IN WHICH MY MOTHER PROVES HERSELF A TENDER WIFE, AND AT THE SAME TIME
SHOWS HER PATRIOTISM AND DEVOTION TO HER COUNTRY.
I had almost unconsciously arrived at the age of two years before there
were any tidings of my father. All the information that my mother could
obtain was, that the ship's company of the Druid had been turned over to
another frigate called the Melpomene, the former having been declared
not seaworthy, and in consequence condemned and broken up at Port Royal.
But no letter had been received from my father, who indeed was not much
of a scholar; he could read, but he could not write. By this time my
mother's savings were expended, and she was in great tribulation lest
the deceit she had practised should be exposed. Indeed, there were
already many surmises as to the truth of her story, it being so long
that her husband had been absent. At last, when she had changed her
only remaining guinea, a letter arrived from my father, dated from
Portsmouth, stating that the ship was to be paid off in a few days, and
then "he would clap on all sail and be on board of his old woman in no
time."
My mother, although not a little disgusted at being called an old
woman--an affront which she determined to revenge upon a more fitting
occasion--was in raptures with the contents of the letter: she therefore
returned a kind answer, informing my father what a promising child he
was blessed with, and giving him a direction to meet her at Greenwich,
as she had resolved upon not receiving him at Woolwich, where her false
assertions would have been exposed. Going round to all her
acquaintances, she bade them farewell, telling them that her husband had
returned well, and _well to do_, and had ordered her to meet him at
Greenwich. Having thus satisfactorily, as she imagined, got out of this
little difficulty, she packed up and hastened to Greenwich, where she
sunk her assumed rank and waited very impatiently for her husband. He
came at last, seated with many others on the outside of a stage coach--
his hat bedecked with ribands, a pipe in one hand and flourishing a
pewter pot in the other. It hardly need be added that he was more than
half tipsy. Nevertheless, even in this state, he was well received; and
after he had smothered her with kisses, dandled me on his knee, thrown
into her lap all the pay he had left, and drank three more pots of
porter, they went very peaceably and lovingly to repose.
I regret to say that this amity did not last long. My father's manners,
which perhaps had been softened down by the awe which he had of Lady
Hercules when he first made my mother's acquaintance, were now more
coarse, and so was his language; and the neatness and cleanliness of
person which he was obliged to maintain while performing the duties of a
coxswain to a married captain were not so observable. Besides which,
being no longer under discipline, he was almost every night intoxicated;
and being so, was more self-willed and regardless of his wife's
injunctions: the consequences were, that having received from my father
fifty pounds, my mother first locked that up, and then "unlocked her
jaw." Disputes were now hourly occurring; and it was "now you're
vexed," and "hey diddle diddle," from morning till night.
My father would repair to the grog-shops to have a dance and carouse
with his messmates, and my mother would not accompany him to such a
vulgar place; consequently he went alone, was out very late, coming home
very drunk, if indeed he came home at all. Moreover, the wives and
companions of the other seamen would insult her when she walked out, for
pretending to be better than they were.
One day when she was walking out arm-in-arm with my father, unluckily
she was met by one of her Woolwich acquaintances. This was the severest
stroke of all, as she had intended to return to Woolwich; but now she
was discovered, and avoided by one party, as well as insulted by the
other. I cannot defend my mother's conduct; nor indeed was she
deserving of pity, as her treatment had been brought about by her own
folly and pride. The effect of all this was, however, that of souring
her temper still more; and the constant vituperation poured out upon my
father so roused his indignation, that one evening, when more than
usually intoxicated, the "lady's ladies' maid" received such a severe
box on the ear, that the one candle turned to a general illumination.
This blow was never forgotten nor forgiven, although my father was very
sorry for it, and begged her pardon the next day, with promises of
amendment.
Just at this time the French Revolution commenced, and there was
expectation of a war with France; the press-gangs were ordered out, and
the seamen, aware of it, remained concealed until they should leave the
town. But my mother had made up her mind: she found out an officer who
commanded one of the press-gangs, gave her address, and having supplied
my father with spirits until he was stupefied, she let in the gang, and
before morning my father was safe on board of the tender lying off the
Tower. This treachery on her part my father did not discover until some
time afterwards; and it was the occasion of a scene between them, as I
shall hereafter show. The next day my mother went on board of the
tender to visit my father, put her cambric handkerchief to her eyes,
pressed his hand between the iron bars, and lamented his hard fate, and
_her_ hard fate; but when requested by him to smuggle a little liquor in
a bladder to comfort him with, she tossed up her head, and declared
"that nothing could induce her to do anything so ungenteel." Whereupon
my father turned away, lamenting the day that ever he had married a
lady's ladies' maid.
A day or two afterwards my mother brought my father his kit of clothes,
and two pounds of his own money. As a war was expected, my mother would
have persuaded my father to give her his "will and power" to receive his
prize money; but my father, grown comparatively wiser, positively
refused. He turned away on his heel, and they parted.
I shall, for the present, leave my father to his fortunes, and follow
those of my mother. Convinced by his refusal to sign the deed, which
she had brought ready prepared with her, that she had little in future
to expect from my father, and aware probably of the risk incurred by a
seaman from "battle, fire, and wreck," she determined this time to
husband her resources, and try if she could not do some for herself. At
first she thought of going again into service and putting me out to
nurse; but she discovered that my father's return was not without its
consequences, and that she was again to be a mother. She therefore
hired rooms in Fisher's Alley, a small street still existing in
Greenwich, and indeed still a general thoroughfare. Here, in due time,
she was brought to bed of a daughter, whom she christened by the name of
Virginia; not so much out of respect to her last mistress, who bore that
name, as because she considered it peculiarly ladylike and genteel.