ng before given you up. Don Filippo said
that he was a captain now, and that his regiment, the 15th Cavalry, was
stationed at Seville, and that he hoped, when I had news again of you, I
would write to him there."

"I shall go out myself, father, in the course of a month or two, to pay
him a visit. He and his wife saved my life at the risk of disgrace and
punishment to themselves, and I promised them that if I should get safely
home I would go over to see them, and I will certainly do so."

"Quite right, Stephen. The sin of ingratitude is one of the meanest and
basest that a man can commit, and I will spare you willingly on such an
errand."

Captain Conchas and his wife were indeed delighted to see Stephen, and he
spent a very pleasant fortnight with them. On the occasion of his first
visit to London he made inquiries of Mr. Hewson, and found that Wilcox,
the sailor who had been with him when they so nearly fell into the hands
of the natives, was still in his service; and when, some time afterwards,
the ship in which he was in returned to port, he had Wilcox down to
Ramsgate, and installed him in the place of gardener and general factotum
there. When Lord Cochrane returned to England Stephen went at once down to
Portsmouth.

"I should have done better if I had come back with you, Embleton. I should
have spared myself nearly two years of trial, humiliation, and disgust,
and should have been a good many thousand pounds in pocket. What are you
doing with yourself?"

"I am doing nothing at present, sir. These two long absences of mine, and
the belief that I was dead, knocked my father down completely. He
recovered a bit, but gradually went back again, and I fear that he has not
long to live. However, my presence with him is a great satisfaction to
him, and for the present I cannot think of leaving him."

"Quite right, lad. A man's first duty is to his father, especially when
his father has been a kind one, and you are quite right in sticking to him
until the end."

For this reason Lord Cochrane abstained from urging Stephen to accompany
him, when, shortly afterwards, he was offered the command of the naval
forces of Greece, which was at the time engaged in its struggle for
independence. Stephen was the more pleased at his decision to stay at home
with his father, that intrigues and want of means caused some eighteen
months to pass before Lord Cochrane proceeded to take up his command. Even
his experience of Chili, Pe