Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 2.djvu/10

 "That," said he, "would be just as much an infringement of my orders as letting you go by yourself. You cannot go on shore, Sir."

These last words he uttered in a very peremptory manner, and, quitting the deck, left me to my own reflections and my own resources.

Intercourse by letter between Eugenia and myself was perfectly easy; but that was not all I wanted. I had promised to meet her at nine o'clock in the evening. It was now sunset; the boats were all hoisted up; no shoreboat was near, and there was no mode of conveyance but à la nage, which Mr. Talbot himself had suggested only as proving its utter impracticability; but he did not know me half so well at that time as he did afterwards.

The ship lay two miles from the shore, the wind was from the south-west, and the tide moving to the eastward; so that, with wind