boy,--not near
so much as to Toney or Wimple or Scroop, or big Wallis or little Wallis.
Ingham had painfully toiled through it all, and I did after him. But in
another volume, written years after, at a time when the young officer
wrote a much more rapid, though scarcely more legible hand, he found a
long account of an examination appointed to pass midshipmen, and, to our
great delight, as it began, this exclamation:--

"When the Amphion's boat came up, who should step up but old Den, whom I
had not seen since we were in the Rainbow. We were together all
day,--and it was very good to see him."

And afterwards, in the detail of the examination, he is spoken of as
"Duval." The passage is a little significant.

Young Heddart details all the questions put to him, as thus:--

"'Old Saumarez asked me which was the narrowest part of the Channel, and
I told him. Then he asked how Silly [_sic_] bore, if I had 75 fathom,
red sand and gravel. I said, 'About N.W.,' and the old man said, 'Well,
yes,--rather West of N.W., is not it so, Sir Richard?' And Sir Richard
did not know what they were talking about, and they pulled out
Mackenzie's Survey," etc., etc., etc.,--more than any man would delve
through at this day, unless he were searching for Paul Jones or Denis
Duval, or some other hero. "What is the mark for going into Spithead?"
"What is the mark for clearing Royal Sovereign Shoals?"--let us hope
they were all well answered. Evidently, in Mr. Heddart's mind, they were
more important than any other detail of that day, but fortunately for
posterity then comes this passage:--

"After me they called up Brooke, and Calthorp, and Clements,--and then
old Wingate, Tom Wingate's father, who had examined them, seemed to get
tired, and turned to Pierson, and said, 'Sir Richard, you ought to take
your turn." And so Sir Richard began, and, as if by accident, called up
Den.

"'Mr. Duval,' said he, 'how do you find the variation of the compass by
the amplitudes or azimuths?'

"Of course any fool knew that. And of course he could not ask all such
questions. So, when he came on _practice_, he said,--

"'Mr. Duval, what is the mark for Stephenson's Shoal?'

"Oh, dear! what fun it was to hear Den answer,--Lyd Church and the ruins
of Lynn Monastery must come in one. The Shoal was about three miles from
Dungeness, and bore S.W. or somewhere from it. The Soundings were red
sand--or white sand or something,--very glib. Then--

"'How would