He wore a large pair of epaulettes; he was irritable in
his temper; and when roused, which was frequent, was always violent
and overbearing. His voice was like thunder, and when he launched out
on the poor midshipmen, they reminded me of the trembling bird which,
when fascinated by the eye of the snake, loses its powers, and falls
at once into the jaws of the monster. When much excited, he had a
custom of shaking his shoulders up and down; and his epaulettes, on
these occasions, flapped like the huge ears of a trotting elephant.
At the most distant view of his person or sound of his voice, every
midshipman, not obliged to remain, fled, like the land-crabs on a West
India beach. He was incessantly taunting me, was sure to find some
fault or other with me, and sneeringly called me "one of your frigate
midshipmen."
Irritated by this unjust treatment, I one day answered that I _was_
a frigate midshipman, and hoped I could do my duty as well as any
line-of-battle midshipman, of my own standing, in the service. For
this injudicious and rather impertinent remark, I was ordered aft on
the quarter-deck, and the captain went in to the admiral, and asked
permission to flog me; but the admiral refused, observing, that he did
not admire the system of flogging young gentlemen: and, moreover, that
in the present instance he saw no reason for it. So I escaped; but I
led a sad life of it, and often did I pray for the return of my own
ship.
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