Chapter 30

"Sir, it is
A charge too heavy for my strength; but yet
We'll strive to bear it for your worthy sake,
To the extreme edge of hazard."

All's Well That End's Well.

The vessel, which appeared so inopportunely for the safety of the
ill-manned British cruiser, was, in truth, a ship that had roved from
among the islands of the Caribean sea, in quest of some such adventure as
that which now presented itself. She was called la belle Fontange, and her
commander, a youth of two-and-twenty, was already well known in the salons
of the Marais, and behind the walls of the Rue Basse des Remparts, as one
of the most gay and amiable of those who frequented the former, and one of
the most spirited and skilful among the adventurers who sometimes trusted
to their address in the latter. Rank, and influence at Versailles, had
procured for the young Chevalier Dumont de la Rocheforte a command to
which he could lay no claim either by his experience or his services. His
mother, a near relative of one of the beauties of the court, had been
commanded to use sea-bathing, as a preventive against the consequences of
the bite of a rabid lap-dog. By way of a suitable episode to the long
descriptions she was in the daily habit of writing to those whose
knowledge of her new element was limited to the constant view of a few
ponds and ditches teeming with carp, or an occasional glimpse of some of
the turbid reaches of the Seine, she had vowed to devote her youngest
child to Neptune! In due time, that is to say, while the poetic sentiment
was at the access, the young chevalier was duly enrolled and, in a time
that greatly anticipated all regular and judicious preferment, he was
placed in command of the corvette in question, and sent to the Indies to
gain glory for himself and his country.

The Chevalier Dumont de la Rocheforte was brave, but his courage was not
the calm and silent self-possession of a seaman. Like himself, it was
lively, buoyant, thoughtless, bustling, and full of animal feeling. He had
all the pride of a gentleman, and, unfortunately for the duty which he had
now for the first time to perform, one of its dictates caught him to
despise that species of mechanical knowledge which it was, just at this
moment, so important to the commander of la Fontange to possess. He could
dance to admiration, did the honors of his cabin with faultless elegance,
and had caused the death of an excellent mariner, who had accidentally
fallen overboard, by jumping into the sea to aid him, without knowing how
to swim a stroke himself,--a rashness that had diverted those exertions
which might have saved the unfortunate sailor, from the assistance of the
subordinate to the safety of his superior. He wrote sonnets prettily, and