nter a cot, let it
swing ever so lazily."

"Sleep is out of the question," returned Mildred, sorrowfully. "These
are nights in which even the weary are reluctant to lose their
consciousness; but who can sleep while there is this uncertainty about
dear Sir Wycherly."

"I rejoice to hear you say this, Mildred,"--for so the admiral had
unconsciously, and unrepelled, begun to call his sweet companion--"I
rejoice to hear you say this, for I am an inveterate star-gazer and
moon-ite; and I shall hope to persuade you and Mrs. Dutton to waste yet
another hour, with me, in walking on this height. Ah! yonder is Sam
Yoke, my coxswain, waiting to report the barge; I can send Sir
Gervaise's message to the surgeons, by deputy, and there will be no
occasion for my hastening from this lovely spot, and pleasant company."

The orders were soon given to the coxswain. A dozen boats, it would
seem, were in waiting for officers ashore, notwithstanding the lateness
of the hour; and directions were sent for two of them to pull off, and
obtain the medical men. The coach was sent round to receive the latter,
and then all was tranquil, again, on the height. Mrs. Dutton entered the
house, to attend to some of her domestic concerns, while the
rear-admiral took the arm of Mildred, and they walked, together, to the
verge of the cliffs.

A fairer moonlight picture seldom offered itself to a seaman's eye, than
that which now lay before the sight of Admiral Bluewater and Mildred.
Beneath them rode the fleet; sixteen sail of different rigs, eleven of
which, however, were two-decked ships of the largest size then known in
naval warfare; and all of which were in that perfect order, that an
active and intelligent commander knows how to procure, even from the
dilatory and indifferent. If Admiral Bluewater was conspicuous in
man[oe]uvring a fleet, and in rendering every vessel of a line that
extended a league, efficient, and that too, in her right place, Sir
Gervaise Oakes had the reputation of being one of the best seamen, in
the ordinary sense of the word, in England. No vessel under his command,
ever had a lubberly look; and no ship that had any sailing in her,
failed to have it brought out of her. The vice-admiral was familiar with
that all-important fact--one that members equally of Congress and of
Parliament are so apt to forgot, or rather not to know at all--that the
efficiency of a whole fleet, as a fleet, is necessarily brought down to
the level