After another cruise up the Mediterranean, where she did good service, and fought an action not inferior to the first, when she captured her antagonist, she was ordered home. On her way she looked into Lisbon, and Headland, who received his commission as lieutenant, was put in charge of their first prize, with Harry as his second in command, and another midshipman and thirty men to carry her home.
They reached Plymouth in safety, and when the Triton was paid off, Captain Fancourt being soon afterwards appointed to a ship in commission in which there were no vacancies, Harry and his friend were separated. They were employed for nearly three years on different stations and saw much service, both obtaining their promotion, while Headland, by several gallant acts, gained the credit he so eagerly sought for.
During the time, being then lieutenants, Harry belonging to the Naiad frigate, and Headland to the Alembic, they had the good fortune to capture two Spanish frigates, the Thetis and Santa Brigida, laden with specie to the value of upwards of 300,000 pounds sterling. Though two other frigates joined in the chase, each of the lieutenants of the four ships obtained 5000 as their share of prize money, while the four captains received upwards of 40,000 pounds a-piece.
“If you ever have to establish your claims, you will now have the means of doing so,” observed Harry to his friend when they arrived at Plymouth. “And remember my share shall be at your service.”
“I am very sure you will help me to the last penny you possess if I should require money,” answered Headland. “But I have long given up all hopes of success, and really now think very little about the matter. I am not ambitious of wealth, and when the piping times of peace come round, and I am sent on shore to shift for myself, I shall have saved enough to live on in comfort and respectability.”
“What, with a wife!” asked Harry. “She may not be satisfied with what you consider a competency.”
“I have not thought about marrying,” answered Headland, laughing, “and I do not suppose any lady I should like would accept an unknown adventurer such as I should be considered,” he added, and a shade came over his countenance showing that he felt his position more than he was willing to acknowledge.
“Adventurer! nonsense; no one has a right so to call a naval officer who has already made a name for himself, and will make a greater some day or other,” answered Harry. “Don’t let such an idea take possession of your mind. There are dozens of girls who would accept you gladly for yourself, and perhaps be better pleased to find that they had not married a whole tribe of relations, sisters and aunt, who might interfere with their domestic arrangements. Depend on it if every lieutenant and ward-room officer of our four fortunate frigates were to go on shore at once, we could each of us be married within a fortnight.”
“Very likely,” answered Headland. “But the ladies would take us for our prize money not for ourselves, and I should not wish to have a wife on those terms.”
“Nor should I, indeed; when I was last on shore during the London season, and went out with my mother and sister, I saw enough of fashionable society to make me resolve whenever I might take it into my head to look out for a wife, not to seek for her in such an atmosphere. I saw numbers of pretty girls, I confess, and, I daresay, some of them possessed sterling qualities. If I particularly admired any one fair lady, on discovering that I was only a midshipman, she was sure to freeze me up the next time I met her.”