general." It
repudiates, without explaining away, certain unpleasant impressions
that even the careful reader of to-day cannot entirely avoid. Marryat
made Frank Mildmay a scamp, I am afraid, in order to prove that
he himself had not stood for the portrait; but he clearly did not
recognise the full enormities of his hero, to which he was partially
blinded by a certain share thereof. The adventures were admittedly his
own, they were easily recognised, and he had no right to complain
of being confounded with the insolent young devil to whom they were
attributed. It would, however, be at once ungracious and unprofitable
to attempt any analysis of the points of difference and resemblance;
any reader will detect the author's failings by his work; other
coincidences may be noticed here.

It has been said, in the general introduction, that Marryat's cruises
in the _Imperieuse_ are almost literally described in _Frank Mildmay_.
We have also independent accounts of certain personal adventures there
related.

The episode, chap, iv., of being bitten by a skate--supposed to be
dead--which is used again in _Peter Simple_, came from Marryat's own
experience; and he declared that he ran away from school on account
of the very indignity--that of being compelled to wear his elder
brother's old clothes--which Frank Mildmay pleads as an excuse for
sharing at least the sentiments of Cain. Marryat, again, was trampled
upon and left for dead when boarding an enemy (see chap, v.); he
saved the midshipman who had bullied him, from drowning, though his
reflections on the occasion are more edifying than those recounted in
chap. v. "From that moment," he says, "I have loved the fellow as I
never loved friend before. All my hate is forgotten. I have saved
his life." The defence of the castle of Rosas, chap, vii., is taken
straight from his private log-book; while Marshall's Naval Biography
contains an account of his volunteering during a gale to cut away the
main-yard of the _Aeolus_, which scarcely pales before the vigorous
passage in chap. xiv.:--

"On the 30th of September, 1811, in lat. 40 deg. 50' N., long. 65
deg. W. (off the coast of New England), a gale of wind commenced at
S.E., and soon blew with tremendous fury; the _Aeolus_ was laid on
her beam ends, her top-masts and mizen-masts were literally blown
away, and she continued in this extremely perilous situation for
at least half-an-hour. Directions were given