1 །་་ maces as a St Helena monkey, most gallantly blew out the brains of all his future prospects, went down to Leith, and was on board of the Adamant, and had entered the service, before you would have said Jack Robinson. As he took no pains to conceal this wise measure, but rather appeared to betray a sort of savage satisfaction in thus affronting his grandfather and all his family, they very properly pocketed their grief, convinced that he had chosen a rougher schoolmaster, and a harder penance, than any they could have had the heart to inflict. Having thus given you all that I know of our young Man-of-War's-Man, my dear lad, I shall now take my leave, with expressing my hope that you and he may proceed on your voyage together in a comfortable and happy manner, and that, after many months of mutual pleasure, and mutual satisfaction, you may see him into port, and part good friends.-My dear Kit, I shall always be proud to be ever yours, while Canongate, 10th October, 1821. THE MAN-OF-WAR'S-MAN. CHAPTER II. BILL TRUCK. Your work is very hard, my boys, upon the ocean sea,--- WE left Edward, moving slowly forward from his conference with the officers, in a state of mind far from being enviable. By the thoughtless though friendly kindness of Lieutenant Highgate, he had been exposed to a scrutiny which of all things he had least expected; and thus taken by surprise, and determined not to affront, as he thought, the honour of his family, he had found the little that he did say treated as falsehood, and himself rudely levelled to the same grade of infamy as the felons he accompanied. The sneering unbelief, too, so broadly displayed by Lieutenant Toddrel, had done its work; and the Captain's parting words, on dismissing him, of his being a queer one," and no better than he ought to be, still rung in his ears, and stung him to the soul. With a heavy and a bursting heart, therefore, and unwilling to betray himself in the presence of men, who, he was quite aware, looked upon such feelings with the greatest contempt, he sought a solitary corner under the vessel's little forecastle, and there gave way to an agony of tears. The rude ungainly taunts of the Lieutenant, it is true, had excited no other emotions than a certain scorn and contempt, which, in other circumstances, and in another place, would, in all likelihood, have provoked a return; but the graceful manners and manly de VOL. X. In the Guard-ship, ho! "No, licacy of Captain Farrell had won his heart, and several times was he on the point of returning to the quarter-deck, and demanding an audience of him, that he might tell him his whole story. Here, however, there was an explanation to make, which both shocked and alarmed his pride, of which we need hardly remark he had a very respectable share. no, it can never be," exclaimed he mentally; "I have voluntarily courted my fate, and however hard it may prove, I must learn to bear it. I might have chosen better, it is true; and yet how could that be, when I chose to the best of my knowledge? Have I not ever loved sea matters? Have I not wished many times to be engaged in them? And have I not now got my wish? Yes!" added he, with a convulsive shudder, which made his teeth grind together," yes! I have got it in an overflowing cup, every drop of which I must drain to the bottomfor too much, far too much, has already been done, ever to be undone with honour. Alas! well did Lieutenant Highgate say, when he gave me the list to carry to the midshipman, There, Davis, that is your banishment, since you will have it. God bless you, and farewell; we may meet again, though at present it an't very likely." From this melancholy and mortifying reverie, he was suddenly 3 G aroused by a smart blow of a rope's end athwart his shoulders, and on wheeling round beheld the boatswain'smate.- Yo hoy! who have we got skulking here?" growled the brutal fellow, repeating the blow." Oho! you're one of the Johnie Raw's are you!-and crying too, or blast me!I thought you had belonged to me. But never mind,my buck, a simple snaffler or two in the bunt is nothing at all at all, when once you're used to it-so come, come, save your water for another occasion; rub up your sparklers, and jump aft there, like a blade of mettle, and give us a pull of that there brace." Edward obeyed; and launched with such apparent cheerfulness and good will into the bustle of the deck, as evidently to gain on the good graces of his new associates; the boatswain's mate in particular exclaiming, "that though awkward, he was willing, and in a short time would make a d-d good top-man." Busily occupied in this manner, the day flew by; but, with the return of night, came more serious and melancholy reflections. It was impossible for Edward to avoid remarking, with what marked and studied contempt he was treated by Lieutenant Toddrell and all his inferior officers, who individually seemed to rejoice in humbling the impostor who had had the audacity to aspire to rank above his fellows, and who accordingly singled him out for the most trifling, unceasing, and vexatious duties, exulting and sneering at his ignorance and awkwardness. Even the Captain himself, of whom he was inclined to think so favour ably, seemed to have become harsher and more stern towards him since their conference together, and appeared to view the indignities which were heaped upon him with an unsparing hand, with some degree of satisfaction. Gathering from the ill-natured taunts of the young gentlemen, that all this wretched usage proceeded from something contained in the letter, while he could hardly refrain from cursing the officious kindness of Lieutenant Highgate in thus erecting him like a target to be shot at, he was incessant in his inquiries at the older seamen as to when they expected to arrive at Yarmouth, naturally enough judging, that were he once quit of the Whippersnapper, he would sink unknown amongst the common herd, and get the common usage allowed to every one. Nor had he long to exercise his newly-tried patience; for the breeze continuing steady and favourable, the vessel speedily made her way to the much-wished for roadstead, which was no sooner in view than the supernumeraries were ordered to get ready to go instantly on board the guardship, the Whippersnapper meaning to proceed without delay to her cruizing ground. This order Edward prepared to obey with the greatest pleasure; for, not to mention another reason than her inconvenient lowness and wetness, the Whippersnapper was so completely overloaded with live lumber as to have made a longer stay very disagreeable. He was therefore very soon on the quarter-deck, with his mattrass and blankets under his arm, and had ample time to survey his motley_companions, while a Bardolph-faced fellow of a clerk prepared the invoice. If our readers be inclined to stare at this, we can honestly assure them that it was actually an invoice of so many head of live-stock, "victualled," moreover, "for that day," and sent from his Majesty's sloop of war, Whippersnapper, to his Majesty's flag-ship, Grab, Dugald Dolittle, commander. Edward and his comrades were thus all standing in groupes talking of the nature of their change, when the serjeant of marines came up to them, dressed in a dirty jacket which had once been scarlet, and a rattan in his hand, as if prepared for drill; and having elbowed the first of the squad he encountered in the genuine spirit of nautical naiveté, he bawled out with a most authoritative countenance, “Come, men, come;-fall in-rank up!-Blast your lubberly eyes! stand in a line, can't you?-What a rascally, lousy, goodfor-nothing set!-Look here;-put all of you your toes to that there seam, and stand straight up, and keep your front -so now, so, too far, my lad; back a little-there now, steady!-What's that whoreson loggerhead wheeling for? My eyes, can't you stand steady, and bed-d to ye, you lubber!-so now so-steady!" He was here compelled to silence by the appearance of his potent commander issuing from the companion-ladder, and meekly followed by his bareheaded amanuensis, carrying pen and ink and the aforesaid invoice. Captain Farrell, who seemed to be in none of the best of humours, after slightly saluting his officers, who were all on deck, replaced his well worn every way cocked hat on his head, and strutted his two or three paces of a quarter deck, apparently wrapt in profound cogitation, with a solemnity of dignity truly ludicrous. At length making an abrupt halt, he turned to his obsequious lieutenant, who stood watching his motions, and said, "Is the boat ready, Mr Toddrell ?""Yes, sir, but not manned," was the answer. "Then man her directly," eried the Captain, "for we must be off-the wind sits fair." The Lieutenant immediately gave the signal to the watching boatswain's mate, the shrill whistle blew, and Away there, large cutters! was bawled through the lungs of an ox. This com→ mand was promptly obeyed, the men coming scrambling up in all directions, and the commanding midshipman standing at the gangway, waiting or ders. A profound silence was now broke by the captain ordering his clerk to muster the people that were going away, and the serjeant of marines to see that they carried nothing along with them but what was their own. While this was going on, throwing one leg carelessly athwart the breach of a carronade, he amused himself with a scrutiny at the individuals and their luggage, as they passed him to the boat. As soon as they had got all huddled in, he again appeared on the gunnel, "Are you all right there, Mister Faddell ?" "All right, sir,” replied the Midshipman. "Then make all the haste you can on board again," said the Captain, "for I shall get under weigh directly; and hark'ye, youngster, see that you bring me back a proper receipt.' 66 Ay, ay, sir," replied the midshipman ; "shove off, Parkinson"-and away they went. A very short time brought them alongside of the Grab, where the ceremonials of introduction were much the same as those of taking leave of the Whippersnapper, excepting that they were marshalled by a smart dressed master-at-arms, and that every thing else bore a proportionate degree of gentility, and was of larger magnitude. The formalities of introduction over, they were next handed down to the purser's steward to be entered on his mess-book, were told the number of their respective messes, and then turned adrift to make of themselves what they pleased for the day. As Edward had silently resolved to imitate the behaviour of those men-ofwar's men who were along with him, well knowing that former experience would regulate their motions, and observing them making the best of their way for the lower deck, he immediately followed, and after their example, was shortly seated at his own messtable. This mess was under the controul of one of the quarter-masters, whose wife amused her leisure hours in the superintendance and care of a petty chandler's shop, and retailed snuff, tobacco, tea, sugar, butter, cheese, bread, potatoes, needles, threads, and other luxuries and necessaries, to all who had money to purchase, or trinkets or other saleable articles to pawn, and to a select number of her own ship's company on credit to a certain extent. As both the lady and her husband were unable either to read or write, she was compelled, to the sad loss of "many a good pen'orth of backor," to consign all her credits to her memory between the one meal's hour and the next, when honest Ritchie Sangster, the fifer, who belonged to her mess, being at leisure, used to relieve her, by enrolling the whole of the foresaid credits, day and date, into a sort of journal which she kept. Now it so happened that this same Master Dick laboured under a disorder proverbially common among his countrymen of the north of Scotland, and of course was not only a little over greedy, but had enacted the part of private secretary to Mrs Susan Harley so long without a rival, as to be very often somewhat unreasonable in his de mands; which when not immediately complied with, the cunning puffer of sweet sounds, would start away from the table, with a cry of " Here I come, sir!" and hasten upon deck as if he were really wanted, to whistle a butt of water from the hold, leaving poor Missis Sue, with an overloaded memory, in a state of mind something between wonderment and chagrin. By way of relieving herself on those occasions when her dear wag Richard took his tantrums," Mrs Susan had no doubt been at infinite pains in the study of a certain kind of hieroglyphics, which are very popular among the more enlightened and politerer bar maids and pot-boys of Cockaigne; but whether from the want of comprehension, or the want of time to compre hend, is not exactly known, but so little progress had she hitherto made in this elegant science, that her knowledge on these occasions often failed her, and would finally compel her to send Joe Harley in search of the fifer, whom she would flatter and pettle with good things to return to his duty. It is a very common nautical observe, that every man has his lucky and unlucky days, which, of course, since they are unavoidable, he must just take as they come, with as much coolness, or as much heat as he pleases; and the eventful day that Edward joined the foresaid Richard's mess was no doubt one of his unfortunate ones. It had so pleased the stars, (probably Ursa ma jor, &c.) that Dick should, that very morning, take the tantrums for something or other he wanted, and that to such a violent degree, that the flag of Mrs Harley's defiance was still hoisted when Edward made his appearance at her table. She was then in the very act of resorting to her old dernier; and consequently bore all the marks generally exhibited by a certain professor, when demonstrating a geometrical colligation, i. e. she would bite her nails, scratch her ringlets into a fine disorder, survey her shoe points, then mark down her hieroglyphic, which the next moment she would erase as being wrong or unsatisfactory; ever adding at the end of every failure, a hearty ejaculation on the absent Dick, which it would be very wrong to interpret a blessing. It is impossible for us to say by what sort of sympathetic attraction Mrs Susie was led to behold our hero with a favourable eye-it could not be his clothes, for he was nearly in rags-nor could it be his "speaking eyes," for grief and inquietude had dimmed their lustre certain we are, however, there was a something about him which attracted her regard; for, contrary to her usual and well-known practice, being fond of shewing strangers that she was somebody-she was remarkably civil to him, and even kind; while he, on the other hand, grateful for such unlooked for attention, and observing her somewhat perplexed in her accounts, gallantly offered her his assistance, which was gladly accepted, and in half the time Dick would have taken, he had all her debits entered on her journal. Without meaning it, after consequences shewed that this was a master-stroke for a person in Edward's forlorn situation; for it matters not whether he had the far-famed Ledyard, or the politic and smoothtongued Marmontelle in his eye at that lucky moment, since he happily succeeded in making a friend of Mrs Susan Harley, who, besides her own powerful influence as the senior quarter-master's wife, and the most invincible scold in the ship, possessed an almost unlimited patronage in being femme-de-chambre and washerwoman to the first Lieutenant-a power of itself, indeed, almost equivalent to the command of the vessel. As the accidental discovery of our hero's abilities made her completely independ ent of her dear wag Richard and his tantrums, whom she had apparently spoiled by her flatteries, she could not conceal her high satisfaction from her new found auxiliary, but insisted, as the day was far advanced, that Edward should stay with her, promising to introduce him to her husband, who, she assured him, "was a dear good old creature, and might do him a kindness." This request, it may be easily imagined, was too agreeable to Edward, to meet with a refusal; and he accordingly, nothing loth, sat still until the arrival of the quarter-master, who appeared to be a hale stout old man, between fifty and sixty years of age, with ruddy cheeks, a fine figure, and a very pleasant open countenance. "O, you are there, Harley, my love," cried Mrs Sue, I were quite moppy for want on ye." "And well, my sweet wench, what dost want, or what art to give me, now I am come?" said the good humoured smiling quarter-master, seating him. self. "Whatever you please, my love.Shall I hand you the beef platter, for sure you must be hungry, after being on deck so long? or wilt rather choose a nice comfortable basin of warm coffee with I and this young Scotchman? Vy, you don't see as how I've got a young Scotchman, Joe, since you left the birth?-Ay, that I have, my old blade, and such a one, too, you can't think." The quarter-master, who had commenced eating, turned round to Edward, "You would come on board to day, my lad ?” Yes, sir," was the answer. 66 « O, Davis, Davis," cried the lively Sue, you must drop that there shore vay of talking, now you're on board a man-of-war. We have no such fine names in five fathom water I can assure you, unless it be to the officers, who, you know, are all real gemmen, though some of them, God he knows, are poor and mean enough, as my pocket can tell to-day. Whenever you speak to husband again, just call him plain Joe Harley, or quartermaster, which you please, for I can assure you, he likes either far better, and thinks it more friendly." Edward nodded assent. more common than such poor devils as you losing their bed and blankets. Not bring them much quotha! that's more than you know on. They'll bring them a dollar, though, or six shillings apiece; and many a thing walks ashore that won't turn out so well. But never mind, my lad, your's shan't walk that way, if either Joe or Susan can prevent it-and you don't know what we may not do for you, if you're a good boy and behave yourself." In such like conversation was the evening spent ; for Mrs Susan having by this time packed up all her enviables, felt herself quite at leisure, and inclined to talk. At last, however, the hammocks being piped down, put an end to it for a night; and Edward, tired and weary, spread his lowly couch below the mess-table, and was soon asleep. Next morning, after stowing his bedding, he was no farther disturbed until about an hour after breakfast, when the boatswain's mate piped "All the Whippersnappers to muster, hoy!" a call which immediately hurried him on deck. Here he found the masterat-arms and officers in waiting, and immediately fell into line on the quarter-deck. After a minute examination of each individual, the ceremony concluded with the separation of the seamen from the landsmen; the former being stationed to various duties in the vessel, and the latter, among whom was our hero, handed over to the boatswain's mate, who, commanding them to follow him, immediately retired to the main-deck. Having here ranked them up with much formality, he next thundered out for the Captain-sweeper, and the Captain of the Head, who at last made their appearance, and were a couple of the filthiest ragamuffins Edward had ever set eyes on. On the approach of these beauties, the boatswain's mate exclaimed with disgust: Mrs Harley now commenced an eulogy to the praise of our hero, for the assistance he had given her-very cordially d-d the fifer for an ungrateful thankless ingrate and swab, and concluded with declaring her determination, while she punished the one to look after the welfare of the other, by allowing our hero to sleep that night under her mess-table, and promising to make him more comfortable next day.—“ You know, my love," continued she, addressing her husband, "that every hammock I have got is in use at present, and I warrant you, Davis, I've got a good two dozen lent out; but you can have no difficulty, I should think, Joe, in coming slily over old O'Reilly, the yeoman, for one more. God bless you, it would make the poor fellow sleep so comfortably, you know, besides keeping all his bedding so snug from these blasted thieves, that lurk about so of a night. Recollect, Davis, we have got a great many thieves on board, so look sharp after all your little things; for 'twas but t'other night that poor Sam Morgan, who had got a little hazy, and lain down somewhere," Faugh! what a precious couple of had the very ear-rings pinched out of his ears while sleeping-now Sam is a very old man-of-war's-man.' "I have very little to lose, maʼam," said Edward, except my bed and blankets, and these are of a description which I should'nt think would be worth any one's coveting-they would absolutely bring nothing." "Nonsense, child," cried Mrs Harley. "Lord love you, there is nothing walking dunghills!-D-n me, Higgins, keep to leeward, and don't murder the blessed sea-breeze with the funk of your abominable carcase—and avast there, Williams, and stay where you are if you please, for the devil a straw's to draw between you. Here are six landcrabs for you; and it's the first lieutenant's orders that you take each on you a share, and learn them to handle a swab and a broom without de 15 |