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Spellman was not asked, and had he been, we concluded that he would not have accepted the invitation, so we said nothing about it to him. We had a jolly paying-off dinner, with the usual speeches, and compliments, and toasts. After the health of the King was drunk and all the Royal family, and other important personages, Mr Bryan got up and said
I might have given you a very amusing account of that same feast though it was not "a feast of reason," albeit it might have been a "flow of soul;" but I am not in the vein, the fact being, that paying-off dinners are melancholy affairs to look back at.
The following morning, while Toni was in his cabin adjusting the accounts of the crew, astonished by the munificence of their paying-off, Uncle Caragol came into the saloon, asking to speak to Ferragut. He had placed an old cape over his flapping and scanty clothing, more as a decoration for the visit than because the cold of Brittany was really making him suffer.
Previous to the paying-off, however, Togo had sent for me, and at the interview which followed, inquired most solicitously what were my plans for the future, at the same time assuring me that if I cared to remain in the service of Japan I might absolutely rely upon continuous employment and further promotion.
Many ships of the fleet whose commission was now drawing nigh to a close, were flying their paying-off pennant, the crews of which were full of gladness at the 'Himalaya's' arrival, with reliefs, and, moreover, she was their homeward-bound ship. We boys were despatched to H.M.S. 'Terror, a receiving ship at Bermuda.
"We are ordered to proceed home at once and payoff, so we can all go together. The frigate has had a very successful time of it while she has been out here; we shall go home with our pockets well lined; and I think I must seize upon the opportunity which the paying-off of the ship will afford, in order to get spliced.
But the wide-awake clerk called out a name, and the paying-off business began. One by one they came up to the pay-table to get the wages of their glorious and obscure toil. They swept the money with care into broad palms, rammed it trustfully into trousers' pockets, or, turning their backs on the table, reckoned with difficulty in the hollow of their stiff hands. "Money right? Sign the release.
It lasted for several hours, the fort replying with the utmost vigour to the fire of our batteries, and doing a great deal of execution. By-and- by some genius on our side proposed paying-off the French in their own coin by trying the effect of a few red-hot shot upon them.
Yet is not experience, or rather the good advice which results from experience, treated over and over again by worldly idiots exactly in that way? Do not you, dear readers, join that throng of idiots. Take an old man's advice, and ponder over the matters of which I have just now been speaking. This exhortation has arisen out of our paying-off dinner.
Therefore on paying-off day I received my few shillings as contentedly as those did who were the recipients of many pounds, for I had utilised my money in one way, and they were about to do so in another. That is all. Little groups of men gathered on the wharf to wish each other 'good-bye, as it was not likely they would ever meet again.
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