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True Blue, a fiction by William H. G. Kingston |
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Chapter 26 |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. Peace--known as the Peace of Amiens--was concluded in 1801; and though England called in her cruisers, prohibiting them any longer to burn, sink, and destroy those of her enemies, she wisely declined drawing her own teeth or cutting her claws, by dismantling her ships and disbanding her crews, but, like a good-natured lion, crouched down, wagging her tail and sucking her paws, while, turning her eyes round and round, she carefully watched the turn affairs were likely to take. Never had more ships been seen arriving day after day at Spithead, and never had Portsmouth Harbour been fuller of others fitting and refitting for sea, or its streets more crowded with seamen laughing, dancing, singing, and committing all sorts of extravagances, and flinging their well-earned money about with the most reckless prodigality. About this time, while Portsmouth was in the heyday of its uproarious prosperity, and prize-money was as plentiful as blackberries in summer, a man-of-war's eight-oared cutter was seen pulling in from Spithead, and then, entering the harbour, making for the Gosport shore. There was nothing unusual in this, or rather it was an event not only of daily but of hourly occurrence. There were two officers in the sternsheets; but their simple uniform showed that they were not of any high rank, though the crew paid them the most profound respect. They were young men, though beards, pigtails, and lovelocks, with thoroughly weatherbeaten, sunburnt countenances, made them look somewhat older. One had a silver chain round his neck, with a call or whistle attached to it, which showed that he was a boatswain. As they stepped on shore, the crew threw up their oars, and with one voice shouted, "We wish you every happiness--that we do, sir, from our hearts! Three cheer for the boatswain! Hip! hip! hip! hurrah!" "Thank you, lads," said the young boatswain, turning round with a pleasant smile on his countenance. "We have served long and happily together, and done some things to be proud of; and I tell you that I would rather be boatswain of such a crew as you are, than Captain of many I have fallen in with. Come up here and have a parting glass! I know that I can trust you to go back to the ship, as you promised; for it's one of many things to be proud of, to be able to say that we never knew a man to run from our ship." The two warrant-officers were accompanied by an old black man with a wooden leg, who stumped along, aided by a stick, as fast as they could walk; while a couple of seamen followed with huge painted canvas bags on their shoulders, and various foreign-looking things hung about outside. They themselves carried a couple of birdcages and two parrots; and a mischievous-looking monkey sat on the black's shoulder, another parrot being perched on the top of his hat, and a fiddle-case hung over his neck. They soon got out of Gosport into the country. "Stay, Harry!" said the elder of the officers; "Paul wrote that we were to steer west by north, and that if we stood on under easy sail for half a glass, we should just fetch Paradise Row. Now here we are, with the sun right astern; let's have the proper bearings of the place." True Blue--for he was the young boatswain who had been speaking--looked at the sun, and then, turning himself round, in a few seconds seemed to make up his mind that they were proceeding in the right direction. "I feel uncommonly inclined to set more canvas; and yet we mustn't quit our convoy," he remarked as he moved on. "No, that wouldn't do," answered his friend, Harry Hartland. "Come, heave ahead, my hearties!" he added, looking back at the seamen carrying the bags; "and you, Sam, shall we lend you a leg, old boy?" "Tank'ee, gunner--a grand new cork one, if you like!" answered Sam, grinning and chuckling at his joke; "but ye see my timber one will serve me, I tink, till I'm laid under hatches. But I no wonder Billy in a hurry to go along--ha! ha! ha! I call de fine grand bo'sun Billy now again, jes as I did when he was one little chap aboard de old _Terrible_. We off service, you know! I once more free man! Out-door Greenwich pensioner! What more I want?--plenty to eat, nothing to do! I go wid you and play at your wedding, True Blue--ha! ha! ha! Fancy I, Sam Smatch, play at Billy True's wedding--once little chap born aboard de _Terrible_, and often nurse in de old nigger's arms." "And right glad I am to have you by me, Sam," answered True Blue, looking kindly at the negro. "You took good care of me--that I'm sure of--when I was a baby, and we've weathered many a storm together since in all parts of the world. There's scarcely a friend I should be more sorry to miss at my wedding than you, if wedding there is to be; but it is so long since I heard from home, that who can tell what has happened?" "Ah, yes--Mary Ogle gone and married some oder sailor maybe! Dat is what dey petticoat women often do," said Sam with a wink, sticking his thumb towards the boatswain's ribs. "No, no. No fear of that, at all events!" exclaimed True Blue vehemently. "You didn't suppose that I meant that. But how can we tell that all our friends are alive and well?" he said gravely, and was silent for a minute. "However," he added in a cheerful tone, "I have no fears that all will be right, and that, before many evenings are over, we shall have you fingering your fiddlestick as merrily as ever." So they went on, cheerfully talking as they proceeded towards Paradise Row, which, in truth, True Blue hoped would prove a Paradise to him; for there, since Paul, and Abel, and Peter, had become warrant-officers, their respective families had come to reside, to be near them when they came into port. They, however, had now charge of different ships in ordinary; and as they had all gone through a great deal of service, they did not expect to be again sent to sea. Old Mrs Pringle was still alive and well when True Blue had last heard from home, and to her house he and his shipmates were now bound. Still, as they went along, True Blue could not help looking into all the windows of the various cottages they passed, just to ascertain if that was the one inhabited by his dear old granny or not. At last he turned to Harry. "I think, mate, we have run our distance," he observed; "we ought to be in the latitude of Paradise Row by this time. I'll just step up to that pretty little cottage there and ask. Here, Harry, just hold Chatterbox, please." Suiting the action to the word, having given his parrot to his friend, up to the cottage he went. It had a porch in front of it, covered with jasmine, and a neat verandah, and was altogether a very tasty though unpretending little abode. He rapped at the door with a strangely-carved shark's tooth which he held in his hand. After waiting a little time, the door was opened, and, without looking directly at the person who opened it, he began, "Please, marm, does Mrs Pringle live hereabouts?" Then, suddenly he was heard to exclaim, "What--it is-- Mary, Mary!" What more he said his friends did not hear, for the door was nearly closed as he sprang into the house. However, both Harry and Sam were very discreet people, and they had heard enough to show them that their presence could easily be dispensed with; so, as there was a nice grassy bank under a widespreading tree, they, with the two seamen carrying the bags, and the monkey and the parrots, went and sat down there to wait till the boatswain might recollect that there were such beings in existence. Harry felt very glad that his friend was likely to be so happy, and old Sam amused himself with scratching the monkey's head, making him hang by his tail, and jump over his own wooden leg, while the seamen went to sleep with their heads on the bags. Sam was the first to grow tired of his amusement, and, getting up, he stumped up towards the cottage and peeped over the neat white blind of the front window. He came back grinning and chuckling. "All right," he said. "Him bery happy--no tink of us yet, I guess." Whether or not the apparition of Sam's black visage had been seen does not appear; but in a short time True Blue came to the door of the cottage, looking as happy and lighthearted as a fellow could look, and, hailing his friends, asked them to step in. Mrs Ogle was there, and Mary, and a younger sister very like her; but Peter was aboard his ship, a seventy-four, in Portsmouth Harbour; and Mary and her sister, and their mother, shook hands heartily with Sam, because he was an old acquaintance, and with Harry, because he was True Blue's brother officer. And then True Blue told Harry that Mrs Ogle could put him up, and would be right glad to do so; and then that he could take Sam to Mrs Pringle's, so that they should have him always to play to them; which were very pleasant arrangements, and seemed to give infinite satisfaction to all parties concerned. It was extraordinary how long it took to get under weigh again; but at last True Blue, with his bags and some of his treasures, did find his way to his adopted grandmother's, and a warm welcome did the dear old lady give him, and did not scold him in the least for inquiring first at Mrs Ogle's where she lived, seeing that he did not know when he went to the door that it was Mrs Ogle's. Sam and the monkey, and two of the parrots, with the cage birds, took up their residence at Mrs Pringle's. True Blue, accompanied by Harry, paid a visit to Mrs Bush and her family; and the whole party assembled, as they had done several years before, at Mrs Ogle's, which had certainly the handsomest room in it, and Sam Smatch brought his fiddle; and a very merry evening they had, the only drawback being that the three elder warrant-officers were unable to be present, as their duties kept them on board their ships. They had tea and cakes, and bread and butter, and preserves, and water-cresses; and then Sam screwed up his fiddle, and to work went his bow, his head nodding and his timber toe beating time, while he played the merriest of all merry country-dances and the most vehement of hornpipes. True Blue had not danced a hornpipe for many a long year,--it would not have been dignified while he was a boatswain,--but he had not forgotten how to do so. That he very soon showed, to the satisfaction of all present, especially to that of Mary, and not a little to that of Sam Smatch, who, in defiance of all the rules of etiquette, kept shouting, "Bravo, Billy--well done, Billy--keep at it, boy! I taught him, dat I did--dat's it. I played de first tune to him he ever danced to. Bravo, Billy! You do my heart good--dat you do. Hurray! hurray! Billy True Blue for ever in dancing a hornpipe!" As the dancing could not last all the evening, the parrots and the monkey and a considerable portion of the contents of the bags were brought in to be exhibited, and, as it proved, to be distributed among the owner's old friends. True Blue had given his cage full of birds to Mrs Pringle, as he knew she would prize it; he had, however, gifts especially brought for Mrs Bush and all her family, as well as for Mrs Ogle, and for several other friends not so intimately related to him as they were; and he found that they were the means of affording infinite satisfaction to all parties. The first thing the next morning, after breakfast, the young warrant-officers set off to pay their respects to the three old warrant-officers in Portsmouth Harbour, on board the _Jupiter_, _Lion_, and _Portland_, seventy-fours. Paul Pringle was, of course, the first visited, His pipe was shrilly sounding as ponderous yards and coils of rope and casks and guns and gun-carriages and other innumerable fittings and gear of a ship were being hoisted up and lowered into lighters alongside, to convey them to the dockyard. His delight at seeing True Blue as he stepped on deck was so great that he forgot to pipe "Belay," and a twenty-four pounder would have been run up to the yardarm had not his godson instinctively supplied the omission with his own pipe, though, when Harry afterwards informed him of the fact, he was not in the slightest degree aware that he had done so. As Paul was then so very busy, they promised to return at dinner time, and went on to see Peter Ogle. It was remarked, however, that Paul did not for the remainder of the forenoon carry on his duties with his usual exactness, and seemed far more elated and excitable than was his wont. Peter Ogle's pleasure at seeing True Blue was only surpassed by that of Paul. He received his old friends in his cabin, which, as True Blue glanced round it, showed that a considerable amount of feminine taste had been exercised in its adornment. "Make yourselves at home, my lads--brother officers, I should say, though," he said, glancing at their uniforms, "It is a pleasure to see you, Billy, my dear boy, and you too, Harry, though I haven't known you by some fifteen years or more so long as True Blue. Boy, bring glasses. Here's some real honest schiedam, taken out of a Dutch prize. Help yourselves. You neither of you are topers, I know; so much the better. And now let's hear what you've been about since I last clapped eyes on you." True Blue on this gave a rapid account of their doings in the _Rover_ after the _Gannet_ had sailed for England, and of numerous adventures which had subsequently befallen them before they once more returned home. After a visit paid to Abel Bush, who welcomed them home as cordially as their other old friends had done, they returned to dine with Paul Pringle. "And, True Blue, my boy, how soon is it to come off?" inquired Paul when dinner was over. "Have you asked Mary to fix the day yet?" "No, godfather; I thought she might rather wish to wait a bit, and so I wasn't going to ask her for a day or two," answered True Blue ingenuously. "Don't put it off, lad," said Paul. "When a sailor meets a girl to love, the shorter the wooing and the sooner he weds the better. How does he know what moment he may have to heave up his anchor and make sail round the world again?" True Blue very willingly promised to follow his godfather's advice; and Harry, who was listening attentively, thought it excellent. As may be supposed, before the evening was over, the day was settled for True Blue's wedding with Mary Ogle; and before a week had passed, Harry announced that her sister Susan had fixed the same day to marry him. Close to Mrs Ogle's residence was a barn of large dimensions; it was not a picturesque building, but the floor was smooth, and that was all they required. In a wonderfully short space of time, with the aid of flags innumerable, wreaths of flowers, and painted canvas, it was converted into a most elegant edifice, fit for a ball or supper room. The morning of True Blue's wedding day arrived, and up to Dame Pringle's door drove a postchaise with four horses, out of which stepped Sir Henry Elmore, now, as his full-dress uniform showed, a Post-Captain. He shook hands right cordially with True Blue and all his friends, and the bells of the parish church at that moment set up so merry and joyous a peal that it was evident the ringers believed that it was an occasion of much happiness. Carriages sufficient to carry all the party now began to collect in the neighbourhood of Paradise Row; and Sam Smatch and Tom Marline, both of whom had got leave to come on shore, were very busy in fastening huge white favours and bunches of flowers to the coats of the party. "Come, Freeborn, with me in my carriage," said Sir Henry. "I have fulfilled my promise in being present at your marriage, and must beg to stand as your best man, and see that you behave properly; but boarding a Frenchman at the head of a dozen daring fellows, though opposed to a hundred or more, is a very different matter to standing before the altar, about to take a wife for better or for worse to the end of life." "So I was thinking, Sir Henry," answered True Blue, smiling. "And do you know, that if it wasn't Mary Ogle I was going to marry, I shouldn't like it at all." "All right, then, my friend; you'll do," said the baronet. "Step into the carriage." The favours being distributed, Tom Marline mounted the coach-box of the first carriage, in which were Mary Ogle and her father and mother, carrying in his hands a long pole with a huge flag, on which was inscribed, "True Blue for ever! Hurrah for our own Billy True Blue!" Tim Fid mounted, as he said, the fo'castle of the next carriage, in which came Mrs Bush and Susan, with Harry, who declared that he didn't fancy the custom of following in different vehicles, as great folks did. On Fid's banner was the device of a ship, with "Hurrah for the Navy of Old England! Hurrah for her Gunners, Past, Present, and Future!" On the box of the third carriage sat Sam Smatch, fiddle in hand, playing away most lustily, and occasionally firing off a bow or stern-chaser of jokes at the other carriages with a peculiar loud cackling laugh which none but negroes can produce. Nobody could have behaved better than did the brides and bridegrooms; and when the ceremony was over, the bells set up a peal even more joyous than before. Instead of driving back to Paradise Row, the carriages proceeded to the harbour; and then at the Hard appeared half a dozen man-of-war's boats, rigged gaily with flags. Sir Henry handed Mrs Billy True Blue Freeborn into one boat, and Mrs Harry Hartland into another, and of course their husbands stepped in after them; and then he performed the same office to all the elder matrons and their younger daughters; and then wishing them all health, happiness, and prosperity, he entered his own boat and pulled across to Portsmouth. The three godfathers and their mates stepped into another boat, and Sam Smatch and the younger men into the sixth; and thus arranged, away the boats pulled, Sam playing right lustily his merriest tunes. True Blue's boat led, steering up the harbour, where lay Paul's and Abel's and Peter's ships. As they passed, the people on board came to the side, and cheered over and over again with all their might and main, making up by the vehemence and multiplicity of their vociferations for the paucity of their numbers. True Blue and Harry got up and cheered too, and so did the matrons in the third boat; and the godfathers made the seventy-fours a speech--it sounded as if addressed to the ships rather than to the people on board. Of course the men in the other boats cheered, and Sam almost sprang his bow with the vehemence of his playing; but all this was as nothing compared to the reception the bridal party met with as they reached True Blue's and Harry's own ship. Up and down the harbour pulled the bridal squadron; and the crews of every ship, as they passed, took up the cheer and welcomed the bridegroom, for True Blue and his deeds were now well-known throughout the British fleet. He had not aimed high, in one sense of the word, and yet he had in another sense always aimed high and nobly--to _do his duty_. Right well that duty he had done; he had gained all he desired, and never was there a happier or more contented man. No pen can do adequate justice to the ball in the barn in the evening. Never were so many warrant-officers collected together with their wives and their families; and never, certainly, had such an amount of gilt buttons and gold lace, and silk and satins and feathers, been seen in such a place. A crashing band overwhelmed Sam Smatch's fiddle; but he, for his consolation, was requested to play frequent solos; and he far out-eclipsed himself when he struck up "Bill's own special hornpipe," as he called it, which, _nolens volens_, True Blue was compelled to dance. If the bridegrooms made a tour, it must have been a very short one, as their leave could not have extended to many days. For a short time they lived on shore, when their ship was paid off; but war soon called them afloat. True Blue had a numerous family of sons, every one of whom served his country afloat, all becoming warrant-officers; while their sons again, from their intelligence and steady conduct, although they entered before the mast, obtained the same rank. True Blue himself, who lived to enjoy a hearty and hale old age, gave the same advice to his grandchildren which he received from Paul Pringle. "Lads," he used to say, "be content with your lot. Do your duty in whatever station you are placed, on the quarterdeck or fo'castle, in the tops aloft or at the guns on the main or lower-deck, and leave the rest to God. Depend on it, if you obey His standing orders, if you steer your course by the chart and compass He has provided for you, and fight your ship manfully, He will give you the victory." [THE END] _ |
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