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_ The author makes most humble apologies to any who have, or think they
have, an ancestor in this book. He has drawn the foregoing with a very
free hand, and in the Maryland scenes has made use of names rather than
of actual personages. His purpose, however poorly accomplished, was to
give some semblance of reality to this part of the story. Hence he has
introduced those names in the setting, choosing them entirely at random
from the many prominent families of the colony.
No one may read the annals of these men, who were at once brave and
courtly, and of these women, who were ladies by nature as well as by
birth, and not love them. The fascination of that free and hospitable
life has been so strong on the writer of this novel that he closes it
with a genuine regret and the hope that its perusal may lead others to
the pleasure he has derived from the history of Maryland.
As few liberties as possible have been taken with the lives of Charles
James Fox and of John Paul Jones. The latter hero actually made a voyage
in the brigantine 'John' about the time he picked up Richard Carvel from
the Black Moll, after the episode with Mungo Maxwell at Tobago. The
Scotch scene, of course, is purely imaginary. Accuracy has been aimed at
in the account of the fight between the 'Bonhomme Richard' and the
'Serapis', while a little different arrangement might have been better
for the medium of the narrative. To be sure, it was Mr. Mease, the
purser, instead of Richard Carvel, who so bravely fought the quarter-deck
guns; and in reality Midshipman Mayrant, Commodore Jones's aide, was
wounded by a pike in the thigh after the surrender. No injustice is done
to the second and third lieutenants, who were absent from the ship during
the action.
The author must acknowledge that the only good anecdote in the book and
the only verse worth printing are stolen. The story on page concerning
Mr. Garrick and the Archbishop of York may be found in Fitzgerald's life
of the actor, much better told. The verse (in Chapter X) is by an
unknown author in the Annapolis Gazette, and is republished in Mr. Elihu
Riley's excellent "History of Annapolis."
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
It is sorrow which lifts us nearest to heaven
Sir, I have not yet begun to fight
THE END.
Richard Carvel, by Winston Churchill (An American novelist, not Sir Winston Churchill) _
Read previous: VOLUME 8: CHAPTER LVII. I come to my Own again
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