our chaps, and we find we can
muster four admirals, two commodores, and thirteen captains in our two
messes; that is, counting all sorts of relatives, you know, sir."

"Well, my dear boy, I hope you may live to reckon all that and more too,
in your own persons, at some future day. Yonder is Sir Reginald
Wychecombe, coming this way, to my surprise; perhaps he wishes to see me
alone. Go down to the landing and ascertain if my barge is ashore, and
let me know it, as soon as is convenient. Remember, Geoffrey, you will
go off with me; and hunt up Sir Wycherly Wychecombe, who will lose his
passage, unless ready the instant he is wanted."

The boy touched his cap, and went bounding down the hill to execute the
order.

CHAPTER XVIII.

"So glozed the Tempter, and his poison tuned;
Into the heart of Eve his words made way,
Though at the voice much marvelling."

MILTON.

It was, probably, a species of presentiment, that induced Bluewater to
send away the midshipman, when he saw the adherent of the dethroned
house approaching. Enough had passed between the parties to satisfy each
of the secret bias of the other; and, by that sort of free-masonry which
generally accompanies strong feelings of partisanship, the admiral felt
persuaded that the approaching interview was about to relate to the
political troubles of the day.

The season and the hour, and the spot, too, were all poetically
favourable to an interview between conspirators. It was now nearly dark;
the head-land was deserted, Dutton having retired, first to his bottle,
and then to his bed; the wind blew heavily athwart the bleak eminence,
or was heard scuffling in the caverns of the cliffs, while the
portentous clouds that drove through the air, now veiled entirely, and
now partially and dimly revealed the light of the moon, in a way to
render the scene both exciting and wild. No wonder, then, that
Bluewater, his visiter drawing near, felt a stronger disposition than
had ever yet come over him to listen to the tale of the tempter, as,
under all the circumstances, it would scarcely exceed the bounds of
justice to call Sir Reginald.

"In seeking you at such a spot, and in the midst of this wild
landscape," said the latter, "I might have been assured I should be
certain of finding one who really loved the sea and your noble
profession. The Hall is a melancholy house, just at this moment; and
when I inquired for you, no one could say whithe