d, Bignall?"

"Why, sir, what between his Majesty's enemies, the care of my ship, and
the company of my officers, I find few heavy moments."

"Ah! your officers: True, you _must_ have officers on board; though, I
suppose, they are a little oldish to be agreeable to _you_. Will you
favour me with a sight of the list?"

The Commander of the 'Dart' did as he was requested, putting the
quarter-bill of his ship into the hands of his unknown enemy, with an eye
that was far too honest to condescend to bestow even a look on a being so
much despised.

"What a list of thorough 'mouthers! All Yarmouth, and Plymouth, and
Portsmouth, and Exmouth names, I do affirm. Here are Smiths enough to do
the iron-work of the whole ship. Ha! here is a fellow that might do good
service in a deluge. Who may be this Henry Ark, that I find rated as your
first lieutenant?"

"A youth who wants but a few drops of your blood, Captain Howard, to be
one day at the head of his Majesty's fleet."

"If he be then so extraordinary for his merit, Captain Bignall, may I
presume on your politeness to ask him to favour us with his society. I
always give my lieutenant half an hour of a morning--if he be genteel."

"Poor boy! God knows where he is to be found at this moment. The noble
fellow has embarked, of his own accord, on a most dangerous service, and I
am as ignorant as yourself of his success. Remonstrance and even
entreaties, were of no avail. The Admiral had great need of a suitable
agent, and the good of the nation demanded the risk; then, you know, men
of humble birth must earn their preferment in cruising elsewhere than at
St. James's; for the brave lad is indebted to a wreck, in which he was
found an infant, for the very name you find so singular."

"He is, however, still borne upon your books as first lieutenant?"

"And I hope ever will be, until he shall get the ship he so well
merits.--Good Heaven! are you ill Captain Howard? Boy, a tumbler of grog
here."

"I thank you, sir," returned the Rover, smiling calmly, and rejecting the
offered beverage, as the blood returned into his features, with a violence
that threatened to break through the ordinary boundaries of its currents.
"It is no more than an ailing I inherit from my mother. We call it, in our
family, the 'de Vere ivory;' for no other reason, that I could ever learn,
than that one of my female ancestors was particularly startled, in a
delicate situation, you know, by an elephant's to