Harry"s politeness compelled him to say that he was happy to have his company.
General Sampson could make himself agreeable to old and young alike. He had seen a great deal of the world, knew all that was going forward, and seasoned his conversation with numerous anecdotes. Harry could not help being amused.
Harry had not ridden over to Downside day after day without the general suspecting the object of his visits, and he had managed to obtain pretty accurate information of the state of the case. He really liked Harry more than he did any other young man, and his present object was to draw him out of himself. He would have been glad to gain Harry"s confidence, and to hear from him how matters stood, though he very well knew he should fail if he asked the question point-blank. He therefore beat about the bush for some time, talking of his own love affairs when he was a young man, and of those of several of his friends.
"You see, my dear Harry, we must all be prepared for trials in this rugged world, but then, according to my experience, we are the better for them in the end. If the lady is obdurate or coy, or if her friends throw obstacles in the way, or if want of means exist, we must try to win her by greater attention, or sometimes by pretended indifference, or we must set to work to overcome the obstacles, or to gain the means which are wanting, and we shall enjoy double satisfaction when we triumph. I sometimes wish that I were young again to take advantage of the experience I possess, but as that is an impossibility, I have great satisfaction in enabling others to benefit by it. You understand me, Harry, _nil desperandum_ is the motto I advise you to adopt."
"Thank you, general," said Harry. "You seem to suppose that I am in a position to require your advice."
"Of course I do," said the general. "I know something about your love affair. Though my friend Sir Ralph and Lady Castleton may not see with your eyes, and may have other views for you, I can sympathise with you, and as far as my respect to them will allow me, I shall be glad to give you all the a.s.sistance in my power."
Harry thanked the general for his kind feelings, and supposing that he knew from Sir Ralph and his mother exactly how things stood enlightened him yet further on the subject.
"You should not be surprised at their objecting on the score of the lady"s want of birth, charming as I doubt not she is," observed the general. "I regret, as she has gone away, that I shall not have the pleasure of being introduced to her, and by pouring her praises into Sir Ralph"s ear, perhaps a.s.sist in softening his heart. However, as I said before, don"t despair, but keep up your spirits, and you will soon be too busy in your professional duties to allow your thoughts time to dwell on the subject."
Harry again thanked him, and promised to follow his advice.
They reached Morbury. Harry proposed putting up their horses, and begged the general to take a few turns on the esplanade, as he had business which would occupy him some little time.
Harry was absent longer than he expected, and the general, after looking at his watch two or three times, began to wonder what he could be about.
"Can the fair lady have come to the place," he thought. "Perhaps the young fellow has been making a cat"s-paw of me all the time, and has gone to church and got married, ha! ha! ha! that would be a joke; but by-the-bye it"s out of canonical hours; he cannot have done that then."
He took another turn or two, exchanged a few words with the boatmen on the beach, looked about in the hopes of meeting an acquaintance, and resumed his seat on a bench facing the sea.
At last Harry made his appearance.
"What have you been about?" exclaimed the general. "I began to fear that you had given me the slip altogether, and that I should hear of you next at Gretna Green, or find that you had had a licence in your pocket all the time, and had been laughing in your sleeve while I was bestowing my sage advice on you."
"No, indeed," answered Harry, who did not like the general"s joke. "To confess the truth, I have been making my will. I thought it was a matter which would occupy five or ten minutes at the utmost, but found that there were all sorts of complications, of which I had not dreamed."
"Make your will, my dear boy! What could induce you to do that?"
exclaimed the general.
"When a man is going to run the risk of being shot or drowned, or cut down by fever, or finished in some other way, he naturally wishes to make such arrangements that his property may benefit those in whom he is most interested. I should have asked you to be a witness, but the lawyer found those who would answer as well, and I therefore did not think it necessary to trouble you."
"Well, we will talk about it as we ride homewards," observed the general. "It is time that we should be in the saddle, or we may be late for dinner."
The general, as they rode along, pumped Harry, curious to know how he had disposed of his property. He suspected from poor Algernon"s condition that the younger brother would himself soon become heir of Texford, and would thus, should Sir Ralph die, have no inconsiderable amount of property to leave.
He succeeded in satisfying himself that should Harry Castleton be killed, Miss Pemberton"s protege would succeed to all the property he could leave.
"I hope, my young friend, you will be able to endow her with it in a different way," he observed, "and though I do not know what some may say to your intentions, for my part I think it is a very right thing to do.
Supposing Algernon were to die, and you be killed, and I heartily hope that won"t happen, your sister Julia will inherit Texford, and I shall be very much mistaken if your friend Headland does not some day become its master. Mrs Appleton and I agree that the young people are admirably matched. By the way, Harry, I want you and Headland to come and pay me a visit at a little box I have got near Portsmouth, if you can manage to get away from your ships before they sail, or when you come into port. I had thought of going to take a few weeks" shooting with my friend, Sir Pierce Berrington, but I have made up my mind to go home direct, and if you will give me your company we will travel together. You will find posting pleasanter than the coach, and we shall give a good account of any highwaymen who may think fit to cry, "Halt; your money or your lives.""
Harry gladly accepted the general"s last offer, and promised to deliver his message to Headland. He was glad to secure so amusing a companion for his journey. He hoped also to pay the general a visit, for unless May and his cousins returned to Downside, he should have no wish to go home.
CHAPTER FORTY TWO.
THE LUGGER AGAIN.
A Post-Chaise which had conveyed Harry and the general to Portsmouth drove up to the "George," just as Captain Headland, who was living there, returned from a visit to his ship.
The old general, thinking that Harry would benefit by his society, had insisted on accompanying him, declaring that he had promised Lady Castleton to see him safe on board his frigate.
Sir Ralph, suspecting perhaps that Harry might take it into his head to run off with May, had encouraged the general in doing as he had offered, little aware that there was no risk of such an occurrence happening, while the general took good care to show that he had not come as a spy on his actions. Harry, indeed, was too generous to suspect him of such a proceeding.
The general having shaken hands with Headland, went into the hotel, as he said, to order rooms, leaving the two friends alone. He guessed that the captain would have enquiries to make about Julia. They joined him before long in the sitting-room he had engaged, and Headland thanked him heartily for the invitation which Harry had just delivered.
The general had ordered dinner, and insisted on the two young officers being his guests for the day.
"You shall give me a return dinner on board the _Thisbe_," he observed.
The dinner was the best the hotel could supply, and the wines were good, the general keeping his guests well amused.
"By-the-bye, I daresay you two young men would rather sail together than cruise in different ships, and as I have a modic.u.m of interest in high quarters, though I do not boast of much, if you wish, Captain Headland, to apply for Harry, it is possible that I may induce the Lords Commissioners to grant your request, unless Harry would prefer remaining as he is."
Both Headland and Harry begged the general would do as he proposed.
"Well, do you write the official letter, and I will support it," said the general, "and if necessary I will run up to town and see my official friends. Harry will get a longer spell on sh.o.r.e to recover from the hurts he received from those rascally highwaymen. I cannot compliment the police of your county for not catching them though. I always felt when riding about, the unpleasant possibility of having a bullet sent through my head."
Harry said the search for them was not over, however, and that Mr Grooc.o.c.k especially was taking every means in his power to discover them, though, for his part, as they had failed in their attempt, unless to prevent their attacking anyone else, he had no wish to have them brought to justice, as it might compel him to remain on sh.o.r.e as a witness.
Little was the general aware when he made this offer that Sir Ralph had expressly got the young men appointed to different ships, and had taken care that Headland"s should be destined for a foreign station. How far, had he known this, he would have ventured to counteract the baronet"s arrangements it is difficult to say.
The next morning Harry joined the _Aurora_. The same day he paid Headland a visit on board the _Thisbe_, which had just come out of dock and been brought alongside the hulk. She was a remarkably fine corvette of eighteen guns, just such a craft as a young officer would be proud to command, and, from her build, both he and Headland thought she would prove very fast.
Within a week Harry found himself superseded, and appointed first lieutenant of the _Thisbe_.
Orders came down the next day to hurry on with her equipment, and Portsmouth was again alive with preparations for war.
Lord Whitworth"s final interview with Napoleon had taken place. The First Consul had stormed, and threatened, and insulted the English amba.s.sador. All doubts as to his intentions vanished. The whole of England was aroused, for her sh.o.r.es were threatened with invasion. The militia were called out, and volunteers rapidly enrolled. A few months later, the great minister of England, his tall, gaunt figure dressed in regimental scarlet, might have been seen in his character of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, at the head of 3000 volunteers, drilling them as he best could. Not only he, however, but every Lord-lieutenant of England and Scotland was endeavouring to prepare his countrymen to drive the invaders from their sacred sh.o.r.es back into the Channel should they audaciously venture to cross it. In a short time, nearly 400,000 men, providing their own clothing, receiving no pay, and enjoying no privileges, sprang up at a word--a n.o.ble congregation of citizens, united as one individual soul, ready to fight to the death as long as a Frenchman remained in arms on their native soil.
As soon as war was declared, the general bade his naval friends farewell. "Though laid on the shelf so far as foreign service was concerned," he observed, "it would be found, he hoped, that there was still some life left in him for duty at home."
The _Thisbe_ was rapidly got ready for sea. Though any men who had sailed with Captain Headland were willing to join her, there was great difficulty in procuring hands, and he knew too well the importance of having an efficient crew, to take any but the best men.
The _Thisbe_ at length sailed with sealed orders, though still short handed. Unless she could obtain the remainder of her crew by taking them out of any homeward-bound vessels or fishing-boats, she was to put into Plymouth to make up her complement. She was to avoid, however, touching anywhere, and to proceed, if possible, with all despatch on her voyage southward. She lost sight of the Needles just as the sun sank into the ocean. A light breeze to the northward filling her sails, she made some progress during the night, but as morning approached, a thick fog came on, and she lay almost becalmed on the gla.s.s like sea. It was Harry"s morning watch. Look-outs were stationed aloft to catch the first glimpse of any sail which might be near, though their hulls and lower rigging would be hidden by the mist. It was a time when vigilance was doubly necessary, for it was possible that an enemy"s cruiser might have ventured thus far towards the English coast in the hopes of capturing any homeward-bound merchantmen in ignorance of the war.
At length dawn broke, and the mist a.s.sumed that silvery hue which showed that the sun was about once more to rise above the horizon. All hands were on deck, employed in the morning duties of a man-of-war"s crew.
The sails which had hitherto hung down against the masts gave several loud flaps, then gradually bulged out, and the ship obtaining steerage way, once more glided slowly onwards.
Harry sent a midshipman forward to see that the look-outs had their eyes open.
Suddenly the fog lifted.