t Lord de Versely on the spot which could
not fail to call to his mind my mother, then young, fond, and confiding;
how much she had sacrificed for him; how true she had proved to his
interests, and how sacred the debt of obligation, which he could only
repay by his conduct towards me.

On my return to Portsmouth, I found that orders had come down for the
paying off the Diligente, and re-commissioning her immediately. As the
men would now be free (until again caught by the impress, which would
not be long), I turned up the ship's company, and asked how many of them
would enter for the Circe. I pointed out to them that they would be
impressed for other vessels before long, but that I could give them each
three months of absence, upon which they would not be molested, and that
by three months all their money would be gone, and if it were gone
before that time, the guard-ship would receive them when they had had
enough of the shore. By this method I proposed to myself to obtain the
foundation of a good ship's company. I was not disappointed. Every man
I wished to take with me volunteered, and I wrote leave of absence
tickets for three months for them all as belonging to the Circe,
reporting what I had done to the Admiralty. The brig was then paid off,
and the next day re-commissioned by a Captain Rose, with whom I had some
slight acquaintance.

As I was now my own master again,--for although appointed to the Circe,
I had nothing but my pennant to look at,--I thought that, by way of a
little change, I would pass a few days at the Isle of Wight; for this
was the yachting season, and I had made the acquaintance of many of the
gentlemen who belonged to the club. That I had no difficulty in getting
into society may easily be imagined. A post-captain's commission in his
Majesty's navy is a certain passport with all liberal and really
aristocratical people; and, as it is well known that a person who has
not had the advantage of interest and family connections to advance in
the service, must have gained his promotion by his own merits, his rank
is sufficient to establish his claims to family connections or personal
merit, either of which is almost universally acknowledged; I say almost
universally, because, strange to say, for a succession of reigns, the
navy never has been popular at court. In that region, where merit of
any kind is seldom permitted to intrude, the navy have generally been at
a discount. Each succession