'That's plainly impossible,' returned Wogan, and to this Lady Mary
perforce agreed. '_Olet_,' the Latin-learned lady said, and Wogan
remarked, 'Certainly,' so she put the money aside, thinking that some
day she might employ it on Mr. Kelly's behalf. That night Wogan
borrowed his travelling money from Mr. Carte, the historian, whom he
met at the Cocoa Tree, and so set out the next morning for Brittany.
CHAPTER XI
THE PARSON DEPARTS FROM SMILINDA AND LEARNS
A NUMBER OF UNPALATABLE TRUTHS
Mr. Wogan then returned to Morlaix, and, finding his ketch by this
time cleaned and refitted, and two others (the _Revolution_, a big
ship of 40 guns, under Morgan, which was afterwards seized by
Commodore Scot at Genoa, and the _Lady Mary_, a smaller vessel of 14
guns, commanded by Captain Patrick Campbell) at anchor in the harbour,
he set sail for the Downs. There they picked up four thousand small
arms and a couple of hundred kintals of cannon powder, for traffic, it
was alleged, on the coasts of Brazil and Madagascar. But the arms and
ammunition travelled no further than Bilboa, where they were stored in
the country house of Mr. Brown, an Irish merchant of that part,
against the next expedition to England. At Bilboa the three ships
parted, and Mr. Wogan, taking in upon freight such goods as he could
get, sailed to Genoa, and lay there behind the Mole.
Nor was the Parson to tarry long behind him in London; for less than a
fortnight after Wogan's departure, he was sent to carry to Rome, for
the Chevalier's approval, a scheme of a lottery for raising a quarter
of a million pounds, which Mr. Christopher Layer (later hanged) most
ingeniously imagined. With the scheme he carried some silk stockings
as a present for the Chevalier and his spouse. This was none of the
Bishop of Rochester's work, who knew nothing of Mr. Layer, and of what
was later plotted by bold and impatient spirits. The Parson had sad
work parting with Smilinda, but made light of the separation to save
the lady from distress, and she had happily broken a bank at pharo
that same night, which withheld her from entirely breaking her heart.
Still, it was as affecting an affair as one could wish for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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