ness, and broad spread of idiocy. For they even
58 THE MAID OF SKER.
went the length of declaring all men to be equal, the
whole world common property, and the very names
of the months all wrong ! After this it was natural,
and one might say the only sensible thing they ever
did, to deny the existence of their Maker. For it
could hardly be argued that the Almighty ever did
lay hand to such a lot of scoundrels.
Now if these rats of the bilge-hole had chosen to
cock their tales in their dirt, and devour one another,
pleasure alone need have been the feeling of the
human race looking down at them. But the worst
of it was that -real men, and women, far above them,
took up their filthy tricks and antics, and their little
buck-jumps, and allowed their judgment so to be
taken with grimaces — even as a man who mocks a fit
may fall into it — that in every country there were
" sympathisers with the great and glorious march of
intellect."
In Devonshire, I had heard none of all this, for
none of the servants ever set eyes, or desired to do so,
on "public journals." They had heard of these, but
believed them to be very dangerous and wicked
things ; also devoid of interest, for what was the
good of knowing things which anybody else might
know ? * And even if they had taken trouble ever
* That intelligent view still holds its own. A Devonshire
THE MAID OF SKER. 59
to hear of the great outbreak, they would have
replied (until it led to recruiting in their own parish),
" Thiccy be no consarn to we."
But in our enlightened neighbourhood things were
very different. There had long been down among us
ever so many large-minded fellows, anxious to advance
mankind, by great jumps, towards perfection. And
in this they showed their wisdom (being all young
bachelors) to strive to catch the golden age before
they got rheumatics.
However, to men whose life has been touched
with the proper grey and brown of earth, all these
bright ideas seemed a baseless dance of rainbows.
Man's perfection was a thing we had not found in
this world; and being by divine wisdom weaned
from human pride concerning it, we could be well
content to wait our inevitable opportunity for seek-
ing it in the other world. We had found this world
wag slowly ; sometimes better, and sometimes worse,
pretty much according to the way in which it treated
us. Neither had we yet perceived, in the generation
newly breeched, any grand advance, but rather a
very poor backsliding, from what we were at their
farmer challenged me, the other day, to prov^e, '* Whatt be the
gude of the papper, whan any vnle can rade un?" — Ed^- M.
of S.
6o THE MAID OF SKER.
time of life. We all like a strong fellow when we
see liim ; and we all like a very bright child, who
leaps through our misty sense of childhood. To
either of these an average chap knocks under, when
quite sure of it. And yet, in our parish, there was
but one of the one sort, and one of the other.
Bardie, of course, of the new generation; and old
Davy of the elder. It vexes me to tell the truth so.
But how can I help it, unless I spoil my story ?
Ever so many people got a meeting in the chapel
up, to sign a paper, and to say that nobody could
guess the mischief done by all except themselves.
They scouted the French Eevolution as the direct
work of the devil; and in the very next sentence
vowed it the work of the seventh angel, to shatter
the Church of England. They came with this rub-
bish for me to sign; and I signed it (and some of
them also) with my well-attested toe and heel.
After such a demonstration, any man of candid
mind falls back on himself, to judge if he may have
been too forcible. But I could not see my way to
any cross-road of repentance ; and when I found what
good I had done, I wished that I had kicked harder.
By doing so, I might have quenched a pestilential
doctrine ; as every orthodox person told me, when
they heard how the fellows ran. But — as my bad
THE MAID OF SKER. 6l
luck always conquers — I had but a pair of worn-out
pumps on, and the only toe which a man can trust
(through his own defects of discipline) happened to
be in hospital now, and short of spring and flavour.
Nevertheless some good was done. For Parson
Lougher not only praised me, but in his generous
manner provided a new pair of shoes for me, to kick
harder, if again so visited. And the news of these
prevented them.
But even the way these fellows had to rub them-
selves was not enough to stop the spreading of low
opinions ; for the strength of my manifestation was im-
pressive rather than permanent. Also all the lower
lot of Xonconformists and schismatics ran with their
tongues out, like mad dogs, all over the country
raving, snapping at every good gentleman's heels,
and yelping that the seventh vial was open, and the
seventli seal broken. To argue with a gale of wind
would show more sense than to try discussion witli
such a set of ninnies ; and when I asked them to
reconcile their admiration of atheism with their
religious fervour, one of them answered bravely that
he would rather worship the Goddess of Eeason than
the God of the Church of England.
However, the followers of John Wesley, and all
the respectable Methodists, scouted these ribalds as
62 THE MAID OF SKER.
much as we did ; and even Hezekiah had the sense
to find himself going too far with them, and to repair
the seventh seal, and clap it on Hepzibah's mouth.
For how could he sell a clock, if time was declared
by the trumpet to be no more ?
Amid this universal turmoil, uproar, and upheav-
ing, I received a letter from Captain Bampfylde, very
short, and without a word of thanks for what I had
done for him, but saying that he was just appointed
to the Bellona, 74, carrying 6 carronades on the
poop ; that she was fitting now at Chatham, and in
two months' time would be at Spithead, where he
was to man her. He believed that the greater part
of the fine ship's company of the Thetis would be
only too glad to sail under him, and he was enabled
to offer me the master's berth, if I saw fit. He said
that he knew my efficiency, but would not have ven-
tured to take this step but for what I had told him
about my thorough acquirement of navigation under
the care of a learned man. After saying that if I
reported myself at Narnton Court by the end of
October he would have me cared for and sent on, he
concluded with these stirring words : —
" There is a great war near at hand ; our country
will want every man, young or old, who can fight a
THE MAID OF SKER. 63
These last words fixed my resolve. I had not heen
very well treated, perhaps ; at any rate, my abilities
had not been recognised too highly, lest they should
have to be paid for with a little handsomeness. But
a man of large mind allows for this, feeling that the
world, of course, would gladly have him at half-price.
But when it came to talking of the proper style to
fight a gun, how could I give way to any small con-
siderations ?
Fuzzy and Ike were stealing rock at this particular
period in a new ketch called the Devil (wholly in
honour of Parson Chowne) ; and through these
worthy fellows, and Bang (now the most trustworthy
of all), I sent a letter to Xarnton Court, accepting
the mastership of his Majesty's ship of the line,
Bellona.
Now everybody in earnest began to call me '' Cap-
tain Llewellyn" — not at my own instigation, but in
spite of all done to the contrary. The master of a
ship must be the captain, they argued, obstinately ;
and my well-known modesty had the blame of all
that I urged against it. But I need not say any
more about it ; because the war has gone on so long,
and so many seamen have now been killed, that the
nation has been stirred up to learn almost a little
about us.
64 THE MAID OF SKER.
While I was dwelling on all these subjects, who
should appear but Miss Delushy, newly delivered
from Candleston Court, on her round of high educa-
tion ? And to my amazement, who but Lieutenant
Bluett delivered her ? I had not even heard that he
was come home ; so much does a man, when he rises
in life, fail in proper wakefulness ! But now he
leaped down from the forecastle, and with a grave
and most excellent courtesy, and his bright uniform
very rich and noble, and his face outdoing it, forth
he led this little lady, who was clad in simple grey.
She descended quite as if it was the proper thing to
do ; and then she turned and kissed the tips of her
fingers to him gracefully. And she was not yet
eleven years old ! How can we be amazed at an J'
revolutions after this ?
" Bardie ! " I cried, with some indignation, as if
she were growing beyond my control ; and she stood
on the spring of her toes exactly as she had done
when two years old, and offered her bright lips for a
kiss, to prove that she was not arrogant, l^one but
a surly bear could refuse her ; still my feelings were
deeply hurt, that other people should take advantage
of my being from home so much, to wean the affec-
tions of this darling from her own old Davy, and
perhaps to set up a claim for her.
THE MAID OF SKER. 6$
Berkrolles knew what my rights were ; and finding
him such a quiet man, I gave it to him thoroughly
well, before I went to bed that night. I let him
know that his staying there depended wholly upon
myself ; not only as his landlord, but as holding such
a position now in Newton, and Nottage, and miles
around, that the lifting of my finger would leave him
without a scholar or a crust. Also I wished him to
know that he must not, as a wretched landsman,
take any liberties with me, because I had allowed
him gratis to impart to me the vagueness of what he
called " Mathematics," in the question of navigation.
Of that queer science I made out some ; but the rest
went from me, through the clearness of my brain
(which let things pass through it) ; otherwise I would
have paid him gladly, if he had earned it. But he
said (or I may myself have said, -to suggest some
sense to him) that my brain was now too full of
experience for experiments. And of all the know-
ledge put into me by this good man carefully, and I
may say laboriously, I could not call to mind a letter,
figure, stroke, or even sign, when I led the British
fleet into action, at the battle of the Nile. Neverthe-
less, it may all have been there, steadily underlying
all, coming through great moments, like a quiet
perspiration.
VOL. III. E
66 THE MAID OF SKER.
But if I could not take much learning, here was
some one else who could; and there could be no
finer sight for lovers of education than to watch old
Mr Berkrolles and his pupil entering into the very
pith of everything. I could not perceive any cause
for excitement, in a dull matter of this sort ; neverthe-
less they seemed to manage to get stirred up about it.
For when they came to any depth of mystery for fathom-
ing, it was beautiful to behold the long white hair and
the short brown curls dancing together over it. That
good old Eoger was so clever in every style of teach-
ing, that he often feigned not to know a thing of the
simplest order to him ; so that his pupil might work
it out, and have a bit of triumph over him. He knew
that nothing puts such speed into little folk and their
steps — be they of mind or body — as to run a race
with grown-up people, whether nurse or tutor.
But in spite of all these brilliant beams of know-
ledge now shed over her, our poor Bardie was held
fast in an awkward cleft of conscience. I may not
have fully contrived to show that this little creature
was as quick of conscience as myself almost; although,
of course, in a smaller way, and without proper sense
of proportions. But there was enough of it left to
make her sigh very heavily, lest she might have
gone too far in one way or the other. Her meaning
THE MAID OF SKER. 6/
had been, from her earliest years, to marry, or be
married. She had promised me through my grey
whiskers often (with two years to teach her her ow^n
mind), never, as long as she lived, to accept any one
but old Davy. We had settled it ever so many
times, while she sate upon my shoulder ; and she
smacked me every now and then, to prove that she
meant matrimony. Now, when I called to her mind
all this, she said that I was an old stupid, and she
meant to do just what she liked; though admit-
ting that everybody wanted her. And after a little
thought she told me, crossing her legs (in the true
old style), and laying down her lashes, that her un-
certainty lay between Master Eoger and ]Mr Bluett.
She had promised them both, she did believe, with-
out proper time to think of it ; and could she marry
them both, because the one was so young and the
other so old? I laid before her that the proper
middle age of matrimony could not be attained in
this way ; though in the present upside-down of the
world it might come to be thought of. And then
she ran away and danced (exactly as she used to do),
and came back with her merry laugh to argue the
point again with me.
Before I set off for Narnton Court, on my way to
join the Bellona, Lieutenant Bluett engai^ed my boat
6S THE MAID OF SKER.
and my services, both with oar and net, for a day's
whole pleasure off shore and on. I asked how many
he meant to take, for the craft was a very light one ;
but he answered, " As many as ever he chose, for
he hoped that two officers of the Eoyal Navy knew
better than to swamp a boat in a dead calm such as
this was/' My self-respect derived such comfort from
his outspoken and gallant way of calling me a brother
officer (as well as from the most delicate air of igno-
rance which he displayed when I took up a two-
guinea piece which happened to have come through my
roof at this moment perhaps, or at any rate somehow
to be lying in an old tobacco-box on my table), that
I declared my boat and self at his command entirely.
We had a very pleasant party, and not so many
as to endanger us, if the ladies showed good sense.
Colonel Lougher and Lady Bluett, also the lieuten-
ant, of course, and a young lady staying at Candleston
Court, and doing her utmost to entrap the youthful
sailor — her name has quite escaped me— also Delushy,
and myself These were all, or would have been all,
if Master Eodney had not chanced, as we marched
away from my cottage, with two men carrying ham-
pers, to espy, in the corner of the old well, a face so
sad, and eyes so black, that they pierced his happy
and genial heart.
THE MAID OF SKER. 69
" I'll give it to you, you sly minx," I cried, " for
an impudent, brazen trick like this. What orders
did I give you, Miss ? A master of a ship of the
line, and not master of his own grandchild ! "
The young lieutenant laughed so that the rushes
on the sandhills shook, for he saw in a moment all the
meaning of this most outrageous trick. Bunny, for-
getting her grade in life, had been crying, ever since
she awoke, at receiving no invitation to this great
festivity. She had even shown ill-will and jealousy
towards Bardie, and a want of proper submission to
her inevitable rank in the world. I perceived that
these vile emotions grew entirely from the demago-
gic spirit of the period, which must be taken in hand
at once. Wherefore I boxed her ears with vigour,
and locked her into an empty cupboard, there to wait
for our return, with a junk of bread and a cheese-
rind. However, she made her way out, as her father
had done with the prison of Dunkirk ; and here
she was in spite of all manners, good faith, and
discipline.
" Let her come ; she deserves to come ; she shall
come," Master Piodney cried ; and as all the others
said the same, I was forced to give in to it ; and
upon the whole I was proud perhaps of our Bunny's
resolution, Neither did it turn out ill, but rather a
70 THE MAID OF SKER.
good luck for us, because the young lady who wooed
the lieutenant proved her entire unfitness for a
maritime alliance, by wanting, before we had long
been afloat, although the sea was as smooth as a
duck-pond, some one to attend upon her.
Every one knows what the Tuskar Eock is, and
the caves under Southern Down ; neither am I at
all of a nature to dwell upon eating and drinking.
And though all these were of lofty order, and I made
a fire of wreck-wood (just to broil some collops of
a sewin, who came from the water into it, through a
revival of my old skill ; and to do a few oysters in
their shells, with their gravy sputtering, to let us
know when they were done, and to call for a bit of
butter), no small considerations, or most grateful
memories of flavour could have whispered to me
twice, thus to try my mouth with waterings over
such a cookery. But I have two reasons for enlarg-
ing on this happy day ; and these two would be four
at once, if any one contradicted them.
My chief reason is that poor dear Bardie first
obtained a pure knowledge of her desolate state upon
that occasion ; — at least so far as we can guess what
works inside the little chips of skulls that we call
babyish. Everybody had spoiled her so (being taken
with her lovingness, and real newness of going on,
THE MAID OF SKER. 7r
and power to look into things, together with such a
turn for play as never can be satiated in a world like
ours ; not to mention heaps of things which you
must see to understand), let me not overdo it now,
in saying that this little dear had taken such good
education, through my liberal management, as to
long to know a little more about herself, if possible.
This is a very legitimate wish, and deserving of
more encouragement than most of us care to give to
it ; because so many of us are not the waifs and
strays, and salvage only, but the dead shipwrecks of
ourselves ; content with the bottom of the great deep,
only if no shallow fellows shall come diving down
for us.
Having the joy of sun and sea, and the gratitude
for a most lovely dinner, such as none could take
from me, I happened to lie on my oars and think,
while all my passengers roved on the rock. They
were astray upon bladder-weed, pop-weed, dellusk,
oar-weed, ribbons, frills, kelp, ^^Tack, or five-tails —
anything you like to call them, without falling over
them. My orders were to stand off and on, till the
gentry had amused themselves. Only I must look
alive ; for the Tuskar rock would be two fathoms
under water, in about four hours, at a mile and a
half from the nearest land.
72 THE MAID OF SKER.
The sunset wanted not so much as a glance of sea
to answer it, but lay hovering quietly, and fading
beneath the dark brows of the cliffs ; which do
sometimes glorify, and sometimes so discourage it.
The meaning of the weather and the arrangement of
the sky and sea, was not to make a show for once,
but to let the sunset gently glide into the twilight, and
the twilight take its time for melting into starlight.
This I never thus have watched except in our old island.
There was not a wave to be seen or felt, only the
glassy heave of the tide lifted my boat every now and
then, or lapped among the wrinkles of the rocks, and
spread their fringes. Not a sound was in the air,
and on the water nothing, except the little tinkling
softness of the drops that feathered off from my sus-
pended oar-blades.
Floating round a corner thus, I came upon a sight
as gently sad as sky and sea were. A little maid
was leaning on a shelf of stone with her hair di-
shevelled as the kelp it mingled with. Her plain
brown hat was cast aside, and her clasped hands hid
her face, while her slender feet hung down, and
scarcely cared to paddle in the water that embraced
them. Now and then a quiet sob, in harmony with
the evening tide, showed that the storm of grief was
over, but the calm of deep sorrow abiding.
THE MAID OF SKER. 73
"What is the matter, my pretty dear?" I asked,
after landing, and coaxing her. " Tell old Davy ;
Captain David will see the whole of it put to rights."
" It cannot be put to yights," she answered, being
even now unable to pronounce the r aright, although
it was rather a lisp than any clear sound that sup-
plied its place ; " it never can be put to yights :
when the other children had fathers and mothers,
God left me outside of them ; and the young lady
says that I must not aspiya ever to marry a gentle-
man. I am only fit for Watkin, or Tommy-Toms,
or nobody ! Old Dyo, why did I never have a father
or a mother?"
" My dear, you had plenty of both," I replied ;
"but they were shipwrecked, and so were you.
Only before the storm came on, you were put into
this boat somehow, nobody living can tell how, and
the boat came safe, though the ship was wrecked."
"This boat !" she cried, spreading out her hands to
touch it upon either side — for by this time I had
shipped her — " was it this boat saved me ?"
" Yes, you beauty of the world. Now tell me
what that wicked girl had the impudence to say to
you."
This I need not here set down. Enough that it
flowed from jealousy, jealousy of the lowest order,
74 THE MAID OF SKER.
caused by the way in wliicli Lieutenant Eodney
played with Bardie. This of course interfered with
the lady's chances of spreading nets for him, so that
soon she lost her temper, fell upon Delushy, and
upbraided her for being no more than an utterly
unknown castaway.
75
CHAPTER LIII.
BEATING UP FOR THE NAVY.
My otlier reason for setting down some short account
of that evening was to give you a little peace, and
sense of gratitude to the Lord, for our many quiet
sunsets, and the tranquillity of our shores. It really
seems as if no other land was blest as ours is, with
quiet orderly folk inside it, and good rulers over it,
and around it not too much of sun or moon, or any-
thing, unless it may be, now and then, a little bit of
cloudiness. And tliis love of our country seems ever
to be strongest, whether at departing for the wars
with turbulent nations, or upon returning home, as
soon as we have conquered them. But now for a
long time, I shall have very little peace to dwell
upon.
At Xarnton Court I found no solace for my warmth
of feeling. Polly had been sent out of the way, on
purpose, because I was coming; which was a most
*j6 THE MAID OF SKER.
unhandsome thing on the part of Mrs Cockhanter-
bury. For the very expectation which had buoyed
me up at a flattish period, and induced me to do
without three quids of cross-cut negrohead, was my
simple and humble looking forward to my Polly.
I knew that I was a fool, of course ; but still I could
not help it ; and I had got on so well among young
women always, that I found it very hard to miss the
only chance I cared for. I feared that my age was
beginning to tell ; for often, since I had been ashore,
my rheumatics had come back again. Neither was
that my only grief and source of trouble at this time;
but many other matters quite as grave combined
against me. Heaviside was not there to talk, and
make me hug my singleness ; nor even Jerry Toms,
nor the cook, who used to let me teach her. It was
not that all these had left the place for any mischief.
In an ancient household such a loss is not allowable.
All meant to come back again, when it suited their
opportunities, and each perceived that the house was
sure to go to the dogs in the absence of themselves
and one another. Heaviside had found Nanette (in
spite of my best prognostics) overget her seventh
occasion of producing small Crappos, and his natural
disappointment with her led to such words that he
shouldered his bundle and made oft' for Spithead, in
THE MAID OF SKER. 7/
company with Jeriy, who was compelled to forsake
his creditors. And as for the cook, I did hear, though
unable to believe it, that she was in trouble about a
young fellow scarcely worthy to turn her jack.
In other respects I found that nothing of much
importance had occurred since I was there in the
summer-time. Sir Philip continued to trust in the
Lord, and the Squire to watch the sunsets ; neither
had the latter been persuaded to absolve his brother.
The Captain had been at home one or two days, in-
quiring into my discovery of the buried dolls. He
did not attach so much importance to this matter as
his father had done, but said that it made a mysteri-
ous question even more mysterious. And failing, as
a blunt sailor would, to make either head or tail of
it, and being disgusted with his brother for refusing
to see him, he vowed to remain in the house no
longer, but set off for Pomeroy Castle again, where
he had formed a close friendship with the eldest son
of the owner. His lady-love, the fair Isabel, was not