* * * * * I will not write down what Katherine said when, loverlike, he insisted upon going over all his iniquities again, to be forgiven in detail. For all her life was a forgiveness. And how wisely the wench did, for with whom could she have known such proud happiness as with Will? He has had eyes for no other woman since--not even for their lovely daughter, who is by just a look of her father the more regal of the two women. And she--she has had the greatest pride that life can give a woman: the double knowledge that she does not fear the proud, grim, masterful man whom one can hardly meet without being daunted, she who has to face him in all his moods, and to stand between him and his wrath; and that though they have been married these twenty years, her favour is of such moment to him that he will pause in his anger to win a gracious look. I could fill another book with the stories of the neighbours about the noble fashion in which Katherine comforted herself during Will's long absences at sea for years after this; of the gaiety of heart and graciousness which she maintained with a spotless reputation. It was in those years, through ten of their dozen, that she was in London, one of the rulers of society, and the most courted of women, keeping house with Will's mother for her father. But when her father died she went down to Eastry to mourn him, nor ever came to London again without her husband. In the year 1817 his own dear mother, who in the midst of her daughter-in-law's triumphs had remained as simple and quietly beautiful as a Kentish primrose, died in Will's arms, a week or so after he had homed from one his cruises; and Will, having compassion on Katherine's widowed state, and having himself made a goodly fortune out of prize money, in addition to the great fortune they had of her father, retired to their mansion-house of Eastry, where we were sitting that morning when we were brought that wonderful Journal of the Admiral. CHAPTER XXVII.--Of the Death of Donna Rusidda, the Resurrection of Caracciolo, and the Happy Ending. The 12th of July, 1799, is a day I can never forget, for on it happened two events, one shocking and one surprising, to the last degree.