“It’s not that, my lord—­you’re welcome to the man, though a better in his station cannot be had.  But I was in hopes his recent good conduct, and his long services, might give him a lift into the vacant gun-room berth.”

The admiral appeared surprised, while he did not seem to be exactly pleased.

“It has a hard look, I grant you, Cuffe, to keep a poor devil ten or fifteen years in the same station, and this, too, after he has served long enough for a commission.  I was a captain ten years younger than this Mr. Clinch must be to-day, and it does seem hard; and yet I doubt not it is just.  I have rarely known a midshipman or a mate passed over, in this way, that there was not some great fault at the bottom.  We must think of the service, as well as of generosity.”

“I confess all this, my lord—­and yet I did hope poor Clinch’s delinquencies would at length be forgotten.”

“If there are any particular reasons for it, I should like to hear them.”

Cuffe now related all that had passed between himself and the master’s mate, taking care to give Jane a due place in his history.  Nelson began to twitch the stump of his arm, and by the time the story was told Clinch’s promotion was settled.  An order was sent forthwith to the secretary, to make out the orders, and Cuffe carried them back with him to the Proserpine that night, when he returned to his own ship.

All Nelson’s promotions were confirmed by the Admiralty, pretty much as a matter of course.  Among others was that of Clinch, who now became the junior lieutenant of the Proserpine.  This elevation awakened new feelings within him.  He dressed better; refrained from the bottle; paid more attention to his mind; improved in manners, by keeping better company; and, in the course of the next twelvemonth, had made rapid advances toward respectability.  At the end of that time, the ship was sent home; and Jane, in her imagination at least, received the reward of all her virtuous constancy, by becoming his wife.  Nor did Cuffe cease his friendly offices here.  He succeeded in getting Clinch put in command of a cutter; in which he captured a privateer, after a warm action, within a month.  This success procured him a gun-brig, and with her he was still more fortunate; actually cutting out, with her boats, a French sloop-of-war, that was not half manned, it is true, but which was still considered a handsome prize.  For this affair he got the sloop; thus demonstrating the caprice of fortune, by whose means he found himself a commander in less than three years after he had been a mate.  Here he stuck, however, for a long time, until he got another sloop in fair fight, when he was posted.  From that moment, we have lost sight of him.