The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01


 Sir Geryaise colored to the temples, Then both laughed.
 Well, my orders stand, Dick" said Sir Gervaise. You will hold on till the last with your ships"
 Ordering the captains to assemble in his cabin on the Plantagenet flagship, the vice admiral said:
 we have the tide strong at ebb, and a good six-knot breeze is coming up at southwest I shall weigh. with my Tards square and keep them so until the ship has drawn well out of the fleet and then l shall Huff up on a taut bowline and on } the starhoard tack, bringing the ebb tide well under my lee bow. This will bring us quite as far to windward as is desira- ble. The vessels must keep their sec i olds ahead and astern, in plain sight, ] and toward sunset the line will shorten l up to within a league from vessel to ves- i sel. I have told Bluewater to use his discretion about coming out with the last ships, though I have requested him to hold on as long as possible in the hope of receiving an express from the admiral l ty. Let the man who first sees the ene- i my make himself heard at once, and mark me, no cruising to windward as if you sailed with rowing commissions. You l know I'll not stand that
 While the boats of the different cap tains were still showing off, the yards of the Plantagenet began to ascend steadily and the sails filled out. With stately and measured motion the great vessel drew out of the fleet and glided to sea. l In an hour her hull dipped below the horizon Instantly the Carnatic ripped her anchor, opened her canvas, shot out of the feet hauled by the wind and fol- lowed in the admirals wake. Ship and ship followed till all of Oakes's division had thus left.
 Bluewater, watching their departure from the headland, was fighting out bt- ter battle with himself. such one only a noble nature ever needs to fight. After the vice admiraps departure there had | come to him an emissary of the Jacobites, who, without openly suggesting disloyalty, told him that De Vervillin was carrying Scotch troops to the north to aid the i prince. This was false, but Bluewater had no reason to doubt 1t, as it seemed likely thing for the French to do. All 1 his generous nature was aroused in the 1 cause of the young prince, whom he, in his frank, sincere and trusting mind, painted with all the nobility with which loyalists have always cloaked- their hero princes. He felt that 1t would be merely necessary for him to hold his division l back to render an engagement morally improbable It never came to his honest heart for an instant to abandon his i friend to superior force; but his mind had glimpses of the possibility of doing the adverturer in Scotland a great good without doing Sir Gervaise and the fleet any harm The thought did not come to him in any way as disloyalty to Eng 1 land, for in his mind the Pretender was England
 l So when Bluewater saw his ships be- | gin to leave he saw them go for the first 1 time in his career with something else 1 in his heart than the single wish to meet the enemy and flint him.. He repaired on board his flagship, the Caesar, with a l mind in harmony with the weather that ] had set in with the approach of night. ! The sea was rising. fast and the wind i had begun to moan through the immense and complicated rigging. When sail was made on the great ship she heeled over to | it and rose and fell on the troubled wa- ters By the time she entered the channel | the winds voice had grown to roar and the sea was a sheet of glancing foam. Bluewater sent men aloft as soon as he cleared the land, but though they were the sharpest-eyed in the fleet, they could | see no sign of the vice admirars ships.
 He ordered the course set we'll to east ward and sailed in search, still struggling 1 with himself and unable to come to a de- | cision as to what would be the right l thing for him to do in the critical situa- ton in which he found himself.