Frank Mildmay eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 536 pages of information about Frank Mildmay.

Frank Mildmay eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 536 pages of information about Frank Mildmay.

This was not correct, but as he was a lord, he claimed privilege, and on this rock of privilege we found afterwards that he always perched himself on every occasion.  We were all presented to him; and to each he condescended to give a nod.  His questions were all confined to the first lieutenant, and all related to his own comforts.  “Where is my steward to lie? where is my valet to sleep? where is my cow-pen? and where are my sheep to be?” We discovered when he had been one hour in our company, that his noble self was the god of his idolatry.  As for the details of the ship and her crew, masts, rigging, stowage, provisions, the water she would carry, and how much she drew, they were subjects on which he never fatigued his mind.

One hour having expired since he had come on board, he ordered his boat, and returned to the shore, and we saw no more of him until we arrived at Spithead, when his lordship came on board, accompanied by a person whom we soon discovered was a half pay purser in the navy:  a man who, by dint of the grossest flattery and numerous little attentions, had so completely ingratiated himself with his patron, that he had become as necessary an appendage to the travelling equipage, as the portmanteau or the valet-de-chambre.  This despicable toady was his lordship’s double; he was a living type of the Gnatho of Terence; and I never saw him without remembering the passage that ends “si negat id quoque nego.”  Black was white, and white was black with toady, if his lordship pleased; he messed in the cabin, did much mischief in the ship, and only escaped kicking, because he was too contemptible to be kicked.

My fair readers are no doubt anxious to know how I parted with Emily, and truly I am not unwilling to oblige them, though it is, indeed, a tender subject.  As soon as we received our orders to proceed to Spithead, Mr Somerville, who had kept his house at Blackheath while the ship was fitting, in hopes that my promotion might have taken place before she was ready, now prepared to quit the place.  To the renewed application of my father, the answer was that I must go abroad for my promotion.  This at once decided him to break up his summer quarters, very wisely foreseeing that unless he did so, my services would be lost to my ship; and if he and Emily did not leave me behind at Woolwich, I should probably be left behind by my captain:  he therefore announced his intended departure within twenty-four hours.

Emily was very sorry, and so was I. I kindly reproached her with her cruelty; but she replied with a degree of firmness and good sense, which I could not but admire, that she had but one counsellor, and that was her father, and that until she was married, she never intended to have any other; that by his advice she had delayed the union:  and as we were neither of us very old people, “I trust in God,” said she, “we may meet again.”  I admired her heroism, gave her one kiss, handed her into her carriage, and we shook hands.  I need not say I saw a tear or two in her eyes.  Mr Somerville saw the shower coming on, pulled up the glass, gave me a friendly nod, and the carriage drove off.  The last I saw of Emily, at that time, was her right hand, which carried her handkerchief to her eyes.

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Frank Mildmay from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.