| | 1 | Author: | Ingraham
J. H.
(Joseph Holt)
1809-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The midshipman, or, The corvette and brigantine  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The sun had just set behind a terrace of purple clouds, edged with silver
and lined with ermine, and gently the shadows of a mellow twilight were
stealing over the bright blue waters of the harbor of Portsmouth. Not a
zephyr stirred the pendulous leaf of the feathery elm, or mottled the placid
surface of the waters of the small but beautiful bay, with its islands like emeralds
in a setting of turquoise, rivalling the sunny green of its pleasant
shores. The sun had been down some minutes, yet the skies were as rich
with the beautiful dyes as the inner surface of an Indian pearl shell. The
waters, like a mirror of steel, caught the rosy colors, and blending and softening
them, reflected them back more beautiful still. The roofs and turrets
and spires of the old town were yet glowing and rich from the lavish treasures
of painted light, which the sun scattered behind him as he departed,
and the cot of the poor man was for awhile more gorgeously decorated with
mingled orange and crimson, than an eastern palace of pearls and rubies.
But the glories of twilight gradually faded as the gray shadows of evening
rose up from the sea, and crept upon the land, and covered the green hill
tops, till a quiet, sober hue rested upon water and land, and veiling the sky
let the stars be seen. Yet it was not night, but twilight lingering between
sunset and night; for the outlines of the roofs, the spires, the distant villas,
the remote hills, were all clear and defined. It was day arrayed in a quaker
garb. The tradesmen in the town closed their shutters and locked their
doors to go homeward, yet stopping awhile to chat with their neighbors opposite,
or ask the news of the day of some townsmen they meet, look up at
the sky and prophecy about the weather tomorrow, and wonder if the wind'll
be likely to be fair to bring the craft into port! The cows were all in from
pasture and snugly yoked to their stalls, the milk-maid having done her
snowy task; the tap-room groups gather about the stoops to smoke their
evening pipe and talk politics till it shall grow dark enough to go home;
the cart-horse and his master, the stout drayman, both have rest; and the
poor sewing girl relinquishes her hated needle, meekly receives her daily
pittance, puts on her cheap straw hat and cheaper shawl, and hurries thro'
the gathering darkness to her lodging room. The calm repose of evening
had settled upon land and water! Suddenly a flash reddened the atmosphere,
and a heavy gun fired from a corvette of twenty guns at anchor in
the stream, broke upon the sober quiet of the hour with startling distinctness.
The blue volumes of smoke had rolled sluggishly away from her
bows on the breezeless air and settled upon the water, ere a second gun was
discharged, which, like the other, reverberated through the close streets of
the town. A third report followed; and slowly and heavily the compact
mass of smoke moved towards the quay and covered the streets, tainting
the air breathed by the peaceful citizens with the warlike smell of powder. Dear Madam:—Since I have learned your son's resignation of a midshipman's
berth on account of a duel, I deem it my duty to advise you of certain matters,
touching finances, which I have withheld. I am led to this step from the
contents of a letter, received this morning by him, dated at Marseilles on the 1st
ult. What I wish to state is this. Besides your draft for five hundred dollars,
paid to supply him with funds to take away, he drew on me from Vera Cruz for
five hundred more, which draft I paid, having your instructions to supply him
with money whenever he wrote to this effect. From Havana, three weeks afterwards,
I received another draft at sight for three hundred dollars, which I also
paid. Subsequently I paid a draft from Smyrna for eight hundred dollars,
one from Constantinople for five hundred, and more recently two from Mahon,
one for six and the other for four hundred and fifty dollars; and this morning I
have received a brief letter from him, dated at Marseilles, desiring me to transmit
to him, without delay, two thousand dollars! As this amount will considerably
exceed what I hold at interest, I have concluded to advise you before remitting,
though having full confidence in your ability and willingness to refund
any advances I might make I trust, madam, that your son has not fallen into
evil habits; but the large sams he has drawn, and which could not be expended
on board ship, lead me to suspect he has not been pursuing a course altogether
upright. My dear Mother:—You will probably have learned by the time you get
this, that I have thrown up my birth in the navy, fought a duel, and wounded
my opponent. I am sorry to have to say to you that this is all true; though I do
not regret the transaction. I was insulted, not once only, but through a continued
series of petty insults, which no young man of spirit could put up with,
whether from a superior office or not. I recognise no rank above that which is
established in the bosom of every gentleman and man of honor. Accepting a
junior rank in the navy, does not make me less a gentleman, nor enjoin upon
me a slavish submission. I did but assert and maintain my right to courteous
treatment, and I was laughed at. I called out the officer who most provoked
me, and who took a pleasure in using his power to annoy me. He got behind
his privilege as my superior and refused to meet me. I promptly tendered my
resignation to the commander, and as a `gentleman,' as I was now acknowledged
to be, he was willing to meet me. We fought and he was wounded, but not so
severely as to endanger his life. I do not say a word to exculpate myself, for I
do not attach to my conduct any blame. My course would be approved by every
man of spirit; and since I was not compelled to remain in the navy to subsist,
you will not, dear mother, think I have done wrong in resenting insult and petty
tyranny. I remained a few days in Mahon, and came over here in a French
brig last week. Now I am in Europe, I shall avail myself of the opportunity
afforded me of travelling, and shall visit Paris and London. You may see me
home in about six months. I shall then remain with you, in your society and
that of Grace, to whom I enclose a line. I shall, I trust, perfectly enjoy myself. Dearest Grace:—With the vivid recollection of your parting words, reiterated
in your sweet letters to me, warning me firmly, but gently against my giving
way to what you termed my `peculiar notions of honor,' I scarcely know
how to address you. Before you receive this, the corvette will have reached
Boston, and the papers will probably have bruited the intelligence of a duel between
me and Lieutenant — .Now I am not about to defend myself. If you knew
the circumstances you would exculpate me, I am confident. I had borne with a
patience and forbearance which would have commanded your respect and approval;
injuries to my feelings, till patience was no longer a virtue, and forbear
ance became cowardice. Let me recount a few instances as a specimen of the
whole. I had been but three days out, and then ignorant of the peculiar exclusiveness
of the quarter deck, I was walking on the weather side, when the first
lieutenant seeing me, approached me and said in a peremptory tone— Dear Francis:—Your letter to me I have received and read with great care.
That you have done wrong in resigning and fighting a duel, there is no question.
By the one act you have sinned against God; by the other deprived yourself of
distinction in an honorable profession. But while I censure you I cannot but
feel that you have had provocation; but not enough to lead to such results. If
you had properly reflected upon the necessity of degrees of rank in the service,
and the necessity of discipline, you might have better borne the evils of a system
which originated in necessity. To obey is not degrading. To obey, one by no
means parts from one jot of his self-respect. Have you not heard the remark
that one must learn to obey before one can command! This, it strikes me, is
truth. William the Fourth was, when a prince, a midshipman, and obeyed like
others. Did he lose any of his real dignity of character? But it is past now,
Frank! I only wish you could have borne it with more forbearance still. But
to resign was enough. To resign at once freed you from your situation. It cured
at once the evil. What need was there to fight a duel afterwards? The evil of
which you complained no longer remained, why should you fight? Alas, I fear it
was a feeling of revenge that as ill became a gentleman as submission to authority,
Frank! After you had quit the navy you should have let the act thrown a veil
of oblivion over the past. You should have resigned to be free, not to take the
life of a foe. Your motive, therefore, in resigning was a bad one! When the
resignation in itself would free you from your condition, what was the use in
trying to blow out the lieutenant's brains afterwards? Your favor of August 1st, drawing on me at sight for two thousand dollars,
was duly received, and contents duly made known to your respected mother,
there not being funds in my hands sufficient to meet it. Your other drafts having
exhausted all but six hundred dollars, by a mortgage on Meadow Farm, and
forward it to you. I effected the mortgage, and was about to enclose you a bill
on Paris for two thousand dollars, when intelligence reached me that your
house had been destroyed the day before yesterday by fire. I shall therefore
wait further instructions from your mother before I remit; as doubtless she
may be put to straits for means under this calamity. Trusting, when you have
got through your wandering abroad, you will return to her who protected your
infancy, I am sir, `PIRACY!—ROBBERY OF THE BARQUE SELMA OF THIS PLACE,
OFF EASTPORT, THREE DAYS AGO! | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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