"I say, old fellows, don't you find this rather slow?" exclaimed Hearty,
as one morning Carstairs, Bubble, and I sat at breakfast with him on
board the "Frolic." "What say you to a cruise to the westward, over to
the coast of France and the Channel Islands, just for ten days or a
fortnight or so?"
"Agreed, agreed, agreed!" we all answered.
"Well, then, to-morrow or next day we sail," said Hearty. "But how can
you, Carstairs, tear yourself away from your pretty widow? Bubble, you
don't mean to say that you can leave sweet May Sandon without a sigh?"
"A little absence will try the widow; it will teach her to miss me, and
she will value me more when I return," was Carstairs' answer. "But you,
Bubble, what do you say?" for he did not answer.
Will was guilty of blushing, for I saw the rosy hue appearing even
through his sunburnt countenance, though the others did not.
"That is the best thing we can do," he answered, with a loud laugh.
"Hurrah for the broad seas, and a rover's free life!"
"I thought so--I thought there was nothing in it," said Hearty. "Happy
dog!--you never fall in love; you never care for any one."
"Ah, no: I laugh, sing, and am merry!" exclaimed Bubble. "It's all very
well for you fellows with your five or ten thousand a year to fall in
love; you have hope to live on, if nothing else--no insurmountable
obstacles; but for poverty-stricken wretches, like me and a dozen more I
could name, it can only bring misery: yet I don't complain of poverty--
no cares, no responsibilities; if one has only one's self to look after,
it matters little; but should one unhappily meet with some being who to
one's eye is lovely, towards whom one's heart yearns unconsciously, and
one longs to make her one's own, then one begins to feel what poverty
really is--then the galling yoke presses on one's neck. Can you then be
surprised that I, and such as I, throw care away, and become the light
frivolous wretches we seem? Hearty, my dear fellow, don't you squander
your money, or you will repent it!"
Bubble spoke with a feeling for which few would have given him credit.
He directly afterwards, however, broke into his usual loud laugh,
adding,--
"Don't say that I have been moralising, or I may be suspected of
incipient insanity."
"Will Bubble has made out a clear case that he cannot be in love, for no
one accuses him of being overburdened with the gifts of fortune," I
observed; for I saw that he was more in earnest than he would have
wished to be supposed. "But do you, Hearty, wish to desert Miss Seaton,
and leave the stage clear for Loring?"
"Oh, I never enter the lists with a man who can sing," answered Hearty.
"Those imitators of Orpheus have the same winning way about them which
their great master possessed. But, at the same time, I'll bet ten to
one that the fair Jane never becomes Mrs Loring. I had a little confab
the other day with Madame la Mere, and faith, she's about as fierce a
she-dragon as ever guarded an enchanted princess from the attempts of
knights-errant to rescue her."
"I'll take your bet, and for once stake love against lucre!" exclaimed
Bubble, and the bet was booked.
But enough of this. We bade our friends farewell; and, in spite of all
their attempts to detain us, we laid in a stock of provisions to last us
for a month, and with a fine breeze from the northward, actually found
our way through the Needles just as the sun was tinging the topmost
pinnacles of those weather-worn rocks.
As soon as we were through the passage, we kept away, and shaped a
course for Havre de Grace. The wind shifted round soon afterwards to
the westward, and I shall not forget the pure refreshing saltness of the
breeze which filled our nostrils, and added strength and vigour to our
limbs. What a breakfast we ate afterwards! There seemed no end to it.
Our caterer had done well to lay in a store of comestibles. Our perfect
happiness lasted till nearly noon, and then the wind increased and the
sea got up in a not unusual manner. We went below to take luncheon, and
we set to in first-rate style, as if there was no such thing as the
centre of gravity to be disturbed. Carstairs began to look a little
queer.
"`Thus far into the bowels of the earth have we marched on without
impediment,' Shakespeare, hum"--he began. He was going to give us the
whole speech, but instead, he exclaimed, "O ye gods and little fishes!"
and bolted up on deck.
Hearty, the joyous and free, followed. They declared that they felt as
if the cook had mixed ipecacuanha in the sausages they had eaten for
breakfast. Bubble laughed, lighted a cigar, and sat on the
companion-hatch with one leg resting on the deck, the other carelessly
dangling down, with the independence of a king on his throne, pitying
them. Oh, how they envied him; how they almost hated him, as cigar
after cigar disappeared, and still there he sat without a sign of
discomposure! At dark we made the Havre light, and an hour afterwards,
and an hour afterwards, the tide being high, we ran in and dropped our
anchor in smooth water. Wonderful was the change which quietude worked
on all hands!
"Supper, supper!" was the cry. Even Will and I did justice to it,
though we had had a quiet little dinner by ourselves in the midst of our
friends' agony, off pickled salmon and roast duck, with a gooseberry
tart and a bottle of champagne.
Next morning we sailed with the wind back again to the north-east, and,
notwithstanding the little inconveniences we had suffered on the passage
across, we stood to the westward, and heroically determined to run
through the Race of Alderney, to pay a visit to Jersey. There was a
nice breeze, and I must say we were glad there was no more of it, as we
ran through the passage between Alderney and the French coast. The
water seemed possessed; it tumbled and leaped and twisted and danced in
a most extraordinary and unnatural manner; and several seas toppled
right down on our decks, and we could not help fancying that some huge
fish had jumped on board. However, with a fair wind and a strong tide
we were soon through it, nor was there danger of any sort; but from the
specimen we had we could judge what it would be in a strongish gale.
The wind had got round to the southward of west, and before we had
managed to weather Cape Gronez the tide turned against us. Cape Gronez
is the north-west point of Jersey, and bears a strong similarity to the
nose of Louis Philippe, as his portrait used to be represented in
"Punch." We had an opportunity of judging of it, for, for upwards of an
hour did we beat between it and those enticing rocks called very
properly the Paternosters, for if a ship once strikes on them, it is to
be hoped that the crew, being Roman Catholics, will, if they have time,
say their Paternosters before they go to the bottom.
At last it came on very thick, we ran back and anchored in a most
romantic little cove called Bouley Bay, where we remained all night,
hoping the wind would not shift to the northward, and send us on shore.
I should advise all timid yachtsmen to keep clear of Jersey, for what
with the rapid tides, and rocks innumerable, it is a very ticklish
locality. The next morning we got under way at daybreak, and brought up
off Elizabeth Castle, which guards the entrance of the harbour of St.
Heliers. I have not time to describe Jersey. I can only recommend all
who have not seen it, and wish to enjoy some very beautiful scenery, to
go there. Two days more saw us crossing to Torbay, which we reached on
the morning of the regatta. Had an artist been employed to carve the
cliffs on which Torbay is situated, he could scarcely have made them
more picturesque, or added tints more suitable, except perhaps that they
are a little more red than one might wish. However, it is a very
beautiful place, and admirably adapted for a regatta.
The bay before the town was crowded with yachts, and I counted no less
than fourteen large schooners, among which I remember the "Brilliant,"
which, however, should be called a ship, "Gypsy Queen," "Dolphin,"
"Louisa," and a vast number of cutters, a large proportion of which were
gayly dressed up with flags. The course is round the bay, so that the
yachts are in sight the whole time--an advantage possessed by few other
places. The "Heroine," "Cygnet," and "Cynthia," sailed, but the race
was not a good one, as the "Heroine," driven to windward by her
antagonist, ran her bowsprit into one of the mark boats, and another of
them, the "Cynthia," making a mistake, did not go round her at all.
Notwithstanding this, the sight was as beautiful of its kind as I ever
saw. There was a ball at night, to which we went, and we flattered
ourselves that four dancing bachelors were not unwelcome. We met a
number of acquaintances. Hearty lost his heart for the tenth time since
he left London. The Gentle Giant, as the Miss Rattlers called
Carstairs, looked out for a charmer, but could find none to surpass Mrs
Skyscraper. Bubble laughed with all but sighed with none, though Hearty
accused him of flirtations innumerable; and I never chronicle my own
deeds, however fond I may be of noting those of my friends. However, if
we did not break hearts, we passed a very pleasant evening. Hearty
invited everybody he knew to come on board the next morning, and we went
as far as Dartmouth, and a beautiful sail back we had by moonlight, to
the great delight of the romantic portion of the guests. They were a
very quiet set of ladies and gentlemen, and more than one sigh was
heaved when they had gone on shore for our fast friends at Cowes.
We were present at the Plymouth Regatta, and were going to several other
places, when, one day after dinner, Hearty thus gave utterance to his
thoughts. We were about a quarter of the way across channel on our
passage to the French coast, with a stiffish breeze from the westward,
and a chopping sea:--
"It seems to me arrant folly that we four bachelors should keep turning
up the salt water all the summer, and boxing about from place to place
which we don't care to visit, when there are a number of fair ladies at
Cowes who are undoubtedly pining for our return."
"My own idea," exclaimed Carstairs.
"Your argument is unanswerable," said Bubble.