"The circle form'd, we sit in silent state,
Like figures drawn upon a dial-plate;
Yes ma'am, and no ma'am, uttered softly show,
Every five minutes how the minutes go."
COWPER.
It is scarcely necessary to tell the reader that England, as regarded
material civilization, was a very different country a hundred years
since, from what it is to-day. We are writing of an age of heavy wagons,
coaches and six, post-chaises and four; and not of an era of
MacAdam-roads, or of cars flying along by steam. A man may now post down
to a country-house, some sixty or eighty miles, to dinner; and this,
too, by the aid of only a pair of horses; but, in 1745 such an
engagement would have required at least a start on the previous day;
and, in many parts of the island, it would have been safer to have taken
two days' grace. Scotland was then farther from Devonshire, in effect,
than Geneva is now; and news travelled slowly, and with the usual
exaggerations and uncertainties of delay. It was no wonder, then, that a
Jacobite who was posting off to his country-house--the focus of an
English landlord's influence and authority--filled with intelligence
that had reached him through the activity of zealous political
partisans, preceded the more regular tidings of the mail, by several
hours. The little that had escaped this individual, or his servants
rather, for the gentleman was tolerably discreet himself, confiding in
only one or two particular friends at each relay, had not got out to the
world, either very fully, or very clearly. Wycherly had used
intelligence in making his inquiries, and he had observed an officer's
prudence in keeping his news for the ears of his superior alone. When
Sir Gervaise joined the party in the drawing-room, therefore, he saw
that Sir Wycherly knew nothing of what had occurred at the north; and he
intended the glance which he directed at the lieutenant to convey a
hearty approval of his discretion. This forbearance did more to raise
the young officer in the opinion of the practised and thoughtful
admiral, than the gallantry with which the youth had so recently
purchased his commission; for while many were brave, few had the
self-command, and prudence, under circumstances like the present, that
alone can make a man safe in the management of important public
interests. The approbation that Sir Gervaise felt, and which he desired
to manifest, for Wycherly's prudence, was altogether a principle,
however; since there existed no sufficient reason for keeping the secret
from as confirmed a whig as his host. On the contrary, the sooner those
opinions, which both of them would be apt to term sound, were
promulgated in the neighbourhood, the better it might prove for the good
cause. The vice-admiral, therefore, determined to communicate himself,
as soon as the party was seated at table, the very secret which he so
much commended the youth for keeping. Admiral Bluewater joining the
company, at this instant, Sir Wycherly led Mrs. Dutton to the table. No
alteration had taken place among the guests, except that Sir Gervaise
wore the red riband; a change in his dress that his friend considered to
be openly hoisting the standard of the house of Hanover.
"One would not think, Sir Wycherly," commenced the vice-admiral,
glancing his eyes around him, as soon as all were sealed; "that this
good company has taken its place at your hospitable table, in the midst
of a threatened civil war, if not of an actual revolution."
Every hand was arrested, and every eye turned towards the speaker; even
Admiral Bluewater earnestly regarding his friend, anxious to know what
would come next.
"I believe my household is in due subjection," answered Sir Wycherly,
gazing to the right and left, as if he expected to see his butler
heading a revolt; "and I fancy the only change we shall see to-day, will
be the removal of the courses, and the appearance of their successors."
"Ay, so says the hearty, comfortable Devonshire baronet, while seated at
his own board, favoured by abundance and warm friends. But it would seem
the snake was only scotched; not killed."
"Sir Gervaise Oaken has grown figurative; with his _snakes_ and
_scotch_ings," observed the rear-admiral, a little drily.
"It is _Scotch_-ing, as you say with so much emphasis, Bluewater. I
suppose, Sir Wycherly--I suppose, Mr. Dutton, and you, my pretty young
lady--I presume all of you have heard of such a person as the
Pretender;--some of you may possibly have _seen_ him."
Sir Wycherly now dropt his knife and fork, and sat gazing at the speaker
in amazement. To him the Christian religion, the liberties of the
subject--more especially of the baronet and lord of the manor, who had
four thousand a year--and the Protestant succession, all seemed to be in
sudden danger.
"I always told my brother, the judge--Mr. Baron Wychecombe, who is dead
and gone--that what between the French, that rogue the Pope, and the
spurious offspring of King James II., we should yet see troublesome
times in England! And now, sir, my predictions are verified!"
"Not as to England, yet, my good sir. Of Scotland I have not quite so
good news to tell you; as your namesake, here, brings us the tidings
that the son of the Pretender has landed in that kingdom, and is
rallying the clans. He has come unattended by any Frenchmen, it would
seem, and has thrown himself altogether on the misguided nobles and
followers of his house."
"'Tis, at least, a chivalrous and princely act!" exclaimed Admiral
Bluewater.
"Yes--inasmuch as it is a heedless and mad one. England is not to be
conquered by a rabble of half-dressed Scotchmen."
"True; but England may be conquered by England, notwithstanding."
Sir Gervaise now chose to remain silent, for never before had Bluewater
come so near betraying his political bias, in the presence of third
persons. This pause enabled Sir Wycherly to find his voice.
"Let me see, Tom," said the baronet, "fifteen and ten are twenty-five,
and ten are thirty, and ten are forty-five--it is just thirty years
since the Jacobites were up before! It would seem that half a human life
is not sufficient to fill the cravings of a Scotchman's maw, for English
gold."
"Twice thirty years would hardly quell the promptings of a noble spirit,
when his notions of justice showed him the way to the English throne,"
observed Bluewater, coolly. "For my part, I like the spirit of this
young prince, for he who nobly dares, nobly deserves. What say you, my
beautiful neighbour?"
"If you mean to address me, sir, by that compliment," answered Mildred,
modestly, but with the emphasis that the gentlest of her sex are apt to
use when they feel strongly; "I must be suffered to say that I hope
every Englishman will dare as nobly, and deserve as well in defence of
his liberties."
"Come--come, Bluewater," interrupted Sir Gervaise, with a gravity that
almost amounted to reproof; "I cannot permit such innuendoes before one
so young and unpractised. The young lady might really suppose that His
Majesty's fleet was entrusted to men unworthy to enjoy his confidence,
by the cool way in which you carry on the joke. I propose, now, Sir
Wycherly, that we eat our dinner in peace, and say no more about this
mad expedition, until the cloth is drawn, at least. It's a long road to
Scotland, and there is little danger that this adventurer will find his
way into Devonshire before the nuts are placed before us."
"It would be nuts to us, if he did, Sir Gervaise," put in Tom Wycherly,
laughing heartily at his own wit. "My uncle would enjoy nothing more
than to see the spurious sovereign on his own estate, here, and in the
hands of his own tenants. I think, sir, that Wychecombe and one or two
of the adjoining manors, would dispose of him."
"That might depend on circumstances," the admiral answered, a little
drily. "These Scots have such a thing as a claymore, and are desperate
fellows, they tell me, at a charge. The very fact of arming a soldier
with a short sword, shows a most bloody-minded disposition."
"You forget, Sir Gervaise, that we have our Cornish hug, here in the
west of England; and I will put our fellows against any Scotch regiment
that ever charged an enemy."
Tom laughed again at his own allusion to a proverbial mode of grappling,
familiar to the adjoining county.
"This is all very well, Mr. Thomas Wychecombe, so long as Devonshire is
in the west of England, and Scotland lies north of the Tweed. Sir
Wycherly might as well leave the matter in the hands of the Duke and his
regulars, if it were only in the way of letting every man follow his own
trade."
"It strikes me as so singularly insolent in a base-born boy like this,
pretending to the English crown, that I can barely speak of him with
patience! We all know that his father was a changeling, and the son of a
changeling can have no more right than the father himself. I do not
remember what the law terms such pretenders; but I dare say it is
something sufficiently odious."
"_Filius nullius_, Thomas," said Sir Wycherly, with a little eagerness
to show his learning. "That's the very phrase. I have it from the first
authority; my late brother, Baron Wychecombe, giving it to me with his
own mouth, on an occasion that called for an understanding of such
matters. The judge was a most accurate lawyer, particularly in all that
related to names; and I'll engage, if he were living at this moment, he
would tell you the legal appellation of a changeling ought to be _filius
nullius_."
In spite of his native impudence, and an innate determination to make
his way in the world, without much regard to truth, Tom Wychecombe felt
his cheek burn so much, at this innocent allusion of his reputed uncle,
that he was actually obliged to turn away his face, in order to conceal
his confusion. Had any moral delinquency of his own been implicated in
the remark, he might have found means to steel himself against its
consequences; but, as is only too often the case, he was far more
ashamed of a misfortune over which he had no possible control, than he
would have been of a crime for which he was strictly responsible in
morals. Sir Gervaise smiled at Sir Wycherly's knowledge of law terms,
not to say of Latin; and turning good-humouredly to his friend the
rear-admiral, anxious to re-establish friendly relations with him, he
said with well-concealed irony--
"Sir Wycherly must be right, Bluewater. A changeling is _nobody_--that
is to say, he is not the _body_ he pretends to be, which is
substantially being nobody--and the son of nobody, is clearly a _filius
nullius_. And now having settled what may be called the law of the case,
I demand a truce, until we get our nuts--for as to Mr. Thomas
Wychecombe's having _his_ nut to crack, at least to-day, I take it there
are too many loyal subjects in the north."
When men know each other as well as was the case with our two admirals,
there are a thousand secret means of annoyance, as well as of
establishing amity. Admiral Bluewater was well aware that Sir Gervaise
was greatly superior to the vulgar whig notion of the day, which
believed in the fabricated tale of the Pretender's spurious birth; and
the secret and ironical allusion he had made to his impression on that
subject, acted as oil to his own chafed spirit, disposing him to
moderation. This had been the intention of the other; and the smiles
they exchanged, sufficiently proved that their usual mental intercourse
was temporarily restored at least.
Deference to his guests made Sir Wycherly consent to change the subject,
though he was a little mystified with the obvious reluctance of the two
admirals to speak of an enterprise that ought to be uppermost, according
to his notion of the matter, in every Englishman's mind. Tom had
received a rebuke that kept him silent during the rest of the dinner;
while the others were content to eat and drink, as if nothing had
happened.
It is seldom that a party takes its seat at table without some secret
man[oe]uvring, as to the neighbourhood, when the claims of rank and
character do not interfere with personal wishes. Sir Wycherly had placed
Sir Gervaise on his right and Mrs. Dutton on his left. But Admiral
Bluewater had escaped from his control, and taken his seat next to
Mildred, who had been placed by Tom Wychecombe close to himself, at the
foot of the table. Wycherly occupied the seat opposite, and this
compelled Dutton, and Mr. Rotherham, the vicar, to fill the other two
chairs. The good baronet had made a wry face, at seeing a rear-admiral
so unworthily bestowed; but Sir Gervaise assuring him that his friend
was never so happy as when in the service of beauty, he was fain to
submit to the arrangement.
That Admiral Bluewater was struck with Mildred's beauty, and pleased
with her natural and feminine manner, one altogether superior to what
might have been expected from her station in life, was very apparent to
all at table; though it was quite impossible to mistake his parental and
frank air for any other admiration than that which was suitable to the
difference in years, and in unison with their respective conditions and
experience. Mrs. Dutton, so far from taking the alarm at the
rear-admiral's attentions, felt gratification in observing them; and
perhaps she experienced a secret pride in the consciousness of their
being so well merited. It has been said, already, that she was, herself,
the daughter of a land-steward of a nobleman, in an adjoining county;
but it may be well to add, here, that she had been so great a favourite
with the daughters of her father's employer, as to have been admitted,
in a measure, to their society; and to have enjoyed some of the
advantages of their education. Lady Wilmeter, the mother of the young
ladies, to whom she was admitted as a sort of humble companion, had
formed the opinion it might be an advantage to the girl to educate her
for a governess; little conceiving, in her own situation, that she was
preparing a course of life for Martha Ray, for such was Mrs. Dutton's
maiden name, that was perhaps the least enviable of all the careers that
a virtuous and intelligent female can run. This was, as education and
governesses were appreciated a century ago; the world, with all its
faults and sophisms, having unquestionably made a vast stride towards
real civilization, and moral truths, in a thousand important interests,
since that time. Nevertheless, the education was received, together with
a good many tastes, and sentiments, and opinions, which it may well be
questioned, whether they contributed most to the happiness or
unhappiness of the pupil, in her future life. Frank Dutton, then a
handsome, though far from polished young sea-lieutenant, interfered with
the arrangement, by making Martha Ray his wife, when she was
two-and-twenty. This match was suitable, in all respects, with the
important exception of the educations and characters of the parties.
Still, as a woman may well be more refined, and in some things, even
more intelligent than her husband; and as sailors, in the commencement
of the eighteenth century, formed a class of society much more distinct
than they do to-day, there would have been nothing absolutely
incompatible with the future well-being of the young couple, had each
pursued his, or her own career, in a manner suitable to their respective
duties. Young Dutton took away his bride, with the two thousand pounds
she had received from her father, and for a long time he was seen no
more in his native county. After an absence of some twenty years,
however, he returned, broken in constitution, and degraded in rank. Mrs.
Dutton brought with her one child, the beautiful girl introduced to the
reader, and to whom she was studiously imparting all she had herself
acquired in the adventitious manner mentioned. Such were the means, by
which Mildred, like her mother, had been educated above her condition in
life; and it had been remarked that, though Mrs. Dutton had probably no
cause to felicitate herself on the possession of manners and sentiments
that met with so little sympathy, or appreciation, in her actual
situation, she assiduously cultivated the same manners and opinions in
her daughter; frequently manifesting a sort of sickly fastidiousness on
the subject of Mildred's deportment and tastes. It is probable the girl
owed her improvement in both, however, more to the circumstance of her
being left so much alone with her mother, than to any positive lessons
she received; the influence of example, for years, producing its usual
effects.
No one in Wychecombe positively knew the history of Dutton's
professional degradation. He had never risen higher than to be a
lieutenant; and from this station he had fallen by the sentence of a
court-martial. His restoration to the service, in the humbler and almost
hopeless rank of a master, was believed to have been brought about by
Mrs. Dutton's influence with the present Lord Wilmeter, who was the
brother of her youthful companions. That the husband had wasted his
means, was as certain as that his habits, on the score of temperance at
least, were bad, and that his wife, if not positively broken-hearted,
was an unhappy woman; one to be pitied, and admired. Sir Wycherly was
little addicted to analysis, but he could not fail to discover the
superiority of the wife and daughter, over the husband and father; and
it is due to his young namesake to add, that his obvious admiration of
Mildred was quite as much owing to her mind, deportment, character, and
tastes, as to her exceeding personal charms.
This little digression may perhaps, in the reader's eyes, excuse the
interest Admiral Bluewater took in our heroine. With the indulgence of
years and station, and the tact of a man of the world, he succeeded in
drawing Mildred out, without alarming her timidity; and he was surprised
at discovering the delicacy of her sentiments, and the accuracy of her
knowledge. He was too conversant with society, and had too much good
taste, to make any deliberate parade of opinions; but in the quiet
manner that is so easy to those who are accustomed to deal with truths
and tastes as familiar things, he succeeded in inducing her to answer
his own remarks, to sympathize with his feelings, to laugh when he
laughed, and to assume a look of disapproval, when he felt that
disapprobation was just. To all this Wycherly was a delighted witness,
and in some respects he participated in the conversation; for there was
evidently no wish on the part of the rear-admiral to monopolize his
beautiful companion to himself. Perhaps the position of the young man,
directly opposite to her, aided in inducing Mildred to bestow so many
grateful looks and sweet smiles, on the older officer; for she could not
glance across the table, without meeting the admiring gaze of Wycherly,
fastened on her own blushing face.
It is certain, if our heroine did not, during this repast, make a
conquest of Admiral Bluewater, in the ordinary meaning of the term, that
she made him a friend. Sir Gervaise, even, was struck with the singular
and devoted manner in which his old messmate gave all his attention to
the beautiful girl at his side; and, once or twice, he caught himself
conjecturing whether it were possible, that one as practised, as
sensible, and as much accustomed to the beauties of the court, as
Bluewater, had actually been caught, by the pretty face of a country
girl, when so well turned of fifty, himself! Then discarding the notion
as preposterous, he gave his attention to the discourse of Sir Wycherly;
a dissertation on rabbits, and rabbit-warrens. In this manner the dinner
passed away.
Mrs. Dutton asked her host's permission to retire, with her daughter, at
the earliest moment permitted by propriety. In quitting the room she
cast an anxious glance at the face of her husband, which was already
becoming flushed with his frequent applications of port; and spite of an
effort to look smiling and cheerful, her lips quivered, and by the time
she and Mildred reached the drawing-room, tears were fast falling down
her cheeks. No explanation was asked, or needed, by the daughter, who
threw herself into her mother's arms, and for several minutes they wept
together, in silence. Never had Mrs. Dutton spoken, even to Mildred, of
the besetting and degrading vice of her husband; but it had been
impossible to conceal its painful consequences from the world; much less
from one who lived in the bosom of her family. On that failing which the
wife treated so tenderly, the daughter of course could not touch; but
the silent communion of tears had got to be so sweet to both, that,
within the last year, it was of very frequent occurrence.
"Really, Mildred," said the mother, at length, after having succeeded in
suppressing her emotion, and in drying her eyes, while she smiled fondly
in the face of the lovely and affectionate girl; "this Admiral Bluewater
is getting to be so particular, I hardly know how to treat the matter."
"Oh! mother, he is a delightful old gentleman! and he is so gentle,
while he is so frank, that he wins your confidence almost before you
know it. I wonder if he could have been serious in what he said about
the noble daring and noble deserving of Prince Edward!"
"That must pass for trifling, of course; the ministry would scarcely
employ any but a true whig, in command of a fleet. I saw several of his
family, when a girl, and have always heard them spoken of with esteem
and respect. Lord Bluewater, this gentleman's cousin, was very intimate
with the present Lord Wilmeter, and was often at the castle. I remember
to have heard that he had a disappointment in love, when quite a young
man, and that he has ever since been considered a confirmed bachelor. So
you will take heed, my love."
"The warning was unnecessary, dear mother," returned Mildred, laughing;
"I could dote on the admiral as a father, but must be excused from
considering him young enough for a nearer tie."
"And yet he has the much admired profession, Mildred," said the mother,
smiling fondly, and yet a little archly. "I have often heard you speak
of your passion for the sea."
"That was formerly, mother, when I spoke as a sailor's daughter, and as
girls are apt to speak, without much reflection. I do not know that I
think better of a seaman's profession, now, than I do of any other. I
fear there is often much misery in store for soldiers' and sailors'
wives."
Mrs. Dutton's lip quivered again; but hearing a foot at the door, she
made an effort to be composed, just as Admiral Bluewater entered.
"I have run away from the bottle, Mrs. Dutton, to join you and your fair
daughter, as I would run from an enemy of twice my force," he said,
giving each lady a hand, in a manner so friendly, as to render the act
more than gracious; for it was kind. "Oakes is bowsing out his jib with
his brother baronet, as we sailors say, and I have hauled out of the
line, without a signal."
"I hope Sir Gervaise Oakes does not consider it necessary to drink more
wine than is good for the mind and body," observed Mrs. Dutton, with a
haste that she immediately regretted.
"Not he. Gervaise Oakes is as discreet a man, in all that relates to the
table, as an anchorite; and yet he has a faculty of _seeming_ to drink,
that makes him a boon companion for a four-bottle man. How the deuce he
does it, is more than I can tell you; but he does it so well, that he
does not more thoroughly get the better of the king's enemies, on the
high seas, than he floors his friends under the table. Sir Wycherly has
begun his libations in honour of the house of Hanover, and they will be
likely to make a long sitting."
Mrs. Dutton sighed, and walked away to a window, to conceal the paleness
of her cheeks. Admiral Bluewater, though perfectly abstemious himself,
regarded license with the bottle after dinner, like most men of that
age, as a very venial weakness, and he quietly took a seat by the side
of Mildred, and began to converse.
"I hope, young lady, as a sailor's child, you feel an hereditary
indulgence for a seaman's gossip," he said. "We, who are so much shut up
in our ships, have a poverty of ideas on most subjects; and as to always
talking of the winds and waves, that would fatigue even a poet."
"As a sailor's daughter, I honour my father's calling, sir; and as an
English girl, I venerate the brave defenders of the island. Nor do I
know that seamen have less to say, than other men."
"I am glad to hear you confess this, for--shall I be frank with you, and
take a liberty that would better become a friend of a dozen years, than
an acquaintance of a day;--and, yet, I know not why it is so, my dear
child, but I feel as if I had long known you, though I am certain we
never met before."
"Perhaps, sir, it is an omen that we are long to know each other, in
future," said Mildred, with the winning confidence of unsuspecting and
innocent girlhood. "I hope you will use no reserve."
"Well, then, at the risk of making a sad blunder, I will just say, that
'my nephew Tom' is any thing but a prepossessing youth; and that I hope
all eyes regard him exactly as he appears to a sailor of fifty-five."
"I cannot answer for more than those of a girl of nineteen, Admiral
Bluewater," said Mildred, laughing; "but, for her, I think I may say
that she does not look on him as either an Adonis, or a Crichton."
"Upon my soul! I am right glad to hear this, for the fellow has
accidental advantages enough to render him formidable. He is the heir to
the baronetcy, and this estate, I believe?"
"I presume he is. Sir Wycherly has no other nephew--or at least this is
the eldest of three brothers, I am told--and, being childless himself,
it _must_ be so. My father tells me Sir Wycherly speaks of Mr. Thomas
Wychecombe as his future heir."
"Your father!--Ay, fathers look on these matters with eyes very
different from their daughters!"
"There is one thing about seamen that renders them at least safe
acquaintances," said Mildred, smiling; "I mean their frankness."
"That is a failing of mine, as I have heard. But you will pardon an
indiscretion that arises in the interest I feel in yourself. The eldest
of three brothers--is the lieutenant, then, a younger son?"
"_He_ does not belong to the family at all, I believe," Mildred
answered, colouring slightly, in spite of a resolute determination to
appear unconcerned. "Mr. Wycherly Wychecombe is no relative of our host,
I hear; though he bears both of his names. He is from the colonies; born
in Virginia."
"_He_ is a noble, and a noble-looking fellow! Were I the baronet, I
would break the entail, rather than the acres should go to that
sinister-looking nephew, and bestow them on the namesake. From Virginia,
and not even a relative, at all?"
"That is what Mr. Thomas Wychecombe says; and even Sir Wycherly confirms
it. I have never heard Mr. Wycherly Wychecombe speak on the subject,
himself."
"A weakness of poor human nature! The lad finds an honourable, ancient,
and affluent family here, and has not the courage to declare his want of
affinity to it; happening to bear the same name."
Mildred hesitated about replying; but a generous feeling got the better
of her diffidence. "I have never seen any thing in the conduct of Mr.
Wycherly Wychecombe to induce me to think that he feels any such
weakness," she said, earnestly. "He seems rather to take pride in, than
to feel ashamed of, his being a colonial; and you know, we, in England,
hardly look on the people of the colonies as our equals."
"And have you, young lady, any of that overweening prejudice in favour
of your own island?"
"I hope not; but I think most persons have. Mr. Wycherly Wychecombe
admits that Virginia is inferior to England, in a thousand things; and
yet he seems to take pride in his birth-place."
"Every sentiment of this nature is to be traced to self. We know that
the fact is irretrievable, and struggle to be proud of what we cannot
help. The Turk will tell you he has the honour to be a native of
Stamboul; the Parisian will boast of his Faubourg; and the cockney
exults in Wapping. Personal conceit lies at the bottom of all; for we
fancy that places to which _we_ belong, are not places to be ashamed
of."
"And yet I do not think Mr. Wycherly at all remarkable for conceit. On
the contrary, he is rather diffident and unassuming."
This was said simply, but so sincerely, as to induce the listener to
fasten his penetrating blue eye on the speaker, who now first took the
alarm, and felt that she might have said too much. At this moment the
two young men entered, and a servant appeared to request that Admiral
Bluewater would do Sir Gervaise Oakes the favour to join him, in the
dressing-room of the latter.
Tom Wychecombe reported the condition of the dinner-table to be such, as
to render it desirable for all but three and four-bottle men to retire.
Hanoverian toasts and sentiments were in the ascendant, and there was
every appearance that those who remained intended to make a night of it.
This was sad intelligence for Mrs. Dutton, who had come forward eagerly
to hear the report, but who now returned to the window, apparently
irresolute as to the course she ought to take. As both the young men
remained near Mildred, she had sufficient opportunity to come to her
decision, without interruption, or hindrance.