220 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS
mistakenly, that Alexander, or Ajax, or Achilles, would suffice to overcome the patronymic blight.
All which is but a prelude to the introduction of Raphael Semmes. Is not the name a jewel in itself? In Latin countries Raphael may be a fairly common appel- lation ; but we Saxons are usually familiar with only three instances of it, two artists and an archangel. Ele- ments of both these characters appear in the subject be- fore us, but I think the artist predominated and the other irresistibly suggests Lamb's description of Coleridge, "an archangel — a little damaged."
Really, for a pirate, could anything be finer than "Raphael Semmes" ? And it is always as a pirate that I shuddered at the commander of the Alabama in my boy- hood dreams. I thought of him as a joyous freebooter, a Kidd, or a Red Rover, or a Cleveland, skimming the blue main like a bird of prey, eager to plunder and de- stroy, young, vigorous, splendidly bloodthirsty, gay in lace and gold, perhaps with the long locks, which, Plu- tarch assures us, make lovers more lovely and pirates more terrible. I cherished this vision even while I knew only vaguely of a certain Semmes. When better knowl- edge added ** Raphael," my dream became complete.
Now it must go with the other dreams of boyhood ; for better knowledge still assures me that the man was not a pirate at all. I have his own word for this — or words, some hundred and fifty thousand of them. I have also most touching and impressive narratives of his
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