Lady of Lynn

Walter Besant

Description

Settle in for a wild ride in this gripping turn-of-the-twentieth-century tale from British historian and author Walter Besant. Among a group of well-born acquaintances, a nefarious plot takes hold that threatens to indelibly besmirch the reputation of the eponymous Lady of Lynn. Will she be able to wriggle free from the talons of her tormentors before it's too late?

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776532698
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE LADY OF LYNN
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WALTER BESANT
 
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The Lady of Lynn First published in 1900 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-269-8 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-270-4 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Prologue - Promotion and a Basting Chapter I - My Lord's Levee Chapter II - The Lady Anastasia Chapter III - The "Society" of Lynn Chapter IV - The Grand Discovery Chapter V - The Port of Lynn Chapter VI - The Maid of Lynn Chapter VII - The Poet Chapter VIII - The Opening of the Spa Chapter IX - Sent to the Spa Chapter X - "Of the Nicest Honour" Chapter XI - The Humours of the Spa Chapter XII - The Captain's Ambition Chapter XIII - Molly's First Minuet Chapter XIV - Molly's Country Dance Chapter XV - The Card Room Chapter XVI - His Lordship's Intentions Chapter XVII - "In the Lisbon Trade" Chapter XVIII - The Witch Chapter XIX - A True Friend Chapter XX - Five O'Clock in the Morning Chapter XXI - Molly's Second Appearance Chapter XXII - The Abduction Chapter XXIII - Which Way to Follow? Chapter XXIV - The Punishment Chapter XXV - A Grateful Mind Chapter XXVI - The Last Step but One Chapter XXVII - The Expected Blow Chapter XXVIII - Warning Chapter XXIX - The Ardent Lover Chapter XXX - The Secret Chapter XXXI - The "Society" Again Chapter XXXII - A Respite Chapter XXXIII - A Wedding Chapter XXXIV - A New Compact Chapter XXXV - What Does it Mean? Chapter XXXVI - A Day of Fate Chapter XXXVII - The Bubble and the Sky Rocket Chapter XXXVIII - The Opinion of Counsel Chapter XXXIX - The Fruits of Submission Chapter XL - On My Return Chapter XLI - The First and the Second Confederate Chapter XLII - The Third and the Fourth Confederate Chapter XLIII - The Fifth and Last Confederate
Prologue - Promotion and a Basting
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The happiest day of my life, up to that time, because I should be thebasest and the most ungrateful of men were I not to confess that Ihave since enjoyed many days far excelling in happiness that day, wasthe 20th day of June, in the year of grace, seventeen hundred andforty-seven.
For on that day, being my nineteenth birthday, I was promoted, thoughso young, to be mate, or chief officer, on board my ship, The Lady ofLynn , Captain Jaggard, then engaged in the Lisbon trade.
In the forenoon of that day I was on board and on duty. We were takingin our cargo. Barges and lighters were alongside and all the crew withthe barges were hoisting and heaving and lowering and stowing with agrand yohoing and chanting, such as is common, with oaths innumerable,in the lading and the unlading of a ship. It was my duty to see thecasks and crates hoisted aboard and lowered into the hold. Thesupercargo and the clerk from the counting-house sat at a table ondeck and entered in their books every cask, box, chest, or bale. Wetook aboard and carried away for the use of the Portugals or any whomit might concern, turpentine, tar, resin, wool, pig iron and othercommodities brought by our ships from the Baltic or carried in bargesdown the river to the port of Lynn. These were the things which wetook out—what we brought home was wine; nothing but wine; barrels,tuns, pipes, hogsheads, casks of all kinds, containing wine. Therewould be in our hold wine of Malmsey, Madeira, Teneriffe, Canary,Alicante, Xeres, Oporto, Bucellas and Lisbon; all the wines of Spainand Portugal; the sweet strong wines to which our people are mostinclined, especially our people of Norfolk, Marshland, Fenland,Lincoln and the parts around. Thanks to the port of Lynn and to theships of Lynn engaged in the Lisbon trade, there is no place inEngland where this sweet strong wine can be procured better or at amore reasonable rate. This wine is truly beloved of all classes: it isthe joy of the foxhunter after the day's run: of the justices afterthe ordinary on market day: of the fellows in their dull old collegesat Cambridge: of the dean and chapter in the sleepy cathedral close:of the country clergy and the country gentry—yea, and of the ladieswhen they visit each other. I say nothing in dispraise of Rhenish andof Bordeaux, but give me the wine that comes home in the bottoms thatsail to and from Lisbon. All wine is good but that is best which warmsthe heart and strengthens the body and renews the courage—the wine ofSpain and Portugal.
The Lady of Lynn was a three-masted, full rigged ship of 380 tons, astout and strong built craft, not afraid of the bay at its worst andwildest, making her six knots an hour with a favourable breeze,therefore not one of your broad slow Dutch merchantmen which creepslowly, like Noah's Ark, over the face of the waters. Yet she was fullin the beam and capacious in the hold: the more you put into her, thesteadier she sat and the steadier she sailed. Man and boy I sailed in The Lady of Lynn for twenty-five years and I ought to know. We made,for the most part, two, but sometimes three voyages in the year,unless we experienced bad weather and had to go into dock. Bad weatherthere is in plenty: storms and chopping winds in the bay: beating upthe channel against east winds: things are always uncertain in theNorth Sea; sometimes the ship will be tacking day after day, getting aknot or two in four and twenty hours: and sometimes she will be two orthree weeks crossing the Wash, which, as everybody knows, is cumberedwith shallows, and making way up the Ouse when a wind from the southor southeast will keep a ship from reaching her port for daystogether. To be sure, a sailor pays very little heed to the loss of afew days: it matters little to him whether he is working on board orin port: he is a patient creature, who waits all his life upon afavourable breeze. And since he has no power over the wind and thesea, he accepts whatever comes without murmuring, and makes the bestof it. Perhaps the wind blows up into a gale and the gale into astorm: perhaps the good ship founders with all hands: nobody pitiesthe sailor: it is all in the day's work: young or old every one mustdie: the wife at home knows that, as well as the man at sea. She knewit when she married her husband. I have read of Turks and paganMohammedans that they have no fear or care about the future, believingthat they cannot change what is predestined. It seems to me a foolishdoctrine, because if we want anything we must work for it, or we shallnot get it, fate or no fate. But the nearest to the Turk in thisrespect is our English sailor, who will work his hardest in the worstgale that ever blew, and face death without a pang, or a prayer, or atouch of fear, because he trusted his life to the sea and the wind,and he has no power to control the mounting waves or the roaringtempest. It is as if one should say "I make a bargain with the ocean,and with all seas that threaten and every wind that blows." I say tothem, "Suffer me to make my living on a ship that your winds blowacross your seas, and in return I will give you myself and the shipand the cargo—all your own—to take, if you please and whenever youplease." It is a covenant between them. Sometimes the sailor gets thebest of it and spends his old age on dry land, safe after manyvoyages: sometimes he gets the worst of it, and is taken, ship andall, when he is quite young. He cannot complain. He has made thebargain and must hold to it. But if one could sweep the bed of theocean and recover among the tangled seaweed and the long sea serpentsand monsters the treasures that lie scattered about, how rich theworld would be! Perhaps (but this is idle talk) the sea might some daysay, "I am gorged with the things that mankind call riches. My flooris strewn thick with ribs of ships and skeletons of men; with chestsof treasure, bales and casks and cargoes. I have enough. Henceforththere shall be no more storms and the ships shall pass to and fro overa deep of untroubled blue with a surface like unto a polished mirror!"Idle talk! And who would be a sailor then? We should hand the shipsover to the women and apprentice our girls to the trade of settingsails of silk with ropes of ribbons.
I will tell you presently how I was so fortunate as to be apprenticedto so fine a craft as The Lady of Lynn . Just now it is enough to setdown that she was the finest vessel in the little fleet of shipsbelonging to my young mistress, Molly Miller, ward of Captain Crowle.There were eight ships, all her own: The Lady of Lynn , the ship inwhich I served my apprenticeship; the Jolly Miller , named after herfather; the Lovely Molly , after herself; the Joseph and Jennifer ,after her parents; the Pride of Lynn , the Beauty of Lynn , the Glory of Lynn , and the Honour of Lynn , all of which you may take,if you like, as named after their owner. Molly owned them all.
I have to tell you, in this place, why one day in especial must everbe remembered by me as the most surprising and the happiest that I hadever known.
I was, therefore, on the quarter-deck on duty when the boy came up thecompanion saying that the captain wanted to speak to me. So Ifollowed, little thinking of what they had to say, expecting no morethan some question about log or cargo, such as the skipper is alwaysputting to his officers.
In the captain's cabin, however, I found sitting at the table not onlyCaptain Jaggard himself, but my old friend and patron, Captain Crowle.His jolly face was full of satisfaction and good humour, so that itgave one pleasure only to look at him. But he sat upright and assumedthe air of dignity which spoke of the quarter-dec