The Two Admirals. Джеймс Фенимор Купер

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СКАЧАТЬ fellow to find amusement, without annoyance in them. “I’ll answer for Sir Gervaise, who is always a little diffident about boasting of the superiority of a ship, over a house.”

      “Yes, your honour, that he is – that is just one of Sir Jarvy’s weak p’ints, as a body might say. Now, I never goes ashore, without trimming sharp up, and luffing athwart every person’s hawse, I fall in with; which is as much as to tell ‘em, I belongs to a flag-ship, and a racer, and a craft as hasn’t her equal on salt-water; no disparagement to the bit of bunting at the mizzen-topgallant-mast-head of the Cæsar, or to the ship that carries it. I hopes, as we are so well acquainted, Admiral Bluewater, no offence will be taken.”

      “Where none is meant, none ought to be taken, my friend. Now let us hear your bill-of-fare.”

      “Well, sir, the very first dish I mentioned to Mrs. Larder, Sir Wycherly’s cook, was lobscous; and, would you believe it, gentlemen, the poor woman had never heard of it! I began with a light hand, as it might be, just not to overwhelm her with knowledge, at a blow, as Sir Jarvy captivated the French frigate with the upper tier of guns, that he might take her alive, like.”

      “And the lady knew nothing of a lobscous – neither of its essence, nor nature?”

      “There’s no essences as is ever put in a lobscous, besides potaties, Admiral Bluewater; thof we make ‘em in the old Planter” – nautice for Plantagenet – “in so liquorish a fashion, you might well think they even had Jamaiky, in ‘em. No, potaties is the essence of lobscous; and a very good thing is a potatie, Sir Jarvy, when a ship’s company has been on salted oakum for a few months.”

      “Well, what was the next dish the good woman broke down under?” asked the rear-admiral, fearful the master might order the servant to quit the room; while he, himself, was anxious to get rid of any further political discussion.

      “Well, sir, she knowed no more of a chowder, than if the sea wern’t in the neighbourhood, and there wern’t such a thing as a fish in all England. When I talked to her of a chowder, she gave in, like a Spaniard at the fourth or fifth broadside.”

      “Such ignorance is disgraceful, and betokens a decline in civilization! But, you hoisted out more knowledge for her benefit, Galleygo – small doses of learning are poor things.”

      “Yes, your honour; just like weak grog – burning the priming, without starting the shot. To be sure, I did, Admiral Blue. I just named to her burgoo, and then I mentioned duff (anglice dough) to her, but she denied that there was any such things in the cookery-book. Do you know, Sir Jarvy, as these here shore craft get their dinners, as our master gets the sun; all out of a book as it might be. Awful tidings, too, gentlemen, about the Pretender’s son; and I s’pose we shall have to take the fleet up into Scotland, as I fancy them ‘ere sogers will not make much of a hand in settling law?”

      “And have you honoured us with a visit, just to give us an essay on dishes, and to tell us what you intend to do with the fleet?” demanded Sir Gervaise, a little more sternly than he was accustomed to speak to the steward.

      “Lord bless you, Sir Jarvy, I didn’t dream of one or t’other! As for telling you, or Admiral Blue, (so the seamen used to call the second in rank,) here, any thing about lobscous, or chowder, why, it would be carrying coals to New Market. I’ve fed ye both with all such articles, when ye was nothing but young gentlemen; and when you was no longer young gentlemen, too, but a couple of sprightly luffs, of nineteen. And as for moving the fleet, I know, well enough, that will never happen, without our talking it over in the old Planter’s cabin; which is a much more nat’ral place for such a discourse, than any house in England!”

      “May I take the liberty of inquiring, then, what did bring you here?”

      “That you may, with all my heart, Sir Jarvy, for I likes to answer your questions. My errand is not to your honour this time, though you are my master. It’s no great matter, after all, being just to hand this bit of a letter over to Admiral Blue.”

      “And where did this letter come from, and how did it happen to fall into your hands?” demanded Bluewater, looking at the superscription, the writing of which he appeared to recognise.

      “It hails from Lun’nun, I hear; and they tell me it’s to be a great secret that you’ve got it, at all. The history of the matter is just this. An officer got in to-night, with orders for us, carrying sail as hard as his shay would bear. It seems he fell in with Master Atwood, as he made his land-fall, and being acquainted with that gentleman, he just whipped out his orders, and sent ‘em off to the right man. Then he laid his course for the landing, wishing to get aboard of the Dublin, to which he is ordered; but falling in with our barge, as I landed, he wanted to know the where-away of Admiral Blue, here; believing him to be afloat. Some ‘un telling him as I was a friend and servant of both admirals, as it might be, he turned himself over to me for advice. So I promised to deliver the letter, as I had a thousand afore, and knowed the way of doing such things; and he gives me the letter, under special orders, like; that is to say, it was to be handed to the rear-admiral as it might be under the lee of the mizzen-stay-sail, or in a private fashion. Well, gentlemen, you both knows I understand that, too, and so I undertook the job.”

      “And I have got to be so insignificant a person that I pass for no one, in your discriminating mind, Master Galleygo!” exclaimed the vice-admiral, sharply. “I have suspected as much, these five-and-twenty years.”

      “Lord bless you, Sir Jarvy, how flag-officers will make mistakes sometimes! They’re mortal, I says to the people of the galley, and have their appetites false, just like the young gentlemen, when they get athwart-hawse of a body, I says. Now, I count Admiral Blue and yourself pretty much as one man, seeing that you keep few, or no secrets from each other. I know’d ye both as young gentlemen, and then you loved one another like twins; and then I know’d ye as luffs, when ye’d walk the deck the whole watch, spinning yarns; and then I know’d ye as Pillardees and Arrestee, though one pillow might have answered for both; and as for Arrest, I never know’d either of ye to got into that scrape. As for telling a secret to one, I’ve always looked upon it as pretty much telling it to t’other.”

      The two admirals exchanged glances, and the look of kindness that each met in the eyes of his friend removed every shadow that had been cast athwart their feelings, by the previous discourse.

      “That will do, Galleygo,” returned Sir Gervaise, mildly. “You’re a good fellow in the main, though a villanously rough one – “

      “A little of old Boreus, Sir Jarvy,” interrupted the steward, with a grim smile: “but it blows harder at sea than it does ashore. These chaps on land, ar’n’t battened down, and caulked for such weather, as we sons of Neptun’ is obligated to face.”

      “Quite true, and so good-night. Admiral Bluewater and myself wish to confer together, for half an hour; all that it is proper for you to know, shall be communicated another time.”

      “Good-night, and God bless your honour. Good-night, Admiral Blue: we three is the men as can keep any secret as ever floated, let it draw as much water as it pleases.”

      Sir Gervaise Oakes stopped in his walk, and gazed at his friend with manifest interest, as he perceived that Admiral Bluewater was running over his letter for the third time. Being now without a witness, he did not hesitate to express his apprehensions.

      “’Tis as I feared, Dick!” he cried. “That letter is from some prominent partisan of Edward Stuart?”

      The rear-admiral turned his eyes on the face of his friend, with an expression that was difficult to read; and then he ran over the contents of the epistle, for the fourth time.

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