True Blue Part 21

"Hurrah!" exclaimed Paul. "Hurrah! I thought so. This is the very craft herself, depend on it; and that is the reason the hounds have been worrying our poor fellows, as if they had been mere brutes. You'll hear all about it by and by. But I say, Abel, do you go and look after the surgeon of this ship. He's a kind-hearted gentleman. Take care no one hurts him. Billy will try and find him."

Paul Pringle never forgot those who had been kind to him. True Blue was also very glad to show his grat.i.tude to the French doctor, whom they soon found in his cabin, where he had retired during the first rush of the British on board.

Summoning his a.s.sistants, the surgeon returned to the c.o.c.kpit, where he was quickly occupied in endeavouring to mitigate the sufferings of his wounded countrymen, who now, mangled and bleeding, were being collected from all parts of the captured ship.

When True Blue got back to Paul, he found Tom Marline and Harry and Fid with him. The prisoners had been released; but by the particular advice of the officers, they had not yet mentioned the insults they had received, lest, already heated with the excitement of battle, the accounts should exasperate the crew of the _Ruby_ and make them retaliate on the Frenchmen.

Paul, at his earnest request, was now removed back to his own ship while she lay alongside the prize. He and True Blue were warmly received by their shipmates, as were Tom and Fid and Harry. So also were the two midshipmen. The Captain, especially, was delighted at getting back young Elmore, who was an only son, and placed by his mother especially under his care.

"Yes, sir; here I am!" said the middy after the Captain had greeted him.

"And, sir, I owe my life to the bravery of Freeborn, who leaped overboard to save me, in a raging sea, when no other means could have been employed."

"A n.o.ble, gallant young fellow. I will not overlook him, depend on that, Elmore. You and I must settle what we can best do for his interests," said the Captain warmly. But just then there was so much to be done that he could say no more on the subject.

The _Ruby_ had suffered considerably both in hull and rigging, and in killed and wounded. The Frenchmen had, however, lost between seventy and eighty men in all. The second Captain was killed, and the first desperately wounded. The frigates had got so close in with the French coast that they were obliged to anchor to repair damages, so as to be in a condition to make sail and stand off again. It was a very anxious time for the English, for they were close enough in to be very much annoyed, should guns be brought down to the coast to bear upon them, or should any French ships be warned of their vicinity, and be able to get up and attack them before they were prepared for another engagement.

These considerations made everybody on board work with a will, and all night long the wearied crew of the _Ruby_ were putting their own ship into fighting order, and getting up jury-masts so as to make sail on the prize. A careful lookout was kept, however, so that they might be prepared to meet danger from whatever quarter it might come.

The pa.s.sengers taken in the packet were among the first removed from the French frigate, and were accommodated as well as circ.u.mstances would allow on board the _Ruby_.

The morning after the battle, the wind came off the sh.o.r.e, and a large concourse of people a.s.sembled on the coast had the mortification to see the _Ruby_ and her prize make sail and stand away to the northward.

A few hours afterwards, a fleet of gunboats and two frigates came to look for them; but they were beyond reach of the former, and though the frigates followed, they were driven back by the sight of an English squadron, and both the _Ruby_ and _La Ralieuse_ reached Portsmouth in safety.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

True Blue's agitation was considerable, when, the day after the ship's arrival in Portsmouth Harbour, he heard his name called along the deck, and found that he was sent for into the Captain's cabin. "I wonder what I can be wanted for," he said to Abel Bush as he was giving his jacket a shake, and seeing that his shoes and handkerchief were tied with nautical propriety.

"About the matter of the jumping overboard," said Abel. "They think a good deal of it, you know!"

"That's more than I do," answered True Blue. "I wish they hadn't found out it was me. Still I must go. Good-bye, Abel. I hope they won't want to be paying me. I'll not touch a shilling--of that I'm determined!"

"Stick to that, boy--don't," said Abel. "You did your duty, and that's all you'd wish to do."

True Blue hurried along the deck till he reached the Captain's cabin, then hat in hand he entered, and, pulling a lock of his hair, stood humbly at the foot of the table. He saw that the Captain and Mr Brine, and the two midshipmen, Sir Henry Elmore and Mr Nott, were there, and two or three strange gentlemen from the sh.o.r.e.

"Sit down, Freeborn," said the Captain, pointing to a chair, which, very much to his surprise, Mr Nott got up and placed near him. "It is now a good many years since we were first shipmates, and during all that time I have only seen and heard good of you, and now I wish to thank you most heartily for the gallant way in which you saved Sir Henry Elmore's life.

He and all his family wish also to show what they feel in the way most likely to be acceptable to you."

"Indeed they do. You performed a very gallant, n.o.ble action, young man, one to be proud of!" observed one of the gentlemen from the sh.o.r.e, who was an uncle of Sir Henry. "On what have you especially set your heart?

What would you like to do? I suppose that you would not wish to leave the navy?"

"No, that I would not, sir," answered True Blue warmly. "But I know, sir, what I would like to do."

"What is it, my man? Speak out frankly at once!" said the gentleman.

"I have no doubt that we shall be able to do as you wish."

"Then, sir, it's this," said True Blue, brightening up. "They've carried Paul Pringle to the hospital. Captain Garland knows the man, sir--my G.o.dfather. He'll be alone there, n.o.body particular to look after him; and what I should like, sir, would be to be allowed to go and stay with him till he is well and about again, or till the ship sails, when I don't think G.o.dfather would wish me to stay on sh.o.r.e even to be with him."

The gentlemen looked at each other, and then at the Captain and Mr Brine, who did not seem surprised, though Johnny Nott appeared a little inclined to laugh.

"A seaman thinks less of jumping overboard to save the life of a fellow-creature than you would of picking a drunken man up out of the road," said the Captain, addressing the gentleman. "You must propose something to him. He will not suggest anything himself."

"I think, Freeborn, I may easily promise that you will be allowed to remain with your old friend as long as he wishes it," said the Captain, turning to True Blue. "But I am sure Sir Henry's family will not be satisfied without showing some mark of their esteem and grat.i.tude. What should you say now if the way was open to you of becoming an officer-- first lieutenant of a ship like this, or perhaps her Captain? There is nothing to prevent it. I am very sure that you would be welcomed by all those among whom you were placed."

"There would be no difficulty as to expense," said the gentleman from the sh.o.r.e.

True Blue looked up at first as if the Captain was joking with him; then he became very grave, and in a voice almost choking with agitation he answered, "Oh, don't ask me, sir; don't ask me. I don't want to be anything but a seaman, such as my father was before me. I couldn't go and leave Paul, and Abel, and Peter, and the rest--men who have bred me up, and taught me all a sailor's duties in a way very few get taught. I couldn't, indeed, I wouldn't, leave them even to be an officer on the quarterdeck."

True Blue was silent, and no one spoke for some time, till the Captain turned aside to the gentleman and said, "I told you that I thought it likely such would be his answer. You must find some means of overcoming his scruples. Perhaps Elmore and Nott will manage him by themselves better than we shall."

The two midshipmen took the hint and invited True Blue to accompany them out of the cabin. They wisely did not take him on the quarterdeck, but got him between two of the after-guns, where they could converse without interruption. The result of the deliberation was that True Blue promised to consult his friends on the subject; and Elmore wound up by saying, "At all events, you must come up with me to see my mother and sisters in London. They will not be content without thanking you, and they cannot come down here to do so."

"With you, Sir Henry!" said True Blue, thinking that the midshipman really now was joking. "They wouldn't know what to do with such as me.

I should like to go and see great London town--that I should; but-- but--"

"No 'buts,' and so you shall, Freeborn; and that's all settled."

True Blue got leave of absence that afternoon, and Abel Bush accompanied him to the hospital, where he left him with Paul. He had never been more happy in his life, for the hospital servants were very glad to have their labours lightened, and left him to attend all day long on his G.o.dfather, and on several other wounded shipmates in the same ward. He told Paul all that had been said to him, and all the offers made him; but his G.o.dfather declined giving any advice till a formal consultation had been held by all his sponsors and their mates. Still True Blue thought that he seemed inclined to recommend him to do what he himself wished.

Paul was rapidly getting better, and in less than ten days who should appear at the hospital but Sir Henry Elmore himself. He went round the wards and spoke separately to each of the wounded men belonging to the _Ruby_, and then he came to Paul Pringle and had a long talk with him.

Paul thought that in a few days he should be sufficiently recovered to leave the hospital and get as far as his own home, at the pretty village of Emsworth, and he had proposed that True Blue should accompany him.

Abel Bush and Peter Ogle both lived there, and had families, among whom their G.o.dson would pa.s.s his time pleasantly enough.

"I daresay he might," said the young baronet, to whom Paul had mentioned this; "but I have the first claim on him. I have come now expressly to carry him off, so let him pack up his traps and accompany me."

Paul offered no further opposition to this proposal; so True Blue, having tied up a clean shirt and a thin pair of shoes, with a few other things in a handkerchief, announced that he had his clothes ready and was prepared to accompany the baronet.

The midshipman looked at the bundle, but said nothing. He knew well enough that a ship's boy was not likely to have any large amount of clothing. He had a coach at the door, and he ordered the coachman to drive to the George Hotel at Portsmouth. On the way he asked his companion whether he would not prefer dressing in plain clothes, and that, if so, a suit forthwith should be at his service; but True Blue so earnestly entreated that he might be allowed to wear the dress to which he had always been accustomed, that his friend gave up the point.

They found a capital dinner prepared for them at the George, in a private room; and the gentleman whom True Blue had seen on board the _Ruby_ was there to receive them, and talked so kindly and pleasantly that he soon found himself very much at his ease, and was able and willing to do ample justice to the good things placed before him.

As Mr Leslie, Sir Henry's uncle, was obliged to return to London that night, they set off by the mail. Mr Leslie went inside; but the midshipman and True Blue, who disdained such a mode of proceeding, took their places behind the coachman, the box seat being already occupied by a naval officer. Mail coaches in those days were not the rapidly-moving vehicles they afterwards became. Pa.s.sengers sat not only in front, but behind, where the guard also had his post--a most important personage, resplendent in red livery, and armed to the teeth with pistols, a heavy blunderbuss, and often a hanger or cutla.s.s; so that he had the means, if he possessed a bold heart, of defending the property confided to him.

True Blue had never before been on the top of a coach, and his remarks as they drove along, till the long summer day came to a close, amused the young baronet very much.

When they reached London, Mr Leslie called a hackney coach, and True Blue found himself rumbling along through the streets of London, towards Portman Square, at an early hour on a bright summer morning.

"Where are all the people, sir?" he asked, looking out of the window.

"I thought London was full of people."

"So it is. They are all asleep now, like ants in their nest. When the sun is up by and by, they will be busy enough, you will see," answered Mr Leslie.

It was still very early when they arrived at Lady Elmore's house; and, as they were not expected, no one was up to receive them. They, however, got in quietly; and while his arrival was being made known to his mother, Sir Henry took True Blue to a room and advised him to turn in and get some sleep. He would, however, very much rather have been allowed to go out and see the wonders of the great city; but his friend a.s.suring him that, if he did, he would inevitably lose himself, he reluctantly went to bed.

The moment, however, that his head was on the pillow, he was fast asleep, and, in spite of the bright sun which gleamed in at the window, it was not till nearly the family breakfast-time that he awoke.