CHAPTER XI.

"THERE'S A STORM BREWING, AND YOU'LL BE IN IT, TOM."

"D'ye mind me, a sailor should be every inch All as one as a piece of the ship, And with her brave the world without offering to flinch, From the moment the anchor's atrip. Even when my time comes, ne'er believe me so soft As with grief to be taken aback, For the same little cherub that sits up aloft, Will look out a good berth for poor Jack."--DIBDIN.

"The _Lowestoft_," continued Merryweather, "arrived at Jamaica, and a proof was given now that Captain Locker was a true friend to Nelson. For knowing that he was running over with zeal for the service, he had him appointed to a separate command. Though, had the captain consulted his own wishes, he would much have preferred having the bold young lieutenant with himself.

"In the saucy wee schooner, _Little Lucy_, Nelson could lord it on his own quarter-deck, monarch of all he surveyed, and, in his own words, he made himself a complete pilot of all the passages through the islands situated to the north of Hispaniola.

"My friend's next preferment--through the interest of Locker--was to the third lieutenancy of the flagship _Bristol_, under Admiral Parker. But he was after a time promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. During his cruise in the _Bristol_, though Nelson himself says but little about it, he was not idle, and undoubtedly did his share of the duty of capturing no less than seventeen sail belonging to the enemy.

"Then Horace was appointed to the command of an old-fashioned, sturdy brig called the _Badger_, and was sent off to the coast of Mosquito and Bay of Honduras, to make it hot for the swarms of Yankee privateers that were cruising around there on the outlook for British shipping.

"I fear, Bob, that if I told you how excellently well young Nelson performed the duties required of him, you would imagine I was trying to make my friend too much of a hero; but if he joins our service, Tom will soon know that the Admiralty considers the performance of duty no act of heroism, however well it is done. But Nelson protected the settlers on this coast so faithfully and well, that he was not only admired, but in reality adored by them.

"It was while still in the _Badger_, and lying in Montago Bay, that the _Glasgow_, a 20-gun vessel, arrived. In about two hours' time she was wrapped in vast sheets of flame, and it was only through the extraordinary exertions of Nelson, aided by Captain Lloyd himself, that the crew were saved. Nelson, in speaking of the disaster, gives Captain Lloyd his due meed of praise. But he deserved it. There was one man on board the poor _Glasgow_ who richly deserved flogging first and hanging afterwards; this was the steward."

"Was he flogged and hanged?" said Tom.

"I don't know, lad. I expect he was flogged at the very least. The scoundrel had gone to steal rum for himself and mates from the after hold. He succeeded in capsizing a cask of rum, and setting fire to it with the purser's dip he carried.

"Now the _Glasgow_ was laden with gunpowder, and Captain Lloyd knew that if she blew up, not only would every one on board perish, but the magazines and warehouses on shore would also be destroyed. He immediately called all hands therefore, declaring that until every cask of powder was had up and thrown into the sea, not a man should leave the ship.

"The crew, who dearly loved their honest Welsh commander, obeyed his instructions, and saved themselves and him from a fearful death.

"Then Nelson came to the rescue, and the crew were got off before the charred timbers sank hissing in the waves.

"On the 28th of April, '79, my friend Horace, in his bold brig _Badger_, carried and captured _La Prudente_.

"Well, Tom, I haven't time to tell you all Nelson's brave deeds in the West Indies, and indeed I do not remember half of them, but about this time both France and Spain, you know or ought to know, were at war with Britain, and what with having now no men from America, we were not only rather short-handed, but somewhat short of ships, and by way of encouraging good men and officers to join the service, Prince William Henry became a midshipman, and many more of the scions and offshoots of nobility followed his example.

"Nelson received his post-captaincy, and Collingwood* became commander of the _Badger_. Horace was appointed to the _Hinchinbrook_, and during the cruise with the _Major_ and _Penelope_ took many prizes.

* Afterwards Lord Collingwood.

"But now, at the age of twenty-one, Horace had still higher promotion, for, as it was expected that the French admiral, Count d'Estainy, would attack Jamaica in force, he was appointed to the command of the batteries of Fort Charles, at Port Royal.

"But this bold count did nothing, and did it well.

"Nelson's next service was one of great importance. General Sir John Balling had formed a plan for an expedition against Fort St. Juan, in the Gulf of Mexico, and the sea operations were entrusted to Horace.

"It was the object of this expedition, by taking the fort and obtaining command of the Rio San Juan, running between the lake Nicaragua and the Atlantic, to obtain possession of the cities of Granada and Leon, and thus cut the communication of the Spaniards betwixt their northern and southern possessions in America.

"My friend's duty was the conveyance of the transports and the landing of the troops.

"But Nelson was not to be satisfied with so simple a share of the honour and glory of this expedition, and both Sir John and Captain Polson, of the 60th, testified in words of burning admiration to the great skill and indomitable energy of poor Horace. 'He was the first,' says Polson, 'on every service, whether undertaken by day or by night, and hardly a gun was pointed that was not laid by himself or by Lieutenant Despard.'*

* Twenty years after this, Despard was tried and executed for high treason with six of his fellow conspirators. He was, nevertheless, a brave and daring, though misguided man.

"It was a sad expedition this from beginning to end. The game, indeed, was hardly worth the candle; but Nelson was its real head. He not only landed with the men, and led them on to death or glory, but piloted them up the river, and took port after port from the astonished Spaniards, and all this in a climate so unhealthy, so rotten and malodorous, that pestilence was a greater foe to success than the resistance offered by the enemy. For on the march men fell dead in the ranks, others were poisoned by water, they were short of provisions, being forced to kill and eat monkeys, while several were killed by serpents. Not since the days of old Spanish buccaneering had any troops suffered as did those with bold Nelson. He says himself he carried troops a hundred miles up the river, he boarded the enemies' outposts situated on an island in the river, and made batteries and afterwards fought them, and was a principal cause of the success that attended our operations.

"Was it any wonder that in a place so pestilential fever broke out? It was fearful, Tom. I should not talk about such things to-day, but in Nelson's ship of 200 men, 87 were seized and confined to their beds in one night, and 145 were buried there, only ten men surviving the terrible expedition.

"Nelson himself was nearly dead, and but for the kindness of Sir Peter Parker, who appointed him to the 44-gun frigate _Janus_, at Jamaica, he would doubtless have succumbed. But even the tender nursing of Lady Parker and her little girl on shore was unable to restore my friend to health, and on the first of September, '80, he sailed for England with Captain Cornwallis.

"He lay ill for a year at Bath, and was then sent on a winter's cruise to Elsinore to protect the homeward trade. This cruise was but little relished by Horace, who rightly thought that his service in the West Indies, where he fought so well and so nearly lost his life in the service of king and country, deserved higher recognition.

"In '82 Horace sailed with a convoy of traders for Newfoundland, in his ship _Albemarle_.

"One clever action out there can be laid to Nelson's credit. It should be remembered that he was a perfect sailor and pilot. When chased, therefore, by three of the French ships of the line and the _Iris_ frigate whilst cruising off Boston, and finding they were coming up with him hand-over-hand, he boldly sought the shoals. The frigate alone could follow, and Nelson made all preparation to fight her, but the _Iris_ refused to accept the challenge, and sheered off.

"Horace next took a convoy to New York, and there he joined the fleet under Lord Hood. Here he was introduced to the Duke of Clarence--Prince William--and each found in the other a true-blue seaman and British sailor.

"On the return of the fleet, Lord Hood took Nelson to St. James' Palace, where he had the high honour of an introduction to the King. And, to use the words of Scripture, Tom, he found 'favour in the King's sight,' though there wasn't much to boast of in that.

* * * * *

"Peace was concluded with France in '83, and in July of that year Nelson was placed on half-pay.

"He next went to France--not to learn to dance Tom, but to improve his knowledge of the language. He, however, managed to fall over head and ears in love with a clergyman's daughter--a Miss Andrews. Many a ship and many a fort had my friend captured, and now, lo and behold, he himself had to haul down his flag to a girl.

"Oh, he would have died for her I doubt not, but she would not marry him. She showed bad taste in my opinion, Bob, but _n'importe_, there was happiness in store for Horace independently of this fair girl. Having sailed the ocean so long, no doubt he had found out the truth of the proverb, 'There's as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it.'

"In France, Nelson met two naval officers, to whom he seemed to take a dislike from the very first, for the simple reason that they tried to keep up the dignity of the service to which they belonged, by dressing in a somewhat dandified fashion, and wearing epaulettes. One of these was Captain Ball.

"Nelson, my friend and hero, is a man of deeds, and his hatred of vain-glory and show has ever been very marked. We did not find him digging in his garden, Tom, and planting cabbages, with his cocked-hat on his head and a sword by his side."

"No, sir," said Tom, laughing. "He would have looked funny like that; but he wore very old clothes indeed. He was droll."

"Yes, my lad, and when the Duke of Clarence first saw him, he seems to have been droller-looking still.

"'I was,' said his Royal Highness, 'then a midshipman on board the _Barfleur_, lying in the narrows off State Island, and had the watch on deck, when Captain Nelson came alongside in his barge. He appeared to be the merest boy of a captain I had ever beheld, and his dress made me smile. He had on a full-laced uniform, his lank, unpowdered hair was tied in a stiff Hessian tail of an extraordinary length, and the old-fashioned flaps of his waistcoat, added to the general quaintness of his figure, produced an appearance which quite riveted my attention. I had never seen anything like this before, and could not imagine who he was or what he had come about. My doubts were however removed, when Lord Hood introduced him to me. There was something irresistibly pleasing in his address and conversation, and an enthusiasm when talking on naval matters, that showed he was no ordinary being.

"'I found him,' continued the Duke, 'warmly attached to my father and singularly humane; indeed he had the honour of the King's service, and independence of the British Navy, particularly at heart. As for prize money, such a thing never entered his thoughts.'

"Now, Bob, I want you to note this, my friend Nelson, God bless his honest heart, hated dress and foppery, and he hated Captain Ball because he was a fop; but, as I said once to Horace, Miss Andrews would have thought a deal more of him, had he too donned the epaulettes and been a little less old-fashioned, for, Bob, the ladies are attracted by gay colours. It is nature you know. Look even at the birds of the air, they don't care a slug how they knock about all winter; but as soon as spring time comes, and they go a-wooing, behold how gay and brave they are. They know precisely when to put on their fancy waistcoats, and when to leave them off. But _Nelson didn't_.

"Well by-and-by Horace was appointed to the _Boreas_, twenty-eight guns, and sailed for Barbadoes.

"Sir Richard Hughes was then commander-in-chief of these colonies, but he was an easy-going commander and did not trouble his head very much about British interests.

"But Nelson meant to do his duty _maugre_ fear _maugre_ favour, although the big soldier men out there did not thank him for his interference. So he seized many vessels that he knew had no business at all to trade in British colonies, and got persecuted in consequence, as Horace himself says, 'from one island to another.'

"Out on this station Nelson met the charming widow Nisbet, and married her.

"Tom, the story stops here. You know pretty well all the rest, how the _Boreas_ came back in 1787 and was paid off on the 4th of July, and how my dear friend went on half-pay, and has been left high and dry to fret and fume and 'rot,' as he calls it, ever since, waiting in vain for the appointment that, it seems to him, will never, never come.

"Tom, look eastward, lad, there is a storm brewing, and we better take the advantage of the cat's paws before it breaks and get homewards."

Tom did as he was desired, poled round the barge, set sail and got home before the rain and high wind ruffled the lake.

Just as they had landed, however, and Bob's cot was being wheeled towards his own wing of the cottage, Mr. Merryweather touched young Tom on the shoulder.

"Tom," he said, "look eastward, there is a storm brewing."

"Yes," said Tom, "but didn't you----"

"Didn't I tell you that before?

"Yes, lad, but I mean it now in a figurative sense. There is a storm brewing in the east, and you'll be in it, I'll be in it, and brave Horatio Nelson too."

"You mean war, sir?'"

"I mean war, Tom."

"Hurrah!"