bserved the
secretary. "Galleygo has sailed in company with you so long, and to so
many strange lands; has been through so many dangers at your side, and
has got so completely to consider himself as part of the family, that it
was the most natural thing in the world he should expect to go to court
with you."

"True enough. The fellow would face the devil, at my side, and I don't
see why he should hesitate to face the king. I sometimes call him Lady
Oakes, Sir Wycherly, for he appears to think he has a right of dower, or
to some other lawyer-like claim on my estate; and as for the fleet, he
always speaks of _that_, as if we commanded it in common. I wonder how
Bluewater tolerates the blackguard; for he never scruples to allude to
him as under _our_ orders! If any thing should befal me, Dick and David
would have a civil war for the succession, hey! Atwood?"

"I think military subordination would bring Galleygo to his senses, Sir
Gervaise, should such an unfortunate accident occur--which Heaven avert
for many years to come! There is Admiral Bluewater coming up the street,
at this very moment, sir."

At this sudden announcement, the whole party turned to look in the
direction intimated by the secretary. It was by this time at one end of
the short street, and all saw a man just entering the other, who, in his
walk, air, attire, and manner, formed a striking contrast to the active,
merry, bustling, youthful young sailors who thronged the hamlet. In
person, Admiral Bluewater was exceedingly tall and exceedingly thin.
Like most seamen who have that physical formation, he stooped; a
circumstance that gave his years a greater apparent command over his
frame, than they possessed in reality. While this bend in his figure
deprived it, in a great measure, of the sturdy martial air that his
superior presented to the observer, it lent to his carriage a quiet and
dignity that it might otherwise have wanted. Certainly, were this
officer attired like an ordinary civilian, no one would have taken him
for one of England's bravest and most efficient sea-captains; he would
have passed rather as some thoughtful, well-educated, and refined
gentleman, of retired habits, diffident of himself, and a stranger to
ambition. He wore an undress rear-admiral's uniform, as a matter of
course; but he wore it carelessly, as if from a sense of duty only; or
conscious that no arrangement could give him a military air. Still all
about his person was faultl