or no other reason in the world than such
being the will and pleasure of Lady Hercules.

Her ladyship considered that she had lost a good servant through my
father's intervention; and having therefore taken a dislike to him, did
not choose that he should, as coxswain, come up to the house as usual;
and, as he no longer did the duty of coxswain, she asserted that he was
not entitled to the rating. Thus, seven months had hardly passed away
before my father's marriage became a source of vexation and annoyance;
his pay was decreased, and he was no longer a petty officer. My
mother's pride was hurt; and if she was resolute in not going on board
to remain with him when he was captain's coxswain, she was still more
so, now that he was reduced to a common seaman. As for my father, he
was the picture of misery,--he had no consolation except turning his
quid and tying his pigtail.

But everything changes in this world, and among other changes was that
of the station of the frigate, which was ordered foreign. Sir Hercules
took leave of his lady, who retired to Tunbridge Wells. My father took
leave of my mother, who retired to Woolwich. She had saved some money
in service, and my father handed over to her all the pay which he
received, when the ship's company were paid previous to the sailing of
the ship. It is but justice to observe, that the moment he was out of
soundings and away from the influence of her ladyship, Sir Hercules
reinstated my father, and gave him back his rating as coxswain. My
father was indeed the smartest and best seaman in the ship; he could do
his work from stem to stern,--mouse a stay, pudding an anchor, and pass
a gammoning, as well as he could work a Turk's head, cover a manrope, or
point a lashing for the cabin table. Besides which, he had seen
service, having fought under Rodney, and served at the siege of
Gibraltar.

But I must return to my mother, who, when she first went to Woolwich,
which she did in a transport that was ordered round, took lodgings in
the outskirts of the town; and not wishing to acknowledge that she had
married a common sailor, as she supposed my father still to be, asserted
that she was the wife of a captain of a merchant vessel, which had been
taken up as a transport to convey troops to the West Indies. On this
supposition, being received into a society above her real station, she
was compelled to spend more money than she could afford, and her
finances rapidly waste