een sent
to cut out a frigate under the guns of a fortress than indite a despatch
to "my Lords of the Admiralty."

From the short sleep which followed all his abortive attempts at a
letter he was awakened by his servant telling him it was time to dress
and be off. Drearier moments there are not in life than those which
herald in a departure of a dark morning in winter, with the rain
swooping in vast sheets against the window-panes, and the cold blast
whistling through the leafless trees. Never do the candles seem to throw
so little light as these do now through the dreary room, all littered
and disordered by the preparations for the road. What fears and
misgivings beset one at such a moment! What reluctance to go, and what a
positive sense of fear one feels, as though the journey were a veritable
leap in the dark, and that the whole fortunes of a life were dependent
on that instant of resolution!

Poor Jack tried to battle with such thoughts as these by reminding
himself of his duty, and the calls of the service; he asked himself
again and again if it were out of such vacillating, wavering materials,
a sailor's heart should be fashioned? was this the stuff that made
Nelsons or Collingwoods? And though there was but little immediate
prospect of a career of distinction, his sense of duty taught him to
feel that the routine life of peace was a greater trial to a man's
patience than all the turmoil and bustle of active service.

"The more I cling to remain here," muttered he, as he descended the
stairs, "the more certain am I that it's pure weakness and folly."

"What's that you are muttering about weakness and folly, Jack?" said
Nelly, who had got up to see him off, and give him the last kiss before
he departed.

"How came it you are here, Nelly? Get back to your bed, girl, or you
'll catch a terrible cold."

"No, no, Jack; I 'm well shawled and muffled. I wanted to say good-bye
once more. Tell me what it was you were saying about weakness and
folly."

"I was assuring myself that my reluctance to go away was nothing less
than folly. I was trying to persuade myself that the best thing I could
do was to be off; but I won't say I have succeeded."

"But it is, Jack; rely on it, it is. You are doing the right thing; and
if I say so, it is with a heavy heart, for I shall be very lonely after
you."

Passing his arm round her waist, he walked with her up and down the
great spacious hall, their slow footsteps echoing in