Won from the Waves

She had soon a reason for remaining in the country, which even her father could not oppose. Algernon had joined a volunteer regiment formed in the country, and the exposure to w...

"If it gives you no painful recollections, my dear Headland, I shall much like to hear your history," said Harry. "On this calm night the thread of your narrative is not likely...

No summer's day could be more bright and lovely than that on which the fete at Texford took place. Visitors of high and low degree--for it was to be a meeting of all classes--we...

Harry had heard from Julia that his father had gone over to Downside, and was looking forward with no little anxiety to the result of his interview with May. He had not yet brou...

In those days, when coaches only ran on the great high roads, and postal arrangements were imperfect, even important news was conveyed at what would now be considered a very slo...

"And what do you think of my friend Headland? I have not overpraised him, have I?" asked Harry, when he happened to find himself alone with Julia in the garden the morning after...

It was a gloomy evening. A small group of fishermen were standing--at the end of a rough wooden pier projecting out into the water and forming the southern side of the mouth of...

Sir Ralph and his family had been for some time settled at Texford, when the dame brought the news, gained from her usual source of information, Mr Groocock, that Mr Harry with...

"We are merely going to call on some relations who live at a village in the neighbourhood," said Julia, who had as little wish for the general's company as did Harry.

We must return to Harry and Jacob on board the prize. The young lieutenant well knew the dangerous position in which the ship, now under his command, was placed. All that he cou...

On opening his sealed orders, Captain Headland found that he was to proceed to the Eastern Seas, and to give notice of the commencement of hostilities to any ships-of-war or mer...

The old mill on the cliff, which belonged to Sir Reginald Castleton, was in a somewhat decayed condition, and had long been unoccupied, when a short time before the period at wh...

Without giving Julia the option of accompanying him, he hurried off in search of his blind cousin and her companion. He saw them seated on a bench under the shade of some overha...

"Has nothing been seen of my son Harry?" he asked. "Perhaps, Captain Headland, you would favour me by riding over to Hurlston to ascertain whether the cutter in which he embarke...

The family had retired to rest. Headland, however, was sitting up, feeling no inclination to sleep, and having numerous subjects to occupy his mind. He looked at his watch. It w...

Harry's ship had been paid off, and Headland having received his promotion, the two friends started in a post-chaise and four for London. It would have been unbecoming for two n...

"We shall be truly glad to see your mother as she so seldom visits us," said Miss Mary, mildly; "and as I hope she and Julia will stop to take luncheon, I will go in and order p...

Mr Groocock, afraid of alarming the ladies, had not informed them of the warning he had received, but as soon as he had an opportunity of speaking to Sir Ralph he told him what...

"He is alive, I am thankful to say," said the general; "and as I shall have no chance of overtaking Castleton and the dragoons, I shall be of more service in looking after this...

Portsmouth was a busy place in those stirring times of warfare, and as the coach, on the top of which Harry was seated, rattled and rumbled down the High Street, parties of sail...

Miles Gaffin lay on his bed turning over in his thoughts the information he had obtained, and considering how he could gain the most advantage from it. Returning to the table, h...

The party whom Miss Castleton had offered to escort round the--grounds consisted of several ladies and gentlemen, most of them young, with the exception of an old military offic...

Since we last met Adam Halliburt the _Nancy_ had shared the fate of other craft; her stout planks and timbers gradually yielding to age, she had become too leaky to put to sea,...

A letter from Captain Fancourt at length arrived, summoning Harry to join the _Triton_. He bade an affectionate farewell to his kind old uncle. His brother had remarked the fail...

Poor Maiden May, as her loving friends still delighted to call her, waited day after day, anxious at not receiving a contradiction of the report of Harry's loss. True it is that...

A Post-Chaise which had conveyed Harry and the general to Portsmouth drove up to the "George," just as Captain Headland, who was living there, returned from a visit to his ship.

Mr Reginald's funeral took place, and was conducted with the pomp usual in those days when a county magnate was carried to his final resting-place. Sir Ralph and his eldest son...

"Pulse is not as satisfactory as I should have wished," he observed. "We must keep you quiet, Mr Harry, and I must request you to remain in your room till I see you again."

May had been anxiously looking forward to another visit from Harry on the morning after he had openly declared his love, and she had more than once gone to the front door to wat...

On Miss Pemberton's return to Downside, while seated at their tea-table, Miss Mary gave her a description of her young visitor of the morning, and told her of the proposal she w...

As Harry and his friend reached the deck they caught sight of a strange frigate standing towards the _Triton_, which was, as has already been said, off the port of Carthagena, a...

Day after day passed by, and Harry and his shipwrecked companions began to despair of escaping from the island. If Jack Headland had lived there so many years without seeing a s...

"I don't know exactly what you mean, sir, but I know that his father is Sir Ralph Castleton of Texford, because I come from Hurlston, which is hard by there; and mother lived in...

Whatever resolutions Captain Headland might have made when he first went to Texford, he had not been there long before he felt a strong inclination to break them. Once or twice...

Captain Fancourt took his departure from Portsmouth to commission the _Triton_, promising to send for Harry as soon as the frigate was sufficiently advanced to give a midshipman...

Harry got back at luncheon time to Texford, where the family were assembled in the dining-hall. Sir Reginald--a fine-looking old man, the whiteness of whose silvery locks, secur...

"Two or three tacks will do it, sir, I hope," said Ned Brown, who, since Adam had been deprived of Ben's services, had acted as his mate. "The _Nancy_ knows her way into the har...

during the night, and stowed away in the vaults. It was not long before Gaffin found an opportunity for re-opening his favourite project. It was evident that he had private info...

Time went on, and nothing occurred to interrupt the even tenor of the Miss Pembertons' well-spent lives. They never wearied in their efforts to benefit the bodies and souls of t...

Maiden May, on finding herself alone with Miss Mary, at once went up, with a confidence she might not have felt with a person not deprived of sight as the kind lady was, and too...

at a sack, was his man, whose countenance appeared to Harry, as he caught sight of it for a moment, one of the most surly and ill-favoured he had ever set eyes on. "No wonder th...

Jacob had been at work on board the _Nancy_ when he found that it was time to return home for dinner. He caught sight, as he approached the cottage, of May, as she and Harry Cas...

"It got on rapidly," they observed, with the assistance he so kindly gave May. She received him as a relative of the ladies without supposing that had she not been his fellow-la...

"What are you going to do with her?" asked Jacob, who having stolen down from his roosting-place after a short rest, found his father and mother sitting by the fire watching ove...

As Adam Halliburt and his son sprang into the cabin, they saw in a small cot by the side of a larger one, a little girl, her light hair falling over her fair young neck. She lif...

The active little _Thisbe_ had been for some time at sea, and had already performed her duty of giving notice of the recommencement of hostilities at the different stations, and...

"You or I, mother, must go up this evening and inquire for our May," said Adam, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. "She would never stay away from us so long of her own free-wi...

Adam had just recounted to his wife his interviews with the mayor and lawyer of Morbury, and had listened to her history of Mr Herbert Castleton's family, and the unhappy fate o...

Dame Halliburt was a good housewife, and an active woman of business. Every morning she was up betimes with breakfast ready for her husband and sons waiting the return of the _N...

Harry and the dragoons after Gaffin's escape galloped rapidly to Downside. He would soon have distanced them had he not feared that they might lose their way. He kept urging the...

"Why, sir, I have been having a talk with Jack, and he has been asking me questions which I can't answer, but which I've a notion you can; and if you'll let him he'd like to see...

Thus the greater part of the night passed by. Towards dawn Adam started up. The howling of the wind in the chimney and the rattling sound of the windows which looked towards the...

Dame Halliburt made her appearance at Downside early the next morning to enquire after May. Miss Pemberton, who had expected the good woman, begged her to step into her dispensa...

We must now go back to Jacob. On recovering his senses and finding his limbs tightly lashed, he in vain attempted to free himself. He was unable to shout out for assistance, for...

Sir Ralph Castleton arrived at Texford in the middle of the next day after he left London. He was surprised to see his servants in their usual liveries, and still more so when L...

Great was Harry's disappointment on reaching Downside to find that May was not there. His cousins also, he fancied, received him with less cordiality than usual. Had he understo...

Miles Gaffin had long been absent from Hurlston, though he still retained possession of the mill, which was kept going under charge of Dusty Dick. The lugger, however, had not a...

Harry refrained from making another trip in the _Nancy_, though he told Adam Halliburt that he had hoped to do so. He seldom, however, caught sight of the blue sea in his rides...