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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Foster's Letter Of Marque, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Foster's Letter Of Marque
+       A Tale Of Old Sydney - 1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 12, 2008 [EBook #25058]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE
+
+A TALE OF OLD SYDNEY
+
+From “The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories”
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.
+
+1901
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+One by one the riding-lights of the few store-ships and whalers lying
+in Sydney Harbour on an evening in January, 1802, were lit, and as the
+clear notes of a bugle from the barracks pealed over the bay, followed
+by the hoarse calls and shrill whistles of the boatswains' mates on a
+frigate that lay in Sydney Cove, the mate of the _Policy_ whaler jumped
+up from the skylight where he had been lying smoking, and began to pace
+the deck.
+
+The _Policy_ was anchored between the Cove and Pinchgut, ready for sea.
+The north-easter, which for three days had blown strongly, had now died
+away, and the placid waters of the harbour shimmered under the starlight
+of an almost cloudless sky. As the old mate tramped to and fro on the
+deserted poop, his keen seaman's eye caught sight of some faint grey
+clouds rising low down in the westward--signs of a south-easterly coming
+before the morning.
+
+Stepping to the break of the poop, the officer hailed the look-out
+forward, and asked if he could see the captain's boat coming.
+
+“No, sir,” the man replied. “I did see a boat a while ago, and thought
+it was ours, but it turned out to be one from that Batavian Dutchman
+anchored below Pinchgut. Her captain always goes ashore about this
+time.”
+
+Swinging round on his heel with an angry exclamation, the mate resumed
+his walk, muttering and growling to himself as elderly mates do
+mutter and growl when a captain promises to be on board at five in the
+afternoon and is not in evidence at half-past seven. Perhaps, too, the
+knowledge of the particular cause of the captain's delay somewhat added
+to his chief officer's ill-temper--that cause being a pretty girl; for
+the mate was a crusty old bachelor, and had but little sympathy with
+such “tomfoolery.”
+
+“Why the devil couldn't he say goodbye to her and be done with it and
+come aboard,” he grumbled, “instead of wasting half a day over it?”
+
+But Mr. Stevenson did not consider that in those days pretty women were
+not plentiful in Sydney, and virtue was even scarcer than good looks,
+and Dorothy Gilbert, only daughter of the Deputy Acting Assistant
+Commissary-General of the penal settlement, possessed all the
+qualifications of a lovable woman, and therefore it was not wonderful
+that Captain Charles Foster had fallen very much in love with her.
+
+Dorothy, of course, had her faults, and her chief one was the rather
+too great store she set upon being the daughter of an official. Pretty
+nearly every one in those days of the settlement was either an official
+or a prisoner or an ex-convict, and the D.A.A.C.G. was of no small
+importance among the other officials in Sydney. The girl's acquaintance
+with the young master of the _Policy_ began in a very ordinary manner.
+His ship had been chartered by the Government to take out a cargo of
+stores to the settlement, and the owners, who were personally acquainted
+with her father, had given Foster a letter of introduction. This he had
+used somewhat sooner than he had at first intended, for on presenting
+himself at the Commissary's office he had caught sight of Dolly's
+charming face as she stood talking to a young man in the uniform of a
+sergeant of the New South Wales Regiment who had brought a letter to her
+father. .
+
+“Thank you, Sergeant,” the young lady said with a gracious smile. “Will
+you present my father's compliments to the Major and say we shall be
+sure to come. He is not here at present, but cannot delay long, as he
+will have much business to transact with the master of the ship just
+come in, and who will doubtless be here very soon.”
+
+Just at that moment Foster appeared at the open door, and the young
+lady, divining at once that he was the person of whom she had just
+spoken, bowed very prettily, and begging him to be seated whilst she
+had search made for her father, left the office and disappeared in the
+living portion of the house, followed by a look of very great interest
+from Captain Foster. A minute later the Commissary entered the room, and
+Foster was soon deep in business with Dolly's father, to whom he made
+himself very agreeable--having a certain object in view.
+
+Their business concluded, the young man rose to go, and not till
+then--being wise in his generation--did he allude to the fact of his
+having a private letter of introduction from his owners--Messrs. Hurry
+Brothers, of London--to Mr. Scars-brook. The stiff, official manner of
+the D.A.A.C.G. at once thawed, and being at heart a genial old fellow,
+he expressed his pleasure, shook hands again with the young man, and
+inquired why he had not presented the letter or made allusion to it
+before.
+
+Foster, who had pretty well gauged Mr. Scarsbrook mentally, modestly
+replied that he did not care to obtrude private affairs at an
+inopportune time. He knew that weighty affairs doubtless occupied Mr.
+Scarsbrook's mind during his business hours, but had intended to do
+himself the honour of presenting his letter later on, &c.
+
+This at once impressed the D.A.A.C.G., who asked him to dinner that
+evening.
+
+“A most intelligent young man, my dear,” he told Dolly shortly
+after. “His attention to business before all else has given me a very
+favourable impression of him.”
+
+Dolly tossed her head. “I hope I shall not be disappointed in him. Is he
+young?” she asked indifferently.
+
+“Quite; and in manners and appearance much above his position.”
+
+Dolly did like him very much--'much more than she cared to confess to
+herself--and their first meeting at dinner led to many of a less formal
+character, and ere a week had passed Captain Charles Foster was very
+much in love with his host's daughter, and not being a man who wasted
+time, was only awaiting an opportunity to tell her so.
+
+Now Dolly, who had first flirted with and then flouted every one of
+the bachelor officials in Sydney, military or civilian, who visited the
+Commissary's abode, was, to do her justice, a girl of sense at heart,
+and she felt that Captain Foster meant to ask her an all-important
+question--to every woman--and that her answer would be “Yes.” For not
+only was he young, handsome, and highly thought of by his owners, but he
+came of a good family, and had such prospects for his future as seldom
+came in the way of men in the merchant service even in those days of
+lucky South-Seamen and East India traders, who made fortunes rapidly.
+And then 'twas evident he was very much in love with her, and this
+latter fact considerably and naturally influenced her.
+
+The first week passed pleasantly enough, then, to his anger and disgust,
+Foster found he had a rival; and before the end of the second week he
+realised, or imagined so, that he was beaten in the field of love--by a
+Dutchman!
+
+Sergeant Harry Burt was the first to give him warning, for he was often
+on duty at or near the Commissary's quarters, and, indeed, had often
+taken notes from Foster to the fair Dolly. He showed a warm interest in
+the matter, for Foster was always polite to the sergeant, and did not
+turn up his nose at “soldier men,” as other masters of ships were but
+too ready to do.
+
+It had so happened that the work of discharging his ship had kept Foster
+very busy during the second week of his stay, and he had paid but one
+evening visit to Dolly and her father, and was hurrying the cargo ashore
+with feverish eagerness. Once that was accomplished, he meant to devote
+himself (1)to proposing to the young lady, (2) gaining her father's
+consent, and (3) getting to sea again as soon as possible, making a good
+cruise at the whale fishery, and returning to Sydney within two years
+as master and owner of a ship of his own. Consequently, Burt's news gave
+him considerable disquietude.
+
+“Who did you say he was, Sergeant?” he asked gloomily; “a Dutchman?”
+
+“Yes, sir; he's the master of that Dutch Batavian ship that has brought
+stores from Batavia. Mr. Scarsbrook seems to make a lot of him of late,
+and he's always coming up to the Commissary's place. And if he sees Miss
+Scarsbrook out in the garden he swaggers in after her as if he were an
+admiral of the fleet Portveldt's his name, and--and----”
+
+“And what, Sergeant?”
+
+“Well, I think Miss Scarsbrook rather likes him, that's all. You see,
+sir, you haven't been there for a week, and this young Dutchman is by no
+means bad-looking, and even our Major says he's a jolly fine fellow--and
+all that goes a long way with women, you know. Then you only visit the
+house once in a week; the Dutchman goes there every day, and every time
+he comes he brings his boatswain with him--a big, greasy-faced chap.
+Last night he followed his master, carrying a cheese--a present for the
+Commissary, I suppose.”
+
+“Well, I shall soon see how the land lies, Sergeant I'm going ashore
+presently, and I can promise you it won't be my fault if I let this
+fellow get to windward of me.”
+
+But Miss Dolly was not to be seen that day, nor yet on the following
+one. She was vexed at Foster having thought of his work before herself,
+and she had determined to punish him by not meeting him for some little
+time, and amuse herself with the handsome young Dutch sailor meanwhile.
+So, in no very amiable mood, Foster went back to his ship, finished
+discharging, and delighted his old mate by telling him to get ready
+for sea as quickly as possible. And on this particular evening when
+our story opens the _Policy_ only waited for her captain--who had gone
+ashore--so he told Stevenson--to say goodbye to the Commissary, with
+parting instructions to the mate to begin to heave up as soon as he saw
+his (Foster's) boat leave the Cove.
+
+After spending half an hour with the Commissary, Foster asked to see
+Miss Dorothy, and was soon ushered into the sitting-room, where the
+young lady welcomed him effusively, and her manner soon drove all
+suspicious thoughts of his rival out of his mind. Her mother, a placid
+lady, who was absolutely ruled by Dolly and her father, smiled approval
+when Foster asked her daughter to accompany him to the garden and take
+a look at the harbour. She liked him, and had previously given him much
+assistance by getting out of the way whenever she suspected he wanted to
+see Dolly alone.
+
+As soon as they had gained the screen of the shaded path leading to the
+water's edge, Foster came to the point at once.
+
+“Dolly,” he said, “you know why I have asked you to come with me here.
+My ship is ready for sea, and it may be quite two years before I shall
+have the happiness of seeing you again.”
+
+“'Tis very kind of you to pay me so pretty a compliment, Captain
+Foster--or I should say Mr. Foster,” said Dolly, concealing a smile;
+“but surely you need not have brought me out to the garden to tell me
+this.”
+
+Her pretended forgetfulness of some past passages in their brief
+acquaintance, as her speech implied, ruffled him.
+
+“You are very particular with your _Mr_. Foster, Miss Dolly; and why not
+'Captain'?”
+
+Dolly raised her eyebrows in surprise.
+
+“Captains hold the King's commission and fight for their country,” she
+said demurely. “The master of a horrid ship that goes catching whales
+has no right to the title.” Then she laughed and shook her long, fair
+curls.
+
+“Upon my word, young lady, you are very complimentary; but, Dolly, no
+more of this banter. My boat is waiting, and I have but a few minutes
+to ask you to give me your answer. In all seriousness remember that my
+future depends upon it. Will you marry me? Will you try to love me?
+May I go away with the hope that you will look forward to my return,
+and----”
+
+“In all seriousness, Mr. Foster, I will not.”
+
+“Why, what have I done to offend you? I thought you--I thought that
+I----” and then, getting somewhat confused and angry at the same time
+at Dolly's nonchalant manner, he wound up with, “I believe that damned
+Dutchman has come between us!”
+
+“How dare you swear at me, sir? I suppose, though, it is the custom for
+captains in the merchant service to swear at ladies. And what right have
+you to assume that I should marry you? Because I rather liked to talk to
+you when I felt dull, is that any reason why you should be so very
+rude to me? And once for all, sir, I shall never marry a mere merchant
+sailor--a common whaling master. I shall marry, when I do marry, an
+officer and a gentleman in the King's service.”
+
+“Ah!” Foster snapped, “and what about the Dutchman?”
+
+Now up to this point Dolly had been making mere pretence. She honestly
+loved the young seaman, and meant to tell him so plainly before he left
+the garden, but at this last question the merriment he had failed to see
+in her eyes gave place to an angry sparkle, and she quickly retorted--
+
+“Mr. Portveldt, sir, is a Dutch gentleman, and he would never talk to me
+in such a way as you have done. How dare you, sir!”
+
+Foster was really angry now, and smiled sarcastically. “He's but the
+master of a merchantman, and an infernal Dutchman at that.”
+
+“He is a gentleman, which you are not!” snapped Dolly fiercely; “and
+if he is but a merchant skipper, he commands his own ship. He is a
+shipowner, and a well-known Batavian merchant as well, sir; so there!”
+
+“So I believe,” said Foster wrathfully; “sells Dutch cheeses and brings
+them ashore with him.”
+
+“You're a spy,” said Dolly contemptuously.
+
+“Very well, Miss Scarsbrook, call me what you please. I can see your
+cheese merchant waddling this way now, attended by his ugly pirate of
+a boatswain. Doubtless he has some stock-fish on this occasion, and
+as stock-fish are very much like Dutchmen in one respect and I like
+neither, I wish you joy of him. Goodbye!” And Captain Foster swung on
+his heel and walked quickly out of the garden gate. As he strode down
+the narrow path he brushed past the Batavian merchant, who was on his
+way to the Commissary's office.
+
+“Goot tay to you, Captain Foster,” said Port-veldt, grinning amiably.
+
+“Go to the devil!” replied the Englishman promptly, turning round and
+facing the Dutchman to give due emphasis to his remark.
+
+Portveldt, a tall, well-made fellow, and handsomely dressed, stared at
+Foster's retreating figure in angry astonishment, then changing his mind
+about first visiting the Commissary, he opened the garden gate, and came
+suddenly upon Dorothy Scarsbrook seated upon a rustic bench, weeping
+bitterly.
+
+“My tear yong lady, vat is de matter? I beg you to led me gomfort you.”
+
+“There is nothing the matter, Mr. Portveldt I thank you, but you cannot
+be of any service to me,” and Dolly buried her face in her handkerchief
+again.
+
+“I am sorry ferry mooch to hear you say dat, Mees Dorotee, vor it vas
+mein hop dot you would dake kindtly to me.”
+
+Dolly made no answer, and then Captain Portveldt sat down beside her,
+his huge figure quite filling up all the remaining space.
+
+“Mees Dorotee,” he began ponderously, “de trood is dot I vas goming to
+see you to dell you I vas ferry mooch in loaf mid you, und to ask you to
+be mein vifes; but now dot you do veep so mooch, I----”
+
+“Say no more if you please, Mr. Portveldt,” said Dolly, hastily drying
+her eyes. Then, rising with great dignity, she bowed and went on: “Of
+course I am deeply sensible of the great honour that you do me, but
+I can never be your wife.” And then to herself: “I fancy that I have
+replied in a very proper manner.”
+
+“Vy, vat vas der wrong aboud me, Mees Dorotee?” pleaded Portveldt “I vas
+feery yoyful in mein mind tinking dot you did loaf me some liddle bid. I
+have mooch money; mein haus in Batavia is mosd peautiful, und you shall
+have plendy servands to do all dot you vish. Oh, Mees Dorotee! vat can
+be wrong mid me?”
+
+“There is nothing that I object to in you, sir, except that I do not
+love you. Really you cannot expect me to marry you because I have seen
+you half a dozen times and have treated you with politeness.”
+
+“I do hobe, Mees Dorotee, dot id is not because of dot yong mans who vas
+so oncivil to me yoost now dot you vill not haf me. He vas dell me to go
+to der tuyvel ven I did say 'goot morning' yoost now.”
+
+“It is no young man, sir. Mr. Foster is a person for whom I have a great
+regard, but I do not intend to marry him. I will only marry a gentleman.
+
+“Oh, bud, Mees Dorotee, am I not a yentle-mans?”
+
+“I do not consider masters of merchantmen gentlemen,” replied Dolly with
+a slight sniff. “My father is an officer in the King's service, and I
+have been taught to----”
+
+“Ha, ha! Mees Dorotee,” laughed Portveldt good-humouredly, “dot is nod
+so. Your baba is but a gommissary who puys de goots vich I bring me from
+Batavia to sell.”
+
+“How dare you talk like that, sir? My father _is_ a King's officer, and
+before he came here he fought for his country.”
+
+“Veil, Mees Dorotee, I do beg your pardon mooch, and I vill vight vor
+mein country if you vil learn to loaf me on dot account.”
+
+But Miss Dolly would listen no more, and, with a ceremonious bow, walked
+away. Then the Dutch merchant went to the Commissary's office to
+talk the matter over with her father, who told him that he would
+not interfere in his daughter's choice; if he could not make himself
+agreeable to her, neither her father nor mother could help him.
+
+Just after sunrise next morning, Dolly, who had spent the night in tears
+and repentance, woke, feeling very miserable. From her opened window
+she could see the morning mists hanging over the placid waters of
+the harbour disappearing before the first breaths of the coming
+south-easter. The _Policy_, she thought, could not have sailed yet, and
+she meant to send her lover a note, asking him to come and see her again
+before he left. Then she gave a little cry and sob, and her eyes filled
+with tears. Far down the harbour she could see the sails of the _Policy_
+just disappearing round a wooded headland.
+
+An hour or so after breakfast, as Dolly was at work among her flowers,
+the tall figure of Sergeant Burt stood before her, and saluted--
+
+“The _Policy_ has sailed, Miss Scarsbrook,” said the Sergeant, “and I
+have brought you a letter.”
+
+“Indeed!” said Dolly, with an air of icy indifference, turning her back
+upon the soldier, and digging her trowel into a little heap of soil. “I
+do not take any interest in merchant ships, and do not want the letter.”
+ When she glanced round again she was just in time to see Sergeant Burt
+standing in the roadway with a lot of tiny pieces of paper fluttering
+about his feet.
+
+Something impelled her to ask: “What are you doing, Burt?”
+
+“Mr. Foster's orders, Miss. Told me if you would not take the letter I
+was to destroy it.”
+
+Dolly laid her trowel down and slowly went to her room “with a bad
+headache,” as she told her mother.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Nearly two years went by, and then one morning the look-out at the South
+Head of Sydney Harbour signalled a vessel to the north-east, and a few
+hours later the _Policy_ was again at anchor in Sydney Cove, and Captain
+Foster was being warmly welcomed by the residents generally and Dolly's
+father in particular, who pressed him to come ashore that evening to
+dinner.
+
+Among the first to board the _Policy_ was Sergeant Burt, who, as soon as
+the others had left, was in deep converse with Captain Foster. “I'm sure
+she meant to take your letter, Mr. Foster,” he said finally, “and that I
+was too quick in tearing it up.”
+
+“I'll soon know, Burt; I'll try again this evening.”
+
+At the Commissary's dinner that evening Dolly met him with a charming
+smile and cheeks suffused; and then, after Captain Foster had narrated
+the incidents of his successful whaling voyage, her parents discreetly
+left them to themselves in the garden.
+
+“Dolly! I am a rough, uncultured sailor. Will you therefore forgive me
+my rudeness when we last parted?”
+
+“Of course. I have forgotten it long ago, and I am very sorry we parted
+bad friends.”
+
+“You make me very happy, Dolly. I have been speaking to your mother,
+and she has told me that she thinks you do care for me, Is it so? May I
+again----”
+
+“Now, Captain Foster, why cannot we be friends without--without anything
+else. I will not pretend that I do not understand your meaning, but I
+tell you, once and for all, I don't want to be married. Really,” and she
+smiled brightly, “you are as bad as Mr. Portveldt.”
+
+“Very well, Miss Dorothy,” said Foster with annoying equanimity, “I
+won't allude to the subject again. But what has the Dutchman been doing?
+Where is he now?”
+
+Dolly laughed merrily. “Oh, Captain Foster, I really have no right to
+show you this letter, but it is so very amusing that I cannot help doing
+so,” and she took a letter from her pocket.
+
+“Oh, he has been writing to you, has he?”
+
+“Now don't speak in that bullying manner, sir, or I shall not let you
+hear its contents.”
+
+“Very well, Dolly; but how came you to get the letter? We are at war
+with the Dutch Settlements now, you know.”
+
+“That is the amusing part of it. Now listen, and I will read it to
+you;” and Dolly spread out a large sheet of paper, and read aloud in
+mimicking tones--
+
+“Mein dear Mees Dolly,--You did vant ein loafer who could vight vor his
+coundry, and vould haf no man who vas yoost ein merchant. Very goot. I
+mineself now command the privateer _Swift_, vich vas used to be sailing
+in gompany mit _La Brave_ und _La Mouche_ in der service of der French
+Republic, und did den vight und beat all der Anglische ships in der
+Anglische Channel. Id is drue dot your _La Minerve_ did by shance von
+tay capture der _Swift_, and sold her to the American beoples, but our
+Batavian merchants did buy her from them, und now I haf god de command.
+Und now dot your goundrymens do annoys der Deutsche Settlements in our
+Easd Indies, ve do mean to beat dem every dimes ve cadgh dem in dese
+zees. Und I do send mein ledder to you, mein tear Mees Dorotee, by der
+greasy old vale-ship _Mary Ann_, yoost to led you know dot I haf
+not vorgotten you mid your bride eye. Und ven I haf gaptured all der
+Anglische ships in der East Indies I vill sail mein _Swift_ to Sydney
+and claim you vor mein vrau, und do you nod be vrightened. I vill dake
+care dot you und your beople shall not be hurt, because I do loaf you
+ferry mooch. Der master of der _Mary Ann_ vill dell you I vas ferry goot
+to him for your sake. I did but take his gargo, and did give him und his
+grew liberdy to go to Sydney und dake this letter to you, mein vrau,
+in der dime to gom, as I did dell him.--I remain your loafing Richard
+Portveldt.”
+
+Foster jumped to his feet “The rascally Dutch swab, to dare to----”
+
+“To dare to write to me,” said Dolly laughingly.
+
+“To dare to write to you! To suppose for one moment that you--oh, d----
+the fellow! If I come across him, I'll----”
+
+“But all the same, he's very brave,” said Dolly demurely; “he is
+fighting for his country, you know.”
+
+“The boasting fool!” ejaculated Foster contemptuously.
+
+“But he _is_ captain of the _Swift_, and the _Swift_ _did_ beat some of
+the English ships. I have heard my father say that.”
+
+“Oh, yes. Three privateers did manage to cut off some of our little
+despatch vessels in the Channel; but this fat Dutchman, Portveldt, had
+no hand in it.”
+
+“But this 'fat Duchman, Portveldt, _did_ capture the _Mary Ann_, and her
+master _did_ give me this letter, and--and I was _so_ angry.”
+
+“The master of the _Mary Ann_ must have been a fool.”
+
+“Why so--for merely executing a commission? But wait, there is a
+postscript that will interest you particularly. Now listen while I read
+it,” and Dolly, again mimicking Portveldt's English, read--
+
+“Dell dot oncivil yong mans Voster who vas dell me to go to ter tuyvel,
+dot I vill sendt der _Bolicy_ und her master mit der grew to der tuyvel
+if he gomes mein vay mit his zeep.”
+
+“Now, Captain Foster, what do you think of that, pray?”
+
+“Very pretty talk; what do _you_ think of it?”
+
+“Well, I'm only a poor little woman; but if I were a man I would----”
+
+“Exactly so, Dolly. Well, I am a man, and the _Policy_ has brought a
+letter of marque with her from England this time, and so I may meet----”
+
+“Oh, Captain Foster!” and Dolly's eyes brightened, “I _am_ glad;
+but--but--_please_, for my sake, don't get killed.”
+
+A fortnight later, when Foster bade Dolly goodbye for another six
+months, she told him softly that she would be glad--oh, so very
+glad!--to hear news of him. A whaling voyage was so very dangerous, and
+he might get hurt or killed.
+
+And this time, as the _Policy_ sailed and Foster saw Dolly waving to him
+from the steps of the Commissary's office, he felt pretty sure that the
+letter of marque had advanced his suit considerably.
+
+*****
+
+Fourteen days out from Sydney the _Policy_ took her first whale, greatly
+to the delight of old Stevenson and the crew, who looked upon such early
+luck as a certain indication of a good cruise. After “trying-out” Foster
+kept on to the northward to the sperm-whaling grounds in the Moluccas.
+Three days later they spoke the _Endicott_, of Nantucket, whose captain
+gave Foster a kindly warning not to go cruising further north, for there
+were several Batavian privateers looking out for the English whalers
+that were then due on the cruising ground. Then the American wished him
+luck and goodbye.
+
+Old Stevenson's face fell; then he swore. “I suppose we have to turn
+tail, sir, and try what we can do to the southward and I believe we'd be
+a full ship in three months or less up in the Moluccas.”
+
+“So do I, and I'm going there.”
+
+“But it's dangerous waters, sir; we don't want to lose the ship and rot
+in prison in Batavia.”
+
+“Mr. Stevenson, I am an Englishman, and Hurry Brothers did not get a
+letter of marque for this ship for nothing. You ought to know that
+to turn back means an empty ship. It is our duty to go to our proper
+cruising ground and cruise till we are a full ship; and all the infernal
+Dutchmen in the world mustn't frighten us.”
+
+“Very good, sir,” said the old mate cheerfully, “but, all the same,
+I don't want us to get served like that fellow Portveldt served the old
+_Mary Ann_.”
+
+Another five weeks passed. So far, “greasy” luck had attended the
+_Policy_ for she had taken sixteen more sperm whales, the last of which
+was killed in about 8° S. and 120° E., in the Flores Sea. But misfortune
+had come upon the ship in other respects, and Foster was in no small
+anxiety about his crew, nearly all of whom were ill from lead-poisoning.
+This had been brought about by drinking water from leaden tanks in which
+oil had once been stored.
+
+A bright look-out was kept, for the ship was now right in the spot where
+it was likely she might meet with the Dutch privateers.
+
+It was Stevenson's watch, and as he walked the poop he stopped suddenly,
+for the look-out reported a sail to the W.S.W. Foster came on deck at
+once and went aloft In a quarter of an hour it was evident that the
+stranger bore towards them. The wind was south-east, and very little of
+it.
+
+“What are you going to do?” asked the mate. “I fancy this is one of the
+Dutchmen who are on the look-out for us.”
+
+“So do I,” answered Foster, “I'll tell you what I am going to do: brace
+sharp up on the larboard tack and run down to her. I am not going to run
+away from _one_ infernal Dutchman, and I can only see one of 'em.”
+
+“You're captain of the ship, and you can do as you please; but I am
+hanged if I think you'll pull it off this time. Half the crew are sick,
+and this fellow looks as if he meant fighting.”
+
+“All hands on deck; starboard forebrace!” was all the answer Foster
+made. Then he went to the signal locker, and getting out the American
+ensign, with his own hands ran it up to the peak, hoping by this means
+to get close enough to the other ship to prevent _her_ from running away
+from a fight, if the captain should turn out not one of the fighting
+sort.
+
+As soon as the sails were trimmed the skipper walked to the break of the
+poop, and, with the air of a captain of a seventy-four, gave the order,
+“Clear ship for action!”
+
+Then the mate ventured to remark that half of the guns were down below
+on the 'tween decks, where they had been put out of the way for the
+generally peaceful occupation of whaling.
+
+“Well, get 'm up. What the devil do you think I mean by clearing for
+action?”
+
+Accordingly, the six-pounders were hoisted upon deck and quickly
+mounted, what little powder and shot the _Policy_ carried was brought
+into a handy place, and the mate, with something of a smile, reported,
+“Ship cleared for action, sir.”
+
+“Very good, Mr. Stevenson. Now, my lads, I reckon this ship is one of
+the Dutch fleet sent to clear us whalers out of these seas. Well, as he
+seems to be alone, I think we have a fair chance of turning the tables
+upon him. Anyhow, I am going to try. I know some of you are pretty sick,
+but I am sure that a crew of English sailors, even when they are sick,
+can lick twice their number of muddle-headed Dutchmen any day.”
+
+In those days, British ships were manned by British seaman, and Captain
+Foster could talk like this without saying anything offensive to the
+British merchant service. Nowadays such an observation about “Dutchmen”
+ would be a personal insult to four-fifths of the crew of a British
+merchant ship.
+
+The men, including the mate, received the speech with a cheer, and one
+of them sang out “Haul down the Stars and Stripes. We don't want to
+fight under that.”
+
+To which Captain Foster, who knew what he was about, merely replied, “I
+am not a fool!”
+
+Towards the close of the afternoon the ships were within gunshot of each
+other, and the Dutchman ran up his colours. As they drew closer, the
+foreign skipper's glass showed him the nationality of the _Policy_ and
+he at once opened fire upon her with one of his six eighteen-pounders.
+
+As the shot hummed overhead between the _Policy's_ fore and main masts,
+down came the American colours and up went the British ensign, and at
+the same moment Foster fired such of his guns as bore upon the enemy.
+
+As soon as the report of the guns had died away, Foster sprang into one
+of his quarter-boats and hailed the other ship.
+
+“Ship ahoy!” he roared “why do you fire at me?”
+
+“Ha, ha! I know you,” came back in mocking tones. “Now vill I sendt
+you to der tuyvel, you greasy valer mans. I am Captain Portveldt, und
+dis is der _Swift_. Vill you surrunder, or vill I smash you to beices?”
+
+For answer, Foster, who had now come very close to his enemy, fired his
+tiny broadside, his men, sick as they were running cheerfully from the
+guns to the braces to manoeuvre the Polity clear of the privateer's
+fire, and then back again to the guns.
+
+The sun had now set, but far into the darkness of the tropical night the
+running fight continued, Foster always out-manouvring the Dutchman, and
+the crews of both vessels, when they closed near enough to be heard,
+cursing and mocking at each other. Owing to the darkness and the
+extremely bad gunnery on both sides, little blood was spilt, and the
+damage done was mostly confined to the sails and rigging. Now and then a
+eighteen-pound shot hulled the _Policy_, and one went clean through her
+amidships. Suddenly, for some cause or other, about midnight, a light
+was shown in the privateer's stern, and Foster's second mate at once
+sent a lucky shot at it, with the result that the six-pound ball so
+damaged the _Swift's_ rudder that she became unmanageable. And then, a
+few minutes later, another shot dismounted one of her guns by striking
+it on the muzzle, and ere the Dutchman's crew knew what was happening,
+a final broadside from the whaler brought down her two topsails and did
+other damage aloft. That practically ended the battle.
+
+So thought Captain Portveldt, who now hailed the _Policy_ in not quite
+so boastful a voice as when the vessels met earlier in the day.
+
+“Captain Voster, I haf hauled down mein flag. Mein grew will vight no
+more, and I must surrender.”
+
+A cheer broke from the whaler's crew.
+
+“Very well, Captain Portveldt,” called out Foster; “lower a boat, and
+come on board with half your crew. But don't try on any boarding tricks,
+or you will be the worse for it.”
+
+The meeting between the two skippers, notwithstanding the cause, was
+good-humoured enough, for Portveldt, apart from his boastfulness, was
+not a bad fellow.
+
+“Veil, Captain Voster,” he said as he stepped on board the _Policy's_
+deck, followed by his big boatswain (who was wounded in the face by a
+splinter) and half his crew, “you haf broved der besd mans; und now I
+suppose you vill lead me like a liddle dog mit a sdring, und dake me to
+Sydney und make vun mit der young lady about me.”
+
+“No, no,” answered Foster, “I am not so bad as all that Come below and
+have a glass of grog.”
+
+*****
+
+At daylight one morning some weeks later two ships appeared in sight off
+Sydney Heads. Those who were on the look-out were alarmed, for it was
+seen that both vessels were armed, and it was conjectured that the ships
+must be part of an enemy's squadron which had determined to make an
+attack upon the settlement of Port Jackson.
+
+In a very short time an excited crowd gathered together along the line
+of cliffs of the outer South Head, each one asking his fellow what was
+to be done. Horsemen carried the news into Sydney, and every moment
+fresh numbers arrived to swell the crowd of spectators on the cliffs.
+A strange sight they must have presented, comprising, as they did, all
+sorts and conditions of men--settlers, naval and military officers,
+soldiers of the New South Wales Regiment, and a number of the better
+class of convicts.
+
+Of course the Deputy Acting Assistant Commissary-General was among the
+officers anxiously watching the ships from the heights that overlooked
+the harbour, and with him were Dolly and her mother.
+
+Presently Dolly, catching sight of her father's anxious face, began to
+cry, and turned to her mother. “Ah!” she said “it has all come true, and
+he has come to destroy the settlement!”
+
+“What has come true, and who is going to destroy the settlement?”
+ said her father sharply. And then Dolly, feeling very frightened and
+miserable, told him of Portveldt's letter, the receipt of which she had
+concealed from every one but Foster. The D.A.A.C.G. laughed at first,
+but then added, “but all the same, though 'twas but empty bluster, I had
+better tell his Excellency about it; it is just possible that the Dutch
+have planned an expedition against us.”
+
+At half-past ten, in response to a signal made from the look-out at
+South Head by the officer in charge there, his Excellency Governor King
+sent Lieutenant Houston, of his Majesty's ship _Investigator,_ then
+anchored in Sydney Cove, to the naval officer in command at South Head.
+
+The _Investigator_ was Flinders' ship, the gallant old tub of 334 tons
+which surveyed a great part of the northern coast, and was at the time
+of which we write lying rotting in Sydney, condemned after completing
+her second voyage of discovery in June, 1803.
+
+Then the Governor was told of Dolly's letter, but he was not the man
+to take fright at the approach of the enemy, although he had no
+defence force as it is now understood in New South Wales, nor had he a
+gold-laced staff of officers with elaborate “defence schemes” against
+possible raids of Japanese or Russians by way of Exmouth Gulf or Port
+Darwin.
+
+In that year Governer King's force did not take long to be marshalled.
+The drums beat to arms, and the New South Wales Corps and the Loyal
+Association immediately formed into line on the shores of the Cove.
+
+At eleven o'clock a trooper arrived at Government House with
+intelligence that one of the vessels appeared under British colours,
+and the other was flying a Union Jack triumphant over a Dutch Jack.
+Following this message there soon came another, bringing the certain
+intelligence that one of the ships was an English whaler bringing into
+port her Batavian prize. So on receipt of this news, and just as the
+word to march was about to be given, the officer in command ordered his
+force to return to barracks.
+
+At two in the afternoon, with the whole of the settlement agog with
+excitement, the two vessels sailed slowly up the harbour before a
+light northeast breeze, and came to anchor in Sydney Cove, close to
+the _Investigator,_ on board of which ship the Governor and a number of
+naval officers awaited their arrival. For once discipline was relaxed,
+and Captain King had good-naturedly permitted the townspeople to throng
+on board to learn all the news about the _Policy's_ prize. As Captain
+Foster made his way to the quarter-deck, he saw that behind the Governor
+and his staff were Dolly and her parents and several ladies.
+
+In a very few minutes he made his report, and the Governor again shook
+his hand warmly; but the look in Dolly's eyes and the pressure of her
+hand were the young seaman's sweetest reward, for it told him that she
+had surrendered.
+
+Then, returning to his own ship, he was warmly greeted by Sergeant Burt,
+and for a few moments the two remained talking in the whaler's cabin.
+Then, just as Foster was ready to go ashore, Mr. Scarsbrook, who had
+been inspecting the captured privateer, came on board, bringing Dolly
+with him.
+
+Whilst they were all chatting merrily together Captain Portveldt made
+his appearance, and with the most perfect _sang-froid_ saluted Dolly and
+her father.
+
+“Veil, Mees Dorotee, you see I have gome back, at der bressing
+invidadion of mein goot friendt, Captain Voster here, und I do vish him
+mit you blendy of habbiness.”
+
+And Dolly, who at first meant to meet him with a sarcastic little
+speech, felt her eyes fill with tears at the manly way in which he bore
+his misfortune, and could only falter out some few words of consolation.
+Then there was a Prize Court, and--
+
+“Mr. Charles Sparrow Foster, commander of the whaler and letter of
+marque called the _Policy_, presented to the Court a memorial stating
+his capture of the _Swift_ on the 12th day of September, off the island
+of Flores, she being under Dutch colours... and the property of subjects
+of a Power at war with his Britannic Majesty, and praying also that the
+Court would be pleased to grant an award of condemnation in his favour
+in order that the said prize should be for the advantage of himself, his
+owners, and his ship's company.”
+
+and the Court having heard confirmatory evidence from Richard Portveldt,
+a subject of the Batavian Republic, to the effect--
+
+“That he commanded the _Swift_; that everything on board of her was
+Dutch property, and she belonged to Messrs. Winy and Talman, of Batavia,
+and himself, all of whom were residents of Batavia, who purchased her
+for the sum of 18,000 dols.: that she was taken up by the Dutch East
+India Company at Batavia; and was on her way thither when she was
+captured by the _Policy_, &c.”--
+
+accordingly condemned the prize, which was advertised in the _Sydney
+Gazette_ for sale by auction, Mr. Lord, the auctioneer, setting forth
+that he would sell--
+
+“At his warehouse, Sydney, at noon precisely, the 3rd of November, the
+good ship _Swift_, prize to _Policy_, Charles Foster, commander. French
+built in the year 1800. Was condemned a prize to his Majesty's ship _La
+Minerva_, and sold in 1801 to the Americans, as appears by the bill of
+sale, and by them sold to the Dutch at Batavia, where she was examined,
+copper-bolted, and new coppered in August, 1802. It is unnecessary to
+say anything respecting the properties of the _Swift_ further than that
+she was the companion of _La Brave_ and _La Mouche_, which so very much
+harassed the British in Europe, and set all our cruisers at defiance
+until her capture, prior to which she was justly celebrated as the
+fastest sailing-vessel the French Republic had.”
+
+The prize was knocked down for £3,000, and Captain Foster's share was
+spent in a handsome wedding present for Dolly, which, at her particular
+request, took the form of a passage to Batavia and a hundred guineas
+delivered to Captain Portveldt immediately after the marriage ceremony.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Foster's Letter Of Marque, by Louis Becke
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Foster's Letter Of Marque, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Foster's Letter Of Marque
+       A Tale Of Old Sydney - 1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 12, 2008 [EBook #25058]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE
+
+A TALE OF OLD SYDNEY
+
+From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories"
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.
+
+1901
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+One by one the riding-lights of the few store-ships and whalers lying
+in Sydney Harbour on an evening in January, 1802, were lit, and as the
+clear notes of a bugle from the barracks pealed over the bay, followed
+by the hoarse calls and shrill whistles of the boatswains' mates on a
+frigate that lay in Sydney Cove, the mate of the _Policy_ whaler jumped
+up from the skylight where he had been lying smoking, and began to pace
+the deck.
+
+The _Policy_ was anchored between the Cove and Pinchgut, ready for sea.
+The north-easter, which for three days had blown strongly, had now died
+away, and the placid waters of the harbour shimmered under the starlight
+of an almost cloudless sky. As the old mate tramped to and fro on the
+deserted poop, his keen seaman's eye caught sight of some faint grey
+clouds rising low down in the westward--signs of a south-easterly coming
+before the morning.
+
+Stepping to the break of the poop, the officer hailed the look-out
+forward, and asked if he could see the captain's boat coming.
+
+"No, sir," the man replied. "I did see a boat a while ago, and thought
+it was ours, but it turned out to be one from that Batavian Dutchman
+anchored below Pinchgut. Her captain always goes ashore about this
+time."
+
+Swinging round on his heel with an angry exclamation, the mate resumed
+his walk, muttering and growling to himself as elderly mates do
+mutter and growl when a captain promises to be on board at five in the
+afternoon and is not in evidence at half-past seven. Perhaps, too, the
+knowledge of the particular cause of the captain's delay somewhat added
+to his chief officer's ill-temper--that cause being a pretty girl; for
+the mate was a crusty old bachelor, and had but little sympathy with
+such "tomfoolery."
+
+"Why the devil couldn't he say goodbye to her and be done with it and
+come aboard," he grumbled, "instead of wasting half a day over it?"
+
+But Mr. Stevenson did not consider that in those days pretty women were
+not plentiful in Sydney, and virtue was even scarcer than good looks,
+and Dorothy Gilbert, only daughter of the Deputy Acting Assistant
+Commissary-General of the penal settlement, possessed all the
+qualifications of a lovable woman, and therefore it was not wonderful
+that Captain Charles Foster had fallen very much in love with her.
+
+Dorothy, of course, had her faults, and her chief one was the rather
+too great store she set upon being the daughter of an official. Pretty
+nearly every one in those days of the settlement was either an official
+or a prisoner or an ex-convict, and the D.A.A.C.G. was of no small
+importance among the other officials in Sydney. The girl's acquaintance
+with the young master of the _Policy_ began in a very ordinary manner.
+His ship had been chartered by the Government to take out a cargo of
+stores to the settlement, and the owners, who were personally acquainted
+with her father, had given Foster a letter of introduction. This he had
+used somewhat sooner than he had at first intended, for on presenting
+himself at the Commissary's office he had caught sight of Dolly's
+charming face as she stood talking to a young man in the uniform of a
+sergeant of the New South Wales Regiment who had brought a letter to her
+father. .
+
+"Thank you, Sergeant," the young lady said with a gracious smile. "Will
+you present my father's compliments to the Major and say we shall be
+sure to come. He is not here at present, but cannot delay long, as he
+will have much business to transact with the master of the ship just
+come in, and who will doubtless be here very soon."
+
+Just at that moment Foster appeared at the open door, and the young
+lady, divining at once that he was the person of whom she had just
+spoken, bowed very prettily, and begging him to be seated whilst she
+had search made for her father, left the office and disappeared in the
+living portion of the house, followed by a look of very great interest
+from Captain Foster. A minute later the Commissary entered the room, and
+Foster was soon deep in business with Dolly's father, to whom he made
+himself very agreeable--having a certain object in view.
+
+Their business concluded, the young man rose to go, and not till
+then--being wise in his generation--did he allude to the fact of his
+having a private letter of introduction from his owners--Messrs. Hurry
+Brothers, of London--to Mr. Scars-brook. The stiff, official manner of
+the D.A.A.C.G. at once thawed, and being at heart a genial old fellow,
+he expressed his pleasure, shook hands again with the young man, and
+inquired why he had not presented the letter or made allusion to it
+before.
+
+Foster, who had pretty well gauged Mr. Scarsbrook mentally, modestly
+replied that he did not care to obtrude private affairs at an
+inopportune time. He knew that weighty affairs doubtless occupied Mr.
+Scarsbrook's mind during his business hours, but had intended to do
+himself the honour of presenting his letter later on, &c.
+
+This at once impressed the D.A.A.C.G., who asked him to dinner that
+evening.
+
+"A most intelligent young man, my dear," he told Dolly shortly
+after. "His attention to business before all else has given me a very
+favourable impression of him."
+
+Dolly tossed her head. "I hope I shall not be disappointed in him. Is he
+young?" she asked indifferently.
+
+"Quite; and in manners and appearance much above his position."
+
+Dolly did like him very much--'much more than she cared to confess to
+herself--and their first meeting at dinner led to many of a less formal
+character, and ere a week had passed Captain Charles Foster was very
+much in love with his host's daughter, and not being a man who wasted
+time, was only awaiting an opportunity to tell her so.
+
+Now Dolly, who had first flirted with and then flouted every one of
+the bachelor officials in Sydney, military or civilian, who visited the
+Commissary's abode, was, to do her justice, a girl of sense at heart,
+and she felt that Captain Foster meant to ask her an all-important
+question--to every woman--and that her answer would be "Yes." For not
+only was he young, handsome, and highly thought of by his owners, but he
+came of a good family, and had such prospects for his future as seldom
+came in the way of men in the merchant service even in those days of
+lucky South-Seamen and East India traders, who made fortunes rapidly.
+And then 'twas evident he was very much in love with her, and this
+latter fact considerably and naturally influenced her.
+
+The first week passed pleasantly enough, then, to his anger and disgust,
+Foster found he had a rival; and before the end of the second week he
+realised, or imagined so, that he was beaten in the field of love--by a
+Dutchman!
+
+Sergeant Harry Burt was the first to give him warning, for he was often
+on duty at or near the Commissary's quarters, and, indeed, had often
+taken notes from Foster to the fair Dolly. He showed a warm interest in
+the matter, for Foster was always polite to the sergeant, and did not
+turn up his nose at "soldier men," as other masters of ships were but
+too ready to do.
+
+It had so happened that the work of discharging his ship had kept Foster
+very busy during the second week of his stay, and he had paid but one
+evening visit to Dolly and her father, and was hurrying the cargo ashore
+with feverish eagerness. Once that was accomplished, he meant to devote
+himself (1)to proposing to the young lady, (2) gaining her father's
+consent, and (3) getting to sea again as soon as possible, making a good
+cruise at the whale fishery, and returning to Sydney within two years
+as master and owner of a ship of his own. Consequently, Burt's news gave
+him considerable disquietude.
+
+"Who did you say he was, Sergeant?" he asked gloomily; "a Dutchman?"
+
+"Yes, sir; he's the master of that Dutch Batavian ship that has brought
+stores from Batavia. Mr. Scarsbrook seems to make a lot of him of late,
+and he's always coming up to the Commissary's place. And if he sees Miss
+Scarsbrook out in the garden he swaggers in after her as if he were an
+admiral of the fleet Portveldt's his name, and--and----"
+
+"And what, Sergeant?"
+
+"Well, I think Miss Scarsbrook rather likes him, that's all. You see,
+sir, you haven't been there for a week, and this young Dutchman is by no
+means bad-looking, and even our Major says he's a jolly fine fellow--and
+all that goes a long way with women, you know. Then you only visit the
+house once in a week; the Dutchman goes there every day, and every time
+he comes he brings his boatswain with him--a big, greasy-faced chap.
+Last night he followed his master, carrying a cheese--a present for the
+Commissary, I suppose."
+
+"Well, I shall soon see how the land lies, Sergeant I'm going ashore
+presently, and I can promise you it won't be my fault if I let this
+fellow get to windward of me."
+
+But Miss Dolly was not to be seen that day, nor yet on the following
+one. She was vexed at Foster having thought of his work before herself,
+and she had determined to punish him by not meeting him for some little
+time, and amuse herself with the handsome young Dutch sailor meanwhile.
+So, in no very amiable mood, Foster went back to his ship, finished
+discharging, and delighted his old mate by telling him to get ready
+for sea as quickly as possible. And on this particular evening when
+our story opens the _Policy_ only waited for her captain--who had gone
+ashore--so he told Stevenson--to say goodbye to the Commissary, with
+parting instructions to the mate to begin to heave up as soon as he saw
+his (Foster's) boat leave the Cove.
+
+After spending half an hour with the Commissary, Foster asked to see
+Miss Dorothy, and was soon ushered into the sitting-room, where the
+young lady welcomed him effusively, and her manner soon drove all
+suspicious thoughts of his rival out of his mind. Her mother, a placid
+lady, who was absolutely ruled by Dolly and her father, smiled approval
+when Foster asked her daughter to accompany him to the garden and take
+a look at the harbour. She liked him, and had previously given him much
+assistance by getting out of the way whenever she suspected he wanted to
+see Dolly alone.
+
+As soon as they had gained the screen of the shaded path leading to the
+water's edge, Foster came to the point at once.
+
+"Dolly," he said, "you know why I have asked you to come with me here.
+My ship is ready for sea, and it may be quite two years before I shall
+have the happiness of seeing you again."
+
+"'Tis very kind of you to pay me so pretty a compliment, Captain
+Foster--or I should say Mr. Foster," said Dolly, concealing a smile;
+"but surely you need not have brought me out to the garden to tell me
+this."
+
+Her pretended forgetfulness of some past passages in their brief
+acquaintance, as her speech implied, ruffled him.
+
+"You are very particular with your _Mr_. Foster, Miss Dolly; and why not
+'Captain'?"
+
+Dolly raised her eyebrows in surprise.
+
+"Captains hold the King's commission and fight for their country," she
+said demurely. "The master of a horrid ship that goes catching whales
+has no right to the title." Then she laughed and shook her long, fair
+curls.
+
+"Upon my word, young lady, you are very complimentary; but, Dolly, no
+more of this banter. My boat is waiting, and I have but a few minutes
+to ask you to give me your answer. In all seriousness remember that my
+future depends upon it. Will you marry me? Will you try to love me?
+May I go away with the hope that you will look forward to my return,
+and----"
+
+"In all seriousness, Mr. Foster, I will not."
+
+"Why, what have I done to offend you? I thought you--I thought that
+I----" and then, getting somewhat confused and angry at the same time
+at Dolly's nonchalant manner, he wound up with, "I believe that damned
+Dutchman has come between us!"
+
+"How dare you swear at me, sir? I suppose, though, it is the custom for
+captains in the merchant service to swear at ladies. And what right have
+you to assume that I should marry you? Because I rather liked to talk to
+you when I felt dull, is that any reason why you should be so very
+rude to me? And once for all, sir, I shall never marry a mere merchant
+sailor--a common whaling master. I shall marry, when I do marry, an
+officer and a gentleman in the King's service."
+
+"Ah!" Foster snapped, "and what about the Dutchman?"
+
+Now up to this point Dolly had been making mere pretence. She honestly
+loved the young seaman, and meant to tell him so plainly before he left
+the garden, but at this last question the merriment he had failed to see
+in her eyes gave place to an angry sparkle, and she quickly retorted--
+
+"Mr. Portveldt, sir, is a Dutch gentleman, and he would never talk to me
+in such a way as you have done. How dare you, sir!"
+
+Foster was really angry now, and smiled sarcastically. "He's but the
+master of a merchantman, and an infernal Dutchman at that."
+
+"He is a gentleman, which you are not!" snapped Dolly fiercely; "and
+if he is but a merchant skipper, he commands his own ship. He is a
+shipowner, and a well-known Batavian merchant as well, sir; so there!"
+
+"So I believe," said Foster wrathfully; "sells Dutch cheeses and brings
+them ashore with him."
+
+"You're a spy," said Dolly contemptuously.
+
+"Very well, Miss Scarsbrook, call me what you please. I can see your
+cheese merchant waddling this way now, attended by his ugly pirate of
+a boatswain. Doubtless he has some stock-fish on this occasion, and
+as stock-fish are very much like Dutchmen in one respect and I like
+neither, I wish you joy of him. Goodbye!" And Captain Foster swung on
+his heel and walked quickly out of the garden gate. As he strode down
+the narrow path he brushed past the Batavian merchant, who was on his
+way to the Commissary's office.
+
+"Goot tay to you, Captain Foster," said Port-veldt, grinning amiably.
+
+"Go to the devil!" replied the Englishman promptly, turning round and
+facing the Dutchman to give due emphasis to his remark.
+
+Portveldt, a tall, well-made fellow, and handsomely dressed, stared at
+Foster's retreating figure in angry astonishment, then changing his mind
+about first visiting the Commissary, he opened the garden gate, and came
+suddenly upon Dorothy Scarsbrook seated upon a rustic bench, weeping
+bitterly.
+
+"My tear yong lady, vat is de matter? I beg you to led me gomfort you."
+
+"There is nothing the matter, Mr. Portveldt I thank you, but you cannot
+be of any service to me," and Dolly buried her face in her handkerchief
+again.
+
+"I am sorry ferry mooch to hear you say dat, Mees Dorotee, vor it vas
+mein hop dot you would dake kindtly to me."
+
+Dolly made no answer, and then Captain Portveldt sat down beside her,
+his huge figure quite filling up all the remaining space.
+
+"Mees Dorotee," he began ponderously, "de trood is dot I vas goming to
+see you to dell you I vas ferry mooch in loaf mid you, und to ask you to
+be mein vifes; but now dot you do veep so mooch, I----"
+
+"Say no more if you please, Mr. Portveldt," said Dolly, hastily drying
+her eyes. Then, rising with great dignity, she bowed and went on: "Of
+course I am deeply sensible of the great honour that you do me, but
+I can never be your wife." And then to herself: "I fancy that I have
+replied in a very proper manner."
+
+"Vy, vat vas der wrong aboud me, Mees Dorotee?" pleaded Portveldt "I vas
+feery yoyful in mein mind tinking dot you did loaf me some liddle bid. I
+have mooch money; mein haus in Batavia is mosd peautiful, und you shall
+have plendy servands to do all dot you vish. Oh, Mees Dorotee! vat can
+be wrong mid me?"
+
+"There is nothing that I object to in you, sir, except that I do not
+love you. Really you cannot expect me to marry you because I have seen
+you half a dozen times and have treated you with politeness."
+
+"I do hobe, Mees Dorotee, dot id is not because of dot yong mans who vas
+so oncivil to me yoost now dot you vill not haf me. He vas dell me to go
+to der tuyvel ven I did say 'goot morning' yoost now."
+
+"It is no young man, sir. Mr. Foster is a person for whom I have a great
+regard, but I do not intend to marry him. I will only marry a gentleman.
+
+"Oh, bud, Mees Dorotee, am I not a yentle-mans?"
+
+"I do not consider masters of merchantmen gentlemen," replied Dolly with
+a slight sniff. "My father is an officer in the King's service, and I
+have been taught to----"
+
+"Ha, ha! Mees Dorotee," laughed Portveldt good-humouredly, "dot is nod
+so. Your baba is but a gommissary who puys de goots vich I bring me from
+Batavia to sell."
+
+"How dare you talk like that, sir? My father _is_ a King's officer, and
+before he came here he fought for his country."
+
+"Veil, Mees Dorotee, I do beg your pardon mooch, and I vill vight vor
+mein country if you vil learn to loaf me on dot account."
+
+But Miss Dolly would listen no more, and, with a ceremonious bow, walked
+away. Then the Dutch merchant went to the Commissary's office to
+talk the matter over with her father, who told him that he would
+not interfere in his daughter's choice; if he could not make himself
+agreeable to her, neither her father nor mother could help him.
+
+Just after sunrise next morning, Dolly, who had spent the night in tears
+and repentance, woke, feeling very miserable. From her opened window
+she could see the morning mists hanging over the placid waters of
+the harbour disappearing before the first breaths of the coming
+south-easter. The _Policy_, she thought, could not have sailed yet, and
+she meant to send her lover a note, asking him to come and see her again
+before he left. Then she gave a little cry and sob, and her eyes filled
+with tears. Far down the harbour she could see the sails of the _Policy_
+just disappearing round a wooded headland.
+
+An hour or so after breakfast, as Dolly was at work among her flowers,
+the tall figure of Sergeant Burt stood before her, and saluted--
+
+"The _Policy_ has sailed, Miss Scarsbrook," said the Sergeant, "and I
+have brought you a letter."
+
+"Indeed!" said Dolly, with an air of icy indifference, turning her back
+upon the soldier, and digging her trowel into a little heap of soil. "I
+do not take any interest in merchant ships, and do not want the letter."
+When she glanced round again she was just in time to see Sergeant Burt
+standing in the roadway with a lot of tiny pieces of paper fluttering
+about his feet.
+
+Something impelled her to ask: "What are you doing, Burt?"
+
+"Mr. Foster's orders, Miss. Told me if you would not take the letter I
+was to destroy it."
+
+Dolly laid her trowel down and slowly went to her room "with a bad
+headache," as she told her mother.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Nearly two years went by, and then one morning the look-out at the South
+Head of Sydney Harbour signalled a vessel to the north-east, and a few
+hours later the _Policy_ was again at anchor in Sydney Cove, and Captain
+Foster was being warmly welcomed by the residents generally and Dolly's
+father in particular, who pressed him to come ashore that evening to
+dinner.
+
+Among the first to board the _Policy_ was Sergeant Burt, who, as soon as
+the others had left, was in deep converse with Captain Foster. "I'm sure
+she meant to take your letter, Mr. Foster," he said finally, "and that I
+was too quick in tearing it up."
+
+"I'll soon know, Burt; I'll try again this evening."
+
+At the Commissary's dinner that evening Dolly met him with a charming
+smile and cheeks suffused; and then, after Captain Foster had narrated
+the incidents of his successful whaling voyage, her parents discreetly
+left them to themselves in the garden.
+
+"Dolly! I am a rough, uncultured sailor. Will you therefore forgive me
+my rudeness when we last parted?"
+
+"Of course. I have forgotten it long ago, and I am very sorry we parted
+bad friends."
+
+"You make me very happy, Dolly. I have been speaking to your mother,
+and she has told me that she thinks you do care for me, Is it so? May I
+again----"
+
+"Now, Captain Foster, why cannot we be friends without--without anything
+else. I will not pretend that I do not understand your meaning, but I
+tell you, once and for all, I don't want to be married. Really," and she
+smiled brightly, "you are as bad as Mr. Portveldt."
+
+"Very well, Miss Dorothy," said Foster with annoying equanimity, "I
+won't allude to the subject again. But what has the Dutchman been doing?
+Where is he now?"
+
+Dolly laughed merrily. "Oh, Captain Foster, I really have no right to
+show you this letter, but it is so very amusing that I cannot help doing
+so," and she took a letter from her pocket.
+
+"Oh, he has been writing to you, has he?"
+
+"Now don't speak in that bullying manner, sir, or I shall not let you
+hear its contents."
+
+"Very well, Dolly; but how came you to get the letter? We are at war
+with the Dutch Settlements now, you know."
+
+"That is the amusing part of it. Now listen, and I will read it to
+you;" and Dolly spread out a large sheet of paper, and read aloud in
+mimicking tones--
+
+"Mein dear Mees Dolly,--You did vant ein loafer who could vight vor his
+coundry, and vould haf no man who vas yoost ein merchant. Very goot. I
+mineself now command the privateer _Swift_, vich vas used to be sailing
+in gompany mit _La Brave_ und _La Mouche_ in der service of der French
+Republic, und did den vight und beat all der Anglische ships in der
+Anglische Channel. Id is drue dot your _La Minerve_ did by shance von
+tay capture der _Swift_, and sold her to the American beoples, but our
+Batavian merchants did buy her from them, und now I haf god de command.
+Und now dot your goundrymens do annoys der Deutsche Settlements in our
+Easd Indies, ve do mean to beat dem every dimes ve cadgh dem in dese
+zees. Und I do send mein ledder to you, mein tear Mees Dorotee, by der
+greasy old vale-ship _Mary Ann_, yoost to led you know dot I haf
+not vorgotten you mid your bride eye. Und ven I haf gaptured all der
+Anglische ships in der East Indies I vill sail mein _Swift_ to Sydney
+and claim you vor mein vrau, und do you nod be vrightened. I vill dake
+care dot you und your beople shall not be hurt, because I do loaf you
+ferry mooch. Der master of der _Mary Ann_ vill dell you I vas ferry goot
+to him for your sake. I did but take his gargo, and did give him und his
+grew liberdy to go to Sydney und dake this letter to you, mein vrau,
+in der dime to gom, as I did dell him.--I remain your loafing Richard
+Portveldt."
+
+Foster jumped to his feet "The rascally Dutch swab, to dare to----"
+
+"To dare to write to me," said Dolly laughingly.
+
+"To dare to write to you! To suppose for one moment that you--oh, d----
+the fellow! If I come across him, I'll----"
+
+"But all the same, he's very brave," said Dolly demurely; "he is
+fighting for his country, you know."
+
+"The boasting fool!" ejaculated Foster contemptuously.
+
+"But he _is_ captain of the _Swift_, and the _Swift_ _did_ beat some of
+the English ships. I have heard my father say that."
+
+"Oh, yes. Three privateers did manage to cut off some of our little
+despatch vessels in the Channel; but this fat Dutchman, Portveldt, had
+no hand in it."
+
+"But this 'fat Duchman, Portveldt, _did_ capture the _Mary Ann_, and her
+master _did_ give me this letter, and--and I was _so_ angry."
+
+"The master of the _Mary Ann_ must have been a fool."
+
+"Why so--for merely executing a commission? But wait, there is a
+postscript that will interest you particularly. Now listen while I read
+it," and Dolly, again mimicking Portveldt's English, read--
+
+"Dell dot oncivil yong mans Voster who vas dell me to go to ter tuyvel,
+dot I vill sendt der _Bolicy_ und her master mit der grew to der tuyvel
+if he gomes mein vay mit his zeep."
+
+"Now, Captain Foster, what do you think of that, pray?"
+
+"Very pretty talk; what do _you_ think of it?"
+
+"Well, I'm only a poor little woman; but if I were a man I would----"
+
+"Exactly so, Dolly. Well, I am a man, and the _Policy_ has brought a
+letter of marque with her from England this time, and so I may meet----"
+
+"Oh, Captain Foster!" and Dolly's eyes brightened, "I _am_ glad;
+but--but--_please_, for my sake, don't get killed."
+
+A fortnight later, when Foster bade Dolly goodbye for another six
+months, she told him softly that she would be glad--oh, so very
+glad!--to hear news of him. A whaling voyage was so very dangerous, and
+he might get hurt or killed.
+
+And this time, as the _Policy_ sailed and Foster saw Dolly waving to him
+from the steps of the Commissary's office, he felt pretty sure that the
+letter of marque had advanced his suit considerably.
+
+*****
+
+Fourteen days out from Sydney the _Policy_ took her first whale, greatly
+to the delight of old Stevenson and the crew, who looked upon such early
+luck as a certain indication of a good cruise. After "trying-out" Foster
+kept on to the northward to the sperm-whaling grounds in the Moluccas.
+Three days later they spoke the _Endicott_, of Nantucket, whose captain
+gave Foster a kindly warning not to go cruising further north, for there
+were several Batavian privateers looking out for the English whalers
+that were then due on the cruising ground. Then the American wished him
+luck and goodbye.
+
+Old Stevenson's face fell; then he swore. "I suppose we have to turn
+tail, sir, and try what we can do to the southward and I believe we'd be
+a full ship in three months or less up in the Moluccas."
+
+"So do I, and I'm going there."
+
+"But it's dangerous waters, sir; we don't want to lose the ship and rot
+in prison in Batavia."
+
+"Mr. Stevenson, I am an Englishman, and Hurry Brothers did not get a
+letter of marque for this ship for nothing. You ought to know that
+to turn back means an empty ship. It is our duty to go to our proper
+cruising ground and cruise till we are a full ship; and all the infernal
+Dutchmen in the world mustn't frighten us."
+
+"Very good, sir," said the old mate cheerfully, "but, all the same,
+I don't want us to get served like that fellow Portveldt served the old
+_Mary Ann_."
+
+Another five weeks passed. So far, "greasy" luck had attended the
+_Policy_ for she had taken sixteen more sperm whales, the last of which
+was killed in about 8� S. and 120� E., in the Flores Sea. But misfortune
+had come upon the ship in other respects, and Foster was in no small
+anxiety about his crew, nearly all of whom were ill from lead-poisoning.
+This had been brought about by drinking water from leaden tanks in which
+oil had once been stored.
+
+A bright look-out was kept, for the ship was now right in the spot where
+it was likely she might meet with the Dutch privateers.
+
+It was Stevenson's watch, and as he walked the poop he stopped suddenly,
+for the look-out reported a sail to the W.S.W. Foster came on deck at
+once and went aloft In a quarter of an hour it was evident that the
+stranger bore towards them. The wind was south-east, and very little of
+it.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked the mate. "I fancy this is one of the
+Dutchmen who are on the look-out for us."
+
+"So do I," answered Foster, "I'll tell you what I am going to do: brace
+sharp up on the larboard tack and run down to her. I am not going to run
+away from _one_ infernal Dutchman, and I can only see one of 'em."
+
+"You're captain of the ship, and you can do as you please; but I am
+hanged if I think you'll pull it off this time. Half the crew are sick,
+and this fellow looks as if he meant fighting."
+
+"All hands on deck; starboard forebrace!" was all the answer Foster
+made. Then he went to the signal locker, and getting out the American
+ensign, with his own hands ran it up to the peak, hoping by this means
+to get close enough to the other ship to prevent _her_ from running away
+from a fight, if the captain should turn out not one of the fighting
+sort.
+
+As soon as the sails were trimmed the skipper walked to the break of the
+poop, and, with the air of a captain of a seventy-four, gave the order,
+"Clear ship for action!"
+
+Then the mate ventured to remark that half of the guns were down below
+on the 'tween decks, where they had been put out of the way for the
+generally peaceful occupation of whaling.
+
+"Well, get 'm up. What the devil do you think I mean by clearing for
+action?"
+
+Accordingly, the six-pounders were hoisted upon deck and quickly
+mounted, what little powder and shot the _Policy_ carried was brought
+into a handy place, and the mate, with something of a smile, reported,
+"Ship cleared for action, sir."
+
+"Very good, Mr. Stevenson. Now, my lads, I reckon this ship is one of
+the Dutch fleet sent to clear us whalers out of these seas. Well, as he
+seems to be alone, I think we have a fair chance of turning the tables
+upon him. Anyhow, I am going to try. I know some of you are pretty sick,
+but I am sure that a crew of English sailors, even when they are sick,
+can lick twice their number of muddle-headed Dutchmen any day."
+
+In those days, British ships were manned by British seaman, and Captain
+Foster could talk like this without saying anything offensive to the
+British merchant service. Nowadays such an observation about "Dutchmen"
+would be a personal insult to four-fifths of the crew of a British
+merchant ship.
+
+The men, including the mate, received the speech with a cheer, and one
+of them sang out "Haul down the Stars and Stripes. We don't want to
+fight under that."
+
+To which Captain Foster, who knew what he was about, merely replied, "I
+am not a fool!"
+
+Towards the close of the afternoon the ships were within gunshot of each
+other, and the Dutchman ran up his colours. As they drew closer, the
+foreign skipper's glass showed him the nationality of the _Policy_ and
+he at once opened fire upon her with one of his six eighteen-pounders.
+
+As the shot hummed overhead between the _Policy's_ fore and main masts,
+down came the American colours and up went the British ensign, and at
+the same moment Foster fired such of his guns as bore upon the enemy.
+
+As soon as the report of the guns had died away, Foster sprang into one
+of his quarter-boats and hailed the other ship.
+
+"Ship ahoy!" he roared "why do you fire at me?"
+
+"Ha, ha! I know you," came back in mocking tones. "Now vill I sendt
+you to der tuyvel, you greasy valer mans. I am Captain Portveldt, und
+dis is der _Swift_. Vill you surrunder, or vill I smash you to beices?"
+
+For answer, Foster, who had now come very close to his enemy, fired his
+tiny broadside, his men, sick as they were running cheerfully from the
+guns to the braces to manoeuvre the Polity clear of the privateer's
+fire, and then back again to the guns.
+
+The sun had now set, but far into the darkness of the tropical night the
+running fight continued, Foster always out-manouvring the Dutchman, and
+the crews of both vessels, when they closed near enough to be heard,
+cursing and mocking at each other. Owing to the darkness and the
+extremely bad gunnery on both sides, little blood was spilt, and the
+damage done was mostly confined to the sails and rigging. Now and then a
+eighteen-pound shot hulled the _Policy_, and one went clean through her
+amidships. Suddenly, for some cause or other, about midnight, a light
+was shown in the privateer's stern, and Foster's second mate at once
+sent a lucky shot at it, with the result that the six-pound ball so
+damaged the _Swift's_ rudder that she became unmanageable. And then, a
+few minutes later, another shot dismounted one of her guns by striking
+it on the muzzle, and ere the Dutchman's crew knew what was happening,
+a final broadside from the whaler brought down her two topsails and did
+other damage aloft. That practically ended the battle.
+
+So thought Captain Portveldt, who now hailed the _Policy_ in not quite
+so boastful a voice as when the vessels met earlier in the day.
+
+"Captain Voster, I haf hauled down mein flag. Mein grew will vight no
+more, and I must surrender."
+
+A cheer broke from the whaler's crew.
+
+"Very well, Captain Portveldt," called out Foster; "lower a boat, and
+come on board with half your crew. But don't try on any boarding tricks,
+or you will be the worse for it."
+
+The meeting between the two skippers, notwithstanding the cause, was
+good-humoured enough, for Portveldt, apart from his boastfulness, was
+not a bad fellow.
+
+"Veil, Captain Voster," he said as he stepped on board the _Policy's_
+deck, followed by his big boatswain (who was wounded in the face by a
+splinter) and half his crew, "you haf broved der besd mans; und now I
+suppose you vill lead me like a liddle dog mit a sdring, und dake me to
+Sydney und make vun mit der young lady about me."
+
+"No, no," answered Foster, "I am not so bad as all that Come below and
+have a glass of grog."
+
+*****
+
+At daylight one morning some weeks later two ships appeared in sight off
+Sydney Heads. Those who were on the look-out were alarmed, for it was
+seen that both vessels were armed, and it was conjectured that the ships
+must be part of an enemy's squadron which had determined to make an
+attack upon the settlement of Port Jackson.
+
+In a very short time an excited crowd gathered together along the line
+of cliffs of the outer South Head, each one asking his fellow what was
+to be done. Horsemen carried the news into Sydney, and every moment
+fresh numbers arrived to swell the crowd of spectators on the cliffs.
+A strange sight they must have presented, comprising, as they did, all
+sorts and conditions of men--settlers, naval and military officers,
+soldiers of the New South Wales Regiment, and a number of the better
+class of convicts.
+
+Of course the Deputy Acting Assistant Commissary-General was among the
+officers anxiously watching the ships from the heights that overlooked
+the harbour, and with him were Dolly and her mother.
+
+Presently Dolly, catching sight of her father's anxious face, began to
+cry, and turned to her mother. "Ah!" she said "it has all come true, and
+he has come to destroy the settlement!"
+
+"What has come true, and who is going to destroy the settlement?"
+said her father sharply. And then Dolly, feeling very frightened and
+miserable, told him of Portveldt's letter, the receipt of which she had
+concealed from every one but Foster. The D.A.A.C.G. laughed at first,
+but then added, "but all the same, though 'twas but empty bluster, I had
+better tell his Excellency about it; it is just possible that the Dutch
+have planned an expedition against us."
+
+At half-past ten, in response to a signal made from the look-out at
+South Head by the officer in charge there, his Excellency Governor King
+sent Lieutenant Houston, of his Majesty's ship _Investigator,_ then
+anchored in Sydney Cove, to the naval officer in command at South Head.
+
+The _Investigator_ was Flinders' ship, the gallant old tub of 334 tons
+which surveyed a great part of the northern coast, and was at the time
+of which we write lying rotting in Sydney, condemned after completing
+her second voyage of discovery in June, 1803.
+
+Then the Governor was told of Dolly's letter, but he was not the man
+to take fright at the approach of the enemy, although he had no
+defence force as it is now understood in New South Wales, nor had he a
+gold-laced staff of officers with elaborate "defence schemes" against
+possible raids of Japanese or Russians by way of Exmouth Gulf or Port
+Darwin.
+
+In that year Governer King's force did not take long to be marshalled.
+The drums beat to arms, and the New South Wales Corps and the Loyal
+Association immediately formed into line on the shores of the Cove.
+
+At eleven o'clock a trooper arrived at Government House with
+intelligence that one of the vessels appeared under British colours,
+and the other was flying a Union Jack triumphant over a Dutch Jack.
+Following this message there soon came another, bringing the certain
+intelligence that one of the ships was an English whaler bringing into
+port her Batavian prize. So on receipt of this news, and just as the
+word to march was about to be given, the officer in command ordered his
+force to return to barracks.
+
+At two in the afternoon, with the whole of the settlement agog with
+excitement, the two vessels sailed slowly up the harbour before a
+light northeast breeze, and came to anchor in Sydney Cove, close to
+the _Investigator,_ on board of which ship the Governor and a number of
+naval officers awaited their arrival. For once discipline was relaxed,
+and Captain King had good-naturedly permitted the townspeople to throng
+on board to learn all the news about the _Policy's_ prize. As Captain
+Foster made his way to the quarter-deck, he saw that behind the Governor
+and his staff were Dolly and her parents and several ladies.
+
+In a very few minutes he made his report, and the Governor again shook
+his hand warmly; but the look in Dolly's eyes and the pressure of her
+hand were the young seaman's sweetest reward, for it told him that she
+had surrendered.
+
+Then, returning to his own ship, he was warmly greeted by Sergeant Burt,
+and for a few moments the two remained talking in the whaler's cabin.
+Then, just as Foster was ready to go ashore, Mr. Scarsbrook, who had
+been inspecting the captured privateer, came on board, bringing Dolly
+with him.
+
+Whilst they were all chatting merrily together Captain Portveldt made
+his appearance, and with the most perfect _sang-froid_ saluted Dolly and
+her father.
+
+"Veil, Mees Dorotee, you see I have gome back, at der bressing
+invidadion of mein goot friendt, Captain Voster here, und I do vish him
+mit you blendy of habbiness."
+
+And Dolly, who at first meant to meet him with a sarcastic little
+speech, felt her eyes fill with tears at the manly way in which he bore
+his misfortune, and could only falter out some few words of consolation.
+Then there was a Prize Court, and--
+
+"Mr. Charles Sparrow Foster, commander of the whaler and letter of
+marque called the _Policy_, presented to the Court a memorial stating
+his capture of the _Swift_ on the 12th day of September, off the island
+of Flores, she being under Dutch colours... and the property of subjects
+of a Power at war with his Britannic Majesty, and praying also that the
+Court would be pleased to grant an award of condemnation in his favour
+in order that the said prize should be for the advantage of himself, his
+owners, and his ship's company."
+
+and the Court having heard confirmatory evidence from Richard Portveldt,
+a subject of the Batavian Republic, to the effect--
+
+"That he commanded the _Swift_; that everything on board of her was
+Dutch property, and she belonged to Messrs. Winy and Talman, of Batavia,
+and himself, all of whom were residents of Batavia, who purchased her
+for the sum of 18,000 dols.: that she was taken up by the Dutch East
+India Company at Batavia; and was on her way thither when she was
+captured by the _Policy_, &c."--
+
+accordingly condemned the prize, which was advertised in the _Sydney
+Gazette_ for sale by auction, Mr. Lord, the auctioneer, setting forth
+that he would sell--
+
+"At his warehouse, Sydney, at noon precisely, the 3rd of November, the
+good ship _Swift_, prize to _Policy_, Charles Foster, commander. French
+built in the year 1800. Was condemned a prize to his Majesty's ship _La
+Minerva_, and sold in 1801 to the Americans, as appears by the bill of
+sale, and by them sold to the Dutch at Batavia, where she was examined,
+copper-bolted, and new coppered in August, 1802. It is unnecessary to
+say anything respecting the properties of the _Swift_ further than that
+she was the companion of _La Brave_ and _La Mouche_, which so very much
+harassed the British in Europe, and set all our cruisers at defiance
+until her capture, prior to which she was justly celebrated as the
+fastest sailing-vessel the French Republic had."
+
+The prize was knocked down for �3,000, and Captain Foster's share was
+spent in a handsome wedding present for Dolly, which, at her particular
+request, took the form of a passage to Batavia and a hundred guineas
+delivered to Captain Portveldt immediately after the marriage ceremony.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Foster's Letter Of Marque, by Louis Becke
+
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+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      Foster's Letter of Marque, by Louis Becke
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
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+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Foster's Letter Of Marque, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Foster's Letter Of Marque
+       A Tale Of Old Sydney - 1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 12, 2008 [EBook #25058]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      A TALE OF OLD SYDNEY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      From &ldquo;The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories&rdquo;
+     </h3>
+    <h2>
+      By Louis Becke
+    </h2>
+    <h5>
+      C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. <br /> <br /> 1901
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      One by one the riding-lights of the few store-ships and whalers lying in
+      Sydney Harbour on an evening in January, 1802, were lit, and as the clear
+      notes of a bugle from the barracks pealed over the bay, followed by the
+      hoarse calls and shrill whistles of the boatswains' mates on a frigate
+      that lay in Sydney Cove, the mate of the <i>Policy</i> whaler jumped up
+      from the skylight where he had been lying smoking, and began to pace the
+      deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>Policy</i> was anchored between the Cove and Pinchgut, ready for
+      sea. The north-easter, which for three days had blown strongly, had now
+      died away, and the placid waters of the harbour shimmered under the
+      starlight of an almost cloudless sky. As the old mate tramped to and fro
+      on the deserted poop, his keen seaman's eye caught sight of some faint
+      grey clouds rising low down in the westward&mdash;signs of a
+      south-easterly coming before the morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stepping to the break of the poop, the officer hailed the look-out
+      forward, and asked if he could see the captain's boat coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir,&rdquo; the man replied. &ldquo;I did see a boat a while ago, and thought it
+      was ours, but it turned out to be one from that Batavian Dutchman anchored
+      below Pinchgut. Her captain always goes ashore about this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Swinging round on his heel with an angry exclamation, the mate resumed his
+      walk, muttering and growling to himself as elderly mates do mutter and
+      growl when a captain promises to be on board at five in the afternoon and
+      is not in evidence at half-past seven. Perhaps, too, the knowledge of the
+      particular cause of the captain's delay somewhat added to his chief
+      officer's ill-temper&mdash;that cause being a pretty girl; for the mate
+      was a crusty old bachelor, and had but little sympathy with such
+      &ldquo;tomfoolery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why the devil couldn't he say goodbye to her and be done with it and come
+      aboard,&rdquo; he grumbled, &ldquo;instead of wasting half a day over it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mr. Stevenson did not consider that in those days pretty women were
+      not plentiful in Sydney, and virtue was even scarcer than good looks, and
+      Dorothy Gilbert, only daughter of the Deputy Acting Assistant
+      Commissary-General of the penal settlement, possessed all the
+      qualifications of a lovable woman, and therefore it was not wonderful that
+      Captain Charles Foster had fallen very much in love with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorothy, of course, had her faults, and her chief one was the rather too
+      great store she set upon being the daughter of an official. Pretty nearly
+      every one in those days of the settlement was either an official or a
+      prisoner or an ex-convict, and the D.A.A.C.G. was of no small importance
+      among the other officials in Sydney. The girl's acquaintance with the
+      young master of the <i>Policy</i> began in a very ordinary manner. His
+      ship had been chartered by the Government to take out a cargo of stores to
+      the settlement, and the owners, who were personally acquainted with her
+      father, had given Foster a letter of introduction. This he had used
+      somewhat sooner than he had at first intended, for on presenting himself
+      at the Commissary's office he had caught sight of Dolly's charming face as
+      she stood talking to a young man in the uniform of a sergeant of the New
+      South Wales Regiment who had brought a letter to her father. .
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Sergeant,&rdquo; the young lady said with a gracious smile. &ldquo;Will
+      you present my father's compliments to the Major and say we shall be sure
+      to come. He is not here at present, but cannot delay long, as he will have
+      much business to transact with the master of the ship just come in, and
+      who will doubtless be here very soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at that moment Foster appeared at the open door, and the young lady,
+      divining at once that he was the person of whom she had just spoken, bowed
+      very prettily, and begging him to be seated whilst she had search made for
+      her father, left the office and disappeared in the living portion of the
+      house, followed by a look of very great interest from Captain Foster. A
+      minute later the Commissary entered the room, and Foster was soon deep in
+      business with Dolly's father, to whom he made himself very agreeable&mdash;having
+      a certain object in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their business concluded, the young man rose to go, and not till then&mdash;being
+      wise in his generation&mdash;did he allude to the fact of his having a
+      private letter of introduction from his owners&mdash;Messrs. Hurry
+      Brothers, of London&mdash;to Mr. Scars-brook. The stiff, official manner
+      of the D.A.A.C.G. at once thawed, and being at heart a genial old fellow,
+      he expressed his pleasure, shook hands again with the young man, and
+      inquired why he had not presented the letter or made allusion to it
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster, who had pretty well gauged Mr. Scarsbrook mentally, modestly
+      replied that he did not care to obtrude private affairs at an inopportune
+      time. He knew that weighty affairs doubtless occupied Mr. Scarsbrook's
+      mind during his business hours, but had intended to do himself the honour
+      of presenting his letter later on, &amp;c.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This at once impressed the D.A.A.C.G., who asked him to dinner that
+      evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A most intelligent young man, my dear,&rdquo; he told Dolly shortly after. &ldquo;His
+      attention to business before all else has given me a very favourable
+      impression of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly tossed her head. &ldquo;I hope I shall not be disappointed in him. Is he
+      young?&rdquo; she asked indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite; and in manners and appearance much above his position.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly did like him very much&mdash;'much more than she cared to confess to
+      herself&mdash;and their first meeting at dinner led to many of a less
+      formal character, and ere a week had passed Captain Charles Foster was
+      very much in love with his host's daughter, and not being a man who wasted
+      time, was only awaiting an opportunity to tell her so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Dolly, who had first flirted with and then flouted every one of the
+      bachelor officials in Sydney, military or civilian, who visited the
+      Commissary's abode, was, to do her justice, a girl of sense at heart, and
+      she felt that Captain Foster meant to ask her an all-important question&mdash;to
+      every woman&mdash;and that her answer would be &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo; For not only was he
+      young, handsome, and highly thought of by his owners, but he came of a
+      good family, and had such prospects for his future as seldom came in the
+      way of men in the merchant service even in those days of lucky
+      South-Seamen and East India traders, who made fortunes rapidly. And then
+      'twas evident he was very much in love with her, and this latter fact
+      considerably and naturally influenced her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first week passed pleasantly enough, then, to his anger and disgust,
+      Foster found he had a rival; and before the end of the second week he
+      realised, or imagined so, that he was beaten in the field of love&mdash;by
+      a Dutchman!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sergeant Harry Burt was the first to give him warning, for he was often on
+      duty at or near the Commissary's quarters, and, indeed, had often taken
+      notes from Foster to the fair Dolly. He showed a warm interest in the
+      matter, for Foster was always polite to the sergeant, and did not turn up
+      his nose at &ldquo;soldier men,&rdquo; as other masters of ships were but too ready to
+      do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had so happened that the work of discharging his ship had kept Foster
+      very busy during the second week of his stay, and he had paid but one
+      evening visit to Dolly and her father, and was hurrying the cargo ashore
+      with feverish eagerness. Once that was accomplished, he meant to devote
+      himself (1)to proposing to the young lady, (2) gaining her father's
+      consent, and (3) getting to sea again as soon as possible, making a good
+      cruise at the whale fishery, and returning to Sydney within two years as
+      master and owner of a ship of his own. Consequently, Burt's news gave him
+      considerable disquietude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who did you say he was, Sergeant?&rdquo; he asked gloomily; &ldquo;a Dutchman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir; he's the master of that Dutch Batavian ship that has brought
+      stores from Batavia. Mr. Scarsbrook seems to make a lot of him of late,
+      and he's always coming up to the Commissary's place. And if he sees Miss
+      Scarsbrook out in the garden he swaggers in after her as if he were an
+      admiral of the fleet Portveldt's his name, and&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what, Sergeant?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I think Miss Scarsbrook rather likes him, that's all. You see, sir,
+      you haven't been there for a week, and this young Dutchman is by no means
+      bad-looking, and even our Major says he's a jolly fine fellow&mdash;and
+      all that goes a long way with women, you know. Then you only visit the
+      house once in a week; the Dutchman goes there every day, and every time he
+      comes he brings his boatswain with him&mdash;a big, greasy-faced chap.
+      Last night he followed his master, carrying a cheese&mdash;a present for
+      the Commissary, I suppose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I shall soon see how the land lies, Sergeant I'm going ashore
+      presently, and I can promise you it won't be my fault if I let this fellow
+      get to windward of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Miss Dolly was not to be seen that day, nor yet on the following one.
+      She was vexed at Foster having thought of his work before herself, and she
+      had determined to punish him by not meeting him for some little time, and
+      amuse herself with the handsome young Dutch sailor meanwhile. So, in no
+      very amiable mood, Foster went back to his ship, finished discharging, and
+      delighted his old mate by telling him to get ready for sea as quickly as
+      possible. And on this particular evening when our story opens the <i>Policy</i>
+      only waited for her captain&mdash;who had gone ashore&mdash;so he told
+      Stevenson&mdash;to say goodbye to the Commissary, with parting
+      instructions to the mate to begin to heave up as soon as he saw his
+      (Foster's) boat leave the Cove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After spending half an hour with the Commissary, Foster asked to see Miss
+      Dorothy, and was soon ushered into the sitting-room, where the young lady
+      welcomed him effusively, and her manner soon drove all suspicious thoughts
+      of his rival out of his mind. Her mother, a placid lady, who was
+      absolutely ruled by Dolly and her father, smiled approval when Foster
+      asked her daughter to accompany him to the garden and take a look at the
+      harbour. She liked him, and had previously given him much assistance by
+      getting out of the way whenever she suspected he wanted to see Dolly
+      alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they had gained the screen of the shaded path leading to the
+      water's edge, Foster came to the point at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dolly,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you know why I have asked you to come with me here. My
+      ship is ready for sea, and it may be quite two years before I shall have
+      the happiness of seeing you again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis very kind of you to pay me so pretty a compliment, Captain Foster&mdash;or
+      I should say Mr. Foster,&rdquo; said Dolly, concealing a smile; &ldquo;but surely you
+      need not have brought me out to the garden to tell me this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her pretended forgetfulness of some past passages in their brief
+      acquaintance, as her speech implied, ruffled him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very particular with your <i>Mr</i>. Foster, Miss Dolly; and why
+      not 'Captain'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly raised her eyebrows in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captains hold the King's commission and fight for their country,&rdquo; she
+      said demurely. &ldquo;The master of a horrid ship that goes catching whales has
+      no right to the title.&rdquo; Then she laughed and shook her long, fair curls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my word, young lady, you are very complimentary; but, Dolly, no more
+      of this banter. My boat is waiting, and I have but a few minutes to ask
+      you to give me your answer. In all seriousness remember that my future
+      depends upon it. Will you marry me? Will you try to love me? May I go away
+      with the hope that you will look forward to my return, and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In all seriousness, Mr. Foster, I will not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what have I done to offend you? I thought you&mdash;I thought that I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and then, getting somewhat confused and angry at the same time at Dolly's
+      nonchalant manner, he wound up with, &ldquo;I believe that damned Dutchman has
+      come between us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dare you swear at me, sir? I suppose, though, it is the custom for
+      captains in the merchant service to swear at ladies. And what right have
+      you to assume that I should marry you? Because I rather liked to talk to
+      you when I felt dull, is that any reason why you should be so very rude to
+      me? And once for all, sir, I shall never marry a mere merchant sailor&mdash;a
+      common whaling master. I shall marry, when I do marry, an officer and a
+      gentleman in the King's service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; Foster snapped, &ldquo;and what about the Dutchman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now up to this point Dolly had been making mere pretence. She honestly
+      loved the young seaman, and meant to tell him so plainly before he left
+      the garden, but at this last question the merriment he had failed to see
+      in her eyes gave place to an angry sparkle, and she quickly retorted&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Portveldt, sir, is a Dutch gentleman, and he would never talk to me
+      in such a way as you have done. How dare you, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster was really angry now, and smiled sarcastically. &ldquo;He's but the
+      master of a merchantman, and an infernal Dutchman at that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a gentleman, which you are not!&rdquo; snapped Dolly fiercely; &ldquo;and if he
+      is but a merchant skipper, he commands his own ship. He is a shipowner,
+      and a well-known Batavian merchant as well, sir; so there!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I believe,&rdquo; said Foster wrathfully; &ldquo;sells Dutch cheeses and brings
+      them ashore with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a spy,&rdquo; said Dolly contemptuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Miss Scarsbrook, call me what you please. I can see your
+      cheese merchant waddling this way now, attended by his ugly pirate of a
+      boatswain. Doubtless he has some stock-fish on this occasion, and as
+      stock-fish are very much like Dutchmen in one respect and I like neither,
+      I wish you joy of him. Goodbye!&rdquo; And Captain Foster swung on his heel and
+      walked quickly out of the garden gate. As he strode down the narrow path
+      he brushed past the Batavian merchant, who was on his way to the
+      Commissary's office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goot tay to you, Captain Foster,&rdquo; said Port-veldt, grinning amiably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to the devil!&rdquo; replied the Englishman promptly, turning round and
+      facing the Dutchman to give due emphasis to his remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Portveldt, a tall, well-made fellow, and handsomely dressed, stared at
+      Foster's retreating figure in angry astonishment, then changing his mind
+      about first visiting the Commissary, he opened the garden gate, and came
+      suddenly upon Dorothy Scarsbrook seated upon a rustic bench, weeping
+      bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My tear yong lady, vat is de matter? I beg you to led me gomfort you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing the matter, Mr. Portveldt I thank you, but you cannot be
+      of any service to me,&rdquo; and Dolly buried her face in her handkerchief
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry ferry mooch to hear you say dat, Mees Dorotee, vor it vas mein
+      hop dot you would dake kindtly to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly made no answer, and then Captain Portveldt sat down beside her, his
+      huge figure quite filling up all the remaining space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mees Dorotee,&rdquo; he began ponderously, &ldquo;de trood is dot I vas goming to see
+      you to dell you I vas ferry mooch in loaf mid you, und to ask you to be
+      mein vifes; but now dot you do veep so mooch, I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say no more if you please, Mr. Portveldt,&rdquo; said Dolly, hastily drying her
+      eyes. Then, rising with great dignity, she bowed and went on: &ldquo;Of course I
+      am deeply sensible of the great honour that you do me, but I can never be
+      your wife.&rdquo; And then to herself: &ldquo;I fancy that I have replied in a very
+      proper manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vy, vat vas der wrong aboud me, Mees Dorotee?&rdquo; pleaded Portveldt &ldquo;I vas
+      feery yoyful in mein mind tinking dot you did loaf me some liddle bid. I
+      have mooch money; mein haus in Batavia is mosd peautiful, und you shall
+      have plendy servands to do all dot you vish. Oh, Mees Dorotee! vat can be
+      wrong mid me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing that I object to in you, sir, except that I do not love
+      you. Really you cannot expect me to marry you because I have seen you half
+      a dozen times and have treated you with politeness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do hobe, Mees Dorotee, dot id is not because of dot yong mans who vas
+      so oncivil to me yoost now dot you vill not haf me. He vas dell me to go
+      to der tuyvel ven I did say 'goot morning' yoost now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is no young man, sir. Mr. Foster is a person for whom I have a great
+      regard, but I do not intend to marry him. I will only marry a gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, bud, Mees Dorotee, am I not a yentle-mans?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not consider masters of merchantmen gentlemen,&rdquo; replied Dolly with a
+      slight sniff. &ldquo;My father is an officer in the King's service, and I have
+      been taught to&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, ha! Mees Dorotee,&rdquo; laughed Portveldt good-humouredly, &ldquo;dot is nod so.
+      Your baba is but a gommissary who puys de goots vich I bring me from
+      Batavia to sell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dare you talk like that, sir? My father <i>is</i> a King's officer,
+      and before he came here he fought for his country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Veil, Mees Dorotee, I do beg your pardon mooch, and I vill vight vor mein
+      country if you vil learn to loaf me on dot account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Miss Dolly would listen no more, and, with a ceremonious bow, walked
+      away. Then the Dutch merchant went to the Commissary's office to talk the
+      matter over with her father, who told him that he would not interfere in
+      his daughter's choice; if he could not make himself agreeable to her,
+      neither her father nor mother could help him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just after sunrise next morning, Dolly, who had spent the night in tears
+      and repentance, woke, feeling very miserable. From her opened window she
+      could see the morning mists hanging over the placid waters of the harbour
+      disappearing before the first breaths of the coming south-easter. The <i>Policy</i>,
+      she thought, could not have sailed yet, and she meant to send her lover a
+      note, asking him to come and see her again before he left. Then she gave a
+      little cry and sob, and her eyes filled with tears. Far down the harbour
+      she could see the sails of the <i>Policy</i> just disappearing round a
+      wooded headland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour or so after breakfast, as Dolly was at work among her flowers, the
+      tall figure of Sergeant Burt stood before her, and saluted&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The <i>Policy</i> has sailed, Miss Scarsbrook,&rdquo; said the Sergeant, &ldquo;and I
+      have brought you a letter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; said Dolly, with an air of icy indifference, turning her back
+      upon the soldier, and digging her trowel into a little heap of soil. &ldquo;I do
+      not take any interest in merchant ships, and do not want the letter.&rdquo; When
+      she glanced round again she was just in time to see Sergeant Burt standing
+      in the roadway with a lot of tiny pieces of paper fluttering about his
+      feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something impelled her to ask: &ldquo;What are you doing, Burt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Foster's orders, Miss. Told me if you would not take the letter I was
+      to destroy it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly laid her trowel down and slowly went to her room &ldquo;with a bad
+      headache,&rdquo; as she told her mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Nearly two years went by, and then one morning the look-out at the South
+      Head of Sydney Harbour signalled a vessel to the north-east, and a few
+      hours later the <i>Policy</i> was again at anchor in Sydney Cove, and
+      Captain Foster was being warmly welcomed by the residents generally and
+      Dolly's father in particular, who pressed him to come ashore that evening
+      to dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the first to board the <i>Policy</i> was Sergeant Burt, who, as soon
+      as the others had left, was in deep converse with Captain Foster. &ldquo;I'm
+      sure she meant to take your letter, Mr. Foster,&rdquo; he said finally, &ldquo;and
+      that I was too quick in tearing it up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll soon know, Burt; I'll try again this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Commissary's dinner that evening Dolly met him with a charming
+      smile and cheeks suffused; and then, after Captain Foster had narrated the
+      incidents of his successful whaling voyage, her parents discreetly left
+      them to themselves in the garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dolly! I am a rough, uncultured sailor. Will you therefore forgive me my
+      rudeness when we last parted?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course. I have forgotten it long ago, and I am very sorry we parted
+      bad friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You make me very happy, Dolly. I have been speaking to your mother, and
+      she has told me that she thinks you do care for me, Is it so? May I again&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Captain Foster, why cannot we be friends without&mdash;without
+      anything else. I will not pretend that I do not understand your meaning,
+      but I tell you, once and for all, I don't want to be married. Really,&rdquo; and
+      she smiled brightly, &ldquo;you are as bad as Mr. Portveldt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Miss Dorothy,&rdquo; said Foster with annoying equanimity, &ldquo;I won't
+      allude to the subject again. But what has the Dutchman been doing? Where
+      is he now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly laughed merrily. &ldquo;Oh, Captain Foster, I really have no right to show
+      you this letter, but it is so very amusing that I cannot help doing so,&rdquo;
+       and she took a letter from her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he has been writing to you, has he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now don't speak in that bullying manner, sir, or I shall not let you hear
+      its contents.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Dolly; but how came you to get the letter? We are at war with
+      the Dutch Settlements now, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the amusing part of it. Now listen, and I will read it to you;&rdquo;
+       and Dolly spread out a large sheet of paper, and read aloud in mimicking
+      tones&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mein dear Mees Dolly,&mdash;You did vant ein loafer who could vight vor
+      his coundry, and vould haf no man who vas yoost ein merchant. Very goot. I
+      mineself now command the privateer <i>Swift</i>, vich vas used to be
+      sailing in gompany mit <i>La Brave</i> und <i>La Mouche</i> in der service
+      of der French Republic, und did den vight und beat all der Anglische ships
+      in der Anglische Channel. Id is drue dot your <i>La Minerve</i> did by
+      shance von tay capture der <i>Swift</i>, and sold her to the American
+      beoples, but our Batavian merchants did buy her from them, und now I haf
+      god de command. Und now dot your goundrymens do annoys der Deutsche
+      Settlements in our Easd Indies, ve do mean to beat dem every dimes ve
+      cadgh dem in dese zees. Und I do send mein ledder to you, mein tear Mees
+      Dorotee, by der greasy old vale-ship <i>Mary Ann</i>, yoost to led you
+      know dot I haf not vorgotten you mid your bride eye. Und ven I haf
+      gaptured all der Anglische ships in der East Indies I vill sail mein <i>Swift</i>
+      to Sydney and claim you vor mein vrau, und do you nod be vrightened. I
+      vill dake care dot you und your beople shall not be hurt, because I do
+      loaf you ferry mooch. Der master of der <i>Mary Ann</i> vill dell you I
+      vas ferry goot to him for your sake. I did but take his gargo, and did
+      give him und his grew liberdy to go to Sydney und dake this letter to you,
+      mein vrau, in der dime to gom, as I did dell him.&mdash;I remain your
+      loafing Richard Portveldt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster jumped to his feet &ldquo;The rascally Dutch swab, to dare to&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To dare to write to me,&rdquo; said Dolly laughingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To dare to write to you! To suppose for one moment that you&mdash;oh, d&mdash;&mdash;
+      the fellow! If I come across him, I'll&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But all the same, he's very brave,&rdquo; said Dolly demurely; &ldquo;he is fighting
+      for his country, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boasting fool!&rdquo; ejaculated Foster contemptuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he <i>is</i> captain of the <i>Swift</i>, and the <i>Swift</i> <i>did</i>
+      beat some of the English ships. I have heard my father say that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes. Three privateers did manage to cut off some of our little
+      despatch vessels in the Channel; but this fat Dutchman, Portveldt, had no
+      hand in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this 'fat Duchman, Portveldt, <i>did</i> capture the <i>Mary Ann</i>,
+      and her master <i>did</i> give me this letter, and&mdash;and I was <i>so</i>
+      angry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The master of the <i>Mary Ann</i> must have been a fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so&mdash;for merely executing a commission? But wait, there is a
+      postscript that will interest you particularly. Now listen while I read
+      it,&rdquo; and Dolly, again mimicking Portveldt's English, read&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dell dot oncivil yong mans Voster who vas dell me to go to ter tuyvel,
+      dot I vill sendt der <i>Bolicy</i> und her master mit der grew to der
+      tuyvel if he gomes mein vay mit his zeep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Captain Foster, what do you think of that, pray?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very pretty talk; what do <i>you</i> think of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm only a poor little woman; but if I were a man I would&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly so, Dolly. Well, I am a man, and the <i>Policy</i> has brought a
+      letter of marque with her from England this time, and so I may meet&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Captain Foster!&rdquo; and Dolly's eyes brightened, &ldquo;I <i>am</i> glad; but&mdash;but&mdash;<i>please</i>,
+      for my sake, don't get killed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A fortnight later, when Foster bade Dolly goodbye for another six months,
+      she told him softly that she would be glad&mdash;oh, so very glad!&mdash;to
+      hear news of him. A whaling voyage was so very dangerous, and he might get
+      hurt or killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this time, as the <i>Policy</i> sailed and Foster saw Dolly waving to
+      him from the steps of the Commissary's office, he felt pretty sure that
+      the letter of marque had advanced his suit considerably.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Fourteen days out from Sydney the <i>Policy</i> took her first whale,
+      greatly to the delight of old Stevenson and the crew, who looked upon such
+      early luck as a certain indication of a good cruise. After &ldquo;trying-out&rdquo;
+       Foster kept on to the northward to the sperm-whaling grounds in the
+      Moluccas. Three days later they spoke the <i>Endicott</i>, of Nantucket,
+      whose captain gave Foster a kindly warning not to go cruising further
+      north, for there were several Batavian privateers looking out for the
+      English whalers that were then due on the cruising ground. Then the
+      American wished him luck and goodbye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Stevenson's face fell; then he swore. &ldquo;I suppose we have to turn tail,
+      sir, and try what we can do to the southward and I believe we'd be a full
+      ship in three months or less up in the Moluccas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I, and I'm going there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it's dangerous waters, sir; we don't want to lose the ship and rot in
+      prison in Batavia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Stevenson, I am an Englishman, and Hurry Brothers did not get a
+      letter of marque for this ship for nothing. You ought to know that to turn
+      back means an empty ship. It is our duty to go to our proper cruising
+      ground and cruise till we are a full ship; and all the infernal Dutchmen
+      in the world mustn't frighten us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good, sir,&rdquo; said the old mate cheerfully, &ldquo;but, all the same, I
+      don't want us to get served like that fellow Portveldt served the old <i>Mary
+      Ann</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another five weeks passed. So far, &ldquo;greasy&rdquo; luck had attended the <i>Policy</i>
+      for she had taken sixteen more sperm whales, the last of which was killed
+      in about 8° S. and 120° E., in the Flores Sea. But misfortune had come
+      upon the ship in other respects, and Foster was in no small anxiety about
+      his crew, nearly all of whom were ill from lead-poisoning. This had been
+      brought about by drinking water from leaden tanks in which oil had once
+      been stored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bright look-out was kept, for the ship was now right in the spot where
+      it was likely she might meet with the Dutch privateers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Stevenson's watch, and as he walked the poop he stopped suddenly,
+      for the look-out reported a sail to the W.S.W. Foster came on deck at once
+      and went aloft In a quarter of an hour it was evident that the stranger
+      bore towards them. The wind was south-east, and very little of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do?&rdquo; asked the mate. &ldquo;I fancy this is one of the
+      Dutchmen who are on the look-out for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I,&rdquo; answered Foster, &ldquo;I'll tell you what I am going to do: brace
+      sharp up on the larboard tack and run down to her. I am not going to run
+      away from <i>one</i> infernal Dutchman, and I can only see one of 'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're captain of the ship, and you can do as you please; but I am hanged
+      if I think you'll pull it off this time. Half the crew are sick, and this
+      fellow looks as if he meant fighting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All hands on deck; starboard forebrace!&rdquo; was all the answer Foster made.
+      Then he went to the signal locker, and getting out the American ensign,
+      with his own hands ran it up to the peak, hoping by this means to get
+      close enough to the other ship to prevent <i>her</i> from running away
+      from a fight, if the captain should turn out not one of the fighting sort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the sails were trimmed the skipper walked to the break of the
+      poop, and, with the air of a captain of a seventy-four, gave the order,
+      &ldquo;Clear ship for action!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the mate ventured to remark that half of the guns were down below on
+      the 'tween decks, where they had been put out of the way for the generally
+      peaceful occupation of whaling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, get 'm up. What the devil do you think I mean by clearing for
+      action?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, the six-pounders were hoisted upon deck and quickly mounted,
+      what little powder and shot the <i>Policy</i> carried was brought into a
+      handy place, and the mate, with something of a smile, reported, &ldquo;Ship
+      cleared for action, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good, Mr. Stevenson. Now, my lads, I reckon this ship is one of the
+      Dutch fleet sent to clear us whalers out of these seas. Well, as he seems
+      to be alone, I think we have a fair chance of turning the tables upon him.
+      Anyhow, I am going to try. I know some of you are pretty sick, but I am
+      sure that a crew of English sailors, even when they are sick, can lick
+      twice their number of muddle-headed Dutchmen any day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In those days, British ships were manned by British seaman, and Captain
+      Foster could talk like this without saying anything offensive to the
+      British merchant service. Nowadays such an observation about &ldquo;Dutchmen&rdquo;
+       would be a personal insult to four-fifths of the crew of a British
+      merchant ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men, including the mate, received the speech with a cheer, and one of
+      them sang out &ldquo;Haul down the Stars and Stripes. We don't want to fight
+      under that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To which Captain Foster, who knew what he was about, merely replied, &ldquo;I am
+      not a fool!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards the close of the afternoon the ships were within gunshot of each
+      other, and the Dutchman ran up his colours. As they drew closer, the
+      foreign skipper's glass showed him the nationality of the <i>Policy</i>
+      and he at once opened fire upon her with one of his six eighteen-pounders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the shot hummed overhead between the <i>Policy's</i> fore and main
+      masts, down came the American colours and up went the British ensign, and
+      at the same moment Foster fired such of his guns as bore upon the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the report of the guns had died away, Foster sprang into one of
+      his quarter-boats and hailed the other ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ship ahoy!&rdquo; he roared &ldquo;why do you fire at me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, ha! I know you,&rdquo; came back in mocking tones. &ldquo;Now vill I sendt you to
+      der tuyvel, you greasy valer mans. I am Captain Portveldt, und dis is der
+      <i>Swift</i>. Vill you surrunder, or vill I smash you to beices?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For answer, Foster, who had now come very close to his enemy, fired his
+      tiny broadside, his men, sick as they were running cheerfully from the
+      guns to the braces to manoeuvre the Polity clear of the privateer's fire,
+      and then back again to the guns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun had now set, but far into the darkness of the tropical night the
+      running fight continued, Foster always out-manouvring the Dutchman, and
+      the crews of both vessels, when they closed near enough to be heard,
+      cursing and mocking at each other. Owing to the darkness and the extremely
+      bad gunnery on both sides, little blood was spilt, and the damage done was
+      mostly confined to the sails and rigging. Now and then a eighteen-pound
+      shot hulled the <i>Policy</i>, and one went clean through her amidships.
+      Suddenly, for some cause or other, about midnight, a light was shown in
+      the privateer's stern, and Foster's second mate at once sent a lucky shot
+      at it, with the result that the six-pound ball so damaged the <i>Swift's</i>
+      rudder that she became unmanageable. And then, a few minutes later,
+      another shot dismounted one of her guns by striking it on the muzzle, and
+      ere the Dutchman's crew knew what was happening, a final broadside from
+      the whaler brought down her two topsails and did other damage aloft. That
+      practically ended the battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So thought Captain Portveldt, who now hailed the <i>Policy</i> in not
+      quite so boastful a voice as when the vessels met earlier in the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Voster, I haf hauled down mein flag. Mein grew will vight no
+      more, and I must surrender.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A cheer broke from the whaler's crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Captain Portveldt,&rdquo; called out Foster; &ldquo;lower a boat, and come
+      on board with half your crew. But don't try on any boarding tricks, or you
+      will be the worse for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The meeting between the two skippers, notwithstanding the cause, was
+      good-humoured enough, for Portveldt, apart from his boastfulness, was not
+      a bad fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Veil, Captain Voster,&rdquo; he said as he stepped on board the <i>Policy's</i>
+      deck, followed by his big boatswain (who was wounded in the face by a
+      splinter) and half his crew, &ldquo;you haf broved der besd mans; und now I
+      suppose you vill lead me like a liddle dog mit a sdring, und dake me to
+      Sydney und make vun mit der young lady about me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; answered Foster, &ldquo;I am not so bad as all that Come below and
+      have a glass of grog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      At daylight one morning some weeks later two ships appeared in sight off
+      Sydney Heads. Those who were on the look-out were alarmed, for it was seen
+      that both vessels were armed, and it was conjectured that the ships must
+      be part of an enemy's squadron which had determined to make an attack upon
+      the settlement of Port Jackson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a very short time an excited crowd gathered together along the line of
+      cliffs of the outer South Head, each one asking his fellow what was to be
+      done. Horsemen carried the news into Sydney, and every moment fresh
+      numbers arrived to swell the crowd of spectators on the cliffs. A strange
+      sight they must have presented, comprising, as they did, all sorts and
+      conditions of men&mdash;settlers, naval and military officers, soldiers of
+      the New South Wales Regiment, and a number of the better class of
+      convicts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course the Deputy Acting Assistant Commissary-General was among the
+      officers anxiously watching the ships from the heights that overlooked the
+      harbour, and with him were Dolly and her mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Dolly, catching sight of her father's anxious face, began to
+      cry, and turned to her mother. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she said &ldquo;it has all come true, and
+      he has come to destroy the settlement!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has come true, and who is going to destroy the settlement?&rdquo; said her
+      father sharply. And then Dolly, feeling very frightened and miserable,
+      told him of Portveldt's letter, the receipt of which she had concealed
+      from every one but Foster. The D.A.A.C.G. laughed at first, but then
+      added, &ldquo;but all the same, though 'twas but empty bluster, I had better
+      tell his Excellency about it; it is just possible that the Dutch have
+      planned an expedition against us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At half-past ten, in response to a signal made from the look-out at South
+      Head by the officer in charge there, his Excellency Governor King sent
+      Lieutenant Houston, of his Majesty's ship <i>Investigator,</i> then
+      anchored in Sydney Cove, to the naval officer in command at South Head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>Investigator</i> was Flinders' ship, the gallant old tub of 334
+      tons which surveyed a great part of the northern coast, and was at the
+      time of which we write lying rotting in Sydney, condemned after completing
+      her second voyage of discovery in June, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Governor was told of Dolly's letter, but he was not the man to
+      take fright at the approach of the enemy, although he had no defence force
+      as it is now understood in New South Wales, nor had he a gold-laced staff
+      of officers with elaborate &ldquo;defence schemes&rdquo; against possible raids of
+      Japanese or Russians by way of Exmouth Gulf or Port Darwin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that year Governer King's force did not take long to be marshalled. The
+      drums beat to arms, and the New South Wales Corps and the Loyal
+      Association immediately formed into line on the shores of the Cove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At eleven o'clock a trooper arrived at Government House with intelligence
+      that one of the vessels appeared under British colours, and the other was
+      flying a Union Jack triumphant over a Dutch Jack. Following this message
+      there soon came another, bringing the certain intelligence that one of the
+      ships was an English whaler bringing into port her Batavian prize. So on
+      receipt of this news, and just as the word to march was about to be given,
+      the officer in command ordered his force to return to barracks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At two in the afternoon, with the whole of the settlement agog with
+      excitement, the two vessels sailed slowly up the harbour before a light
+      northeast breeze, and came to anchor in Sydney Cove, close to the <i>Investigator,</i>
+      on board of which ship the Governor and a number of naval officers awaited
+      their arrival. For once discipline was relaxed, and Captain King had
+      good-naturedly permitted the townspeople to throng on board to learn all
+      the news about the <i>Policy's</i> prize. As Captain Foster made his way
+      to the quarter-deck, he saw that behind the Governor and his staff were
+      Dolly and her parents and several ladies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a very few minutes he made his report, and the Governor again shook his
+      hand warmly; but the look in Dolly's eyes and the pressure of her hand
+      were the young seaman's sweetest reward, for it told him that she had
+      surrendered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, returning to his own ship, he was warmly greeted by Sergeant Burt,
+      and for a few moments the two remained talking in the whaler's cabin.
+      Then, just as Foster was ready to go ashore, Mr. Scarsbrook, who had been
+      inspecting the captured privateer, came on board, bringing Dolly with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst they were all chatting merrily together Captain Portveldt made his
+      appearance, and with the most perfect <i>sang-froid</i> saluted Dolly and
+      her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Veil, Mees Dorotee, you see I have gome back, at der bressing invidadion
+      of mein goot friendt, Captain Voster here, und I do vish him mit you
+      blendy of habbiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Dolly, who at first meant to meet him with a sarcastic little speech,
+      felt her eyes fill with tears at the manly way in which he bore his
+      misfortune, and could only falter out some few words of consolation. Then
+      there was a Prize Court, and&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Charles Sparrow Foster, commander of the whaler and letter of marque
+      called the <i>Policy</i>, presented to the Court a memorial stating his
+      capture of the <i>Swift</i> on the 12th day of September, off the island
+      of Flores, she being under Dutch colours... and the property of subjects
+      of a Power at war with his Britannic Majesty, and praying also that the
+      Court would be pleased to grant an award of condemnation in his favour in
+      order that the said prize should be for the advantage of himself, his
+      owners, and his ship's company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      and the Court having heard confirmatory evidence from Richard Portveldt, a
+      subject of the Batavian Republic, to the effect&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That he commanded the <i>Swift</i>; that everything on board of her was
+      Dutch property, and she belonged to Messrs. Winy and Talman, of Batavia,
+      and himself, all of whom were residents of Batavia, who purchased her for
+      the sum of 18,000 dols.: that she was taken up by the Dutch East India
+      Company at Batavia; and was on her way thither when she was captured by
+      the <i>Policy</i>, &amp;c.&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      accordingly condemned the prize, which was advertised in the <i>Sydney
+      Gazette</i> for sale by auction, Mr. Lord, the auctioneer, setting forth
+      that he would sell&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At his warehouse, Sydney, at noon precisely, the 3rd of November, the
+      good ship <i>Swift</i>, prize to <i>Policy</i>, Charles Foster, commander.
+      French built in the year 1800. Was condemned a prize to his Majesty's ship
+      <i>La Minerva</i>, and sold in 1801 to the Americans, as appears by the
+      bill of sale, and by them sold to the Dutch at Batavia, where she was
+      examined, copper-bolted, and new coppered in August, 1802. It is
+      unnecessary to say anything respecting the properties of the <i>Swift</i>
+      further than that she was the companion of <i>La Brave</i> and <i>La
+      Mouche</i>, which so very much harassed the British in Europe, and set all
+      our cruisers at defiance until her capture, prior to which she was justly
+      celebrated as the fastest sailing-vessel the French Republic had.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prize was knocked down for £3,000, and Captain Foster's share was
+      spent in a handsome wedding present for Dolly, which, at her particular
+      request, took the form of a passage to Batavia and a hundred guineas
+      delivered to Captain Portveldt immediately after the marriage ceremony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Foster's Letter Of Marque, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Foster's Letter Of Marque
+       A Tale Of Old Sydney - 1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 12, 2008 [EBook #25058]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE
+
+A TALE OF OLD SYDNEY
+
+From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories"
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.
+
+1901
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+One by one the riding-lights of the few store-ships and whalers lying
+in Sydney Harbour on an evening in January, 1802, were lit, and as the
+clear notes of a bugle from the barracks pealed over the bay, followed
+by the hoarse calls and shrill whistles of the boatswains' mates on a
+frigate that lay in Sydney Cove, the mate of the _Policy_ whaler jumped
+up from the skylight where he had been lying smoking, and began to pace
+the deck.
+
+The _Policy_ was anchored between the Cove and Pinchgut, ready for sea.
+The north-easter, which for three days had blown strongly, had now died
+away, and the placid waters of the harbour shimmered under the starlight
+of an almost cloudless sky. As the old mate tramped to and fro on the
+deserted poop, his keen seaman's eye caught sight of some faint grey
+clouds rising low down in the westward--signs of a south-easterly coming
+before the morning.
+
+Stepping to the break of the poop, the officer hailed the look-out
+forward, and asked if he could see the captain's boat coming.
+
+"No, sir," the man replied. "I did see a boat a while ago, and thought
+it was ours, but it turned out to be one from that Batavian Dutchman
+anchored below Pinchgut. Her captain always goes ashore about this
+time."
+
+Swinging round on his heel with an angry exclamation, the mate resumed
+his walk, muttering and growling to himself as elderly mates do
+mutter and growl when a captain promises to be on board at five in the
+afternoon and is not in evidence at half-past seven. Perhaps, too, the
+knowledge of the particular cause of the captain's delay somewhat added
+to his chief officer's ill-temper--that cause being a pretty girl; for
+the mate was a crusty old bachelor, and had but little sympathy with
+such "tomfoolery."
+
+"Why the devil couldn't he say goodbye to her and be done with it and
+come aboard," he grumbled, "instead of wasting half a day over it?"
+
+But Mr. Stevenson did not consider that in those days pretty women were
+not plentiful in Sydney, and virtue was even scarcer than good looks,
+and Dorothy Gilbert, only daughter of the Deputy Acting Assistant
+Commissary-General of the penal settlement, possessed all the
+qualifications of a lovable woman, and therefore it was not wonderful
+that Captain Charles Foster had fallen very much in love with her.
+
+Dorothy, of course, had her faults, and her chief one was the rather
+too great store she set upon being the daughter of an official. Pretty
+nearly every one in those days of the settlement was either an official
+or a prisoner or an ex-convict, and the D.A.A.C.G. was of no small
+importance among the other officials in Sydney. The girl's acquaintance
+with the young master of the _Policy_ began in a very ordinary manner.
+His ship had been chartered by the Government to take out a cargo of
+stores to the settlement, and the owners, who were personally acquainted
+with her father, had given Foster a letter of introduction. This he had
+used somewhat sooner than he had at first intended, for on presenting
+himself at the Commissary's office he had caught sight of Dolly's
+charming face as she stood talking to a young man in the uniform of a
+sergeant of the New South Wales Regiment who had brought a letter to her
+father. .
+
+"Thank you, Sergeant," the young lady said with a gracious smile. "Will
+you present my father's compliments to the Major and say we shall be
+sure to come. He is not here at present, but cannot delay long, as he
+will have much business to transact with the master of the ship just
+come in, and who will doubtless be here very soon."
+
+Just at that moment Foster appeared at the open door, and the young
+lady, divining at once that he was the person of whom she had just
+spoken, bowed very prettily, and begging him to be seated whilst she
+had search made for her father, left the office and disappeared in the
+living portion of the house, followed by a look of very great interest
+from Captain Foster. A minute later the Commissary entered the room, and
+Foster was soon deep in business with Dolly's father, to whom he made
+himself very agreeable--having a certain object in view.
+
+Their business concluded, the young man rose to go, and not till
+then--being wise in his generation--did he allude to the fact of his
+having a private letter of introduction from his owners--Messrs. Hurry
+Brothers, of London--to Mr. Scars-brook. The stiff, official manner of
+the D.A.A.C.G. at once thawed, and being at heart a genial old fellow,
+he expressed his pleasure, shook hands again with the young man, and
+inquired why he had not presented the letter or made allusion to it
+before.
+
+Foster, who had pretty well gauged Mr. Scarsbrook mentally, modestly
+replied that he did not care to obtrude private affairs at an
+inopportune time. He knew that weighty affairs doubtless occupied Mr.
+Scarsbrook's mind during his business hours, but had intended to do
+himself the honour of presenting his letter later on, &c.
+
+This at once impressed the D.A.A.C.G., who asked him to dinner that
+evening.
+
+"A most intelligent young man, my dear," he told Dolly shortly
+after. "His attention to business before all else has given me a very
+favourable impression of him."
+
+Dolly tossed her head. "I hope I shall not be disappointed in him. Is he
+young?" she asked indifferently.
+
+"Quite; and in manners and appearance much above his position."
+
+Dolly did like him very much--'much more than she cared to confess to
+herself--and their first meeting at dinner led to many of a less formal
+character, and ere a week had passed Captain Charles Foster was very
+much in love with his host's daughter, and not being a man who wasted
+time, was only awaiting an opportunity to tell her so.
+
+Now Dolly, who had first flirted with and then flouted every one of
+the bachelor officials in Sydney, military or civilian, who visited the
+Commissary's abode, was, to do her justice, a girl of sense at heart,
+and she felt that Captain Foster meant to ask her an all-important
+question--to every woman--and that her answer would be "Yes." For not
+only was he young, handsome, and highly thought of by his owners, but he
+came of a good family, and had such prospects for his future as seldom
+came in the way of men in the merchant service even in those days of
+lucky South-Seamen and East India traders, who made fortunes rapidly.
+And then 'twas evident he was very much in love with her, and this
+latter fact considerably and naturally influenced her.
+
+The first week passed pleasantly enough, then, to his anger and disgust,
+Foster found he had a rival; and before the end of the second week he
+realised, or imagined so, that he was beaten in the field of love--by a
+Dutchman!
+
+Sergeant Harry Burt was the first to give him warning, for he was often
+on duty at or near the Commissary's quarters, and, indeed, had often
+taken notes from Foster to the fair Dolly. He showed a warm interest in
+the matter, for Foster was always polite to the sergeant, and did not
+turn up his nose at "soldier men," as other masters of ships were but
+too ready to do.
+
+It had so happened that the work of discharging his ship had kept Foster
+very busy during the second week of his stay, and he had paid but one
+evening visit to Dolly and her father, and was hurrying the cargo ashore
+with feverish eagerness. Once that was accomplished, he meant to devote
+himself (1)to proposing to the young lady, (2) gaining her father's
+consent, and (3) getting to sea again as soon as possible, making a good
+cruise at the whale fishery, and returning to Sydney within two years
+as master and owner of a ship of his own. Consequently, Burt's news gave
+him considerable disquietude.
+
+"Who did you say he was, Sergeant?" he asked gloomily; "a Dutchman?"
+
+"Yes, sir; he's the master of that Dutch Batavian ship that has brought
+stores from Batavia. Mr. Scarsbrook seems to make a lot of him of late,
+and he's always coming up to the Commissary's place. And if he sees Miss
+Scarsbrook out in the garden he swaggers in after her as if he were an
+admiral of the fleet Portveldt's his name, and--and----"
+
+"And what, Sergeant?"
+
+"Well, I think Miss Scarsbrook rather likes him, that's all. You see,
+sir, you haven't been there for a week, and this young Dutchman is by no
+means bad-looking, and even our Major says he's a jolly fine fellow--and
+all that goes a long way with women, you know. Then you only visit the
+house once in a week; the Dutchman goes there every day, and every time
+he comes he brings his boatswain with him--a big, greasy-faced chap.
+Last night he followed his master, carrying a cheese--a present for the
+Commissary, I suppose."
+
+"Well, I shall soon see how the land lies, Sergeant I'm going ashore
+presently, and I can promise you it won't be my fault if I let this
+fellow get to windward of me."
+
+But Miss Dolly was not to be seen that day, nor yet on the following
+one. She was vexed at Foster having thought of his work before herself,
+and she had determined to punish him by not meeting him for some little
+time, and amuse herself with the handsome young Dutch sailor meanwhile.
+So, in no very amiable mood, Foster went back to his ship, finished
+discharging, and delighted his old mate by telling him to get ready
+for sea as quickly as possible. And on this particular evening when
+our story opens the _Policy_ only waited for her captain--who had gone
+ashore--so he told Stevenson--to say goodbye to the Commissary, with
+parting instructions to the mate to begin to heave up as soon as he saw
+his (Foster's) boat leave the Cove.
+
+After spending half an hour with the Commissary, Foster asked to see
+Miss Dorothy, and was soon ushered into the sitting-room, where the
+young lady welcomed him effusively, and her manner soon drove all
+suspicious thoughts of his rival out of his mind. Her mother, a placid
+lady, who was absolutely ruled by Dolly and her father, smiled approval
+when Foster asked her daughter to accompany him to the garden and take
+a look at the harbour. She liked him, and had previously given him much
+assistance by getting out of the way whenever she suspected he wanted to
+see Dolly alone.
+
+As soon as they had gained the screen of the shaded path leading to the
+water's edge, Foster came to the point at once.
+
+"Dolly," he said, "you know why I have asked you to come with me here.
+My ship is ready for sea, and it may be quite two years before I shall
+have the happiness of seeing you again."
+
+"'Tis very kind of you to pay me so pretty a compliment, Captain
+Foster--or I should say Mr. Foster," said Dolly, concealing a smile;
+"but surely you need not have brought me out to the garden to tell me
+this."
+
+Her pretended forgetfulness of some past passages in their brief
+acquaintance, as her speech implied, ruffled him.
+
+"You are very particular with your _Mr_. Foster, Miss Dolly; and why not
+'Captain'?"
+
+Dolly raised her eyebrows in surprise.
+
+"Captains hold the King's commission and fight for their country," she
+said demurely. "The master of a horrid ship that goes catching whales
+has no right to the title." Then she laughed and shook her long, fair
+curls.
+
+"Upon my word, young lady, you are very complimentary; but, Dolly, no
+more of this banter. My boat is waiting, and I have but a few minutes
+to ask you to give me your answer. In all seriousness remember that my
+future depends upon it. Will you marry me? Will you try to love me?
+May I go away with the hope that you will look forward to my return,
+and----"
+
+"In all seriousness, Mr. Foster, I will not."
+
+"Why, what have I done to offend you? I thought you--I thought that
+I----" and then, getting somewhat confused and angry at the same time
+at Dolly's nonchalant manner, he wound up with, "I believe that damned
+Dutchman has come between us!"
+
+"How dare you swear at me, sir? I suppose, though, it is the custom for
+captains in the merchant service to swear at ladies. And what right have
+you to assume that I should marry you? Because I rather liked to talk to
+you when I felt dull, is that any reason why you should be so very
+rude to me? And once for all, sir, I shall never marry a mere merchant
+sailor--a common whaling master. I shall marry, when I do marry, an
+officer and a gentleman in the King's service."
+
+"Ah!" Foster snapped, "and what about the Dutchman?"
+
+Now up to this point Dolly had been making mere pretence. She honestly
+loved the young seaman, and meant to tell him so plainly before he left
+the garden, but at this last question the merriment he had failed to see
+in her eyes gave place to an angry sparkle, and she quickly retorted--
+
+"Mr. Portveldt, sir, is a Dutch gentleman, and he would never talk to me
+in such a way as you have done. How dare you, sir!"
+
+Foster was really angry now, and smiled sarcastically. "He's but the
+master of a merchantman, and an infernal Dutchman at that."
+
+"He is a gentleman, which you are not!" snapped Dolly fiercely; "and
+if he is but a merchant skipper, he commands his own ship. He is a
+shipowner, and a well-known Batavian merchant as well, sir; so there!"
+
+"So I believe," said Foster wrathfully; "sells Dutch cheeses and brings
+them ashore with him."
+
+"You're a spy," said Dolly contemptuously.
+
+"Very well, Miss Scarsbrook, call me what you please. I can see your
+cheese merchant waddling this way now, attended by his ugly pirate of
+a boatswain. Doubtless he has some stock-fish on this occasion, and
+as stock-fish are very much like Dutchmen in one respect and I like
+neither, I wish you joy of him. Goodbye!" And Captain Foster swung on
+his heel and walked quickly out of the garden gate. As he strode down
+the narrow path he brushed past the Batavian merchant, who was on his
+way to the Commissary's office.
+
+"Goot tay to you, Captain Foster," said Port-veldt, grinning amiably.
+
+"Go to the devil!" replied the Englishman promptly, turning round and
+facing the Dutchman to give due emphasis to his remark.
+
+Portveldt, a tall, well-made fellow, and handsomely dressed, stared at
+Foster's retreating figure in angry astonishment, then changing his mind
+about first visiting the Commissary, he opened the garden gate, and came
+suddenly upon Dorothy Scarsbrook seated upon a rustic bench, weeping
+bitterly.
+
+"My tear yong lady, vat is de matter? I beg you to led me gomfort you."
+
+"There is nothing the matter, Mr. Portveldt I thank you, but you cannot
+be of any service to me," and Dolly buried her face in her handkerchief
+again.
+
+"I am sorry ferry mooch to hear you say dat, Mees Dorotee, vor it vas
+mein hop dot you would dake kindtly to me."
+
+Dolly made no answer, and then Captain Portveldt sat down beside her,
+his huge figure quite filling up all the remaining space.
+
+"Mees Dorotee," he began ponderously, "de trood is dot I vas goming to
+see you to dell you I vas ferry mooch in loaf mid you, und to ask you to
+be mein vifes; but now dot you do veep so mooch, I----"
+
+"Say no more if you please, Mr. Portveldt," said Dolly, hastily drying
+her eyes. Then, rising with great dignity, she bowed and went on: "Of
+course I am deeply sensible of the great honour that you do me, but
+I can never be your wife." And then to herself: "I fancy that I have
+replied in a very proper manner."
+
+"Vy, vat vas der wrong aboud me, Mees Dorotee?" pleaded Portveldt "I vas
+feery yoyful in mein mind tinking dot you did loaf me some liddle bid. I
+have mooch money; mein haus in Batavia is mosd peautiful, und you shall
+have plendy servands to do all dot you vish. Oh, Mees Dorotee! vat can
+be wrong mid me?"
+
+"There is nothing that I object to in you, sir, except that I do not
+love you. Really you cannot expect me to marry you because I have seen
+you half a dozen times and have treated you with politeness."
+
+"I do hobe, Mees Dorotee, dot id is not because of dot yong mans who vas
+so oncivil to me yoost now dot you vill not haf me. He vas dell me to go
+to der tuyvel ven I did say 'goot morning' yoost now."
+
+"It is no young man, sir. Mr. Foster is a person for whom I have a great
+regard, but I do not intend to marry him. I will only marry a gentleman.
+
+"Oh, bud, Mees Dorotee, am I not a yentle-mans?"
+
+"I do not consider masters of merchantmen gentlemen," replied Dolly with
+a slight sniff. "My father is an officer in the King's service, and I
+have been taught to----"
+
+"Ha, ha! Mees Dorotee," laughed Portveldt good-humouredly, "dot is nod
+so. Your baba is but a gommissary who puys de goots vich I bring me from
+Batavia to sell."
+
+"How dare you talk like that, sir? My father _is_ a King's officer, and
+before he came here he fought for his country."
+
+"Veil, Mees Dorotee, I do beg your pardon mooch, and I vill vight vor
+mein country if you vil learn to loaf me on dot account."
+
+But Miss Dolly would listen no more, and, with a ceremonious bow, walked
+away. Then the Dutch merchant went to the Commissary's office to
+talk the matter over with her father, who told him that he would
+not interfere in his daughter's choice; if he could not make himself
+agreeable to her, neither her father nor mother could help him.
+
+Just after sunrise next morning, Dolly, who had spent the night in tears
+and repentance, woke, feeling very miserable. From her opened window
+she could see the morning mists hanging over the placid waters of
+the harbour disappearing before the first breaths of the coming
+south-easter. The _Policy_, she thought, could not have sailed yet, and
+she meant to send her lover a note, asking him to come and see her again
+before he left. Then she gave a little cry and sob, and her eyes filled
+with tears. Far down the harbour she could see the sails of the _Policy_
+just disappearing round a wooded headland.
+
+An hour or so after breakfast, as Dolly was at work among her flowers,
+the tall figure of Sergeant Burt stood before her, and saluted--
+
+"The _Policy_ has sailed, Miss Scarsbrook," said the Sergeant, "and I
+have brought you a letter."
+
+"Indeed!" said Dolly, with an air of icy indifference, turning her back
+upon the soldier, and digging her trowel into a little heap of soil. "I
+do not take any interest in merchant ships, and do not want the letter."
+When she glanced round again she was just in time to see Sergeant Burt
+standing in the roadway with a lot of tiny pieces of paper fluttering
+about his feet.
+
+Something impelled her to ask: "What are you doing, Burt?"
+
+"Mr. Foster's orders, Miss. Told me if you would not take the letter I
+was to destroy it."
+
+Dolly laid her trowel down and slowly went to her room "with a bad
+headache," as she told her mother.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Nearly two years went by, and then one morning the look-out at the South
+Head of Sydney Harbour signalled a vessel to the north-east, and a few
+hours later the _Policy_ was again at anchor in Sydney Cove, and Captain
+Foster was being warmly welcomed by the residents generally and Dolly's
+father in particular, who pressed him to come ashore that evening to
+dinner.
+
+Among the first to board the _Policy_ was Sergeant Burt, who, as soon as
+the others had left, was in deep converse with Captain Foster. "I'm sure
+she meant to take your letter, Mr. Foster," he said finally, "and that I
+was too quick in tearing it up."
+
+"I'll soon know, Burt; I'll try again this evening."
+
+At the Commissary's dinner that evening Dolly met him with a charming
+smile and cheeks suffused; and then, after Captain Foster had narrated
+the incidents of his successful whaling voyage, her parents discreetly
+left them to themselves in the garden.
+
+"Dolly! I am a rough, uncultured sailor. Will you therefore forgive me
+my rudeness when we last parted?"
+
+"Of course. I have forgotten it long ago, and I am very sorry we parted
+bad friends."
+
+"You make me very happy, Dolly. I have been speaking to your mother,
+and she has told me that she thinks you do care for me, Is it so? May I
+again----"
+
+"Now, Captain Foster, why cannot we be friends without--without anything
+else. I will not pretend that I do not understand your meaning, but I
+tell you, once and for all, I don't want to be married. Really," and she
+smiled brightly, "you are as bad as Mr. Portveldt."
+
+"Very well, Miss Dorothy," said Foster with annoying equanimity, "I
+won't allude to the subject again. But what has the Dutchman been doing?
+Where is he now?"
+
+Dolly laughed merrily. "Oh, Captain Foster, I really have no right to
+show you this letter, but it is so very amusing that I cannot help doing
+so," and she took a letter from her pocket.
+
+"Oh, he has been writing to you, has he?"
+
+"Now don't speak in that bullying manner, sir, or I shall not let you
+hear its contents."
+
+"Very well, Dolly; but how came you to get the letter? We are at war
+with the Dutch Settlements now, you know."
+
+"That is the amusing part of it. Now listen, and I will read it to
+you;" and Dolly spread out a large sheet of paper, and read aloud in
+mimicking tones--
+
+"Mein dear Mees Dolly,--You did vant ein loafer who could vight vor his
+coundry, and vould haf no man who vas yoost ein merchant. Very goot. I
+mineself now command the privateer _Swift_, vich vas used to be sailing
+in gompany mit _La Brave_ und _La Mouche_ in der service of der French
+Republic, und did den vight und beat all der Anglische ships in der
+Anglische Channel. Id is drue dot your _La Minerve_ did by shance von
+tay capture der _Swift_, and sold her to the American beoples, but our
+Batavian merchants did buy her from them, und now I haf god de command.
+Und now dot your goundrymens do annoys der Deutsche Settlements in our
+Easd Indies, ve do mean to beat dem every dimes ve cadgh dem in dese
+zees. Und I do send mein ledder to you, mein tear Mees Dorotee, by der
+greasy old vale-ship _Mary Ann_, yoost to led you know dot I haf
+not vorgotten you mid your bride eye. Und ven I haf gaptured all der
+Anglische ships in der East Indies I vill sail mein _Swift_ to Sydney
+and claim you vor mein vrau, und do you nod be vrightened. I vill dake
+care dot you und your beople shall not be hurt, because I do loaf you
+ferry mooch. Der master of der _Mary Ann_ vill dell you I vas ferry goot
+to him for your sake. I did but take his gargo, and did give him und his
+grew liberdy to go to Sydney und dake this letter to you, mein vrau,
+in der dime to gom, as I did dell him.--I remain your loafing Richard
+Portveldt."
+
+Foster jumped to his feet "The rascally Dutch swab, to dare to----"
+
+"To dare to write to me," said Dolly laughingly.
+
+"To dare to write to you! To suppose for one moment that you--oh, d----
+the fellow! If I come across him, I'll----"
+
+"But all the same, he's very brave," said Dolly demurely; "he is
+fighting for his country, you know."
+
+"The boasting fool!" ejaculated Foster contemptuously.
+
+"But he _is_ captain of the _Swift_, and the _Swift_ _did_ beat some of
+the English ships. I have heard my father say that."
+
+"Oh, yes. Three privateers did manage to cut off some of our little
+despatch vessels in the Channel; but this fat Dutchman, Portveldt, had
+no hand in it."
+
+"But this 'fat Duchman, Portveldt, _did_ capture the _Mary Ann_, and her
+master _did_ give me this letter, and--and I was _so_ angry."
+
+"The master of the _Mary Ann_ must have been a fool."
+
+"Why so--for merely executing a commission? But wait, there is a
+postscript that will interest you particularly. Now listen while I read
+it," and Dolly, again mimicking Portveldt's English, read--
+
+"Dell dot oncivil yong mans Voster who vas dell me to go to ter tuyvel,
+dot I vill sendt der _Bolicy_ und her master mit der grew to der tuyvel
+if he gomes mein vay mit his zeep."
+
+"Now, Captain Foster, what do you think of that, pray?"
+
+"Very pretty talk; what do _you_ think of it?"
+
+"Well, I'm only a poor little woman; but if I were a man I would----"
+
+"Exactly so, Dolly. Well, I am a man, and the _Policy_ has brought a
+letter of marque with her from England this time, and so I may meet----"
+
+"Oh, Captain Foster!" and Dolly's eyes brightened, "I _am_ glad;
+but--but--_please_, for my sake, don't get killed."
+
+A fortnight later, when Foster bade Dolly goodbye for another six
+months, she told him softly that she would be glad--oh, so very
+glad!--to hear news of him. A whaling voyage was so very dangerous, and
+he might get hurt or killed.
+
+And this time, as the _Policy_ sailed and Foster saw Dolly waving to him
+from the steps of the Commissary's office, he felt pretty sure that the
+letter of marque had advanced his suit considerably.
+
+*****
+
+Fourteen days out from Sydney the _Policy_ took her first whale, greatly
+to the delight of old Stevenson and the crew, who looked upon such early
+luck as a certain indication of a good cruise. After "trying-out" Foster
+kept on to the northward to the sperm-whaling grounds in the Moluccas.
+Three days later they spoke the _Endicott_, of Nantucket, whose captain
+gave Foster a kindly warning not to go cruising further north, for there
+were several Batavian privateers looking out for the English whalers
+that were then due on the cruising ground. Then the American wished him
+luck and goodbye.
+
+Old Stevenson's face fell; then he swore. "I suppose we have to turn
+tail, sir, and try what we can do to the southward and I believe we'd be
+a full ship in three months or less up in the Moluccas."
+
+"So do I, and I'm going there."
+
+"But it's dangerous waters, sir; we don't want to lose the ship and rot
+in prison in Batavia."
+
+"Mr. Stevenson, I am an Englishman, and Hurry Brothers did not get a
+letter of marque for this ship for nothing. You ought to know that
+to turn back means an empty ship. It is our duty to go to our proper
+cruising ground and cruise till we are a full ship; and all the infernal
+Dutchmen in the world mustn't frighten us."
+
+"Very good, sir," said the old mate cheerfully, "but, all the same,
+I don't want us to get served like that fellow Portveldt served the old
+_Mary Ann_."
+
+Another five weeks passed. So far, "greasy" luck had attended the
+_Policy_ for she had taken sixteen more sperm whales, the last of which
+was killed in about 8 deg. S. and 120 deg. E., in the Flores Sea. But misfortune
+had come upon the ship in other respects, and Foster was in no small
+anxiety about his crew, nearly all of whom were ill from lead-poisoning.
+This had been brought about by drinking water from leaden tanks in which
+oil had once been stored.
+
+A bright look-out was kept, for the ship was now right in the spot where
+it was likely she might meet with the Dutch privateers.
+
+It was Stevenson's watch, and as he walked the poop he stopped suddenly,
+for the look-out reported a sail to the W.S.W. Foster came on deck at
+once and went aloft In a quarter of an hour it was evident that the
+stranger bore towards them. The wind was south-east, and very little of
+it.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked the mate. "I fancy this is one of the
+Dutchmen who are on the look-out for us."
+
+"So do I," answered Foster, "I'll tell you what I am going to do: brace
+sharp up on the larboard tack and run down to her. I am not going to run
+away from _one_ infernal Dutchman, and I can only see one of 'em."
+
+"You're captain of the ship, and you can do as you please; but I am
+hanged if I think you'll pull it off this time. Half the crew are sick,
+and this fellow looks as if he meant fighting."
+
+"All hands on deck; starboard forebrace!" was all the answer Foster
+made. Then he went to the signal locker, and getting out the American
+ensign, with his own hands ran it up to the peak, hoping by this means
+to get close enough to the other ship to prevent _her_ from running away
+from a fight, if the captain should turn out not one of the fighting
+sort.
+
+As soon as the sails were trimmed the skipper walked to the break of the
+poop, and, with the air of a captain of a seventy-four, gave the order,
+"Clear ship for action!"
+
+Then the mate ventured to remark that half of the guns were down below
+on the 'tween decks, where they had been put out of the way for the
+generally peaceful occupation of whaling.
+
+"Well, get 'm up. What the devil do you think I mean by clearing for
+action?"
+
+Accordingly, the six-pounders were hoisted upon deck and quickly
+mounted, what little powder and shot the _Policy_ carried was brought
+into a handy place, and the mate, with something of a smile, reported,
+"Ship cleared for action, sir."
+
+"Very good, Mr. Stevenson. Now, my lads, I reckon this ship is one of
+the Dutch fleet sent to clear us whalers out of these seas. Well, as he
+seems to be alone, I think we have a fair chance of turning the tables
+upon him. Anyhow, I am going to try. I know some of you are pretty sick,
+but I am sure that a crew of English sailors, even when they are sick,
+can lick twice their number of muddle-headed Dutchmen any day."
+
+In those days, British ships were manned by British seaman, and Captain
+Foster could talk like this without saying anything offensive to the
+British merchant service. Nowadays such an observation about "Dutchmen"
+would be a personal insult to four-fifths of the crew of a British
+merchant ship.
+
+The men, including the mate, received the speech with a cheer, and one
+of them sang out "Haul down the Stars and Stripes. We don't want to
+fight under that."
+
+To which Captain Foster, who knew what he was about, merely replied, "I
+am not a fool!"
+
+Towards the close of the afternoon the ships were within gunshot of each
+other, and the Dutchman ran up his colours. As they drew closer, the
+foreign skipper's glass showed him the nationality of the _Policy_ and
+he at once opened fire upon her with one of his six eighteen-pounders.
+
+As the shot hummed overhead between the _Policy's_ fore and main masts,
+down came the American colours and up went the British ensign, and at
+the same moment Foster fired such of his guns as bore upon the enemy.
+
+As soon as the report of the guns had died away, Foster sprang into one
+of his quarter-boats and hailed the other ship.
+
+"Ship ahoy!" he roared "why do you fire at me?"
+
+"Ha, ha! I know you," came back in mocking tones. "Now vill I sendt
+you to der tuyvel, you greasy valer mans. I am Captain Portveldt, und
+dis is der _Swift_. Vill you surrunder, or vill I smash you to beices?"
+
+For answer, Foster, who had now come very close to his enemy, fired his
+tiny broadside, his men, sick as they were running cheerfully from the
+guns to the braces to manoeuvre the Polity clear of the privateer's
+fire, and then back again to the guns.
+
+The sun had now set, but far into the darkness of the tropical night the
+running fight continued, Foster always out-manouvring the Dutchman, and
+the crews of both vessels, when they closed near enough to be heard,
+cursing and mocking at each other. Owing to the darkness and the
+extremely bad gunnery on both sides, little blood was spilt, and the
+damage done was mostly confined to the sails and rigging. Now and then a
+eighteen-pound shot hulled the _Policy_, and one went clean through her
+amidships. Suddenly, for some cause or other, about midnight, a light
+was shown in the privateer's stern, and Foster's second mate at once
+sent a lucky shot at it, with the result that the six-pound ball so
+damaged the _Swift's_ rudder that she became unmanageable. And then, a
+few minutes later, another shot dismounted one of her guns by striking
+it on the muzzle, and ere the Dutchman's crew knew what was happening,
+a final broadside from the whaler brought down her two topsails and did
+other damage aloft. That practically ended the battle.
+
+So thought Captain Portveldt, who now hailed the _Policy_ in not quite
+so boastful a voice as when the vessels met earlier in the day.
+
+"Captain Voster, I haf hauled down mein flag. Mein grew will vight no
+more, and I must surrender."
+
+A cheer broke from the whaler's crew.
+
+"Very well, Captain Portveldt," called out Foster; "lower a boat, and
+come on board with half your crew. But don't try on any boarding tricks,
+or you will be the worse for it."
+
+The meeting between the two skippers, notwithstanding the cause, was
+good-humoured enough, for Portveldt, apart from his boastfulness, was
+not a bad fellow.
+
+"Veil, Captain Voster," he said as he stepped on board the _Policy's_
+deck, followed by his big boatswain (who was wounded in the face by a
+splinter) and half his crew, "you haf broved der besd mans; und now I
+suppose you vill lead me like a liddle dog mit a sdring, und dake me to
+Sydney und make vun mit der young lady about me."
+
+"No, no," answered Foster, "I am not so bad as all that Come below and
+have a glass of grog."
+
+*****
+
+At daylight one morning some weeks later two ships appeared in sight off
+Sydney Heads. Those who were on the look-out were alarmed, for it was
+seen that both vessels were armed, and it was conjectured that the ships
+must be part of an enemy's squadron which had determined to make an
+attack upon the settlement of Port Jackson.
+
+In a very short time an excited crowd gathered together along the line
+of cliffs of the outer South Head, each one asking his fellow what was
+to be done. Horsemen carried the news into Sydney, and every moment
+fresh numbers arrived to swell the crowd of spectators on the cliffs.
+A strange sight they must have presented, comprising, as they did, all
+sorts and conditions of men--settlers, naval and military officers,
+soldiers of the New South Wales Regiment, and a number of the better
+class of convicts.
+
+Of course the Deputy Acting Assistant Commissary-General was among the
+officers anxiously watching the ships from the heights that overlooked
+the harbour, and with him were Dolly and her mother.
+
+Presently Dolly, catching sight of her father's anxious face, began to
+cry, and turned to her mother. "Ah!" she said "it has all come true, and
+he has come to destroy the settlement!"
+
+"What has come true, and who is going to destroy the settlement?"
+said her father sharply. And then Dolly, feeling very frightened and
+miserable, told him of Portveldt's letter, the receipt of which she had
+concealed from every one but Foster. The D.A.A.C.G. laughed at first,
+but then added, "but all the same, though 'twas but empty bluster, I had
+better tell his Excellency about it; it is just possible that the Dutch
+have planned an expedition against us."
+
+At half-past ten, in response to a signal made from the look-out at
+South Head by the officer in charge there, his Excellency Governor King
+sent Lieutenant Houston, of his Majesty's ship _Investigator,_ then
+anchored in Sydney Cove, to the naval officer in command at South Head.
+
+The _Investigator_ was Flinders' ship, the gallant old tub of 334 tons
+which surveyed a great part of the northern coast, and was at the time
+of which we write lying rotting in Sydney, condemned after completing
+her second voyage of discovery in June, 1803.
+
+Then the Governor was told of Dolly's letter, but he was not the man
+to take fright at the approach of the enemy, although he had no
+defence force as it is now understood in New South Wales, nor had he a
+gold-laced staff of officers with elaborate "defence schemes" against
+possible raids of Japanese or Russians by way of Exmouth Gulf or Port
+Darwin.
+
+In that year Governer King's force did not take long to be marshalled.
+The drums beat to arms, and the New South Wales Corps and the Loyal
+Association immediately formed into line on the shores of the Cove.
+
+At eleven o'clock a trooper arrived at Government House with
+intelligence that one of the vessels appeared under British colours,
+and the other was flying a Union Jack triumphant over a Dutch Jack.
+Following this message there soon came another, bringing the certain
+intelligence that one of the ships was an English whaler bringing into
+port her Batavian prize. So on receipt of this news, and just as the
+word to march was about to be given, the officer in command ordered his
+force to return to barracks.
+
+At two in the afternoon, with the whole of the settlement agog with
+excitement, the two vessels sailed slowly up the harbour before a
+light northeast breeze, and came to anchor in Sydney Cove, close to
+the _Investigator,_ on board of which ship the Governor and a number of
+naval officers awaited their arrival. For once discipline was relaxed,
+and Captain King had good-naturedly permitted the townspeople to throng
+on board to learn all the news about the _Policy's_ prize. As Captain
+Foster made his way to the quarter-deck, he saw that behind the Governor
+and his staff were Dolly and her parents and several ladies.
+
+In a very few minutes he made his report, and the Governor again shook
+his hand warmly; but the look in Dolly's eyes and the pressure of her
+hand were the young seaman's sweetest reward, for it told him that she
+had surrendered.
+
+Then, returning to his own ship, he was warmly greeted by Sergeant Burt,
+and for a few moments the two remained talking in the whaler's cabin.
+Then, just as Foster was ready to go ashore, Mr. Scarsbrook, who had
+been inspecting the captured privateer, came on board, bringing Dolly
+with him.
+
+Whilst they were all chatting merrily together Captain Portveldt made
+his appearance, and with the most perfect _sang-froid_ saluted Dolly and
+her father.
+
+"Veil, Mees Dorotee, you see I have gome back, at der bressing
+invidadion of mein goot friendt, Captain Voster here, und I do vish him
+mit you blendy of habbiness."
+
+And Dolly, who at first meant to meet him with a sarcastic little
+speech, felt her eyes fill with tears at the manly way in which he bore
+his misfortune, and could only falter out some few words of consolation.
+Then there was a Prize Court, and--
+
+"Mr. Charles Sparrow Foster, commander of the whaler and letter of
+marque called the _Policy_, presented to the Court a memorial stating
+his capture of the _Swift_ on the 12th day of September, off the island
+of Flores, she being under Dutch colours... and the property of subjects
+of a Power at war with his Britannic Majesty, and praying also that the
+Court would be pleased to grant an award of condemnation in his favour
+in order that the said prize should be for the advantage of himself, his
+owners, and his ship's company."
+
+and the Court having heard confirmatory evidence from Richard Portveldt,
+a subject of the Batavian Republic, to the effect--
+
+"That he commanded the _Swift_; that everything on board of her was
+Dutch property, and she belonged to Messrs. Winy and Talman, of Batavia,
+and himself, all of whom were residents of Batavia, who purchased her
+for the sum of 18,000 dols.: that she was taken up by the Dutch East
+India Company at Batavia; and was on her way thither when she was
+captured by the _Policy_, &c."--
+
+accordingly condemned the prize, which was advertised in the _Sydney
+Gazette_ for sale by auction, Mr. Lord, the auctioneer, setting forth
+that he would sell--
+
+"At his warehouse, Sydney, at noon precisely, the 3rd of November, the
+good ship _Swift_, prize to _Policy_, Charles Foster, commander. French
+built in the year 1800. Was condemned a prize to his Majesty's ship _La
+Minerva_, and sold in 1801 to the Americans, as appears by the bill of
+sale, and by them sold to the Dutch at Batavia, where she was examined,
+copper-bolted, and new coppered in August, 1802. It is unnecessary to
+say anything respecting the properties of the _Swift_ further than that
+she was the companion of _La Brave_ and _La Mouche_, which so very much
+harassed the British in Europe, and set all our cruisers at defiance
+until her capture, prior to which she was justly celebrated as the
+fastest sailing-vessel the French Republic had."
+
+The prize was knocked down for L3,000, and Captain Foster's share was
+spent in a handsome wedding present for Dolly, which, at her particular
+request, took the form of a passage to Batavia and a hundred guineas
+delivered to Captain Portveldt immediately after the marriage ceremony.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Foster's Letter Of Marque, by Louis Becke
+
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diff --git a/25058.zip b/25058.zip
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #25058 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25058)
diff --git a/old/25058-h.htm.2021-01-25 b/old/25058-h.htm.2021-01-25
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Foster's Letter of Marque, by Louis Becke
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Foster's Letter Of Marque, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Foster's Letter Of Marque
+       A Tale Of Old Sydney - 1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 12, 2008 [EBook #25058]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      A TALE OF OLD SYDNEY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      From &ldquo;The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories&rdquo;
+     </h3>
+    <h2>
+      By Louis Becke
+    </h2>
+    <h5>
+      C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. <br /> <br /> 1901
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      One by one the riding-lights of the few store-ships and whalers lying in
+      Sydney Harbour on an evening in January, 1802, were lit, and as the clear
+      notes of a bugle from the barracks pealed over the bay, followed by the
+      hoarse calls and shrill whistles of the boatswains' mates on a frigate
+      that lay in Sydney Cove, the mate of the <i>Policy</i> whaler jumped up
+      from the skylight where he had been lying smoking, and began to pace the
+      deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>Policy</i> was anchored between the Cove and Pinchgut, ready for
+      sea. The north-easter, which for three days had blown strongly, had now
+      died away, and the placid waters of the harbour shimmered under the
+      starlight of an almost cloudless sky. As the old mate tramped to and fro
+      on the deserted poop, his keen seaman's eye caught sight of some faint
+      grey clouds rising low down in the westward&mdash;signs of a
+      south-easterly coming before the morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stepping to the break of the poop, the officer hailed the look-out
+      forward, and asked if he could see the captain's boat coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir,&rdquo; the man replied. &ldquo;I did see a boat a while ago, and thought it
+      was ours, but it turned out to be one from that Batavian Dutchman anchored
+      below Pinchgut. Her captain always goes ashore about this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Swinging round on his heel with an angry exclamation, the mate resumed his
+      walk, muttering and growling to himself as elderly mates do mutter and
+      growl when a captain promises to be on board at five in the afternoon and
+      is not in evidence at half-past seven. Perhaps, too, the knowledge of the
+      particular cause of the captain's delay somewhat added to his chief
+      officer's ill-temper&mdash;that cause being a pretty girl; for the mate
+      was a crusty old bachelor, and had but little sympathy with such
+      &ldquo;tomfoolery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why the devil couldn't he say goodbye to her and be done with it and come
+      aboard,&rdquo; he grumbled, &ldquo;instead of wasting half a day over it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mr. Stevenson did not consider that in those days pretty women were
+      not plentiful in Sydney, and virtue was even scarcer than good looks, and
+      Dorothy Gilbert, only daughter of the Deputy Acting Assistant
+      Commissary-General of the penal settlement, possessed all the
+      qualifications of a lovable woman, and therefore it was not wonderful that
+      Captain Charles Foster had fallen very much in love with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorothy, of course, had her faults, and her chief one was the rather too
+      great store she set upon being the daughter of an official. Pretty nearly
+      every one in those days of the settlement was either an official or a
+      prisoner or an ex-convict, and the D.A.A.C.G. was of no small importance
+      among the other officials in Sydney. The girl's acquaintance with the
+      young master of the <i>Policy</i> began in a very ordinary manner. His
+      ship had been chartered by the Government to take out a cargo of stores to
+      the settlement, and the owners, who were personally acquainted with her
+      father, had given Foster a letter of introduction. This he had used
+      somewhat sooner than he had at first intended, for on presenting himself
+      at the Commissary's office he had caught sight of Dolly's charming face as
+      she stood talking to a young man in the uniform of a sergeant of the New
+      South Wales Regiment who had brought a letter to her father. .
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Sergeant,&rdquo; the young lady said with a gracious smile. &ldquo;Will
+      you present my father's compliments to the Major and say we shall be sure
+      to come. He is not here at present, but cannot delay long, as he will have
+      much business to transact with the master of the ship just come in, and
+      who will doubtless be here very soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at that moment Foster appeared at the open door, and the young lady,
+      divining at once that he was the person of whom she had just spoken, bowed
+      very prettily, and begging him to be seated whilst she had search made for
+      her father, left the office and disappeared in the living portion of the
+      house, followed by a look of very great interest from Captain Foster. A
+      minute later the Commissary entered the room, and Foster was soon deep in
+      business with Dolly's father, to whom he made himself very agreeable&mdash;having
+      a certain object in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their business concluded, the young man rose to go, and not till then&mdash;being
+      wise in his generation&mdash;did he allude to the fact of his having a
+      private letter of introduction from his owners&mdash;Messrs. Hurry
+      Brothers, of London&mdash;to Mr. Scars-brook. The stiff, official manner
+      of the D.A.A.C.G. at once thawed, and being at heart a genial old fellow,
+      he expressed his pleasure, shook hands again with the young man, and
+      inquired why he had not presented the letter or made allusion to it
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster, who had pretty well gauged Mr. Scarsbrook mentally, modestly
+      replied that he did not care to obtrude private affairs at an inopportune
+      time. He knew that weighty affairs doubtless occupied Mr. Scarsbrook's
+      mind during his business hours, but had intended to do himself the honour
+      of presenting his letter later on, &amp;c.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This at once impressed the D.A.A.C.G., who asked him to dinner that
+      evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A most intelligent young man, my dear,&rdquo; he told Dolly shortly after. &ldquo;His
+      attention to business before all else has given me a very favourable
+      impression of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly tossed her head. &ldquo;I hope I shall not be disappointed in him. Is he
+      young?&rdquo; she asked indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite; and in manners and appearance much above his position.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly did like him very much&mdash;'much more than she cared to confess to
+      herself&mdash;and their first meeting at dinner led to many of a less
+      formal character, and ere a week had passed Captain Charles Foster was
+      very much in love with his host's daughter, and not being a man who wasted
+      time, was only awaiting an opportunity to tell her so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Dolly, who had first flirted with and then flouted every one of the
+      bachelor officials in Sydney, military or civilian, who visited the
+      Commissary's abode, was, to do her justice, a girl of sense at heart, and
+      she felt that Captain Foster meant to ask her an all-important question&mdash;to
+      every woman&mdash;and that her answer would be &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo; For not only was he
+      young, handsome, and highly thought of by his owners, but he came of a
+      good family, and had such prospects for his future as seldom came in the
+      way of men in the merchant service even in those days of lucky
+      South-Seamen and East India traders, who made fortunes rapidly. And then
+      'twas evident he was very much in love with her, and this latter fact
+      considerably and naturally influenced her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first week passed pleasantly enough, then, to his anger and disgust,
+      Foster found he had a rival; and before the end of the second week he
+      realised, or imagined so, that he was beaten in the field of love&mdash;by
+      a Dutchman!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sergeant Harry Burt was the first to give him warning, for he was often on
+      duty at or near the Commissary's quarters, and, indeed, had often taken
+      notes from Foster to the fair Dolly. He showed a warm interest in the
+      matter, for Foster was always polite to the sergeant, and did not turn up
+      his nose at &ldquo;soldier men,&rdquo; as other masters of ships were but too ready to
+      do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had so happened that the work of discharging his ship had kept Foster
+      very busy during the second week of his stay, and he had paid but one
+      evening visit to Dolly and her father, and was hurrying the cargo ashore
+      with feverish eagerness. Once that was accomplished, he meant to devote
+      himself (1)to proposing to the young lady, (2) gaining her father's
+      consent, and (3) getting to sea again as soon as possible, making a good
+      cruise at the whale fishery, and returning to Sydney within two years as
+      master and owner of a ship of his own. Consequently, Burt's news gave him
+      considerable disquietude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who did you say he was, Sergeant?&rdquo; he asked gloomily; &ldquo;a Dutchman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir; he's the master of that Dutch Batavian ship that has brought
+      stores from Batavia. Mr. Scarsbrook seems to make a lot of him of late,
+      and he's always coming up to the Commissary's place. And if he sees Miss
+      Scarsbrook out in the garden he swaggers in after her as if he were an
+      admiral of the fleet Portveldt's his name, and&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what, Sergeant?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I think Miss Scarsbrook rather likes him, that's all. You see, sir,
+      you haven't been there for a week, and this young Dutchman is by no means
+      bad-looking, and even our Major says he's a jolly fine fellow&mdash;and
+      all that goes a long way with women, you know. Then you only visit the
+      house once in a week; the Dutchman goes there every day, and every time he
+      comes he brings his boatswain with him&mdash;a big, greasy-faced chap.
+      Last night he followed his master, carrying a cheese&mdash;a present for
+      the Commissary, I suppose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I shall soon see how the land lies, Sergeant I'm going ashore
+      presently, and I can promise you it won't be my fault if I let this fellow
+      get to windward of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Miss Dolly was not to be seen that day, nor yet on the following one.
+      She was vexed at Foster having thought of his work before herself, and she
+      had determined to punish him by not meeting him for some little time, and
+      amuse herself with the handsome young Dutch sailor meanwhile. So, in no
+      very amiable mood, Foster went back to his ship, finished discharging, and
+      delighted his old mate by telling him to get ready for sea as quickly as
+      possible. And on this particular evening when our story opens the <i>Policy</i>
+      only waited for her captain&mdash;who had gone ashore&mdash;so he told
+      Stevenson&mdash;to say goodbye to the Commissary, with parting
+      instructions to the mate to begin to heave up as soon as he saw his
+      (Foster's) boat leave the Cove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After spending half an hour with the Commissary, Foster asked to see Miss
+      Dorothy, and was soon ushered into the sitting-room, where the young lady
+      welcomed him effusively, and her manner soon drove all suspicious thoughts
+      of his rival out of his mind. Her mother, a placid lady, who was
+      absolutely ruled by Dolly and her father, smiled approval when Foster
+      asked her daughter to accompany him to the garden and take a look at the
+      harbour. She liked him, and had previously given him much assistance by
+      getting out of the way whenever she suspected he wanted to see Dolly
+      alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they had gained the screen of the shaded path leading to the
+      water's edge, Foster came to the point at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dolly,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you know why I have asked you to come with me here. My
+      ship is ready for sea, and it may be quite two years before I shall have
+      the happiness of seeing you again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis very kind of you to pay me so pretty a compliment, Captain Foster&mdash;or
+      I should say Mr. Foster,&rdquo; said Dolly, concealing a smile; &ldquo;but surely you
+      need not have brought me out to the garden to tell me this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her pretended forgetfulness of some past passages in their brief
+      acquaintance, as her speech implied, ruffled him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very particular with your <i>Mr</i>. Foster, Miss Dolly; and why
+      not 'Captain'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly raised her eyebrows in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captains hold the King's commission and fight for their country,&rdquo; she
+      said demurely. &ldquo;The master of a horrid ship that goes catching whales has
+      no right to the title.&rdquo; Then she laughed and shook her long, fair curls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my word, young lady, you are very complimentary; but, Dolly, no more
+      of this banter. My boat is waiting, and I have but a few minutes to ask
+      you to give me your answer. In all seriousness remember that my future
+      depends upon it. Will you marry me? Will you try to love me? May I go away
+      with the hope that you will look forward to my return, and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In all seriousness, Mr. Foster, I will not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what have I done to offend you? I thought you&mdash;I thought that I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and then, getting somewhat confused and angry at the same time at Dolly's
+      nonchalant manner, he wound up with, &ldquo;I believe that damned Dutchman has
+      come between us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dare you swear at me, sir? I suppose, though, it is the custom for
+      captains in the merchant service to swear at ladies. And what right have
+      you to assume that I should marry you? Because I rather liked to talk to
+      you when I felt dull, is that any reason why you should be so very rude to
+      me? And once for all, sir, I shall never marry a mere merchant sailor&mdash;a
+      common whaling master. I shall marry, when I do marry, an officer and a
+      gentleman in the King's service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; Foster snapped, &ldquo;and what about the Dutchman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now up to this point Dolly had been making mere pretence. She honestly
+      loved the young seaman, and meant to tell him so plainly before he left
+      the garden, but at this last question the merriment he had failed to see
+      in her eyes gave place to an angry sparkle, and she quickly retorted&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Portveldt, sir, is a Dutch gentleman, and he would never talk to me
+      in such a way as you have done. How dare you, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster was really angry now, and smiled sarcastically. &ldquo;He's but the
+      master of a merchantman, and an infernal Dutchman at that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a gentleman, which you are not!&rdquo; snapped Dolly fiercely; &ldquo;and if he
+      is but a merchant skipper, he commands his own ship. He is a shipowner,
+      and a well-known Batavian merchant as well, sir; so there!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I believe,&rdquo; said Foster wrathfully; &ldquo;sells Dutch cheeses and brings
+      them ashore with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a spy,&rdquo; said Dolly contemptuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Miss Scarsbrook, call me what you please. I can see your
+      cheese merchant waddling this way now, attended by his ugly pirate of a
+      boatswain. Doubtless he has some stock-fish on this occasion, and as
+      stock-fish are very much like Dutchmen in one respect and I like neither,
+      I wish you joy of him. Goodbye!&rdquo; And Captain Foster swung on his heel and
+      walked quickly out of the garden gate. As he strode down the narrow path
+      he brushed past the Batavian merchant, who was on his way to the
+      Commissary's office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goot tay to you, Captain Foster,&rdquo; said Port-veldt, grinning amiably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to the devil!&rdquo; replied the Englishman promptly, turning round and
+      facing the Dutchman to give due emphasis to his remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Portveldt, a tall, well-made fellow, and handsomely dressed, stared at
+      Foster's retreating figure in angry astonishment, then changing his mind
+      about first visiting the Commissary, he opened the garden gate, and came
+      suddenly upon Dorothy Scarsbrook seated upon a rustic bench, weeping
+      bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My tear yong lady, vat is de matter? I beg you to led me gomfort you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing the matter, Mr. Portveldt I thank you, but you cannot be
+      of any service to me,&rdquo; and Dolly buried her face in her handkerchief
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry ferry mooch to hear you say dat, Mees Dorotee, vor it vas mein
+      hop dot you would dake kindtly to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly made no answer, and then Captain Portveldt sat down beside her, his
+      huge figure quite filling up all the remaining space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mees Dorotee,&rdquo; he began ponderously, &ldquo;de trood is dot I vas goming to see
+      you to dell you I vas ferry mooch in loaf mid you, und to ask you to be
+      mein vifes; but now dot you do veep so mooch, I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say no more if you please, Mr. Portveldt,&rdquo; said Dolly, hastily drying her
+      eyes. Then, rising with great dignity, she bowed and went on: &ldquo;Of course I
+      am deeply sensible of the great honour that you do me, but I can never be
+      your wife.&rdquo; And then to herself: &ldquo;I fancy that I have replied in a very
+      proper manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vy, vat vas der wrong aboud me, Mees Dorotee?&rdquo; pleaded Portveldt &ldquo;I vas
+      feery yoyful in mein mind tinking dot you did loaf me some liddle bid. I
+      have mooch money; mein haus in Batavia is mosd peautiful, und you shall
+      have plendy servands to do all dot you vish. Oh, Mees Dorotee! vat can be
+      wrong mid me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing that I object to in you, sir, except that I do not love
+      you. Really you cannot expect me to marry you because I have seen you half
+      a dozen times and have treated you with politeness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do hobe, Mees Dorotee, dot id is not because of dot yong mans who vas
+      so oncivil to me yoost now dot you vill not haf me. He vas dell me to go
+      to der tuyvel ven I did say 'goot morning' yoost now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is no young man, sir. Mr. Foster is a person for whom I have a great
+      regard, but I do not intend to marry him. I will only marry a gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, bud, Mees Dorotee, am I not a yentle-mans?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not consider masters of merchantmen gentlemen,&rdquo; replied Dolly with a
+      slight sniff. &ldquo;My father is an officer in the King's service, and I have
+      been taught to&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, ha! Mees Dorotee,&rdquo; laughed Portveldt good-humouredly, &ldquo;dot is nod so.
+      Your baba is but a gommissary who puys de goots vich I bring me from
+      Batavia to sell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dare you talk like that, sir? My father <i>is</i> a King's officer,
+      and before he came here he fought for his country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Veil, Mees Dorotee, I do beg your pardon mooch, and I vill vight vor mein
+      country if you vil learn to loaf me on dot account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Miss Dolly would listen no more, and, with a ceremonious bow, walked
+      away. Then the Dutch merchant went to the Commissary's office to talk the
+      matter over with her father, who told him that he would not interfere in
+      his daughter's choice; if he could not make himself agreeable to her,
+      neither her father nor mother could help him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just after sunrise next morning, Dolly, who had spent the night in tears
+      and repentance, woke, feeling very miserable. From her opened window she
+      could see the morning mists hanging over the placid waters of the harbour
+      disappearing before the first breaths of the coming south-easter. The <i>Policy</i>,
+      she thought, could not have sailed yet, and she meant to send her lover a
+      note, asking him to come and see her again before he left. Then she gave a
+      little cry and sob, and her eyes filled with tears. Far down the harbour
+      she could see the sails of the <i>Policy</i> just disappearing round a
+      wooded headland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour or so after breakfast, as Dolly was at work among her flowers, the
+      tall figure of Sergeant Burt stood before her, and saluted&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The <i>Policy</i> has sailed, Miss Scarsbrook,&rdquo; said the Sergeant, &ldquo;and I
+      have brought you a letter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; said Dolly, with an air of icy indifference, turning her back
+      upon the soldier, and digging her trowel into a little heap of soil. &ldquo;I do
+      not take any interest in merchant ships, and do not want the letter.&rdquo; When
+      she glanced round again she was just in time to see Sergeant Burt standing
+      in the roadway with a lot of tiny pieces of paper fluttering about his
+      feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something impelled her to ask: &ldquo;What are you doing, Burt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Foster's orders, Miss. Told me if you would not take the letter I was
+      to destroy it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly laid her trowel down and slowly went to her room &ldquo;with a bad
+      headache,&rdquo; as she told her mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Nearly two years went by, and then one morning the look-out at the South
+      Head of Sydney Harbour signalled a vessel to the north-east, and a few
+      hours later the <i>Policy</i> was again at anchor in Sydney Cove, and
+      Captain Foster was being warmly welcomed by the residents generally and
+      Dolly's father in particular, who pressed him to come ashore that evening
+      to dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the first to board the <i>Policy</i> was Sergeant Burt, who, as soon
+      as the others had left, was in deep converse with Captain Foster. &ldquo;I'm
+      sure she meant to take your letter, Mr. Foster,&rdquo; he said finally, &ldquo;and
+      that I was too quick in tearing it up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll soon know, Burt; I'll try again this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Commissary's dinner that evening Dolly met him with a charming
+      smile and cheeks suffused; and then, after Captain Foster had narrated the
+      incidents of his successful whaling voyage, her parents discreetly left
+      them to themselves in the garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dolly! I am a rough, uncultured sailor. Will you therefore forgive me my
+      rudeness when we last parted?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course. I have forgotten it long ago, and I am very sorry we parted
+      bad friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You make me very happy, Dolly. I have been speaking to your mother, and
+      she has told me that she thinks you do care for me, Is it so? May I again&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Captain Foster, why cannot we be friends without&mdash;without
+      anything else. I will not pretend that I do not understand your meaning,
+      but I tell you, once and for all, I don't want to be married. Really,&rdquo; and
+      she smiled brightly, &ldquo;you are as bad as Mr. Portveldt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Miss Dorothy,&rdquo; said Foster with annoying equanimity, &ldquo;I won't
+      allude to the subject again. But what has the Dutchman been doing? Where
+      is he now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly laughed merrily. &ldquo;Oh, Captain Foster, I really have no right to show
+      you this letter, but it is so very amusing that I cannot help doing so,&rdquo;
+       and she took a letter from her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he has been writing to you, has he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now don't speak in that bullying manner, sir, or I shall not let you hear
+      its contents.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Dolly; but how came you to get the letter? We are at war with
+      the Dutch Settlements now, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the amusing part of it. Now listen, and I will read it to you;&rdquo;
+       and Dolly spread out a large sheet of paper, and read aloud in mimicking
+      tones&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mein dear Mees Dolly,&mdash;You did vant ein loafer who could vight vor
+      his coundry, and vould haf no man who vas yoost ein merchant. Very goot. I
+      mineself now command the privateer <i>Swift</i>, vich vas used to be
+      sailing in gompany mit <i>La Brave</i> und <i>La Mouche</i> in der service
+      of der French Republic, und did den vight und beat all der Anglische ships
+      in der Anglische Channel. Id is drue dot your <i>La Minerve</i> did by
+      shance von tay capture der <i>Swift</i>, and sold her to the American
+      beoples, but our Batavian merchants did buy her from them, und now I haf
+      god de command. Und now dot your goundrymens do annoys der Deutsche
+      Settlements in our Easd Indies, ve do mean to beat dem every dimes ve
+      cadgh dem in dese zees. Und I do send mein ledder to you, mein tear Mees
+      Dorotee, by der greasy old vale-ship <i>Mary Ann</i>, yoost to led you
+      know dot I haf not vorgotten you mid your bride eye. Und ven I haf
+      gaptured all der Anglische ships in der East Indies I vill sail mein <i>Swift</i>
+      to Sydney and claim you vor mein vrau, und do you nod be vrightened. I
+      vill dake care dot you und your beople shall not be hurt, because I do
+      loaf you ferry mooch. Der master of der <i>Mary Ann</i> vill dell you I
+      vas ferry goot to him for your sake. I did but take his gargo, and did
+      give him und his grew liberdy to go to Sydney und dake this letter to you,
+      mein vrau, in der dime to gom, as I did dell him.&mdash;I remain your
+      loafing Richard Portveldt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster jumped to his feet &ldquo;The rascally Dutch swab, to dare to&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To dare to write to me,&rdquo; said Dolly laughingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To dare to write to you! To suppose for one moment that you&mdash;oh, d&mdash;&mdash;
+      the fellow! If I come across him, I'll&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But all the same, he's very brave,&rdquo; said Dolly demurely; &ldquo;he is fighting
+      for his country, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boasting fool!&rdquo; ejaculated Foster contemptuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he <i>is</i> captain of the <i>Swift</i>, and the <i>Swift</i> <i>did</i>
+      beat some of the English ships. I have heard my father say that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes. Three privateers did manage to cut off some of our little
+      despatch vessels in the Channel; but this fat Dutchman, Portveldt, had no
+      hand in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this 'fat Duchman, Portveldt, <i>did</i> capture the <i>Mary Ann</i>,
+      and her master <i>did</i> give me this letter, and&mdash;and I was <i>so</i>
+      angry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The master of the <i>Mary Ann</i> must have been a fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so&mdash;for merely executing a commission? But wait, there is a
+      postscript that will interest you particularly. Now listen while I read
+      it,&rdquo; and Dolly, again mimicking Portveldt's English, read&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dell dot oncivil yong mans Voster who vas dell me to go to ter tuyvel,
+      dot I vill sendt der <i>Bolicy</i> und her master mit der grew to der
+      tuyvel if he gomes mein vay mit his zeep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Captain Foster, what do you think of that, pray?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very pretty talk; what do <i>you</i> think of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm only a poor little woman; but if I were a man I would&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly so, Dolly. Well, I am a man, and the <i>Policy</i> has brought a
+      letter of marque with her from England this time, and so I may meet&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Captain Foster!&rdquo; and Dolly's eyes brightened, &ldquo;I <i>am</i> glad; but&mdash;but&mdash;<i>please</i>,
+      for my sake, don't get killed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A fortnight later, when Foster bade Dolly goodbye for another six months,
+      she told him softly that she would be glad&mdash;oh, so very glad!&mdash;to
+      hear news of him. A whaling voyage was so very dangerous, and he might get
+      hurt or killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this time, as the <i>Policy</i> sailed and Foster saw Dolly waving to
+      him from the steps of the Commissary's office, he felt pretty sure that
+      the letter of marque had advanced his suit considerably.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Fourteen days out from Sydney the <i>Policy</i> took her first whale,
+      greatly to the delight of old Stevenson and the crew, who looked upon such
+      early luck as a certain indication of a good cruise. After &ldquo;trying-out&rdquo;
+       Foster kept on to the northward to the sperm-whaling grounds in the
+      Moluccas. Three days later they spoke the <i>Endicott</i>, of Nantucket,
+      whose captain gave Foster a kindly warning not to go cruising further
+      north, for there were several Batavian privateers looking out for the
+      English whalers that were then due on the cruising ground. Then the
+      American wished him luck and goodbye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Stevenson's face fell; then he swore. &ldquo;I suppose we have to turn tail,
+      sir, and try what we can do to the southward and I believe we'd be a full
+      ship in three months or less up in the Moluccas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I, and I'm going there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it's dangerous waters, sir; we don't want to lose the ship and rot in
+      prison in Batavia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Stevenson, I am an Englishman, and Hurry Brothers did not get a
+      letter of marque for this ship for nothing. You ought to know that to turn
+      back means an empty ship. It is our duty to go to our proper cruising
+      ground and cruise till we are a full ship; and all the infernal Dutchmen
+      in the world mustn't frighten us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good, sir,&rdquo; said the old mate cheerfully, &ldquo;but, all the same, I
+      don't want us to get served like that fellow Portveldt served the old <i>Mary
+      Ann</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another five weeks passed. So far, &ldquo;greasy&rdquo; luck had attended the <i>Policy</i>
+      for she had taken sixteen more sperm whales, the last of which was killed
+      in about 8° S. and 120° E., in the Flores Sea. But misfortune had come
+      upon the ship in other respects, and Foster was in no small anxiety about
+      his crew, nearly all of whom were ill from lead-poisoning. This had been
+      brought about by drinking water from leaden tanks in which oil had once
+      been stored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bright look-out was kept, for the ship was now right in the spot where
+      it was likely she might meet with the Dutch privateers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Stevenson's watch, and as he walked the poop he stopped suddenly,
+      for the look-out reported a sail to the W.S.W. Foster came on deck at once
+      and went aloft In a quarter of an hour it was evident that the stranger
+      bore towards them. The wind was south-east, and very little of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do?&rdquo; asked the mate. &ldquo;I fancy this is one of the
+      Dutchmen who are on the look-out for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I,&rdquo; answered Foster, &ldquo;I'll tell you what I am going to do: brace
+      sharp up on the larboard tack and run down to her. I am not going to run
+      away from <i>one</i> infernal Dutchman, and I can only see one of 'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're captain of the ship, and you can do as you please; but I am hanged
+      if I think you'll pull it off this time. Half the crew are sick, and this
+      fellow looks as if he meant fighting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All hands on deck; starboard forebrace!&rdquo; was all the answer Foster made.
+      Then he went to the signal locker, and getting out the American ensign,
+      with his own hands ran it up to the peak, hoping by this means to get
+      close enough to the other ship to prevent <i>her</i> from running away
+      from a fight, if the captain should turn out not one of the fighting sort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the sails were trimmed the skipper walked to the break of the
+      poop, and, with the air of a captain of a seventy-four, gave the order,
+      &ldquo;Clear ship for action!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the mate ventured to remark that half of the guns were down below on
+      the 'tween decks, where they had been put out of the way for the generally
+      peaceful occupation of whaling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, get 'm up. What the devil do you think I mean by clearing for
+      action?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, the six-pounders were hoisted upon deck and quickly mounted,
+      what little powder and shot the <i>Policy</i> carried was brought into a
+      handy place, and the mate, with something of a smile, reported, &ldquo;Ship
+      cleared for action, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good, Mr. Stevenson. Now, my lads, I reckon this ship is one of the
+      Dutch fleet sent to clear us whalers out of these seas. Well, as he seems
+      to be alone, I think we have a fair chance of turning the tables upon him.
+      Anyhow, I am going to try. I know some of you are pretty sick, but I am
+      sure that a crew of English sailors, even when they are sick, can lick
+      twice their number of muddle-headed Dutchmen any day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In those days, British ships were manned by British seaman, and Captain
+      Foster could talk like this without saying anything offensive to the
+      British merchant service. Nowadays such an observation about &ldquo;Dutchmen&rdquo;
+       would be a personal insult to four-fifths of the crew of a British
+      merchant ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men, including the mate, received the speech with a cheer, and one of
+      them sang out &ldquo;Haul down the Stars and Stripes. We don't want to fight
+      under that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To which Captain Foster, who knew what he was about, merely replied, &ldquo;I am
+      not a fool!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards the close of the afternoon the ships were within gunshot of each
+      other, and the Dutchman ran up his colours. As they drew closer, the
+      foreign skipper's glass showed him the nationality of the <i>Policy</i>
+      and he at once opened fire upon her with one of his six eighteen-pounders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the shot hummed overhead between the <i>Policy's</i> fore and main
+      masts, down came the American colours and up went the British ensign, and
+      at the same moment Foster fired such of his guns as bore upon the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the report of the guns had died away, Foster sprang into one of
+      his quarter-boats and hailed the other ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ship ahoy!&rdquo; he roared &ldquo;why do you fire at me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, ha! I know you,&rdquo; came back in mocking tones. &ldquo;Now vill I sendt you to
+      der tuyvel, you greasy valer mans. I am Captain Portveldt, und dis is der
+      <i>Swift</i>. Vill you surrunder, or vill I smash you to beices?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For answer, Foster, who had now come very close to his enemy, fired his
+      tiny broadside, his men, sick as they were running cheerfully from the
+      guns to the braces to manoeuvre the Polity clear of the privateer's fire,
+      and then back again to the guns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun had now set, but far into the darkness of the tropical night the
+      running fight continued, Foster always out-manouvring the Dutchman, and
+      the crews of both vessels, when they closed near enough to be heard,
+      cursing and mocking at each other. Owing to the darkness and the extremely
+      bad gunnery on both sides, little blood was spilt, and the damage done was
+      mostly confined to the sails and rigging. Now and then a eighteen-pound
+      shot hulled the <i>Policy</i>, and one went clean through her amidships.
+      Suddenly, for some cause or other, about midnight, a light was shown in
+      the privateer's stern, and Foster's second mate at once sent a lucky shot
+      at it, with the result that the six-pound ball so damaged the <i>Swift's</i>
+      rudder that she became unmanageable. And then, a few minutes later,
+      another shot dismounted one of her guns by striking it on the muzzle, and
+      ere the Dutchman's crew knew what was happening, a final broadside from
+      the whaler brought down her two topsails and did other damage aloft. That
+      practically ended the battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So thought Captain Portveldt, who now hailed the <i>Policy</i> in not
+      quite so boastful a voice as when the vessels met earlier in the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Voster, I haf hauled down mein flag. Mein grew will vight no
+      more, and I must surrender.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A cheer broke from the whaler's crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Captain Portveldt,&rdquo; called out Foster; &ldquo;lower a boat, and come
+      on board with half your crew. But don't try on any boarding tricks, or you
+      will be the worse for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The meeting between the two skippers, notwithstanding the cause, was
+      good-humoured enough, for Portveldt, apart from his boastfulness, was not
+      a bad fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Veil, Captain Voster,&rdquo; he said as he stepped on board the <i>Policy's</i>
+      deck, followed by his big boatswain (who was wounded in the face by a
+      splinter) and half his crew, &ldquo;you haf broved der besd mans; und now I
+      suppose you vill lead me like a liddle dog mit a sdring, und dake me to
+      Sydney und make vun mit der young lady about me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; answered Foster, &ldquo;I am not so bad as all that Come below and
+      have a glass of grog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      At daylight one morning some weeks later two ships appeared in sight off
+      Sydney Heads. Those who were on the look-out were alarmed, for it was seen
+      that both vessels were armed, and it was conjectured that the ships must
+      be part of an enemy's squadron which had determined to make an attack upon
+      the settlement of Port Jackson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a very short time an excited crowd gathered together along the line of
+      cliffs of the outer South Head, each one asking his fellow what was to be
+      done. Horsemen carried the news into Sydney, and every moment fresh
+      numbers arrived to swell the crowd of spectators on the cliffs. A strange
+      sight they must have presented, comprising, as they did, all sorts and
+      conditions of men&mdash;settlers, naval and military officers, soldiers of
+      the New South Wales Regiment, and a number of the better class of
+      convicts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course the Deputy Acting Assistant Commissary-General was among the
+      officers anxiously watching the ships from the heights that overlooked the
+      harbour, and with him were Dolly and her mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Dolly, catching sight of her father's anxious face, began to
+      cry, and turned to her mother. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she said &ldquo;it has all come true, and
+      he has come to destroy the settlement!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has come true, and who is going to destroy the settlement?&rdquo; said her
+      father sharply. And then Dolly, feeling very frightened and miserable,
+      told him of Portveldt's letter, the receipt of which she had concealed
+      from every one but Foster. The D.A.A.C.G. laughed at first, but then
+      added, &ldquo;but all the same, though 'twas but empty bluster, I had better
+      tell his Excellency about it; it is just possible that the Dutch have
+      planned an expedition against us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At half-past ten, in response to a signal made from the look-out at South
+      Head by the officer in charge there, his Excellency Governor King sent
+      Lieutenant Houston, of his Majesty's ship <i>Investigator,</i> then
+      anchored in Sydney Cove, to the naval officer in command at South Head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>Investigator</i> was Flinders' ship, the gallant old tub of 334
+      tons which surveyed a great part of the northern coast, and was at the
+      time of which we write lying rotting in Sydney, condemned after completing
+      her second voyage of discovery in June, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Governor was told of Dolly's letter, but he was not the man to
+      take fright at the approach of the enemy, although he had no defence force
+      as it is now understood in New South Wales, nor had he a gold-laced staff
+      of officers with elaborate &ldquo;defence schemes&rdquo; against possible raids of
+      Japanese or Russians by way of Exmouth Gulf or Port Darwin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that year Governer King's force did not take long to be marshalled. The
+      drums beat to arms, and the New South Wales Corps and the Loyal
+      Association immediately formed into line on the shores of the Cove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At eleven o'clock a trooper arrived at Government House with intelligence
+      that one of the vessels appeared under British colours, and the other was
+      flying a Union Jack triumphant over a Dutch Jack. Following this message
+      there soon came another, bringing the certain intelligence that one of the
+      ships was an English whaler bringing into port her Batavian prize. So on
+      receipt of this news, and just as the word to march was about to be given,
+      the officer in command ordered his force to return to barracks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At two in the afternoon, with the whole of the settlement agog with
+      excitement, the two vessels sailed slowly up the harbour before a light
+      northeast breeze, and came to anchor in Sydney Cove, close to the <i>Investigator,</i>
+      on board of which ship the Governor and a number of naval officers awaited
+      their arrival. For once discipline was relaxed, and Captain King had
+      good-naturedly permitted the townspeople to throng on board to learn all
+      the news about the <i>Policy's</i> prize. As Captain Foster made his way
+      to the quarter-deck, he saw that behind the Governor and his staff were
+      Dolly and her parents and several ladies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a very few minutes he made his report, and the Governor again shook his
+      hand warmly; but the look in Dolly's eyes and the pressure of her hand
+      were the young seaman's sweetest reward, for it told him that she had
+      surrendered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, returning to his own ship, he was warmly greeted by Sergeant Burt,
+      and for a few moments the two remained talking in the whaler's cabin.
+      Then, just as Foster was ready to go ashore, Mr. Scarsbrook, who had been
+      inspecting the captured privateer, came on board, bringing Dolly with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst they were all chatting merrily together Captain Portveldt made his
+      appearance, and with the most perfect <i>sang-froid</i> saluted Dolly and
+      her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Veil, Mees Dorotee, you see I have gome back, at der bressing invidadion
+      of mein goot friendt, Captain Voster here, und I do vish him mit you
+      blendy of habbiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Dolly, who at first meant to meet him with a sarcastic little speech,
+      felt her eyes fill with tears at the manly way in which he bore his
+      misfortune, and could only falter out some few words of consolation. Then
+      there was a Prize Court, and&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Charles Sparrow Foster, commander of the whaler and letter of marque
+      called the <i>Policy</i>, presented to the Court a memorial stating his
+      capture of the <i>Swift</i> on the 12th day of September, off the island
+      of Flores, she being under Dutch colours... and the property of subjects
+      of a Power at war with his Britannic Majesty, and praying also that the
+      Court would be pleased to grant an award of condemnation in his favour in
+      order that the said prize should be for the advantage of himself, his
+      owners, and his ship's company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      and the Court having heard confirmatory evidence from Richard Portveldt, a
+      subject of the Batavian Republic, to the effect&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That he commanded the <i>Swift</i>; that everything on board of her was
+      Dutch property, and she belonged to Messrs. Winy and Talman, of Batavia,
+      and himself, all of whom were residents of Batavia, who purchased her for
+      the sum of 18,000 dols.: that she was taken up by the Dutch East India
+      Company at Batavia; and was on her way thither when she was captured by
+      the <i>Policy</i>, &amp;c.&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      accordingly condemned the prize, which was advertised in the <i>Sydney
+      Gazette</i> for sale by auction, Mr. Lord, the auctioneer, setting forth
+      that he would sell&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At his warehouse, Sydney, at noon precisely, the 3rd of November, the
+      good ship <i>Swift</i>, prize to <i>Policy</i>, Charles Foster, commander.
+      French built in the year 1800. Was condemned a prize to his Majesty's ship
+      <i>La Minerva</i>, and sold in 1801 to the Americans, as appears by the
+      bill of sale, and by them sold to the Dutch at Batavia, where she was
+      examined, copper-bolted, and new coppered in August, 1802. It is
+      unnecessary to say anything respecting the properties of the <i>Swift</i>
+      further than that she was the companion of <i>La Brave</i> and <i>La
+      Mouche</i>, which so very much harassed the British in Europe, and set all
+      our cruisers at defiance until her capture, prior to which she was justly
+      celebrated as the fastest sailing-vessel the French Republic had.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prize was knocked down for £3,000, and Captain Foster's share was
+      spent in a handsome wedding present for Dolly, which, at her particular
+      request, took the form of a passage to Batavia and a hundred guineas
+      delivered to Captain Portveldt immediately after the marriage ceremony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>