nder;
a rank that then brought many an honest man up for life, in the English
marine. At the age of five-and-forty, that at which Bluewater first
hoisted his flag, Stowell was posted; and soon after he was invited by
his old shipmate, who had once had him under him as his first lieutenant
in a sloop of war, to take the command of his flag-ship. From that day
down to the present moment, the two officers had sailed together,
whenever they sailed at all, perfectly good friends; though the captain
never appeared entirely to forget the time when they were in the
aforesaid frigate; one a gun-room officer, and the other only a
"youngster."

Stowel must now have been about sixty-five; a square, hard-featured,
red-faced seaman, who knew all about his ship, from her truck to her
limber-rope, but who troubled himself very little about any thing else.
He had married a widow when he was posted, but was childless, and had
long since permitted his affections to wander back into their former
channels; from the domestic hearth to his ship. He seldom spoke of
matrimony, but the little he saw fit to say on the subject was
comprehensive and to the point. A perfectly sober man, he consumed large
quantities of both wine and brandy, as well as of tobacco, and never
seemed to be the worse for either. Loyal he was by political faith, and
he looked upon a revolution, let its object be what it might, as he
would have regarded a mutiny in the Caesar. He was exceedingly
pertinacious of his rights as "captain of his own ship," both ashore and
afloat; a disposition that produced less trouble with the mild and
gentlemanly rear-admiral, than with Mrs. Stowel. If we add that this
plain sailor never looked into a book, his proper scientific works
excepted, we shall have said all of him that his connection with our
tale demands.

"Good-evening, Admiral Bluewater," said this true tar, saluting the
rear-admiral, as one neighbour would greet another, on dropping in of an
evening, for they occupied different cabins. "Mr. Cornet told me you
would like to say a word to me, before I turned in; if, indeed, turn in
at all, I do this blessed night."

"Take a seat, Stowel, and a glass of this sherry, in the bargain,"
Bluewater answered, kindly, showing how well he understood his man, by
the manner in which he shoved both bottle and glass within reach of his
hand. "How goes the night?--and is this wind likely to stand?"

"I'm of opinion, sir--we'll drink His Maj