Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/45

36 And she was apparently rich, but not without some private pecuniary embarrassments.—A marriage however took place, and (like many other married couples) they were mutually deceived; for, previous to the ceremony, the lady being possessed of a more than ordinary share of precaution, settled all her real property on herself.—Scarcely had the honey-moon, that most delicious period in our lives, when all is bright and fair, elapsed, when a discovery was made, and a bitter digestion of its sweets consequently ensued. The addition also of an immense expense for deimurrage, by some informality in the proceedings relative to the detained vessels which were cleared, now overwhelmed him with a responsibility considerably beyond his means. He, however, had not yet swallowed the whole of the potion allotted him, the remainder of which awaited him in England, where, on his, return, he was not only arrested by his own creditors, but by those of his wife also; and by the union of both powers he speedily became immured in a prison, where he long remained, and thus was excluded from all active service. One circumstance, however, not greatly to be regretted, occurred a total separation from, his wife;—and thus was Captain Barrett's matrimonial bliss brought to a speedy conclusion. In 1806, being released from his confinement, he was soon after appointed to the Africa of sixty-four guns, at first stationed in the Channel fleet, and afterwards in the Baltic, where she was appointed to superintend the passage of convoys through the Sound, under the immediate orders of Admiral Sir Thomas Bertie.

While lying in the Malmuc passage, an attack was made on him by nearly forty Danish gun-vessels, and other boats. It has been justly observed, that a line-of-battle ship in a calm is like a giant struck with a dead palsy. The African, completely immoveable, received for more than an hour the fire of two divisions stationed a head and a-stern, while the bulk of the ship, and comparative smallness of the foe, rendered it impossible to hit them.—In