ery quietly in my blanket while the surgeon's
assistant dressed the wound; and, after a considerable time, succeeded
in restoring the patient to his senses: he was, however, confined a
fortnight to his bed. I was either not suspected, or, if I was, it was
known that I was not the aggressor. The secret was well kept. I gave
the marine a guinea, and took him into my service as _valet de place_.

And now, reader, in justice to myself, allow me to make a few remarks.
They may serve as a palliative, to a certain degree, for that
unprincipled career which the following pages will expose. The passions
of pride and revenge, implanted in our fallen natures, and which, if not
eradicated in the course of my education, ought, at least, to have lain
dormant as long as possible, were, through the injudicious conduct of
those to whom I had been entrusted, called into action and full activity
at a very early age. The moral seeds sown by my parents, which might
have germinated and produced fruit, were not watered or attended to;
weeds had usurped their place, and were occupying the ground which
should have supported them; and at this period, when the most assiduous
cultivation was necessary to procure a return, into what a situation was
I thrown? In a ship crowded with three hundred men, each of them, or
nearly so, cohabiting with an unfortunate female, in the lowest state of
degradation; where oaths and blasphemy interlarded every sentence; where
religion was wholly neglected, and the only honour paid to the Almighty
was a clean shirt on a Sunday; where implicit obedience to the will of
an officer was considered of more importance than the observance of the
Decalogue; and the Commandments of God were in a manner abrogated by the
Articles of War--for the first might be broken with impunity, and even
with applause, while the most severe punishment awaited any infraction
of the latter.

So much for the ship in the aggregate; let us now survey the
midshipmen's berth. Here we found the same language and the same
manners, with scarcely one shade more of refinement. Their only
pursuits, when on shore, were intoxication and worse debauchery, to be
gloried in and boasted of when they returned on board. My captain said
that everything found its level in a man of war. True; but in a
midshipman's berth it was the level of a savage, where corporal strength
was the _sine qua non_, and decided whether you were to act the part of
a tyrant o