Tales and Novels — Volume 05: Tales of a Fashionable LifeEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 05: Tales of a Fashionable Life
Edgeworth, Maria
Fiction
He called them all one morning together on deck; and pointing to the
place where the gunpowder was kept, he said--‘I have means of blowing up
the ship. If ever you attempt to mutiny again, the first finger you lay
upon me, I blow her up instantly.’ They had found him to be a man of
resolution. They kept to their duty. Not a symptom of disobedience
during the rest of the voyage. In their passage they fell in with an
enemy’s ship, far superior to them in force. ‘There, my lads!’ said
Walsingham, ‘if you have a mind to earn your pardons, there’s your best
chance. Take her home with you to your captain and your king.’ A loud
cheer was their answer. They fought like devils to redeem themselves.
Walsingham--but without stopping to make his panegyric, I need only tell
you, that Walsingham’s conduct and intrepidity were this time crowned
with success. He took the enemy’s ship, and carried it in triumph into
Portsmouth. Jemmison was on the platform when they came in; and what a
mortifying sight it was to him, and what a proud hour to Walsingham, you
may imagine! Having delivered the Dreadnought and her prize over to his
captain, the next thing to be thought of was the trial of the mutineers.
All except Jefferies obtained a pardon, in consideration of their return
to duty, and their subsequent services. Jefferies was hanged at the
yard-arm. The trial of the mutineers brought on, as Jemmison foresaw it
must, many animadversions on his own conduct. Powerful connexions, and
his friends in place, silenced, as much as possible, the public voice.
Jemmison gave excellent dinners, and endeavoured to drown the whole
affair in his choice Champagne and _London particular Madeira_; so his
health, and success to the British navy, was drunk in bumper toasts.
“Ay, ay, they think to do every thing now in England by dinners, and
bumper toasts, and three times three,” said Mr. Palmer.
“But it did not do in this instance,” said Beaumont, in a tone of
exultation: “it did not do.”
“No,” continued Mr. Walsingham; “though Jemmison’s dinners went
down vastly well with a party, they did not satisfy the public. The
opposition papers grew clamorous, and the business was taken up so
strongly, and it raised such a cry against the ministry, that they were
obliged to bring Jemmison to a court-martial.”
“The puppy! I’m glad of it, with all my soul. And how did he look then?”
said Mr. Palmer.
“Vastly like a gentleman; that was all that even his friends could say
for him. The person he was most afraid of on the trial was Walsingham.
In this apprehension he was confirmed by certain of his friends, who
had attempted to sound Walsingham as to the nature of the evidence he
intended to give. They all reported, that they could draw nothing out
of him, and that he was an impracticable fellow; for his constant answer
was, that his evidence should be given in court, and nowhere else.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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