by G. A. Henty
“I am sure I congratulate you heartily. But you don’t intend to stop in the navy, do you?”
“No, I think not. Of course I like the life, and have been so fortunate in getting early promotion and in being mentioned in despatches that I ought to rise very rapidly if I stayed in it, and I am sure that Sir Sidney Smith would interest himself for me. But I do not think that it would be fair to my father. He has reckoned on taking the management of the business at home, and that I should be established here with you, and probably it would be the best thing for me in the long run. The war with France cannot last many years, and when peace comes there will, of course, be a great reduction of the navy, and an immense number of officers put upon half-pay, without much chance of again obtaining employment. My time during the last three years will not have been misspent. As a lieutenant in the service who had obtained exceptionally rapid promotion I should be able to secure orders for stores or repairs to any men-of-war who might put in, and the knowledge I have gained of ships, their fittings, rigging, and so on, would render me far more useful to you in superintending the harbour work than I would have been had I not had that experience.”
“Certainly, Mr. Blagrove. I myself have, as you know, always been in charge of the office here, and as far as books and accounts go I think I know my work thoroughly, but in the last three years I have felt that my want of knowledge of the practical side of the business has been a serious drawback. I have been able to have the repairs necessary to French transports and so on carried out, for the two shipwrights are good workmen, and after it was done I could, of course, calculate what had been the cost, and charge it with a percentage for profit; but, as a rule, captains want an estimate before we begin, and I was unable to give one.
“On a few occasions I did so after consulting the shipwrights, but I burnt my fingers badly in each case, for it turned out that the defects were much more serious than met the eye; so after that, I refused to give an estimate at all, and lost some business in consequence, for a French firm here snapped up all the work they could get, and were always ready to give an estimate, though I believe in nine cases out of ten they either did not carry out their work thoroughly or else when half-way through were obliged to ask for considerable increase on the ground that the amount to be done far exceeded what they supposed. This has been so notorious that for the past year we have had our hands full, and I believe that they intended to leave even if the French occupation had continued. Indeed, they came to me three months ago and asked if I should be inclined to buy their yard and appliances and stock. I refused at that time, but I am of opinion that the matter is well worth thinking over. Since trade increased again we have been very cramped for room. Of course it formed but a small portion of your father’s business, but I think that in future it could be made at least as important a part as the inland trade, and certainly with you at the head it could be largely extended.”
“That would quite suit me. As you know, I have always been fond of ships, and now, after being three years at sea, am naturally more fond of them than before; and although I could make myself very happy in looking after the work of a ship-yard and superintending the business afloat, I should feel altogether like a fish out of water if I were to be kept to book-keeping inside. I know that there is a ship sailing for England to-night with despatches. I will sit down at once and write to my father, and say that I am ready to leave the navy at once and fall to work here. He is certain to come out as soon as he hears the news that the place has surrendered, and that the French are going.
“I will tell him what you say about the other ship-yard, and ask him to go to the Admiralty. I have no doubt that the president of the prize court, who had some business with my father, and has since been on very friendly terms with him, will give him a good introduction, and may possibly go with him to urge that as I am going to undertake the superintendence of a ship-yard here, and that we hope to be of service to ships of war putting in for repairs, they will consent to my going on half-pay instead of retiring altogether. It would certainly strengthen my position here so far as our ships of war are concerned. I daresay that you will be sending off too.”
“Yes; I have kept everything written up and copies made so that I could send them off should an opportunity offer; and a couple of hours’ work will enable me to bring matters pretty well up to date.”
“I suppose, except for the ship work, everything has been of late very dull?”
“Very dull indeed. We have had literally no goods whatever from the interior. Of course production has fallen off very greatly, and the sale of Egyptian products at Cairo, to the troops, has been considerable. Then, too, the disturbed state of the country has prevented the manufacturers from sending valuable goods down here, so that practically that part of the business has been at a standstill, and I have not attempted to accumulate a stock. However I have lately purchased many large lots from native traders here who feared that their shops might be pillaged in the event of a riot, and especially lately when they were afraid that if your people took the town by storm there might be a general sack. So as I was certain that the French must go before long, and I got all these goods at a bargain, I have bought freely. Then I have not done badly with goods run in by French ships that managed to slip through the blockade, and which were laden with speculative cargoes of luxuries for the army. As we are almost the only European house open, and I was able to pay cash, I bought things up largely, and realized very good profits by supplying the native shops here and the officers of the garrison, and also sent a great deal of wine and goods of that sort up to Cairo, getting leave from the commandant here for them to go up under the guard of any body of troops that happened to be proceeding there, so that altogether the firm had not done badly, all things considered.”
“Are you short of cash now, Mr. Muller? for if so I can give you a draft on my father, who has some money of mine in his hands, for a thousand pounds, the result partly of prize-money, partly of a speculation I made in the purchase of a prize which I went home in. I bought it in his name, but he insists that as it was purely my speculation he should put the profit to my account.”
“Thank you; I do not require it. I have had no opportunity of sending the money home for the last three years, and have therefore an abundance of funds for all purposes.”
“I suppose that you must be very short of timber, cordage, and ship stores?”
“Not so much so as you would think. I am indeed very short of timber, and would gladly take the whole cargo of a ship laden with it should it arrive, but in other respects I am well off, for I boarded every transport and merchantman before they left the port, and bought up all their spare stores, which they were glad enough to part with on reasonable terms, for there was no advantage in carrying them back to France, and of course I could well afford to pay a considerable advance on the prices they would obtain there. I hope that you will stay here for the night, Mr. Blagrove, for I am anxious to hear all that you have been doing. I can offer you nothing but horse-flesh for dinner, for the town is in a state of starvation.”
“I cannot do that. I have only leave till five o’clock, and indeed I only obtained permission to enter the town for two hours, and the French might object were I to stop here to-night.”
Edgar wrote a long letter to his father. An hour after he had done so he left, taking it and the trader’s packet away with him. These he placed in the headquarter-staff mail-bag. The letters were to be taken the next morning by the Carmine, which carried Sir Sidney Smith and Colonel Abercrombie, who were in charge of the naval and military official despatches, giving an account of the successful termination of the campaign, to England. Lord Keith was most anxious that the men-of-war should get away from the coast before bad weather set in, and accordingly 5000 of the troops, under the command of General Craddock, embarked on board the ships of war, and sailed on the 12th of September, and two days later the first division of French marched to Aboukir, and embarked on board transports.
Keith was in command of the fleet, and on the way fell in with a ship bringing despatches which had been sent out in anticipation of an early fall of Alexandria. The fleet was ordered to rendezvous at Malta. General Coote, with 6000 of the troops, were to be taken to Gibraltar. General Moore was ordered to England. General Hutchinson had leave to return home, and Lord Cavan was to remain in command in Egypt. Edgar had, two days after his visit to the city, been appointed as third lieutenant to one of the frigates that sailed with the first division of the army, and convoyed it to Gibraltar. It arrived there at the end of September, but as no orders had been received as to the destination of the force, the sick were landed, to be cared for in the hospitals, and the rest of the troops remained on board ship until the middle of November, when a vessel brought the news that a general peace had been virtually concluded.
England gave up all her conquests with the exception of Ceylon and Trinadad, while France was permitted to retain all hers. The treaty of Amiens, which was finally signed in the following March, was one of the most humiliating ever made by England. With it came an order for the ships at Gibraltar to carry the greater portion of the troops retained on board, to England. The wind was favourable, and on the last day of the month the fleet cast anchor in Spithead. It was soon known that almost the whole fleet were to be paid off and the ships laid up at once. The men were pleased at the news, for most of the vessels had been engaged in arduous service in the Mediterranean for years, and the men were glad at the prospect of an opportunity of a turn ashore, until they had got rid of the prize-money that had accrued to them.
The officers, on the other hand, were depressed at the news. To them it meant that they might be years before they again obtained employment, that all chances of gaining distinction or promotion were at an end, and that they would be reduced to live on their scanty half-pay for an indefinite time. Mr. Addington indeed, who was now in power, thought only of retrenchment, and although it was evident to every thinking person that such a peace could only be of short duration, he crippled the country by paying off the greater portion of her ships-of-war; and when in May in the following year war again broke out, and Pitt returned to power, the whole work of getting the navy into fighting order had to be done over again. Two days after the fleet anchored at Spithead, Edgar was delighted to see his father on board a shore-boat that came alongside.
“Everything has turned out well,” he said as soon as the first greeting was over. “On the very day that I got your letter, I had an intimation that the war was likely to come to an end shortly. I thought it better, therefore, to wait before moving in your matter until things were definitely settled, as it was infinitely better that you should be put on half-pay because the war had come to an end than to apply to give up active service while the war lasted.”
“Certainly, father. There can be no doubt of that.”
“Of course I got the letter that you wrote when you were at Gibraltar, saying what ship you were on, and learned from my friend Captain Harrington of the prize court, that unless some hitch occurred in the negotiations, the fleet there, with the troops on board, would at once be ordered home, and on arrival would be paid off. There was, therefore, no occasion for me to make any application in the matter. The troops are, I see, landing to-day, and I suppose that in a week at latest the ships will be taken to the harbour and you will all be paid off.”
“Nothing could be better, father.”
“At any rate, there would be no chance whatever of your obtaining employment until the war breaks out again. When it does, my friend Harrington says that he has no doubt that he will be able to obtain for you an official post at Alexandria, with special instructions to aid in the provisioning and general repairs of any ships-of-war that may put in there, and that indeed he has no doubt that he will be able to get you the post of vice-consul there at once, for this, as you know, is as a rule given to merchants of standing, and as Sir Sidney Smith is in London, he would no doubt be able to support you in the matter. Of course there will be a consul-general in Egypt, and a vice-consul at each of the ports. So far, no appointments of the kind have been made, and, as he says, from your knowledge of the country, with our firm being long established as merchants there, with your knowing so many languages and your naval record, there can be little doubt that, if you apply, and are backed by Sir Sidney Smith, you will get the appointment at once.”
“That would be capital, father. I hope that Muller’s account of the work of the last three years has been satisfactory?”
“Perfectly so. We have done much better than I could have expected under the circumstances; and indeed the profits of the last three years have been nearly as large as those of the years before the French landed.”
Four days later the order arrived for the ship to pay off, and Edgar at once posted up to town, for the number of officers wanting to go up was so large that it was impossible to secure a place by a coach to London for a week to come. The next day he called upon Sir Sidney Smith and stated to him the plans he had formed.
“They could not get a better man for the place,” the admiral said warmly, for he had now been promoted to that rank. “If you will bring me your formal application for the post of vice-consul at Alexandria, I will myself take it to the proper quarter. Put your qualification as a resident merchant and as a linguist as strongly as you like. I will urge your naval record, and myself testify to your abilities as a linguist and to the services which you have rendered.”
A week later Edgar received his formal appointment as His Majesty’s vice-consul at the port of Alexandria, and was given a fortnight’s leave before starting to take up his work. Wilkinson, who had also been ordered home and placed upon half-pay, stayed with Mr. Blagrove during the time Edgar was at home, and was much more communicative as to the work his comrade had done than the latter had himself been.
“I can tell you,” he said, “that for a midshipman to be promoted after only two years and a half service is an almost unknown thing in the navy, and shows what was thought by Lord Keith and Sir Sidney of his work.”
Mr. Blagrove returned to Alexandria with his son, having before he started freighted a ship with timber, principally oak, of the kinds and sizes that would most frequently be in demand for the execution of repairs, together with an apparatus for steaming and bending them. He had already, directly after receiving Edgar’s letter from Gibraltar, sent out directions to Mr. Muller to take over the yard and premises of the French firm. The old name had not been replaced at the entrance of the offices, but now read Blagrove, Son, & Muller, while over the door of the premises recently acquired was now placed the words, “British Vice-consulate,” and an office here was set apart for consular business, an Italian clerk, who spoke English well, being established there. As there were still some thousands of British soldiers in Alexandria, among whom were many officers who had been personally acquainted with Edgar while he had served on the staff of the general, his position was a very pleasant one. The Egyptian governor of the city, a Turkish general, who had been with the army of the Capitan Pasha, and to whom Edgar had frequently carried communications, also received him warmly.
“I am glad, indeed, to have a British vice-consul here,” he said, “who speaks our language so perfectly, and who is a British officer. So often these posts are given to small traders, who, instead of endeavouring to smooth over difficulties, seem to delight in causing them. Whenever you have any complaint to make, sir, I hope that you will come direct to me, and I will see that right is done.”
After spending a month at Alexandria, Mr. Blagrove returned to England, perfectly satisfied that matters would go on well, with his steady-going partner controlling the commercial part of the business, and Edgar taking the management of the shipping side. The business indeed flourished greatly, and when, some time afterwards, the Turks were forced to join in the European coalition against England, the firm was enabled to continue their business without molestation, as the Capitan Pasha himself took him under h
is special protection. Four years after his appointment Edgar returned to England on a short visit, and was present at the marriage of one of his sisters with Wilkinson, who had returned home wounded after the battle of Trafalgar; though only a month at home, he persuaded a friend of his sisters to return as his wife to Alexandria.
Ten years later Mr. Muller died. Mr. Blagrove, who was now getting on in years, wished to have Edgar at home with him; and as moreover the climate was telling upon the latter’s wife, the business was wound up and the premises and good-will disposed of for a considerable sum of money to another firm doing business there. Scarce a week had passed during Edgar’s stay in Alexandria without either the sheik or Sidi riding into Alexandria to see him. He on his part purchased a large tent from a Turkish general who had been recalled to Constantinople. This was large and commodious, divided by hangings into two or three compartments. It was set up in the Beni Ouafy’s oasis, and there he and his wife sometimes went out with their two children and spent a few days. It was with the deepest regret that he and his Arab friends bade farewell to each other when he finally left for England.
Before sailing he made an advantageous arrangement with the firm that had purchased the business, that his father should act as their agent in London, and by the influence of Sir Sidney Smith he himself obtained an appointment in the Admiralty. As his father’s savings during many years, and his own share of the property during the time that he had been partner amounted to a considerable sum, he cared less for the increase of his income by going on full pay again than for the employment that it afforded him. His father and mother died within a few months of each other in 1825. His second sister had been married some fifteen years before to a London merchant.