, he called his faithful
friend and old follower in many ships and many actions, Lieutenant,
afterwards Captain Walcott to his bedside, and said to him,--

"It will be very hard, Walcott, to die in this cursed place; but
should I go off, let nothing deter you from going home and accounting
to the Admiralty for my command of the East India station."

These were nearly the last intelligible words he uttered; and they
serve to show how strong, even in the hour of death, was his sense of
professional duty. As Lieutenant Walcott had served during the whole
of Sir Samuel's India command in the double capacity of
flag-lieutenant and secretary, and had enjoyed the Admiral's entire
confidence, he, and he alone, possessed the means of "accounting to
the Admiralty" for the measures completed, or in progress, for the
good of the service, and therefore the Admiral suggested to him the
propriety of his going home to report matters in person.

The senior officer, who succeeded to the command in the Indian seas,
felt so desirous of following up the friendly intentions of his
lamented predecessor, that knowing the late Admiral's attachment to
Lieutenant Walcott, he offered to promote him into a death vacancy,
which had either actually taken place, or was certain to fall within a
week or two. Moreover, he assured him, that after the necessary time
had been served, he should have the first vacancy for post promotion.
These were indeed tempting offers to a young officer, devotedly
attached to his profession; but they had no influence over a man bred
in the "Sam Hood School." The Admiral's dying injunction appeared to
this right-minded officer fully as binding, or, if possible, more so,
than a written command must have been in his lifetime.

To England Walcott went accordingly; and the difference in
professional standing which it made to him was this:--had he remained
in India, as Sir Samuel Hood's successor proposed, he would
undoubtedly have become a post-captain of 1816, instead of which, his
name stood in 1822, six years later on the list! Had it been sixty
times six, however, it would have made no difference in his conduct.

When the army returned from Spain, after the battle of Corunna, in
1809, there were between twenty and thirty officers accommodated in
Sir Samuel's cabin. Among them was a young officer, a connection of
Lady Hood's, whose father and mother called to thank him, conceiving
that he had been indebted by this conne