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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard Carvel, Volume 4, by Winston Churchill
+
+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: Richard Carvel, Volume 4
+
+Author: Winston Churchill
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2004 [EBook #5368]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, VOLUME 4 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+RICHARD CARVEL
+
+By Winston Churchill
+
+
+Volume 4.
+
+
+XIX.   A Man of Destiny
+XX.    A Sad Home-coming
+XXI.   The Gardener's Cottage
+XXII.  On the Road
+XXIII. London Town
+XXIV.  Castle Yard
+XXV.   The Rescue
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A MAN OF DESTINY
+
+I was picked up and thrown into the brigantine's long-boat with a head
+and stomach full of salt water, and a heart as light as spray with the
+joy of it all. A big, red-bearded man lifted my heels to drain me.
+
+"The mon's deid," said he.
+
+"Dead!" cried I, from the bottom-board. "No more dead than you!"
+
+I turned over so lustily that he dropped my feet, and I sat up, something
+to his consternation. And they had scarce hooked the ship's side when I
+sprang up the sea-ladder, to the great gaping of the boat's crew, and
+stood with the water running off me in rivulets before the captain
+himself. I shall never forget the look of his face as he regarded my
+sorry figure.
+
+"Now by Saint Andrew," exclaimed he, "are ye kelpie or pirate?"
+
+"Neither, captain," I replied, smiling as the comical end of it came up
+to me, "but a young gentleman in misfortune."
+
+"Hoots!" says he, frowning at the grinning half-circle about us, "it's
+daft ye are--"
+
+But there he paused, and took of me a second sizing. How he got at my
+birth behind my tangled mat of hair and wringing linsey-woolsey I know
+not to this day. But he dropped his Scotch and merchant-captain's
+manner, and was suddenly a French courtier, making me a bow that had done
+credit to a Richelieu.
+
+"Your servant, Mr.--"
+
+"Richard Carvel, of Carvel Hall, in his Majesty's province of Maryland."
+
+He seemed sufficiently impressed.
+
+"Your very humble servant, Mr. Carvel. 'Tis in faith a privilege to be
+able to serve a gentleman."
+
+He bowed me toward his cabin, and then in sharp, quick tones he gave an
+order to his mate to get under way, and I saw the men turning to the
+braces with wonder in their eyes. My own astonishment was as great. And
+so, with my clothes sucking to my body and a trail of water behind me
+like that of a wet walrus, I accompanied the captain aft. His quarters
+were indeed a contrast to those of Griggs, being so neat that I paused at
+the door for fear of profaning them; but was so courteously bid to enter
+that I came on again. He summoned a boy from the round house.
+
+"William," said he, "a bottle of my French brandy. And my compliments to
+Mr. MacMuir, and ask him for a suit of clothes. You are a larger man
+than I, Mr. Carvel," he said to me, "or I would fit you out according to
+your station."
+
+I was too overwhelmed to speak. He poured out a liberal three fingers of
+brandy, and pledged me as handsomely as I had been an admiral come
+thither in mine own barge, instead of a ragged lad picked off a piratical
+slaver, with nothing save my bare word and address. 'Twas then I had
+space to note him more particularly. His skin was the rich colour of a
+well-seasoned ship's bell, and he was of the middle height, owned a
+slight, graceful figure, tapering down at the waist like a top, which had
+set off a silk coat to perfection and soured the beaus with envy. His
+movements, however, had all the decision of a man of action and of force.
+But his eye it was took possession of me--an unfathomable, dark eye,
+which bore more toward melancholy than sternness, and yet had something
+of both. He wore a clean, ruffled shirt, an exceeding neat coat and
+breeches of blue broadcloth, with plate burnished buttons, and white
+cotton stockings. Truly, this was a person to make one look twice, and
+think oftener. Then, as I went to pledge him, I, too, was caught for his
+name.
+
+"Paul," said he; "John Paul, of the brigantine John, of Kirkcudbright, in
+the West India trade."
+
+"Captain Paul--" I began. But my gratitude stuck fast in my throat and
+flowed out of my eyes. For the thought of the horrors from which he had
+saved me for the first time swept over me; his own kind treatment
+overcame me, and I blubbered like a child. With that he turned his back.
+
+"Hoots," says he, again, "dinna ye thank me. 'Tis naething to scuttle a
+nest of vermin, but the duty of ilka man who sails the seas." By this,
+having got the better of his emotion, he added: "And if it has been my
+good fortune to save a gentleman, Mr. Carvel, I thank God for it, as you
+must."
+
+Save for a slackness inside the leg and in the hips, Macbluir's clothes
+fitted me well enough, and presently I reappeared in the captain's cabin
+rigged out in the mate's shore suit of purplish drab, and brass-buckled
+shoes that came high over the instep, with my hair combed clear and tied
+with a ribbon behind. I felt at last that I might lay some claim to
+respectability. And what was my surprise to find Captain Paul buried to
+his middle in a great chest, and the place strewn about with laced and
+broidered coats and waistcoats, frocks and Newmarkets, like any tailor's
+shop in Church Street. So strange they looked in those tropical seas
+that he was near to catching me in a laugh as he straightened up. 'Twas
+then I noted that he was a younger man than I had taken him for.
+
+"You gentlemen from the southern colonies are too well nourished, by
+far," says he; "you are apt to be large of chest and limb. 'Odds bods,
+Mr. Carvel, it grieves me to see you apparelled like a barber surgeon.
+If the good Lord had but made you smaller, now," and he sighed, "how well
+this skyblue frock had set you off."
+
+"Indeed, I am content, and more, captain," I replied with a smile,
+"and thankful to be safe amongst friends. Never, I assure you,
+have I had less desire for finery."
+
+"Ay," said he, "you may well say that, you who have worn silk all your
+life, and will the rest of it, and we get safe to port. But believe me,
+sir, the pleasure of seeing one of your face and figure in such a coat as
+that would not be a small one."
+
+And disregarding my blushes and protests, he held up the watchet blue
+frock against me, and it was near fitting me but for my breadth,--the
+skirts being prodigiously long. I wondered mightily what tailor had
+thrust this garment upon him; its fashion was of the old king's time,
+the cuffs slashed like a sea-officer's uniform, and the shoulders made
+carefully round. But other thoughts were running within me then.
+
+"Captain," I cut in, "you are sailing eastward."
+
+"Yes, yes," he answered absently, fingering some Point d'Espagne.
+
+"There is no chance of touching in the colonies?" I persisted.
+
+"Colonies! No," said he, in the same abstraction; "I am making for the
+Solway, being long overdue. But what think you of this, Mr. Carvel?"
+
+And he held up a wondrous vellum-hole waistcoat of a gone-by vintage,
+and I saw how futile it were to attempt to lead him, while in that state
+of absorption, to topics which touched my affair. Of a sudden the
+significance of what he had said crept over me, the word Solway repeating
+itself in my mind. That firth bordered England itself, and Dorothy was
+in London! I became reconciled. I had no particle of objection to the
+Solway save the uneasiness my grandfather would come through, which was
+beyond helping. Fate had ordered things well.
+
+Then I fell to applauding, while the captain tried on (for he was not
+content with holding up) another frock of white drab, which, cuffs and
+pockets, I'll take my oath mounted no less than twenty-four: another
+plain one of pink cut-velvet; tail-coats of silk, heavily broidered with
+flowers, and satin waistcoats with narrow lace. He took an inconceivable
+enjoyment out of this parade, discoursing the while, like a nobleman with
+nothing but dress in his head, or, perhaps, like a mastercutter, about
+the turn of this or that lapel, the length from armpit to fold, and the
+number of button-holes that was proper. And finally he exhibited with
+evident pride a pair of doeskins that buttoned over the calf to be worn
+with high shoes, which I make sure he would have tried on likewise had he
+been offered the slightest encouragement. So he exploited the whole of
+his wardrobe, such an unlucky assortment of finery as I never wish to see
+again; all of which, however, became him marvellously, though I think he
+had looked well in anything. I hope I may be forgiven the perjury I did
+that day. I wondered greatly that such a foible should crop out in a man
+of otherwise sound sense and plain ability.
+
+At length, when the last chest was shut again and locked, and I had
+exhausted my ingenuity at commendation, and my patience also, he turned
+to me as a man come out of a trance.
+
+"Od's fish, Mr. Carvel," he cried, "you will be starved. I had forgot
+your state."
+
+I owned that hunger had nigh overcome me, whereupon he became very
+solicitous, bade the boy bring in supper at once, and in a short time we
+sat down together to the best meal I had seen for a month. It seemed
+like a year. Porridge, and bacon nicely done, and duff and ale, with the
+sea rushing past the cabin windows as we ate, touched into colour by the
+setting sun. Captain Paul did not mess with his mates, not he, and he
+gave me to understand that I was to share his cabin, apologizing
+profusely for what he was pleased to call poor fare. He would have
+it that he, and not I, were receiving favour.
+
+"My dear sir," he said once, "you cannot know what a bit of finery is to
+me, who has so little chance for the wearing of it. To discuss with a
+gentleman, a connoisseur (I know a bit of French, Mr. Carvel), is a
+pleasure I do not often come at."
+
+His simplicity in this touched me; it was pathetic.
+
+"How know you I am a gentleman, Captain Paul?" I asked curiously.
+
+"I should lack discernment, sir," he retorted, with some heat, "if I
+could not see as much. Breeding shines through sack-cloth, sir.
+Besides," he continued, in a milder tone, "the look of you is candour
+itself. Though I have not greatly the advantage of you in age, I have
+seen many men, and I know that such a face as yours cannot lie."
+
+Here Mr. Lowrie, the second mate, came in with a report; and I remarked
+that he stood up hat in hand whilst making it, very much as if Captain
+Paul commanded a frigate. The captain went to a locker and brought forth
+some mellow Madeira, and after the mate had taken a glass of it standing,
+he withdrew. Then we lighted pipes and sat very cosey with a lanthorn
+swung between us, and Captain Paul expressed a wish to hear my story.
+
+I gave him my early history briefly, dwelling but casually upon the
+position enjoyed in Maryland by my family; but I spoke of my grandfather,
+now turning seventy, gray-haired in the service of King and province.
+The captain was indeed a most sympathetic listener, now throwing in a
+question showing keen Scotch penetration, and anon making a most
+ludicrous inquiry as to the dress livery our footmen wore, and whether
+Mr. Carvel used outriders when he travelled abroad. This was the other
+side of the man. As the wine warmed and the pipe soothed, I spoke at
+length of Grafton and the rector; and when I came to the wretched
+contrivance by which they got me aboard the Black Moll, he was stalking
+hither and thither about the cabin, his fists clenched and his voice
+thick, breaking into Scotch again and vowing that hell were too good for
+such as they.
+
+His indignation, which seemed real and generous, transformed him into
+another man. He showered question after question upon me concerning my
+uncle and Mr. Allen; declared that he had known many villains, but had
+yet to hear of their equals; and finally, cooling a little, gave it as
+his judgment that the crime could never be brought home to them. This
+was my own opinion. He advised me, before we turned in, to "gie the
+parson a Grunt" as soon as ever I could lay hands upon him.
+
+
+The John made a good voyage for that season, with fair winds and clear
+skies for the most part. 'Twas a stout ship and a steady, with generous
+breadth of beam, and kept by the master as clean and bright as his
+porringer. He was Emperor aboard her. He spelt Command with a large C,
+and when he inspected, his jacks stood to attention like man-o'-war's
+men. The John mounting only four guns, and but two of them ninepounders,
+I expressed my astonishment that he had dared attack a pirate craft like
+the Black Moll, without knowing her condition and armament.
+
+"Richard," says he, impressively, for we had become very friendly, "I
+would close with a thirty-two and she flew that flag. Why, sir, a bold
+front is half the battle, using circumspection, of a course. A pretty
+woman, whatever her airs and quality, is to be carried the same way, and
+a man ought never to be frightened by appearances."
+
+Sometimes, at our meals, we discussed politics. But he seemed lukewarm
+upon this subject. He had told me that he had a brother William in
+Virginia, who was a hot Patriot. The American quarrel seemed to interest
+him very little. I should like to underscore this last sentence, my
+dears, in view of what comes after. What he said on the topic leaned
+perhaps to the King's side, tho' he was careful to say nothing that would
+give me offence. I was not surprised, for I had made a fair guess of his
+ambitions. It is only honest to declare that in my soberer moments my
+estimate of his character suffered. But he was a strange man,--a genius,
+as I soon discovered, to rouse the most sluggish nature to enthusiasm.
+
+The joy of sailing is born into some men, and those who are marked for
+the sea go down thither like the very streams, to be salted. Whatever
+the sign, old Stanwix was not far wrong when he read it upon me, and
+'twas no great while before I was part and parcel of the ship beneath my
+feet, breathing deep with her every motion. What feeling can compare
+with that I tasted when the brigantine lay on her side, the silver spray
+hurling over the bulwarks and stinging me to life! Or, in the watches,
+to hear the sea lashing along her strakes in never ending music! I gave
+MacMuir his shore suit again, and hugely delighted and astonished Captain
+Paul by donning a jacket of Scotch wool and a pair of seaman's boots, and
+so became a sailor myself. I had no mind to sit idle the passage, and
+the love of it, as I have said, was in me. In a fortnight I went aloft
+with the best of the watch to reef topsails, and trod a foot-rope without
+losing head or balance, bent an easing, and could lay hand on any lift,
+brace, sheet, or haulyards in the racks. John Paul himself taught me to
+tack and wear ship, and MacMuir to stow a headsail. The craft came to
+me, as it were, in a hand-gallop.
+
+At first I could make nothing of the crew, not being able to understand a
+word of their Scotch; but I remarked, from the first, that they were sour
+and sulky, and given to gathering in knots when the captain or MacMuir
+had not the deck. For Mr. Lowrie, poor man, they had little respect.
+But they plainly feared the first mate, and John Paul most of all. Of me
+their suspicion knew no bounds, and they would give me gruff answers, or
+none, when I spoke to them. These things roused both curiosity and
+foreboding within me.
+
+Many a watch I paced thro' with MacMuir, big and red and kindly, and I
+was not long in letting him know of the interest which Captain Paul had
+inspired within me. His own feeling for him was little short of
+idolatry. I had surmised much as to the rank of life from which the
+captain had sprung, but my astonishment was great when I was told that
+John Paul was the son of a poor gardener.
+
+"A gardener's son, Mr. MacMuir!" I repeated.
+
+"Just that," said he, solemnly, "a guid man an' haly' was auld Paul.
+Unco puir, by reason o' seven bairns. I kennt the daddie weel. I mak
+sma' doubt the captain'll tak ye hame wi' him, syne the mither an'
+sisters still be i' the cot i' Mr. Craik's croft."
+
+"Tell me, MacMuir," said I, "is not the captain in some trouble?"
+
+For I knew that something, whatever it was, hung heavy on John Paul's
+mind as we drew nearer Scotland. At times his brow would cloud and he
+would fall silent in the midst of a jest. And that night, with the stars
+jumping and the air biting cold (for we were up in the 40's), and the
+John wish-washing through the seas at three leagues the hour, MacMuir
+told me the story of Mungo Maxwell. You may read it for yourselves, my
+dears, in the life of John Paul Jones.
+
+"Wae's me!" he said, with a heave of his big chest, "I reca' as yestreen
+the night Maxwell cam aboord. The sun gaed loon a' bluidy, an' belyve
+the morn rose unco mirk an' dreary, wi' bullers (rollers) frae the west
+like muckle sowthers (soldiers) wi' white plumes. I tauld the captain
+'twas a' the faut o' Maxwell. I ne'er cad bide the blellum. Dour an'
+din he was, wi' ae girn like th' auld hornie. But the captain wadna
+hark to my rede when I tauld him naught but dool wad cooin o' taking
+Mungo."
+
+It seemed that John Paul, contrary to MacMuir's advice, had shipped as
+carpenter on the voyage out--near seven months since--a man by the name
+of Mungo Maxwell. The captain's motive had nothing in it but kindness,
+and a laudable desire to do a good turn to a playmate of his boyhood. As
+MacMuir said, "they had gaed barefit thegither amang the braes." The man
+hailed from Kirkbean, John Paul's own parish. But he had within him
+little of the milk of kindness, being in truth a sour and mutinous devil;
+and instead of the gratitude he might have shown, he cursed the fate that
+had placed him under the gardener's son, whom he deemed no better than
+himself. The John had scarce cleared the Solway before Maxwell showed
+signs of impudence and rebellion.
+
+The crew was three-fourths made of Kirkcudbright men who had known the
+master from childhood, many of them, indeed, being older than he; they
+were mostly jealous of Paul, envious of the command he had attained to
+over them, and impatient under the discipline he was ever ready to
+inflict. 'Tis no light task to enforce obedience from those with whom
+one has birdnested. But, having more than once felt the weight of his
+hand, they feared him.
+
+Dissatisfaction among such spreads apace, if a leader is but given; and
+Maxwell was such a one. His hatred for John Paul knew no bounds, and,
+having once tasted of his displeasure, he lay awake o' nights scheming to
+ruin him. And this was the plot: when the Azores should be in the wake,
+Captain Paul was to be murdered as he paced his quarterdeck in the
+morning, the two mates clapt into irons, and so brought to submission.
+And Maxwell, who had no more notion of navigation than a carpenter
+should, was to take the John to God knows where,--the Guinea coast,
+most probably. He would have no more navy regulations on a merchant
+brigantine, he promised them, nor banyan days, for the matter o' that.
+
+Happily, MacMuir himself discovered the affair on the eve of its
+perpetration, overhearing two men talking in the breadroom, and he ran to
+the cabin with the sweat standing out on his forehead. But the captain
+would have none of the precautions he urged; declared he would walk the
+deck as usual, and vowed he could cope single-handed with a dozen cowards
+like Maxwell. Sure enough, at crowdie-time, the men were seen coming
+aft, with Maxwell in the van carrying a bowl, on the pretext of a
+complaint against the cook.
+
+"John Paul," said MacMuir, with admiration in his voice and gesture,
+"John Paul wasna feart a pickle, but gaed to the mast, whyles I stannt
+chittering i' my claes, fearfu' for his life. He teuk the horns from
+Mungo, priet (tasted) a soup o' the crowdie, an' wi' that he seiz't haut
+o' the man by baith shouthers ere the blastie (scoundrel) raught for 's
+knife. My aith upo't, sir, the lave (rest) o' the batch cowert frae his
+e'e for a' the wand like thumpit tykes.'"
+
+So ended that mutiny, by the brave act of a brave man. The carpenter was
+clapt into irons himself, and given no less of the cat-o'-nine-tails than
+was good for him, and properly discharged at Tobago with such as had
+supported him. But he brought Captain Paul before the vice-admiralty
+court of that place, charging him with gross cruelty, and this proceeding
+had delayed the brigantine six months from her homeward voyage, to the
+great loss of her owners. And tho' at length the captain was handsomely
+acquitted, his character suffered unjustly, for there lacked not those
+who put their own interpretation upon the affair. He would most probably
+lose the brigantine. "He expected as much," said MacMuir.
+
+"There be mony aboord," he concluded, with a sigh, "as'll muckle
+gash (gossip) when we win to Kirkcudbright."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A SAD HOME-COMING
+
+Mr. Lowrie and Auctherlonnie, the Dumfries bo'sun, both of whom would
+have died for the captain, assured me of the truth of MacMuir's story,
+and shook their heads gravely as to the probable outcome. The peculiar
+water-mark of greatness that is woven into some men is often enough to
+set their own community bitter against them. Sandie, the plodding
+peasant, finds it a hard matter to forgive Jamie, who is taken from the
+plough next to his, and ends in Parliament. The affair of Mungo Maxwell,
+altered to suit, had already made its way on more than one vessel to
+Scotland. For according to Lowrie, there was scarce a man or woman in
+Kirkcudbrightshire who did not know that John Paul was master of the
+John, and (in their hearts) that he would be master of more in days to
+come. Human nature is such that they resented it, and cried out aloud
+against his cruelty.
+
+On the voyage I had many sober thoughts of my own to occupy me of the
+terrible fate, from which, by Divine inter position, I had been rescued;
+of the home I had left behind. I was all that remained to Mr. Carvel in
+the world, and I was sure that he had given me up for dead. How had he
+sustained the shock? I saw him heavily mounting the stairs upon Scipicks
+arm when first the news was brought to him. Next Grafton would come
+hurrying in from Kent to Marlboro Street, disavowing all knowledge of the
+messenger from New York, and intent only upon comforting his father. And
+when I pictured my uncle soothing him to his face, and grinning behind
+his bed-curtains, my anger would scald me, and the realization of my
+helplessness bring tears of very bitterness.
+
+What would I not have given then for one word with that honest and
+faithful friend of our family, Captain Daniel! I knew that he suspected
+Grafton: he had told me as much that night at the Coffee House. Perhaps
+the greatest of my fears was that my uncle would deny him access to Mr.
+Carvel when he returned from the North.
+
+In the evening, when the sun settled red upon the horizon, I would think
+of Patty and my friends in Gloucester Street. For I knew they missed me
+sadly of a Sunday at the supper-table. But it has ever been my nature to
+turn forward instead of back, and to accept the twists and flings of
+fortune with hope rather than with discouragement. And so, as we left
+league after, league of the blue ocean behind us, I would set my face to
+the forecastle. For Dorothy was in England.
+
+On a dazzling morning in March, with the brigantine running like a beagle
+in full cry before a heaping sea that swayed her body,--so I beheld for
+the first time the misty green of the high shores of Ireland. Ah! of
+what heroes' deeds was I capable as I watched the lines come out in bold
+relief from a wonderland of cloud! With what eternal life I seemed to
+tingle! 'Twas as though I, Richard Carvel, had discovered all this
+colour; and when a tiny white speck of a cottage came out on the edge of
+the cliff, I thought irresistibly of the joy to live there the year round
+with Dorothy, with the wind whistling about our gables, and the sea
+thundering on the rocks far below. Youth is in truth a mystery.
+
+How long I was gazing at the shifting coast I know not, for a strange
+wildness was within me that made me forget all else, until suddenly I
+became conscious of a presence at my side, and turned to behold the
+captain.
+
+"'Tis a braw sight, Richard," said he, "but no sae bonnie as auld
+Scotland. An' the wind hands, we shall see her shores the morn."
+
+His voice broke, and I looked again to see two great tears rolling upon
+his cheeks.
+
+"Ah, Scotland!" he pressed on, heedless of them, "God aboon kens what
+she is to me! But she hasna' been ower guid to me, laddie." And he
+walked to the taffrail, and stood looking astern that two men who had
+come aft to splice a haulyard might not perceive his disorder. I
+followed him, emboldened to speak at last what was in me.
+
+"Captain Paul," said I, "MacMuir has told me of your trouble. My
+grandfather is rich, and not lacking in gratitude,"--here I paused for
+suitable words, as I could not solve his expression,--"you, sir, whose
+bravery and charity will have restored me to him, shall not want for
+friends and money."
+
+He heard me through.
+
+"Mr. Carvel," he replied with an impressiveness that took me aback,
+"reward is a thing that should not be spoken of between gentlemen."
+
+And thus he left me, upbraiding myself that I should have mentioned
+money. And yet, I reflected secondly, why not? He was no more nor less
+than a master of a merchantman, and surely nothing was out of the common
+in such a one accepting what he had honestly come by. Had my affection
+for him been less sincere, had I not been racked with sympathy, I had
+laughed over his notions of gentility. I resolved, however, that when I
+had reached London and seen Mr. Dix, Mr. Carvel's agent, he should be
+rewarded despite his scruples. And if he lost his ship, he should have
+one of my grandfather's.
+
+But at dinner he had plainly forgot any offence, and I had more cause
+than ever to be puzzled over his odd mixture of confidence and aloofness.
+He talked gayly on a score of subjects,--on dress, of which he was never
+tired, and described ports in the Indies and South America, in a fashion
+that betrayed prodigious powers of acute observation; nor did he lack for
+wit when he spoke of the rich planters who had wined him, and had me much
+in laughter. We fell into a merry mood, in Booth, jingling the glasses
+in many toasts, for he had a list of healths to make me gasp, near as
+long as the brigantine's articles,--Inez in Havana and Maraquita in
+Cartagena, and Clotilde, the Creole, of Martinico, each had her separate
+charm. Then there was Bess, in Kingston, the relict of a customs
+official, Captain Paul relating with ingenuous gusto a midnight brush
+with a lieutenant of his Majesty, in which the fair widow figured, and
+showed her preference, too. But his adoration for the ladies of the more
+northern colonies, he would have me to understand, was unbounded. For
+example, Miss Arabella Pope of Norfolk, in Virginia,--and did I know her?
+No, I had not that pleasure, though I assured him the Popes of Virginia
+were famed. Miss Pope danced divinely as any sylph, and the very memory
+of her tripping at the Norfolk Assembly roused the captain to such a
+pitch of enthusiasm as I had never seen in him. Marvellous to say, his
+own words failed him, and he had recourse to the poets:
+
+          "Her feet beneath her petticoat
+          Like little mice stole in and out,
+          As if they feared the light;
+          But, oh, she dances such a way!
+          No sun upon an Easter-day
+          Is half so fine a sight."
+
+The lines, he told me, were Sir John Suckling's; and he gave them
+standing, in excellent voice and elegant gesture.
+
+He was in particular partial to the poets, could quote at will from Gay
+and Thomson and Goldsmith and Gray, and even from Shakespeare, much to my
+own astonishment and humiliation. Saving only Dr. Courtenay of Annapolis
+I had never met his equal for versatility of speech and command of fine
+language; and, having heard that he had been at sea since the age of
+twelve, I made bold to ask him at what school he had got his knowledge.
+
+"At none, Richard," he answered with pride, "saving the rudiments at the
+Parish School at Kirkbean. Why, sir, I hold it to be within every man's
+province to make himself what he will, and I early recognized in Learning
+the only guide for such as me. I may say that I married her for the
+furtherance of my fortunes, and have come to love her for her own sake.
+Many and many the 'tween-watch have I passed in a coil of rope in the
+tops, a volume of the classics in my hand. And 'my happiest days, when
+not at sea, have been spent in my brother William's little library. He
+hath a modest estate near Fredericksburg, in Virginia, and none holds
+higher than he the worth of an education. Ah, Richard," he added, with a
+certain sadness, "I fear you little know the value of that which hath
+been so lavishly bestowed upon you. There is no creation in the world to
+equal your fine gentleman!"
+
+It struck me indeed as strange that a man of his powers should set store
+by such trumpery, and, too, that these notions had not impaired his
+ability as a seaman. I did not reply. He gave no heed, however, but
+drew from a case a number of odes and compositions, which he told me were
+his own. They were addressed to various of his enamouritas, abounded in
+orrery, and were all, I make no doubt, incredibly fine, tho' not so much
+as one sticks in my mind. To speak truth I listened with a very ill
+grace, longing the while to be on deck, for we were about to sight the
+Isle of Man. The wine and the air of the cabin had made my eyes heavy.
+But presently, when he had run through with some dozen or more, he put
+them by, and with a quick motion got from his chair, a light coming into
+his dark eyes that startled me to attention. And I forgot the merchant
+captain, and seemed to be looking forward into the years.
+
+"Mark you, Richard," said he, "mark well when I say that my time will
+come, and a day when the best of them will bow to me. And every ell of
+that triumph shall be mine, sir,-ay, every inch!"
+
+Such was his force, which sprang from some hidden fire within him, that
+I believed his words as firmly as they had been writ down in the Book of
+Isaiah. Brimming over with enthusiasm, I pledged his coming greatness in
+a reaming glass of Malaga.
+
+"Alack," he cried, "an' they all had your faith, laddie, a fig for the
+prophecy! Ya maun ken th' incentive's the maist o' the battle."
+
+There was more of wisdom in this than I dreamed of then. Here lay hid
+the very keynote of that ambitious character: he stooped to nothing less
+than greatness for a triumph over his slanderers.
+
+I rose betimes the next morning to find the sun peeping above the wavy
+line of the Scottish hills far up the. Solway, and the brigantine
+sliding smoothly along in the lee of the Galloway Rhinns. And, though
+the month was March, the slopes of Burrow Head were green as the lawn of
+Carvel Hall in May, and the slanting rays danced on the ruffed water. By
+eight of the clock we had crept into Kirkcudbright Bay and anchored off
+St. Mary's Isle, the tide running ebb, and leaving a wide brown belt of
+sand behind it.
+
+St. Mary's Isle! As we looked upon it that day, John Paul and I, and it
+lay low against the bright water with its bare oaks and chestnuts against
+the dark pines, 'twas perhaps as well that the future was sealed to us.
+
+Captain Paul had conned the brigantine hither with a master's hand; but
+now that the anchor was on the ground, he became palpably nervous. I had
+donned again good MacMuir's shore suit, and was standing by the gangway
+when the captain approached me.
+
+"What'll ye be doing now, Dickie lad?" he asked kindly.
+
+What indeed! I was without money in a foreign port, still dependent upon
+my benefactor. And since he had declared his unwillingness to accept any
+return I was of no mind to go farther into his debt. I thanked him again
+for his goodness in what sincere terms I could choose, and told him I
+should be obliged if he would put me in the way of working my passage to
+London upon some coasting vessel. But my voice was thick, my affection
+for him having grown-past my understanding.
+
+"Hoots!" he replied, moved in his turn, "whyles I hae siller ye shallna
+lack. Ye maun gae post-chaise to London, as befits yere station."
+
+And scouting my expostulations, he commanded the longboat, bidding me be
+ready to go ashore with him. I had nothing to do but to say farewell to
+MacMuir and Lowrie and Auctherlonnie, which was hard enough. For the
+honest first mate I had a great liking, and was touched beyond speech
+when he enjoined me to keep his shore suit as long as I had want of it.
+
+"But you will be needing it, MacMuir," I said, suspecting he had no
+other.
+
+"Haith! I am but a plain man, Mr. Carvel, and ye can sen' back the claw
+frae London, wi' this geordie."
+
+He slipped a guinea into my hand, but this I positively refused to take;
+and to hide my feelings I climbed quickly over the side and into the
+stern of the boat, beside the captain, and was rowed away through the
+little fleet of cobles gathering about the ship. Twisting my neck for a
+parting look at the John, I caught a glimpse of MacMuir's ungainly
+shoulders over the fokesle rail, and I was near to tears as he shouted a
+hearty "God speed" after me.
+
+As we drew near the town of Kirkcudbright, which lies very low at the
+mouth of the river Dee, I made out a group of men and women on the
+wharves. The captain was silent, regarding them. When we had got within
+twenty feet or so of the landing, a dame in a red woollen kerchief called
+out:
+
+"What hae ye done wi' Mungo, John Paul?"
+
+"CAPTAIN John Paul, Mither Birkie," spoke up a coarse fellow with a rough
+beard. And a laugh went round.
+
+"Ay, captain! I'll captain him!" screamed the carlin, pushing to the
+front as the oars were tossed, "I'll tak aith Mr. Currie'll be captaining
+him for his towmond voyage o' piratin'. He be leukin' for ye noo, John
+Paul." With that some of the men on the thwarts, perceiving that matters
+were likely to go ill with the captain, began to chaff with their friends
+above. The respect with which he had inspired them, however, prevented
+any overt insult on their part. As for me, my temper had flared up like
+the burning of a loose charge of powder, and by instinct my right hand
+sought the handle of the mate's hanger. The beldame saw the motion.
+
+"An' hae ye murder't MacMuir, John Paul, an' gien's claw to a Buckskin
+gowk?"
+
+The knot stirred with an angry murmur: in truth they meant violence,
+--nothing less. But they had counted without their man, for Paul was born
+to ride greater crises. With his lips set in a line he stepped lightly
+out of the boat into their very midst, and they looked into his eyes to
+forget time and place. MacMuir had told me how those eyes could conquer
+mutiny, but I had not believed had I trot been thereto see the pack of
+them give back in sullen wonder. And so we walked through and on to the
+little street beyond, and never a word from the captain until we came
+opposite the sign of the Hurcheon."
+
+"Do you await me here, Richard," he said quite calmly; "I mast seek Mr.
+Currie, and make my report."
+
+I have still the remembrance of that pitiful day in the clean little
+village. I went into the inn and sat down upon an oak settle in a corner
+of the bar, under the high lattice, and thought of the bitterness of this
+home-coming. If I was amongst strangers, he was amongst worse: verily,
+to have one's own people set against one is heaviness of heart to a man
+whose love of Scotland was great as John Paul's. After a while the place
+began to fill, Willie and Robbie and Jamie arriving to discuss Paul's
+return over their nappy. The little I could make of their talk was not
+to my liking, but for the captain's sake I kept my anger under as best I
+could, for I had the sense to know that brawling with a lot of alehouse
+frequenters would not advance his cause. At length, however, came in the
+same sneering fellow I had marked on the wharf, calling loudly for swats.
+"Ay, Captain Paul was noo at Mr. Curries, syne banie Alan seed him gang
+forbye the kirk." The speaker's name, I learned, was Davie, and he had
+been talking with each and every man in the long-boat. Yes, Mungo
+Maxwell had been cat-o'-ninetailed within an inch of his life; and that
+was the truth; for a trifling offence, too; and cruelly discharged at
+some outlandish port because, forsooth, he would not accept the gospel
+of the divinity of Captain Paul. He would as soon sign papers with the
+devil.
+
+This Davie was gifted with a dangerous kind of humour which I have heard
+called innuendo, and he soon had the bar packed with listeners who
+laughed and cursed turn about, filling the room to a closeness scarce
+supportable. And what between the foul air and my resentment, and
+apprehension lest John Paul would come hither after me, I was in
+prodigious discomfort of body and mind. But there was no pushing my way
+through them unnoticed, wedged as I was in a far corner; so I sat still
+until unfortunately, or fortunately, the eye of Davie chanced to fall
+upon me, and immediately his yellow face lighted malignantly.
+
+"Oh! here be the gentleman the captain's brocht hame!" he cried,
+emphasizing the two words; "as braw a gentleman as eer taen frae pirates,
+an' nae doubt sin to ae bien Buckskin bonnet-laird."
+
+I saw through his game of getting satisfaction out of John Paul thro'
+goading me, and determined he should have his fill of it. For, all in
+all, he had me mad enough to fight three times over.
+
+"Set aside the gentleman," said I, standing up and taking off MacMuir's
+coat, "and call me a lubberly clout like yourself, and we will see which
+is the better clout." I put off the longsleeved jacket, and faced him
+with my fists doubled, crying: "I'll teach you, you spawn of a dunghill,
+to speak ill of a good man!"
+
+A clamour of "Fecht! fecht!" arose, and some of them applauded me,
+calling me a "swankie," which I believe is a compliment. A certain sense
+of fairness is often to be found where least expected. They capsized the
+fat, protesting browsterwife over her own stool, and were pulling Jamie's
+coat from his back, when I began to suspect that a fight was not to the
+sniveller's liking. Indeed, the very look of him made me laugh out
+--'twas now as mild as a summer's morn.
+
+"Wow," says Jamie, "ye maun fecht wi' a man o' yere ain size."
+
+"I'll lay a guinea that we weigh even," said I; and suddenly remembered
+that I had not so much as tuppence to bless me.
+
+Happily he did not accept the wager. In huge disgust they hustled him
+from the inn and put forward the blacksmith, who was standing at the door
+in his leather apron. Now I had not bargained with the smith, who seemed
+a well-natured enough man, and grinned broadly at the prospect. But they
+made a ring on the floor, I going over it at one end, and he at the
+other, when a cry came from the street, those about the entrance parted,
+and in walked John Paul himself. At sight of him my new adversary, who
+was preparing to deal me out a blow to fell an ox, dropped his arms in
+surprise, and held out his big hand.
+
+"Haith! John Paul," he shouted heartily, forgetting me, "'tis blythe I
+am to see yere bonnie face ance mair!
+
+"An' wha are ye, Jamie Darrell," said the captain, "to be bangin' yere
+betters? Dinna ye ken gentry when ye see't?"
+
+A puzzled look spread over the smith's grimy face.
+
+"Gentry!" says he; "nae gentry that I ken, John Paul. Th' fecht be but
+a bit o' fun, an' nane o' my seekin'."
+
+"What quarrel is this, Richard?" says John Paul to me.
+
+"In truth I have no quarrel with this honest man," I replied; "I desired
+but the pleasure of beating a certain evil-tongued Davie, who seems to
+have no stomach for blows, and hath taken his lies elsewhere."
+
+So quiet was the place that the tinkle of the guidwife's needle, which
+she had dropped to the flags, sounded clear to all. John Paul stood in
+the middle of the ring, erect, like a man inspired, and the same strange
+sense of prophecy that had stirred my blood crept over him and awed the
+rest, as tho' 'twere suddenly given to see him, not as he was, but as he
+would be. Then he spoke.
+
+"You, who are my countrymen, who should be my oldest and best friends,
+are become my enemies. You who were companions of my childhood are
+revilers of my manhood; you have robbed me of my good name and my honour,
+of my ship, of my very means of livelihood, and you are not content; you
+would rob me of my country, which I hold dearer than all. And I have
+never done you evil, nor spoken aught against you. As for the man
+Maxwell, whose part you take, his child is starving in your very midst,
+and you have not lifted your hands. 'Twas for her sake I shipped him,
+and none other. May God forgive you! He alone sees the bitterness in my
+heart this day. He alone knows my love for Scotland, and what it costs
+me to renounce her."
+
+He had said so much with an infinite sadness, and I read a response in
+the eyes of more than one of his listeners, the guidwife weeping aloud.
+But now his voice rose, and he ended with a fiery vigour.
+
+"Renounce her I do," he cried, "now and forevermore! Henceforth I am no
+countryman of yours. And if a day of repentance should come for this
+evil, remember well what I have said to you."
+
+They stood for a moment when he had finished, shifting uneasily, their
+tongues gone, like lads caught in a lie. I think they felt his greatness
+then, and had any one of them possessed the nobility to come forward with
+an honest word, John Paul might yet have been saved to Scotland. As it
+was, they slunk away in twos and threes, leaving at last only the good
+smith with us. He was not a man of talk, and the tears had washed the
+soot from his face in two white furrows.
+
+"Ye'll hae a waught wi' me afore ye gang, John," he said clumsily, "for
+th' morns we've paddl' 't thegither i' th' Nith."
+
+The ale was brought by the guidwife, who paused, as she put it down, to
+wipe her eyes with her apron. She gave John Paul one furtive glance and
+betook herself again to her knitting with a sigh, speech having failed
+her likewise. The captain grasped up his mug.
+
+"May God bless you, Jamie," he said.
+
+"Ye'll be gaen noo to see the mither," said Jamie, after a long space.
+
+"Ay, for the last time. An', Jamie, ye'll see that nae harm cams to her
+when I'm far awa'?"
+
+The smith promised, and also agreed to have John Paul's chests sent by
+wagon, that very day, to Dumfries. And we left him at his forge, his
+honest breast torn with emotion, looking after us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE GARDENER'S COTTAGE
+
+So we walked out of the village, with many a head craned after us and
+many an eye peeping from behind a shutter, and on into the open highway.
+The day was heavenly bright, the wind humming around us and playing mad
+pranks with the white cotton clouds, and I forgot awhile the pity within
+me to wonder at the orderly look of the country, the hedges with never a
+stone out of place, and the bars always up. The ground was parcelled off
+in such bits as to make me smile when I remembered our own wide tracts in
+the New World. Here waste was sin: with us part and parcel of a creed.
+I marvelled, too, at the primness and solidity of the houses along the
+road, and remarked how their lines belonged rather to the landscape than
+to themselves. But I was conscious ever of a strange wish to expand, for
+I felt as tho' I were in the land of the Liliputians, and the thought of
+a gallop of forty miles or so over these honeycombed fields brought me to
+a laugh. But I was yet to see some estates of the gentry.
+
+I had it on my tongue's tip to ask the captain whither he was taking me,
+yet dared not intrude on the sorrow that still gripped him. Time and
+time we met people plodding along, some of them nodding uncertainly,
+others abruptly taking the far side of the pike, and every encounter
+drove the poison deeper into his soul. But after we had travelled some
+way, up hill and down dale, he vouchsafed the intelligence that we were
+making for Arbigland, Mr. Craik's seat near Dumfries, which lies on the
+Nith twenty miles or so up the Solway from Kirkcudbright. On that estate
+stood the cottage where John Paul was born, and where his mother and
+sisters still dwelt.
+
+"I'll juist be saying guidbye, Richard," he said; "and leave them a bit
+siller I hae saved, an' syne we'll be aff to London thegither, for
+Scotland's no but a cauld kintra."
+
+"You are going to London with me?" I cried.
+
+"Ay," answered he; "this is hame nae mair for John Paul."
+
+I made bold to ask how the John's owners had treated him.
+
+"I have naught to complain of, laddie," he answered; "both Mr. Beck and
+Mr. Currie bore the matter of the admiralty court and the delay like the
+gentlemen they are. They well know that I am hard driven when I resort
+to the lash. They were both sore at losing me, and says Mr. Beck: I
+We'll not soon get another to keep the brigantine like a man-o'-war, as
+did you, John Paul.' I thanked him, and told him I had sworn never to
+take another merchantman out of the Solway. And I will keep that oath."
+
+He sighed, and added that he never hoped for better owners. In token of
+which he drew a certificate of service from his pocket, signed by Messrs.
+Currie and Beck, proclaiming him the best master and supercargo they had
+ever had in their service. I perceived that talk lightened him, and led
+him on. I inquired how he had got the 'John'.
+
+"I took passage on her from Kingston, laddie. On the trip both Captain
+Macadam and the chief mate died of the fever. And it was I, the
+passenger, who sailed her into Kirkcudbright, tho' I had never been more
+than a chief mate before. That is scarce three years gone, when I was
+just turned one and twenty. And old Mr. Currie, who had known my father,
+was so pleased that he gave me the ship. I had been chief mate of the
+'Two Friends', a slaver out of Kingston."
+
+"And so you were in that trade!" I exclaimed.
+
+He seemed to hesitate.
+
+"Yes," he replied, "and sorry I am to say it. But a man must live. It
+was no place for a gentleman, and I left of my own accord. Before that,
+I was on a slaver out of Whitehaven."
+
+"You must know Whitehaven, then."
+
+I said it only to keep the talk going, but I remembered the remark long
+after.
+
+"I do," said he. "'Tis a fair sample of an English coast town. And I
+have often thought, in the event of war with France, how easy 'twould be
+for Louis's cruisers to harry the place, and an hundred like it, and
+raise such a terror as to keep the British navy at home."
+
+I did not know at the time that this was the inspiration of an admiral
+and of a genius. The subject waned. And as familiar scenes jogged his
+memory, he launched into Scotch and reminiscence. Every barn he knew,
+and cairn and croft and steeple recalled stories of his boyhood.
+
+We had long been in sight of Criffel, towering ahead of us, whose summit
+had beckoned for cycles to Helvellyn and Saddleback looming up to the
+southward, marking the wonderland of the English lakes. And at length,
+after some five hours of stiff walking, we saw the brown Nith below us
+going down to meet the Solway, and so came to the entrance of Mr. Craik's
+place. The old porter recognized Paul by a mere shake of the head and
+the words, "Yere back, are ye?" and a lowering of his bushy white
+eyebrows. We took a by-way to avoid the manor-house, which stood on the
+rising ground twixt us and the mountain, I walking close to John Paul's
+shoulder and feeling for him at every step. Presently, at a turn of the
+path, we were brought face to face with an elderly gentleman in black,
+and John Paul stopped.
+
+"Mr. Craik!" he said, removing his hat.
+
+But the gentleman only whistled to his dogs and went on.
+
+"My God, even he!" exclaimed the captain, bitterly; "even he, who thought
+so highly of my father!"
+
+A hundred yards more and we came to the little cottage nigh hid among the
+trees. John Paul paused a moment, his hand upon the latch of the gate,
+his eyes drinking in the familiar picture. The light of day was dying
+behind Criffel, and the tiny panes of the cottage windows pulsed with the
+rosy flame on the hearth within, now flaring, and again deepening. He
+sighed. He walked with unsteady step to the door and pushed it open.
+I followed, scarce knowing what I did, halted at the threshold and drew
+back, for I had been upon holy ground.
+
+John Paul was kneeling upon the flags by the ingleside, his face buried
+on the open Bible in his mother's lap. Her snowy-white head was bent
+upon his, her tears running fast, and her lips moving in silent prayer to
+Him who giveth and taketh away. Verily, here in this humble place dwelt
+a love that defied the hard usage of a hard world!
+
+After a space he came to the door and called, and took me by the hand,
+and I went in with him. Though his eyes were wet, he bore himself like a
+cavalier.
+
+"Mother, this is Mr. Richard Carvell heir to Carvel Hall in Maryland,--a
+young gentleman whom I have had the honour to rescue from a slaver."
+
+I bowed low, such was my respect for Dame Paul, and she rose and
+curtseyed. She wore a widow's cap and a black gown, and I saw in her
+deep-lined face a resemblance to her son.
+
+"Madam," I said, the title coming naturally, "I owe Captain Paul a debt I
+can never repay."
+
+"An' him but a laddie!" she cried. "I'm thankful, John, I'm thankful for
+his mither that ye saved him."
+
+"I have no mother, Madam Paul," said I, "and my father was killed in the
+French war. But I have a grandfather who loves me dearly as I love him."
+
+Some impulse brought her forward, and she took both my hands in her own.
+
+"Ye'll forgive an auld woman, sir," she said, with a dignity that matched
+her son's, "but ye're sae young, an' ye hae sic a leuk in yere bonny gray
+e'e that I ken yell aye be a true friend o' John's. He's been a guid sin
+to me, an' ye maunna reek what they say o' him."
+
+When now I think of the triumph John Paul has achieved, of the scoffing
+world he has brought to his feet, I cannot but recall that sorrowful
+evening in the gardener's cottage, when a son was restored but to be torn
+away. The sisters came in from their day's work,--both well-favoured
+lasses, with John's eyes and hair,--and cooked the simple meal of broth
+and porridge, and the fowl they had kept so long against the captain's
+home-coming. He carved with many a light word that cost him dear. Did
+Janet reca' the simmer nights they had supped here, wi' the bumclocks
+bizzin' ower the candles? And was Nancy, the cow, still i' the byre?
+And did the bees still give the same bonnie hiney, and were the red
+apples still in the far orchard? Ay, Meg had thocht o' him that autumn,
+and ran to fetch them with her apron to her face, to come back smiling
+through her tears. So it went; and often a lump would rise in my throat
+that I could not eat, famished as I was, and the mother and sisters
+scarce touched a morsel of the feast.
+
+The one never failing test of a son, my dears, lies in his treatment of
+his mother, and from that hour forth I had not a doubt of John Paul. He
+was a man who had seen the world and become, in more than one meaning of
+the word, a gentleman. Whatever foibles he may have had, he brought no
+conscious airs and graces to this lowly place, but was again the humble
+gardener's boy.
+
+But time pressed, as it ever does. The hour came for us to leave, John
+Paul firmly refusing to remain the night in a house that belonged to Mr.
+Craik. Of the tenderness, nay, of the pity and cruelty of that parting,
+I have no power to write. We knelt with bowed heads while the mother
+prayed for the son, expatriated, whom she never hoped to see again on
+this earth. She gave us bannocks of her own baking, and her last words
+were to implore me always to be a friend to John Paul.
+
+Then we went out into the night and walked all the way to Dumfries in
+silence.
+
+We lay that night at the sign of the "Twa Naigs," where Bonnie Prince
+Charlie had rested in the Mars year(1715). Before I went to bed I called
+for pen and paper, and by the light of a tallow dip sat down to compose a
+letter to my grandfather, telling him that I was alive and well, and
+recounting as much of my adventures as I could. I said that I was going
+to London, where I would see Mr. Dix, and would take passage thence for
+America. I prayed that he had been able to bear up against the ordeal of
+my disappearance. I dwelt upon the obligations I was under to John Paul,
+relating the misfortunes of that worthy seaman (which he so little
+deserved!). And said that it was my purpose to bring him to Maryland
+with me, where I knew Mr. Carvel would reward him with one of his ships,
+explaining that he would accept no money. But when it came to accusing
+Grafton and the rector, I thought twice, and bit the end of the feather.
+The chances were so great that my grandfather would be in bed and under
+the guardianship of my uncle that I forbore, and resolved instead to
+write it to Captain Daniel at my first opportunity.
+
+I arose early to discover a morning gray and drear, with a mist falling
+to chill the bones. News travels apace the world over, and that of John
+Paul's home-coming and of his public renunciation of Scotland at the
+"Hurcheon" had reached Dumfries in good time, substantiated by the
+arrival of the teamster with the chests the night before. I descended
+into the courtyard in time to catch the captain in his watchet-blue frock
+haggling with the landlord for a chaise, the two of them surrounded by a
+muttering crowd anxious for a glimpse of Mr. Craik's gardener's son, for
+he had become a nine-day sensation to the country round about. But John
+Paul minded them not so much as a swarm of flies, and the teamster's
+account of the happenings at Kirkcudbright had given them so wholesome a
+fear of his speech and presence as to cause them to misdoubt their own
+wit, which is saying a deal of Scotchmen. But when the bargain had been
+struck and John Paul gone with the 'ostler to see to his chests, mine
+host thought it a pity not to have a fall out of me.
+
+"So ye be the Buckskin laud," he said, with a wink at a leering group of
+farmers; "ye hae braw gentles in America."
+
+He was a man of sixty or thereabout, with a shrewd but not unkindly face
+that had something familiar in it.
+
+"You have discernment indeed to recognize a gentleman in Scotch clothes,"
+I replied, turning the laugh on him.
+
+"Dinna raise ae Buckskin, Mr. Rawlinson," said a man in corduroy.
+
+"Rawlinson!" I exclaimed at random, "there is one of your name in the
+colonies who knows his station better."
+
+"Trowkt!" cried mine host, "ye ken Ivie o' Maryland, Ivie my brither?"
+
+"He is my grandfather's miller at Carvel Hall," I said.
+
+"Syne ye maun be nane ither than Mr. Richard Carvel. Yere servan', Mr.
+Carvel," and he made me a low bow, to the great dropping of jaws round
+about, and led me into the inn. With trembling hands he took a packet
+from his cabinet and showed me the letters, twenty-three in all, which
+Ivie had written home since he had gone out as the King's passenger in
+'45. The sight of them brought tears to my eyes and carried me out of
+the Scotch mist back to dear old Maryland. I had no trouble in
+convincing mine host that I was the lad eulogized in the scrawls,
+and he put hand on the very sheet which announced my birth, nineteen
+years since,--the fourth generation of Carvels Ivie had known.
+
+So it came that the captain and I got the best chaise and pair in place
+of the worst, and sat down to a breakfast such as was prepared only for
+my Lord Selkirk when he passed that way, while I told the landlord of his
+brother; and as I talked I remembered the day I had caught the arm of the
+mill and gone the round, to find that Ivie had written of that, too!
+
+After that our landlord would not hear of a reckoning. I might stay a
+month, a year, at the "Twa Naigs" if I wished. As for John Paul, who
+seemed my friend, he would say nothing, only to advise me privately that
+the man was queer company, shaking his head when I defended him. He came
+to me with ten guineas, which he pressed me to take for Ivies sake, and
+repay when occasion offered. I thanked him, but was of no mind to accept
+money from one who thought ill of my benefactor.
+
+The refusal of these recalled the chaise, and I took the trouble to
+expostulate with the captain on that score, pointing out as delicately as
+I might that, as he had brought me to Scotland, I held it within my right
+to incur the expense of the trip to London, and that I intended to
+reimburse him when I saw Mr. Dix. For I knew that his wallet was not
+over full, since he had left the half of his savings with his mother.
+Much to my secret delight, he agreed to this as within the compass of a
+gentleman's acceptance. Had he not, I had the full intention of leaving
+him to post it alone, and of offering myself to the master of the first
+schooner.
+
+Despite the rain, and the painful scenes gone through but yesterday, and
+the sour-looking ring of men and women gathered to see the start, I was
+in high spirits as we went spinning down the Carlisle road, with my heart
+leaping to the crack of the postilion's whip.
+
+I was going to London and to Dorothy!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ON THE ROAD
+
+Many were the ludicrous incidents we encountered on our journey to
+London. As long as I live, I shall never forget John Paul's alighting
+upon the bridge of the Sark to rid himself of a mighty farewell address
+to Scotland he had been composing upon the road. And this he delivered
+with such appalling voice and gesture as to frighten to a standstill a
+chaise on the English side of the stream, containing a young gentleman in
+a scarlet coat and a laced hat, and a young lady who sobbed as we passed
+them. They were, no doubt, running to Gretna Green to be married.
+
+Captain Paul, as I have said, was a man of moods, and strangely affected
+by ridicule. And this we had in plenty upon the road. Landlords,
+grooms, and'ostlers, and even our own post-boys, laughed and jested
+coarsely at his sky-blue frock, and their sallies angered him beyond all
+reason, while they afforded me so great an amusement that more than once
+I was on the edge of a serious falling-out with him as a consequence of
+my merriment. Usually, when we alighted from our vehicle, the expression
+of mine host would sour, and his sir would shift to a master; while his
+servants would go trooping in again, with many a coarse fling that they
+would get no vails from such as we. And once we were invited into the
+kitchen. He would be soar for half a day at a spell after a piece of
+insolence out of the common, and then deliver me a solemn lecture upon
+the advantages of birth in a manor. Then his natural buoyancy would lift
+him again, and he would be in childish ecstasies at the prospect of
+getting to London, and seeing the great world; and I began to think that
+he secretly cherished the hope of meeting some of its votaries. For I
+had told him, casually as possible, that I had friends in Arlington
+Street, where I remembered the Manners were established.
+
+"Arlington Street!" he repeated, rolling the words over his tongue; "it
+has a fine sound, laddie, a fine sound. That street must be the very
+acme of fashion."
+
+I laughed, and replied that I did not know. And at the ordinary of the
+next inn we came to, he took occasion to mention to me, in a louder voice
+than was necessary, that I would do well to call in Arlington Street as
+we went into town. So far as I could see, the remark did not compel any
+increase of respect from our fellow-diners.
+
+Upon more than one point I was worried. Often and often I reflected that
+some hitch might occur to prevent my getting money promptly from Mr. Dix.
+Days would perchance elapse before I could find the man in such a great
+city as London; he might be out of town at this season, Easter being less
+than a se'nnight away. For I had heard my grandfather say that the elder
+Mr. Dix had a house in some merchant's suburb, and loved to play at being
+a squire before he died. Again (my heart stood at the thought), the
+Manners might be gone back to America. I cursed the stubborn pride which
+had led the captain to hire a post-chaise, when the wagon had served us
+so much better, and besides relieved him of the fusillade of ridicule he
+got travelling as a gentleman. But such reflections always ended in my
+upbraiding myself for blaming him whose generosity had rescued me from
+perhaps a life-long misery.
+
+But, on the whole, we rolled southward happily, between high walls and
+hedges, past trim gardens and fields and meadows, and I marvelled at the
+regular, park-like look of the country, as though stamped from one design
+continually recurring, like our butter at Carvel Hall. The roads were
+sometimes good, and sometimes as execrable as a colonial byway in winter,
+with mud up to the axles. And yet, my heart went out to this country,
+the home of my ancestors. Spring was at hand; the ploughboys whistled
+between the furrows, the larks circled overhead, and the lilacs were
+cautiously pushing forth their noses. The air was heavy with the perfume
+of living things.
+
+The welcome we got at our various stopping-places was often scanty
+indeed, and more than once we were told to go farther down the street,
+that the inn was full. And I may as well confess that my mind was
+troubled about John Paul. Despite all I could say, he would go to the
+best hotels in the larger towns, declaring that there we should meet the
+people of fashion. Nor was his eagerness damped when he discovered that
+such people never came to the ordinary, but were served in their own
+rooms by their own servants.
+
+"I shall know them yet," he would vow, as we started off of a morning,
+after having seen no more of my Lord than his liveries below stairs.
+"Am I not a gentleman in all but birth, Richard? And that is a
+difficulty many before me have overcome. I have the classics, and the
+history, and the poets. And the French language, though I have never
+made the grand tour. I flatter myself that my tone might be worse. By
+the help of your friends, I shall have a title or two for acquaintances
+before I leave London; and when my money is gone, there is a shipowner I
+know of who will give me employment, if I have not obtained preferment."
+
+The desire to meet persons of birth was near to a mania with him. And I
+had not the courage to dampen his hopes. But, inexperienced as I was, I
+knew the kind better than he, and understood that it was easier for a
+camel to enter the eye of a needle, than for John Paul to cross the
+thresholds of the great houses of London. The way of adventurers is
+hard, and he could scarce lay claim then to a better name.
+
+"We shall go to Maryland together, Captain Paul," I said, "and waste no
+time upon London save to see Vauxhall, and the opera, and St. James's and
+the Queen's House and the Tower, and Parliament, and perchance his
+Majesty himself," I added, attempting merriment, for the notion of seeing
+Dolly only to leave her gave me a pang. And the captain knew nothing of
+Dolly.
+
+"So, Richard, you fear I shall disgrace you," he said reproachfully.
+"Know, sir, that I have pride enough and to spare. That I can make
+friends without going to Arlington Street."
+
+I was ready to cry with vexation at this childish speech.
+
+"And a time will come when they shall know me," he went on. "If they
+insult me now they shall pay dearly for it."
+
+"My dear captain," I cried; "nobody will insult you, and least of all my
+friends, the Manners." I had my misgivings about little Mr. Marmaduke.
+"But we are, neither of us, equipped for a London season. I am but an
+unknown provincial, and you--" I paused for words.
+
+For a sudden realization had come upon me that our positions were now
+reversed. It seemed strange that I should be interpreting the world to
+this man of power.
+
+"And I?" he repeated bitterly.
+
+"You have first to become an admiral," I replied, with inspiration;
+"Drake was once a common seaman."
+
+He did not answer. But that evening as we came into Windsor, I perceived
+that he had not abandoned his intentions. The long light flashed on the
+peaceful Thames, and the great, grim castle was gilded all over its
+western side.
+
+The captain leaned out of the window.
+
+"Postilion," he called, "which inn here is most favoured by gentlemen?"
+
+"The Castle," said the boy, turning in his saddle to grin at me. "But
+if I might be so bold as to advise your honour, the 'Swan' is a
+comfortable house, and well attended."
+
+"Know your place, sirrah," shouted the captain, angrily, "and drive us to
+the 'Castle.'"
+
+The boy snapped his whip disdainfully, and presently pulled us up at the
+inn, our chaise covered with the mud of three particular showers we had
+run through that day. And, as usual, the landlord, thinking he was about
+to receive quality, came scraping to the chaise door, only to turn with a
+gesture of disgust when he perceived John Paul's sea-boxes tied on
+behind, and the costume of that hero, as well as my own.
+
+The captain demanded a room. But mine host had turned his back, when
+suddenly a thought must have struck him, for he wheeled again.
+
+"Stay," he cried, glancing suspiciously at the sky-blue frock; "if you
+are Mr. Dyson's courier, I have reserved a suite."
+
+This same John Paul, who was like iron with mob and mutiny, was pitiably
+helpless before such a prop of the aristocracy. He flew into a rage, and
+rated the landlord in Scotch and English, and I was fain to put my tongue
+in my cheek and turn my back that my laughter might not anger him the
+more.
+
+And so I came face to face with another smile, behind a spying-glass,--a
+smile so cynical and unpleasant withal that my own was smothered. A tall
+and thin gentleman, who had come out of the inn without a hat, was
+surveying the dispute with a keen delight. He was past the middle age.
+His clothes bore that mark which distinguishes his world from the other,
+but his features were so striking as to hold my attention unwittingly.
+
+After a while he withdrew his glass, cast one look at me which might have
+meant anything, and spoke up.
+
+"Pray, my good Goble, why all this fol-de-rol about admitting a gentleman
+to your house?"
+
+I scarce know which was the more astonished, the landlord, John Paul, or
+I. Goble bowed at the speaker.
+
+"A gentleman, your honour!" he gasped. "Your honour is joking again.
+Surely this trumpery Scotchman in Jews' finery is no gentleman, nor the
+longshore lout he has got with him. They may go to the 'Swan.'"
+
+"Jews' finery!" shouted the captain, with his fingers on his sword.
+
+But the stranger held up a hand deprecatingly.
+
+"'Pon my oath, Goble, I gave you credit for more penetration," he
+drawled; "you may be right about the Scotchman, but your longshore lout
+has had both birth and breeding, or I know nothing."
+
+John Paul, who was in the act of bowing to the speaker, remained
+petrified with his hand upon his heart, entirely discomfited. The
+landlord forsook him instantly for me, then stole a glance at his guest
+to test his seriousness, and looked at my face to see how greatly it were
+at variance with my clothes. The temptation to lay hands on the cringing
+little toadeater grew too strong for me, and I picked him up by the
+scruff of the collar,--he was all skin and bones,--and spun him round
+like a corpse upon a gibbet, while he cried mercy in a voice to wake the
+dead. The slim gentleman under the sign laughed until he held his sides,
+with a heartiness that jarred upon me. It did not seem to fit him.
+
+"By Hercules and Vulcan," he cried, when at last I had set the landlord
+down, "what an arm and back the lad has! He must have the best in the
+house, Goble, and sup with me."
+
+Goble pulled himself together.
+
+"And he is your honour's friend," he began, with a scowl.
+
+"Ay, he is my friend, I tell you," retorted the important personage,
+impatiently.
+
+The innkeeper, sulky, half-satisfied, yet fearing to offend, welcomed us
+with what grace he could muster, and we were shown to "The Fox and the
+Grapes," a large room in the rear of the house.
+
+John Paul had not spoken since the slim gentleman had drawn the
+distinction between us, and I knew that the affront was rankling in his
+breast. He cast himself into a chair with such an air of dejection as
+made me pity him from my heart. But I had no consolation to offer. His
+first words, far from being the torrent of protest I looked for, almost
+startled me into laughter.
+
+"He can be nothing less than a duke," said the captain. "Ah, Richard,
+see what it is to be a gentleman!"
+
+"Fiddlesticks! I had rather own your powers than the best title in
+England," I retorted sharply.
+
+He shook his head sorrowfully, which made me wonder the more that a man
+of his ability should be unhappy without this one bauble attainment.
+
+"I shall begin to believe the philosophers have the right of it," he
+remarked presently. "Have you ever read anything of Monsieur Rousseau's,
+Richard?"
+
+The words were scarce out of his mouth when we heard a loud rap on the
+door, which I opened to discover a Swiss fellow in a private livery, come
+to say that his master begged the young gentleman would sup with him.
+The man stood immovable while he delivered this message, and put an
+impudent emphasis upon the gentleman.
+
+"Say to your master, whoever he may be," I replied, in some heat at the
+man's sneer, "that I am travelling with Captain Paul. That any
+invitation to me must include him."
+
+The lackey stood astounded at my answer, as though he had not heard
+aright. Then he retired with less assurance than he had come, and John
+Paul sprang to his feet and laid his hands upon my shoulders, as was his
+wont when affected. He reproached himself for having misjudged me, and
+added a deal more that I have forgotten.
+
+"And to think," he cried, "that you have forgone supping with a nobleman
+on my account!"
+
+"Pish, captain, 'tis no great denial. His Lordship--if Lordship he is
+--is stranded in an inn, overcome with ennui, and must be amused. That is
+all."
+
+Nevertheless I think the good captain was distinctly disappointed, not
+alone because I gave up what in his opinion was a great advantage, but
+likewise because I could have regaled him on my return with an account of
+the meal. For it must be borne in mind, my dears, that those days are
+not these, nor that country this one. And in judging Captain Paul it
+must be remembered that rank inspired a vast respect when King George
+came to the throne. It can never be said of John Paul that he lacked
+either independence or spirit. But a nobleman was a nobleman then.
+
+So when presently the gentleman himself appeared smiling at our door,
+which his servant had left open, we both of us rose up in astonishment
+and bowed very respectfully, and my face burned at the thought of the
+message I had sent him. For, after all, the captain was but twenty-one
+and I nineteen, and the distinguished unknown at least fifty. He took a
+pinch of snuff and brushed his waistcoat before he spoke.
+
+"Egad," said he, with good nature, looking up at me, "Mohammed was a
+philosopher, and so am I, and come to the mountain. 'Tis worth crossing
+an inn in these times to see a young man whose strength has not been
+wasted upon foppery. May I ask your name, sir?"
+
+"Richard Carvel," I answered, much put aback.
+
+"Ah, Carvel," he repeated; "I know three or four of that name. Perhaps
+you are Robert Carvel's son, of Yorkshire. But what the devil do you do
+in such clothes? I was resolved to have you though I am forced to take a
+dozen watchet-blue mountebanks in the bargain."
+
+"Sir, I warn you not to insult my friend," I cried, in a temper again.
+
+"There, there, not so loud, I beg you," said he, with a gesture. "Hot as
+pounded pepper,--but all things are the better for a touch of it. I had
+no intention of insulting the worthy man, I give my word. I must have my
+joke, sir. No harm meant." And he nodded at John Paul, who looked as if
+he would sink through the floor. "Robert Carvel is as testy as the devil
+with the gout, and you are not unlike him in feature."
+
+"He is no relation of mine," I replied, undecided whether to laugh or be
+angry. And then I added, for I was very young, "I am an American, and
+heir to Carvel Hall in Maryland."
+
+"Lord, lord, I might have known," exclaimed he. "Once I had the honour
+of dining with your Dr. Franklin, from Pennsylvania. He dresses for all
+the world like you, only worse, and wears a hat I would not be caught
+under at Bagnigge Wells, were I so imprudent as to go there."
+
+"Dr. Franklin has weightier matters than hats to occupy him, sir," I
+retorted. For I was determined to hold my own.
+
+He made a French gesture, a shrug of his thin shoulders, which caused me
+to suspect he was not always so good-natured.
+
+"Dr. Franklin would better have stuck to his newspaper, my young friend,"
+said he. "But I like your appearance too well to quarrel with you, and
+we'll have no politics before eating. Come, gentlemen, come! Let us see
+what Goble has left after his shaking."
+
+He struck off with something of a painful gait, which he explained was
+from the gout. And presently we arrived at his parlour, where supper was
+set out for us. I had not tasted its equal since I left Maryland. We
+sat down to a capon stuffed with eggs, and dainty sausages, and hot
+rolls, such as we had at home; and a wine which had cobwebbed and
+mellowed under the Castle Inn for better than twenty years. The
+personage did not drink wine. He sent his servant to quarrel with Goble
+because he had not been given iced water. While he was tapping on the
+table I took occasion to observe him. His was a physiognomy to strike
+the stranger, not by reason of its nobility, but because of its oddity.
+He had a prodigious length of face, the nose long in proportion, but not
+prominent. The eyes were dark, very bright, and wide apart, with little
+eyebrows dabbed over them at a slanting angle. The thin-lipped mouth
+rather pursed up, which made his smile the contradiction it was. In
+short, my dears, while I do not lay claim to the reading of character,
+it required no great astuteness to perceive the scholar, the man of the
+world, and the ascetic--and all affected. His conversation bore out the
+summary. It astonished us. It encircled the earth, embraced history and
+letters since the world began. And added to all this, he had a thousand
+anecdotes on his tongue's tip. His words he chose with too great a
+nicety; his sentences were of a foreign formation, twisted around; and
+his stories were illustrated with French gesticulations. He threw in
+quotations galore, in Latin, and French, and English, until the captain
+began casting me odd, uncomfortable looks, as though he wished himself
+well out of the entertainment. Indeed, poor John Paul's perturbation
+amused me more than the gentleman's anecdotes. To be ill at ease is
+discouraging to any one, but it was peculiarly fatal with the captain.
+This arch-aristocrat dazzled him. When he attempted to follow in the
+same vein he would get lost. And his really considerable learning
+counted for nothing. He reached the height of his mortification when the
+slim gentleman dropped his eyelids and began to yawn. I was wickedly
+delighted. He could not have been better met. Another such encounter,
+and I would warrant the captain's illusions concerning the gentry to go
+up in smoke. Then he might come to some notion of his own true powers.
+As for me, I enjoyed the supper which our host had insisted upon our
+partaking, drank his wine, and paid him very little attention.
+
+"May I make so bold as to ask, sir, whether you are a patron of
+literature?" said the captain, at length.
+
+"A very poor patron, my dear man," was the answer. "Merely a humble
+worshipper at the shrine. And I might say that I partake of its benefits
+as much as a gentleman may. And yet," he added, with a laugh and a
+cough, "those silly newspapers and magazines insist on calling me a
+literary man."
+
+"And now that you have indulged in a question, and the claret is coming
+on," said he, "perhaps you will tell me something of yourself, Mr.
+Carvel, and of your friend, Captain Paul. And how you come to be so far
+from home." And he settled himself comfortably to listen, as a man who
+has bought his right to an opera box.
+
+Here was my chance. And I resolved that if I did not further enlighten
+John Paul, it would be no fault of mine.
+
+"Sir," I replied, in as dry a monotone as I could assume, "I was
+kidnapped by the connivance of some unscrupulous persons in my colony,
+who had designs upon my grandfather's fortune. I was taken abroad in a
+slaver and carried down to the Caribbean seas, when I soon discovered
+that the captain and his crew were nothing less than pirates. For one
+day all hands got into a beastly state of drunkenness, and the captain
+raised the skull and cross-bones, which he had handy in his chest. I was
+forced to climb the main rigging in order to escape being hacked to
+pieces."
+
+He sat bolt upright, those little eyebrows of his gone up full half an
+inch, and he raised his thin hands with an air of incredulity. John Paul
+was no less astonished at my little ruse.
+
+"Holy Saint Clement!" exclaimed our host; "pirates! This begins to
+have a flavour indeed. And yet you do not seem to be a lad with an
+imagination. Egad, Mr. Carvel, I had put you down for one who might say,
+with Alceste: 'Etre franc et sincere est mon plus grand talent.'
+But pray go on, sir. You have but to call for pen and ink to rival
+Mr. Fielding."
+
+With that I pushed back my chair, got up from the table, and made him a
+bow. And the captain, at last seeing my drift, did the same.
+
+"I am not used at home to have my word doubted, sir," I said. "Sir, your
+humble servant. I wish you a very good evening." He rose precipitately,
+crying out from his gout, and laid a hand upon my arm.
+
+"Pray, Mr. Carvel, pray, sir, be seated," he said, in some agitation.
+"Remember that the story is unusual, and that I have never clapped eyes
+on you until to-night. Are all young gentlemen from Maryland so fiery?
+But I should have known from your face that you are incapable of deceit.
+Pray be seated, captain."
+
+I was persuaded to go on, not a little delighted that I had scored my
+point, and broken down his mask of affectation and careless cynicism.
+I told my story, leaving out the family history involved, and he listened
+with every mark of attention and interest. Indeed, to my surprise, he
+began to show some enthusiasm, of which sensation I had not believed him
+capable.
+
+"What a find! what a find!" he continued to exclaim, when I had
+finished. "And true. You say it is true, Mr. Carvel?"
+
+"Sir!" I replied, "I thought we had thrashed that out."
+
+"Yes, yes, to be sure. I beg pardon," said he. And then to his servant:
+"Colomb, is my writing-tablet unpacked?"
+
+I was more mystified than ever as to his identity. Was he going to put
+the story in a magazine?
+
+After that he seemed plainly anxious to be rid of us. I bade him good
+night, and he grasped my hand warmly enough. Then he turned to the
+captain in his most condescending manner. But a great change had come
+over John Paul. He was ever quick to see and to learn, and I rejoiced to
+remark that he did not bow over the hand, as he might have done two hours
+since. He was again Captain Paul, the man, who fought his way on his own
+merits. He held himself as tho' he was once more pacing the deck of the
+John.
+
+The slim gentleman poured the width of a finger of claret in his glass,
+soused it with water, and held it up.
+
+"Here's to your future, my good captain," he said, "and to Mr. Carvel's
+safe arrival home again. When you get to town, Mr. Carvel, don't fail to
+go to Davenport, who makes clothes for most of us at Almack's, and let
+him remodel you. I wish to God he might get hold of your doctor. And
+put up at the Star and Garter in Pall Mall: I take it that you have
+friends in London."
+
+I replied that I had. But he did not push the inquiry.
+
+"You should write out this history for your grandchildren, Mr. Carvel,"
+he added, as he bade his Swiss light us to our room. "A strange yarn
+indeed, captain."
+
+"And therefore," said the captain, coolly, "as a stranger give it
+welcome.
+
+    "'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
+     Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'"
+
+Had a meteor struck at the gentleman's feet, he could not have been more
+taken aback.
+
+"What! What's this?" he cried. "You quote Hamlet! And who the devil
+are you, sir, that you know my name?"
+
+"Your name, sir!" exclaims the captain, in astonishment.
+
+"Well, well," he said, stepping back and eying us closely, "'tis no
+matter. Good night, gentlemen, good night."
+
+And we went to bed with many a laugh over the incident.
+
+"His name must be Horatio. We'll discover it in the morning," said John
+Paul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+LONDON TOWN
+
+But he had not risen when we set out, nor would the illnatured landlord
+reveal his name. It mattered little to me, since I desired to forget him
+as quickly as possible. For here was one of my own people of quality,
+a gentleman who professed to believe what I told him, and yet would do
+no more for me than recommend me an inn and a tailor; while a poor
+sea-captain, driven from his employment and his home, with no better reason
+to put faith in my story, was sharing with me his last penny. Goble, in
+truth, had made us pay dearly for our fun with him, and the hum of the
+vast unknown fell upon our ears with the question of lodging still
+unsettled. The captain was for going to the Star and Garter, the inn the
+gentleman had mentioned. I was in favour of seeking a more modest and
+less fashionable hostelry.
+
+"Remember that you must keep up your condition, Richard," said John Paul.
+
+"And if all English gentlemen are like our late friend," I said, "I would
+rather stay in a city coffee-house. Remember that you have only two
+guineas left after paying for the chaise, and that Mr. Dix may be out of
+town."
+
+"And your friends in Arlington Street?" said he.
+
+"May be back in Maryland," said I; and added inwardly,
+
+"God forbid!"
+
+"We shall have twice the chance at the Star and Garter. They will want a
+show of gold at a humbler place, and at the Star we may carry matters
+with a high hand. Pick out the biggest frigate," he cried, for the tenth
+time, at least, "or the most beautiful lady, and it will surprise you, my
+lad, to find out how many times you will win."
+
+I know of no feeling of awe to equal that of a stranger approaching for
+the first time a huge city. The thought of a human multitude is ever
+appalling as that of infinity itself, a human multitude with its infinity
+of despairs and joys, disgraces and honours, each small unit with all the
+world in its own brain, and all the world out of it! Each intent upon
+his own business or pleasure, and striving the while by hook or crook to
+keep the ground from slipping beneath his feet. For, if he falls, God
+help him!
+
+Yes, here was London, great and pitiless, and the fear of it was upon our
+souls as we rode into it that day.
+
+Holland House with its shaded gardens, Kensington Palace with the broad
+green acres of parks in front of it stitched by the silver Serpentine,
+and Buckingham House, which lay to the south over the hill,--all were one
+to us in wonder as they loomed through the glittering mist that softened
+all. We met with a stream of countless wagons that spoke of a trade
+beyond knowledge, sprinkled with the equipages of the gentry floating
+upon it; coach and chaise, cabriolet and chariot, gorgeously bedecked
+with heraldry and wreaths; their numbers astonished me, for to my mind
+the best of them were no better than we could boast in Annapolis. One
+matter, which brings a laugh as I recall it, was the oddity to me of
+seeing white coachmen and footmen.
+
+We clattered down St. James's Street, of which I had often heard my
+grandfather speak, and at length we drew up before the Star and Garter in
+Pall Mall, over against the palace. The servants came hurrying out,
+headed by a chamberlain clad in magnificent livery, a functionary we had
+not before encountered. John Paul alighted to face this personage, who,
+the moment he perceived us, shifted his welcoming look to one of such
+withering scorn as would have daunted a more timid man than the captain.
+Without the formality of a sir he demanded our business, which started
+the inn people and our own boy to snickering, and made the passers-by
+pause and stare. Dandies who were taking the air stopped to ogle us with
+their spying-glasses and to offer quips, and behind them gathered the
+flunkies and chairmen awaiting their masters at the clubs and
+coffee-houses near by. What was my astonishment, therefore, to see a
+change in the captain's demeanour. Truly for quick learning and the
+application of it I have never known his equal. His air became the one
+of careless ease habitual to the little gentleman we had met at Windsor,
+and he drew from his pocket one of his guineas, which he tossed in the
+man's palm.
+
+"Here, my man," said he, snapping his fingers; "an apartment at once, or
+you shall pay for this nonsense, I promise you." And walked in with his
+chin in the air, so grandly as to dissolve ridicule into speculation.
+
+For an instant the chamberlain wavered, and I trembled, for I dreaded a
+disgrace in Pall Mall, where the Manners might hear of it. Then fear, or
+hope of gain, or something else got the better of him, for he led us to a
+snug, well-furnished suite of a parlour and bedroom on the first floor,
+and stood bowing in the doorway for his honour's further commands. They
+were of a sort to bring the sweat to my forehead.
+
+"Have a fellow run to bid Davenport, the tailor, come hither as fast as
+his legs will carry him. And you may make it known that this young
+gentleman desires a servant, a good man, mind you, with references, who
+knows a gentleman's wants. He will be well paid."
+
+That name of Davenport was a charm,--the mention of a servant was its
+finishing touch. The chamberlain bent almost double, and retired,
+closing the door softly behind him. And so great had been my surprise
+over these last acquirements of the captain that until now I had had no
+breath to expostulate.
+
+"I must have my fling, Richard," he answered, laughing; "I shall not be a
+gentleman long. I must know how it feels to take your ease, and stroke
+your velvet, and order lackeys about. And when my money is gone I shall
+be content to go to sea again, and think about it o' stormy nights."
+
+This feeling was so far beyond my intelligence that I made no comment.
+And I could not for the life of me chide him, but prayed that all would
+come right in the end.
+
+In less than an hour Davenport himself arrived, bristling with
+importance, followed by his man carrying such a variety of silks and
+satins, flowered and plain, and broadcloths and velvets, to fill the
+furniture. And close behind the tailor came a tall haberdasher from Bond
+Street, who had got wind of a customer, with a bewildering lot of ruffles
+and handkerchiefs and neckerchiefs, and bows of lawn and lace which (so
+he informed us) gentlemen now wore in the place of solitaires. Then came
+a hosier and a bootmaker and a hatter; nay, I was forgetting a jeweller
+from Temple Bar. And so imposing a front did the captain wear as he
+picked this and recommended the other that he got credit for me for all
+he chose, and might have had more besides. For himself he ordered merely
+a modest street suit of purple, the sword to be thrust through the
+pocket, Davenport promising it with mine for the next afternoon. For so
+much discredit had been cast upon his taste on the road to London that he
+was resolved to remain indoors until he could appear with decency. He
+learned quickly, as I have said.
+
+By the time we had done with these matters, which I wished to perdition,
+some score of applicants was in waiting for me. And out of them I hired
+one who had been valet to the young Lord Rereby, and whose recommendation
+was excellent. His name was Banks, his face open and ingenuous, his
+stature a little above the ordinary, and his manner respectful. I had
+Davenport measure him at once for a suit of the Carvel livery, and bade
+him report on the morrow.
+
+All this while, my dears, I was aching to be off to Arlington Street,
+but a foolish pride held me back. I had heard so much of the fashion in
+which the Manners moved that I feared to bring ridicule upon them in poor
+MacMuir's clothes. But presently the desire to see Dolly took such hold
+upon me that I set out before dinner, fought my way past the chairmen and
+chaisemen at the door, and asked my way of the first civil person I
+encountered. 'Twas only a little rise up the steps of St. James's
+Street, Arlington Street being but a small pocket of Piccadilly, but it
+seemed a dull English mile; and my heart thumped when I reached the
+corner, and the houses danced before my eyes. I steadied myself by a
+post and looked again. At last, after a thousand leagues of wandering,
+I was near her! But how to choose between fifty severe and imposing
+mansions? I walked on toward that endless race of affairs and fashion,
+Piccadilly, scanning every door, nay, every window, in the hope that I
+might behold my lady's face framed therein. Here a chair was set down,
+there a chariot or a coach pulled up, and a clocked flunky bowing a lady
+in. But no Dorothy. Finally, when I had near made the round of each
+side, I summoned courage and asked a butcher's lad, whistling as he
+passed me, whether he could point out the residence of Mr. Manners.
+
+"Ay," he replied, looking me over out of the corner of his eye, "that I
+can. But y'ell not get a glimpse o' the beauty this day, for she's but
+just off to Kensington with a coachful o' quality."
+
+And he led me, all in a tremble over his answer, to a large stone
+dwelling with arched windows, and pillared portico with lanthorns and
+link extinguishers, an area and railing beside it. The flavour of
+generations of aristocracy hung about the place, and the big knocker on
+the carved door seemed to regard with such a forbidding frown my shabby
+clothes that I took but the one glance (enough to fix it forever in my
+memory), and hurried on. Alas, what hope had I of Dorothy now!
+
+"What cheer, Richard?" cried the captain when I returned; "have you seen
+your friends?"
+
+I told him that I had feared to disgrace them, and so refrained from
+knocking--a decision which he commended as the very essence of wisdom.
+Though a desire to meet and talk with quality pushed him hard, he would
+not go a step to the ordinary, and gave orders to be served in our room,
+thus fostering the mystery which had enveloped us since our arrival.
+Dinner at the Star and Garter being at the fashionable hour of half after
+four, I was forced to give over for that day the task of finding Mr. Dix.
+
+That evening--shall I confess it?--I spent between the Green Park and
+Arlington Street, hoping for a glimpse of Miss Dolly returning from
+Kensington.
+
+The next morning I proclaimed my intention of going to Mr. Dix.
+
+"Send for him," said the captain. "Gentlemen never seek their men of
+affairs."
+
+"No," I cried; "I can contain myself in this place no longer. I must be
+moving."
+
+"As you will, Richard," he replied, and giving me a queer, puzzled look
+he settled himself between the Morning Post and the Chronicle.
+
+As I passed the servants in the lower hall, I could not but remark an
+altered treatment. My friend the chamberlain, more pompous than ever,
+stood erect in the door with a stony stare, which melted the moment he
+perceived a young gentleman who descended behind me. I heard him cry out
+"A chaise for his Lordship!" at which command two of his assistants ran
+out together. Suspicion had plainly gripped his soul overnight, and
+this, added to mortified vanity at having been duped, was sufficient for
+him to allow me to leave the inn unattended. Nor could I greatly blame
+him, for you must know, my dears, that at that time London was filled
+with adventurers of all types.
+
+I felt a deal like an impostor, in truth, as I stepped into the street,
+disdaining to inquire of any of the people of the Star and Garter where
+an American agent might be found. The day was gray and cheerless, the
+colour of my own spirits as I walked toward the east, knowing that the
+city lay that way. But I soon found plenty to distract me.
+
+To a lad such as I, bred in a quiet tho' prosperous colonial town, a walk
+through London was a revelation. Here in the Pall Mall the day was not
+yet begun, tho' for some scarce ended. I had not gone fifty paces from
+the hotel before I came upon a stout gentleman with twelve hours of
+claret inside him, brought out of a coffee-house and put with vast
+difficulty into his chair; and I stopped to watch the men stagger off
+with their load to St. James's Street. Next I met a squad of redcoated
+guards going to the palace, and after them a grand coach and six rattled
+over the Scotch granite, swaying to a degree that threatened to shake off
+the footmen clinging behind. Within, a man with an eagle nose sat
+impassive, and I set him down for one of the king's ministers.
+
+Presently I came out into a wide space, which I knew to be Charing Cross
+by the statue of Charles the First which stood in the centre of it, and
+the throat of a street which was just in front of me must be the Strand.
+Here all was life and bustle. On one hand was Golden's Hotel, and a
+crowded mail-coach was dashing out from the arch beneath it, the horn
+blowing merrily; on the other hand, so I was told by a friendly man in
+brown, was Northumberland House, the gloomy grandeur whereof held my eyes
+for a time. And I made bold to ask in what district were those who had
+dealings with the colonies. He scanned me with a puzzling look of
+commiseration.
+
+"Ye're not a-going to sell yereself for seven year, my lad?" said he.
+"I was near that myself when I was young, and I thank God' to this day
+that I talked first to an honest man, even as you are doing. They'll
+give ye a pretty tale,--the factors,--of a land of milk and honey, when
+it's naught but stripes and curses yell get."
+
+And he was about to rebuke me hotly, when I told him I had come from
+Maryland, where I was born.
+
+"Why, ye speak like a gentleman!" he exclaimed. "I was informed that
+all talk like naygurs over there. And is it not so of your
+redemptioners?"
+
+I said that depended upon the master they got.
+
+"Then I take it ye are looking for the lawyers, who mostly represent the
+planters. And y e'll find them at the Temple or Lincoln's Inn."
+
+I replied that he I sought was not an attorney, but a man of business.
+Whereupon he said that I should find all those in a batch about the North
+and South American Coffee House, in Threadneedle Street. And he pointed
+me into the Strand, adding that I had but to follow my nose to St.
+Paul's, and there inquire.
+
+I would I might give you some notion of the great artery of London in
+those days, for it has changed much since I went down it that heavy
+morning in April, 1770, fighting my way. Ay, truly, fighting my way, for
+the street then was no place for the weak and timid, when bullocks ran
+through it in droves on the way to market, when it was often jammed from
+wall to wall with wagons, and carmen and truckmen and coachmen swung
+their whips and cursed one another to the extent of their lungs. Near
+St. Clement Danes I was packed in a crowd for ten minutes while two of
+these fellows formed a ring and fought for the right of way, stopping the
+traffic as far as I could see. Dustmen, and sweeps, and even beggars,
+jostled you on the corners, bullies tried to push you against the posts
+or into the kennels; and once, in Butchers' Row, I was stopped by a
+flashy, soft-tongued fellow who would have lured me into a tavern near
+by.
+
+The noises were bedlam ten times over. Shopmen stood at their doors and
+cried, "Rally up, rally up, buy, buy, buy!" venders shouted saloop and
+barley, furmity, Shrewsbury cakes and hot peascods, rosemary and
+lavender, small coal and sealing-wax, and others bawled "Pots to solder!"
+and "Knives to grind!" Then there was the incessant roar of the heavy
+wheels over the rough stones, and the rasp and shriek of the brewers'
+sledges as they moved clumsily along. As for the odours, from that of
+the roasted coffee and food of the taverns, to the stale fish on the
+stalls, and worse, I can say nothing. They surpassed imagination.
+
+At length, upon emerging from Butchers' Row, I came upon some stocks
+standing in the street, and beheld ahead of me a great gateway stretching
+across the Strand from house to house.
+
+Its stone was stained with age, and the stern front of it seemed to mock
+the unseemly and impetuous haste of the tide rushing through its arches.
+I stood and gazed, nor needed one to tell me that those two grinning
+skulls above it, swinging to the wind on the pikes, were rebel heads.
+Bare and bleached now, and exposed to a cruel view, but once caressed by
+loving hands, was the last of those whose devotion to the house of Stuart
+had brought from their homes to Temple Bar.
+
+I halted by the Fleet Market, nor could I resist the desire to go into
+St. Paul's, to feel like a pebble in a bell under its mighty dome; and it
+lacked but half an hour of noon when I had come out at the Poultry and
+finished gaping at the Mansion House. I missed Threadneedle Street and
+went down Cornhill, in my ignorance mistaking the Royal Exchange, with
+its long piazza and high tower, for the coffeehouse I sought: in the
+great hall I begged a gentleman to direct me to Mr. Dix, if he knew such
+a person. He shrugged his shoulders, which mystified me somewhat, but
+answered with a ready good-nature that he was likely to be found at that
+time at Tom's Coffee House, in Birchin Lane near by, whither I went with
+him. He climbed the stairs ahead of me and directed me, puffing, to the
+news room, which I found filled with men, some writing, some talking
+eagerly, and others turning over newspapers. The servant there looked me
+over with no great favour, but on telling him my business he went off,
+and returned with a young man of a pink and white complexion, in a green
+riding-frock, leather breeches, and top boots, who said:
+
+"Well, my man, I am Mr. Dix."
+
+There was a look about him, added to his tone and manner, set me strong
+against him. I knew his father had not been of this stamp.
+
+"And I am Mr. Richard Carvel, grandson to Mr. Lionel Carvel, of Carvel
+Hall, in Maryland," I replied, much in the same way.
+
+He thrust his hands into his breeches and stared very hard.
+
+"You?" he said finally, with something very near a laugh.
+
+"Sir, a gentleman's word usually suffices!" I cried.
+
+He changed his tone a little.
+
+"Your pardon, Mr. Carvel," he said, "but we men of business have need to
+be careful. Let us sit, and I will examine your letters. Your
+determination must have been suddenly taken," he added, "for I have
+nothing from Mr. Carvel on the subject of your coming."
+
+"Letters! You have heard nothing!" I gasped, and there stopped short
+and clinched the table. "Has not my grandfather written of my
+disappearance?"
+
+Immediately his expression went back to the one he had met me with.
+"Pardon me," he said again.
+
+I composed myself as best I could in the face of his incredulity,
+swallowing with an effort the aversion I felt to giving him my story.
+
+"I think it strange he has not informed you," I said; "I was kidnapped
+near Annapolis last Christmas-time, and put on board of a slaver, from
+which I was rescued by great good fortune, and brought to Scotland. And
+I have but just made my way to London."
+
+"The thing is not likely, Mr.--, Mr.--," he said, drumming impatiently on
+the board.
+
+Then I lost control of myself.
+
+"As sure as I am heir to Carvel Hall, Mr. Dix," I cried, rising, "you
+shall pay for your insolence by forfeiting your agency!"
+
+Now the roan was a natural coward, with a sneer for some and a smirk for
+others. He went to the smirk.
+
+"I am but looking to Mr. Carvel's interests the best I know how," he
+replied; "and if indeed you be Mr. Richard Carvel, then you must applaud
+my caution, sir, in seeking proofs."
+
+"Proofs I have none," I cried; "the very clothes on my back are borrowed
+from a Scotch seaman. My God, Mr. Dix, do I look like a rogue?"
+
+"Were I to advance money upon appearances, sir, I should be insolvent in
+a fortnight. But stay," he cried uneasily, as I flung back my chair,
+"stay, sir. Is there no one of your province in the town to attest your
+identity?"
+
+"Ay, that there is," I said bitterly; "you shall hear from Mr. Manners
+soon, I promise you."
+
+"Pray, Mr. Carvel," he said, overtaking me on the stairs, "you will
+surely allow the situation to be--extraordinary, you will surely commend
+my discretion. Permit me, sir, to go with you to Arlington Street." And
+he sent a lad in haste to the Exchange for a hackney-chaise, which was
+soon brought around.
+
+I got in, somewhat mollified, and ashamed of my heat: still disliking the
+man, but acknowledging he had the better right on his side. True to his
+kind he gave me every mark of politeness now, asked particularly after
+Mr. Carvel's health, and encouraged me to give him as much of my
+adventure as I thought proper. But what with the rattle of the carriage
+and the street noises and my disgust, I did not care to talk, and
+presently told him as much very curtly. He persisted, how: ever, in
+pointing out the sights, the Fleet prison, and where the Ludgate stood
+six years gone; and the Devil's Tavern, of old Ben Jonson's time, and the
+Mitre and the Cheshire Cheese and the Cock, where Dr. Johnson might be
+found near the end of the week at his dinner. He showed me the King's
+Mews above Charing Cross, and the famous theatre in the Haymarket, and we
+had but turned the corner into Piccadilly when he cried excitedly at a
+passing chariot:
+
+"There, Mr. Carvel, there go my Lord North and Mr. Rigby!"
+
+"The devil take them, Mr. Dix!" I exclaimed.
+
+He was silent after that, glancing at me covertly from while to while
+until we swung into Arlington Street. Before I knew we were stopped in
+front of the house, but as I set foot on the step I found myself
+confronted by a footman in the Manners livery, who cried out angrily to
+our man: "Make way, make way for his Grace of Chartersea!" Turning, I saw
+a coach behind, the horses dancing at the rear wheels of the chaise. We
+alighted hastily, and I stood motionless, my heart jumping quick and hard
+in the hope and fear that Dorothy was within, my eye fixed on the coach
+door. But when the footman pulled it open and lowered the step, out
+lolled a very broad man with a bloated face and little, beady eyes
+without a spark of meaning, and something very like a hump was on the top
+of his back. He wore a yellow top-coat, and red-heeled shoes of the
+latest fashion, and I settled at once he was the Duke of Chartersea.
+
+Next came little Mr. Manners, stepping daintily as ever; and then, as the
+door closed with a bang, I remembered my errand. They had got halfway to
+the portico.
+
+"Mr. Manners!" I cried.
+
+He faced about, and his Grace also, and both stared in wellbred surprise.
+As I live, Mr. Manners looked into my face, into my very eyes, and gave no
+sign of recognition. And what between astonishment and anger, and a
+contempt that arose within me, I could not speak.
+
+"Give the man a shilling, Manners," said his Grace; "we can't stay here
+forever."
+
+"Ay, give the man a shilling," lisped Mr. Manners to the footman. And
+they passed into the house, and the door eras shut.
+
+Then I heard Mr. Dix at my elbow, saying in a soft voice: "Now, my fine
+gentleman, is there any good reason why you should not ride to Bow Street
+with me?"
+
+"As there is a God in heaven. Mr. Dix," I answered, very low, "if you
+attempt to lay hands on me, you shall answer for it! And you shall hear
+from me yet, at the Star and Garter hotel."
+
+I spun on my heel and left him, nor did he follow; and a great lump was
+in my throat and tears welling in my eyes.
+
+What would John Paul say?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CASTLE YARD
+
+But I did not go direct to the Star and Garter. No, I lacked the courage
+to say to John Paul: "You have trusted me, and this is how I have
+rewarded your faith." And the thought that Dorothy's father, of all men,
+had served me thus, after what I had gone through, filled me with a
+bitterness I had never before conceived. And when my brain became
+clearer I reflected that Mr. Manners had had ample time to learn of my
+disappearance from Maryland, and that his action had been one of design,
+and of cold blood. But I gave to Dorothy or her mother no part in it.
+Mr. Manners never had had cause to hate me, and the only reason I could
+assign was connected with his Grace of Chartersea, which I dismissed as
+absurd.
+
+A few drops of rain warned me to seek shelter. I knew not where I was,
+nor how long I had been walking the streets at a furious pace. But a
+huckster told me I was in Chelsea; and kindly directed me back to Pall
+Mall. The usual bunch of chairmen was around the hotel entrance, but I
+noticed a couple of men at the door, of sharp features and unkempt dress,
+and heard a laugh as I went in. My head swam as I stumbled up the stairs
+and fumbled at the knob, when I heard voices raised inside, and the door
+was suddenly and violently thrown open. Across the sill stood a big,
+rough-looking man with his hands on his hips.
+
+"Oho! Here be the other fine bird a-homing, I'll warrant," he cried.
+
+The place was full. I caught sight of Davenport, the tailor, with a wry
+face, talking against the noise; of Banks, the man I had hired,
+resplendent in my livery. One of the hotel servants was in the corner
+perspiring over John Paul's chests, and beside him stood a man
+disdainfully turning over with his foot the contents, as they were thrown
+on the floor. I saw him kick the precious vellum-hole waistcoat across
+the room in wrath and disgust, and heard him shout above the rest:
+"The lot of them would not bring a guinea from any Jew in St. Martin's
+Lane!"
+
+In the other corner, by the writing-desk, stood the hatter and the
+haberdasher with their heads together. And in the very centre of the
+confusion was the captain himself. He was drest in his new clothes
+Davenport had brought, and surprised me by his changed appearance, and
+looked as fine a gentleman as any I have ever seen. His face lighted
+with relief at sight of me.
+
+"Now may I tell these rogues begone, Richard?" he cried. And turning
+to the man confronting me, he added, "This gentleman will settle their
+beggarly accounts."
+
+Then I knew we had to do with bailiffs, and my heart failed me.
+
+"Likely," laughed the big man; "I'll stake my oath he has not a groat to
+pay their beggarly accounts, as year honour is pleased to call them."
+
+They ceased jabbering and straightened to attention, awaiting my reply.
+But I forgot them all, and thought only of the captain, and of the
+trouble I had brought him. He began to show some consternation as I went
+up to him.
+
+"My dear friend," I said, vainly trying to steady my voice, "I beg,
+I pray that you will not lose faith in me,--that you will not think any
+deceit of mine has brought you to these straits. Mr. Dix did not know
+me, and has had no word from my grandfather of my disappearance. And Mr.
+Manners, whom I thought my friend, spurned me in the street before the
+Duke of Chartersea."
+
+And no longer master of myself, I sat down at the table and hid my face,
+shaken by great sobs, to think that this was my return for his kindness.
+
+"What," I heard him cry, "Mr. Manners spurned you, Richard! By all
+the law in Coke and Littleton, he shall answer for it to me. Your
+fairweather fowl shall have the chance to run me through!"
+
+I sat up in bewilderment, doubting my senses.
+
+"You believe me, captain," I said, overcome by the man's faith; "you
+believe me when I tell you that one I have known from childhood refused
+to recognize me to-day?"
+
+He raised me in his arms as tenderly as a woman might.
+
+"And the whole world denied you, lad, I would not. I believe you--" and
+he repeated it again and again, unable to get farther.
+
+And if his words brought tears to my eyes, my strength came with them.
+
+"Then I care not," I replied; "I only to live to reward you."
+
+"Mr. Manners shall answer for it to me!" cried John Paul again, and made
+a pace toward the door.
+
+"Not so fast, not so fast, captain, or admiral, or whatever you are,"
+said the bailiff, stepping in his way, for he was used to such scenes;
+"as God reigns, the owners of all these fierce titles be fire-eaters, who
+would spit you if you spilt snuff upon 'em. Come, come, gentlemen, your
+swords, and we shall see the sights o' London."
+
+This was the signal for another uproar, the tailor shrieking that John
+Paul must take off the suit, and Banks the livery; asking the man in the
+corner by the sea-chests (who proved to be the landlord) who was to pay
+him for his work and his lost cloth. And the landlord shook his fist at
+us and shouted back, who was to pay him his four pounds odd, which
+included two ten-shilling dinners and a flask of his best wine? The
+other tradesmen seized what was theirs and made off with remarks
+appropriate to the occasion. And when John Paul and my man were divested
+of their plumes, we were marched downstairs and out through a jeering
+line of people to a hackney coach.
+
+"Now, sirs, whereaway?" said the bailiff when we were got in beside one
+of his men, and burning with the shame of it; "to the prison? Or I has a
+very pleasant hotel for gentlemen in Castle Yard."
+
+The frightful stories my dear grandfather had told me of the Fleet came
+flooding into my head, and I shuddered and turned sick. I glanced at
+John Paul.
+
+"A guinea will not go far in a sponging-house," said he, and the
+bailiff's man laughed.
+
+The bailiff gave a direction we did not hear, and we drove off.
+He proved a bluff fellow with a bloat yet not unkindly humour, and
+despite his calling seemed to have something that was human in him.
+He passed many a joke on that pitiful journey in an attempt to break our
+despondency, urging us not to be downcast, and reminding us that the last
+gentleman he had taken from Pall Mall was in over a thousand pounds, and
+that our amount was a bagatelle. And when we had gone through Temple
+Bar, instead of keeping on down Fleet Street, we jolted into Chancery
+Lane. This roused me.
+
+"My friend has warned you that he has no money," I said, "and no more
+have I."
+
+The bailiff regarded me shrewdly.
+
+"Ay," he replied, "I know. But I has seen many stripes o' men in my
+time, my masters, and I know them to trust, and them whose silver I must
+feel or send to the Fleet."
+
+I told him unreservedly my case, and that he must take his chance of
+being paid; that I could not hear from America for three months at least.
+He listened without much show of attention, shaking his head from side to
+side.
+
+"If you ever cheated a man, or the admiral here either, then I begin over
+again," he broke in with decision; "it is the fine sparks from the clubs
+I has to watch. You'll not worry, sir, about me. Take my oath I'll get
+interest out of you on my money."
+
+Unwilling as we both were to be beholden to a bailiff, the alternative of
+the Fleet was too terrible to be thought of. And so we alighted after
+him with a shiver at the sight of the ugly, grimy face of the house, and
+the dirty windows all barred with double iron. In answer to a knock we
+were presently admitted by a turnkey to a vestibule as black as a tomb,
+and the heavy outer door was locked behind us. Then, as the man cursed
+and groped for the keyhole of the inner door, despair laid hold of me.
+
+Once inside, in the half light of a narrow hallway, a variety of noises
+greeted our ears,--laughter from above and below, interspersed with
+oaths; the click of billiard balls, and the occasional hammering of a
+pack of cards on a bare table before the shuffle. The air was close
+almost to suffocation, and out of the coffee room, into which I glanced,
+came a heavy cloud of tobacco smoke.
+
+"Why, my masters, why so glum?" said the bailiff; "my inn is not such a
+bad place, and you'll find ample good company here, I promise you."
+
+And he led us into a dingy antechamber littered with papers, on every one
+of which, I daresay, was written a tragedy. Then he inscribed our names,
+ages, descriptions, and the like in a great book, when we followed him up
+three flights to a low room under the eaves, having but one small window,
+and bare of furniture save two narrow cots for beds, a broken chair, and
+a cracked mirror. He explained that cash boarders got better, and added
+that we might be happy we were not in the Fleet.
+
+"We dine at two here, gentlemen, and sup at eight. This is not the Star
+and Garter," said he as he left us.
+
+It was the captain who spoke first, though he swallowed twice before the
+words came out.
+
+"Come, Richard, come, laddie," he said, "'tis no so bad it micht-na be
+waur. We'll mak the maist o' it."
+
+"I care not for myself, Captain Paul," I replied, marvelling the more at
+him, "but to think that I have landed you here, that this is my return
+for your sacrifice."
+
+"Hoots! How was ye to foresee Mr. Manners was a blellum?" And he broke
+into threats which, if Mr. Marmaduke had heard and comprehended, would
+have driven him into the seventh state of fear. "Have you no other
+friends in London?" he asked, regaining his English.
+
+I shook my head. Then came--a question I dreaded.
+
+"And Mr. Manners's family?"
+
+"I would rather remain here for life," I said, "than to them now."
+
+For pride is often selfish, my dears, and I did not reflect that if I
+remained, the captain would remain likewise.
+
+"Are they all like Mr. Manners?"
+
+"That they are not," I returned with more heat than was necessary; "his
+wife is goodness itself, and his daughter--" Words failed me, and I
+reddened.
+
+"Ah, he has a daughter, you say," said the captain, casting a significant
+look at me and beginning to pace the little room. He was keener than I
+thought, this John Paul.
+
+If it were not so painful a task, my dears, I would give you here some
+notion of what a London sponging-house was in the last century. Comyn
+has heard me tell of it, and I have seen Bess cry over the story. Gaming
+was the king-vice of that age, and it filled these places to overflowing.
+Heaven help a man who came into the world with that propensity in the
+early days of King George the Third. Many, alas, acquired it before they
+were come to years of discretion. Next me, at the long table where we
+were all thrown in together,--all who could not pay for private meals,
+--sat a poor fellow who had flung away a patrimony of three thousand a
+year. Another had even mortgaged to a Jew his prospects on the death of
+his mother, and had been seized by the bailiffs outside of St. James's
+palace, coming to Castle Yard direct from his Majesty's levee. Yet
+another, with such a look of dead hope in his eyes as haunts me yet,
+would talk to us by the hour of the Devonshire house where he was born,
+of the green valley and the peaceful stream, and of the old tower-room,
+caressed by trees, where Queen Bess had once lain under the carved oak
+rafters. Here he had taken his young wife, and they used to sit
+together, so he said, in the sunny oriel over the water, and he had sworn
+to give up the cards. That was but three years since, and then all had
+gone across the green cloth in one mad night in St. James's Street.
+Their friends had deserted them, and the poor little woman was lodged in
+Holborn near by, and came every morning with some little dainty to the
+bailiff's, for her liege lord who had so used her. He pressed me to
+share a fowl with him one day, but it would have choked me. God knows
+where she got the money to buy it. I saw her once hanging on his neck in
+the hall, he trying to shield her from the impudent gaze of his
+fellow-lodgers.
+
+But some of them lived like lords in luxury, with never a seeming regret;
+and had apartments on the first floor, and had their tea and paper in
+bed, and lounged out the morning in a flowered nightgown, and the rest of
+the day in a laced coat. These drank the bailiff's best port and
+champagne, and had nothing better than a frown or haughty look for us,
+when we passed them at the landing. Whence the piper was paid I knew
+not, and the bailiff cared not. But the bulk of the poor gentlemen were
+a merry crew withal, and had their wit and their wine at table, and knew
+each other's histories (and soon enough ours) by heart. They betted away
+the week at billiards or whist or picquet or loo, and sometimes measured
+swords for diversion, tho' this pastime the bailiff was greatly set
+against; as calculated to deprive him of a lodger.
+
+Although we had no money for gaming, and little for wine or tobacco, the
+captain and I were received very heartily into the fraternity. After one
+afternoon of despondency we both voted it the worst of bad policy to
+remain aloof and nurse our misfortune, and spent our first evening in
+making acquaintances over a deal of very thin "debtor's claret."
+I tossed long that night on the hard cot, listening to the scurrying rats
+among the roof-timbers. They ran like the thoughts in my brain. And
+before I slept I prayed again and again that God would put it in my power
+to reward him whom charity for a friendless foundling had brought to a
+debtor's prison.
+
+Not so much as a single complaint or reproach had passed his lips!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE RESCUE
+
+Perchance, my dears, if John Paul and I had not been cast by accident in
+a debtor's prison, this great man might never have bestowed upon our
+country those glorious services which contributed so largely to its
+liberty. And I might never have comprehended that the American
+Revolution was brought on and fought by a headstrong king, backed by
+unscrupulous followers who held wealth above patriotism. It is often
+difficult to lay finger upon the causes which change the drift of a man's
+opinions, and so I never wholly knew why John Paul abandoned his
+deep-rooted purpose to obtain advancement in London by grace of the
+accomplishments he had laboured so hard to attain. But I believe the
+beginning was at the meeting at Windsor with the slim and cynical
+gentleman who had treated him to something between patronage and
+contempt. Then my experience with Mr. Manners had so embedded itself in
+his mind that he could never speak of it but with impatience and disgust.
+And, lastly, the bailiff's hotel contained many born gentlemen who had
+been left here to rot out the rest of their dreary lives by friends who
+were still in power and opulence. More than once when I climbed to our
+garret I found the captain seated on the three-legged chair, with his
+head between his hands, sunk in reflection.
+
+"You were right, Richard," said he; "your great world is a hard world for
+those in the shadow of it. I see now that it must not be entered from
+below, but from the cabin window. A man may climb around it, lad, and
+when he is above may scourge it."
+
+"And you will scourge it, captain!" I had no doubt of his ability one
+day to do it.
+
+"Ay, and snap my fingers at it. 'Tis a pretty organization, this
+society, which kicks the man who falls to the dogs. None of your fine
+gentlemen for me!"
+
+And he would descend to talk politics with our fellow-guests. We should
+have been unhappy indeed had it not been for this pastime. It seems to
+me strange that these debtors took such a keen interest in outside
+affairs, even tho' it was a time of great agitation. We read with
+eagerness the cast-off newspapers of the first-floor gentlemen. One poor
+devil who had waddled (failed) in Change Alley had collected under his
+mattress the letters of Junius, then selling the Public Advertiser as few
+publications had ever sold before. John Paul devoured these attacks upon
+his Majesty and his ministry in a single afternoon, and ere long he had
+on the tip of his tongue the name and value of every man in Parliament
+and out of it. He learned, almost by heart, the history of the
+astonishing fight made by Mr. Wilkes for the liberties of England, and
+speedily was as good a Whig and a better than the member from Middlesex
+himself.
+
+The most of our companions were Tories, for, odd as it may appear, they
+retained their principles even in Castle Yard. And in those days to be a
+Tory was to be the friend of the King, and to be the friend of the King
+was to have some hope of advancement and reward at his hand. They had
+none. The captain joined forces with the speculator from the Alley, who
+had hitherto contended against mighty odds, and together they bore down
+upon the enemy--ay, and rooted him, too. For John Paul had an air about
+him and a natural gift of oratory to command attention, and shortly the
+dining room after dinner became the scene of such contests as to call up
+in the minds of the old stagers a field night in the good days of Mr.
+Pitt and the second George. The bailiff often sat by the door, an
+interested spectator, and the macaroni lodgers condescended to come
+downstairs and listen. The captain attained to fame in our little world
+from his maiden address, in which he very shrewdly separated the
+political character of Mr. Wilkes from his character as a private
+gentleman, and so refuted a charge of profligacy against the people's
+champion.
+
+Altho' I never had sufficient confidence in my powers to join in these
+discussions, I followed them zealously, especially when they touched
+American questions, as they frequently did. This subject of the wrongs
+of the colonies was the only one I could ever be got to study at King
+William's School, and I believe that my intimate knowledge of it gave the
+captain a surprise. He fell into the habit of seating himself on the
+edge of my bed after we had retired for the night, and would hold me
+talking until the small hours upon the injustice of taxing a people
+without their consent, and upon the multitude of measures of coercion
+which the King had pressed upon us to punish our resistance. He
+declaimed so loudly against the tyranny of quartering troops upon a
+peaceable state that our exhausted neighbours were driven to pounding
+their walls and ceilings for peace. The news of the Boston massacre
+had not then reached England.
+
+I was not, therefore, wholly taken by surprise when he said to me one
+night:
+
+"I am resolved to try my fortune in America, lad. That is the land for
+such as I, where a man may stand upon his own merits."
+
+"Indeed, we shall go together, captain," I answered heartily, "if we are
+ever free of this cursed house. And you shall taste of our hospitality
+at Carvel Hall, and choose that career which pleases you. Faith, I could
+point you a dozen examples in Annapolis of men who have made their way
+without influence. But you shall have influence," I cried, glowing at
+the notion of rewarding him; "you shall experience Mr. Carvel's gratitude
+and mine. You shall have the best of our ships, and you will."
+
+He was a man to take fire easily, and embraced me. And, strange to say,
+neither he nor I saw the humour, nor the pity, of the situation. How
+many another would long before have become sceptical of my promises! And
+justly. For I had led him to London, spent all his savings, and then got
+him into a miserable prison, and yet he had faith remaining, and to
+spare!
+
+It occurred to me to notify Mr. Dix of my residence in Castle Yard, not
+from any hope that he would turn his hand to my rescue, but that he might
+know where to find me if he heard from Maryland. And I penned another
+letter to Mr. Carvel, but a feeling I took no pains to define compelled
+me to withhold an account of Mr. Manners's conduct. And I refrained from
+telling him that I was in a debtor's prison. For I believe the thought
+of a Carvel in a debtor's prison would have killed him. I said only that
+we were comfortably lodged in a modest part of London; that the Manners
+were inaccessible (for I could not bring myself to write that they were
+out of town). Just then a thought struck me with such force that I got
+up with a cheer and hit the astonished captain between the shoulders.
+
+"How now!" he cried, ruefully rubbing himself. "If these are thy
+amenities, Richard, Heaven spare me thy blows."
+
+"Why, I have been a fool, and worse," I shouted. "My grandfather's ship,
+the Sprightly Bess, is overhauling this winter in the Severn. And unless
+she has sailed, which I think unlikely, I have but to despatch a line to
+Bristol to summon Captain Bell, the master, to London. I think he will
+bring the worthy Mr. Dix to terms."
+
+"Whether he will or no," said John Paul, hope lighting his face, "Bell
+must have command of the twenty pounds to free us, and will take us back
+to America. For I must own, Richard, that I have no great love for
+London."
+
+No more had I. I composed this letter to Bell in such haste that my hand
+shook, and sent it off with a shilling to the bailiff's servant, that it
+might catch the post. And that afternoon we had a two-shilling bottle of
+port for dinner, which we shared with a broken-down parson who had been
+chaplain in ordinary to my Lord Wortley, and who had preached us an
+Easter sermon the day before. For it was Easter Monday. Our talk was
+broken into by the bailiff, who informed me that a man awaited me in the
+passage, and my heart leaped into my, throat.
+
+There was Banks. Thinking he had come to reproach me; I asked him rather
+sharply what he wanted. He shifted his hat from one hand to the other
+and looked sheepish.
+
+"Your pardon, sir," said he, "but your honour must be very ill-served
+here."
+
+"Better than I should be, Banks, for I have no money," I said, wondering
+if he thought me a first-floor lodger.
+
+He made no immediate reply to that, either, but seemed more uneasy still.
+And I took occasion to note his appearance. He was exceeding neat in a
+livery of his old master, which he had stripped of the trimmings. Then,
+before I had guessed at his drift, he thrust his hand inside his coat and
+drew forth a pile of carefully folded bank notes.
+
+"I be a single man, sir, and has small need of this. And and I knows
+your honour will pay me when your letter comes from America."
+
+And he handed me five Bank of England notes of ten pounds apiece. I took
+them mechanically, without knowing what I did. The generosity of the act
+benumbed my senses, and for the instant I was inclined to accept the
+offer upon the impulse of it.
+
+"How do you know you would get your money again, Banks?" I asked
+curiously.
+
+"No fear, sir," he replied promptly, actually brightening at the
+prospect. "I knows gentlemen, sir, them that are such, sir. And I will
+go to America with you, and you say the word, sir."
+
+I was more touched than I cared to show over his offer, which I scarce
+knew how to refuse. In truth it was a difficult task, for he pressed me
+again and again, and when he saw me firm, turned away to wipe his eyes
+upon his sleeve. Then he begged me to let him remain and serve me in the
+sponginghouse, saying that he would pay his own way. The very thought of
+a servant in the bailiff's garret made me laugh, and so I put him off,
+first getting his address, and promising him employment on the day of my
+release.
+
+On Wednesday we looked for a reply from Bristol, if not for the
+appearance of Bell himself, and when neither came apprehension seized us
+lest he had already sailed for Maryland. The slender bag of Thursday's
+letters contained none for me. Nevertheless, we both did our best to
+keep in humour, forbearing to mention to one another the hope that had
+gone. Friday seemed the beginning of eternity; the day dragged through I
+know not how, and toward evening we climbed back to our little room, not
+daring to speak of what we knew in our hearts to be so,--that the
+Sprightly Bess had sailed. We sat silently looking out over the dreary
+stretch of roofs and down into a dingy court of Bernard's Inn below, when
+suddenly there arose a commotion on the stairs, as of a man mounting
+hastily. The door was almost flung from its hinges, some one caught me
+by the shoulders, gazed eagerly into my face, and drew back. For a space
+I thought myself dreaming. I searched my memory, and the name came. Had
+it been Dorothy, or Mr. Carvel himself, I could not have been more
+astonished, and my knees weakened under me.
+
+"Jack!" I exclaimed; "Lord Comyn!"
+
+He seized my hand. "Yes; Jack, whose life you saved, and no other," he
+cried, with a sailor's impetuosity. "My God, Richard! it was true,
+then; and you have been in this place for three weeks!"
+
+"For three weeks," I repeated.
+
+He looked at me, at John Paul, who was standing by in bewilderment, and
+then about the grimy, cobwebbed walls of the dark garret, and then turned
+his back to hide his emotion, and so met the bailiff, who was coming in.
+
+"For how much are these gentlemen in your books?" he demanded hotly.
+
+"A small matter, your Lordship,--a mere trifle," said the man, bowing.
+
+"How much, I say?"
+
+"Twenty-two guineas, five shillings, and eight pence, my Lord, counting
+debts, and board,--and interest," the bailiff glibly replied; for he had
+no doubt taken off the account when he spied his Lordship's coach. "And
+I was very good to Mr. Carvel and the captain, as your Lordship will
+discover--"
+
+"D--n your goodness!" said my Lord, cutting him short.
+
+And he pulled out a wallet and threw some pieces at the bailiff, bidding
+him get change with all haste. "And now, Richard," he added, with a
+glance of disgust about him, "pack up, and we'll out of this cursed
+hole!"
+
+"I have nothing to pack, my Lord," I said.
+
+"My Lord! Jack, I have told you, or I leave you here."
+
+"Well, then, Jack, and you will," said I, overflowing with thankfulness
+to God for the friends He had bestowed upon me. "But before we go a
+step, Jack, you must know the man but for whose bravery I should long
+ago have been dead of fever and ill-treatment in the Indies, and whose
+generosity has brought him hither. My Lord Comyn, this is Captain John
+Paul."
+
+The captain, who had been quite overwhelmed by this sudden arrival of a
+real lord to our rescue at the very moment when we had sunk to despair,
+and no less astonished by the intimacy that seemed to exist between the
+newcomer and myself, had the presence of mind to bend his head, and that
+was all. Comyn shook his hand heartily.
+
+"You shall not lack reward for this, captain, I promise you," cried he.
+"What you have done for Mr. Carvel, you have done for me. Captain, I
+thank you. You shall have my interest."
+
+I flushed, seeing John Paul draw his lips together. But how was his
+Lordship to know that he was dealing with no common sea-captain?
+
+"I have sought no reward, my Lord," said he. "What I have done was out
+of friendship for Mr. Carvel, solely."
+
+Comyn was completely taken by surprise by these words, and by the haughty
+tone in which they were spoken. He had not looked for a gentleman, and
+no wonder. He took a quizzical sizing of the sky-blue coat. Such a man
+in such a station was out of his experience.
+
+"Egad, I believe you, captain," he answered, in a voice which said
+plainly that he did not. "But he shall be rewarded nevertheless, eh,
+Richard? I'll see Charles Fox in this matter to-morrow. Come, come,"
+he added impatiently, "the bailiff must have his change by now. Come,
+Richard!" and he led the way down the winding stairs.
+
+"You must not take offence at his ways," I whispered to the captain. For
+I well knew that a year before I should have taken the same tone with one
+not of my class. "His Lordship is all kindness."
+
+"I have learned a bit since I came into England, Richard," was his sober
+reply.
+
+"'Twas a pitiful sight to see gathered on the landings the poor fellows
+we had come to know in Castle Yard, whose horizons were then as gray as
+ours was bright. But they each had a cheery word of congratulation for
+us as we passed, and the unhappy gentleman from Devonshire pressed my
+hand and begged that I would sometime think of him when I was out under
+the sky. I promised even more, and am happy to be able to say, my dears,
+that I saw both him and his wife off for America before I left London.
+Our eyes were wet when we reached the lower hall, and I was making for
+the door in an agony to leave the place, when the bailiff came out of his
+little office.
+
+"One moment, sir," he said, getting in front of me; "there is a little
+form yet to be gone through. The haste of gentlemen to leave us is not
+flattering."
+
+He glanced slyly at Comyn, and his Lordship laughed a little. I stepped
+unsuspectingly into the office.
+
+"Richard!"
+
+I stopped across the threshold as tho' I had been struck. The late
+sunlight filtering through the dirt of the window fell upon the tall
+figure of a girl and lighted an upturned face, and I saw tears glistening
+on the long lashes.
+
+It was Dorothy. Her hands were stretched out in welcome, and then I had
+them pressed in my own. And I could only look and look again, for I was
+dumb with joy.
+
+"Thank God you are alive!" she cried; "alive and well, when we feared you
+dead. Oh, Richard, we have been miserable indeed since we had news of
+your disappearance."
+
+"This is worth it all, Dolly," I said, only brokenly.
+
+She dropped her eyes, which had searched me through in wonder and pity,
+--those eyes I had so often likened to the deep blue of the sea,--and her
+breast rose and fell quickly with I knew not what emotions. How the mind
+runs, and the heart runs, at such a time! Here was the same Dorothy I
+had known in Maryland, and yet not the same. For she was a woman now,
+who had seen the great world, who had refused both titles and estates,
+--and perchance accepted them. She drew her hands from mine.
+
+"And how came you in such a place?" she asked, turning with a shudder.
+"Did you not know you had friends in London, sir?"
+
+Not for so much again would I have told her of Mr. Manners's conduct. So
+I stood confused, casting about for a reply with truth in it, when Comyn
+broke in upon us.
+
+"I'll warrant you did not look for her here, Richard. Faith, but you are
+a lucky dog," said my Lord, shaking his head in mock dolefulness; "for
+there is no man in London, in the world, for whom she would descend a
+flight of steps, save you. And now she has driven the length of the town
+when she heard you were in a sponging-house, nor all the dowagers in
+Mayfair could stop her."
+
+"Fie, Comyn," said my lady, blushing and gathering up her skirts; "that
+tongue of yours had hung you long since had it not been for your peer's
+privilege. Richard and I were brought up as brother and sister, and you
+know you were full as keen for his rescue as I."
+
+His Lordship pinched me playfully.
+
+"I vow I would pass a year in the Fleet to have her do as much for me,"
+said he.
+
+"But where is the gallant seaman who saved you, Richard?" asked Dolly,
+stamping her foot.
+
+"What," I exclaimed; "you know the story?"
+
+"Never mind," said she; "bring him here."
+
+My conscience smote me, for I had not so much as thought of John Paul
+since I came into that room. I found him waiting in the passage, and
+took him by the hand.
+
+"A lady wishes to know you, captain," I said.
+
+"A lady!" he cried. "Here? Impossible!" And he looked at his clothes.
+
+"Who cares more for your heart than your appearance," I answered gayly,
+and led him into the office.
+
+At sight of Dorothy he stopped abruptly, confounded, as a man who
+sees a diamond in a dust-heap. And a glow came over me as I said:
+
+"Miss Manners, here is Captain Paul, to whose courage and unselfishness
+I owe everything."
+
+"Captain," said Dorothy, graciously extending her hand, "Richard has many
+friends. You have put us all in your debt, and none deeper than his old
+playmate."
+
+The captain fairly devoured her with his eyes as she made him a curtsey.
+But he was never lacking in gallantry, and was as brave on such occasions
+as when all the dangers of the deep threatened him. With an elaborate
+movement he took Miss Manners's fingers and kissed them, and then swept
+the floor with a bow.
+
+"To have such a divinity in my debt, madam, is too much happiness for one
+man," he said. "I have done nothing to merit it. A lifetime were all
+too short to pay for such a favour."
+
+I had almost forgotten Miss Dolly the wayward, the mischievous. But she
+was before me now, her eyes sparkling, and biting her lips to keep down
+her laughter. Comyn turned to fleck the window with his handkerchief,
+while I was not a little put out at their mirth. But if John Paul
+observed it, he gave no sign.
+
+"Captain, I vow your manners are worthy of a Frenchman," said my Lord;
+"and yet I am given to understand you are a Scotchman."
+
+A shadow crossed the captain's face.
+
+"I was, sir," he said.
+
+"You were!" exclaimed Comyn, astonished; "and pray, what are you now,
+sir?"
+
+"Henceforth, my Lord," John Paul replied with vast ceremony: "I am an
+American, the compatriot of the beautiful Miss Manners!"
+
+"One thing I'll warrant, captain," said his Lordship, "that you are a
+wit."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Richard Carvel, Volume 4, by Winston Churchill
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Ebook Richard Carvel, v4, by Winston Churchill
+WC#31 in our series by Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
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+*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
+
+
+Title: Richard Carvel, Volume 4.
+
+Author: Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston Churchill)
+
+Release Date: March, 2004  [EBook #5368]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on June 24, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+
+
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, V4, BY CHURCHILL ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+RICHARD CARVEL
+
+By Winston Churchill
+
+
+Volume 4.
+
+
+XIX.      A Man of Destiny
+XX.       A Sad Home-coming
+XXI.      The Gardener's Cottage
+XXII.     On the Road
+XXIII.    London Town
+XXIV.     Castle Yard
+XXV.      The Rescue
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A MAN OF DESTINY
+
+I was picked up and thrown into the brigantine's long-boat with a head
+and stomach full of salt water, and a heart as light as spray with the
+joy of it all.  A big, red-bearded man lifted my heels to drain me.
+
+"The mon's deid," said he.
+
+"Dead!" cried I, from the bottom-board.  "No more dead than you!"
+
+I turned over so lustily that he dropped my feet, and I sat up, something
+to his consternation.  And they had scarce hooked the ship's side when I
+sprang up the sea-ladder, to the great gaping of the boat's crew, and
+stood with the water running off me in rivulets before the captain
+himself.  I shall never forget the look of his face as he regarded my
+sorry figure.
+
+"Now by Saint Andrew," exclaimed he, "are ye kelpie or pirate?"
+
+"Neither, captain," I replied, smiling as the comical end of it came up
+to me, "but a young gentleman in misfortune."
+
+"Hoots!"  says he, frowning at the grinning half-circle about us, "it's
+daft ye are--"
+
+But there he paused, and took of me a second sizing.  How he got at my
+birth behind my tangled mat of hair and wringing linsey-woolsey I know
+not to this day.  But he dropped his Scotch and merchant-captain's
+manner, and was suddenly a French courtier, making me a bow that had done
+credit to a Richelieu.
+
+"Your servant, Mr.--"
+
+"Richard Carvel, of Carvel Hall, in his Majesty's province of Maryland."
+
+He seemed sufficiently impressed.
+
+"Your very humble servant, Mr. Carvel.  'Tis in faith a privilege to be
+able to serve a gentleman."
+
+He bowed me toward his cabin, and then in sharp, quick tones he gave an
+order to his mate to get under way, and I saw the men turning to the
+braces with wonder in their eyes.  My own astonishment was as great.  And
+so, with my clothes sucking to my body and a trail of water behind me
+like that of a wet walrus, I accompanied the captain aft.  His quarters
+were indeed a contrast to those of Griggs, being so neat that I paused at
+the door for fear of profaning them; but was so courteously bid to enter
+that I came on again.  He summoned a boy from the round house.
+
+"William," said he, "a bottle of my French brandy.  And my compliments to
+Mr. MacMuir, and ask him for a suit of clothes.  You are a larger man
+than I, Mr. Carvel," he said to me, "or I would fit you out according to
+your station."
+
+I was too overwhelmed to speak.  He poured out a liberal three fingers of
+brandy, and pledged me as handsomely as I had been an admiral come
+thither in mine own barge, instead of a ragged lad picked off a piratical
+slaver, with nothing save my bare word and address.  'Twas then I had
+space to note him more particularly.  His skin was the rich colour of a
+well-seasoned ship's bell, and he was of the middle height, owned a
+slight, graceful figure, tapering down at the waist like a top, which had
+set off a silk coat to perfection and soured the beaus with envy.  His
+movements, however, had all the decision of a man of action and of force.
+But his eye it was took possession of me--an unfathomable, dark eye,
+which bore more toward melancholy than sternness, and yet had something
+of both.  He wore a clean, ruffled shirt, an exceeding neat coat and
+breeches of blue broadcloth, with plate burnished buttons, and white
+cotton stockings.  Truly, this was a person to make one look twice, and
+think oftener.  Then, as I went to pledge him, I, too, was caught for his
+name.
+
+"Paul," said he; "John Paul, of the brigantine John, of Kirkcudbright, in
+the West India trade."
+
+"Captain Paul--" I began.  But my gratitude stuck fast in my throat and
+flowed out of my eyes.  For the thought of the horrors from which he had
+saved me for the first time swept over me; his own kind treatment
+overcame me, and I blubbered like a child.  With that he turned his back.
+
+"Hoots," says he, again, "dinna ye thank me.  'Tis naething to scuttle a
+nest of vermin, but the duty of ilka man who sails the seas."  By this,
+having got the better of his emotion, he added: "And if it has been my
+good fortune to save a gentleman, Mr. Carvel, I thank God for it, as you
+must."
+
+Save for a slackness inside the leg and in the hips, Macbluir's clothes
+fitted me well enough, and presently I reappeared in the captain's cabin
+rigged out in the mate's shore suit of purplish drab, and brass-buckled
+shoes that came high over the instep, with my hair combed clear and tied
+with a ribbon behind.  I felt at last that I might lay some claim to
+respectability.  And what was my surprise to find Captain Paul buried to
+his middle in a great chest, and the place strewn about with laced and
+broidered coats and waistcoats, frocks and Newmarkets, like any tailor's
+shop in Church Street.  So strange they looked in those tropical seas
+that he was near to catching me in a laugh as he straightened up.  'Twas
+then I noted that he was a younger man than I had taken him for.
+
+"You gentlemen from the southern colonies are too well nourished, by
+far," says he; "you are apt to be large of chest and limb.  'Odds bods,
+Mr. Carvel, it grieves me to see you apparelled like a barber surgeon.
+If the good Lord had but made you smaller, now," and he sighed, "how well
+this skyblue frock had set you off."
+
+"Indeed, I am content, and more, captain," I replied with a smile,
+"and thankful to be safe amongst friends.  Never, I assure you,
+have I had less desire for finery."
+
+"Ay," said he, "you may well say that, you who have worn silk all your
+life, and will the rest of it, and we get safe to port.  But believe me,
+sir, the pleasure of seeing one of your face and figure in such a coat as
+that would not be a small one."
+
+And disregarding my blushes and protests, he held up the watchet blue
+frock against me, and it was near fitting me but for my breadth,--the
+skirts being prodigiously long.  I wondered mightily what tailor had
+thrust this garment upon him; its fashion was of the old king's time,
+the cuffs slashed like a sea-officer's uniform, and the shoulders made
+carefully round.  But other thoughts were running within me then.
+
+"Captain," I cut in, "you are sailing eastward."
+
+"Yes, yes," he answered absently, fingering some Point d'Espagne.
+
+"There is no chance of touching in the colonies?" I persisted.
+
+"Colonies!  No," said he, in the same abstraction; "I am making for the
+Solway, being long overdue.  But what think you of this, Mr. Carvel?"
+
+And he held up a wondrous vellum-hole waistcoat of a gone-by vintage,
+and I saw how futile it were to attempt to lead him, while in that state
+of absorption, to topics which touched my affair.  Of a sudden the
+significance of what he had said crept over me, the word Solway repeating
+itself in my mind.  That firth bordered England itself, and Dorothy was
+in London!  I became reconciled.  I had no particle of objection to the
+Solway save the uneasiness my grandfather would come through, which was
+beyond helping.  Fate had ordered things well.
+
+Then I fell to applauding, while the captain tried on (for he was not
+content with holding up) another frock of white drab, which, cuffs and
+pockets, I'll take my oath mounted no less than twenty-four: another
+plain one of pink cut-velvet; tail-coats of silk, heavily broidered with
+flowers, and satin waistcoats with narrow lace.  He took an inconceivable
+enjoyment out of this parade, discoursing the while, like a nobleman with
+nothing but dress in his head, or, perhaps, like a mastercutter, about
+the turn of this or that lapel, the length from armpit to fold, and the
+number of button-holes that was proper.  And finally he exhibited with
+evident pride a pair of doeskins that buttoned over the calf to be worn
+with high shoes, which I make sure he would have tried on likewise had he
+been offered the slightest encouragement.  So he exploited the whole of
+his wardrobe, such an unlucky assortment of finery as I never wish to see
+again; all of which, however, became him marvellously, though I think he
+had looked well in anything.  I hope I may be forgiven the perjury I did
+that day.  I wondered greatly that such a foible should crop out in a man
+of otherwise sound sense and plain ability.
+
+At length, when the last chest was shut again and locked, and I had
+exhausted my ingenuity at commendation, and my patience also, he turned
+to me as a man come out of a trance.
+
+"Od's fish, Mr. Carvel," he cried, "you will be starved.  I had forgot
+your state."
+
+I owned that hunger had nigh overcome me, whereupon he became very
+solicitous, bade the boy bring in supper at once, and in a short time we
+sat down together to the best meal I had seen for a month.  It seemed
+like a year.  Porridge, and bacon nicely done, and duff and ale, with the
+sea rushing past the cabin windows as we ate, touched into colour by the
+setting sun.  Captain Paul did not mess with his mates, not he, and he
+gave me to understand that I was to share his cabin, apologizing
+profusely for what he was pleased to call poor fare.  He would have
+it that he, and not I, were receiving favour.
+
+"My dear sir," he said once, "you cannot know what a bit of finery is to
+me, who has so little chance for the wearing of it.  To discuss with a
+gentleman, a connoisseur (I know a bit of French, Mr. Carvel), is a
+pleasure I do not often come at."
+
+His simplicity in this touched me; it was pathetic.
+
+"How know you I am a gentleman, Captain Paul?"  I asked curiously.
+
+"I should lack discernment, sir," he retorted, with some heat, "if I
+could not see as much.  Breeding shines through sack-cloth, sir.
+Besides," he continued, in a milder tone, "the look of you is candour
+itself.  Though I have not greatly the advantage of you in age, I have
+seen many men, and I know that such a face as yours cannot lie."
+
+Here Mr. Lowrie, the second mate, came in with a report; and I remarked
+that he stood up hat in hand whilst making it, very much as if Captain
+Paul commanded a frigate.  The captain went to a locker and brought forth
+some mellow Madeira, and after the mate had taken a glass of it standing,
+he withdrew.  Then we lighted pipes and sat very cosey with a lanthorn
+swung between us, and Captain Paul expressed a wish to hear my story.
+
+I gave him my early history briefly, dwelling but casually upon the
+position enjoyed in Maryland by my family; but I spoke of my grandfather,
+now turning seventy, gray-haired in the service of King and province.
+The captain was indeed a most sympathetic listener, now throwing in a
+question showing keen Scotch penetration, and anon making a most
+ludicrous inquiry as to the dress livery our footmen wore, and whether
+Mr. Carvel used outriders when he travelled abroad.  This was the other
+side of the man.  As the wine warmed and the pipe soothed, I spoke at
+length of Grafton and the rector; and when I came to the wretched
+contrivance by which they got me aboard the Black Moll, he was stalking
+hither and thither about the cabin, his fists clenched and his voice
+thick, breaking into Scotch again and vowing that hell were too good for
+such as they.
+
+His indignation, which seemed real and generous, transformed him into
+another man.  He showered question after question upon me concerning my
+uncle and Mr. Allen; declared that he had known many villains, but had
+yet to hear of their equals; and finally, cooling a little, gave it as
+his judgment that the crime could never be brought home to them.  This
+was my own opinion.  He advised me, before we turned in, to "gie the
+parson a Grunt" as soon as ever I could lay hands upon him.
+
+
+The John made a good voyage for that season, with fair winds and clear
+skies for the most part.  'Twas a stout ship and a steady, with generous
+breadth of beam, and kept by the master as clean and bright as his
+porringer.  He was Emperor aboard her.  He spelt Command with a large C,
+and when he inspected, his jacks stood to attention like man-o'-war's
+men.  The John mounting only four guns, and but two of them ninepounders,
+I expressed my astonishment that he had dared attack a pirate craft like
+the Black Moll, without knowing her condition and armament.
+
+"Richard," says he, impressively, for we had become very friendly, "I
+would close with a thirty-two and she flew that flag.  Why, sir, a bold
+front is half the battle, using circumspection, of a course.  A pretty
+woman, whatever her airs and quality, is to be carried the same way, and
+a man ought never to be frightened by appearances."
+
+Sometimes, at our meals, we discussed politics.  But he seemed lukewarm
+upon this subject.  He had told me that he had a brother William in
+Virginia, who was a hot Patriot.  The American quarrel seemed to interest
+him very little.  I should like to underscore this last sentence, my
+dears, in view of what comes after.  What he said on the topic leaned
+perhaps to the King's side, tho' he was careful to say nothing that would
+give me offence.  I was not surprised, for I had made a fair guess of his
+ambitions.  It is only honest to declare that in my soberer moments my
+estimate of his character suffered.  But he was a strange man,--a genius,
+as I soon discovered, to rouse the most sluggish nature to enthusiasm.
+
+The joy of sailing is born into some men, and those who are marked for
+the sea go down thither like the very streams, to be salted.  Whatever
+the sign, old Stanwix was not far wrong when he read it upon me, and
+'twas no great while before I was part and parcel of the ship beneath my
+feet, breathing deep with her every motion.  What feeling can compare
+with that I tasted when the brigantine lay on her side, the silver spray
+hurling over the bulwarks and stinging me to life!  Or, in the watches,
+to hear the sea lashing along her strakes in never ending music!  I gave
+MacMuir his shore suit again, and hugely delighted and astonished Captain
+Paul by donning a jacket of Scotch wool and a pair of seaman's boots, and
+so became a sailor myself.  I had no mind to sit idle the passage, and
+the love of it, as I have said, was in me.  In a fortnight I went aloft
+with the best of the watch to reef topsails, and trod a foot-rope without
+losing head or balance, bent an easing, and could lay hand on any lift,
+brace, sheet, or haulyards in the racks.  John Paul himself taught me to
+tack and wear ship, and MacMuir to stow a headsail.  The craft came to
+me, as it were, in a hand-gallop.
+
+At first I could make nothing of the crew, not being able to understand a
+word of their Scotch; but I remarked, from the first, that they were sour
+and sulky, and given to gathering in knots when the captain or MacMuir
+had not the deck.  For Mr. Lowrie, poor man, they had little respect.
+But they plainly feared the first mate, and John Paul most of all.  Of me
+their suspicion knew no bounds, and they would give me gruff answers, or
+none, when I spoke to them.  These things roused both curiosity and
+foreboding within me.
+
+Many a watch I paced thro' with MacMuir, big and red and kindly, and I
+was not long in letting him know of the interest which Captain Paul had
+inspired within me.  His own feeling for him was little short of
+idolatry.  I had surmised much as to the rank of life from which the
+captain had sprung, but my astonishment was great when I was told that
+John Paul was the son of a poor gardener.
+
+"A gardener's son, Mr. MacMuir!" I repeated.
+
+"Just that," said he, solemnly, "a guid man an' haly' was auld Paul.
+Unco puir, by reason o' seven bairns.  I kennt the daddie weel.  I mak
+sma' doubt the captain'll tak ye hame wi' him, syne the mither an'
+sisters still be i' the cot i' Mr. Craik's croft."
+
+"Tell me, MacMuir," said I, "is not the captain in some trouble?"
+
+For I knew that something, whatever it was, hung heavy on John Paul's
+mind as we drew nearer Scotland.  At times his brow would cloud and he
+would fall silent in the midst of a jest.  And that night, with the stars
+jumping and the air biting cold (for we were up in the 40's), and the
+John wish-washing through the seas at three leagues the hour, MacMuir
+told me the story of Mungo Maxwell.  You may read it for yourselves, my
+dears, in the life of John Paul Jones.
+
+"Wae's me!" he said, with a heave of his big chest, "I reca' as yestreen
+the night Maxwell cam aboord.  The sun gaed loon a' bluidy, an' belyve
+the morn rose unco mirk an' dreary, wi' bullers(rollers) frae the west
+like muckle sowthers(soldiers) wi' white plumes.  I tauld the captain
+'twas a' the faut o' Maxwell.  I ne'er cad bide the blellum.  Dour an'
+din  he was, wi' ae girn like th' auld hornie.  But the captain wadna
+hark to my rede when I tauld him naught but dool wad cooin o' taking
+Mungo."
+
+It seemed that John Paul, contrary to MacMuir'sadvice, had shipped as
+carpenter on the voyage out--near seven months since--a man by the name
+of Mungo Maxwell.  The captain's motive had nothing in it but kindness,
+and a laudable desire to do a good turn to a playmate of his boyhood.  As
+MacMuir said, "they had gaed barefit thegither amang the braes."  The man
+hailed from Kirkbean, John Paul's own parish.  But he had within him
+little of the milk of kindness, being in truth a sour and mutinous devil;
+and instead of the gratitude he might have shown, he cursed the fate that
+had placed him under the gardener's son, whom he deemed no better than
+himself.  The John had scarce cleared the Solway before Maxwell showed
+signs of impudence and rebellion.
+
+The crew was three-fourths made of Kirkcudbright men who had known the
+master from childhood, many of them, indeed, being older than he; they
+were mostly jealous of Paul, envious of the command he had attained to
+over them, and impatient under the discipline he was ever ready to
+inflict.  'Tis no light task to enforce obedience from those with whom
+one has birdnested.  But, having more than once felt the weight of his
+hand, they feared him.
+
+Dissatisfaction among such spreads apace, if a leader is but given; and
+Maxwell was such a one.  His hatred for John Paul knew no bounds, and,
+having once tasted of his displeasure, he lay awake o' nights scheming to
+ruin him.  And this was the plot: when the Azores should be in the wake,
+Captain Paul was to be murdered as he paced his quarterdeck in the
+morning, the two mates clapt into irons, and so brought to submission.
+And Maxwell, who had no more notion of navigation than a carpenter
+should, was to take the John to God knows where,--the Guinea coast,
+most probably.  He would have no more navy regulations on a merchant
+brigantine, he promised them, nor banyan days, for the matter o' that.
+
+Happily, MacMuir himself discovered the affair on the eve of its
+perpetration, overhearing two men talking in the breadroom, and he ran to
+the cabin with the sweat standing out on his forehead.  But the captain
+would have none of the precautions he urged; declared he would walk the
+deck as usual, and vowed he could cope single-handed with a dozen cowards
+like Maxwell.  Sure enough, at crowdie-time, the men were seen coming
+aft, with Maxwell in the van carrying a bowl, on the pretext of a
+complaint against the cook.
+
+"John Paul," said MacMuir, with admiration in his voice and gesture,
+"John Paul wasna feart a pickle, but gaed to the mast, whyles I stannt
+chittering i' my claes, fearfu' for his life.  He teuk the horns from
+Mungo, priet(tasted) a soup o' the crowdie, an' wi' that he seiz't haut
+o' the man by baith shouthers ere the blastie(scoundrel) raught for 's
+knife.  My aith upo't, sir, the lave(rest) o' the batch cowert frae his
+e'e for a' the wand like thumpit tykes.'"
+
+So ended that mutiny, by the brave act of a brave man.  The carpenter was
+clapt into irons himself, and given no less of the cat-o'-nine-tails than
+was good for him, and properly discharged at Tobago with such as had
+supported him.  But he brought Captain Paul before the vice-admiralty
+court of that place, charging him with gross cruelty, and this proceeding
+had delayed the brigantine six months from her homeward voyage, to the
+great loss of her owners.  And tho' at length the captain was handsomely
+acquitted, his character suffered unjustly, for there lacked not those
+who put their own interpretation upon the affair.  He would most probably
+lose the brigantine.  "He expected as much," said MacMuir.
+
+"There be mony aboord," he concluded, with a sigh, "as'll muckle
+gash(gossip) when we win to Kirkcudbright."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A SAD HOME-COMING
+
+Mr. Lowrie and Auctherlonnie, the Dumfries bo'sun, both of whom would
+have died for the captain, assured me of the truth of MacMuir's story,
+and shook their heads gravely as to the probable outcome.  The peculiar
+water-mark of greatness that is woven into some men is often enough to
+set their own community bitter against them.  Sandie, the plodding
+peasant, finds it a hard matter to forgive Jamie, who is taken from the
+plough next to his, and ends in Parliament.  The affair of Mungo Maxwell,
+altered to suit, had already made its way on more than one vessel to
+Scotland.  For according to Lowrie, there was scarce a man or woman in
+Kirkcudbrightshire who did not know that John Paul was master of the
+John, and (in their hearts) that he would be master of more in days to
+come.  Human nature is such that they resented it, and cried out aloud
+against his cruelty.
+
+On the voyage I had many sober thoughts of my own to occupy me of the
+terrible fate, from which, by Divine inter position, I had been rescued;
+of the home I had left behind. I was all that remained to Mr. Carvel in
+the world, and I was sure that he had given me up for dead.  How had he
+sustained the shock?  I saw him heavily mounting the stairs upon Scipicks
+arm when first the news was brought to him. Next Grafton would come
+hurrying in from Kent to Marlboro Street, disavowing all knowledge of the
+messenger from New York, and intent only upon comforting his father.  And
+when I pictured my uncle soothing him to his face, and grinning behind
+his bed-curtains, my anger would scald me, and the realization of my
+helplessness bring tears of very bitterness.
+
+What would I not have given then for one word with that honest and
+faithful friend of our family, Captain Daniel!  I knew that he suspected
+Grafton: he had told me as much that night at the Coffee House.  Perhaps
+the greatest of my fears was that my uncle would deny him access to Mr.
+Carvel when he returned from the North.
+
+In the evening, when the sun settled red upon the horizon, I would think
+of Patty and my friends in Gloucester Street.  For I knew they missed me
+sadly of a Sunday at the suppertable.  But it has ever been my nature to
+turn forward instead of back, and to accept the twists and flings of
+fortune with hope rather than with discouragement.  And so, as we left
+league after, league of the blue ocean behind us, I would set my face to
+the forecastle.  For Dorothy was in England.
+
+On a dazzling morning in March, with the brigantine running like a beagle
+in full cry before a heaping sea that swayed her body,--so I beheld for
+the first time the misty green of the high shores of Ireland.  Ah! of
+what heroes' deeds was I capable as I watched the lines come out in bold
+relief from a wonderland of cloud!  With what eternal life I seemed to
+tingle!  'Twas as though I, Richard Carvel, had discovered all this
+colour; and when a tiny white speck of a cottage came out on the edge of
+the cliff, I thought irresistibly of the joy to live there the year round
+with Dorothy, with the wind whistling about our gables, and the sea
+thundering on the rocks far below.  Youth is in truth a mystery.
+
+How long I was gazing at the shifting coast I know not, for a strange
+wildness was within me that made me forget all else, until suddenly I
+became conscious of a presence at my side, and turned to behold the
+captain.
+
+"'Tis a braw sight, Richard," said he, "but no sae bonnie as auld
+Scotland.  An' the wind hands, we shall see her shores the morn."
+
+His voice broke, and I looked again to see two great tears rolling upon
+his cheeks.
+
+"Ah, Scotland!"  he pressed on, heedless of them, "God aboon kens what
+she is to me!  But she hasna' been ower guid to me, laddie."  And he
+walked to the taffrail, and stood looking astern that two men who had
+come aft to splice a haulyard might not perceive his disorder.  I
+followed him, emboldened to speak at last what was in me.
+
+"Captain Paul," said I, "MacMuir has told me of your trouble.  My
+grandfather is rich, and not lacking in gratitude,"--here I paused for
+suitable words, as I could not solve his expression,--"you, sir, whose
+bravery and charity will have restored me to him, shall not want for
+friends and money."
+
+He heard me through.
+
+"Mr. Carvel," he replied with an impressiveness that took me aback,
+"reward is a thing that should not be spoken of between gentlemen."
+
+And thus he left me, upbraiding myself that I should have mentioned
+money.  And yet, I reflected secondly, why not?  He was no more nor less
+than a master of a merchantman, and surely nothing was out of the common
+in such a one accepting what he had honestly come by.  Had my affection
+for him been less sincere, had I not been racked with sympathy, I had
+laughed over his notions of gentility.  I resolved, however, that when I
+had reached London and seen Mr. Dix, Mr. Carvel's agent, he should be
+rewarded despite his scruples.  And if he lost his ship, he should have
+one of my grandfather's.
+
+But at dinner he had plainly forgot any offence, and I had more cause
+than ever to be puzzled over his odd mixture of confidence and aloofness.
+He talked gayly on a score of subjects,--on dress, of which he was never
+tired, and described ports in the Indies and South America, in a fashion
+that betrayed prodigious powers of acute observation; nor did he lack for
+wit when he spoke of the rich planters who had wined him, and had me much
+in laughter.  We fell into a merry mood, in Booth, jingling the glasses
+in many toasts, for he had a list of healths to make me gasp, near as
+long as the brigantine's articles,--Inez in Havana and Maraquita in
+Cartagena, and Clotilde, the Creole, of Martinico, each had her separate
+charm.  Then there was Bess, in Kingston, the relict of a customs
+official, Captain Paul relating with ingenuous gusto a midnight brush
+with a lieutenant of his Majesty, in which the fair widow figured, and
+showed her preference, too.  But his adoration for the ladies of the more
+northern colonies, he would have me to understand, was unbounded.  For
+example, Miss Arabella Pope of Norfolk, in Virginia,--and did I know her?
+No, I had not that pleasure, though I assured him the Popes of Virginia
+were famed.  Miss Pope danced divinely as any sylph, and the very memory
+of her tripping at the Norfolk Assembly roused the captain to such a
+pitch of enthusiasm as I had never seen in him.  Marvellous to say, his
+own words failed him, and he had recourse to the poets:
+
+                   "Her feet beneath her petticoat
+                    Like little mice stole in and out,
+                    As if they feared the light;
+                    But, oh, she dances such a way!
+                    No sun upon an Easter-day
+                    Is half so fine a sight."
+
+The lines, he told me, were Sir John Suckling's; and he gave them
+standing, in excellent voice and elegant gesture.
+
+He was in particular partial to the poets, could quote at will from Gay
+and Thomson and Goldsmith and Gray, and even from Shakespeare, much to my
+own astonishment and humiliation.  Saving only Dr. Courtenay of Annapolis
+I had never met his equal for versatility of speech and command of fine
+language; and, having heard that he had been at sea since the age of
+twelve, I made bold to ask him at what school he had got his knowledge.
+
+"At none, Richard," he answered with pride, "saving the rudiments at the
+Parish School at Kirkbean.  Why, sir, I hold it to be within every man's
+province to make himself what he will, and I early recognized in Learning
+the only guide for such as me.  I may say that I married her for the
+furtherance of my fortunes, and have come to love her for her own sake.
+Many and many the 'tween-watch have I passed in a coil of rope in the
+tops, a volume of the classics in my hand.  And 'my happiest days, when
+not at sea, have been spent in my brother William's little library.  He
+hath a modest estate near Fredericksburg, in Virginia, and none holds
+higher than he the worth of an education.  Ah, Richard," he added, with a
+certain sadness, "I fear you little know the value of that which hath
+been so lavishly bestowed upon you.  There is no creation in the world to
+equal your fine gentleman!"
+
+It struck me indeed as strange that a man of his powers should set store
+by such trumpery, and, too, that these notions had not impaired his
+ability as a seaman.  I did not reply.  He gave no heed, however, but
+drew from a case a number of odes and compositions, which he told me were
+his own.  They were addressed to various of his enamouritas, abounded in
+orrery, and were all, I make no doubt, incredibly fine, tho' not so much
+as one sticks in my mind.  To speak truth I listened with a very ill
+grace, longing the while to be on deck, for we were about to sight the
+Isle of Man.  The wine and the air of the cabin had made my eyes heavy.
+But presently, when he had run through with some dozen or more, he put
+them by, and with a quick motion got from his chair, a light coming into
+his dark eyes that startled me to attention.  And I forgot the merchant
+captain, and seemed to be looking forward into the years.
+
+"Mark you, Richard," said he, "mark well when I say that my time will
+come, and a day when the best of them will bow to me.  And every ell of
+that triumph shall be mine, sir,-ay, every inch!"
+
+Such was his force, which sprang from some hidden fire within him, that
+I believed his words as firmly as they had been writ down in the Book of
+Isaiah.  Brimming over with enthusiasm, I pledged his coming greatness in
+a reaming glass of Malaga.
+
+"Alack," he cried, "an' they all had your faith, laddie, a fig for the
+prophecy!  Ya maun ken th' incentive's the maist o' the battle."
+
+There was more of wisdom in this than I dreamed of then.  Here lay hid
+the very keynote of that ambitious character: he stooped to nothing less
+than greatness for a triumph over his slanderers.
+
+I rose betimes the next morning to find the sun peeping above the wavy
+line of the Scottish hills far up the.  Solway, and the brigantine
+sliding smoothly along in the lee of the Galloway Rhinns.  And, though
+the month was March, the slopes of Burrow Head were green as the lawn of
+Carvel Hall in May, and the slanting rays danced on the ruffed water.  By
+eight of the clock we had crept into Kirkcudbright Bay and anchored off
+St. Mary's Isle, the tide running ebb, and leaving a wide brown belt of
+sand behind it.
+
+St. Mary's Isle!  As we looked upon it that day, John Paul and I, and it
+lay low against the bright water with its bare oaks and chestnuts against
+the dark pines, 'twas perhaps as well that the future was sealed to us.
+
+Captain Paul had conned the brigantine hither with a master's hand; but
+now that the anchor was on the ground, he became palpably nervous.  I had
+donned again good MacMuir's shore suit, and was standing by the gangway
+when the captain approached me.
+
+"What'll ye be doing now, Dickie lad?" he asked kindly.
+
+What indeed!  I was without money in a foreign port, still dependent upon
+my benefactor.  And since he had declared his unwillingness to accept any
+return I was of no mind to go farther into his debt.  I thanked him again
+for his goodness in what sincere terms I could choose, and told him I
+should be obliged if he would put me in the way of working my passage to
+London upon some coasting vessel.  But my voice was thick, my affection
+for him having grown-past my understanding.
+
+"Hoots!" he replied, moved in his turn, "whyles I hae siller ye shallna
+lack.  Ye maun gae post-chaise to London, as befits yere station."
+
+And scouting my expostulations, he commanded the longboat, bidding me be
+ready to go ashore with him.  I had nothing to do but to say farewell to
+MacMuir and Lowrie and Auctherlonnie, which was hard enough.  For the
+honest first mate I had a great liking, and was touched beyond speech
+when he enjoined me to keep his shore suit as long as I had want of it.
+
+"But you will be needing it, MacMuir," I said, suspecting he had no
+other.
+
+"Haith!  I am but a plain man, Mr. Carvel, and ye can sen' back the claw
+frae London, wi' this geordie."
+
+He slipped a guinea into my hand, but this I positively refused to take;
+and to hide my feelings I climbed quickly over the side and into the
+stern of the boat, beside the captain, and was rowed away through the
+little fleet of cobles gathering about the ship.  Twisting my neck for a
+parting look at the John, I caught a glimpse of MacMuir's ungainly
+shoulders over the fokesle rail, and I was near to tears as he shouted a
+hearty "God speed" after me.
+
+As we drew near the town of Kirkcudbright, which lies very low at the
+mouth of the river Dee, I made out a group of men and women on the
+wharves.  The captain was silent, regarding them.  When we had got within
+twenty feet or so of the landing, a dame in a red woollen kerchief called
+out:
+
+"What hae ye done wi' Mungo, John Paul?"
+
+"CAPTAIN John Paul, Mither Birkie," spoke up a coarse fellow with a rough
+beard.  And a laugh went round.
+
+"Ay, captain!  I'll captain him!" screamed the carlin, pushing to the
+front as the oars were tossed, "I'll tak aith Mr. Currie'll be captaining
+him for his towmond voyage o' piratin'.  He be leukin' for ye noo, John
+Paul."  With that some of the men on the thwarts, perceiving that matters
+were likely to go ill with the captain, began to chaff with their friends
+above.  The respect with which he had inspired them, however, prevented
+any overt insult on their part.  As for me, my temper had flared up like
+the burning of a loose charge of powder, and by instinct my right hand
+sought the handle of the mate's hanger.  The beldame saw the motion.
+
+"An' hae ye murder't MacMuir, John Paul, an' gien's claw to a Buckskin
+gowk?"
+
+The knot stirred with an angry murmur: in truth they meant violence,--
+nothing less.  But they had counted without their man, for Paul was born
+to ride greater crises.  With his lips set in a line he stepped lightly
+out of the boat into their very midst, and they looked into his eyes to
+forget time and place.  MacMuir had told me how those eyes could conquer
+mutiny, but I had not believed had I trot been thereto see the pack of
+them give back in sullen wonder.  And so we walked through and on to the
+little street beyond, and never a word from the captain until we came
+opposite the sign of the Hurcheon."
+
+"Do you await me here, Richard," he said quite calmly; "I mast seek Mr.
+Currie, and make my report."
+
+I have still the remembrance of that pitiful day in the clean little
+village.  I went into the inn and sat down upon an oak settle in a corner
+of the bar, under the high lattice, and thought of the bitterness of this
+home-coming.  If I was amongst strangers, he was amongst worse: verily,
+to have one's own people set against one is heaviness of heart to a man
+whose love of Scotland was great as John Paul's.  After a while the place
+began to fill, Willie and Robbie and Jamie arriving to discuss Paul's
+return over their nappy.  The little I could make of their talk was not
+to my liking, but for the captain's sake I kept my anger under as best I
+could, for I had the sense to know that brawling with a lot of alehouse
+frequenters would not advance his cause.  At length, however, came in the
+same sneering fellow I had marked on the wharf, calling loudly for swats.
+"Ay, Captain Paul was noo at Mr. Curries, syne banie Alan seed him gang
+forbye the kirk."  The speaker's name, I learned, was Davie, and he had
+been talking with each and every man in the long-boat.  Yes, Mungo
+Maxwell had been cat-o'-ninetailed within an inch of his life; and that
+was the truth; for a trifling offence, too; and cruelly discharged at
+some outlandish port because, forsooth, he would not accept the gospel
+of the divinity of Captain Paul.  He would as soon sign papers with the
+devil.
+
+This Davie was gifted with a dangerous kind of humour which I have heard
+called innuendo, and he soon had the bar packed with listeners who
+laughed and cursed turn about, filling the room to a closeness scarce
+supportable.  And what between the foul air and my resentment, and
+apprehension lest John Paul would come hither after me, I was in
+prodigious discomfort of body and mind.  But there was no pushing my way
+through them unnoticed, wedged as I was in a far corner; so I sat still
+until unfortunately, or fortunately, the eye of Davie chanced to fall
+upon me, and immediately his yellow face lighted malignantly.
+
+"Oh! here be the gentleman the captain's brocht hame!" he cried,
+emphasizing the two words; "as braw a gentleman as eer taen frae pirates,
+an' nae doubt sin to ae bien Buckskin bonnet-laird."
+
+I saw through his game of getting satisfaction out of John Paul thro'
+goading me, and determined he should have his fill of it.  For, all in
+all, he had me mad enough to fight three times over.
+
+"Set aside the gentleman," said I, standing up and taking off MacMuir's
+coat, "and call me a lubberly clout like yourself, and we will see which
+is the better clout."  I put off the longsleeved jacket, and faced him
+with my fists doubled, crying: "I'll teach you, you spawn of a dunghill,
+to speak ill of a good man!"
+
+A clamour of "Fecht!  fecht!"  arose, and some of them applauded me,
+calling me a "swankie," which I believe is a compliment.  A certain sense
+of fairness is often to be found where least expected.  They capsized the
+fat, protesting browsterwife over her own stool, and were pulling Jamie's
+coat from his back, when I began to suspect that a fight was not to the
+sniveller's liking.  Indeed, the very look of him made me laugh out--
+'twas now as mild as a summer's morn.
+
+"Wow," says Jamie, "ye maun fecht wi' a man o' yere ain size."
+
+"I'll lay a guinea that we weigh even," said I; and suddenly remembered
+that I had not so much as tuppence to bless me.
+
+Happily he did not accept the wager.  In huge disgust they hustled him
+from the inn and put forward the blacksmith, who was standing at the door
+in his leather apron.  Now I had not bargained with the smith, who seemed
+a well-natured enough man, and grinned broadly at the prospect.  But they
+made a ring on the floor, I going over it at one end, and he at the
+other, when a cry came from the street, those about the entrance parted,
+and in walked John Paul himself.  At sight of him my new adversary, who
+was preparing to deal me out a blow to fell an ox, dropped his arms in
+surprise, and held out his big hand.
+
+"Haith!  John Paul," he shouted heartily, forgetting me, "'tis blythe I
+am to see yere bonnie face ance mair!
+
+"An' wha are ye, Jamie Darrell," said the captain, "to be bangin' yere
+betters?  Dinna ye ken gentry when ye see't?"
+
+A puzzled look spread over the smith's grimy face.
+
+"Gentry!"  says he; "nae gentry that I ken, John Paul.  Th' fecht be but
+a bit o' fun, an' nane o' my seekin'."
+
+"What quarrel is this, Richard?"  says John Paul to me.
+
+"In truth I have no quarrel with this honest man," I replied; "I desired
+but the pleasure of beating a certain evil-tongued Davie, who seems to
+have no stomach for blows, and hath taken his lies elsewhere."
+
+So quiet was the place that the tinkle of the guidwife's needle, which
+she had dropped to the flags, sounded clear to all.  John Paul stood in
+the middle of the ring, erect, like a man inspired, and the same strange
+sense of prophecy that had stirred my blood crept over him and awed the
+rest, as tho' 'twere suddenly given to see him, not as he was, but as he
+would be.  Then he spoke.
+
+"You, who are my countrymen, who should be my oldest and best friends,
+are become my enemies.  You who were companions of my childhood are
+revilers of my manhood; you have robbed me of my good name and my honour,
+of my ship, of my very means of livelihood, and you are not content; you
+would rob me of my country, which I hold dearer than all.  And I have
+never done you evil, nor spoken aught against you.  As for the man
+Maxwell, whose part you take, his child is starving in your very midst,
+and you have not lifted your hands.  'Twas for her sake I shipped him,
+and none other.  May God forgive you!  He alone sees the bitterness in my
+heart this day.  He alone knows my love for Scotland, and what it costs
+me to renounce her."
+
+He had said so much with an infinite sadness, and I read a response in
+the eyes of more than one of his listeners, the guidwife weeping aloud.
+But now his voice rose, and he ended with a fiery vigour.
+
+"Renounce her I do," he cried, "now and forevermore!  Henceforth I am no
+countryman of yours.  And if a day of repentance should come for this
+evil, remember well what I have said to you."
+
+They stood for a moment when he had finished, shifting uneasily, their
+tongues gone, like lads caught in a lie.  I think they felt his greatness
+then, and had any one of them possessed the nobility to come forward with
+an honest word, John Paul might yet have been saved to Scotland.  As it
+was, they slunk away in twos and threes, leaving at last only the good
+smith with us.  He was not a man of talk, and the tears had washed the
+soot from his face in two white furrows.
+
+"Ye'll hae a waught wi' me afore ye gang, John," he said clumsily, "for
+th' morns we've paddl' 't thegither i' th' Nith."
+
+The ale was brought by the guidwife, who paused, as she put it down, to
+wipe her eyes with her apron.  She gave John Paul one furtive glance and
+betook herself again to her knitting with a sigh, speech having failed
+her likewise.  The captain grasped up his mug.
+
+"May God bless you, Jamie," he said.
+
+"Ye'll be gaen noo to see the mither," said Jamie, after a long space.
+
+"Ay, for the last time.  An', Jamie, ye'll see that nae harm cams to her
+when I'm far awa'?"
+
+The smith promised, and also agreed to have John Paul's chests sent by
+wagon, that very day, to Dumfries.  And we left him at his forge, his
+honest breast torn with emotion, looking after us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE GARDENER'S COTTAGE
+
+So we walked out of the village, with many a head craned after us and
+many an eye peeping from behind a shutter, and on into the open highway.
+The day was heavenly bright, the wind humming around us and playing mad
+pranks with the white cotton clouds, and I forgot awhile the pity within
+me to wonder at the orderly look of the country, the hedges with never a
+stone out of place, and the bars always up.  The ground was parcelled off
+in such bits as to make me smile when I remembered our own wide tracts in
+the New World.  Here waste was sin: with us part and parcel of a creed.
+I marvelled, too, at the primness and solidity of the houses along the
+road, and remarked how their lines belonged rather to the landscape than
+to themselves.  But I was conscious ever of a strange wish to expand, for
+I felt as tho' I were in the land of the Liliputians, and the thought of
+a gallop of forty miles or so over these honeycombed fields brought me to
+a laugh.  But I was yet to see some estates of the gentry.
+
+I had it on my tongue's tip to ask the captain whither he was taking me,
+yet dared not intrude on the sorrow that still gripped him.  Time and
+time we met people plodding along, some of them nodding uncertainly,
+others abruptly taking the far side of the pike, and every encounter
+drove the poison deeper into his soul.  But after we had travelled some
+way, up hill and down dale, he vouchsafed the intelligence that we were
+making for Arbigland, Mr. Craik's seat near Dumfries, which lies on the
+Nith twenty miles or so up the Solway from Kirkcudbright.  On that estate
+stood the cottage where John Paul was born, and where his mother and
+sisters still dwelt.
+
+"I'll juist be saying guidbye, Richard," he said; "and leave them a bit
+siller I hae saved, an' syne we'll be aff to London thegither, for
+Scotland's no but a cauld kintra."
+
+"You are going to London with me?" I cried.
+
+"Ay," answered he; "this is hame nae mair for John Paul."
+
+I made bold to ask how the John's owners had treated him.
+
+"I have naught to complain of, laddie," he answered; "both Mr. Beck and
+Mr. Currie bore the matter of the admiralty court and the delay like the
+gentlemen they are.  They well know that I am hard driven when I resort
+to the lash.  They were both sore at losing me, and says Mr. Beck: I
+We'll not soon get another to keep the brigantine like a man-o'-war, as
+did you, John Paul.' I thanked him, and told him I had sworn never to
+take another merchantman out of the Solway.  And I will keep that oath."
+
+He sighed, and added that he never hoped for better owners.  In token of
+which he drew a certificate of service from his pocket, signed by Messrs.
+Currie and Beck, proclaiming him the best master and supercargo they had
+ever had in their service.  I perceived that talk lightened him, and led
+him on.  I inquired how he had got the 'John'.
+
+"I took passage on her from Kingston, laddie.  On the trip both Captain
+Macadam and the chief mate died of the fever.  And it was I, the
+passenger, who sailed her into Kirkcudbright, tho' I had never been more
+than a chief mate before.  That is scarce three years gone, when I was
+just turned one and twenty.  And old Mr. Currie, who had known my father,
+was so pleased that he gave me the ship.  I had been chief mate of the
+'Two Friends', a slaver out of Kingston."
+
+"And so you were in that trade!"  I exclaimed.
+
+He seemed to hesitate.
+
+"Yes," he replied, "and sorry I am to say it.  But a man must live.  It
+was no place for a gentleman, and I left of my own accord.  Before that,
+I was on a slaver out of Whitehaven."
+
+"You must know Whitehaven, then."
+
+I said it only to keep the talk going, but I remembered the remark long
+after.
+
+"I do," said he.  "'Tis a fair sample of an English coast town.  And I
+have often thought, in the event of war with France, how easy 'twould be
+for Louis's cruisers to harry the place, and an hundred like it, and
+raise such a terror as to keep the British navy at home."
+
+I did not know at the time that this was the inspiration of an admiral
+and of a genius.  The subject waned.  And as familiar scenes jogged his
+memory, he launched into Scotch and reminiscence.  Every barn he knew,
+and cairn and croft and steeple recalled stories of his boyhood.
+
+We had long been in sight of Criffel, towering ahead of us, whose summit
+had beckoned for cycles to Helvellyn and Saddleback looming up to the
+southward, marking the wonderland of the English lakes.  And at length,
+after some five hours of stiff walking, we saw the brown Nith below us
+going down to meet the Solway, and so came to the entrance of Mr. Craik's
+place.  The old porter recognized Paul by a mere shake of the head and
+the words, "Yere back, are ye?" and a lowering of his bushy white
+eyebrows.  We took a by-way to avoid the manor-house, which stood on the
+rising ground twixt us and the mountain, I walking close to John Paul's
+shoulder and feeling for him at every step.  Presently, at a turn of the
+path, we were brought face to face with an elderly gentleman in black,
+and John Paul stopped.
+
+"Mr. Craik!" he said, removing his hat.
+
+But the gentleman only whistled to his dogs and went on.
+
+"My God, even he!" exclaimed the captain, bitterly; "even he, who thought
+so highly of my father!"
+
+A hundred yards more and we came to the little cottage nigh hid among the
+trees.  John Paul paused a moment, his hand upon the latch of the gate,
+his eyes drinking in the familiar picture.  The light of day was dying
+behind Criffel, and the tiny panes of the cottage windows pulsed with the
+rosy flame on the hearth within, now flaring, and again deepening.  He
+sighed.  He walked with unsteady step to the door and pushed it open.
+I followed, scarce knowing what I did, halted at the threshold and drew
+back, for I had been upon holy ground.
+
+John Paul was kneeling upon the flags by the ingleside, his face buried
+on the open Bible in his mother's lap.  Her snowy-white head was bent
+upon his, her tears running fast, and her lips moving in silent prayer to
+Him who giveth and taketh away.  Verily, here in this humble place dwelt
+a love that defied the hard usage of a hard world!
+
+After a space he came to the door and called, and took me by the hand,
+and I went in with him.  Though his eyes were wet, he bore himself like a
+cavalier.
+
+"Mother, this is Mr. Richard Carvell heir to Carvel Hall in Maryland,--a
+young gentleman whom I have had the honour to rescue from a slaver."
+
+I bowed low, such was my respect for Dame Paul, and she rose and
+curtseyed.  She wore a widow's cap and a black gown, and I saw in her
+deep-lined face a resemblance to her son.
+
+"Madam," I said, the title coming naturally, "I owe Captain Paul a debt I
+can never repay."
+
+"An' him but a laddie!" she cried.  "I'm thankful, John, I'm thankful for
+his mither that ye saved him."
+
+"I have no mother, Madam Paul," said I, "and my father was killed in the
+French war.  But I have a grandfather who loves me dearly as I love him."
+
+Some impulse brought her forward, and she took both my hands in her own.
+
+"Ye'll forgive an auld woman, sir," she said, with a dignity that matched
+her son's, "but ye're sae young, an' ye hae sic a leuk in yere bonny gray
+e'e that I ken yell aye be a true friend o' John's.  He's been a guid sin
+to me, an' ye maunna reek what they say o' him."
+
+When now I think of the triumph John Paul has achieved, of the scoffing
+world he has brought to his feet, I cannot but recall that sorrowful
+evening in the gardener's cottage, when a son was restored but to be torn
+away.  The sisters came in from their day's work,--both well-favoured
+lasses, with John's eyes and hair,--and cooked the simple meal of broth
+and porridge, and the fowl they had kept so long against the captain's
+home-coming.  He carved with many a light word that cost him dear.  Did
+Janet reca' the simmer nights they had supped here, wi' the bumclocks
+bizzin' ower the candles?  And was Nancy, the cow, still i' the byre?
+And did the bees still give the same bonnie hiney, and were the red
+apples still in the far orchard?  Ay, Meg had thocht o' him that autumn,
+and ran to fetch them with her apron to her face, to come back smiling
+through her tears.  So it went; and often a lump would rise in my throat
+that I could not eat, famished as I was, and the mother and sisters
+scarce touched a morsel of the feast.
+
+The one never failing test of a son, my dears, lies in his treatment of
+his mother, and from that hour forth I had not a doubt of John Paul.  He
+was a man who had seen the world and become, in more than one meaning of
+the word, a gentleman.  Whatever foibles he may have had, he brought no
+conscious airs and graces to this lowly place, but was again the humble
+gardener's boy.
+
+But time pressed, as it ever does.  The hour came for us to leave, John
+Paul firmly refusing to remain the night in a house that belonged to Mr.
+Craik.  Of the tenderness, nay, of the pity and cruelty of that parting,
+I have no power to write.  We knelt with bowed heads while the mother
+prayed for the son, expatriated, whom she never hoped to see again on
+this earth.  She gave us bannocks of her own baking, and her last words
+were to implore me always to be a friend to John Paul.
+
+Then we went out into the night and walked all the way to Dumfries in
+silence.
+
+We lay that night at the sign of the "Twa Naigs," where Bonnie Prince
+Charlie had rested in the Mars year(1715).  Before I went to bed I called
+for pen and paper, and by the light of a tallow dip sat down to compose a
+letter to my grandfather, telling him that I was alive and well, and
+recounting as much of my adventures as I could.  I said that I was going
+to London, where I would see Mr. Dix, and would take passage thence for
+America.  I prayed that he had been able to bear up against the ordeal of
+my disappearance.  I dwelt upon the obligations I was under to John Paul,
+relating the misfortunes of that worthy seaman (which he so little
+deserved!).  And said that it was my purpose to bring him to Maryland
+with me, where I knew Mr. Carvel would reward him with one of his ships,
+explaining that he would accept no money.  But when it came to accusing
+Grafton and the rector, I thought twice, and bit the end of the feather.
+The chances were so great that my grandfather would be in bed and under
+the guardianship of my uncle that I forbore, and resolved instead to
+write it to Captain Daniel at my first opportunity.
+
+I arose early to discover a morning gray and drear, with a mist falling
+to chill the bones.  News travels apace the world over, and that of John
+Paul's home-coming and of his public renunciation of Scotland at the
+"Hurcheon" had reached Dumfries in good time, substantiated by the
+arrival of the teamster with the chests the night before.  I descended
+into the courtyard in time to catch the captain in his watchet-blue frock
+haggling with the landlord for a chaise, the two of them surrounded by a
+muttering crowd anxious for a glimpse of Mr. Craik's gardener's son, for
+he had become a nine-day sensation to the country round about.  But John
+Paul minded them not so much as a swarm of flies, and the teamster's
+account of the happenings at Kirkcudbright had given them so wholesome a
+fear of his speech and presence as to cause them to misdoubt their own
+wit, which is saying a deal of Scotchmen.  But when the bargain had been
+struck and John Paul gone with the 'ostler to see to his chests, mine
+host thought it a pity not to have a fall out of me.
+
+"So ye be the Buckskin laud," he said, with a wink at a leering group of
+farmers; "ye hae braw gentles in America."
+
+He was a man of sixty or thereabout, with a shrewd but not unkindly face
+that had something familiar in it.
+
+"You have discernment indeed to recognize a gentleman in Scotch clothes,"
+I replied, turning the laugh on him.
+
+"Dinna raise ae Buckskin, Mr. Rawlinson," said a man in corduroy.
+
+"Rawlinson!" I exclaimed at random, "there is one of your name in the
+colonies who knows his station better."
+
+"Trowkt!" cried mine host, "ye ken Ivie o' Maryland, Ivie my brither?"
+
+"He is my grandfather's miller at Carvel Hall," I said.
+
+"Syne ye maun be nave ither than Mr. Richard Carvel.  Yere servan', Mr.
+Carvel," and he made me a low bow, to the great dropping of jaws round
+about, and led me into the inn.  With trembling hands he took a packet
+from his cabinet and showed me the letters, twenty-three in all, which
+Ivie had written home since he had gone out as the King's passenger in
+'45.  The sight of them brought tears to my eyes and carried me out of
+the Scotch mist back to dear old Maryland.  I had no trouble in
+convincing mine host that I was the lad eulogized in the scrawls,
+and he put hand on the very sheet which announced my birth, nineteen
+years since,--the fourth generation of Carvels Ivie had known.
+
+So it came that the captain and I got the best chaise and pair in place
+of the worst, and sat down to a breakfast such as was prepared only for
+my Lord Selkirk when he passed that way, while I told the landlord of his
+brother; and as I talked I remembered the day I had caught the arm of the
+mill and gone the round, to find that Ivie had written of that, too!
+
+After that our landlord would not hear of a reckoning.  I might stay a
+month, a year, at the "Twa Naigs" if I wished.  As for John Paul, who
+seemed my friend, he would say nothing, only to advise me privately that
+the man was queer company, shaking his head when I defended him.  He came
+to me with ten guineas, which he pressed me to take for Ivies sake, and
+repay when occasion offered.  I thanked him, but was of no mind to accept
+money from one who thought ill of my benefactor.
+
+The refusal of these recalled the chaise, and I took the trouble to
+expostulate with the captain on that score, pointing out as delicately as
+I might that, as he had brought me to Scotland, I held it within my right
+to incur the expense of the trip to London, and that I intended to
+reimburse him when I saw Mr. Dix.  For I knew that his wallet was not
+over full, since he had left the half of his savings with his mother.
+Much to my secret delight, he agreed to this as within the compass of a
+gentleman's acceptance.  Had he not, I had the full intention of leaving
+him to post it alone, and of offering myself to the master of the first
+schooner.
+
+Despite the rain, and the painful scenes gone through but yesterday, and
+the sour-looking ring of men and women gathered to see the start, I was
+in high spirits as we went spinning down the Carlisle road, with my heart
+leaping to the crack of the postilion's whip.
+
+I was going to London and to Dorothy!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ON THE ROAD
+
+Many were the ludicrous incidents we encountered on our journey to
+London.  As long as I live, I shall never forget John Paul's alighting
+upon the bridge of the Sark to rid himself of a mighty farewell address
+to Scotland he had been composing upon the road.  And this he delivered
+with such appalling voice and gesture as to frighten to a standstill a
+chaise on the English side of the stream, containing a young gentleman in
+a scarlet coat and a laced hat, and a young lady who sobbed as we passed
+them.  They were, no doubt, running to Gretna Green to be married.
+
+Captain Paul, as I have said, was a man of moods, and strangely affected
+by ridicule.  And this we had in plenty upon the road.  Landlords,
+grooms, and'ostlers, and even our own post-boys, laughed and jested
+coarsely at his sky-blue frock, and their sallies angered him beyond all
+reason, while they afforded me so great an amusement that more than once
+I was on the edge of a serious falling-out with him as a consequence of
+my merriment.  Usually, when we alighted from our vehicle, the expression
+of mine host would sour, and his sir would shift to a master; while his
+servants would go trooping in again, with many a coarse fling that they
+would get no vails from such as we.  And once we were invited into the
+kitchen.  He would be soar for half a day at a spell after a piece of
+insolence out of the common, and then deliver me a solemn lecture upon
+the advantages of birth in a manor.  Then his natural buoyancy would lift
+him again, and he would be in childish ecstasies at the prospect of
+getting to London, and seeing the great world; and I began to think that
+he secretly cherished the hope of meeting some of its votaries.  For I
+had told him, casually as possible, that I had friends in Arlington
+Street, where I remembered the Manners were established.
+
+"Arlington Street!" he repeated, rolling the words over his tongue; "it
+has a fine sound, laddie, a fine sound.  That street must be the very
+acme of fashion."
+
+I laughed, and replied that I did not know.  And at the ordinary of the
+next inn we came to, he took occasion to mention to me, in a louder voice
+than was necessary, that I would do well to call in Arlington Street as
+we went into town.  So far as I could see, the remark did not compel any
+increase of respect from our fellow-diners.
+
+Upon more than one point I was worried.  Often and often I reflected that
+some hitch might occur to prevent my getting money promptly from Mr. Dix.
+Days would perchance elapse before I could find the man in such a great
+city as London; he might be out of town at this season, Easter being less
+than a se'nnight away.  For I had heard my grandfather say that the elder
+Mr. Dix had a house in some merchant's suburb, and loved to play at being
+a squire before he died.  Again (my heart stood at the thought), the
+Manners might be gone back to America.  I cursed the stubborn pride which
+had led the captain to hire a post-chaise, when the wagon had served us
+so much better, and besides relieved him of the fusillade of ridicule he
+got travelling as a gentleman.  But such reflections always ended in my
+upbraiding myself for blaming him whose generosity had rescued me from
+perhaps a life-long misery.
+
+But, on the whole, we rolled southward happily, between high walls and
+hedges, past trim gardens and fields and meadows, and I marvelled at the
+regular, park-like look of the country, as though stamped from one design
+continually recurring, like our butter at Carvel Hall.  The roads were
+sometimes good, and sometimes as execrable as a colonial byway in winter,
+with mud up to the axles.  And yet, my heart went out to this country,
+the home of my ancestors.  Spring was at hand; the ploughboys whistled
+between the furrows, the larks circled overhead, and the lilacs were
+cautiously pushing forth their noses.  The air was heavy with the perfume
+of living things.
+
+The welcome we got at our various stopping-places was often scanty
+indeed, and more than once we were told to go farther down the street,
+that the inn was full.  And I may as well confess that my mind was
+troubled about John Paul.  Despite all I could say, he would go to the
+best hotels in the larger towns, declaring that there we should meet the
+people of fashion.  Nor was his eagerness damped when he discovered that
+such people never came to the ordinary, but were served in their own
+rooms by their own servants.
+
+"I shall know them yet," he would vow, as we started off of a morning,
+after having seen no more of my Lord than his liveries below stairs.
+"Am I not a gentleman in all but birth, Richard?  And that is a
+difficulty many before me have overcome.  I have the classics, and the
+history, and the poets.  And the French language, though I have never
+made the grand tour.  I flatter myself that my tone might be worse.  By
+the help of your friends, I shall have a title or two for acquaintances
+before I leave London; and when my money is gone, there is a shipowner I
+know of who will give me employment, if I have not obtained preferment."
+
+The desire to meet persons of birth was near to a mania with him.  And I
+had not the courage to dampen his hopes.  But, inexperienced as I was, I
+knew the kind better than he, and understood that it was easier for a
+camel to enter the eye of a needle, than for John Paul to cross the
+thresholds of the great houses of London.  The way of adventurers is
+hard, and he could scarce lay claim then to a better name.
+
+"We shall go to Maryland together, Captain Paul," I said, "and waste no
+time upon London save to see Vauxhall, and the opera, and St. James's and
+the Queen's House and the Tower, and Parliament, and perchance his
+Majesty himself," I added, attempting merriment, for the notion of seeing
+Dolly only to leave her gave me a pang.  And the captain knew nothing of
+Dolly.
+
+"So, Richard, you fear I shall disgrace you," he said reproachfully.
+"Know, sir, that I have pride enough and to spare.  That I can make
+friends without going to Arlington Street."
+
+I was ready to cry with vexation at this childish speech.
+
+"And a time will come when they shall know me," he went on.  "If they
+insult me now they shall pay dearly for it."
+
+"My dear captain," I cried; "nobody will insult you, and least of all my
+friends, the Manners."  I had my misgivings about little Mr. Marmaduke.
+"But we are, neither of us, equipped for a London season.  I am but an
+unknown provincial, and you--" I paused for words.
+
+For a sudden realization had come upon me that our positions were now
+reversed.  It seemed strange that I should be interpreting the world to
+this man of power.
+
+"And I?" he repeated bitterly.
+
+"You have first to become an admiral," I replied, with inspiration;
+"Drake was once a common seaman."
+
+He did not answer.  But that evening as we came into Windsor, I perceived
+that he had not abandoned his intentions.  The long light flashed on the
+peaceful Thames, and the great, grim castle was gilded all over its
+western side.
+
+The captain leaned out of the window.
+
+"Postilion," he called, "which inn here is most favoured by gentlemen?"
+
+"The "Castle," said the boy, turning in his saddle to grin at me.  "But
+if I might be so bold as to advise your honour, the 'Swan' is a
+comfortable house, and well attended."
+
+"Know your place, sirrah," shouted the captain, angrily, "and drive us to
+the 'Castle.'"
+
+The boy snapped his whip disdainfully, and presently pulled us up at the
+inn, our chaise covered with the mud of three particular showers we had
+run through that day.  And, as usual, the landlord, thinking he was about
+to receive quality, came scraping to the chaise door, only to turn with a
+gesture of disgust when he perceived John Paul's sea-boxes tied on
+behind, and the costume of that hero, as well as my own.
+
+The captain demanded a room.  But mine host had turned his back, when
+suddenly a thought must have struck him, for he wheeled again.
+
+"Stay," he cried, glancing suspiciously at the sky-blue frock; "if you
+are Mr. Dyson's courier, I have reserved a suite."
+
+This same John Paul, who was like iron with mob and mutiny, was pitiably
+helpless before such a prop of the aristocracy.  He flew into a rage, and
+rated the landlord in Scotch and English, and I was fain to put my tongue
+in my cheek and turn my back that my laughter might not anger him the
+more.
+
+And so I came face to face with another smile, behind a spying-glass,--a
+smile so cynical and unpleasant withal that my own was smothered.  A tall
+and thin gentleman, who had come out of the inn without a hat, was
+surveying the dispute with a keen delight.  He was past the middle age.
+His clothes bore that mark which distinguishes his world from the other,
+but his features were so striking as to hold my attention unwittingly.
+
+After a while he withdrew his glass, cast one look at me which might have
+meant anything, and spoke up.
+
+"Pray, my good Goble, why all this fol-de-rol about admitting a gentleman
+to your house?"
+
+I scarce know which was the more astonished, the landlord, John Paul, or
+I.  Goble bowed at the speaker.
+
+"A gentleman, your honour!" he gasped.  "Your honour is joking again.
+Surely this trumpery Scotchman in Jews' finery is no gentleman, nor the
+longshore lout he has got with him.  They may go to the 'Swan.'"
+
+"Jews' finery!" shouted the captain, with his fingers on his sword.
+
+But the stranger held up a hand deprecatingly.
+
+"'Pon my oath, Goble, I gave you credit for more penetration," he
+drawled; "you may be right about the Scotchman, but your'longshore lout
+has had both birth and breeding, or I know nothing."
+
+John Paul, who was in the act of bowing to the speaker, remained
+petrified with his hand upon his heart, entirely discomfited.  The
+landlord forsook him instantly for me, then stole a glance at his guest
+to test his seriousness, and looked at my face to see how greatly it were
+at variance with my clothes.  The temptation to lay hands on the cringing
+little toadeater grew too strong for me, and I picked him up by the
+scruff of the collar,--he was all skin and bones,--and spun him round
+like a corpse upon a gibbet, while he cried mercy in a voice to wake the
+dead.  The slim gentleman under the sign laughed until he held his sides,
+with a heartiness that jarred upon me.  It did not seem to fit him.
+
+"By Hercules and Vulcan," he cried, when at last I had set the landlord
+down, "what an arm and back the lad has!  He must have the best in the
+house, Goble, and sup with me."
+
+Goble pulled himself together.
+
+"And he is your honour's friend," he began, with a scowl.
+
+"Ay, he is my friend, I tell you," retorted the important personage,
+impatiently.
+
+The innkeeper, sulky, half-satisfied, yet fearing to offend, welcomed us
+with what grace he could muster, and we were shown to "The Fox and the
+Grapes," a large room in the rear of the house.
+
+John Paul had not spoken since the slim gentleman had drawn the
+distinction between us, and I knew that the affront was rankling in his
+breast.  He cast himself into a chair with such an air of dejection as
+made me pity him from my heart.  But I had no consolation to offer.  His
+first words, far from being the torrent of protest I looked for, almost
+startled me into laughter.
+
+"He can be nothing less than a duke," said the captain.  "Ah, Richard,
+see what it is to be a gentleman!"
+
+"Fiddlesticks!  I had rather own your powers than the best title in
+England," I retorted sharply.
+
+He shook his head sorrowfully, which made me wonder the more that a man
+of his ability should be unhappy without this one bauble attainment.
+
+"I shall begin to believe the philosophers have the right of it," he
+remarked presently.  "Have you ever read anything of Monsieur Rousseau's,
+Richard?"
+
+The words were scarce out of his mouth when we heard a loud rap on the
+door, which I opened to discover a Swiss fellow in a private livery, come
+to say that his master begged the young gentleman would sup with him.
+The man stood immovable while he delivered this message, and put an
+impudent emphasis upon the gentleman.
+
+"Say to your master, whoever he may be," I replied, in some heat at the
+man's sneer, "that I am travelling with Captain Paul.  That any
+invitation to me must include him."
+
+The lackey stood astounded at my answer, as though he had not heard
+aright.  Then he retired with less assurance than he had come, and John
+Paul sprang to his feet and laid his hands upon my shoulders, as was his
+wont when affected.  He reproached himself for having misjudged me, and
+added a deal more that I have forgotten.
+
+"And to think," he cried, "that you have forgone supping with a nobleman
+on my account!"
+
+"Pish, captain, 'tis no great denial.  His Lordship--if Lordship he is--
+is stranded in an inn, overcome with ennui, and must be amused.  That is
+all."
+
+Nevertheless I think the good captain was distinctly disappointed, not
+alone because I gave up what in his opinion was a great advantage, but
+likewise because I could have regaled him on my return with an account of
+the meal.  For it must be borne in mind, my dears, that those days are
+not these, nor that country this one.  And in judging Captain Paul it
+must be remembered that rank inspired a vast respect when King George
+came to the throne.  It can never be said of John Paul that he lacked
+either independence or spirit.  But a nobleman was a nobleman then.
+
+So when presently the gentleman himself appeared smiling at our door,
+which his servant had left open, we both of us rose up in astonishment
+and bowed very respectfully, and my face burned at the thought of the
+message I had sent him.  For, after all, the captain was but twenty-one
+and I nineteen, and the distinguished unknown at least fifty.  He took a
+pinch of snuff and brushed his waistcoat before he spoke.
+
+"Egad," said he, with good nature, looking up at me, "Mohammed was a
+philosopher, and so am I, and come to the mountain.  'Tis worth crossing
+an inn in these times to see a young man whose strength has not been
+wasted upon foppery.  May I ask your name, sir?"
+
+"Richard Carvel," I answered, much put aback.
+
+"Ah, Carvel," he repeated; "I know three or four of that name.  Perhaps
+you are Robert Carvel's son, of Yorkshire.  But what the devil do you do
+in such clothes?  I was resolved to have you though I am forced to take a
+dozen watchet-blue mountebanks in the bargain."
+
+"Sir, I warn you not to insult my friend," I cried, in a temper again.
+
+"There, there, not so loud, I beg you," said he, with a gesture.  "Hot as
+pounded pepper,--but all things are the better for a touch of it.  I had
+no intention of insulting the worthy man, I give my word.  I must have my
+joke, sir.  No harm meant."  And he nodded at John Paul, who looked as if
+he would sink through the floor.  "Robert Carvel is as testy as the devil
+with the gout, and you are not unlike him in feature."
+
+"He is no relation of mine," I replied, undecided whether to laugh or be
+angry.  And then I added, for I was very young, "I am an American, and
+heir to Carvel Hall in Maryland."
+
+"Lord, lord, I might have known," exclaimed he.  "Once I had the honour
+of dining with your Dr. Franklin, from Pennsylvania.  He dresses for all
+the world like you, only worse, and wears a hat I would not be caught
+under at Bagnigge Wells, were I so imprudent as to go there."
+
+"Dr. Franklin has weightier matters than hats to occupy him, sir," I
+retorted.  For I was determined to hold my own.
+
+He made a French gesture, a shrug of his thin shoulders, which caused me
+to suspect he was not always so good-natured.
+
+"Dr. Franklin would better have stuck to his newspaper, my young friend,"
+said he.  "But I like your appearance too well to quarrel with you, and
+we'll have no politics before eating.  Come, gentlemen, come!  Let us see
+what Goble has left after his shaking."
+
+He struck off with something of a painful gait, which he explained was
+from the gout.  And presently we arrived at his parlour, where supper was
+set out for us.  I had not tasted its equal since I left Maryland.  We
+sat down to a capon stuffed with eggs, and dainty sausages, and hot
+rolls, such as we had at home; and a wine which had cobwebbed and
+mellowed under the Castle Inn for better than twenty years.  The
+personage did not drink wine.  He sent his servant to quarrel with Goble
+because he had not been given iced water.  While he was tapping on the
+table I took occasion to observe him.  His was a physiognomy to strike
+the stranger, not by reason of its nobility, but because of its oddity.
+He had a prodigious length of face, the nose long in proportion, but not
+prominent.  The eyes were dark, very bright, and wide apart, with little
+eyebrows dabbed over them at a slanting angle.  The thin-lipped mouth
+rather pursed up, which made his smile the contradiction it was.  In
+short, my dears, while I do not lay claim to the reading of character,
+it required no great astuteness to perceive the scholar, the man of the
+world, and the ascetic--and all affected.  His conversation bore out the
+summary.  It astonished us.  It encircled the earth, embraced history and
+letters since the world began.  And added to all this, he had a thousand
+anecdotes on his tongue's tip.  His words he chose with too great a
+nicety; his sentences were of a foreign formation, twisted around; and
+his stories were illustrated with French gesticulations.  He threw in
+quotations galore, in Latin, and French, and English, until the captain
+began casting me odd, uncomfortable looks, as though he wished himself
+well out of the entertainment.  Indeed, poor John Paul's perturbation
+amused me more than the gentleman's anecdotes.  To be ill at ease is
+discouraging to any one, but it was peculiarly fatal with the captain.
+This arch-aristocrat dazzled him.  When he attempted to follow in the
+same vein he would get lost.  And his really considerable learning
+counted for nothing.  He reached the height of his mortification when the
+slim gentleman dropped his eyelids and began to yawn.  I was wickedly
+delighted.  He could not have been better met.  Another such encounter,
+and I would warrant the captain's illusions concerning the gentry to go
+up in smoke.  Then he might come to some notion of his own true powers.
+As for me, I enjoyed the supper which our host had insisted upon our
+partaking, drank his wine, and paid him very little attention.
+
+"May I make so bold as to ask, sir, whether you are a patron of
+literature?" said the captain, at length.
+
+"A very poor patron, my dear man," was the answer.  "Merely a humble
+worshipper at the shrine.  And I might say that I partake of its benefits
+as much as a gentleman may.  And yet," he added, with a laugh and a
+cough, "those silly newspapers and magazines insist on calling me a
+literary man."
+
+"And now that you have indulged in a question, and the claret is coming
+on," said he, "perhaps you will tell me something of yourself, Mr.
+Carvel, and of your friend, Captain Paul.  And how you come to be so far
+from home."  And he settled himself comfortably to listen, as a man who
+has bought his right to an opera box.
+
+Here was my chance.  And I resolved that if I did not further enlighten
+John Paul, it would be no fault of mine.
+
+"Sir," I replied, in as dry a monotone as I could assume, "I was
+kidnapped by the connivance of some unscrupulous persons in my colony,
+who had designs upon my grandfather's fortune.  I was taken abroad in a
+slaver and carried down to the Caribbean seas, when I soon discovered
+that the captain and his crew were nothing less than pirates.  For one
+day all hands got into a beastly state of drunkenness, and the captain
+raised the skull and cross-bones, which he had handy in his chest.  I was
+forced to climb the main rigging in order to escape being hacked to
+pieces."
+
+He sat bolt upright, those little eyebrows of his gone up full half an
+inch, and he raised his thin hands with an air of incredulity.  John Paul
+was no less astonished at my little ruse.
+
+"Holy Saint Clement!"  exclaimed our host; "pirates!  This begins to
+have a flavour indeed.  And yet you do not seem to be a lad with an
+imagination.  Egad, Mr. Carvel, I had put you down for one who might say,
+with Alceste: 'Etre franc et sincere est mon plus grand talent.'
+But pray go on, sir.  You have but to call for pen and ink to rival
+Mr. Fielding."
+
+With that I pushed back my chair, got up from the table, and made him a
+bow.  And the captain, at last seeing my drift, did the same.
+
+"I am not used at home to have my word doubted, sir," I said.  "Sir, your
+humble servant.  I wish you a very good evening."  He rose precipitately,
+crying out from his gout, and laid a hand upon my arm.
+
+"Pray, Mr. Carvel, pray, sir, be seated," he said, in some agitation.
+"Remember that the story is unusual, and that I have never clapped eyes
+on you until to-night.  Are all young gentlemen from Maryland so fiery?
+But I should have known from your face that you are incapable of deceit.
+Pray be seated, captain."
+
+I was persuaded to go on, not a little delighted that I had scored my
+point, and broken down his mask of affectation and careless cynicism.
+I told my story, leaving out the family history involved, and he listened
+with every mark of attention and interest.  Indeed, to my surprise, he
+began to show some enthusiasm, of which sensation I had not believed him
+capable.
+
+"What a find!  what a find!" he continued to exclaim, when I had
+finished.  "And true.  You say it is true, Mr. Carvel?"
+
+"Sir!" I replied, "I thought we had thrashed that out."
+
+"Yes, yes, to be sure.  I beg pardon," said he.  And then to his servant:
+"Colomb, is my writing-tablet unpacked?"
+
+I was more mystified than ever as to his identity.  Was he going to put
+the story in a magazine?
+
+After that he seemed plainly anxious to be rid of us.  I bade him good
+night, and he grasped my hand warmly enough.  Then he turned to the
+captain in his most condescending manner.  But a great change had come
+over John Paul.  He was ever quick to see and to learn, and I rejoiced to
+remark that he did not bow over the hand, as he might have done two hours
+since.  He was again Captain Paul, the man, who fought his way on his own
+merits.  He held himself as tho' he was once more pacing the deck of the
+John.
+
+The slim gentleman poured the width of a finger of claret in his glass,
+soused it with water, and held it up.
+
+"Here's to your future, my good captain," he said, "and to Mr. Carvel's
+safe arrival home again.  When you get to town, Mr. Carvel, don't fail to
+go to Davenport, who makes clothes for most of us at Almack's, and let
+him remodel you.  I wish to God he might get hold of your doctor.  And
+put up at the Star and Garter in Pall Mall: I take it that you have
+friends in London."
+
+I replied that I had.  But he did not push the inquiry.
+
+"You should write out this history for your grandchildren, Mr. Carvel,"
+he added, as he bade his Swiss light us to our room.  "A strange yarn
+indeed, captain."
+
+"And therefore," said the captain, coolly, "as a stranger give it
+welcome.
+
+        "'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
+          Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'"
+
+Had a meteor struck at the gentleman's feet, he could not have been more
+taken aback.
+
+"What!  What's this?"  he cried.  "You quote Hamlet!  And who the devil
+are you, sir, that you know my name?"
+
+"Your name, sir!"  exclaims the captain, in astonishment.
+
+"Well, well," he said, stepping back and eying us closely, "'tis no
+matter.  Good night, gentlemen, good night."
+
+And we went to bed with many a laugh over the incident.
+
+"His name must be Horatio.  We'll discover it in the morning," said John
+Paul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+LONDON TOWN
+
+But he had not risen when we set out, nor would the illnatured landlord
+reveal his name.  It mattered little to me, since I desired to forget him
+as quickly as possible.  For here was one of my own people of quality,
+a gentleman who professed to believe what I told him, and yet would do
+no more for me than recommend me an inn and a tailor; while a poor sea-
+captain, driven from his employment and his home, with no better reason
+to put faith in my story, was sharing with me his last penny.  Goble, in
+truth, had made us pay dearly for our fun with him, and the hum of the
+vast unknown fell upon our ears with the question of lodging still
+unsettled.  The captain was for going to the Star and Garter, the inn the
+gentleman had mentioned.  I was in favour of seeking a more modest and
+less fashionable hostelry.
+
+"Remember that you must keep up your condition, Richard," said John Paul.
+
+"And if all English gentlemen are like our late friend," I said, "I would
+rather stay in a city coffee-house.  Remember that you have only two
+guineas left after paying for the chaise, and that Mr. Dix may be out of
+town."
+
+"And your friends in Arlington Street?" said he.
+
+"May be back in Maryland," said I; and added inwardly,
+
+"God forbid!"
+
+"We shall have twice the chance at the Star and Garter.  They will want a
+show of gold at a humbler place, and at the Star we may carry matters
+with a high hand.  Pick out the biggest frigate," he cried, for the tenth
+time, at least, "or the most beautiful lady, and it will surprise you, my
+lad, to find out how many times you will win."
+
+I know of no feeling of awe to equal that of a stranger approaching for
+the first time a huge city.  The thought of a human multitude is ever
+appalling as that of infinity itself, a human multitude with its infinity
+of despairs and joys, disgraces and honours, each small unit with all the
+world in its own brain, and all the world out of it!  Each intent upon
+his own business or pleasure, and striving the while by hook or crook to
+keep the ground from slipping beneath his feet.  For, if he falls, God
+help him!
+
+Yes, here was London, great and pitiless, and the fear of it was upon our
+souls as we rode into it that day.
+
+Holland House with its shaded gardens, Kensington Palace with the broad
+green acres of parks in front of it stitched by the silver Serpentine,
+and Buckingham House, which lay to the south over the hill,--all were one
+to us in wonder as they loomed through the glittering mist that softened
+all.  We met with a stream of countless wagons that spoke of a trade
+beyond knowledge, sprinkled with the equipages of the gentry floating
+upon it; coach and chaise, cabriolet and chariot, gorgeously bedecked
+with heraldry and wreaths; their numbers astonished me, for to my mind
+the best of them were no better than we could boast in Annapolis.  One
+matter, which brings a laugh as I recall it, was the oddity to me of
+seeing white coachmen and footmen.
+
+We clattered down St. James's Street, of which I had often heard my
+grandfather speak, and at length we drew up before the Star and Garter in
+Pall Mall, over against the palace.  The servants came hurrying out,
+headed by a chamberlain clad in magnificent livery, a functionary we had
+not before encountered.  John Paul alighted to face this personage, who,
+the moment he perceived us, shifted his welcoming look to one of such
+withering scorn as would have daunted a more timid man than the captain.
+Without the formality of a sir he demanded our business, which started
+the inn people and our own boy to snickering, and made the passers-by
+pause and stare.  Dandies who were taking the air stopped to ogle us with
+their spying-glasses and to offer quips, and behind them gathered the
+flunkies and chairmen awaiting their masters at the clubs and coffee-
+houses near by.  What was my astonishment, therefore, to see a change in
+the captain's demeanour.  Truly for quick learning and the application of
+it I have never known his equal.  His air became the one of careless ease
+habitual to the little gentleman we had met at Windsor, and he drew from
+his pocket one of his guineas, which he tossed in the man's palm.
+
+"Here, my man," said he, snapping his fingers; "an apartment at once, or
+you shall pay for this nonsense, I promise you."  And walked in with his
+chin in the air, so grandly as to dissolve ridicule into speculation.
+
+For an instant the chamberlain wavered, and I trembled, for I dreaded a
+disgrace in Pall Mall, where the Manners might hear of it.  Then fear, or
+hope of gain, or something else got the better of him, for he led us to a
+snug, well-furnished suite of a parlour and bedroom on the first floor,
+and stood bowing in the doorway for his honour's further commands.  They
+were of a sort to bring the sweat to my forehead.
+
+"Have a fellow run to bid Davenport, the tailor, come hither as fast as
+his legs will carry him.  And you may make it known that this young
+gentleman desires a servant, a good man, mind you, with references, who
+knows a gentleman's wants.  He will be well paid."
+
+That name of Davenport was a charm,--the mention of a servant was its
+finishing touch.  The chamberlain bent almost double, and retired,
+closing the door softly behind him.  And so great had been my surprise
+over these last acquirements of the captain that until now I had had no
+breath to expostulate.
+
+"I must have my fling, Richard," he answered, laughing; "I shall not be a
+gentleman long.  I must know how it feels to take your ease, and stroke
+your velvet, and order lackeys about.  And when my money is gone I shall
+be content to go to sea again, and think about it o' stormy nights."
+
+This feeling was so far beyond my intelligence that I made no comment.
+And I could not for the life of me chide him, but prayed that all would
+come right in the end.
+
+In less than an hour Davenport himself arrived, bristling with
+importance, followed by his man carrying such a variety of silks and
+satins, flowered and plain, and broadcloths and velvets, to fill the
+furniture.  And close behind the tailor came a tall haberdasher from Bond
+Street, who had got wind of a customer, with a bewildering lot of ruffles
+and handkerchiefs and neckerchiefs, and bows of lawn and lace which (so
+he informed us) gentlemen now wore in the place of solitaires.  Then came
+a hosier and a bootmaker and a hatter; nay, I was forgetting a jeweller
+from Temple Bar.  And so imposing a front did the captain wear as he
+picked this and recommended the other that he got credit for me for all
+he chose, and might have had more besides.  For himself he ordered merely
+a modest street suit of purple, the sword to be thrust through the
+pocket, Davenport promising it with mine for the next afternoon.  For so
+much discredit had been cast upon his taste on the road to London that he
+was resolved to remain indoors until he could appear with decency.  He
+learned quickly, as I have said.
+
+By the time we had done with these matters, which I wished to perdition,
+some score of applicants was in waiting for me.  And out of them I hired
+one who had been valet to the young Lord Rereby, and whose recommendation
+was excellent.  His name was Banks, his face open and ingenuous, his
+stature a little above the ordinary, and his manner respectful.  I had
+Davenport measure him at once for a suit of the Carvel livery, and bade
+him report on the morrow.
+
+All this while, my dears, I was aching to be off to Arlington Street,
+but a foolish pride held me back.  I had heard so much of the fashion in
+which the Manners moved that I feared to bring ridicule upon them in poor
+MacMuir's clothes.  But presently the desire to see Dolly took such hold
+upon me that I set out before dinner, fought my way past the chairmen and
+chaisemen at the door, and asked my way of the first civil person I
+encountered.  'Twas only a little rise up the steps of St. James's
+Street, Arlington Street being but a small pocket of Piccadilly, but it
+seemed a dull English mile; and my heart thumped when I reached the
+corner, and the houses danced before my eyes.  I steadied myself by a
+post and looked again.  At last, after a thousand leagues of wandering,
+I was near her!  But how to choose between fifty severe and imposing
+mansions?  I walked on toward that endless race of affairs and fashion,
+Piccadilly, scanning every door, nay, every window, in the hope that I
+might behold my lady's face framed therein.  Here a chair was set down,
+there a chariot or a coach pulled up, and a clocked flunky bowing a lady
+in.  But no Dorothy.  Finally, when I had near made the round of each
+side, I summoned courage and asked a butcher's lad, whistling as he
+passed me, whether he could point out the residence of Mr. Manners.
+
+"Ay," he replied, looking me over out of the corner of his eye, "that I
+can.  But y'ell not get a glimpse o' the beauty this day, for she's but
+just off to Kensington with a coachful o' quality."
+
+And he led me, all in a tremble over his answer, to a large stone
+dwelling with arched windows, and pillared portico with lanthorns and
+link extinguishers, an area and railing beside it.  The flavour of
+generations of aristocracy hung about the place, and the big knocker on
+the carved door seemed to regard with such a forbidding frown my shabby
+clothes that I took but the one glance (enough to fix it forever in my
+memory), and hurried on.  Alas, what hope had I of Dorothy now!
+
+"What cheer, Richard?"  cried the captain when I returned; "have you seen
+your friends?"
+
+I told him that I had feared to disgrace them, and so refrained from
+knocking--a decision which he commended as the very essence of wisdom.
+Though a desire to meet and talk with quality pushed him hard, he would
+not go a step to the ordinary, and gave orders to be served in our room,
+thus fostering the mystery which had enveloped us since our arrival.
+Dinner at the Star and Garter being at the fashionable hour of half after
+four, I was forced to give over for that day the task of finding Mr. Dix.
+
+That evening--shall I confess it?--I spent between the Green Park and
+Arlington Street, hoping for a glimpse of Miss Dolly returning from
+Kensington.
+
+The next morning I proclaimed my intention of going to Mr. Dix.
+
+"Send for him," said the captain.  "Gentlemen never seek their men of
+affairs."
+
+"No," I cried; "I can contain myself in this place no longer.  I must be
+moving."
+
+"As you will, Richard," he replied, and giving me a queer, puzzled look
+he settled himself between the Morning Post and the Chronicle.
+
+As I passed the servants in the lower hall, I could not but remark an
+altered treatment.  My friend the chamberlain, more pompous than ever,
+stood erect in the door with a stony stare, which melted the moment he
+perceived a young gentleman who descended behind me.  I heard him cry out
+"A chaise for his Lordship!" at which command two of his assistants ran
+out together.  Suspicion had plainly gripped his soul overnight, and
+this, added to mortified vanity at having been duped, was sufficient for
+him to allow me to leave the inn unattended.  Nor could I greatly blame
+him, for you must know, my dears, that at that time London was filled
+with adventurers of all types.
+
+I felt a deal like an impostor, in truth, as I stepped into the street,
+disdaining to inquire of any of the people of the Star and Garter where
+an American agent might be found.  The day was gray and cheerless, the
+colour of my own spirits as I walked toward the east, knowing that the
+city lay that way.  But I soon found plenty to distract me.
+
+To a lad such as I, bred in a quiet tho' prosperous colonial town, a walk
+through London was a revelation.  Here in the Pall Mall the day was not
+yet begun, tho' for some scarce ended.  I had not gone fifty paces from
+the hotel before I came upon a stout gentleman with twelve hours of
+claret inside him, brought out of a coffee-house and put with vast
+difficulty into his chair; and I stopped to watch the men stagger off
+with their load to St. James's Street.  Next I met a squad of redcoated
+guards going to the palace, and after them a grand coach and six rattled
+over the Scotch granite, swaying to a degree that threatened to shake off
+the footmen clinging behind.  Within, a man with an eagle nose sat
+impassive, and I set him down for one of the king's ministers.
+
+Presently I came out into a wide space, which I knew to be Charing Cross
+by the statue of Charles the First which stood in the centre of it, and
+the throat of a street which was just in front of me must be the Strand.
+Here all was life and bustle.  On one hand was Golden's Hotel, and a
+crowded mail-coach was dashing out from the arch beneath it, the horn
+blowing merrily; on the other hand, so I was told by a friendly man in
+brown, was Northumberland House, the gloomy grandeur whereof held my eyes
+for a time.  And I made bold to ask in what district were those who had
+dealings with the colonies.  He scanned me with a puzzling look of
+commiseration.
+
+"Ye're not a-going to sell yereself for seven year, my lad?" said he.
+"I was near that myself when I was young, and I thank God' to this day
+that I talked first to an honest man, even as you are doing.  They'll
+give ye a pretty tale,--the factors,--of a land of milk and honey, when
+it's naught but stripes and curses yell get."
+
+And he was about to rebuke me hotly, when I told him I had come from
+Maryland, where I was born.
+
+"Why, ye speak like a gentleman!"  he exclaimed.  "I was informed that
+all talk like naygurs over there.  And is it not so of your
+redemptioners?"
+
+I said that depended upon the master they got.
+
+"Then I take it ye are looking for the lawyers, who mostly represent the
+planters.  And y e'll find them at the Temple or Lincoln's Inn."
+
+I replied that he I sought was not an attorney, but a man of business.
+Whereupon he said that I should find all those in a batch about the North
+and South American Coffee House, in Threadneedle Street.  And he pointed
+me into the Strand, adding that I had but to follow my nose to St.
+Paul's, and there inquire.
+
+I would I might give you some notion of the great artery of London in
+those days, for it has changed much since I went down it that heavy
+morning in April, 1770, fighting my way.  Ay, truly, fighting my way, for
+the street then was no place for the weak and timid, when bullocks ran
+through it in droves on the way to market, when it was often jammed from
+wall to wall with wagons, and carmen and truckmen and coachmen swung
+their whips and cursed one another to the extent of their lungs.  Near
+St. Clement Danes I was packed in a crowd for ten minutes while two of
+these fellows formed a ring and fought for the right of way, stopping the
+traffic as far as I could see.  Dustmen, and sweeps, and even beggars,
+jostled you on the corners, bullies tried to push you against the posts
+or into the kennels; and once, in Butchers' Row, I was stopped by a
+flashy, soft-tongued fellow who would have lured me into a tavern near
+by.
+
+The noises were bedlam ten times over.  Shopmen stood at their doors and
+cried, "Rally up, rally up, buy, buy, buy!"  venders shouted saloop and
+barley, furmity, Shrewsbury cakes and hot peascods, rosemary and
+lavender, small coal and sealing-wax, and others bawled "Pots to solder!
+"and "Knives to grind!"  Then there was the incessant roar of the heavy
+wheels over the rough stones, and the rasp and shriek of the brewers'
+sledges as they moved clumsily along.  As for the odours, from that of
+the roasted coffee and food of the taverns, to the stale fish on the
+stalls, and worse, I can say nothing.  They surpassed imagination.
+
+At length, upon emerging from Butchers' Row, I came upon some stocks
+standing in the street, and beheld ahead of me a great gateway stretching
+across the Strand from house to house.
+
+Its stone was stained with age, and the stern front of it seemed to mock
+the unseemly and impetuous haste of the tide rushing through its arches.
+I stood and gazed, nor needed one to tell me that those two grinning
+skulls above it, swinging to the wind on the pikes, were rebel heads.
+Bare and bleached now, and exposed to a cruel view, but once caressed by
+loving hands, was the last of those whose devotion to the house of Stuart
+had brought from their homes to Temple Bar.
+
+I halted by the Fleet Market, nor could I resist the desire to go into
+St. Paul's, to feel like a pebble in a bell under its mighty dome; and it
+lacked but half an hour of noon when I had come out at the Poultry and
+finished gaping at the Mansion House.  I missed Threadneedle Street and
+went down Cornhill, in my ignorance mistaking the Royal Exchange, with
+its long piazza and high tower, for the coffeehouse I sought: in the
+great hall I begged a gentleman to direct me to Mr. Dix, if he knew such
+a person.  He shrugged his shoulders, which mystified me somewhat, but
+answered with a ready good-nature that he was likely to be found at that
+time at Tom's Coffee House, in Birchin Lane near by, whither I went with
+him.  He climbed the stairs ahead of me and directed me, puffing, to the
+news room, which I found filled with men, some writing, some talking
+eagerly, and others turning over newspapers.  The servant there looked me
+over with no great favour, but on telling him my business he went off,
+and returned with a young man of a pink and white complexion, in a green
+riding-frock, leather breeches, and top boots, who said:
+
+"Well, my man, I am Mr. Dix."
+
+There was a look about him, added to his tone and manner, set me strong
+against him.  I knew his father had not been of this stamp.
+
+"And I am Mr. Richard Carvel, grandson to Mr. Lionel Carvel, of Carvel
+Hall, in Maryland," I replied, much in the same way.
+
+He thrust his hands into his breeches and stared very hard.
+
+"You?" he said finally, with something very near a laugh.
+
+"Sir, a gentleman's word usually suffices!" I cried.
+
+He changed his tone a little.
+
+"Your pardon, Mr. Carvel," he said, "but we men of business have need to
+be careful.  Let us sit, and I will examine your letters.  Your
+determination must have been suddenly taken," he added, "for I have
+nothing from Mr. Carvel on the subject of your coming."
+
+"Letters!  You have heard nothing!"  I gasped, and there stopped short
+and clinched the table.  "Has not my grandfather written of my
+disappearance?"
+
+Immediately his expression went back to the one he had met me with.
+"Pardon me," he said again.
+
+I composed myself as best I could in the face of his incredulity,
+swallowing with an effort the aversion I felt to giving him my story.
+
+"I think it strange he has not informed you," I said; "I was kidnapped
+near Annapolis last Christmas-time, and put on board of a slaver, from
+which I was rescued by great good fortune, and brought to Scotland.  And
+I have but just made my way to London."
+
+"The thing is not likely, Mr.--, Mr.--," he said, drumming impatiently on
+the board.
+
+Then I lost control of myself.
+
+"As sure as I am heir to Carvel Hall, Mr. Dix," I cried, rising, "you
+shall pay for your insolence by forfeiting your agency!"
+
+Now the roan was a natural coward, with a sneer for some and a smirk for
+others.  He went to the smirk.
+
+"I am but looking to Mr. Carvel's interests the best I know how," he
+replied; "and if indeed you be Mr. Richard Carvel, then you must applaud
+my caution, sir, in seeking proofs."
+
+"Proofs I have none," I cried; "the very clothes on my back are borrowed
+from a Scotch seaman.  My God, Mr. Dix, do I look like a rogue?"
+
+"Were I to advance money upon appearances, sir, I should be insolvent in
+a fortnight.  But stay," he cried uneasily, as I flung back my chair,
+"stay, sir.  Is there no one of your province in the town to attest your
+identity?"
+
+"Ay, that there is," I said bitterly; "you shall hear from Mr. Manners
+soon, I promise you."
+
+"Pray, Mr. Carvel," he said, overtaking me on the stairs, "you will
+surely allow the situation to be--extraordinary, you will surely commend
+my discretion.  Permit me, sir, to go with you to Arlington Street."  And
+he sent a lad in haste to the Exchange for a hackney-chaise, which was
+soon brought around.
+
+I got in, somewhat mollified, and ashamed of my heat: still disliking the
+man, but acknowledging he had the better right on his side.  True to his
+kind he gave me every mark of politeness now, asked particularly after
+Mr. Carvel's health, and encouraged me to give him as much of my
+adventure as I thought proper.  But what with the rattle of the carriage
+and the street noises and my disgust, I did not care to talk, and
+presently told him as much very curtly.  He persisted, how: ever, in
+pointing out the sights, the Fleet prison, and where the Ludgate stood
+six years gone; and the Devil's Tavern, of old Ben Jonson's time, and the
+Mitre and the Cheshire Cheese and the Cock, where Dr. Johnson might be
+found near the end of the week at his dinner.  He showed me the King's
+Mews above Charing Cross, and the famous theatre in the Haymarket, and we
+had but turned the corner into Piccadilly when he cried excitedly at a
+passing chariot:
+
+"There, Mr. Carvel, there go my Lord North and Mr. Rigby!"
+
+"The devil take them, Mr. Dix!" I exclaimed.
+
+He was silent after that, glancing at me covertly from while to while
+until we swung into Arlington Street.  Before I knew we were stopped in
+front of the house, but as I set foot on the step I found myself
+confronted by a footman in the Manners livery, who cried out angrily to
+our man: "Make way, make way for his Grace of Chartersea!" Turning, I saw
+a coach behind, the horses dancing at the rear wheels of the chaise.  We
+alighted hastily, and I stood motionless, my heart jumping quick and hard
+in the hope and fear that Dorothy was within, my eye fixed on the coach
+door.  But when the footman pulled it open and lowered the step, out
+lolled a very broad man with a bloated face and little, beady eyes
+without a spark of meaning, and something very like a hump was on the top
+of his back.  He wore a yellow top-coat, and red-heeled shoes of the
+latest fashion, and I settled at once he was the Duke of Chartersea.
+
+Next came little Mr. Manners, stepping daintily as ever; and then, as the
+door closed with a bang, I remembered my errand.  They had got halfway to
+the portico.
+
+"Mr. Manners!" I cried.
+
+He faced about, and his Grace also, and both stared in wellbred surprise.
+As I live, Mr. Manners looked into my face, into my very eyes, and gave no
+sign of recognition.  And what between astonishment and anger, and a
+contempt that arose within me, I could not speak.
+
+"Give the man a shilling, Manners," said his Grace; "we can't stay here
+forever."
+
+"Ay, give the man a shilling," lisped Mr. Manners to the footman.  And
+they passed into the house, and the door eras shut.
+
+Then I heard Mr. Dix at my elbow, saying in a soft voice: "Now, my fine
+gentleman, is there any good reason why you should not ride to Bow Street
+with me?"
+
+"As there is a God in heaven.  Mr. Dix," I answered, very low, "if you
+attempt to lay hands on me, you shall answer for it!  And you shall hear
+from me yet, at the Star and Garter hotel."
+
+I spun on my heel and left him, nor did he follow; and a great lump was
+in my throat and tears welling in my eyes.
+
+What would John Paul say?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CASTLE YARD
+
+But I did not go direct to the Star and Garter.  No, I lacked the courage
+to say to John Paul: "You have trusted me, and this is how I have
+rewarded your faith."  And the thought that Dorothy's father, of all men,
+had served me thus, after what I had gone through, filled me with a
+bitterness I had never before conceived.  And when my brain became
+clearer I reflected that Mr. Manners had had ample time to learn of my
+disappearance from Maryland, and that his action had been one of design,
+and of cold blood.  But I gave to Dorothy or her mother no part in it.
+Mr. Manners never had had cause to hate me, and the only reason I could
+assign was connected with his Grace of Chartersea, which I dismissed as
+absurd.
+
+A few drops of rain warned me to seek shelter.  I knew not where I was,
+nor how long I had been walking the streets at a furious pace.  But a
+huckster told me I was in Chelsea; and kindly directed me back to Pall
+Mall.  The usual bunch of chairmen was around the hotel entrance, but I
+noticed a couple of men at the door, of sharp features and unkempt dress,
+and heard a laugh as I went in.  My head swam as I stumbled up the stairs
+and fumbled at the knob, when I heard voices raised inside, and the door
+was suddenly and violently thrown open.  Across the sill stood a big,
+rough-looking man with his hands on his hips.
+
+"Oho!  Here be the other fine bird a-homing, I'll warrant," he cried.
+
+The place was full.  I caught sight of Davenport, the tailor, with a wry
+face, talking against the noise; of Banks, the man I had hired,
+resplendent in my livery.  One of the hotel servants was in the corner
+perspiring over John Paul's chests, and beside him stood a man
+disdainfully turning over with his foot the contents, as they were thrown
+on the floor.  I saw him kick the precious vellum-hole waistcoat across
+the room in wrath and disgust, and heard him shout above the rest:
+"The lot of them would not bring a guinea from any Jew in St. Martin's
+Lane!"
+
+In the other corner, by the writing-desk, stood the hatter and the
+haberdasher with their heads together.  And in the very centre of the
+confusion was the captain himself.  He was drest in his new clothes
+Davenport had brought, and surprised me by his changed appearance, and
+looked as fine a gentleman as any I have ever seen.  His face lighted
+with relief at sight of me.
+
+"Now may I tell these rogues begone, Richard?" he cried.  And turning
+to the man confronting me, he added, "This gentleman will settle their
+beggarly accounts."
+
+Then I knew we had to do with bailiffs, and my heart failed me.
+
+"Likely," laughed the big man; "I'll stake my oath he has not a groat to
+pay their beggarly accounts, as year honour is pleased to call them."
+
+They ceased jabbering and straightened to attention, awaiting my reply.
+But I forgot them all, and thought only of the captain, and of the
+trouble I had brought him.  He began to show some consternation as I went
+up to him.
+
+"My dear friend," I said, vainly trying to steady my voice, "I beg,
+I pray that you will not lose faith in me,--that you will not think any
+deceit of mine has brought you to these straits.  Mr. Dix did not know
+me, and has had no word from my grandfather of my disappearance.  And Mr.
+Manners, whom I thought my friend, spurned me in the street before the
+Duke of Chartersea."
+
+And no longer master of myself, I sat down at the table and hid my face,
+shaken by great sobs, to think that this was my return for his kindness.
+
+"What," I heard him cry, "Mr. Manners spurned you, Richard!  By all
+the law in Coke and Littleton, he shall answer for it to me.  Your
+fairweather fowl shall have the chance to run me through!"
+
+I sat up in bewilderment, doubting my senses.
+
+"You believe me, captain," I said, overcome by the man's faith; "you
+believe me when I tell you that one I have known from childhood refused
+to recognize me to-day?"
+
+He raised me in his arms as tenderly as a woman might.
+
+"And the whole world denied you, lad, I would not.  I believe you--"and
+he repeated it again and again, unable to get farther.
+
+And if his words brought tears to my eyes, my strength came with them.
+
+"Then I care not," I replied; "I only to live to reward you."
+
+"Mr. Manners shall answer for it to me!" cried John Paul again, and made
+a pace toward the door.
+
+"Not so fast, not so fast, captain, or admiral, or whatever you are,"
+said the bailiff, stepping in his way, for he was used to such scenes;
+"as God reigns, the owners of all these fierce titles be fire-eaters, who
+would spit you if you spilt snuff upon 'em.  Come, come, gentlemen, your
+swords, and we shall see the sights o' London."
+
+This was the signal for another uproar, the tailor shrieking that John
+Paul must take off the suit, and Banks the livery; asking the man in the
+corner by the sea-chests (who proved to be the landlord) who was to pay
+him for his work and his lost cloth.  And the landlord shook his fist at
+us and shouted back, who was to pay him his four pounds odd, which
+included two ten-shilling dinners and a flask of his best wine?  The
+other tradesmen seized what was theirs and made off with remarks
+appropriate to the occasion.  And when John Paul and my man were divested
+of their plumes, we were marched downstairs and out through a jeering
+line of people to a hackney coach.
+
+"Now, sirs, whereaway?" said the bailiff when we were got in beside one
+of his men, and burning with the shame of it; "to the prison?  Or I has a
+very pleasant hotel for gentlemen in Castle Yard."
+
+The frightful stories my dear grandfather had told me of the Fleet came
+flooding into my head, and I shuddered and turned sick.  I glanced at
+John Paul.
+
+"A guinea will not go far in a sponging-house," said he, and the
+bailiff's man laughed.
+
+The bailiff gave a direction we did not hear, and we drove off.
+He proved a bluff fellow with a bloat yet not unkindly humour, and
+despite his calling seemed to have something that was human in him.
+He passed many a joke on that pitiful journey in an attempt to break our
+despondency, urging us not to be downcast, and reminding us that the last
+gentleman he had taken from Pall Mall was in over a thousand pounds, and
+that our amount was a bagatelle.  And when we had gone through Temple
+Bar, instead of keeping on down Fleet Street, we jolted into Chancery
+Lane.  This roused me.
+
+"My friend has warned you that he has no money," I said, "and no more
+have I."
+
+The bailiff regarded me shrewdly.
+
+"Ay," he replied, "I know.  But I has seen many stripes o' men in my
+time, my masters, and I know them to trust, and them whose silver I must
+feel or send to the Fleet."
+
+I told him unreservedly my case, and that he must take his chance of
+being paid; that I could not hear from America for three months at least.
+He listened without much show of attention, shaking his head from side to
+side.
+
+"If you ever cheated a man, or the admiral here either, then I begin over
+again," he broke in with decision; "it is the fine sparks from the clubs
+I has to watch.  You'll not worry, sir, about me.  Take my oath I'll get
+interest out of you on my money."
+
+Unwilling as we both were to be beholden to a bailiff, the alternative of
+the Fleet was too terrible to be thought of.  And so we alighted after
+him with a shiver at the sight of the ugly, grimy face of the house, and
+the dirty windows all barred with double iron.  In answer to a knock we
+were presently admitted by a turnkey to a vestibule as black as a tomb,
+and the heavy outer door was locked behind us.  Then, as the man cursed
+and groped for the keyhole of the inner door, despair laid hold of me.
+
+Once inside, in the half light of a narrow hallway, a variety of noises
+greeted our ears,--laughter from above and below, interspersed with
+oaths; the click of billiard balls, and the occasional hammering of a
+pack of cards on a bare table before the shuffle.  The air was close
+almost to suffocation, and out of the coffee room, into which I glanced,
+came a heavy cloud of tobacco smoke.
+
+"Why, my masters, why so glum?" said the bailiff; "my inn is not such a
+bad place, and you'll find ample good company here, I promise you."
+
+And he led us into a dingy antechamber littered with papers, on every one
+of which, I daresay, was written a tragedy.  Then he inscribed our names,
+ages, descriptions, and the like in a great book, when we followed him up
+three flights to a low room under the eaves, having but one small window,
+and bare of furniture save two narrow cots for beds, a broken chair, and
+a cracked mirror.  He explained that cash boarders got better, and added
+that we might be happy we were not in the Fleet.
+
+"We dine at two here, gentlemen, and sup at eight.  This is not the Star
+and Garter," said he as he left us.
+
+It was the captain who spoke first, though he swallowed twice before the
+words came out.
+
+"Come, Richard, come, laddie," he said, "'tis no so bad it micht-na be
+waur.  We'll mak the maist o' it."
+
+"I care not for myself, Captain Paul," I replied, marvelling the more at
+him, "but to think that I have landed you here, that this is my return
+for your sacrifice."
+
+"Hoots!  How was ye to foresee Mr. Manners was a blellum?" And he broke
+into threats which, if Mr. Marmaduke had heard and comprehended, would
+have driven him into the seventh state of fear.  "Have you no other
+friends in London?" he asked, regaining his English.
+
+I shook my head.  Then came--a question I dreaded.
+
+"And Mr. Manners's family?"
+
+"I would rather remain here for life," I said, "than to them now."
+
+For pride is often selfish, my dears, and I did not reflect that if I
+remained, the captain would remain likewise.
+
+"Are they all like Mr. Manners?"
+
+"That they are not," I returned with more heat than was necessary; "his
+wife is goodness itself, and his daughter--"  Words failed me, and I
+reddened.
+
+"Ah, he has a daughter, you say," said the captain, casting a significant
+look at me and beginning to pace the little room.  He was keener than I
+thought, this John Paul.
+
+If it were not so painful a task, my dears, I would give you here some
+notion of what a London sponging-house was in the last century.  Comyn
+has heard me tell of it, and I have seen Bess cry over the story.  Gaming
+was the king-vice of that age, and it filled these places to overflowing.
+Heaven help a man who came into the world with that propensity in the
+early days of King George the Third.  Many, alas, acquired it before they
+were come to years of discretion.  Next me, at the long table where we
+were all thrown in together,--all who could not pay for private meals,--
+sat a poor fellow who had flung away a patrimony of three thousand a
+year.  Another had even mortgaged to a Jew his prospects on the death of
+his mother, and had been seized by the bailiffs outside of St. James's
+palace, coming to Castle Yard direct from his Majesty's levee.  Yet
+another, with such a look of dead hope in his eyes as haunts me yet,
+would talk to us by the hour of the Devonshire house where he was born,
+of the green valley and the peaceful stream, and of the old tower-room,
+caressed by trees, where Queen Bess had once lain under the carved oak
+rafters.  Here he had taken his young wife, and they used to sit
+together, so he said, in the sunny oriel over the water, and he had sworn
+to give up the cards.  That was but three years since, and then all had
+gone across the green cloth in one mad night in St. James's Street.
+Their friends had deserted them, and the poor little woman was lodged in
+Holborn near by, and came every morning with some little dainty to the
+bailiff's, for her liege lord who had so used her.  He pressed me to
+share a fowl with him one day, but it would have choked me.  God knows
+where she got the money to buy it.  I saw her once hanging on his neck in
+the hall, he trying to shield her from the impudent gaze of his fellow-
+lodgers.
+
+But some of them lived like lords in luxury, with never a seeming regret;
+and had apartments on the first floor, and had their tea and paper in
+bed, and lounged out the morning in a flowered nightgown, and the rest of
+the day in a laced coat.  These drank the bailiff's best port and
+champagne, and had nothing better than a frown or haughty look for us,
+when we passed them at the landing.  Whence the piper was paid I knew
+not, and the bailiff cared not.  But the bulk of the poor gentlemen were
+a merry crew withal, and had their wit and their wine at table, and knew
+each other's histories (and soon enough ours) by heart.  They betted away
+the week at billiards or whist or picquet or loo, and sometimes measured
+swords for diversion, tho' this pastime the bailiff was greatly set
+against; as calculated to deprive him of a lodger.
+
+Although we had no money for gaming, and little for wine or tobacco, the
+captain and I were received very heartily into the fraternity.  After one
+afternoon of despondency we both voted it the worst of bad policy to
+remain aloof and nurse our misfortune, and spent our first evening in
+making acquaintances over a deal of very thin "debtor's claret."
+I tossed long that night on the hard cot, listening to the scurrying rats
+among the rooftimbers.  They ran like the thoughts in my brain.  And
+before I slept I prayed again and again that God would put it in my power
+to reward him whom charity for a friendless foundling had brought to a
+debtor's prison.
+
+Not so much as a single complaint or reproach had passed his lips!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE RESCUE
+
+Perchance, my dears, if John Paul and I had not been cast by accident in
+a debtor's prison, this great man might never have bestowed upon our
+country those glorious services which contributed so largely to its
+liberty.  And I might never have comprehended that the American
+Revolution was brought on and fought by a headstrong king, backed by
+unscrupulous followers who held wealth above patriotism.  It is often
+difficult to lay finger upon the causes which change the drift of a man's
+opinions, and so I never wholly knew why John Paul abandoned his deep-
+rooted purpose to obtain advancement in London by grace of the
+accomplishments he had laboured so hard to attain.  But I believe the
+beginning was at the meeting at Windsor with the slim and cynical
+gentleman who had treated him to something between patronage and
+contempt.  Then my experience with Mr. Manners had so embedded itself in
+his mind that he could never speak of it but with impatience and disgust.
+And, lastly, the bailiff's hotel contained many born gentlemen who had
+been left here to rot out the rest of their dreary lives by friends who
+were still in power and opulence.  More than once when I climbed to our
+garret I found the captain seated on the three-legged chair, with his
+head between his hands, sunk in reflection.
+
+"You were right, Richard," said he; "your great world is a hard world for
+those in the shadow of it.  I see now that it must not be entered from
+below, but from the cabin window.  A man may climb around it, lad, and
+when he is above may scourge it."
+
+"And you will scourge it, captain!  "I had no doubt of his ability one
+day to do it.
+
+"Ay, and snap my fingers at it.  'Tis a pretty organization, this
+society, which kicks the man who falls to the dogs.  None of your fine
+gentlemen for me!"
+
+And he would descend to talk politics with our fellow-guests.  We should
+have been unhappy indeed had it not been for this pastime.  It seems to
+me strange that these debtors took such a keen interest in outside
+affairs, even tho' it was a time of great agitation.  We read with
+eagerness the cast-off newspapers of the first-floor gentlemen.  One poor
+devil who had waddled(failed) in Change Alley had collected under his
+mattress the letters of Junius, then selling the Public Advertiser as few
+publications had ever sold before.  John Paul devoured these attacks upon
+his Majesty and his ministry in a single afternoon, and ere long he had
+on the tip of his tongue the name and value of every man in Parliament
+and out of it.  He learned, almost by heart, the history of the
+astonishing fight made by Mr. Wilkes for the liberties of England, and
+speedily was as good a Whig and a better than the member from Middlesex
+himself.
+
+The most of our companions were Tories, for, odd as it may appear, they
+retained their principles even in Castle Yard. And in those days to be a
+Tory was to be the friend of the King, and to be the friend of the King
+was to have some hope of advancement and reward at his hand.  They had
+none. The captain joined forces with the speculator from the Alley, who
+had hitherto contended against mighty odds, and together they bore down
+upon the enemy--ay, and rooted him, too. For John Paul had an air about
+him and a natural gift of oratory to command attention, and shortly the
+dining room after dinner became the scene of such contests as to call up
+in the minds of the old stagers a field night in the good days of Mr.
+Pitt and the second George.  The bailiff often sat by the door, an
+interested spectator, and the macaroni lodgers condescended to come
+downstairs and listen.  The captain attained to fame in our little world
+from his maiden address, in which he very shrewdly separated the
+political character of Mr. Wilkes from his character as a private
+gentleman, and so refuted a charge of profligacy against the people's
+champion.
+
+Altho' I never had sufficient confidence in my powers to join in these
+discussions, I followed them zealously, especially when they touched
+American questions, as they frequently did.  This subject of the wrongs
+of the colonies was the only one I could ever be got to study at King
+William's School, and I believe that my intimate knowledge of it gave the
+captain a surprise.  He fell into the habit of seating himself on the
+edge of my bed after we had retired for the night, and would hold me
+talking until the small hours upon the injustice of taxing a people
+without their consent, and upon the multitude of measures of coercion
+which the King had pressed upon us to punish our resistance.  He
+declaimed so loudly against the tyranny of quartering troops upon a
+peaceable state that our exhausted neighbours were driven to pounding
+their walls and ceilings for peace.  The news of the Boston massacre
+had not then reached England.
+
+I was not, therefore, wholly taken by surprise when he said to me one
+night:
+
+"I am resolved to try my fortune in America, lad.  That is the land for
+such as I, where a man may stand upon his own merits."
+
+"Indeed, we shall go together, captain," I answered heartily, "if we are
+ever free of this cursed house.  And you shall taste of our hospitality
+at Carvel Hall, and choose that career which pleases you.  Faith, I could
+point you a dozen examples in Annapolis of men who have made their way
+without influence.  But you shall have influence," I cried, glowing at
+the notion of rewarding him; "you shall experience Mr. Carvel's gratitude
+and mine.  You shall have the best of our ships, and you will."
+
+He was a man to take fire easily, and embraced me.  And, strange to say,
+neither he nor I saw the humour, nor the pity, of the situation.  How
+many another would long before have become sceptical of my promises!  And
+justly.  For I had led him to London, spent all his savings, and then got
+him into a miserable prison, and yet he had faith remaining, and to
+spare!
+
+It occurred to me to notify Mr. Dix of my residence in Castle Yard, not
+from any hope that he would turn his hand to my rescue, but that he might
+know where to find me if he heard from Maryland.  And I penned another
+letter to Mr. Carvel, but a feeling I took no pains to define compelled
+me to withhold an account of Mr. Manners's conduct.  And I refrained from
+telling him that I was in a debtor's prison.  For I believe the thought
+of a Carvel in a debtor's prison would have killed him.  I said only that
+we were comfortably lodged in a modest part of London; that the Manners
+were inaccessible (for I could not bring myself to write that they were
+out of town).  Just then a thought struck me with such force that I got
+up with a cheer and hit the astonished captain between the shoulders.
+
+"How now!" he cried, ruefully rubbing himself.  "If these are thy
+amenities, Richard, Heaven spare me thy blows."
+
+"Why, I have been a fool, and worse," I shouted.  "My grandfather's ship,
+the Sprightly Bess, is overhauling this winter in the Severn.  And unless
+she has sailed, which I think unlikely, I have but to despatch a line to
+Bristol to summon Captain Bell, the master, to London.  I think he will
+bring the worthy Mr. Dix to terms."
+
+"Whether he will or no," said John Paul, hope lighting his face, "Bell
+must have command of the twenty pounds to free us, and will take us back
+to America.  For I must own, Richard, that I have no great love for
+London."
+
+No more had I.  I composed this letter to Bell in such haste that my hand
+shook, and sent it off with a shilling to the bailiff's servant, that it
+might catch the post.  And that afternoon we had a two-shilling bottle of
+port for dinner, which we shared with a broken-down parson who had been
+chaplain in ordinary to my Lord Wortley, and who had preached us an
+Easter sermon the day before.  For it was Easter Monday.  Our talk was
+broken into by the bailiff, who informed me that a man awaited me in the
+passage, and my heart leaped into my, throat.
+
+There was Banks.  Thinking he had come to reproach me; I asked him rather
+sharply what he wanted.  He shifted his hat from one hand to the other
+and looked sheepish.
+
+"Your pardon, sir," said he, "but your honour must be very ill-served
+here."
+
+"Better than I should be, Banks, for I have no money," I said, wondering
+if he thought me a first-floor lodger.
+
+He made no immediate reply to that, either, but seemed more uneasy still.
+And I took occasion to note his appearance.  He was exceeding neat in a
+livery of his old master, which he had stripped of the trimmings.  Then,
+before I had guessed at his drift, he thrust his hand inside his coat and
+drew forth a pile of carefully folded bank notes.
+
+"I be a single man, sir, and has small need of this.  And and I knows
+your honour will pay me when your letter comes from America."
+
+And he handed me five Bank of England notes of ten pounds apiece.  I took
+them mechanically, without knowing what I did.  The generosity of the act
+benumbed my senses, and for the instant I was inclined to accept the
+offer upon the impulse of it.
+
+"How do you know you would get your money again, Banks?" I asked
+curiously.
+
+"No fear, sir," he replied promptly, actually brightening at the
+prospect.  "I knows gentlemen, sir, them that are such, sir.  And I will
+go to America with you, and you say the word, sir."
+
+I was more touched than I cared to show over his offer, which I scarce
+knew how to refuse.  In truth it was a difficult task, for he pressed me
+again and again, and when he saw me firm, turned away to wipe his eyes
+upon his sleeve.  Then he begged me to let him remain and serve me in the
+sponginghouse, saying that he would pay his own way.  The very thought of
+a servant in the bailiff's garret made me laugh, and so I put him off,
+first getting his address, and promising him employment on the day of my
+release.
+
+On Wednesday we looked for a reply from Bristol, if not for the
+appearance of Bell himself, and when neither came apprehension seized us
+lest he had already sailed for Maryland.  The slender bag of Thursday's
+letters contained none for me.  Nevertheless, we both did our best to
+keep in humour, forbearing to mention to one another the hope that had
+gone.  Friday seemed the beginning of eternity; the day dragged through I
+know not how, and toward evening we climbed back to our little room, not
+daring to speak of what we knew in our hearts to be so,--that the
+Sprightly Bess had sailed.  We sat silently looking out over the dreary
+stretch of roofs and down into a dingy court of Bernard's Inn below, when
+suddenly there arose a commotion on the stairs, as of a man mounting
+hastily.  The door was almost flung from its hinges, some one caught me
+by the shoulders, gazed eagerly into my face, and drew back.  For a space
+I thought myself dreaming.  I searched my memory, and the name came.  Had
+it been Dorothy, or Mr. Carvel himself, I could not have been more
+astonished, and my knees weakened under me.
+
+"Jack!"  I exclaimed; "Lord Comyn!"
+
+He seized my hand.  "Yes; Jack, whose life you saved, and no other," he
+cried, with a sailor's impetuosity.  "My God, Richard!  it was true,
+then; and you have been in this place for three weeks!"
+
+"For three weeks," I repeated.
+
+He looked at me, at John Paul, who was standing by in bewilderment, and
+then about the grimy, cobwebbed walls of the dark garret, and then turned
+his back to hide his emotion, and so met the bailiff, who was coming in.
+
+"For how much are these gentlemen in your books?"  he demanded hotly.
+
+"A small matter, your Lordship,--a mere trifle," said the man, bowing.
+
+"How much, I say?"
+
+"Twenty-two guineas, five shillings, and eight pence, my Lord, counting
+debts, and board,--and interest," the bailiff glibly replied; for he had
+no doubt taken off the account when he spied his Lordship's coach.  "And
+I was very good to Mr. Carvel and the captain, as your Lordship will
+discover--"
+
+"D--n your goodness!" said my Lord, cutting him short.
+
+And he pulled out a wallet and threw some pieces at the bailiff, bidding
+him get change with all haste.  "And now, Richard," he added, with a
+glance of disgust about him, "pack up, and we'll out of this cursed
+hole!"
+
+"I have nothing to pack, my Lord," I said.
+
+"My Lord! Jack, I have told you, or I leave you here."
+
+"Well, then, Jack, and you will," said I, overflowing with thankfulness
+to God for the friends He had bestowed upon me.  "But before we go a
+step, Jack, you must know the man but for whose bravery I should long
+ago have been dead of fever and ill-treatment in the Indies, and whose
+generosity has brought him hither.  My Lord Comyn, this is Captain John
+Paul."
+
+The captain, who had been quite overwhelmed by this sudden arrival of a
+real lord to our rescue at the very moment when we had sunk to despair,
+and no less astonished by the intimacy that seemed to exist between the
+newcomer and myself, had the presence of mind to bend his head, and that
+was all.  Comyn shook his hand heartily.
+
+"You shall not lack reward for this, captain, I promise you," cried he.
+"What you have done for Mr. Carvel, you have done for me.  Captain, I
+thank you.  You shall have my interest."
+
+I flushed, seeing John Paul draw his lips together.  But how was his
+Lordship to know that he was dealing with no common sea-captain?
+
+"I have sought no reward, my Lord," said he.  "What I have done was out
+of friendship for Mr. Carvel, solely."
+
+Comyn was completely taken by surprise by these words, and by the haughty
+tone in which they were spoken.  He had not looked for a gentleman, and
+no wonder.  He took a quizzical sizing of the sky-blue coat.  Such a man
+in such a station was out of his experience.
+
+"Egad, I believe you, captain," he answered, in a voice which said
+plainly that he did not.  "But he shall be rewarded nevertheless, eh,
+Richard?  I'll see Charles Fox in this matter to-morrow.  Come, come,"
+he added impatiently, "the bailiff must have his change by now.  Come,
+Richard!  "and he led the way down the winding stairs.
+
+"You must not take offence at his ways," I whispered to the captain.  For
+I well knew that a year before I should have taken the same tone with one
+not of my class.  "His Lordship is all kindness."
+
+"I have learned a bit since I came into England, Richard," was his sober
+reply.
+
+"'Twas a pitiful sight to see gathered on the landings the poor fellows
+we had come to know in Castle Yard, whose horizons were then as gray as
+ours was bright.  But they each had a cheery word of congratulation for
+us as we passed, and the unhappy gentleman from Devonshire pressed my
+hand and begged that I would sometime think of him when I was out under
+the sky.  I promised even more, and am happy to be able to say, my dears,
+that I saw both him and his wife off for America before I left London.
+Our eyes were wet when we reached the lower hall, and I was making for
+the door in an agony to leave the place, when the bailiff came out of his
+little office.
+
+"One moment, sir," he said, getting in front of me; "there is a little
+form yet to be gone through.  The haste of gentlemen to leave us is not
+flattering."
+
+He glanced slyly at Comyn, and his Lordship laughed a little.  I stepped
+unsuspectingly into the office.
+
+"Richard!"
+
+I stopped across the threshold as tho' I had been struck.  The late
+sunlight filtering through the dirt of the window fell upon the tall
+figure of a girl and lighted an upturned face, and I saw tears glistening
+on the long lashes.
+
+It was Dorothy.  Her hands were stretched out in welcome, and then I had
+them pressed in my own.  And I could only look and look again, for I was
+dumb with joy.
+
+"Thank God you are alive!" she cried; "alive and well, when we feared you
+dead.  Oh, Richard, we have been miserable indeed since we had news of
+your disappearance."
+
+"This is worth it all, Dolly," I said, only brokenly.
+
+She dropped her eyes, which had searched me through in wonder and pity,--
+those eyes I had so often likened to the deep blue of the sea,--and her
+breast rose and fell quickly with I knew not what emotions.  How the mind
+runs, and the heart runs, at such a time!  Here was the same Dorothy I
+had known in Maryland, and yet not the same.  For she was a woman now,
+who had seen the great world, who had refused both titles and estates,--
+and perchance accepted them.  She drew her hands from mine.
+
+"And how came you in such a place?" she asked, turning with a shudder.
+"Did you not know you had friends in London, sir?"
+
+Not for so much again would I have told her of Mr. Manners's conduct.  So
+I stood confused, casting about for a reply with truth in it, when Comyn
+broke in upon us.
+
+"I'll warrant you did not look for her here, Richard.  Faith, but you are
+a lucky dog," said my Lord, shaking his head in mock dolefulness; "for
+there is no man in London, in the world, for whom she would descend a
+flight of steps, save you.  And now she has driven the length of the town
+when she heard you were in a sponging-house, nor all the dowagers in
+Mayfair could stop her."
+
+"Fie, Comyn," said my lady, blushing and gathering up her skirts; "that
+tongue of yours had hung you long since had it not been for your peer's
+privilege.  Richard and I were brought up as brother and sister, and you
+know you were full as keen for his rescue as I."
+
+His Lordship pinched me playfully.
+
+"I vow I would pass a year in the Fleet to have her do as much for me,"
+said he.
+
+"But where is the gallant seaman who saved you, Richard?" asked Dolly,
+stamping her foot.
+
+"What," I exclaimed; "you know the story?"
+
+"Never mind," said she; "bring him here."
+
+My conscience smote me, for I had not so much as thought of John Paul
+since I came into that room.  I found him waiting in the passage, and
+took him by the hand.
+
+"A lady wishes to know you, captain," I said.
+
+"A lady!"  he cried.  "Here?  Impossible!"  And he looked at his clothes.
+
+"Who cares more for your heart than your appearance," I answered gayly,
+and led him into the office.
+
+At sight of Dorothy he stopped abruptly, confounded, as a man who
+sees a diamond in a dust-heap.  And a glow came over me as I said:
+
+"Miss Manners, here is Captain Paul, to whose courage and unselfishness
+I owe everything."
+
+"Captain," said Dorothy, graciously extending her hand, "Richard has many
+friends.  You have put us all in your debt, and none deeper than his old
+playmate."
+
+The captain fairly devoured her with his eyes as she made him a curtsey.
+But he was never lacking in gallantry, and was as brave on such occasions
+as when all the dangers of the deep threatened him.  With an elaborate
+movement he took Miss Manners's fingers and kissed them, and then swept
+the floor with a bow.
+
+"To have such a divinity in my debt, madam, is too much happiness for one
+man," he said.  "I have done nothing to merit it.  A lifetime were all
+too short to pay for such a favour."
+
+I had almost forgotten Miss Dolly the wayward, the mischievous.  But she
+was before me now, her eyes sparkling, and biting her lips to keep down
+her laughter.  Comyn turned to fleck the window with his handkerchief,
+while I was not a little put out at their mirth.  But if John Paul
+observed it, he gave no sign.
+
+"Captain, I vow your manners are worthy of a Frenchman," said my Lord;
+"and yet I am given to understand you are a Scotchman."
+
+A shadow crossed the captain's face.
+
+"I was, sir," he said.
+
+"You were!"  exclaimed Comyn, astonished; "and pray, what are you now,
+sir?"
+
+"Henceforth, my Lord," John Paul replied with vast ceremony: "I am an
+American, the compatriot of the beautiful Miss Manners!"
+
+"One thing I'll warrant, captain," said his Lordship, "that you are a
+wit."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A bold front is half the battle
+A man ought never to be frightened by appearances
+Ever been my nature to turn forward instead of back
+Human multitude with its infinity of despairs and joys
+Their lines belonged rather to the landscape (cottages)
+Tis no so bad it micht-na be waur
+Within every man's province to make himself what he will
+Ya maun ken th' incentive's the maist o' the battle
+Youth is in truth a mystery
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, V4, BY CHURCHILL ***
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