登陆注册
20029700000005

第5章 CHAPTER I(4)

What with the flattery of bishops and admirals, the fine company in which he found himself at Portsmouth, his visits home, with their gaiety and greatness of life, his visits to Mrs. Buckner (soon a widow) at Windsor, where he had a pony kept for him, and visited at Lord Melville's and Lord Harcourt's and the Leveson-Gowers, he began to have 'bumptious notions,' and his head was 'somewhat turned with fine people'; as to some extent it remained throughout his innocent and honourable life.

In this frame of mind the boy was appointed to the CONQUEROR, Captain Davie, humorously known as Gentle Johnnie. The captain had earned this name by his style of discipline, which would have figured well in the pages of Marryat: 'Put the prisoner's head in a bag and give him another dozen!' survives as a specimen of his commands; and the men were often punished twice or thrice in a week. On board the ship of this disciplinarian, Charles and his father were carried in a billy-boat from Sheerness in December, 1816: Charles with an outfit suitable to his pretensions, a twenty-guinea sextant and 120 dollars in silver, which were ordered into the care of the gunner. 'The old clerks and mates,' he writes, 'used to laugh and jeer me for joining the ship in a billy- boat, and when they found I was from Kent, vowed I was an old Kentish smuggler. This to my pride, you will believe, was not a little offensive.'

THE CONQUEROR carried the flag of Vice-Admiral Plampin, commanding at the Cape and St. Helena; and at that all-important islet, in July, 1817, she relieved the flagship of Sir Pulteney Malcolm.

Thus it befel that Charles Jenkin, coming too late for the epic of the French wars, played a small part in the dreary and disgraceful afterpiece of St. Helena. Life on the guard-ship was onerous and irksome. The anchor was never lifted, sail never made, the great guns were silent; none was allowed on shore except on duty; all day the movements of the imperial captive were signalled to and fro; all night the boats rowed guard around the accessible portions of the coast. This prolonged stagnation and petty watchfulness in what Napoleon himself called that 'unchristian' climate, told cruelly on the health of the ship's company. In eighteen months, according to O'Meara, the CONQUEROR had lost one hundred and ten men and invalided home one hundred and seven, being more than a third of her complement. It does not seem that our young midshipman so much as once set eyes on Bonaparte; and yet in other ways Jenkin was more fortunate than some of his comrades. He drew in water-colour; not so badly as his father, yet ill enough; and this art was so rare aboard the CONQUEROR that even his humble proficiency marked him out and procured him some alleviations.

Admiral Plampin had succeeded Napoleon at the Briars; and here he had young Jenkin staying with him to make sketches of the historic house. One of these is before me as I write, and gives a strange notion of the arts in our old English Navy. Yet it was again as an artist that the lad was taken for a run to Rio, and apparently for a second outing in a ten-gun brig. These, and a cruise of six weeks to windward of the island undertaken by the CONQUEROR herself in quest of health, were the only breaks in three years of murderous inaction; and at the end of that period Jenkin was invalided home, having 'lost his health entirely.'

As he left the deck of the guard-ship the historic part of his career came to an end. For forty-two years he continued to serve his country obscurely on the seas, sometimes thanked for inconspicuous and honourable services, but denied any opportunity of serious distinction. He was first two years in the LARNE, Captain Tait, hunting pirates and keeping a watch on the Turkish and Greek squadrons in the Archipelago. Captain Tait was a favourite with Sir Thomas Maitland, High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands - King Tom as he was called - who frequently took passage in the LARNE. King Tom knew every inch of the Mediterranean, and was a terror to the officers of the watch. He would come on deck at night; and with his broad Scotch accent, 'Well, sir,' he would say, 'what depth of water have ye? Well now, sound; and ye'll just find so or so many fathoms,' as the case might be; and the obnoxious passenger was generally right. On one occasion, as the ship was going into Corfu, Sir Thomas came up the hatchway and cast his eyes towards the gallows. 'Bangham' - Charles Jenkin heard him say to his aide-de-camp, Lord Bangham - 'where the devil is that other chap? I left four fellows hanging there; now I can only see three. Mind there is another there to-morrow.' And sure enough there was another Greek dangling the next day. 'Captain Hamilton, of the CAMBRIAN, kept the Greeks in order afloat,' writes my author, 'and King Tom ashore.'

同类推荐
  • 大爱道比丘尼经

    大爱道比丘尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Princess Aline

    Princess Aline

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 辇下岁时记

    辇下岁时记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 八识规矩颂解

    八识规矩颂解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 积聚门

    积聚门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 异世界的美好生活

    异世界的美好生活

    被世上唯一神所关爱的不平凡高中生,只因为某为神的恶趣味不幸来到异世。
  • 封神双龙1

    封神双龙1

    商纣末年,妖魔乱政,两名身份卑贱的少年奴隶,于一次偶然的机会被卷进神魔争霸的洪流中,一个性格沉稳、温文尔雅,有着超凡的感悟力;另一个古灵精怪、活泼机智,满身的市井顽童气息,却聪明绝顶。
  • 浪迹江湖那些年

    浪迹江湖那些年

    一个少年,一柄剑鞘,一段江湖事。江湖里有很多鱼,大鱼和小鱼。湖里有一条癞头鱼,自命长生不老,寿与天齐。湖里有一条美人鱼,身上带刺,要做那天下第一。湖里有一条帝王鱼,剑指苍穹,誓要呼风唤雨。湖里还有一条锦鲤鱼,跃了龙门,书那旷世传奇!
  • 王俊凯滴婚后故事

    王俊凯滴婚后故事

    为了好写就选了单人的写,这次女主身份不一样!!!了!
  • 我是天空里的一片云

    我是天空里的一片云

    徐志摩,以“情诗”闻名于世,本书通过生动细腻的笔调讲述一代才子徐志摩的传奇人生。张幼仪、林徽因、陆小曼,诗人生命中不可错过的三个女人,他与她们之间又经历了怎样的感情纠葛……《我是天空里的一片云》带你亲临“情圣”徐志摩的世界,解析大诗人不为人知的婚姻内幕。
  • 孽妃

    孽妃

    强势的攻占,妩媚的承欢,却换来意外的咆哮:“那个男人是谁?夺了你身子的男人,是谁?”压下心底的怒与恨,浅笑吟咛,吐气如兰:“皇上在乎的,是这个吗?臣妾并未放在心上呢!”后宫初见,尉蓝惊醒于她的阴狠:“何时,你竟然视人命如草芥,连未曾面世的婴孩也不放过?”抬头浅笑,还是那抹纯真:“怎么?哥哥心疼了吗?可知同样的一条生命,也曾因为哥哥而葬生娘胎。哥,可曾心痛如斯?”
  • 死的怀念

    死的怀念

    《死的怀念》最初是我在个人博客里的一篇短篇小说《黑梦》,但周围的朋友以及同学都被主角的命运所吸引住了,而且由于文风很华丽,还有开篇的诗很有格调。在女朋友的鼓励下,构思了几乎半年后决定完整的写出来——主角——夜泽,这个少年对于自己所背负的命运与无奈,孤独和泪水,希望与荣耀,梦想的破灭和挣扎,到最后坚信自己的信仰,追求光明,爱,正义和希望的故事。书里的序诗,丰富细腻的内心活动,华丽热血的战斗,气势恢宏的场面都有,前面3章对人物构成进行了大量铺垫,主要想平滑过渡情节,希望大家耐心看下去,之后节奏变快,夜泽的一生也从此改变,他要找到自己的道路......
  • 我的世界从此多了一个你

    我的世界从此多了一个你

    沈乔有三个愿望,一考上A大,二扑倒顾君岑,三给顾君岑生猴子。如果实现第一个愿望需要靠运气,那么实现第二、三个愿望绝对要脸皮厚,所以男神男神,你就不能自己跳到我的碗里来吗?●v●
  • 岁月变我不曾变

    岁月变我不曾变

    这个盛夏,是否有人拭去你眼角的泪水。还是有人和我一样,只能止步不前。不去看你。梦醒之后,是否有人告诉你孤单的午夜。还是有人和我一样,只能单独停留。不去回忆。天空的张扬,诉说着蔚蓝的神秘。我看到轻划过天际的鸟。释然的笑意。像是一辈子都难以忘记的永恒。阳光的斑驳,轻语着盛夏的怒放。我见过凋零后寂寥的花,优雅的飞舞。像是一辈子都寻觅不到的情愫。
  • 赌石

    赌石

    地质专家孟瑭的父亲乃赌石名人,花千万巨款赌得一件翡翠原石,破壳之后,色彩均匀透明,质地细腻,加工出售,获利数倍。然而奇事却发生了,一段时间后,售出的翡翠首饰纷纷失去了原有的华彩和质地,变得灰暗浑浊,各种退货和索赔纷至沓来,孟家面临灭顶之灾。孟瑭作为孟家最有赌石天赋的传人,兼深厚的地质科学经验,为解家困,毅然踏上赌石之路。……