that the captain had been as good as his word, and had
gratified Bob's earnest wish to serve under him. The ship, with Admiral
Lord Nelson on board, and accompanied by the frigate Euryalus, was to
sail in two days for Plymouth, where they would be joined by others, and
thence proceed to the coast of Spain.

Anne lay awake that night thinking of the Victory, and of those who
floated in her. To the best of Anne's calculation that ship of war
would, during the next twenty-four hours, pass within a few miles of
where she herself then lay. Next to seeing Bob, the thing that would
give her more pleasure than any other in the world was to see the vessel
that contained him--his floating city, his sole dependence in battle and
storm--upon whose safety from winds and enemies hung all her hope.

The morrow was market-day at the seaport, and in this she saw her
opportunity. A carrier went from Overcombe at six o'clock thither, and
having to do a little shopping for herself she gave it as a reason for
her intended day's absence, and took a place in the van. When she
reached the town it was still early morning, but the borough was already
in the zenith of its daily bustle and show. The King was always out-of-
doors by six o'clock, and such cock-crow hours at Gloucester Lodge
produced an equally forward stir among the population. She alighted, and
passed down the esplanade, as fully thronged by persons of fashion at
this time of mist and level sunlight as a watering-place in the present
day is at four in the afternoon. Dashing bucks and beaux in cocked hats,
black feathers, ruffles, and frills, stared at her as she hurried along;
the beach was swarming with bathing women, wearing waistbands that bore
the national refrain, 'God save the King,' in gilt letters; the shops
were all open, and Sergeant Stanner, with his sword-stuck bank-notes and
heroic gaze, was beating up at two guineas and a crown, the crown to
drink his Majesty's health.

She soon finished her shopping, and then, crossing over into the old
town, pursued her way along the coast-road to Portland. At the end of an
hour she had been rowed across the Fleet (which then lacked the
convenience of a bridge), and reached the base of Portland Hill. The
steep incline before her was dotted with houses, showing the pleasant
peculiarity of one man's doorstep being behind his neighbour's chimney,
and slabs of stone as the common material for walls, roof, floor, pig-
sty, s