Read "Frank Mildmay" by Frederick Marryat online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Our boat has one sail, And the helmsman is pale; A bold pilot, I trow Who should follow us now," Shouted he. As he spoke, bolts of death Speck'd their path o'er the sea. "And fear'st thou, and fear'st thou? And see'st thou, and hear'st thou? And drive we not free O'er the terrible sea, I and thou? " SHELLEY.
The reader may think I was over fastidious when I inform him that I cannot describe the disgust I felt at the licentious impurity of manners which I found in the midshipmen's berth; for although my connection with Eugenia was not sanctioned by religion or morality, it was in other respects pure, disinterested, and, if I may use the expression, patriarchal, since it was unsullied by inconstancy, gross language, or drunkenness. Vicious I was, and I own it to my shame; but at least my vice was refined by Eugenia, who had no fault but one.