“Never mind that, Harry,” I answered; “you have as much right to it as they have to theirs. Tell them you hope to make it some day as well known to fame as Hawke’s, Collier’s, or Rodney’s.”
Harry promised to follow my advice; at the same time he confessed that it made him more anxious than ever to find out who his parents really were, and whether or not they were both on board the Royal George when she went down.
“You tell me that you think the poor lady who took me on board was not my mother, and so perhaps my mother was on shore.”
“But the young lady was in black, and so it’s possible that your mother may have died, and that she took you to see your father, to whom, for some reason or other, she wanted to introduce you. That’s how I read the riddle, but maybe I am mistaken.”
Harry was satisfied.
“When we return to England, you will try and get Jerry Dix to come to see you, and learn if he has heard anything more?” he said.
Of course I replied that I would if I could; but that Jerry Dix had not left me any address, and it might be a hard matter to find him. I did not think that he had played me false, but I was afraid that some accident might have happened to him, or that he might be dead, and then the clue which he fancied he had found would be lost.
After visiting Cadiz and Gibraltar, we were on our way home, just entering the chops of the Channel, after being kept at sea by calms and contrary winds for three weeks or more, when a frigate hove in sight and hoisted English colours. She made her number, and we knew her to be the thirty-two gun frigate Venus. Captain Faulknor, who commanded her, came on board, and we soon heard the news. The French Republicans had risen up against their king, and cut his head off, and as the English Government did not approve of that, they had ordered the French ambassador to leave the country. The National Convention, as it was called, had therefore declared war against Great Britain, and we were now going to thrash the French Republicans soundly, wherever we could find them, afloat or on shore.
This was, of course, considered to be glorious news; and all hands fore and aft were in high glee at the thoughts of the work cut out for us.
The Venus soon after parted company with us to go and look out for the enemy, while we made the best of our way up Channel to Portsmouth, to fill up with ammunition and stores. Before Susan could come over to see me we had sailed for the westward. On our way down Channel we again fell in with the Venus, which had had a sharp action with two French frigates, the Sémillante and Cléopâtre, when she beat off the first, and escaped from the latter. We sailed together in search of the two frigates. We sighted them three days afterwards, when they, having nimble heels, escaped us and got into Cherbourg.