, said Mr. Pinhorn;
Mistress Vetch said of rage. His estate had been much impoverished,
and his widow was now left almost penniless. She was my father's
sister, and, my own lot being happy, I could not endure to think of
her in penury and distress. So I made her a small allowance through
Mr. Vetch (and I can vouch for it this was a secret his wife never
knew)--sufficient to keep her from want. She never saw me, made me
no acknowledgment, and to the day of her death maintained, in the
little house she took next St. Michael's Church, the haughty
bearing which had always won her such dislike.

Lucy and I were married on St. Valentine's day in the year 1703.
Less than three months afterwards I was appointed to command the
Pegasus, a third-rate of forty-eight guns, and ordered to the
Mediterranean with Admiral Sir Cloudesly Shovel. From that time
until I retired in the year 1713 I was almost continuously on
service, having but brief intervals to spend with my wife. I was at
the taking of Gibraltar by Sir George Rooke (which we have yet in
possession, and may we ever keep it), and in the famous sea fight
off Velez Malaga in 1704; next year I entered Barcelona with Sir
Stafford Fairborn; in brief, I had a share (though humble) in many
of our notable transactions at sea during those memorable years
when we fought King Lewis.

But when peace was concluded in the year 1713, both Mr. and Mrs.
Allardyce being then dead, I thought it was high time I settled
down at home, especially as there were two sturdy boys growing up
to plague their mother. Accordingly I retired with the rank of
captain and a considerable fortune. We purchased the estate of
Cludde Court and made great additions to it, and our boys every day
rode into Shrewsbury to school, and did it more credit than their
father.

Captain Galsworthy was a frequent visitor, and though he was past
eighty, insisted on giving our boys their first lessons with the
singlestick. He died in the year '15, leaving fragrant memories to
us who loved him.

Joe Punchard is with me still. He regarded Lucy's injunctions as
binding on him for life, and clave to me all through my naval
career, though he lost a leg at the taking of Port Mahon in 1708.
He retired when I did, and came to Cludde Court as our lodge
keeper, where he would entrance my boys with sea songs and his
tales of p what he had gone through on sea and land with me and
with Admiral Benbow, whom he ever cherished as a match