We have said, that Mrs. Beresford died in early morning: at the set of the second day's sun, ere yet his "golden path of rays" had yielded to the haze of twilight, the body was borne on deck: it was carefully wrapped in a hammock, and charged with shot-and ere the mortal part of the young mother was committed to the deep, the unconscious infant, over the cold clay, was baptized by the name of Sydney. Captain Leslie himself stood sponsor; and warm from his own brave heart, did he breathe the vow, which after time confirmed. Not an eye was dry, when the deep emphatic voice of the purser read the funeral service; not a heart, which did not keenly feel, the dull and heavy plash, when the body, lowered from the gangway, met the water. For a little moment, the wave gurgled, and rippled, and then it closed over, and mingled, and all was as smooth and unruffled as before! Leslie was no moralizer, yet he could. but but liken it to Time, o'erwhelming Time, engulphing the hopes, the promises, the being of man, sweeping generations from the earth, and leaving not even the relic of an empty name. We will not pause to sketch the character of captain Leslie: in every sense of the word he was a British sailor; brave, ardent, philanthropic; his deeds may speak the rest. Zealous in the cause of the orphan thus ushered into life, thus bereaved of the parent tie, he not only questioned Domingo, but he put to paper all he could collect from the different members of the regiment who had known captain Beresford and his unfortunate lady. Their meeting after the siege of Landrecy-their marriage-the fall of captain Beresford on the fatal tenth of January-the flight and destitution of the ill-fated widow-her removal from the sinking wreck to the Rover-her premature delivery-her death. Feelingly he spoke of the baptizing of the orphan by his father's name of Sydney; and he closed with with a just panegyric on the tried faith and services of the negro Domingo; and warmly recommending him to the especial care of the family, subscribed himself, the warm friend and willing guardian of his voluntarily espoused charge. On the very first arrival of the Rover in an English port - although business of importance called him to the Admiralty-he no sooner reached London, than he dispatched all these documents to, the town in which the family of the late captain Beresford resided. Alas! how erroneous was his estimate of worldly men! how little did he guess the dearth of feeling! had the tie of charity been as vapid and as cold as the tie of consanguinity, forlorn indeed had been the prospects of the orphan. Captain Leslie judged by his own heart the hearts of others :-what then was his disappointment and his indignation, when, in the due course of time, he received by post the following letter; 66 SIR, "The content of your letter has That you filled me with amazement. should credit the marvellous story, so conveyed, is not altogether surprising; for with due deference to the anchor, credulity is a part of the profession: but that I should be suspected of becoming the like dupe to such a tissue of improbabilities and fiction, is an insult to my understanding, as a man of business. All who live in the world know that a redcoat is a sure passport to the favour of women. My late brother, who fell in Brabant, gloriously fighting the battles of his country, was, as his companions of the sword, an idolator at the shrine of beauty; consequently it needeth more than the deposition of a poor ignorant negro, to identify, in any court in England, this posthumous boy as his legal heir. My late brother may have been the father of twenty children for ought I know to the contrary; but they must appear in a less questionable questionable form, ere I can subscribe to the honour of relationship. With profound reverence for your benevolence and philanthropy, I am, 66 SIR, "Your obedient humble servant, "Damn him!" emphatically pronounced Leslie, as he reclosed this unfeeling and unqualifying letter; "damn him, for a cold-blooded, white-livered land-lubber! Well, well," after a pause of deep thought, 66 a score of such uncles are not worth the owning. He will do without him. Poor boy! poor boy! so cast off; so rejected. I will find beef and pudding to make him strong; and should the mounseers still want drubbing, we will find him a sword, and king George, God bless him! will find him a commission. Ay, ay, let this Jonathan Beresford cram the dirty acres down his own shark's maw, and digest them |