"I looked back from the ship astern to the brig-of-war's clean white decks, flush fore and aft, with the men all forward at their stations, neatly dressed in regular man-o'-war style, everyone alike—a sight that would have done me good at another time, small as she was by comparison; but the very thought of the Indiaman's lumbering poop and galleries was too much for me—'twas as if you'd knocked out those two round-house doors of hers, and let in a gush of bare sky instead. The ship-shape man-o'-war cut of things was nothing, I fancied, to the snug spot under those top-gallant bulwarks of hers, and the breezy poop all a-flutter with muslin of an evening, where you found books and little basket affairs stuck into the coils of rope. I thought the old Seringapatam never looked so well, as she commenced trimming sail on a wind, beginning to go drive ahead, with a white foam at her bows, and her whole length broadside-on to us. All at once we saw her clue up courses and to'-gallant sails, till she was standing slowly off under the three topsails and jib; the two lieutenants couldn't understand what she was about, and the captain put the glass to his eye, after which he said something to the second lieutenant, who went forward directly.
"The next thing I saw was the Indiaman coming up in the wind again for about a minute; she had her stern nearly to us, when the moment after, as she rose upon a long sea, you saw something flash white off her lee gangway in the sunlight, that dropped against it into the hollow of a wave. The next minute she fell off again with her topsails full, and the first shower of spray was rising across her forefoot, when the flash of a gun broke out of her side, and the sound came down to us; then a second and a third. The brig gave her the same number in answer, and as soon as the smoke betwixt us had cleared away, the ship could be seen under full sail to the south-westward by west. 'That's her poor skippers hammock dropped alongside, gentlemen,' said Captain Wallis to his officers; 'God be with him.' 'Amen,' said the first lieutenant, and we put our caps on again. 'Set stu'nsails, Mr Aldridge,' said the captain, limping down the hatchway; as for me, I leant I don't know how long over the brig's taffrail, watching the ship's canvas grow in one, through the width of air betwixt us; my heart full, as may be supposed, not to say what notions came into my head of what might happen to her under Finch's charge, ere she reached Bombay. No one belonging to the brig spoke to me, out of kindness, no doubt; and the ship was hull-down on the horizon, to my fancy with somewhat of a figure like hers, when she stood with the cashmere shawl over her head in the dusk. Then I went gloomily down to my berth, where I kept close by myself till I fell asleep, though the gun-room steward was sent to me more than once to join the officers.
"It wasn't till the next day, in fact, when I went on the quarter-deck at noon, wearied for a fresher gulp of air, that I saw any of them; and the breeze having fallen lighter that morning, they were too busy trimming sail and humouring her to give me much notice. I must say I had seldom seen a commander seem more impatient about the sailing of his craft, in time of peace, than the captain of the Podargus appeared to be; walking the starboard side as fast as the halt in his gait would let him, and the anxious turn of his eyes plainer than before, while he looked from the brig's spread of stu'nsails to the horizon, through the glass, which, I may say, he never once laid down. From where the brig spoke the Indiaman, to St Helena, would be about two or three days' sail with a fair wind, at the ordinary strength of the south-east trade; though, at this rate, it might cost us twice the time. I noticed the men on the forecastle look to each other now and then knowingly, at some fresh sign of the captain's impatience; and the second lieutenant told me in a low voice, with his head over the side near mine, Captain Wallis had been out of sorts ever since they lost sight of the island. 'You'd suppose, sir,' said he, laughing, 'that old Nap was his sweetheart, by the way he watches over him; and now, I fancy, he's afraid St Helena may be sunk in blue water while we were away! In fact, Mr Westwood,' added he, 'it looks devilish like as if it had come up from Davy Jones, all standing; so I don't see why it shouldn't go down to him again some day; I can tell you it's tiresome work cruising to windward there, though, and we aren't idle at all!'
"'Did you ever see the French Emperor yourself, sir?' asked I—for I must say the thought of nearing the prison such a man was in made me a little curious. 'Never, sir, except at a mile's distance,' said the second lieutenant; 'indeed, it's hard to get a pass, unless you know the governor. But I've a notion,' continued he, 'the governor's carefulness is nothing to our skipper's! Indeed, they tell a queer story of how Sir Hudson Lowe was gulled for months together, when he was governor of Capri island, in the Mediterranean. As for the captain, again, you'd seek a long time ere you found a better seaman—he's as wide awake, too, as Nelson himself; while the curious thing is, I believe, he never once clapped eyes on Bonaparte in his life! But good cause he has to hate him, you know, Mr Westwood!' 'Indeed,' said I, taking a moment's interest in the thing; and I was just going to ask the reason, when the first lieutenant came over to say Captain Wallis would be glad if I would dine with him in the cabin.
"At dinner-time, accordingly, I put on a coat, for the first time, less like those the cadets in the Seringapatam wore, and went aft, where I found the first lieutenant and a midshipman with the captain. He did his best to soften my case, as I saw by his whole manner during dinner; after which, no sooner had the reefer had his one glass of wine, than he was sent on deck to look out to windward. 'Well, sir,' said Captain Wallis thereupon, turning from his first luff to me, 'I'm sorry for this disagreeable business! I believe you deny being the person at all, though?' 'Why, sir,' said I, 'I am certainly no more the first lieutenant of the Orestes than yourself, Captain Wallis! 'Twas all owing to a mistake of that India mate, who owed me a grudge.' 'Oh, oh, I see!' replied he, beginning to smile, 'the whole matter's as plain as a handspike, Mr Aldridge! But I couldn't do less, on the information.' 'However, sir,' put in the first lieutenant, 'there's no doubt the real man must have been in the ship, or the mistake could not have happened, sir!' 'Well—you look at things too square, Aldridge,' said the captain. 'All you've got to do, I hope, sir, is just to prove you're not Westwood; and if you want still to go out to the East Indies, why, I daresay you won't be long of finding some outward-bound ship or other off Jamestown. Only, I'd advise you, sir, to have your case over with Sir Pulteney, before Admiral Plampin comes in—as I fear he would send you to England.' 'It matters little to me, sir,' I answered; 'seeing the reason I had for going out happens to be done with.' Here I couldn't help the blood rising in my face; while Captain Wallis's steady eye turned off me, and I heard him say in a lower key to the lieutenant, he didn't think it was a matter for a court-martial at all. 'Pooh, Aldridge!' said he, 'some pretty girl amongst the passengers in the case, I wager!' 'Why,' returned Aldridge, carelessly, 'I heard Mr Moore say some of the ladies were pretty enough, especially one—some India judge or other's young daughter—I believe he was in raptures about, sir.' This sort of thing, as you may suppose, was like touching one on the raw with a marling-spike; when the captain asked me—partly to smooth it over, maybe—'By-the-by, sir, Mr Aldridge tells me there was something about a pirate schooner, or slaver, or some craft of the kind, that frightened your mates—that's all stuff, I daresay—but what I want to know is, in what quarter you lost sight of her, if you recollect?' 'About nor'-west by north from where we were at the time, sir,' said I. 'A fast-looking craft was she?' asked he. 'A thorough-built smooth-going clipper, if ever there was one,' I said. At this the captain mused for a little, till at last he said to his lieutenant: 'They daren't risk it; I don't think there's the Frenchman born, man enough to try such a thing by water, Aldridge?' 'Help him out, you mean, sir?' said the luff; 'why, if he ever got as far as the water's edge, I'd believe in witchcraft, sir!' 'Give a man time, Mr Aldridge,' answered the captain, 'and he'll get out of anything where soldiers are concerned—every year he's boxed up sharpens him till his very mind turns like a knife, man! It makes one mad on every point besides, I tell you, sir—whereas after he's free, perhaps, it's just on that only his brain has a twist in it!' 'No doubt, Captain Wallis,' said Aldridge, glancing over to me, as his commander got up and began walking about the cabin, spite of his halt. 'D'ye know,' continued he, 'I've thought at times what I should like best would be to have him ahead of the brig, in some craft or other, and we hard in chase—I'd go after that man to the North Pole, sir, and bring him back! Without once going aboard to know he was there, I'd send word it was Jack Wallis had him in tow!' 'What is Bonaparte like, then, after all, sir?' I asked, just to fill up the break. 'I never saw him, nor he me,' replied Captain Wallis, stopping in his walk; 'but every day he may have a sight of the brig cruising to windward; and as for the island, we see plenty of it, I think, Aldridge?' 'Ay, ay, sir,' said Aldridge, 'that we do! For my part, I can't get the ugly stone steeples of it out of my head!' 'Well,' continued the captain, 'at times, when we're beating round St Helena of a night, I'll be hanged if I haven't thought it began to loom as if the French Emperor stood on the top of it, like a shadow looking out to sea the other way—and I've gone below lest he'd turn round till I saw his face. I've a notion Mr Aldridge, if I once saw his face, I'd lose what I feel against him, just as I used always to fancy, the first five years in the Temple, if he were only to see me, he would let me out! But they say he's got a wonderful way of coming over everyone, if he likes!' After this, Captain Wallis sat down and passed the decanters, the first lieutenant observing, he supposed Bonaparte was a great man in his way, but nothing to Nelson. 'Don't tack them together, Aldridge!' said his commander quickly; 'Nelson was a man all over, he'd got the feelings of a man and his faults; but I call him, yonder, a perfect demon let loose upon the world! To my mind all the blood those republicans shed, with their murdered king's at bottom of it, got somehow into him, till he thought no more of human beings, or aught concerning 'em, than I do of so many cockroaches! But the terrible thing was, sir, his infernal schemes, and his cunning: why, he'd twist you one country against another, and get hold of both, like a man bending stu'nsail halliards; there were men grew up round him quick as mushrooms, fit to carry out everything he wanted; so one couldn't wonder at him enough, Mr Aldridge, if it was only natural! I can't tell you anything like what I felt,' he went on, 'when I was in Sir Sydney Smith's ship, cruising down Channel, and we used to see the gun-boats and flat-bottoms he got together for crossing the straits; or one night with poor Captain Wright, that we stood in near enough to get a shot sent at us off the heights—the whole shore about Boulogne was one twinkle of lights and camp-fires, and you heard the sound of the hammers on planks and iron, with the carts and gun-carriages creaking—not to speak of a hum from soldiers enough, you'd have thought, to eat Old England up! And where are they now?' 'I don't know, sir, indeed,' said the first lieutenant gravely, supposing by the captain's look, no doubt, that it was a question. 'What, Captain Wallis!' exclaimed I, 'were you with Captain Wright, then, sir?' Of course, like everyone in the service, I had heard Captain Wright's story often, with ever so many versions; there was a mystery about his sad fate that made me curious to hear more of what gave the whole navy, I may say, a hatred to Bonaparte not at all the same you regard a fair enemy with.
"'With him, say you, sir?' repeated the captain of the Podargus, 'ay was I! I was his first lieutenant, and good cause I had to feel for the end he came to, as I'll let you hear. One night Captain Wright went ashore, as he'd often done, into the town of Beville, dressed like a smuggler; for the fact was the French winked at smuggling, only I must say we used to land men instead of goods. I didn't like the thing that night, and advised him not to go, as they'd begun to suspect something of late! However, the captain by that time was foolhardy, owing to having run so many risks, and he was bent on going in before we left the coast; though, after all, I believe it was only to get a letter that any fisherman could have brought off. The boat was lying off and on behind a rocky point, and we waited and waited, hearing nothing but the sound of the tide making about the big weedy stones, in the shadow from the lights of the town; when at last the French landlord of the little tavern he put up at came down upon the shingle and whistled to us. He gave me a message from Captain Wright, with the private word we had between us, saying he wanted me to come up to the town on a particular business. Accordingly I told the men to shove out again, and away I went with the fellow.
"'No sooner did I open the door of the room, however, than three or four gendarmes had hold of me, and I was a prisoner: as for Captain Wright, I never saw him more. The morning broke as they brought me up on horseback in the middle of them, along the road to Paris, from whence I could make out the cutter heeling to the breeze a mile or two off the land, with two or three gun-boats hard in chase.
"'Well, sir, at Paris they clapped me into a long gloomy-like piece of masonwork called the Temple, close alongside of the river, where plenty of our countrymen were; Captain Wright and Sir Sydney Smith himself among the rest, as I found out afterwards. The treatment wasn't so bad at first; but when you climbed up to the windows, there was nothing to be seen but the top of a wall and roofs of houses all round, save where you'd a glimpse of the dirty river and some pig-trough of a boat. One day I got a letter from Captain Wright—how they let me have it I don't well know—saying he was allowed a good deal of comfort in the meantime, but he suspected some devilish scheme in it, to make him betray the British Government, or something of the kind; that he'd heard one of the French royalist generals had choked himself in his prison, but never to believe he'd do the same thing, though every night he woke up thinking he heard the key turn in the door. The next thing I heard of was that Captain Wright had made away with himself, sir!'
"Here Captain Wallis got up again, walking across the cabin, seemingly much moved. 'Well, after that I slept with the dinner-knife in my breast, till the jailer took it away; for I thought at the time that poor Wright had been murdered, though I found cause to change my mind when I knew what loneliness does with a man, not to speak of the notion being put before him to take his own life. For a while, too, Captain Shaw was in the same cell; by which time we had such bad food, and so little of it, that one day when a pigeon lighted on the window, which used to come there for a crumb or two every afternoon, right along with the gold gleam of the sun as it shot over the dark houses to that window, I jumped up and caught it. Shaw and I actually tore it in bits, and ate it raw on the spot; though 'twas long ere I could get rid of the notion of the poor bird fluttering and cooing against the bars, and looking at me with its round little soft eye as it pecked off the slab. But what was that to the thought of my old father that had hurt himself to keep me in the navy, and me able now to make his last days comfortable? or the innocent young girl I had married the moment I got my commission of first lieutenant, expecting to be flush of prize-money? It even came into my head often, when I sat by myself in the cell they afterwards put me into, alone, how that little blue pigeon might have carried a letter to England for me; at any rate it was the only thing like a chance, or a friend, I ever saw the whole time I was there; and foolish as the notion may look, why the window was too high in a smooth wall for me once to reach it.
"'I heard all Paris humming round the thick of the stone every day, and sometimes the sound of thousands of soldiers tramping past below, over the next bridge, with music and such like—no doubt when the First Consul, as they called him, went off to some campaign or other: then I'd dream I felt the deck under me in a fresh breeze at night, till the soul sickened in me to wake up and find the stones as still as before, and now and then hear the sentries challenging on their rounds.