“It was kindly done, lad,” said Richard, while the others did their part of the welcome, though scarcely so willingly.  Cuthbert Langston was a distant relation on the mother’s side of Richard, a young scholar, who, after his education at Oxford, had gone abroad with a nobleman’s son as his pupil, and on his return, instead of taking Holy Orders, as was expected, had obtained employment in a merchant’s counting-house at Hull, for which his knowledge of languages eminently fitted him.  Though he possessed none of the noble blood of the Talbots, the employment was thought by Mistress Susan somewhat derogatory to the family dignity, and there was a strong suspicion both in her mind and that of Master Heatherthwayte that his change of purpose was due to the change of religion in England, although he was a perfectly regular church-goer.  Captain Talbot, however, laughed at all this, and, though he had not much in common with his kinsman, always treated him in a cousinly fashion.  He too had heard a rumour of the foundling, and made inquiry for it, upon which Richard told his story in greater detail, and his wife asked what the poor mother was like.

“I saw her not,” he answered, “but Goatley thought the poor woman to whom she was bound more like to be nurse than mother, judging by her years and her garments.”

“The mother may have been washed off before,” said Susan, lifting the little one from the cradle, and hushing it.  “Weep not, poor babe, thou hast found a mother here.”

“Saw you no sign of the crew?” asked Master Heatherthwayte.

“None at all.  The vessel I knew of old as the brig Bride of Dunbar, one of the craft that ply between Dunbar and the French ports.”

“And how think you?  Were none like to be saved?”

“I mean to ride along the coast to-morrow, to see whether aught can be heard of them, but even if their boats could live in such a sea, they would have evil hap among the wreckers if they came ashore.  I would not desire to be a shipwrecked man in these parts, and if I had a Scottish or a French tongue in my head so much the worse for me.”

“Ah, Master Heatherthwayte,” said Susan, “should not a man give up the sea when he is a husband and father?”

“Tush, dame!  With God’s blessing the good ship Mastiff will ride out many another such gale.  Tell thy mother, little Numpy, that an English sailor is worth a dozen French or Scottish lubbers.”

“Sir,” said Master Heatherthwayte, “the pious trust of the former part of your discourse is contradicted by the boast of the latter end.”

“Nay, Sir Minister, what doth a sailor put his trust in but his God foremost, and then his good ship and his brave men?”

It should be observed that all the three men wore their hats, and each made a reverent gesture of touching them.  The clergyman seemed satisfied by the answer, and presently added that it would be well, if Master and Mistress Talbot meant to adopt the child, that she should be baptized.