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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard Carvel, Volume 8, 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 8
+
+Author: Winston Churchill
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2004 [EBook #5372]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, VOLUME 8 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+RICHARD CARVEL
+
+By Winston Churchill
+
+
+Volume 8.
+
+
+L.     Farewell to Gordon's
+LI.    How an Idle Prophecy came to pass
+LII.   How the Gardener's Son fought the Serapis
+LIII.  In which I make Some Discoveries
+LIV.   More Discoveries.
+LV.    The Love of a Maid for a Man
+LVI.   How Good came out of Evil
+LVII.  I come to my Own again
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L
+
+FAREWELL TO GORDON'S
+
+I cannot bear to recall my misery of mind after Mr. Swain's death.
+One hope had lightened all the years of my servitude. For, when I
+examined my soul, I knew that it was for Dorothy I had laboured. And
+every letter that came from Comyn telling me she was still free gave me
+new heart for my work. By some mystic communion--I know not what--I felt
+that she loved me yet, and despite distance and degree. I would wake of
+a morning with the knowledge of it, and be silent for half the day with
+some particle of a dream in my head, lingering like the burden of a song
+with its train of memories.
+
+So, in the days that followed, I scarce knew myself. For a while
+(I shame to write it) I avoided that sweet woman who had made my comfort
+her care, whose father had taken me when I was homeless. The good in me
+cried out, but the flesh rebelled.
+
+Poor Patty! Her grief for her father was pathetic to see. Weeks passed
+in which she scarcely spoke a word. And I remember her as she sat in
+church Sundays, the whiteness of her face enhanced by the crape she wore,
+and a piteous appeal in her gray eyes. My own agony was nigh beyond
+endurance, my will swinging like a pendulum from right to wrong, and back
+again. Argue as I might that I had made the barrister no promise,
+conscience allowed no difference. I was in despair at the trick fate
+had played me; at the decree that of all women I must love her whose
+sphere was now so far removed from mine. For Patty had character and
+beauty, and every gift which goes to make man's happiness and to kindle
+his affections.
+
+Her sorrow left her more womanly than ever. And after the first sharp
+sting of it was deadened, I noticed a marked reserve in her intercourse
+with me. I knew then that she must have strong suspicions of her
+father's request. Speak I could not soon after the sad event, but I
+strove hard that she should see no change in my conduct.
+
+Before Christmas we went to the Eastern Shore. In Annapolis fife and
+drum had taken the place of fiddle and clarion; militia companies were
+drilling in the empty streets; despatches were arriving daily from the
+North; and grave gentlemen were hurrying to meetings. But if the war was
+to come, I must settle what was to be done at Gordon's Pride with all
+possible speed. It was only a few days after our going there, that I
+rode into Oxford with a black cockade in my hat Patty had made me, and
+the army sword Captain Jack had given Captain Daniel at my side. For I
+had been elected a lieutenant in the Oxford company, of which Percy
+Singleton was captain.
+
+So passed that winter, the darkest of my life. One soft spring day, when
+the birds were twittering amid new-born leaves, and the hyacinths and
+tulips in Patty's garden were coming to their glory, Master Tom rode
+leisurely down the drive at Gordon's Pride. That was a Saturday, the
+29th of April, 1775. The news which had flown southward, night and day
+alike, was in no hurry to run off his tongue; he had been lolling on the
+porch for half an hour before he told us of the bloodshed between the
+minute-men of Massachusetts and the British regulars, of the rout of
+Percy's panting redcoats from Concord to Boston. Tom added, with the
+brutal nonchalance which characterized his dealings with his mother and
+sister, that he was on his way to Philadelphia to join a company.
+
+The poor invalid was carried up the stairs in a faint by Banks and
+Romney. Patty, with pale face and lips compressed, ran to fetch the
+hartshorn. But Master Tom remained undisturbed.
+
+"I suppose you are going, Richard," he remarked affably. For he treated
+me with more consideration than his family. "We shall ride together,"
+said he.
+
+"We ride different ways, and to different destinations," I replied dryly.
+"I go to serve my country, and you to fight against it."
+
+"I think the King is right," he answered sullenly.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," I remarked, and rose. "Then you have studied
+the question since last I saw you."
+
+"No, by G-d!" he cried, "and I never will. I do not want to know your
+d--d principles--or grievances, or whatever they are. We were living an
+easy life, in the plenty of money, and nothing to complain of. You take
+it all away, with your cursed cant--"
+
+I left him railing and swearing. And that was the last I saw of Tom
+Swain. When I returned from a final survey of the plantation; and a talk
+with Percy Singleton, he had ridden North again.
+
+I found Patty alone in the parlour. Her work (one of my own stockings
+she was darning) lay idle in her lap, and in her eyes were the unshed
+tears which are the greatest suffering of women. I sat down beside her
+and called her name. She did not seem to hear me.
+
+"Patty!"
+
+She started. And my courage ebbed.
+
+"Are you going to the war--to leave us, Richard?" she faltered.
+
+"I fear there is no choice, Patty," I answered, striving hard to keep my
+own voice steady. "But you will be well looked after. Ivie Rawlinson
+is to be trusted, and Mr. Bordley has promised to keep an eye upon you."
+
+She took up the darning mechanically.
+
+"I shall not speak a word to keep you, Richard. He would have wished
+it," she said softly. "And every strong arm in the colonies will be
+needed. We shall think of you, and pray for you daily."
+
+I cast about for a cheerful reply.
+
+"I think when they discover how determined we are, they will revoke their
+measures in a hurry. Before you know it, Patty, I shall be back again
+making the rounds in my broad rim, and reading to you out of Captain
+Cook."
+
+It was a pitiful attempt. She shook her head sadly. The tears were come
+now, and she was smiling through them. The sorrow of that smile!
+
+"I have something to say to you before I go, Patty," I said. The words
+stuck. I knew that there must be no pretence in that speech. It must be
+true as my life after, the consequence of it. "I have something to ask
+you, and I do not speak without your father's consent. Patty, if I
+return, will you be my wife?"
+
+The stocking slipped unheeded to the floor. For a moment she sat
+transfixed, save for the tumultuous swelling of her breast. Then she
+turned and gazed earnestly into my face, and the honesty of her eyes
+smote me. For the first time I could not meet them honestly with my own.
+
+"Richard, do you love me?" she asked.
+
+I bowed my head. I could not answer that. And for a while there was no
+sound save that of the singing of the frogs in the distant marsh.
+
+Presently I knew that she was standing at my side. I felt her hand laid
+upon my shoulder.
+
+"Is--is it Dorothy?" she said gently.
+
+Still I could not answer. Truly, the bitterness of life, as the joy of
+it, is distilled in strong drops.
+
+"I knew," she continued, "I have known ever since that autumn morning
+when I went to you as you saddled--when I dreaded that you would leave
+us. Father asked you to marry me, the day you took Mr. Stewart from the
+mob. How could you so have misunderstood me, Richard?"
+
+I looked up in wonder. The sweet cadence in her tone sprang from a
+purity not of this earth. They alone who have consecrated their days to
+others may utter it. And the light upon her face was of the same source.
+It was no will of mine brought me to my feet. But I was not worthy to
+touch her.
+
+"I shall make another prayer, beside that for your safety, Richard," she
+said.
+
+In the morning she waved me a brave farewell from the block where she had
+stood so often as I rode afield, when the dawn was in the sky. The
+invalid mother sat in her chair within the door; the servants were
+gathered on the lawn, and Ivie Rawlinson and Banks lingered where they
+had held my stirrup. That picture is washed with my own tears.
+
+The earth was praising God that Sunday as I rode to Mr. Bordley's. And
+as it is sorrow which lifts us nearest to heaven, I felt as if I were in
+church.
+
+I arrived at Wye Island in season to dine with the good judge and his
+family, and there I made over to his charge the property of Patty and her
+mother. The afternoon we spent in sober talk, Mr. Bordley giving me much
+sound advice, and writing me several letters of recommendation to
+gentlemen in Congress. His conduct was distinguished by even more of
+kindness and consideration than he had been wont to show me.
+
+In the evening I walked out alone, skirting the acres of Carvel Hall,
+each familiar landmark touching the quick of some memory of other days.
+Childhood habit drew me into the path to Wilmot House. I came upon it
+just as the sunlight was stretching level across the Chesapeake, and
+burning its windows molten red. I had been sitting long on the stone
+steps, when the gaunt figure of McAndrews strode toward me out of the
+dusk.
+
+"God be gude to us, it is Mr. Richard!" he cried. "I hae na seen ye're
+bonny face these muckle years, sir, sync ye cam' back frae ae sight o'
+the young mistress." (I had met him in Annapolis then.) "An' will ye be
+aff to the wars?"
+
+I told him yes. That I had come for a last look at the old place before
+I left.
+
+He sighed. "Ye're vera welcome, sir." Then he added: "Mr. Bordley's
+gi'en me a fair notion o' yere management at Gordon's. The judge is
+thinking there'll be nane ither lad t' hand a candle to ye."
+
+"And what news do you hear from London?" I asked, cutting him short.
+
+"Ill uncos, sir," he answered, shaking his head with violence. He had
+indeed but a sorry tale for my ear, and one to make my heart heavier than
+it was. McAndrews opened his mind to me, and seemed the better for it.
+How Mr. Marmaduke was living with the establishment they wrote of was
+more than the honest Scotchman could imagine. There was a country place
+in Sussex now, said he, that was the latest. And drafts were coming in
+before the wheat was in the ear; and the plantations of tobacco on the
+Western Shore had been idle since the non-exportation, and were mortgaged
+to their limit to Mr. Willard. Money was even loaned on the Wilmot House
+estate. McAndrews had a shrewd suspicion that neither Mrs. Manners nor
+Miss Dorothy knew aught of this state of affairs.
+
+"Mr. Richard," he said earnestly, as he bade me good-by, "I kennt Mr.
+Manners's mind when he lea'd here. There was a laird in't, sir, an' a
+fortune. An' unless these come soon, I'm thinking I can spae th' en'."
+
+In truth, a much greater fool than McAndrews might have predicted that
+end.
+
+On Monday Judge Bordley accompanied me as far as Dingley's tavern, and
+showed much emotion at parting.
+
+"You need have no fears for your friends at Gordon's Pride, Richard,"
+said he. "And when the General comes back, I shall try to give him a
+good account of my stewardship."
+
+The General! That title brought old Stanwix's cobwebbed prophecy into my
+head again. Here, surely, was the war which he had foretold, and I ready
+to embark in it.
+
+Why not the sea, indeed?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI
+
+HOW AN IDLE PROPHECY CAME TO PASS
+
+Captain Clapsaddle not being at his lodgings, I rode on to the Coffee
+House to put up my horse. I was stopped by Mr. Claude.
+
+"Why, Mr. Carvel," says he, "I thought you on the Eastern Shore. There
+is a gentleman within will be mightily tickled to see you, or else his
+protestations are lies, which they may very well be. His name? Now,
+'Pon my faith, it was Jones--no more."
+
+This thing of being called for at the Coffee House stirred up unpleasant
+associations.
+
+"What appearance does the man make?" I demanded.
+
+"Merciful gad!" mine host exclaimed; "once seen, never forgotten, and
+once heard, never forgotten. He quotes me Thomson, and he tells me of
+his estate in Virginia."
+
+The answer was not of a sort to allay my suspicions.
+
+"Then he appears to be a landowner?" said I.
+
+"'Ods! Blest if I know what he is," says Mr. Claude. "He may be
+anything, an impostor or a high-mightiness. But he's something to strike
+the eye and hold it, for all his Quaker clothes. He is swarth and
+thickset, and some five feet eight inches--full six inches under your
+own height. And he comes asking for you as if you owned the town between
+you. 'Send a fellow to Marlboro' Street for Mr. Richard Carvel, my good
+host!' says he, with a snap of his fingers. And when I tell him the news
+of you, he is prodigiously affected, and cries--but here's my gentleman
+now!"
+
+I jerked my head around. Coming down the steps I beheld my old friend
+and benefactor, Captain John Paul!
+
+"Ahoy, ahoy!" cries he. "Now Heaven be praised, I have found you at
+last."
+
+Out of the saddle I leaped, and straight into his arms.
+
+"Hold, hold, Richard!" he gasped. "My ribs, man! Leave me some breath
+that I may tell you how glad I am to see you."
+
+"Mr. Jones!" I said, holding him out, "now where the devil got you
+that?"
+
+"Why, I am become a gentleman since I saw you," he answered, smiling.
+"My poor brother left me his estate in Virginia. And a gentleman must
+have three names at the least."
+
+I dropped his shoulders and shook with laughter.
+
+"But Jones!" I cried. "'Ad's heart! could you go no higher? Has your
+imagination left you, captain?"
+
+"Republican simplicity, sir," says he, looking a trifle hurt. But I
+laughed the more.
+
+"Well, you have contrived to mix oil and vinegar," said I. "A landed
+gentleman and republican simplicity. I'll warrant you wear silk-knit
+under that gray homespun, and have a cameo in your pocket."
+
+He shook his head, looking up at me with affection.
+
+"You might have guessed better," he answered. "All of quality I have
+about me are an enamelled repeater and a gold brooch."
+
+This made me suddenly grave, for McAndrews's words had been ringing in my
+ears ever since he had spoken them. I hitched my arm into the captain's
+and pulled him toward the Coffee House door.
+
+"Come," I said, "you have not dined, and neither have I. We shall be
+merry to-day, and you shall have some of the best Madeira in the
+colonies." I commanded a room, that we might have privacy. As he took
+his seat opposite me I marked that he had grown heavier and more browned.
+But his eye had the same unfathomable mystery in it as of yore. And
+first I upbraided him for not having writ me.
+
+"I took you for one who glories in correspondence, captain," said I; "and
+I did not think you could be so unfaithful. I directed twice to you in
+Mr. Orchardson's care."
+
+"Orchardson died before I had made one voyage," he replied, "and the
+Betsy changed owners. But I did not forget you, Richard, and was
+resolved but now not to leave Maryland until I had seen you. But I burn
+to hear of you," he added. "I have had an inkling of your story from the
+landlord. So your grandfather is dead, and that blastie, your uncle, of
+whom you told me on the John, is in possession."
+
+He listened to my narrative keenly, but with many interruptions. And
+when I was done, he sighed.
+
+"You are always finding friends, Richard," said he; "no matter what your
+misfortunes, they are ever double discounted. As for me; I am like
+Fulmer in Mr. Cumberland's 'West Indian': 'I have beat through every
+quarter of the compass; I have bellowed for freedom; I have offered to
+serve my country; I have'--I am engaging to betray it. No, Scotland is
+no longer my country, and so I cannot betray her. It is she who has
+betrayed me."
+
+He fell into a short mood of dejection. And, indeed, I could not but
+reflect that much of the character fitted him like a jacket. Not the
+betrayal of his country. He never did that, no matter how roundly they
+accused him of it afterward.
+
+To lift him, I cried:
+
+"You were one of my first friends, Captain Paul" (I could not stomach the
+Jones); "but for you I should now be a West Indian, and a miserable one,
+the slave of some unmerciful hidalgo. Here's that I may live to repay
+you!"
+
+"And while we are upon toasts," says he, bracing immediately, "I give you
+the immortal Miss Manners! Her beauty has dwelt unfaded in my memory
+since I last beheld her, aboard the Betsy." Remarking the pain in my
+face, he added, with a concern which may have been comical: "And she is
+not married?"
+
+"Unless she is lately gone to Gretna, she is not," I replied, trying to
+speak lightly.
+
+"Alack! I knew it," he exclaimed. "And if there's any prophecy in my
+bones, she'll be Mrs. Carvel one of these days."
+
+"Well captain," I said abruptly, "the wheel has gone around since I saw
+you. Now it is you who are the gentleman, while I am a factor. Is it
+the bliss you pictured?"
+
+I suspected that his acres were not as broad, nor his produce as salable,
+as those of Mount Vernon.
+
+"To speak truth, I am heartily tired of that life," said he. "There is
+little glory in raising nicotia, and sipping bumbo, and cursing negroes.
+Ho for the sea!" he cried. "The salt sea, and the British prizes. Give
+me a tight frigate that leaves a singing wake. Mark me, Richard," he
+said, a restless gleam coning into his dark eyes, "stirring times are
+here, and a chance for all of us to make a name." For so it seemed ever
+to be with him.
+
+"They are black times, I fear," I answered.
+
+"Black!" he said. "No, glorious is your word. And we are to have an
+upheaval to throw many of us to the top."
+
+"I would rather the quarrel were peacefully settled," said I, gravely.
+"For my part, I want no distinction that is to come out of strife and
+misery."
+
+He regarded me quizzically.
+
+"You are grown an hundred years old since I pulled you out of the sea,"
+says he. "But we shall have to fight for our liberties. Here is a glass
+to the prospect!"
+
+"And so you are now an American?" I said curiously.
+
+"Ay, strake and keelson,--as good a one as though I had got my sap in the
+Maine forests. A plague of monarchs, say I. They are a blotch upon
+modern civilization. And I have here," he continued, tapping his pocket,
+"some letters writ to the Virginia printers, signed Demosthenes, which
+Mr. Randolph and Mr. Henry have commended. To speak truth, Richard, I am
+off to Congress with a portmanteau full of recommendations. And I was
+resolved to stop here even till I secured your company. We shall sweep
+the seas together, and so let George beware!"
+
+I smiled. But my blood ran faster at the thought of sailing under such a
+captain. However, I made the remark that Congress had as yet no army,
+let alone a navy.
+
+"And think you that gentlemen of such spirit and resources will lack
+either for long?" he demanded, his eye flashing.
+
+"Then I know nothing of a ship save the little I learned on the John," I
+said.
+
+"You were born for the sea, Richard," he exclaimed, raising his glass
+high. "And I would rather have one of your brains and strength and
+handiness than any merchant's mate I ever sailed with. The more
+gentlemen get commissions, the better will be our new service."
+
+At that instant came a knock at the door, and one of the inn negroes
+to say that Captain Clapsaddle was below, and desired to see me.
+I persuaded John Paul to descend with me. We found Captain Daniel seated
+with Mr. Carroll, the barrister, and Mr. Chase.
+
+"Captain," I said to my old friend, "I have a rare joy this day in making
+known to you Mr. John Paul Jones, of whom I have spoken to you a score of
+times. He it is whose bravery sank the Black Moll, whose charity took me
+to London, and who got no other reward for his faith than three weeks in
+a debtors' prison. For his honour, as I have told you, would allow him
+to accept none, nor his principles to take the commission in the Royal
+Navy which Mr. Fox offered him."
+
+Captain Daniel rose, his honest face flushing with pleasure. "Faith, Mr.
+Jones," he cried, when John Paul had finished one of his elaborate bows,
+"this is well met, indeed. I have been longing these many years for a
+chance to press your hand, and in the names of those who are dead and
+gone to express my gratitude."
+
+"I have my reward now, captain," replied John Paul; "a sight of you
+is to have Richard's whole life revealed. And what says Mr. Congreve?
+
+       "'For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
+        And tho' a late, a sure reward succeeds.'
+
+"Tho' I would not have you believe that my deed was virtuous. And you,
+who know Richard, may form some notion of the pleasure I had out of his
+companionship."
+
+I hastened to present my friend to the other gentlemen, who welcomed him
+with warmth, though they could not keep their amusement wholly out of
+their faces.
+
+"Mr. Jones is now the possessor of an estate in Virginia, sirs," I
+explained.
+
+"And do you find it more to your taste than seafaring, Mr. Jones?"
+inquired Mr. Chase.
+
+This brought forth a most vehement protest, and another quotation.
+
+"Why, sir," he cried, "to be
+
+       'Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot,
+        To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot,'
+
+is an animal's existence. I have thrown it over, sir, with a right good
+will, and am now on my way to Philadelphia to obtain a commission in the
+navy soon to be born."
+
+Mr. Chase smiled. John Paul little suspected that he was a member of the
+Congress.
+
+"This is news indeed, Mr. Jones," he said. "I have yet to hear of the
+birth of this infant navy, for which we have not yet begun to make
+swaddling clothes."
+
+"We are not yet an infant state, sir," Mr. Carroll put in, with a shade
+of rebuke. For Maryland was well content with the government she had
+enjoyed, and her best patriots long after shunned the length of
+secession. "I believe and pray that the King will come to his senses.
+And as for the navy, it is folly. How can we hope to compete with
+England on the sea?"
+
+"All great things must have a beginning sir," replied John Paul,
+launching forth at once, nothing daunted by such cold conservatism.
+"What Israelite brickmaker of Pharaoh's dreamed of Solomon's temple?
+Nay, Moses himself had no conception of it. And God will send us our
+pillars of cloud and of fire. We must be reconciled to our great
+destiny, Mr. Carroll. No fight ever was won by man or nation content
+with half a victory. We have forests to build an hundred armadas, and I
+will command a fleet and it is given me."
+
+The gentlemen listened in astonishment.
+
+"I' faith, I believe you, sir," cried Captain Daniel, with admiration.
+
+The others, too, were somehow fallen under the spell of this remarkable
+individuality. "What plan would you pursue, sir?" asked Mr. Chase,
+betraying more interest than he cared to show.
+
+"What plan, sir!" said Captain John Paul, those wonderful eyes of his
+alight. "In the first place, we Americans build the fastest ships in the
+world,--yours of the Chesapeake are as fleet as any. Here, if I am not
+mistaken, one hundred and eighty-two were built in the year '71. They
+are idle now. To them I would issue letters of marque, to harry
+England's trade. From Carolina to Maine we have the wood and iron to
+build cruisers, in harbours that may not easily be got at. And skilled
+masters and seamen to elude the enemy."
+
+"But a navy must be organized, sir. It must be an unit," objected Mr.
+Carroll. "And you would not for many years have force enough, or
+discipline enough, to meet England's navy."
+
+"I would never meet it, sir," he replied instantly. "That would be the
+height of folly. I would divide our forces into small, swift-sailing
+squadrons, of strength sufficient to repel his cruisers. And I would
+carry the war straight into his unprotected ports of trade. I can name
+a score of such defenceless places, and I know every shoal of their
+harbours. For example, Whitehaven might be entered. That is a town of
+fifty thousand inhabitants. The fleet of merchantmen might with the
+greatest ease be destroyed, a contribution levied, and Ireland's coal cut
+off for a winter. The whole of the shipping might be swept out of the
+Clyde. Newcastle is another likely place, and in almost any of the Irish
+ports valuable vessels may be found. The Baltic and West Indian fleets
+are to be intercepted. I have reflected upon these matters for years,
+gentlemen. They are perfectly feasible. And I'll warrant you cannot
+conceive the havoc and consternation their fulfilment would spread in
+England."
+
+If the divine power of genius ever made itself felt, 'twas on that May
+evening, at candle-light, in the Annapolis Coffee House. With my own
+eyes I witnessed two able and cautious statesmen of a cautious province
+thrilled to the pitch of enthusiasm by this strange young man of eight
+and twenty. As for good Captain Daniel, enthusiasm is but a poor word to
+express his feelings. A map was sent for and spread out upon the table.
+And it was a late hour when Mr. Chase and Mr. Carroll went home,
+profoundly impressed. Mr. Chase charged John Paul look him up in
+Congress.
+
+The next morning I bade Captain Daniel a solemn good-by, and rode away
+with John Paul to Baltimore. Thence we took stage to New Castle on the
+Delaware, and were eventually landed by Mr. Tatlow's stage-boat at
+Crooked Billet wharf, Philadelphia.
+
+   A BRIEF SUMMARY, WHICH BRINGS THIS BIOGRAPHY TO THE FAMOUS
+   FIGHT OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS
+
+          BY DANIEL CLAPSADDLE CARVEL
+
+Mr. Richard Carvel refers here to the narrative of his experiences in the
+War of the Revolution, which he had written in the year 1805 or 1806.
+The insertion of that account would swell this book, already too long,
+out of all proportion. Hence I take it upon myself, with apologies, to
+compress it.
+
+Not until October of that year, 1775, was the infant navy born. Mr.
+Carvel was occupied in the interval in the acquirement of practical
+seamanship and the theory of maritime warfare under the most competent of
+instructors, John Paul Jones. An interesting side light is thrown upon
+the character of that hero by the fact that, with all his supreme
+confidence in his ability, he applied to Congress only for a first
+lieutenancy. This was in deference to the older men before that body.
+"I hoped," said he, "in that rank to gain much useful knowledge from
+those of more experience than myself." His lack of assertion for once
+cost him dear. He sailed on the New Providence expedition under
+Commodore Hopkins as first lieutenant of the Alfred, thirty; and he soon
+discovered that, instead of gaining information, he was obliged to inform
+others. He trained the men so thoroughly in the use of the great guns
+"that they went through the motions of broadsides and rounds exactly as
+soldiers generally perform the manual exercise."
+
+Captain Jones was not long in fixing the attention and earning the
+gratitude of the nation, and of its Commander-in-Chief, General
+Washington. While in command of the Providence, twelve four-pounders,
+his successful elusions of the 'Cerberus', which hounded him, and his
+escape from the 'Solebay', are too famous to be dwelt upon here.
+Obtaining the Alfred, he captured and brought into Boston ten thousand
+suits of uniform for Washington's shivering army. Then, by the bungling
+of Congress, thirteen officers were promoted over his head. The
+bitterness this act engendered in the soul of one whose thirst for
+distinction was as great as Captain Jones's may be imagined. To his
+everlasting credit be it recorded that he remained true to the country to
+which he had dedicated his life and his talents. And it was not until
+1781 that he got the justice due him.
+
+That the rough and bluff captains of the American service should have
+regarded a man of Paul Jones's type with suspicion is not surprising.
+They resented his polish and accomplishments, and could not understand
+his language. Perhaps it was for this reason, as well as a reward for
+his brilliant services, that he was always given a separate command. In
+the summer of 1777 he was singled out for the highest gift in the power
+of the United States, nothing less than that of the magnificent frigate
+'Indien', then building at Amsterdam. And he was ordered to France in
+command of the 'Ranger', a new ship then fitting at Portsmouth. Captain
+Jones was the admiration of all the young officers in the navy, and was
+immediately flooded with requests to sail with him. One of his first
+acts, after receiving his command, was to apply to the Marine Committee
+for Mr. Carvel. The favour was granted.
+
+My grandfather had earned much commendation from his superiors. He had
+sailed two cruises as master's mate of the Cabot, and was then serving as
+master of the Trumbull, Captain Saltonstall. This was shortly after that
+frigate had captured the two British transports off New York.
+
+Captain Jones has been at pains to mention in his letters the services
+rendered him by Mr. Carvel in fitting out the Ranger. And my grandfather
+gives a striking picture of the captain. At that time the privateers,
+with the larger inducements of profit they offered, were getting all the
+best seamen. John Paul had but to take two turns with a man across the
+dock, and he would sign papers.
+
+Captain Jones was the first to raise the new flag of the stars and
+stripes over a man-o'-war. They got away on November 14, 1777, with a
+fair crew and a poor lot of officers. Mr. Carvel had many a brush with
+the mutinous first lieutenant Simpson. Family influence deterred the
+captain from placing this man under arrest, and even Dr. Franklin found
+trouble, some years after, in bringing about his dismissal from the
+service. To add to the troubles, the Ranger proved crank and
+slow-sailing; and she had only one barrel of rum aboard, which made
+the men discontented.
+
+Bringing the official news of Burgoyne's surrender, which was to cause
+King Louis to acknowledge the independence of the United States, the
+Ranger arrived at Nantes, December 2. Mr. Carvel accompanied Captain
+Jones to Paris, where a serious blow awaited him. The American
+Commissioners informed him that the Indien had been transferred to France
+to prevent her confiscation. That winter John Paul spent striving in
+vain for a better ship, and imbibing tactics from the French admirals.
+Incidentally, he obtained a salute for the American flag. The cruise of
+the Ranger in English waters the following spring was a striking
+fulfilment, with an absurdly poor and inadequate force, of the plan set
+forth by John Paul Jones in the Annapolis Coffee House. His descent upon
+Whitehaven spread terror and consternation broadcast through England, and
+he was branded as a pirate and a traitor. Mr. Carvel was fortunately not
+of the landing party on St. Mary's Isle, which place he had last beheld
+in John Paul's company, on the brigantine John, when entering
+Kirkcudbright. The object of that expedition, as is well known, was to
+obtain the person of the Earl of Selkirk, in order to bring about the
+rescue of the unfortunate Americans suffering in British prisons. After
+the celebrated capture of the sloop-of-war Drake, Paul Jones returned to
+France a hero.
+
+If Captain Jones was ambitious of personal glory, he may never, at least,
+be accused of mercenary motives. The ragged crew of the Ranger was paid
+in part out of his own pocket, and for a whole month he supported the
+Drake's officers and men, no provision having been made for prisoners.
+He was at large expense in fitting out the Ranger, and he bought back at
+twice what it was worth the plate taken from St. Mary's Isle, getting but
+a tardy recognition from the Earl of Selkirk for such a noble and
+unheard-of action. And, I take pride in writing it, Mr. Carvel spent
+much of what he had earned at Gordon's Pride in a like honourable manner.
+
+Mr. Carvel's description of the hero's reception at Versailles is graphic
+and very humorous. For all his republican principles John Paul never got
+over his love of courts, and no man was ever a more thorough courtier.
+He exchanged compliments with Queen Marie Antoinette, who was then in the
+bloom of her beauty, and declared that she was a "good girl, and deserved
+to be happy."
+
+The unruly Simpson sailed for America in the Ranger in July, Captain
+Jones being retained in France "for a particular enterprise." And
+through the kindness of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Carvel remained with him. Then
+followed another period of heartrending disappointment. The fine ship
+the French government promised him was not forthcoming, though Captain
+Jones wrote a volume of beautiful letters to every one of importance,
+from her Royal Highness the Duchess of Chartres to his Most Christian
+Majesty, Louis, King of France and Navarre. At length, when he was
+sitting one day in unusual dejection and railing at the vanity of courts
+and kings, Mr. Carvel approached him with a book in his hand.
+
+"What have you there, Richard?" the captain demanded.
+
+"Dr. Franklin's Maxims," replied my grandfather. They were great
+favourites with him. The captain took the book and began mechanically
+to turn over the pages. Suddenly he closed it with a bang, jumped up,
+and put on his coat and hat. Mr. Carvel looked on in astonishment.
+
+"Where are you going, sir?" says he.
+
+"To Paris, sir," says the captain. "Dr. Franklin has taught me more
+wisdom in a second than I had in all my life before. 'If you wish to
+have any business faithfully and expeditiously performed, go and do it
+yourself; otherwise, send.'"
+
+As a result of that trip he got the Duras, which he renamed the 'Bon
+homme Richard' in honour of Dr. Franklin. The Duras was an ancient
+Indiaman with a high poop, which made my grandfather exclaim, when he saw
+her, at the remarkable fulfilment of old Stanwix's prophecy. She was
+perfectly rotten, and in the constructor's opinion not worth refitting.
+Her lowest deck (too low for the purpose) was pierced aft with three
+ports on a side, and six worn-out eighteen-pounders mounted there. Some
+of them burst in the action, killing their people. The main battery, on
+the deck above, was composed of twenty-eight twelve-pounders. On the
+uncovered deck eight nine-pounders were mounted. Captain Jones again
+showed his desire to serve the cause by taking such a ship, and not
+waiting for something better.
+
+In the meantime the American frigate 'Alliance' had brought Lafayette to
+France, and was added to the little squadron that was to sail with the
+'Bon homme Richard'. One of the most fatal mistakes Congress ever made
+was to put Captain Pierre Landais in command of her, out of compliment to
+the French allies. He was a man whose temper and vagaries had failed to
+get him a command in his own navy. His insulting conduct and treachery
+to Captain Jones are strongly attested to in Mr. Carvel's manuscript:
+they were amply proved by the written statements of other officers.
+
+The squadron sailed from L'Orient in June, but owing to a collision
+between the Bon homme Richard and the Alliance it was forced to put back
+into the Groix roads for repairs. Nails and rivets were with difficulty
+got to hold in the sides of the old Indianian. On August 14th John Paul
+Jones again set sail for English waters, with the following vessels:
+Alliance, thirty-six; Pallas, thirty; Cerf, eighteen; Vengeance, twelve;
+and two French privateers. Owing to the humiliating conditions imposed
+upon him by the French Minister of Marine, Commodore Jones did not have
+absolute command. In a gale on the 26th the two privateers and the Cerf
+parted company, never to return. After the most outrageous conduct off
+the coast of Ireland, Landais, in the 'Alliance', left the squadron on
+September 6th, and did not reappear until the 23d, the day of the battle.
+
+Mr. Carvel was the third lieutenant of the 'Bon homme Richard', tho' he
+served as second in the action. Her first lieutenant (afterwards the
+celebrated Commodore Richard Dale) was a magnificent man, one worthy in
+every respect of the captain he served. When the hour of battle arrived,
+these two and the sailing master, and a number of raw midshipmen, were
+the only line-officers left, and two French officers of marines.
+
+The rest had been lost in various ways. And the crew of the 'Bon homme
+Richard' was as sorry a lot as ever trod a deck. Less than three score
+of the seamen were American born; near four score were British, inclusive
+of sixteen Irish; one hundred and thirty-seven were French soldiers, who
+acted as marines; and the rest of the three hundred odd souls to fight
+her were from all over the earth,--Malays and Maltese and Portuguese.
+In the hold were more than one hundred and fifty English prisoners.
+
+This was a vessel and a force, truly, with which to conquer a fifty-gun
+ship of the latest type, and with a picked crew.
+
+Mr. Carvel's chapter opens with Landais's sudden reappearance on the
+morning of the day the battle was fought. He shows the resentment and
+anger against the Frenchman felt by all on board, from cabin-boy to
+commodore. But none went so far as to accuse the captain of the
+'Alliance' of such supreme treachery as he was to show during the action.
+Cowardice may have been in part responsible for his holding aloof from
+the two duels in which the Richard and the Pallas engaged. But the fact
+that he poured broadsides into the Richard, and into her off side, makes
+it seem probable that his motive was to sink the commodore's ship, and so
+get the credit of saving the day, to the detriment of the hero who won it
+despite all disasters. To account for the cry that was raised when first
+she attacked the Richard, it must be borne in mind that the crew of the
+'Alliance' was largely composed of Englishmen. It was thought that these
+had mutinied and taken her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII
+
+HOW THE GARDENER'S SON FOUGHT THE "SERAPIS"
+
+When I came on deck the next morning our yards were a-drip with a clammy
+fog, and under it the sea was roughed by a southwest breeze. We were
+standing to the northward before it. I remember reflecting as I paused
+in the gangway that the day was Thursday, September the 23d, and that we
+were near two months out of Groix with this tub of an Indiaman. In all
+that time we had not so much as got a whiff of an English frigate, though
+we had almost put a belt around the British Isles. Then straining my
+eyes through the mist, I made out two white blurs of sails on our
+starboard beam.
+
+Honest Jack Pearce, one of the few good seamen we had aboard, was rubbing
+down one of the nines beside me.
+
+"Why, Jack," said I, "what have we there? Another prize?" For that
+question had become a joke on board the 'Bon homme Richard' since the
+prisoners had reached an hundred and fifty, and half our crew was gone to
+man the ships.
+
+"Bless your 'art, no, sir," said he. "'Tis that damned Frenchy Landais
+in th' Alliance. She turns up with the Pallas at six bells o' the middle
+watch."
+
+"So he's back, is he?"
+
+"Ay, he's back," he returned, with a grunt that was half a growl; "arter
+three weeks breakin' o' liberty. I tell 'ee what, sir, them Frenchies is
+treecherous devils, an' not to be trusted the len'th of a lead line. An'
+they beant seamen eno' to keep a full an' by with all their 'takteek'.
+Ez fer that Landais, I hearn him whinin' at the commodore in the round
+house when we was off Clear, an' sayin' as how he would tell Sartin on us
+when he gets back to Paree. An' jabberin to th'other Frenchmen as was
+there that this here butter-cask was er King's ship, an' that the
+commodore weren't no commodore nohow. They say as how Cap'n Jones be
+bound up in a hard knot by some articles of agreement, an' daresn't
+punish him. Be that so, Mr. Carvel?"
+
+I said that it was.
+
+"Shiver my bulkheads!" cried Jack, "I gave my oath to that same, sir.
+For I knowed the commodore was the lad t' string 'em to the yard-arm an'
+he had the say on it. Oh, the devil take the Frenchies," said Jack,
+rolling his quid to show his pleasure of the topic, "they sits on their
+bottoms in Brest and L'Oriong an' talks takteek wi' their han's and
+mouths, and daresn't as much as show the noses o' their three-deckers in
+th' Bay o' Biscay, while Cap'n Jones pokes his bowsprit into every port
+in England with a hulk the rats have left. I've had my bellyful o'
+Frenchies, Mr. Carvell save it be to fight 'em. An' I tell 'ee 'twould
+give me the greatest joy in life t' leave loose 'Scolding Sairy' at that
+there Landais. Th' gal ain't had a match on her this here cruise, an' t'
+my mind she couldn't be christened better, sir."
+
+I left him patting the gun with a tender affection.
+
+The scene on board was quiet and peaceful enough that morning. A knot of
+midshipmen on the forecastle were discussing Landais's conduct, and
+cursing the concordat which prevented our commodore from bringing him up
+short. Mr. Stacey, the sailing-master, had the deck, and the coasting
+pilot was conning; now and anon the boatswain's whistle piped for Garrett
+or Quito or Fogg to lay aft to the mast, where the first lieutenant stood
+talking to Colonel de Chamillard, of the French marines. The scavengers
+were sweeping down, and part of the after guard was bending a new
+bolt-rope on a storm staysail.
+
+Then the--fore-topmast crosstrees reports a sail on the weather quarter,
+the Richard is brought around on the wind, and away we go after a
+brigantine, "flying like a snow laden with English bricks," as Midshipman
+Coram jokingly remarks. A chase is not such a novelty with us that we
+crane our necks to windward.
+
+At noon, when I relieved Mr. Stacey of the deck, the sun had eaten up the
+fog, and the shores of England stood out boldly. Spurn Head was looming
+up across our bows, while that of Flamborough jutted into the sea behind
+us. I had the starboard watch piped to dinner, and reported twelve
+o'clock to the commodore. And had just got permission to "make it,"
+according to a time-honoured custom at sea, when another "Sail, ho!" came
+down from aloft.
+
+"Where away?" called back Mr. Linthwaite, who was midshipman of the
+forecastle.
+
+"Starboard quarter, rounding Flamborough Head, sir. Looks like a
+full-rigged ship, sir."
+
+I sent the messenger into the great cabin to report. He was barely out
+of sight before a second cry came from the masthead: "Another sail
+rounding Flamborough, sir!"
+
+The officers on deck hurried to the taffrail. I had my glass, but not a
+dot was visible above the sea-line. The messenger was scarcely back
+again when there came a third hail: "Two more rounding the head, sir!
+Four in all, sir!"
+
+Here was excitement indeed. Without waiting for instructions, I gave the
+command:
+
+"Up royal yards! Royal yardmen in the tops!"
+
+We were already swaying out of the chains, when Lieutenant Dale appeared
+and asked the coasting pilot what fleet it was. He answered that it was
+the Baltic fleet, under convoy of the Countess of Scarborough, twenty
+guns, and the Serapis, forty-four.
+
+"Forty-four," repeated Mr. Dale, smiling; "that means fifty, as English
+frigates are rated. We shall have our hands full this day, my lads,"
+said he. "You have done well to get the royals on her, Mr. Carvel."
+
+While he was yet speaking, three more sail were reported from aloft.
+Then there was a hush on deck, and the commodore himself appeared. As he
+reached the poop we saluted him and informed him of what had happened.
+
+"The Baltic fleet," said he, promptly. "Call away the pilotboat with Mr.
+Lunt to follow the brigantine, sir, and ease off before the wind. Signal
+'General Chase' to the squadron, Mr. Mayrant."
+
+The men had jumped to the weather braces before I gave the command, and
+all the while more sail were counting from the crosstrees, until their
+number had reached forty-one. The news spread over the ship; the
+starboard watch trooped up with their dinners half eaten. Then a faint
+booming of guns drifted down upon our ears.
+
+"They've got sight of us, sir," shouted the lookout. "They be firing
+guns to windward, an' letting fly their topgallant sheets."
+
+At that the commodore hurried forward, the men falling back to the
+bulwarks respectfully, and he mounted the fore-rigging as agile as any
+topman, followed by his aide with a glass. From the masthead he sung out
+to me to set our stu'nsails, and he remained aloft till near seven bells
+of the watch. At that hour the merchantmen had all scuttled to safety
+behind the head, and from the deck a great yellow King's frigate could be
+plainly seen standing south to meet us, followed by her smaller consort.
+Presently she hove to, and through our glasses we discerned a small boat
+making for her side, and then a man clambering up her sea-ladder.
+
+"That be the bailiff of Scarborough, sir," said the coasting pilot, "come
+to tell her cap'n 'tis Paul Jones he has to fight."
+
+At that moment the commodore lay down from aloft, and our hearts beat
+high as he walked swiftly aft to the quarterdeck, where he paused for a
+word with Mr. Dale. Meanwhile Mr. Mayrant hove out the signal for the
+squadron to form line of battle.
+
+"Recall the pilot-boat, Mr. Carvel," said the commodore, quietly. "Then
+you may beat to quarters, and I will take the ship, sir."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir." I raised my trumpet. "All hands clear ship for action!"
+
+It makes me sigh now to think of the cheer which burst from that
+tatterdemalion crew. Who were they to fight the bone and sinew of the
+King's navy in a rotten ship of an age gone by? And who was he, that
+stood so straight upon the quarter-deck, to instil this scum with love
+and worship and fervour to blind them to such odds? But the bo'suns
+piped and sang out the command in fog-horn voices, the drums beat the
+long roll and the fifes whistled, and the decks became suddenly alive.
+Breechings were loosed and gun-tackles unlashed, rammer and sponge laid
+out, and pike and pistol and cutlass placed where they would be handy
+when the time came to rush the enemy's decks. The powder-monkeys tumbled
+over each other in their hurry to provide cartridges, and grape and
+canister and doubleheaded shot were hoisted up from below. The trimmers
+rigged the splinter nettings, got out spare spars and blocks and ropes
+against those that were sure to be shot away, and rolled up casks of
+water to put out the fires. Tubs were filled with sand, for blood is
+slippery upon the boards. The French marines, their scarlet and white
+very natty in contrast to most of our ragged wharf-rats at the guns, were
+mustered on poop and forecastle, and some were sent aloft to the tops to
+assist the tars there to sweep the British decks with handgrenade and
+musket. And, lastly, the surgeon and his mates went below to cockpit and
+steerage, to make ready for the grimmest work of all.
+
+My own duties took me to the dark lower deck, a vile place indeed, and
+reeking with the smell of tar and stale victuals. There I had charge of
+the battery of old eighteens, while Mr. Dale commanded the twelves on the
+middle deck. We loaded our guns with two shots apiece, though I had my
+doubts about their standing such a charge, and then the men stripped
+until they stood naked to the waist, waiting for the fight to begin. For
+we could see nothing of what was going forward. I was pacing up and
+down, for it was a task to quiet the nerves in that dingy place with the
+gun-ports closed, when about three bells of the dog, Mr. Mease, the
+purser, appeared on the ladder.
+
+"Lunt has not come back with the pilot-boat, Carvel," said he. "I have
+volunteered for a battery, and am assigned to this. You are to report to
+the commodore."
+
+I thanked him, and climbed quickly to the quarterdeck. The 'Bon homme
+Richard' was lumbering like a leaden ship before the wind, swaying
+ponderously, her topsails flapping and her heavy blocks whacking against
+the yards. And there was the commodore, erect, and with fire in his eye,
+giving sharp commands to the men at the wheel. I knew at once that no
+trifle had disturbed him. He wore a brand-new uniform; a blue coat with
+red lapels and yellow buttons, and slashed cuffs and stand-up collar, a
+red waistcoat with tawny lace, blue breeches, white silk stockings, and a
+cocked hat and a sword. Into his belt were stuck two brace of pistols.
+
+It took some effort to realize, as I waited silently for his attention,
+that this was the man of whose innermost life I had had so intimate a
+view. Who had taken me to the humble cottage under Criffel, who had
+poured into my ear his ambitions and his wrongs when we had sat together
+in the dingy room of the Castle Yard sponging-house. Then some of those
+ludicrous scenes on the road to London came up to me, for which the
+sky-blue frock was responsible. And yet this commodore was not greatly
+removed from him I had first beheld on the brigantine John. His
+confidence in his future had not so much as wavered since that day. That
+future was now not so far distant as the horizon, and he was ready to
+meet it.
+
+"You will take charge of the battery of nines on this deck, Mr. Carvel,"
+said he, at length.
+
+"Very good, sir," I replied, and was making my way down the poop ladder,
+when I heard him calling me, in a low voice, by the old name: "Richard!"
+
+I turned and followed him aft to the taffrail, where we were clear of the
+French soldiers. The sun was hanging red over the Yorkshire Wolds, the
+Head of Flamborough was in the blue shadow, and the clouds were like rose
+leaves in the sky. The enemy had tacked and was standing west, with
+ensign and jack and pennant flying, the level light washing his sails to
+the whiteness of paper. 'Twas then I first remarked that the Alliance
+had left her place in line and was sailing swiftly ahead toward the
+Serapis. The commodore seemed to read my exclamation.
+
+"Landais means to ruin me yet, by hook or crook," said he.
+
+"But he can't intend to close with them," I replied. "He has not the
+courage."
+
+"God knows what he intends," said the commodore, bitterly. "It is no
+good, at all events."
+
+My heart bled for him. Some minutes passed that he did not speak, making
+shift to raise his glass now and again, and I knew that he was gripped by
+a strong emotion. "'Twas so he ever behaved when the stress was
+greatest. Presently he lays down the glass on the signal-chest, fumbles
+in his coat, and brings out the little gold brooch I had not set eyes on
+since Dolly and he and I had stood together on the Betsy's deck.
+
+"When you see her, Richard, tell her that I have kept it as sacred as her
+memory," he said thickly. "She will recall what I spoke of you when she
+gave it me. You have been leal and true to me indeed, and many a black
+hour have you tided me over since this war' began. Do you know how she
+may be directed to?" he concluded, with abruptness.
+
+I glanced at him, surprised at the question. He was staring at the
+English shore.
+
+"Mr. Ripley, of Lincoln's Inn, used to be Mr. Manners's lawyer," I
+answered.
+
+He took out a little note-book and wrote that down carefully. "And now,"
+he continued, "God keep you, my friend. We must win, for we fight with a
+rope around our necks."
+
+"But you, Captain Paul," I said, "is--is there no one?"
+
+His face took on the look of melancholy it had worn so often of late,
+despite his triumphs. That look was the stamp of fate.
+
+"Richard," replied he, with an ineffable sadness, "I am naught but a
+wanderer upon the face of the earth. I have no ties, no kindred,--no
+real friends, save you and Dale, and some of these honest fellows whom
+I lead to slaughter. My ambition is seamed with a flaw. And all my life
+I must be striving, striving, until I am laid in the grave. I know that
+now, and it is you yourself who have taught me. For I have violently
+broken forth from those bounds which God in His wisdom did set."
+
+I pressed his hand, and with bowed head went back to my station,
+profoundly struck by the truth of what he had spoken. Though he fought
+under the flag of freedom, the curse of the expatriated was upon his
+head.
+
+Shortly afterward he appeared at the poop rail, straight and alert, his
+eye piercing each man as it fell on him. He was the commodore once more.
+
+The twilight deepened, until you scarce could see your hands. There was
+no sound save the cracking of the cabins and the tumbling of the blocks,
+and from time to time a muttered command. An age went by before the
+trimmers were sent to the lee braces, and the Richard rounded lazily to.
+And a great frigate loomed out of the night beside us, half a pistolshot
+away.
+
+"What ship is that?" came the hail, intense out of the silence.
+
+"I don't hear you," replied our commodore, for he had not yet got his
+distance.
+
+Again came the hail: "What ship is that?"
+
+John Paul Jones leaned forward over the rail.
+
+"Pass the word below to the first lieutenant to begin the action, sir."
+
+Hardly were the words out of my mouth before the deck gave a mighty leap,
+a hot wind that seemed half of flame blew across my face, and the roar
+started the pain throbbing in my ears. At the same instant the screech
+of shot sounded overhead, we heard the sharp crack-crack of wood rending
+and splitting,--as with a great broadaxe,--and a medley of blocks and
+ropes rattled to the deck with the 'thud of the falling bodies. Then,
+instead of stillness, moans and shrieks from above and below, oaths and
+prayers in English and French and Portuguese, and in the heathen
+gibberish of the East. As the men were sponging and ramming home in the
+first fury of hatred, the carpenter jumped out under the battle-lanthorn
+at the main hatch, crying in a wild voice that the old eighteens had
+burst, killing half their crews and blowing up the gundeck above them.
+At this many of our men broke and ran for the hatches.
+
+"Back, back to your quarters! The first man to desert will be shot
+down!"
+
+It was the same strange voice that had quelled the mutiny on the John,
+that had awed the men of Kirkcudbright. The tackles were seized and the
+guns run out once more, and fired, and served again in an agony of haste.
+In the darkness shot shrieked hither and thither about us like demons,
+striking everywhere, sometimes sending casks of salt water over the
+nettings. Incessantly the quartermaster walked to and fro scattering
+sand over the black pools that kept running, running together as the
+minutes were tolled out, and the red flashes from the guns revealed faces
+in a hideous contortion. One little fellow, with whom I had had many a
+lively word at mess, had his arm taken off at the shoulder as he went
+skipping past me with the charge under his coat, and I have but to listen
+now to hear the patter of the blood on the boards as they carried him
+away to the cockpit below. Out of the main hatch, from that charnel
+house, rose one continuous cry. It was an odd trick of the mind or soul
+that put a hymn on my lips in that dreadful hour of carnage and human
+misery, when men were calling the name of their Maker in vain. But as
+I ran from crew to crew, I sang over and over again a long-forgotten
+Christmas carol, and with it came a fleeting memory of my mother on the
+stairs at Carvel Hall, and of the negroes gathered on the lawn without.
+
+Suddenly, glancing up at the dim cloud of sails above, I saw that we were
+aback and making sternway. We might have tossed a biscuit aboard the big
+Serapis as she glided ahead of us. The broadsides thundered, and great
+ragged scantlings brake from our bulwarks and flew as high as the
+mizzen-top; and the shrieks and groans redoubled. Involuntarily my eyes
+sought the poop, and I gave a sigh of relief at the sight of the
+commanding figure in the midst of the whirling smoke. We shotted our
+guns with double-headed, manned our lee braces, and gathered headway.
+
+"Stand by to board!"
+
+The boatswains' whistles trilled through the ship, pikes were seized, and
+pistol and cutlass buckled on. But even as we waited with set teeth, our
+bows ground into the enemy's weather quarter-gallery. For the Richard's
+rigging was much cut away, and she was crank at best. So we backed and
+filled once more, passing the Englishman close aboard, himself being
+aback at the time. Several of his shot crushed through the bulwarks in
+front of me, shattering a nine-pounder and killing half of its crew. And
+it is only a miracle that I stand alive to be able to tell the tale.
+Then I caught a glimpse of the quartermaster whirling the spokes of our
+wheel, and over went our helm to lay us athwart the forefoot of the
+'Serapis', where we might rake and rush her decks. Our old Indiaman
+answered but doggedly; and the huge bowsprit of the Serapis, towering
+over our heads, snapped off our spanker gaff and fouled our mizzen
+rigging.
+
+"A hawser, Mr. Stacey, a hawser!" I heard the commodore shout, and saw
+the sailing-master slide down the ladder and grope among the dead and
+wounded and mass of broken spars and tackles, and finally pick up a
+smeared rope's end, which I helped him drag to the poop. There we found
+the commodore himself taking skilful turns around the mizzen with the
+severed stays and shrouds dangling from the bowsprit, the French marines
+looking on.
+
+"Don't swear, Mr. Stacey," said he, severely; "in another minute we may
+all be in eternity."
+
+I rushed back to my guns, for the wind was rapidly swinging the stern of
+the Serapis to our own bow, now bringing her starboard batteries into
+play. Barely had we time to light our snatches and send our broadside
+into her at three fathoms before the huge vessels came crunching
+together, the disordered riggings locking, and both pointed northward to
+a leeward tide in a death embrace. The chance had not been given him to
+shift his crews or to fling open his starboard gun-ports.
+
+Then ensued a moment's breathless hush, even the cries of those in agony
+lulling. The pall of smoke rolled a little, and a silver moonlight
+filtered through, revealing the weltering bodies twisted upon the boards.
+A stern call came from beyond the bulwarks.
+
+"Have you struck, sir?"
+
+The answer sounded clear, and bred hero-worship in our souls.
+
+"Sir, I have not yet begun to fight."
+
+Our men raised a hoarse yell, drowned all at once by the popping of
+musketry in the tops and the bursting of grenades here and there about
+the decks. A mighty muffled blast sent the Bon homme Richard rolling to
+larboard, and the smoke eddied from our hatches and lifted out of the
+space between the ships. The Englishman had blown off his gun-ports.
+And next some one shouted that our battery of twelves was fighting them
+muzzle to muzzle below, our rammers leaning into the Serapis to send
+their shot home. No chance then for the thoughts which had tortured us
+in moments of suspense. That was a fearful hour, when a shot had scarce
+to leap a cannon's length to find its commission; when the belches of the
+English guns burned the hair of our faces; when Death was sovereign,
+merciful or cruel at his pleasure. The red flashes disclosed many an act
+of coolness and of heroism. I saw a French lad whip off his coat when a
+gunner called for a wad, and another, who had been a scavenger, snatch
+the rammer from Pearce's hands when he staggered with a grape-shot
+through his chest. Poor Jack Pearce! He did not live to see the work
+'Scolding Sairy' was to do that night. I had but dragged him beyond
+reach of the recoil when he was gone.
+
+Then a cry came floating down from aloft. Thrice did I hear it, like one
+waking out of a sleep, ere I grasped its import. "The Alliance! The
+Alliance!" But hardly had the name resounded with joy throughout the
+ship, when a hail of grape and canister tore through our sails from aft
+forward. "She rakes us! She rakes us!" And the French soldiers tumbled
+headlong down from the poop with a wail of "Les Anglais font prise!"
+"Her Englishmen have taken her, and turned her guns against us!" Our
+captain was left standing alone beside the staff where the stars and
+stripes waved black in the moonlight.
+
+"The Alliance is hauling off, sir!" called the midshipman of the
+mizzen-top. "She is making for the Pallas and the Countess of
+Scarborough."
+
+"Very good, sir," was all the commodore said.
+
+To us hearkening for his answer his voice betrayed no sign of dismay.
+Seven times, I say, was that battle lost, and seven times regained again.
+What was it kept the crews at their quarters and the officers at their
+posts through that hell of flame and shot, when a madman could scarce
+have hoped for victory? What but the knowledge that somewhere in the
+swirl above us was still that unswerving and indomitable man who swept
+all obstacles from before him, and into whose mind the thought of defeat
+could not enter. His spirit held us to our task, for flesh and blood
+might not have endured alone.
+
+We had now but one of our starboard nine-pounders on its carriage, and
+word came from below that our battery of twelves was all but knocked to
+scrap iron, and their ports blown into one yawning gap. Indeed, we did
+not have to be told that sides and stanchions had been carried away, for
+the deck trembled and teetered under us as we dragged 'Scolding Sairy'
+from her stand in the larboard waist, clearing a lane for her between the
+bodies. Our feet slipped and slipped as we hove, and burning bits of
+sails and splinters dropping from aloft fell unheeded on our heads and
+shoulders. With the energy of desperation I was bending to the pull,
+when the Malay in front of me sank dead across the tackle. But, ere I
+could touch him, he was tenderly lifted aside, and a familiar figure
+seized the rope where the dead man's hands had warmed it. Truly, the
+commodore was everywhere that night.
+
+"Down to the surgeon with you, Richard!" he cried. "I will look to the
+battery."
+
+Dazed, I put my hand to my hair to find it warm and wringing wet. When I
+had been hit, I knew not. But I shook my head, for the very notion of
+that cockpit turned my stomach. The blood was streaming from a gash in
+his own temple, to which he gave no heed, and stood encouraging that
+panting line until at last the gun was got across and hooked to the
+ring-bolts of its companion that lay shattered there. "Serve her with
+double-headed, my lads," he shouted, "and every shot into the
+Englishman's mainmast!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," came the answer from every man of that little remnant.
+
+The Serapis, too, was now beginning to blaze aloft, and choking
+wood-smoke eddied out of the Richard's hold and mingled with the powder
+fumes. Then the enemy's fire abreast us seemed to lull, and Mr. Stacey
+mounted the bulwarks, and cried out: "You have cleared their decks, my
+hearties!" Aloft, a man was seen to clamber from our mainyard into the
+very top of the Englishman, where he threw a hand-grenade, as I thought,
+down her main hatch. An instant after an explosion came like a, clap of
+thunder in our faces, and a great quadrant of light flashed as high as
+the 'Serapis's' trucks, and through a breach in her bulwarks I saw men
+running with only the collars of their shirts upon their naked bodies.
+
+'Twas at this critical moment, when that fearful battle once more was
+won, another storm of grape brought the spars about our heads, and that
+name which we dreaded most of all was spread again. As we halted in
+consternation, a dozen round shot ripped through our unengaged side, and
+a babel of voices hailed the treacherous Landais with oaths and
+imprecations. We made out the Alliance with a full head of canvas, black
+and sharp, between us and the moon. Smoke hung above her rail. Getting
+over against the signal fires blazing on Flamborough Head, she wore ship
+and stood across our bows, the midshipman on the forecastle singing out
+to her, by the commodore's orders, to lay the enemy by the board. There
+was no response.
+
+"Do you hear us?" yelled Mr. Linthwaite.
+
+"Ay, ay," came the reply; and with it the smoke broke from her and the
+grape and canister swept our forecastle. Then the Alliance sailed away,
+leaving brave Mr. Caswell among the many Landais had murdered.
+
+The ominous clank of the chain pumps beat a sort of prelude to what
+happened next. The gunner burst out of the hatch with blood running down
+his face, shouting that the Richard was sinking, and yelling for quarter
+as he made for the ensign-staff on the poop, for the flag was shot away.
+Him the commodore felled with a pistol-butt. At the gunner's heels were
+the hundred and fifty prisoners we had taken, released by the master at
+arms. They swarmed out of the bowels of the ship like a horde of
+Tartars, unkempt and wild and desperate with fear, until I thought that
+the added weight on the scarce-supported deck would land us all in the
+bilges. Words fail me when I come to describe the frightful panic of
+these creatures, frenzied by the instinct of self-preservation. They
+surged hither and thither as angry seas driven into a pocket of a
+storm-swept coast. They trampled rough-shod over the moaning heaps of
+wounded and dying, and crowded the crews at the guns, who were powerless
+before their numbers. Some fought like maniacs, and others flung
+themselves into the sea.
+
+Those of us who had clung to hope lost it then. Standing with my back
+to the mast, beating them off with a pike, visions of an English
+prison-ship, of an English gallows, came before me. I counted the
+seconds until the enemy's seamen would be pouring through our ragged
+ports. The seventh and last time, and we were beaten, for we had not men
+enough left on our two decks to force them down again. Yes,--I shame to
+confess it--the heart went clean out of me, and with that the pain
+pulsed and leaped in my head like a devil unbound. At a turn of the hand
+I should have sunk to the boards, had not a voice risen strong and clear
+above that turmoil, compelling every man to halt trembling in his steps.
+
+"Cast off, cast off! 'The Serapis' is sinking. To the pumps, ye fools,
+if you would save your lives!"
+
+That unerring genius of the gardener's son had struck the only chord!
+
+They were like sheep before us as we beat them back into the reeking
+hatches, and soon the pumps were heard bumping with a renewed and a
+desperate vigour. Then, all at once, the towering mainmast of the enemy
+cracked and tottered and swung this way and that on its loosened shrouds.
+The first intense silence of the battle followed, in the midst of which
+came a cry from our top:
+
+"Their captain is hauling down, sir!"
+
+The sound which broke from our men could scarce be called a cheer. That
+which they felt as they sank exhausted on the blood of their comrades may
+not have been elation. My own feeling was of unmixed wonder as I gazed
+at a calm profile above me, sharp-cut against the moon.
+
+I was moved as out of a revery by the sight of Dale swinging across to
+the Serapis by the main brace pennant. Calling on some of my boarders, I
+scaled our bulwarks and leaped fairly into the middle of the gangway of
+the Serapis.
+
+Such is nearly all of my remembrance of that momentous occasion. I had
+caught the one glimpse of our first lieutenant in converse with their
+captain and another officer, when a naked seaman came charging at me. He
+had raised a pike above his shoulder ere I knew what he was about, and my
+senses left me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII
+
+IN WHICH I MAKE SOME DISCOVERIES
+
+The room had a prodigious sense of change about it. That came over me
+with something of a shock, since the moment before I had it settled that
+I was in Marlboro' Street. The bare branches swaying in the wind outside
+should belong to the trees in Freshwater Lane. But beyond the branches
+were houses, the like of which I had no remembrance of in Annapolis. And
+then my grandfather should be sitting in that window. Surely, he was
+there! He moved! He was coming toward me to say: "Richard, you are
+forgiven," and to brush his eyes with his ruffles.
+
+Then there was the bed-canopy, the pleatings of which were gone, and it
+was turned white instead of the old blue. And the chimney-place! That
+was unaccountably smaller, and glowed with a sea-coal fire. And the
+mantel was now but a bit of a shelf, and held many things that seemed
+scarce at home on the rough and painted wood,--gold filigree; and China
+and Japan, and a French clock that ought not to have been just there.
+Ah, the teacups! Here at last was something to touch a fibre of my
+brain, but a pain came with the effort of memory. So my eyes went back
+to my grandfather in the window. His face was now become black as
+Scipio's, and he wore a red turban and a striped cotton gown that was too
+large for him. And he was sewing. This was monstrous!
+
+I hurried over to the tea-cups, such a twinge did that discovery give me.
+But they troubled me near as much, and the sea-coal fire held strange
+images. The fascination in the window was not to be denied, for it stood
+in line with the houses and the trees. Suddenly there rose up before me
+a gate. Yes, I knew that gate, and the girlish figure leaning over it.
+They were in Prince George Street. Behind them was a mass of golden-rose
+bushes, and out of these came forth a black face under a turban, saying,
+"Yes, mistis, I'se comin'."
+
+"Mammy--Mammy Lucy!"
+
+The figure in the window stirred, and the sewing fell its ample lap.
+
+"Now Lawd'a mercy!"
+
+I trembled--with a violence unspeakable. Was this but one more of those
+thousand voices, harsh and gentle, rough and tender, to which I had
+listened in vain this age past? The black face was hovering over me now,
+and in an agony of apprehension I reached up and felt its honest
+roughness. Then I could have wept for joy.
+
+"Mammy Lucy!"
+
+"Yes, Marse Dick?"
+
+"Where--where is Miss Dolly?"
+
+"Now, Marse Dick, doctah done say you not t' talk, suh."
+
+"Where is Miss Dolly?" I cried, seizing her arm.
+
+"Hush, Marse Dick. Miss Dolly'll come terectly, suh. She's lyin' down,
+suh."
+
+The door creaked, and in my eagerness I tried to lift myself. 'Twas Aunt
+Lucy's hand that restrained me, and the next face I saw was that of
+Dorothy's mother. But why did it appear so old and sorrow-lined? And
+why was the hair now of a whiteness with the lace of the cap? She took
+my fingers in her own, and asked me anxiously if I felt any pain.
+
+"Where am I, Mrs. Manners?"
+
+"You are in London, Richard."
+
+"In Arlington Street?"
+
+She shook her head sadly. "No, my dear, not in Arlington Street. But
+you are not to talk."
+
+"And Dorothy? May I not see Dorothy? Aunt Lucy tells me she is here."
+
+Mrs. Manners gave the old mammy a glance of reproof, a signal that
+alarmed me vastly.
+
+"Oh, tell me, Mrs. Manners! You will speak the truth. Tell me if she is
+gone away?"
+
+"My dear boy, she is here, and under this very roof. And you shall see
+her as soon as Dr. Barry will permit. Which will not be soon," she added
+with a smile, "if you persist in this conduct."
+
+The threat had the desired effect. And Mrs. Manners quietly left the
+room, and after a while as quietly came back again and sat down by the
+fire, whispering to Aunt Lucy.
+
+Fate, in some inexplicable way, had carried me into the enemy's country
+and made me the guest of Mr. Marmaduke Manners. As I lay staring upward,
+odd little bits of the past came floating to the top of my mind,
+presently to be pieced together. The injuries Mr. Marmaduke had done me
+were the first to collect, since I was searching for the cause of my
+resentment against him. The incidents arrived haphazard as magic
+lanthorn views, but very vivid. His denial of me before Mr. Dix, and his
+treachery at Vauxhall, when he had sent me to be murdered. Next I felt
+myself clutching the skin over his ribs in Arlington Street, when I had
+flung him across the room in his yellow night-gown. That brought me to
+the most painful scene of my life, when I had parted with Dorothy at the
+top of the stairs. Afterward followed scraps of the years at Gordon's
+Pride, and on top of them the talk with McAndrews. Here was the secret
+I sought. The crash had come. And they were no longer in Mayfair, but
+must have taken a house in some poorer part of London. This thought cast
+me down tremendously.
+
+And Dorothy! Had time changed her? 'Twas with that query on my lips I
+fell asleep, to dream of the sun shining down on Carvel Hall and Wilmot
+House; of Aunt Hester and Aunt Lucy, and a lass and a lad romping through
+pleasant fields and gardens.
+
+When I awoke it was broad day once more. A gentleman sat on the edge of
+my bed. He had a queer, short face, ruddy as the harvest moon, and he
+smiled good-humouredly when I opened my eyes.
+
+"I bid you good morning, Mr. Carvel, for the first time since I have made
+your acquaintance," said he. "And how do you feel, sir?"
+
+"I have never felt better in my life," I replied, which was the whole
+truth.
+
+"Well, vastly well," says he, laughing, "prodigious well for a young man
+who has as many holes in him as have you. Do you hear him, Mrs.
+Manners?"
+
+At that last word, I popped up to look about the room, and the doctor
+caught hold of me with ludicrous haste. A pain shot through my body.
+
+"Avast, avast, my hearty," cries he. "'Tis a miracle you can speak,
+let alone carry your bed and walk for a while yet." And he turned to
+Dorothy's mother, whom I beheld smiling at me. "You will give him the
+physic, ma'am, at the hours I have chosen. Egad, I begin to think we
+shall come through.
+
+"But pray remember, ma'am, if he talks, you are to put a wad in his
+mouth."
+
+"He shall have no opportunity to talk, Dr. Barry," said Mrs. Manners.
+
+"Save for a favour I have to ask you, doctor," I cried.
+
+"'Od's bodkins! Already, sir? And what may that be?"
+
+"That you will allow me to see Miss Manners."
+
+He shook with laughter, and then winked at me very roguishly.
+
+"Oh!" says he, "and faith, I should be worse than cruel. First she
+comes imploring me to see you, and so prettily that a man of oak could
+not refuse her. And now it is you begging to see her. Had your eyes
+been opened, sir, you might have had many a glimpse of Miss Dolly these
+three weeks past."
+
+"What! She has been watching with me?" I asked, in a rapture not to be
+expressed.
+
+"'Od's, but those are secrets. And the medical profession is
+close-mouthed, Mr. Carvel. So you want to see her? No," cries he, "'tis
+not needful to swear it on the Evangels. And I let her come in, will you
+give me your honour as a gentleman not to speak more than two words to
+her?"
+
+"I promise anything, and you will not deny me looking at her," said I.
+
+He shook again, all over. "You rascal! You sad dog, sir! No, sir,
+faith, you must shut your eyes. Eh, madam, must he not shut his eyes?"
+
+"They were playmates, doctor," answers Mrs. Manners. She was laughing a
+little, too.
+
+"Well, she shall come in. But remember that I shall have my ear to the
+keyhole, and you go beyond your promise, out she's whisked. So I caution
+you not to spend rashly those two words, sir."
+
+And he followed Mrs. Manners out of the room, frowning and shaking his
+fist at me in mock fierceness. I would have died for the man. For a
+space--a prodigious long space--I lay very still, my heart bumping like a
+gun-carriage broke loose, and my eyes riveted on the crack of the door.
+Then I caught the sound of a light footstep, the knob turned, and joy
+poured into my soul with the sweep of a Fundy tide.
+
+"Dorothy!" I cried. "Dorothy!"
+
+She put her finger to her lips.
+
+"There, sir," said she, "now you have spoken them both at once!"
+
+She closed the door softly behind her, and stood looking down upon me
+with such a wondrous love-light in her eyes as no man may describe.
+My fancy had not lifted me within its compass, my dreams even had not
+imagined it. And the fire from which it sprang does not burn in humbler
+souls. So she stood gazing, those lips which once had been the seat of
+pride now parted in a smile of infinite tenderness. But her head she
+still held high, and her body straight. Down the front of her dress fell
+a tucked apron of the whitest linen, and in her hand was a cup of
+steaming broth.
+
+"You are to take this, Richard," she commanded. And added, with a touch
+of her old mischief, "Mind, sir, if I hear a sound out of you, I am to
+disappear like the fairy godmother."
+
+I knew full well she meant it, and the terror of losing her kept me
+silent. She put down the cup, placed another pillow behind my head with
+a marvellous deftness, and then began feeding me in dainty spoonfuls
+something which was surely nectar. And mine eyes, too, had their feast.
+Never before had I seen my lady in this gentle guise, this task of
+nursing the sick, which her doing raised to a queenly art.
+
+Her face had changed some. Years of trial unknown to me had left an
+ennobling mark upon her features, increasing their power an hundred fold.
+And the levity of girlish years was gone. How I burned to question her!
+But her lips were now tight closed, her glance now and anon seeking mine,
+and then falling with an exquisite droop to the coverlet. For the old
+archness, at least, would never be eradicated. Presently, after she had
+taken the cup and smoothed my pillow, I reached out for her hand. It was
+a boldness of which I had not believed myself capable; but she did not
+resist, and even, as I thought, pressed my fingers with her own slender
+ones, the red of our Maryland holly blushing in her cheeks. And what
+need of words, indeed! Our thoughts, too, flew coursing hand in hand
+through primrose paths, and the angels themselves were not to be envied.
+
+A master might picture my happiness, waking and sleeping, through the
+short winter days that came and went like flashes of gray light. The
+memory of them is that of a figure tall and lithe, a little more rounded
+than of yore, and a chiselled face softened by a power that is one of the
+world's mysteries. Dorothy had looked the lady in rags, and housewife's
+cap and apron became her as well as silks or brocades. When for any
+reason she was absent from my side, I moped, to the quiet amusement of
+Mrs. Manners and the more boisterous delight of Aunt Lucy, who took her
+turn sewing in the window. I was near to forgetting the use of words,
+until at length, one rare morning when the sun poured in, the jolly
+doctor dressed my wounds with more despatch than common, and vouchsafed
+that I might talk awhile that day.
+
+"Oh!" cries he, putting me as ever to confusion, "but I have a guess
+whom my gentleman will be wishing to talk with. But I'll warrant, sir,
+you have said a deal more than I have any notion of without opening your
+lips."
+
+And he went away, intolerably pleased with his joke.
+
+Alas for the perversity of maiden natures! It was not my dear nurse who
+brought my broth that morning, but Mrs. Manners herself. She smiled at
+my fallen face, and took a chair at my bedside.
+
+"Now, my dear boy," she said, "you may ask what questions you choose, and
+I will tell you very briefly how you have come here."
+
+"I have been thinking, Mrs. Manners," I replied, "that if it were known
+that you harboured one of John Paul Jones's officers in London, very
+serious trouble might follow for you."
+
+I thought her brow clouded a little.
+
+"No one knows of it, Richard, or is likely to. Dr. Barry, like so many
+in England, is a good Whig and friend to America. And you are in a part
+of London far removed from Mayfair." She hesitated, and then continued
+in a voice that strove to be lighter: "This little house is in Charlotte
+Street, Mary-le-Bone, for the war has made all of us suffer some. And we
+are more fortunate than many, for we are very comfortable here, and
+though I say it, happier than in Arlington Street. And the best of our
+friends are still faithful. Mr. Fox, with all his greatness, has never
+deserted us, nor my Lord Comyn. Indeed, we owe them much more than I can
+tell you of now," she said, and sighed. "They are here every day of the
+world to inquire for you, and it was his Lordship brought you out of
+Holland."
+
+And so I had reason once more to bless this stanch friend!
+
+"Out of Holland?" I cried.
+
+"Yes. One morning as we sat down to breakfast, Mr. Ripley's clerk
+brought in a letter for Dorothy. But I must say first that Mr. Dulany,
+who is in London, told us that you were with John Paul Jones. You can
+have no conception, Richard, of the fear and hatred that name has aroused
+in England. Insurance rates have gone up past belief, and the King's
+ships are cruising in every direction after the traitor and pirate, as
+they call him. We have prayed daily for your safety, and Dorothy--well,
+here is the letter she received. It had been opened by the inspector,
+and allowed to pass. And it is to be kept as a curiosity." She drew it
+from the pocket of her apron and began to read.
+
+                  "THE TEXEL, October 3, 1779
+
+   "MY DEAR Miss DOROTHY: I would not be thought to flutter y'r Gentle
+   Bosom with Needless Alarms, nor do I believe I have misjudged y'r
+   Warm & Generous Nature when I write you that One who is held very
+   High in y'r Esteem lies Exceeding Ill at this Place, who might by
+   Tender Nursing regain his Health. I seize this Opportunity to say,
+   my dear Lady, that I have ever held my too Brief Acquaintance with
+   you in London as one of the Sacred Associations of my Life. From
+   the Little I saw of you then I feel Sure that this Appeal will not
+   pass in Vain. I remain y'r most Humble and Devoted Admirer,
+
+                  "JAMES ORCHARDSON."
+
+
+"And she knew it was from Commodore Jones?" I asked, in astonishment.
+
+"My dear," replied Mrs. Manners, with a quiet smile, "we women have a
+keener instinct than men--though I believe your commodore has a woman's
+intuition. Yes, Dorothy knew. And I shall never forget the fright she
+gave me as she rose from the table and handed me the sheet to read,
+crying but the one word. She sent off to Brook Street for Lord Comyn,
+who came at once, and, in half an hour the dear fellow was set out for
+Dover. He waited for nothing, since war with Holland was looked for at
+any day. And his Lordship himself will tell you about that rescue.
+Within the week he had brought you to us. Your skull had been trepanned,
+you had this great hole in your thigh, and your heart was beating but
+slowly. By Mr. Fox's advice we sent for Dr. Barry, who is a skilled
+surgeon, and a discreet man despite his manner. And you have been here
+for better than three weeks, Richard, hanging between life and death."
+
+"And I owe my life to you and to Dorothy," I said.
+
+"To Lord Comyn and Dr. Barry, rather," she replied quickly. "We have
+done little but keep the life they saved. And I thank God it was given
+me to do it for the son of your mother and father."
+
+Something of the debt I owed them was forced upon me.
+
+They were poor, doubtless driven to make ends meet, and yet they had
+taken me in, called upon near the undivided services of an able surgeon,
+and worn themselves out with nursing me. Nor did I forget the risk they
+ran with such a guest. For the first time in many years my heart
+relented toward Mr. Marmaduke. For their sakes I forgave him over and
+over what I had suffered, and my treatment of him lay like a weight upon
+me. And how was I to repay them? They needed the money I had cost them,
+of that I was sure. After the sums I had expended to aid the commodore
+with the 'Ranger' and the 'Bon homme Richard', I had scarce a farthing to
+my name. With such leaden reflections was I occupied when I heard Mrs.
+Manners speaking to me.
+
+"Richard, I have some news for you which the doctor thinks you can bear
+to-day. Mr. Dulany, who is exiled like the rest of us, brought them. It
+is a great happiness to be able to tell you, my dear, that you are now
+the master of Carvel Hall, and like to stay so."
+
+The tears stole into her eyes as she spoke. And the enormity of those
+tidings, coming as they did on the top of my dejection, benumbed me.
+All they meant was yet far away from my grasp, but the one supreme result
+that was first up to me brought me near to fainting in my weakness.
+
+"I would not raise your hopes unduly, Richard," the good lady was saying,
+"but the best informed here seem to think that England cannot push the
+war much farther. If the Colonies win, you are secure in your title."
+
+"But how is it come about, Mrs. Manners?" I demanded, with my first
+breath.
+
+"You doubtless have heard that before the Declaration was signed at
+Philadelphia your Uncle Grafton went to the committee at Annapolis and
+contributed to the patriot cause, and took very promptly the oath of the
+Associated Freemen of Maryland, thus forsaking the loyalist party--"
+
+"Yes, yes," I interrupted, "I heard of it when I was on the Cabot. He
+thought his property in danger."
+
+"Just so," said Mrs. Manners, laughing; "he became the best and most
+exemplary of patriots, even as he had been the best of Tories. He sent
+wheat and money to the army, and went about bemoaning that his only son
+fought under the English flag. But very little fighting has Philip done,
+my dear. Well, when the big British fleet sailed up the bay in '77, your
+precious uncle made the first false step in his long career of rascality.
+He began to correspond with the British at Philadelphia, and one of his
+letters was captured near the Head of Elk. A squad was sent to the Kent
+estate, where he had been living, to arrest him, but he made his escape
+to New York. And his lands were at once confiscated by the state."
+
+"'Then they belong to the state," I said, with misgiving.
+
+"Not so fast, Richard. At the last session of the Maryland Legislature
+a bill was introduced, through the influence of Mr. Bordley and others,
+to restore them to you, their rightful owner. And insomuch as you were
+even then serving the country faithfully and bravely, and had a clean and
+honourable record of service, the whole of the lands were given to you.
+And now, my dear, you have had excitement enough for one day."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV
+
+MORE DISCOVERIES
+
+All that morning I pondered over the devious lane of my life, which had
+led up to so fair a garden. And one thing above all kept turning and
+turning in my head, until I thought I should die of waiting for its
+fulfilment. Now was I free to ask Dorothy to marry me, to promise her
+the ease and comfort that had once been hers, should God bring us safe
+back to Maryland. The change in her was little less than a marvel to me,
+when I remembered the wilful miss who had come to London bent upon
+pleasure alone. Truly, she was of that rare metal which refines, and
+then outshines all others. And there was much I could not understand.
+A miracle had saved her from the Duke of Chartersea, but why she had
+refused so many great men and good was beyond my comprehension. Not a
+glimpse of her did I get that day, though my eyes wandered little from
+the knob of the door. And even from Aunt Lucy no satisfaction was to be
+had as to the cause of her absence.
+
+"'Clare to goodness, Marse Dick," said she, with great solemnity, "'clare
+to goodness, I'se nursed Miss Dolly since she was dat high, and neber one
+minnit obher life is I knowed what de Chile gwine t' do de next. She
+ain't neber yit done what I calcelated on."
+
+The next morning, after the doctor had dressed my wounds and bantered me
+to his heart's content, enters Mr. Marmaduke Manners. I was prodigiously
+struck by the change in him, and pitied him then near as much as I had
+once despised him. He was arrayed in finery, as of old. But the finery
+was some thing shabby; the lace was frayed at the edges, there was a neat
+but obvious patch in his small-clothes, and two more in his coat. His
+air was what distressed me most of all, being that of a man who spends
+his days seeking favours and getting none. I had seen too many of the
+type not to know the sign of it.
+
+He ran forward and gave me his hand, which I grasped as heartily as my
+weakness would permit.
+
+"They would not let me see you until to-day, my dear Richard," he
+exclaimed. "I bid you welcome to what is left of our home. 'Tis not
+Arlington Street, my lad."
+
+"But more of a home than was that grander house, Mr. Manners."
+
+He sighed heavily.
+
+"Alas!" said he, "poverty is a bitter draught, and we have drunk deep of
+it since last we beheld you. My great friends know me no more, and will
+not take my note for a shilling. They do not remember the dinners and
+suppers I gave them. Faith, this war has brought nothing but misery,
+and how we are to get through it, God knows!"
+
+Now I understood it was not the war, but Mr. Marmaduke himself, which had
+carried his family to this pass. And some of my old resentment
+rekindled.
+
+"I know that I have brought you great additional anxiety and expense,
+Mr. Manners," I answered somewhat testily. "The care I have been to Mrs.
+Manners and Dorothy I may never repay. But it gives me pleasure to feel,
+sir, that I am in a position to reimburse you, and likewise to loan you
+something until your lands begin to pay again."
+
+"There the Carvel speaks," he cried, "and the true son of our generous
+province. You can have no conception of the misfortunes come to me out
+of this quarrel. The mortgages on my Western Shore tobacco lands are
+foreclosed, and Wilmot House itself is all but gone. You well know, of
+course, that I would do the same by you, Richard."
+
+I smiled, but more in sadness than amusement. Hardship had only degraded
+Mr. Marmaduke the more, and even in trouble his memory was convenient as
+is that of most people in prosperity. I was of no mind to jog his
+recollection. But I wanted badly to ask about his Grace. Where had my
+fine nobleman been at the critical point of his friend's misfortunes?
+For I had had many a wakeful night over that same query since my talk
+with McAndrews.
+
+"So you have come to your own again, Richard, my lad," said Mr.
+Marmaduke, breaking in upon my train. "I have felt for you deeply, and
+talked many a night with Margaret and Dorothy over the wrong done you.
+Between you and me," he whispered, "that uncle of yours is an arrant
+knave, whom the patriots have served with justice. To speak truth, sir,
+I begin myself to have a little leaning to that cause which you have so
+bravely espoused."
+
+This time I was close to laughing outright. But he was far too serious
+to remark my mirth. He commenced once more, with an ahem, which gave me
+a better inkling than frankness of what bothered him.
+
+"You will have an agent here, Richard, I take it," said he. "Your
+grandfather had one. Ahem! Doubtless this agent will advance you all
+you shall have need of, when you are well enough to see him. Fact is,
+he might come here."
+
+"You forget, Mr. Manners, that I am a pirate and an outlaw, and that you
+are the shielder of such."
+
+That thought shook the pinch of Holland he held all over him. But he
+recovered.
+
+"My dear Richard, men of business are of no faction and of no nation.
+Their motto is discretion. And to obtain the factorship in London of a
+like estate to yours one of them would wear a plaster over his mouth,
+I'll warrant you. You have but to summon one of the rascals, promise him
+a bit of war interest, and he will leave you as much as you desire, and
+nothing spoken."
+
+"To talk plainly, Mr. Manners," I replied, "I think 'twould be the height
+of folly to resort to such means. When I am better, we shall see what
+can be done."
+
+His face plainly showed his disappointment.
+
+"To be sure," he said, in a whining tone, "I had forgotten your friends,
+Lord Comyn and Mr. Fox. They may do something for you, now you own your
+estate. My dear sir, I dislike to say aught against any man. Mrs.
+Manners will tell you of their kindness to us, but I vow I have not been
+able to see it. With all the money at their command they will not loan
+me a penny in my pressing need. And I shame to say it, my own daughter
+prevents me from obtaining the money to keep us out of the Fleet. I know
+she has spoken to Dulany. Think of it, Richard, my own daughter, upon
+whom I lavished all when I had it, who might have made a score of grand
+matches when I gave her the opportunity, and now we had all been rolling
+in wealth. I'll be sworn I don't comprehend her, nor her mother either,
+who abets her. For they prefer to cook Maryland dainties for a living,
+to put in the hands of the footmen of the ladies whose houses they once
+visited. And how much of that money do you suppose I get, sir? Will you
+believe it that I--" (he was shrieking now), "that I, the man of the
+family, am allowed only my simple meals, a farthing for snuff, and not a
+groat for chaise-hire? At my age I am obliged to walk to and from their
+lordships' side entrances in patched clothes, egad, when a new suit might
+obtain us a handsome year's income!"
+
+I turned my face to the wall, completely overcome, and the tears scalding
+in my eyes, at the thought of Dorothy and her mother bending over the
+stove cooking delicacies for their livelihood, and watching at my bedside
+night and day despite their weariness of body. And not a word out of
+these noble women of their sacrifice, nor of the shame and trouble and
+labour of their lives, who always had been used to every luxury! Nothing
+but cheer had they brought to the sickroom, and not a sign of their
+poverty and hardship, for they knew that their broths and biscuit and
+jellies must have choked me. No. It remained for this contemptible
+cur of a husband and father to open my eyes.
+
+He had risen when I had brought myself to look at him. And as I hope for
+heaven he took my emotion for pity of himself.
+
+"I have worried you enough for one day with my troubles, my lad," said
+he. "But they are very hard to bear, and once in a while it does me good
+to speak of them."
+
+I did not trust myself to reply.
+
+It was Aunt Lucy who spent the morning with me, and Mrs. Manners brought
+my dinner. I observed a questioning glance as she entered, which I took
+for an attempt to read whether Mr. Marmaduke had spoke more than he
+ought. But I would have bitten off my tongue rather than tell her of my
+discoveries, though perhaps my voice may have betrayed an added concern.
+She stayed to talk on the progress of the war, relating the gallant
+storming of Stony Point by Mad Anthony in July, and the latest Tory
+insurrection on our own Eastern Shore. She passed from these matters to
+a discussion of General Washington's new policy of the defensive, for
+Mrs. Manners had always been at heart a patriot. And whilst I lay
+listening with a deep interest, in comes my lady herself. So was it
+ever, when you least expected her, even as Mammy had said. She curtseyed
+very prettily, with her chin tilted back and her cheeks red, and asked me
+how I did.
+
+"And where have you been these days gone, Miss Will-o'the-Wisp, since the
+doctor has given me back my tongue?" I cried.
+
+"I like you better when you are asleep," says she. "For then you are
+sometimes witty, though I doubt not the wit is other people's."
+
+So I saw that she had tricked me, and taken her watch at night. For I
+slept like a trooper after a day's forage. As to what I might have said
+in my dreams--that thought made me red as an apple.
+
+"Dorothy, Dorothy," says her mother, smiling, "you would provoke a
+saint."
+
+"Which would be better fun than teasing a sinner," replies the minx, with
+a little face at me. "Mr. Carvel, a gentleman craves the honour of an
+audience from your Excellency."
+
+"A gentleman!"
+
+"Even so. He presents a warrant from your Excellency's physician."
+
+With that she disappeared, Mrs. Manners going after her. And who should
+come bursting in at the door but my Lord Comyn? He made one rush at me,
+and despite my weakness bestowed upon me a bear's hug.
+
+"Oh, Richard," cried he, when he had released me, "I give you my oath
+that I never hoped to see you rise from that bed when we laid you there.
+But they say that love works wondrous cures, and, egad, I believe that
+now. 'Tis love is curing you, my lad."
+
+He held me off at arm's length, the old-time affection beaming from his
+handsome face.
+
+"What am I to say to you, Jack?" I answered. And my voice was all but
+gone, for the sight of him revived the memory of every separate debt of
+the legion I owed him. "How am I to piece words enough together to thank
+you for this supreme act of charity?"
+
+"'Od's, you may thank your own devilish thick head," said my Lord Comyn.
+"I should never have bothered my own about you were it not for her. Had
+it not been for her happiness do you imagine I would have picked you out
+of that crew of half-dead pirates in the Texel fort?"
+
+I must needs brush my cheek, then, with the sleeve of my night-rail.
+
+"And will you give me some account of this last prodigious turn you have
+done her?" I said.
+
+He laughed, and pinched me playfully.
+
+"Now are you coming to your senses," said he. "There was cursed little
+to the enterprise, Richard, and that's the truth. I got down to Dover,
+and persuaded the master of a schooner to carry me to Rotterdam. That
+was not so difficult, since your Terror of the Seas was locked up safe
+enough in the Texel. In Rotterdam I had a travelling-chaise stripped,
+and set off at the devil's pace for the Texel. You must know that the
+whole Dutch nation was in an uproar--as much of an uproar as those boors
+ever reach--over the arrival of your infamous squadron. The Court Party
+and our ambassador were for having you kicked out, and the Republicans
+for making you at home. I heard that their High Mightinesses had given
+Paul Jones the use of the Texel fort for his wounded and his prisoners,
+and thither I ran. And I was even cursing the French sentry at the
+drawbridge in his own tongue, when up comes your commodore himself.
+You may quarter me if wasn't knocked off my feet when I recognized the
+identical peacock of a sea-captain we had pulled out of Castle Yard
+along with you, and offered a commission in the Royal Navy."
+
+"Dolly hadn't told you?"
+
+"Dolly tell me!" exclaimed his Lordship, scornfully. "She was in a state
+to tell me nothing the morning I left, save only to bring you to England
+alive, and repeat it over and over. But to return to your captain,--he,
+too, was taken all aback. But presently he whipt out my name, and I his,
+without the Jones. And when I told him my errand, he wept on my neck,
+and said he had obtained unlimited leave of absence for you from the
+Paris commissioners. He took me up into a private room in the fort,
+where you were; and the surgeon, who was there at the time, said that
+your chances were as slim as any man's he had ever seen. Faith, you
+looked it, my lad. At sight of your face I took one big gulp, for I had
+no notion of getting you back to her. And rather than come without you,
+and look into her eyes, I would have drowned myself in the Straits of
+Dover.
+
+"Despite the host of troubles he had on his hands, your commodore himself
+came with us to Rotterdam. Now I protest I love that man, who has more
+humanity in him than most of the virtuous people in England who call him
+hard names. If you could have seen him leaning over you, and speaking to
+you, and feeling every minute for your heart-beats, egad, you would have
+cried. And when I took you off to the schooner, he gave me an hundred
+directions how to care for you, and then his sorrow bowled him all in a
+heap."
+
+"And is the commodore still at the Texel?" I asked, after a space.
+
+"Ay, that he is, with our English cruisers thick as gulls outside'
+waiting for a dead fish. But he has spurned the French commission they
+have offered him, saying that of the Congress is good enough for him.
+And he declares openly that when he gets ready he will sail out in the
+Alliance under the Stars and Stripes. And for this I honour him," added
+he, "and Charles honours him, and so must all Englishmen honour him when
+they come to their senses. And by Gads life, I believe he will get
+clear, for he is a marvel at seamanship."
+
+"I pray with all my heart that he may," said I, fervently.
+
+"God help him if they catch him!" my Lord exclaimed. "You should see
+the bloody piratical portraits they are scattering over London."
+
+"Has the risk you ran getting me into England ever occurred to you,
+Jack?" I asked, with some curiosity.
+
+"Faith, not until the day after we got back, Richard," says he, "when I
+met Mr. Attorney General on the street. 'Sdeath, I turned and ran the
+other way like the devil was after me. For Charles Fox vows that
+conscience makes cowards of the best of us."
+
+"So that is some of Charles's wisdom!" I cried, and laughed until I was
+forced to stop from pain.
+
+"Come, my hearty," says Jack, "you owe me nothing for fishing you out of
+Holland--that is her debt. But I declare that you must one day pay me
+for saving her for you. What! have I not always sworn that she loved
+you? Did I not pull you into the coffee-room of the Star and Garter
+years ago, and tell you that same?"
+
+My face warmed, though I said nothing.
+
+"Oh, you sly dog! I'll warrant there has been many a tender talk just
+where I'm sitting."
+
+"Not one," said I.
+
+"'Slife, then, what have you been doing," he cries, "seeing her every day
+and not asking her to marry you, my master of Carvel Hall?"
+
+"Since I am permitted to use my tongue, she has not come near me, save
+when I slept," I answered ruefully.
+
+"Nor will she, I'll be sworn," says he, shaken with laughter.
+
+"'Ods, have you no invention? Egad, you must feign sleep, and seize her
+unawares."
+
+I did not inform his Lordship how excellent this plan seemed to me.
+
+"And I possessed the love of such a woman, Richard," he said, in another
+tone, "I think I should die of happiness. She will never tell you how
+these weeks past she has scarce left your side. The threats combined
+of her mother and the doctor, and Charles and me, would not induce her
+to take any sleep. And time and time have I walked from here to Brook
+Street without recognizing a step of the way, lifted clear out of myself
+by the sight of her devotion."
+
+What was my life, indeed, that such a blessing should come into it!
+
+"When the crash came," he continued, "'twas she took command, and 'tis
+God's pity she had not done so long before. Mr. Marmaduke was pushed to
+the bottom of the family, where he belongs, and was given only
+snuff-money. She would give him no opportunity to contract another debt,
+and even charged Charles and me to loan him nothing. Nor would she
+receive aught from us, but" (he glanced at me uneasily)--"but she and
+Mrs. Manners must take to cooking delicacies--"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," I faltered.
+
+"What! has the puppy told you?" cried he.
+
+I nodded. "He was in here this morning, with his woes."
+
+"And did he speak of the bargain he tried to make with our old friend,
+his Grace of Chartersea?"
+
+"He tried to sell her again?" I cried, my breath catching. "I have
+feared as much since I heard of their misfortunes."
+
+"Yes," replied Comyn, "that was the first of it. 'Twas while they were
+still in Arlington Street, and before Mrs. Manners and Dorothy knew.
+Mr. Marmaduke goes posting off to Nottinghamshire, and comes back inside
+the duke's own carriage. And his Grace goes to dine in Arlington Street
+for the first time in years. Dorothy had wind of the trouble then,
+Charles having warned her. And not a word would she speak to Chartersea
+the whole of the dinner, nor look to the right or left of her plate. And
+when the servants are gone, up gets my lady with a sweep and confronts
+him.
+
+"'Will your Grace spare me a minute in the drawing-room?' says she.
+
+"He blinked at her in vast astonishment, and pushed back his chair. When
+she was come to the door, she turns with another sweep on Mr. Marmaduke,
+who was trotting after.
+
+"'You will please to remain here, father,' she said; 'what I am to say is
+for his Grace's ear alone.'
+
+"Of what she spoke to the duke I can form only an estimate, Richard," my
+Lord concluded, "but I'll lay a fortune 'twas greatly to the point. For
+in a little while Chartersea comes stumbling down the steps. And he has
+never darkened the door since. And the cream of it is," said Comyn,
+"that her father gave me this himself, with a face a foot long, for me
+to sympathize. The little beast has strange bursts of confidence."
+
+"And stranger confidants," I ejaculated, thinking of the morning, and of
+Courtenay's letter, long ago.
+
+But the story had made my blood leap again with pride of her. The
+picture in my mind had followed his every sentence, and even the very
+words she must have used were ringing in my ears.
+
+Then, as we sat talking in low tones, the door opened, and a hearty voice
+cried out:
+
+"Now where is this rebel, this traitor? They tell me one lies hid in
+this house. 'Slife, I must have at him!"
+
+"Mr. Fox!" I exclaimed.
+
+He took my hands in his, and stood regarding me.
+
+"For the convenience of my friends, I was christened Charles," said he.
+
+I stared at him in amazement. He was grown a deal stouter, but my eye
+was caught and held by the blue coat and buff waistcoat he wore. They
+were frayed and stained and shabby, yet they seemed all of a piece with
+some new grandeur come upon the man.
+
+"Is all the world turning virtuous? Is the millennium arrived?" I
+cried.
+
+He smiled, with his old boyish smile.
+
+"You think me changed some since that morning we drove together to
+Holland House--do you remember it after the night at St. Stephen's?"
+
+"Remember it!" I repeated, with emphasis, "I'll warrant I can give you
+every bit of our talk."
+
+"I have seen many men since, but never have I met your equal for a most
+damnable frankness, Richard Carvel. Even Jack, here, is not half so
+blunt and uncompromising. But you took my fancy--God knows why!--that
+first night I clapped eyes on you in Arlington Street, and I loved you
+when your simplicity made us that speech at Brooks's Club. So you have
+not forgotten that morning under the trees, when the dew was on the
+grass. Faith, I am glad of it. What children we were!" he said, and
+sighed.
+
+"And yet you were a Junior Lord," I said.
+
+"Which is more than I am now," he answered. "Somehow--you may laugh
+--somehow I have never been able to shake off the influence of your words,
+Richard. Your cursed earnestness scared me."
+
+"Scared you?" I cried, in astonishment.
+
+"Just that," said Charles. "Jack will bear witness that I have said
+so to Dolly a score of times. For I had never imagined such a single
+character as yours. You know we were all of us rakes at fifteen,
+to whom everything good in the universe was a joke. And do you recall
+the teamster we met by the Park, and how he arrested his salute when he
+saw who it was? At another time I should have laughed over that, but it
+cut me to have it happen when you were along."
+
+"And I'll lay an hundred guineas to a farthing the fellow would put his
+head on the block for Charles now," cut in his Lordship, with his hand on
+Mr. Fox's shoulder. "Behold, O Prophet," he cried, "one who is become
+the champion of the People he reviled! Behold the friend of Rebellion
+and 'Lese Majeste', the viper in Britannia's bosom!"
+
+"Oh, have done, Jack," said Mr. Fox, impatiently, "you have no more music
+in your soul than a cow. Damned little virtue attaches to it, Richard,"
+he went on. "North threw me out, and the king would have nothing to do
+with me, so I had to pick up with you rebels and traitors."
+
+"You will not believe him, Richard," cried my Lord; "you have only to
+look at him to see that he lies. Take note of the ragged uniform of the
+rebel army he carries, and then think of him 'en petite maitre', with his
+cabriolet and his chestnuts. Egad, he might be as rich as Rigby were it
+not for those principles which he chooses to deride. And I have seen him
+reduced to a crown for them. I tell you, Richard," said my Lord, "by
+espousing your cause Charles is become greater than the King. For he
+has the hearts of the English people, which George has not, and the
+allegiance of you Americans, which George will never have. And if you
+once heard him, in Parliament, you should hear him now, and see the
+Speaker wagging his wig like a man bewitched, and hear friends and
+enemies calling out for him to go on whenever he gives the sign of a
+pause."
+
+This speech of his Lordship's may seem cold in the writing, my dears,
+and you who did not know him may wonder at it. It had its birth in an
+admiration few men receive, and which in Charles Fox's devoted coterie
+was dangerously near to idolatry. During the recital of it Charles
+walked to the window, and there stood looking out upon the gray prospect,
+seemingly paying but little attention. But when Comyn had finished, he
+wheeled on us with a smile.
+
+"Egad, he will be telling you next that I have renounced the devil and
+all his works, Richard," said he.
+
+"'Oohs, that I will not," his Lordship made haste to declare. "For they
+were born in him, and will die with him."
+
+"And you, Jack," I asked, "how is it that you are not in arms for the
+King, and commanding one of his frigates?"
+
+"Why, it is Charles's fault," said my Lord, smiling. "Were it not for
+him I should be helping Sir George Collier lay waste to your coast
+towns."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV
+
+"THE LOVE OF A MAID FOR A MAN"
+
+The next morning, when Dr. Barry had gone, Mrs. Manners propped me up in
+bed and left me for a little, so she said. Then who should come in with
+my breakfast on a tray but my lady herself, looking so fresh and
+beautiful that she startled me vastly.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts, Richard," she cried. "Why, you are as grave
+as a screech-owl this brave morning."
+
+"To speak truth, Dolly," said I, "I was wondering how the commodore is
+to get away from the Texel, with half the British navy lying in wait
+outside."
+
+"Do not worry your head about that," said she, setting down the tray; "it
+will be mere child's play to him. Oh but I should like to see your
+commodore again, and tell him how much I love him.
+
+"I pray that you may have the chance," I replied.
+
+With a marvellous quickness she had tied the napkin beneath my chin, not
+so much as looking at the knot. Then she stepped to the mantel and took
+down one of Mr. Wedgwood's cups and dishes, and wiping them with her
+apron, filled the cup with fragrant tea, which she tendered me with her
+eyes sparkling.
+
+"Your Excellency is the first to be honoured with this service," says
+she, with a curtsey.
+
+I was as a man without a tongue, my hunger gone from sheer happiness--and
+fright. And yet eating the breakfast with a relish because she had made
+it. She busied herself about the room, dusting here and tidying there,
+and anon throwing a glance at me to see if I needed anything. My eyes
+followed her hither and thither. When I had finished, she undid the
+napkin, and brushed the crumbs from the coverlet.
+
+"You are not going?" I said, with dismay.
+
+"Did you wish anything more, sir?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," I cried, "it is you I want, and you will not come near
+me."
+
+For an instant she stood irresolute. Then she put down the tray and came
+over beside me.
+
+"Do you really want me, sir?"
+
+"Dorothy," I began, "I must first tell you that I have some guess at the
+sacrifice you are making for my sake, and of the trouble and danger which
+I bring you."
+
+Without more ado she put her hand over my mouth.
+
+"No," she said, reddening, "you shall tell me nothing of the sort."
+
+I seized her hand, however it struggled, and holding it fast, continued:
+
+"And I have learned that you have been watching with me by night, and
+working by day, when you never should have worked at all. To think that
+you should be reduced to that, and I not know it!"
+
+Her eyes sought mine for a fleeting second.
+
+"Why, you silly boy, I have made a fortune out of my cookery. And fame,
+too, for now am I known from Mary-le-bone to Chelsea, while before my
+name was unheard of out of little Mayfair. Indeed, I would not have
+missed the experience for a lady-in-waiting-ship. I have learned a deal
+since I saw you last, sir. I know that the world, like our Continental
+money, must not be taken for the price that is stamped upon it. And as
+for the watching with you," said my lady, "that had to be borne with as
+cheerfully as might be. Since I had sent off for you, I was in duty
+bound to do my share toward your recovery. I was even going to add
+that this watching was a pleasure,--our curate says the sense of duty
+performed is sure to be. But you used to cry out the most terrifying
+things to frighten me: the pattering of blood and the bumping of bodies
+on the decks, and the black rivulets that ran and ran and ran and never
+stopped; and strange, rough commands I could not understand; and the name
+of your commodore whom you love so much. And often you would repeat over
+and over: 'I have not yet begun, to fight, I have not yet begun to
+fight!'"
+
+"Yes, 'twas that he answered when they asked him if he had struck,"
+I exclaimed.
+
+"It must have been an awful scene," she said, and her shoulders quivered.
+"When you were at your worst you would talk of it, and sometimes of what
+happened to you in London, of that ride in Hyde Park, or--or of
+Vauxhall," she continued hurriedly. "And when I could bear it no longer,
+I would take your hand and call you by name, and often quiet you thus."
+
+"And did I speak of aught else?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Oh, yes. When you were caliper, it would be of your childhood, of your
+grandfather and your birthdays, of Captain Clapsaddle, and of Patty and
+her father."
+
+"And never of Dolly, I suppose."
+
+She turned away her head.
+
+"And never of Dolly?"
+
+"I will tell you what you said once, Richard," she answered, her voice
+dropping very low. "I was sitting by the window there, and the dawn was
+coming. And suddenly I heard you cry: 'Patty, when I return will you be
+my wife?' I got up and came to your side, and you said it again, twice."
+
+The room was very still. And the vision of Patty in the parlour of
+Gordon's Pride, knitting my woollen stocking, rose before me.
+
+"Yes," I said at length, "I asked her that the day before I left for the
+war. God bless her! She has the warmest heart in the world, and the
+most generous nature. Do you know what her answer was, Dorothy?"
+
+"No." 'Twas only her lips moving that formed the word. She was twisting
+absently the tassel of the bed curtain.
+
+"She asked me if I loved her."
+
+My lady glanced up with a start, then looked me searchingly through and
+through.
+
+"And you?" she said, in the same inaudible way.
+
+"I could answer nothing. 'Twas because of her father's dying wish I
+asked her, and she guessed that same. I would not tell her a lie, for
+only the one woman lives whom I love, and whom I have loved ever since
+we were children together among the strawberries. Need I say that that
+woman is you, Dorothy? I loved you before we sailed to Carvel Hall
+between my grandfather's knees, and I will love you till death claims
+me."
+
+Then it seemed as if my heart had stopped beating. But the snowy apron
+upon her breast fluttered like a sail stirring in the wind, her head was
+high, and her eyes were far away. Even my voice sounded in the distance
+as I continued:
+
+"Will you be the mistress of Carvel Hall, Dorothy? Hallowed is the day
+that I can ask it."
+
+What of this earth may excel in sweetness the surrender of that proud and
+noble nature! And her words, my dears, shall be sacred to you, too, who
+are descended from her. She bent forward a little, those deep blue eyes
+gazing full into my own with a fondness to make me tremble.
+
+"Dear Richard," she said, "I believe I have loved you always. If I have
+been wilful and wicked, I have suffered more than you know--even as I
+have made you suffer."
+
+"And now our suffering is over, Dorothy."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, my dear!" she cried, "but let us rather make a
+prayer to God."
+
+Down she got on her knees close beside me, and I took both of her hands
+between my own. But presently I sought for a riband that was around my
+neck, and drew out a locket. Within it were pressed those lilies of the
+valley I had picked for her long years gone by on my birthday. And she
+smiled, though the tears shone like dewdrops on her lashes.
+
+"When Jack brought you to us for dead, we did not take it off, dear,"
+she said gently. "I wept with sorrow and joy at sight of it, for I
+remembered you as you were when you picked those flowers, and how lightly
+I had thought of leaving you as I wound them into my hair. And then,
+when I had gone aboard the 'Annapolis', I knew all at once that I would
+have given anything to stay, and I thought my heart would break when we
+left the Severn cliffs behind. But that, sir, has been a secret until
+this day," she added, smiling archly through her tears.
+
+She took out one of the withered flowers, and then as caressingly put it
+back beside the others, and closed the locket.
+
+"I forbade Dr. Barry to take it off, Richard, when you lay so white and
+still. I knew then that you had been true to me, despite what I had
+heard. And if you were to die--" her voice broke a little as she passed
+her hand over my brow, "if you were to die, my single comfort would have
+been that you wore it then."
+
+"And you heard rumours of me, Dorothy?"
+
+"George Worthington and others told me how ably you managed Mr. Swain's
+affairs, and that you had become of some weight with the thinking men of
+the province. Richard, I was proud to think that you had the courage to
+laugh at disaster and to become a factor. I believe," she said shyly,
+"twas that put the cooking into my head, and gave me courage. And when
+I heard that Patty was to marry you, Heaven is my witness that I tried to
+be reconciled and think it for the best. Through my own fault I had lost
+you, and I knew well she would make you a better wife than I."
+
+"And you would not even let Jack speak for me!"
+
+"Dear Jack!" she cried; "were it not for Jack we should not be here,
+Richard."
+
+"Indeed, Dolly, two people could scarce fall deeper in debt to another
+than are you and I to my Lord Viscount," I answered, with feeling. "His
+honesty and loyalty to us both saved you for me at the very outset."
+
+"Yes," she replied thoughtfully, "I believed you dead. And I should have
+married him, I think. For Dr. Courtenay had sent me that piece from the
+Gazette telling of the duel between you over Patty Swain--"
+
+"Dr. Courtenay sent you that!" I interrupted.
+
+"I was a wild young creature then, my dear, with little beside vanity
+under my cap. And the notion that you could admire and love any girl but
+me was beyond endurance. Then his Lordship arrived in England, brimming
+with praise of you, to assure me that the affair was not about Patty at
+all. This was far from making me satisfied that you were not in love
+with her, and I may say now that I was miserable. Then, as we were
+setting out for Castle Howard, came the news of your death on the road
+to Upper Marlboro. I could not go a step. Poor Jack, he was very honest
+when he proposed," she added, with a sigh.
+
+"He loved you, Dorothy."
+
+She did not hear me, so deep was she in thought.
+
+"'Twas he who gave me news of you, when I was starving at Gordon's."
+
+"And I--I starved, too, Richard," she answered softly. "Dearest, I slid
+very wrong. There are some matters that must be spoken of between us,
+whatever the pain they give. And my heart aches now when I think of that
+dark day in Arlington Street when I gave you the locket, and you went out
+of my life. I knew that I had done wrong then, Richard, as soon as ever
+the door closed behind you. I should have gone with you, for better for
+worse, for richer for poorer. I should have run after you in the rain
+and thrown myself at your feet. And that would have been best for my
+father and for me."
+
+She covered her face with her hands, and her words were stifled by a sob.
+
+"Dorothy, Dorothy!" I cried, drawing her to me. "Another time. Not now,
+when we are so happy."
+
+"Now, and never again, dear," she said. "Yes, I saw and heard all that
+passed in the drawing-room. And I did not blame, but praised you for it.
+I have never spoken a word beyond necessity to my father since. God
+forgive me!" she cried, "but I have despised him from that hour. When
+I knew that he had plotted to sell me to that detestable brute, working
+upon me to save his honour, of which he has not the smallest spark; that
+he had recognized and denied you, friendless before our house, and sent
+you into the darkness at Vauxhall to be murdered, then he was no father
+of mine. I would that you might know what my mother has suffered from
+such a man, Richard."
+
+"My dear, I have often pitied her from my soul," I said.
+
+"And now I shall tell you something of the story of the Duke of
+Chartersea," she went on, and I felt her tremble as she spoke that name.
+"I think of all we have Lord Comyn to thank for, next to saving your life
+twice, was his telling you of the danger I ran. And, Richard, after
+refusing you that day on the balcony over the Park, I had no hope left.
+You may thank your own nobility and courage that you remained in London
+after that. Richard," she said, "do you recall my asking you in the
+coach, on the way from Castle Yard, for the exact day you met my father
+in Arlington Street?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, in some excitement, "yes." For I was at last to come
+at the bottom of this affair.
+
+"The duke had made a formal offer for me when first we came to London.
+I think my father wrote of that to Dr. Courtenay." (I smiled at the
+recollection, now.) "Then his Grace persisted in following me
+everywhere, and vowed publicly that he would marry me. I ordered him
+from our house, since my father would not. At last one afternoon he came
+back to dine with us, insolent to excess. I left the table. He sat with
+my father two hours or more, drinking and singing, and giving orders to
+the servants. I shut my door, that I might not hear. After a while my
+mother came up to me, crying, saying that Mr. Manners would be branded
+with dishonour and I did not consent to marry his Grace,--a most terrible
+dishonour, of which she could not speak. That the duke had given my
+father a month to win my consent. And that month was up, Richard, the
+very afternoon you appeared with Mr. Dix in Arlington Street."
+
+"And you agreed to marry him, Dolly?" I asked breathlessly.
+
+"By the grace of Heaven, I did not," she answered quickly. "The utmost
+that I would consent to was a two months' respite, promising to give my
+hand to no one in that interval. And so I was forced to refuse you,
+Richard. You must have seen even then that I loved you, dear, though
+I was so cruel when you spoke of saving me from his Grace. I could not
+bear to think that you knew of any stain upon our family. I think--I
+think I would rather have died, or have married him. That day I threw
+Chartersea's presents out of the window, but my father made the servants
+gather them all which escaped breaking, and put them in the drawing-room.
+Then I fell ill."
+
+She was silent, I clinging to her, and shuddering to think how near I had
+been to losing her.
+
+"It was Jack who came to cheer me," I said presently.
+
+"His faith in you was never shaken, sweetheart. But I went to Newmarket
+and Ampthill, and behaved like the ingrate I was. I richly deserved the
+scolding he had for me when I got back to town, which sent me running to
+Arlington Street. There I met Dr. James coming out, who asked me if I
+was Mr. Carvel, and told me that you had called my name."
+
+"And, you goose, you never suspected," says she, smiling.
+
+"How was I to suspect that you loved a provincial booby like me, when
+you had the choice of so many accomplished gentlemen with titles and
+estates?"
+
+"How were you to perceive, indeed, that you had qualities which they
+lacked?"
+
+"And you were forever vowing that you would marry a nobleman, my lady.
+For you said to me once that I should call you so, and ride in the coach
+with the coroneted panels when I came home on a visit."
+
+"And I said, too," retorted Dolly, with mischief in her eyes, "do you
+remember what I told you the New Year's eve when we sat out by the
+sundial at Carvel Hall, when I was so proud of having fixed Dr.
+Courtenay's attentions? I said that I should never marry you, sir, who
+was so rough and masterful, and thrashed every lad that did not agree
+with you."
+
+"Alas, so you did, and a deal more!" I exclaimed.
+
+With that she broke away from me and, getting to her feet, made me a low
+curtsey with the grace that was hers alone.
+
+"You are my Lord and my King, sir," she said, "and my rough Patriot
+squire, all in one."
+
+"Are you happy, Dolly?" I asked, tremulous from my own joy.
+
+"I have never been happy in all my life before, Richard dear," she said.
+
+In truth, she was a being transformed, and more wondrous fair than ever.
+And even then I pictured her in the brave gowns and jewels I would buy
+her when times were mended, when our dear country would be free. All at
+once, ere I could draw a breath, she had stooped and kissed me ever so
+lightly on the forehead.
+
+The door opened upon Aunt Lucy. She had but to look at us, and her black
+face beamed at our blushes. My lady threw her arms about her neck, and
+hid her face in the ample bosom.
+
+"Now praise de good Lawd!" cried Mammy; "I knowed it dis longest time.
+What's I done tole you, Miss Dolly? What's I done tole you, honey?"
+
+But my lady flew from the room. Presently I heard the spinet playing
+softly, and the words of that air came out of my heart from long ago.
+
+          "Love me little, love me long,
+          Is the burthen of my song.
+          Love that is too hot and strong
+          Burneth soon to waste.
+          Still, I would not have thee cold,
+          Nor too backward, nor too bold.
+          Love that lasteth till 'tis old
+          Fadeth not in haste."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI
+
+HOW GOOD CAME OUT OF EVIL
+
+'Twas about candlelight when I awoke, and Dorothy was sitting alone
+beside me. Her fingers were resting upon my arm, and she greeted me with
+a smile all tenderness.
+
+"And does my Lord feel better after--after his excitement to-day?" she
+asked.
+
+"Dorothy, you have made me a whole man again. I could walk to Windsor
+and back."
+
+"You must have your dinner, or your supper first, sir," she answered
+gayly, "and do you rest quiet until I come back to feed you. Oh, Richard
+dear," she cried, "how delightful that you should be the helpless one,
+and dependent on me!"
+
+As I lay listening for the rustle of her gown, the minutes dragged
+eternally. Every word and gesture of the morning passed before my mind,
+and the touch of her lips still burned on my forehead. At last, when I
+was getting fairly restless, the distant tones of a voice, deep and
+reverberating, smote upon my ear, jarring painfully some long-forgotten
+chord. That voice belonged to but one man alive, and yet I could not
+name him. Even as I strained, the tones drew nearer, and they were mixed
+with sweeter ones I knew well, and Dorothy's mother's voice. Whilst I
+was still searching, the door opened, the voices fell calm, and Dorothy
+came in bearing a candle in each hand. As she set them down on the
+table, I saw an agitation in her face, which she strove to hide as she
+addressed me.
+
+"Will you see a visitor, Richard?"
+
+"A visitor!" I repeated, with misgiving. 'Twas not so she had announced
+Comyn.
+
+"Will you see Mr. Allen?"--
+
+"Mr. Allen, who was the rector of St. Anne's? Mr. Allen in London, and
+here?"
+
+"Yes." Her breath seemed to catch at the word. "He says he must see
+you, dear, and will not be denied. How he discovered you were with us
+I know not."
+
+"See him!" I cried. "And I had but the half of my strength I would
+fling him downstairs, and into the kennel. Will you tell him so for me,
+Dorothy?"
+
+And I raised up in bed, shaken with anger against the man. In a trice
+she was holding me, fearfully.
+
+"Richard, Richard, you will open your wound. I pray you be quiet."
+
+"And Mr. Allen has the impudence to ask to see me!"
+
+"Listen, Richard. Your anger makes you forget many things. Remember
+that he is a dangerous man, and now that he knows you are in London he
+holds your liberty, perhaps your life, in his hands."
+
+It was true. And not mine alone, but the lives and liberty of others.
+
+"Do you know what he wishes, Dorothy?"
+
+"No, he will not tell us. But he is greatly excited, and says he must
+see you at once, for your own good. For your own good, Richard!"
+
+"I do not trust the villain, but he may come in," I said, at length.
+
+She gave me the one lingering, anxious look, and opened the door.
+
+Never had I beheld such a change in mortal man as there was in Mr. Allen,
+my old tutor, and rector of St. Anne's. And 'twas a baffling, intangible
+change. 'Twas as if the mask bad been torn from his face, for he was now
+just a plain adventurer that need not have imposed upon a soul. The
+coarse wine and coarse food of the lower coffee-houses of London had
+replaced the rich and abundant fare of Maryland. The next day was become
+one of the terrors of his life. His clothes were of poor stuff, but
+aimed at the fashion. And yet--and yet, as I looked upon him, a
+something was in his face to puzzle me entirely. I had seen many stamps
+of men, but this thing I could not recognize.
+
+He stepped forward with all of his old confidence, and did not regard a
+farthing my cold stare.
+
+"'Tis like gone days to see you again, Richard," he cried. "And I
+perceive you have as ever fallen into the best of hands."
+
+"I am Mr. Carvel to my enemies, if they must speak to me at all," I said.
+
+"But, my dear fellow, I am not your enemy, or I should not be here this
+day. And presently I shall prove that same." He took snuff. "But first
+I must congratulate you on coming alive out of that great battle off
+Flamborough. You look as though you had been very near to death, my lad.
+A deal nearer than I should care to get."
+
+What to say to the man! What to do save to knock him down, and I could
+not do that.
+
+"There can be no passing the time of day between you and me, Mr. Allen,"
+I answered hotly. "You, whose machinations have come as near to ruining
+me as a man's can."
+
+"And that was your own fault, my dear sir," said he, as he brushed
+himself. "You never showed me a whit of consideration, which is very
+dear to men in my position."
+
+My head swam. Then I saw Dolly by the door regarding me curiously, with
+something of a smile upon her lips, but anxiety still in her eyes. With
+a "by your leave, ma'am," to her, Mr. Allen took the chair abreast me.
+
+"You have but to call me when you wish, Richard," said she.
+
+"Nay, Dorothy, Mr. Allen can have nothing to say to me that you may not
+hear," I said instantly. "And you will do me a favour to remain."
+
+She sat down without a word, where I could look at her. Mr. Allen raised
+his eyebrows at the revelation in our talk, but by the grace of God he
+kept his mouth shut.
+
+"And now, Mr. Allen," I said, "to what do I owe the pain of this visit?"
+
+"The pain!" he exclaimed, and threw back his head and gave way to a fit
+of laughter. "By the mass! your politeness drowns me. But I like you,
+Richard, as I have said more than once. I believe your brutal
+straight-dealing has more to do with my predilection than aught else.
+For I have seen a deal of rogues in my day."
+
+"And they have seen a deal of you, Mr. Allen."
+
+"So they have," he cried, and laughed the more. "Egad, Miss Dorothy,
+you have saved all of him, I think." Then he swung round upon me, very
+careless. "Has your Uncle Grafton called to express his sympathies,
+Richard?" he asked.
+
+That name brought a cry out of my head, Dolly seizing the arm of her
+chair.
+
+"Grafton Carvel in London?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Ay, in very pretty lodgings in Jermyn Street, for he has put by enough,
+I'll warrant you, despite the loss of his lands. Your aunt is with him,
+and his dutiful son, Philip, now broken of his rank in the English army.
+They arrived, before yesterday, from New York."
+
+"And to what is this an introduction?" I demanded.
+
+"I merely thought it strange," said Mr. Allen, imperturbably, "that he
+had not called to inquire after his nephew's health."
+
+Dolly was staring at him, with eyes wide open.
+
+"And pray, how did he discover I was in London, sir?" I said. "I was
+about to ask how you knew of it, but that is one and the same thing."
+
+He shot at me a look not to be solved.
+
+"It is not well to bite the hand that lifts you out of the fire,
+Richard," said he.
+
+"You had not gained admission to this house were I not on my back, Mr.
+Allen."
+
+"And that same circumstance is a blessing for you," he cried.
+
+'Twas then I saw Dorothy making me mute signals of appeal.
+
+"I cannot think why you are here, Mr. Allen," I said. "When you consider
+all the harm you have done me, and all the double-dealing I may lay at
+your door, can you blame me for my feelings?"
+
+"No," he answered, with more soberness than he had yet used; "I honour
+you for them. And perchance I am here to atone for some of that harm.
+For I like you, my lad, and that's God's truth."
+
+"All this is neither here nor there, Mr. Allen," I exclaimed, wholly out
+of patience. "If you have come with a message, let me have it. If not,
+I beg you get out of my sight, for I have neither the will nor the desire
+for palavering."
+
+"Oh, Richard, do keep your temper!" implored Dorothy. "Can you not see
+that Mr. Allen desires to do us--to do you--a service?"
+
+"Of that I am not so sure," I replied.
+
+"It is his way, Miss Manners," said the rector, "and I hold it not
+against him. To speak truth, I looked for a worse reception, and came
+steeled to withstand it. And had my skin been thin, I had left ere now."
+He took more snuff. "It was Mr. Dix," he said to me slowly, "who
+informed Mr. Carvel of your presence in London."
+
+"And how the devil did Mr. Dix know?"
+
+He did not reply, but glanced apprehensively at Dorothy.
+
+And I have wondered since at his consideration.
+
+"Miss Manners may not wish to hear," he said uneasily.
+
+"Miss Manners hears all that concerns me," I answered.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders in comprehension.
+
+"It was Mr. Manners, then, who went to Mr. Dix, and told him under the
+pledge of secrecy."
+
+Not a sound came from Dorothy, nor did I dare to look at her face. The
+whole matter was clear to me now. After his conversation with me, Mr.
+Marmaduke had lost no time in seeing Mr. Dix, in order to raise money on
+my prospects. And the man of business had gone straight to Grafton with
+the intelligence. The suspicion flashed through me that Mr. Allen had
+been sent to spy, but his very next words disarmed it.
+
+"And now, Richard," he continued, "before I say what I have come to say,
+and since you cannot now prosecute me, I mean to confess to you something
+which you probably know almost to a certainty. I was in the plot to
+carry you off and deprive you of your fortune. I have been paid for it,
+though not very handsomely. Fears for my own safety alone kept me from
+telling you and Mr. Swain. And I swear to you that I was sorry for the
+venture almost before I had embarked, and ere I had received a shilling.
+The scheme was laid out before I took you for a pupil; indeed, that was
+part of it, as you no doubt have guessed. As God hears me, I learned to
+love you, Richard, in those days at the rectory. You were all of a man,
+and such an one as I might have hoped to be had I been born like you.
+You said what you chose, and spoke from your own convictions, and catered
+to no one. You did not whine when the luck went against you, but lost
+like a gentleman, and thought no more of it. You had no fear of the
+devil himself. Why should you? While your cousin Philip, with his
+parrot talk and sneaking ways, turned my stomach. I was sick of him,
+and sick of Grafton, I tell you. But dread of your uncle drove me on,
+and I had debts to frighten me."
+
+He paused. "Twas with a strange medley of emotions I looked at him. And
+Dorothy, too, was leaning forward, her lips parted and her eyes riveted
+upon his face.
+
+"Oh, I am speaking the truth," he said bitterly. "And I assume no virtue
+for the little justice it remains in my power to do. It is the lot of my
+life that I must be false to some one always, and even now I am false to
+your uncle. Yes, I am come to do justice, and 'tis a strange errand for
+me. I know that estates have been restored to you by the Maryland
+Legislature, Richard, and I believe in my heart that you will win this
+war." Here he fetched a memorandum from his pocket. "But to make you
+secure," said he, "in the year 1710, and on the 9th of March, old style,
+your great-grandfather, Mr. George Carvel, drew up a document entailing
+the lands of Carvel Hall. By this they legally pass to you."
+
+"The family settlement Mr. Swain suspected!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Just so," he answered.
+
+"And what am I to pay for this information?" I asked.
+
+Hardly were the words spoken, when Dorothy ran to my bedside, and seizing
+my hand, faced him.
+
+"He--he is not well, Mr. Allen," she cried.
+
+The rector had risen, and stood gazing down at us with the whole of his
+life written on his face. That look was fearful to see, and all of hell
+was expressed therein. For what is hell if it is not hope dead and
+buried, and galling regret for what might have been? With mine own great
+happiness so contrasted against his torture, my heart melted.
+
+"I am not well, indeed, Mr. Allen," I said. "God knows how hard it is
+for me to forgive, but I forgive you this night."
+
+One brief instant he stared at me, and then tumbled suddenly down into
+his chair, his head falling forward on his arms. And the long sobs by
+which his frame was shaken awed our very souls. Dorothy drew back
+against me, clasping my shoulder, the tears wet upon her cheeks. What
+we looked on, there in the candlelight, was the Revelation itself.
+
+How long it, endured none of us might say. And when at last he raised
+his face, it was haggard and worn in truth, but the evil of it seemed to
+have fled. Again and again he strove to speak. The words would not
+obey. And when he had mastered himself, his voice was shattered and
+gone.
+
+"Richard, I have sinned heavily in my time, and preached God's holy word
+with a sneer and unbelief in my heart. He knows what I have suffered,
+and what I shall yet suffer before His judgment comes for us all. But I
+beg it is no sin to pray to Him for your happiness and Miss Dorothy's."
+
+He stumbled there, and paused, and then continued with more steadiness:
+
+"I came here to-night to betray you, and might have gone hence to your
+uncle to claim my pieces of silver. I remain to tell you that Grafton
+has an appointment at nine with his Majesty's chief Secretary of State.
+I need not mention his motives, nor dwell upon your peril. For the
+King's sentiments toward Paul Jones are well known. You must leave
+London without delay, and so must Mr. Manners and his family."
+
+Is it the generations which decide? When I remember bow Dorothy behaved
+that night, I think so. Scarce had the rector ceased when she had
+released me and was standing erect before him. Pity was in her eyes,
+but in her face that courage which danger itself begets in heroic women.
+
+"You have acted a noble part this day, Mr. Allen," she said, "to atone
+for the wrongs you have done Richard. May God forgive you, and make you
+happier than you have been!"
+
+He struggled to his feet, listening as to a benediction. Then, with a
+single glance to give me confidence, she was gone. And for a minute
+there was silence between us.
+
+"How may you be directed to?" I asked.
+
+He leaped as out of a trance.
+
+"Just 'the world,' Richard," said he. "For I am adrift again, and not
+very like to find a harbour, now."
+
+"You were to have been paid for this, Mr. Allen," I replied. "And a man
+must live."
+
+"A man must live!" he cried. "The devil coined that line, and made it
+some men's history."
+
+"I have you on my conscience, Mr. Allen," I went on, "for I have been at
+fault as well as you. I might have treated you better, even as you have
+said. And I command you to assign a place in London whence you may be
+reached."
+
+"A letter to the Mitre coffee-house will be delivered," he said.
+
+"You shall receive it," I answered. "And now I bid you good-by, and
+thank you."
+
+He seized and held my hand. Then walked blindly to the door and turned
+abruptly.
+
+"I do not tell you that I shall change my life, Richard, for I have said
+that too many times before. Indeed, I warn you that any money you may
+send will be spent in drink, and--and worse. I will be no hypocrite to
+you. But I believe that I am better this hour than I have been since
+last I knelt at my mother's knee in the little Oxfordshire cottage where
+I was born."
+
+When Dorothy returned to me, there was neither haste in her step nor
+excitement in her voice. Her very coolness inspired me.
+
+"Do you feel strong enough for a journey, Richard?" she asked.
+
+"To the world's end, Dolly, if you will but go with me."
+
+She smiled faintly. "I have sent off for my Lord and Mr. Fox, and pray
+that one of them may be here presently."
+
+Scarcely greater were the visible signs of apprehension upon Mrs.
+Manners. Her first care, and Dorothy's, was to catechise me most
+particularly on my state. And whilst they were so occupied Mr. Marmaduke
+entered, wholly frenzied from fright, and utterly oblivious to his own
+blame in the matter. He was sent out again directly. After that, with
+Aunt Lucy to assist, they hurriedly packed what few things might be
+taken. The costly relics of Arlington Street were untouched, and the
+French clock was left on the mantel to tick all the night, and for days
+to come, in a silent and forsaken room; or perhaps to greet impassively
+the King's officers when they broke in at the door. But I caught my lady
+in the act of wrapping up the Wedgwood cups and dishes.
+
+In the midst of these preparations Mr. Fox was heard without, and was met
+at the door by Dorothy. Two sentences sufficed her to tell him what had
+occurred, and two seconds for this man of action to make his decision.
+
+"In an hour you shall have travelling chaises here, Dorothy," he said.
+"You must go to Portsmouth, and take ship for Lisbon. And if Jack does
+not arrive, I will go with you."
+
+"No, Charles, you must not!" she cried, her emotion conquering her for
+the nonce. "That might be to ruin your career, and perchance to lose
+your life. And suppose we were to escape, what would they say of you!"
+
+"Fish!" Charles retorted, to hide some feelings of his own; "once our
+rebel is out of the country, they may speak their minds. They have never
+lacked for names to call me, and I have been dubbed a traitor before now,
+my dear lady."
+
+He stepped hastily to the bed, and laid his hand on me with affection.
+
+"Charles," I said, "this is all of a piece with your old recklessness.
+You were ever one to take any risk, but I will not hear of such a venture
+as this. Do you think I will allow the hope of all England to be staked
+for a pirate? And would you break our commander of her rank? All that
+Dorothy need do at Portsmouth is to curtsey to the first skipper she
+meets, and I'll warrant he will carry us all to the antipodes."
+
+"Egad, but that is more practical than it sounds," he replied, with a
+glance of admiration at my lady, as she stood so tall before us. "She
+has a cool head, Richard Carvel, and a long head, and--and I'm thinking
+you are to come out of this the best of all of us. You cannot get far
+off your course, my lad, with her at the helm."
+
+It was there his voice belied the jest in his words, and he left us with
+precipitation.
+
+They lifted me out of my sheets (I was appalled to discover my weakness),
+and bundled me with tender care in a dozen shawls and blankets. My feet
+were thrust into two pairs of heavy woollen stockings, and Dorothy bound
+her own silk kerchief at my throat, whispering anxious questions the
+while. And when her mother and mammy went from the room, her arms flew
+around my neck in a passion of solicitude. Then she ran away to dress
+for the journey, and in a surprising short time was back again, with her
+muff and her heavy cloak, and bending over me to see if I gave any signs
+of failure.
+
+Fifty and five minutes had been registered by the French clock, when the
+rattle of wheels and the clatter of hoofs sounded below, and Charles Fox
+panted up the stairs, muffled in a huge wrap-rascal. 'Twas he and Aunt
+Lucy carried me down to the street, Dorothy walking at my side, and
+propped me up in the padded corner of one of the two vehicles in waiting.
+This was an ample travelling-carriage with a lamp hanging from its top,
+by the light of which my lady tucked me in from head to foot, and then
+took her place next me. Aunt Lucy filled most of the seat opposite. The
+baggage was hoisted up behind, and Charles was about to slam the door,
+when a hackney-chaise turned the corner at a gallop and pulled up in the
+narrow street abreast, and the figure of my Lord Comyn suddenly leaped
+within the compass of the lanthorn's rays. He was dressed as for a ball,
+with only a thin rain-cloak over his shoulders, for the night was thick
+with mist. He threw at us a startled look that was a question.
+
+"Jack, Richard is to be betrayed to-night by his uncle," said Charles,
+shortly. "And I am taking them to Portsmouth to get them off for
+Lisbon."
+
+"Charles," said his Lordship, sternly, "give me that greatcoat."
+
+It was just the one time that ever I saw uncertainty on Mr. Fox's face.
+He threw an uneasy glance into the chaise.
+
+"I have brought money," his Lordship went on rapidly; "'Twas that kept
+me, for I guessed at something of this kind. Give me the coat, I say."
+
+Mr. Fox wriggled out of it, and took the oiled cape in return.
+
+"Thank you, Jack," he said simply, and stepped into the carriage. "Who
+is to mend my waistcoats now?" he cried. "Faith, I shall treasure this
+against you, Richard. Good-by, my lad, and obey your rebel general.
+Alas! I must even ask your permission to salute her."
+
+And he kissed the unresisting Dorothy on both her cheeks. "God keep the
+two of you," he said, "for I love you with all my heart."
+
+Before we could answer he was gone into the night; and my Lord, standing
+without, had closed the carriage door. And that was the last I saw of
+this noble man, the true friend of America, who devoted his glorious
+talents and his life to fighting the corruption that was rotting the
+greatness of England. He who was followed by the prayers of the English
+race was ever remembered in our own humble ones.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII
+
+I COME TO MY OWN AGAIN
+
+'Twas a rough, wild journey we made to Portsmouth, my dears, and I think
+it must have killed me had not my lady been at my side. We were no
+sooner started than she pulled the curtains and opened her portmanteau,
+which I saw was near filled with things for my aid and comfort. And I
+was made to take a spoonful of something. Never, I believe, was medicine
+swallowed with a greater willingness. Talk was impossible, so I lay back
+in the corner and looked at her; and now and anon she would glance at my
+face, with a troubled guess in her own as to how I might stand the night.
+For we were still in London. That I knew by the trot of our horses, and
+by the granite we traversed from time to time. But at length we rumbled
+over a bridge, there was a sharp call back from our post-boy to him of
+the chaise behind, and then began that rocking and pitching and swaying
+and creaking, which was to last the whole night long, save for the brief
+stops at the post-houses.
+
+After an hour of it, I was holding my breath against the lurches, like a
+sea-sick man against that bottomless fall of the ship's bows on the
+ocean. I had no pain,--only an over whelming exhaustion,--but the joy
+of her touch and her presence kept me from failing. And though Aunt Lucy
+dozed, not a wink of sleep did my lady get through all of those weary
+twelve hours. Always alert was she, solicitous beyond belief, scanning
+ever the dial of her watch to know when to give me brandy and physic; or
+reaching across to feel my temples for the fever. The womanliness of
+that last motion was a thing for a man to wonder at. But most marvellous
+of all was the instinct which told her of my chief sickening discomfort,
+--of the leathery, travelled smell of the carriage. As a relief for this
+she charged her pocket-napkin with a most delicate perfume, and held it
+to my face.
+
+When we drew up to shift horses, Jack would come to the door to inquire
+if there was aught she wanted, and to know how I was bearing up. And
+often Mrs. Manners likewise. At first I was for talking with them, but
+this Dorothy would not allow. Presently, indeed, it was beyond my power,
+and I could only smile feebly at my Lord when I heard Dolly asking him
+that the hostlers might be more quiet. Toward morning a lethargy fell
+upon me. Once I awoke when the lamp had burned low, to perceive the
+curtains drawn back, a black blotch of trees without, and the moonlight
+streaming in on my lady's features. With the crack of a whip I was off
+again.
+
+When next consciousness came, the tarry, salt smell of a ship was in my
+nostrils, and I knew that we were embarked. I lay in a clean bunk in a
+fair-sized and sun-washed cabin, and I heard the scraping of ropes and
+the tramp of feet on the deck above my head. Framed against the
+irregular glass of the cabin window, which was greened by the water
+beyond, Dorothy and my Lord stood talking in whispers.
+
+"Jack!" I said.
+
+At the sound they turned and ran toward me, asking how I felt.
+
+"I feel that words are very empty, Jack, to express such a gratitude as
+mine," I answered. "Twice you have saved me from death, you have paid
+my debts, and have been stanch to us both in our troubles. And--" The
+effort was beyond me, and I glanced appealingly at Dolly.
+
+"And it is to you, dear Jack," she finished, "it is to you alone that we
+owe the great joy of our lives."
+
+Her eyes were shining through her tears, and her smile was like the sun
+out of a rain-swept sky. His Lordship took one of her hands in his own,
+and one of mine. He scanned our faces in a long, lingering look.
+
+"You will cherish her, Richard," he said brokenly, "for her like is not
+to be found in this world. I knew her worth when first she came to
+London, as arrant a baggage as ever led man a dance. I saw then that a
+great love alone was needed to make her the highest among women, and from
+the night I fought with you at the Coffee House I have felt upon whom
+that love would fall. O thou of little faith," he cried, "what little I
+may have done has been for her. No, Richard, you do not deserve her, but
+I would rather think of her as your wife than that of any man living."
+
+I shall not dwell upon that painful farewell which wrung our hearts, and
+made us silent for a long, long while after the ship was tossing in the
+short seas of the Channel.
+
+Nor is it my purpose to tell you of that long voyage across the Atlantic.
+We reached Lisbon in safety, and after a week of lodgings in that city by
+the best of fortune got passage in a swift bark bound for Baltimore. For
+the Chesapeake commerce continued throughout the war, and kept alive the
+credit of the young nation. There were many excitements ere we sighted
+the sand-spits of Virginia, and off the Azores we were chased for a day
+and a night by a British sloop of war. Our captain, however, was a cool
+man and a seaman, and slipped through the cruisers lying in wait off the
+Capes very triumphantly.
+
+But the remembrance of those fair days at sea fills my soul with longing.
+The weather was mild and bright for the season, and morning upon morning
+two stout topmen would carry me out to a sheltered spot on the deck,
+always chosen by my lady herself. There I sat by the hour, swathed in
+many layers of wool, and tended by her hands alone. Every nook and
+cranny of our lives were revealed to the other. She loved to hear of
+Patty and my years at Gordon's, and would listen with bated breath to the
+stories of the Ranger and the Bonhomme Richard, and of that strange man
+whom we both loved, whose genius had made those cruises famous.
+Sometimes, in low voices, we talked of our future; but often, when the
+wind blew and the deck rocked and the sun flashed upon the waters, a
+silence would fall between us that needed no word to interpret.
+
+Mrs. Manners yielded to my wish for us all to go to Carvel Hall. It was
+on a sparkling morning in February that we sighted the familiar toe of
+Kent Island, and the good-natured skipper put about and made for the
+mouth of our river. Then, as of old, the white cupola of Carvel House
+gleamed a signal of greeting, to which our full hearts beat a silent
+response. Once again the great windmill waved its welcome, and the same
+memory was upon us both as we gazed. Of a hale old gentleman in the
+sheets of a sailing pinnace, of a boy and a girl on his knees quivering
+with excitement of the days to come. Dorothy gently pressed my hand as
+the bark came into the wind, and the boat was dropped into the green
+water. Slowly they lowered me into it, for I was still helpless, Dorothy
+and her mother and Aunt Lucy were got down, and finally Mr. Marmaduke
+stepped gingerly from the sea-ladder over the gunwale. The cutter leaped
+under the strong strokes up the river with the tide. Then, as we rounded
+the bend, we were suddenly astonished to see people gathered on the
+landing at the foot of the lawn, where they had run, no doubt, in a
+flurry at sight of the ship below. In the front of the group stood
+out a strangely familiar figure.
+
+"Why," exclaimed Dolly, "it is Ivie Rawlinson!"
+
+Ivie it was, sure enough. And presently, when we drew a little closer,
+he gave one big shout and whipped off the hat from his head; and off,
+too, came the caps from the white heads of Scipio and Chess and Johnson
+behind him. Our oars were tossed, Ivie caught our bows, and reached his
+hand to Dorothy. It was fitting that she should be the first to land at
+Carvel Hall.
+
+"'Twas yere bonny face I seed first, Miss Dolly," he cried, the tears
+coursing down the scars of his cheeks. "An' syne I kennt weel the young
+master was here. Noo God be praised for this blythe day, that Mr.
+Richard's cam to his ain at last!"
+
+But Scipio and Chess could only blubber as they helped him to lift me
+out, Dolly begging them to be careful. As they carried me up the
+familiar path to the pillared porch, the first I asked Ivie was of Patty,
+and next why he had left Gordon's. She was safe and well, despite the
+Tories, and herself had sent him to take charge of Carvel Hall as soon as
+ever Judge Bordley had brought her the news of its restoration to me. He
+had supplied her with another overseer. Thanks to the good judge and to
+Colonel Lloyd, who had looked to my interests since Grafton was fled,
+Ivie had found the old place in good order, all the negroes quiet, and
+impatient with joy against my arrival.
+
+It is time, my children, to bring this story to a close. I would I might
+write of those delicious spring days I spent with Dorothy at Carvel Hall,
+waited on by the old servants of my grandfather. At our whim my chair
+would be moved from one to another of the childhood haunts; on cool days
+we sat in the sun by the dial, where the flowers mingled their odours
+with the salt breezes off the Chesapeake; or anon, when it was warmer, in
+the summer-house my mother loved, or under the shade of the great trees
+on the lawn, looking out over the river. And once my lady went off very
+mysteriously, her eyes brimful of mischief, to come back with the first
+strawberries of the year staining her apron.
+
+We were married on the fifteenth of June, already an anniversary for us
+both, in the long drawing-room. General Clapsaddle was there from the
+army to take Dorothy in his arms, even as he had embraced another bride
+on the same spot in years gone by. She wore the wedding gown that was
+her mother's, but when the hour was come to dress her Aunt Lucy and Aunt
+Hester failed in their task, and it was Patty who performed the most of
+that office, and hung the necklace of pearls about her neck.
+
+Dear Patty! She hath often been with us since. You have heard your
+mothers and fathers speak of Aunt Patty, my dears, and they will tell
+you how she spoiled them when they went a-visiting to Gordon's Pride.
+
+Ere I had regained my health, the war for Independence was won. I pray
+God that time may soften the bitterness it caused, and heal the breach in
+that noble race whose motto is Freedom. That the Stars and Stripes and
+the Union Jack may one day float together to cleanse this world of
+tyranny!
+
+
+
+
+AFTERWORD
+
+The author makes most humble apologies to any who have, or think they
+have, an ancestor in this book. He has drawn the foregoing with a very
+free hand, and in the Maryland scenes has made use of names rather than
+of actual personages. His purpose, however poorly accomplished, was to
+give some semblance of reality to this part of the story. Hence he has
+introduced those names in the setting, choosing them entirely at random
+from the many prominent families of the colony.
+
+No one may read the annals of these men, who were at once brave and
+courtly, and of these women, who were ladies by nature as well as by
+birth, and not love them. The fascination of that free and hospitable
+life has been so strong on the writer of this novel that he closes it
+with a genuine regret and the hope that its perusal may lead others to
+the pleasure he has derived from the history of Maryland.
+
+As few liberties as possible have been taken with the lives of Charles
+James Fox and of John Paul Jones. The latter hero actually made a voyage
+in the brigantine 'John' about the time he picked up Richard Carvel from
+the Black Moll, after the episode with Mungo Maxwell at Tobago. The
+Scotch scene, of course, is purely imaginary. Accuracy has been aimed at
+in the account of the fight between the 'Bonhomme Richard' and the
+'Serapis', while a little different arrangement might have been better
+for the medium of the narrative. To be sure, it was Mr. Mease, the
+purser, instead of Richard Carvel, who so bravely fought the quarter-deck
+guns; and in reality Midshipman Mayrant, Commodore Jones's aide, was
+wounded by a pike in the thigh after the surrender. No injustice is done
+to the second and third lieutenants, who were absent from the ship during
+the action.
+
+The author must acknowledge that the only good anecdote in the book and
+the only verse worth printing are stolen. The story on page concerning
+Mr. Garrick and the Archbishop of York may be found in Fitzgerald's life
+of the actor, much better told. The verse (in Chapter X) is by an
+unknown author in the Annapolis Gazette, and is republished in Mr. Elihu
+Riley's excellent "History of Annapolis."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Richard Carvel, Volume 8, by Winston Churchill
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+The Project Gutenberg Ebook Richard Carvel, v8, by Winston Churchill
+WC#35 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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+*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
+
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+Title: Richard Carvel, Volume 8.
+
+Author: Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston Churchill)
+
+Release Date: March, 2004  [EBook #5372]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on June 24, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, V8, 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 8.
+
+
+L.        Farewell to Gordon's
+LI.       How an Idle Prophecy came to pass
+LII.      How the Gardener's Son fought the Serapis
+LIII.     In which I make Some Discoveries
+LIV.      More Discoveries.
+LV.       The Love of a Maid for a Man
+LVI.      How Good came out of Evil
+LVII.     I come to my Own again
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L
+
+FAREWELL TO GORDON'S
+
+I cannot bear to recall my misery of mind after Mr. Swain's death.
+One hope had lightened all the years of my servitude.  For, when I
+examined my soul, I knew that it was for Dorothy I had laboured.  And
+every letter that came from Comyn telling me she was still free gave me
+new heart for my work.  By some mystic communion--I know not what--I felt
+that she loved me yet, and despite distance and degree.  I would wake of
+a morning with the knowledge of it, and be silent for half the day with
+some particle of a dream in my head, lingering like the burden of a song
+with its train of memories.
+
+So, in the days that followed, I scarce knew myself.  For a while
+(I shame to write it) I avoided that sweet woman who had made my comfort
+her care, whose father had taken me when I was homeless.  The good in me
+cried out, but the flesh rebelled.
+
+Poor Patty!  Her grief for her father was pathetic to see.  Weeks passed
+in which she scarcely spoke a word.  And I remember her as she sat in
+church Sundays, the whiteness of her face enhanced by the crape she wore,
+and a piteous appeal in her gray eyes.  My own agony was nigh beyond
+endurance, my will swinging like a pendulum from right to wrong, and back
+again.  Argue as I might that I had made the barrister no promise,
+conscience allowed no difference.  I was in despair at the trick fate
+had played me; at the decree that of all women I must love her whose
+sphere was now so far removed from mine.  For Patty had character and
+beauty, and every gift which goes to make man's happiness and to kindle
+his affections.
+
+Her sorrow left her more womanly than ever.  And after the first sharp
+sting of it was deadened, I noticed a marked reserve in her intercourse
+with me.  I knew then that she must have strong suspicions of her
+father's request.  Speak I could not soon after the sad event, but I
+strove hard that she should see no change in my conduct.
+
+Before Christmas we went to the Eastern Shore.  In Annapolis fife and
+drum had taken the place of fiddle and clarion; militia companies were
+drilling in the empty streets; despatches were arriving daily from the
+North; and grave gentlemen were hurrying to meetings.  But if the war was
+to come, I must settle what was to be done at Gordon's Pride with all
+possible speed.  It was only a few days after our going there, that I
+rode into Oxford with a black cockade in my hat Patty had made me, and
+the army sword Captain Jack had given Captain Daniel at my side.  For I
+had been elected a lieutenant in the Oxford company, of which Percy
+Singleton was captain.
+
+So passed that winter, the darkest of my life.  One soft spring day, when
+the birds were twittering amid new-born leaves, and the hyacinths and
+tulips in Patty's garden were coming to their glory, Master Tom rode
+leisurely down the drive at Gordon's Pride.  That was a Saturday, the
+29th of April, 1775.  The news which had flown southward, night and day
+alike, was in no hurry to run off his tongue; he had been lolling on the
+porch for half an hour before he told us of the bloodshed between the
+minute-men of Massachusetts and the British regulars, of the rout of
+Percy's panting redcoats from Concord to Boston.  Tom added, with the
+brutal nonchalance which characterized his dealings with his mother and
+sister, that he was on his way to Philadelphia to join a company.
+
+The poor invalid was carried up the stairs in a faint by Banks and
+Romney.  Patty, with pale face and lips compressed, ran to fetch the
+hartshorn.  But Master Tom remained undisturbed.
+
+"I suppose you are going, Richard," he remarked affably.  For he treated
+me with more consideration than his family.  "We shall ride together,"
+said he.
+
+"We ride different ways, and to different destinations," I replied dryly.
+"I go to serve my country, and you to fight against it."
+
+"I think the King is right," he answered sullenly.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," I remarked, and rose.  "Then you have studied
+the question since last I saw you."
+
+"No, by G-d!" he cried, "and I never will.  I do not want to know your
+d--d principles--or grievances, or whatever they are.  We were living an
+easy life, in the plenty of money, and nothing to complain of.  You take
+it all away, with your cursed cant--"
+
+I left him railing and swearing.  And that was the last I saw of Tom
+Swain.  When I returned from a final survey of the plantation; and a talk
+with Percy Singleton, he had ridden North again.
+
+I found Patty alone in the parlour.  Her work (one of my own stockings
+she was darning) lay idle in her lap, and in her eyes were the unshed
+tears which are the greatest suffering of women.  I sat down beside her
+and called her name.  She did not seem to hear me.
+
+"Patty!"
+
+She started.  And my courage ebbed.
+
+"Are you going to the war--to leave us, Richard?"  she faltered.
+
+"I fear there is no choice, Patty," I answered, striving hard to keep my
+own voice steady.  "But you will be well looked after.  Ivie Rawlinson
+is to be trusted, and Mr. Bordley has promised to keep an eye upon you."
+
+She took up the darning mechanically.
+
+"I shall not speak a word to keep you, Richard.  He would have wished
+it," she said softly.  "And every strong arm in the colonies will be
+needed.  We shall think of you, and pray for you daily."
+
+I cast about for a cheerful reply.
+
+"I think when they discover how determined we are, they will revoke their
+measures in a hurry.  Before you know it, Patty, I shall be back again
+making the rounds in my broad rim, and reading to you out of Captain
+Cook."
+
+It was a pitiful attempt.  She shook her head sadly.  The tears were come
+now, and she was smiling through them.  The sorrow of that smile!
+
+"I have something to say to you before I go, Patty," I said.  The words
+stuck.  I knew that there must be no pretence in that speech.  It must be
+true as my life after, the consequence of it.  "I have something to ask
+you, and I do not speak without your father's consent.  Patty, if I
+return, will you be my wife?"
+
+The stocking slipped unheeded to the floor.  For a moment she sat
+transfixed, save for the tumultuous swelling of her breast.  Then she
+turned and gazed earnestly into my face, and the honesty of her eyes
+smote me.  For the first time I could not meet them honestly with my own.
+
+"Richard, do you love me?"  she asked.
+
+I bowed my head.  I could not answer that.  And for a while there was no
+sound save that of the singing of the frogs in the distant marsh.
+
+Presently I knew that she was standing at my side.  I felt her hand laid
+upon my shoulder.
+
+"Is--is it Dorothy?"  she said gently.
+
+Still I could not answer.  Truly, the bitterness of life, as the joy of
+it, is distilled in strong drops.
+
+"I knew," she continued, "I have known ever since that autumn morning
+when I went to you as you saddled--when I dreaded that you would leave
+us.  Father asked you to marry me, the day you took Mr. Stewart from the
+mob.  How could you so have misunderstood me, Richard?"
+
+I looked up in wonder.  The sweet cadence in her tone sprang from a
+purity not of this earth.  They alone who have consecrated their days to
+others may utter it.  And the light upon her face was of the same source.
+It was no will of mine brought me to my feet.  But I was not worthy to
+touch her.
+
+"I shall make another prayer, beside that for your safety, Richard," she
+said.
+
+In the morning she waved me a brave farewell from the block where she had
+stood so often as I rode afield, when the dawn was in the sky.  The
+invalid mother sat in her chair within the door; the servants were
+gathered on the lawn, and Ivie Rawlinson and Banks lingered where they
+had held my stirrup.  That picture is washed with my own tears.
+
+The earth was praising God that Sunday as I rode to Mr. Bordley's.  And
+as it is sorrow which lifts us nearest to heaven, I felt as if I were in
+church.
+
+I arrived at Wye Island in season to dine with the good judge and his
+family, and there I made over to his charge the property of Patty and her
+mother.  The afternoon we spent in sober talk, Mr. Bordley giving me much
+sound advice, and writing me several letters of recommendation to
+gentlemen in Congress.  His conduct was distinguished by even more of
+kindness and consideration than he had been wont to show me.
+
+In the evening I walked out alone, skirting the acres of Carvel Hall,
+each familiar landmark touching the quick of some memory of other days.
+Childhood habit drew me into the path to Wilmot House.  I came upon it
+just as the sunlight was stretching level across the Chesapeake, and
+burning its windows molten red.  I had been sitting long on the stone
+steps, when the gaunt figure of McAndrews strode toward me out of the
+dusk.
+
+"God be gude to us, it is Mr. Richard!"  he cried.  "I hae na seen ye're
+bonny face these muckle years, sir, sync ye cam' back frae ae sight o'
+the young mistress."  (I had met him in Annapolis then.) "An' will ye be
+aff to the wars?"
+
+I told him yes.  That I had come for a last look at the old place before
+I left.
+
+He sighed.  "Ye're vera welcome, sir."  Then he added: "Mr. Bordley's
+gi'en me a fair notion o' yere management at Gordon's.  The judge is
+thinking there'll be nane ither lad t' hand a candle to ye."
+
+"And what news do you hear from London?"  I asked, cutting him short.
+
+"Ill uncos, sir," he answered, shaking his head with violence.  He had
+indeed but a sorry tale for my ear, and one to make my heart heavier than
+it was.  McAndrews opened his mind to me, and seemed the better for it.
+How Mr. Marmaduke was living with the establishment they wrote of was
+more than the honest Scotchman could imagine.  There was a country place
+in Sussex now, said he, that was the latest.  And drafts were coming in
+before the wheat was in the ear; and the plantations of tobacco on the
+Western Shore had been idle since the non-exportation, and were mortgaged
+to their limit to Mr. Willard.  Money was even loaned on the Wilmot House
+estate.  McAndrews had a shrewd suspicion that neither Mrs. Manners nor
+Miss Dorothy knew aught of this state of affairs.
+
+"Mr. Richard," he said earnestly, as he bade me good-by, "I kennt Mr.
+Manners's mind when he lea'd here.  There was a laird in't, sir, an' a
+fortune.  An' unless these come soon, I'm thinking I can spae th' en'."
+
+In truth, a much greater fool than McAndrews might have predicted that
+end.
+
+On Monday Judge Bordley accompanied me as far as Dingley's tavern, and
+showed much emotion at parting.
+
+"You need have no fears for your friends at Gordon's Pride, Richard,"
+said he.  "And when the General comes back, I shall try to give him a
+good account of my stewardship."
+
+The General!  That title brought old Stanwix's cobwebbed prophecy into my
+head again.  Here, surely, was the war which he had foretold, and I ready
+to embark in it.
+
+Why not the sea, indeed?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI
+
+HOW AN IDLE PROPHECY CAME TO PASS
+
+Captain Clapsaddle not being at his lodgings, I rode on to the Coffee
+House to put up my horse.  I was stopped by Mr. Claude.
+
+"Why, Mr. Carvel," says he, "I thought you on the Eastern Shore.  There
+is a gentleman within will be mightily tickled to see you, or else his
+protestations are lies, which they may very well be.  His name?  Now,
+'Pon my faith, it was Jones--no more."
+
+This thing of being called for at the Coffee House stirred up unpleasant
+associations.
+
+"What appearance does the man make?"  I demanded.
+
+"Merciful gad!" mine host exclaimed; "once seen, never forgotten, and
+once heard, never forgotten.  He quotes me Thomson, and he tells me of
+his estate in Virginia."
+
+The answer was not of a sort to allay my suspicions.
+
+"Then he appears to be a landowner?"  said I.
+
+"'Ods!  Blest if I know what he is," says Mr. Claude.  "He may be
+anything, an impostor or a high-mightiness.  But he's something to strike
+the eye and hold it, for all his Quaker clothes.  He is swarth and
+thickset, and some five feet eight inches--full six inches under your
+own height.  And he comes asking for you as if you owned the town between
+you.  'Send a fellow to Marlboro' Street for Mr. Richard Carvel, my good
+host!' says he, with a snap of his fingers.  And when I tell him the news
+of you, he is prodigiously affected, and cries--but here's my gentleman
+now!"
+
+I jerked my head around.  Coming down the steps I beheld my old friend
+and benefactor, Captain John Paul!
+
+"Ahoy, ahoy!"  cries he.  "Now Heaven be praised, I have found you at
+last."
+
+Out of the saddle I leaped, and straight into his arms.
+
+"Hold, hold, Richard!"  he gasped.  "My ribs, man!  Leave me some breath
+that I may tell you how glad I am to see you."
+
+"Mr. Jones!"  I said, holding him out, "now where the devil got you
+that?"
+
+"Why, I am become a gentleman since I saw you," he answered, smiling.
+"My poor brother left me his estate in Virginia.  And a gentleman must
+have three names at the least."
+
+I dropped his shoulders and shook with laughter.
+
+"But Jones!"  I cried.  "'Ad's heart! could you go no higher?  Has your
+imagination left you, captain?"
+
+"Republican simplicity, sir," says he, looking a trifle hurt.  But I
+laughed the more.
+
+"Well, you have contrived to mix oil and vinegar," said I.  "A landed
+gentleman and republican simplicity.  I'll warrant you wear silk-knit
+under that gray homespun, and have a cameo in your pocket."
+
+He shook his head, looking up at me with affection.
+
+"You might have guessed better," he answered.  "All of quality I have
+about me are an enamelled repeater and a gold brooch."
+
+This made me suddenly grave, for McAndrews's words had been ringing in my
+ears ever since he had spoken them.  I hitched my arm into the captain's
+and pulled him toward the Coffee House door.
+
+"Come," I said, "you have not dined, and neither have I.  We shall be
+merry to-day, and you shall have some of the best Madeira in the
+colonies."  I commanded a room, that we might have privacy.  As he took
+his seat opposite me I marked that he had grown heavier and more browned.
+But his eye had the same unfathomable mystery in it as of yore.  And
+first I upbraided him for not having writ me.
+
+"I took you for one who glories in correspondence, captain," said I; "and
+I did not think you could be so unfaithful.  I directed twice to you in
+Mr. Orchardson's care."
+
+"Orchardson died before I had made one voyage," he replied, "and the
+Betsy changed owners.  But I did not forget you, Richard, and was
+resolved but now not to leave Maryland until I had seen you.  But I burn
+to hear of you," he added.  "I have had an inkling of your story from the
+landlord.  So your grandfather is dead, and that blastie, your uncle, of
+whom you told me on the John, is in possession."
+
+He listened to my narrative keenly, but with many interruptions.  And
+when I was done, he sighed.
+
+"You are always finding friends, Richard," said he; "no matter what your
+misfortunes, they are ever double discounted.  As for me; I am like
+Fulmer in Mr. Cumberland's 'West Indian': 'I have beat through every
+quarter of the compass; I have bellowed for freedom; I have offered to
+serve my country; I have'--I am engaging to betray it.  No, Scotland is
+no longer my country, and so I cannot betray her.  It is she who has
+betrayed me."
+
+He fell into a short mood of dejection.  And, indeed, I could not but
+reflect that much of the character fitted him like a jacket.  Not the
+betrayal of his country.  He never did that, no matter how roundly they
+accused him of it afterward.
+
+To lift him, I cried:
+
+"You were one of my first friends, Captain Paul" (I could not stomach the
+Jones); "but for you I should now be a West Indian, and a miserable one,
+the slave of some unmerciful hidalgo.  Here's that I may live to repay
+you!"
+
+"And while we are upon toasts," says he, bracing immediately, "I give you
+the immortal Miss Manners!  Her beauty has dwelt unfaded in my memory
+since I last beheld her, aboard the Betsy."  Remarking the pain in my
+face, he added, with a concern which may have been comical: "And she is
+not married?"
+
+"Unless she is lately gone to Gretna, she is not," I replied, trying to
+speak lightly.
+
+"Alack!  I knew it," he exclaimed.  "And if there's any prophecy in my
+bones, she'll be Mrs. Carvel one of these days."
+
+"Well captain," I said abruptly, "the wheel has gone around since I saw
+you.  Now it is you who are the gentleman, while I am a factor.  Is it
+the bliss you pictured?"
+
+I suspected that his acres were not as broad, nor his produce as salable,
+as those of Mount Vernon.
+
+"To speak truth, I am heartily tired of that life," said he.  "There is
+little glory in raising nicotia, and sipping bumbo, and cursing negroes.
+Ho for the sea!"  he cried.  "The salt sea, and the British prizes.  Give
+me a tight frigate that leaves a singing wake.  Mark me, Richard," he
+said, a restless gleam coning into his dark eyes, "stirring times are
+here, and a chance for all of us to make a name."  For so it seemed ever
+to be with him.
+
+"They are black times, I fear," I answered.
+
+"Black!" he said.  "No, glorious is your word.  And we are to have an
+upheaval to throw many of us to the top."
+
+"I would rather the quarrel were peacefully settled," said I, gravely.
+"For my part, I want no distinction that is to come out of strife and
+misery."
+
+He regarded me quizzically.
+
+"You are grown an hundred years old since I pulled you out of the sea,"
+says he.  "But we shall have to fight for our liberties.  Here is a glass
+to the prospect!"
+
+"And so you are now an American?"  I said curiously.
+
+"Ay, strake and keelson,--as good a one as though I had got my sap in the
+Maine forests.  A plague of monarchs, say I.  They are a blotch upon
+modern civilization.  And I have here," he continued, tapping his pocket,
+"some letters writ to the Virginia printers, signed Demosthenes, which
+Mr. Randolph and Mr. Henry have commended.  To speak truth, Richard, I am
+off to Congress with a portmanteau full of recommendations.  And I was
+resolved to stop here even till I secured your company.  We shall sweep
+the seas together, and so let George beware!"
+
+I smiled.  But my blood ran faster at the thought of sailing under such a
+captain.  However, I made the remark that Congress had as yet no army,
+let alone a navy.
+
+"And think you that gentlemen of such spirit and resources will lack
+either for long?"  he demanded, his eye flashing.
+
+"Then I know nothing of a ship save the little I learned on the John," I
+said.
+
+"You were born for the sea, Richard," he exclaimed, raising his glass
+high.  "And I would rather have one of your brains and strength and
+handiness than any merchant's mate I ever sailed with.  The more
+gentlemen get commissions, the better will be our new service."
+
+At that instant came a knock at the door, and one of the inn negroes
+to say that Captain Clapsaddle was below, and desired to see me.
+I persuaded John Paul to descend with me.  We found Captain Daniel seated
+with Mr. Carroll, the barrister, and Mr. Chase.
+
+"Captain," I said to my old friend, "I have a rare joy this day in making
+known to you Mr. John Paul Jones, of whom I have spoken to you a score of
+times.  He it is whose bravery sank the Black Moll, whose charity took me
+to London, and who got no other reward for his faith than three weeks in
+a debtors' prison.  For his honour, as I have told you, would allow him
+to accept none, nor his principles to take the commission in the Royal
+Navy which Mr. Fox offered him."
+
+Captain Daniel rose, his honest face flushing with pleasure.  "Faith, Mr.
+Jones," he cried, when John Paul had finished one of his elaborate bows,
+"this is well met, indeed.  I have been longing these many years for a
+chance to press your hand, and in the names of those who are dead and
+gone to express my gratitude."
+
+"I have my reward now, captain," replied John Paul; "a sight of you
+is to have Richard's whole life revealed.  And what says Mr. Congreve?
+
+             "'For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
+               And tho' a late, a sure reward succeeds.'
+
+"Tho' I would not have you believe that my deed was virtuous.  And you,
+who know Richard, may form some notion of the pleasure I had out of his
+companionship."
+
+I hastened to present my friend to the other gentlemen, who welcomed him
+with warmth, though they could not keep their amusement wholly out of
+their faces.
+
+"Mr. Jones is now the possessor of an estate in Virginia, sirs," I
+explained.
+
+"And do you find it more to your taste than seafaring, Mr. Jones?"
+inquired Mr. Chase.
+
+This brought forth a most vehement protest, and another quotation.
+
+"Why, sir," he cried, "to be
+
+             'Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot,
+               To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot,'
+
+is an animal's existence.  I have thrown it over, sir, with a right good
+will, and am now on my way to Philadelphia to obtain a commission in the
+navy soon to be born."
+
+Mr. Chase smiled.  John Paul little suspected that he was a member of the
+Congress.
+
+"This is news indeed, Mr. Jones," he said.  "I have yet to hear of the
+birth of this infant navy, for which we have not yet begun to make
+swaddling clothes."
+
+"We are not yet an infant state, sir," Mr. Carroll put in, with a shade
+of rebuke.  For Maryland was well content with the government she had
+enjoyed, and her best patriots long after shunned the length of
+secession.  "I believe and pray that the King will come to his senses.
+And as for the navy, it is folly.  How can we hope to compete with
+England on the sea?"
+
+"All great things must have a beginning sir," replied John Paul,
+launching forth at once, nothing daunted by such cold conservatism.
+"What Israelite brickmaker of Pharaoh's dreamed of Solomon's temple?
+Nay, Moses himself had no conception of it.  And God will send us our
+pillars of cloud and of fire.  We must be reconciled to our great
+destiny, Mr. Carroll.  No fight ever was won by man or nation content
+with half a victory.  We have forests to build an hundred armadas, and I
+will command a fleet and it is given me."
+
+The gentlemen listened in astonishment.
+
+"I' faith, I believe you, sir," cried Captain Daniel, with admiration.
+
+The others, too, were somehow fallen under the spell of this remarkable
+individuality.  "What plan would you pursue, sir?"  asked Mr. Chase,
+betraying more interest than he cared to show.
+
+"What plan, sir!" said Captain John Paul, those wonderful eyes of his
+alight.  "In the first place, we Americans build the fastest ships in the
+world,--yours of the Chesapeake are as fleet as any.  Here, if I am not
+mistaken, one hundred and eighty-two were built in the year '71.  They
+are idle now.  To them I would issue letters of marque, to harry
+England's trade.  From Carolina to Maine we have the wood and iron to
+build cruisers, in harbours that may not easily be got at.  And skilled
+masters and seamen to elude the enemy."
+
+"But a navy must be organized, sir.  It must be an unit," objected Mr.
+Carroll.  "And you would not for many years have force enough, or
+discipline enough, to meet England's navy."
+
+"I would never meet it, sir," he replied instantly.  "That would be the
+height of folly.  I would divide our forces into small, swift-sailing
+squadrons, of strength sufficient to repel his cruisers.  And I would
+carry the war straight into his unprotected ports of trade.  I can name
+a score of such defenceless places, and I know every shoal of their
+harbours.  For example, Whitehaven might be entered.  That is a town of
+fifty thousand inhabitants.  The fleet of merchantmen might with the
+greatest ease be destroyed, a contribution levied, and Ireland's coal cut
+off for a winter.  The whole of the shipping might be swept out of the
+Clyde.  Newcastle is another likely place, and in almost any of the Irish
+ports valuable vessels may be found.  The Baltic and West Indian fleets
+are to be intercepted.  I have reflected upon these matters for years,
+gentlemen.  They are perfectly feasible.  And I'll warrant you cannot
+conceive the havoc and consternation their fulfilment would spread in
+England."
+
+If the divine power of genius ever made itself felt, 'twas on that May
+evening, at candle-light, in the Annapolis Coffee House.  With my own
+eyes I witnessed two able and cautious statesmen of a cautious province
+thrilled to the pitch of enthusiasm by this strange young man of eight
+and twenty.  As for good Captain Daniel, enthusiasm is but a poor word to
+express his feelings.  A map was sent for and spread out upon the table.
+And it was a late hour when Mr. Chase and Mr. Carroll went home,
+profoundly impressed.  Mr. Chase charged John Paul look him up in
+Congress.
+
+The next morning I bade Captain Daniel a solemn good-by, and rode away
+with John Paul to Baltimore.  Thence we took stage to New Castle on the
+Delaware, and were eventually landed by Mr. Tatlow's stage-boat at
+Crooked Billet wharf, Philadelphia.
+
+     A BRIEF SUMMARY, WHICH BRINGS THIS BIOGRAPHY TO THE FAMOUS
+     FIGHT OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS
+
+                    BY DANIEL CLAPSADDLE CARVEL
+
+Mr. Richard Carvel refers here to the narrative of his experiences in the
+War of the Revolution, which he had written in the year 1805 or 1806.
+The insertion of that account would swell this book, already too long,
+out of all proportion.  Hence I take it upon myself, with apologies, to
+compress it.
+
+Not until October of that year, 1775, was the infant navy born.  Mr.
+Carvel was occupied in the interval in the acquirement of practical
+seamanship and the theory of maritime warfare under the most competent of
+instructors, John Paul Jones.  An interesting side light is thrown upon
+the character of that hero by the fact that, with all his supreme
+confidence in his ability, he applied to Congress only for a first
+lieutenancy.  This was in deference to the older men before that body.
+"I hoped," said he, "in that rank to gain much useful knowledge from
+those of more experience than myself."  His lack of assertion for once
+cost him dear.  He sailed on the New Providence expedition under
+Commodore Hopkins as first lieutenant of the Alfred, thirty; and he soon
+discovered that, instead of gaining information, he was obliged to inform
+others.  He trained the men so thoroughly in the use of the great guns
+"that they went through the motions of broadsides and rounds exactly as
+soldiers generally perform the manual exercise."
+
+Captain Jones was not long in fixing the attention and earning the
+gratitude of the nation, and of its Commander-in-Chief, General
+Washington.  While in command of the Providence, twelve four-pounders,
+his successful elusions of the 'Cerberus', which hounded him, and his
+escape from the 'Solebay', are too famous to be dwelt upon here.
+Obtaining the Alfred, he captured and brought into Boston ten thousand
+suits of uniform for Washington's shivering army.  Then, by the bungling
+of Congress, thirteen officers were promoted over his head.  The
+bitterness this act engendered in the soul of one whose thirst for
+distinction was as great as Captain Jones's may be imagined.  To his
+everlasting credit be it recorded that he remained true to the country to
+which he had dedicated his life and his talents.  And it was not until
+1781 that he got the justice due him.
+
+That the rough and bluff captains of the American service should have
+regarded a man of Paul Jones's type with suspicion is not surprising.
+They resented his polish and accomplishments, and could not understand
+his language.  Perhaps it was for this reason, as well as a reward for
+his brilliant services, that he was always given a separate command.  In
+the summer of 1777 he was singled out for the highest gift in the power
+of the United States, nothing less than that of the magnificent frigate
+'Indien', then building at Amsterdam.  And he was ordered to France in
+command of the 'Ranger', a new ship then fitting at Portsmouth.  Captain
+Jones was the admiration of ail the young officers in the navy, and was
+immediately flooded with requests to sail with him.  One of his first
+acts, after receiving his command, was to apply to the Marine Committee
+for Mr. Carvel.  The favour was granted.
+
+My grandfather had earned much commendation from his superiors.  He had
+sailed two cruises as master's mate of the Cabot, and was then serving as
+master of the Trumbull, Captain Saltonstall.  This was shortly after that
+frigate had captured the two British transports off New York.
+
+Captain Jones has been at pains to mention in his letters the services
+rendered him by Mr. Carvel in fitting out the Ranger.  And my grandfather
+gives a striking picture of the captain.  At that time the privateers,
+with the larger inducements of profit they offered, were getting all the
+best seamen.  John Paul had but to take two turns with a man across the
+dock, and he would sign papers.
+
+Captain Jones was the first to raise the new flag of the stars and
+stripes over a man-o'-war.  They got away on November 14, 1777, with a
+fair crew and a poor lot of officers.  Mr. Carvel had many a brush with
+the mutinous first lieutenant Simpson.  Family influence deterred the
+captain from placing this man under arrest, and even Dr. Franklin found
+trouble, some years after, in bringing about his dismissal from the
+service.  To add to the troubles, the Ranger proved crank and slow-
+sailing; and she had only one barrel of rum aboard, which made the men
+discontented.
+
+Bringing the official news of Burgoyne's surrender, which was to cause
+King Louis to acknowledge the independence of the United States, the
+Ranger arrived at Nantes, December 2.  Mr. Carvel accompanied Captain
+Jones to Paris, where a serious blow awaited him.  The American
+Commissioners informed him that the Indien had been transferred to France
+to prevent her confiscation.  That winter John Paul spent striving in
+vain for a better ship, and imbibing tactics from the French admirals.
+Incidentally, he obtained a salute for the American flag.  The cruise of
+the Ranger in English waters the following spring was a striking
+fulfilment, with an absurdly poor and inadequate force, of the plan set
+forth by John Paul Jones in the Annapolis Coffee House.  His descent upon
+Whitehaven spread terror and consternation broadcast through England, and
+he was branded as a pirate and a traitor.  Mr. Carvel was fortunately not
+of the landing party on St. Mary's Isle, which place he had last beheld
+in John Paul's company, on the brigantine John, when entering
+Kirkcudbright.  The object of that expedition, as is well known, was to
+obtain the person of the Earl of Selkirk, in order to bring about the
+rescue of the unfortunate Americans suffering in British prisons.  After
+the celebrated capture of the sloop-of-war Drake, Paul Jones returned to
+France a hero.
+
+If Captain Jones was ambitious of personal glory, he may never, at least,
+be accused of mercenary motives.  The ragged crew of the Ranger was paid
+in part out of his own pocket, and for a whole month he supported the
+Drake's officers and men, no provision having been made for prisoners.
+He was at large expense in fitting out the Ranger, and he bought back at
+twice what it was worth the plate taken from St. Mary's Isle, getting but
+a tardy recognition from the Earl of Selkirk for such a noble and
+unheard-of action.  And, I take pride in writing it, Mr. Carvel spent
+much of what he had earned at Gordon's Pride in a like honourable manner.
+
+Mr. Carvel's description of the hero's reception at Versailles is graphic
+and very humorous.  For all his republican principles John Paul never got
+over his love of courts, and no man was ever a more thorough courtier.
+He exchanged compliments with Queen Marie Antoinette, who was then in the
+bloom of her beauty, and declared that she was a "good girl, and deserved
+to be happy."
+
+The unruly Simpson sailed for America in the Ranger in July, Captain
+Jones being retained in France "for a particular enterprise."  And
+through the kindness of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Carvel remained with him.  Then
+followed another period of heartrending disappointment.  The fine ship
+the French government promised him was not forthcoming, though Captain
+Jones wrote a volume of beautiful letters to every one of importance,
+from her Royal Highness the Duchess of Chartres to his Most Christian
+Majesty, Louis, King of France and Navarre.  At length, when he was
+sitting one day in unusual dejection and railing at the vanity of courts
+and kings, Mr. Carvel approached him with a book in his hand.
+
+"What have you there, Richard?" the captain demanded.
+
+"Dr. Franklin's Maxims," replied my grandfather.  They were great
+favourites with him.  The captain took the book and began mechanically
+to turn over the pages.  Suddenly he closed it with a bang, jumped up,
+and put on his coat and hat.  Mr. Carvel looked on in astonishment.
+
+"Where are you going, sir?"  says he.
+
+"To Paris, sir," says the captain.  "Dr. Franklin has taught me more
+wisdom in a second than I had in all my life before.  'If you wish to
+have any business faithfully and expeditiously performed, go and do it
+yourself; otherwise, send.'"
+
+As a result of that trip he got the Duras, which he renamed the 'Bon
+homme Richard' in honour of Dr. Franklin.  The Duras was an ancient
+Indiaman with a high poop, which made my grandfather exclaim, when he saw
+her, at the remarkable fulfilment of old Stanwix's prophecy.  She was
+perfectly rotten, and in the constructor's opinion not worth refitting.
+Her lowest deck (too low for the purpose) was pierced aft with three
+ports on a side, and six worn-out eighteen-pounders mounted there.  Some
+of them burst in the action, killing their people.  The main battery, on
+the deck above, was composed of twenty-eight twelve-pounders.  On the
+uncovered deck eight nine-pounders were mounted.  Captain Jones again
+showed his desire to serve the cause by taking such a ship, and not
+waiting for something better.
+
+In the meantime the American frigate 'Alliance' had brought Lafayette to
+France, and was added to the little squadron that was to sail with the
+'Bon homme Richard'.  One of the most fatal mistakes Congress ever made
+was to put Captain Pierre Landais in command of her, out of compliment to
+the French allies.  He was a man whose temper and vagaries had failed to
+get him a command in his own navy.  His insulting conduct and treachery
+to Captain Jones are strongly attested to in Mr. Carvel's manuscript:
+they were amply proved by the written statements of other officers.
+
+The squadron sailed from L'Orient in June, but owing to a collision
+between the Bon homme Richard and the Alliance it was forced to put back
+into the Groix roads for repairs.  Nails and rivets were with difficulty
+got to hold in the sides of the old Indianian.  On August 14th John Paul
+Jones again set sail for English waters, with the following vessels:
+Alliance, thirty-six; Pallas, thirty; Cerf, eighteen; Vengeance, twelve;
+and two French privateers.  Owing to the humiliating conditions imposed
+upon him by the French Minister of Marine, Commodore Jones did not have
+absolute command.  In a gale on the 26th the two privateers and the Cerf
+parted company, never to return.  After the most outrageous conduct off
+the coast of Ireland, Landais, in the 'Alliance', left the squadron on
+September 6th, and did not reappear until the 23d, the day of the battle.
+
+Mr. Carvel was the third lieutenant of the 'Bon homme Richard', tho' he
+served as second in the action.  Her first lieutenant (afterwards the
+celebrated Commodore Richard Dale) was a magnificent man, one worthy in
+every respect of the captain he served.  When the hour of battle arrived,
+these two and the sailing master, and a number of raw midshipmen, were
+the only line-officers left, and two French officers of marines.
+
+The rest had been lost in various ways.  And the crew of the 'Bon homme
+Richard' was as sorry a lot as ever trod a deck.  Less than three score
+of the seamen were American born; near four score were British, inclusive
+of sixteen Irish; one hundred and thirty-seven were French soldiers, who
+acted as marines; and the rest of the three hundred odd souls to fight
+her were from all over the earth,--Malays and Maltese and Portuguese.
+In the hold were more than one hundred and fifty English prisoners.
+
+This was a vessel and a force, truly, with which to conquer a fifty-gun
+ship of the latest type, and with a picked crew.
+
+Mr. Carvel's chapter opens with Landais's sudden reappearance on the
+morning of the day the battle was fought.  He shows the resentment and
+anger against the Frenchman felt by all on board, from cabin-boy to
+commodore.  But none went so far as to accuse the captain of the
+'Alliance' of such supreme treachery as he was to show during the action.
+Cowardice may have been in part responsible for his holding aloof from
+the two duels in which the Richard and the Pallas engaged.  But the fact
+that he poured broadsides into the Richard, and into her off side, makes
+it seem probable that his motive was to sink the commodore's ship, and so
+get the credit of saving the day, to the detriment of the hero who won it
+despite all disasters.  To account for the cry that was raised when first
+she attacked the Richard, it must be borne in mind that the crew of the
+'Alliance' was largely composed of Englishmen.  It was thought that these
+had mutinied and taken her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII
+
+HOW THE GARDENER'S SON FOUGHT THE "SERAPIS"
+
+When I came on deck the next morning our yards were a-drip with a clammy
+fog, and under it the sea was roughed by a southwest breeze.  We were
+standing to the northward before it.  I remember reflecting as I paused
+in the gangway that the day was Thursday, September the 23d, and that we
+were near two months out of Groix with this tub of an Indiaman.  In all
+that time we had not so much as got a whiff of an English frigate, though
+we had almost put a belt around the British Isles.  Then straining my
+eyes through the mist, I made out two white blurs of sails on our
+starboard beam.
+
+Honest Jack Pearce, one of the few good seamen we had aboard, was rubbing
+down one of the nines beside me.
+
+"Why, Jack," said I, "what have we there?  Another prize?"  For that
+question had become a joke on board the 'Bon homme Richard' since the
+prisoners had reached an hundred and fifty, and half our crew was gone to
+man the ships.
+
+"Bless your 'art, no, sir," said he.  "'Tis that damned Frenchy Landais
+in th' Alliance.  She turns up with the Pallas at six bells o' the middle
+watch."
+
+"So he's back, is he?"
+
+"Ay, he's back," he returned, with a grunt that was half a growl; "arter
+three weeks breakin' o' liberty.  I tell 'ee what, sir, them Frenchies is
+treecherous devils, an' not to be trusted the len'th of a lead line.  An'
+they beant seamen eno' to keep a full an' by with all their 'takteek'.
+Ez fer that Landais, I hearn him whinin' at the commodore in the round
+house when we was off Clear, an' sayin' as how he would tell Sartin on us
+when he gets back to Paree.  An' jabberin to th'other Frenchmen as was
+there that this here butter-cask was er King's ship, an' that the
+commodore weren't no commodore nohow.  They say as how Cap'n Jones be
+bound up in a hard knot by some articles of agreement, an' daresn't
+punish him.  Be that so, Mr. Carvel?"
+
+I said that it was.
+
+"Shiver my bulkheads!"  cried Jack, "I gave my oath to that same, sir.
+For I knowed the commodore was the lad t' string 'em to the yard-arm an'
+he had the say on it.  Oh, the devil take the Frenchies," said Jack,
+rolling his quid to show his pleasure of the topic, "they sits on their
+bottoms in Brest and L'Oriong an' talks takteek wi' their han's and
+mouths, and daresn't as much as show the noses o' their three-deckers in
+th' Bay o' Biscay, while Cap'n Jones pokes his bowsprit into every port
+in England with a hulk the rats have left.  I've had my bellyful o'
+Frenchies, Mr. Carvell save it be to fight 'em.  An' I tell 'ee 'twould
+give me the greatest joy in life t' leave loose 'Scolding Sairy' at that
+there Landais.  Th' gal ain't had a match on her this here cruise, an' t'
+my mind she couldn't be christened better, sir."
+
+I left him patting the gun with a tender affection.
+
+The scene on board was quiet and peaceful enough that morning.  A knot of
+midshipmen on the forecastle were discussing Landais's conduct, and
+cursing the concordat which prevented our commodore from bringing him up
+short.  Mr. Stacey, the sailing-master, had the deck, and the coasting
+pilot was conning; now and anon the boatswain's whistle piped for Garrett
+or Quito or Fogg to lay aft to the mast, where the first lieutenant stood
+talking to Colonel de Chamillard, of the French marines.  The scavengers
+were sweeping down, and part of the after guard was bending a new bolt-
+rope on a storm staysail.
+
+Then the--fore-topmast crosstrees reports a sail on the weather quarter,
+the Richard is brought around on the wind, and away we go after a
+brigantine, "flying like a snow laden with English bricks," as Midshipman
+Coram jokingly remarks.  A chase is not such a novelty with us that we
+crane our necks to windward.
+
+At noon, when I relieved Mr. Stacey of the deck, the sun had eaten up the
+fog, and the shores of England stood out boldly.  Spurn Head was looming
+up across our bows, while that of Flamborough jutted into the sea behind
+us.  I had the starboard watch piped to dinner, and reported twelve
+o'clock to the commodore.  And had just got permission to "make it,"
+according to a time-honoured custom at sea, when another "Sail, ho!" came
+down from aloft.
+
+"Where away?"  called back Mr. Linthwaite, who was midshipman of the
+forecastle.
+
+"Starboard quarter, rounding Flamborough Head, sir.  Looks like a full-
+rigged ship, sir."
+
+I sent the messenger into the great cabin to report.  He was barely out
+of sight before a second cry came from the masthead: "Another sail
+rounding Flamborough, sir!"
+
+The officers on deck hurried to the taffrail.  I had my glass, but not a
+dot was visible above the sea-line.  The messenger was scarcely back
+again when there came a third hail: "Two more rounding the head, sir!
+Four in all, sir!"
+
+Here was excitement indeed.  Without waiting for instructions, I gave the
+command:
+
+"Up royal yards!  Royal yardmen in the tops!"
+
+We were already swaying out of the chains, when Lieutenant Dale appeared
+and asked the coasting pilot what fleet it was.  He answered that it was
+the Baltic fleet, under convoy of the Countess of Scarborough, twenty
+guns, and the Serapis, forty-four.
+
+"Forty-four," repeated Mr. Dale, smiling; "that means fifty, as English
+frigates are rated.  We shall have our hands full this day, my lads,"
+said he.  "You have done well to get the royals on her, Mr. Carvel."
+
+While he was yet speaking, three more sail were reported from aloft.
+Then there was a hush on deck, and the commodore himself appeared.  As he
+reached the poop we saluted him and informed him of what had happened.
+
+"The Baltic fleet," said he, promptly.  "Call away the pilotboat with Mr.
+Lunt to follow the brigantine, sir, and ease off before the wind.  Signal
+'General Chase' to the squadron, Mr. Mayrant."
+
+The men had jumped to the weather braces before I gave the command, and
+all the while more sail were counting from the crosstrees, until their
+number had reached forty-one.  The news spread over the ship; the
+starboard watch trooped up with their dinners half eaten.  Then a faint
+booming of guns drifted down upon our ears.
+
+"They've got sight of us, sir," shouted the lookout.  "They be firing
+guns to windward, an' letting fly their topgallant sheets."
+
+At that the commodore hurried forward, the men falling back to the
+bulwarks respectfully, and he mounted the fore-rigging as agile as any
+topman, followed by his aide with a glass.  From the masthead he sung out
+to me to set our stu'nsails, and he remained aloft till near seven bells
+of the watch.  At that hour the merchantmen had all scuttled to safety
+behind the head, and from the deck a great yellow King's frigate could be
+plainly seen standing south to meet us, followed by her smaller consort.
+Presently she hove to, and through our glasses we discerned a small boat
+making for her side, and then a man clambering up her sea-ladder.
+
+"That be the bailiff of Scarborough, sir," said the coasting pilot, "come
+to tell her cap'n 'tis Paul Jones he has to fight."
+
+At that moment the commodore lay down from aloft, and our hearts beat
+high as he walked swiftly aft to the quarterdeck, where he paused for a
+word with Mr. Dale.  Meanwhile Mr. Mayrant hove out the signal for the
+squadron to form line of battle.
+
+"Recall the pilot-boat, Mr. Carvel," said the commodore, quietly.  "Then
+you may beat to quarters, and I will take the ship, sir."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."  I raised my trumpet.  "All hands clear ship for action!"
+
+It makes me sigh now to think of the cheer which burst from that
+tatterdemalion crew.  Who were they to fight the bone and sinew of the
+King's navy in a rotten ship of an age gone by?  And who was he, that
+stood so straight upon the quarter-deck, to instil this scum with love
+and worship and fervour to blind them to such odds?  But the bo'suns
+piped and sang out the command in fog-horn voices, the drums beat the
+long roll and the fifes whistled, and the decks became suddenly alive.
+Breechings were loosed and gun-tackles unlashed, rammer and sponge laid
+out, and pike and pistol and cutlass placed where they would be handy
+when the time came to rush the enemy's decks.  The powder-monkeys tumbled
+over each other in their hurry to provide cartridges, and grape and
+canister and doubleheaded shot were hoisted up from below.  The trimmers
+rigged the splinter nettings, got out spare spars and blocks and ropes
+against those that were sure to be shot away, and rolled up casks of
+water to put out the fires.  Tubs were filled with sand, for blood is
+slippery upon the boards.  The French marines, their scarlet and white
+very natty in contrast to most of our ragged wharf-rats at the guns, were
+mustered on poop and forecastle, and some were sent aloft to the tops to
+assist the tars there to sweep the British decks with handgrenade and
+musket.  And, lastly, the surgeon and his mates went below to cockpit and
+steerage, to make ready for the grimmest work of all.
+
+My own duties took me to the dark lower deck, a vile place indeed, and
+reeking with the smell of tar and stale victuals.  There I had charge of
+the battery of old eighteens, while Mr. Dale commanded the twelves on the
+middle deck.  We loaded our guns with two shots apiece, though I had my
+doubts about their standing such a charge, and then the men stripped
+until they stood naked to the waist, waiting for the fight to begin.  For
+we could see nothing of what was going forward.  I was pacing up and
+down, for it was a task to quiet the nerves in that dingy place with the
+gun-ports closed, when about three bells of the dog, Mr. Mease, the
+purser, appeared on the ladder.
+
+"Lunt has not come back with the pilot-boat, Carvel," said he.  "I have
+volunteered for a battery, and am assigned to this.  You are to report to
+the commodore."
+
+I thanked him, and climbed quickly to the quarterdeck.  The 'Bon homme
+Richard' was lumbering like a leaden ship before the wind, swaying
+ponderously, her topsails flapping and her heavy blocks whacking against
+the yards.  And there was the commodore, erect, and with fire in his eye,
+giving sharp commands to the men at the wheel.  I knew at once that no
+trifle had disturbed him.  He wore a brand-new uniform; a blue coat with
+red lapels and yellow buttons, and slashed cuffs and stand-up collar, a
+red waistcoat with tawny lace, blue breeches, white silk stockings, and a
+cocked hat and a sword.  Into his belt were stuck two brace of pistols.
+
+It took some effort to realize, as I waited silently for his attention,
+that this was the man of whose innermost life I had had so intimate a
+view.  Who had taken me to the humble cottage under Criffel, who had
+poured into my ear his ambitions and his wrongs when we had sat together
+in the dingy room of the Castle Yard sponging-house.  Then some of those
+ludicrous scenes on the road to London came up to me, for which the sky-
+blue frock was responsible.  And yet this commodore was not greatly
+removed from him I had first beheld on the brigantine John.  His
+confidence in his future had not so much as wavered since that day.  That
+future was now not so far distant as the horizon, and he was ready to
+meet it.
+
+"You will take charge of the battery of nines on this deck, Mr. Carvel,"
+said he, at length.
+
+"Very good, sir," I replied, and was making my way down the poop ladder,
+when I heard him calling me, in a low voice, by the old name: "Richard!"
+
+I turned and followed him aft to the taffrail, where we were clear of the
+French soldiers.  The sun was hanging red over the Yorkshire Wolds, the
+Head of Flamborough was in the blue shadow, and the clouds were like rose
+leaves in the sky.  The enemy had tacked and was standing west, with
+ensign and jack and pennant flying, the level light washing his sails to
+the whiteness of paper.  'Twas then I first remarked that the Alliance
+had left her place in line and was sailing swiftly ahead toward the
+Serapis.  The commodore seemed to read my exclamation.
+
+"Landais means to ruin me yet, by hook or crook," said he.
+
+"But he can't intend to close with them," I replied.  "He has not the
+courage."
+
+"God knows what he intends," said the commodore, bitterly.  "It is no
+good, at all events."
+
+My heart bled for him.  Some minutes passed that he did not speak, making
+shift to raise his glass now and again, and I knew that he was gripped by
+a strong emotion.  "'Twas so he ever behaved when the stress was
+greatest.  Presently he lays down the glass on the signal-chest, fumbles
+in his coat, and brings out the little gold brooch I had not set eyes on
+since Dolly and he and I had stood together on the Betsy's deck.
+
+"When you see her, Richard, tell her that I have kept it as sacred as her
+memory," he said thickly.  "She will recall what I spoke of you when she
+gave it me.  You have been leal and true to me indeed, and many a black
+hour have you tided me over since this war' began.  Do you know how she
+may be directed to?"  he concluded, with abruptness.
+
+I glanced at him, surprised at the question.  He was staring at the
+English shore.
+
+"Mr. Ripley, of Lincoln's Inn, used to be Mr. Manners's lawyer," I
+answered.
+
+He took out a little note-book and wrote that down carefully.  "And now,"
+he continued, "God keep you, my friend.  We must win, for we fight with a
+rope around our necks."
+
+"But you, Captain Paul," I said, "is--is there no one?"
+
+His face took on the look of melancholy it had worn so often of late,
+despite his triumphs.  That look was the stamp of fate.
+
+"Richard," replied he, with an ineffable sadness, "I am naught but a
+wanderer upon the face of the earth.  I have no ties, no kindred,--no
+real friends, save you and Dale, and some of these honest fellows whom
+I lead to slaughter.  My ambition is seamed with a flaw.  And all my life
+I must be striving, striving, until I am laid in the grave.  I know that
+now, and it is you yourself who have taught me.  For I have violently
+broken forth from those bounds which God in His wisdom did set."
+
+I pressed his hand, and with bowed head went back to my station,
+profoundly struck by the truth of what he had spoken.  Though he fought
+under the flag of freedom, the curse of the expatriated was upon his
+head.
+
+Shortly afterward he appeared at the poop rail, straight and alert, his
+eye piercing each man as it fell on him.  He was the commodore once more.
+
+The twilight deepened, until you scarce could see your hands.  There was
+no sound save the cracking of the cabins and the tumbling of the blocks,
+and from time to time a muttered command.  An age went by before the
+trimmers were sent to the lee braces, and the Richard rounded lazily to.
+And a great frigate loomed out of the night beside us, half a pistolshot
+away.
+
+"What ship is that?"  came the hail, intense out of the silence.
+
+"I don't hear you," replied our commodore, for he had not yet got his
+distance.
+
+Again came the hail: "What ship is that?"
+
+John Paul Jones leaned forward over the rail.
+
+"Pass the word below to the first lieutenant to begin the action, sir."
+
+Hardly were the words out of my mouth before the deck gave a mighty leap,
+a hot wind that seemed half of flame blew across my face, and the roar
+started the pain throbbing in my ears.  At the same instant the screech
+of shot sounded overhead, we heard the sharp crack-crack of wood rending
+and splitting,--as with a great broadaxe,--and a medley of blocks and
+ropes rattled to the deck with the 'thud of the falling bodies.  Then,
+instead of stillness, moans and shrieks from above and below, oaths and
+prayers in English and French and Portuguese, and in the heathen
+gibberish of the East.  As the men were sponging and ramming home in the
+first fury of hatred, the carpenter jumped out under the battle-lanthorn
+at the main hatch, crying in a wild voice that the old eighteens had
+burst, killing half their crews and blowing up the gundeck above them.
+At this many of our men broke and ran for the hatches.
+
+"Back, back to your quarters!  The first man to desert will be shot
+down!"
+
+It was the same strange voice that had quelled the mutiny on the John,
+that had awed the men of Kirkcudbright.  The tackles were seized and the
+guns run out once more, and fired, and served again in an agony of haste.
+In the darkness shot shrieked hither and thither about us like demons,
+striking everywhere, sometimes sending casks of salt water over the
+nettings.  Incessantly the quartermaster walked to and fro scattering
+sand over the black pools that kept running, running together as the
+minutes were tolled out, and the red flashes from the guns revealed faces
+in a hideous contortion.  One little fellow, with whom I had had many a
+lively word at mess, had his arm taken off at the shoulder as he went
+skipping past me with the charge under his coat, and I have but to listen
+now to hear the patter of the blood on the boards as they carried him
+away to the cockpit below.  Out of the main hatch, from that charnel
+house, rose one continuous cry.  It was an odd trick of the mind or soul
+that put a hymn on my lips in that dreadful hour of carnage and human
+misery, when men were calling the name of their Maker in vain.  But as
+I ran from crew to crew, I sang over and over again a long-forgotten
+Christmas carol, and with it came a fleeting memory of my mother on the
+stairs at Carvel Hall, and of the negroes gathered on the lawn without.
+
+Suddenly, glancing up at the dim cloud of sails above, I saw that we were
+aback and making sternway.  We might have tossed a biscuit aboard the big
+Serapis as she glided ahead of us.  The broadsides thundered, and great
+ragged scantlings brake from our bulwarks and flew as high as the mizzen-
+top; and the shrieks and groans redoubled.  Involuntarily my eyes sought
+the poop, and I gave a sigh of relief at the sight of the commanding
+figure in the midst of the whirling smoke.  We shotted our guns with
+double-headed, manned our lee braces, and gathered headway.
+
+"Stand by to board!"
+
+The boatswains' whistles trilled through the ship, pikes were seized, and
+pistol and cutlass buckled on.  But even as we waited with set teeth, our
+bows ground into the enemy's weather quarter-gallery.  For the Richard's
+rigging was much cut away, and she was crank at best.  So we backed and
+filled once more, passing the Englishman close aboard, himself being
+aback at the time.  Several of his shot crushed through the bulwarks in
+front of me, shattering a nine-pounder and killing half of its crew.  And
+it is only a miracle that I stand alive to be able to tell the tale.
+Then I caught a glimpse of the quartermaster whirling the spokes of our
+wheel, and over went our helm to lay us athwart the forefoot of the
+'Serapis', where we might rake and rush her decks.  Our old Indiaman
+answered but doggedly; and the huge bowsprit of the Serapis, towering
+over our heads, snapped off our spanker gaff and fouled our mizzen
+rigging.
+
+"A hawser, Mr. Stacey, a hawser!" I heard the commodore shout, and saw
+the sailing-master slide down the ladder and grope among the dead and
+wounded and mass of broken spars and tackles, and finally pick up a
+smeared rope's end, which I helped him drag to the poop.  There we found
+the commodore himself taking skilful turns around the mizzen with the
+severed stays and shrouds dangling from the bowsprit, the French marines
+looking on.
+
+"Don't swear, Mr. Stacey," said he, severely; "in another minute we may
+all be in eternity."
+
+I rushed back to my guns, for the wind was rapidly swinging the stern of
+the Serapis to our own bow, now bringing her starboard batteries into
+play.  Barely had we time to light our snatches and send our broadside
+into her at three fathoms before the huge vessels came crunching
+together, the disordered riggings locking, and both pointed northward to
+a leeward tide in a death embrace.  The chance had not been given him to
+shift his crews or to fling open his starboard gun-ports.
+
+Then ensued a moment's breathless hush, even the cries of those in agony
+lulling.  The pall of smoke rolled a little, and a silver moonlight
+filtered through, revealing the weltering bodies twisted upon the boards.
+A stern call came from beyond the bulwarks.
+
+"Have you struck, sir?"
+
+The answer sounded clear, and bred hero-worship in our souls.
+
+"Sir, I have not yet begun to fight."
+
+Our men raised a hoarse yell, drowned all at once by the popping of
+musketry in the tops and the bursting of grenades here and there about
+the decks.  A mighty muffled blast sent the Bon homme Richard rolling to
+larboard, and the smoke eddied from our hatches and lifted out of the
+space between the ships.  The Englishman had blown off his gun-ports.
+And next some one shouted that our battery of twelves was fighting them
+muzzle to muzzle below, our rammers leaning into the Serapis to send
+their shot home.  No chance then for the thoughts which had tortured us
+in moments of suspense.  That was a fearful hour, when a shot had scarce
+to leap a cannon's length to find its commission; when the belches of the
+English guns burned the hair of our faces; when Death was sovereign,
+merciful or cruel at his pleasure.  The red flashes disclosed many an act
+of coolness and of heroism.  I saw a French lad whip off his coat when a
+gunner called for a wad, and another, who had been a scavenger, snatch
+the rammer from Pearce's hands when he staggered with a grape-shot
+through his chest.  Poor Jack Pearce!  He did not live to see the work
+'Scolding Sairy' was to do that night.  I had but dragged him beyond
+reach of the recoil when he was gone.
+
+Then a cry came floating down from aloft.  Thrice did I hear it, like one
+waking out of a sleep, ere I grasped its import.  "The Alliance!  The
+Alliance!"  But hardly had the name resounded with joy throughout the
+ship, when a hail of grape and canister tore through our sails from aft
+forward.  "She rakes us!  She rakes us!"  And the French soldiers tumbled
+headlong down from the poop with a wail of "Les Anglais font prise!"
+"Her Englishmen have taken her, and turned her guns against us!" Our
+captain was left standing alone beside the staff where the stars and
+stripes waved black in the moonlight.
+
+"The Alliance is hauling off, sir!"  called the midshipman of the mizzen-
+top.  "She is making for the Pallas and the Countess of Scarborough."
+
+"Very good, sir," was all the commodore said.
+
+To us hearkening for his answer his voice betrayed no sign of dismay.
+Seven times, I say, was that battle lost, and seven times regained again.
+What was it kept the crews at their quarters and the officers at their
+posts through that hell of flame and shot, when a madman could scarce
+have hoped for victory?  What but the knowledge that somewhere in the
+swirl above us was still that unswerving and indomitable man who swept
+all obstacles from before him, and into whose mind the thought of defeat
+could not enter.  His spirit held us to our task, for flesh and blood
+might not have endured alone.
+
+We had now but one of our starboard nine-pounders on its carriage, and
+word came from below that our battery of twelves was all but knocked to
+scrap iron, and their ports blown into one yawning gap.  Indeed, we did
+not have to be told that sides and stanchions had been carried away, for
+the deck trembled and teetered under us as we dragged 'Scolding Sairy'
+from her stand in the larboard waist, clearing a lane for her between the
+bodies.  Our feet slipped and slipped as we hove, and burning bits of
+sails and splinters dropping from aloft fell unheeded on our heads and
+shoulders.  With the energy of desperation I was bending to the pull,
+when the Malay in front of me sank dead across the tackle.  But, ere I
+could touch him, he was tenderly lifted aside, and a familiar figure
+seized the rope where the dead man's hands had warmed it.  Truly, the
+commodore was everywhere that night.
+
+"Down to the surgeon with you, Richard!"  he cried.  "I will look to the
+battery."
+
+Dazed, I put my hand to my hair to find it warm and wringing wet.  When I
+had been hit, I knew not.  But I shook my head, for the very notion of
+that cockpit turned my stomach.  The blood was streaming from a gash in
+his own temple, to which he gave no heed, and stood encouraging that
+panting line until at last the gun was got across and hooked to the ring-
+bolts of its companion that lay shattered there.  "Serve her with double-
+headed, my lads," he shouted, "and every shot into the Englishman's
+mainmast!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," came the answer from every man of that little remnant.
+
+The Serapis, too, was now beginning to blaze aloft, and choking wood-
+smoke eddied out of the Richard's hold and mingled with the powder fumes.
+Then the enemy's fire abreast us seemed to lull, and Mr. Stacey mounted
+the bulwarks, and cried out: "You have cleared their decks, my hearties!"
+Aloft, a man was seen to clamber from our mainyard into the very top of
+the Englishman, where he threw a hand-grenade, as I thought, down her
+main hatch.  An instant after an explosion came like a, clap of thunder
+in our faces, and a great quadrant of light flashed as high as the
+'Serapis's' trucks, and through a breach in her bulwarks I saw men
+running with only the collars of their shirts upon their naked bodies.
+
+'Twas at this critical moment, when that fearful battle once more was
+won, another storm of grape brought the spars about our heads, and that
+name which we dreaded most of all was spread again.  As we halted in
+consternation, a dozen round shot ripped through our unengaged side, and
+a babel of voices hailed the treacherous Landais with oaths and
+imprecations.  We made out the Alliance with a full head of canvas, black
+and sharp, between us and the moon.  Smoke hung above her rail.  Getting
+over against the signal fires blazing on Flamborough Head, she wore ship
+and stood across our bows, the midshipman on the forecastle singing out
+to her, by the commodore's orders, to lay the enemy by the board.  There
+was no response.
+
+"Do you hear us?"  yelled Mr. Linthwaite.
+
+"Ay, ay," came the reply; and with it the smoke broke from her and the
+grape and canister swept our forecastle.  Then the Alliance sailed away,
+leaving brave Mr. Caswell among the many Landais had murdered.
+
+The ominous clank of the chain pumps beat a sort of prelude to what
+happened next.  The gunner burst out of the hatch with blood running down
+his face, shouting that the Richard was sinking, and yelling for quarter
+as he made for the ensign-staff on the poop, for the flag was shot away.
+Him the commodore felled with a pistol-butt.  At the gunner's heels were
+the hundred and fifty prisoners we had taken, released by the master at
+arms.  They swarmed out of the bowels of the ship like a horde of
+Tartars, unkempt and wild and desperate with fear, until I thought that
+the added weight on the scarce-supported deck would land us all in the
+bilges.  Words fail me when I come to describe the frightful panic of
+these creatures, frenzied by the instinct of self-preservation.  They
+surged hither and thither as angry seas driven into a pocket of a storm-
+swept coast.  They trampled rough-shod over the moaning heaps of wounded
+and dying, and crowded the crews at the guns, who were powerless before
+their numbers.  Some fought like maniacs, and others flung themselves
+into the sea.
+
+Those of us who had clung to hope lost it then.  Standing with my back to
+the mast, beating them off with a pike, visions of an English prison-
+ship, of an English gallows, came before me.  I counted the seconds until
+the enemy's seamen would be pouring through our ragged ports.  The
+seventh and last time, and we were beaten, for we had not men enough left
+on our two decks to force them down again.  Yes,--I shame to confess it,
+--the heart went clean out of me, and with that the pain pulsed and
+leaped in my head like a devil unbound.  At a turn of the hand I should
+have sunk to the boards, had not a voice risen strong and clear above
+that turmoil, compelling every man to halt trembling in his steps.
+
+"Cast off, cast off!  'The Serapis' is sinking.  To the pumps, ye fools,
+if you would save your lives!"
+
+That unerring genius of the gardener's son had struck the only chord!
+
+They were like sheep before us as we beat them back into the reeking
+hatches, and soon the pumps were heard bumping with a renewed and a
+desperate vigour.  Then, all at once, the towering mainmast of the enemy
+cracked and tottered and swung this way and that on its loosened shrouds.
+The first intense silence of the battle followed, in the midst of which
+came a cry from our top:
+
+"Their captain is hauling down, sir!"
+
+The sound which broke from our men could scarce be called a cheer.  That
+which they felt as they sank exhausted on the blood of their comrades may
+not have been elation.  My own feeling was of unmixed wonder as I gazed
+at a calm profile above me, sharp-cut against the moon.
+
+I was moved as out of a revery by the sight of Dale swinging across to
+the Serapis by the main brace pennant.  Calling on some of my boarders, I
+scaled our bulwarks and leaped fairly into the middle of the gangway of
+the Serapis.
+
+Such is nearly all of my remembrance of that momentous occasion.  I had
+caught the one glimpse of our first lieutenant in converse with their
+captain and another officer, when a naked seaman came charging at me.  He
+had raised a pike above his shoulder ere I knew what he was about, and my
+senses left me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII
+
+IN WHICH I MAKE SOME DISCOVERIES
+
+The room had a prodigious sense of change about it.  That came over me
+with something of a shock, since the moment before I had it settled that
+I was in Marlboro' Street.  The bare branches swaying in the wind outside
+should belong to the trees in Freshwater Lane.  But beyond the branches
+were houses, the like of which I had no remembrance of in Annapolis.  And
+then my grandfather should be sitting in that window.  Surely, he was
+there!  He moved!  He was coming toward me to say: "Richard, you are
+forgiven," and to brush his eyes with his ruffles.
+
+Then there was the bed-canopy, the pleatings of which were gone, and it
+was turned white instead of the old blue.  And the chimney-place!  That
+was unaccountably smaller, and glowed with a sea-coal fire.  And the
+mantel was now but a bit of a shelf, and held many things that seemed
+scarce at home on the rough and painted wood,--gold filigree; and China
+and Japan, and a French clock that ought not to have been just there.
+Ah, the teacups!  Here at last was something to touch a fibre of my
+brain, but a pain came with the effort of memory.  So my eyes went back
+to my grandfather in the window.  His face was now become black as
+Scipio's, and he wore a red turban and a striped cotton gown that was too
+large for him.  And he was sewing.  This was monstrous!
+
+I hurried over to the tea-cups, such a twinge did that discovery give me.
+But they troubled me near as much, and the sea-coal fire held strange
+images.  The fascination in the window was not to be denied, for it stood
+in line with the houses and the trees.  Suddenly there rose up before me
+a gate.  Yes, I knew that gate, and the girlish figure leaning over it.
+They were in Prince George Street.  Behind them was a mass of golden-rose
+bushes, and out of these came forth a black face under a turban, saying,
+"Yes, mistis, I'se comin'."
+
+"Mammy--Mammy Lucy!"
+
+The figure in the window stirred, and the sewing fell its ample lap.
+
+"Now Lawd'a mercy!"
+
+I trembled--with a violence unspeakable.  Was this but one more of those
+thousand voices, harsh and gentle, rough and tender, to which I had
+listened in vain this age past?  The black face was hovering over me now,
+and in an agony of apprehension I reached up and felt its honest
+roughness.  Then I could have wept for joy.
+
+"Mammy Lucy!"
+
+"Yes, Marse Dick?"
+
+"Where--where is Miss Dolly?"
+
+"Now, Marse Dick, doctah done say you not t' talk, suh."
+
+"Where is Miss Dolly?"  I cried, seizing her arm.
+
+"Hush, Marse Dick.  Miss Dolly'll come terectly, suh.  She's lyin' down,
+suh."
+
+The door creaked, and in my eagerness I tried to lift myself.  'Twas Aunt
+Lucy's hand that restrained me, and the next face I saw was that of
+Dorothy's mother.  But why did it appear so old and sorrow-lined?  And
+why was the hair now of a whiteness with the lace of the cap?  She took
+my fingers in her own, and asked me anxiously if I felt any pain.
+
+"Where am I, Mrs. Manners?"
+
+"You are in London, Richard."
+
+"In Arlington Street?"
+
+She shook her head sadly.  "No, my dear, not in Arlington Street.  But
+you are not to talk."
+
+"And Dorothy?  May I not see Dorothy?  Aunt Lucy tells me she is here."
+
+Mrs. Manners gave the old mammy a glance of reproof, a signal that
+alarmed me vastly.
+
+"Oh, tell me, Mrs. Manners!  You will speak the truth.  Tell me if she is
+gone away?"
+
+"My dear boy, she is here, and under this very roof.  And you shall see
+her as soon as Dr. Barry will permit.  Which will not be soon," she added
+with a smile, "if you persist in this conduct."
+
+The threat had the desired effect.  And Mrs. Manners quietly left the
+room, and after a while as quietly came back again and sat down by the
+fire, whispering to Aunt Lucy.
+
+Fate, in some inexplicable way, had carried me into the enemy's country
+and made me the guest of Mr. Marmaduke Manners.  As I lay staring upward,
+odd little bits of the past came floating to the top of my mind,
+presently to be pieced together.  The injuries Mr. Marmaduke had done me
+were the first to collect, since I was searching for the cause of my
+resentment against him.  The incidents arrived haphazard as magic
+lanthorn views, but very vivid.  His denial of me before Mr. Dix, and his
+treachery at Vauxhall, when he had sent me to be murdered.  Next I felt
+myself clutching the skin over his ribs in Arlington Street, when I had
+flung him across the room in his yellow night-gown.  That brought me to
+the most painful scene of my life, when I had parted with Dorothy at the
+top of the stairs.  Afterward followed scraps of the years at Gordon's
+Pride, and on top of them the talk with McAndrews.  Here was the secret
+I sought.  The crash had come.  And they were no longer in Mayfair, but
+must have taken a house in some poorer part of London.  This thought cast
+me down tremendously.
+
+And Dorothy!  Had time changed her?  'Twas with that query on my lips I
+fell asleep, to dream of the sun shining down on Carvel Hall and Wilmot
+House; of Aunt Hester and Aunt Lucy, and a lass and a lad romping through
+pleasant fields and gardens.
+
+When I awoke it was broad day once more.  A gentleman sat on the edge of
+my bed.  He had a queer, short face, ruddy as the harvest moon, and he
+smiled good-humouredly when I opened my eyes.
+
+"I bid you good morning, Mr. Carvel, for the first time since I have made
+your acquaintance," said he.  "And how do you feel, sir?"
+
+"I have never felt better in my life," I replied, which was the whole
+truth.
+
+"Well, vastly well," says he, laughing, "prodigious well for a young man
+who has as many holes in him as have you.  Do you hear him, Mrs.
+Manners?"
+
+At that last word, I popped up to look about the room, and the doctor
+caught hold of me with ludicrous haste.  A pain shot through my body.
+
+"Avast, avast, my hearty," cries he.  "'Tis a miracle you can speak,
+let alone carry your bed and walk for a while yet."  And he turned to
+Dorothy's mother, whom I beheld smiling at me.  "You will give him the
+physic, ma'am, at the hours I have chosen.  Egad, I begin to think we
+shall come through.
+
+"But pray remember, ma'am, if he talks, you are to put a wad in his
+mouth."
+
+"He shall have no opportunity to talk, Dr. Barry," said Mrs. Manners.
+
+"Save for a favour I have to ask you, doctor," I cried.
+
+"'Od's bodkins!  Already, sir?  And what may that be?"
+
+"That you will allow me to see Miss Manners."
+
+He shook with laughter, and then winked at me very roguishly.
+
+"Oh!"  says he, "and faith, I should be worse than cruel.  First she
+comes imploring me to see you, and so prettily that a man of oak could
+not refuse her.  And now it is you begging to see her.  Had your eyes
+been opened, sir, you might have had many a glimpse of Miss Dolly these
+three weeks past."
+
+"What!  She has been watching with me?"  I asked, in a rapture not to be
+expressed.
+
+"'Od's, but those are secrets.  And the medical profession is close-
+mouthed, Mr. Carvel.  So you want to see her?  No," cries he, "'tis not
+needful to swear it on the Evangels.  And I let her come in, will you
+give me your honour as a gentleman not to speak more than two words to
+her?"
+
+"I promise anything, and you will not deny me looking at her," said I.
+
+He shook again, all over.  "You rascal!  You sad dog, sir!  No, sir,
+faith, you must shut your eyes.  Eh, madam, must he not shut his eyes?"
+
+"They were playmates, doctor," answers Mrs. Manners.  She was laughing a
+little, too.
+
+"Well, she shall come in.  But remember that I shall have my ear to the
+keyhole, and you go beyond your promise, out she's whisked.  So I caution
+you not to spend rashly those two words, sir."
+
+And he followed Mrs. Manners out of the room, frowning and shaking his
+fist at me in mock fierceness.  I would have died for the man.  For a
+space--a prodigious long space--I lay very still, my heart bumping like a
+gun-carriage broke loose, and my eyes riveted on the crack of the door.
+Then I caught the sound of a light footstep, the knob turned, and joy
+poured into my soul with the sweep of a Fundy tide.
+
+"Dorothy!"  I cried.  "Dorothy!"
+
+She put her finger to her lips.
+
+"There, sir," said she, "now you have spoken them both at once!"
+
+She closed the door softly behind her, and stood looking down upon me
+with such a wondrous love-light in her eyes as no man may describe.
+My fancy had not lifted me within its compass, my dreams even had not
+imagined it.  And the fire from which it sprang does not burn in humbler
+souls.  So she stood gazing, those lips which once had been the seat of
+pride now parted in a smile of infinite tenderness.  But her head she
+still held high, and her body straight.  Down the front of her dress fell
+a tucked apron of the whitest linen, and in her hand was a cup of
+steaming broth.
+
+"You are to take this, Richard," she commanded.  And added, with a touch
+of her old mischief, "Mind, sir, if I hear a sound out of you, I am to
+disappear like the fairy godmother."
+
+I knew full well she meant it, and the terror of losing her kept me
+silent.  She put down the cup, placed another pillow behind my head with
+a marvellous deftness, and then began feeding me in dainty spoonfuls
+something which was surely nectar.  And mine eyes, too, had their feast.
+Never before had I seen my lady in this gentle guise, this task of
+nursing the sick, which her doing raised to a queenly art.
+
+Her face had changed some.  Years of trial unknown to me had left an
+ennobling mark upon her features, increasing their power an hundred fold.
+And the levity of girlish years was gone.  How I burned to question her!
+But her lips were now tight closed, her glance now and anon seeking mine,
+and then falling with an exquisite droop to the coverlet.  For the old
+archness, at least, would never be eradicated.  Presently, after she had
+taken the cup and smoothed my pillow, I reached out for her hand.  It was
+a boldness of which I had not believed myself capable; but she did not
+resist, and even, as I thought, pressed my fingers with her own slender
+ones, the red of our Maryland holly blushing in her cheeks.  And what
+need of words, indeed!  Our thoughts, too, flew coursing hand in hand
+through primrose paths, and the angels themselves were not to be envied.
+
+A master might picture my happiness, waking and sleeping, through the
+short winter days that came and went like flashes of gray light.  The
+memory of them is that of a figure tall and lithe, a little more rounded
+than of yore, and a chiselled face softened by a power that is one of the
+world's mysteries.  Dorothy had looked the lady in rags, and housewife's
+cap and apron became her as well as silks or brocades.  When for any
+reason she was absent from my side, I moped, to the quiet amusement of
+Mrs. Manners and the more boisterous delight of Aunt Lucy, who took her
+turn sewing in the window.  I was near to forgetting the use of words,
+until at length, one rare morning when the sun poured in, the jolly
+doctor dressed my wounds with more despatch than common, and vouchsafed
+that I might talk awhile that day.
+
+"Oh!"  cries he, putting me as ever to confusion, "but I have a guess
+whom my gentleman will be wishing to talk with.  But I'll warrant, sir,
+you have said a deal more than I have any notion of without opening your
+lips."
+
+And be went away, intolerably pleased with his joke.
+
+Alas for the perversity of maiden natures!  It was not my dear nurse who
+brought my broth that morning, but Mrs. Manners herself.  She smiled at
+my fallen face, and took a chair at my bedside.
+
+"Now, my dear boy," she said, "you may ask what questions you choose, and
+I will tell you very briefly how you have come here."
+
+"I have been thinking, Mrs. Manners," I replied, "that if it were known
+that you harboured one of John Paul Jones's officers in London, very
+serious trouble might follow for you."
+
+I thought her brow clouded a little.
+
+"No one knows of it, Richard, or is likely to.  Dr. Barry, like so many
+in England, is a good Whig and friend to America.  And you are in a part
+of London far removed from Mayfair."  She hesitated, and then continued
+in a voice that strove to be lighter: "This little house is in Charlotte
+Street, Mary-le-Bone, for the war has made all of us suffer some.  And we
+are more fortunate than many, for we are very comfortable here, and
+though I say it, happier than in Arlington Street.  And the best of our
+friends are still faithful.  Mr. Fox, with all his greatness, has never
+deserted us, nor my Lord Comyn.  Indeed, we owe them much more than I can
+tell you of now," she said, and sighed.  "They are here every day of the
+world to inquire for you, and it was his Lordship brought you out of
+Holland."
+
+And so I had reason once more to bless this stanch friend!
+
+"Out of Holland?"  I cried.
+
+"Yes.  One morning as we sat down to breakfast, Mr. Ripley's clerk
+brought in a letter for Dorothy.  But I must say first that Mr. Dulany,
+who is in London, told us that you were with John Paul Jones.  You can
+have no conception, Richard, of the fear and hatred that name has aroused
+in England.  Insurance rates have gone up past belief, and the King's
+ships are cruising in every direction after the traitor and pirate, as
+they call him.  We have prayed daily for your safety, and Dorothy--well,
+here is the letter she received.  It had been opened by the inspector,
+and allowed to pass.  And it is to be kept as a curiosity."  She drew it
+from the pocket of her apron and began to read.
+
+                                   "THE TEXEL, October 3, 1779
+
+     "MY DEAR Miss DOROTHY: I would not be thought to flutter y'r Gentle
+     Bosom with Needless Alarms, nor do I believe I have misjudged y'r
+     Warm & Generous Nature when I write you that One who is held very
+     High in y'r Esteem lies Exceeding Ill at this Place, who might by
+     Tender Nursing regain his Health.  I seize this Opportunity to say,
+     my dear Lady, that I have ever held my too Brief Acquaintance with
+     you in London as one of the Sacred Associations of my Life.  From
+     the Little I saw of you then I feel Sure that this Appeal will not
+     pass in Vain.  I remain y'r most Humble and Devoted Admirer,
+
+                                   "JAMES ORCHARDSON."
+
+
+"And she knew it was from Commodore Jones?"  I asked, in astonishment.
+
+"My dear," replied Mrs. Manners, with a quiet smile, "we women have a
+keener instinct than men--though I believe your commodore has a woman's
+intuition.  Yes, Dorothy knew.  And I shall never forget the fright she
+gave me as she rose from the table and handed me the sheet to read,
+crying but the one word.  She sent off to Brook Street for Lord Comyn,
+who came at once, and, in half an hour the dear fellow was set out for
+Dover.  He waited for nothing, since war with Holland was looked for at
+any day.  And his Lordship himself will tell you about that rescue.
+Within the week he had brought you to us.  Your skull had been trepanned,
+you had this great hole in your thigh, and your heart was beating but
+slowly.  By Mr. Fox's advice we sent for Dr. Barry, who is a skilled
+surgeon, and a discreet man despite his manner.  And you have been here
+for better than three weeks, Richard, hanging between life and death."
+
+"And I owe my life to you and to Dorothy," I said,
+
+"To Lord Comyn and Dr. Barry, rather," she replied quickly.  "We have
+done little but keep the life they saved.  And I thank God it was given
+me to do it for the son of your mother and father."
+
+Something of the debt I owed them was forced upon me.
+
+They were poor, doubtless driven to make ends meet, and yet they had
+taken me in, called upon near the undivided services of an able surgeon,
+and worn themselves out with nursing me.  Nor did I forget the risk they
+ran with such a guest.  For the first time in many years my heart
+relented toward Mr. Marmaduke.  For their sakes I forgave him over and
+over what I had suffered, and my treatment of him lay like a weight upon
+me.  And how was I to repay them?  They needed the money I had cost them,
+of that I was sure.  After the sums I had expended to aid the commodore
+with the 'Ranger' and the 'Bon homme Richard', I had scarce a farthing to
+my name.  With such leaden reflections was I occupied when I heard Mrs.
+Manners speaking to me.
+
+"Richard, I have some news for you which the doctor thinks you can bear
+to-day.  Mr. Dulany, who is exiled like the rest of us, brought them.  It
+is a great happiness to be able to tell you, my dear, that you are now
+the master of Carvel Hall, and like to stay so."
+
+The tears stole into her eyes as she spoke.  And the enormity of those
+tidings, coming as they did on the top of my dejection, benumbed me.
+All they meant was yet far away from my grasp, but the one supreme result
+that was first up to me brought me near to fainting in my weakness.
+
+"I would not raise your hopes unduly, Richard," the good lady was saying,
+"but the best informed here seem to think that England cannot push the
+war much farther.  If the Colonies win, you are secure in your title."
+
+"But how is it come about, Mrs. Manners?"  I demanded, with my first
+breath.
+
+"You doubtless have heard that before the Declaration was signed at
+Philadelphia your Uncle Grafton went to the committee at Annapolis and
+contributed to the patriot cause, and took very promptly the oath of the
+Associated Freemen of Maryland, thus forsaking the loyalist party--"
+
+"Yes, yes," I interrupted, "I heard of it when I was on the Cabot.  He
+thought his property in danger."
+
+"Just so," said Mrs. Manners, laughing; "he became the best and most
+exemplary of patriots, even as he had been the best of Tories.  He sent
+wheat and money to the army, and went about bemoaning that his only son
+fought under the English flag.  But very little fighting has Philip done,
+my dear.  Well, when the big British fleet sailed up the bay in '77, your
+precious uncle made the first false step in his long career of rascality.
+He began to correspond with the British at Philadelphia, and one of his
+letters was captured near the Head of Elk.  A squad was sent to the Kent
+estate, where he had been living, to arrest him, but he made his escape
+to New York.  And his lands were at once confiscated by the state."
+
+"'Then they belong to the state," I said, with misgiving.
+
+"Not so fast, Richard.  At the last session of the Maryland Legislature
+a bill was introduced, through the influence of Mr. Bordley and others,
+to restore them to you, their rightful owner.  And insomuch as you were
+even then serving the country faithfully and bravely, and had a clean and
+honourable record of service, the whole of the lands were given to you.
+And now, my dear, you have had excitement enough for one day."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV
+
+MORE DISCOVERIES
+
+All that morning I pondered over the devious lane of my life, which had
+led up to so fair a garden.  And one thing above all kept turning and
+turning in my head, until I thought I should die of waiting for its
+fulfilment.  Now was I free to ask Dorothy to marry me, to promise her
+the ease and comfort that had once been hers, should God bring us safe
+back to Maryland.  The change in her was little less than a marvel to me,
+when I remembered the wilful miss who had come to London bent upon
+pleasure alone.  Truly, she was of that rare metal which refines, and
+then outshines all others.  And there was much I could not understand.
+A miracle had saved her from the Duke of Chartersea, but why she had
+refused so many great men and good was beyond my comprehension.  Not a
+glimpse of her did I get that day, though my eyes wandered little from
+the knob of the door.  And even from Aunt Lucy no satisfaction was to be
+had as to the cause of her absence.
+
+"'Clare to goodness, Marse Dick," said she, with great solemnity, "'clare
+to goodness, I'se nursed Miss Dolly since she was dat high, and neber one
+minnit obher life is I knowed what de Chile gwine t' do de next.  She
+ain't neber yit done what I calcelated on."
+
+The next morning, after the doctor had dressed my wounds and bantered me
+to his heart's content, enters Mr. Marmaduke Manners.  I was prodigiously
+struck by the change in him, and pitied him then near as much as I had
+once despised him. He was arrayed in finery, as of old.  But the finery
+was some thing shabby; the lace was frayed at the edges, there was a neat
+but obvious patch in his small-clothes, and two more in his coat.  His
+air was what distressed me most of all, being that of a man who spends
+his days seeking favours and getting none.  I had seen too many of the
+type not to know the sign of it.
+
+He ran forward and gave me his hand, which I grasped as heartily as my
+weakness would permit.
+
+"They would not let me see you until to-day, my dear Richard," he
+exclaimed.  "I bid you welcome to what is left of our home.  'Tis not
+Arlington Street, my lad."
+
+"But more of a home than was that grander house, Mr. Manners."
+
+He sighed heavily.
+
+"Alas!"  said he, "poverty is a bitter draught, and we have drunk deep of
+it since last we beheld you.  My great friends know me no more, and will
+not take my note for a shilling.  They do not remember the dinners and
+suppers I gave them.  Faith, this war has brought nothing but misery,
+and how we are to get through it, God knows!"
+
+Now I understood it was not the war, but Mr. Marmaduke himself, which had
+carried his family to this pass.  And some of my old resentment
+rekindled.
+
+"I know that I have brought you great additional anxiety and expense,
+Mr. Manners," I answered somewhat testily.  "The care I have been to Mrs.
+Manners and Dorothy I may never repay.  But it gives me pleasure to feel,
+sir, that I am in a position to reimburse you, and likewise to loan you
+something until your lands begin to pay again."
+
+"There the Carvel speaks," he cried, "and the true son of our generous
+province.  You can have no conception of the misfortunes come to me out
+of this quarrel.  The mortgages on my Western Shore tobacco lands are
+foreclosed, and Wilmot House itself is all but gone.  You well know, of
+course, that I would do the same by you, Richard."
+
+I smiled, but more in sadness than amusement.  Hardship had only degraded
+Mr. Marmaduke the more, and even in trouble his memory was convenient as
+is that of most people in prosperity.  I was of no mind to jog his
+recollection.  But I wanted badly to ask about his Grace.  Where had my
+fine nobleman been at the critical point of his friend's misfortunes?
+For I had had many a wakeful night over that same query since my talk
+with McAndrews.
+
+"So you have come to your own again, Richard, my lad," said Mr.
+Marmaduke, breaking in upon my train.  "I have felt for you deeply, and
+talked many a night with Margaret and Dorothy over the wrong done you.
+Between you and me," he whispered, "that uncle of yours is an arrant
+knave, whom the patriots have served with justice.  To speak truth, sir,
+I begin myself to have a little leaning to that cause which you have so
+bravely espoused."
+
+This time I was close to laughing outright.  But he was far too serious
+to remark my mirth.  He commenced once more, with an ahem, which gave me
+a better inkling than frankness of what bothered him.
+
+"You will have an agent here, Richard, I take it," said he.  "Your
+grandfather had one.  Ahem!  Doubtless this agent will advance you all
+you shall have need of, when you are well enough to see him.  Fact is,
+he might come here."
+
+"You forget, Mr. Manners, that I am a pirate and an outlaw, and that you
+are the shielder of such."
+
+That thought shook the pinch of Holland he held all over him.  But he
+recovered.
+
+"My dear Richard, men of business are of no faction and of no nation.
+Their motto is discretion.  And to obtain the factorship in London of a
+like estate to yours one of them would wear a plaster over his mouth,
+I'll warrant you.  You have but to summon one of the rascals, promise him
+a bit of war interest, and he will leave you as much as you desire, and
+nothing spoken."
+
+"To talk plainly, Mr. Manners," I replied, "I think 'twould be the height
+of folly to resort to such means.  When I am better, we shall see what
+can be done."
+
+His face plainly showed his disappointment.
+
+"To be sure," he said, in a whining tone, "I had forgotten your friends,
+Lord Comyn and Mr. Fox.  They may do something for you, now you own your
+estate.  My dear sir, I dislike to say aught against any man.  Mrs.
+Manners will tell you of their kindness to us, but I vow I have not been
+able to see it.  With all the money at their command they will not loan
+me a penny in my pressing need.  And I shame to say it, my own daughter
+prevents me from obtaining the money to keep us out of the Fleet.  I know
+she has spoken to Dulany.  Think of it, Richard, my own daughter, upon
+whom I lavished all when I had it, who might have made a score of grand
+matches when I gave her the opportunity, and now we had all been rolling
+in wealth.  I'll be sworn I don't comprehend her, nor her mother either,
+who abets her.  For they prefer to cook Maryland dainties for a living,
+to put in the hands of the footmen of the ladies whose houses they once
+visited.  And how much of that money do you suppose I get, sir?  Will you
+believe it that I" (he was shrieking now), "that I, the man of the
+family, am allowed only my simple meals, a farthing for snuff, and not a
+groat for chaise-hire?  At my age I am obliged to walk to and from their
+lordships' side entrances in patched clothes, egad, when a new suit might
+obtain us a handsome year's income!"
+
+I turned my face to the wall, completely overcome, and the tears scalding
+in my eyes, at the thought of Dorothy and her mother bending over the
+stove cooking delicacies for their livelihood, and watching at my bedside
+night and day despite their weariness of body.  And not a word out of
+these noble women of their sacrifice, nor of the shame and trouble and
+labour of their lives, who always had been used to every luxury!  Nothing
+but cheer had they brought to the sickroom, and not a sign of their
+poverty and hardship, for they knew that their broths and biscuit and
+jellies must have choked me.  No.  It remained for this contemptible
+cur of a husband and father to open my eyes.
+
+He had risen when I had brought myself to look at him.  And as I hope for
+heaven he took my emotion for pity of himself.
+
+"I have worried you enough for one day with my troubles, my lad," said
+he.  "But they are very hard to bear, and once in a while it does me good
+to speak of them."
+
+I did not trust myself to reply.
+
+It was Aunt Lucy who spent the morning with me, and Mrs. Manners brought
+my dinner.  I observed a questioning glance as she entered, which I took
+for an attempt to read whether Mr. Marmaduke had spoke more than he
+ought.  But I would have bitten off my tongue rather than tell her of my
+discoveries, though perhaps my voice may have betrayed an added concern.
+She stayed to talk on the progress of the war, relating the gallant
+storming of Stony Point by Mad Anthony in July, and the latest Tory
+insurrection on our own Eastern Shore.  She passed from these matters to
+a discussion of General Washington's new policy of the defensive, for
+Mrs. Manners had always been at heart a patriot.  And whilst I lay
+listening with a deep interest, in comes my lady herself.  So was it
+ever, when you least expected her, even as Mammy had said.  She curtseyed
+very prettily, with her chin tilted back and her cheeks red, and asked me
+how I did.
+
+"And where have you been these days gone, Miss Will-o'the-Wisp, since the
+doctor has given me back my tongue?"  I cried.
+
+"I like you better when you are asleep," says she.  "For then you are
+sometimes witty, though I doubt not the wit is other people's."
+
+So I saw that she had tricked me, and taken her watch at night.  For I
+slept like a trooper after a day's forage.  As to what I might have said
+in my dreams--that thought made me red as an apple.
+
+"Dorothy, Dorothy," says her mother, smiling, "you would provoke a
+saint."
+
+"Which would be better fun than teasing a sinner," replies the minx, with
+a little face at me.  "Mr. Carvel, a gentleman craves the honour of an
+audience from your Excellency."
+
+"A gentleman!"
+
+"Even so.  He presents a warrant from your Excellency's physician."
+
+With that she disappeared, Mrs. Manners going after her.  And who should
+come bursting in at the door but my Lord Comyn?  He made one rush at me,
+and despite my weakness bestowed upon me a bear's hug.
+
+"Oh, Richard," cried he, when he had released me, "I give you my oath
+that I never hoped to see you rise from that bed when we laid you there.
+But they say that love works wondrous cures, and, egad, I believe that
+now.  'Tis love is curing you, my lad."
+
+He held me off at arm's length, the old-time affection beaming from his
+handsome face.
+
+"What am I to say to you, Jack?"  I answered.  And my voice was all but
+gone, for the sight of him revived the memory of every separate debt of
+the legion I owed him.  "How am I to piece words enough together to thank
+you for this supreme act of charity?"
+
+"'Od's, you may thank your own devilish thick head," said my Lord Comyn.
+"I should never have bothered my own about you were it not for her.  Had
+it not been for her happiness do you imagine I would have picked you out
+of that crew of half-dead pirates in the Texel fort?"
+
+I must needs brush my cheek, then, with the sleeve of my night-rail.
+
+"And will you give me some account of this last prodigious turn you have
+done her?" I said.
+
+He laughed, and pinched me playfully.
+
+"Now are you coming to your senses," said he.  "There was cursed little
+to the enterprise, Richard, and that's the truth.  I got down to Dover,
+and persuaded the master of a schooner to carry me to Rotterdam.  That
+was not so difficult, since your Terror of the Seas was locked up safe
+enough in the Texel.  In Rotterdam I had a travelling-chaise stripped,
+and set off at the devil's pace for the Texel.  You must know that the
+whole Dutch nation was in an uproar--as much of an uproar as those boors
+ever reach--over the arrival of your infamous squadron.  The Court Party
+and our ambassador were for having you kicked out, and the Republicans
+for making you at home.  I heard that their High Mightinesses had given
+Paul Jones the use of the Texel fort for his wounded and his prisoners,
+and thither I ran.  And I was even cursing the French sentry at the
+drawbridge in his own tongue, when up comes your commodore himself.
+You may quarter me if wasn't knocked off my feet when I recognized the
+identical peacock of a sea-captain we had pulled out of Castle Yard
+along with you, and offered a commission in the Royal Navy."
+
+"Dolly hadn't told you?"
+
+"Dolly tell me!" exclaimed his Lordship, scornfully.  "She was in a state
+to tell me nothing the morning I left, save only to bring you to England
+alive, and repeat it over and over.  But to return to your captain,--he,
+too, was taken all aback.  But presently he whipt out my name, and I his,
+without the Jones.  And when I told him my errand, he wept on my neck,
+and said he had obtained unlimited leave of absence for you from the
+Paris commissioners.  He took me up into a private room in the fort,
+where you were; and the surgeon, who was there at the time, said that
+your chances were as slim as any man's he had ever seen.  Faith, you
+looked it, my lad.  At sight of your face I took one big gulp, for I had
+no notion of getting you back to her.  And rather than come without you,
+and look into her eyes, I would have drowned myself in the Straits of
+Dover.
+
+"Despite the host of troubles he had on his hands, your commodore himself
+came with us to Rotterdam.  Now I protest I love that man, who has more
+humanity in him than most of the virtuous people in England who call him
+hard names.  If you could have seen him leaning over you, and speaking to
+you, and feeling every minute for your heart-beats, egad, you would have
+cried.  And when I took you off to the schooner, he gave me an hundred
+directions how to care for you, and then his sorrow bowled him all in a
+heap."
+
+"And is the commodore still at the Texel?"  I asked, after a space.
+
+"Ay, that he is, with our English cruisers thick as gulls outside'
+waiting for a dead fish.  But he has spurned the French commission they
+have offered him, saying that of the Congress is good enough for him.
+And he declares openly that when he gets ready he will sail out in the
+Alliance under the Stars and Stripes.  And for this I honour him," added
+he, "and Charles honours him, and so must all Englishmen honour him when
+they come to their senses.  And by Gads life, I believe he will get
+clear, for he is a marvel at seamanship."
+
+"I pray with all my heart that he may," said I, fervently.
+
+"God help him if they catch him!"  my Lord exclaimed.  "You should see
+the bloody piratical portraits they are scattering over London."
+
+"Has the risk you ran getting me into England ever occurred to you,
+Jack?" I asked, with some curiosity.
+
+"Faith, not until the day after we got back, Richard," says he, "when I
+met Mr. Attorney General on the street.  'Sdeath, I turned and ran the
+other way like the devil was after me.  For Charles Fox vows that
+conscience makes cowards of the best of us."
+
+"So that is some of Charles's wisdom!"  I cried, and laughed until I was
+forced to stop from pain.
+
+"Come, my hearty," says Jack, "you owe me nothing for fishing you out of
+Holland--that is her debt.  But I declare that you must one day pay me
+for saving her for you.  What! have I not always sworn that she loved
+you?  Did I not pull you into the coffee-room of the Star and Garter
+years ago, and tell you that same?"
+
+My face warmed, though I said nothing.
+
+"Oh, you sly dog!  I'll warrant there has been many a tender talk just
+where I'm sitting."
+
+"Not one," said I.
+
+"'Slife, then, what have you been doing," he cries, "seeing her every day
+and not asking her to marry you, my master of Carvel Hall?"
+
+"Since I am permitted to use my tongue, she has not come near me, save
+when I slept," I answered ruefully.
+
+"Nor will she, I'll be sworn," says he, shaken with laughter.
+
+"'Ods, have you no invention?  Egad, you must feign sleep, and seize her
+unawares."
+
+I did not inform his Lordship how excellent this plan seemed to me.
+
+"And I possessed the love of such a woman, Richard," he said, in another
+tone, "I think I should die of happiness.  She will never tell you how
+these weeks past she has scarce left your side.  The threats combined
+of her mother and the doctor, and Charles and me, would not induce her
+to take any sleep.  And time and time have I walked from here to Brook
+Street without recognizing a step of the way, lifted clear out of myself
+by the sight of her devotion."
+
+What was my life, indeed, that such a blessing should come into it!
+
+"When the crash came," he continued, "'twas she took command, and 'tis
+God's pity she had not done so long before.  Mr. Marmaduke was pushed to
+the bottom of the family, where he belongs, and was given only snuff-
+money.  She would give him no opportunity to contract another debt, and
+even charged Charles and me to loan him nothing.  Nor would she receive
+aught from us, but" (he glanced at me uneasily)--"but she and Mrs.
+Manners must take to cooking delicacies-"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," I faltered.
+
+"What!  has the puppy told you?"  cried he.
+
+I nodded.  "He was in here this morning, with his woes."
+
+"And did he speak of the bargain he tried to make with our old friend,
+his Grace of Chartersea?"
+
+"He tried to sell her again?"  I cried, my breath catching.  "I have
+feared as much since I heard of their misfortunes."
+
+"Yes," replied Comyn, "that was the first of it.  'Twas while they were
+still in Arlington Street, and before Mrs. Manners and Dorothy knew.
+Mr. Marmaduke goes posting off to Nottinghamshire, and comes back inside
+the duke's own carriage.  And his Grace goes to dine in Arlington Street
+for the first time in years.  Dorothy had wind of the trouble then,
+Charles having warned her.  And not a word would she speak to Chartersea
+the whole of the dinner, nor look to the right or left of her plate.  And
+when the servants are gone, up gets my lady with a sweep and confronts
+him.
+
+"'Will your Grace spare me a minute in the drawing-room?' says she.
+
+"He blinked at her in vast astonishment, and pushed back his chair.  When
+she was come to the door, she turns with another sweep on Mr. Marmaduke,
+who was trotting after.
+
+"'You will please to remain here, father,' she said; 'what I am to say is
+for his Grace's ear alone.'
+
+"Of what she spoke to the duke I can form only an estimate, Richard," my
+Lord concluded, "but I'll lay a fortune 'twas greatly to the point.  For
+in a little while Chartersea comes stumbling down the steps.  And he has
+never darkened the door since.  And the cream of it is," said Comyn,
+"that her father gave me this himself, with a face a foot long, for me
+to sympathize.  The little beast has strange bursts of confidence."
+
+"And stranger confidants," I ejaculated, thinking of the morning, and of
+Courtenay's letter, long ago.
+
+But the story had made my blood leap again with pride of her.  The
+picture in my mind had followed his every sentence, and even the very
+words she must have used were ringing in my ears.
+
+Then, as we sat talking in low tones, the door opened, and a hearty voice
+cried out:
+
+"Now where is this rebel, this traitor?  They tell me one lies hid in
+this house.  'Slife, I must have at him!"
+
+"Mr. Fox!"  I exclaimed.
+
+He took my hands in his, and stood regarding me.
+
+"For the convenience of my friends, I was christened Charles," said he.
+
+I stared at him in amazement.  He was grown a deal stouter, but my eye
+was caught and held by the blue coat and buff waistcoat he wore.  They
+were frayed and stained and shabby, yet they seemed all of a piece with
+some new grandeur come upon the man.
+
+"Is all the world turning virtuous?  Is the millennium arrived?"  I
+cried.
+
+He smiled, with his old boyish smile.
+
+"You think me changed some since that morning we drove together to
+Holland House--do you remember it after the night at St. Stephen's?"
+
+"Remember it!"  I repeated, with emphasis, "I'll warrant I can give you
+every bit of our talk."
+
+"I have seen many men since, but never have I met your equal for a most
+damnable frankness, Richard Carvel.  Even Jack, here, is not half so
+blunt and uncompromising.  But you took my fancy--God knows why!--that
+first night I clapped eyes on you in Arlington Street, and I loved you
+when your simplicity made us that speech at Brooks's Club.  So you have
+not forgotten that morning under the trees, when the dew was on the
+grass.  Faith, I am glad of it.  What children we were!"  he said, and
+sighed.
+
+"And yet you were a Junior Lord," I said.
+
+"Which is more than I am now," he answered.  "Somehow--you may laugh--
+somehow I have never been able to shake off the influence of your words,
+Richard.  Your cursed earnestness scared me."
+
+"Scared you?" I cried, in astonishment.
+
+"Just that," said Charles.  "Jack will bear witness that I have said
+so to Dolly a score of times.  For I had never imagined such a single
+character as yours.  You know we were all of us rakes at fifteen,
+to whom everything good in the universe was a joke.  And do you recall
+the teamster we met by the Park, and how he arrested his salute when he
+saw who it was?  At another time I should have laughed over that, but it
+cut me to have it happen when you were along."
+
+"And I'll lay an hundred guineas to a farthing the fellow would put his
+head on the block for Charles now," cut in his Lordship, with his hand on
+Mr. Fox's shoulder.  "Behold, O Prophet," he cried, "one who is become
+the champion of the People he reviled!  Behold the friend of Rebellion
+and 'Lese Majeste', the viper in Britannia's bosom!"
+
+"Oh, have done, Jack," said Mr. Fox, impatiently, "you have no more music
+in your soul than a cow.  Damned little virtue attaches to it, Richard,"
+he went on.  "North threw me out, and the king would have nothing to do
+with me, so I had to pick up with you rebels and traitors."
+
+"You will not believe him, Richard," cried my Lord; "you have only to
+look at him to see that he lies.  Take note of the ragged uniform of the
+rebel army he carries, and then think of him 'en petite maitre', with his
+cabriolet and his chestnuts.  Egad, he might be as rich as Rigby were it
+not for those principles which he chooses to deride.  And I have seen him
+reduced to a crown for them.  I tell you, Richard," said my Lord, "by
+espousing your cause Charles is become greater than the King.  For he
+has the hearts of the English people, which George has not, and the
+allegiance of you Americans, which George will never have.  And if you
+once heard him, in Parliament, you should hear him now, and see the
+Speaker wagging his wig like a man bewitched, and hear friends and
+enemies calling out for him to go on whenever he gives the sign of a
+pause."
+
+This speech of his Lordship's may seem cold in the writing, my dears,
+and you who did not know him may wonder at it.  It had its birth in an
+admiration few men receive, and which in Charles Fox's devoted coterie
+was dangerously near to idolatry.  During the recital of it Charles
+walked to the window, and there stood looking out upon the gray prospect,
+seemingly paying but little attention.  But when Comyn had finished, he
+wheeled on us with a smile.
+
+"Egad, he will be telling you next that I have renounced the devil and
+all his works, Richard," said he.
+
+"'Oohs, that I will not," his Lordship made haste to declare.  "For they
+were born in him, and will die with him."
+
+"And you, Jack," I asked, "how is it that you are not in arms for the
+King, and commanding one of his frigates?"
+
+"Why, it is Charles's fault," said my Lord, smiling.  "Were it not for
+him I should be helping Sir George Collier lay waste to your coast
+towns."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV
+
+"THE LOVE OF A MAID FOR A MAN"
+
+The next morning, when Dr. Barry had gone, Mrs. Manners propped me up in
+bed and left me for a little, so she said.  Then who should come in with
+my breakfast on a tray but my lady herself, looking so fresh and
+beautiful that she startled me vastly.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts, Richard," she cried.  "Why, you are as grave
+as a screech-owl this brave morning."
+
+"To speak truth, Dolly," said I, "I was wondering how the commodore is
+to get away from the Texel, with half the British navy lying in wait
+outside."
+
+"Do not worry your head about that," said she, setting down the tray; "it
+will be mere child's play to him.  Oh but I should like to see your
+commodore again, and tell him how much I love him.
+
+"I pray that you may have the chance," I replied.
+
+With a marvellous quickness she had tied the napkin beneath my chin, not
+so much as looking at the knot.  Then she stepped to the mantel and took
+down one of Mr. Wedgwood's cups and dishes, and wiping them with her
+apron, filled the cup with fragrant tea, which she tendered me with her
+eyes sparkling.
+
+"Your Excellency is the first to be honoured with this service," says
+she, with a curtsey.
+
+I was as a man without a tongue, my hunger gone from sheer happiness--and
+fright.  And yet eating the breakfast with a relish because she had made
+it.  She busied herself about the room, dusting here and tidying there,
+and anon throwing a glance at me to see if I needed anything.  My eyes
+followed her hither and thither.  When I had finished, she undid the
+napkin, and brushed the crumbs from the coverlet.
+
+"You are not going?"  I said, with dismay.
+
+"Did you wish anything more, sir?"  she asked.
+
+"Oh, Dorothy," I cried, "it is you I want, and you will not come near
+me."
+
+For an instant she stood irresolute.  Then she put down the tray and came
+over beside me.
+
+"Do you really want me, sir?"
+
+"Dorothy," I began, "I must first tell you that I have some guess at the
+sacrifice you are making for my sake, and of the trouble and danger which
+I bring you."
+
+Without more ado she put her hand over my mouth.
+
+"No," she said, reddening, "you shall tell me nothing of the sort."
+
+I seized her hand, however it struggled, and holding it fast, continued:
+
+"And I have learned that you have been watching with me by night, and
+working by day, when you never should have worked at all.  To think that
+you should be reduced to that, and I not know it!"
+
+Her eyes sought mine for a fleeting second.
+
+"Why, you silly boy, I have made a fortune out of my cookery.  And fame,
+too, for now am I known from Mary-le-bone to Chelsea, while before my
+name was unheard of out of little Mayfair.  Indeed, I would not have
+missed the experience for a lady-in-waiting-ship.  I have learned a deal
+since I saw you last, sir.  I know that the world, like our Continental
+money, must not be taken for the price that is stamped upon it.  And as
+for the watching with you," said my lady, "that had to be borne with as
+cheerfully as might be.  Since I had sent off for you, I was in duty
+bound to do my share toward your recovery.  I was even going to add
+that this watching was a pleasure,--our curate says the sense of duty
+performed is sure to be.  But you used to cry out the most terrifying
+things to frighten me: the pattering of blood and the bumping of bodies
+on the decks, and the black rivulets that ran and ran and ran and never
+stopped; and strange, rough commands I could not understand; and the name
+of your commodore whom you love so much.  And often you would repeat over
+and over: 'I have not yet begun, to fight, I have not yet begun to
+fight!'"
+
+"Yes, 'twas that he answered when they asked him if he had struck,"
+I exclaimed.
+
+"It must have been an awful scene," she said, and her shoulders quivered.
+"When you were at your worst you would talk of it, and sometimes of what
+happened to you in London, of that ride in Hyde Park, or--or of
+Vauxhall," she continued hurriedly.  "And when I could bear it no longer,
+I would take your hand and call you by name, and often quiet you thus."
+
+"And did I speak of aught else?"  I asked eagerly.
+
+"Oh, yes.  When you were caliper, it would be of your childhood, of your
+grandfather and your birthdays, of Captain Clapsaddle, and of Patty and
+her father."
+
+"And never of Dolly, I suppose."
+
+She turned away her head.
+
+"And never of Dolly?"
+
+"I will tell you what you said once, Richard," she answered, her voice
+dropping very low.  "I was sitting by the window there, and the dawn was
+coining.  And suddenly I heard you cry: 'Patty, when I return will you be
+my wife?'  I got up and came to your side, and you said it again, twice."
+
+The room was very still.  And the vision of Patty in the parlour of
+Gordon's Pride, knitting my woollen stocking, rose before me.
+
+"Yes," I said at length, "I asked her that the day before I left for the
+war.  God bless her!  She has the warmest heart in the world, and the
+most generous nature.  Do you know what her answer was, Dorothy?"
+
+"No."  'Twas only her lips moving that formed the word.  She was twisting
+absently the tassel of the bed curtain.
+
+"She asked me if I loved her."
+
+My lady glanced up with a start, then looked me searchingly through and
+through.
+
+"And you?"  she said, in the same inaudible way.
+
+"I could answer nothing.  'Twas because of her father's dying wish I
+asked her, and she guessed that same.  I would not tell her a lie, for
+only the one woman lives whom I love, and whom I have loved ever since
+we were children together among the strawberries.  Need I say that that
+woman is you, Dorothy?  I loved you before we sailed to Carvel Hall
+between my grandfather's knees, and I will love you till death claims
+me."
+
+Then it seemed as if my heart had stopped beating.  But the snowy apron
+upon her breast fluttered like a sail stirring in the wind, her head was
+high, and her eyes were far away.  Even my voice sounded in the distance
+as I continued:
+
+"Will you be the mistress of Carvel Hall, Dorothy?  Hallowed is the day
+that I can ask it."
+
+What of this earth may excel in sweetness the surrender of that proud and
+noble nature!  And her words, my dears, shall be sacred to you, too, who
+are descended from her.  She bent forward a little, those deep blue eyes
+gazing full into my own with a fondness to make me tremble.
+
+"Dear Richard," she said, "I believe I have loved you always.  If I have
+been wilful and wicked, I have suffered more than you know--even as I
+have made you suffer."
+
+"And now our suffering is over, Dorothy."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, my dear!" she cried, "but let us rather make a
+prayer to God."
+
+Down she got on her knees close beside me, and I took both of her hands
+between my own.  But presently I sought for a riband that was around my
+neck, and drew out a locket.  Within it were pressed those lilies of the
+valley I had picked for her long years gone by on my birthday.  And she
+smiled, though the tears shone like dewdrops on her lashes.
+
+"When Jack brought you to us for dead, we did not take it off, dear,"
+she said gently.  "I wept with sorrow and joy at sight of it, for I
+remembered you as you were when you picked those flowers, and how lightly
+I had thought of leaving you as I wound them into my hair.  And then,
+when I had gone aboard the 'Annapolis', I knew all at once that I would
+have given anything to stay, and I thought my heart would break when we
+left the Severn cliffs behind.  But that, sir, has been a secret until
+this day," she added, smiling archly through her tears.
+
+She took out one of the withered flowers, and then as caressingly put it
+back beside the others, and closed the locket.
+
+"I forbade Dr. Barry to take it off, Richard, when you lay so white and
+still.  I knew then that you had been true to me, despite what I had
+heard.  And if you were to die--" her voice broke a little as she passed
+her hand over my brow, "if you were to die, my single comfort would have
+been that you wore it then."
+
+"And you heard rumours of me, Dorothy?"
+
+"George Worthington and others told me how ably you managed Mr. Swain's
+affairs, and that you had become of some weight with the thinking men of
+the province.  Richard, I was proud to think that you had the courage to
+laugh at disaster and to become a factor.  I believe," she said shyly,
+"twas that put the cooking into my head, and gave me courage.  And when
+I heard that Patty was to marry you, Heaven is my witness that I tried to
+be reconciled and think it for the best.  Through my own fault I had lost
+you, and I knew well she would make you a better wife than I."
+
+"And you would not even let Jack speak for me!"
+
+"Dear Jack!"  she cried; "were it not for Jack we should not be here,
+Richard."
+
+"Indeed, Dolly, two people could scarce fall deeper in debt to another
+than are you and I to my Lord Viscount," I answered, with feeling.  "His
+honesty and loyalty to us both saved you for me at the very outset."
+
+"Yes," she replied thoughtfully, "I believed you dead.  And I should have
+married him, I think.  For Dr. Courtenay had sent me that piece from the
+Gazette telling of the duel between you over Patty Swain--"
+
+"Dr. Courtenay sent you that!"  I interrupted.
+
+"I was a wild young creature then, my dear, with little beside vanity
+under my cap.  And the notion that you could admire and love any girl but
+me was beyond endurance.  Then his Lordship arrived in England, brimming
+with praise of you, to assure me that the affair was not about Patty at
+all.  This was far from making me satisfied that you were not in love
+with her, and I may say now that I was miserable.  Then, as we were
+setting out for Castle Howard, came the news of your death on the road
+to Upper Marlboro.  I could not go a step.  Poor Jack, he was very honest
+when he proposed," she added, with a sigh.
+
+"He loved you, Dorothy."
+
+She did not hear me, so deep was she in thought.
+
+"'Twas he who gave me news of you, when I was starving at Gordon's."
+
+"And I--I starved, too, Richard," she answered softly.  "Dearest, I slid
+very wrong.  There are some matters that must be spoken of between us,
+whatever the pain they give.  And my heart aches now when I think of that
+dark day in Arlington Street when I gave you the locket, and you went out
+of my life.  I knew that I had done wrong then, Richard, as soon as ever
+the door closed behind you.  I should have gone with you, for better for
+worse, for richer for poorer.  I should have run after you in the rain
+and thrown myself at your feet.  And that would have been best for my
+father and for me."
+
+She covered her face with her hands, and her words were stifled by a sob.
+
+"Dorothy, Dorothy!" I cried, drawing her to me.  "Another time.  Not now,
+when we are so happy."
+
+"Now, and never again, dear," she said.  "Yes, I saw and heard all that
+passed in the drawing-room.  And I did not blame, but praised you for it.
+I have never spoken a word beyond necessity to my father since.  God
+forgive me!"  she cried, "but I have despised him from that hour.  When
+I knew that he had plotted to sell me to that detestable brute, working
+upon me to save his honour, of which he has not the smallest spark; that
+he had recognized and denied you, friendless before our house, and sent
+you into the darkness at Vauxhall to be murdered, then he was no father
+of mine.  I would that you might know what my mother has suffered from
+such a man, Richard."
+
+"My dear, I have often pitied her from my soul," I said.
+
+"And now I shall tell you something of the story of the Duke of
+Chartersea," she went on, and I felt her tremble as she spoke that name.
+"I think of all we have Lord Comyn to thank for, next to saving your life
+twice, was his telling you of the danger I ran.  And, Richard, after
+refusing you that day on the balcony over the Park, I had no hope left.
+You may thank your own nobility and courage that you remained in London
+after that.  Richard," she said, "do you recall my asking you in the
+coach, on the way from Castle Yard, for the exact day you met my father
+in Arlington Street?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, in some excitement, "yes."  For I was at last to come
+at the bottom of this affair.
+
+"The duke had made a formal offer for me when first we came to London.
+I think my father wrote of that to Dr. Courtenay."  (I smiled at the
+recollection, now.)  "Then his Grace persisted in following me
+everywhere, and vowed publicly that he would marry me.  I ordered him
+from our house, since my father would not.  At last one afternoon he came
+back to dine with us, insolent to excess.  I left the table.  He sat with
+my father two hours or more, drinking and singing, and giving orders to
+the servants.  I shut my door, that I might not hear.  After a while my
+mother came up to me, crying, saying that Mr. Manners would be branded
+with dishonour and I did not consent to marry his Grace,--a most terrible
+dishonour, of which she could not speak.  That the duke had given my
+father a month to win my consent.  And that month was up, Richard, the
+very afternoon you appeared with Mr. Dix in Arlington Street."
+
+"And you agreed to marry him, Dolly?"  I asked breathlessly.
+
+"By the grace of Heaven, I did not," she answered quickly.  "The utmost
+that I would consent to was a two months' respite, promising to give my
+hand to no one in that interval.  And so I was forced to refuse you,
+Richard.  You must have seen even then that I loved you, dear, though
+I was so cruel when you spoke of saving me from his Grace.  I could not
+bear to think that you knew of any stain upon our family.  I think--I
+think I would rather have died, or have married him.  That day I threw
+Chartersea's presents out of the window, but my father made the servants
+gather them all which escaped breaking, and put them in the drawing-room.
+Then I fell ill."
+
+She was silent, I clinging to her, and shuddering to think how near I had
+been to losing her.
+
+"It was Jack who came to cheer me," I said presently.
+
+"His faith in you was never shaken, sweetheart.  But I went to Newmarket
+and Ampthill, and behaved like the ingrate I was.  I richly deserved the
+scolding he had for me when I got back to town, which sent me running to
+Arlington Street.  There I met Dr. James coming out, who asked me if I
+was Mr. Carvel, and told me that you had called my name."
+
+"And, you goose, you never suspected," says she, smiling.
+
+"How was I to suspect that you loved a provincial booby like me, when
+you had the choice of so many accomplished gentlemen with titles and
+estates?"
+
+"How were you to perceive, indeed, that you had qualities which they
+lacked?"
+
+"And you were forever vowing that you would marry a nobleman, my lady.
+For you said to me once that I should call you so, and ride in the coach
+with the coroneted panels when I came home on a visit."
+
+"And I said, too," retorted Dolly, with mischief in her eyes, "do you
+remember what I told you the New Year's eve when we sat out by the
+sundial at Carvel Hall, when I was so proud of having fixed Dr.
+Courtenay's attentions?  I said that I should never marry you, sir, who
+was so rough and masterful, and thrashed every lad that did not agree
+with you."
+
+"Alas, so you did, and a deal more!"  I exclaimed.
+
+With that she broke away from me and, getting to her feet, made me a low
+curtsey with the grace that was hers alone.
+
+"You are my Lord and my King, sir," she said, "and my rough Patriot
+squire, all in one."
+
+"Are you happy, Dolly?"  I asked, tremulous from my own joy.
+
+"I have never been happy in all my life before, Richard dear," she said.
+
+In truth, she was a being transformed, and more wondrous fair than ever.
+And even then I pictured her in the brave gowns and jewels I would buy
+her when times were mended, when our dear country would be free.  All at
+once, ere I could draw a breath, she had stooped and kissed me ever so
+lightly on the forehead.
+
+The door opened upon Aunt Lucy.  She had but to look at us, and her black
+face beamed at our blushes.  My lady threw her arms about her neck, and
+hid her face in the ample bosom.
+
+"Now praise de good Lawd!"  cried Mammy; "I knowed it dis longest time.
+What's I done tole you, Miss Dolly?  What's I done tole you, honey?"
+
+But my lady flew from the room.  Presently I heard the spinet playing
+softly, and the words of that air came out of my heart from long ago.
+
+                   "Love me little, love me long,
+                    Is the burthen of my song.
+                    Love that is too hot and strong
+                    Burneth soon to waste.
+                    Still, I would not have thee cold,
+                    Nor too backward, nor too bold.
+                    Love that lasteth till 'tis old
+                    Fadeth not in haste."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI
+
+HOW GOOD CAME OUT OF EVIL
+
+'Twas about candlelight when I awoke, and Dorothy was sitting alone
+beside me.  Her fingers were resting upon my arm, and she greeted me with
+a smile all tenderness.
+
+"And does my Lord feel better after--after his excitement to-day?"  she
+asked.
+
+"Dorothy, you have made me a whole man again.  I could walk to Windsor
+and back."
+
+"You must have your dinner, or your supper first, sir," she answered
+gayly, "and do you rest quiet until I come back to feed you.  Oh, Richard
+dear," she cried, "how delightful that you should be the helpless one,
+and dependent on me!"
+
+As I lay listening for the rustle of her gown, the minutes dragged
+eternally.  Every word and gesture of the morning passed before my mind,
+and the touch of her lips still burned on my forehead.  At last, when I
+was getting fairly restless, the distant tones of a voice, deep and
+reverberating, smote upon my ear, jarring painfully some long-forgotten
+chord.  That voice belonged to but one man alive, and yet I could not
+name him.  Even as I strained, the tones drew nearer, and they were mixed
+with sweeter ones I knew well, and Dorothy's mother's voice.  Whilst I
+was still searching, the door opened, the voices fell calm, and Dorothy
+came in bearing a candle in each hand.  As she set them down on the
+table, I saw an agitation in her face, which she strove to hide as she
+addressed me.
+
+"Will you see a visitor, Richard?"
+
+"A visitor!" I repeated, with misgiving.  'Twas not so she had announced
+Comyn.
+
+"Will you see Mr. Allen?"--
+
+"Mr. Allen, who was the rector of St. Anne's?  Mr. Allen in London, and
+here?"
+
+"Yes."  Her breath seemed to catch at the word.  "He says he must see
+you, dear, and will not be denied.  How he discovered you were with us
+I know not."
+
+"See him!"  I cried.  "And I had but the half of my strength I would
+fling him downstairs, and into the kennel.  Will you tell him so for me,
+Dorothy?"
+
+And I raised up in bed, shaken with anger against the man.  In a trice
+she was holding me, fearfully.
+
+"Richard, Richard, you will open your wound.  I pray you be quiet."
+
+"And Mr. Allen has the impudence to ask to see me!"
+
+"Listen, Richard.  Your anger makes you forget many things.  Remember
+that he is a dangerous man, and now that he knows you are in London he
+holds your liberty, perhaps your life, in his hands."
+
+It was true.  And not mine alone, but the lives and liberty of others.
+
+"Do you know what he wishes, Dorothy?"
+
+"No, he will not tell us.  But he is greatly excited, and says he must
+see you at once, for your own good.  For your own good, Richard!"
+
+"I do not trust the villain, but he may come in," I said, at length.
+
+She gave me the one lingering, anxious look, and opened the door.
+
+Never had I beheld such a change in mortal man as there was in Mr. Allen,
+my old tutor, and rector of St. Anne's.  And 'twas a baffling, intangible
+change.  'Twas as if the mask bad been torn from his face, for he was now
+just a plain adventurer that need not have imposed upon a soul.  The
+coarse wine and coarse food of the lower coffee-houses of London had
+replaced the rich and abundant fare of Maryland.  The next day was become
+one of the terrors of his life.  His clothes were of poor stuff, but
+aimed at the fashion.  And yet--and yet, as I looked upon him, a
+something was in his face to puzzle me entirely.  I had seen many stamps
+of men, but this thing I could not recognize.
+
+He stepped forward with all of his old confidence, and did not regard a
+farthing my cold stare.
+
+"'Tis like gone days to see you again, Richard," he cried.  "And I
+perceive you have as ever fallen into the best of hands."
+
+"I am Mr. Carvel to my enemies, if they must speak to me at all," I said.
+
+"But, my dear fellow, I am not your enemy, or I should not be here this
+day.  And presently I shall prove that same."  He took snuff.  "But first
+I must congratulate you on coming alive out of that great battle off
+Flamborough.  You look as though you had been very near to death, my lad.
+A deal nearer than I should care to get."
+
+What to say to the man!  What to do save to knock him down, and I could
+not do that.
+
+"There can be no passing the time of day between you and me, Mr. Allen,"
+I answered hotly.  "You, whose machinations have come as near to ruining
+me as a man's can."
+
+"And that was your own fault, my dear sir," said he, as he brushed
+himself.  "You never showed me a whit of consideration, which is very
+dear to men in my position."
+
+My head swam.  Then I saw Dolly by the door regarding me curiously, with
+something of a smile upon her lips, but anxiety still in her eyes.  With
+a "by your leave, ma'am," to her, Mr. Allen took the chair abreast me.
+
+"You have but to call me when you wish, Richard," said she.
+
+"Nay, Dorothy, Mr. Allen can have nothing to say to me that you may not
+hear," I said instantly.  "And you will do me a favour to remain."
+
+She sat down without a word, where I could look at her.  Mr. Allen raised
+his eyebrows at the revelation in our talk, but by the grace of God he
+kept his mouth shut.
+
+"And now, Mr. Allen," I said, "to what do I owe the pain of this visit?"
+
+"The pain!"  he exclaimed, and threw back his head and gave way to a fit
+of laughter.  "By the mass! your politeness drowns me.  But I like you,
+Richard, as I have said more than once.  I believe your brutal straight-
+dealing has more to do with my predilection than aught else.  For I have
+seen a deal of rogues in my day."
+
+"And they have seen a deal of you, Mr. Allen."
+
+"So they have," he cried, and laughed the more.  "Egad, Miss Dorothy,
+you have saved all of him, I think."  Then he swung round upon me, very
+careless.  "Has your Uncle Grafton called to express his sympathies,
+Richard?"  he asked.
+
+That name brought a cry out of my head, Dolly seizing the arm of her
+chair.
+
+"Grafton Carvel in London?"  I exclaimed.
+
+"Ay, in very pretty lodgings in Jermyn Street, for he has put by enough,
+I'll warrant you, despite the loss of his lands.  Your aunt is with him,
+and his dutiful son, Philip, now broken of his rank in the English army.
+They arrived, before yesterday, from New York."
+
+"And to what is this an introduction?"  I demanded.
+
+"I merely thought it strange," said Mr. Allen, imperturbably, "that he
+had not called to inquire after his nephew's health."
+
+Dolly was staring at him, with eyes wide open.
+
+"And pray, how did he discover I was in London, sir?"  I said.  "I was
+about to ask how you knew of it, but that is one and the same thing."
+
+He shot at me a look not to be solved.
+
+"It is not well to bite the hand that lifts you out of the fire,
+Richard," said he.
+
+"You had not gained admission to this house were I not on my back, Mr.
+Allen."
+
+"And that same circumstance is a blessing for you," he cried.
+
+'Twas then I saw Dorothy making me mute signals of appeal.
+
+"I cannot think why you are here, Mr. Allen," I said.  "When you consider
+all the harm you have done me, and all the double-dealing I may lay at
+your door, can you blame me for my feelings?"
+
+"No," he answered, with more soberness than he had yet used; "I honour
+you for them.  And perchance I am here to atone for some of that harm.
+For I like you, my lad, and that's God's truth."
+
+"All this is neither here nor there, Mr. Allen," I exclaimed, wholly out
+of patience.  "If you have come with a message, let me have it.  If not,
+I beg you get out of my sight, for I have neither the will nor the desire
+for palavering."
+
+"Oh, Richard, do keep your temper!" implored Dorothy.  "Can you not see
+that Mr. Allen desires to do us--to do you--a service?"
+
+"Of that I am not so sure," I replied.
+
+"It is his way, Miss Manners," said the rector, "and I hold it not
+against him.  To speak truth, I looked for a worse reception, and came
+steeled to withstand it.  And had my skin been thin, I had left ere now."
+He took more snuff.  "It was Mr. Dix," he said to me slowly, "who
+informed Mr. Carvel of your presence in London."
+
+"And how the devil did Mr. Dix know?"
+
+He did not reply, but glanced apprehensively at Dorothy.
+
+And I have wondered since at his consideration.
+
+"Miss Manners may not wish to hear," he said uneasily.
+
+"Miss Manners hears all that concerns me," I answered.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders in comprehension.
+
+"It was Mr. Manners, then, who went to Mr. Dix, and told him under the
+pledge of secrecy."
+
+Not a sound came from Dorothy, nor did I dare to look at her face.  The
+whole matter was clear to me now.  After his conversation with me, Mr.
+Marmaduke had lost no time in seeing Mr. Dix, in order to raise money on
+my prospects.  And the man of business had gone straight to Grafton with
+the intelligence.  The suspicion flashed through me that Mr. Allen had
+been sent to spy, but his very next words disarmed it.
+
+"And now, Richard," he continued, "before I say what I have come to say,
+and since you cannot now prosecute me, I mean to confess to you something
+which you probably know almost to a certainty.  I was in the plot to
+carry you off and deprive you of your fortune.  I have been paid for it,
+though not very handsomely.  Fears for my own safety alone kept me from
+telling you and Mr. Swain.  And I swear to you that I was sorry for the
+venture almost before I had embarked, and ere I had received a shilling.
+The scheme was laid out before I took you for a pupil; indeed, that was
+part of it, as you no doubt have guessed.  As God hears me, I learned to
+love you, Richard, in those days at the rectory.  You were all of a man,
+and such an one as I might have hoped to be had I been born like you.
+You said what you chose, and spoke from your own convictions, and catered
+to no one.  You did not whine when the luck went against you, but lost
+like a gentleman, and thought no more of it.  You had no fear of the
+devil himself.  Why should you?  While your cousin Philip, with his
+parrot talk and sneaking ways, turned my stomach.  I was sick of him,
+and sick of Grafton, I tell you.  But dread of your uncle drove me on,
+and I had debts to frighten me."
+
+He paused.  "Twas with a strange medley of emotions I looked at him.  And
+Dorothy, too, was leaning forward, her lips parted and her eyes riveted
+upon his face.
+
+"Oh, I am speaking the truth," he said bitterly.  "And I assume no virtue
+for the little justice it remains in my power to do.  It is the lot of my
+life that I must be false to some one always, and even now I am false to
+your uncle.  Yes, I am come to do justice, and 'tis a strange errand for
+me.  I know that estates have been restored to you by the Maryland
+Legislature, Richard, and I believe in my heart that you will win this
+war."  Here he fetched a memorandum from his pocket.  "But to make you
+secure," said he, "in the year 1710, and on the 9th of March, old style,
+your great-grandfather, Mr. George Carvel, drew up a document entailing
+the lands of Carvel Hall.  By this they legally pass to you."
+
+"The family settlement Mr. Swain suspected!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Just so," he answered.
+
+"And what am I to pay for this information?"  I asked.
+
+Hardly were the words spoken, when Dorothy ran to my bedside, and seizing
+my hand, faced him.
+
+"He--he is not well, Mr. Allen," she cried.
+
+The rector had risen, and stood gazing down at us with the whole of his
+life written on his face.  That look was fearful to see, and all of hell
+was expressed therein.  For what is hell if it is not hope dead and
+buried, and galling regret for what might have been?  With mine own great
+happiness so contrasted against his torture, my heart melted.
+
+"I am not well, indeed, Mr. Allen," I said.  "God knows how hard it is
+for me to forgive, but I forgive you this night."
+
+One brief instant he stared at me, and then tumbled suddenly down into
+his chair, his head falling forward on his arms.  And the long sobs by
+which his frame was shaken awed our very souls.  Dorothy drew back
+against me, clasping my shoulder, the tears wet upon her cheeks.  What
+we looked on, there in the candlelight, was the Revelation itself.
+
+How long it, endured none of us might say.  And when at last he raised
+his face, it was haggard and worn in truth, but the evil of it seemed to
+have fled.  Again and again he strove to speak.  The words would not
+obey.  And when he had mastered himself, his voice was shattered and
+gone.
+
+"Richard, I have sinned heavily in my time, and preached God's holy word
+with a sneer and unbelief in my heart.  He knows what I have suffered,
+and what I shall yet suffer before His judgment comes for us all.  But I
+beg it is no sin to pray to Him for your happiness and Miss Dorothy's."
+
+He stumbled there, and paused, and then continued with more steadiness:
+
+"I came here to-night to betray you, and might have gone hence to your
+uncle to claim my pieces of silver.  I remain to tell you that Grafton
+has an appointment at nine with his Majesty's chief Secretary of State.
+I need not mention his motives, nor dwell upon your peril.  For the
+King's sentiments toward Paul Jones are well known.  You must leave
+London without delay, and so must Mr. Manners and his family."
+
+Is it the generations which decide?  When I remember bow Dorothy behaved
+that night, I think so.  Scarce had the rector ceased when she had
+released me and was standing erect before him.  Pity was in her eyes,
+but in her face that courage which danger itself begets in heroic women.
+
+"You have acted a noble part this day, Mr. Allen," she said, "to atone
+for the wrongs you have done Richard.  May God forgive you, and make you
+happier than you have been!"
+
+He struggled to his feet, listening as to a benediction.  Then, with a
+single glance to give me confidence, she was gone.  And for a minute
+there was silence between us.
+
+"How may you be directed to?"  I asked.
+
+He leaped as out of a trance.
+
+"Just 'the world,' Richard," said he.  "For I am adrift again, and not
+very like to find a harbour, now."
+
+"You were to have been paid for this, Mr. Allen," I replied.  "And a man
+must live."
+
+"A man must live!"  he cried.  "The devil coined that line, and made it
+some men's history."
+
+"I have you on my conscience, Mr. Allen," I went on, "for I have been at
+fault as well as you.  I might have treated you better, even as you have
+said.  And I command you to assign a place in London whence you may be
+reached."
+
+"A letter to the Mitre coffee-house will be delivered," he said.
+
+"You shall receive it," I answered.  "And now I bid you good-by, and
+thank you."
+
+He seized and held my hand.  Then walked blindly to the door and turned
+abruptly.
+
+"I do not tell you that I shall change my life, Richard, for I have said
+that too many times before.  Indeed, I warn you that any money you may
+send will be spent in drink, and--and worse.  I will be no hypocrite to
+you.  But I believe that I am better this hour than I have been since
+last I knelt at my mother's knee in the little Oxfordshire cottage where
+I was born."
+
+When Dorothy returned to me, there was neither haste in her step nor
+excitement in her voice.  Her very coolness inspired me.
+
+"Do you feel strong enough for a journey, Richard?"  she asked.
+
+"To the world's end, Dolly, if you will but go with me."
+
+She smiled faintly.  "I have sent off for my Lord and Mr. Fox, and pray
+that one of them may be here presently."
+
+Scarcely greater were the visible signs of apprehension upon Mrs.
+Manners.  Her first care, and Dorothy's, was to catechise me most
+particularly on my state.  And whilst they were so occupied Mr. Marmaduke
+entered, wholly frenzied from fright, and utterly oblivious to his own
+blame in the matter.  He was sent out again directly.  After that, with
+Aunt Lucy to assist, they hurriedly packed what few things might be
+taken.  The costly relics of Arlington Street were untouched, and the
+French clock was left on the mantel to tick all the night, and for days
+to come, in a silent and forsaken room; or perhaps to greet impassively
+the King's officers when they broke in at the door.  But I caught my lady
+in the act of wrapping up the Wedgwood cups and dishes.
+
+In the midst of these preparations Mr. Fox was heard without, and was met
+at the door by Dorothy.  Two sentences sufficed her to tell him what had
+occurred, and two seconds for this man of action to make his decision.
+
+"In an hour you shall have travelling chaises here, Dorothy," he said.
+"You must go to Portsmouth, and take ship for Lisbon.  And if Jack does
+not arrive, I will go with you."
+
+"No, Charles, you must not!"  she cried, her emotion conquering her for
+the nonce.  "That might be to ruin your career, and perchance to lose
+your life.  And suppose we were to escape, what would they say of you!"
+
+"Fish!" Charles retorted, to hide some feelings of his own; "once our
+rebel is out of the country, they may speak their minds.  They have never
+lacked for names to call me, and I have been dubbed a traitor before now,
+my dear lady."
+
+He stepped hastily to the bed, and laid his hand on me with affection.
+
+"Charles," I said, "this is all of a piece with your old recklessness.
+You were ever one to take any risk, but I will not hear of such a venture
+as this.  Do you think I will allow the hope of all England to be staked
+for a pirate?  And would you break our commander of her rank?  All that
+Dorothy need do at Portsmouth is to curtsey to the first skipper she
+meets, and I'll warrant he will carry us all to the antipodes."
+
+"Egad, but that is more practical than it sounds," he replied, with a
+glance of admiration at my lady, as she stood so tall before us.  "She
+has a cool head, Richard Carvel, and a long head, and--and I'm thinking
+you are to come out of this the best of all of us.  You cannot get far
+off your course, my lad, with her at the helm."
+
+It was there his voice belied the jest in his words, and he left us with
+precipitation.
+
+They lifted me out of my sheets (I was appalled to discover my weakness),
+and bundled me with tender care in a dozen shawls and blankets.  My feet
+were thrust into two pairs of heavy woollen stockings, and Dorothy bound
+her own silk kerchief at my throat, whispering anxious questions the
+while.  And when her mother and mammy went from the room, her arms flew
+around my neck in a passion of solicitude.  Then she ran away to dress
+for the journey, and in a surprising short time was back again, with her
+muff and her heavy cloak, and bending over me to see if I gave any signs
+of failure.
+
+Fifty and five minutes had been registered by the French clock, when the
+rattle of wheels and the clatter of hoofs sounded below, and Charles Fox
+panted up the stairs, muffled in a huge wrap-rascal.  'Twas he and Aunt
+Lucy carried me down to the street, Dorothy walking at my side, and
+propped me up in the padded corner of one of the two vehicles in waiting.
+This was an ample travelling-carriage with a lamp hanging from its top,
+by the light of which my lady tucked me in from head to foot, and then
+took her place next me.  Aunt Lucy filled most of the seat opposite.  The
+baggage was hoisted up behind, and Charles was about to slam the door,
+when a hackney-chaise turned the corner at a gallop and pulled up in the
+narrow street abreast, and the figure of my Lord Comyn suddenly leaped
+within the compass of the lanthorn's rays.  He was dressed as for a ball,
+with only a thin rain-cloak over his shoulders, for the night was thick
+with mist.  He threw at us a startled look that was a question.
+
+"Jack, Richard is to be betrayed to-night by his uncle," said Charles,
+shortly.  "And I am taking them to Portsmouth to get them off for
+Lisbon."
+
+"Charles," said his Lordship, sternly, "give me that greatcoat."
+
+It was just the one time that ever I saw uncertainty on Mr. Fox's face.
+He threw an uneasy glance into the chaise.
+
+"I have brought money," his Lordship went on rapidly;
+
+"'Twas that kept me, for I guessed at something of this kind.  Give me
+the coat, I say."
+
+Mr. Fox wriggled out of it, and took the oiled cape in return.
+
+"Thank you, Jack," he said simply, and stepped into the carriage.  "Who
+is to mend my waistcoats now?"  he cried.  "Faith, I shall treasure this
+against you, Richard.  Good-by, my lad, and obey your rebel general.
+Alas!  I must even ask your permission to salute her."
+
+And he kissed the unresisting Dorothy on both her cheeks.  "God keep the
+two of you," he said, "for I love you with all my heart."
+
+Before we could answer he was gone into the night; and my Lord, standing
+without, had closed the carriage door.  And that was the last I saw of
+this noble man, the true friend of America, who devoted his glorious
+talents and his life to fighting the corruption that was rotting the
+greatness of England.  He who was followed by the prayers of the English
+race was ever remembered in our own humble ones.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII
+
+I COME TO MY OWN AGAIN
+
+'Twas a rough, wild journey we made to Portsmouth, my dears, and I think
+it must have killed me had not my lady been at my side.  We were no
+sooner started than she pulled the curtains and opened her portmanteau,
+which I saw was near filled with things for my aid and comfort.  And I
+was made to take a spoonful of something.  Never, I believe, was medicine
+swallowed with a greater willingness.  Talk was impossible, so I lay back
+in the corner and looked at her; and now and anon she would glance at my
+face, with a troubled guess in her own as to how I might stand the night.
+For we were still in London.  That I knew by the trot of our horses, and
+by the granite we traversed from time to time.  But at length we rumbled
+over a bridge, there was a sharp call back from our post-boy to him of
+the chaise behind, and then began that rocking and pitching and swaying
+and creaking, which was to last the whole night long, save for the brief
+stops at the post-houses.
+
+After an hour of it, I was holding my breath against the lurches, like a
+sea-sick man against that bottomless fall of the ship's bows on the
+ocean.  I had no pain,--only an over whelming exhaustion,--but the joy
+of her touch and her presence kept me from failing.  And though Aunt Lucy
+dozed, not a wink of sleep did my lady get through all of those weary
+twelve hours.  Always alert was she, solicitous beyond belief, scanning
+ever the dial of her watch to know when to give me brandy and physic; or
+reaching across to feel my temples for the fever.  The womanliness of
+that last motion was a thing for a man to wonder at.  But most marvellous
+of all was the instinct which told her of my chief sickening discomfort,
+--of the leathery, travelled smell of the carriage.  As a relief for this
+she charged her pocket-napkin with a most delicate perfume, and held it
+to my face.
+
+When we drew up to shift horses, Jack would come to the door to inquire
+if there was aught she wanted, and to know how I was bearing up.  And
+often Mrs. Manners likewise.  At first I was for talking with them, but
+this Dorothy would not allow.  Presently, indeed, it was beyond my power,
+and I could only smile feebly at my Lord when I heard Dolly asking him
+that the hostlers might be more quiet.  Toward morning a lethargy fell
+upon me.  Once I awoke when the lamp had burned low, to perceive the
+curtains drawn back, a black blotch of trees without, and the moonlight
+streaming in on my lady's features.  With the crack of a whip I was off
+again.
+
+When next consciousness came, the tarry, salt smell of a ship was in my
+nostrils, and I knew that we were embarked.  I lay in a clean bunk in a
+fair-sized and sun-washed cabin, and I heard the scraping of ropes and
+the tramp of feet on the deck above my head.  Framed against the
+irregular glass of the cabin window, which was greened by the water
+beyond, Dorothy and my Lord stood talking in whispers.
+
+"Jack!"  I said.
+
+At the sound they turned and ran toward me, asking how I felt.
+
+"I feel that words are very empty, Jack, to express such a gratitude as
+mine," I answered.  "Twice you have saved me from death, you have paid
+my debts, and have been stanch to us both in our troubles.  And--" The
+effort was beyond me, and I glanced appealingly at Dolly.
+
+"And it is to you, dear Jack," she finished, "it is to you alone that we
+owe the great joy of our lives."
+
+Her eyes were shining through her tears, and her smile was like the sun
+out of a rain-swept sky.  His Lordship took one of her hands in his own,
+and one of mine.  He scanned our faces in a long, lingering look.
+
+"You will cherish her, Richard," he said brokenly, "for her like is not
+to be found in this world.  I knew her worth when first she came to
+London, as arrant a baggage as ever led man a dance.  I saw then that a
+great love alone was needed to make her the highest among women, and from
+the night I fought with you at the Coffee House I have felt upon whom
+that love would fall.  O thou of little faith," he cried, "what little I
+may have done has been for her.  No, Richard, you do not deserve her, but
+I would rather think of her as your wife than that of any man living."
+
+I shall not dwell upon that painful farewell which wrung our hearts, and
+made us silent for a long, long while after the ship was tossing in the
+short seas of the Channel.
+
+Nor is it my purpose to tell you of that long voyage across the Atlantic.
+We reached Lisbon in safety, and after a week of lodgings in that city by
+the best of fortune got passage in a swift bark bound for Baltimore.  For
+the Chesapeake commerce continued throughout the war, and kept alive the
+credit of the young nation.  There were many excitements ere we sighted
+the sand-spits of Virginia, and off the Azores we were chased for a day
+and a night by a British sloop of war.  Our captain, however, was a cool
+man and a seaman, and slipped through the cruisers lying in wait off the
+Capes very triumphantly.
+
+But the remembrance of those fair days at sea fills my soul with longing.
+The weather was mild and bright for the season, and morning upon morning
+two stout topmen would carry me out to a sheltered spot on the deck,
+always chosen by my lady herself.  There I sat by the hour, swathed in
+many layers of wool, and tended by her hands alone.  Every nook and
+cranny of our lives were revealed to the other.  She loved to hear of
+Patty and my years at Gordon's, and would listen with bated breath to the
+stories of the Ranger and the Bonhomme Richard, and of that strange man
+whom we both loved, whose genius had made those cruises famous.
+Sometimes, in low voices, we talked of our future; but often, when the
+wind blew and the deck rocked and the sun flashed upon the waters, a
+silence would fall between us that needed no word to interpret.
+
+Mrs. Manners yielded to my wish for us all to go to Carvel Hall.  It was
+on a sparkling morning in February that we sighted the familiar toe of
+Kent Island, and the good-natured skipper put about and made for the
+mouth of our river.  Then, as of old, the white cupola of Carvel House
+gleamed a signal of greeting, to which our full hearts beat a silent
+response.  Once again the great windmill waved its welcome, and the same
+memory was upon us both as we gazed.  Of a hale old gentleman in the
+sheets of a sailing pinnace, of a boy and a girl on his knees quivering
+with excitement of the days to come.  Dorothy gently pressed my hand as
+the bark came into the wind, and the boat was dropped into the green
+water.  Slowly they lowered me into it, for I was still helpless, Dorothy
+and her mother and Aunt Lucy were got down, and finally Mr. Marmaduke
+stepped gingerly from the sea-ladder over the gunwale.  The cutter leaped
+under the strong strokes up the river with the tide.  Then, as we rounded
+the bend, we were suddenly astonished to see people gathered on the
+landing at the foot of the lawn, where they had run, no doubt, in a
+flurry at sight of the ship below.  In the front of the group stood
+out a strangely familiar figure.
+
+"Why," exclaimed Dolly, "it is Ivie Rawlinson!"
+
+Ivie it was, sure enough.  And presently, when we drew a little closer,
+he gave one big shout and whipped off the hat from his head; and off,
+too, came the caps from the white heads of Scipio and Chess and Johnson
+behind him.  Our oars were tossed, Ivie caught our bows, and reached his
+hand to Dorothy.  It was fitting that she should be the first to land at
+Carvel Hall.
+
+"'Twas yere bonny face I seed first, Miss Dolly," he cried, the tears
+coursing down the scars of his cheeks.  "An' syne I kennt weel the young
+master was here.  Noo God be praised for this blythe day, that Mr.
+Richard's cam to his ain at last!"
+
+But Scipio and Chess could only blubber as they helped him to lift me
+out, Dolly begging them to be careful.  As they carried me up the
+familiar path to the pillared porch, the first I asked Ivie was of Patty,
+and next why he had left Gordon's.  She was safe and well, despite the
+Tories, and herself had sent him to take charge of Carvel Hall as soon as
+ever Judge Bordley had brought her the news of its restoration to me.  He
+had supplied her with another overseer.  Thanks to the good judge and to
+Colonel Lloyd, who had looked to my interests since Grafton was fled,
+Ivie had found the old place in good order, all the negroes quiet, and
+impatient with joy against my arrival.
+
+It is time, my children, to bring this story to a close.  I would I might
+write of those delicious spring days I spent with Dorothy at Carvel Hall,
+waited on by the old servants of my grandfather.  At our whim my chair
+would be moved from one to another of the childhood haunts; on cool days
+we sat in the sun by the dial, where the flowers mingled their odours
+with the salt breezes off the Chesapeake; or anon, when it was warmer, in
+the summer-house my mother loved, or under the shade of the great trees
+on the lawn, looking out over the river.  And once my lady went off very
+mysteriously, her eyes brimful of mischief, to come back with the first
+strawberries of the year staining her apron.
+
+We were married on the fifteenth of June, already an anniversary for us
+both, in the long drawing-room.  General Clapsaddle was there from the
+army to take Dorothy in his arms, even as he had embraced another bride
+on the same spot in years gone by.  She wore the wedding gown that was
+her mother's, but when the hour was come to dress her Aunt Lucy and Aunt
+Hester failed in their task, and it was Patty who performed the most of
+that office, and hung the necklace of pearls about her neck.
+
+Dear Patty!  She hath often been with us since.  You have heard your
+mothers and fathers speak of Aunt Patty, my dears, and they will tell
+you how she spoiled them when they went a-visiting to Gordon's Pride.
+
+Ere I had regained my health, the war for Independence was won.  I pray
+God that time may soften the bitterness it caused, and heal the breach in
+that noble race whose motto is Freedom.  That the Stars and Stripes and
+the Union Jack may one day float together to cleanse this world of
+tyranny!
+
+
+
+
+AFTERWORD
+
+The author makes most humble apologies to any who have, or think they
+have, an ancestor in this book.  He has drawn the foregoing with a very
+free hand, and in the Maryland scenes has made use of names rather than
+of actual personages.  His purpose, however poorly accomplished, was to
+give some semblance of reality to this part of the story.  Hence he has
+introduced those names in the setting, choosing them entirely at random
+from the many prominent families of the colony.
+
+No one may read the annals of these men, who were at once brave and
+courtly, and of these women, who were ladies by nature as well as by
+birth, and not love them.  The fascination of that free and hospitable
+life has been so strong on the writer of this novel that he closes it
+with a genuine regret and the hope that its perusal may lead others to
+the pleasure he has derived from the history of Maryland.
+
+As few liberties as possible have been taken with the lives of Charles
+James Fox and of John Paul Jones.  The latter hero actually made a voyage
+in the brigantine 'John' about the time he picked up Richard Carvel from
+the Black Moll, after the episode with Mungo Maxwell at Tobago.  The
+Scotch scene, of course, is purely imaginary.  Accuracy has been aimed at
+in the account of the fight between the 'Bonhomme Richard' and the
+'Serapis', while a little different arrangement might have been better
+for the medium of the narrative.  To be sure, it was Mr. Mease, the
+purser, instead of Richard Carvel, who so bravely fought the quarter-deck
+guns; and in reality Midshipman Mayrant, Commodore Jones's aide, was
+wounded by a pike in the thigh after the surrender.  No injustice is done
+to the second and third lieutenants, who were absent from the ship during
+the action.
+
+The author must acknowledge that the only good anecdote in the book and
+the only verse worth printing are stolen.  The story on page concerning
+Mr. Garrick and the Archbishop of York may be found in Fitzgerald's life
+of the actor, much better told.  The verse (in Chapter X) is by an
+unknown author in the Annapolis Gazette, and is republished in Mr. Elihu
+Riley's excellent "History of Annapolis."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+It is sorrow which lifts us nearest to heaven
+Sir, I have not yet begun to fight
+
+
+
+
+
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