He held in his hand a large package, which bore on the envelope the usual stamp that indicated it was sent on public service.
"I beg pardon, Sir Gervaise," commenced the secretary, who always proceeded at once to business, when business was to be done; "but His Majesty's service will not admit of delay.

This packet has just come to hand, by the arrival of an express, which left the admiralty only yesterday noon." "And how the devil did he know where to find me!" exclaimed the vice-admiral, holding out a hand to receive the communication.
"It is all owing to this young lieutenant's forethought in following up the Jacobite intelligence to a market-town.

The courier was bound to Falmouth, as fast as post-horses could carry him, when he heard, luckily, that the fleet lay at anchor, under Wychecombe Head; and, quite as luckily, he is an officer who had the intelligence to know that you would sooner get the despatches, if he turned aside, and came hither by land, than if he went on to Falmouth, got aboard the sloop that was to sail with him, for the Bay of Biscay, and came round here by water." Sir Gervaise smiled at this sally, which was one in keeping with all Atwood's feelings; for the secretary had matured a system of expresses, which, to his great mortification, his patron laughed at, and the admiralty entirely overlooked.

No time was lost, however, in the way of business; the secretary having placed the candles on a table, where Sir Gervaise took a chair, and had already broken a seal.

The process of reading, nevertheless, was suddenly interrupted by the vice-admiral's looking up, and exclaiming-- "Why, you are not about to leave us, Bluewater ?" "You may have private business with Mr.Atwood, Sir Gervaise, and perhaps I had better retire." Now, it so happened that while Sir Gervaise Oakes had never, by look or syllable, as he confidently believed, betrayed the secret of his friend's Jacobite propensities, Atwood was perfectly aware of their existence.