sailor rang in the arches of the Abbey Church, causing all within
hearing to start, as if a voice spoke from the tombs. Sir Gervaise,
himself, seemed surprised; he looked up at the vaulted roof, with a gaze
half-bewildered, half-delighted.

"Is this Bowldero, or Glamorgan House, my Lord Duke," he asked, in a
whisper.

"It is neither, Admiral Oakes, but Westminster Abbey; and this is the
tomb of your friend, rear-admiral Richard Bluewater."

"Galleygo, help me to kneel," the old man added in the manner of a
corrected school-boy. "The stoutest of us all, should kneel to God, in
his own temple. I beg pardon, gentlemen; I wish to pray."

The Duke of Glamorgan and Sir Wycherly Wychecombe helped the admiral to
his knees, and Galleygo, as was his practice, knelt beside his master,
who bowed his head on his man's shoulders. This touching spectacle
brought all the others into the same humble attitude. Wycherly, Mildred,
and their children, with the noble, kneeling and praying in company. One
by one, the latter arose; still Galleygo and his master continued on the
pavement. At length Geoffrey Cleveland stepped forward, and raised the
old man, placing him, with Wycherly's assistance, in the chair. Here he
sat, with a calm smile on his aged features, his open eyes riveted
seemingly on the name of his friend, perfectly dead. There had been a
reaction, which suddenly stopped the current of life, at the heart.

Thus expired Sir Gervaise Oakes, full of years and of honours; one of
the bravest and most successful of England's sea-captains. He had lived
his time, and supplied an instance of the insufficiency of worldly
success to complete the destiny of man; having, in a degree, survived
his faculties, and the consciousness of all he had done, and all he
merited. As a small offset to this failing of nature, he had regained a
glimmering view of one of the most striking scenes, and of much the most
enduring sentiment, of a long life, which God, in mercy, permitted to be
terminated in the act of humble submission to his own greatness and
glory.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Two Admirals, by J. Fenimore Cooper

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