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Updated: May 31, 2025
"You know, Weatherhelm," said he, when I met him some months afterwards, "that I formed one of the prize crew sent to take possession of her. Before we got her sufficiently into order to be manageable, we fell on board the Temeraire, one of our own squadron. We little thought at that time that our beloved chief was lying in the cockpit of the Victory mortally wounded.
You are not one of those, Weatherhelm, I know, nor am I. Everything comes right in the mill at last, if we will but wait patiently till the mill turns round." La Motte rattled on in this way till he talked me into better spirits again. At all events, he prevented me from dwelling on my misfortunes. "Now, in reality, we ought to consider ourselves very fortunate," he continued.
The answer satisfied the officers. Another minute elapsed, and La Motte sprang down below. "It is all right, Weatherhelm," he whispered; "the guard-boat is away, and now is our time to be off. Call up the other men." It was quickly done, and all those who had resolved to venture on the undertaking were speedily on deck. We hauled up the boat, and silently took our seats on the thwarts.
"At no great distance from my home. Come along with me, Weatherhelm. My family will be glad to welcome an old shipmate." Just as the sun got up we saw several people approaching, and were truly glad to find among them our captain and three of the crew. They took charge of the men who had been saved with us, while I set off with La Motte to his home. It was a large farm-house standing by itself.
Indeed, to this day, I have often to stop and consider which is my proper name, and certainly could not avoid answering to that of Will Weatherhelm. If one of my old shipmates were to be asked if he knew Willand Wetherholm, he would certainly say, "No; never heard of such a man." "But don't you remember Will Weatherhelm?"
"No, sir; certainly not," I answered, with as firm a voice as I could command, though I felt conscious that it was faltering as I spoke. "What proof have you that Weatherhelm committed the theft?" asked the captain of the culprit.
A short time after this another fellow, very much the same sort of man as Berkeley, as he called himself, addressed me, and invited me to come forward and take a glass of grog with him. "I've got a little store of liquor of my own, and I like to share it with honest fellows like you, Weatherhelm," he said.
"That poor wretch exonerates you from the charge he made against you, and begged to set you that he might ask your forgiveness." I drew near the hammock, and in the features of the dying man I recognised those of Saull Ley. "Weatherhelm, I'm a great villain, I know I am," he cried out as soon as he saw me. "There's a greater, though, and he put me up to it.
"Yes, the chaplain here and others have talked to me about it. I could not believe them. I felt that I was far too guilty, and too wretched an outcast; but I am sure that what man can do, God will do. Yes, Weatherhelm, you have given a peace to my heart I never expected to dwell there. Go on, talk to me on that subject. Pray with me.
I thought that he had ceased to breathe. "Who are you who says that?" he exclaimed suddenly; "you think that I do not know you. I knew you from the first, and I believe you know me. Can you forgive one who has injured you so severely who would have injured you still more had he found the opportunity? Weatherhelm, I ask you, can you forgive me?" I was silent for some minutes.
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