The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN - Thorndike Russell - Страница 53

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However, when, after some half-hour the striking-looking parson was brought to the Presence Chamber door by the

Prince himself, they felt it incumbent upon them to pay court to him before he left the anteroom, and they eyed with

a good deal of curiosity the sealed letter which the parson held, addressed to Admiral Troubridge, Admiralty House,

Whitehall, in the Prince’s own handwriting.

But Doctor Syn, though exceedingly polite and respectful to his superiors, was as tight as an oyster for

communication as Captain Blain.

To be quite candid neither of the bishops had ever known the Prince to be so condescending to a member of the

cloth, and his last words had puzzled them. Why had the Prince of Wales said to a country parson: “I have told the

old boy to do exactly as you ask. A promise is a promise, Doctor, though I think you have been guilty of cheating.

You’ve kept me very strictly to the letter of it rather than to the motive which made me make it. You ask a favour

for this fellow, and I don’t really like what I’ve seen of him. Never mind. Have it your own way, and if you want to

repeat the request at any time for yourself, it still holds good. And at a word, if things don’t fall out as you planned

‘em, tell me and there’ll be the devil to pay for the old boy. If you come up to London for a sermon let me know. If

you come up for any reason, apart from preaching, still do so, and you can regale me with some more of those tales

about the heathen you have met. God bless you, Parson, and think well what I’ve told you about lawn sleeves.

There’ll be money enough to pay for their laundry, I promise you.”

The bishops had not missed a word. They went home and repeated it to their wives. Who was this parson who

asked favours for another fellow from the Prince? Who was the fellow for whom he begged? Was it his curate?

And why the letter to the Admiralty? All very puzzling, especially as the Prince had not appeared to them that day

in at all a communicative mood. He had certainly taken no interest in the laundering of their lawn sleeves.

From Carlton House Doctor Syn strolled along to Whitehall and entered the Admiralty. He had to wait a good

deal longer for Admiral Troubridge than he had had to do for the Prince. But he had far more confidence in being

able to get what he wanted from the Admiral than he had ever entertained with reference to the Prince, although as it

had turned out, nothing could have been easier. He had cleverly handled the very difficult First Gentlemen of

Europe and had really made him behave like a gentleman, which not everyone was able to do.

What was more to the point he had not come away as so many had to do with an empty promise. There was no

reason for him to quote that passage of scripture which says, ‘Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man,

for there is no help in them. He had come out of the Presence Chamber at Carlton House with a letter, the contents

of which he had himself directed the Prince to write. It was couched in terms that could not be ignored by the

Admiral.

Moreover, the old sea-dog was well acquainted with the Prince, and was very proud of the fact, and the tone of

the Prince’s correspondence being friendly and confidential, pleased him so vastly that he would have been willing

to undertake a harder commission for His Royal Highness than was requested.

Doctor Syn owned that he knew the contents of the letter, saying that the Prince had insisted upon reading it to

him, while he kept so many notabilities waiting for audiences.

He then tactfully recounted all the good things which the Prince had said of the Admiral, such extravagant praise

that had never entered the Prince’s head, much less issued from his mouth. Doctor Syn was perfectly aware that

these exaggerations could never be repeated by the Admiral.

But though delighted to hear how very high he was in favour with the Prince himself, he was mystified at the

Royal attitude towards such an officer as Captain Blain.

“It is quite conceivable that His Royal Highness might have recommended the fellow for promotion,” he

remarked to Doctor Syn, “but all these minute orders as to how it must be carried out seem very extraordinary under

the circumstances. Besides although you say you have taken quite a liking for Blain, I assure you he is by no means

looked upon as a likeable fellow in the Service.”

“But surely, my dear Admiral,” suggested Doctor Syn, “His Royal Highness has ever had the reputation for

taking the queerest fancies for people.”

“Well, he’s carrying it very far in this case,” went on the admiral. “He is treating Blain much as we treat a

favourite child at Christmas. You know, ‘Must make it a happy day for the nipper’ sort of thing. I wonder he had

not ordered the Admiralty to send him a cake with fifty candles round it. Of course, I must conform to the Prince’s

wishes as far as I am able, but the Prince should know more about the Service than to write a ridiculous sentence

like make him an Admiral or something and oblige. I can’t go making people Admirals at a moment’s notice.

We’ve too many as it is.”

“He does say, ‘An Admiral or something’,” said the Doctor. “Perhaps there’s something that he could be made.”

“I know the very thing,” the Admiral suddenly exclaimed. “I could get him the Crocodile. She had only a

temporary officer in command, and the Guard Ship to the Tower of London is a step higher than a Guard Ship at

Dover. I think that solves it. We’ll send Blain on his fiftieth birthday, back to his nursery. His father had it and

became an Admiral. It’s a stepping-stone, and if I pop him on board the Prince will at least see that I am exerting

myself for his protege.”

“He is certainly wasting his time, and that of his men, on Romney Marsh,” said the doctor. “If I may say it, with

all deference, you yourself were unable to string up our atrocious Scarecrow. No doubt you would have got him had

you stayed at Dover, but Blain is hardly the man to succeed where even you failed, though he has been about the

business for a considerable time, and unlike you, has been billeted on the spot.”

“Aye, and as I have pointed out to him,” put in the Admiral, “the landings have gone on all the time, and on a

vaster scale that in my time. No one will catch the Scarecrow, Doctor Syn. I am sorry to say so, since I know how

vigorously you have worked to get your territory clear of his tyranny. But I would rather be ordered to go down to

hell and arrest the Devil himself than he expected again to catch that rascal. He’s uncanny, and that’s about the size

of it.”

“I begin to think so myself, sir,” replied Doctor Syn.

With a great deal of importance the Admiral once more read aloud the Prince’s letter, and then began to write out

a memorandum on the details to be carried out.

“If I remember right Blain rides every tolerable, doesn’t he?” he asked, looking up from his writing.

“An excellent horseman,” replied the doctor. “It is an accomplishment that I envy. My little pony is about all I

can manage.”

“Well, I am not much of a hand at it myself,” returned the Admiral. “Though I tell my brother, the General, that I

cut a finer figure than he does in the saddle, for all his dragooning, especially when the animal is come to anchor.

Every man to his calling. The horse to the soldier; the dock to the sailor, eh?”

“And the pulpit to the parson,” laughed Doctor Syn.

The Admiral returned to his notes. “So Blain rides. That means another horse. One for the Admiralty courier,

and the other for him. He has a horse at Dymchurch, I see, from his reports, borrowed from the garrison on Dover,

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