This was
not the way to ensure her speedy equipment, as far as I was concerned;
but there was no help for it; and as the ship was at Woolwich, and the
residence of my fair one at no great distance, I endeavoured to pass
my time, during the interval, between the duties of love and war;
between obedience to my captain, and obedience to my mistress; and by
great good fortune, I contrived to please both, for my captain gave
himself no trouble about the ship or her equipment.
Before I proceeded to join, I made one more effort to break through
the inflexibility of my father. I said I had undergone the labours of
Hercules; and that if I went again on foreign service, I might meet
with some young lady who would send me out of the world with a cup of
poison, or by some fatal spell break the magical chain which now bound
me to Emily. This poetical imagery had no more effect on them, than my
prose composition. I then appealed to Emily herself. "Surely," said I,
"your heart is not as hard as those of our inflexible parents? surely
you will be my advocate on this occasion? Bend but one look of
disapprobation on my father with those heavenly blue eyes of yours,
and, on my life, he will strike his flag."
But the gipsy replied, with a smile (instigated, no doubt, from
head-quarters), that she did not like the idea of her name appearing
in the _Morning Post_ as the bride of a lieutenant. "What's a
lieutenant, now-a-days?" said she; "nobody.
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