68 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



would protect all hawks, crows, herons, jays and magpies, within the 

 precinct of the Park during my absence. He promised me faithfully 

 that he would do so ; and then, wishing him a good time of it, I 

 handed my two sisters-in-law, the Miss Edmonstones, into the car- 

 riage j I placed myself and my little boy by them ; the two servants 

 mounted aloft, and in this order we proceeded to Hull, there to 

 catch the steamer for Rotterdam. 



" I had a little adventure at Hull scarcely worth recounting, 

 saving for its singularity. As I was standing at the window of the 

 hotel, I saw an old and weather-beaten tar ruminating on the quay 

 which flanks the Humber ; and as I had nothing to do at the time, 

 I thought I would go and have a little chat with him ; and so I took 

 my hat and went to the place where he was standing. ' This is nearly 

 the spot, my honest tar/ said I to him, * where I first embarked for 

 Spain in the brig Industry of this port. It is just now forty years 

 ago, and a rough passage we had of it to Cadiz ; we were all but 

 ashore, one dark night at Cape St Vincent. The captain's name 

 was Lettus ; but he must be dead and buried long ago, for he was 

 then apparently quite at his best ; and what with so long a war, and 

 so many perils of the sea, no doubt he is safely stowed away in 

 Davy's locker.' ' I saw him, sir,' said the tar, ' no later than yester- 

 day morning.' * And where is he?' said I. ' He is safely moored 

 in the house for poor decayed sea-captains, and he is as well and as 

 happy as is possible for a man of his years to be.' 



" I bade my informer good-bye, and having stepped into the inn 

 for my umbrella, as the weather threatened rain, I went down the 

 street in quest of my old commander. I found him sitting on a 

 bench facing the south, with a pipe in his mouth, and I recognised 

 him at first sight, although disappointment, time, and poverty, had 

 made deep furrows in his face. On asking him if he remembered the 

 interesting affair he had with a brig bound to Vigo, about forty 

 years ago, his eye brightened up, and he went through the whole 

 story with wonderful minuteness. I then gave him a brief account 

 of the many gales I had weathered since I bade him farewell at the 

 sally-port in Cadiz ; and he, on his part, told me that our mate, Mr 

 Davis, had got drowned in the Baltic ; and that he himself had con- 

 tinued to buffet the waves for a mere livelihood, till at last, old age 



