Sir James, having now fulfilled the anxious charge entrusted to him, and, with great professional skill and unremitting vigilance, brought the prizes in safety to Lisbon, is at length setting sail for England: and who will not share the feelings of the husband and the father, on approaching his home after so long an absence! The following extracts from his letters will convey some impression of what those feelings were.
I am now rejoicing in the hope of being in England nearly as soon as this letter can reach you. I propose to sail from this place the beginning of next week, and I trust my arrival will shortly follow. Let me find a letter from you at Portsmouth. I depend on your being ready to set off as soon as you hear the Orion is there. The post will arrive sufficiently early to allow of your leaving Bath the same day. I may possibly be able to meet you on the road, as I shall have had time to despatch Monsieur le Duc d'Havré (who is a very polite Frenchman) and to make arrangements against our return. I think it right to mention that unless the wind admits the ships getting over the Bar of Lisbon, I may be detained. But I hope for a quick passage.
"Sunday, November 25th, Spithead.--I wrote to you, this morning, from St. Helens. The happy moment is at length arrived when I can despatch a letter from Spithead. Yours of yesterday is in my hand. To-morrow you will be setting off; but I fear the service will prevent our meeting till the day after.
"I have despatched Dumaresq to Newport for our dear boy; and I depend on seeing him to-night. _Le Duc est empressé de le voir._ I hope to get the party on shore, _de bonne heure_, to-morrow: but we are still in quarantine whilst I am making these arrangements.
"Tuesday morning.--Great is my disappointment at being kept thus long in quarantine: it is a cruel _contre temps_, and the more so from its being unforeseen. What adds to my disappointment is, that I am at a loss to know if our _pratique_ has been received by this day's post, the weather having prevented all communication with the shore. It will rejoice you to learn that our beloved boy has been with me since ten, yesterday morning, and that I find him all you have described. I expect to hear every moment of your arrival at the Fountain. Mr. Maxwell writes there is no doubt of our being released to-morrow.