was not a little
offensive."

The _Conqueror_ carried the flag of Vice-Admiral Plampin, commanding at
the Cape and St. Helena; and at that all-important islet, in July 1817
she relieved the flag-ship of Sir Pulteney Malcolm. Thus it befell that
Charles Jenkin, coming too late for the epic of the French wars, played
a small part in the dreary and disgraceful afterpiece of St. Helena.
Life on the guard-ship was onerous and irksome. The anchor was never
lifted, sail never made, the great guns were silent; none was allowed on
shore except on duty; all day the movements of the imperial captive were
signalled to and fro; all night the boats rowed guard around the
accessible portions of the coast. This prolonged stagnation and petty
watchfulness in what Napoleon himself called that "unchristian" climate,
told cruelly on the health of the ship's company. In eighteen months,
according to O'Meara, the _Conqueror_ had lost one hundred and ten men
and invalided home one hundred and seven, "being more than a third of
her complement." It does not seem that our young midshipman so much as
once set eyes on Bonaparte; and yet in other ways Jenkin was more
fortunate than some of his comrades. He drew in water-colour; not so
badly as his father, yet ill enough; and this art was so rare aboard the
_Conqueror_ that even his humble proficiency marked him out and procured
him some alleviations. Admiral Plampin had succeeded Napoleon at the
Briars; and here he had young Jenkin staying with him to make sketches
of the historic house. One of these is before me as I write, and gives a
strange notion of the arts in our old English navy. Yet it was again as
an artist that the lad was taken for a run to Rio, and apparently for a
second outing in a ten-gun brig. These, and a cruise of six weeks to
windward of the island undertaken by the _Conqueror_ herself in quest of
health, were the only breaks in three years of murderous inaction; and
at the end of that period Jenkin was invalided home, having "lost his
health entirely."

As he left the deck of the guard-ship the historic part of his career
came to an end. For forty-two years he continued to serve his country
obscurely on the seas, sometimes thanked for inconspicuous and
honourable services, but denied any opportunity of serious distinction.
He was first two years in the _Larne_, Captain Tait, hunting pirates and
keeping a watch on the Turkish and Greek squadrons in the Archipelago.
Captain Ta