oth ship and admiral
were laid aside, as too old for further use. It should be added,
however, that Parker was knighted by the king on board his own ship; a
circumstance that cast a halo of sunshine over the close of the life of
one, who had commenced his career so humbly, as to render this happy
close more than equal to his expectations. In direct opposition to this,
it may be said here, that Sir Gervaise refused, for the third time, to
be made Viscount Bowldero, with a feeling just the reverse of that of
Parker's; for, secure of his social position, and careless of politics,
he viewed the elevation with an indifference that was a natural
consequence enough of his own birth, fortune, and high character. On
this occasion,--it was after another victory,--George II. personally
alluded to the subject, remarking that the success we have recorded had
never met with its reward; when the old seaman let out the true secret
of his pertinaciously declining an honour, about which he might
otherwise have been supposed to be as indifferent to the acceptance, as
to the refusal. "Sir," he answered to the remark of the king, "I am duly
sensible of your majesty's favour; but, I can never consent to receive a
patent of nobility that, in my eyes, will always seem to be sealed with
the blood of my closest and best friend." This reply was remembered, and
the subject was never adverted to again.

The fate of the Blenheim was one of those impressive blanks that dot the
pages of nautical history. She sailed for the Mediterranean alone, and
after she had discharged her pilot, was never heard of again. This did
not occur, however, until Captain Sterling had been killed on her decks,
in one of Sir Gervaise's subsequent actions. The Achilles was suffered
to drift in, too near to some heavy French batteries, before the treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed; and, after every stick had been again cut
out of her, she was compelled to lower her flag. His earldom and his
courage, saved Lord Morganic from censure; but, being permitted to go up
to Paris, previously to his exchange, he contracted a matrimonial
engagement with a celebrated _danseuse_, a craft that gave him so much
future employment, that he virtually abandoned his profession.
Nevertheless, his name was on the list of vice-admirals of the blue,
when he departed this life. The Warspite and Captain Goodfellow both
died natural deaths; one as a receiving-ship, and the other as a
rear-admiral of