the vulgar creatures
on board. In this resolve I think my mother was right; but her dismissal
and disgrace was followed up by my father being disrated and turned into
the maintop, for 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.