“Why, d— it,” said Walton, “if I thought they would make me a post-captain for it, I would get drunk to night! but tell us how you got made, man, after our throwing you out, like spare ballast, on that rascally beach at Plymouth?”
“Why,” answered Henry, “I waited upon the first lord of the Admiralty, and informed him that I should prefer being a lieutenant to remaining a midshipman: upon which his lordship very politely gave me the commission I now have the honour to hold.”
“Yier taste was sae vara uncommon, sir!” observed the Scot, “that his lordship did na care te balk ye?”
“Precisely so, sir,” said Henry, with a bow.
“But, joking apart, Henry,” said Edmund, “do tell us how it happened.”
In fact, the friend Henry had met with at Plymouth, but whom he did not name even to Edmund, had informed him that Lord L. was just returned to England on business connected with his diplomacy, and was at that time actually in London. Henry had set out that night for London, waited on Lord L., and, without any mention of his being in disgrace, said that his time being served, he had hastened to town to secure, if possible, his promotion while his lordship was on the spot. Lord L., accordingly, taking Henry with him, made his application in person. The commission was granted so immediately, that the business was concluded before Captain B.’s report, respecting Mr. St. Aubin’s unofficer-like conduct, had reached the Admiralty. Lord L., however, highly resented the trick thus put upon him, and declared himself determined never again to use any interest of his on Henry’s behalf. And in this resolve he persevered.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
“Through the wide heaving of the strife,
Are the strides of Fingall, like some strong ship
Cutting through wintry seas. The dark tumbling
Of death, the gleams of broken steel, mingle
Round him; the waves of war part before him
And roll along the field.”