NELSON'S SWORD.

North Otago Times, Volume 1, Issue 1, 25 February 1864, Page 8

NELSON'S SWORD.

Miss Agnes Strickland contributes to Macmillan's Magazine an anecdote connected with Nelson, of an old naval officer who was a neighbor of hers, and to whom she has given the name of Captain Dashwater. Having given a description of the personal appearance and domestic arrangements of the old seaman, the little btory proceeds thus : — Captain Dashwater was very dull after the departure of Carpenter Jack and the failure of his poultry experiments ; complained that he had nothing to think of and nothing to do, a state of things by no means to the taste of the energetic old seaman ; so, for want of other amusement, he took to gardening, greatly to the discomfiture of his wife. He knew nothing about it, and, instead of purchasing the requisite tools, he sacrilegiously converted any of her household gods, that appeared to him likely to answer the purpose, into substitutes for the homely implements required for carrying on his horticultural pursuits. One day he surreptitiously abstracted her meat saw to amputate a dead limb from an apple-tree, unluckily snapped it in two, and flung both pieces into the pond to conceal the trespass. On another occasion he took her new scissors to trim the box borders, and being called away in haste, left his job unfinished, and the scissors sticking upright in the little hedge, as he called it, where they were at last discovered by the indignant owner utterly spoiled. But his most unforgiveable offence was carrying off the new highly-polished steel shovel from the drawing-room to dig up some new potatoes for supper, and leaving it out in the rain all night to rust unheeded ; which outrage w r as the of raising such a domestic storm, that he was fain to rush off to Yarmouth to buy another to replace it, and at the same time to purchase the smartest shawl he could find, as a peaceoffering for his justly offended spouse. In defiance of all conjugal rebukes and discouragements, Captain Dashwater persisted in his horticultural labois, to the infinite amusement of his neighbors, especially my father, who greatly enjoyed what he called spinning a yarn with the droll veteran seaman, and drawing him out. One day we called to bring him a present of flower-seeds, and found him in his garden busily engaged in constructing a new bower, which he was hollowing out of the thickest part of his tall privet hedge. He had thrown off his blue jacket and sable cap, and was working in his shirt sleeves, bareheaded, with the noonday sunbeams pouring down on his picturesque white hair, which waved back from his temples in crisp glistening flakes. He had been a remarkably smart, handsome man in his day, and truly, for his time in life, was so still. His manly countenance was flushed with exercise, and bespoke indomitable determination as lie sLi shed and dashed into the arch as he A\as fashioning, with no meaner weapon than a naval dress-sword, the handsomest I ever saw, the green ivory handle of whifb whs exquisitely mounted in a magnificent filigree pattern of frosted and burnished cut silver, flashing, as he waved it backwards and forwards, like clusters of dL"nonds. Unconscious of our approach, h? turning his energetic strokes to the

measure of Campbells exquisite national lyric, the " Battle of the Baltic." We paused to look at the man, and to listen to the deep thrilling cadences of his rich, full voice, as he sang of the unforgotten contest : — " When to battle came forth, All the might of Denmark's crown, And her arms along the deep proudly shone ; By each gun the lighted brand, In a bold determined hand, Ard the prince of all the land Led them on. " Like leviathans afloat, Lay their bulv\ arks on the brine, Wlide the sign of the battle flew, On the lofty British line. As they drifted on their path, Where was silence deep as death, And the boldest held hiß breath, For a time." A vigorous cutting and slashing into the breach old Dashwater had broken in the closely interlaced network of green, and snowy blossoms followed; the bouglis, leaves, and flowers fell thickly round him, and bestreAved the ground at his feet at every descent of the sword. We advanced a few steps, but his back was to us, and his thoughts apparently far away ; as, pausing for a moment from his work of destruction, he lowered his warlike blade, and, with deep and pathetic feeling, con1J eluded — Let ub think of (hem who bleep, Full mniij a fathom deep, By thy wild and stormy bleep, Elsmore !" " Bravo, Dashwater !" cried my father, clapping him on the shoulder. '• Hoav well that song suits your voice ! And you sing it with as rnueii spirit and feeling as if you had been one of the heroes of that hard-fought day." "Ay !" exclaimed Dashwater, turning about with flashing eyes, " Didn't you know I was there ?" " You at the memorable Battle of Copenhagen, Mr Dashwater ?" echoed my lather, in surprise. '* May I ask in what capacity you served on that occasion ?" " As one of the mavineis of England, who had the honor of contributing, in a humble degree, to the victory," replied he, racing the sword he grasped above his head, and giving a sweeping slash among the privet branches. "Hallo!" cried my father, "you will spoil that magnificent sword if you make such an unworthy use of it. A billhook would answer your purpose far better." " I have not got such a thing," replied Dashwater, with some naivete. " I wanted to borrow the carving knife of Mrs D., but she wouldn't trust me with it ; so, as I was in a hurry to make the bower, and this was hanging up in my bedroom quite useless, I thought it would do a great deal more execution than the carvingknife, and I shouldn't get into any disgrace about it, seeing that it Avas my OAvn property before ever she Avas born — giAen to me by Nelson, after the Battle of Copenhagen." u Given to you by Nelson !" Aye both exclaimed. " Ay, Avith his own hand. It Avas the very sword he wore himself on that glorious Second of April, 1801, when he thrashed the Danes in sight of their own metropolis, and taught them a lesson they Avill never forget. The fellows fought Avell though, and it Avas a tight business for us coming to such close fire in those confounded narrow seas among the rocks and shoals." '' Tell us hoAV you obtained so great a distinction as the gilt of Nelson's Sword ?" Aye asked. " Sit ye down then in my alcove, out of the glare of the sun, and I'll spin ye as short a yarn of it as I can," replied DasliAvater, AA'ith a good-humored smile. " Only it Avill be necessary for me to begin at the beginning by telling yon something about myself, or you won't understand hoAv I came to be in the Battle of Copenhagen. My father Avas a Yarmouth skipper in the Baltic trade, and he made a good marine of me by taking me early to sea Avith him, so that I got to know all the ins and outs of the Sound and the Belt, and I <jould now draw a chart from memory of all the rocks and shoals one has to be aware of in that dangerous naA'igation. I Avas studying: to fit mybelf for a king's pilot, but my father Avas for me entering the king's service as a master's mate. Well, it AA r as in the heat of the Avar, and old Billy Douglas, our port admiral, stood my friend, and eot me an appointment on board that tight little frigate the Defiance, Captain Darrell, Avbere I saw a little service, and got further experience in the navigation of the North Seas and the Baltic. At last I got shove up, and Avas promoted to be the master of the gunbrig — ■ , through the interest of the same noble gentleman — God rest his soul, for he always stood my friend !

" I was then married to niy first wife, the best good dear in the world, und the prettiest girl in all Yarmouth ; but I don't boast of her beauty, though it is a great set-out to a man to have a pretty wife, specially if she is, like my peggy, a virtuous and kindly one. Just before I got my appoint)) entto the ,she had brought me a brace of fine twin babies, both of them boys, the biggest beauties you ever saw, with pipes as loud as a pair of boatswains ; and it seemed hard to leave them and their mother ; and so Peggy said, and tried to persuade me to give up my appointment, and enter the merchant service. But I was forced to brace up my mind against all that, for the honor of my native town and the glory of Old England. I knew the was under sailing orders as part of Sir Hyde Parker's secret expedition, and I guessed pretty well where she was bound, and that we were going to I have a brush with the Danes, and mayhap the Uuss, and that we should have hot work. I pacified my wife as well as I could, by promising that, if I came safe back into the port of Yarmouth again, I would leave the king's service for her sake ; so we shook hands upon it, and parted. | k My commander had been married about a fortnight when we mailed, and did not like to leave his bride. She told him she had dreamed that he was killed by a cannon ball on h's own deck : and that, I suppose, made him faint-hearted at the forcing of the passage of the Sound, where we had to take up our station off Cronenburgh Castle, to cover the fleet from the fire of the Danish batteries, when it passed, for the first time, without vailing topsails to the fiag of Denmark. The next day, five minutes after ten am , the battle began, to which that of the Nile and all others in which Nehou had been engaged were but as child's play. '* The Danes fought in their own seas, and among their own rocks and shelves, and knew what they were about. They j '' had removed all their buoys and marks \ whereby the shoals and sunken rocks were signified, and our pilots were, for the most ' part, bewildered. "When the signal was given for our gunbritf to lead the squadron of gunbrigs i into the action, our captain ' wa.s taken ill,' < he said, and skulked in his berth below, < for fear his wife's dream should be brought ] to pass. The command of the vessel, ot <■ course, devolved on me. and my experience - of the navigation of the difficult channel through which we had to pass, enabled us to dash gallantly through into the thick of f the fight. ' ii

(T<> be concluded tn om neit )