+folk as seems to go about their business, and do their jobs, and
+keep their skins as full as other people, without putting nort
+inside of them."  She knew one of that kind before, and he was shot
+by the Coast-guard, and when they postmartyred him, an eel twenty
+foot long was found inside him, doubled up for all the world like a
+love-knot.  Squire Carne was of too high a family for that; but she
+would give a week's rent to know what was inside him.
+
+There was no little justice in these remarks, as is pretty sure to
+be the case with all good-natured criticism.  The best cook that
+ever was roasted cannot get out of a pot more than was put in it;
+and the weight of a cask, as a general rule, diminishes if the tap
+is turned, without any redress at the bung-hole.  Carne ran off his
+contents too fast, before he had arranged for fresh receipts; and
+all who have felt what comes of that will be able to feel for him
+in the result.
+
+But a further decrease was in store for him now.  As the moon
+arose, the wind got higher, and chopped round to one point north of
+west, raising a perkish head-sea, and grinning with white teeth
+against any flapping of sails.  The schooner was put upon the
+starboard tack as near to the wind as she would lie, bearing so for
+the French coast more than the English, and making for the
+Vergoyers, instead of the Varne, as intended.  This carried them
+into wider water, and a long roll from the southwest crossing the
+pointed squabble of the strong new wind.
+
+"General," cried Charron, now as merry as a grig, and skipping to
+the door of Carne's close little cabin, about an hour before
+midnight, "it would afford us pleasure if you would kindly come on
+deck and give us the benefit of your advice.  I fear that you are a
+little confined down here, and in need of more solid sustenance.
+My General, arise; there is much briskness upon deck, and the waves
+are dancing beautifully in the full moon.  Two sail are in sight,
+one upon the weather bow, and the other on the weather quarter.
+Ah, how superior your sea-words are to ours!  If I were born an
+Englishman, you need not seek far for a successor to Nelson, when
+he gets shot, as he is sure to be before very long."
+
+"Get out!" muttered Carne, whose troubles were faintly illuminated
+by a sputtering wick.  "Get out, you scoundrel, as you love plain
+English.  Go direct to the devil--only let me die in peace."
+
+"All language is excusable in those affected with the malady of the
+sea," replied the Frenchman, dancing a little to encourage his
+friend.  "Behold, if you would get up and do this, you would be as
+happy inside as I am.  But stay--I know what will ease you in an
+instant, and enable you to order us right and left.  The
+indefatigable Sherray put a fine piece of fat pork in store before
+we sailed; I have just had it cooked, for I was almost starving.
+It floats in brown liquor of the richest order, such as no
+Englishman can refuse.  Take a sip of pure rum, and you will enjoy
+it surely.  Say, my brave General, will you come and join me?  It
+will cure any little disquietude down here."
+
+With a pleasant smile Charron laid his hand on the part of his
+commander which he supposed to be blameable.  Carne made an effort
+to get up and kick him, but fell back with everything whirling
+around, and all human standards inverted.  Then the kindly
+Frenchman tucked him up, for his face was blue and the chill of
+exhaustion striking into him.  "I wish you could eat a little bit,"
+said Charron, gently; but Carne gave a push with his elbow."  Well,
+you'll be worse before you are better, as the old women say in your
+country.  But what am I to do about the two British ships--for they
+are sure to be British--now in sight?"  But Carne turned his back,
+and his black boots dangled from the rim of his bunk as if there
+was nothing in them.
+
+"This is going a little too far," cried Charron; "I must have some
+orders, my commander.  You understand that two English ships are
+manifestly bearing down upon us--"
+
+"Let them come and send us to the bottom--the sooner the better,"
+his commander groaned, and then raised his limp knuckles with a
+final effort to stop his poor ears forever.
+
+"But I am not ready to go to the bottom, nor all the other people
+of our fourteen hands"--the Frenchman spoke now to himself alone--
+"neither will I even go to prison.  I will do as they do at
+Springhaven, and doubtless at every other place in England.  I will
+have my dish of pork, which is now just crackling--I am capable of
+smelling it even here--and I will give some to Sam Polwhele, and we
+will put heads together over it.  To outsail friend Englishman is a
+great delight, and to out-gun him would be still greater; but if we
+cannot accomplish those, there will be some pleasure of outwitting
+him."
+
+Renaud Charron was never disposed to make the worst of anything.
+When he went upon deck again, to look out while his supper was
+waiting, he found no change, except that the wind was freshening
+and the sea increasing, and the strangers whose company he did not
+covet seemed waiting for no invitation.  With a light wind he would
+have had little fear of giving them the go-by, or on a dark night
+he might have contrived to slip between or away from them.  But
+everything was against him now.  The wind was so strong, blowing
+nearly half a gale, and threatening to blow a whole one, that he
+durst not carry much canvas, and the full moon, approaching the
+meridian now, spread the white sea with a broad flood of light.  He
+could see that both enemies had descried him, and were acting in
+concert to cut him off.  The ship on his weather bow was a frigate,
+riding the waves in gallant style, with the wind upon her beam, and
+travelling two feet for every one the close-hauled schooner could
+accomplish.  If the latter continued her present course, in another
+half-league she would be under the port-holes of the frigate.
+
+The other enemy, though further off, was far more difficult to
+escape.  This was a gun-brig, not so very much bigger than La
+Liberte herself--for gun-brigs in those days were very small craft--
+and for that very reason more dangerous.  She bore about two
+points east of north from the greatly persecuted Charron, and was
+holding on steadily under easy sail, neither gaining much upon the
+chase nor losing.
+
+"Carry on as we are for about ten minutes," said Charron to his
+mate, Sam Polwhele; "that will give us period to eat our pork.
+Come, then, my good friend, let us do it."
+
+Polwhele--as he was called to make believe that he and other hands
+were Cornishmen, whereas they were Yankees of the sharpest order,
+owing no allegiance and unhappily no good-will to their grandmother--
+this man, whose true name was Perkins, gave the needful orders, and
+followed down.  Charron could talk, like many Frenchmen, quite as
+fast with his mouth full as empty, and he had a man to talk to who
+did not require anything to be said twice to him.
+
+"No fear of me!" was all he said.  "You keep out of sight, because
+of your twang.  I'll teach them a little good English--better than
+ever came out of Cornwall.  The best of all English is not to say
+too much."
+
+The captain and his mate enjoyed their supper, while Carne in the
+distance bore the pangs of a malady called bulimus, that is to say,
+a giant's ravening for victuals, without a babe's power of
+receiving them.  For he was turning the corner of his sickness now,
+but prostrate and cold as a fallen stalactite.
+
+"Aha!  We have done well.  We have warmed our wits up.  One glass
+of what you call the grog; and then we will play a pleasant game
+with those Englishmen!"  Carne heard him say it, and in his heart
+hoped that the English would pitch him overboard.
+
+It was high time for those two to finish their supper.  The
+schooner had no wheel, but steered--as light craft did then, and
+long afterwards--with a bulky ash tiller, having iron eyes for
+lashing it in heavy weather.  Three strong men stood by it now,
+obedient, yet muttering to one another, for another cable's length
+would bring them into danger of being run down by the frigate.
+
+"All clear for stays!" cried Polwhele, under orders from Charron.
+"Down helm!  Helm's alee!  Steady so.  Let draw!  Easy! easy!
+There she fills!"  And after a few more rapid orders the handy
+little craft was dashing away, with the wind abaft the beam, and
+her head about two points north of east.  "Uncommon quick in
+stays!" cried Polwhele, who had taken to the helm, and now stood
+there.  "Wonder what Britishers will think of that?"
+
+The British ship soon let him know her opinion, by a roar and a
+long streak of smoke blown toward him, as she put up her helm to
+consider the case.  It was below the dignity of a fine frigate to
+run after little smuggling craft, such as she voted this to be, and
+a large ship had been sighted from her tops down channel, which
+might afford her nobler sport.  She contented herself with a
+harmless shot, and leaving the gun-brig to pursue the chase, bore
+away for more important business.
+
+"Nonplussed the big 'un; shall have trouble with the little 'un,"
+said Master Polwhele to his captain.  "She don't draw half a fathom
+more than we do.  No good running inside the shoals.  And with this
+wind, she has the foot of us."
+
+"Bear straight for her, and let her board us," Charron answered,
+pleasantly.  "Down with all French hands into the forepart of the
+hold, and stow the spare foresail over them.  Show our last bills
+of lading, and ask them to trade.  You know all about Cheeseman;
+double his prices.  If we make any cash, we'll divide it.  Say we
+are out of our course, through supplying a cruiser that wanted our
+goods for nothing.  I shall keep out of sight on account of my
+twang, as you politely call it.  The rest I may safely leave to
+your invention.  But if you can get any ready rhino, Sam Polwhele
+is not the man to neglect it."
+
+"Bully for you!" cried the Yankee, looking at him with more
+admiration than he expected ever to entertain for a Frenchman.
+"There's five ton of cheeses that have been seven voyages, and a
+hundred firkins of Irish butter, and five-and-thirty cases of
+Russian tongues, as old as old Nick, and ne'er a sign of weevil!
+Lor' no, never a tail of weevil!  Skipper, you deserve to go to
+heaven out of West Street.  But how about him, down yonder?"
+
+"Captain Carne?  Leave him to me to arrange.  I shall be ready, if
+they intrude.  Announce that you have a sick gentleman on board, a
+passenger afflicted with a foreign illness, and having a foreign
+physician.  Mon Dieu!  It is good.  Every Englishman believes that
+anything foreign will kill him with a vault.  Arrange you the
+trading, and I will be the doctor--a German; I can do the German."
+
+"And I can do the trading," the American replied, without any rash
+self-confidence; "any fool can sell good stuff; but it requireth a
+good man to sell bad goods."
+
+The gun-brig bore down on them at a great pace, feeling happy
+certitude that she had got a prize--not a very big one, but still
+worth catching.  She saw that the frigate had fired a shot, and
+believed that it was done to call her own attention to a matter
+below that of the frigate.  On she came, heeling to the lively
+wind, very beautiful in the moonlight, tossing the dark sea in
+white showers, and with all her taut canvas arched and gleaming,
+hovered with the shades of one another.
+
+"Heave to, or we sink you!" cried a mighty voice through a speaking
+trumpet, as she luffed a little, bringing her port broadside to
+bear; and the schooner, which had hoisted British colours, obeyed
+the command immediately.  In a very few seconds a boat was manned,
+and dancing on the hillocks of the sea; and soon, with some danger
+and much care, the visitors stood upon the London Trader's deck,
+and Sam Polwhele came to meet them.
+
+"We have no wish to put you to any trouble," said the officer in
+command, very quietly, "if you can show that you are what you
+profess to be.  You sail under British colours; and the name on
+your stern is London Trader.  We will soon dismiss you, if you
+prove that.  But appearances are strongly against you.  What has
+brought you here?  And why did you run the risk of being fired at,
+instead of submitting to his Majesty's ship Minerva?"
+
+"Because she haven't got any ready money, skipper, and we don't
+like three months' bills," said the tall Bostonian, looking loftily
+at the British officer.  "Such things is nothing but piracy, and we
+had better be shot at than lose such goods as we carry fresh
+shipped, and in prime condition.  Come and see them, all with
+Cheeseman's brand, the celebrated Cheeseman of Springhaven--name
+guarantees the quality.  But one thing, mind you--no use to hanker
+after them unless you come provided with the ready."
+
+"We don't want your goods; we want you," answered Scudamore, now
+first luff of the brig of war Delia, and staring a little with his
+mild blue eyes at this man's effrontery.  "That is to say, our duty
+is to know all about you.  Produce your papers.  Prove where you
+cleared from last, and what you are doing here, some thirty miles
+south of your course, if you are a genuine British trader."
+
+"Papers all in order, sir.  First-chop wafers, as they puts on now,
+to save sealing-wax.  Charter-party, and all the rest.  Last bills
+of lading from Gravesend, but you mustn't judge our goods by that.
+Bulk of them from St. Mary Axe, where Cheeseman hath freighted from
+these thirty years.  If ever you have been at Springhaven, Captain,
+you'd jump at anything with Cheeseman's brand.  But have you
+brought that little bag of guineas with you?"
+
+"Once more, we want none of your goods.  You might praise them as
+much as you liked, if time permitted.  Show me to the cabin, and
+produce your papers.  After that we shall see what is in the hold."
+
+"Supercargo very ill in best cabin.  Plague, or black fever, the
+German doctor says.  None of our hands will go near him but myself.
+But you won't be like that, will you?"
+
+Less for his own sake than his mother's--who had none but him to
+help her--Scudamore dreaded especially that class of disease which
+is now called "zymotic."  His father, an eminent physician, had
+observed and had written a short work to establish that certain
+families and types of constitution lie almost at the mercy of such
+contagion, and find no mercy from it.  And among those families was
+his own.  "Fly, my boy, fly," he had often said to Blyth, "if you
+ever come near such subjects."
+
+"Captain, I will fetch them," continued Mr. Polwhele, looking grave
+at his hesitation.  "By good rights they ought to be smoked, I dare
+say, though I don't hold much with such stuff myself.  And the
+doctor keeps doing a heap of herbs hot.  You can see him, if you
+just come down these few steps.  Perhaps you wouldn't mind looking
+into the hold, to find something to suit your judgment--quality
+combined with low figures there--while I go into the infected den,
+as the cleverest of my chaps calls it.  Why, it makes me laugh!
+I've been in and out, with this stand-up coat on, fifty times, and
+you can't smell a flue of it, though wonderful strong down there."
+
+Scudamore shuddered, and drew back a little, and then stole a
+glance round the corner.  He saw a thick smoke, and a figure
+prostrate, and another tied up in a long white robe, waving a pan
+of burning stuff in one hand and a bottle in the other, and plainly
+conjuring Polwhele to keep off.  Then the latter returned, quite
+complacently.
+
+"Can't find all of them," he said, presenting a pile of papers big
+enough to taint Sahara.  "That doctor goes on as bad as opening a
+coffin.  Says he understands it, and I don't.  The old figure-head!
+What does he know about it?"
+
+"Much more than you do, perhaps," replied Blyth, standing up for
+the profession, as he was bound to do.  "Perhaps we had better look
+at these on deck, if you will bring up your lantern."
+
+"But, Captain, you will have a look at our hold, and make us a bid--
+we need not take it, any more than you need to double it--for as
+prime a lot of cheese, and sides of bacon--"
+
+"If your papers are correct, it will not be my duty to meddle with
+your cargo.  But what are you doing the wrong side of our fleet?"
+
+"Why, that was a bad job.  There's no fair trade now, no sort of
+dealing on the square nohow.  We run all this risk of being caught
+by Crappos on purpose to supply British ship Gorgeous, soweastern
+station; and blow me tight if I couldn't swear she had been
+supplied chock-full by a Crappo!  Only took ten cheeses and fifteen
+sides of bacon, though she never knew nought of our black fever
+case!  But, Captain, sit down here, and overhaul our flimsies.  Not
+like rags, you know; don't hold plague much."
+
+The young lieutenant compelled himself to discharge his duty of
+inspection behind a combing, where the wind was broken; but even so
+he took good care to keep on the weather side of the documents; and
+the dates perhaps flew away to leeward.  "They seem all right," he
+said, "but one thing will save any further trouble to both of us.
+You belong to Springhaven.  I know most people there.  Have you any
+Springhaven hands on board?"
+
+"I should think so.  Send Tugwell aft; pass the word for Dan
+Tugwell.  Captain, there's a family of that name there--settled as
+long as we have been at Mevagissey.  Ah, that sort of thing is a
+credit to the place, and the people too, in my opinion."
+
+Dan Tugwell came slowly, and with a heavy step, looking quite
+unlike the spruce young fisherman whom Scudamore had noticed as
+first and smartest in the rescue of the stranded Blonde.  But he
+could not doubt that this was Dan, the Dan of happier times and
+thoughts; in whom, without using his mind about it, he had felt
+some likeness to himself.  It was not in his power to glance
+sharply, because his eyes were kindly open to all the little
+incidents of mankind, but he managed to let Dan know that duty
+compelled him to be particular.  Dan Tugwell touched the slouched
+hat upon his head, and stood waiting to know what he was wanted
+for.
+
+"Daniel," said Scudamore, who could not speak condescendingly to
+any one, even from the official point of view, because he felt that
+every honest man was his equal, "are you here of your own accord,
+as one of the crew of this schooner?"
+
+Dan Tugwell had a hazy sense of being put upon an untrue balance.
+Not by this kind gentleman's words, but through his own
+proceedings.  In his honest mind he longed to say: "I fear I have
+been bamboozled.  I have cast my lot in with these fellows through
+passion, and in hasty ignorance.  How I should like to go with you,
+and fight the French, instead of getting mixed up with a lot of
+things I can't make out!"
+
+But his equally honest heart said to him:  "You have been well
+treated.  You are well paid.  You shipped of your own accord.  You
+have no right to peach, even if you had anything to peach of; and
+all you have seen is some queer trading.  None but a sneak would
+turn against his shipmates and his ship, when overhauled by the
+Royal Navy."
+
+Betwixt the two voices, Dan said nothing, but looked at the
+lieutenant with that gaze which the receiver takes to mean doubt of
+his meaning, while the doubt more often is--what to do with it.
+
+"Are you here of your own accord?  Do you belong to this schooner
+of your own accord?  Are you one of this crew, of your own free-
+will?"
+
+Scudamore rang the changes on his simple question, as he had often
+been obliged to do in the Grammar-school at Stonnington, with the
+slow-witted boys, who could not, or would not, know the top from
+the bottom of a sign-post.  "Do you eat with your eyes?" he had
+asked them sometimes; and they had put their thumbs into their
+mouths to enquire.
+
+"S'pose I am," said Dan at last, assuming stupidity, to cover
+hesitation; "yes, sir, I come aboard of my own free-will."
+
+"Very well.  Then I am glad to find you comfortable.  I shall see
+your father next week, perhaps.  Shall I give him any message for
+you?"
+
+"No, sir!  For God's sake, don't let him know a word about where
+you have seen me.  I came away all of a heap, and I don't want one
+of them to bother about me."
+
+"As you wish, Dan.  I shall not say a word about you, until you
+return with your earnings.  But if you found the fishing business
+dull, surely you might have come to us, Dan.  Any volunteers here
+for His Majesty's service?"  Scudamore raised his voice, with the
+usual question.  "Good pay, good victuals, fine promotion, and
+prize-money, with the glory of fighting for their native country,
+and provision for life if disabled!"
+
+Not a man came forward, though one man longed to do so; but his
+sense of honour, whether true or false, forbade him.  Dan Tugwell
+went heavily back to his work, trying to be certain that it was his
+duty.  But sad doubts arose as he watched the brave boat, lifting
+over the waves in the moonlight, with loyal arms tugging towards a
+loyal British ship; and he felt that he had thrown away his last
+chance.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+SHELFING THE QUESTION
+
+
+There is a time of day (as everybody must have noticed who is kind
+enough to attend to things) not to be told by the clock, nor
+measured to a nicety by the position of the sun, even when he has
+the manners to say where he is--a time of day dependent on a
+multiplicity of things unknown to us (who have made our own brains,
+by perceiving that we had none, and working away till we got them),
+yet palpable to all those less self-exalted beings, who, or which,
+are of infinitely nobler origin than we, and have shown it, by
+humility.  At this time of day every decent and good animal feels
+an unthought-of and untraced desire to shift its position, to come
+out and see its fellows, to learn what is happening in the humble
+grateful world--out of which man has hoisted himself long ago, and
+is therefore a spectre to them--to breathe a little sample of the
+turn the world is taking, and sue their share of pleasure in the
+quiet earth and air.
+
+This time is more observable because it follows a period of the
+opposite tendency, a period of heaviness, and rest, and silence,
+when no bird sings and no quadruped plays, for about half an hour
+of the afternoon.  Then suddenly, without any alteration of the
+light, or weather, or even temperature, or anything else that we
+know of, a change of mood flashes into every living creature, a
+spirit of life, and activity, and stir, and desire to use their own
+voice and hear their neighbour's.  The usual beginning is to come
+out first into a place that cannot knock their heads, and there to
+run a little way, and after that to hop, and take a peep for any
+people around, and espying none--or only one of the very few
+admitted to be friends--speedily to dismiss all misgivings, take a
+very little bit of food, if handy (more as a duty to one's family
+than oneself, for the all-important supper-time is not come yet),
+and then, if gifted by the Lord with wings--for what bird can stoop
+at such a moment to believe that his own grandfather made them?--up
+to the topmost spray that feathers in the breeze, and pour upon the
+grateful air the voice of free thanksgiving.  But an if the blade
+behind the heart is still unplumed for flying, and only gentle flax
+or fur blows out on the wind, instead of beating it, does the owner
+of four legs sit and sulk, like a man defrauded of his merits?  He
+answers the question with a skip and jump; ere a man can look twice
+at him he has cut a caper, frolicked an intricate dance upon the
+grass, and brightened his eyes for another round of joy.
+
+At any time of year almost, the time of day commands these deeds,
+unless the weather is outrageous; but never more undeniably than in
+the month of April.  The growth of the year is well established,
+and its manner beginning to be schooled by then; childish petulance
+may still survive, and the tears of penitence be frequent; yet upon
+the whole there is--or used to be--a sense of responsibility
+forming, and an elemental inkling of true duty towards the earth.
+Even man (the least observant of the powers that walk the ground,
+going for the signs of weather to the cows, or crows, or pigs,
+swallows, spiders, gnats, and leeches, or the final assertion of
+his own corns) sometimes is moved a little, and enlarged by
+influence of life beyond his own, and tickled by a pen above his
+thoughts, and touched for one second by the hand that made him.
+Then he sees a brother man who owes him a shilling, and his soul is
+swallowed up in the resolve to get it.
+
+But well in the sky-like period of youth, when the wind sits
+lightly, and the clouds go by in puffs, these little jumps of
+inspiration take the most respectable young man sometimes off his
+legs, and the young maid likewise--if she continues in these fine
+days to possess such continuation.  Blyth Scudamore had been
+appointed now, partly through his own good deserts, and wholly
+through good influence--for Lord St. Vincent was an ancient friend
+of the excellent Admiral Darling--to the command of the Blonde,
+refitted, thoroughly overhauled at Portsmouth, and pronounced by
+the dock-yard people to be the fastest and soundest corvette
+afloat, and in every way a credit to the British navy.  "The man
+that floated her shall float in her," said the Earl, when somebody,
+who wanted the appointment, suggested that the young man was too
+young.  "He has seen sharp service, and done sharp work.  It is
+waste of time to talk of it; the job is done."  "Job is the word
+for it," thought the other, but wisely reserved that great truth
+for his wife.  However, it was not at all a bad job for England.
+And Scudamore had now seen four years of active service, counting
+the former years of volunteering, and was more than twenty-five
+years old.
+
+None of these things exalted him at all in his own opinion, or, at
+any rate, not very much.  Because he had always regarded himself
+with a proper amount of self-respect, as modest men are almost sure
+to do, desiring less to know what the world thinks of them than to
+try to think rightly of it for themselves.  His opinion of it
+seemed to be that it was very good just now, very kind, and fair,
+and gentle, and a thing for the heart of man to enter into.
+
+For Dolly Darling was close beside him, sitting on a very pretty
+bench, made of twisted oak, and turned up at the back and both
+ends, so that a gentleman could not get very far away from a lady
+without frightening her.  Not only in this way was the spot well
+adapted for tender feelings, but itself truly ready to suggest
+them, with nature and the time of year to help.  There was no
+stream issuing here, to puzzle and perpetually divert the human
+mind (whose origin clearly was spring-water poured into the frame
+of the jelly-fish), neither was there any big rock, like an
+obstinate barrier rising; but gentle slopes of daisied pasture led
+the eye complacently, sleek cows sniffed the herbage here and
+there, and brushed it with the underlip to fetch up the blades for
+supper-time, and placable trees, forgetting all the rudeness of the
+winter winds, began to disclose to the fond deceiving breeze, with
+many a glimpse to attract a glance, all the cream of their summer
+intentions.  And in full enjoyment of all these doings, the poet of
+the whole stood singing--the simple-minded thrush, proclaiming that
+the world was good and kind, but himself perhaps the kindest, and
+his nest, beyond doubt, the best of it.
+
+"How lovely everything is to-day!"  Blyth Scudamore spoke slowly,
+and gazing shyly at the loveliest thing of all, in his opinion--the
+face of Dolly Darling.  "No wonder that your brother is a poet!"
+
+"But he never writes about this sort of thing," said Dolly, smiling
+pleasantly.  "His poems are all about liberty, and the rights of
+men, and the wrongs of war.  And if he ever mentions cows or sheep,
+it is generally to say what a shame it is to kill them."
+
+"But surely it is much worse to kill men.  And who is to be blamed
+for that, Miss Darling?  The Power that wants to overrun all the
+rest, or the Country that only defends itself?  I hope he has not
+converted you to the worship of the new Emperor; for the army and
+all the great cities of France have begged him to condescend to be
+that; and the King of Prussia will add his entreaties, according to
+what we have heard."
+
+"I think anything of him!" cried Dolly, as if her opinion would
+settle the point.  "After all his horrible murders--worst of all of
+that very handsome and brave young man shot with a lantern, and
+buried in a ditch!  I was told that he had to hold the lantern
+above his poor head, and his hand never shook!  It makes me cry
+every time I think of it.  Only let Frank come back, and he won't
+find me admire his book so very much!  They did the same sort of
+thing when I was a little girl, and could scarcely sleep at night
+on account of it.  And then they seemed to get a little better, for
+a time, and fought with their enemies, instead of one another, and
+made everybody wild about liberty, and citizens, and the noble
+march of intellect, and the dignity of mankind, and the rights of
+labour--when they wouldn't work a stroke themselves--and the black
+superstition of believing anything, except what they chose to make
+a fuss about themselves.  And thousands of people, even in this
+country, who have been brought up so much better, were foolish
+enough to think it very grand indeed, especially the poets, and the
+ones that are too young.  But they ought to begin to get wiser now;
+even Frank will find it hard to make another poem on them."
+
+"How glad I am to hear you speak like that!  I had no idea--at
+least I did not understand--"
+
+"That I had so much common-sense?" enquired Dolly, with a glance of
+subtle yet humble reproach.  "Oh yes, I have a great deal
+sometimes, I can assure you.  But I suppose one never does get
+credit for anything, without claiming it."
+
+"I am sure that you deserve credit for everything that can possibly
+be imagined," Scudamore answered, scarcely knowing, with all his
+own common-sense to help him, that he was talking nonsense.  "Every
+time I see you I find something I had never found before to--to
+wonder at--if you can understand--and to admire, and to think
+about, and to--to be astonished at."
+
+Dolly knew as well as he did the word he longed to use, but feared.
+She liked this state of mind in him, and she liked him too for all
+his kindness, and his humble worship; and she could not help
+admiring him for his bravery and simplicity.  But she did not know
+the value yet of a steadfast and unselfish heart, and her own was
+not quite of that order.  So many gallant officers were now to be
+seen at her father's house, half a cubit taller than poor Blyth,
+and a hundred cubits higher in rank, and wealth, and knowledge of
+the world, and the power of making their wives great ladies.
+Moreover, she liked a dark man, and Scudamore was fair and fresh as
+a rose called Hebe's Cup in June.  Another thing against him was
+that she knew how much her father liked him; and though she loved
+her father well, she was not bound to follow his leadings.  And yet
+she did not wish to lose this useful and pleasant admirer.
+
+"I am not at all ambitious," she replied, without a moment's
+hesitation, for the above reflections had long been dealt with,
+"but how I wish I could do something to deserve even half that you
+say of me!  But I fear that you find the air getting rather cold.
+The weather is so changeable."
+
+"Are you sure that you are not ambitious?"  Scudamore was too
+deeply plunged to get out of it now upon her last hint; and to-
+morrow he must be far away.  "You have every right to be ambitious,
+if such a word can be used of you, who are yourself the height of
+so many ambitions.  It was the only fault I could imagine you to
+have, and it seems too bad that you should have none at all."
+
+"You don't know anything about it," said Dolly, with a lovely
+expression in her face of candour, penitence, and pleasantry
+combined; "I am not only full of faults, but entirely made up of
+them.  I am told of them too often not to know."
+
+"By miserably jealous and false people."  It was impossible to look
+at her and not think that.  "By people who cannot have a single
+atom of perception, or judgment, or even proper feeling.  I should
+like to hear one of them, if you would even condescend to mention
+it.  Tell me one--only one--if you can think of it.  I am not at
+all a judge of character, but--but I have often had to study it a
+good deal among the boys."
+
+This made Miss Dolly laugh, and drop her eyes, and smoothe her
+dress, as if to be sure that his penetration had not been brought
+to bear on her.  And the gentle Scuddy blushed at his clumsiness,
+and hoped that she would understand the difference.
+
+"You do say such things!"  She also was blushing beautifully as she
+spoke, and took a long time before she looked at him again.
+"Things that nobody else ever says.  And that is one reason why I
+like you so."
+
+"Oh, do you like me--do you like me in earnest?  I can hardly dare
+to dream even for one moment--"
+
+"I am not going to talk about that any more.  I like Mr. Twemlow, I
+like Captain Stubbard, I like old Tugwell--though I should have
+liked him better if he had not been so abominably cruel to his son.
+Now I am sure it is time to go and get ready for dinner."
+
+"Ah, when shall I dine with you again?  Perhaps never," said the
+young man, endeavouring to look very miserable and to inspire
+sadness.  "But I ought to be very happy, on the whole, to think of
+all the pleasures I have enjoyed, and how much better I have got on
+than I had any right in the world to hope for."
+
+"Yes, to be the Commander of a beautiful ship, little more than a
+year from the date of your commission.  Captain Stubbard is in such
+a rage about it!"
+
+"I don't mean about that--though that of course is rare luck--I
+mean a much more important thing; I mean about getting on well with
+you.  The first time I saw you in that fine old school, you did not
+even want to shake hands with me, and you thought what a queer kind
+of animal I was; and then the first time or two I dined at the
+Hall, nothing but fine hospitality stopped you from laughing at my
+want of practice.  But gradually, through your own kind nature, and
+my humble endeavours to be of use, I began to get on with you
+better and better; and now you are beginning almost to like me."
+
+"Not almost, but altogether," she answered, with quite an
+affectionate glance.  "I can tell you there are very few, outside
+of my own family, that I like half so well as I like you.  But how
+can it matter to you so much?"
+
+She looked at him so that he was afraid to speak, for fear of
+spoiling everything; and being a very good-natured girl, and
+pleased with his deep admiration, she sighed--just enough to make
+him think that he might hope.
+
+"We are all so sorry to lose you." she said; "and no one will miss
+you so much as I shall, because we have had such pleasant times
+together.  But if we can carry out our little plot, we shall hear
+of you very often, and I dare say not very unfavourably.  Faith and
+I have been putting our heads together, and for our own benefit,
+and that of all the house, if we can get you to second it.  My
+father jumped at the idea, and said how stupid we were not to think
+of it before.  You know how very little he can be at home this
+summer, and he says he has to sacrifice his children to his
+country.  So we suggested that he should invite Lady Scudamore to
+spend the summer with us, if she can be persuaded to leave home so
+long.  We will do our very utmost to make her comfortable, and she
+will be a tower of strength to us; for you know sometimes it is
+very awkward to have only two young ladies.  But we dare not do
+anything until we asked you.  Do you think she would take
+compassion upon us?  A word from you perhaps would decide her; and
+Faith would write a letter for you to send."
+
+Scudamore reddened with delight, and took her hand.  "How can I
+thank you?  I had better not try," he answered, with some very
+tender play of thumb and fore-finger, and a strong impulse to bring
+lips too into action.  "You are almost as clever as you are good;
+you will know what I mean without my telling you.  My mother will
+be only too glad to come.  She knows what you are, she has heard
+so much from me.  And the reality will put to shame all my
+descriptions."
+
+"Tell me what you told her I was like.  The truth, now, and not a
+word of afterthought or flattery.  I am always so irritated by any
+sort of flattery."
+
+"Then you must let me hold your hands, to subdue your irritation;
+for you are sure to think that it was flattery--you are so entirely
+ignorant of yourself, because you never think of it.  I told my
+dear mother that you were the best, and sweetest, and wisest, and
+loveliest, and most perfect, and exquisite, and innocent, and
+unselfish of all the human beings she had ever seen, or heard, or
+read of.  And I said it was quite impossible for any one after one
+look at you to think of himself any more in this world."
+
+"Well done!" exclaimed Dolly, showing no irritation, unless a gleam
+of pearls inside an arch of coral showed it.  "It is as well to do
+things thoroughly, while one is about it.  I can understand now how
+you get on so fast.  But, alas, your dear mother will only laugh at
+all that.  Ladies are so different from gentlemen.  Perhaps that is
+why gentlemen never understand them.  And I would always a great
+deal rather be judged by a gentleman than a lady.  Ladies pick such
+a lot of holes in one another, whereas gentlemen are too large-
+minded.  And I am very glad upon the whole that you are not a lady,
+though you are much more gentle than they make believe to be.  Oh
+dear!  We must run; or the ladies will never forgive us for keeping
+them starving all this time."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+LISTENERS HEAR NO GOOD
+
+
+"Not that there is anything to make one so very uneasy," said Mr.
+Twemlow, "only that one has a right to know the meaning of what we
+are expected to put up with.  Nothing is clear, except that we have
+not one man in the Government who knows his own mind, or at any
+rate dares to pronounce it.  Addington is an old woman, and the
+rest--oh, when shall we have Pitt back again?  People talk of it,
+and long for it; but the Country is so slow.  We put up with
+everything, instead of demanding that the right thing shall be done
+at once.  Here is Boney, a fellow raised up by Satan as the scourge
+of this island for its manifold sins; and now he is to be the
+Emperor forsooth--not of France, but of Europe, continental Europe.
+We have only one man fit to cope with him at all, and the voice of
+the nation has been shouting for him; but who pays any attention to
+it?  This state of things is childish--simply childish; or perhaps
+I ought to say babyish.  Why, even the children on the sea-shore
+know, when they make their little sand walls against the tide, how
+soon they must be swept away.  But the difference is this, that
+they don't live inside them, and they haven't got all that belongs
+to them inside them.  Nobody must suppose for a moment that a
+clergyman's family would fail to know where to look for help and
+strength and support against all visitations; but, in common with
+the laity, we ask for Billy Pitt."
+
+"And in another fortnight you will have him," replied Captain
+Stubbard, who was dining there that day.  "Allow me to tell you a
+little thing that happened to my very own self only yesterday.  You
+know that I am one of the last people in the world to be accused of
+any--what's the proper word for it?  Mrs. Stubbard, you know what I
+mean--Jemima, why the deuce don't you tell them?"
+
+"Captain Stubbard always has more meaning than he can well put into
+words," said his wife; "his mind is too strong for any dictionary.
+Hallucination is the word he means."
+
+"Exactly!" cried the Captain.  "That expresses the whole of what I
+wanted to say, but went aside of it.  I am one of the last men in
+the world to become the victim of any--there, I've lost it again!
+But never mind.  You understand now; or if you don't, Mrs. Stubbard
+will repeat it.  What I mean is that I see all things square, and
+straight, and with their own corners to them.  Well, I know London
+pretty well; not, of course, as I know Portsmouth.  Still, nobody
+need come along with me to go from Charing Cross to St. Paul's
+Church-yard; and pretty tight I keep all my hatches battened down,
+and a sharp pair of eyes in the crow's-nest--for to have them in
+the foretop won't do there.  It was strictly on duty that I went
+up--the duty of getting a fresh stock of powder, for guns are not
+much good without it; and I had written three times, without answer
+or powder.  But it seems that my letters were going the rounds, and
+would turn up somewhere, when our guns were stormed, without a bit
+of stuff to make answer."
+
+"Ah, that's the way they do everything now!" interrupted Mr.
+Twemlow.  "I thought you had been very quiet lately; but I did not
+know what a good reason you had.  We might all have been shot, and
+you could not have fired a salute, to inform the neighbourhood!"
+
+"Well, never mind," replied the Captain, calmly; "I am not
+complaining, for I never do so.  Young men might; but not old
+hands, whose duty it is to keep their situation in life.  Well, you
+must understand that the air of London always makes me hungry.
+There are so many thousands of people there that you can't name a
+time when there is nobody eating, and this makes a man from the
+country long to help them.  Anyhow, I smelled roast mutton at a
+place where a little side street comes up into the Strand; and
+although it was scarcely half past twelve, it reminded me of Mrs.
+Stubbard.  So I called a halt, and stood to think upon a grating,
+and the scent became flavoured with baked potatoes.  This is always
+more than I can resist, after all the heavy trials of a chequered
+life.  So I pushed the door open, and saw a lot of little cabins,
+right and left of a fore and aft gangway, all rigged up alike for
+victualling.  Jemima, I told you all about it.  You describe it to
+the Rector and Mrs. Twemlow."
+
+"Don't let us trouble Mrs. Stubbard," said the host; "I know the
+sort of thing exactly, though I don't go to that sort of place
+myself."
+
+"No, of course you don't.  And I was a little scared at first, for
+there was sawdust enough to soak up every drop of my blood, if they
+had pistolled me.  Mrs. Twemlow, I beg you not to be alarmed.  My
+wife has such nerves that I often forget that all ladies are not
+like her.  Now don't contradict me, Mrs. Stubbard.  Well, sir, I
+went to the end of this cockpit--if you like to call it so--and got
+into the starboard berth, and shouted for a ration of what I had
+smelled outside.  And although it was far from being equal to its
+smell--as the character is of everything--you might have thought it
+uncommon good, if you had never tasted Mrs. Stubbard's cooking,
+after she had been to the butcher herself.  Very well.  I don't
+care for kickshaws, even if I could afford them, which has never
+yet been my destiny.  So I called for another ration of hot sheep--
+beg your pardon, ladies, what I mean is mutton--and half a dozen
+more of baked potatoes; and they reminded me of being at home so
+much that I called for a pint of best pine-apple rum and a brace of
+lemons, to know where I was--to remind me that I wasn't where I
+couldn't get them."
+
+"Oh, Adam!" cried Mrs. Stubbard, "what will you say next?  Not on
+weekdays, of course, but nearly every Sunday--and the samples of
+his powder in his pocket, Mr. Twemlow!"
+
+"Jemima, you are spoiling my story altogether.  Well, you must
+understand that this room was low, scarcely higher than the cabin
+of a fore-and-after, with no skylights to it, or wind-sail, or
+port-hole that would open.  And so, with the summer coming on, as
+it is now--though a precious long time about it--and the smell of
+the meat, and the thoughts of the grog, and the feeling of being at
+home again, what did I do but fall as fast asleep as the captain of
+the watch in a heavy gale of wind!  My back was to the light, so
+far as there was any, and to make sure of the top of my head, I
+fetched down my hat--the soft-edged one, the same as you see me
+wear on fine Sundays.
+
+"Well, I may have gone on in that way for an hour, not snoring, as
+Mrs. Stubbard calls it, but breathing to myself a little in my
+sleep, when I seemed to hear somebody calling me, not properly, but
+as people do in a dream--'Stoobar--Stoobar--Stoobar,' was the sound
+in my ears, like my conscience hauling me over the coals in bad
+English.  This made me wake up, for I always have it out with that
+part of me when it mutinies; but I did not move more than to feel
+for my glass.  And then I perceived that it was nothing more or
+less than a pair of Frenchmen talking about me in the berth next to
+mine, within the length of a marlin-spike from my blessed surviving
+ear.
+
+"Some wiseacre says that listeners never hear good of themselves,
+and upon my word he was right enough this time, so far as I made
+out.  The French language is beyond me, so far as speaking goes,
+for I never can lay hold of the word I want; but I can make out
+most of what those queer people say, from being a prisoner among
+them once, and twice in command of a prize crew over them.  And the
+sound of my own name pricked me up to listen sharply with my one
+good ear.  You must bear in mind, Rector, that I could not see
+them, and durst not get up to peep over the quarter-rail, for fear
+of scaring them.  But I was wearing a short hanger, like a middy's
+dirk--the one I always carry in the battery."
+
+"I made Adam promise, before he went to London," Mrs. Stubbard
+explained to Mrs. Twemlow, "that he would never walk the streets
+without steel or firearms.  Portsmouth is a very wicked place
+indeed, but a garden of Eden compared with London."
+
+"Well, sir," continued Captain Stubbard," the first thing I heard
+those Frenchmen say was:  'Stoobar is a stupid beast, like the ox
+that takes the prize up here, except that he has no claim to good
+looks, but the contrary--wholly the contrary.'  Mrs. Stubbard, I
+beg you to preserve your temper; you have heard others say it, and
+you should now despise such falsehoods.  'But the ox has his horns,
+and Stoobar has none.  For all his great guns there is not one
+little cup of powder.'  The villains laughed at this, as a very
+fine joke, and you may well suppose that I almost boiled over.
+'You have then the command of this beast Stoobar?' the other fellow
+asked him, as if I were a jackass.  'How then have you so very well
+obtained it?'  'In a manner the most simple.  Our chief has him by
+the head and heels: by the head, by being over him; and by the
+heels, because nothing can come in the rear without his knowledge.
+Behold! you have all.'  'It is very good,' the other villain
+answered; 'but when is it to be, my most admirable Charron?--how
+much longer?--how many months?'  'Behold my fingers,' said the one
+who had abused me; 'I put these into those, and then you know.  It
+would have been already, except for the business that you have been
+employed upon in this black hole.  Hippolyte, you have done well,
+though crookedly; but all is straight for the native land.  You
+have made this Government appear more treacherous in the eyes of
+France and Europe than our own is, and you have given a good jump
+to his instep for the saddle.  But all this throws us back.  I am
+tired of tricks; I want fighting; though I find them quite a jolly
+people.'  'I don't,' said the other, who was clearly a low
+scoundrel, for his voice was enough to settle that; 'I hate them;
+they are of thick head and thick hand, and would come in sabots to
+catch their enemy asleep.  And now there is no chance to entangle
+any more.  Their Government will be of the old brutal kind, hard
+knocks, and no stratagems.  In less than a fortnight Pitt will be
+master again.  I know it from the very best authority.  You know
+what access I have.'  'Then that is past,' the other fellow
+answered, who seemed to speak more like a gentleman, although he
+was the one that ran down me; 'that is the Devil.  They will have
+their wits again, and that very fat Stoobar will be supplied with
+powder.  Hippolyte, it is a very grand joke.  Within three miles of
+his head (which is empty, like his guns) we have nearly two hundred
+barrels of powder, which we fear to bring over in those flat-
+bottoms for fear of a volley among them.  Ha! ha!  Stoobar is one
+fine fat ox!'
+
+"This was all I heard, for they began to move, having had enough
+sugar and water, I suppose; and they sauntered away to pay their
+bill at the hatch put up at the doorway.  It was hopeless to
+attempt to follow them; but although I am not so quick in stays as
+I was, I slewed myself round to have a squint at them.  One was a
+slight little active chap, with dapper legs, and jerks like a
+Frenchman all over.  I could pardon him for calling me a great fat
+ox, for want of a bit of flesh upon his own bones.  But he knows
+more about me than I do of him, for I never clapped eyes on him
+before, to my knowledge.  The other was better built, and of some
+substance, but a nasty, slouchy-looking sort of cur, with high fur
+collars and a long grey cloak.  And that was the one called
+Hippolyte, who knows all about our Government.  And just the sort
+of fellow who would do so in these days, when no honest man knows
+what they are up to."
+
+"That is true," said the Rector--"too true by half.  But honest men
+soon will have their turn, if that vile spy was well informed.  The
+astonishing thing is that England ever puts up with such shameful
+anarchy.  What has been done to defend us?  Nothing, except your
+battery, without a pinch of powder!  With Pitt at the helm, would
+that have happened?  How could we have slept in our beds, if we had
+known it?  Fourteen guns, and not a pinch of powder!"
+
+"But you used to sleep well enough before a gun was put there."
+Mrs. Stubbard's right to spare nobody was well established by this
+time.  "Better have the guns, though they could not be fired, than
+no guns at all, if they would frighten the enemy."
+
+"That is true, ma'am," replied Mr. Twemlow; "but until the guns
+came, we had no sense of our danger.  Having taught us that, they
+were bound to act up to their teaching.  It is not for ourselves
+that I have any fear.  We have long since learned to rest with
+perfect faith in the Hand that overruleth all.  And more than that--
+if there should be a disturbance, my nephew and my godson Joshua
+has a house of fourteen rooms in a Wiltshire valley, quite out of
+the track of invaders.  He would have to fight, for he is Captain
+in the Yeomanry; and we would keep house for him till all was over.
+So that it is for my parish I fear, for my people, my schools, and
+my church, ma'am."
+
+"Needn't be afraid, sir; no call to run away," cried the Captain of
+the battery, having now well manned his own portholes with the
+Rector's sound wine; "we shall have our powder in to-morrow, and
+the French can't come to-night; there is too much moon.  They never
+dare show their noses nor'ard of their sands, with the man in the
+moon--the John Bull in the moon--looking at them.  And more than
+that, why, that cursed Boney--"
+
+"Adam, in Mr. Twemlow's house!  You must please to excuse him, all
+good people.  He has sate such a long time, without saying what he
+likes."
+
+"Jemima, I have used the right word.  The parson will back me up in
+every letter of it, having said the same thing of him, last Sunday
+week.  But I beg Mrs. Twemlow's pardon, if I said it loud enough to
+disturb her.  Well, then, this blessed Boney, if you prefer it, is
+a deal too full of his own dirty tricks for mounting the throne of
+the King they murdered, to get into a flat-bottomed boat at
+Boulogne, and a long sight too jealous a villain he is, to let any
+one command instead of him.  Why, the man who set foot upon our
+shore, and beat us--if such a thing can be supposed--would be ten
+times bigger than Boney in a month, and would sit upon his crown,
+if he gets one."
+
+"Well, I don't believe they will ever come at all," the solid Mrs.
+Stubbard pronounced, with decision.  "I believe it is all a sham,
+and what they want is to keep us from attacking them in France.
+However, it is a good thing on the whole, and enables poor
+Officers, who have fought well for their country, to keep out of
+the Workhouse with their families."
+
+"Hearken, hearken to Mrs. Stubbard!" the veteran cried, as he
+patted his waistcoat--a better one than he could have worn, and a
+larger one than he could have wanted, except for the promised
+invasion.  "I will back my wife against any lady in the land for
+common-sense, and for putting it plainly.  I am not ashamed to say
+thank God for the existence of that blessed Boney.  All I hope is
+that he will only try to land at Springhaven--I mean, of course,
+when I've got my powder."
+
+"Keep it dry, Captain," said the Rector, in good spirits.  "Your
+confidence makes us feel comfortable; and of course you would draw
+all their fire from the village, and the houses standing near it,
+as this does.  However, I pray earnestly every night that they may
+attempt it in some other parish.  But what was it you heard that
+Frenchman say about two or three hundred barrels of powder almost
+within three miles of us?  Suppose it was to blow up, where should
+we be?"
+
+"Oh, I don't believe a word of that.  It must be brag and nonsense.
+To begin with, there is no place where they could store it.  I know
+all the neighbourhood, and every house in it.  And there are no
+caves on this coast in the cliff, or holes of that kind such as
+smugglers use.  However, I shall think it my duty to get a search-
+order from Admiral Darling, and inspect large farm-buildings, such
+as Farmer Graves has got, and another man the other side of
+Pebbleridge.  Those are the only places that could accommodate
+large stores of ammunition.  Why, we can take only forty barrels in
+the fire-proof magazine we have built.  We all know what liars
+those Frenchmen are.  I have no more faith in the 200 barrels of
+powder than I have in the 2000 ships prepared on the opposite coast
+to demolish us."
+
+"Well, I hope you are right," Mr. Twemlow answered.  "It does seem
+a very unlikely tale.  But the ladies are gone.  Let us have a
+quiet pipe.  A man who works as hard as you and I do is entitled to
+a little repose now and then."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+ANSWERING THE QUESTION
+
+
+If Scudamore had not seen Dan Tugwell on board of the London
+Trader, and heard from his own lips that he was one of her crew, it
+is certain that he would have made a strict search of her hold,
+according to his orders in suspicious cases.  And if he had done
+this, it is probable that he never would have set his nimble feet
+on deck again, for Perkins (the American who passed as Sam
+Polwhele) had a heavy ship-pistol in his great rough pocket, ready
+for the back of the young officer's head if he had probed below the
+cheeses and firkins of butter.  Only two men had followed the
+lieutenant from their boat, the rest being needed for her safety in
+the strong sea running, and those two at the signal would have been
+flung overboard, and the schooner (put about for the mouth of the
+Canche, where heavy batteries were mounted) would have had a fair
+chance of escape, with a good start, while the gun-brig was picking
+up her boat.  Unless, indeed, a shot from the Delia should carry
+away an important spar, which was not very likely at night, and
+with a quick surf to baffle gunnery.  However, none of these things
+came to pass, and so the chances require no measurement.
+
+Carne landed his freight with his usual luck, and resolved very
+wisely to leave off that dangerous work until further urgency.  He
+had now a very fine stock of military stores for the ruin of his
+native land, and especially of gunpowder, which the gallant
+Frenchmen were afraid of stowing largely in their flat-bottomed
+craft.  And knowing that he owed his success to moderation, and the
+good-will of his neighbours towards evasion of the Revenue, he
+thought it much better to arrange his magazine than to add to it
+for a month or two.
+
+Moreover, he was vexed at the neglect of his advice, on the part of
+his arrogant Commander, a man who was never known to take advice
+from any mind external to his own body, and not even from that
+clear power sometimes, when his passionate heart got the uppermost.
+Carne, though of infinitely smaller mind, had one great advantage--
+he seldom allowed it to be curdled or crossed in its clear
+operations by turbulent bodily elements.  And now, when he heard
+from the light-hearted Charron, who had lately been at work in
+London, that the only man they feared was about to take the lead
+once more against the enemies of Great Britain, Caryl Carne grew
+bitter against his Chief, and began for the first time to doubt his
+success.
+
+"I have a great mind to go to Mr. Pitt myself, tell him everything,
+and throw myself upon his generosity," he thought, as he sate among
+his ruins sadly.  "I could not be brought to trial as a common
+traitor.  Although by accident of birth I am an Englishman, I am a
+French officer, and within my duty in acting as a pioneer for the
+French army.  But then, again, they would call me at the best a
+spy, and in that capacity outside the rules of war.  It is a toss-
+up how they might take it, and the result would depend perhaps on
+popular clamour.  The mighty Emperor has snubbed me.  He is not a
+gentleman.  He has not even invited me to Paris, to share in the
+festivities and honours he proclaims.  I would risk it, for I
+believe it is the safer game, except for two obstacles, and both of
+those are women.  Matters are growing very ticklish now.  That old
+bat of a Stubbard has got scent of a rat, and is hunting about the
+farm-houses.  It would be bad for him if he came prowling here;
+that step for inspectors is well contrived.  Twenty feet fall on
+his head for my friend; even his bull-neck would get the worst of
+that.  And then, again, there is that wretch of a Cheeseman, who
+could not even hang himself effectually.  If it were not for Polly,
+we would pretty soon enable him, as the Emperor enabled poor
+Pichegru.  And after his own bona fide effort, who would be
+surprised to find him sus. per coll.?  But Polly is a nice girl,
+though becoming too affectionate.  And jealous--good lack! a
+grocer's daughter jealous, and a Carne compelled to humour her!
+What idiots women are in the hands of a strong man!  Only my
+mother--my mother was not; or else my father was a weak one; which
+I can well believe from my own remembrance of him.  Well, one point
+at least shall be settled to-morrow."
+
+It was early in May, 1804, and Napoleon having made away to the
+best of his ability--which in that way was pre-eminent--with all
+possible rivals and probable foes, was receiving addresses, and
+appointing dummies, and establishing foolscap guarantees against
+his poor fallible and flexible self--as he had the effrontery to
+call it--with all the gravity, grand benevolence, confidence in
+mankind (as fools), immensity of yearning for universal good, and
+intensity of planning for his own, which have hoodwinked the zanies
+in every age, and never more than in the present age and country.
+And if France licked the dust, she could plead more than we can--it
+had not been cast off from her enemy's shoes.
+
+Carne's love of liberty, like that of most people who talk very
+largely about it, was about as deep as beauty is declared to be; or
+even less than that, for he would not have imperilled the gloss of
+his epiderm for the fair goddess.  So that it irked him very little
+that his Chief had smashed up the Republic, but very greatly that
+his own hand should be out in the cold, and have nothing put inside
+it to restore its circulation.  "If I had stuck to my proper line
+of work, in the Artillery, which has made his fortune"--he could
+not help saying to himself sometimes--"instead of losing more than
+a year over here, and perhaps another year to follow, and all for
+the sake of these dirty old ruins, and my mother's revenge upon
+this country, I might have been a General by this time almost--for
+nothing depends upon age in France--and worthy to claim something
+lofty and grand, or else to be bought off at a truly high figure.
+The little gunner has made a great mistake if he thinks that his
+flat thumb of low breed can press me down shuddering, and starving,
+and crouching, just until it suits him to hold up a finger for me.
+My true course is now to consider myself, to watch events, and act
+accordingly.  My honour is free to go either way, because he has
+not kept his word with me; he promised to act upon my advice, and
+to land within a twelvemonth."
+
+There was some truth in this, for Napoleon had promised that his
+agent's perilous commission in England should be discharged within
+a twelvemonth, and that time had elapsed without any renewal.  But
+Carne was clear-minded enough to know that he was bound in honour
+to give fair notice, before throwing up the engagement; and that
+even then it would be darkest dishonour to betray his confidence.
+He had his own sense of honour still, though warped by the
+underhand work he had stooped to; and even while he reasoned with
+himself so basely, he felt that he could not do the things he
+threatened.
+
+To a resolute man it is a misery to waver, as even the most
+resolute must do sometimes; for instance, the mighty Napoleon
+himself.  That great man felt the misery so keenly, and grew so
+angry with himself for letting in the mental pain, that he walked
+about vehemently, as a horse is walked when cold water upon a hot
+stomach has made colic--only there was nobody to hit him in the
+ribs, as the groom serves the nobler animal.  Carne did not stride
+about in that style, to cast his wrath out of his toes, because his
+body never tingled with the sting-nettling of his mind--as it is
+bound to do with all correct Frenchmen--and his legs being long, he
+might have fallen down a hole into ancestral vaults before he knew
+what he was up to.  Being as he was, he sate still, and thought it
+out, and resolved to play his own game for a while, as his master
+was playing for himself in Paris.
+
+The next day he reappeared at his seaside lodgings, looking as
+comely and stately as of old; and the kind Widow Shanks was so glad
+to see him that he felt a rare emotion--good-will towards her; as
+the hardest man must do sometimes, especially if others have been
+hard upon him.  He even chucked little Susy under the chin, which
+amazed her so much that she stroked her face, to make sure of its
+being her own, and ran away to tell her mother that the gentleman
+was come home so nice.  Then he ordered a special repast from John
+Prater's--for John, on the strength of all his winter dinners, had
+now painted on his sign-board "Universal Victualler," caring not a
+fig for the offence to Cheeseman, who never came now to have a
+glass with him, and had spoiled all the appetite inspired by his
+windows through the dismal suggestions of his rash act on the
+premises.  Instead of flattening their noses and opening their
+mouths, and exclaiming, "Oh, shouldn't I like a bit of that?" the
+children, if they ventured to peep in at all, now did it with an
+anxious hope of horrors, and a stealthy glance between the hams and
+bacon for something that might be hanging up among the candles.
+And the worst of it was that the wisest man in the village had
+failed to ascertain as yet "the reason why 'a doed it."  Until that
+was known, the most charitable neighbours could have no hope of
+forgiving him.
+
+Miss Dolly Darling had not seen her hero of romance for a long
+time; but something told her--or perhaps somebody--that he was now
+at hand; and to make sure about it, she resolved to have a walk.
+Faith was very busy, as the lady of the house, in preparing for a
+visitor, the mother of Blyth Scudamore, whom she, with her usual
+kindness, intended to meet and bring back from the coach-road that
+evening; for no less than three coaches a day passed now within
+eight miles of Springhaven, and several of the natives had seen
+them.  Dolly was not to go in the carriage, because nobody knew how
+many boxes the visitor might bring, inasmuch as she was to stop
+ever so long.  "I am tired of all this fuss," cried Dolly; "one
+would think Queen Charlotte was coming, at the least; and I dare
+say nearly all her luggage would go into the door-pocket.  They are
+dreadfully poor; and it serves them right, for being so dreadfully
+honest."
+
+"If you ever fall into poverty," said Faith, "it will not be from
+that cause.  When you get your money, you don't pay your debts.
+You think that people should be proud to work for you for nothing.
+There is one house I am quite ashamed to pass by with you.  How
+long have you owed poor Shoemaker Stickfast fifteen shillings and
+sixpence?  And you take advantage of him, because he dare not send
+it in to father."
+
+"Fashionable ladies never pay their debts," Dolly answered, as she
+spun round on one light heel, to float out a new petticoat that she
+was very proud of; "this isn't paid for, nor this, nor this; and
+you with your slow head have no idea how it adds to the interest
+they possess.  If I am not allowed to have a bit of fashion in my
+dress, I can be in the fashion by not paying for it."
+
+"It is a most happy thing for you, dear child, that you are kept
+under some little control.  What you would do, I have not the least
+idea, if you were not afraid of dear father, as you are.  The worst
+of it is that he is never here now for as much as two days
+together.  And then he is so glad to see us that he cannot attend
+to our discipline or take notice of our dresses."
+
+"Ha! you have inspired me!" exclaimed Dolly, who rejoiced in
+teasing Faith.  "The suggestion is yours, and I will act upon it.
+From the village of Brighthelmstone, which is growing very fine, I
+will procure upon the strictest credit a new Classic dress, with
+all tackle complete--as dear father so well expresses it--and then
+I will promenade me on the beach, with Charles in best livery and a
+big stick behind me.  How then will Springhaven rejoice, and every
+one that hath eyes clap a spy-glass to them!  And what will old
+Twemlow say, and that frump of an Eliza, who condescends to give me
+little hints sometimes about tightening up SO, perhaps, and letting
+out so, and permitting a little air to come in HERE--"
+
+"Do be off, you wicked little animal!" cried Faith, who in spite of
+herself could not help laughing, so well was Dolly mimicking Eliza
+Twemlow's voice, and manner, and attitude, and even her figure,
+less fitted by nature for the Classic attire; "you are wasting all
+my time, and doing worse with your own.  Be off, or I'll take a
+stick to 'e, as old Daddy Stakes says to the boys."
+
+Taking advantage of this state of things, the younger Miss Darling
+set forth by herself to dwell upon the beauty of the calm May sea,
+and her own pretty figure glassed in tidal pools.  She knew that
+she would show to the utmost of her gifts, with her bright
+complexion softly gleaming in the sun, and dark gray eyes through
+their deep fringe receiving and returning tenfold the limpid
+glimmer of the shore.  And she felt that the spring of the year was
+with her, the bound of old Time that renews his youth and powers of
+going at any pace; when the desire of the young is to ride him at
+full gallop, and the pleasure of the old is to stroke his nose and
+think.
+
+Dolly, with everything in her favour, youth and beauty, the time of
+year, the time of day, and the power of the place, as well as her
+own wish to look lovely, and to be loved beyond reason, nevertheless
+came along very strictly, and kept herself most careful not to look
+about at all.  At any rate, not towards the houses, where people
+live, and therefore must look out.  At the breadth of sea, with
+distant ships jotted against the sky like chips, or dotted with
+boats like bits of stick; also at the playing of the little waves
+that ran at the bottom of the sands, just now, after one another
+with a lively turn, and then jostled into white confusion, like a
+flock of sheep huddled up and hurrying from a dog--at these and at
+the warm clouds loitering in the sun she might use her bright eyes
+without prejudice.  But soon she had to turn them upon a nearer
+object.
+
+"How absorbed we are in distant contemplation!  A happy sign, I
+hope, in these turbulent times.  Miss Darling, will you condescend
+to include me in your view?"
+
+"I only understand simple English," answered Dolly.  "Most of the
+other comes from France, perhaps.  We believed that you were gone
+abroad again."
+
+"I wish that the subject had more interest for you," Carne
+answered, with his keen eyes fixed on hers, in the manner that half
+angered and half conquered her.  "My time is not like that of happy
+young ladies, with the world at their feet, and their chief
+business in it, to discover some new amusement."
+
+"You are not at all polite.  But you never were that, in spite of
+your French education."
+
+"Ah, there it is again!  You are so accustomed to the flattery of
+great people that a simple-minded person like myself has not the
+smallest chance of pleasing you.  Ah, well!  It is my fate, and I
+must yield to it."
+
+"Not at all," replied Dolly, who could never see the beauty of that
+kind of resignation, even in the case of Dan Tugwell.  "There is no
+such thing as fate for a strong-willed man, though there may be for
+poor women."
+
+"May I tell you my ideas about that matter?  If so, come and rest
+for a moment in a quiet little shelter where the wind is not so
+cold.  For there is no such thing as Spring in England."
+
+Dolly hesitated, and with the proverbial result.  To prove himself
+more polite than she supposed, Caryl Carne, hat in hand and with
+low bows preserving a respectful distance, conducted her to a
+little place of shelter, so pretty and humble and secluded by its
+own want of art, and simplicity of skill, that she was equally
+pleased and surprised with it.
+
+"Why, it is quite a little bower!" she exclaimed; "as pretty a
+little nest as any bird could wish for.  And what a lovely view
+towards the west and beyond Pebbleridge!  One could sit here
+forever and see the sun set.  But I must have passed it fifty times
+without the least suspicion of it.  How on earth have you managed
+to conceal it so?  That is to say, if it is your doing.  Surely the
+children must have found it out, because they go everywhere."
+
+"One brat did.  But I gave him such a scare that he never stopped
+roaring till next Sunday, and it frightened all the rest from
+looking round that corner.  If any other comes, I shall pitch-
+plaster him, for I could not endure that noise again.  But you see,
+at a glance, why you have failed to see it, as we always do with
+our little oversights, when humbly pointed out to us.  It is the
+colour of the ground and the background too, and the grayness of
+the scanty growth that hides it.  Nobody finds it out by walking
+across it, because of this swampy place on your side, and the shoot
+of flints down from the cliff on the other, all sharp as a knife,
+and as rough as a saw.  And nobody comes down to this end of the
+warren, neither is it seen from the battery on the hill.  Only from
+the back is it likely to be invaded, and there is nothing to make
+people look, or come, up here.  So you have me altogether at your
+mercy, Miss Darling."
+
+Dolly thought within herself that it was much the other way, but
+could not well express her thoughts to that effect.  And being of a
+brisk and versatile--not to say volatile--order, she went astray
+into a course of wonder concerning the pretty little structure she
+beheld.  Structure was not the proper word for it at all; for it
+seemed to have grown from the nature around, with a little aid of
+human hands to guide it.  Branches of sea-willow radiant with
+spring, and supple sprays of tamarisk recovering from the winter,
+were lightly inwoven and arched together, with the soft compliance
+of reed and rush from the marsh close by, and the stout assistance
+of hazel rods from the westward cliff.  The back was afforded by a
+grassy hillock, with a tuft or two of brake-fern throwing up their
+bronzy crockets among the sprayed russet of last year's pride.  And
+beneath them a ledge of firm turf afforded as fair a seat as even
+two sweet lovers need desire.
+
+"How clever he is, and how full of fine taste!" thought the simple-
+minded Dolly; "and all this time I have been taking him for a
+gloomy, hard-hearted, unnatural man.  Blyth Scudamore never could
+have made this lovely bower."
+
+In this conclusion she was altogether wrong.  Scudamore could have
+made it, and would have made it gladly, with bright love to help
+him.  But Carne never could, and would have scorned the pleasant
+task.  It was Charron, the lively Frenchman, who, with the aid of
+old Jerry, had achieved this pretty feat, working to relieve his
+dull detention, with a Frenchman's playful industry and tasteful
+joy in nature.  But Carne was not likely to forego this credit.
+
+"I think I have done it pretty well," he said, in reply to her
+smile of admiration; "with such scanty materials, I mean, of
+course.  And I shall think I have done it very well indeed, if you
+say that you like it, and crown it with new glory by sitting for a
+moment in its unpretentious shade.  If your brother comes down, as
+I hope he will, next week, I shall beg him to come and write a poem
+here.  The place is fitter for a poet than a prosy vagabond like
+me."
+
+"It is very hard that you should be a--a wanderer, I mean," Dolly
+answered, looking at him with a sweet thrill of pity; "you have
+done nothing to deserve it.  How unfairly fortune has always
+treated you!"
+
+"Fortune could make me a thousand times more than the just
+compensation even now, if she would.  Such a glorious return for
+all my bitter losses and outcast condition, that I should--but it
+is useless to think of such things, in my low state.  The fates
+have been hard with me, but never shall they boast that they drove
+me from my pure sense of honour.  Oh yes, it is damp.  But let me
+cure it thus."
+
+For Dolly, growing anxious about his meaning, yet ready to think
+about another proposal, was desirous to sit down on the sweet ledge
+of grass, yet uneasy about her pale blue sarsenet, and uncertain
+that she had not seen something of a little sea-snail (living in a
+yellow house, dadoed with red), whom to crush would be a cruel act
+to her dainty fabric.  But if he was there, he was sat upon
+unavenged; for Carne, pulling off his light buff cloak, flung it on
+the seat; after which the young lady could scarcely be rude enough
+not to sit.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry now!  Perhaps it will be spoiled," she said;
+"for you say that the fates are against you always.  And I am sure
+that they always combine against me, when I wear anything of that
+colour."
+
+"I am going the wrong way to work," thought Carne.  "What a little
+vixen it is; but what a beauty!"  For his love for her was chiefly
+a man's admiration.  And bodily she looked worthy now of all that
+could be done in that way, with the light flowing in through the
+budded arch and flashing upon the sweet flush of her cheeks.  Carne
+gazed at her without a word or thought, simply admiring, as he
+never had admired anything, except himself, till now.  Then she
+felt all the meaning of his gaze, and turned away.
+
+"But you must look at me and tell me something," he said, in a low
+voice, and taking both her hands; "you shall tell me what my fate
+must be.  Whether you can ever come to love me, as I have loved
+you, long and long."
+
+"You have no right to speak to me like that," she answered, still
+avoiding his eyes, and striving to show proper anger; "no gentleman
+would think of taking advantage of a lady so."
+
+"I care not what is right or wrong.  Look up, and tell me that you
+hate me.  Dolly, I suppose you do."
+
+"Then you are quite wrong"--she gave him one bright glance of
+contradiction; "no.  I have always been so sorry for you, and for
+all your troubles.  You must not ask me to say more."
+
+"But I must; I must.  That is the very thing that I must do.  Only
+say that you love me, Dolly.  Dolly darling, tell me that.  Or let
+your lovely eyes say it for you."
+
+"My lovely eyes must not tell stories"--they were gazing softly at
+him now--"and I don't think I can say it--yet."
+
+"But you will--you shall!" he exclaimed, with passion growing as he
+drew her near; "you shall not slip from me, you shall not stir,
+until you have answered me one question--is there anybody else, my
+Dolly?"
+
+"You frighten me.  You forget who I am.  Of course there are a
+great many else, as you call it; and I am not to be called, for a
+moment, YOUR DOLLY."
+
+"No, not for a moment, but forever."  Carne was accustomed to the
+ways of girls, and read all their words by the light of their eyes.
+"Your little heart begins to know who loves it better than all the
+world put together.  And for that reason I will leave you now.
+Farewell, my darling; I conquer myself, for the sake of what is
+worth a thousand of it."
+
+Dolly was in very sad confusion, and scarcely knew what she might
+do next--that is to say, if he still went on.  Pleasant conceit and
+bright coquetry ill supply the place of honest pride and gentle
+self-respect, such as Faith was blest with.  Carne might have
+kissed Dolly a hundred times, without much resistance, for his
+stronger will had mastered hers; but she would have hated him
+afterwards.  He did not kiss her once; and she almost wished that
+he had offered one--one little tribute of affection (as the
+Valentines express it)--as soon as he was gone, and the crisis of
+not knowing what to do was past.  "I should have let him--I believe
+I should," she reflected, sagely recovering herself; "but how glad
+I ought to be that he didn't!  And I do hope he won't come back
+again.  The next time I meet him, I shall sink into the earth."
+
+For her hat had fallen off, and her hair was out of order, and she
+saw two crinkles near the buckle of her waist; and she had not so
+much as a looking-glass to be sure that she looked nice again.
+With a heavy sigh for all these woes, she gathered a flossy bud of
+willow, and fixed it on her breast-knot, to defy the world; and
+then, without heed of the sea, sun, or sands, went home with short
+breath, and quick blushes, and some wonder; for no man's arm,
+except her father's, had ever been round her waist till now.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+LITTLE AND GREAT PEOPLE
+
+
+If ever a wise man departed from wisdom, or a sober place from
+sobriety, the man was John Prater, and the place Springhaven,
+towards the middle of June, 1804.  There had been some sharp
+rumours of great things before; but the best people, having been
+misled so often, shook their heads without produce of their
+contents; until Captain Stubbard came out in his shirt sleeves one
+bright summer morning at half past nine, with a large printed paper
+in one hand and a slop basin full of hot paste in the other.  His
+second boy, George, in the absence of Bob (who was now drawing
+rations at Woolwich), followed, with a green baize apron on, and
+carrying a hearth-brush tied round with a string to keep the hair
+stiff.
+
+"Lay it on thick on the shutter, my son.  Never mind about any
+other notices, except the one about young men wanted.  No hurry;
+keep your elbow up; only don't dab my breeches, nor the shirt you
+had on Sunday."
+
+By this time there were half a dozen people waiting; for this
+shutter of Widow Shanks was now accepted as the central board and
+official panel of all public business and authorised intelligence.
+Not only because all Royal Proclamations, Offers of reward, and
+Issues of menace were posted on that shutter and the one beyond the
+window (which served as a postscript and glossary to it), but also
+inasmuch as the kind-hearted Captain, beginning now to understand
+the natives--which was not to be done pugnaciously, as he had first
+attempted it, neither by any show of interest in them (than which
+they detested nothing more), but by taking them coolly, as they
+took themselves, and gradually sliding, without any thought about
+it, into the wholesome contagion of their minds, and the divine
+gift of taking things easily--our Captain Stubbard may be fairly
+now declared to have made himself almost as good as a native, by
+the way in which he ministered to their content.
+
+For nothing delighted them more than to hear of great wonders going
+on in other places--of battles, plague, pestilence, famine, and
+fire; of people whose wives ran away with other people, or
+highwaymen stopping the coach of a bishop.  Being full of good-
+nature, they enjoyed these things, because of the fine sympathies
+called out to their own credit, and the sense of pious gratitude
+aroused towards Heaven, that they never permitted such things among
+them.  Perceiving this genial desire of theirs, the stout Captain
+of the Foxhill battery was kind enough to meet it with worthy
+subjects.  Receiving officially a London newspaper almost every
+other day, as soon as it had trodden the round of his friends, his
+regular practice was to cut out all the pieces of lofty public
+interest--the first-rate murders, the exploits of highwaymen, the
+episodes of high life, the gallant executions, the embezzlements of
+demagogues, in a word, whatever quiet people find a fond delight in
+ruminating--and these he pasted (sometimes upside down) upon his
+shutter.  Springhaven had a good deal of education, and enjoyed
+most of all what was hardest to read.
+
+But this great piece of news, that should smother all the rest,
+seemed now to take a terrible time in coming.  All the gaffers were
+waiting who had waited to see the result of Mr. Cheeseman's
+suicide, and their patience was less on this occasion.  At length
+the great Captain unfolded his broad sheet, but even then held it
+upside down for a minute.  It was below their dignity to do
+anything but grunt, put their specs on their noses, and lean chin
+upon staff.  They deserved to be rewarded, and so they were.
+
+For this grand poster, which overlapped the shutters, was a Royal
+Proclamation, all printed in red ink, announcing that His Majesty
+King George the 3rd would on the 25th of June then ensuing hold a
+grand review upon Shotbury Down of all the Volunteer forces and
+Reserve, mounted, footmen, or artillery, of the four counties
+forming the Southeast Division, to wit, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, and
+Hants.  Certain regiments of the line would be appointed to act
+with them; and officers in command were ordered to report at once,
+&c., &c.  God save the King.
+
+If Shotbury Down had been ten miles off, Springhaven would have
+thought very little of the matter; for no one would walk ten miles
+inland to see all the sojers that ever were shot, or even the "King
+and Queen, and their fifteen little ones."  Most of the little ones
+were very large now; but the village had seen them in a travelling
+show, and expected them to continue like it.  But Shotbury Down was
+only three miles inland; and the people (who thought nothing of
+twenty miles along the coast) resolved to face a league of perils
+of the solid earth, because if they only turned round upon their
+trudge, they could see where they lived from every corner of the
+road.  They always did all things with one accord; the fishing
+fleet all should stand still on the sand, and the houses should
+have to keep house for themselves.  That is to say, perhaps, all
+except one.
+
+"Do as you like," said Mrs. Tugwell to her husband; "nothing as you
+do makes much differ to me now.  If you feel you can be happy with
+them thousands of young men, and me without one left fit to lift a
+big crock, go your way, Zeb; but you don't catch me going, with the
+tears coming into my eyes every time I see a young man to remind me
+of Dan--though there won't be one there fit to stand at his side.
+And him perhaps fighting against his own King now!"
+
+"Whatever hath coom to Dannel is all along of your own fault, I
+tell 'e."  Captain Tugwell had scarcely enjoyed a long pipe since
+the night when he discharged his paternal duty, with so much
+vigour, and such sad results.  Not that he felt any qualms of
+conscience, though his heart was sometimes heavy, but because his
+good wife was a good wife no longer, in the important sphere of the
+pan, pot, and kettle, or even in listening to his adventures with
+the proper exclamations in the proper places.  And not only she,
+but all his children, from Timothy down to Solomon, instead of a
+pleasant chatter around him, and little attentions, and a smile to
+catch a smile, seemed now to shrink from him, and hold whispers in
+a corner, and watch him with timid eyes, and wonder how soon their
+own time would come to be lashed and turned away.  And as for the
+women, whether up or down the road--but as he would not admit, even
+to himself, that he cared twopence what they thought, it is useless
+to give voice to their opinions, which they did quite sufficiently.
+Zebedee Tugwell felt sure that he had done the right thing, and
+therefore admired himself, but would have enjoyed himself more if
+he had done the wrong one.
+
+"What fault of mine, or of his, poor lamb?" Mrs. Tugwell asked,
+with some irony.  She knew that her husband could never dare to go
+to see the King without her--for no married man in the place would
+venture to look at him twice if he did such a thing--and she had
+made up her own mind to go from the first; but still, he should
+humble himself before she did it.  "Was it I as colted him?  Or was
+it him as gashed himself, like the prophets of Baal, when 'a was
+gone hunting?"
+
+"No; but you cockered him up, the same as was done to they, by the
+wicked king, and his wife--the worst woman as ever lived.  If they
+hadn't gashed theirselves, I reckon, the true man of God would 'a
+done it for them, the same as he cut their throats into the brook
+Kishon.  Solomon was the wisest man as ever lived, and Job the most
+patient--the same as I be--and Elijah, the Tishbite, the most
+justest."
+
+"You better finish up with all the Psalms of David, and the Holy
+Children, and the Burial Service.  No more call for Parson Twemlow,
+or the new Churchwarden come in place of Cheeseman, because 'a
+tried to hang his self.  Zebedee Tugwell in the pulpit!  Zebedee,
+come round with the plate!  Parson Tugwell, if you please, a-
+reading out the ten commandments!  But 'un ought to leave out the
+sixth, for fear of spoiling 's own dinner afterwards; and the
+seventh, if 'a hopes to go to see King George the third, with
+another man's woman to his elbow!"
+
+"When you begins to go on like that," Captain Tugwell replied, with
+some dignity, "the only thing as a quiet man can do is to go out of
+houze, and have a half-pint of small ale."  He put his hat on his
+head and went to do it.
+
+Notwithstanding all this and much more, when the great day came for
+the Grand Review, very few people saw more of the King, or entered
+more kindly into all his thoughts--or rather the thoughts that they
+made him think--than Zebedee Tugwell and his wife Kezia.  The place
+being so near home, and the smoke of their own chimneys and masts
+of their smack as good as in sight--if you knew where to look--it
+was natural for them to regard the King as a stranger requiring to
+be taught about their place.  This sense of proprietary right is
+strong in dogs and birds and cows and rabbits, and everything that
+acts by nature's laws.  When a dog sits in front of his kennel,
+fast chained, every stranger dog that comes in at the gate
+confesses that the premises are his, and all the treasures they
+contain; and if he hunts about--which he is like enough to do,
+unless full of self-respect and fresh victuals--for any bones
+invested in the earth to ripen, by the vested owner, he does it
+with a low tail and many pricks of conscience, perhaps hoping in
+his heart that he may discover nothing to tempt him into breach of
+self-respect.  But now men are ordered, in this matter, to be of
+lower principle than their dogs.
+
+King George the third, who hated pomp and show, and had in his
+blood the old German sense of patriarchal kingship, would have
+enjoyed a good talk with Zebedee and his wife Kezia, if he had met
+them on the downs alone; but, alas, he was surrounded with great
+people, and obliged to restrict himself to the upper order, with
+whom he had less sympathy.  Zebedee, perceiving this, made all
+allowance for him, and bought a new Sunday hat the very next day,
+for fear of wearing out the one he had taken off to His Majesty,
+when His Majesty looked at him, and Her Majesty as well, and they
+manifestly said to one another, what a very fine subject they had
+found.  Such was loyalty--aye, and royalty--in those times that we
+despise.
+
+But larger events demand our heed.  There were forty thousand
+gallant fellows, from the age of fifteen upwards, doing their best
+to look like soldiers, and some almost succeeding.  True it is that
+their legs and arms were not all of one pattern, nor their hats put
+on their heads alike--any more than the heads on their shoulders
+were--neither did they swing together, as they would have done to a
+good swathe of grass; but for all that, and making due allowance
+for the necessity they were under of staring incessantly at the
+King, any man who understood them would have praised them
+wonderfully.  And they went about in such wide formation, and
+occupied so much of their native land, that the best-drilled
+regiment Napoleon possessed would have looked quite small among
+them.
+
+"They understand furze," said a fine young officer of the staff,
+who had ridden up to Admiral Darling's carriage and saluted three
+ladies who kept watch there.  "I doubt whether many of the Regular
+forces would have got through that brake half so well; certainly
+not without double gaiters.  If the French ever land, we must
+endeavour to draw them into furzy ground, and then set the
+Volunteers at them.  No Frenchman can do much with prickles in his
+legs."
+
+Lady Scudamore smiled, for she was thinking of her son, who would
+have jumped over any furze-bush there--and the fir-trees too,
+according to her conviction; Dolly also showed her very beautiful
+teeth; but Faith looked at him gratefully.
+
+"It is very kind of you, Lord Dashville, to say the best of us that
+you can find to say.  But I fear that you are laughing to yourself.
+You know how well they mean; but you think they cannot do much."
+
+"No, that is not what I think at all.  So far as I can judge, which
+is not much, I believe that they would be of the greatest service,
+if the Country should unfortunately need them.  Man for man, they
+are as brave as trained troops, and many of them can shoot better.
+I don't mean to say that they are fit to meet a French army in the
+open; but for acting on their flanks, or rear, or in a wooded
+country--However, I have no right to venture an opinion, having
+never seen active service."
+
+Miss Darling looked at him with some surprise, and much approval of
+his modesty.  So strongly did most of the young officers who came
+to her father's house lay down the law, and criticise even
+Napoleon's tactics.
+
+"How beautiful Springhaven must be looking now!" he said, after
+Dolly had offered her opinion, which she seldom long withheld.
+"The cottages must be quite covered with roses, whenever they are
+not too near the sea; and the trees at their best, full of leaves
+and blossoms, by the side of the brook that feeds them.  All the
+rest of the coast is so hard and barren, and covered with chalk
+instead of grass, and the shore so straight and staring.  But I
+have never been there at this time of year.  How much you must
+enjoy it!  Surely we ought to be able to see it, from this high
+ground somewhere."
+
+"Yes, if you will ride to that shattered tree," said Faith, "you
+will have a very fine view of all the valley.  You can see round
+the corner of Foxhill there, which shuts out most of it just here.
+I think you have met our Captain Stubbard."
+
+"Ah, I must not go now; I may be wanted at any moment"--Lord
+Dashville had very fine taste, but it was not the inanimate
+beauties of Springhaven that he cared a dash for--"and I fear that
+I could never see the roses there.  I think there is nothing in all
+nature to compare with a rose--except one thing."
+
+Faith had a lovely moss-rose in her hat--a rose just peeping
+through its lattice at mankind, before it should open and blush at
+them--and she knew what it was that he admired more than the
+sweetest rose that ever gemmed itself with dew.  Lord Dashville had
+loved her, as she was frightened to remember, for more than a year,
+because he could not help it, being a young man of great common-
+sense, as well as fine taste, and some knowledge of the world.  "He
+knows to which side his bread will be buttered," Mr. Swipes had
+remarked, as a keen observer.  "If 'a can only get Miss Faith, his
+bread 'll be buttered to both sides for life--his self to one side,
+and her to do the tother.  The same as I told Mother Cloam--a man
+that knoweth his duty to head gardeners, as his noble lordship
+doth, the same know the differ atwixt Miss Faith--as fine a young
+'ooman as ever looked into a pink--and that blow-away froth of a
+thing, Miss Dolly."
+
+This fine young woman, to use the words of Mr. Swipes, coloured
+softly, at his noble lordship's gaze, to the tint of the rose-bud
+in her hat; and then spoke coldly to countervail her blush.
+
+"There is evidently something to be done directly.  All the people
+are moving towards the middle of the down.  We must not be so
+selfish as to keep you here, Lord Dashville."
+
+"Why, don't you see what it is?" exclaimed Miss Dolly, hotly
+resenting the part of second fiddle; "they are going to have the
+grand march-past.  These affairs always conclude with that.  And we
+are in the worst part of the whole down for seeing it.  Lord
+Dashville will tell us where we ought to go."
+
+"You had better not attempt to move now," he answered, smiling as
+he always smiled at Dolly, as if she were a charming but impatient
+child; "you might cause some confusion, and perhaps see nothing.
+And now I must discharge my commission, which I am quite ashamed of
+having left so long.  His Majesty hopes, when the march-past is
+over, to receive a march-up of fair ladies.  He has a most
+wonderful memory, as you know, and his nature is the kindest of the
+kind.  As soon as he heard that Lady Scudamore was here, and
+Admiral Darling's daughters with her, he said:  'Bring them all to
+me, every one of them; young Scudamore has done good work, good
+work.  And I want to congratulate his mother about him.  And
+Darling's daughters, I must see them.  Why, we owe the security of
+the coast to him.'  And so, if you please, ladies, be quite ready,
+and allow me the honour of conducting you."
+
+With a low bow, he set off about his business, leaving the ladies
+in a state of sweet disturbance.  Blyth Scudamore's mother wept a
+little, for ancient troubles and present pleasure.  Lord Dashville
+could not repeat before her all that the blunt old King had said:
+"Monstrous ill-treated woman, shameful, left without a penny, after
+all her poor husband did for me and the children!  Not my fault a
+bit--fault of the Whigs--always stingy--said he made away with
+himself--bad example--don't believe a word of it; very cheerful
+man.  Blown by now, at any rate--must see what can be done for her--
+obliged to go for governess--disgrace to the Crown!"
+
+Faith, with her quiet self-respect, and the largeness learned from
+sorrow, was almost capable of not weeping that she had left at home
+her apple-green Poland mantlet and jockey bonnet of lilac satin
+checked with maroon.  But Dolly had no such weight of by-gone
+sorrow to balance her present woe, and the things she had left at
+home were infinitely brighter than that dowdy Faith's.
+
+"Is there time to drive back?  Is there time to drive home?  The
+King knows father, and he will be astonished to see a pair of
+frumps, and he won't understand one bit about the dust, or the sun
+that takes the colour out.  He will think we have got all our best
+things on.  Oh, Lady Scudamore, how could you do it?  You told us
+to put on quite plain things, because of the dust, and the sun, and
+all that; and it might come to rain, you said--as if it was likely,
+when the King was on the hill!  And with all your experience of the
+King and Queen, that you told us about last evening, you must have
+known that they would send for us.  Gregory, how long would it take
+you to go home, at full gallop, allow us half an hour in the house,
+and be back here again, when all these people are gone by?"
+
+"Well, miss, there be a steepish bit of road, and a many ockard
+cornders; I should say 'a might do it in two hours and a half, with
+a fresh pair of nags put in while you ladies be a-cleaning of
+yourselves, miss.  Leastways, if Hadmiral not object."
+
+"Hadmiral, as you call him, would have nothing to do with it"--
+Dolly was always free-spoken with the servants, which made her very
+popular with some of them--"he has heavier duty than he can
+discharge.  But two hours and a half is hopeless; we must even go
+as we are."
+
+Coachman Gregory smiled in his sleeve.  He knew that the Admiral
+had that day a duty far beyond his powers--to bring up his Sea-
+Fencibles to see the King--upon which they had insisted--and then
+to fetch them all back again, and send them on board of their
+several craft in a state of strict sobriety.  And Gregory meant to
+bear a hand, and lift it pretty frequently towards the most loyal
+part of man, in the large festivities of that night.  He smacked
+his lips at the thought of this, and gave a little flick to his
+horses.
+
+After a long time, long enough for two fair drives to Springhaven
+and back, and when even the youngest were growing weary of glare,
+and dust, and clank, and din, and blare, and roar, and screeching
+music, Lord Dashville rode up through a cloud of roving chalk, and
+after a little talk with the ladies, ordered the coachman to follow
+him.  Then stopping the carriage at a proper distance, he led the
+three ladies towards the King, who was thoroughly tired, and had
+forgotten all about them.  His Majesty's sole desire was to get
+into his carriage and go to sleep; for he was threescore years and
+six of age, and his health not such as it used to be.  Ever since
+twelve o'clock he had been sitting in a box made of feather-edged
+boards, which the newspapers called a pavilion, having two little
+curtains (both of which stuck fast) for his only defence against
+sun, noise, and dust.  Moreover, his seat was a board full of
+knots, with a strip of thin velvet thrown over it; and Her Majesty
+sitting towards the other end (that the public might see between
+them), and weighing more than he did, every time she jumped up, he
+went down, and every time she plumped down, he went up.  But he
+never complained, and only slowly got tired.  "Thank God!" he said,
+gently, "it's all over now.  My dear, you must be monstrous tired;
+and scarcely a bit to eat all day.  But I locked some in the seat-
+box this morning--no trusting anybody but oneself.  Let us get into
+the coach and have at them."  "Ja, ja, meinherr," said the Queen.
+
+"If it please your Majesties"--a clear voice entered between the
+bonnet-hoods of the curtains--"here are the ladies whose attendance
+I was ordered to require."
+
+"Ladies!--what ladies?" asked King George, rubbing his eyes, and
+yawning.  "Oh yes, to be sure!  I mustn't get up so early to-
+morrow.  Won't take a minute, my dear.  Let them come.  Not much
+time to spare."
+
+But as soon as he saw Lady Scudamore, the King's good-nature
+overcame the weariness of the moment.  He took her kindly by the
+hand, and looked at her face, which bore the mark of many heavy
+trials; and she, who had often seen him when the world was bright
+before her, could not smother one low sob, as she thought of all
+that had been since.
+
+"Don't cry, don't cry, my dear," said the King, with his kind heart
+showing in his eyes; "we must bow to the will of the Lord, who
+gives sad trials to every one of us.  We must think of the good,
+and not the evil.  Bless me, keep your spirits up.  Your son is
+doing very well indeed, very well indeed, from all I hear.  Good
+chip of the old block, very good chip.  Will cure my grandchildren,
+as soon as they want it; and nobody is ever in good health now."
+
+"No, your Majesty, if you please, my son is in the Royal Navy,
+fighting for his Country and his King.  And he has already
+captured--"
+
+"Three French frigates.  To be sure, I know.  Better than curing
+three hundred people.  Fine young officer--very fine young officer.
+Must come to see me when he gets older.  There, you are laughing!
+That's as it should be.  Goodbye, young ladies.  Forty miles to go
+tonight, and very rough roads--very rough indeed.  Monstrous pretty
+girls!  Uncommon glad that George wasn't here to see them.  Better
+stay in the country--too good for London.  Must be off; sha'n't
+have a bit o' sleep to-night, because of sleeping the whole way
+there, and then sure to be late in the morning, not a bit of
+breakfast till eight o'clock, and all the day thrown upside down!
+Darlings, Darlings--the right name for them!  But they mustn't come
+to London.  No.  no, no.  Too much wickedness there already.  Very
+glad George wasn't here to-day!"
+
+His Majesty was talking, as he always did, with the firm conviction
+that his words intended for the public ear would reach it, while
+those addressed, without change of tone, to himself, would be
+strictly private.  But instead of offending any one, this on the
+whole gave great satisfaction, and impressed nine people out of ten
+with a strong and special regard for him, because almost every one
+supposed himself to be admitted at first sight to the inner
+confidence of the King.  And to what could he attribute this?  He
+would do his own merits great demerit unless he attributed it to
+them, and to the King an unusual share of sagacity in perceiving
+them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV
+
+DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN
+
+
+That grand review at Shotbury was declared by all who took part in
+it, or at all understood the subject, to have been a most
+remarkable and quite unparalleled success.  Not only did it show
+what noble stuff there is in Englishmen, and how naturally they
+take to arms, but also it inspired with martial feeling and happy
+faith the wives and mothers of all the gallant warriors there.  It
+would make the blood-stained despot cower upon his throne of
+murder, and teach him the madness of invading any land so
+fortified.
+
+However, Napoleon failed to see the matter in that wholesome light,
+and smiled a grim and unkind smile as he read Caryl Carne's report
+of those "left-handed and uncouth manoeuvres."  "One of your
+Majesty's feeblest regiments would send the whole of those louts to
+the devil; and I am bound to impress once more, with all deference
+to your infallible judgment, the vast importance of carrying out
+your grand designs at the first moment.  All is prepared on my
+part.  One day's notice is all I need."
+
+So wrote Carne; and perhaps the truth, as usual, lay about half-way
+between the two opinions.  Even Carne was not admitted to a perfect
+knowledge of his master's schemes.  But to keep things moving and
+men alert, the Emperor came to the coast at once, busy as he was in
+Paris, and occupied for several weeks, with short intervals of
+absence, the house prepared for him near Boulogne, whence he
+watched and quickened the ripening of his mighty plans against us.
+
+Now Carne himself, while working with new vigour and fresh
+enterprise, had a narrow escape from invasion.  Captain Stubbard,
+stirred up now and again by Mr. Twemlow, had thoroughly searched
+all covered places, likely to harbour gunpowder, within at least
+six miles of his fort, that is to say, all likely places, save and
+except the right one.  By doing this he had done for himself--as
+regards sweet hospitality--among all the leading farmers,
+maltsters, tanners, and millers for miles around.  Even those whose
+premises were not entered, as if they had been Frenchmen, had a
+brother-in-law, or at least a cousin, whose wooden bars had been
+knocked up.  And the most atrocious thing of all, if there could be
+anything worse than worst, was that the Captain dined one day, at a
+market-ordinary, with Farmer, or you might say Squire Hanger--for
+the best part of his land followed to him from his father--and had
+rum and water with him, and spoke his health, and tucked Mrs.
+Hanger up into the shay, and rode alongside to guarantee them; and
+then the next day, on the very same horse, up he comes at Hanger-
+dene, and overhauls every tub on the premises, with a parchment as
+big as a malt-shovel!  Such a man was not fit to lay a knife and
+fork by.
+
+Some sense of the harm he had done to himself, without a bit of
+good to any one, dwelt heavily in the Captain's mind, as he rode up
+slowly upon the most amiable of the battery-horses--for all sailors
+can ride, from long practice on the waves--and struck a stern
+stroke, with a stick like a linstock, upon the old shutter that
+served for a door and the front entrance to Carne Castle.  There
+used to be a fine old piece of workmanship in solid and bold oak
+here, a door divided in the middle--else no man might swing it
+back--and even so pierced with a wicket, for small people to get
+through.  That mighty door was not worn out, for it was not three
+hundred years old yet, and therefore scarcely in middle life; but
+the mortgagees who had sacked the place of all that was worth a
+sack to hold it, these had a very fine offer for that door, from a
+rich man come out of a dust-bin.  And this was one of the many
+little things that made Caryl Carne unpleasant.
+
+"I do not require production of your warrant.  The whole place is
+open to your inspection," said Carne, who had long been prepared
+for this visit; "open to all the winds and rains, and the lower
+part sometimes filled with water.  The upper rooms, or rather the
+few that remain of them, are scarcely safe for a person of any
+weight to walk in, but you are most welcome to try them, if you
+like; and this gentleman, I think, might not fall through.  Here
+are my quarters; not quite so snug as my little room at the
+widow's; but I can offer you some bread and cheese, and a glass of
+country cider.  The vaults or cellars have held good wine in their
+time, but only empty casks and broken bottles now."
+
+Captain Stubbard had known for many years the silent woes of
+poverty, and now he observed with some good-will the young man's
+sad but haughty smile.  Then he ordered his young subaltern, his
+battery-mate, as he called him, to ascend the broad crumbling
+staircase, and glance into the dismantled chambers, while himself
+with the third of the party--a trusty old gunner--should inspect
+the cellarage.
+
+"We will not keep you long, sir," he said to Carne; "and if you are
+kind enough to show us the way, which is easily lost in a place of
+this kind, we shall be all the quicker.  Wilkins, when you have
+done up there, wait here for us.  Shall we want a light, sir?"
+
+"In the winter, you could hardly do without one, but at this time
+of year, I think you may.  At any rate I will bring a lantern, and
+we can light it if wanted.  But the truth is that I know next to
+nothing of those sepulchral places.  They would not be very
+tempting, even without a ghost, which they are said to have."
+
+"A ghost!" cried the Captain; "I don't like that.  Not that I have
+much faith in them; although one never can be sure.  But at this
+time of day--What is it like?"
+
+"I have never seen her, and am quite content without it.  It is
+said to be an ancestress of mine, a Lady Cordelia Carne, who was
+murdered, when her husband was away, and buried down there, after
+being thrown into the moat.  The old people say that whenever her
+ghost is walking, the water of the moat bursts in and covers the
+floor of the vaults, that she may flit along it, as she used to do.
+But of course one must not listen to that sort of fable."
+
+"Perhaps you will go in front, sir, because you know the way.  It
+is my duty to inspect these places; and I am devilish sorry for it;
+but my duty must be done."
+
+"You shall see every hole and corner, including the stone that was
+put up to commemorate her murder and keep her quiet.  But I should
+explain that these vaults extend for the entire length of the
+building, except just in the middle, where we now stand.  For a few
+yards the centre of the building seems to have never been
+excavated, as to which you will convince yourself.  You may call
+the cellars east and west, or right and left, or north and south,
+or uphill and downhill, or anything else, for really they are so
+much alike, and partitioned into cells so much alike, that I
+scarcely know which is which myself, coming suddenly from the
+daylight.  But you understand those things much better.  A sailor
+always knows his bearings.  This leads to the entrance of one set."
+
+Carne led the Captain and old Gunner Bob--as he was called in the
+battery--along a dark and narrow passage, whose mouth was browed
+with ivy.  Half-way through, they found an archway on the right-
+hand side, opening at right angles into long and badly lighted
+vaults.  In this arch there was no door; but a black step-ladder
+(made of oak, no doubt), very steep and rather rickety, was planted
+to tempt any venturesome foot.
+
+"Are you sure this ladder is safe?"--the Captain was by no means in
+love with the look of it.  "My weight has increased remarkably in
+the fine air of Springhaven.  If the bottom is rotten, the top
+won't help us."
+
+"Let me go first.  It is my duty, as the owner; and I have no
+family dependent on me.  My neck is of no value, compared to yours,
+Captain."
+
+"How I have mistaken this young man!" thought the brave yet prudent
+Stubbard.  "I called him a Frenchified fool, whereas he is a
+downright Englishman!  I shall ask him to dinner next week, if
+Jemima can get a new leg for the dripping-pan."
+
+Following warily, with Gunner Bob behind him, and not disdaining
+the strong arm of the owner, the Captain of Foxhill was landed in
+the vault, and being there, made a strict examination.  He even
+poked his short sword into the bung-holes of three or four empty
+barrels, that Bob might be satisfied also in his conscience.
+"Matter of form," he said, "matter of form, sir, when we know who
+people are; but you might have to do it yourself, sir, if you were
+in the service of your King.  You ought to be that, Mr. Carne; and
+it is not too late, in such days as these are, to begin.  Take my
+advice--such a fine young man!"
+
+"Alas, my dear sir, I cannot afford it.  What officer can live upon
+his pay for a generation?"
+
+"Gospel truth!" cried the Captain, warmly; "Gospel truth! and more
+than that--he must be the last of his generation, or else send his
+young 'uns to the workhouse.  What things I could tell you, Mr.
+Carne!  But here we are at the end of the vaults; all empty, as I
+can certify; and I hope, my dear sir, that you may live to see them
+filled with good wine, as they used to be."
+
+"Thank you, but there is no hope of that.  Shall we take the vaults
+of the other end next, or examine the chapel, and the outer
+buildings--outer ruins, I should say?"
+
+"Oh, a little open air first, for goodness sake!" said the Captain,
+going heavily up the old steps; "I am pretty nearly choked with all
+this mildew.  A little fresh air, before we undertake the other
+lot."
+
+As soon as the echo of their steps was dead, Charron, old Jerry,
+and another man jumped down from a loop-hole into the vault they
+had left, piled up a hoarding at the entrance, and with a crowbar
+swung back a heavy oak hatch in the footings of the outer wall.  A
+volume of water poured in from the moat, or rather from the stream
+which had once supplied it.  Seeing this, they disappeared with a
+soft and pleasant chuckle.
+
+The owner kept Stubbard such a time among the ruins, telling him
+some fine old legends, and otherwise leading him in and out, that
+when a bit of food and a glass of old Cognac was proposed by way of
+interlude, the Captain heartily embraced the offer.  Then Carne
+conducted his three visitors, for Wilkins had now rejoined them,
+into a low room poorly furnished, and regaled them beyond his
+promise.  "Rare stuff!" exclaimed Stubbard, with a wink at Carne.
+"Ah, I see that free-trade still exists.  No concern of mine,
+except to enjoy its benefits.  Here's to your very good health,
+sir, and I am proud to have made your acquaintance."
+
+"Have another drop; it can hurt no one," Carne declared, and the
+Captain acquiesced.
+
+"Well, I suppose we must finish our job," the official visitor at
+length pronounced; "a matter of form, sir, and no offence; but we
+are bound to carry out our duty.  There is nothing left, except the
+other lot of vaults; but the light begins to fail us, for
+underground work.  I hope they are not so dark as those we have
+been through."
+
+"Just about the same.  You would hardly know one set from the
+other, as I told you, except for the stone that records the murder.
+Perhaps we had better light the lantern now?"
+
+"By all means.  I don't half like that story of the lady that walks
+on the water.  It does seem so gashly and unchristian altogether.
+Not that I have any fear of ghosts--not likely, for I have never
+even seen one."
+
+"I have," said Gunner Bob, in a deep voice, which made them all
+glance through the ivy.  "I have, and a fearful one it were."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Bob," the Captain whispered; "we don't want to
+hear about that now.  Allow me to carry the lantern, Mr. Carne; it
+throws such shadows from the way you hold it.  Why, surely, this is
+where we were before!"
+
+"You might easily fancy so," Carne answered, smiling, "especially
+with a mind at all excited--"
+
+"My mind is not excited, sir; not at all excited; but as calm as it
+ever was in all its life."
+
+"Then two things will show you that these are the other vaults.
+The arch is on your left hand, instead of on your right"--he had
+brought them in now from the other end of the passage--"and this
+entrance, as you see, has a door in it, which the other had not.
+Perhaps the door is to keep the ghost in"--his laugh sounded
+hollow, and like a mocking challenge along the dark roof--"for this
+is the part she is supposed to walk in.  But so much for the door!
+The money-lenders have not left us a door that will stand a good
+kick.  You may find our old doors in Wardour Street."
+
+As he spoke, he set foot against the makeshift door, and away it
+went, as he had predicted.  Crashing on the steps as it fell, it
+turned over, and a great splash arose at the bottom.
+
+"Why, bless my heart, there is a flood of water there!" cried
+Stubbard, peeping timidly down the steps, on which (if the light
+had been clear, and that of his mind in the same condition) he
+might have seen the marks of his own boots.  "A flood of water,
+perhaps six feet deep!  I could scarcely have believed, but for
+that and the door, that these were not the very vaults that we have
+examined.  But what business has the water there?"
+
+"No business at all, any more than we have," Carne answered, with
+some rudeness, for it did not suit him to encourage too warmly the
+friendship of Captain Stubbard; "but I told you that the place
+becomes covered with water whenever the ghost intends to walk.
+Probably there is not more than a foot of water"--there was in fact
+about three inches--"and as you are bound to carry out your duty--"
+
+"My dear sir, I am satisfied, perfectly satisfied.  Who could keep
+gunpowder under water, or even in a flooded cellar?  I shall have
+the greatest pleasure in reporting that I searched Carne Castle--
+not of course suspiciously, but narrowly, as we are bound to do, in
+execution of our warrant--"
+
+"If you would not mind looking in this direction," whispered Carne,
+who could never be contented, "I think I could show you, just
+beyond the murder-stone--yes, and it seems to be coming towards us,
+as white as a winding-sheet; do come and look."
+
+"No, sir, no; it is not my duty"--the Captain turned away, with his
+hair upon the rise.  "I was sent here to look for saltpetre, not
+spectres.  No officer in His Majesty's service can be expected--
+Bob, and Wilkins, are you there?"
+
+"Yes, sir, yes--we have had quite enough of this; and unless you
+give the orders--"
+
+"Here she comes, I do declare!" whispered Carne, with extraordinary
+calmness.
+
+"Bob, and Wilkins, give me one arm each.  Make for daylight in
+close order.  You may be glad to see your grandmother, young man;
+but I decline to have anything to say to her.  Bob, and Wilkins,
+bear a hand; I feel a little shaky in my lower timbers.  Run for
+your lives, but don't leave me behind.  Run, lads, like the very
+devil!"  For a groan of sepulchral depth, and big enough to lift a
+granite tombstone, issued from the vault, and wailed along the
+sombre archway.  All the Artillerymen fled, as if the muzzle of
+their biggest gun was slewed upon them, and very soon the sound of
+horses' heels, urged at a perilous pace down the hill, rang back as
+the echo of that grand groan.
+
+"I think I did that pretty well, my Captain," cried Charron,
+ascending from the vault with dripping boots; "I deserve a glass of
+Cognac, if they have left me any.  Happy is Stoobar that he was
+contented, without breaking his neck at the inspector's step."
+
+"He has satisfied his conscience," Carne answered, grimly; "yet it
+cannot be blameless, to make him run so fast.  I am glad we have
+been saved from killing them.  It would have been hard to know what
+to do next.  But he will never trouble us here again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+FATHER, AND CHILD
+
+
+"Tell Miss Faith, when she comes in, that I shall be glad to see
+her," said Admiral Darling to his trusty butler, one hot afternoon
+in August.  He had just come home from a long rough ride, to spend
+at least one day in his own house, and after overhauling his
+correspondence, went into the dining-room, as the coolest in the
+house, to refresh himself a little with a glass of light wine
+before going up to dress for dinner.  There he sat in an arm-chair,
+and looked at his hands, which were browned by the sun, and
+trembling from a long period of heavy work and light sleep.  He was
+getting too old to endure it with impunity, yet angry with himself
+for showing it.  But he was not thinking of himself alone.
+
+"I hope she will be sensible"--he was talking to himself, as
+elderly people are apt to do, especially after being left to
+themselves; "I hope she will see the folly of it--of living all her
+life as the bride of a ghost; and herself such a beautiful,
+cheerful darling!  Loving, warm-hearted, sweet-tempered, adoring
+children, and adored by them; obedient, gentle--I can't think of
+anything good that she hasn't got, except common-sense.  And even
+for that, I like her all the more; because it is so different from
+all the other girls.  They have got too much--one lover out of
+sight, even for a month or two, gone fighting for his Country, what
+do they do but take up with another, as I very greatly fear our
+Dolly would?  But Faith--Why, my darling, how well you look!"
+
+"How I wish that I could say the same of you, dear father!" said
+the lovely young woman, while kissing him, and smoothing with her
+soft hand his wrinkled forehead; "you never used to have these
+little tucks and gathers here.  I would rather almost that the
+French should come and devour us all, than see my father, whenever
+we do see him, once in a month, say, gauffred like this--as their
+laundresses do it--and getting reduced to the Classical shape, so
+that I can put one arm round him."
+
+"My darling," said the Admiral, though proud at heart of the
+considerable reduction of his stomach, "you should not say such
+things to me, to remind me how very old I am!"
+
+Fathers are crafty, and daughters childish, as behoves the both of
+them.  The Admiral knew, as well as if he had ordered it, what
+Faith would do.  And she must have perceived his depth, if only she
+had taken a moment to think of it.  Because when she plumped, like
+a child, into his arms, how came his arms to be so wide open? and
+when two great tears rolled down her cheeks, how sprang his
+handkerchief so impromptu out from beneath his braided lappet?
+
+"Tell me what harm I have done," she asked, with a bright smile
+dawning through the dew of her dark eyes; "what have I done to vex
+you, father, that you say things fit to make me cry?  And yet I
+ought to laugh, because I know so well that you are only fishing
+for compliments.  You are getting so active that I shall be
+frightened to go for a walk or a ride with you.  Only I do love to
+see you look fat, and your darling forehead smooth and white."
+
+"My dear child, I must get up my substance.  This very day I begin
+in earnest.  Because I am to be a great man, Faith.  How would you
+like to have to call me 'Sir Charles'?"
+
+"Not at all, darling; except when you deserve it, by being cross to
+me; and that never, never happens.  I wish there was more chance of
+it."
+
+"Well, dear, if you won't, the other people must; for His Majesty
+has been graciously pleased to turn me into a Baronet.  He says
+that I have earned it; and perhaps I have; at any rate, he put it
+so nicely that without being churlish I could not refuse.  And it
+will be a good thing for Frank, I hope, by bringing him back from
+his democratic stuff.  To myself it is useless; but my children
+ought to like it."
+
+"And so they will, father, for your own dear sake.  Let me be the
+first to salute you, father.  Oh, Dolly will be in such a rage
+because you told me, without telling her!"
+
+"I never thought of that," said the Admiral, simply; "I am afraid
+that I shall get in for it.  However, I have a right to please
+myself, and you need not tell her until I do.  But that is not all
+my news, and not by any means the best of it.  The King was
+reminded, the other day, of all that he and his family owe to the
+late Sir Edmond Scudamore, and better late than never, he has
+ordered your governess, as he called her, to be put on the list for
+a pension of 300 pounds a year.  Nothing that once gets into his
+head can ever be got out of it, and he was shocked at seeing his
+old physician's widow 'gone out as a governess--gone out as a
+governess--great disgrace to the royal family!'  I am very glad
+that it happened so."
+
+"And so am I.  She ought to have had it long and long ago,
+especially after the sad misfortune of her husband.  You will let
+me tell her?  It will be such a pleasure."
+
+"Certainly, my dear; you are the very one to do it.  Tell her that
+her eldest pupil is come with a little piece of news for her; it
+will make her smile--she has a very pretty smile, which reminds me
+of the gallant Blyth.  And now, my child, the third piece of news
+concerns yourself--your good, and dutiful, and exceedingly sensible
+self.  Ahem!" cried the Admiral, as he always did, when he feared
+that he might have overstepped the truth.
+
+"I know what it is; you need not tell me," Faith answered,
+confirming her fear at once.  "It is no use, father; it is no good
+at all--unless you intend to forget your own promise."
+
+"That I shall never do," he replied, while looking at her sadly;
+"no, my dear child, I shall never attempt to drive instead of lead
+you.  But you have not heard me out as yet.  You don't even know
+who it is I mean."
+
+"Oh yes, I do; I know well enough, father.  I am not like Dolly,
+universally admired.  Because I do not want to be.  You mean Lord
+Dashville--can you tell me that you don't?"
+
+"No, my dear"--Sir Charles was a little surprised that Faith should
+be so quick, for (like most people of gentle nature) she was taken
+to be slow, because she never snapped--"I cannot deny that it is
+Lord Dashville, because that is the man, and no other.  But how you
+could tell surpasses me, and it shows that he must be very often in
+your mind:" the Admiral thought he had caught her there.  "Now can
+you say anything against him?  Is he not honest, manly, single-
+minded, faithful as yourself, I do believe, good-looking, well-
+bred, a Tory, and a gentleman, certain to make any woman happy whom
+he loves?  Can you say a syllable against all that?"
+
+"No," replied Faith--a very long, slow "no," as if she only wished
+she could say something hard about him.
+
+"Very well," her father went on, with triumph, "and can you deny
+that he is just the person you might have taken a great liking to--
+fallen in love with, as they call it--if only he had come before
+your mind was full of somebody else--a very fine young fellow, no
+doubt; but--my darling, I won't say a word against him, only you
+know what I mean too well.  And are you forever to be like a nun
+because it has pleased the Lord to take him from you?"
+
+"Lord Dashville has not advanced himself in my good opinion, if he
+cares for that," said Faith, starting sideways, as a woman always
+does, from the direct issue, "by going to you, when I declined to
+have anything more to say to him."
+
+"My dear, you are unjust," replied Sir Charles; "not purposely, I
+know, for you are the most upright darling that can be, in general.
+But you accuse young Dashville of what he never did.  It was his
+good mother, the Countess of Blankton, a most kind-hearted and
+lady-like person, without any nonsense about her, who gave me the
+best cup of tea I ever tasted, and spoke with the very best feeling
+possible.  She put it so sweetly that I only wish you could have
+been there to hear her."
+
+"Father, what is the good of it all?  You hate turncoats even worse
+than traitors.  Would you like your daughter to be one?  And when
+she would seem to have turned her coat--for the ladies wear coats
+now, the horrid ugly things!--for the sake of position, and title,
+and all that.  If Lord Dashville had been a poor man, with his own
+way to make in the world, a plain Mister, there might have been
+more to be said for it.  But to think that I should throw over my
+poor darling because he will come home without a penny, and perhaps
+tattoed, but at any rate turned black, for the sake of a coronet,
+and a heap of gold--oh, father, I shall break down, if you go on
+so!"
+
+"My dear girl, I will not say a word to vex you.  But you are
+famous for common-sense, as well as every other good quality, and I
+would ask you to employ just a little of it.  Can you bear me to
+speak of your trouble, darling?"
+
+"Oh yes, I am so well accustomed to it now; and I know that it is
+nothing compared to what thousands of people have to bear.
+Sometimes I am quite ashamed of giving way to it."
+
+"You do not give way to it, Faith.  No person can possibly say that
+of you.  You are my brave, unselfish, cheerful, sweet-natured,
+upright, and loving child.  Nobody knows, but you and I--and
+perhaps I know it even more than you do--the greatness of the self-
+command you use, to be pleasant and gay and agreeable, simply for
+the sake of those around you."
+
+"Then, father," cried Faith, who was surprised at this, for the
+Admiral had never said a word about such matters, "you think, after
+all, that I am--that I am almost as good as Dolly!"
+
+"You jealous little vixen, I shall recall every word I have said in
+your favour!  My child, and my pride, you are not only as good as
+Dolly, but my best hope is that when Dolly grows older she may be
+like you.  Don't cry, darling; I can't stand crying, when it comes
+from eyes that so seldom do it.  And now that you know what I think
+of you, allow me to think a little for you.  I have some right to
+interfere in your life; you will allow that--won't you?"
+
+"Father, you have all right, and a thousand times as much, because
+you are so gentle about using it."
+
+"I calls that bad English, as Zeb Tugwell says when he doesn't want
+to understand a thing.  But, my pretty dear, you must remember that
+you will not have a father always.  Who will look after you, when I
+am gone, except the Almighty?--and He does not do it, except for
+the few who look after themselves.  It is my duty to consider these
+points, and they override sentimentality.  To me it is nothing that
+Dashville will be an Earl, and a man of great influence, if he
+keeps up his present high character; but it is something to me that
+I find him modest, truthful, not led away by phantoms, a gentleman--
+which is more than a nobleman--and with his whole heart given to
+my dear child Faith."
+
+Faith sighed heavily, partly for herself, but mainly, perhaps, for
+the sake of a fine heart sadly thrown away on her.  "I believe he
+is all that," she said.
+
+"In that case, what more can you have?" pursued the triumphant
+Admiral.  "It is one of the clearest things I ever knew, and one of
+the most consistent"--consistent was a great word in those days--
+"as well as in every way desirable.  Consider, not yourself--which
+you never do--but the state of the Country, and of Dolly.  They
+have made me a baronet, for being away from home nearly every night
+of my life; and if I had Dashville to see to things here, I might
+stay away long enough to be a lord myself, like my late middy the
+present Duke of Bronte."
+
+Faith laughed heartily.  "You call me jealous!  My dear father, I
+know that you could have done a great deal more than Lord Nelson
+has, because he learned all that he knows from you.  And now who is
+it that really defends the whole south coast of England against the
+French?  Is it Lord Nelson?  He has as much as he can do to look
+after their fleet in the Mediterranean.  Admiral Cornwallis and Sir
+Charles Darling are the real defenders of England."
+
+"No, my dear, you must never say that, except of course in private.
+There may be some truth in it, but it would be laughed at in the
+present condition of the public mind.  History may do me justice;
+but after all it is immaterial.  A man who does his duty should be
+indifferent to the opinion of the public, which begins more and
+more to be formed less by fact than by the newspapers of the day.
+But let us return to more important matters.  You are now in a very
+sensible frame of mind.  You see what my wishes are about you, and
+how reasonable they are.  I should be so happy, my darling child,
+if you would consider them sensibly, and yield some little of your
+romantic views.  I would not ask you unless I were sure that this
+man loves you as you deserve, and in his own character deserves
+your love."
+
+"Then, father, will this content you, dear?  Unless I hear
+something of Erle Twemlow, to show that he is living, and still
+holds to me, in the course of another twelvemonth, Lord Dashville,
+or anybody else, may try--may try to take his place with me.  Only
+I must not be worried--I mean, I must not hear another word about
+it, until the time has quite expired."
+
+"It is a very poor concession, Faith.  Surely you might say half a
+year.  Consider, it is nearly three years now--"
+
+"No, papa, I should despise myself if I were so unjust to one so
+unlucky.  And I only go so much from my own wishes because you are
+such a dear and good father.  Not a bit of it for Lord Dashville's
+sake."
+
+"Well, my poor darling," the Admiral replied, for he saw that she
+was upon the brink of tears, and might hate Lord Dashville if
+further urged, "half a loaf is better than no bread.  If Dashville
+is worthy of your constant heart, he will stand this long trial of
+his constancy.  This is the tenth day of August, 1804.  I hope that
+the Lord may be pleased to spare me till the 10th of August, 1805.
+High time for them to come and lay the cloth.  I am as hungry as a
+hunter."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+CATAMARANS
+
+
+Napoleon had shown no proper dread of the valiant British
+volunteers, but kept his festival in August, and carried on his
+sea-side plans, as if there were no such fellows.  Not content with
+that, he even flouted our blockading fleet by coming out to look at
+them.  And if one of our frigates had shot straight, she might have
+saved millions of lives and billions of money, at the cost of one
+greatly bad life.  But the poor ship knew not her opportunity, or
+she would rather have gone to the bottom than waste it.
+
+Now the French made much of this affair, according to their nature;
+and histories of it, full of life and growth, ran swiftly along the
+shallow shore, and even to Paris, the navel of the earth.
+Frenchmen of letters--or rather of papers--declared that all
+England was smitten with dismay; and so she might have been, if she
+had heard of it.  But as our neighbours went home again, as soon as
+the water was six fathoms deep, few Englishmen knew that they had
+tried to smell a little of the sea-breeze, outside the smell of
+their inshore powder.  They were pleased to get ashore again, and
+talk it over, with vivid description of the things that did not
+happen.
+
+"Such scenes as these tended much to agitate England," writes a
+great French historian.  "The British Press, arrogant and
+calumnious, as the Press always is in a free country, railed much
+at Napoleon and his preparations; but railed as one who trembles at
+that which he would fain exhibit as the object of his laughter."
+It may have been so, but it is not to be seen in any serious
+journal of that time.  He seems to have confounded coarse
+caricaturists with refined and thoughtful journalists, even as, in
+the account of that inshore skirmish, he turns a gun-brig into a
+British frigate.  However, such matters are too large for us.
+
+It was resolved at any rate to try some sort of a hit at all these
+very gallant Frenchmen, moored under their own batteries, and
+making horse-marines of themselves, whenever Neptune, the father of
+the horse, permitted.  The jolly English tars, riding well upon the
+waves, sent many a broad grin through a spy-glass at Muncher Crappo
+tugging hard to get his nag into his gun-boat and then to get him
+out again, because his present set of shoes would not be worn out
+in England.  Every sailor loves a horse, regarding him as a boat on
+legs, and therefore knowing more about him than any landlubber may
+feign to know.
+
+But although they would have been loth to train a gun on the noble
+animal, who was duly kept beyond their range, all the British
+sailors longed to have a bout with the double tier of hostile craft
+moored off the shore within shelter of French batteries.  Every day
+they could reckon at least two hundred sail of every kind of rig
+invented since the time of Noah, but all prepared to destroy
+instead of succouring the godly.  It was truly grievous to see them
+there and not be able to get at them, for no ship of the line or
+even frigate could get near enough to tackle them.  Then the
+British Admiral, Lord Keith, resolved after much consultation to
+try what could be done with fire-ships.
+
+Blyth Scudamore, now in command of the Blonde, had done much
+excellent service, in cutting off stragglers from the French
+flotilla, and driving ashore near Vimereux some prames and luggers
+coming from Ostend.  He began to know the French coast and the run
+of the shoals like a native pilot; for the post of the Blonde, and
+some other light ships, was between the blockading fleet and the
+blockaded, where perpetual vigilance was needed.  This sharp
+service was the very thing required to improve his character, to
+stamp it with decision and self-reliance, and to burnish his quiet,
+contemplative vein with the very frequent friction of the tricks of
+mankind.  These he now was strictly bound not to study, but
+anticipate, taking it as first postulate that every one would cheat
+him, if permitted.  To a scrimpy and screwy man, of the type most
+abundant, such a position would have done a deal of harm, shutting
+him up into his own shell harder, and flinting its muricated horns
+against the world.  But with the gentle Scuddy, as the boys at
+school had called him, the process of hardening was beneficial, as
+it is with pure gold, which cannot stand the wear and tear of the
+human race until it has been reduced by them at least to the mark
+of their twenty carats.
+
+And now it was a fine thing for Scudamore--even as a man too
+philanthropic was strengthened in his moral tone (as his wife found
+out) by being compelled to discharge the least pleasant of the
+duties of a county sheriff--or if not a fine thing, at least it was
+a wholesome and durable corrective to all excess of lenience, that
+duty to his country and mankind compelled the gentle Scuddy to
+conduct the western division of this night-attack.
+
+At this time there was in the public mind, which is quite of full
+feminine agility, a strong prejudice against the use of fire-ships.
+Red-hot cannon-balls, and shrapnel, langrage, chain-shot, and
+Greek-fire--these and the like were all fair warfare, and France
+might use them freely.  But England (which never is allowed to do,
+without hooting and execration, what every other country does with
+loud applause)--England must rather burn off her right hand than
+send a fire-ship against the ships full of fire for her houses, her
+cottages, and churches.  Lord Keith had the sense to laugh at all
+that stuff, but he had not the grand mechanical powers which have
+now enabled the human race, not to go, but to send one another to
+the stars.  A clumsy affair called a catamaran, the acephalous
+ancestor of the torpedo, was expected to relieve the sea of some
+thousands of people who had no business there.  This catamaran was
+a water-proof box about twenty feet long, and four feet wide,
+narrowed at the ends, like a coffin for a giant.  It was filled
+with gunpowder, and ballasted so that its lid, or deck, was almost
+awash; and near its stern was a box containing clock movements that
+would go for about ten minutes, upon the withdrawal of a peg
+outside, and then would draw a trigger and explode the charge.
+This wondrous creature had neither oar nor sail, but demanded to be
+towed to the tideward of the enemy, then have the death-watch set
+going, and be cast adrift within hail of the enemy's line.  Then as
+soon as it came across their mooring cables, its duty was to slide
+for a little way along them in a friendly manner, lay hold of them
+kindly with its long tail, which consisted of a series of
+grappling-hooks buoyed with cork, and then bringing up smartly
+alongside of the gun-boats, blow itself up, and carry them up with
+it.  How many there were of these catamarans is not quite certain,
+but perhaps about a score, the intention being to have ten times as
+many, on the next occasion, if these did well.  And no doubt they
+would have done well, if permitted; but they failed of their
+purpose, like the great Guy Fawkes, because they were prevented.
+
+For the French, by means of treacherous agents--of whom perhaps
+Caryl Carne was one, though his name does not appear in the
+despatches--knew all about this neat little scheme beforehand, and
+set their wits at work to defeat it.  Moreover, they knew that
+there were four fire-ships, one of which was the Peggy of
+Springhaven, intended to add to the consternation and destruction
+wrought by the catamarans.  But they did not know that, by some
+irony of fate, the least destructive and most gentle of mankind was
+ordered to take a leading part in shattering man, and horse, and
+even good dogs, into vapours.
+
+Many quiet horses, and sweet-natured dogs, whose want of breeding
+had improved their manners, lived in this part of the great
+flotilla, and were satisfied to have their home where it pleased
+the Lord to feed them.  The horses were led to feed out of the
+guns, that they might not be afraid of them; and they struggled
+against early prejudice, to like wood as well as grass, and to get
+sea-legs.  Man put them here to suit his own ideas; of that they
+were quite aware, and took it kindly, accepting superior powers,
+and inferior use of them, without a shade of question in their
+eyes.  To their innocent minds it was never brought home that they
+were tethered here, and cropping clots instead of clover, for the
+purpose of inspiring in their timid friends ashore the confidence a
+horse reposes in a brother horse, but very wisely doubts about
+investing in mankind.  For instance, whenever a wild young animal,
+a new recruit for the cavalry, was haled against his judgment by a
+man on either side to the hollow-sounding gangway over dancing
+depth of peril, these veteran salts of horses would assure him,
+with a neigh from the billowy distance, that they were not drowned
+yet, but were walking on a sort of gate, and got their victuals
+regular.  On the other hand, as to the presence of the dogs, that
+requires no explanation.  Was there ever a time or place in which a
+dog grudged his sprightly and disinterested service, or failed to
+do his best when called upon?  These French dogs, whom the mildest
+English mastiff would have looked upon, or rather would have shut
+his eyes at, as a lot of curs below contempt, were as full of fine
+ardour for their cause and country as any noble hound that ever
+sate like a statue on a marble terrace.
+
+On the first of October all was ready for this audacious squibbing
+of the hornet's nest, and the fleet of investment (which kept its
+distance according to the weather and the tides) stood in, not
+bodily so as to arouse excitement, but a ship at a time sidling in
+towards the coast, and traversing one another's track, as if they
+were simply exchanging stations.  The French pretended to take no
+heed, and did not call in a single scouting craft, but showed every
+sign of having all eyes shut.  Nothing, however, was done that
+night, by reason perhaps of the weather; but the following night
+being favourable, and the British fleet brought as nigh as it durst
+come, the four fire-ships were despatched after dark, when the
+enemy was likely to be engaged with supper.  The sky was
+conveniently overcast, with a faint light wandering here and there,
+from the lift of the horizon, just enough to show the rig of a
+vessel and her length, at a distance of about a hundred yards.
+Nothing could be better--thought the Englishmen; and the French
+were of that opinion too, especially as Nelson was not there.
+
+Scudamore had nothing to do with the loose adventure of the fire-
+ships, the object of which was to huddle together this advanced
+part of the flotilla, so that the catamarans might sweep unseen
+into a goodly thicket of vessels, and shatter at least half a dozen
+at once.
+
+But somehow the scheme was not well carried out, though it looked
+very nice upon paper.  One very great drawback, to begin with, was
+that the enemy were quite aware of all our kind intentions; and
+another scarcely less fatal was the want of punctuality on our
+part.  All the floating coffins should have come together, like a
+funeral of fifty from a colliery; but instead of that they dribbled
+in one by one, and were cast off by their tow-boats promiscuously.
+Scudamore did his part well enough, though the whole thing went
+against his grain, and the four catamarans under his direction were
+the only ones that did their duty.  The boats of the Blonde had
+these in tow, and cast them off handsomely at the proper distance,
+and drew the plugs which set their clock-springs going.  But even
+of these four only two exploded, although the clocks were not
+American, and those two made a tremendous noise, but only singed a
+few French beards off.  Except, indeed, that a fine old horse, with
+a white Roman nose and a bright chestnut mane, who was living in a
+flat-bottomed boat, broke his halter, and rushed up to the bows,
+and gave vent to his amazement, as if he had been gifted with a
+trumpet.
+
+Hereupon a dog, loth to be behind the times, scampered up to his
+side, and with his forefeet on the gunwale, contributed a howl of
+incalculable length and unfathomable sadness.
+
+In the hurly of the combat and confusion of the night, with the
+dimness streaked with tumult, and the water gashed with fire, that
+horse and this dog might have gone on for ever, bewailing the
+nature of the sons of men, unless a special fortune had put power
+into their mouths.  One of the fire-ships, as scandal did declare,
+was that very ancient tub indeed--that could not float on its
+bottom--the Peggy of Springhaven, bought at thrice her value,
+through the influence of Admiral Darling.  If one has to meet every
+calumny that arises, and deal with it before going further, the
+battle that lasted for a fortnight and then turned into an
+earthquake would be a quick affair compared with the one now in
+progress.  Enough that the Peggy proved by the light she gave, and
+her grand style of burning to the water's edge before she blew up,
+that she was worth at least the hundred pounds Widow Shanks
+received for her.  She startled the French more than any of the
+others, and the strong light she afforded in her last moments shone
+redly on the anguish of that poor horse and dog.  There was no sign
+of any one to help them, and the flames in the background redoubled
+their woe.
+
+Now this apparently deserted prame, near the centre of the line,
+was the Ville de Mayence; and the flag of Rear-Admiral Lacrosse was
+even now flying at her peak.  "We must have her, my lads," cried
+Scudamore, who was wondering what to do next, until he descried the
+horse and dog and that fine flag; "let us board her, and make off
+with all of them."
+
+The crew of his launch were delighted with that.  To destroy is
+very good; but to capture is still better; and a dash into the
+midst of the enemy was the very thing they longed for.  "Ay, ay,
+sir," they cried, set their backs to their oars, and through the
+broad light that still shone upon the waves, and among the thick
+crowd of weltering shadows, the launch shot like a dart to the side
+of the foe.
+
+"Easy all!  Throw a grapple on board," cried the young commander;
+and as the stern swung round he leaped from it, and over the
+shallow bulwarks, and stood all alone on the enemy's fore-deck.
+And alone he remained, for at that moment a loud crash was heard,
+and the launch filled and sank, with her crew of sixteen plunging
+wildly in the waves.
+
+This came to pass through no fault of their own, but a clever
+device of the enemy.  Admiral Lacrosse, being called away, had left
+his first officer to see to the safety of the flag-ship and her
+immediate neighbours, and this brave man had obtained permission to
+try a little plan of his own, if assailed by any adventurous
+British boats in charge of the vessels explosive.  In the bows of
+some stout but handy boats he had rigged up a mast with a long spar
+attached, and by means of a guy at the end of that spar, a brace of
+heavy chain-shot could be swung up and pitched headlong into any
+boat alongside.  While the crew of Scudamore's launch were intent
+upon boarding the prame, one of these boats came swiftly from under
+her stern, and with one fling swamped the enemy.  Then the
+Frenchmen laughed heartily, and offered oars and buoys for the poor
+British seamen to come up as prisoners.
+
+Scudamore saw that he was trapped beyond escape, for no other
+British boat was anywhere in hail.  His first impulse was to jump
+overboard and help his own drowning men, but before he could do so
+an officer stood before him, and said, "Monsieur is my prisoner.
+His men will be safe, and I cannot permit him to risk his own life.
+Mon Dieu, it is my dear friend Captain Scudamore!"
+
+"And you, my old friend, Captain Desportes!  I see it is hopeless
+to resist"--for by this time a score of Frenchmen were round him--
+"I can only congratulate myself that if I must fall, it is into
+such good hands."
+
+"My dear friend, how glad I am to see you!" replied the French
+captain, embracing him warmly; "to you I owe more than to any man
+of your nation.  I will not take your sword.  No, no, my friend.
+You shall not be a prisoner, except in word.  And how much you have
+advanced in the knowledge of our language, chiefly, I fear, at the
+expense of France.  And now you will grow perfect, at the expense
+of England."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII
+
+ENTER AND EXIT
+
+
+The summer having been fine upon the whole, and a very fair
+quantity of fish brought in, Miss Twemlow had picked up a
+sweetheart, as the unromantic mothers of the place expressed it.
+And the circumstances were of such a nature that very large
+interest was aroused at once, and not only so, but was fed well and
+grew fast.
+
+The most complete of chronicles is no better than a sponge of
+inferior texture and with many mouths shut.  Parts that are full of
+suctive power get no chance of sucking; other parts have a flood of
+juice bubbling at them, but are waterproof.  This is the only
+excuse--except one--for the shameful neglect of the family of
+Blocks, in any little treatise pretending to give the dullest of
+glimpses at Springhaven.
+
+The other excuse--if self-accusation does not poke a finger through
+it--is that the Blockses were mainly of the dry land, and never
+went to sea when they could help it.  If they had lived beyond the
+two trees and the stile that marked the parish boundary upon the
+hill towards London, they might have been spotless, and grand, and
+even honest, yet must have been the depth of the hills below
+contempt.  But they dwelt in the village for more generations than
+would go upon any woman's fingers, and they did a little business
+with the fish caught by the others, which enabled it to look after
+three days' journey as if it swam into town upon its own fins.  The
+inventions for wronging mankind pay a great deal better than those
+for righting them.
+
+Now the news came from John Prater's first, that a gentleman of
+great renown was coming down from London city to live on fish fresh
+out of the sea.  His doctors had ordered him to leave off butcher's
+meat, and baker's bread, and tea-grocer's tea, and almost every
+kind of inland victuals, because of the state of his--something
+big, which even Springhaven could not pronounce.  He must keep
+himself up, for at least three months, upon nothing but breezes of
+the sea, and malt-liquor, and farm-house bread and milk and new-
+laid eggs, and anything he fancied that came out of the sea,
+shelly, or scaly, or jellified, or weedy.  News from a public-house
+grows fast--as seeds come up quicker for soaking--and a strong
+competition for this gentleman arose; but he knew what he was
+doing, and brought down his cook and house-maid, and disliking the
+noise at the Darling Arms, took no less than five rooms at the
+house of Matthew Blocks, on the rise of the hill, where he could
+see the fish come in.
+
+He was called at once Sir Parsley Sugarloaf, for his name was
+Percival Shargeloes; and his cook rebuked his housemaid sternly,
+for meddling with matters beyond her sphere, when she told Mrs.
+Blocks that he was not Sir Percival, but only Percival Shargeloes,
+Esquire, very high up in the Corporation, but too young to be Lord
+Mayor of London for some years.  He appeared to be well on the
+right side of forty; and every young lady on the wrong side of
+thirty possessing a pony, or even a donkey, with legs enough to
+come down the hill, immediately began to take a rose-coloured view
+of the many beauties of Springhaven.
+
+If Mr. Shargeloes had any ambition for title, it lay rather in a
+military direction.  He had joined a regiment of City Volunteers,
+and must have been a Captain, if he could have stood the drill.
+But this, though not arduous, had outgone his ambition, nature
+having gifted him with a remarkable power of extracting nourishment
+from food, which is now called assimilation.  He was not a great
+feeder--people so blessed seldom are--but nothing short of painful
+starvation would keep him lean.  He had consulted all the foremost
+physicians about this, and one said, "take acids," another said,
+"walk twenty miles every day with two Witney blankets on," a third
+said, "thank God for it, and drink before you eat," and a fourth (a
+man of wide experience) bade him marry the worst-tempered woman he
+knew.  Then they all gave him pills to upset his stomach; but such
+was its power that it assimilated them.  Despairing of these, he
+consulted a Quack, and received the directions which brought him to
+Springhaven.  And a lucky day for him it was, as he confessed for
+the rest of his life, whenever any ladies asked him.
+
+Because Miss Twemlow was intended for him by the nicest adjustment
+of nature.  How can two round things fit together, except
+superficially?  And in that case one must be upper and the other
+under; which is not the proper thing in matrimony, though generally
+the prevailing one.  But take a full-moon and a half-moon, or even
+a square and a tidy triangle--with manners enough to have one right
+angle--and when you have put them into one another's arms, there
+they stick, all the firmer for friction.  Jack Spratt and his wife
+are a case in point; and how much more pointed the case becomes
+when the question is not about what is on the plate, but the
+gentleman is in his own body fat, and the lady in her elegant
+person lean!
+
+Mr. Sugarloaf--which he could not bear to be called--being an
+ardent admirer of the Church, and aware that her ministers know
+what is good, returned with great speed the Rector's call, having
+earnest hopes of some heart-felt words upon the difference between
+a right and left handed sole.  One of these is ever so much better
+than the other--according to our evolutionists, because when he was
+a cod, a few milliards of years back, he chose the right side to
+begin lying down on, that his descendants in the thirty-millionth
+generation might get flat.  His wife, from sheer perversity, lay
+down upon the other side, and this explains how some of their
+descendants pulled their eyes through their heads to one side, and
+some (though comparatively few) to the other.  And the worst of it
+is that the fittest for the frying-pan did not survive this well-
+intended involution, except at a very long figure in the market.
+
+As it fell out upon that day, Miss Twemlow was sitting in the
+drawing-room alone, waiting till her mother's hair was quite done
+up, her own abundant locks being not done up at all, for she had
+lately taken to set her face against all foreign fashions.  "I have
+not been introduced to the King," she said, "nor even to the Queen,
+like those forward Darlings, and I shall do my hair to please
+myself."  When her father objected, she quenched him with St. Paul;
+and even her mother, though shocked, began to think that Eliza knew
+what she was about.  The release of her fine hair, which fell in
+natural waves about her stately neck, made her look nearly ten
+years younger than she was, for by this time she must have been
+eight-and-twenty.  The ladies of the Carne race, as their pictures
+showed (until they were sold to be the grandmothers of dry-
+salters), had always been endowed with shapely necks, fit columns
+for their small round heads.  And this young lady's hair, with no
+constraint but that of a narrow band across the forehead, clustered
+and gleamed like a bower of acanthus round that Parian column.
+
+Mr. Shargeloes, having obeyed his orders always to dine early, was
+thrilled with a vision of poetry and romance, as he crossed the
+first square of the carpet.  The lady sat just where the light fell
+best from a filtered sunbeam to illumine her, without entering into
+the shady parts; and the poetry of her attitude was inspired by
+some very fine poetry upon her lap.  "I don't care what the doctors
+say, I shall marry that girl," said Mr. Shargeloes to himself.
+
+He was a man who knew his own mind, and a man with that gift makes
+others know it.  Miss Twemlow clenched in the coat upon his back
+the nail she had driven through his heart, by calling him, at every
+other breath, "Colonel Shargeloes."  He said he was not that; but
+she felt that he was, as indeed every patriotic man must be.  Her
+contempt for every man who forsook his country in this bitter,
+bitter strait was at once so ruthless and so bewitching that he was
+quite surprised into confessing that he had given 10,000 pounds,
+all in solid gold, for the comfort of the Royal Volunteers, as soon
+as the autumnal damps came on.  He could not tell such an elegant
+creature that what he had paid for was flannel drawers, though she
+had so much strength of mind that he was enabled to tell her before
+very long.
+
+A great deal of nonsense is talked about ladies who are getting the
+better of their first youth, as if they then hung themselves out as
+old slates for any man to write his name on.  The truth is that
+they have better judgment then, less trouble in their hearts about
+a gentleman's appearance, and more enquiry in their minds as to his
+temper, tastes, and principles, not to mention his prospects of
+supporting them.  And even as concerns appearance, Mr. Shargeloes
+was very good.  Nature had given him a fine stout frame, and a very
+pleasant countenance; and his life in the busy world had added that
+quickness of decision and immediate sense of right which a clever
+woman knows to be the very things she wants.  Moreover, his dress,
+which goes a very long way into the heart of a lady, was most
+correct and particular.  For his coat was of the latest Bond Street
+fashion, the "Jean de Brie," improved and beautified by suggestions
+from the Prince of Wales himself.  Bright claret was the colour,
+and the buttons were of gold, bright enough to show the road before
+him as he walked.  The shoulders were padded, as if a jam pot stood
+there, and the waist buttoned tight, too tight for any happiness,
+to show the bright laticlave of brocaded waistcoat.  Then followed
+breeches of rich purple padusoy, having white satin bows at the
+knee, among which the little silver bells of the Hessian boots
+jingled.
+
+Miss Twemlow was superior to all small feeling, but had great
+breadth of sympathy with the sterling truth in fashion.  The volume
+of love, like a pattern-book, fell open, and this well-dressed
+gentleman was engraved upon her heart.  The most captious young
+chit, such as Dolly herself, could scarcely have called him either
+corpulent or old.  Every day he could be seen to be growing
+younger, with the aid of fresh fish as a totally novel ingredient
+in his system; his muscle increased with the growth of brain-power,
+and the shoemaker was punching a fresh hole in his belt, an inch
+further back, every week he stopped there.  After buckling up three
+holes, he proposed.  Miss Twemlow referred him to her dear papa;
+and the Rector took a week to enquire and meditate.  "Take a month,
+if you like," said Mr. Shargeloes.
+
+This reply increased the speed.  Mr. Twemlow had the deepest
+respect for the Corporation, and to live to be the father of a Lord
+Mayor of London became a new ambition to lead on his waning years.
+"Come and dine with us on Saturday, and we will tell you all about
+it," he said, with a pleasant smile, and warm shake of the hand;
+and Shargeloes knew that the neck and the curls would bend over the
+broad gold chain some day.
+
+How grievous it is to throw a big stone into a pool which has
+plenty of depth and length and width for the rings to travel
+pleasantly, yet not to make one ring, because of wind upon the
+water!  In the days that were not more than two years old,
+Springhaven could have taken all this news, with a swiftly
+expanding and smoothly fluent circle, with a lift of self-
+importance at the centre of the movement, and a heave of gentle
+interest in the far reflective corners.  Even now, with a tumult of
+things to consider, and a tempest of judgment to do it in, people
+contrived to be positive about a quantity of things still pending.
+Sir Parsley Sugarloaf had bought Miss Twemlow for 50,000 pounds,
+they said, and he made her let her curls down so outrageous,
+because she was to be married at Guildhall, with a guinea at the
+end of every hair.  Miss Faith would be dirt-cheap at all that
+money; but as for Miss Eliza, they wished him better knowledge,
+which was sure to come, when it was no good to him.
+
+"What a corner of the world this is for gossip!" Mr. Shargeloes
+said, pleasantly, to his Eliza, having heard from his cook, who
+desired no new mistress, some few of the things said about him.  "I
+am not such a fool as to care what they say.  But I am greatly
+surprised at one thing.  You know that I am a thorough Englishman;
+may I tell you what I think, without offending you?  It is a
+delicate matter, because it concerns a relative of your own, my
+dear."
+
+"I know what you mean.  You will not offend me.  Percival, I know
+how straightforward you are, and how keen of perception.  I have
+expected this."
+
+"And yet it seems presumptuous of me to say that you are all blind
+here, from the highest to the lowest.  Except indeed yourself, as I
+now perceive.  I will tell you my suspicions, or more than
+suspicions--my firm belief--about your cousin, Mr. Carne.  I can
+trust you to keep this even from your father.  Caryl Carne is a
+spy, in the pay of the French."
+
+"I have long thought something, though not quite so bad as that,"
+Miss Twemlow answered, calmly; "because he has behaved to us so
+very strangely.  My mother is his own father's sister, as you know,
+and yet he has never dined with us more than once, and then he
+scarcely said a word to any one.  And he never yet has asked us to
+visit him at the castle; though for that we can make all allowance,
+of course, because of its sad condition.  Then everybody thought he
+had taken to smuggling, and after all his losses, no one blamed
+him, especially as all the Carnes had done it, even when they were
+the owners of the land.  But ever since poor Mr. Cheeseman, our
+church-warden, tried to destroy himself with his own rope, all the
+parish began to doubt about the smuggling, because it pays so well
+and makes the people very cheerful.  But from something he had
+seen, my father felt quite certain that the true explanation was
+smuggling."
+
+"Indeed!  Do you know at all what it was he saw, and when, and
+under what circumstances?"  Mr. Shargeloes put these questions with
+more urgency than Miss Twemlow liked.
+
+"Really I cannot tell you all those things; they are scarcely of
+general interest.  My dear father said little about it: all
+knowledge is denied in this good world to women.  But no doubt he
+would tell you, if you asked him, when there were no ladies
+present."
+
+"I will," said Mr. Shargeloes.  "He is most judicious; he knows
+when to speak, and when to hold his tongue.  And I think that you
+combine with beauty one of those two gifts--which is the utmost to
+be expected."
+
+"Percival, you put things very nicely, which is all that could be
+expected of a man.  But do take my advice in this matter, and say
+no more about it."
+
+Mr. Shargeloes feigned to comply, and perhaps at the moment meant
+to do so.  But unluckily he was in an enterprising temper, proud of
+recovered activity, and determined to act up to the phosphate
+supplied by fish diet.  Therefore when the Rector, rejoicing in an
+outlet for his long pent-up discoveries, and regarding this sage
+man as one of his family, repeated the whole of his adventure at
+Carne Castle, Mr. Shargeloes said, briefly, "It must be seen to."
+
+"Stubbard has been there," replied Mr. Twemlow, repenting perhaps
+of his confidence; "Stubbard has made an official inspection, which
+relieves us of all concern with it."
+
+"Captain Stubbard is an ass.  It is a burning shame that important
+affairs should be entrusted to such fellows.  The country is in
+peril, deadly peril; and every Englishman is bound to act as if he
+were an officer."
+
+That very same evening Carne rode back to his ruins in a very grim
+state of mind.  He had received from the Emperor a curt and haughty
+answer to his last appeal for immediate action, and the prospect of
+another gloomy winter here, with dangers thickening round him, and
+no motion to enliven them, was almost more than he could endure.
+The nights were drawing in, and a damp fog from the sea had
+drizzled the trees, and the ivy, and even his own moustache with
+cold misery.
+
+"Bring me a lantern," he said to old Jerry, as he swung his stiff
+legs from the back of the jaded horse, "and the little flask of oil
+with the feather in it.  It is high time to put the Inspector's
+step in order."
+
+Jerry Bowles, whose back and knees were bent with rheumatism and
+dull service, trotted (like a horse who has become too stiff to
+walk) for the things commanded, and came back with them.  Then his
+master, without a word, strode towards the passage giving entry to
+the vaults which Stubbard had not seen--the vaults containing all
+the powder, and the weapons for arming the peasantry of England,
+whom Napoleon fondly expected to rise in his favour at the sight of
+his eagles.
+
+"How does it work?  Quite stiff with rust.  I thought so.  Nothing
+is ever in order, unless I see to it myself.  Give me the lantern.
+Now oil the bearings thoroughly.  Put the feather into the socket,
+and work the pin in and out, that the oil may go all round.  Now
+pour in some oil from the lip of the flask; but not upon the
+treadle, you old blockhead.  Now do the other end the same.  Ah,
+now it would go with the weight of a mouse!  I have a great mind to
+make you try it."
+
+"What would you do, sir, if my neck was broken?  Who would do your
+work, as I do?"
+
+They were under an arch of mouldy stone, opening into the deep dark
+vaults, where the faint light of the lantern glanced on burnished
+leather, brass, and steel, or fell without flash upon dull round
+bulk.  The old man, kneeling on the round chalk-flints set in lime
+for the flooring of the passage, was handling the first step of
+narrow step-ladder leading to the cellar-depth.  This top step had
+been taken out of the old oak mortice, and cut shorter, and then
+replaced in the frame, with an iron pin working in an iron collar,
+just as the gudgeon of a wheelbarrow revolves.  Any one stepping
+upon it unawares would go down without the aid of any other step.
+
+"Goes like spittle now, sir," said old Jerry; "but I don't want no
+more harm in this crick of life.  The Lord be pleased to keep all
+them Examiners at home.  Might have none to find their corpusses
+until next leap-year.  I hope with all my heart they won't come
+poking their long noses here."
+
+"Well, I rather hope they will.  They want a lesson in this
+neighbourhood," muttered Carne, who was shivering, and hungry, and
+unsweetened.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII
+
+MOTHER SCUDAMORE
+
+
+If we want to know how a tree or flower has borne the gale that
+flogged last night, or the frost that stung the morning, the only
+sure plan is to go and see.  And the only way to understand how a
+friend has taken affliction is to go--if it may be done without
+intrusion--and let him tell you, if he likes.
+
+Admiral Darling was so much vexed when he heard of Blyth Scudamore's
+capture by the French, and duty compelled him to inform the mother,
+that he would rather have ridden a thousand miles upon barley-bread
+than face her.  He knew how the whole of her life was now bound up
+with the fortunes of her son, and he longed to send Faith with the
+bad news, as he had sent her with the good before; but he feared
+that it might seem unkind.  So he went himself, with the hope of
+putting the best complexion upon it, yet fully expecting sad
+distress, and perhaps a burst of weeping.  But the lady received his
+tidings in a manner that surprised him.  At first she indulged in a
+tear or two, but they only introduced a smile.
+
+"In some ways it is a sad thing," she said, "and will be a terrible
+blow to him, just when he was rising so fast in the service.  But
+we must not rebel more than we can help, against the will of the
+Lord, Sir Charles."
+
+"How philosophical, and how commonplace!" thought the Admiral; but
+he only bowed, and paid her some compliment upon her common-sense.
+
+"Perhaps you scarcely understand my views, and perhaps I am wrong
+in having them," Lady Scudamore continued, quietly.  "My son's
+advancement is very dear to me, and this will of course retard it.
+But I care most of all for his life, and now that will be safe for
+a long while.  They never kill their prisoners, do they?"
+
+"No, ma'am, no.  They behave very well to them; better, I'm afraid,
+than we do to ours.  They treat them quite as guests, when they
+fall into good hands.  Though Napoleon himself is not too mild in
+that way."
+
+"My son has fallen into very good hands, as you yourself assure me--
+that Captain Desportes, a gallant officer and kind gentleman, as I
+know from your daughter's description.  Blyth is quite equal to
+Lord Nelson in personal daring, and possibly not behind him in
+abilities.  Consider how shockingly poor Nelson has been injured,
+and he feels convinced himself that they will have his life at
+last.  No officer can be a hero without getting very sad wounds,
+and perhaps losing his life.  Every one who does his duty must at
+least be wounded."
+
+The Admiral, who had never received a scratch, was not at all
+charmed with this view of naval duty; but he was too polite to
+enter protest, and only made one of his old-fashioned scrapes.
+
+"I am sure every time I have heard a gun coming from the sea, and
+especially after dark," the lady resumed, without thinking of him,
+"it has made me miserable to know that probably Blyth was rushing
+into some deadly conflict.  But now I shall feel that he cannot do
+that; and I hope they will keep him until the fighting grows
+milder.  He used to send me all his money, poor dear boy!  And now
+I shall try to send him some of mine, if it can be arranged about
+bank-notes.  And now I can do it very easily, thanks to your
+kindness, Sir Charles, his father's best friend, and his own, and
+mine."
+
+Lady Scudamore shed another tear or two, not of sorrow, but of
+pride, while she put her hand into her pocket, as if to begin the
+remittance at once.  "You owe me no thanks, ma'am," said the
+Admiral, smiling; "if any thanks are due, they are due to the King,
+for remembering at last what he should have done before."
+
+"Would he ever have thought of me, but for you?  It is useless to
+talk in that way, Sir Charles; it only increases the obligation,
+which I must entreat you not to do.  How I wish I could help you in
+anything!"
+
+"Every day you are helping me," he replied, with truth; "although I
+am away too often to know all about it, or even to thank you.  I
+hope my dear Faith has persuaded you not to leave us for the
+winter, as you threatened."
+
+"Faith can persuade me to anything she pleases.  She possesses the
+power of her name," replied the lady; "but the power is not called
+for, when the persuasion is so pleasant.  For a month, I must be
+away to visit my dear mother, as I always have done at this time of
+year; and then, but for one thing, I would return most gladly.  For
+I am very selfish, you must know, Sir Charles--I have a better
+chance of hearing of my dear son at these head-quarters of the
+defence of England, than I should have even in London."
+
+"Certainly," cried the Admiral, who magnified his office; "such a
+number of despatches pass through my hands; and if I can't make
+them out, why, my daughter Dolly can.  I don't suppose, Lady
+Scudamore, that even when you lived in the midst of the world you
+ever saw any girl half so clever as my Dolly.  I don't let her know
+it--that would never do, of course--but she always gets the best of
+me, upon almost any question."
+
+Sir Charles, for the moment, forgot his best manners, and spread
+his coat so that one might see between his legs.  "I stand like
+this," he said, "and she stands there; and I take her to task for
+not paying her bills--for some of those fellows have had to come to
+me, which is not as it should be in a country place, where people
+don't understand the fashionable system.  She stands there, ma'am,
+and I feel as sure as if I were an English twenty-four bearing down
+upon a Frenchman of fifty guns, that she can only haul her colours
+down and rig out gangway ladders--when, bless me and keep me!  I am
+carried by surprise, and driven under hatchways, and if there is a
+guinea in my hold, it flies into the enemy's locker!  If it
+happened only once, I should think nothing of it.  But when I know
+exactly what is coming, and have double-shotted every gun, and set
+up hammock-nettings, and taken uncommon care to have the weather-
+gage, 'tis the Devil, Lady Scudamore--excuse me, madam--'tis the
+Devil to a ditty-bag that I have her at my mercy.  And yet it
+always comes to money out of pocket, madam!"
+
+"She certainly has a great power over gentlemen"--Blyth's mother
+smiled demurely, as if she were sorry to confess it; "but she is
+exceedingly young, Sir Charles, and every allowance must be made
+for her."
+
+"And by the Lord Harry, she gets it, madam.  She takes uncommonly
+good care of that.  But what is the one thing you mentioned that
+would prevent you from coming back to us with pleasure?"
+
+"I scarcely like to speak of it.  But it is about that self-same
+Dolly.  She is not fond of advice, and she knows how quick she is,
+and that makes her resent a word from slower people.  She has taken
+it into her head, I fear, that I am here as a restraint upon her; a
+sort of lady spy, a duenna, a dictatress, all combined in one, and
+all unpleasant.  This often makes me fancy that I have no right to
+be here.  And then your sweet Faith comes, and all is smooth
+again."
+
+"Dolly has the least little possible touch of the vixen about her.
+I have found it out lately," said the Admiral, as if he were half
+doubtful still; "Nelson told me so, and I was angry with him.  But
+I believe he was right, as he generally is.  His one eye sees more
+than a score of mine would.  But, my dear madam, if that is your
+only objection to coming back to us, or rather to my daughters, I
+beg you not to let it weigh a feather's weight with you.  Or, at
+any rate, enhance the obligation to us, by putting it entirely on
+one side.  Dolly has the very finest heart in all the world; not so
+steady perhaps as Faith's, nor quite so fair to other people, but
+wonderfully warm, ma'am, and as sound as--as a roach."
+
+Lady Scudamore could not help laughing a little, and she hoped for
+her son's sake that this account was true.  Her gratitude and good-
+will to the Admiral, as well as her duty to her son, made her give
+the promise sought for; and she began to prepare for her journey at
+once, that she might be back in good time for the winter.  But she
+felt very doubtful, at leaving the Hall, whether she had done quite
+right in keeping her suspicions of Dolly from Dolly's father.  For
+with eyes which were sharpened by jealousy for the interests, or at
+least the affections, of her son, she had long perceived that his
+lady-love was playing a dangerous game with Caryl Carne.  Sometimes
+she believed that she ought to speak of this, for the good of the
+family; because she felt the deepest mistrust and dislike of Carne,
+who strictly avoided her whenever he could; but on the other hand
+she found the subject most delicate and difficult to handle.  For
+she had taken good care at the outset not to be here upon any false
+pretences.  At the very first interview with her host she had
+spoken of Blyth's attachment to his younger daughter, of which the
+Admiral had heard already from that youthful sailor.  And the
+Admiral had simply said, as in Captain Twemlow's case:  "Let us
+leave them to themselves.  I admire the young man.  If she likes
+him, I shall make no objection, when they are old enough, and
+things are favourable."  And now if she told him of the other love-
+affair, it would look like jealousy of a rival.  Perhaps a hundred
+times a day, as her love for gentle Faith grew faster than her
+liking for the sprightly Dolly, she would sigh that her son did not
+see things like herself; but bitter affliction had taught her that
+the course of this life follows our own wishes about as much as
+another man's dog heeds our whistle.  But, for all that, this good
+lady hoped some day to see things come round as she would like to
+bring them.
+
+"No wonder that we like her son so much," said Faith when they had
+done waving handkerchiefs at the great yellow coach going slowly up
+the hill, with its vast wicker basket behind, and the guard perched
+over it with his blunderbus; "he takes after his mother in so many
+ways.  They are both so simple and unsuspicious, and they make the
+best of every one."
+
+"Including themselves, I suppose," answered Dolly.  "Well I like
+people who have something on their minds, and make the worst of
+everybody.  They have so much more to talk about."
+
+"You should never try to be sarcastic, dear.  And you know that you
+don't mean it.  I am sure you don't like to have the worst made of
+yourself."
+
+"Oh, I have long been used to that.  And I never care about it,
+when I know it is not true.  I am sure that Mother Scudamore runs
+me down, when I am out of hearing.  I never did like those perfect
+people."
+
+"Mother Scudamore, indeed!  You are getting into a low way of
+talking, which is not at all pretty in a girl.  And I never heard
+her say an unkind word about you.  Though she may not have found
+you quite so perfect as she hoped."
+
+"I tell you, Miss Darling," cried Dolly, with her bright colour
+deepened, and her grey eyes flashing, "that I don't care a--
+something that papa often says--what she thinks about me, or you
+either.  I know that she has come here to spy out all my ways."
+
+"You should not have any to be spied out, Dolly," Faith answered,
+with some sternness, and a keen look at her sister, whose eyes fell
+beneath her gaze.  "You will be sorry, when you think of what you
+said to me, who have done nothing whatever to offend you.  But that
+is a trifle compared with acting unfairly to our father.  Father is
+the kindest man that ever lived; but he can be stern in great
+matters, I warn you.  If he ever believes that you have deceived
+him, you will never be again to him what you have always been."
+
+They had sent the carriage home that they might walk across the
+fields, and this little scene between the sisters took place upon a
+foot-path which led back to their grounds.  Dolly knew that she was
+in the wrong, and that increased her anger.
+
+"So you are another spy upon me, I suppose.  'Tis a pretty thing to
+have one's sister for an old duenna.  Pray who gave you authority
+to lord it over me?"
+
+"You know as well as I do"--Faith spoke with a smile of superior
+calmness, as Dolly tossed her head--"that I am about the last
+person in the world to be a spy.  Neither do I ever lord it over
+you.  If anything, that matter is very much the other way.  But
+being so much older, and your principal companion, it would be very
+odd of me, and as I think most unkind, if I did not take an
+interest in all your goings on."
+
+"My goings on!  What a lady-like expression!  Who has got into a
+low way of talking now?  Well, if you please, madam, what have you
+found out?"
+
+"I have found out nothing, and made no attempt to do so.  But I see
+that you are altered very much from what you used to be; and I am
+sure that there is something on your mind.  Why not tell me all
+about it?  I would promise to let it go no further, and I would not
+pretend to advise, unless you wished.  I am your only sister, and
+we have always been together.  It would make you so much more
+comfortable, I am certain of that, in your own mind, darling.  And
+you know when we were little girls, dear mother on her death-bed
+put her hands upon our heads and said, 'Be loving sisters always,
+and never let anything come between you.'  And for father's sake,
+too, you should try to do it.  Put aside all nonsense about spies
+and domineering, and trust me as your sister, that's my own darling
+Dolly."
+
+"How can I resist you?  I will make a clean breast of it;" Dolly
+sighed deeply, but a wicked smile lay ambushed in her bright eyes
+and upon her rosy lips.  "The sad truth is that my heart has been
+quite sore since I heard the shocking tidings about poor old Daddy
+Stokes.  He went to bed the other night with his best hat on, both
+his arms in an old muff he found in the ditch, and his leathern
+breeches turned inside out."
+
+"Then the poor old man had a cleaner breast than yours," cried
+Faith, who had prepared her heart and eyes for tears of sympathy;
+"he goes upon his knees every night, stiff as they are, and his
+granddaughter has to help him up.  But as for you, you are the most
+unfeeling, mocking, godless, unnatural creature that ever never
+cared what became of anybody.  Here we are at the corner where the
+path divides.  You go home that way, and I'll go home by this."
+
+"Well, I'm so glad!  I really did believe that it was quite
+impossible to put you in a rage.  Now don't be in a hurry, dear, to
+beg my pardon."
+
+"Of that you may be quite sure," cried Faith across the corner of
+the meadow where the paths diverged; "I never was less in a passion
+in my life; and it will be your place to apologise."
+
+Dolly sent a merry laugh across the widening interval; and Faith,
+who was just beginning to fear that she had been in a passion, was
+convinced by that laugh that she had not.  But the weight lifted
+from her conscience fell more heavily upon her heart.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX
+
+EVIL COMMUNICATIONS
+
+
+Although she pretended to be so merry, and really was so self-
+confident (whenever anybody wanted to help her), Miss Dolly
+Darling, when left to herself, was not like herself, as it used to
+be.  Her nature was lively, and her spirit very high; every one had
+petted her, before she could have earned it by aught except
+childish beauty; and no one had left off doing it, when she was
+bound to show better claim to it.  All this made doubt, and
+darkness, and the sense of not being her own mistress, very
+snappish things to her, and she gained relief--sweet-tempered as
+she was when pleased--by a snap at others.  For although she was
+not given, any more than other young people are, to plaguesome
+self-inspection, she could not help feeling that she was no longer
+the playful young Dolly that she loved so well.  A stronger, and
+clearer, yet more mysterious will than her own had conquered hers;
+but she would not confess it, and yield entire obedience; neither
+could she cast it off.  Her pride still existed, as strong as ever,
+whenever temper roused it; but there was too much of vanity in its
+composition, and too little of firm self-respect.  Contempt from a
+woman she could not endure; neither from a man, if made manifest;
+but Carne so calmly took the upper hand, without any show of having
+it, that she fell more and more beneath his influence.
+
+He, knowing thoroughly what he was about, did nothing to arouse
+resistance.  So far as he was capable of loving any one, he was now
+in love with Dolly.  He admired her quickness, and pretty girlish
+ways, and gaiety of nature (so unlike his own), and most of all her
+beauty.  He had made up his mind that she should be his wife when
+fitted for that dignity; but he meant to make her useful first, and
+he saw his way to do so.  He knew that she acted more and more as
+her father's secretary, for she wrote much faster than her sister
+Faith, and was quicker in catching up a meaning.  Only it was
+needful to sap her little prejudices--candour, to wit, and the
+sense of trust, and above all, patriotic feeling.  He rejoiced when
+he heard that Lady Scudamore was gone, and the Rector had taken his
+wife and daughter for change of air to Tunbridge Wells, Miss
+Twemlow being seriously out of health through anxiety about Mr.
+Shargeloes.  For that gentleman had disappeared, without a line or
+message, just when Mr. Furkettle, the chief lawyer in the
+neighbourhood, was beginning to prepare the marriage-settlement;
+and although his cook and house-maid were furious at the story,
+Mrs. Blocks had said, and all the parish now believed, that Sir
+Parsley Sugarloaf had flown away to Scotland rather than be brought
+to book--that fatal part of the Prayer-book--by the Rector and
+three or four brother clergymen.
+
+This being so, and Frank Darling absorbed in London with the
+publication of another batch of poems, dedicated to Napoleon, while
+Faith stood aloof with her feelings hurt, and the Admiral stood off
+and on in the wearisome cruise of duty, Carne had the coast
+unusually clear for the entry and arrangement of his contraband
+ideas.  He met the fair Dolly almost every day, and their
+interviews did not grow shorter, although the days were doing so.
+
+"You should have been born in France," he said, one bright November
+morning, when they sat more comfortable than they had any right to
+be, upon the very same seat where the honest but hapless Captain
+Scuddy had tried to venture to lisp his love; "that is the land you
+belong to, darling, by beauty and manners and mind and taste, and
+most of all by your freedom from prejudice, and great liberality of
+sentiment."
+
+"But I thought we were quite as good-looking in England;" Dolly
+lifted her long black lashes, with a flash which might challenge
+the brilliance of any French eyes; "but of course you know best.  I
+know nothing of French ladies."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Dolly;" Carne spoke rudely, but made up for it in
+another way.  "There never was a French girl to equal you in
+loveliness; but you must not suppose that you beat them all round.
+One point particularly you are far behind in.  A French woman
+leaves all political questions, and national matters, and public
+affairs, entirely to her husband, or her lover, as the case may be.
+Whatever he wishes is the law for her.  Thy gods shall be my gods."
+
+"But you said they had great liberality of sentiment, and now you
+say they have no opinions of their own!  How can the two things go
+together?"
+
+"Very easily," said Carne, who was accustomed to be baffled by such
+little sallies; "they take their opinions from their husbands, who
+are always liberal.  This produces happiness on both sides--a state
+of things unknown in England.  Let me tell you of something
+important, mainly as it concerns yourself, sweet Dolly.  The French
+are certain to unite with England, and then we shall be the
+grandest nation in the world.  No power in Europe can stand before
+us.  All will be freedom, and civilization, and great ideas, and
+fine taste in dress.  I shall recover the large estates, that would
+now be mine, but for usury and fraud.  And you will be one of the
+first ladies in the world, as nature has always intended you to
+be."
+
+"That sounds very well; but how is it to be done?  How can France
+unite with England, when they are bitter enemies?  Is France to
+conquer England first?  Or are we to conquer France, as we always
+used to do?"
+
+"That would be a hard job now, when France is the mistress of the
+Continent.  No, there need be no conquering, sweet Dolly, but only
+a little removal.  The true interest of this country is--as that
+mighty party, the Whigs, perceive--to get rid of all the paltry
+forms and dry bones of a dynasty which is no more English than
+Napoleon is, and to join that great man in his warfare against all
+oppression.  Your brother Frank is a leading spirit; he has long
+cast off that wretched insular prejudice which defeats all good.
+In the grand new scheme of universal right, which must prevail very
+shortly, Frank Darling will obtain that foremost place to which his
+noble views entitle him.  You, as his sister, and my wife, will be
+adored almost as much as you could wish."
+
+"It sounds very grand," answered Dolly, with a smile, though a
+little alarmed at this turn of it; "but what is to become of the
+King, and Queen, and all the royal family?  And what is my father
+to do, and Faith?  Although she has not behaved well to me."
+
+"Those details will be arranged to everybody's satisfaction.
+Little prejudices will subside, when it is seen that they are
+useless.  Every possible care will be taken not to injure any one."
+
+"But how is it all to be done?" asked Dolly, whose mind was
+practical, though romantic.  "Are the French to land, and overrun
+the country?  I am sure I never should agree to that.  Are all our
+defenders to be thrown into prison?"
+
+"Certainly not.  There will be no prisons.  The French might have
+to land, as a matter of form; but not to overrun the country, only
+to secure British liberties and justice.  All sensible people would
+hasten to join them, and any opposition would be quenched at once.
+Then such a glorious condition of mankind would ensue as has never
+been known in this world--peace, wealth, universal happiness,
+gaiety, dancing everywhere, no more shabby clothes, no more dreary
+Sundays.  How do you like the thought of it?"
+
+"Well, some of it sounds very nice; but I don't see the use of
+universal justice.  Justice means having one's own rights; and it
+is impossible for everybody to do that, because of other people.
+And as for the French coming to put things right, they had better
+attend to their own affairs first.  And as if any Englishman would
+permit it!  Why, even Frank would mount his wig and gown (for he is
+a full-fledged barrister now, you know), and come and help to push
+them back into the sea.  And I hope that you would do so too.  I am
+not going to marry a Frenchman.  You belong to an old English
+family, and you were born in England, and your name is English, and
+the property that ought to belong to you.  I hope you don't
+consider yourself a Frenchman because your mother is a great French
+lady, after so many generations of Carnes, all English, every bit
+of them.  I am an English girl, and I care very little for things
+that I don't see--such as justice, liberty, rights of people, and
+all that.  But I do care about my relations, and our friends, and
+the people that live here, and the boats, and all the trees, and
+the land that belongs to my father.  Very likely you would want to
+take that away, and give it to some miserable Frenchman."
+
+"Dolly, my dear, you must not be excited," Carne answered, in the
+manner of a father; "powerful as your comprehension is, for the
+moment these things are beyond it.  Your meaning is excellent, very
+good, very great; but to bring it to bear requires further
+information.  We will sit by the side of the sea to-morrow,
+darling, if you grant me a view of your loveliness again; and there
+you will see things in a larger light than upon this narrow bench,
+with your father's trees around us, and your father's cows
+enquiring whether I am good to eat.  Get away, cow!  Do you take me
+for a calf?"
+
+One of the cows best loved by Dolly, who was very fond of good
+animals, had come up to ask who this man was that had been sitting
+here so long with her.  She was gifted with a white face and large
+soft eyes--even beyond the common measure of a cow--short little
+horns, that she would scarcely think of pushing even at a dog
+(unless he made mouths at her infant), a flat broad nose ever
+genial to be rubbed, and a delicate fringe of finely pointed yellow
+hairs around her pleasant nostrils and above her clovery lips.
+With single-hearted charity and enviable faith she was able to
+combine the hope that Dolly had obtained a lover as good as could
+be found upon a single pair of legs.  Carne was attired with some
+bravery, of the French manner rather than the English, and he
+wanted no butter on his velvet and fine lace.  So he swung round
+his cane of heavy snakewood at the cow, and struck her poor horns
+so sharply that her head went round.
+
+"Is that universal peace, and gentleness, and justice?" cried
+Dolly, springing up and hastening to console her cow.  "Is this the
+way the lofty French redress the wrongs of England?  What had poor
+Dewlips done, I should like to know?  Kiss me, my pretty, and tell
+me how you would like the French army to land, as a matter of form?
+The form you would take would be beef, I'm afraid; not even good
+roast beef, but bouillon, potage, fricandeau, friture--anything one
+cannot taste any meat in; and that is how your wrongs would be
+redressed, after having had both your horns knocked off.  And about
+the same fate for John Bull, your master, unless he keeps his horns
+well sharpened.  Do I not speak the truth, monsieur?"
+
+When Carne did anything to vex Miss Dolly--which happened pretty
+often, for he could not stop to study much her little prejudices--
+she addressed him as if he were a Frenchman, never doubting that
+this must reduce him sadly in his self-esteem.
+
+"Never mind matters political," he said, perceiving that his power
+must not be pressed until he had deepened its foundations; "what
+are all the politics in the world compared with your good opinion,
+Beauty?"  Dolly liked to be called "Beauty," and the name always
+made her try to deserve it by looking sweet.  "You must be quite
+certain that I would do nothing to injure a country which contains
+my Dolly.  And as for Madam Cow, I will beg her pardon, though my
+cane is hurt a great deal more than her precious horns are.  Behold
+me snap it in twain, although it is the only handsome one I
+possess, because it has offended you!"
+
+"Oh, what a pity!  What a lovely piece of wood!" cried Dolly; and
+they parted on the best of terms, after a warm vow upon either side
+that no nasty politics should ever come between them.
+
+But Carne was annoyed and discontented.  He came to the edge of the
+cliff that evening below his ruined castle; for there are no cliffs
+at Springhaven, unless the headland deserves that name; and there
+he sat gloomily for some hours, revolving the chances of his
+enterprise.  The weather had changed since the morning, and a chill
+November wind began to urge the waves ashore.  The sky was not very
+dark, but shredded with loose grey vapours from the west, where a
+heavy bank of clouds lay under the pale crescent of a watery moon.
+In the distance two British cruisers shone, light ships of outlook,
+under easy sail, prepared to send the signal for a hundred leagues,
+from ship to ship and cliff to cliff, if any of England's foes
+appeared.  They shone upon the dark sea, with canvas touched by
+moonlight, and seemed ready to spring against the lowering sky, if
+it held any menace to the land they watched, or the long reach of
+water they had made their own.
+
+"A pest upon those watch-dogs!" muttered Carne.  "They are always
+wide-awake, and forever at their stations.  Instead of growing
+tired, they get sharper every day.  Even Charron can scarcely run
+through them now.  But I know who could do it, if he could only
+be trusted.  With a pilot-boat--it is a fine idea--a pilot-boat
+entered as of Pebbleridge.  The Pebbleridge people hate Springhaven,
+through a feud of centuries, and Springhaven despises Pebbleridge.
+It would answer well, although the landing is so bad, and no
+anchorage possible in rough weather.  I must try if Dan Tugwell
+will undertake it.  None of the rest know the coast as he does, and
+few of them have the bravery.  But Dan is a very sulky fellow, very
+difficult to manage.  He will never betray us; he is wonderfully
+grateful; and after that battle with the press-gang, when he knocked
+down the officer and broke his arm, he will keep pretty clear of
+the Union-jack.  But he goes about moping, and wondering, and
+mooning, as if he were wretched about what he has to do.  Bless my
+soul, where is my invention?  I see the way to have him under my
+thumb. Reason is an old coat hanging on a peg; passion is the fool
+who puts it on and runs away with it.  Halloa!  Who are you?  And
+what do you want at such a time as this?  Surely you can see that I
+am not at leisure now.  Why, Tugwell, I thought that you were far
+away at sea!"
+
+"So I was, sir; but she travels fast.  I never would believe the
+old London Trader could be driven through the water so.  Sam
+Polwhele knows how to pile it on a craft, as well as he do upon a
+man, sir.  I won't serve under him no more, nor Captain Charcoal
+either.  I have done my duty by you.  Squire Carne, the same as you
+did by me, sir; and thanking you for finding me work so long, my
+meaning is to go upon the search to-morrow."
+
+"What fools they must have been to let this fellow come ashore!"
+thought Carne, while he failed to see the wisest way to take it.
+"Tugwell, you cannot do this with any honour, after we have shown
+you all the secrets of our enterprise.  You know that what we do is
+of the very highest honour, kind and humane and charitable, though
+strictly forbidden by a most inhuman government.  How would you
+like, if you were a prisoner in France, to be debarred from all
+chance of getting any message from your family, your wife, your
+sweetheart, or your children, from year's end to year's end, and
+perhaps be dead for months without their knowing anything about
+it?"
+
+"Well, sir, I should think it very hard indeed; though, if I was
+dead, I shouldn't know much more about it.  But, without reproach
+to you, I cannot make out altogether that our only business is to
+carry letters for the prisoners, as now may be in England, from
+their loving friends to command in their native country.  I won't
+say against you, sir, if you say it is--that is, to the outside of
+all your knowledge.  And twenty thousand of them may need letters
+by the sack.  But what use they could make, sir, of cannon as big
+as I be, and muskets that would kill a man a hundred yards of
+distance, and bayonets more larger and more sharper than ever I see
+before, even with the Royal Volunteers--this goes out of all my
+calculation."
+
+"Daniel, you have expressed your views, which are remarkable--as
+indeed they always are--with your usual precision.  But you have
+not observed things with equal accuracy.  Do you know when a gun is
+past service?"
+
+"No, sir; I never was a poacher, no-how.  Squire Darling, that is
+to say, Sir Charles Darling now, according to a chap on board, he
+was always so good upon his land that nobody durst go a-poaching."
+
+"I mean a cannon, Dan.  They don't poach with cannon yet, though
+they may come to do it, as the game-laws increase.  Do you know
+when a cannon is unsafe to fire, though it may look as bright as
+ever, like a worn-out poker?  All those things that have frightened
+you are only meant for ornament.  You know that every ancient
+building ought to have its armoury, as this castle always had,
+until they were taken away and sold.  My intention is to restore
+it, when I can afford to do so.  And having a lot of worn-out
+weapons offered me for next to nothing, I seized the chance of
+bringing them.  When times are better, and the war is over, I may
+find time to arrange them.  But that is not of much importance.
+The great point is to secure the delivery of letters from their
+native land to the brave men here as prisoners.  I cannot afford to
+do that for nothing, though I make no profit out of it.  I have so
+many things to think about that I scarcely know which to consider
+first.  And after all, what matters to us whether those poor men
+are allowed to die, and be buried like dogs, without knowledge of
+their friends?  Why should we run the risk of being punished for
+them?"
+
+"Well, sir, that seems hard doctrine, if I may be allowed to say
+so, and not like your kind-heartedness.  Our Government have no
+right to stop them of their letters."
+
+"It is a cruel thing.  But how are we to help it?  The London
+Trader is too large for the purpose, and she is under suspicion
+now.  I tell you everything, Daniel, because I know that you are a
+true-hearted fellow, and far above all blabbing.  I have thought
+once or twice of obtaining leave to purchase a stout and handy
+pilot-boat, with her licence and all that transferred to us, and so
+running to and fro when needful.  The only risk then would be from
+perils of the sea; and even the pressmen dare not meddle with a
+pilot-boat.  By-the-by, I have heard that you knocked some of them
+about.  Tugwell, you might have got us all into sad trouble."
+
+"Was I to think of what I was doing, Squire Carne, when they wanted
+to make a slave of me?  I would serve King George with a good
+heart, in spite of all that father has said against it.  But it
+must be with a free will, Squire Carne, and not to be tied hand and
+foot to it.  How would you like that yourself, sir?"
+
+"Well, I think I should have done as you did, Dan, if I had been a
+British sailor.  But as to this pilot-boat, I must have a bold and
+good seaman to command it.  A man who knows the coast, and is not
+afraid of weather.  Of course we should expect to pay good wages;
+3 pounds a week, perhaps, and a guinea for every bag of letters
+landed safe.  There are plenty of men who would jump at such a
+chance, Dan."
+
+"I'll be bound there are, sir.  And it is more than I am worth, if
+you mean offering the place to me.  It would suit me wonderful, if
+I was certain that the job was honest."
+
+"Daniel Tugwell"--Carne spoke with great severity--"I will not lose
+my temper, for I am sure you mean no insult.  But you must be of a
+very low, suspicious nature, and quite unfit for any work of a
+lofty and unselfish order, if you can imagine that a man in my
+position, a man of my large sentiments--"
+
+"Oh, no, sir, no; it was not at all that"--Dan scarcely knew how to
+tell what it was--"it was nothing at all of that manner of
+thinking.  I heartily ask your pardon, sir, if it seemed to go in
+that way."
+
+"Don't do that," replied Carne, "because I can make allowances.  I
+know what a fine nature is, and how it takes alarm at shadows.  I
+am always tender with honest scruples, because I find so many of
+them in myself.  I should not have been pleased with you, if you
+had accepted my offer--although so advantageous, and full of
+romantic interest--until you were convinced of its honourable
+nature.  I have no time for argument, and I am sorry that you must
+not come up to the castle for supper, because we have an old
+Springhaven man there, who would tell your father all about you,
+which you especially wish to avoid.  But if you feel inclined for
+this berth--as you sailors seem to call it--and hesitate through
+some patriotic doubts, though I cannot understand what they are, I
+will bring you a document (if you meet me here to-morrow night)
+from Admiral Sir Charles Darling, which I think will satisfy you."
+
+"And shall I be allowed to keep it, sir, to show, in case of
+trouble?"
+
+"Very likely.  But I cannot say for certain.  Some of those
+official forms must be returned, others not; all depends upon their
+rules.  Now go and make yourself comfortable.  How are you off for
+money?"
+
+"Plenty, sir, plenty.  I must not go where anybody knows me, or to-
+morrow half the talk at old Springhaven would be about me.  Good-
+night, sir, and God bless you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L
+
+HIS SAVAGE SPIRIT
+
+
+At this time letters came very badly, not only to French prisoners
+in England, but even to the highest authorities, who had the very
+best means of getting them.  Admiral Darling had often written to
+his old friend Nelson, but had long been without any tidings from
+him, through no default on the hero's part.  Lord Nelson was almost
+as prompt with the pen as he was with the sword, but despatches
+were most irregular and uncertain.
+
+"Here at last we have him!" cried Sir Charles one morning early in
+December; "and not more than five weeks old, I declare!  Dolly, be
+ready, and call Faith down.  Now read it, my dear, for our benefit.
+Your godfather writes a most excellent hand, considering that it is
+his left hand; but my eyes are sore from so much night-work.  Put
+on my specs, Dolly; I should like to see you in them."
+
+"Am I to read every word, papa, just as it comes?  You know that he
+generally puts in words that are rather strong for me."
+
+"Nelson never thought or wrote a single word unfit for the nicest
+young lady.  But you may hold up your hand if you come to any
+strong expressions, and we shall understand them."
+
+"Then I shall want both hands as soon as ever we come to the very
+first Frenchman.  But this is what my godfather says:
+
+
+"'VICTORY, OFF TOULON, October 31st, 1804.
+
+"'MY DEAR LINGO,--It was only yesterday that I received your letter
+of July 21st; it went in a Spanish smuggling boat to the coast of
+Italy and returned again to Spain, not having met any of our ships.
+And now I hope that you will see me before you see this letter.  We
+are certain to be at war with Spain before another month is out,
+and I am heartily sorry for it, for I like those fellows better
+than the French, because they are not such liars.  My successor has
+been appointed, I have reason to hope, and must be far on his way
+by this time; probably Keith, but I cannot say.  Ministers cannot
+suppose that I want to fly the service; my whole life has proved
+the contrary; if they refuse, I shall most certainly leave in March
+or April, for a few months' rest I must have, or else die.  My
+cough is very bad, and my side where I was struck off Cape St.
+Vincent is very much swelled, at times a lump as large as my fist
+is brought on by violent coughing, but I hope and believe my lungs
+are sound.  I hope to do good service yet, or else I should not
+care so much.  But if I am in my grave, how can I serve the
+Country?
+
+"'You will say, this is not at all like Nelson, to write about
+nothing but his own poor self; and thank God, Lingo, I can say that
+you are right; for if ever a man lived for the good of England and
+the destruction of those'"--here Dolly held a hand up--"'Frenchmen,
+it is the man in front of this ink-bottle.  The Lord has appointed
+me to that duty, and I shall carry out my orders.  Mons. La Touche,
+who was preached about in France as the man that was to extinguish
+me, and even in the scurvy English newspapers, but never dared to
+show his snivelly countenance outside of the inner buoys, is dead
+of his debosheries, for which I am deeply grieved, as I fully
+intended to send him to the devil.
+
+"'I have been most unlucky for some time now, and to tell the truth
+I may say always.  But I am the last man in the world to grumble--
+as you, my dear Lingo, can testify.  I always do the utmost, with a
+single mind, and leave the thought of miserable pelf to others, men
+perhaps who never saw a shotted cannon fired.  You know who made
+eighty thousand pounds, without having to wipe his pigtail--dirty
+things, I am glad they are gone out--but my business is to pay
+other people's debts, and receive all my credits in the shape of
+cannon-balls.  This is always so, and I should let it pass as
+usual, except for a blacker trick than I have ever known before.
+For fear of giving me a single chance of earning twopence, they
+knew that there was a million and a half of money coming into Cadiz
+from South America in four Spanish frigates, and instead of leaving
+me to catch them, they sent out Graham Moore--you know him very
+well--with orders to pocket everything.  This will create a war
+with Spain, a war begun with robbery on our part, though it must
+have come soon in any case.  For everywhere now, except where I am,
+that fiend of a Corsican is supreme.
+
+"'There is not a sick man in this fleet, unless it is the one
+inside my coat.  That liar La Touche said HE CHASED ME AND I RAN.
+I keep a copy of his letter, which it would have been my duty to
+make him eat, if he had ventured out again.  But he is gone to the
+lake of brimstone now, and I have the good feeling to forgive him.
+If my character is not fixed by this time, it is not worth my
+trouble to put the world right.  Yesterday I took a look into the
+port within easy reach of their batteries.  They lay like a lot of
+mice holed in a trap, but the weather was too thick to count them.
+They are certainly nearly twice our number; and if any one was here
+except poor little Nelson, I believe they would venture out.  But
+my reputation deprives me always of any fair chance to increase it.
+
+"'And now, my dear Lingo, allow me to enquire how you are getting
+on with your Coast-defence.  I never did attach much importance to
+their senseless invasion scheme.  The only thing to make it
+formidable would be some infernal traitor on the coast, some
+devilish spy who would keep them well informed, and enable them to
+land where least expected.  If there is such a scoundrel, may the
+Lord Almighty'"--here both Dolly's hands went up, with the letter
+in them, and her face turned as white as the paper.
+
+"'I have often told you, as you may remember, that Springhaven is
+the very place I should choose, if I were commander of the French
+flotilla.  It would turn the flank of all the inland defences, and
+no British ship could attack their intrenchments, if once they were
+snug below the windows of the Hall.  But they are not likely to
+know this, thank God; and if they did, they would have a job to get
+there.  However, it is wise to keep a sharp lookout, for they know
+very well that I am far away.
+
+"'And now that I have got to your own doors, which I heartily hope
+to do, perhaps before you see this, let me ask for yourself and all
+your dear family.  Lingo, the longer I live the more I feel that
+all the true happiness of life is found at home.  My glory is very
+great, and satisfies me, except when it scares the enemy; but I
+very often feel that I would give it all away for a quiet life
+among those who love me.  Your daughter Faith is a sweet young
+woman, just what I should wish for a child of mine to be.  And
+Horatia, my godchild, will turn out very well, if a sharp hand is
+kept over her.  But she takes after me, she is daring and
+ambitious, and requires a firm hand at the helm.  Read this to her,
+with my love, and I dare say she will only laugh at it.  If she
+marries to my liking, she will be down for a good thing in my will,
+some day.  God bless us all.  Amen.  Amen.
+
+"'Yours affectionately,
+
+"'NELSON AND BRONTE.'"
+
+
+"Take it to heart, my dear; and so must I," said the Admiral,
+laughing at the face his daughter made; "your godfather is a most
+excellent judge of everybody's character except his own.  But,
+bless me, my dear, why, you are crying!  You silly little thing!  I
+was only in fun.  You shall marry to his liking, and be down for
+the good thing.  Look up, and laugh at everybody, my darling.  No
+one laughs so merrily as my pretty Dolly.  Why, Faith, what does
+she mean by this?"
+
+To the coaxing voice of her father, and the playful glance that she
+used to play with, Dolly had not rushed up at all, either with
+mind, or, if that failed, with body, as she always used to do.  She
+hurried towards the door, as if she longed to be away from them;
+and then, as if she would rather not make any stir about it, sat
+down and pretended to have caught her dress in something.
+
+"The only thing is to let her go on as she likes," Faith said
+aloud, so that Dolly might hear all of it; "I have done all I can,
+but she believes herself superior.  She cannot bear any sort of
+contradiction, and she expects one to know what she says, without
+her saying it.  There is nothing to be done but to treat her the
+same way.  If she is left to herself, she may come back to it."
+
+"Well, my dear children," said the Admiral, much alarmed at the
+prospect of a broil between them, such as he remembered about three
+years back, "I make no pretence to understand your ways.  If you
+were boys, it would be different altogether.  But the Almighty has
+been pleased to make you girls, and very good ones too; in fact,
+there are none to be found better.  You have always been bound up
+with one another and with me; and every one admires all the three
+of us.  So that we must be content if a little thing arises, not to
+make too much of it, but bear with one another, and defy anybody to
+come in between us.  Kiss one another, my dears, and be off; for I
+have much correspondence to attend to, besides the great Nelson's,
+though I took him first, hoping for something sensible.  But I have
+not much to learn about Springhaven, even from his lordship.
+However, he is a man in ten thousand, and we must not be vexed
+about any of his crotchets, because he has never had children to
+talk about; and he gets out of soundings when he talks about mine.
+I wish Lady Scudamore was come back.  She always agrees with me,
+and she takes a great load off my shoulders."
+
+The girls laughed at this, as they were meant to do.  And they
+hurried off together, to compare opinions.  After all these years
+of independence, no one should be set up over them.  Upon that
+point Faith was quite as resolute as Dolly; and her ladyship would
+have refused to come back, if she had overheard their council.  For
+even in the loftiest feminine nature lurks a small tincture of
+jealousy.
+
+But Dolly was now in an evil frame of mind about many things which
+she could not explain even to herself, with any satisfaction.  Even
+that harmless and pleasant letter from her great godfather went
+amiss with her; and instead of laughing at the words about herself,
+as with a sound conscience she must have done, she brooded over
+them, and turned them bitter.  No man could have mixed up things as
+she did, but her mind was nimble.  For the moment, she hated
+patriotism, because Nelson represented it; and feeling how wrong he
+had been about herself, she felt that he was wrong in everything.
+The French were fine fellows, and had quite as much right to come
+here as we had to go and harass them, and a little abatement of
+English conceit might be a good thing in the long-run.  Not that
+she would let them stay here long; that was not to be thought of,
+and they would not wish it.  But a little excitement would be
+delightful, and a great many things might be changed for the
+better, such as the treatment of women in this country, which was
+barbarous, compared to what it was in France.  Caryl had told her a
+great deal about that; and the longer she knew him the more she was
+convinced of his wisdom and the largeness of his views, so
+different from the savage spirit of Lord Nelson.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI
+
+STRANGE CRAFT
+
+
+While his love was lapsing from him thus, and from her own true
+self yet more, the gallant young sailor, whose last prize had been
+that useful one misfortune, was dwelling continually upon her
+image, because he had very little else to do.  English prisoners in
+France were treated sometimes very badly, which they took good care
+to proclaim to Europe; but more often with pity, and good-will, and
+a pleasant study of their modes of thought.  For an Englishman then
+was a strange and ever fresh curiosity to a Frenchman, a specimen
+of another race of bipeds, with doubts whether marriage could make
+parentage between them.  And a century of intercourse, good-will,
+and admiration has left us still inquisitive about each other.
+
+Napoleon felt such confidence in his plans for the conquest of
+England that if any British officer belonging to the fleet in the
+narrow seas was taken (which did not happen largely), he sent for
+him, upon his arrival at Boulogne, and held a little talk with any
+one who could understand and answer.  He was especially pleased at
+hearing of the capture of Blyth Scudamore (who had robbed him of
+his beloved Blonde), and at once restored Desportes to favour,
+which he had begun to do before, knowing as well as any man on
+earth the value of good officers.  "Bring your prisoner here to-
+morrow at twelve o'clock," was his order; "you have turned the
+tables upon him well."
+
+Scudamore felt a little nervous tingling as he passed through the
+sentries, with his friend before him, into the pavilion of the
+greatest man in Europe.  But the Emperor, being in high good-
+humour, and pleased with the young man's modest face and gentle
+demeanour, soon set him at his ease, and spoke to him as affably as
+if he had been his equal.  For this man of almost universal mind
+could win every heart, when he set himself to do it.  Scudamore
+rubbed his eyes, which was a trick of his, as if he could scarcely
+believe them.  Napoleon looked--not insignificant (that was
+impossible for a man with such a countenance), but mild, and
+pleasing, and benevolent, as he walked to and fro, for he never
+could stay still, in the place which was neither a tent nor a room,
+but a mixture of the two, and not a happy one.  His hat, looped up
+with a diamond and quivering with an ostrich feather, was flung
+anyhow upon the table.  But his wonderful eyes were the brightest
+thing there.
+
+"Ha! ha!" said the Emperor, a very keen judge of faces; "you
+expected to find me a monster, as I am portrayed by your
+caricaturists.  Your countrymen are not kind to me, except the
+foremost of them--the great poets.  But they will understand me
+better by-and-by, when justice prevails, and the blessings of
+peace, for which I am striving perpetually.  But the English
+nation, if it were allowed a voice, would proclaim me its only true
+friend and ally.  You know that, if you are one of the people, and
+not of the hateful House of Lords, which engrosses all the army and
+the navy.  Are you in connection with the House of Lords?"
+
+Scudamore shook his head and smiled.  He was anxious to say that he
+had a cousin, not more than twice removed, now an entire viscount;
+but Napoleon never encouraged conversation, unless it was his own,
+or in answer to his questions.
+
+"Very well.  Then you can speak the truth.  What do they think of
+all this grand army?  Are they aware that, for their own good, it
+will very soon occupy London?  Are they forming themselves to act
+as my allies, when I have reduced them to reason?  Is it now made
+entirely familiar to their minds that resistance to me is as
+hopeless as it has been from the first unwise?  If they would
+submit, without my crossing, it would save them some disturbance,
+and me a great expense.  I have often hoped to hear of it."
+
+"You will never do that, sire," Scudamore answered, looking calmly
+and firmly at the deep gray eyes, whose gaze could be met by none
+of the millions who dread passion; "England will not submit, even
+if you conquer her."
+
+"It is well said, and doubtless you believe it," Napoleon
+continued, with a smile so slight that to smile in reply to it
+would have been impertinent; "but England is the same as other
+nations, although the most obstinate among them.  When her capital
+is occupied, her credit ruined, her great lords unable to obtain a
+dinner, the government (which is not the country) will yield, and
+the country must follow it.  I have heard that the King, and the
+Court, and the Parliament, talk of flying to the north, and there
+remaining, while the navy cuts off our communications, and the
+inferior classes starve us.  Have you heard of any such romance as
+that?"
+
+"No, sire:" Scudamore scarcely knew what to call him, but adopted
+this vocative for want of any better.  "I have never heard of any
+such plan, and no one would think of packing up, until our fleet
+has been demolished."
+
+"Your fleet?  Yes, yes.  How many ships are now parading to and
+fro, and getting very tired of it?"
+
+"Your Majesty's officers know that best," Scudamore answered, with
+his pleasant open smile.  "I have been a prisoner for a month and
+more, and kept ten miles inland, out of sight of the sea."
+
+"But you have been well treated, I hope.  You have no complaint to
+make, Monsieur Scutamour?  Your name is French, and you speak the
+language well.  We set the fair example in the treatment of brave
+men."
+
+"Sire, I have been treated," the young officer replied, with a low
+bow, and eyes full of gratitude, "as a gentleman amongst gentlemen.
+I might say as a friend among kind friends."
+
+"That is as it should be.  It is my wish always.  Few of your
+English fabrications annoy me more than the falsehoods about that.
+It is most ungenerous, when I do my best, to charge me with
+strangling brave English captains.  But Desportes fought well,
+before you took his vessel.  Is it not so?  Speak exactly as you
+think.  I like to hear the enemy's account of every action."
+
+"Captain Desportes, sire, fought like a hero, and so did all his
+crew.  It was only his mishap in sticking fast upon a sand-bank
+that enabled us to overpower him."
+
+"And now he has done the like to you.  You speak with a brave man's
+candour.  You shall be at liberty to see the sea, monsieur; for a
+sailor always pines for that.  I will give full instructions to
+your friend Desportes about you.  But one more question before you
+go--is there much anxiety in England?"
+
+"Yes, sire, a great deal.  But we hope not to allow your Majesty's
+armament to enter and increase it."
+
+"Ah, we shall see, we shall see how that will be.  Now farewell,
+Captain.  Tell Desportes to come to me."
+
+"Well, my dear friend, you have made a good impression," said the
+French sailor, when he rejoined Scudamore, after a few words with
+the Master of the State; "all you have to do is to give your word
+of honour to avoid our lines, and keep away from the beach, and of
+course to have no communication with your friends upon military
+subjects.  I am allowed to place you for the present at Beutin, a
+pleasant little hamlet on the Canche, where lives an old relative
+of mine, a Monsieur Jalais, an ancient widower, with a large house
+and one servant.  I shall be afloat, and shall see but little of
+you, which is the only sad part of the business.  You will have to
+report yourself to your landlord at eight every morning and at
+eight o'clock at night, and only to leave the house between those
+hours, and not to wander more than six miles from home.  How do
+these conditions approve themselves to you?"
+
+"I call them very liberal, and very handsome," Scudamore answered,
+as he well might do.  "Two miles' range is all that we allow in
+England to French officers upon parole.  These generous terms are
+due to your kind friendship."
+
+Before very long the gentle Scuddy was as happy as a prisoner can
+expect to be, in his comfortable quarters at Beutin.  Through
+friendly exchanges he had received a loving letter from his mother,
+with an amiable enclosure, and M. Jalais being far from wealthy, a
+pleasant arrangement was made between them.  Scudamore took all his
+meals with his host, who could manage sound victuals like an
+Englishman, and the house-keeper, house-cleaner, and house-feeder
+(misdescribed by Desportes as a servant, according to our
+distinctions), being a widow of mark, sat down to consider her
+cookery upon choice occasions.  Then for a long time would prevail
+a conscientious gravity, and reserve of judgment inwardly,
+everybody waiting for some other body's sentiments; until the
+author of the work, as a female, might no more abide the malignant
+silence of male reviewers.
+
+Scudamore, being very easily amused, as any good-natured young man
+is, entered with zest into all these doings, and became an
+authority upon appeal; and being gifted with depth of simplicity as
+well as high courtesy of taste, was never known to pronounce a
+wrong decision.  That is to say, he decided always in favour of the
+lady, which has been the majestic course of Justice for centuries,
+till the appearance of Mrs. -----, the lady who should have married
+the great Home-Ruler.
+
+Thus the wily Scudamore obtained a sitting-room, with the prettiest
+outlook in the house, or indeed in any house in that part of the
+world for many leagues of seeking.  For the mansion of M. Jalais
+stood in an elbow of the little river, and one window of this room
+showed the curve of tidal water widening towards the sea, while the
+other pleasantly gave eye to the upper reaches of the stream, where
+an angler of rose-coloured mind might almost hope to hook a trout.
+The sun glanced down the stream in the morning, and up it to see
+what he had done before he set; and although M. Jalais' trees were
+leafless now, they had sleeved their bent arms with green velvetry
+of moss.
+
+Scudamore brought his comfortable chair to the nook between these
+windows, and there, with a book or two belonging to his host, and
+the pipe whose silver clouds enthrone the gods of contemplation,
+many a pleasant hour was passed, seldom invaded by the sounds of
+war.  For the course of the roads, and sands of the river, kept
+this happy spot aloof from bad communications.  Like many other
+streams in northern France, the Canche had been deepened and its
+mouth improved, not for uses of commerce, but of warfare.  Veteran
+soldier and raw recruit, bugler, baker, and farrier, man who came
+to fight and man who came to write about it, all had been turned
+into navvies, diggers, drivers of piles, or of horses, or
+wheelbarrows, by the man who turned everybody into his own
+teetotum.  The Providence that guides the world showed mercy in
+sending that engine of destruction before there was a Railway for
+him to run upon.
+
+Now Scudamore being of a different sort, and therefore having
+pleased Napoleon (who detested any one at all of his own pattern),
+might have been very well contented here, and certainly must have
+been so, if he had been without those two windows.  Many a bird has
+lost his nest, and his eggs, and his mate, and even his own tail,
+by cocking his eyes to the right and left, when he should have
+drawn their shutters up.  And why?  Because the brilliance of his
+too projecting eyes has twinkled through the leaves upon the narrow
+oblong of the pupils of a spotty-eyed cat going stealthily under
+the comb of the hedge, with her stomach wired in, and her spinal
+column fluted, to look like a wrinkled blackthorn snag.  But still
+worse is it for that poor thrush, or lintie, or robin, or warbler-
+wren, if he flutters in his bosom when he spies that cat, and sets
+up his feathers, and begins to hop about, making a sad little chirp
+to his mate, and appealing to the sky to protect him and his
+family.
+
+Blyth Scudamore's case was a mixture of those two.  It would have
+been better for his comfort if he had shut his eyes; but having
+opened them, he should have stayed where he was, without any
+fluttering.  However, he acted for the best; and when a man does
+that, can those who never do so find a word to say against him?
+
+According to the best of his recollection, which was generally near
+the mark, it was upon Christmas Eve, A.D. 1804, that his curiosity
+was first aroused.  He had made up his room to look a little bit
+like home, with a few sprigs of holly, and a sheaf of laurel, not
+placed daintily as a lady dresses them, but as sprightly as a man
+can make them look, and as bright as a captive Christmas could
+expect.  The decorator shed a little sigh--if that expression may
+be pardoned by analogy, for he certainly neither fetched nor heaved
+it--and then he lit his pipe to reflect upon home blessings, and
+consider the free world outside, in which he had very little share
+at present.
+
+Mild blue eyes, such as this young man possessed, are often short-
+sighted at a moderate range, and would be fitted up with glasses in
+these artificial times, and yet at long distance they are most
+efficient, and can make out objects that would puzzle keener
+organs.  And so it was that Scudamore, with the sinking sun to help
+him, descried at a long distance down the tidal reach a peaceful-
+looking boat, which made his heart beat faster.  For a sailor's
+glance assured him that she was English--English in her rig and the
+stiff cut of her canvas, and in all those points of character to a
+seaman so distinctive, which apprise him of his kindred through the
+length of air and water, as clearly as we landsmen know a man from
+a woman at the measure of a furlong, or a quarter of a mile.  He
+perceived that it was an English pilot-boat, and that she was
+standing towards him.  At first his heart fluttered with a warm
+idea, that there must be good news for him on board that boat.
+Perhaps, without his knowledge, an exchange of prisoners might have
+been agreed upon; and what a grand Christmas-box for him, if the
+order for his release was there!  But another thought showed him
+the absurdity of this hope, for orders of release do not come so.
+Nevertheless, he watched that boat with interest and wonder.
+
+Presently, just as the sun was setting, and shadows crossed the
+water, the sail (which had been gleaming like a candle-flame
+against the haze and upon the glaze) flickered and fell, and the
+bows swung round, and her figure was drawn upon the tideway.  She
+was now within half a mile of M. Jalais' house, and Scudamore,
+though longing for a spy-glass, was able to make out a good deal
+without one.  He saw that she was an English pilot-boat, undecked,
+but fitted with a cuddy forward, rigged luggerwise, and built for
+speed, yet fit to encounter almost any Channel surges.  She was
+light in the water, and bore little except ballast.  He could not
+be sure at that distance, but he thought that the sailors must be
+Englishmen, especially the man at the helm, who was beyond
+reasonable doubt the captain.
+
+Then two long sweeps were manned amidship, with two sturdy fellows
+to tug at each; and the quiet evening air led through the soft
+rehearsal of the water to its banks the creak of tough ash thole-
+pins, and the groan of gunwale, and the splash of oars, and even a
+sound of human staple, such as is accepted by the civilized world
+as our national diapason.
+
+The captive Scuddy, who observed all this, was thoroughly puzzled
+at that last turn.  Though the craft was visibly English, the crew
+might still have been doubtful, if they had held their tongues, or
+kept them in submission.  But that word stamped them, or at any
+rate the one who had been struck in the breast by the heavy timber,
+as of genuine British birth.  Yet there was no sign that these men
+were prisoners, or acting by compulsion.  No French boat was near
+them, no batteries there commanded their course, and the pilot-boat
+carried no prize-crew to direct reluctant labours.  At the mouth of
+the river was a floating bridge, for the use of the forces on
+either side, and no boat could have passed it without permission.
+Therefore these could be no venturesome Britons, spying out the
+quarters of the enemy; either they must have been allowed to pass
+for some special purpose, under flag of truce, or else they were
+traitors, in league with the French, and despatched upon some dark
+errand.
+
+In a few minutes, as the evening dusk began to deepen round her,
+the mysterious little craft disappeared in a hollow of the uplands
+on the other side of the water, where a narrow creek or inlet--such
+as is called a "pill" in some parts of England--formed a sheltered
+landing-place, overhung with clustering trees.  Then Scudamore
+rose, and filled another pipe, to meditate upon this strange
+affair.  "I am justly forbidden," he thought, as it grew dark, "to
+visit the camp, or endeavour to learn anything done by the army of
+invasion.  And I have pledged myself to that effect.  But this is a
+different case altogether.  When Englishmen come here as traitors
+to their country, and in a place well within my range, my duty is
+to learn the meaning of it; and if I find treachery of importance
+working, then I must consider about my parole, and probably
+withdraw it.  That would be a terrible blow to me, because I should
+certainly be sent far inland, and kept in a French prison perhaps
+for years, with little chance of hearing from my friends again.
+And then she would give me up as lost, that faithful darling, who
+has put aside all her bright prospects for my sake.  How I wish I
+had never seen that boat! and I thought it was coming to bring me
+such good news!  I am bound to give them one day's grace, for they
+might not know where to find me at once, and to-night I could not
+get near them, without overstaying my time to be in-doors.  But if
+I hear nothing to-morrow, and see nothing, I must go round, so as
+not to be seen, and learn something about her the very next
+morning."
+
+Hearing nothing and seeing no more, he spent an uncomfortable
+Christmas Day, disappointing his host and kind Madame Fropot, who
+had done all they knew to enliven him with a genuine English plum-
+pudding.  And the next day, with a light foot but rather heavy
+heart, he made the long round by the bridge up-stream, and examined
+the creek which the English boat had entered.  He approached the
+place very cautiously, knowing that if his suspicions were correct,
+they might be confirmed too decisively, and his countrymen, if they
+had fire-arms, would give him a warm reception.  However, there was
+no living creature to be seen, except a poor terrified ox, who had
+escaped from the slaughter-houses of the distant camp, and hoped
+for a little rest in this dark thicket.  He was worn out with his
+long flight and sadly wounded, for many men had shot at him, when
+he desired to save his life; and although his mouth was little more
+than the length of his tail from water, there he lay gasping with
+his lips stretched out, and his dry tongue quivering between his
+yellow teeth, and the only moisture he could get was running out
+instead of into his mouth.
+
+Scudamore, seeing that the coast was clear, and no enemy in chase
+of this poor creature, immediately filled his hat with fresh water--
+for the tide was out now, and the residue was sweet--and speaking
+very gently in the English language, for he saw that he must have
+been hard-shouted at in French, was allowed without any more
+disturbance of the system to supply a little glad refreshment.  The
+sorely afflicted animal licked his lips, and looked up for another
+hatful.
+
+Captain Scuddy deserved a new hat for this--though very few
+Englishmen would not have done the like--and in the end he got it,
+though he must have caught a bad cold if he had gone without a hat
+till then.
+
+Pursuing his search, with grateful eyes pursuing him, he soon
+discovered where the boat had grounded, by the impress of her keel
+and forefoot on the stiff retentive mud.  He could even see where a
+hawser had been made fast to a staunch old trunk, and where the
+soil had been prodded with a pole in pushing her off at the turn of
+tide.  Also deep tracks of some very large hound, or wolf, or
+unknown quadruped, in various places, scarred the bank.  And these
+marks were so fresh and bright that they must have been made within
+the last few hours, probably when the last ebb began.  If so, the
+mysterious craft had spent the whole of Christmas Day in that snug
+berth; and he blamed himself for permitting his host's festivities
+to detain him.  Then he took a few bearings to mark the spot, and
+fed the poor crippled ox with all the herbage he could gather,
+resolving to come with a rope to-morrow, and lead him home, if
+possible, as a Christmas present to M. Jalais.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII
+
+KIND ENQUIRIES
+
+
+That notable year, and signal mark in all the great annals of
+England, the year 1805, began with gloom and great depression.
+Food was scarce, and so was money; wars, and rumours of worse than
+war; discontent of men who owed it to their birth and country to
+stand fast, and trust in God, and vigorously defy the devil;
+sinkings even of strong hearts, and quailing of spirits that had
+never quailed before; passionate outcry for peace without honour,
+and even without safety; savage murmurings at wise measures and at
+the burdens that must be borne--none but those who lived through
+all these troubles could count half of them.  If such came now,
+would the body of the nation strive to stand against them, or fall
+in the dust, and be kicked and trampled, sputtering namby-pamby?
+Britannia now is always wrong, in the opinion of her wisest sons,
+if she dares to defend herself even against weak enemies; what then
+would her crime be if she buckled her corselet against the world!
+To prostitute their mother is the philanthropy of Communists.
+
+But while the anxious people who had no belief in foreigners were
+watching by the dark waves, or at the twilight window trembling (if
+ever a shooting-star drew train, like a distant rocket-signal), or
+in their sleepy beds scared, and jumping up if a bladder burst upon
+a jam-pot, no one attempted to ridicule them, and no public journal
+pronounced that the true British flag was the white feather.  It
+has been left for times when the power of England is tenfold what
+it was then, and her duties a hundredfold, to tell us that sooner
+than use the one for the proper discharge of the other, we must
+break it up and let them go to pot upon it, for fear of hurting
+somebody that stuck us in the back.
+
+But who of a right mind knows not this, and who with a wrong one
+will heed it?  The only point is that the commonest truisms come
+upon utterance sometimes, and take didactic form too late; even as
+we shout to our comrade prone, and beginning to rub his poor nose,
+"Look out!"  And this is what everybody did with one accord, when
+he was down upon his luck--which is far more momentous than his
+nose to any man--in the case of Rector Twemlow.
+
+That gentleman now had good reason for being in less than his usual
+cheer and comfort.  Everything around him was uneasy, and everybody
+seemed to look at him, instead of looking up to him, as the manner
+used to be.  This was enough to make him feel unlike himself; for
+although he was resolute in his way, and could manage to have it
+with most people, he was not of that iron style which takes the
+world as wax to write upon.  Mr. Twemlow liked to heave his text at
+the people of his parish on Sunday, and to have his joke with them
+on Monday; as the fire that has burned a man makes the kettle sing
+to comfort him.  And all who met him throughout the week were
+pleased with him doubly, when they remembered his faithfulness in
+the pulpit.
+
+But now he did his duty softly, as if some of it had been done to
+him; and if anybody thanked him for a fine discourse, he never
+endeavoured to let him have it all again.  So far was he gone from
+his natural state that he would rather hear nothing about himself
+than be praised enough to demand reply; and this shows a world-wide
+depression to have arrived in the latitude of a British waistcoat.
+However, he went through his work, as a Briton always does, until
+he hangs himself; and he tried to try some of the higher
+consolation, which he knew so well how to administer to others.
+
+Those who do not understand the difference of this might have been
+inclined to blame him; but all who have seen a clever dentist with
+the toothache are aware that his knowledge adds acuteness to the
+pain.  Mr. Twemlow had borne great troubles well, and been cheerful
+even under long suspense; but now a disappointment close at home,
+and the grief of beholding his last hopes fade, were embittered by
+mystery and dark suspicions.  In despair at last of recovering his
+son, he had fastened upon his only daughter the interest of his
+declining life; and now he was vexed with misgivings about her,
+which varied as frequently as she did.  It was very unpleasant to
+lose the chance of having a grandchild capable of rocking in a
+silver cradle; but that was a trifle compared with the prospect of
+having no grandchild at all, and perhaps not even a child to close
+his eyes.  And even his wife, of long habit and fair harmony, from
+whom he had never kept any secret--frightful as might be the cost
+to his honour--even Mrs. Twemlow shook her head sometimes, when the
+arrangement of her hair permitted it, and doubted whether any of
+the Carne Castle Carnes would have borne with such indignity.
+
+"Prosecute him, prosecute him," this good lady always said.  "You
+ought to have been a magistrate, Joshua--the first magistrate in
+the Bible was that--and then you would have known how to do things.
+But because you would have to go to Sir Charles Darling--whose Sir
+can never put him on the level of the Carnes--you have some right
+feeling against taking out a summons.  In that I agree with you; it
+would be very dreadful here.  But in London he might be punished, I
+am sure; and I know a great deal about the law, for I never had any
+one connected with me who was not a magistrate; the Lord Mayor has
+a Court of his own for trying the corporation under the chair; and
+if this was put properly before him by a man like Mr. Furkettle,
+upon the understanding that he should not be paid unless he won his
+case, I am sure the result would be three years' imprisonment.  By
+that time he would have worn out his coat with jailer's keys upon
+it, which first attracted our poor Eliza; or if he was not allowed
+to wear it, it would go out of fashion, and be harmless.  No one
+need know a word about it here, for Captain Stubbard would oblige
+us gladly by cutting it out of the London papers.  My dear, you
+have nobody ill in the parish; I will put up your things, and see
+you off to-morrow.  We will dine late on Friday, to suit the coach;
+and you will be quite fit for Sunday work again, if you keep up
+your legs on a chair all Saturday."
+
+"If ever I saw a straightforward man," Mr. Twemlow used to answer,
+"it was poor Percival Shargeloes.  He is gone to a better world, my
+dear.  And if he continued to be amenable to law, this is not a
+criminal, but a civil case."
+
+"A nice case of civility, Joshua!  But you always stand up for your
+sex.  Does the coach take people to a better world?  A stout
+gentleman, like him, was seen inside the coach, muffled up in a
+cravat of three colours, and eating at frequent intervals."
+
+"The very thing poor Percival never did.  That disposes to my mind
+of that foolish story.  My dear, when all truth comes to light, you
+will do justice to his memory."
+
+"Yes, I dare say.  But I should like to do it now.  If you
+entertain any dark ideas, it is your duty to investigate them.
+Also to let me share them, Joshua, as I have every right to do."
+
+This was just what the Rector could not do; otherwise he might have
+been far more happy.  Remembering that last conversation with his
+prospective son-in-law, and the poor man's declaration that the
+suspicious matter at the castle ought to be thoroughly searched out
+at once, he nourished a dark suspicion, which he feared to impart
+to his better half, the aunt of the person suspected.  But the
+longer he concealed it, the more unbearable grew this misery to a
+candid nature, until he was compelled, in self-defence, to allow it
+some sort of outlet.  "I will speak to the fellow myself," he said,
+heartily disliking the young man now, "and judge from his manner
+what next I ought to do."
+
+This resolution gave him comfort, much as he hated any interview
+with Carne, who treated him generally with cold contempt.  And,
+like most people who have formed a decision for the easing of the
+conscience, he accepted very patiently the obstacles encountered.
+In the first place, Carne was away upon business; then he was laid
+up with a heavy cold; then he was much too hard at work (after
+losing so much time) to be able to visit Springhaven; and to seek
+him in his ruins was most unsafe, even if one liked to do it.  For
+now it was said that two gigantic dogs, as big as a bull and as
+fierce as a tiger, roved among the ruins all day, and being always
+famished, would devour in two minutes any tempting stranger with a
+bit of flesh or fat on him.  The Rector, patting his gaiters, felt
+that instead of a pastor he might become a very sweet repast to
+them, and his delicacy was renewed and deepened.  He was bound to
+wait until his nephew appeared at least inside his parish.
+
+Therefore the time of year was come almost to the middle of
+February when Mr. Twemlow at last obtained the chance he required
+and dreaded.  He heard that his nephew had been seen that day to
+put up his horse in the village, and would probably take the
+homeward road as soon as it grew too dark to read.  So he got
+through his own work (consisting chiefly of newspaper, dinner, and
+a cool clay pipe, to equalise mind with matter), and having thus
+escaped the ladies, off he set by the lobby door, carrying a good
+thick stick.  As the tide would be up, and only deep sand left for
+the heavy track of the traveller, he chose the inland way across
+the lower part of the Admiral's grounds, leading to the village by
+a narrow plank bridge across the little stream among some trees.
+Here were banks of earth and thicket, shadowy dells where the
+primrose grew, and the cuckoo-pint, and wood-sorrel, and perhaps in
+summer the glowworm breathed her mossy gleam under the blackberries.
+
+And here Parson Twemlow was astonished, though he had promised
+himself to be surprised no more, after all he had been through
+lately.  As he turned a sharp corner by an ivied tree, a breathless
+young woman ran into his arms.
+
+"Oh!" cried the Rector, for he was walking briskly, with a well-
+nourished part of his system forward--"oh, I hope you have not hurt
+yourself.  No doubt it was my fault.  Why, Dolly!  What a hurry you
+are in!  And all alone--all alone, almost after dark!"
+
+"To be sure; and that makes me in such a hurry;" Miss Dolly was in
+sad confusion.  "But I suppose I am safe in my father's own
+grounds."
+
+"From everybody, except yourself, my dear," Mr. Twemlow replied,
+severely.  "Is your father aware, does your sister know, that you
+are at this distance from the house after dark, and wholly without
+a companion?"
+
+"It is not after dark, Mr. Twemlow; although it is getting darker
+than I meant it to be.  I beg your pardon for terrifying you.  I
+hope you will meet with no other perils!  Good-night!  Or at least
+I mean, good-afternoon!"
+
+"The brazen creature!" thought Mr. Twemlow, as the girl without
+another word disappeared.  "Not even to offer me any excuse!  But I
+suppose she had no fib handy.  She will come to no good, I am very
+much afraid.  Maria told me that she was getting very wilful; but I
+had no idea that it was quite so bad as this.  I am sorry for poor
+Scudamore, who thinks her such an angel.  I wonder if Carne is at
+the bottom of this?  There is nothing too bad for that dark young
+man.  I shall ascertain at any rate whether he is in the village.
+But unless I look sharp I shall be too late to meet him.  Oh, I
+can't walk so fast as I did ten years ago."
+
+Impelled by duty to put best leg foremost, and taking a short-cut
+above the village, he came out upon the lane leading towards the
+castle, some half-mile or so beyond the last house of Springhaven.
+Here he waited to recover breath, and prepare for what he meant to
+say, and he was sorry to perceive that light would fail him for
+strict observation of his nephew's face.  But he chose the most
+open spot he could find, where the hedges were low, and nothing
+overhung the road.
+
+Presently he heard the sound of hoofs approaching leisurely up the
+hill, and could see from his resting-place that Carne was coming,
+sitting loosely and wearily on his high black horse.  Then the
+Rector, to cut short an unpleasant business, stood boldly forth and
+hailed him.
+
+"No time for anything now," shouted Carne; "too late already.  Do
+you want my money?  You are come to the wrong man for that; but the
+right one, I can tell you, for a bullet."
+
+"Caryl, it is I, your uncle Twemlow, or at any rate the husband of
+your aunt.  Put up your pistol, and speak to me a minute.  I have
+something important to say to you.  And I never can find you at the
+castle."
+
+"Then be quick, sir, if you please;" Carne had never condescended
+to call this gentleman his uncle.  "I have little time to spare.
+Out with it."
+
+"You were riding very slowly for a man in a hurry," said the
+Rector, annoyed at his roughness.  "But I will not keep you long,
+young man.  For some good reasons of your own you have made a point
+of avoiding us, your nearest relatives in this country, and to whom
+you addressed yourself before you landed in a manner far more
+becoming.  Have I ever pressed my attentions upon you?"
+
+"No, I confess that you have not done that.  You perceived as a
+gentleman how little there was in common between the son of a
+devoted Catholic and a heretic clergyman."
+
+"That is one way to put it," Mr. Twemlow answered, smiling in spite
+of his anger at being called a heretic; "but I was not aware that
+you had strong religious views.  However that may be, we should
+have many things in common, as Englishmen, at a time like this.
+But what I came to speak of is not that.  We can still continue to
+get on without you, although we would rather have met with friendly
+feeling and candour, as becomes relatives.  But little as you know
+of us, you must be well aware that your cousin Eliza was engaged to
+be married to a gentleman from London, Mr. Percival Shargeloes, and
+that he--"
+
+"I am sure I wish her all happiness, and congratulate you, my dear
+sir, as well as my aunt Maria.  I shall call, as soon as possible,
+to offer my best wishes.  It was very kind of you to tell me.
+Goodnight, sir, good-night!  There is a shower coming."
+
+"But," exclaimed the Rector, nonplussed for the moment by this view
+of the subject, yet standing square before the horse, "Shargeloes
+has disappeared.  What have you done with him?"
+
+Carne looked at his excellent uncle as if he had much doubt about
+his sanity.  "Try to explain yourself, my dear sir.  Try to connect
+your ideas," he said, "and offer me the benefit another time.  My
+horse is impatient; he may strike you with his foot."
+
+"If he does, I shall strike him upon the head," Mr. Twemlow
+replied, with his heavy stick ready.  "It will be better for you to
+hear me out.  Otherwise I shall procure a search-warrant, and
+myself examine your ruins, of which I know every crick and cranny.
+And your aunt Maria shall come with me, who knows every stone even
+better than you do.  That would be a very different thing from an
+overhauling by Captain Stubbard.  I think we should find a good
+many barrels and bales that had paid no duty."
+
+"My dear uncle," cried Carne, with more affection than he ever yet
+had shown, "that is no concern of yours; you have no connection
+with the Revenue; and I am sure that Aunt Maria would be loth to
+help in pulling down the family once more.  But do as you please.
+I am accustomed to ill fortune.  Only I should like to know what
+this is about poor Cousin Eliza.  If any man has wronged her, leave
+the case to me.  You have no son now, and the honour of the family
+shall not suffer in my hands.  I will throw up everything, busy as
+I am, to make such a rascal bite the dust.  And Eliza so proud, and
+so upright herself!"
+
+"Caryl," said his uncle, moved more than he liked to show by this
+fine feeling, "you know more, I see, than you liked to show at
+first, doubtless through goodwill to us.  Your dear aunt wished to
+keep the matter quiet, for the sake of poor Eliza, and her future
+chances.  But I said--No.  Let us have it all out.  If there is
+wrong, we have suffered, not done it.  Concealment is odious to
+every honest mind."
+
+"Deeply, deeply odious.  Upon that point there can be no two
+opinions"--he forgets his barrels, thought the Rector--"but surely
+this man, whatever his name is--Charleygoes--must have been hiding
+from you something in his own history.  Probably he had a wife
+already.  City men often do that when young, and then put their
+wives somewhere when they get rich, and pay visits, and even give
+dinners, as if they were bachelors to be sought after.  Was
+Charleygoes that sort of a man?"
+
+"His name is 'Shargeloes,' a name well known, as I am assured, in
+the highest quarters.  And he certainly was not sought after by us,
+but came to me with an important question bearing on ichthyology.
+He may be a wanderer, as you suggest, and as all the ladies seem to
+think.  But my firm belief is to the contrary.  And my reason for
+asking you about him is a very clear one.  He had met you twice,
+and felt interest in you as a future member of our family.  You
+had never invited him to the castle; and the last intention he
+expressed in my hearing was to call upon you without one.  Has he
+met with an accident in your cellars?  Or have your dogs devoured
+him?  He carried a good deal of flesh, in spite of all he could do
+to the contrary; and any man naturally might endeavour to hush up
+such an incident.  Tell me the truth, Caryl.  And we will try to
+meet it."
+
+"My two dogs (who would never eat any one, though they might pull
+down a stranger, and perhaps pretend to bite him) arrived here the
+first week in January.  When did Charleygoes disappear?  I am not
+up in dates, but it must have been weeks and weeks before that
+time.  And I must have heard of it, if it had happened.  I may give
+you my honour that Orso and Leo have not eaten Charleygoes."
+
+"You speak too lightly of a man in high position, who would have
+been Lord Mayor of London, if he had never come to Springhaven.
+But living or dead, he shall never be that now.  Can you answer me,
+in the same straightforward manner, as to an accident in your
+cellars; which, as a gentleman upon a private tour, he had clearly
+no right to intrude upon?"
+
+"I can answer you quite as clearly.  Nothing accidental has
+happened in my cellars.  You may come and see them, if you have any
+doubt about it.  And you need not apply for a search-warrant."
+
+"God forbid, my dear fellow," cried the uncle, "that I should
+intrude upon any little matters of delicacy, such as are apt to
+arise between artificial laws and gentlemen who happen to live near
+the sea, and to have large places that require restoring!  I shall
+go home with a lighter heart.  There is nothing in this world that
+brings the comfort of straightforwardness."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII
+
+TIME AND PLACE
+
+
+In a matter like that French invasion, which had been threatened
+for such a time, and kept so long impending, "the cry of wolf"
+grows stale at last, and then the real danger comes.  Napoleon had
+reckoned upon this, as he always did upon everything, and for that
+good reason he had not grudged the time devoted to his home
+affairs.  These being settled according to his will, and mob turned
+into pomp as gaily as grub turns into butterfly, a strong desire
+for a little more glory arose in his mighty but ill-regulated mind.
+If he could only conquer England, or even without that fetch her
+down on her knees and make her lick her own dust off the feet of
+Frenchmen, from that day forth all the nations of the earth must
+bow down before him.  Russia, Prussia, Austria, Spain, though they
+might have had the power, never would have plucked the spirit up,
+to resist him hand in hand, any more than skittle-pins can back one
+another up against the well-aimed ball.
+
+The balance of to-be or not-to-be, as concerned our country (which
+many now despise, as the mother of such disloyal children), after
+all that long suspension, hung in the clouds of that great year;
+and a very cloudy year it was, and thick with storms on land and
+sea.  Storm was what the Frenchmen longed for, to disperse the
+British ships; though storm made many an Englishman, pulling up the
+counterpane as the window rattled, thank the Father of the weather
+for keeping the enemy ashore and in a fright.  But the greatest
+peril of all would be in the case of fog succeeding storm, when the
+mighty flotilla might sweep across before our ships could resume
+blockade, or even a frigate intercept.
+
+One of the strangest points in all this period of wonders, to us
+who after the event are wise, is that even far-sighted Nelson and
+his watchful colleagues seem to have had no inkling of the enemy's
+main project.  Nelson believed Napoleon to be especially intent on
+Egypt; Collingwood expected a sudden dash on Ireland; others were
+sure that his object was Jamaica; and many maintained that he would
+step ashore in India.  And these last came nearest to the mark upon
+the whole, for a great historian (who declares, like Caryl Carne,
+that a French invasion is a blessing to any country) shows that,
+for at least a month in the spring of 1805, his hero was revolving
+a mighty scheme for robbing poor England of blissful ravage, and
+transferring it to India.
+
+However, the master of the world--as he was called already, and
+meant soon to be--suddenly returned to his earlier design, and
+fixed the vast power of his mind upon it.  He pushed with new
+vigour his preparations, which had been slackened awhile, he added
+30,000 well-trained soldiers to his force already so enormous, and
+he breathed the quick spirit of enterprise into the mighty mass he
+moved.  Then, to clear off all obstacles, and ensure clear speed of
+passage, he sent sharp orders to his Admirals to elude and delude
+the British fleets, and resolved to enhance that delusion by his
+own brief absence from the scene.
+
+Meanwhile a man of no importance to the world, and of very moderate
+ambition, was passing a pleasant time in a quiet spot, content to
+be scarcely a spectator even of the drama in rehearsal around him.
+Scudamore still abode with M. Jalais, and had won his hearty
+friendship, as well as the warm good-will of that important
+personage Madame Fropot.  Neither of these could believe at first
+that any Englishman was kind and gentle, playful in manner, and
+light-hearted, easily pleased, and therefore truly pleasing.  But
+as soon as they saw the poor wounded ox brought home by a ford, and
+settled happily in the orchard, and received him as a free gift
+from their guest, national prejudices dwindled very fast, and
+domestic good feeling grew faster.  M. Jalais, although a sound
+Frenchman, hated the Empire and all that led up to it; and as for
+Madame Fropot, her choicest piece of cookery might turn into
+cinders, if anybody mentioned conscription in her presence.  For
+she had lost her only son, the entire hope of her old days, as well
+as her only daughter's lover, in that lottery of murder.
+
+Nine out of ten of the people in the village were of the same way
+of thinking.  A great army cannot be quartered anywhere, even for a
+week, without scattering brands of ill-will all around it.  The
+swagger of the troops, their warlike airs, and loud contempt of the
+undrilled swain, the dash of a coin on the counter when they deign
+to pay for anything, the insolent wink at every modest girl, and
+the coarse joke running along apish mouths--even before dark crime
+begins, native antipathy is sown and thrives.  And now for nearly
+four years this coast had never been free from the arrogant strut,
+the clanking spur, and the loud guffaw, which in every age and
+every clime have been considered the stamp of valour by plough-boys
+at the paps of Bellona.  So weary was the neighbourhood of this
+race, new conscripts always keeping up the pest, that even the good
+M. Jalais longed to hear that the armament lay at the bottom of the
+Channel.  And Scudamore would have been followed by the good wishes
+of every house in the village, if he had lifted his hat and said,
+"Good-bye, my dear friends; I am breaking my parole."
+
+For this, though encouraged by the popular voice, he was not
+sufficiently liberal, but stayed within bounds of space and time
+more carefully than if he had been watched.  Captain Desportes, who
+had been in every way a true friend to him, came to see him now and
+then, being now in command of a division of the prames, and
+naturally anxious for the signal to unmoor.  Much discourse was
+held, without brag on either side, but with equal certainty on both
+sides of success.  And in one of these talks the Englishman in the
+simplest manner told the Frenchman all that he had seen on
+Christmas Eve, and his own suspicions about it.
+
+"Understand this well," continued Scudamore; "if I discover any
+treachery on the part of my own countrymen, I shall not be able to
+stop here on the terms that have been allowed me.  Whatever the
+plan may be, I shall feel as if I were a party to it, if I accepted
+my free range and swallowed my suspicions.  With your proceedings I
+do not meddle, according to fair compact, and the liberal
+conditions offered.  But to see my own countrymen playing my
+country false is more than I could stand.  You know more of such
+things than I do.  But if you were an Englishman, could you endure
+to stand by and hide treachery, for the sake of your own comfort?"
+
+"Beyond a doubt, no," Captain Desportes answered, spreading his
+hand with decision: "in such a case I should throw up my parole.
+But a mere suspicion does not justify an act so ungracious to the
+commander, and personally so unkind to me.  I hoped that bright
+eyes might persuade you to forego hard knocks, and wear none but
+gentle chains among us.  Nature intended you for a Frenchman.  You
+have the gay heart, and the easy manner, and the grand philosophy
+of our great nation.  Your name is Blyth, and I know what that
+intends."
+
+Scudamore blushed, for he knew that Madame Fropot was doing her
+best to commit him with a lovely young lady not far off, who had
+felt a tender interest in the cheerful English captive.  But after
+trying to express once more the deep gratitude he felt towards
+those who had been so wonderfully kind and friendly, he asked with
+a smile, and a little sigh behind it, what he must do, if compelled
+by duty to resign his present privileges.
+
+"My faith!  I scarcely know," replied Desportes; "I have never had
+such a case before.  But I think you must give me a written notice,
+signed by yourself and by M. Jalais, and allow a week to pass, and
+then, unless you have heard from me, present yourself to the
+commandant of the nearest post, which must be, I suppose, at
+Etaples.  Rather a rough man he is; and I fear you will have reason
+for regret.  The duty will then remain with him.  But I beg you, my
+dear friend, to continue as you are.  Tush, it is nothing but some
+smuggler's work."
+
+Scudamore hoped that he might be right, and for some little time
+was not disturbed by any appearance to the contrary.  But early in
+the afternoon one day, when the month of March was near its close,
+he left his books for a little fresh air, and strolled into the
+orchard, where his friend the ox was dwelling.  This worthy animal,
+endowed with a virtue denied to none except the human race,
+approached him lovingly, and begged to draw attention to the
+gratifying difference betwixt wounds and scars.  He offered his
+broad brow to the hand, and his charitable ears to be tickled, and
+breathed a quick issue of good feeling and fine feeding, from the
+sensitive tucks of his nostrils, as a large-hearted smoker makes
+the air go up with gratitude.
+
+But as a burnt child dreads the fire, the seriously perforated
+animal kept one eye vigilant of the northern aspect, and the other
+studious of the south.  And the gentle Scuddy (who was finding all
+things happy, which is the only way to make them so) was startled
+by a sharp jerk of his dear friend's head.  Following the clue of
+gaze, there he saw, coming up the river with a rollicking self-
+trust, a craft uncommonly like that craft which had mounted every
+sort of rig and flag, and carried every kind of crew, in his many
+dreams about her.  This made him run back to his room at once, not
+only in fear of being seen upon the bank, but also that he might
+command a better view, with the help of his landlord's old spy-
+glass.
+
+Using this, which he had cleaned from the dust of ages, he could
+clearly see the faces of the men on board.  Of these there were
+six, of whom five at least were Englishmen, or of English breed.
+As the pilot-boat drew nearer, and the sunlight fell upon her, to
+his great surprise he became convinced that the young man at the
+tiller was Dan Tugwell, the son of the captain of Springhaven.
+Four of the others were unknown to him, though he fancied that he
+had seen two of them before, but could not remember when or where.
+But he watched with special interest the tall man lounging against
+the little door of the cuddy in the bows, whose profile only was
+presented to him.  Then the boat canted round towards the entrance
+of the creek, and having his glass upon the full face of the man,
+he recognised him as Caryl Carne, whom he had met more than once at
+Springhaven.
+
+His darkest suspicions were at once redoubled, and a gush of latent
+jealousy was added to them.  In happier days, when he was near his
+lady-love, some whispers had reached him about this fellow, whose
+countenance had always been repulsive to him, arrogant, moody, and
+mysterious.  His good mother also, though most careful not to
+harass him, had mentioned that Carne in her latest letter, and by
+no means in a manner to remove his old misgivings.  As a matter now
+of duty to his country and himself, the young sailor resolved to
+discover, at any risk, what traitorous scheme had brought this dark
+man over here.
+
+To escape the long circuit by the upper bridge, he had obtained
+leave, through M. Jalais, to use an old boat which was kept in a
+bend of the river about a mile above the house.  And now, after
+seeing that English boat make for the creek where she had been
+berthed on Christmas Eve, he begged Madame Fropot to tell his host
+not to be uneasy about him, and taking no weapon but a ground-ash
+stick, set forth to play spy upon traitors.  As surely as one foot
+came after the other, he knew that every step was towards his
+grave, if he made a mistake, or even met bad luck; but he twirled
+his light stick in his broad brown hand, and gently invaded the
+French trees around with an old English song of the days when still
+an Englishman could compose a song.  But this made him think of
+that old-fashioned place Springhaven; and sadness fell upon him,
+that the son of its captain should be a traitor.
+
+Instead of pulling across the river, to avoid the splash of oars he
+sculled with a single oar astern, not standing up and wallowing in
+the boat, but sitting and cutting the figure of 8 with less noise
+than a skater makes.  The tide being just at slack-water, this gave
+him quite as much way as he wanted, and he steered into a little
+bight of the southern bank, and made fast to a stump, and looked
+about; for he durst not approach the creek until the light should
+fade and the men have stowed tackle and begun to feed.  The vale of
+the stream afforded shelter to a very decent company of trees,
+which could not have put up with the tyranny of the west wind upon
+the bare brow of the coast.  Most of these trees stood back a
+little from the margin of high tide, reluctant to see themselves in
+the water, for fear of the fate of Narcissus.  But where that
+clandestine boat had glided into gloom and greyness, a fosse of
+Nature's digging, deeply lined with wood and thicket, offered snug
+harbourage to craft and fraud.
+
+Scudamore had taken care to learn the ups and downs of the
+riverside ere this, and knew them now as well as a native, for he
+had paid many visits to the wounded ox, whom he could not lead home
+quite as soon as he had hoped, and he had found a firm place of the
+little river, easy to cross when the tide was out.  With the help
+of this knowledge he made his way to the creek, without much risk
+of being observed, and then, as he came to the crest of the
+thicket, he lay down and watched the interlopers.
+
+There was the boat, now imbedded in the mud, for the little creek
+was nearly dry by this time.  Her crew had all landed, and kindled
+a fire, over which hung a kettle full of something good, which they
+seemed to regard with tender interest; while upon a grassy slope
+some few yards to the right a trooper's horse was tethered.  Carne
+was not with them, but had crossed the creek, as the marks of his
+boots in the mud declared; and creeping some little way along the
+thicket, Scudamore descried him walking to and fro impatiently in a
+little hollow place, where the sailors could not see him.  This was
+on Scudamore's side of the creek, and scarcely fifty yards below
+him.  "He is waiting for an interview with somebody," thought
+Scuddy: "if I could only get down to that little shanty, perhaps I
+should hear some fine treason.  The wind is the right way to bring
+me every word he says."
+
+Keeping in shelter when the traitor walked towards him, and
+stealing on silently when his back was turned, the young sailor
+managed to ensconce himself unseen in the rough little wattle shed
+made by his own hands for the shelter of his patient, when a snow-
+storm had visited the valley of the Canche last winter.  Nothing
+could be better fitted for his present purpose, inasmuch as his
+lurking-place could scarcely be descried from below, being
+sheltered by two large trees and a screen of drooping ivy, betwixt
+and below which it looked no more than a casual meeting of bushes;
+while on the other hand the open space beneath it was curved like a
+human ear, to catch the voice and forward it.
+
+While Scudamore was waiting here and keenly watching everything,
+the light began to falter, and the latest gleam of sunset trembled
+with the breath of Spring among the buds and catkins.  But the tall
+man continued his long, firm stride, as if the watch in his pocket
+were the only thing worth heeding.  Until, as the shadows lost
+their lines and flowed into the general depth, Carne sprang
+forward, and a horse and rider burst into the silence of the grass
+and moss and trees.
+
+Carne made a low obeisance, retired a little, and stood hat in
+hand, until it should please the other man to speak.  And Scudamore
+saw, with a start of surprise, that the other man was Napoleon.
+
+This great man appeared, to the mild English eyes that were
+watching him so intently, of a very different mood and visage from
+those of their last view of him.  Then the face, which combined the
+beauty of Athens with the strength of Rome, was calm, and gentle,
+and even sweet, with the rare indulgence of a kindly turn.  But
+now, though not disturbed with wrath, nor troubled by disappointment,
+that face (which had helped to make his fortune, more than any
+woman's had ever done for her) was cast, even if the mould could be
+the same, in a very different metal.  Stern force and triumphant
+vigour shone in every lineament, and the hard bright eyes were
+intent with purpose that would have no denial.
+
+Refusing Carne's aid, he remained on his horse, and stroked his
+mane for a moment, for he loved any creature that served him well,
+and was tender of heart when he could afford it; which added to his
+power with mankind.
+
+"Are all your men well out of earshot?" he asked; and receiving
+assurance from Carne, went on.  "Now you will be satisfied at
+length.  You have long been impatient.  It is useless to deny it.
+All is arranged, and all comes to a head within three months, and
+perhaps within two.  Only four men will know it besides yourself,
+and three of those four are commanders of my fleet.  A short time
+will be occupied in misleading those British ships that beleaguer
+us; then we concentrate ours, and command the Channel; if only for
+three days, that will be enough.  I depart for Italy in three days
+or in four, to increase the security of the enemy.  But I shall
+return, without a word to any one, and as fast as horses can lay
+belly to the ground, when I hear that our ships have broken out.  I
+shall command the invasion, and it will be for England to find a
+man to set against me."
+
+"England will have difficulty, sire, in doing that," Carne
+answered, with a grim smile, for he shared the contempt of English
+Generals then prevalent.  "If the Continent cannot do it, how can
+the poor England?  Once let your Majesty land, and all is over.
+But what are your Majesty's orders for me?  And where do you
+propose to make the landing?"
+
+"Never ask more than one question at a time," Napoleon answered,
+with his usual curtness; "my orders to you are to return at once.
+Prepare your supplies for a moment's notice.  Through private
+influence of some fair lady, you have command of the despatches of
+that officer at Springport, who has the control of the naval forces
+there.  Ha! what was that?  I heard a sound up yonder.  Hasten up,
+and see if there is any listener.  It seemed to be there, where the
+wood grows thick."
+
+Blyth Scudamore, forgetful of himself, had moved, and a dry stick
+cracked beneath his foot.  Carne, at the Emperor's glance and
+signal, sprang up the bank, with the help of some bushes, drew his
+sword and passed it between the wattles, then parted them and
+rushed through, but saw no sign of any one.  For Scuddy had slipped
+away, as lightly as a shadow, and keeping in a mossy trough, had
+gained another shelter.  Here he was obliged to slink in the
+smallest possible compass, kneeling upon both knees, and shrugging
+in both shoulders.  Peering very sharply through an intertwist of
+suckers (for his shelter was a stool of hazel, thrown up to repair
+the loss of stem), he perceived that the Emperor had moved his
+horse a little when Carne rejoined and reassured him.  And this
+prevented Scudamore from being half so certain as he would have
+liked to be, about further particulars of this fine arrangement.
+
+"No," was the next thing he heard Napoleon say whose power of
+saying "no" had made his "yes" invincible; "no, it is not to be
+done like that.  You will await your instructions, and not move
+until you receive them from my own hand.  Make no attempt to
+surprise anybody or anything, until I have ten thousand men ashore.
+Ten thousand will in six hours attain to fifty thousand, if the
+shore proves to be as you describe; so great is the merit of flat-
+bottomed boats.  Your duty will be to leave the right surprise to
+us, and create a false one among the enemy.  This you must do in
+the distance of the West, as if my Brest fleet were ravaging there,
+and perhaps destroying Plymouth.  You are sure that you can command
+the signals for this?"
+
+"Sire, I know everything as if I sat among it.  I can do as I
+please with the fair secretary; and her father is an ancient fool."
+
+"Then success is more easy than I wish to have it, because it will
+not make good esteem.  If Nelson comes at all, he will be too late,
+as he generally is too early.  London will be in our hands by the
+middle of July at the latest, probably much earlier, and then
+Captain Carne shall name his own reward.  Meanwhile forget not any
+word of what I said.  Make the passage no more.  You will not be
+wanted here.  Your services are far more important where you are.
+You may risk the brave Charron, but not yourself.  Send over by the
+20th of May a letter to me, under care of Decres, to be opened by
+no hand but mine, upon my return from Italy, and let the messengers
+wait for my reply.  Among them must be the young man who knows the
+coast, and we will detain him for pilot.  My reply will fix the
+exact date of our landing, and then you will despatch, through the
+means at your command, any English force that might oppose our
+landing, to the West, where we shall create a false alarm.  Is all
+this clear to you?  You are not stupid.  The great point is to do
+all at the right time, having consideration of the weather."
+
+"All is clear, and shall be carried out clearly, to the best of
+your Majesty's humble servant's power."
+
+Napoleon offered his beautiful white hand, which Carne raised to
+his lips, and then the Emperor was gone.  Carne returned slowly to
+the boat, with triumph written prematurely on his dark stern face;
+while Scudamore's brisk and ruddy features were drawn out to a
+wholly unwonted length, as he quietly made his way out of the
+covert.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV
+
+IN A SAD PLIGHT
+
+
+"How shall I get out of this parole?  Or shall I break it, instead
+of getting out?  Which shall I think of first, my honour, or my
+country?  The safety of millions, or the pride of one?  An old
+Roman would have settled it very simply.  But a Christian cannot do
+things so.  Thank God there is no hurry, for a few days yet!  But I
+must send a letter to Desportes this very night.  Then I must
+consider about waiting for a week."
+
+Scudamore, unable to think out his case as yet--especially after
+running as if his wind could turn a vane--was sitting on the bank,
+to let the river-bed get darker, before he put his legs into the
+mud to get across.  For the tide was out, and the old boat high and
+dry, and a very weak water remained to be crossed (though, like
+nearly all things that are weak, it was muddy), but the channel had
+a moist gleam in the dry spring air, and anybody moving would be
+magnified afar.  He felt that it would never do for him, with such
+a secret, to be caught, and brought to book, or even to awake
+suspicion of his having it.  The ancient Roman of whom he had
+thought would have broken parole for his country's sake, and then
+fallen on his sword for his own sake; but although such behaviour
+should be much admired, it is nicer to read of such things than to
+do them.  Captain Scuddy was of large and steady nature, and
+nothing came to him with a jerk or jump--perhaps because he was
+such a jumper--and he wore his hat well on the back of his head,
+because he had no fear of losing it.  But for all that he found
+himself in a sad quandary now.
+
+To begin with, his parole was not an ordinary leave, afforded by
+his captors to save themselves trouble; but a special grace,
+issuing from friendship, and therefore requiring to be treated in a
+friendly vein.  The liberality of these terms had enabled him to
+dwell as a friend among friends, and to overhear all that he had
+heard.  In the balance of perplexities, this weighed heavily
+against his first impulse to cast away all except paramount duty to
+his country.  In the next place, he knew that private feeling urged
+him as hotly as public duty to cast away all thought of honour, and
+make off.  For what he had heard about the "fair secretary" was
+rankling bitterly in his deep heart.  He recalled at this moment
+the admirable precept of an ancient sage, that in such a conflict
+of duties the doubter should incline to the course least agreeable
+to himself, inasmuch as the reasons against it are sure to be urged
+the most feebly in self-council.  Upon the whole, the question was
+a nice one for a casuist; and if there had not been a day to spare,
+duty to his country must have overridden private faith.
+
+However, as there was time to spare, he resolved to reconcile
+private honour with the sense of public duty; and returning to his
+room, wrote a careful letter (of which he kept a copy) to his
+friend Desportes, now on board, and commanding the flagship of one
+division of the flotilla.  He simply said, without giving his
+reason, that his parole must expire in eight days after date,
+allowing one day for delivery of his letter.  Then he told M.
+Jalais what he had done, and much sorrow was felt in the household.
+When the time had expired without any answer from Captain
+Desportes, who meant to come and see him but was unable to do so,
+Scudamore packed up a few things needful, expecting to be placed in
+custody, and resolved to escape from it, at any risk of life.  Then
+he walked to Etaples, a few miles down the river, and surrendered
+himself to the commandant there.  This was a rough man--as
+Desportes had said--and with more work to do than he could manage.
+With very little ceremony he placed the English prisoner in charge
+of a veteran corporal, with orders to take him to the lock-up in
+the barracks, and there await further instructions.  And then the
+commandant, in the hurry of his duties, forgot all about him.
+
+Captain Scuddy now found himself in quarters and under treatment
+very trying to his philosophy.  Not that the men who had him in
+charge were purposely unkind to him, only they were careless about
+his comfort, and having more important work to see to, fed him at
+their leisure, which did not always coincide with his appetite.
+Much of his food was watery and dirty, and seemed to be growing its
+own vegetables, and sometimes to have overripened them.  Therefore
+he began to lose substance, and his cheeks became strangers to the
+buxom gloss which had been the delight of Madame Fropot.  But
+although they did not feed him well, they took good care of him in
+other ways, affording no chance of exit.
+
+But sour fruit often contains good pips.  Scudamore's food was not
+worth saying grace for, and yet a true blessing attended it:
+forasmuch as the Frenchmen diminished the width of their prisoner,
+but not of the window.  Falling away very rapidly, for his mind was
+faring as badly as his body (having nothing but regrets to feed
+upon, which are no better diet than daisy soup), the gentle Scuddy,
+who must have become a good wrangler if he had stopped at
+Cambridge, began to frame a table of cubic measure, and consider
+the ratio of his body to that window, or rather the aperture
+thereof.  One night, when his supper had been quite forgotten by
+everybody except himself, he lay awake thinking for hours and hours
+about his fair Dolly and the wicked Carne, and all the lies he must
+have told about her--for not a single syllable would Scudamore
+believe--and the next day he found himself become so soft and limp,
+as well as reduced to his lowest dimension, that he knew, by that
+just measure which a man takes of himself when he has but a shred
+of it left, that now he was small enough to go between the bars.
+And now it was high time to feel that assurance, for the morning
+brought news that the order for his removal to a great prison far
+inland was come, and would be carried out the next day.  "Now or
+never" was the only chance before him.
+
+Having made up his mind, he felt refreshed, and took his food with
+gratitude.  Then, as soon as the night was dark and quiet, and the
+mighty host for leagues and leagues launched into the realms of
+slumber, springing with both feet well together, as he sprang from
+the tub at Stonnington, Scuddy laid hold of the iron bars which
+spanned the window vertically, opened the lattice softly, and
+peeped out in quest of sentinels.  There were none on duty very
+near him, though he heard one pacing in the distance.  Then
+flinging himself on his side, he managed, with some pain to his
+well-rounded chest, to squeeze it through the narrow slit, and
+hanging from the bar, dropped gently.  The drop was deep, and in
+spite of all precautions he rolled to the bottom of a grassy ditch.
+There he lay quiet to rest his bruises, and watch whether any alarm
+was raised.  Luckily for him, the moon was down, and no one had
+observed his venture.  Crawling on all fours along a hollow place,
+he passed the outposts, and was free.
+
+Free in mind as well as body, acquitted from all claims of honour,
+and able without a taint upon his name to bear most important news
+to England, if he could only get away from France.  This would be
+difficult, as he was well aware; but his plan had been thoroughly
+considered in his prison, and he set forth to make the best of it.
+Before his escape had been discovered, he was under M. Jalais' roof
+once more, and found his good friends resolved never to betray him.
+"But I must not expose you to the risk," said he, "of heavy fine
+and imprisonment.  I shall have to say good-bye to all your
+goodness in an hour.  And I shall not even allow you to know what
+road I take, lest you should be blamed for sending my pursuers on
+the wrong one.  But search my room in three days' time, and you
+will find a packet to pay for something which I must steal for the
+present.  I pray you, ask nothing, for your own sake."
+
+They fed him well, and he took three loaves, and a little keg of
+cider, as well as the bag he had packed before he surrendered
+himself at Etaples.  Madame Fropot wept and kissed him, because he
+reminded her of her lost son; and M. Jalais embraced him, because
+he was not at all like any son of his.  With hearty good wishes,
+and sweet regret, and promises never to forget them, the Englishman
+quitted this kind French house, and became at once a lawful and a
+likely mark for bullets.
+
+The year was now filled with the flurry of Spring, the quick nick
+of time when a man is astonished at the power of Nature's memory.
+A great many things had been left behind, mainly for their own
+good, no doubt--some of the animal, some of the vegetable, some of
+the mineral kingdom even--yet none of them started for anarchy.
+All were content to be picked up and brought on according to the
+power of the world, making allowance for the pinches of hard times,
+and the blows of east winds that had blown themselves out.  Even
+the prime grumbler of the earth--a biped, who looks up to heaven
+for that purpose mainly--was as nearly content with the present
+state of things as he can be with anything, until it is the past.
+Scudamore only met one man, but that one declared it was a lovely
+night; and perhaps he was easier to please because he had only one
+leg left.
+
+The stars had appeared, and the young leaves turned the freshness
+of their freedom towards them, whether from the crisp impulse of
+night, or the buoyant influence of kindness in the air.  There was
+very little wind, and it was laden with no sound, except the
+distant voice of an indefatigable dog; but Scudamore perceived that
+when the tide set downwards, a gentle breeze would follow down the
+funnel of the river.  Then he drew the ancient boat which he had
+used before to the mossy bank, and having placed his goods on
+board, fetched a pair of oars and the short mast and brown sail
+from the shed where they were kept, and at the top of a full tide
+launched forth alone upon his desperate enterprise.
+
+There was faint light in the channel, but the banks looked very
+dark; and just as he cast loose he heard the big clock at
+Montreuil, a great way up the valley, slowly striking midnight.
+And he took it for good omen, as he swiftly passed the orchard,
+that his old friend the ox trotted down to the corner, and showed
+his white forehead under a sprawling apple-tree, and gave him a
+salute, though he scarcely could have known him.  By this time the
+breeze was freshening nicely, and Scudamore, ceasing to row,
+stepped the mast, and hoisting the brown sail, glided along at a
+merry pace and with a hopeful heart.  Passing the mouth of the
+creek, he saw no sign of the traitorous pilot-boat, neither did he
+meet any other craft in channel, although he saw many moored at
+either bank.  But nobody challenged him, as he kept in mid-stream,
+and braced up his courage for the two great perils still before him
+ere he gained the open sea.  The first of these would be the
+outposts on either side at Etaples, not far from the barracks where
+he had been jailed, and here no doubt the sentinels would call him
+to account.  But a far greater danger would be near the river's
+mouth, where a bridge of boats, with a broad gangway for troops,
+spanned the tidal opening.
+
+There was no bridge across the river yet near the town itself, but,
+upon challenge from a sentry, Scudamore stood up and waved his hat,
+and shouted in fine nasal and provincial French, "The fisherman,
+Auguste Baudry, of Montreuil!" and the man withdrew his musket, and
+wished him good success.  Then he passed a sandy island with some
+men asleep upon it, and began to fear the daybreak as he neared the
+bridge of boats.  This crossed the estuary at a narrow part, and
+having to bear much heavy traffic, was as solid as a floating
+bridge can be.  A double row of barges was lashed and chained
+together, between piles driven deep into the river's bed; along
+them a road of heavy planks was laid, rising and falling as they
+rose and fell with tide, and a drawbridge near the middle of about
+eight yards' span must suffice for the traffic of the little river.
+This fabric was protected from the heavy western surges by the
+shoals of the bar, and from any English dash by a strong shore
+battery at either end.  At first sight it looked like a black wall
+across the river.
+
+The darkness of night is supposed to be deepest just before dawn--
+but that depends upon the weather--and the sleep of weary men is
+often in its prime at that time.  Scudamore (although his life, and
+all that life hangs on from heaven, were quivering at the puff of
+every breeze) was enabled to derive some satisfaction from a yawn,
+such as goes the round of a good company sometimes, like the smell
+of the supper of sleep that is to come.  Then he saw the dark line
+of the military bridge, and lowered his sail, and unstepped his
+little mast.  The strength of the tide was almost spent, so that he
+could deal with this barrier at his leisure, instead of being
+hurled against it.
+
+Unshipping the rudder and laying one oar astern, Scudamore fetched
+along the inner row of piles, for he durst not pass under the
+drawbridge, steering his boat to an inch while he sat with his face
+to the oar, working noiselessly.  Then he spied a narrow opening
+between two barges, and drove his boat under the chain that joined
+them, and after some fending and groping with his hands in the
+darkness under the planks of the bridge, contrived to get out,
+when he almost despaired of it, through the lower tier of the
+supporters.  He was quit of that formidable barrier now, but a
+faint flush of dawn and of reflection from the sea compelled him to
+be very crafty.  Instead of pushing straightway for the bar and
+hoisting sail--which might have brought a charge of grape-shot
+after him--he kept in the gloom of the piles nearly into the left
+bank, and then hugged the shadow it afforded.  Nothing but the
+desolate sands surveyed him, and the piles of wrack cast up by
+gales from the west.  Then with a stout heart he stepped his little
+mast, and the breeze, which freshened towards the rising of the
+sun, carried him briskly through the tumble of the bar.
+
+The young man knelt and said his morning prayer, with one hand
+still upon the tiller; for, like most men who have fought well for
+England, he had staunch faith in the Power that has made and guides
+the nations, until they rebel against it.  So far his success had
+been more than his own unaided hand might work, or his brain with
+the utmost of its labours second.  Of himself he cast all thoughts
+away, for his love seemed lost, and his delight was gone; the
+shores of his country, if he ever reached them, would contain no
+pleasure for him; but the happiness of millions might depend upon
+his life, and first of all that of his mother.
+
+All by himself in this frail old tub, he could scarcely hope to
+cross the Channel, even in the best of weather, and if he should
+escape the enemy, while his scanty supplies held out.  He had
+nothing to subsist on but three small loaves, and a little keg of
+cider, and an old tar tub which he had filled with brackish water,
+upon which the oily curdle of the tar was floating.  But, for all
+that, he trusted that he might hold out, and retain his wits long
+enough to do good service.
+
+The French coast, trending here for leagues and leagues nearly due
+north and south, is exposed to the long accumulating power of a
+western gale, and the mountain roll of billows that have known no
+check.  If even a smart breeze from the west sprang up, his rickety
+little craft, intended only for inland navigation, would have small
+chance of living through the tumult.  But his first care was to
+give a wide berth to the land and the many French vessels that were
+moored or moving, whether belonging to the great flotilla, or
+hastening to supply its wants.  Many a time he would have stood
+forth boldly, as fast as the breeze and tide permitted; but no
+sooner had he shaped a course for the open sea than some hostile
+sail appeared ahead and forced him to bear away until she was far
+onward.  Thus, after a long day of vigilance and care, he was not
+more than five miles from land when the sun set, and probably
+further from the English coast than when he set forth in the
+morning; because he had stood towards the south of west all day, to
+keep out of sight of the left wing of the enemy; and as the
+straight outline of the coast began to fade, he supposed himself to
+be about half-way between the mouth of the Canche and that of the
+little Authie.
+
+Watching with the eyes of one accustomed to the air the last
+communication of the sun, and his postscript (which, like a lady's,
+is the gist of what he means), Scudamore perceived that a change of
+weather might come shortly, and must come ere long.  There was
+nothing very angry in the sky, nor even threatening; only a general
+uncertainty and wavering; "I wish you well all round," instead of
+"Here's a guinea apiece for you."  Scuddy understood it, and
+resolved to carry on.
+
+Having no compass, and small knowledge of the coast--which lay out
+of range of the British investment--he had made up his mind to lie
+by for the night, or at any rate to move no more than he could
+help, for fear of going altogether in the wrong direction.  He
+could steer by the stars--as great mariners did, when the world was
+all discovery--so long as the stars held their skirts up; but, on
+the other hand, those stars might lead him into the thick of the
+enemy.  Of this, however, he must now take his chance, rather than
+wait and let the wind turn against him.  For his main hope was to
+get into the track where British frigates, and ships of light
+draught like his own dear Blonde, were upon patrol, inside of the
+course of the great war chariots, the ships of the line, that drave
+heavily.  Revolving much grist in the mill of his mind, as the sage
+Ulysses used to do, he found it essential to supply the motive
+power bodily.  One of Madame Fropot's loaves was very soon disposed
+of, and a good draught of sound cider helped to renew his flagging
+energy.
+
+Throughout that night he kept wide-awake, and managed to make fair
+progress, steering, as well as he could judge, a little to the west
+of north.  But before sunrise the arrears of sleep increased at
+compound interest, and he lowered his sail, and discharged a part
+of the heavy sum scored against him.  But when he awoke, and
+glanced around him with eyes that resented scanty measure, even a
+sleepy glance sufficed to show much more than he wished to see.
+Both sky and sea were overcast with doubt, and alarm, and evil
+foreboding.  A dim streak lay where the land had been, and a white
+gleam quivered from the sunrise on the waves, as if he were
+spreading water-lilies instead of scattering roses.  As the earth
+has its dew that foretells a bright day--whenever the dew is of the
+proper sort, for three kinds are established now--so the sea has a
+flit of bloom in the early morning (neither a colour, nor a
+sparkle, nor a vapour) which indicates peace and content for the
+day.  But now there was no such fair token upon it, but a heavy and
+surly and treacherous look, with lumps here and there; as a man who
+intends to abuse us thrusts his tongue to get sharp in his cheek.
+
+Scudamore saw that his poor old boat, scarcely sound enough for the
+men of Gotham, was already complaining of the uncouth manners of
+the strange place to which she had been carried in the dark.  That
+is to say, she was beginning to groan, at a very quiet slap in the
+cheeks, or even a thoroughly well-meaning push in the rear.
+
+"You are welcome to groan, if you don't strain," exclaimed the
+heartless Captain Scuddy.
+
+Even as he spoke he beheld a trickle of water glistening down the
+forward bends, and then a little rill, and then a spurt, as if a
+serious leak was sprung.  He found the source of this, and
+contrived to caulk it with a strand of tarred rope for the present;
+but the sinking of his knife into the forward timber showed him
+that a great part of the bows was rotten.  If a head-sea arose, the
+crazy old frame would be prone to break in bodily, whereas if he
+attempted to run before the sea, already beginning to rise heavily
+from the west, there was nothing to save the frail craft from being
+pooped.  On every side it was a bad lookout, there was every sign
+of a gale impending, which he could not even hope to weather, and
+the only chance of rescue lay in the prompt appearance of some
+British ship.
+
+Even in this sad plight his courage and love of native land
+prevailed against the acceptance of aid from Frenchmen, if any
+should approach to offer it.  Rather would he lie at the bottom of
+the Channel, or drift about among contending fishes, than become
+again a prisoner with his secret in his mind, and no chance of
+sending it to save his country.  As a forlorn hope, he pulled out a
+stump of pencil, and wrote on the back of a letter from his mother
+a brief memorandum of what he had heard, and of the urgency of the
+matter.  Then taking a last draught of his tarry water, he emptied
+the little tub, and fixed the head in, after he had enclosed his
+letter.  Then he fastened the tub to an oar, to improve the chance
+of its being observed, and laid the oar so that it would float off,
+in case of the frail boat foundering.  The other oar he kept at
+hand to steer with, as long as the boat should live, and to help
+him to float, when she should have disappeared.
+
+This being done, he felt easier in his mind, as a man who has
+prepared for the worst should do.  He renewed his vigour, which had
+begun to flag under constant labour and long solitude, by consuming
+another of his loaves, and taking almost the last draught of his
+cider, and after that he battled throughout the dreary day against
+the increase of bad weather.  Towards the afternoon he saw several
+ships, one of which he took to be a British frigate; but none of
+them espied his poor labouring craft, or at any rate showed signs
+of doing so.  Then a pilot-boat ran by him, standing probably for
+Boulogne, and at one time less than a league away.  She appeared to
+be English, and he was just about to make signal for aid, when a
+patch in her foresail almost convinced him that she was the traitor
+of the Canche returning.  She was probably out of her proper course
+in order to avoid the investing fleet, and she would run inside it
+when the darkness fell.  Better to go to the bottom than invoke
+such aid; and he dropped the oar with his neckerchief upon it, and
+faced the angry sea again and the lonely despair of impending
+night.
+
+What followed was wiped from his memory for years, and the loss was
+not much to be regretted.  When he tried to think about it, he
+found nothing but a roaring of wind and of waves in his ears, a
+numbness of arms as he laboured with the oar tholed abaft to keep
+her heavy head up, a prickly chill in his legs as the brine in the
+wallowing boat ran up them, and then a great wallop and gollop of
+the element too abundant round him.
+
+But at last, when long years should have brought more wisdom, he
+went poaching for supper upon Welsh rabbits.  That night all the
+ghastly time came back, and stood minute by minute before him.
+Every swing of his body, and sway of his head, and swell of his
+heart, was repeated, the buffet of the billows when the planks were
+gone, the numb grasp of the slippery oar, the sucking down of legs
+which seemed turning into sea-weed, the dashing of dollops of surf
+into mouth and nose closed ever so carefully, and then the last
+sense of having fought a good fight, but fallen away from human
+arms, into "Oh Lord, receive my spirit!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV
+
+IN SAVAGE GUISE
+
+
+"A man came out of the sea to-day, and made me believe we were all
+found out," said the gay Charron to the gloomy Carne, a day or two
+after poor Scudamore's wreck.  "I never beheld a more strange-
+looking creature as the owner of our human face divine, as some of
+your poets have found to say.  He has hair from his head all down
+to here"--the little Captain pointed to a part of his system which
+would have been larger in more tranquil times--"and his clothes
+were so thin that one was able to see through them, and the tint of
+his face was of roasted sugar, such as it is not to obtain in
+England.  A fine place for fat things, but not for thin ones."
+
+"My friend, you arouse my curiosity," the master of the feast,
+which was not a very fat one, answered, as he lazily crossed his
+long legs; "you are always apprehensive about detection, of which I
+have ceased to entertain all fear, during the short time that
+remains.  This stranger of yours must have been very wet, if he had
+just appeared out of the sea.  Was it that which made his clothes
+transparent, like those of the higher class of ladies?"
+
+"You have not the right understanding of words.  He was appeared
+out of the sea, but the wood of a boat was spread between them.  He
+was as dry as I am; and that is saying much, with nothing but this
+squeezing of bad apples for to drink."
+
+"Ah, we shall have better soon.  What an impatient throat it is!
+Well, what became of this transparent man, made of burnt sugar, and
+with hair below his belt?"
+
+"I tell you that you take it in a very different way.  But he was a
+long man, as long almost as you are, and with much less of
+indolence in the moving of his legs.  It was not sincerely wise for
+me to exhibit myself, in the land.  I was watching for a signal
+from the sea, and a large ship, not of the navy but of merchants,
+was hanging off about a league and delaying for her boat.  For this
+reason I prevented him from seeing me, and that created difficulty
+of my beholding him.  But he was going along the basin of the sea
+towards Springhaven--'Springport' it is designated by the Little
+Corporal; ah ha, how the language of the English comes left to
+him!"
+
+"And how right it comes to you, my friend, through your fine self-
+denial in speaking it with me!  It is well for our cause that it is
+not sincerely wise for you to exhibit yourself in the land, or we
+should have you making sweet eyes at English young ladies, and
+settling down to roast beef and nut-brown ale.  Fie, then, my
+friend! where is your patriotism?"
+
+"These English young ladies," said the Frenchman, unabashed, "are
+very fine, in my opinion--very fine indeed; and they could be made
+to dress, which is sincerely an external thing.  By occasion, I
+have seen the very most belle, and charming and adorable of all the
+creatures ever made by the good God.  And if she was to say to me,
+'Abandon France, my Captain, and become my good husband'--and she
+has the money also--the fair France would go to the bottom, and the
+good ship Charron hoist the Union-jack."
+
+"This becomes serious:" Carne had long learned to treat his French
+colleague with a large contempt: "I shall have to confine you in
+the Yellow Jar, my friend.  But what young lady has bewitched you
+so, and led your most powerful mind astray?"
+
+"I will tell you.  I will make no secret of it.  You have none of
+those lofty feelings, but you will be able in another to comprehend
+them.  It is the daughter of the Coast-Defender--Admiral Charles
+Sir Darling."
+
+"Admiral Darling has two daughters.  Which of them has the
+distinguished honour of winning the regard of Captain Charron?"
+
+"If there are two, it is so much more better.  If I succeed not
+with one, I will try with the other.  But the one who has made me
+captive for the present is the lady with the dark hair done up like
+this."
+
+In a moment Charron had put up his hair, which was thick but short,
+into a double sheaf; and Carne knew at once that it was Faith whose
+charms had made havoc of the patriotism of his colleague.  Then he
+smiled and said, "My friend, that is the elder daughter."
+
+"I have some knowledge of the laws of England," the Frenchman
+continued, complacently; "the elder will have the most money, and I
+am not rich, though I am courageous.  In the confusion that ensues
+I shall have the very best chance of commending myself; and I
+confide in your honourable feeling to give me the push forward by
+occasion.  Say, is it well conceived, my friend?  We never shall
+conquer these Englishmen, but we may be triumphant with their
+ladies."
+
+"It is a most excellent scheme of invasion," Carne answered, with
+his slow sarcastic smile, "and you may rely on me for what you call
+the push forward, if a Frenchman ever needs it with a lady.  But I
+wish to hear more about that brown man."
+
+"I can tell you no more.  But the matter is strange.  Perhaps he
+was visiting the fat Captain Stoobar.  I feel no solicitude
+concerning him with my angel.  She would never look twice at such a
+savage."
+
+But the gallant French Captain missed the mark this time.  The
+strange-looking man with the long brown beard quitted the shore
+before he reached the stepping-stones, and making a short-cut
+across the rabbit-warren, entered the cottage of Zebedee Tugwell,
+without even stopping to knock at the door.  The master was away,
+and so were all the children; but stout Mrs. Tugwell, with her back
+to the door, was tending the pot that hung over the fire.  At the
+sound of a footstep she turned round, and her red face grew whiter
+than the ashes she was stirring.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Erle, is it you, or your ghostie?" she cried, as she fell
+against the door of the brick oven.  "Do 'e speak, for God's sake,
+if He have given the power to 'e."
+
+"He has almost taken it away again, so far as the English language
+goes," Erle Twemlow answered, with a smile which was visible only
+in his eyes, through long want of a razor; "but I am picking up a
+little.  Shake hands, Kezia, and then you will know me.  Though I
+have not quite recovered that art as yet."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Erle!" exclaimed Zebedee's wife, with tears ready to start
+for his sake and her own, "how many a time I've had you on my
+knees, afore I was blessed with any of my own, and a bad sort of
+blessing the best of 'em proves.  Not that I would listen to a word
+again' him.  I suppose you never did happen to run again' my
+Dan'el, in any of they furrin parts, from the way they makes the
+hair grow.  I did hear tell of him over to Pebbleridge; but not
+likely, so nigh to his own mother, and never come no nigher.  And
+if they furrin parts puts on the hair so heavily, who could 'a
+known him to Pebbleridge?  They never was like we be.  They'd as
+lief tell a lie as look at you, over there."
+
+In spite of his own long years of trouble, or perhaps by reason of
+them, Erle Twemlow, eager as he was to get on, listened to the sad
+tale that sought for his advice, and departed from wisdom--as good-
+nature always does--by offering useless counsel--counsel that could
+not be taken, and yet was far from being worthless, because it
+stirred anew the fount of hope, towards which the parched
+affections creep.
+
+"But Lor bless me, sir, I never thought of you!" Mrs. Tugwell
+exclaimed, having thought out her self.  "What did Parson say, and
+your mother, and Miss Faith?  It must 'a been better than a play to
+see them."
+
+"Not one of them knows a word about it yet; nor anybody in
+Springhaven, except you, Kezia.  You were as good as my nurse, you
+know; I have never had a chance of writing to them, and I want you
+to help me to let them know it slowly."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Erle, what a lovely young woman your Miss Faith is grown
+up by now!  Some thinks more of Miss Dolly, but, to my mind, you
+may as well put a mackerel before a salmon, for the sake of the
+stripes and the glittering.  Now what can I do to make you decent,
+sir, for them duds and that hair is barbarious?  My Tabby and Debby
+will be back in half an hour, and them growing up into young
+maidens now."
+
+Twemlow explained that after living so long among savages in a
+burning clime, he had found it impossible to wear thick clothes,
+and had been rigged up in some Indian stuff by the tailor of the
+ship which had rescued him.  But now he supposed he must reconcile
+himself by degrees to the old imprisonment.  But as for his hair,
+that should never be touched, unless he was restored to the British
+Army, and obliged to do as the others did.  With many little jokes
+of a homely order, Mrs. Tugwell, regarding him still as a child,
+supplied him with her husband's summer suit of thin duck, which was
+ample enough not to gall him; and then she sent her daughters with
+a note to the Rector, begging him to come at seven o'clock to meet
+a gentleman who wished to see him upon important business, near the
+plank bridge across the little river.  Erle wrote that note, but
+did not sign it; and after many years of happy freedom from the
+pen, his handwriting was so changed that his own father would not
+know it.  What he feared was the sudden shock to his good mother;
+his father's nerves were strong, and must be used as buffers.
+
+"Another trouble, probably; there is nothing now but trouble," Mr.
+Twemlow was thinking, as he walked unwillingly towards the place
+appointed.  "I wish I could only guess what I can have done to
+deserve all these trials, as I become less fit to bear them.  I
+would never have come to this lonely spot, except that it may be
+about Shargeloes.  Everything now is turned upside down; but the
+Lord knows best, and I must bear it.  Sir, who are you?  And what
+do you want me for?"
+
+At the corner where Miss Dolly had rushed into the Rector's open
+arms so fast, a tall man, clad in white, was standing, with a staff
+about eight feet long in his hand.  Having carried a spear for four
+years now, Captain Twemlow found no comfort in his native land
+until he had cut the tallest growth in Admiral Darling's osier bed,
+and peeled it, and shaved it to a seven-sided taper.  He rested
+this point in a socket of moss, that it might not be blunted, and
+then replied:
+
+"Father, you ought to know me, although you have grown much stouter
+in my absence; and perhaps I am thinner than I used to be.  But the
+climate disagreed with me, until I got to like it."
+
+"Erle!  Do you mean to say you are my boy Erle?"  The Rector was
+particular about his clothes.  "Don't think of touching me.  You
+are hair all over, and I dare say never had a comb.  I won't
+believe a word of it until you prove it."
+
+"Well, mother will know me, if you don't."  The young man answered
+calmly, having been tossed upon so many horns of adventure that
+none could make a hole in him.  "I thought that you would have been
+glad to see me; and I managed to bring a good many presents; only
+they are gone on to London.  They could not be got at, to land them
+with me; but Captain Southcombe will be sure to send them.  You
+must not suppose, because I am empty-handed now--"
+
+"My dear son," cried the father, deeply hurt, "do you think that
+your welcome depends upon presents?  You have indeed fallen into
+savage ways.  Come, and let me examine you through your hair;
+though the light is scarcely strong enough now to go through it.
+To think that you should be my own Erle, alive after such a time,
+and with such a lot of hair!  Only, if there is any palm-oil on it--
+this is my last new coat but one."
+
+"No, father, nothing that you ever can have dreamed of.  Something
+that will make you a bishop, if you like, and me a member of the
+House of Lords.  But I did not find it out myself--which makes
+success more certain."
+
+"They have taught you some great truths, my dear boy.  The man who
+begins a thing never gets on.  But I am so astonished that I know
+not what I say.  I ought to have thanked the Lord long ago.  Have
+you got a place without any hair upon it large enough for me to
+kiss you?"
+
+Erle Twemlow, whose hand in spite of all adventures trembled a
+little upon his spear, lifted his hat and found a smooth front,
+sure to be all the smoother for a father's kiss.
+
+"Let us go home," said the old man, trying to exclude all
+excitement from his throat and heart; "but you must stay outside
+until I come to fetch you.  I feel a little anxious, my dear boy,
+as to how your dear mother will get over it.  She has never been
+strong since the bad news came about you.  And somebody else has to
+be considered.  But that must stand over till to-morrow."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI
+
+THE SILVER VOICE
+
+
+Many shrewd writers have observed that Britannia has a special
+luck--which the more devout call Providence--in holding her own,
+against not only her true and lawful enemies, but even those of her
+own bosom who labour most to ruin her.  And truly she had need of
+all her fortune now, to save her from the skulking traitor, as well
+as the raging adversary.
+
+"Now I will have my revenge," said Carne, "on all who have outraged
+and plundered me.  Crows--carrion-crows--I will turn them into owls
+without a nest.  Prowling owls, to come blinking even now at the
+last of my poor relics!  Charron, what did that fellow say to old
+Jerry, the day I tied the dogs up?"
+
+"He said, my dear friend, that he missed from the paintings which
+he had taken to his house the most precious of them all--the
+picture of your dear grandmother, by a man whose name it is hard to
+pronounce, but a Captain in the British Army, very much fond of
+beloving and painting all the most beautiful ladies; and since he
+had painted the mother of Vash--Vash--the man that conquered
+England in America--all his work was gone up to a wonderful price,
+and old Sheray should have one guinea if he would exhibit to him
+where to find it.  Meedle or Beedle--he had set his heart on
+getting it.  He declared by the good God that he would have it, and
+that you had got it under a tombstone."
+
+"A sample of their persecutions!  You know that I have never seen
+it, nor even heard of the Captain Middleton who went on his rovings
+from Springhaven.  And, again, about my own front-door, or rather
+the door of my family for some four centuries, because it was
+carved as they cannot carve now, it was put into that vile
+Indenture.  I care very little for my ancestors--benighted Britons
+of the county type--but these things are personal insults to me.  I
+seldom talk about them, and I will not do so now."
+
+"My Captain, you should talk much about it.  That would be the good
+relief to your extensive mind.  Revenge is not of the bright French
+nature; but the sky of this island procreates it.  My faith! how I
+would rage at England, if it were not for the people, and their
+daughters!  We shall see; in a few days more we shall astonish the
+fat John Bull; and then his little kittens--what do you call them?--
+calves of an ox, will come running to us."
+
+"Enough of your foolish talk," said Carne.  "The women are as
+resolute as the men.  Even when we have taken London, not an
+English woman will come near us, until all the men have yielded.
+Go down to your station and watch for the boat.  I expect an
+important despatch to-night.  But I cannot stay here for the chance
+of it.  I have business in Springhaven."
+
+His business in Springhaven was to turn young love to the basest
+use, to make a maiden (rash and flighty, but not as yet
+dishonourable) a traitor to her friends and father-land, and most
+of all to her own father.  He had tried to poison Dolly's mind with
+doses of social nonsense--in which he believed about as much as a
+quack believes in his own pills--but his main reliance now was
+placed in his hold upon her romantic heart, and in her vague
+ambitions.  Pure and faithful love was not to be expected from his
+nature; but he had invested in Dolly all the affection he could
+spare from self.  He had laboured long, and suffered much, and the
+red crown of his work was nigh.
+
+Riding slowly down the hill about half a mile from the village,
+Carne saw a tall man coming towards him with a firm, deliberate
+walk.  The stranger was dressed very lightly, and wore a hat that
+looked like a tobacco leaf, and carried a long wand in his hand, as
+if he were going to keep order in church.  These things took the
+eye afar, but at shorter range became as nothing, compared with the
+aspect of the man himself.  This was grand, with its steadfast
+gaze--no stare, but a calm and kind regard--its large tranquillity
+and power of receiving without believing the words of men; and most
+of all in the depth of expression reserved by experience in the
+forest of its hair.
+
+Carne was about to pass in silent wonder and uneasiness, but the
+other gently laid the rod across his breast and stopped him, and
+then waited for him to ask the reason why.
+
+"Have you any business with me, good sir?"  Carne would have spoken
+rudely, but saw that rudeness would leave no mark upon a man like
+this.  "If so, I must ask you to be quick.  And perhaps you will
+tell me who you are."
+
+"I think that you are Caryl Carne," said the stranger, not
+unpleasantly, but as if it mattered very little who was Caryl
+Carne, or whether there was any such existence.
+
+Carne stared fiercely, for he was of touchy temper; but he might as
+well have stared at a bucket of water in the hope of deranging its
+tranquillity.  "You know me.  But I don't know you," he answered at
+last, with a jerk of his reins.
+
+"Be in no hurry," said the other, mildly; "the weather is fine, and
+time plentiful.  I hope to have much pleasant knowledge of you.  I
+have the honour to be your first cousin, Erle Twemlow.  Shake hands
+with your kinsman."
+
+Carne offered his hand, but without his usual grace and self-
+possession.  Twemlow took it in his broad brown palm, in which it
+seemed to melt away, firm though it was and muscular.
+
+"I was going up to call on you," said Twemlow, who had acquired a
+habit of speaking as if he meant all the world to hear.  "I feel a
+deep interest in your fortunes, and hope to improve them
+enormously.  You shall hear all about it when I come up.  I have
+passed four years in the wilds of Africa, where no white man ever
+trod before, and I have found out things no white man knows.  We
+call those people savages, but they know a great deal more than we
+do.  Shall I call to-morrow, and have a long talk?"
+
+"I fear," replied Carne, who was cursing his luck for bringing this
+fellow home just now, "that I shall have no time for a week or two.
+I am engaged upon important business now, which will occupy my
+whole attention.  Let me see!  You are staying at the rectory, I
+suppose.  The best plan will be for me to let you know when I can
+afford the pleasure of receiving you.  In a fortnight, or three
+weeks at the latest--"
+
+"Very well.  I am never in a hurry.  And I want to go to London to
+see about my things.  But I dare say you will not object to my
+roving about the old castle now and then.  I loved the old place as
+a boy, and I know every crick and cranny and snake-hole in it."
+
+"How glad they must have been to see you--restored from the dead,
+and with such rich discoveries!  But you must be more careful, my
+good cousin, and create no more anxiety.  Glad as I shall be to see
+you, when time allows that indulgence, I must not encourage you to
+further rovings, which might end in your final disappearance.  Two
+boar-hounds, exceedingly fierce and strong, and compelled by my
+straitened circumstances to pick up their own living, are at large
+on my premises night and day, to remonstrate with my creditors.  We
+fear that they ate a man last night, who had stolen a valuable
+picture, and was eager for another by the same distinguished
+artist.  His boots and hat were found unhurt; but of his clothes
+not a shred remained, to afford any pattern for enquiry.  What
+would my feelings be if Aunt Maria arrived hysterically in the
+pony-carriage, and at great personal risk enquired--"
+
+"I fear no dogs," said Erle Twemlow, without any flash of anger in
+his steadfast eyes.  "I can bring any dog to lick my feet.  But I
+fear any man who sinks lower than a dog, by obtaining a voice and
+speaking lies with it.  If you wish, for some reason of your own,
+to have nought to do with me, you should have said so; and I might
+have respected you afterwards.  But flimsy excuses and trumpery
+lies belong to the lowest race of savages, who live near the coast,
+and have been taught by Frenchmen."
+
+Erle Twemlow stood, as he left off speaking, just before the
+shoulder of Carne's horse, ready to receive a blow, if offered, but
+without preparation for returning it.  But Carne, for many good
+reasons--which occurred to his mind long afterwards--controlled his
+fury, and consoled his self-respect by repaying in kind the
+contempt he received.
+
+"Well done, Mr. Savage!" he said, with a violent effort to look
+amiable.  "You and I are accustomed to the opposite extremes of
+society, and the less we meet, the better.  When a barbarian
+insults me, I take it as a foul word from a clodhopper, which does
+not hurt me, but may damage his own self-respect, if he cherishes
+such an illusion.  Perhaps you will allow me to ride on, while you
+curb your very natural curiosity about a civilized gentleman."
+
+Twemlow made no answer, but looked at him with a gentle pity, which
+infuriated Carne more than the keenest insult.  He lashed his
+horse, and galloped down the hill, while his cousin stroked his
+beard, and looked after him with sorrow.
+
+"Everything goes against me now," thought Caryl Carne, while he put
+up his horse and set off for the Admiral's Roundhouse.  "I want to
+be cool as a cucumber, and that insolent villain has made pepper of
+me.  What devil sent him here at such a time?"
+
+For the moment it did not cross his mind that this man of lofty
+rudeness was the long-expected lover of Faith Darling, and
+therefore in some sort entitled to a voice about the doings of the
+younger sister.  By many quiet sneers, and much expressive silence,
+he had set the brisk Dolly up against the quiet Faith, as a man who
+understands fowl nature can set even two young pullets pulling each
+other's hackles out.
+
+"So you are come at last!" said Dolly.  "No one who knows me keeps
+me waiting, because I am not accustomed to it.  I expect to be
+called for at any moment, by matters of real importance--not like
+this."
+
+"Your mind is a little disturbed," replied Carne, as he took her
+hand and kissed it, with less than the proper rapture; "is it
+because of the brown and hairy man just returned from Africa?"
+
+"Not altogether.  But that may be something.  He is not a man to be
+laughed at.  I wish you could have seen my sister."
+
+"I would rather see you; and I have no love of savages.  He is my
+first cousin, and that affords me a domestic right to object to
+him.  As a brother-in-law I will have none of him."
+
+"You forget," answered Dolly, with a flash of her old spirit, which
+he was subduing too heavily, "that a matter of that sort depends
+upon us, and our father, and not upon the gentlemen.  If the
+gentlemen don't like it, they can always go away."
+
+"How can they go, when they are chained up like a dog?  Women may
+wander from this one to that, because they have nothing to bind
+them; but a man is of steadfast material."
+
+"Erle Twemlow is, at any rate--though it is hard to see his
+material through his hair; but that must come off, and I mean to do
+it.  He is the best-natured man I have ever yet known, except one;
+and that one had got nothing to shave.  Men never seem to
+understand about their hair, and the interest we feel concerning
+it.  But it does not matter very much, compared to their higher
+principles."
+
+"That is where I carry every vote, of whatever sex you please"--
+Carne saw that this girl must be humoured for the moment.  "Anybody
+can see what I am.  Straightforward, and ready to show my teeth.
+Why should an honest man live in a bush?"
+
+"Faith likes it very much; though she always used to say that it
+did seem so unchristian.  Could you manage to come and meet him,
+Caryl?  We shall have a little dinner on Saturday, I believe, that
+every one may see Erle Twemlow.  His beloved parents will be there,
+who are gone quite wild about him.  Father will be at home for
+once; and the Marquis of Southdown, and some officers, and Captain
+Stubbard and his wife will come, and perhaps my brother Frank, who
+admires you so much.  You shall have an invitation in the morning."
+
+"Such delights are not for me," Carne answered, with a superior
+smile; "unhappily my time is too important.  But perhaps these
+festivities will favour me with the chance of a few words with my
+darling.  How I long to see her, and how little chance I get!"
+
+"Because, when you get it, you spend three-quarters of the time in
+arguing, and the rest in finding fault.  I am sure I go as far as
+anybody can; and I won't take you into my father's Roundhouse,
+because I don't think it would be proper."
+
+"Ladies alone understand such subjects; and a gentleman is thankful
+that they do.  I am quite content to be outside the Roundhouse--so
+called because it is square, perhaps--though the wind is gone back
+to the east again, as it always does now in an English summer,
+according to a man who has studied the subject--Zebedee Tugwell,
+the captain of the fleet.  Dolly, beloved, and most worthy to be
+more so, clear your bright mind from all false impressions, whose
+only merit is that they are yours, and allow it to look clearly at
+a matter of plain sense."
+
+She was pleased to have compliments paid to her mind, even more
+than to her body--because there was no doubt about the merits of
+the latter--and she said:  "That is very nice.  Go on."
+
+"Well, beauty, you know that I trust you in everything, because of
+your very keen discretion, and freedom from stupid little
+prejudice.  I have been surprised at times, when I thought of it in
+your absence, that any one so young, who has never been through any
+course of political economy, should be able to take such a clear
+view of subjects which are far beyond the intellect of even the
+oldest ladies.  But it must be your brother; no doubt he has helped
+you to--"
+
+"Not he!" cried the innocent Dolly, with fine pride; "I rather look
+down upon his reasoning powers; though I never could make such a
+pretty tink of rhymes--like the bells of the sheep when the ground
+is full of turnips."
+
+"He approves of your elevated views," said Carne, looking as grave
+as a crow at a church clock; "they may not have come from him,
+because they are your own, quite as much as his poetry is his.  But
+he perceives their truth, and he knows that they must prevail.  In
+a year or two we shall be wondering, sweet Dolly, when you and I
+sit side by side, as the stupid old King and Queen do now, that it
+ever has been possible for narrow-minded nonsense to prevail as it
+did until we rose above it.  We shall be admired as the
+benefactors, not of this country only, but of the whole world."
+
+Miss Dolly was fairly endowed with common-sense, but often failed
+to use it.  She would fain have said now, "That sounds wonderfully
+fine; but what does it mean, and how are we to work it?"  But
+unluckily she could not bring herself to say it.  And when millions
+are fooled by the glibness of one man--even in these days of
+wisdom--who can be surprised at a young maid's weakness?
+
+"You wish me to help you in some way," she said; "your object is
+sure to be good; and you trust me in everything, because of my
+discretion.  Then why not tell me everything?"
+
+"You know everything," Carne replied, with a smile of affection and
+sweet reproach.  "My object is the largest that a man can have; and
+until I saw you, there was not the least taint of self-interest in
+my proceedings.  But now it is not for the universe alone, for the
+grandeur of humanity, and the triumph of peace, that I have to
+strive, but also for another little somebody, who has come--I am
+ashamed to say--to outweigh all the rest in the balance of my too
+tender heart."
+
+This was so good, and so well delivered, that the lady of such love
+could do no less than vouchsafe a soft hand and a softer glance,
+instead of pursuing hard reason.
+
+"Beauty, it is plain enough to you, though it might not be so to
+stupid people," Carne continued, as he pressed her hand, and
+vanquished the doubt of her enquiring eyes with the strength of his
+resolute gaze, "that bold measures are sometimes the only wise
+ones.  Many English girls would stand aghast to hear that it was
+needful for the good of England that a certain number, a strictly
+limited number, of Frenchmen should land upon this coast."
+
+"I should rather think they would!" cried Dolly; "and I would be
+one of them--you may be quite sure of that."
+
+"For a moment you might, until you came to understand."  Carne's
+voice always took a silver tone when his words were big with
+roguery; as the man who is touting for his neighbour's bees strikes
+the frying-pan softly at first, to tone the pulsations of the
+murmuring mob.  "But every safeguard and every guarantee that can
+be demanded by the wildest prudence will be afforded before a step
+is taken.  In plain truth, a large mind is almost shocked at such
+deference to antique prejudice.  But the feelings of old women must
+be considered; and our measures are fenced with such securities
+that even the most timid must be satisfied.  There must be a
+nominal landing, of course, of a strictly limited number, and they
+must be secured for a measurable period from any ill-judged
+interruption.  But the great point of all is to have no blood-
+guiltiness, no outbreak of fanatic natives against benefactors
+coming in the garb of peace.  A truly noble offer of the olive-
+branch must not be misinterpreted.  It is the finest idea that has
+ever been conceived; and no one possessing a liberal mind can help
+admiring the perfection of this plan.  For the sake of this
+country, and the world, and ourselves, we must contribute our
+little share, darling."
+
+Carne, with the grace of a lofty protector, as well as the face of
+an ardent lover, drew the bewildered maiden towards him, and
+tenderly kissed her pretty forehead, holding up his hand against
+all protest.
+
+"It is useless to dream of drawing back," he continued; "my beauty,
+and my poor outcast self, are in the same boat, and must sail on to
+success--such success as there never has been before, because it
+will bless the whole world, as well as secure our own perfect
+happiness.  You will be more than the Queen of England.  Statues of
+you will be set up everywhere; and where could the sculptors find
+such another model?  I may count upon your steadfast heart, I know,
+and your wonderful quickness of perception."
+
+"Yes, if I could only see that everything was right.  But I feel
+that I ought to consult somebody of more experience in such things.
+My father, for instance, or my brother Frank, or even Mr. Twemlow,
+or perhaps Captain Stubbard."
+
+"If you had thought of it a little sooner, and allowed me time to
+reason with them," Carne replied, with a candid smile, "that would
+have been the very thing I should have wished, as taking a great
+responsibility from me.  But alas, it would be fatal now.  The main
+object now is to remove all chance of an ill-judged conflict, which
+would ruin all good feeling, and cost many valuable lives, perhaps
+even that of your truly gallant father.  No, my Dolly, you must not
+open your beautiful lips to any one.  The peace and happiness of
+the world depend entirely upon your discretion.  All will be
+arranged to a nicety, and a happy result is certain.  Only I must
+see you, about some small points, as well as to satisfy my own
+craving.  On Saturday you have that dinner party, when somebody
+will sit by your side instead of me.  How miserably jealous I shall
+be!  When the gentlemen are at their wine, you must console me by
+slipping away from the ladies, and coming to the window of the
+little room where your father keeps his papers.  I shall quit
+everything and watch there for you among the shrubs, when it grows
+dark enough."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII
+
+BELOW THE LINE
+
+
+Of the British Admirals then on duty, Collingwood alone, so far as
+now appears, had any suspicion of Napoleon's real plan.
+
+"I have always had an idea that Ireland alone was the object they
+have in view," he wrote in July, 1805, "and still believe that to
+be their ultimate destination--that they [i. e., the Toulon fleet]
+will now liberate the Ferrol squadron from Calder, make the round
+of the bay, and taking the Rochefort people with them, appear off
+Ushant, perhaps with 34 sail, there to be joined by 20 more.
+Cornwallis collecting his out-squadrons may have 30 and upwards.
+This appears to be a probable plan; for unless it is to bring their
+great fleets and armies to some point of service--some rash attempt
+at conquest--they have been only subjecting them to chance of loss;
+which I do not believe the Corsican would do, without the hope of
+an adequate reward.  This summer is big with events."
+
+This was written to Lord Nelson upon his return to Europe, after
+chasing that Toulon fleet to the West Indies and back again.  And a
+day or two later, the same Vice-Admiral wrote to his friend very
+clearly, as before:
+
+"Truly glad will I be to see you, and to give you my best opinion
+on the present state of affairs, which are in the highest degree
+intricate.  But reasoning on the policy of the present French
+government, who never aim at little things while great objects are
+in view, I have considered the invasion of Ireland as the real mark
+and butt of all their operations.  The flight to the West Indies
+was to take off the naval force, which is the great impediment to
+their undertaking.  The Rochefort squadron's return confirmed me.
+I think they will now collect their force at Ferrol--which Calder
+tells me are in motion--pick up those at Rochefort, who, I am told,
+are equally ready, and will make them above thirty sail; and then,
+without going near Ushant or the Channel fleet, proceed to Ireland.
+Detachments must go from the Channel fleet to succour Ireland, when
+the Brest fleet--21 I believe of them--will sail, either to another
+part of Ireland, or up the Channel--a sort of force that has not
+been seen in those seas, perhaps ever."
+
+Lord Nelson just lately had suffered so much from the disadvantage
+of not "following his own head, and so being much more correct in
+judgment than following the opinion of others," that his head was
+not at all in a receptive state; and like all who have doubted
+about being right, and found the doubt wrong, he was hardened into
+the merits of his own conclusion.  "Why have I gone on a goose-
+chase?" he asked; "because I have twice as many ears as eyes."
+
+This being so, he stuck fast to the conviction which he had
+nourished all along, that the scheme of invasion was a sham,
+intended to keep the British fleet at home, while the enemy ravaged
+our commerce and colonies afar.  And by this time the country,
+grown heartily tired of groundless alarms and suspended menace, was
+beginning to view with contempt a camp that was wearing out its own
+encampment.  Little was it dreamed in the sweet rose gardens of
+England, or the fragrant hay-fields, that the curl of blue smoke
+while the dinner was cooking, the call of milkmaids, the haymaker's
+laugh, or the whinny of Dobbin between his mouthfuls, might be
+turned (ere a man of good appetite was full) into foreign shouts,
+and shriek of English maiden, crackling homestead, and blazing
+stack-yard, blare of trumpets, and roar of artillery, cold flash of
+steel, and the soft warm trickle of a father's or a husband's
+blood.
+
+But the chance of this hung upon a hair just now.  One hundred and
+sixty thousand soldiers--the finest sons of Mars that demon has
+ever yet begotten--fifteen thousand warlike horses, ready to devour
+all the oats of England, cannons that never could be counted
+(because it was not always safe to go near them), and ships that no
+reckoner could get to the end of, because he was always beginning
+again.
+
+Who was there now to meet all these?  Admiral Darling, and Captain
+Stubbard, and Zebedee Tugwell (if he found them intrusive), and
+Erle Twemlow, as soon as he got his things from London.  There
+might be a few more to come forward, as soon as they saw the
+necessity; but Mr. John Prater could not be relied on--because of
+the trade he might expect to drive; Mr. Shargeloes had never turned
+up again; and as for poor Cheeseman, he had lost himself so
+entirely now that he made up the weight of a pound of sausages, in
+the broad summer light, with a tallow candle.  Like others
+concerned in this history, he had jumped at the stars, and cracked
+his head against a beam, in manner to be recorded.
+
+The country being destitute thus of defenders--for even Stubbard's
+battery was not half manned, because it had never been wanted--the
+plan of invasion was thriving well, in all but one particular.  The
+fleet under Villeneuve was at large, so was that under Lallemand,
+who had superseded Missiessy, so was the force of Gravina and
+another Spanish admiral; but Ganteaume had failed to elude the
+vigilance of that hero of storms, Cornwallis.  Napoleon arrived at
+Boulogne on the 3rd of August, and reviewed his troops, in a line
+on the beach some eight miles long.  A finer sight he had never
+seen, and he wrote in his pride:  "The English know not what is
+hanging over their ears.  If we are masters of the passage for
+twelve hours, England is conquered."  But all depended on
+Villeneuve, and happily he could not depend upon his nerves.
+
+Meanwhile the young man who was charged with a message which he
+would gladly have died to discharge was far away, eating out his
+heart in silence, or vainly relieving it with unknown words.  At
+the last gasp, or after he ceased to gasp for the time, and was
+drifting insensible, but happily with his honest face still upward,
+a Dutchman, keeping a sharp lookout for English cruisers, espied
+him.  He was taken on board of a fine bark bound from Rotterdam for
+Java, with orders to choose the track least infested by that
+ravenous shark Britannia.  Scudamore was treated with the warmest
+kindness and the most gentle attention, for the captain's wife was
+on board, and her tender heart was moved with compassion.  Yet even
+so, three days passed by with no more knowledge of time on his part
+than the face of a clock has of its hands; and more than a week was
+gone before both body and mind were in tone and tune again.  By
+that time the stout Dutch bark, having given a wide berth to the
+wakes of war, was forty leagues west of Cape Finisterre, under
+orders to touch no land short of the Cape, except for fresh water
+at St. Jago.
+
+Blyth Scudamore was blest with that natural feeling of preference
+for one's own kin and country which the much larger minds of the
+present period flout, and scout as barbarous.  Happily our
+periodical blight is expiring, like cuckoo-spit, in its own
+bubbles; and the time is returning when the bottle-blister will not
+be accepted as the good ripe peach.  Scudamore was of the times
+that have been (and perhaps may be coming again, in the teeth and
+the jaw of universal suffrage), of resolute, vigorous, loyal
+people, holding fast all that God gives them, and declining to be
+led by the tail, by a gentleman who tacked their tail on as his
+handle.
+
+This certainty of belonging still to a firm and substantial race of
+men (whose extinction would leave the world nothing to breed from)
+made the gallant Scudamore so anxious to do his duty, that he could
+not do it.  Why do we whistle to a horse overburdened with a heavy
+load uphill?  That his mind may grow tranquil, and his ears train
+forward, his eyes lose their nervous contraction, and a fine sense
+of leisure pervade him.  But if he has a long hill to surmount,
+with none to restrain his ardour, the sense of duty grows stronger
+than any consideration of his own good, and the best man has not
+the conscience needful to understand half his emotions.
+
+Thus the sense of duty kept Blyth Scudamore full of misery.  Every
+day carried him further from the all-important issues; and the
+chance of returning in time grew faint, and fainter at every
+sunset.  The kindly Dutchman and his wife were aware of some burden
+on his mind, because of its many groaning sallies while astray from
+judgment.  But as soon as his wits were clear again, and his body
+fit to second them, Blyth saw that he could not crave their help,
+against the present interests of their own land.  Holland was at
+enmity with England, not of its own accord, but under the pressure
+of the man who worked so hard the great European mangle.  Captain
+Van Oort had picked up some English, and his wife could use tongue
+and ears in French, while Scudamore afforded himself and them some
+little diversion by attempts in Dutch.  Being of a wonderfully
+happy nature--for happiness is the greatest wonder in this world--
+he could not help many a wholesome laugh, in spite of all the
+projects of Napoleon.
+
+Little things seldom jump into bigness, till a man sets his
+microscope at them.  According to the everlasting harmonies, Blyth
+had not got a penny, because he had not got a pocket to put it in.
+A pocketful of money would have sent him to the bottom of the sea,
+that breezy April night, when he drifted for hours, with eyes full
+of salt, twinkling feeble answer to the twinkle of the stars.  But
+he had made himself light of his little cash left, in his
+preparation for a slow decease, and perhaps the fish had paid
+tribute with it to the Caesar of this Millennium.  Captain Van Oort
+was a man of his inches in length, but in breadth about one-third
+more, being thickened and spread by the years that do this to a
+body containing a Christian mind.  "You will never get out of
+them," said Mrs. Van Oort, when he got into her husband's large
+smallclothes; but he who had often jumped out of a tub felt no
+despair about jumping out of two.  In every way Scudamore hoped for
+the best--which is the only right course for a man who has done his
+own best, and is helpless.
+
+Keeping out of the usual track of commerce, because of the
+privateers and other pests of war waylaying it, they met no sail of
+either friend or foe until they cast anchor at St. Jago.  Here
+there was no ship bound for England, and little chance of finding
+one, for weeks or perhaps for months to come.  The best chance of
+getting home lay clearly in going yet further away from home, and
+so he stuck to the good ship still, and they weighed for the Cape
+on the 12th of May.  Everything set against poor Scuddy--wind, and
+wave, and the power of man.  It had been the 16th of April when he
+was rescued from the devouring sea; some days had been spent by the
+leisurely Dutchman in providing fresh supplies, and the stout
+bark's favourite maxim seemed to be, "the more haste the less
+speed."  Baffling winds and a dead calm helped to second this
+philosophy, and the first week of June was past before they swung
+to their moorings in Table Bay.
+
+"What chance is there now of my doing any good?" the young
+Englishman asked himself, bitterly.  "This place is again in the
+hands of the Dutch, and the English ships stand clear of it, or
+only receive supplies by stealth.  I am friendless here, I am
+penniless; and worst of all, if I even get a passage home, there
+will be no home left.  Too late! too late!  What use is there in
+striving?"
+
+Tears stood in his blue eyes, which were gentle as a lady's; and
+his forehead (usually calm and smooth and ready for the flicker of
+a very pleasant smile) was as grave and determined as the brow of
+Caryl Carne.  Captain Van Oort would have lent him 500 guilders
+with the greatest pleasure, but Scudamore would not take more than
+fifty, to support him until he could obtain a ship.  Then with
+hearty good-will, and life-long faith in each other, the two men
+parted, and Scudamore's heart was uncommonly low--for a substance
+that was not a "Jack-in-the-box"--as he watched from the shore the
+slow fading into dream-land of the Katterina.
+
+Nothing except patriotic feeling may justify a man, who has done no
+harm, in long-continued misery.  The sense of violent bodily pain,
+or of perpetual misfortune, or of the baseness of all in whom he
+trusted, and other steady influx of many-fountained sorrow, may
+wear him for a time, and even fetch his spirit lower than the more
+vicarious woe can do.  But the firm conviction that the family of
+man to which one belongs, and is proud of belonging, has fallen
+into the hands of traitors, eloquent liars, and vile hypocrites,
+and cannot escape without crawling in the dust--this produces a
+large deep gloom, and a crushing sense of doom beyond philosophy.
+Scudamore could have endured the loss and the disillusion of his
+love--pure and strong as that power had been--but the ruin of his
+native land would turn his lively heart into a lump of stone.
+
+For two or three days he roved about among the people of the water-
+side--boatmen, pilots, shipping agents, store-keepers, stevedores,
+crimps, or any others likely to know anything to help him.  Some of
+these could speak a little English, and many had some knowledge of
+French; but all shook their heads at his eagerness to get to
+England.  "You may wait weeks, or you may wait months," said the
+one who knew most of the subject; "we are very jealous of the
+English ships.  That country swallows up the sea so.  It has been
+forbidden to supply the English ships; but for plenty money it is
+done sometimes; but the finger must be placed upon the nose, and
+upon the two eyes what you call the guinea; and in six hours where
+are they?  Swallowed up by the mist from the mountain.  No, sir!
+If you have the great money, it is very difficult.  But if you have
+not that, it is impossible."
+
+"I have not the great money; and the little money also has escaped
+from a quicksand in the bottom of my pocket."
+
+"Then you will never get to England, sir," this gentleman answered,
+pleasantly; "and unless I have been told things too severely, the
+best man that lives had better not go there, without a rock of gold
+in his pocket grand enough to fill a thousand quicksands."
+
+Scudamore lifted the relics of his hat, and went in search of some
+other Job's comforter.  Instead of a passage to England, he saw in
+a straight line before him the only journey which a mortal may take
+without paying his fare.
+
+To save himself from this gratuitous tour, he earned a little money
+in a porter's gang, till his quick step roused the indignation of
+the rest.  With the loftiest perception of the rights of man, they
+turned him out of that employment (for the one "sacred principle of
+labour" is to play), and he, understanding now the nature, of
+democracy, perceived that of all the many short-cuts to starvation,
+the one with the fewest elbows to it is--to work.
+
+While he was meditating upon these points--which persons of big
+words love to call "questions of political economy"--his hat, now
+become a patent ventilator, sat according to custom on the back of
+his head, exposing his large calm forehead, and the kind honesty of
+his countenance.  Then he started a little, for his nerves were not
+quite as strong as when they had good feeding, at the sudden sense
+of being scrutinized by the most piercing gaze he had ever
+encountered.
+
+The stranger was an old man of tall spare frame, wearing a shovel-
+hat and long black gown drawn in with a belt, and around his bare
+neck was a steel chain supporting an ebony cross.  With a smile,
+which displayed the firm angles of his face, he addressed the young
+man in a language which Scudamore could not understand, but
+believed to be Portuguese.
+
+"Thy words I am not able to understand.  But the Latin tongue, as
+it is pronounced in England, I am able to interpret, and to speak,
+not too abundantly."  Scudamore spoke the best Latin he could
+muster at a moment's notice, for he saw that this gentleman was a
+Catholic priest, and probably therefore of good education.
+
+"Art thou, then, an Englishman, my son?" the stranger replied, in
+the same good tongue.  "From thy countenance and walk, that opinion
+stood fast in my mind at first sight of thee.  Every Englishman is
+to me beloved, and every Frenchman unfriendly--as many, at least,
+as now govern the state.  Father Bartholomew is my name, and though
+most men here are heretical, among the faithful I avail
+sufficiently.  What saith the great Venusian?  'In straitened
+fortunes quit thyself as a man of spirit and of mettle.'  I find
+thee in straitened fortunes, and would gladly enlarge thee, if that
+which thou art doing is pleasing to the God omnipotent."
+
+After a few more words, he led the hapless and hungry Englishman to
+a quiet little cot which overlooked the noble bay, and itself was
+overlooked by a tall flag-staff bearing the colours of Portugal.
+Here in the first place he regaled his guest with the flank of a
+kid served with cucumber, and fruit gathered early, and some native
+wine, scarcely good enough for the Venusian bard, but as rich as
+ambrosia to Scudamore.  Then he supplied him with the finest
+tobacco that ever ascended in spiral incense to the cloud-
+compelling Jove.  At every soft puff, away flew the blue-devils,
+pagan, or Christian, or even scientific; and the brightness of the
+sleep-forbidden eyes returned, and the sweetness of the smile so
+long gone hence in dread of trespass.  Father Bartholomew, neither
+eating, drinking, nor smoking, till the sun should set--for this
+was one of his fast-days--was heartily pleased with his guest's
+good cheer, and smiled with the large benevolence which a lean face
+expresses with more decision than a plump and jolly one.  "And now,
+my son," he began again, in Latin more fluent and classical than
+the sailor could compass after Cicero thrown by, "thou hast
+returned thanks to Almighty God, for which I the more esteem thee.
+Oblige me, therefore, if it irk thee not, among smoke of the genial
+Nicotium, by telling thy tale, and explaining what hard necessity
+hath driven thee to these distant shores.  Fear not, for thou seest
+a lover of England, and hater of France the infidel."
+
+Then Scudamore, sometimes hesitating and laughing at his own bad
+Latin, told as much of his story as was needful, striving
+especially to make clear the importance of his swift return, and
+his fear that even so it would be too late.
+
+"Man may believe himself too late, but the Lord ariseth early," the
+good priest answered, with a smile of courage refreshing the heart
+of the Englishman.  "Behold how the hand of the Lord is steadfast
+over those who serve him!  To-morrow I might have been far away;
+to-day I am in time to help thee.  Whilst thou wert feeding, I
+received the signal of a swift ship for Lisbon, whose captain is my
+friend, and would neglect nothing to serve me.  This night he will
+arrive, and with favourable breezes, which have set in this
+morning, he shall spread his sails again to-morrow, though he meant
+to linger perhaps for three days.  Be of good cheer, my son; thou
+shalt sail to-morrow.  I will supply thee with all that is needful,
+and thank God for a privilege so great.  Thou shalt have money as
+well for the passage from Lisbon to England, which is not long.
+Remember in thy prayers--for thou art devout--that old man, Father
+Bartholomew."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII
+
+IN EARLY MORN
+
+
+One Saturday morning in the month of August, an hour and a half
+before sunrise, Carne walked down to the big yew-tree, which stood
+far enough from the brink of the cliff to escape the salt, and yet
+near enough to command an extensive sea-view.  This was the place
+where the young shoemaker, belonging to the race of Shanks, had
+been scared so sadly that he lost his sweetheart, some two years
+and a half ago; and this was the tree that had been loved by
+painters, especially the conscientious Sharples, a pupil of Romney,
+who studied the nicks and the tricks of the bole, and the many
+fantastic frets of time, with all the loving care which ensured the
+truth of his simple and powerful portraits.  But Sharples had long
+been away in the West; and Carne, having taste for no art except
+his own, had despatched his dog Orso, the fiercer of the pair, at
+the only son of a brush who had lately made ready to encamp against
+that tree; upon which he decamped, and went over the cliff, with a
+loss of much personal property.
+
+The tree looked ghostly in the shady light, and gaunt armstretch of
+departing darkness, going as if it had not slept its sleep out.
+Now was the time when the day is afraid of coming, and the night
+unsure of going, and a large reluctance to acknowledge any change
+keeps everything waiting for another thing to move.  What is the
+use of light and shadow, the fuss of the morning, and struggle for
+the sun?  Fair darkness has filled all the gaps between them, and
+why should they be sever'd into single life again?  For the
+gladness of daybreak is not come yet, nor the pleasure of seeing
+the way again, the lifting of the darkness leaves heaviness beneath
+it, and if a rashly early bird flops down upon the grass, he cannot
+count his distance, but quivers like a moth.
+
+"Pest on this abominable early work!" muttered Carne with a yawn,
+as he groped his way through the deep gloom of black foliage, and
+entered the hollow of the ancient trunk; "it is all very well for
+sailors, but too hard upon a quiet gentleman.  Very likely that
+fellow won't come for two hours.  What a cursed uncomfortable
+maggoty place!  But I'll have put the sleep he has robbed me of."
+He stretched his long form on the rough bench inside, gathered his
+cloak around him, and roused the dull echo of the honey-combed
+hollow with long loud snores.
+
+"Awake, my vigilant commander, and behold me!  Happy are the
+landsmen, to whom the stars bring sleep.  I have not slept for
+three nights, and the fruits are here for you."
+
+It was the lively voice of Renaud Charron; and the rosy fan of the
+dawn, unfolded over the sea and the gray rocks, glanced with a
+flutter of shade into the deep-ribbed tree.  Affecting a lofty
+indifference, Carne, who had a large sense of his own dignity, rose
+slowly and came out into the better light.  "Sit down, my dear
+friend," he said, taking the sealed packet; "there is bread and
+meat here, and a bottle of good Macon.  You are nearly always
+hungry, and you must be starved now."
+
+Charron perceived that his mouth was offered employment at the
+expense of his eyes; but the kernel of the matter was his own
+already, and he smiled to himself at the mystery of his chief.  "In
+this matter, I should implore the tree to crush me, if my father
+were an Englishman," he thought; "but every one to his taste; it is
+no affair of mine."  Just as he was getting on good terms with his
+refreshment, Carne came back, and watched him with a patronising
+smile.
+
+"You are the brother of my toil," he said, "and I will tell you as
+much as it is good for you to know.  A few hours now will complete
+our enterprise.  Napoleon is at Boulogne again, and even he can
+scarcely restrain the rush of the spirits he has provoked.  The
+first Division is on board already, with a week's supplies, and a
+thousand horses, ready to sail when a hand is held up.  The hand
+will be held up at my signal, and that I shall trust you to convey
+to-night, as soon as I have settled certain matters.  Where is that
+sullen young Tugwell?  What have you done with him?"
+
+"Wonderfully clever is your new device, my friend," Charron
+replied, after a long pull at the bottle.  "To vanquish the mind by
+a mind superior is a glory of high reason; but to let it remain in
+itself and compel it to perform what is desired by the other, is a
+stroke of genius.  And under your pharmacy he must do it--that has
+been proved already.  The idea was grand, very noble, magnificent.
+It never would have shown itself to my mind."
+
+"Probably not.  When that has been accomplished, we will hang him
+for a traitor.  But, my dear friend, I have sad news for you, even
+in this hour of triumph.  The lady of your adoration, the Admiral's
+eldest daughter, Faith, has recovered the man for whom she has
+waited four years, and she means to marry him.  The father has
+given his consent, and her pride is beyond description.  She has
+long loved a mystery--what woman can help it?  And now she has one
+for life, a husband eclipsed in his own hair.  My Renaud, all
+rivalry is futile.  Your hair, alas, is quite short and scanty.
+But this man has discovered in Africa a nut which turns a man into
+the husk of himself.  No wonder that he came out of the sea all
+dry!"
+
+"Tush! he is a pig.  It is a pig that finds the nuts.  I will be
+the butcher for that long pig, and the lady will rush into the arms
+of conquest.  Then will I possess all the Admiral's lands, and
+pursue the fine chase of the rabbits.  And I will give dinners,
+such dinners, my faith!  Ha! that is excellent said--embrace me--my
+Faith will sit at the right side of the table, and explain to the
+English company that such dinners could proceed from nobody except
+a French gentleman commingling all the knowledge of the joint with
+the loftier conception of the hash, the mince--the what you call?
+Ah, you have no name for it, because you do not know the proper
+thing.  Then, in the presence of admiring Englishmen, I will lean
+back in my chair, the most comfortable chair that can be found--"
+
+"Stop.  You have got to get into it yet," Carne interrupted,
+rudely; "and the way to do that is not to lean back in it.  The
+fault of your system has always been that you want to enjoy
+everything before you get it."
+
+"And of yours," retorted Charron, beginning to imbibe the pugnacity
+of an English landlord, "that when you have got everything, you
+will enjoy what?  Nothing!"
+
+"Even a man of your levity hits the nail on the head sometimes,"
+said Carne, "though the blow cannot be a very heavy one.  Nature
+has not fashioned me for enjoyment, and therefore affords me very
+little.  But some little I do expect in the great inversion coming,
+in the upset of the scoundrels who have fattened on my flesh, and
+stolen my land, to make country gentlemen--if it were possible--of
+themselves.  It will take a large chimney to burn their title-
+deeds, for the robbery has lasted for a century.  But I hold the
+great Emperor's process signed for that; and if you come to my
+cookery, you will say that I am capable of enjoyment.  Fighting I
+enjoy not, as hot men do, nor guzzling, nor swigging, nor singing
+of songs; for all of which you have a talent, my friend.  But the
+triumph of quiet skill I like; and I love to turn the balance on my
+enemies.  Of these there are plenty, and among them all who live in
+that fishy little hole down there."
+
+Carne pointed contemptuously at Springhaven, that poor little
+village in the valley.  But the sun had just lifted his impartial
+face above the last highland that baulked his contemplation of the
+home of so many and great virtues; and in the brisk moisture of his
+early salute the village in the vale looked lovely.  For a silvery
+mist was flushed with rose, like a bridal veil warmed by the
+blushes of the bride, and the curves of the land, like a dewy palm
+leaf, shone and sank alternate.
+
+"What a rare blaze they will make!" continued Carne, as the
+sunlight glanced along the russet thatch, and the blue smoke arose
+from the earliest chimney.  "Every cottage there shall be a
+bonfire, because it has cast off allegiance to me.  The whole race
+of Darling will be at my mercy--the pompous old Admiral, who
+refused to call on me till his idiot of a son persuaded him--that
+wretched poetaster, who reduced me to the ignominy of reading his
+own rubbish to him--and the haughty young woman that worships a
+savage who has treated me with insult.  I have them all now in the
+hollow of my hand, and a thorough good crumpling is prepared for
+them.  The first house to burn shall be Zebedee Tugwell's, that
+conceited old dolt of a fishing fellow, who gives me a nod of
+suspicion, instead of pulling off his dirty hat to me.  Then we
+blow up the church, and old Twemlow's house, and the Admiral's,
+when we have done with it.  The fishing-fleet, as they call their
+wretched tubs, will come home, with the usual fuss, to-night, and
+on Monday it shall be ashes.  How like you my programme?  Is it
+complete?"
+
+"Too much, too much complete; too barbarous," answered the kindly
+hearted Frenchman.  "What harm have all the poor men done to you?
+And what insanity to provoke enemies of the people all around who
+would bring us things to eat!  And worse--if the houses are
+consumed with fire, where will be the revenue that is designed for
+me, as the fair son of the Admiral?  No, no; I will allow none of
+that.  When the landing is made, you will not be my master.  Soult
+will have charge of the subjects inferior, and he is not a man of
+rapine.  To him will I address myself in favour of the village.
+Thus shall I ascend in the favour of my charming, and secure my
+property."
+
+"Captain, I am your master yet, and I will have no interference.
+No more talk; but obey me to the letter.  There is no sign of any
+rough weather, I suppose?  You sailors see things which we do not
+observe."
+
+"This summer has not been of fine weather, and the sky is always
+changing here.  But there is not any token of a tempest now.
+Though there is a little prospect of rain always."
+
+"If it rains, all the better, for it obscures the sea.  You have
+fed enough now to last even you till the evening; or if not, you
+can take some with you.  Remain to the westward, where the cliffs
+are higher, and look out especially for British ships of war that
+may be appearing up Channel.  Take this second spy-glass; it is
+quite strong enough.  But first of all tell Perkins to stand off
+again with the pilot-boat, as if he was looking out for a job, and
+if he sees even a frigate coming eastward, to run back and let you
+know by a signal arranged between you.  Dan Tugwell, I see, was
+shipped yesterday on board of Prame No. 801, a very handy vessel,
+which will lead the van, and five hundred will follow in her track
+on Sunday evening.  My excellent uncle will be at the height of his
+eloquence just when his favourite Sunday-school boy is bringing an
+addition to his congregation.  But the church shall not be blown up
+until Monday, for fear of premature excitement.  By Monday night
+about two hundred thousand such soldiers as Britain could never
+produce will be able to quell any childish excitement such as Great
+Britain is apt to give way to."
+
+"But what is for me, this same Saturday night?  I like very much to
+make polite the people, and to marry the most beautiful and the
+richest; but not to kill more than there is to be helped."
+
+"The breaking of the egg may cut the fingers that have been sucked
+till their skin is gone.  You have plagued me all along with your
+English hankerings, which in your post of trust are traitorous."
+
+Charron was accustomed to submit to the infinitely stronger will of
+Carne.  Moreover, his sense of discipline often checked the speed
+of his temper.  But he had never been able to get rid of a secret
+contempt for his superior, as a traitor to the race to which he
+really belonged, at least in the Frenchman's opinion.  And that
+such a man should charge him with treachery was more than his
+honest soul could quite endure, and his quick face flushed with
+indignation as he spoke:
+
+"Your position, my commander, does not excuse such words.  You
+shall answer for them, when I am discharged from your command;
+which, I hope, will be the case next week.  To be spoken of as a
+traitor by you is very grand."
+
+"Take it as you please," Carne replied, with that cold contemptuous
+smile which the other detested.  "For the present, however, you
+will not be grand, but carry out the orders which I give you.  As
+soon as it is dark, you will return, keep the pilot-boat in
+readiness for my last despatch, with which you will meet the
+frigate Torche about midnight, as arranged on Thursday.  All that
+and the signals you already understand.  Wait for me by this tree,
+and I may go with you; but that will depend upon circumstances.  I
+will take good care that you shall not be kept starving; for you
+may have to wait here three or four hours for me.  But be sure that
+you do not go until I come."
+
+"But what am I to do if I have seen some British ships, or Perkins
+has given me token of them?"
+
+"Observe their course, and learn where they are likely to be at
+nightfall.  There will probably be none.  All I fear is that they
+may intercept the Torche.  Farewell, my friend, and let your sense
+of duty subdue the small sufferings of temper."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX
+
+NEAR OUR SHORES
+
+
+"This is how it is," said Captain Tugwell, that same day, to Erle
+Twemlow: "the folk they goes on with a thing, till a man as has any
+head left twists it round on his neck, with his chin looking down
+his starn-post.  Then the enemy cometh, with his spy-glass and his
+guns, and afore he can look round, he hath nothing left to look
+for."
+
+"Then you think, Tugwell, that the danger is not over?--that the
+French mean business even now, when every one is tired of hearing
+of it?  I have been away so long that I know nothing.  But the
+universal opinion is--"
+
+"Opinion of the universe be dashed!" Master Zebedee answered, with
+a puff of smoke.  "We calls ourselves the universe, when we be the
+rope that drags astarn of it.  Cappen, to my mind there is mischief
+in the wind, more than there hath been for these three years; and
+that's why you see me here, instead of going with the smacks.  Holy
+Scripture saith a dream cometh from the Lord; leastways, to a man
+of sense, as hardly ever dreameth.  The wind was so bad again us,
+Monday afternoon, that we put off sailing till the Tuesday, and
+Monday night I lay on my own bed, without a thought of nothing but
+to sleep till five o'clock.  I hadn't taken nothing but a quart of
+John Prater's ale--and you know what his measures is--not a single
+sip of grog; but the Hangel of the Lord he come and stand by me in
+the middle of the night.  And he took me by the hand, or if he
+didn't it come to the same thing of my getting there, and he set me
+up in a dark high place, the like of the yew-tree near Carne
+Castle.  And then he saith, 'Look back, Zeb'; and I looked, and
+behold Springhaven was all afire, like the bottomless pit, or the
+thunder-storm of Egypt, or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  And
+two figures was jumping about in the flames, like the furnace in
+the plain of Dura, and one of them was young Squire Carne, and the
+other was my son Daniel, as behaveth below his name.  And I called
+out, 'Daniel, thou son of Zebedee and Kezia Tugwell, come forth
+from the burning fiery furnace'; but he answered not, neither
+heeded me.  And then Squire Darling, Sir Charles is now the name of
+him, out he come from his Round-house, and by the white gate above
+high-water mark, to order out the fire, because they was all his
+own cottages.  But while he was going about, as he doth for fear of
+being hard upon any one, out jumps Squire Carne, from the thickest
+of the blazes, and takes the poor Squire by the forepart of his
+neck, which he liketh to keep open when he getteth off of duty, and
+away with him into the burning fiery furnace made of his own
+houses!  That was more than I could put up with, even under the
+Hangel, and I give such a kick that Kezia, though she saith she is
+the most quietest of women, felt herself a forced to bounce me up."
+
+"A dream of that sort deserves notice," answered Erle, who had
+passed many months among sailors; "and over and above that, I see
+proofs of a foolish security in England, and of sharp activity in
+France.  Last Monday I was only five miles from Boulogne, on board
+of our frigate the Melpomene, for I wanted the captain's evidence
+to help me in my own affairs; and upon my word I was quite amazed
+at the massing of the French forces there, and the evident
+readiness of their hundreds of troop-ships.  Scores of them even
+had horses on board, for I saw them quite clearly with a spy-glass.
+But the officers only laughed at me, and said they were tired of
+seeing that.  And another thing I don't like at all is the landing
+of a French boat this side of Pebbleridge.  I was coming home after
+dark one night, and as soon as they saw me they pushed off, and
+pretended to be English fishermen; but if ever I saw Frenchmen,
+these were French; and I believe they had a ship not far away, for
+I saw a light shown and then turned off.  I examined the place in
+the morning, and saw the footprints of men on a path up the cliff,
+as if they had gone inland towards Carne Castle.  When the Admiral
+came home, I told him of it; but he seemed to think it was only
+some smuggling."
+
+"Ah, there's smooglin' of a bad kind over there, to my belief.  I
+wouldn't tell your honour not a quarter what I thinks, because of
+the young gentleman being near akin to you.  But a thing or two
+have come to my ears, very much again a young squire over that way.
+A man as will do what he have done is a black one in some ways; and
+if some, why not in all?"
+
+"Tell me what you mean," said Twemlow, sternly.  "After saying so
+much, you are bound to say more.  Caryl Carne is no friend of mine,
+although he is my cousin.  I dislike the man, though I know but
+little of him."
+
+"For sartin then a kind gentleman like you won't like him none the
+better for betraying of a nice young maid as put her trust in him,
+as lively and pretty a young maid as ever stepped, and might have
+had the pick of all the young men in the parish."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Erle, with a sudden chill of heart, for Faith had
+not concealed from him her anxiety about Dolly.  "Tugwell, do you
+mean to say--"
+
+"Yes, sir; only you must keep it to yourself, for the sake of the
+poor young thing; though too many knows it already, I'm afeared.
+And that was how poor Jem Cheeseman changed from a dapper money-
+turning man, as pleasant as could be, to a down-hearted, stick-in-
+doors, honest-weighted fellow.  Poor little Polly was as simple as
+a dove, and her meant to break none of the Lord's commandments,
+unless it was a sin to look so much above her.  He took her aboard
+her father's trading-craft, and made pretence to marry her across
+the water, her knowing nothing of the lingo, to be sure; and then
+when there come a thumping boy, and her demanded for the sake of
+the young 'un that her marriage should be sartified in the face of
+all the world, what does he do but turn round and ask her if she
+was fool enough to suppose that a Carne had married a butter-man's
+daughter?  With a few words more, she went off of her head, and
+have never been right again, they say; and her father, who was
+mighty proud to have a grandson heir to an old ancient castle, he
+was so took aback with this disappointment that he puzzled all the
+village, including of me, as I am free to own, by jumping into his
+own rope.  'Twas only now just that I heard all this; and as the
+captain of this here place, I shall ask leave of Cheeseman to have
+it out with Master Carne, as soon as may be done without hurting
+the poor thing.  If she had been my child, the rope should have
+gone round his neck first, if it come to mine there-arter!"
+
+"The ----- villain!"  Twemlow used a strong short word, without
+adding heavily, it may be hoped, to the score against him.  "And to
+think that all this time he has been daring to address himself--But
+never mind that now.  It will be a bad time for him when I catch
+him by himself, though I must not speak of Polly.  Poor little
+Polly! what a pretty child she was!  I used to carry sugar-plums on
+purpose for her.  Good-bye, Tugwell; I must think about all this."
+
+"And so must I, sir.  What a strapping chap 'a be!" Captain Zebedee
+continued to himself, as Twemlow strode away with the light step of
+a mountain savage, carrying a long staff from force of habit, and
+looking even larger than himself from the flow of chestnut hair and
+beard around him.  "Never did see such a hairy chap.  Never showed
+no signs of it when 'a was a lad, and Miss 'Liza quite smooth in
+the front of her neck.  Must come of Hottentot climate, I reckon.
+They calls it the bush, from the folk been so bushy.  I used to
+think as my beard was a pretty good example; but, Lord bless me and
+keep me, it would all go on his nose!  If 'a spreadeth that over
+the face of Squire Carne, 'a will ravish him, as the wicked doth
+ravish the poor."
+
+Twemlow had many sad things to consider, and among them the
+impending loss of this grand mane.  After divers delays, and
+infinitude of forms, and much evidence of things self-evident--in
+the spirit which drove Sir Horatio Nelson to pin a certificate of
+amputation to the sleeve of his lost arm--this Twemlow had
+established that he was the Twemlow left behind upon the coast of
+Africa, and having been captured in the service of his country, was
+entitled at least to restoration.  In such a case small liberality
+was shown in those days, even as now prevaileth, the object of all
+in authority being to be hard upon those who are out of it.  At
+last, when he was becoming well weary, and nothing but an
+Englishman's love of his country and desire to help in her dangers
+prevented him from turning to private pursuits--wherein he held a
+key to fortune--he found himself restored to his rank in the Army,
+and appointed to another regiment, which happened to be short of
+officers.  Then he flung to the winds, until peace should return,
+his prospect of wealth beyond reckoning, and locked in a black
+leather trunk materials worth their weight in diamonds.  But, as
+life is uncertain, he told his beloved one the secret of his great
+discovery, which she, in sweet ignorance of mankind, regarded as of
+no importance.
+
+But as wars appear and disappear, nations wax and wane, and the
+holiest principles of one age become the scoff of the next, yet
+human nature is the same throughout, it would be wrong to cast no
+glance--even with the French so near our shores--at the remarkable
+discovery of this young man, and the circumstances leading up to
+it.  For with keen insight into civilized thought, which yearns
+with the deepest remorse for those blessings which itself has
+banished, he knew that he held a master-key to the treasuries of
+Croesus, Mycerinus, Attalus, and every other King who has dazzled
+the world with his talents.  The man who can minister to human
+needs may, when he is lucky, earn a little towards his own; the man
+who contributes to the pleasure of his fellows must find reward in
+his own; but he who can gratify the vanity of his race is the
+master of their pockets.
+
+Twemlow had been carried from the deadly coast (as before related
+by Captain Southcombe) to the mountainous district far inland, by
+the great King Golo of the Quackwas nation, mighty warriors of
+lofty stature.  Here he was treated well, and soon learned enough
+of their simple language to understand and be understood; while the
+King, who considered all white men as of canine origin, was pleased
+with him, and prepared to make him useful.  Then Twemlow was sent,
+with an escort of chiefs, to the land of the Houlas, as a medicine-
+man, to win Queen Mabonga for the great King Golo.  But she--so
+strange is the perversity of women--beholding this man of a pearly
+tint, as fair as the moon, and as soft as a river--for he took many
+months to get properly tanned--with one long gaze of amazement
+yielded to him what he sought for another.  A dwarf and a whipster
+he might be among the great darkies around her--for he had only six
+feet and one inch of stature, and forty-two inches round the chest--
+but, to her fine taste, tone and quality more than covered defect
+of quantity.  The sight of male members of her race had never moved
+her, because she had heard of their wickedness; but the gaze of
+this white man, so tender and so innocent, set her on a long course
+of wondering about herself.  Then she drew back, and passed into
+the private hut behind, where no one was allowed to disturb her.
+For she never had felt like this before, and she wanted nobody to
+notice it.
+
+But the Houla maidens, with the deepest interest in matters that
+came home to them outside their understanding, held council with
+their mothers, and these imparted to the angelic stranger, as
+plainly as modesty permitted, the distressing results of his
+whiteness, and implored him to depart, before further harm was
+done.  Twemlow perceived that he had tumbled into a difficult
+position, and the only way out of it was to make off.  Giving
+pledges to return in two moons at the latest, he made his salaam to
+the sensitive young Queen, whose dignity was only surpassed by her
+grace, and expecting to be shortened by the head, returned with all
+speed to the great King Golo.  Honesty is the best policy--as we
+all know so well that we forbear to prove it--and the Englishman
+saw that the tale would be darker from the lips of his black
+attendants.  The negro monarch was of much-enduring mind, but these
+tidings outwent his philosophy.  He ordered Twemlow's head to come
+off by dinner-time, and, alas, that royal household kept very early
+hours; and the poor captain, corded to a tree, sniffed sadly the
+growth of good roast, which he never should taste, and could only
+succeed in succession of fare.  For although that enlightened King
+had discarded the taste of the nations around him, it was not half
+so certain as the prisoner could have wished that his prejudice
+would resist the relish of a candid rival in prime condition.
+
+While Twemlow was dwelling upon this nice question, and sympathising
+deeply with the animal on the spit, Tuloo, the head councillor of
+the realm, appeared, an ancient negro full of wisdom and resource.
+Discovering that the white man set more value on his head than is
+usual with these philosophers, he proposed conditions which were
+eagerly accepted, and releasing the captive, led him into his own
+hut.  Here the man of wisdom spat three times into his very ample
+bosom, to exorcise evil spells, and took from a hole in the corner
+something which he handled very carefully, and with a touch as light
+as possible.  Following everything with his best eyes, Twemlow
+perceived in the hand of Tuloo a spongy-looking substance of conical
+form, and in colour and size very like a morel, but possessing a
+peculiar golden glow.  "Kneel here, my son, and move not until I
+tell you," the old man whispered, and was obeyed.  Then he stripped
+off all covering from the white neck and shoulders, and beginning
+immediately below the eyes, brushed all the cheeks and the chin,
+throat and neck and upper part of the bosom, with the substance in
+his hand, from which a yellow powder passed, moist rather than
+dusty, into the open pores.  "In one moon you will be a beast of the
+woods, and in two you shall return to the Queen that loves you,"
+said Councillor Tuloo, with a sly little grin.
+
+But Twemlow was robbed of no self-respect by the growth of a forest
+about him; and when he was sent again to Queen Mabonga, and the
+dewy glance of love died at the very first wink into a stony glare--
+because of his face being covered with hair--he said to himself
+that he knew where he could inflict a very different impression
+upon ladies.  For these cannot have too much hair in England, at
+the back of their own heads, and front of their admirers'.
+
+Councillor Tuloo was gifted with a deep understanding of a thing
+which looks shallow to a man who has never yet heard of false
+bottoms.  He said to King Golo:  "I know what women are.  As long
+as she never had thought about men, you might crawl, and be only a
+hog to her.  But her eyes have been opened to this white man, and
+there is room for a black one to go into them.  And unless you are
+at hand, it will be done by some one else."
+
+In short, all was managed so beautifully that in six more moons the
+coy Mabonga split the Durra straw with King Golo, amid vast
+rejoicings and in din almost equal to that which a wedding in Wales
+arouses.  But from time to time it was considered needful to keep
+up her Majesty's repulsion by serving Erle Twemlow with another
+dose of that which would have created for the English fair
+capillary attraction.  Thus he became a great favourite with the
+King, who listened with deep interest to his descriptions of the
+houseful of beads and buttons to be earned in England by a little
+proper management of Tuloo's magic dust.  Before very long it was
+arranged that as soon as a good supply of Pong could be collected,
+Twemlow should be sent back to the coast and placed under the
+charge of Bandeliah, who was now a tributary of this great King.
+And here he might have waited years and years--for the trading
+station was abandoned now--but for the benevolence of Captain
+Southcombe, who, being driven to the eastward of his course upon
+one of his returns from India, stood in a little further to enquire
+about his friend, and with no small pleasure conveyed him home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LX
+
+NO DANGER, GENTLEMEN
+
+
+The little dinner at Springhaven Hall, appointed for that same
+Saturday, had now grown into a large one.  Carne had refused
+Dolly's offer to get him an invitation, and for many reasons he was
+not invited.  He ought to have been glad of this, because he did
+not want to be there; but his nature, like a saw's, was full of
+teeth, and however he was used, he grated.  But without any aid of
+his teeth, a good dinner, well planned and well served, bade fair
+in due course to be well digested also by forty at least of the
+forty-two people who sat down to consider it.  For as yet the use
+of tongue was understood, and it was not allowed to obstruct by
+perpetual motion the duties of the palate.  And now every person in
+the parish of high culture--which seems to be akin to the Latin for
+a knife, though a fork expels nature more forcibly--as well as many
+others of locality less favoured, joined in this muster of good
+people and good things.  At the outset, the Admiral had intended
+nothing more than a quiet recognition of the goodness of the Lord
+in bringing home a husband for the daughter of the house; but what
+Englishman can forbear the pleasure of killing two birds with one
+stone?
+
+It was Stubbard who first suggested this, and Sir Charles at once
+saw the force of it, especially with the Marquis of Southdown
+coming.  Captain Stubbard had never admired anybody, not even
+himself--without which there is no happiness--much less Mr. Pitt,
+or Lord Nelson, or the King, until justice was done to the race of
+Stubbard, and their hands were plunged into the Revenue.  But now,
+ever since the return of the war to its proper home in England,
+this Captain had been paid well for doing the very best thing that
+a man can do, i. e., nothing.  He could not help desiring to
+celebrate this, and as soon as he received his invitation, he went
+to the host and put it clearly.  The Admiral soon entered into his
+views, and as guests were not farmed by the head as yet at tables
+entertaining self-respect, he perceived the advantage of a good
+dinner scored to his credit with forty at the cost of twenty; and
+Stubbard's proposal seemed thoroughly well timed, so long was it
+now since the leaders of Defence had celebrated their own
+vigilance.  Twenty-two, allowing for the ladies needful, were thus
+added to the score of chairs intended, and the founder of the feast
+could scarcely tell whether the toast of the evening was to be the
+return of the traveller, or the discomfiture of Boney.  That would
+mainly depend upon the wishes of the Marquis, and these again were
+likely to be guided by the treatment he had met with from the
+government lately and the commanders of his Division.
+
+This nobleman was of a character not uncommon eighty years ago, but
+now very rare among public men, because a more flexible fibre has
+choked it.  Steadfast, honourable, simple, and straightforward,
+able to laugh without bitterness at the arrogant ignorance of mobs,
+but never to smile at the rogues who led them, scorning all shuffle
+of words, foul haze, and snaky maze of evasion, and refusing to
+believe at first sight that his country must be in the wrong and
+her enemies in the right, he added to all these exterminated
+foibles a leisurely dignity now equally extinct.  Trimmers, time-
+servers, and hypocrites feared him, as thieves fear an honourable
+dog; and none could quote his words against one another.  This
+would have made him unpopular now, when perjury means popularity.
+For the present, however, self-respect existed, and no one thought
+any the worse of his lordship for not having found him a liar.
+Especially with ladies, who insist on truth in men as a pleasant
+proof of their sex, Lord Southdown had always been a prime
+favourite, and an authority largely misquoted.  And to add to his
+influence, he possessed a quick turn of temper, which rendered it
+very agreeable to agree with him.
+
+Lord Southdown was thinking, as he led Miss Darling to her chair at
+the head of the table, that he never had seen a more pleasing young
+woman, though he grieved at her taste in preferring the brown young
+man on her left to his elegant friend Lord Dashville.  Also he
+marvelled at hearing so much, among the young officers of his
+acquaintance, concerning the beauty of the younger sister, and so
+little about this far sweeter young person--at least in his
+opinion.  For verily Dolly was not at her best; her beautiful
+colour was gone, her neck had lost its sprightly turn, and her gray
+eyes moved heavily instead of sparkling.  "That girl has some
+burden upon her mind," he thought as he watched her with interest
+and pity; "she has put on her dress anyhow, and she does not even
+look to see who is looking at her!"
+
+For the "Belle of all Sussex," as the young sparks entitled her,
+was ill at ease with herself, and ready to quarrel with every one
+except herself.  She had conscience enough to confess, whenever she
+could not get away from it, that for weeks and months she had been
+slipping far and further from the true and honest course.
+Sometimes, with a pain like a stitch in the side, the truth would
+spring upon her; and perhaps for a moment she would wonder at
+herself, and hate the man misleading her.  But this happened
+chiefly when he was present, and said or did something to vex her;
+and then he soon set it to rights again, and made everything feel
+delightful.  And this way of having her misgivings eased made them
+easier when they came again with no one to appease them.  For she
+began to think of what he had done, and how kind and considerate
+his mind must be, and how hard it must seem to mistrust him.
+
+Another thing that urged her to keep on now, without making any
+fuss about it, was the wonderful style her sister Faith had shown
+since that hairy monster came back again.  It was manifest that the
+world contained only one man of any high qualities, and nobody must
+dare to think even twice about any conclusion he laid down.  He had
+said to her, with a penetrating glance--and it must have been that
+to get through such a thicket--that dangerous people were about,
+and no girl possessing any self-respect must think of wandering on
+the shore alone.  The more she was spied upon and admonished, the
+more she would do what she thought right; and a man who had lived
+among savages for years must be a queer judge of propriety.  But,
+in spite of all these defiant thoughts, her heart was very low, and
+her mind in a sad flutter, and she could not even smile as she met
+her father's gaze.  Supposing that she was frightened at the number
+of the guests, and the noise of many tongues, and the grandeur of
+the people, the gentle old man made a little signal to her to come
+and have a whisper with him, as a child might do, under courtesy of
+the good company.  But Dolly feigned not to understand, at the
+penalty of many a heart-pang.
+
+The dinner went on with a very merry sound, and a genuine strength
+of enjoyment, such as hearty folk have who know one another, and
+are met together not to cut capers of wit, but refresh their
+goodwill and fine principles.  And if any dinner party can be so
+arranged that only five per cent. has any trouble on its mind, the
+gentleman who whips away the plates, at a guinea a mouth, will have
+to go home with a face of willow pattern.
+
+The other whose mind was away from her food, and reckless of its
+own nourishment, was Blyth Scudamore's mother, as gentle a lady as
+ever tried never to think of herself.  In spite of all goodness,
+and faith in the like, she had enough to make her very miserable
+now, whenever she allowed herself to think about it, and that was
+fifty-nine minutes out of sixty.  For a brief account of her son's
+escape from Etaples had reached her, through the kindness of
+Captain Desportes, who found means to get a letter delivered to the
+Admiral.  That brave French officer spoke most highly of the
+honourable conduct of his English friend, but had very small hope
+of his safety.  For he added the result of his own inquiries to the
+statement of M. Jalais, and from these it was clear that poor
+Scuddy had set forth alone in a rickety boat, ill found and ill
+fitted to meet even moderate weather in the open Channel.  Another
+young Englishman had done the like, after lurking in the forest of
+Hardelot, but he had been recaptured by the French at the outset of
+his hopeless voyage.  Scudamore had not been so retaken; and the
+Captain (who had not received his letter until it was too late to
+interfere, by reason of his own despatch to Dieppe) had encountered
+a sharp summer gale just then, which must have proved fatal to the
+poor old boat.  The only chance was that some English ship might
+have picked up the wanderer, and if so the highly respected Admiral
+would have heard of it before he received this letter.  As no such
+tidings had been received, there could be little doubt about the
+issue in any reasonable mind.  But the heart of a woman is not a
+mind, or the man that is born of her might as well forego the
+honour.
+
+However, as forty people were quite happy, the wisest course is to
+rejoin them.  The ladies were resolved upon this occasion to storm
+the laws of usage which required their withdrawal before the toasts
+began; and so many gentle voices challenged the garrison of men
+behind their bottles that terms of unusual scope were arranged.  It
+was known that the Marquis would make a fine speech--short, and
+therefore all the finer--in proposing the toast of the evening, to
+wit, "Our King, and our Country."  Under the vigorous lead of Mrs.
+Stubbard, the ladies demanded to hear every word; after which they
+would go, and discuss their own affairs, or possibly those of their
+neighbours.  But the gentlemen must endure their presence till his
+lordship had spoken, and the Admiral replied.  Faith was against
+this arrangement, because she foresaw that it would make them very
+late; but she yielded to the wishes of so many of her guests,
+consoled with the thought that she would be supported by some one
+on her left hand, who would be her support for life.
+
+When all had done well, except the two aforesaid, and good-will
+born of good deeds was crowning comfort with jocund pleasure, and
+the long oak table, rich of grain and dark with the friction of a
+hundred years, shone in the wavering flow of dusk with the gleam of
+purple and golden fruit, the glance of brilliant glass that puzzles
+the light with its claim to shadow, and the glow of amber and
+amethyst wine decanted to settle that question--then the bold
+Admiral, standing up, said, "Bring in the lights, that we may see
+his lordship."
+
+"I like to speak to some intelligence," said the guest, who was
+shrewd at an answer.  And Dolly, being quick at occasion, seized
+it, and in the shifting of chairs left her own for some one else.
+
+The curtains were drawn across the western window, to close the
+conflict between God's light and man's, and then this well-known
+gentleman, having placed his bottle handily--for he never "put wine
+into two whites," to use his own expression--arose with his solid
+frame as tranquil as a rock, and his full-fronted head like a piece
+of it.  Every gentleman bowed to his bow, and waited with silent
+respect for his words, because they would be true and simple.
+
+"My friends, I will take it for granted that we all love our
+country, and hate its enemies.  We may like and respect them
+personally, for they are as good as we are; but we are bound to
+hate them collectively, as men who would ruin all we love.  For the
+stuff that is talked about freedom, democracy, march of intellect,
+and so forth, I have nothing to say, except to bid you look at the
+result among themselves.  Is there a man in France whose body is
+his own if he can carry arms, or his soul if it ventures to seek
+its own good?  As for mind--there is only the mind of one man; a
+large one in many ways; in others a small one, because it considers
+its owner alone.
+
+"But we of England have refused to be stripped of all that we hold
+dear, at the will of a foreign upstart.  We have fought for years,
+and we still are fighting, without any brag or dream of glory, for
+the rights of ourselves and of all mankind.  There have been among
+us weak-minded fellows, babblers of abstract nonsense, and even, I
+grieve to say--traitors.  But, on the whole, we have stood
+together, and therefore have not been trodden on.  How it may end
+is within the knowledge of the Almighty only; but already there are
+signs that we shall be helped, if we continue to help ourselves.
+
+"And now for the occasion of our meeting here.  We rejoice most
+heartily with our good host, the vigilant Defender of these shores,
+at the restoration to his arms--or rather, to a still more
+delightful embrace--of a British officer, who has proved a truth we
+knew already, that nothing stops a British officer.  I see a
+gentleman struck so keenly with the force of that remark, because
+he himself has proved it, that I must beg his next neighbour to
+fill up his glass, and allow nothing to stop him from tossing it
+off.  And as I am getting astray from my text, I will clear my poor
+head with what you can see through."
+
+The Marquis of Southdown filled his glass from a bottle of grand
+old Chambertin--six of which had been laid most softly in a
+cupboard of the wainscote for his use--and then he had it filled
+again, and saw his meaning brilliantly.
+
+"Our second point is the defeat of the French, and of this we may
+now assure ourselves.  They have not been defeated, for the very
+good reason that they never would come out to fight; but it comes
+to the same thing, because they are giving it over as a hopeless
+job.  I have seen too many ups and downs to say that we are out of
+danger yet; but when our fleets have been chasing theirs all over
+the world, are they likely to come and meet us in our own waters?
+Nelson has anchored at Spithead, and is rushing up to London, as
+our host has heard to-day, with his usual impetuosity.  Every man
+must stick to his own business, even the mighty Nelson; and he
+might not meddle with Billy Blue, or anybody else up Channel.
+Still, Nelson is not the sort of man to jump into a chaise at
+Portsmouth if there was the very smallest chance of the French
+coming over to devour us.
+
+"Well, my friends, we have done our best, and have some right to be
+proud of it; but we should depart from our nature if we even
+exercised that right.  The nature of an Englishman is this--to be
+afraid of nothing but his own renown.  Feeling this great truth, I
+will avoid offence by hiding as a crime my admiration of the
+glorious soldiers and sailors here, yet beg them for once to
+remember themselves, as having enabled me to propose, and all
+present to pledge, the welfare of our King and Country."
+
+The Marquis waved his glass above his head, without spilling a
+single drop, although it was a bumper, then drained it at a
+draught, inverted it, and cleverly snapped it in twain upon the
+table, with his other hand laid on his heart, and a long low
+reverence to the company.  Thereupon up stood squires and dames,
+and repeating the good toast, pledged it, with a deep bow to the
+proposer; and as many of the gentlemen as understood the art,
+without peril to fair neighbours, snapped the glass.
+
+His lordship was delighted, and in the spirit of the moment held up
+his hand, which meant, "Silence, silence, till we all sing the
+National Anthem!"  In a clear loud voice he led off the strain,
+Erle Twemlow from his hairy depths struck in, then every man,
+following as he might, and with all his might, sustained it, and
+the ladies, according to their wont, gave proof of the heights they
+can scale upon rapture.
+
+The Admiral, standing, and beating time now and then with his heel--
+though all the time deserved incessant beating--enjoyed the
+performance a great deal more than if it had been much better, and
+joined in the main roar as loudly as he thought his position as
+host permitted.  For although he was nearing the haven now of
+threescore years and ten, his throat and heart were so sea-worthy
+that he could very sweetly have outroared them all.  But while he
+was preparing just to prove this, if encouraged, and smiling very
+pleasantly at a friend who said, "Strike up, Admiral," he was
+called from the room, and in the climax of the roar slipped away
+for a moment, unheeded, and meaning to make due apology to his
+guests as soon as he came back.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXI
+
+DISCHARGED FROM DUTY
+
+
+While loyalty thus rejoiced and throve in the warmth of its own
+geniality, a man who was loyal to himself alone, and had no
+geniality about him, was watching with contempt these British
+doings.  Carne had tethered his stout black horse, who deserved a
+better master, in a dusky dell of dark-winged trees at the back of
+the eastern shrubbery.  Here the good horse might rest unseen, and
+consider the mysterious ways of men; for the main approach was by
+the western road, and the shades of evening stretched their arms to
+the peaceful yawn of sunset.  And here he found good stuff spread
+by nature, more worthy of his attention, and tucking back his
+forelegs, fared as well as the iron between his teeth permitted.
+
+Then the master drew his green riding-coat of thin velvet closer
+round him, and buttoned the lappet in front, because he had heavy
+weight in the pockets.  Keeping warily along the lines of shadow,
+he gained a place of vantage in the shrubbery, a spot of thick
+shelter having loops of outlook.  Above and around him hung a
+curtain of many-pointed ilex, and before him a barberry bush, whose
+coral clusters caught the waning light.  In this snug nook he
+rested calmly, leaning against the ilex trunk, and finished his
+little preparations for anything adverse to his plans.  In a belt
+which was hidden by his velvet coat he wore a short dagger in a
+sheath of shagreen, and he fixed it so that he could draw it in a
+moment, without unfastening the riding-coat.  Then from the pockets
+on either side he drew a pair of pistols, primed them well from a
+little flask, and replaced them with the butts beneath the lappets.
+"Death for at least three men," he muttered, "if they are fools
+enough to meddle with me.  My faith, these Darlings are grown very
+grand, on the strength of the land that belongs to us!"
+
+For he heard the popping of champagne corks, and the clink of
+abundant silver, and tuning of instruments by the band, and he saw
+the flash of lights, and the dash of serving-men, and the rush of
+hot hospitality; and although he had not enough true fibre in his
+stomach to yearn for a taste of the good things going round, there
+can be little doubt, from what he did thereafter, that his gastric
+juices must have turned to gall.
+
+With all these sounds and sights and scents of things that he had
+no right to despise, his patience was tried for an hour and a half,
+or at any rate he believed so.  The beautiful glow in the west died
+out, where the sun had been ripening his harvest-field of sheafy
+gold and awny cloud; and the pulse of quivering dusk beat slowly,
+so that a man might seem to count it, or rather a child, who sees
+such things, which later men lose sight of.  The forms of the
+deepening distances against the departure of light grew faint, and
+prominent points became obscure, and lines retired into masses,
+while Carne maintained his dreary watch, with his mood becoming
+darker.  As the sound of joyful voices, and of good-will doubled by
+good fare, came to his unfed vigil from the open windows of the
+dining-room, his heart was not enlarged at all, and the only solace
+for his lips was to swear at British revelry.  For the dining-room
+was at the western end, some fifty yards away from him, and its
+principal window faced the sunset, but his lurking-place afforded a
+view of the southern casements obliquely.  Through these he had
+seen that the lamps were brought, and heard the increase of merry
+noise, the clapping of hands, and the jovial cheers at the rising
+of the popular Marquis.
+
+At last he saw a white kerchief waved at the window nearest to him,
+the window of the Admiral's little study, which opened like a
+double door upon the eastern grass-plat.  With an ill-conditioned
+mind, and body stiff and lacking nourishment, he crossed the grass
+in a few long strides, and was admitted without a word.
+
+"What a time you have been!  I was giving it up," he whispered to
+the trembling Dolly.  "Where are the candles?  I must strike a
+light.  Surely you might have brought one.  Bolt the door, while I
+make a light, and close the curtains quietly, but leave the window
+open.  Don't shake, like a child that is going to be whipped.  Too
+late now for nonsense.  What are you afraid of?  Silly child!"
+
+As he spoke he was striking a light in a little French box
+containing a cube of jade, and with very little noise he lit two
+candles standing on the high oak desk.  Dolly drew a curtain across
+the window, and then went softly to the door, which opened opposite
+the corner of a narrow passage, and made pretence to bolt it, but
+shot the bolt outside the socket.
+
+"Come and let me look at you," said Carne, for he knew that he had
+been rough with her, and she was not of the kind that submits to
+that.  "Beauty, how pale you look, and yet how perfectly lovely in
+this evening gown!  I should like to kill the two gentlemen who sat
+next to you at dinner.  Darling, you know that whatever I do is
+only for your own sweet sake."
+
+"If you please not to touch me, it will be better," said the lady,
+not in a whisper, but a firm and quiet voice, although her hands
+were trembling; "you are come upon business, and you should do it."
+
+If Carne had but caught her in his arms, and held her to his heart,
+and vowed that all business might go to the devil while he held his
+angel so, possibly the glow of nobler feelings might have been lost
+in the fire of passion.  But he kept his selfish end alone in view,
+and neglected the womanly road to it.
+
+"A despatch from London arrived today; I must see it," he said,
+shortly; "as well as the copy of the answer sent.  And then my
+beauty must insert a NOT in the order to be issued in the morning,
+or otherwise invert its meaning, simply to save useless bloodshed.
+The key for a moment, the key, my darling, of this fine old piece
+of furniture!"
+
+"Is it likely that I would give you the key?  My father always
+keeps it.  What right have you with his private desk?  I never
+promised anything so bad as that."
+
+"I am not to be trifled with," he whispered, sternly.  "Do you
+think that I came here for kissing?  The key I must have, or break
+it open; and how will you explain that away?"
+
+His rudeness settled her growing purpose.  The misery of indecision
+vanished; she would do what was right, if it cost her life.  Her
+face was as white as her satin dress, but her dark eyes flashed
+with menace.
+
+"There is a key that opens it," she said, as she pointed to the
+bookcase; "but I forbid you to touch it, sir."
+
+Carne's only reply was to snatch the key from the upper glass door
+of the book-shelves, which fitted the lock of the Admiral's desk,
+though the owner was not aware of it.  In a moment the intruder had
+unlocked the high and massive standing-desk, thrown back the cover,
+and placed one candlestick among the documents.  Many of them he
+brushed aside, as useless for his purpose, and became bewildered
+among the rest, for the Commander of the Coast-defence was not a
+man of order.  He never knew where to put a thing, nor even where
+it might have put itself, but found a casual home for any paper
+that deserved it.  This lack of method has one compensation, like
+other human defects, to wit, that it puzzles a clandestine searcher
+more deeply than cypher or cryptogram.  Carne had the Admiral's
+desk as wide as an oyster thrown back on his valve, and just being
+undertucked with the knife, to make him go down easily.  Yet so
+great was the power of disorder that nothing could be made out of
+anything.  "Watch at the door," he had said to Dolly; and this
+suited her intention.
+
+For while he was thus absorbed, with his back towards her, she
+opened the door a little, and presently saw the trusty Charles come
+hurrying by, as if England hung upon his labours.  "Tell my father
+to come here this moment; go softly, and say that I sent you."  As
+she finished her whisper she closed the door, without any sound,
+and stood patiently.
+
+"Show me where it is; come and find it for me.  Everything here is
+in the vilest mess," cried Carne, growing reckless with wrath and
+hurry.  "I want the despatch of this morning, and I find tailors'
+bills, way to make water-proof blacking, a list of old women, and a
+stump of old pipe!  Come here, this instant, and show me where it
+is."
+
+"If you forget your good manners," answered Dolly, still keeping in
+the dark near the door, "I shall have to leave you.  Surely you
+have practice enough in spying, to find what you want, with two
+candles."
+
+Carne turned for a moment, and stared at her.  Her attitude
+surprised him, but he could not believe in her courage to rebel.
+She stood with her back to the door, and met his gaze without a
+sign of fear.
+
+"There are no official papers here," he said, after another short
+ransack; "there must have been some, if this desk is the one.  Have
+you dared to delude me by showing the wrong desk?"
+
+Dolly met his gaze still, and then walked towards him.  The band
+had struck up, and the company were singing with a fine patriotic
+roar, which rang very nobly in the distance--"Britannia, rule the
+waves!"  Dolly felt like a Briton as the words rolled through her,
+and the melody lifted her proud heart.
+
+"You have deluded yourself," she said, standing proudly before the
+baffled spy; "you have ransacked my father's private desk, which I
+allowed you to do, because my father has no secrets.  He leaves it
+open half the time, because he is a man of honour.  He is not a man
+of plots, and wiles, and trickery upon women.  And you have deluded
+yourself, in dreaming that a daughter of his would betray her
+Country."
+
+"By the God that made me, I will have your life!" cried Carne in
+French, as he dashed his hand under his coat to draw his dagger;
+but the pressure of the desk had displaced that, so that he could
+not find it.  She thought that her time was come, and shrieked--for
+she was not at all heroic, and loved life very dearly--but she
+could not take her eyes from his, nor turn to fly from the spell of
+them; all she could do was to step back; and she did so into her
+father's arms.
+
+"Ho!" cried the Admiral, who had entered with the smile of good
+cheer and good company glowing on his fine old countenance; "my
+Dolly and a stranger at my private desk!  Mr. Carne!  I have had a
+glass or two of wine, but my eyes must be playing me extraordinary
+tricks.  A gentleman searching my desk, and apparently threatening
+my dear daughter!  Have the kindness to explain, before you attempt
+to leave us."
+
+If the curtain had not been drawn across the window, Carne would
+have made his escape, and left the situation to explain itself.
+But the stuff was thick, and it got between his legs; and before he
+could slip away, the stout old Admiral had him by the collar with a
+sturdy grasp, attesting the substance of the passing generation.
+And a twinkle of good-humour was in the old eyes still--such a
+wonder was his Dolly that he might be doing wrong in laying hands
+of force upon a visitor of hers.  Things as strange as this had
+been within his knowledge, and proved to be of little harm--with
+forbearance.  But his eyes grew stern, as Carne tried to dash his
+hand off.
+
+"If you value your life, you will let me go," said the young man to
+the old one.
+
+"I will not let you go, sir, till you clear up this.  A gentleman
+must see that he is bound to do so.  If I prove to be wrong, I will
+apologise.  What!  Are you going to fire at me?  You would never be
+such a coward!"
+
+He dropped upon the floor, with a bullet in his brain, and his
+course of duty ended.  Carne dashed aside the curtain, and was
+nearly through the window, when two white arms were cast round his
+waist.  He threw himself forward with all his might, and wrenched
+at the little hands clasped around him, but they held together like
+clenched iron.  "Will you force me to kill you?"  "You may, if you
+like"--was the dialogue of these lovers.
+
+The strength of a fit was in her despair.  She set her bent knees
+against the window-frame, and a shower of glass fell between them;
+but she flinched not from her convulsive grasp.  "Let me come back,
+that I may shoot myself," Carne panted, for his breath was
+straitened; "what is life to me after losing you?"  She made no
+answer, but took good care not to release so fond a lover.  Then he
+threw himself back with all his weight, and she fell on the floor
+beneath him.  Her clasp relaxed, and he was free; for her eyes had
+encountered her father's blood, and she swooned away, and lay as
+dead.
+
+Carne arose quickly, and bolted the door.  His breath was short,
+and his body trembling, but the wits of the traitor were active
+still.  "I must have something to show for all this," he thought as
+he glanced at the bodies on the floor.  "Those revellers may not
+have heard this noise.  I know where it is now, and I will get it."
+
+But the sound of the pistol, and shriek of the girl, had rung
+through the guests, when the wine was at their lips, and all were
+nodding to one another.  Faith sprang up, and then fell back
+trembling, and several men ran towards the door.  Charles, the
+footman, met them there, with his face whiter than his napkin, and
+held up his hands, but could not speak.  Erle Twemlow dashed past
+him and down the passage; and Lord Southdown said:  "Gentlemen, see
+to the ladies.  There has been some little mishap, I fear.  Bob,
+and Arthur, come with me."
+
+Twemlow was first at the study door, and finding it fastened,
+struck with all his force, and shouted, at the very moment when
+Carne stood before the true desk of office.  "Good door, and good
+bolt," muttered Carne; "my rule is never to be hurried by noises.
+Dolly will be quiet for a quarter of an hour, and the old gentleman
+forever.  All I want is about two minutes."
+
+Twemlow stepped back a few yards, and then with a good start
+delivered a rushing kick; but the only result was a jar of his leg
+through the sole of his thin dress sandal.
+
+"The window!" cried the Marquis.  "We'll stop here; you know the
+house; take the shortest cut to the window.  Whoever is there, we
+shall have him so.  I am too slow.  Boy Bob, go with him."
+
+"What a fool I was not to think of that!" shouted Twemlow, as he
+set off for the nearest house door, and unluckily Carne heard him.
+He had struck up the ledge of the desk with the butt of the pistol
+he had fired, and pocketing a roll of fresh despatches, he strode
+across the body of the Admiral, and with a glance at Dolly--whose
+eyes were wide open, but her face drawn aside, like a peach with a
+split stone--out he went.  He smiled as he heard the thundering of
+full-bodied gentlemen against the study door, and their oaths, as
+they damaged their knuckles and knee-caps.  Then he set off hot-
+foot, but was stopped by a figure advancing from the corner of the
+house.
+
+This was not a graceful figure, as of gentle maiden, nor venerable
+and slow of foot, as that of an ancient mariner, but a man in the
+prime of strength, and largely endowed with that blessing--the mate
+of truth.  Carne perceived that he had met his equal, and perhaps
+his better, in a bout of muscle, and he tried to escape by superior
+mind.
+
+"Twemlow, how glad I am that I have met you!  You are the very man
+I wanted.  There has been a sad accident in there with one of the
+Admiral's pistols, and the dear old man is badly wounded.  I am off
+for a doctor, for my horse is at hand.  For God's sake run in, and
+hold his head up, and try to staunch the bleeding.  I shall be back
+in half an hour with the man that lives at Pebbleridge.  Don't lose
+a moment.  Particulars hereafter."
+
+"Particulars now!" replied Twemlow, sternly, as he planted himself
+before his cousin.  "For years I have lived among liars, and they
+called a lie Crom, and worshipped it.  If this is not Crom, why did
+you bolt the door?"
+
+"You shall answer for this, when time allows.  If the door was
+bolted, he must have done it.  Let me pass; the last chance depends
+on my speed."
+
+Carne made a rush to pass, but Twemlow caught him by the breast,
+and held him.  "Come back," he said, fiercely, "and prove your
+words.  Without that, you go no further."
+
+Carne seized him by the throat, but his mighty beard, like a collar
+of hemp, protected him, and he brought his big brown fist like a
+hammer upon the traitor's forehead.  Carne wrenched at his dagger,
+but failed to draw it, and the two strong men rolled on the grass,
+fighting like two bull-dogs.  Reason, and thought, and even sense
+of pain were lost in brutal fury, as they writhed, and clutched,
+and dug at one another, gashing their knuckles, and gnashing their
+teeth, frothing with one another's blood, for Carne bit like a
+tiger.  At length tough condition and power of endurance got the
+mastery, and Twemlow planted his knee upon the gasping breast of
+Carne.
+
+"Surrend," he said, for his short breath could not fetch up the
+third syllable; and Carne with a sign of surrender lay on his back,
+and put his chin up, and shut his eyes as if he had fainted.
+Twemlow with self-congratulation waited a little to recover breath,
+still keeping his knee in the post of triumph, and pinning the
+foe's right arm to his side.  But the foe's left hand was free, and
+with the eyes still shut, and a continuance of gasping, that left
+hand stole its way to the left pocket, quietly drew forth the
+second pistol, pressed back the hammer on the grass, and with a
+flash (both of eyes and of flint) fired into the victor's forehead.
+The triumphant knee rolled off the chest, the body swung over, as a
+log is rolled by the woodman's crowbar, and Twemlow's back was on
+the grass, and his eyes were closed to the moonlight.
+
+Carne scrambled up and shook himself, to be sure that all his limbs
+were sound.  "Ho, ho, ho!" he chuckled; "it is not so easy to beat
+me.  Why, who are you?  Down with you, then!"
+
+Lord Robert Chancton, a lad of about sixteen, the eldest son of the
+Marquis, had lost his way inside the house, in trying to find a
+short-cut to the door, and coming up after the pistol was fired,
+made a very gallant rush at the enemy.  With a blow of the butt
+Carne sent him sprawling; then dashing among the shrubs and trees,
+in another minute was in the saddle, and galloping towards the
+ancestral ruins.
+
+As he struck into the main road through the grounds, Carne passed
+and just missed by a turn of the bridle another horseman ascending
+the hill, and urging a weary animal.  The faces of the men shot
+past each other within a short yard, and gaze met gaze; but neither
+in the dark flash knew the other, for a big tree barred the
+moonlight.  But Carne, in another moment, thought that the man who
+had passed must be Scudamore, probably fraught with hot tidings.
+And the thought was confirmed, as he met two troopers riding as
+hard as ride they might; and then saw the beacon on the headland
+flare.  From point to point, and from height to height, like a
+sprinkle of blood, the red lights ran; and the roar of guns from
+the moon-lit sea made echo that they were ready.  Then the rub-a-
+dub-dub of the drum arose, and the thrilling blare of trumpet; the
+great deep of the night was heaved and broken with the stir of
+human storm; and the staunchest and strongest piece of earth--our
+England--was ready to defend herself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXII
+
+THE WAY OUT OF IT
+
+
+"My father! my father!  I must see my father.  Who are you, that
+dare to keep me out?  Let me know the worst, and try to bear it.
+What are any of you to him?"
+
+"But, my dear child," Lord Southdown answered, holding the door
+against poor Faith, as she strove to enter the room of death, "wait
+just one minute, until we have lifted him to the sofa, and let us
+bring your poor sister out."
+
+"I have no sister.  She has killed my father, and the best thing
+she can do is to die.  I feel that I could shoot her, if I had a
+pistol.  Let me see him, where he lies."
+
+"But, my poor dear, you must think of others.  Your dear father is
+beyond all help.  Your gallant lover lies on the grass.  They hope
+to bring him round, God willing!  Go where you can be of use."
+
+"How cruel you are!  You must want to drive me mad.  Let his father
+and mother see to him, while I see to my own father.  If you had a
+daughter, you would understand.  Am I crying?  Do I even tremble?"
+
+The Marquis offered his arm, and she took it in fear of falling,
+though she did not tremble; so he led her to her father's last
+repose.  The poor Admiral lay by the open window, with his head
+upon a stool which Faith had worked.  The ghastly wound was in his
+broad smooth forehead, and his fair round cheeks were white with
+death.  But the heart had not quite ceased to beat, and some
+remnant of the mind still hovered somewhere in the lacerated brain.
+Stubbard, sobbing like a child, was lifting and clumsily chafing
+one numb hand; while his wife, who had sponged the wound, was
+making the white curls wave with a fan she had shaped from a long
+official paper found upon the floor.
+
+Dolly was recovering from her swoon, and sat upon a stool by the
+bookcase, faintly wondering what had happened, but afraid to ask or
+think.  The corner of the bookcase, and the burly form of Stubbard,
+concealed the window from her, and the torpid oppression which
+ensues upon a fit lay between her and her agony.  Faith, as she
+passed, darted one glance at her, not of pity, not of love, but of
+cold contempt and satisfaction at her misery.
+
+Then Faith, the quiet and gentle maid, the tranquil and the self-
+controlled (whom every one had charged with want of heart, because
+she had borne her own grief so well), stood with the body of her
+father at her feet, and uttered an exceeding bitter cry.  The
+others had seen enough of grief, as every human being must, but
+nothing half so sad as this.  They feared to look at her face, and
+durst not open lips to comfort her.
+
+"Don't speak.  Don't look at him.  You have no right here.  When he
+comes to himself, he will want none but me.  I have always done
+everything for him since dear mother died; and I shall get him to
+sit up.  He will be so much better when he sits up.  I can get him
+to do it, if you will only go.  Oh, father, father, it is your own
+Faith come to make you well, dear, if you will only look at me!"
+
+As she took his cold limp hand and kissed it, and wiped a red
+splash from his soft white hair, the dying man felt, by nature's
+feeling, that he was being touched by a child of his.  A faint
+gleam flitted through the dimness of his eyes, which he had not the
+power to close, and the longing to say "farewell" contended with
+the drooping of the underlip.  She was sure that he whispered,
+"Bless you, darling!" though nobody else could have made it out;
+but a sudden rush of tears improved her hearing, as rain brings
+higher voices down.
+
+"Dolly too!" he seemed to whisper next; and Faith made a sign to
+Mrs. Stubbard.  Then Dolly was brought, and fell upon her knees, at
+the other side of her father, and did not know how to lament as
+yet, and was scarcely sure of having anything to mourn.  But she
+spread out her hands, as if for somebody to take them, and bowed
+her pale face, and closed her lips, that she might be rebuked
+without answering.
+
+Her father knew her; and his yearning was not to rebuke, but to
+bless and comfort her.  He had forgotten everything, except that he
+was dying, with a daughter at each side of him.  This appeared to
+make him very happy, about everything, except those two.  He could
+not be expected to have much mind left; but the last of it was busy
+for his children's good.  Once more he tried to see them both, and
+whispered his last message to them--"Forgive and love each other."
+
+Faith bowed her head, as his fell back, and silently offered to
+kiss her sister; but Dolly neither moved nor looked at her.  "As
+you please," said Faith; "and perhaps you would like to see a
+little more of your handiwork."
+
+For even as she spoke, her lover's body was carried past the
+window, with his father and mother on either side, supporting his
+limp arms and sobbing.  Then Dolly arose, and with one hand
+grasping the selvage of the curtain, fixed one long gaze upon her
+father's corpse.  There were no tears in her eyes, no sign of
+anguish in her face, no proof that she knew or felt what she had
+done.  And without a word she left the room.
+
+"Hard to the last, even hard to you!" cried Faith, as her tears
+fell upon the cold forehead.  "Oh, darling, how could you have
+loved her so?"
+
+"It is not hardness; it is madness.  Follow your sister," Lord
+Southdown said.  "We have had calamities enough."
+
+But Faith was fighting with all her strength against an attack of
+hysterics, and fetching long gasps to control herself.  "I will
+go," replied Mrs. Stubbard; "this poor child is quite unfit.  What
+on earth is become of Lady Scudamore?  A doctor's widow might have
+done some good."
+
+The doctor's widow was doing good elsewhere.  In the first rush
+from the dining-room, Lady Scudamore had been pushed back by no
+less a person than Mrs. Stubbard; when at last she reached the
+study door she found it closed against her, and entering the next
+room, saw the flash of the pistol fired at Twemlow.  Bravely
+hurrying to the spot by the nearest outlet she could find, she
+became at once entirely occupied with this new disaster.  For two
+men who ran up with a carriage lamp declared that the gentleman was
+as dead as a door-nail, and hastened to make good their words by
+swinging him up heels over head.  But the lady made them set him
+down and support his head, while she bathed the wound, and sent to
+the house for his father and mother, and when he could be safely
+brought in-doors, helped with her soft hands beneath his hair, and
+then became so engrossed with him that the arrival of her long-lost
+son was for several hours unknown to her.
+
+For so many things coming all at once were enough to upset any one.
+Urgent despatches came hot for the hand that now was cold for ever;
+not a moment to lose, when time had ceased for the man who was to
+urge it.  There were plenty of officers there, but no one clearly
+entitled to take command.  Moreover, the public service clashed
+with the personal rage of the moment.  Some were for rushing to the
+stables, mounting every horse that could be found, and scouring the
+country, sword in hand, for that infernal murderer.  Some, having
+just descried the flash of beacon from the headland, and heard the
+alarm-guns from shore and sea, were for hurrying to their
+regiments, or ships, or homes and families (according to the head-
+quarters of their life), while others put their coats on to ride
+for all the doctors in the county, who should fetch back the
+Admiral to this world, that he might tell everybody what to do.
+Scudamore stood with his urgent despatches in the large well-
+candled hall, and vainly desired to deliver them.  "Send for the
+Marquis," suggested some one.
+
+Lord Southdown came, without being sent for.  "I shall take this
+duty upon myself," he said, "as Lord-Lieutenant of the county.
+Captain Stubbard, as commander of the nearest post, will come with
+me and read these orders.  Gentlemen, see that your horses are
+ready, and have all of the Admiral's saddled.  Captain Scudamore,
+you have discharged your trust, and doubtless ridden far and hard.
+My orders to you are a bottle of wine and a sirloin of roast beef
+at once."
+
+For the sailor was now in very low condition, weary, and worried,
+and in want of food.  Riding express, and changing horses twice,
+not once had he recruited the inner man, who was therefore quite
+unfit to wrestle with the power of sudden grief.  When he heard of
+the Admiral's death, he staggered as if a horse had stumbled under
+him, and his legs being stiff from hard sticking to saddle, had as
+much as they could do to hold him up.  Yet he felt that he could
+not do the right thing now, he could not go and deal with the
+expedient victuals, neither might he dare intrude upon the ladies
+now; so he went out to comfort himself by attending to the troubles
+of his foundered horse, and by shedding unseen among the trees the
+tears which had gathered in his gentle eyes.
+
+According to the surest law of nature, that broken-down animal had
+been forgotten as soon as he was done with.  He would have given
+his four legs--if he could legally dispose of them--for a single
+draught of sweet delicious rapturous ecstatic water; but his
+bloodshot eyes sought vainly, and his welted tongue found nothing
+wet, except the flakes of his own salt foam.  Until, with the help
+of the moon, a sparkle (worth more to his mind than all the
+diamonds he could draw)--a sparkle of the purest water gleamed into
+his dim eyes from the distance.  Recalling to his mind's eyes the
+grand date of his existence when he was a colt, and had a meadow to
+himself, with a sparkling river at the end of it, he set forth in
+good faith, and, although his legs were weary, "negotiated"--as the
+sporting writers say--the distance between him and the object of
+his desire.  He had not the least idea that this had cost ten
+guineas--as much as his own good self was worth; for it happened to
+be the first dahlia seen in that part of the country.  That gaudy
+flower at its first appearance made such a stir among gardeners
+that Mr. Swipes gave the Admiral no peace until he allowed him to
+order one.  And so great was this gardener's pride in his
+profession that he would not take an order for a rooted slip or
+cutting, from the richest man in the neighbourhood, for less than
+half a guinea.  Therefore Mr. Swipes was attending to the plant
+with the diligence of a wet-nurse, and the weather being dry, he
+had soaked it overhead, even before he did that duty to himself.
+
+A man of no teeth can take his nourishment in soup; and nature,
+inverting her manifold devices--which she would much rather do than
+be beaten--has provided that a horse can chew his solids into
+liquids, if there is a drop of juice in their composition, when his
+artificial life has failed to supply him with the bucket.  This
+horse, being very dry, laid his tongue to the water-drops that
+sparkled on the foliage.  He found them delicious, and he longed
+for more, and very soon his ready mind suggested that the wet must
+have come out of the leaves, and there must be more there.
+Proceeding on this argument, he found it quite correct, and ten
+guineas' worth of dahlia was gone into his stomach by the time that
+Captain Scudamore came courteously to look after him.
+
+Blyth, in equal ignorance of his sumptuous repast, gave him a pat
+of approval, and was turning his head towards the stable yard, when
+he saw a white figure gliding swiftly through the trees beyond the
+belt of shrubbery.  Weary and melancholy as he was, and bewildered
+with the tumult of disasters, his heart bounded hotly as he
+perceived that the figure was that of his Dolly--Dolly, the one
+love of his life, stealing forth, probably to mourn alone the loss
+of her beloved father.  As yet he knew nothing of her share in that
+sad tale, and therefore felt no anxiety at first about her purpose.
+He would not intrude upon her grief; he had no right to be her
+comforter; but still she should have some one to look after her, at
+that time of night, and with so much excitement and danger in the
+air.  So the poor horse was again abandoned to his own resources,
+and being well used to such treatment, gazed as wistfully and
+delicately after the young man Scudamore as that young man gazed
+after his lady-love.
+
+To follow a person stealthily is not conducive to one's self-
+respect, but something in the lady's walk and gesture impelled the
+young sailor to follow her.  She appeared to be hastening, with
+some set purpose, and without any heed of circumstance, towards a
+part of the grounds where no house was, no living creature for
+company, nor even a bench to rest upon.  There was no foot-path in
+that direction, nor anything to go to, but the inland cliff that
+screened the Hall from northeastern winds, and at its foot a dark
+pool having no good name in the legends of the neighbourhood.  Even
+Parson Twemlow would not go near it later than the afternoon
+milking of the cows, and Captain Zeb would much rather face a whole
+gale of wind in a twelve-foot boat than give one glance at its dead
+calm face when the moon like a ghost stood over it.
+
+"She is going towards Corpse-walk pit," thought Scuddy--"a cheerful
+place at this time of night!  She might even fall into it unawares,
+in her present state of distraction.  I am absolutely bound to
+follow her."
+
+Duty fell in with his wishes, as it has a knack of doing.
+Forgetting his weariness, he followed, and became more anxious at
+every step.  For the maiden walked as in a dream, without regard of
+anything, herself more like a vision than a good substantial being.
+To escape Mrs. Stubbard she had gone upstairs and locked herself in
+her bedroom, and then slipped out without changing dress, but
+throwing a dark mantle over it.  This had fallen off, and she had
+not cared to stop or think about it, but went on to her death
+exactly as she went in to dinner.  Her dress of white silk took the
+moonlight with a soft gleam like itself, and her clustering curls
+(released from fashion by the power of passion) fell, like the
+shadows, on her sweet white neck.  But she never even asked herself
+how she looked; she never turned round to admire her shadow:
+tomorrow she would throw no shade, but be one; and how she looked,
+or what she was, would matter, to the world she used to think so
+much of, never more.
+
+Suddenly she passed from the moonlight into the blackness of a
+lonely thicket, and forced her way through it, without heed of
+bruise or rent.  At the bottom of the steep lay the long dark pit,
+and she stood upon the brink and gazed into it.  To a sane mind
+nothing could look less inviting.  All above was air and light,
+freedom of the wind and play of moon with summer foliage; all below
+was gloom and horror, cold eternal stillness, and oblivion
+everlasting.  Even the new white frock awoke no flutter upon that
+sullen breast.
+
+Dolly heaved a sigh and shuddered, but she did not hesitate.  Her
+mind was wandering, but her heart was fixed to make atonement, to
+give its life for the life destroyed, and to lie too deep for shame
+or sorrow.  Suddenly a faint gleam caught her eyes.  The sob of
+self-pity from her fair young breast had brought into view her
+cherished treasures, bright keepsakes of the girlish days when many
+a lover worshipped her.  Taking from her neck the silken braid, she
+kissed them, and laid them on the bank.  "They were all too good
+for me," she thought; "they shall not perish with me."
+
+Then, with one long sigh, she called up all her fleeting courage,
+and sprang upon a fallen trunk which overhung the water.  "There
+will be no Dan to save me now," she said as she reached the end of
+it.  "Poor Dan!  He will be sorry for me.  This is the way out of
+it."
+
+Her white satin shoes for a moment shone upon the black bark of the
+tree, and, with one despairing prayer to Heaven, she leaped into
+the liquid grave.
+
+Dan was afar, but another was near, who loved her even more than
+Dan.  Blyth Scudamore heard the plunge, and rushed to the brink of
+the pit, and tore his coat off.  For a moment he saw nothing but
+black water heaving silently; then something white appeared, and
+moved, and a faint cry arose, and a hopeless struggle with
+engulfing death began.
+
+"Keep still, don't struggle, only spread your arms, and throw your
+head back as far as you can," he cried, as he swam with long
+strokes towards her.  But if she heard, she could not heed, as the
+lights of the deep sky came and went, and the choking water flashed
+between, and gurgled into her ears and mouth, and smothered her
+face with her own long hair.  She dashed her poor helpless form
+about, and flung out her feet for something solid, and grasped in
+dim agony at the waves herself had made.  Then her dress became
+heavily bagged with water, and the love of life was quenched, and
+the night of death enveloped her.  Without a murmur, down she went,
+and the bubbles of her breath came up.
+
+Scudamore uttered a bitter cry, for his heart was almost broken--
+within an arm's-length of his love, and she was gone for ever!  For
+the moment he did not perceive that the clasp of despair must have
+drowned them both.  Pointing his hands and throwing up his heels,
+he made one vain dive after her, then he knew that the pit was too
+deep for the bottom to be reached in that way.  He swam to the
+trunk from which Dolly had leaped, and judging the distance by the
+sullen ripple, dashed in with a dive like a terrified frog.  Like a
+bullet he sank to the bottom, and groped with three fathoms of
+water above him.  Just as his lungs were giving out, he felt
+something soft and limp and round.  Grasping this by the trailing
+hair, he struck mightily up for the surface, and drew a long
+breath, and sustained above water the head that fell back upon his
+panting breast.
+
+Some three hours later, Dolly Darling lay in her own little bed, as
+pale as death, but sleeping the sleep of the world that sees the
+sun; while her only sister knelt by her side, weeping the tears of
+a higher world than that.  "How could I be so brutal, and so hard?"
+sobbed Faith.  "If father has seen it, will he ever forgive me?
+His last words were--'forgive, and love.'"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIII
+
+THE FATAL STEP
+
+
+As Carne rode up the hill that night towards his ruined castle, the
+flush of fierce excitement and triumphant struggle died away, and
+self-reproach and miserable doubt struck into him like ague.  For
+the death of Twemlow--as he supposed--he felt no remorse whatever.
+Him he had shot in furious combat, and as a last necessity; the
+fellow had twice insulted him, and then insolently collared him.
+And Faith, who had thwarted him with Dolly, and been from the first
+his enemy, now would have to weep and wail, and waste her youth in
+constancy.  All that was good; but he could not regard with equal
+satisfaction the death of the ancient Admiral.  The old man had
+brought it upon himself by his stupid stubbornness; and looking
+fairly upon that matter, Carne scarcely saw how to blame himself.
+Still, it was a most unlucky thing, and must lead to a quantity of
+mischief.  To-morrow, or at the latest Monday, was to have crowned
+with grand success his years of toil and danger.  There still might
+be the landing, and he would sail that night to hasten it, instead
+of arranging all ashore; but it could no longer be a triumph of
+crafty management.  The country was up, the Admiral's death would
+spread the alarm and treble it; and worst of all, in the hot
+pursuit of himself, which was sure to follow when people's wits
+came back to them, all the stores and ammunition, brought together
+by so much skill and patience and hardihood, must of necessity be
+discovered and fall into the hands of the enemy.  Farewell to his
+long-cherished hope of specially neat retribution, to wit, that the
+ruins of his family should be the ruin of the land which had
+rejected him!  Then a fierce thought crossed his mind, and became
+at once a stern resolve.  If he could never restore Carne Castle,
+and dwell there in prosperity, neither should any of his
+oppressors.  The only trace of his ancestral home should be a vast
+black hole in earth.
+
+For even if the landing still succeeded, and the country were
+subdued, he could never make his home there, after what he had done
+to-night.  Dolly was lost to him for ever; and although he had
+loved her with all the ardor he could spare from his higher
+purposes, he must make up his mind to do without her, and perhaps
+it was all the better for him.  If he had married her, no doubt he
+could soon have taught her her proper place; but no one could tell
+how she might fly out, through her self-will and long indulgence.
+He would marry a French woman; that would be the best; perhaps one
+connected with the Empress Josephine.  As soon as he had made up
+his mind to this, his conscience ceased to trouble him.
+
+From the crest of the hill at the eastern gate many a bend of shore
+was clear, and many a league of summer sea lay wavering in the
+moonlight.  Along the beach red torches flared, as men of the
+Coast-Defence pushed forth, and yellow flash of cannon inland
+signalled for the Volunteers, while the lights gleamed (like
+windows opened from the depth) where sloop and gun-boat, frigate
+and ship of the line, were crowding sail to rescue England.  For
+the semaphore, and when day was out the beacon-lights, had glowed
+along the backbone of the English hills, and England called every
+Englishman to show what he was made of.
+
+"That will do.  Enough of that, John Bull!"  Defying his native
+land, Carne shook his fist in the native manner.  "Stupid old
+savage, I shall live to make you howl.  This country has become too
+hot to hold me, and I'll make it hotter before I have done.  Here,
+Orso and Leo, good dogs, good dogs!  You can kill a hundred British
+bull-dogs.  Mount guard for an hour, till I call you down the hill.
+You can pull down a score of Volunteers apiece, if they dare to
+come after me.  I have an hour to spare, and I know how to employ
+it.  Jerry, old Jerry Bowles, stir your crooked shanks.  What are
+you rubbing your blear eyes at?"
+
+The huge boar-hounds, who obeyed no voice but his, took post upon
+the rugged road (which had never been repaired since the Carnes
+were a power in the land), and sat side by side beneath the
+crumbling arch, with their long fangs glistening and red eyes
+rolling in the silver moonlight, while their deep chests panted for
+the chance of good fresh human victuals.  Then Carne gave his horse
+to ancient Jerry, saying, "Feed him, and take him with his saddle
+on to the old yew-tree in half an hour.  Wait there for Captain
+Charron, and for me.  You are not to go away till I come to you.
+Who is in the old place now?  Think well before you answer me."
+
+"No one now in the place but her"--the old man lifted his elbow, as
+a coachman does in passing--"and him down in the yellow jug.  All
+the French sailors are at sea.  Only she won't go away; and she
+moaneth worse than all the owls and ghosts.  Ah, your honour should
+never 'a done that--respectable folk to Springhaven too!"
+
+"It was a slight error of judgment, Jerry.  What a mealy lot these
+English are, to make such a fuss about a trifle!  But I am too
+soft-hearted to blow her up.  Tell her to meet me in half an hour
+by the broken dial, and to bring the brat, and all her affairs in a
+bundle such as she can carry, or kick down the hill before her.  In
+half an hour, do you understand?  And if you care for your stiff
+old bones, get out of the way by that time."
+
+In that half-hour Carne gathered in small compass, and strapped up
+in a little "mail"--as such light baggage then was called--all his
+important documents, despatches, letters, and papers of every kind,
+and the cash he was entrusted with, which he used to think safer at
+Springhaven.  Then he took from a desk which was fixed to the wall
+a locket bright with diamonds, and kissed it, and fastened it
+beneath his neck-cloth.  The wisp of hair inside it came not from
+any young or lovely head, but from the resolute brow of his mother,
+the woman who hated England.  He should have put something better
+to his mouth; for instance, a good beef sandwich.  But one great
+token of his perversion was that he never did feed well--a sure
+proof of the unrighteous man, as suggested by the holy Psalmist,
+and more distinctly put by Livy in the character he gives Hannibal.
+
+Regarding as a light thing his poor unfurnished stomach, Carne
+mounted the broken staircase, in a style which might else have been
+difficult.  He had made up his mind to have one last look at the
+broad lands of his ancestors, from the last that ever should be
+seen of the walls they had reared and ruined.  He stood upon the
+highest vantage-point that he could attain with safety, where a
+shaggy gnarl of the all-pervading ivy served as a friendly stay.
+To the right and left and far behind him all had once been their
+domain--every tree, and meadow, and rock that faced the moon, had
+belonged to his ancestors.  "Is it a wonder that I am fierce?" he
+cried, with unwonted self-inspection; "who, that has been robbed as
+I have, would not try to rob in turn?  The only thing amazing is my
+patience and my justice.  But I will come back yet, and have my
+revenge."
+
+Descending to his hyena den--as Charron always called it--he caught
+up his packet, and took a lantern, and a coil of tow which had been
+prepared, and strode forth for the last time into the sloping court
+behind the walls.  Passing towards the eastern vaults, he saw the
+form of some one by the broken dial, above the hedge of brambles,
+which had once been of roses and sweetbriar.  "Oh, that woman!  I
+had forgotten that affair!" he muttered, with annoyance, as he
+pushed through the thorns to meet her.
+
+Polly Cheeseman, the former belle of Springhaven, was leaning
+against the wrecked dial, with a child in her arms and a bundle at
+her feet.  Her pride and gaiety had left her now, and she looked
+very wan through frequent weeping, and very thin from nursing.  Her
+beauty (like her friends) had proved unfaithful under shame and
+sorrow, and little of it now remained except the long brown tresses
+and the large blue eyes.  Those eyes she fixed upon Carne with more
+of terror than of love in them; although the fear was such as turns
+with a very little kindness to adoring love.
+
+Carne left her to begin, for he really was not without shame in
+this matter; and Polly was far better suited than Dolly for a
+scornful and arrogant will like his.  Deeply despising all the
+female race--as the Greek tragedian calls them--save only the one
+who had given him to the world, he might have been a God to Polly
+if he had but behaved as a man to her.  She looked at him now with
+an imploring gaze, from the gentleness of her ill-used heart.
+
+Their child, a fine boy about ten months old, broke the silence by
+saying "booh, booh," very well, and holding out little hands to his
+father, who had often been scornfully kind to him.
+
+"Oh, Caryl, Caryl, you will never forsake him!" cried the young
+mother, holding him up with rapture, and supporting his fat arms in
+that position; "he is the very image of you, and he seems to know
+it.  Baby, say 'Da-da.'  There, he has put his mouth up, and his
+memory is so wonderful!  Oh, Caryl, what do you think of that--and
+the first time of trying it by moonlight?"
+
+"There is no time for this nonsense, Polly.  He is a wonderful
+baby, I dare say; and so is every baby, till he gets too old.  You
+must obey orders, and be off with him."
+
+"Oh no!  You are come to take us with you.  There, I have covered
+his face up, that he may not suppose you look cross at me.  Oh,
+Caryl, you would never leave him behind, even if you could do that
+to me.  We are not grand people, and you can put us anywhere, and
+now I am nearly as well as ever.  I have put up all his little
+things; it does not matter about my own.  I was never brought up to
+be idle, and I can earn my own living anywhere; and it might be a
+real comfort for you, with the great people going against you, to
+have somebody, not very grand, of course, but as true to you as
+yourself, and belonging altogether to you.  I know many people who
+would give their eyes for such a baby."
+
+"There is no time for this," Carne answered, sternly; "my
+arrangements are made, and I cannot take you.  I have no fault to
+find with you, but argument is useless."
+
+"Yes, I know that, Caryl; and I am sure that I never would attempt
+to argue with you.  You should have everything your own way, and I
+could attend to so many things that no man ever does properly.  I
+will be a slave to you, and this little darling love you, and then
+you will feel that you have two to love you, wherever you go, and
+whatever you do.  And if I spoke crossly when first I found out
+that--that I went away for nothing with you, you must have forgiven
+me by this time, and I never will remind you again of it; if I do,
+send me back to the place I belong to.  I belong to you now, Caryl,
+and so does he; and when we are away from the people who know me, I
+shall be pleasant and cheerful again.  I was only two-and-twenty
+the day the boats came home last week, and they used to say the
+young men jumped into the water as soon as they caught sight of me.
+Try to be kind to me, and I shall be so happy that I shall look
+almost as I used to do, when you said that the great ladies might
+be grander, but none of them fit to look into my looking-glass.
+Dear Caryl, I am ready; I don't care where it is, or what I may
+have to put up with, so long as you will make room for your Polly,
+and your baby."
+
+"I am not at all a hard man," said Carne, retreating as the
+impulsive Polly offered him the baby, "but once for all, no more of
+this.  I have quite forgiven any strong expressions you may have
+made use of when your head was light; and if all goes well, I shall
+provide for you and the child, according to your rank in life.  But
+now you must run down the hill, if you wish to save your life and
+his."
+
+"I have run down the hill already.  I care not a pin for my own
+life; and hard as you are you would never have the heart to destroy
+your own little Caryl.  He may be called Caryl--you will not deny
+him that, although he has no right to be called Carne.  Oh, Caryl,
+Caryl, you can be so good, when you think there is something to
+gain by it.  Only be good to us now, and God will bless you for it,
+darling.  I have given up all the world for you, and you cannot
+have the heart to cast me off."
+
+"What a fool the woman is!  Have you ever known me change my mind?
+If you scorn your own life, through your own folly, you must care
+for the brat's.  If you stop here ten minutes, you will both be
+blown to pieces."
+
+"Through my own folly!  Oh, God in heaven, that you should speak so
+of my love for you!  Squire Carne, you are the worst man that ever
+lived; and it serves me right for trusting you.  But where am I to
+go?  Who will take me and support me, and my poor abandoned child?"
+
+"Your parents, of course, are your natural supporters.  You are
+hurting your child by this low abuse of me.  Now put aside
+excitement, and run home, like a sensible woman, before your good
+father goes to bed."
+
+She had watched his face all the time, as if she could scarcely
+believe that he was in earnest, but he proved it by leaving her
+with a wave of his hat, and hastening back to his lantern.  Then
+taking up that, and the coil of tow, but leaving his package
+against the wall, he disappeared in the narrow passage leading to
+the powder vaults.  Polly stood still by the broken dial, with her
+eyes upon the moon, and her arms around the baby, and a pang in her
+heart which prevented her from speaking, or moving, or even knowing
+where she was.
+
+Then Carne, stepping warily, unlocked the heavy oak door at the
+entrance of the cellarage, held down his lantern, and fixed with a
+wedge the top step of the ladder, which had been made to revolve
+with a pin and collar at either end, as before described.  After
+trying the step with his hand, to be sure that it was now wedged
+safely, he flung his coil into the vault and followed.  Some
+recollection made him smile as he was going down the steps: it was
+that of a stout man lying at the bottom, shaken in every bone, yet
+sound as a grape ensconced in jelly.  As he touched the bottom he
+heard a little noise as of some small substance falling, but seeing
+a piece of old mortar dislodged, he did not turn round to examine
+the place.  If he had done so he would have found behind the ladder
+the wedge he had just inserted to secure the level of the
+"Inspector's step."
+
+Unwinding his coil of tow, which had been steeped in saltpetre to
+make a long fuse, with a toss of his long legs he crossed the
+barricade of solid oak rails about six feet high securely fastened
+across the vault, for the enclosure of the dangerous storage.
+Inside it was a passage, between chests of arms, dismounted cannon,
+and cases from every department of supply, to the explosive part of
+the magazine, the devourer of the human race, the pulp of the
+marrow of the Furies--gunpowder.
+
+Of this there was now collected here, and stored in tiers that
+reached the roof, enough to blow up half the people of England, or
+lay them all low with a bullet before it; yet not enough, not a
+millionth part enough, to move for the breadth of a hair the
+barrier betwixt right and wrong, which a very few barrels are
+enough to do with a man who has sapped the foundations.  Treading
+softly for fear of a spark from his boots, and guarding the lantern
+well, Carne approached one of the casks in the lower tier, and
+lifted the tarpaulin.  Then he slipped the wooden slide in the
+groove, and allowed some five or six pounds to run out upon the
+floor, from which the cask was raised by timber baulks.  Leaving
+the slide partly open, he spread one end of his coil like a broad
+lamp-wick in the pile of powder which had run out, and put a brick
+upon the tow to keep it from shifting.  Then he paid out the rest
+of the coil on the floor like a snake some thirty feet long, with
+the tail about a yard inside the barricade.  With a very steady
+hand he took the candle from inside the horn, and kindled that tail
+of the fuse; and then replacing his light, he recrossed the open
+timber-work, and swiftly remounted the ladder of escape.  "Twenty
+minutes' or half an hour's grace," he thought, "and long before
+that I shall be at the yew-tree."
+
+But, as he planted his right foot sharply upon the top step of the
+ladder, that step swung back, and cast him heavily backwards to the
+bottom.  The wedge had dropped out, and the step revolved like the
+treadle of a fox-trap.
+
+For a minute or two he lay stunned and senseless, with the lantern
+before him on its side, and the candle burning a hole in the bubbly
+horn.  Slowly recovering his wits, he strove to rise, as the deadly
+peril was borne in upon him.  But instead of rising, he fell back
+again with a curse, and then a long-drawn groan; for pain (like the
+thrills of a man on the rack) had got hold of him and meant to keep
+him.  His right arm was snapped at the elbow, and his left leg just
+above the knee, and the jar of his spine made him feel as if his
+core had been split out of him.  He had no fat, like Shargeloes, to
+protect him, and no sheath of hair like Twemlow's.
+
+Writhing with anguish, he heard a sound which did not improve his
+condition.  It was the spluttering of the fuse, eating its merry
+way towards the five hundred casks of gunpowder.  In the fury of
+peril he contrived to rise, and stood on his right foot with the
+other hanging limp, while he stayed himself with his left hand upon
+the ladder.  Even if he could crawl up this, it would benefit him
+nothing.  Before he could drag himself ten yards, the explosion
+would overtake him.  His only chance was to quench the fuse, or
+draw it away from the priming.  With a hobble of agony he reached
+the barricade, and strove to lift his crippled frame over it.  It
+was hopeless; the power of his back was gone, and his limbs were
+unable to obey his brain.  Then he tried to crawl through at the
+bottom, but the opening of the rails would not admit his body, and
+the train of ductile fire had left only ash for him to grasp at.
+
+Quivering with terror, and mad with pain, he returned to the foot
+of the steps, and clung till a gasp of breath came back.  Then he
+shouted, with all his remaining power, "Polly, oh, Polly, my own
+Polly!"
+
+Polly had been standing, like a statue of despair, beside the
+broken dial.  To her it mattered little whether earth should open
+and swallow her, or fire cast her up to heaven.  But his shout
+aroused her from this trance, and her heart leaped up with the fond
+belief that he had relented, and was calling her and the child to
+share his fortunes.  There she stood in the archway and looked
+down, and the terror of the scene overwhelmed her.  Through a
+broken arch beyond the barricade pale moonbeams crossed the
+darkness, like the bars of some soft melody; in the middle the
+serpent coil was hissing with the deadly nitre; at the foot of the
+steps was her false lover--husband he had called himself--with his
+hat off, and his white face turned in the last supplication towards
+her, as hers had been turned towards him just now.  Should a woman
+be as pitiless as a man?
+
+"Come down, for God's sake, and climb that cursed wood, and pull
+back the fuse, pull it back from the powder.  Oh, Polly! and then
+we will go away together."
+
+"It is too late.  I will not risk my baby.  You have made me so
+weak that I could never climb that fence.  You are blowing up the
+castle which you promised to my baby; but you shall not blow up
+him.  You told me to run away, and run I must.  Good-bye; I am
+going to my natural supporters."
+
+Carne heard her steps as she fled, and he fancied that he heard
+therewith a mocking laugh, but it was a sob, a hysterical sob.  She
+would have helped him, if she dared; but her wits were gone in
+panic.  She knew not of his shattered limbs and horrible plight;
+and it flashed across her that this was another trick of his--to
+destroy her and the baby, while he fled.  She had proved that all
+his vows were lies.
+
+Then Carne made his mind up to die like a man, for he saw that
+escape was impossible.  Limping back to the fatal barrier, he
+raised himself to his full height, and stood proudly to see, as he
+put it, the last of himself.  Not a quiver of his haughty features
+showed the bodily pain that racked him, nor a flinch of his deep
+eyes confessed the tumult moving in his mind and soul.  He pulled
+out his watch and laid it on the top rail of the old oak fence:
+there was not enough light to read the time, but he could count the
+ticks he had to live.  Suddenly hope flashed through his heart,
+like the crack of a gun, like a lightning fork--a big rat was
+biting an elbow of the yarn where some tallow had fallen upon it.
+Would he cut it, would he drag it away to his hole? would he pull
+it a little from its fatal end?  He was strong enough to do it, if
+he only understood.  The fizz of saltpetre disturbed the rat, and
+he hoisted his tail and skipped back to his home.
+
+The last thoughts of this unhappy man went back upon his early
+days; and things, which he had passed without thinking of, stood
+before him like his tombstone.  None of his recent crimes came now
+to his memory to disturb it--there was time enough after the body
+for them--but trifles which had first depraved the mind, and slips
+whose repetition had made slippery the soul, like the alphabet of
+death, grew plain to him.  Then he thought of his mother, and
+crossed himself, and said a little prayer to the Virgin.
+
+               *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Charron was waiting by the old yew-tree, and Jerry sat trembling,
+with his eyes upon the castle, while the black horse, roped to a
+branch, was mourning the scarcity of oats and the abundance of
+gnats.
+
+"Pest and the devil, but the coast is all alive!" cried the
+Frenchman, soothing anxiety with solid and liquid comforts.
+"Something has gone wrong behind the tail of everything.  And there
+goes that big Stoobar, blazing with his sordid battery!  Arouse
+thee, old Cheray!  The time too late is over.  Those lights thrice
+accursed will display our little boat, and John Bull is rushing
+with a thousand sails.  The Commander is mad.  They will have him,
+and us too.  Shall I dance by a rope?  It is the only dancing
+probable for me in England."
+
+"I have never expected any good to come," the old man answered,
+without moving.  "The curse of the house is upon the young Squire.
+I saw it in his eyes this morning, the same as I saw in his
+father's eyes, when the sun was going down the very night he died.
+I shall never see him more, sir, nor you either, nor any other man
+that bides to the right side of his coffin."
+
+"Bah! what a set you are of funerals, you Englishmen!  But if I
+thought he was in risk, I would stay to see the end of it."
+
+"Here comes the end of it!" the old man cried, leaping up and
+catching at a rugged cord of trunk, with his other hand pointing up
+the hill.  From the base of the castle a broad blaze rushed,
+showing window and battlement, arch and tower, as in a flicker of
+the Northern lights.  Then up went all the length of fabric, as a
+wanton child tosses his Noah's ark.  Keep and buttress, tower and
+arch, mullioned window and battlement, in a fiery furnace leaped on
+high, like the outburst of a volcano.  Then, with a roar that
+rocked the earth, they broke into a storm of ruin, sweeping the
+heavens with a flood of fire, and spreading the sea with a mantle
+of blood.  Following slowly in stately spires, and calmly
+swallowing everything, a fountain of dun smoke arose, and solemn
+silence filled the night.
+
+"All over now, thank the angels and the saints!  My faith, but I
+made up my mind to join them," cried Charron, who had fallen, or
+been felled by the concussion.  "Cheray, art thou still alive?  The
+smoke is in my neck.  I cannot liberate my words, but the lumps
+must be all come down by this time, without adding to the weight of
+our poor brains.  Something fell in this old tree, a long way up,
+as high as where the crows build.  It was like a long body, with
+one leg and one arm.  I hope it was not the Commander; but one
+thing is certain--he is gone to heaven.  Let us pray that he may
+stop there, if St. Peter admits a man who was selling the keys of
+his country to the enemy.  But we must do duty to ourselves, my
+Cheray.  Let us hasten to the sea, and give the signal for the
+boat.  La Torche will be a weak light after this."
+
+"I will not go.  I will abide my time."  The old man staggered to a
+broken column of the ancient gateway which had fallen near them,
+and flung his arms around it.  "I remember this since I first could
+toddle.  The ways of the Lord are wonderful."
+
+"Come away, you old fool," cried the Frenchman; "I hear the tramp
+of soldiers in the valley.  If they catch you here, it will be
+drum-head work, and you will swing before morning in the ruins."
+
+"I am very old.  My time is short.  I would liefer hang from an
+English beam than deal any more with your outlandish lot."
+
+"Farewell to thee, then!  Thou art a faithful clod.  Here are five
+guineas for thee, of English stamp.  I doubt if napoleons shall
+ever be coined in England."
+
+He was off while he might--a gallant Frenchman, and an honest
+enemy; such as our country has respected always, and often
+endeavoured to turn into fast friends.  But the old man stood and
+watched the long gap, where for centuries the castle of the Carnes
+had towered.  And his sturdy faith was rewarded.
+
+"I am starving"--these words came feebly from a gaunt, ragged
+figure that approached him.  "For three days my food has been
+forgotten; and bad as it was, I missed it.  There came a great
+rumble, and my walls fell down.  Ancient Jerry, I can go no
+further.  I am empty as a shank bone when the marrow-toast is
+serving.  Your duty was to feed me, with inferior stuff at any
+rate."
+
+"No, sir, no;" the old servitor was roused by the charge of
+neglected duty.  "Sir Parsley, it was no fault of mine whatever.
+Squire undertook to see to all of it himself.  Don't blame me, sir;
+don't blame me."
+
+"Never mind the blame, but make it good," Mr. Shargeloes answered,
+meagrely, for he felt as if he could never be fat again.  "What do
+I see there?  It is like a crust of bread, but I am too weak to
+stoop for it."
+
+"Come inside the tree, sir."  The old man led him, as a grandsire
+leads a famished child.  "What a shame to starve you, and you so
+hearty!  But the Squire clean forgotten it, I doubt, with his
+foreign tricks coming to this great blow-up.  Here, sir, here;
+please to sit down a moment, while I light a candle.  They French
+chaps are so wasteful always, and always grumbling at good English
+victual.  Here's enough to feed a family Captain Charron has
+throwed by--bread, and good mutton, and pretty near half a ham, and
+a bottle or so of thin nasty foreign wine.  Eat away, Sir Parsley;
+why, it does me good to see you.  You feeds something like an
+Englishman.  But you know, sir, it were all your own fault at
+bottom, for coming among them foreigners a-meddling."
+
+"You are a fine fellow.  You shall be my head butler," Percival
+Shargeloes replied, while he made such a meal as he never made
+before, and never should make again, even when he came to be the
+Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIV
+
+WRATH AND SORROW
+
+
+The two most conspicuous men of the age were saddened and cast down
+just now--one by the natural kindly sorrow into which all men live
+for others, till others live into it for them; and one by the
+petulant turns of fortune, twisting and breaking his best-woven
+web.  Lord Nelson arrived at Springhaven on Monday, to show his
+affection for his dear old friend; and the Emperor Napoleon, at the
+same time, was pacing the opposite cliffs in grief and dudgeon.
+
+He had taken his post on some high white land, about a league
+southward of Boulogne, and with strong field-glasses, which he
+pettishly exchanged in doubt of their power and truth, he was
+scanning all the roadways of the shore and the trackless breadths
+of sea.  His quick brain was burning for despatches overland--
+whether from the coast road past Etaples, or further inland by the
+great route from Paris, or away to the southeast by special courier
+from the Austrian frontier--as well as for signals out at sea, and
+the movements of the British ships, to show that his own were
+coming.  He had treated with disdain the suggestions of his
+faithful Admiral Decres, who had feared to put the truth too
+plainly, that the fleet ordered up from the west had failed, and
+with it the Master's mighty scheme.  Having yet to learn the lesson
+that his best plans might be foiled, he was furious when doubt was
+cast upon this pet design.  Like a giant of a spider at the nucleus
+of his web, he watched the broad fan of radiant threads, and the
+hovering of filmy woof, but without the mild philosophy of that
+spider, who is versed in the very sad capriciousness of flies.
+
+Just within hearing (and fain to be further, in his present state
+of mind) were several young officers of the staff, making little
+mouths at one another, for want of better pastime, but looking as
+grave, when the mighty man glanced round, as schoolboys do under
+the master's eye.  "Send Admiral Decres to me," the Emperor
+shouted, as he laid down his telescope and returned to his petulant
+to-and-fro.
+
+In a few minutes Admiral Decres arrived, and after a salute which
+was not acknowledged, walked in silence at his master's side.  The
+great man, talking to himself aloud, and reviling almost every one
+except himself, took no more notice of his comrade for some minutes
+than if he had been a poodle keeping pace with him.  Then he turned
+upon him fiercely, with one hand thrown out, as if he would have
+liked to strike him.
+
+"What then is the meaning of all this?"  He spoke too fast for the
+other to catch all his words.  "You have lost me three days of it.
+How much longer will you conceal your knowledge?  Carne's scheme
+has failed, through treachery--probably his own.  I never liked the
+man.  He wanted to be the master of me--of me!  I can do without
+him; it is all the better, if my fleet will come.  I have three
+fleets, besides these.  Any one of them would do.  They would do,
+if even half their crews were dead, so long as they disturbed the
+enemy.  You know where Villeneuve is, but you will not tell me."
+
+"I told your Majesty what I thought," M. Decres replied, with
+dignity, "but it did not please you to listen to me.  Shall I now
+tell your Majesty what I know?"
+
+"Ha!  You have dared to have secret despatches!  You know more of
+the movements of my fleets than I do!  You have been screening him
+all along.  Which of you is the worse traitor?"
+
+"Your Majesty will regret these words.  Villeneuve and myself are
+devoted to you.  I have not heard from him.  I have received no
+despatches.  But in a private letter just received, which is here
+at your Majesty's service, I find these words, which your Majesty
+can see.  'From my brother on the Spanish coast I have just heard.
+Admiral Villeneuve has sailed for Cadiz, believing Nelson to be in
+chase of him.  My brother saw the whole fleet crowding sail
+southward.  No doubt it is the best thing they could do.  If they
+came across Nelson, they would be knocked to pieces.'  Your
+Majesty, that is an opinion only; but it seems to be shared by M.
+Villeneuve."
+
+Napoleon's wrath was never speechless--except upon one great
+occasion--and its outburst put every other in the wrong, even while
+he knew that he was in the right.  Regarding Decres with a glare of
+fury, such as no other eyes could pour, or meet--a glare as of
+burnished steel fired from a cannon--he drove him out of every
+self-defence or shelter, and shattered him in the dust of his own
+principles.  It was not the difference of rank between them, but
+the difference in the power of their minds, that chased like a
+straw before the wind the very stable senses of the man who
+understood things.  He knew that he was right, but the right was
+routed, and away with it flew all capacity of reason in the
+pitiless torrent of passion, like a man in a barrel, and the barrel
+in Niagara.
+
+M. Decres knew not head from tail, in the rush of invective poured
+upon him; but he took off his hat in soft search for his head, and
+to let in the compliments rained upon it.
+
+"It is good," replied the Emperor, replying to himself, as the foam
+of his fury began to pass; "you will understand, Decres, that I am
+not angry, but only lament that I have such a set of fools.  You
+are not the worst.  I have bigger fools than you.  Alas that I
+should confess it!"
+
+Admiral Decres put his hat upon his head, for the purpose of taking
+it off, to acknowledge the kindness of this compliment.  It was the
+first polite expression he had received for half an hour.  And it
+would have been the last, if he had dared to answer.
+
+"Villeneuve cannot help it that he is a fool," continued Napoleon,
+in a milder strain; "but he owes it to his rank that he should not
+be a coward.  Nelson is his black beast.  Nelson has reduced him to
+a condition of wet pulp.  I shall send a braver man to supersede
+him.  Are French fleets forever to turn tail to an inferior force
+of stupid English?  If I were on the seas, I would sweep Nelson
+from them.  Our men are far braver, when they learn to spread their
+legs.  As soon as I have finished with those filthy Germans, I will
+take the command of the fleets myself.  It will be a bad day for
+that bragging Nelson.  Give me pen and paper, and send Daru to me.
+I must conquer the Continent once more, I suppose; and then I will
+return and deal with England."
+
+In a couple of hours he had shaped and finished the plan of a
+campaign the most triumphant that even he ever planned and
+accomplished.  Then his mind became satisfied with good work, and
+he mounted his horse, and for the last time rode through the
+grandest encampment the sun has ever seen, distributing his calm
+smile, as if his nature were too large for tempests.
+
+               *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+On the sacred white coast, which the greatest of Frenchmen should
+only approach as a prisoner, stood a man of less imperious mould,
+and of sweet and gentle presence--a man who was able to command
+himself in the keenest disappointment, because he combined a quick
+sense of humour with the power of prompt action, and was able to
+appreciate his own great qualities without concluding that there
+were no other.  His face, at all times except those of hot battle,
+was filled with quiet sadness, as if he were sent into the world
+for some great purpose beyond his knowledge, yet surely not above
+his aim.  Years of deep anxiety and ever urgent duty had made him
+look old before his time, but in no wise abated his natural force.
+He knew that he had duty before him still, and he felt that the
+only discharge was death.
+
+But now, in the tenderness of his heart, he had forgotten all about
+himself, and even for the moment about his country.  Nelson had
+taken the last fond look at the dear old friend of many changeful
+years, so true and so pleasant throughout every change.  Though one
+eye had failed for the work of the brain, it still was in sympathy
+with his heart; and a tear shone upon either wrinkled cheek, as the
+uses of sadness outlast the brighter view.  He held Faith by the
+hand, or she held by his, as they came forth, without knowing it,
+through nature's demand for an open space, when the air is choked
+with sorrow.
+
+"My dear, you must check it; you must leave off," said Nelson,
+although he was going on himself.  "It is useless for me to say a
+word to you, because I am almost as bad myself.  But still I am
+older, and I feel that I ought to be able to comfort you, if I only
+knew the way."
+
+"You do comfort me, more than I can tell, although you don't say
+anything.  For any one to sit here, and be sorry with me, makes it
+come a little lighter.  And when it is a man like you, Lord Nelson,
+I feel a sort of love that makes me feel less bitter.  Mr. Twemlow
+drove me wild with a quantity of texts, and a great amount of talk
+about a better land.  How would he like to go to it himself, I
+wonder?  There is a great hole in my heart, and nothing that
+anybody says can fill it."
+
+"And nothing that any one can do, my dear," her father's friend
+answered, softly, "unless it is your own good self, with the
+kindness of the Lord to help you.  One of the best things to begin
+with is to help somebody else, if you can, and lead yourself away
+into another person's troubles.  Is there any one here very
+miserable?"
+
+"None that I can think of half so miserable as I am.  There is
+great excitement, but no misery.  Miss Twemlow has recovered her
+Lord Mayor--the gentleman that wore that extraordinary coat--oh, I
+forgot, you were not here then.  And although he has had a very sad
+time of it, every one says that the total want of diet will be much
+better for him than any mere change.  I am ashamed to be talking of
+such trifles now; but I respect that man, he was so straightforward.
+If my brother Frank had been at all like him, we should never have
+been as we are this day."
+
+"My dear, you must not blame poor Frank.  He would not come down to
+the dinner because he hated warlike speeches.  But he has seen the
+error of his ways.  No more treasonable stuff for him.  He thought
+it was large, and poetic, and all that, like giving one's shirt to
+an impostor.  All of us make mistakes sometimes.  I have made a
+great many myself, and have always been the foremost to perceive
+them.  But your own brave lover--have you forgotten him?  He fought
+like a hero, I am told; and nothing could save his life except that
+he wore a new-fashioned periwig."
+
+"I would rather not talk of him now, Lord Nelson, although he had
+no periwig.  I am deeply thankful that he escaped; and no doubt did
+his best, as he was bound to do.  I try to be fair to everybody,
+but I cannot help blaming every one, when I come to remember how
+blind we have been.  Captain Stubbard must have been so blind, and
+Mrs. Stubbard a great deal worse, and worst of all his own aunt,
+Mrs. Twemlow.  Oh, Lord Nelson, if you had only stopped here,
+instead of hurrying away for more glory!  You saw the whole of it;
+you predicted everything; you even warned us again in your last
+letter!  And yet you must go away, and leave us to ourselves; and
+this is how the whole of it has ended."
+
+"My dear child, I will not deny that the eye of Nelson has a
+special gift for piercing the wiles of the scoundrelly foe.  But I
+was under orders, and must go.  The nation believed that it could
+not do without me, although there are other men every bit as good,
+and in their own opinion superior.  But the enemy has never been of
+that opinion; and a great deal depends upon what they think.  And
+the rule has been always to send me where there are many kicks but
+few coppers.  I have never been known to repine.  We all err; but
+if we do our duty as your dear father did his, the Lord will
+forgive us, when our enemies escape.  When my time comes, as it
+must do soon, there will be plenty to carp at me; but I shall not
+care, if I have done my best.  Your father did his best, and is
+happy."
+
+Faith Darling took his hand again, and her tears were for him quite
+as much as for herself.  "Give me one of the buttons of your coat,"
+she said; "here is one that cannot last till you get home."
+
+It was hanging by a thread, and yet the hero was very loth to part
+with it, though if it had parted with him, the chances were ten to
+one against his missing it.  However, he conquered himself, but not
+so entirely as to let her cut it off.  If it must go, it should be
+by his own hand.  He pulled out a knife and cut it off, and she
+kissed it when he gave it to her.
+
+"I should like to do more than that," he said, though he would
+sooner have parted with many guineas.  "Is there nobody here that I
+can help, from my long good-will to Springhaven?"
+
+"Oh, yes!  How stupid I am!" cried Faith.  "I forget everybody in
+my own trouble.  There is a poor young man with a broken heart, who
+came to me this morning.  He has done no harm that I know of, but
+he fell into the power of that wicked--but I will use no harsh
+words, because he is gone most dreadfully to his last account.
+This poor youth said that he only cared to die, after all the
+things that had happened here, for he has always been fond of my
+father.  At first I refused to see him, but they told me such
+things that I could not help it.  He is the son of our chief man
+here, and you said what a fine British seaman he would make."
+
+"I remember two or three of that description, especially young Dan
+Tugwell."  Nelson had an amazing memory of all who had served under
+him, or even had wished to do so.  "I see by your eyes that it is
+young Tugwell.  If it will be any pleasure to you, I will see him,
+and do what I can for him.  What has he done, my dear, and what can
+I do for him?"
+
+"He has fallen into black disgrace, and his only desire is to
+redeem it by dying for his country.  His own father has refused to
+see him, although he was mainly the cause of it; and his mother,
+who was Erle Twemlow's nurse, is almost out of her mind with grief.
+A braver young man never lived, and he was once the pride of
+Springhaven.  He saved poor Dolly from drowning, when she was very
+young, and the boat upset.  His father chastised him cruelly for
+falling under bad influence.  Then he ran away from the village,
+and seems to have been in French employment.  But he was kept in
+the dark, and had no idea that he was acting against his own
+country."
+
+"He has been a traitor," said Lord Nelson, sternly.  "I cannot help
+such a man, even for your sake."
+
+"He has not been a traitor, but betrayed," cried Faith; "he
+believed that his only employment was to convey private letters for
+the poor French prisoners, of whom we have so many hundreds.  I
+will not contend that he was right in that; but still it was no
+very great offence.  Even you must have often longed to send
+letters to those you loved in England; and you know how hard it is
+in war time.  But what they really wanted him for was to serve as
+their pilot upon this coast.  And the moment he discovered that,
+though they offered him bags of gold to do it, he faced his death
+like an Englishman.  They attempted to keep him in a stupid state
+with drugs, so that he might work like a mere machine.  But he
+found out that, and would eat nothing but hard biscuit.  They had
+him in one of their shallow boats, or prames, as they call them,
+which was to lead them in upon signal from the arch-traitor.  This
+was on Saturday, Saturday night--that dreadful time when we were
+all so gay.  They held a pair of pistols at poor Dan's head, or at
+least a man was holding one to each of his ears, and they corded
+his arms, because he ventured to remonstrate.  That was before they
+had even started, so you may suppose what they would have done to
+us.  Poor Daniel made up his mind to die, and it would have eased
+his mind, he says now, if he had done so.  But while they were
+waiting for the signal, which through dear father's vigilance they
+never did receive, Dan managed to free both his hands in the dark,
+and as soon as he saw the men getting sleepy, he knocked them both
+down, and jumped overboard; for he can swim like a fish, or even
+better.  He had very little hopes of escaping, as he says, and the
+French fired fifty shots after him.  With great presence of mind,
+he gave a dreadful scream, as if he was shot through the head at
+least, then he flung up his legs, as if he was gone down; but he
+swam under water for perhaps a hundred yards, and luckily the moon
+went behind a black cloud.  Then he came to a boat, which had
+broken adrift, and although he did not dare to climb into her, he
+held on by her, on the further side from them.  She was drifting
+away with the tide, and at last he ventured to get on board of her,
+and found a pair of oars, and was picked up at daylight by a
+smuggling boat running for Newhaven.  He was landed last night, and
+he heard the dreadful news, and having plenty of money, he hired a
+post-chaise, and never stopped until he reached Springhaven.  He
+looks worn out now; but if his mind was easier, he would soon be as
+strong as ever."
+
+"It is a strange story, my dear," said Nelson; "but I see that it
+has done you good to tell it, and I have known many still stranger.
+But how could he have money, after such a hard escape?"
+
+"That shows as much as anything how brave he is.  He had made up
+his mind that if he succeeded in knocking down both those
+sentinels, he would have the bag of gold which was put for his
+reward in case of his steering them successfully.  And before he
+jumped overboard he snatched it up, and it helped him to dive and
+to swim under water.  He put it in his flannel shirt by way of
+ballast, and he sticks to it up to the present moment."
+
+"My dear," replied Lord Nelson, much impressed, "such a man
+deserves to be in my own crew.  If he can show me that bag, and
+stand questions, I will send him to Portsmouth at my own expense,
+with a letter to my dear friend Captain Hardy."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXV
+
+TRAFALGAR
+
+
+Lord Nelson sailed from Portsmouth on the 15th of September, in his
+favourite ship the Victory, to take his last command.  He knew that
+he never should come home, except as a corpse for burial, but he
+fastened his mind on the work before him, and neglected nothing.
+"A fair fight, and no favour," was the only thing he longed for.
+
+And this he did obtain at last.  The French commander-in-chief came
+forth, with all his mighty armament, not of his own desire, but
+goaded by imperious sneers, and stings that made his manhood
+tingle.  He spread the sea-power of two nations in a stately
+crescent, double-lined (as the moon is doubled when beheld through
+fine plate-glass)--a noble sight, a paramount temptation for the
+British tow-rope.
+
+"What a lot for we to take to Spithead!" was the British tar's
+remark, as forty ships of the line and frigates showed their glossy
+sides, and canvas bosomed with the gentle air and veined with
+gliding sunlight.  A grander spectacle never was of laborious man's
+creation; and the work of the Lord combined to show it to the best
+advantage--dark headlands in the distance standing as a massive
+background, long pellucid billows lifting bulk Titanic, and lace-
+like maze, sweet air wandering from heaven, early sun come fresh
+from dew, all the good-will of the world inspiring men to
+merriness.
+
+Nelson was not fierce of nature, but as gentle as a lamb.  His
+great desire, as he always proved, was never to destroy his enemies
+by the number of one man spareable.  He had always been led by the
+force of education, confirmed by that of experience, to know that
+the duty of an Englishman is to lessen the stock of Frenchmen; yet
+he never was free from regret when compelled to act up to his
+conscience, upon a large scale.
+
+It is an old saying that nature has provided for every disease its
+remedy, and challenges men to find it out, which they are clever
+enough not to do.  For that deadly disease Napoleon, the remedy was
+Nelson; and as soon as he should be consumed, another would appear
+in Wellington.  Such is the fortune of Britannia, because she never
+boasts, but grumbles always.  The boaster soon exhausts his
+subject; the grumbler has matter that lasts for ever.
+
+Nelson had much of this national virtue.  "Half of them will get
+away," he said to Captain Blackwood, of the Euryalus, who was come
+for his latest orders, "because of that rascally port to leeward.
+If the wind had held as it was last night, we should have had every
+one of them.  It does seem hard, after waiting so long.  And the
+sky looks like a gale of wind.  It will blow to-night, though I
+shall not hear it.  A gale of wind with disabled ships means
+terrible destruction.  Do all you can to save those poor fellows.
+When they are beaten, we must consider their lives even more than
+our own, you know, because we have been the cause of it.  You know
+my wishes as well as I do.  Remember this one especially."
+
+"Good-bye, my lord, till the fight is over."  Captain Blackwood
+loved his chief with even more than the warm affection felt by all
+the fleet for him.  "When we have got them, I shall come back, and
+find you safe and glorious."
+
+"God bless you, Blackwood!" Lord Nelson answered, looking at him
+with a cheerful smile.  "But you will never see me alive again."
+
+The hero of a hundred fights, who knew that this would be his last,
+put on his favourite ancient coat, threadbare through many a
+conflict with hard time and harder enemies.  Its beauty, like his
+own, had suffered in the cause of duty; the gold embroidery had
+taken leave of absence in some places, and in others showed more
+fray of silk than gleam of yellow glory; and the four stars
+fastened on the left breast wanted a little plate-powder sadly.
+But Nelson was quite contented with them, and like a child--for he
+always kept in his heart the childhood's freshness--he gazed at the
+star he was proudest of, the Star of the Bath, and through a fond
+smile sighed.  Through the rays of that star his death was coming,
+ere a quarter of a day should be added to his life.
+
+With less pretension and air of greatness than the captain of a
+penny steamer now displays, Nelson went from deck to deck, and
+visited every man at quarters, as if the battle hung on every one.
+There was scarcely a man whom he did not know, as well as a farmer
+knows his winter hands; and loud cheers rang from gun to gun when
+his order had been answered.  His order was, "Reserve your fire
+until you are sure of every shot."  Then he took his stand upon the
+quarter-deck, assured of victory, and assured that his last bequest
+to the British nation would be honoured sacredly--about which the
+less we say the better.
+
+In this great battle, which crushed the naval power of France, and
+saved our land from further threat of inroad, Blyth Scudamore was
+not engaged, being still attached to the Channel fleet; but young
+Dan Tugwell bore a share, and no small share by his own account and
+that of his native village, which received him proudly when he came
+home.  Placed at a gun on the upper deck, on the starboard side
+near the mizzen-mast, he fought like a Briton, though dazed at
+first by the roar, and the smoke, and the crash of timber.  Lord
+Nelson had noticed him more than once, as one of the smartest of
+his crew, and had said to him that very morning, "For the honour of
+Springhaven, Dan, behave well in your first action."  And the youth
+had never forgotten that, when the sulphurous fog enveloped him,
+and the rush of death lifted his curly hair, and his feet were
+sodden and his stockings hot with the blood of shattered messmates.
+
+In the wildest of the wild pell-mell, as the Victory lay like a
+pelted log, rolling to the storm of shot, with three ships at close
+quarters hurling all their metal at her, and a fourth alongside
+clutched so close that muzzle was tompion for muzzle, while the
+cannon-balls so thickly flew that many sailors with good eyes saw
+them meet in the air and shatter one another, an order was issued
+for the starboard guns on the upper deck to cease firing.  An
+eager-minded Frenchman, adapting his desires as a spring-board to
+his conclusions, was actually able to believe that Nelson's own
+ship had surrendered!  He must have been off his head; and his
+inductive process was soon amended by the logic of facts, for his
+head was off him.  The reason for silencing those guns was good--
+they were likely to do more damage to an English ship which lay
+beyond than to the foe at the portholes.  The men who had served
+those guns were ordered below, to take the place of men who never
+should fire a gun again.  Dan Tugwell, as he turned to obey the
+order, cast a glance at the Admiral, who gave him a little nod,
+meaning, "Well done, Dan."
+
+Lord Nelson had just made a little joke, such as he often indulged
+in, not from any carelessness about the scene around him--which was
+truly awful--but simply to keep up his spirits, and those of his
+brave and beloved companion.  Captain Hardy, a tall and portly man,
+clad in bright uniform, and advancing with a martial stride, cast
+into shade the mighty hero quietly walking at his left side.  And
+Nelson was covered with dust from the quarter-gallery of a pounded
+ship, which he had not stopped to brush away.
+
+"Thank God," thought Dan, "if those fellows in the tops, who are
+picking us off so, shoot at either of them, they will be sure to
+hit the big man first."
+
+In the very instant of his thought, he saw Lord Nelson give a
+sudden start, and then reel, and fall upon both knees, striving for
+a moment to support himself with his one hand on the deck.  Then
+his hand gave way, and he fell on his left side, while Hardy, who
+was just before him, turned at the cabin ladderway, and stooped
+with a loud cry over him.  Dan ran up, and placed his bare arms
+under the wounded shoulder, and helped to raise and set him on his
+staggering legs.
+
+"I hope you are not much hurt, my lord?" said the Captain, doing
+his best to smile.
+
+"They have done for me at last," the hero gasped.  "Hardy, my
+backbone is shot through."
+
+Through the roar of battle, sobs of dear love sounded along the
+blood-stained deck, as Dan and another seaman took the pride of our
+nation tenderly, and carried him down to the orlop-deck.  Yet even
+so, in the deadly pang and draining of the life-blood, the sense of
+duty never failed, and the love of country conquered death.  With
+his feeble hand he contrived to reach the handkerchief in his
+pocket, and spread it over his face and breast, lest the crew
+should be disheartened.
+
+"I know who fired that shot," cried Dan, when he saw that he could
+help no more.  "He never shall live to boast of it, if I have to
+board the French ship to fetch him."
+
+He ran back quickly to the quarterdeck, and there found three or
+four others eager to give their lives for Nelson's death.  The
+mizzen-top of the Redoutable, whence the fatal shot had come, was
+scarcely so much as fifty feet from the starboard rail of the
+Victory.  The men who were stationed in that top, although they had
+no brass cohorn there, such as those in the main and fore tops
+plied, had taken many English lives, while the thick smoke surged
+around them.
+
+For some time they had worked unheeded in the louder roar of
+cannon, and when at last they were observed, it was hard to get a
+fair shot at them, not only from the rolling of the entangled
+ships, and clouds of blinding vapour, but because they retired out
+of sight to load, and only came forward to catch their aim.
+However, by the exertions of our marines--who should have been at
+them long ago--these sharp-shooters from the coign of vantage were
+now reduced to three brave fellows.  They had only done their duty,
+and perhaps had no idea how completely they had done it; but
+naturally enough our men looked at them as if they were "too bad
+for hanging."  Smoky as the air was, the three men saw that a very
+strong feeling was aroused against them, and that none of their own
+side was at hand to back them up.  And the language of the English--
+though they could not understand it--was clearly that of bitter
+condemnation.
+
+The least resolute of them became depressed by this, being
+doubtless a Radical who had been taught that Vox populi is Vox Dei.
+He endeavoured, therefore, to slide down the rigging, but was shot
+through the heart, and dead before he had time to know it.  At the
+very same moment the most desperate villain of the three--as we
+should call him--or the most heroic of these patriots (as the
+French historians describe him) popped forward and shot a worthy
+Englishman, who was shaking his fist instead of pointing his gun.
+
+Then an old quartermaster, who was standing on the poop, with his
+legs spread out as comfortably as if he had his Sunday dinner on
+the spit before him, shouted--"That's him, boys--that glazed hat
+beggar!  Have at him all together, next time he comes forrard."  As
+he spoke, he fell dead, with his teeth in his throat, from the fire
+of the other Frenchman.  But the carbine dropped from the man who
+had fired, and his body fell dead as the one he had destroyed, for
+a sharp little Middy, behind the quartermaster, sent a bullet
+through the head, as the hand drew trigger.  The slayer of Nelson
+remained alone, and he kept back warily, where none could see him.
+
+"All of you fire, quick one after other," cried Dan, who had picked
+up a loaded musket, and was kneeling in the embrasure of a gun;
+"fire so that he may tell the shots; that will fetch him out again.
+Sing out first, 'There he is!' as if you saw him."
+
+The men on the quarter-deck and poop did so, and the Frenchman, who
+was watching through a hole, came forward for a safe shot while
+they were loading.  He pointed the long gun which had killed Nelson
+at the smart young officer on the poop, but the muzzle flew up ere
+he pulled the trigger, and leaning forward he fell dead, with his
+legs and arms spread, like a jack for oiling axles.  Dan had gone
+through some small-arm drill in the fortnight he spent at
+Portsmouth, and his eyes were too keen for the bull's-eye.  With a
+rest for his muzzle he laid it truly for the spot where the
+Frenchman would reappear; with extreme punctuality he shot him in
+the throat; and the gallant man who deprived the world of Nelson
+was thus despatched to a better one, three hours in front of his
+victim.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVI
+
+THE LAST BULLETIN
+
+
+To Britannia this was but feeble comfort, even if she heard of it.
+She had lost her pet hero, the simplest and dearest of all the
+thousands she has borne and nursed, and for every penny she had
+grudged him in the flesh, she would lay a thousand pounds upon his
+bones.  To put it more poetically, her smiles were turned to tears--
+which cost her something--and the laurel drooped in the cypress
+shade.  The hostile fleet was destroyed; brave France would never
+more come out of harbour to contend with England; the foggy fear of
+invasion was like a morning fog dispersed; and yet the funds (the
+pulse of England) fell at the loss of that one defender.
+
+It was a gloomy evening, and come time for good people to be in-
+doors, when the big news reached Springhaven.  Since the Admiral
+slept in the green churchyard, with no despatch to receive or send,
+the importance of Springhaven had declined in all opinion except
+its own, and even Captain Stubbard could not keep it up.  When the
+Squire was shot, and Master Erle as well, and Carne Castle went
+higher than a lark could soar, and folk were fools enough to
+believe that Boney would dare put his foot down there, John Prater
+had done a most wonderful trade, and never a man who could lay his
+tongue justly with the pens that came spluttering from London had
+any call for a fortnight together to go to bed sober at his own
+expense.  But this bright season ended quite as suddenly as it had
+begun; and when these great "hungers"--as those veterans were
+entitled who dealt most freely with the marvellous--had laid their
+heads together to produce and confirm another guinea's worth of
+fiction, the London press would have none of it.  Public interest
+had rushed into another channel; and the men who had thriven for a
+fortnight on their tongues were driven to employ them on their
+hands again.
+
+But now, on the sixth of November, a new excitement was in store
+for them.  The calm obscurity of night flowed in, through the trees
+that belonged to Sir Francis now, and along his misty meadows; and
+the only sound in the village lane was the murmur of the brook
+beside it, or the gentle sigh of the retiring seas.  Boys of age
+enough to make much noise, or at least to prolong it after
+nightfall, were away in the fishing-boats, receiving whacks almost
+as often as they needed them; for those times (unlike these) were
+equal to their fundamental duties.  In the winding lane outside the
+grounds of the Hall, and shaping its convenience naturally by that
+of the more urgent brook, a man--to show what the times were come
+to--had lately set up a shoeing forge.  He had done it on the
+strength of the troopers' horses coming down the hill so fast, and
+often with their cogs worn out, yet going as hard as if they had no
+knees, or at least none belonging to their riders.  And although he
+was not a Springhaven man, he had been allowed to marry a
+Springhaven woman, one of the Capers up the hill; and John Prater
+(who was akin to him by marriage, and perhaps had an eye to the
+inevitable ailment of a man whose horse is ailing) backed up his
+daring scheme so strongly that the Admiral, anxious for the public
+good, had allowed this smithy to be set up here.
+
+John Keatch was the man who established this, of the very same
+family (still thriving in West Middlesex) which for the service of
+the state supplied an official whose mantle it is now found hard to
+fill; and the blacksmith was known as "Jack Ketch" in the village,
+while his forge was becoming the centre of news.  Captain Stubbard
+employed him for battery uses, and finding his swing-shutters
+larger than those of Widow Shanks, and more cheaply lit up by the
+glow of the forge, was now beginning, in spite of her remonstrance,
+to post all his very big proclamations there.
+
+"Rouse up your fire, Ketch," he said that evening, as he stood at
+the door of the smithy, with half a dozen of his children at his
+heels.  "Bring a dozen clout-nails; here's a tremendous piece of
+news!"
+
+The blacksmith made a blaze with a few strokes of his bellows, and
+swung his shutter forward, so that all might read.
+
+"GREAT AND GLORIOUS VICTORY.  Twenty line-of-battle ships destroyed
+or captured.  Lord Nelson shot dead.  God save the King!"
+
+"Keep your fire up.  I'll pay a shilling for the coal," cried the
+Captain, in the flush of excitement.  "Bring out your cow's horn,
+and go and blow it at the corner.  And that drum you had to mend,
+my boy and girl will beat it.  Jack, run up to the battery, and
+tell them to blaze away for their very lives."
+
+In less than five minutes all the village was there, with the
+readers put foremost, all reading together at the top of their
+voices, for the benefit of the rest.  Behind them stood Polly
+Cheeseman, peeping, with the glare of the fire on her sad pale face
+and the ruddy cheeks of her infant.  "Make way for Widow Carne, and
+the young Squire Carne," the loud voice of Captain Zeb commanded;
+"any man as stands afront of her will have me upon him.  Now,
+ma'am, stand forth, and let them look at you."
+
+This was a sudden thought of Captain Tugwell's; but it fixed her
+rank among them, as the order of the King might.  The strong sense
+of justice, always ready in Springhaven, backed up her right to be
+what she had believed herself, and would have been, but for foul
+deceit and falsehood.  And if the proud spirit of Carne ever
+wandered around the ancestral property, it would have received in
+the next generation a righteous shock at descrying in large
+letters, well picked out with shade:  "Caryl Carne, Grocer and
+Butterman, Cheese-monger, Dealer in Bacon and Sausages.  Licensed
+to sell Tea, Coffee, Snuff, Pepper, and Tobacco."
+
+For Cheeseman raised his head again, with the spirit of a true
+British tradesman, as soon as the nightmare of traitorous plots and
+contraband imports was over.  Captain Tugwell on his behalf led the
+fishing fleet against that renegade La Liberte, and casting the
+foreigners overboard, they restored her integrity as the London
+Trader.  Mr. Cheeseman shed a tear, and put on a new apron, and
+entirely reformed his political views, which had been loose and
+Whiggish.  Uprightness of the most sensitive order--that which has
+slipped and strained its tendons--stamped all his dealings, even in
+the butter line; and facts having furnished a creditable motive for
+his rash reliance upon his own cord, he turned amid applause to the
+pleasant pastimes of a smug church-warden.  And when he was wafted
+to a still sublimer sphere, his grandson carried on the business
+well.
+
+Having spread the great news in this striking manner, Captain
+Stubbard--though growing very bulky now with good living, ever
+since his pay was doubled--set off at a conscientious pace against
+the stomach of the hill, lest haply the Hall should feel aggrieved
+at hearing all this noise and having to wonder what the reason was.
+He knew, and was grateful at knowing, that Carne's black crime and
+devilish plot had wrought an entire revulsion in the candid but
+naturally too soft mind of the author of the Harmodiad.  Sir
+Francis was still of a liberal mind, and still admired his own
+works.  But forgetting that nobody read them, he feared the
+extensive harm they might produce, although he was now resolved to
+write even better in the opposite direction.  On the impulse of
+literary conscience, he held a council with the gardener Swipes, as
+to the best composition of bonfire for the consumption of poetry.
+Mr. Swipes recommended dead pea-haulm, with the sticks left in it
+to ensure a draught.  Then the poet in the garden with a long bean-
+stick administered fire to the whole edition, not only of the
+Harmodiad, but also of the Theiodemos, his later and even grander
+work.  Persons incapable of lofty thought attributed this--the most
+sage and practical of all forms of palinode--to no higher source
+than the pretty face and figure, and sweet patriotism, of Lady
+Alice, the youngest sister of Lord Dashville.  And subsequent
+facts, to some extent, confirmed this interpretation.
+
+The old house looked gloomy and dull of brow, with only three
+windows showing light, as stout Captain Stubbard, with his short
+sword swinging from the bulky position where his waist had been,
+strode along the winding of the hill towards the door.  At a sharp
+corner, under some trees, he came almost shoulder to shoulder with
+a tall man striking into the road from a foot-path.  The Captain
+drew his sword, for his nerves had been flurried ever since the
+great explosion, which laid him on his back among his own cannon.
+
+"A friend," cried the other, "and a great admirer of your valour,
+Captain, but not a worthy object for its display."
+
+"My dear friend Shargeloes!" replied the Captain, a little ashamed
+of his own vigilance.  "How are you, my dear sir? and how is the
+system?"
+
+"The system will never recover from the tricks that infernal Carne
+has played with it.  But never mind that, if the intellect
+survives; we all owe a debt to our country.  I have met you in the
+very nick of time.  Yesterday was Guy Fawkes' Day, and I wanted to
+be married then; but the people were not ready.  I intend to have
+it now on New-Year's Day, because then I shall always remember the
+date.  I am going up here to make a strange request, and I want you
+to say that it is right and proper.  An opinion from a distinguished
+sailor will go a long way with the daughters of an Admiral.  I want
+the young ladies to be my bridesmaids--and then for the little ones,
+your Maggy and your Kitty.  I am bound to go to London for a month
+to-morrow, and then I could order all the bracelets and the
+brooches, if I were only certain who the blessed four would be."
+
+"I never had any bridesmaids myself, and I don't know anything
+about them.  I thought that the ladies were the people to settle
+that."
+
+"The ladies are glad to be relieved of the expense, and I wish to
+start well," replied Shargeloes.  "Why are ninety-nine men out of a
+hundred henpecked?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know, except that they can't help it.  But have
+you heard the great news of this evening?"
+
+"The reason is," continued the member of the Corporation, "that
+they begin with being nobodies.  They leave the whole management of
+their weddings to the women, and they never recover the reins.
+Miss Twemlow is one of the most charming of her sex; but she has a
+decided character, which properly guided will be admirable.  But to
+give it the lead at the outset would be fatal to future happiness.
+Therefore I take this affair upon myself.  I pay for it all, and I
+mean to do it all."
+
+"What things you do learn in London!" the Captain answered, with a
+sigh.  "Oh, if I had only had the money--but it is too late to talk
+of that.  Once more, have you heard the news?"
+
+"About the great battle, and the death of Nelson?  Yes, I heard of
+all that this morning.  But I left it to come in proper course from
+you.  Now here we are; mind you back me up.  The Lord Mayor is
+coming to be my best man."
+
+The two sisters, dressed in the deepest mourning, and pale with
+long sorrow and loneliness, looked wholly unfit for festive scenes;
+and as soon as they heard of this new distress--the loss of their
+father's dearest friend, and their own beloved hero--they left the
+room, to have a good cry together, while their brother entertained
+the visitors.  "It can't be done now," Mr. Shargeloes confessed;
+"and after all, Eliza is the proper person.  I must leave that to
+her, but nothing else that I can think of.  There can't be much
+harm in my letting her do that."
+
+It was done by a gentleman after all, for the worthy Rector did it.
+The bride would liefer have dispensed with bridesmaids so much
+fairer than herself, and although unable to advance that reason,
+found fifty others against asking them.  But her father had set his
+mind upon it, and together with his wife so pressed the matter that
+Faith and Dolly, much against their will, consented to come out of
+mourning for a day, but not into gay habiliments.
+
+The bride was attired wonderfully, stunningly, carnageously--as
+Johnny, just gifted with his commission, and thereby with much
+slang, described her; and in truth she carried her bunting well, as
+Captain Stubbard told his wife, and Captain Tugwell confirmed it.
+But the eyes of everybody with half an eye followed the two forms
+in silver-grey.  That was the nearest approach to brightness those
+lovers of their father allowed themselves, within five months of
+his tragic death; though if the old Admiral could have looked down
+from the main-top, probably he would have shouted, "No flags at
+half-mast for me, my pets!"
+
+Two young men with melancholy glances followed these fair
+bridesmaids, being tantalized by these nuptial rites, because they
+knew no better.  One of them hoped that his time would come, when
+he had pushed his great discovery; and if the art of photography
+had been known, his face would have been his fortune.  For he bore
+at the very top of it the seal and stamp of his patent--the
+manifest impact of a bullet, diffracted by the power of Pong.  The
+roots of his hair--the terminus of blushes, according to all good
+novelists--had served an even more useful purpose, by enabling him
+to blush again.  Strengthened by Pong, they had defied the lead,
+and deflected it into a shallow channel, already beginning to be
+overgrown by the aid of that same potent drug.  Erle Twemlow looked
+little the worse for his wound; to a lady perhaps, to a man of
+science certainly, more interesting than he had been before.  As he
+gazed at the bride all bespangled with gold, he felt that he had in
+his trunk the means of bespangling his bride with diamonds.  But
+the worst of it was that he must wait, and fight, and perhaps get
+killed, before he could settle in life and make his fortune.  As an
+officer of a marching regiment, ordered to rejoin immediately, he
+must flesh his sword in lather first--for he had found no razor
+strong enough--and postpone the day of riches till the golden date
+of peace.
+
+The other young man had no solace of wealth, even in the blue
+distance, to whisper to his troubled heart.  Although he was a real
+"Captain Scuddy" now, being posted to the Danae, 42-gun frigate,
+the capacity of his cocked hat would be tried by no shower of gold
+impending.  For mighty dread of the Union-jack had fallen upon the
+tricolor; that gallant flag perceived at last that its proper
+flight was upon dry land, where as yet there was none to flout it.
+Trafalgar had reduced by 50 per cent. the British sailor's chance
+of prize-money.
+
+Such computations were not, however, the chief distress of
+Scudamore.  The happiness of his fair round face was less
+pronounced than usual, because he had vainly striven for an
+interview with his loved one.  With all her faults he loved her
+still, and longed to make them all his own.  He could not help
+being sadly shocked by her fatal coquetry with the traitor Carne,
+and slippery conduct to his own poor self.  But love in his
+faithful heart maintained that she had already atoned for that too
+bitterly and too deeply; and the settled sorrow of her face, and
+listless submission of her movements, showed that she was now a
+very different Dolly.  Faith, who had always been grave enough,
+seemed gaiety itself in comparison with her younger sister, once so
+gay.  In their simple dresses--grey jaconet muslin, sparely trimmed
+with lavender--and wearing no jewel or ornament, but a single snow-
+drop in the breast, the lovely bridesmaids looked as if they defied
+all the world to make them brides.
+
+But the Rector would not let them off from coming to the breakfast
+party, and with the well-bred sense of fitness they obeyed his
+bidding.  Captain Stubbard (whose jokes had missed fire too often
+to be satisfied with a small touch-hole now) was broadly facetious
+at their expense; and Johnny, returning thanks for them, surprised
+the good company by his manly tone, and contempt of life before
+beginning it.  This invigorated Scudamore, by renewing his faith in
+human nature as a thing beyond calculation.  He whispered a word or
+so to his friend Johnny while Mr. and Mrs. Shargeloes were bowing
+farewell from the windows of a great family coach from London,
+which the Lord Mayor had lent them, to make up for not coming.  For
+come he could not--though he longed to do so, and all Springhaven
+expected him--on account of the great preparations in hand for the
+funeral of Lord Nelson.
+
+"Thy servant will see to it," the boy replied, with a wink at his
+sisters, whom he was to lead home; for Sir Francis had made his way
+down to the beach, to meditate his new poem, Theriodemos.
+
+"His behaviour," thought Dolly, as she put on her cloak, "has been
+perfect.  How thankful I feel for it!  He never cast one glance at
+me.  He quite enters into my feelings towards him.  But how much
+more credit to his mind than to his heart!"
+
+Scudamore, at a wary distance, kept his eyes upon her, as if she
+had been a French frigate gliding under strong land batteries, from
+which he must try to cut her out.  Presently he saw that his good
+friend Johnny had done him the service requested.  At a fork of the
+path leading to the Hall, Miss Dolly departed towards the left upon
+some errand among the trees, while her brother and sister went on
+towards the house.  Forgetting the dignity of a Post-Captain, the
+gallant Scuddy made a cut across the grass, as if he were playing
+prisoner's base with the boys at Stonnington, and intercepted the
+fair prize in a bend of the brook, where the winter sun was nursing
+the first primrose.
+
+"You, Captain Scudamore!" said the bridesmaid, turning as if she
+could never trust her eyes again.  "You must have lost your way.
+This path leads nowhere."
+
+"If it only leads to you, that is all that I could wish for.  I am
+content to go to nothing, if I may only go with you."
+
+"My brother sent me," said Dolly, looking down, with more colour on
+her cheeks than they had owned for months, and the snow-drop
+quivering on her breast, "to search for a primrose or two for him
+to wear when he dines at the rectory this evening.  We shall not
+go, of course.  We have done enough.  But Frank and Johnny think
+they ought to go."
+
+"May I help you to look?  I am lucky in that way.  I used to find
+so many things with you, in the happy times that used to be."
+Blyth saw that her eyelids were quivering with tears.  "I will go
+away, if you would rather have it so.  But you used to be so good-
+natured to me."
+
+"So I am still.  Or at least I mean that people should now be good-
+natured to me.  Oh, Captain Scudamore, how foolish I have been!"
+
+"Don't say so, don't think it, don't believe it for a moment," said
+Scudamore, scarcely knowing what he said, as she burst into a storm
+of sobbing.  "Oh, Dolly, Dolly, you know you meant no harm.  You
+are breaking your darling heart, when you don't deserve it.  I
+could not bear to look at you, and think of it, this morning.
+Everybody loves you still, as much and more than ever.  Oh, Dolly,
+I would rather die than see you cry so terribly."
+
+"Nobody loves me, and I hate myself.  I could never have believed I
+should ever hate myself.  Go away, you are too good to be near me.
+Go away, or I shall think you want to kill me.  And I wish you
+would do it, Captain Scudamore."
+
+"Then let me stop," said the Captain, very softly.  She smiled at
+the turn of his logic, through her tears.  Then she wept with new
+anguish, that she had no right to smile.
+
+"Only tell me one thing--may I hold you?  Not of course from any
+right to do it, but because you are so overcome, my own, own
+Dolly."  The Captain very cleverly put one arm round her, at first
+with a very light touch, and then with a firmer clasp, as she did
+not draw away.  Her cloak was not very cumbrous, and her tumultuous
+heart was but a little way from his.
+
+"You know that I never could help loving you," he whispered, as she
+seemed to wonder what the meaning was.  "May I ever hope that you
+will like me?"
+
+"Me!  How can it matter now to anybody?  I used to think it did;
+but I was very foolish then.  I know my own value.  It is less than
+this.  This little flower has been a good creature.  It has been
+true to its place, and hurt nobody."
+
+Instead of seeking for any more flowers, she was taking from her
+breast the one she had--the snow-drop, and threatening to tear it
+in pieces.
+
+"If you give it to me, I shall have some hope."  As he spoke, he
+looked at her steadfastly, without any shyness or fear in his eyes,
+but as one who knows his own good heart, and has a right to be
+answered clearly.  The maiden in one glance understood all the
+tales of his wonderful daring, which she never used to believe,
+because he seemed afraid to look at her.
+
+"You may have it, if you like," she said; "but, Blyth, I shall
+never deserve you.  I have behaved to you shamefully.  And I feel
+as if I could never bear to be forgiven for it."
+
+For the sake of peace and happiness, it must be hoped that she
+conquered this feminine feeling, which springs from an equity of
+nature--the desire that none should do to us more than we ever
+could do to them.  Certain it is that when the Rector held his
+dinner party, two gallant bosoms throbbed beneath the emblem of
+purity and content.  The military Captain's snow-drop hung where
+every one might observe it, and some gentle-witted jokes were made
+about its whereabouts that morning.  By-and-by it grew weary on its
+stalk and fell, and Erle Twemlow never missed it.  But the other
+snow-drop was not seen, except by the wearer with a stolen glance,
+when people were making a loyal noise--a little glance stolen at
+his own heart.  He had made a little cuddy there inside his inner
+sarcenet, and down his plaited neck-cloth ran a sly companionway to
+it, so that his eyes might steal a visit to the joy that was over
+his heart and in it.  Thus are women adored by men, especially
+those who deserve it least.
+
+"Attention, my dear friends, attention, if you please," cried the
+Rector, rising, with a keen glance at Scuddy.  "I will crave your
+attention before the ladies go, and theirs, for it concerns them
+equally.  We have passed through a period of dark peril, a long
+time of trouble and anxiety and doubt.  By the mercy of the Lord,
+we have escaped; but with losses that have emptied our poor hearts.
+England has lost her two foremost defenders, Lord Nelson, and
+Admiral Darling.  To them we owe it that we are now beginning the
+New Year happily, with the blessing of Heaven, and my dear daughter
+married.  Next week we shall attend the grand funeral of the hero,
+and obtain good places by due influence.  My son-in-law, Percival
+Shargeloes, can do just as he pleases at St. Paul's.  Therefore let
+us now, with deep thanksgiving, and one hand upon our hearts, lift
+up our glasses, and in silence pledge the memory of our greatest
+men.  With the spirit of Britons we echo the last words that fell
+from the lips of our dying hero--'Thank God, I have done my duty!'
+His memory shall abide for ever, because he loved his country."
+
+The company rose, laid hand on heart, and deeply bowing, said--
+"Amen!"
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Springhaven, by R. D. Blackmore
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPRINGHAVEN ***
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