The Bravest of the Brave | Page 9

Spain, she exerted herself
so effectually that she procured his nomination.
Hitherto his life had been a strange one. Indolent and energetic by turns,
restless and intriguing, quarreling with all with whom he came in
contact, burning with righteous indignation against corruption and

misdoing, generous to a point which crippled his finances seriously, he
was a puzzle to all who knew him, and had he died at this time he
would only have left behind him the reputation of being one of the
most brilliant, gifted, and honest, but at the same time one of the most
unstable, eccentric, and ill regulated spirits of his time.

CHAPTER II
: IMPRESSED
When the Mayor of Southampton opened the official document
empowering and requesting him to obtain recruits for the queen's
service he was not greatly pleased. This sort of thing would give a good
deal of trouble, and would assuredly not add to his popularity. He saw
at once that he would be able to oblige many of his friends by getting
rid of people troublesome to them, but with this exception where was
he to find the recruits the queen required? There were, of course, a few
never do wells in the town who could be packed off, to the general
satisfaction of the inhabitants, but beyond this every one taken would
have friends and relations who would cry out and protest.
It was likely to be a troublesome business, and the mayor threw down
the paper on the table before him. Then suddenly his expression
changed. He had been thinking of obliging his friends by sending off
persons troublesome to them, but he had not thought of his own case.
Here was the very thing; he would send off this troublesome lad to
fight for the queen; and whether he went to the Low Countries under
Marlborough, or to Spain with this new expedition which was being
prepared, it was very unlikely that he would ever return to trouble him.
He was only sixteen, indeed, but he was strong and well grown, and
much fitter for service than many of those who would be sent. If the
young fellow stopped here he would always be a trouble, and a bone of
contention between himself and his wife. Besides, for Alice's sake, it
was clearly his duty to get the fellow out of the way. Girls, Mr.
Anthony considered, were always falling in love with the very last
people in the world with whom they should do so, and out of sheer
contrariety it was more than possible that Alice might take a fancy for
this penniless vagabond, and if she did Mrs. Anthony was fool enough
to support her in her folly.

Of course there would be trouble with his wife when she found what
had happened to the lad--for the mayor did not deceive himself for a
moment by the thought that he would be able to conceal from his wife
the cause of Jack's absence; he was too well aware of Mrs. Anthony's
power of investigation. Still, after it was done it could not be undone,
and it was better to have one domestic storm than a continuation of foul
weather.
Calling in his clerk the mayor read over to him the order he had
received, and bade him turn to the court book and make out a list of the
names of forty young men who had been charged before him with
offenses of drunkenness, assault, battery and rioting.
"When you have made up the list, Johnson, you will go round to the
aldermen and inform them of the order that I have received from the
government, and you can tell them that if there are any persons they
know of whom they consider that Southampton would be well rid, if
they will send the names to me I will add them to the list. Bid them not
to choose married men, if it can be avoided, for the town would be
burdened with the support of their wives and families. Another ten
names will do. The letter which accompanies the order says that from
my well known zeal and loyalty it is doubted not that Southampton will
furnish a hundred men, but if I begin with fifty that will be well enough,
and we can pick out the others at our leisure."
By the afternoon the list was filled up. One of the aldermen had
inserted the name of a troublesome nephew, another that of a foreman
with whom he had had a dispute about wages, and who had threatened
to proceed against him in the court. Some of the names were inserted
from mere petty spite; but with scarce an exception the aldermen
responded to the invitation of the mayor, and placed on the list