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at her husband's desire, began the relation from the first renewal of Wild's acquaintance with him; but, though this recapitulation was necessary for the information of our good magistrate, as it would be useless, and perhaps tedious, to the reader, we shall only repeat that part of her story to which only he is a stranger, beginning with what happened to her after Wild had been turned adrift in the boat by the captain of the French privateer.

CHAPTER VII.

Mrs. Heartfree relates her adventures.

MRS. HEARTFREE proceeded thus: The vengeance which 'the French captain exacted on that villain (our hero), ' persuaded me that I was fallen into the hands of a man of 'honour and justice; nor, indeed, was it possible for any เ person to be treated with more respect and civility than I 'now was; but this could not mitigate my sorrows, when I ' reflected on the condition in which I had been betrayed to 'leave all that was dear to me, much less could it produce 'such an effect, when I discovered, as I soon did, that I 'owed it chiefly to a passion, which threatened me with great uneasiness, as it quickly appeared to be very violent, and as I was absolutely in the power of the person who possessed it, or was rather possessed by it. I must however 'do him the justice to say my fears carried my suspicions 'farther than I afterwards found I had any reason to carry 'them he did indeed very soon acquaint me with his passion, and used all those gentle methods, which frequently succeed with our sex, to prevail with me to gratify 'it; but never once threatened, nor had the least recourse เ to force. He did not even once insinuate to me, that I

was totally in his power, which I myself sufficiently saw, and whence I drew the most dreadful apprehensions, well knowing, that as there are some dispositions so brutal, that cruelty adds a zest and savour to their pleasures; so there are others whose gentler inclinations ' are better gratified when they win us by softer methods to comply with their desires; yet that even these may 'be often compelled by an unruly passion to have recourse เ at last to the means of violence, when they despair of success from persuasion; but I was happily the captive ' of a better man. My conqueror was one of those over 'whom vice hath a limited jurisdiction; and though he was too easily prevailed on to sin, he was proof against any temptation to villany.

We had been two days almost totally becalmed, when, a brisk gale rising as we were in sight of Dunkirk, we saw a vessel making full sail towards us. The captain of the privateer was so strong that he ' apprehended no danger but from a man of war, which 'the sailors discerned this not to be. He therefore struck 'his colours, and furled his sails as much as possible, in 'order to lie by and expect her, hoping she might be a prize.' (Here Heartfree smiling, his wife stopped, and inquired the cause. He told her it was from her using the sea terms so aptly: she laughed, and answered, he would wonder less at this when he heard the long time she had been on board: and then proceeded.) This ' vessel now came along-side of us, and hailed us, having perceived that, on which we were on board, to be of ' her own country; they begged us not to put into Dun'kirk, but to accompany them in their pursuit of a large English merchantman, whom we should easily overtake, ' and both together as easily conquer. Our captain 'immediately consented to this proposition, and ordered 'all his sail to be crowded. This was most unwelcome

news to me; however, he comforted me all that he could by assuring me I had nothing to fear, that he would be so far from offering the least rudeness to me himself, that he would, at the hazard of his life, protect 'me from it. This assurance gave me all the consolation ' which my present circumstances and the dreadful appre'hensions I had on your dear account would admit.' (At which words the tenderest glances passed on both sides between the husband and wife.) We sailed near twelve hours, when we came in sight of the ship we were in pursuit of, and which we should probably have soon ' come up with, had not a very thick mist ravished her 'from our eyes. This mist continued for several hours, ' and when it cleared up, we discovered our companion at a great distance from us; but what gave us (I mean the เ captain and his crew) the greatest uneasiness was the sight of a very large ship within a mile of us, which presently saluted us with a gun, and now appeared to be 'a third-rate English man of war. Our captain declared 'the impossibility of either fighting or escaping, and accordingly struck, without waiting for the broadside 'which was preparing for us, and which perhaps would 'have prevented me from the happiness I now enjoy.' This occasioned Heartfree to change colour, his wife therefore passed hastily to circumstances of a more smiling complexion.

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'I greatly rejoiced at this event, as I thought it would not only restore me to the safe possession of my jewels, but to what I value beyond all the treasure in the uni' verse. My expectation, however, of both these was 'somewhat crossed for the present; as to the former, I was told they should be carefully preserved; but that I 'must prove my right to them before I could expect their ' restoration; which, if I mistake not, the captain did not very eagerly desire I should be able to accomplish: and

as to the latter, I was acquainted that I should be put on 'board the first ship which they met on her way to Eng'land, but that they were proceeding to the West Indies.

'I had not been long on board the man of war, before 'I discovered just reason rather to lament than to rejoice ' at the exchange of my captivity; for such I concluded เ my present situation to be. I had now another lover in the captain of this Englishman, and much rougher and less gallant than the Frenchman had been. He 'used me with scarce common civility, as indeed he 'shewed very little to any other person, treating his 'officers little better than a man of no great goodbreeding would exert to his meanest servant, and that 'too on some very irritating provocation. As for me, he 'addressed me with the insolence of a basha to a Cir'cassian slave; he talked to me with the loose license ' in which the most profligate libertines converse with harlots, and which women, abandoned only in a 'moderate degree, detest and abhor. He often kissed 'me with very rude familiarity, and one day attempted 'further brutality; when a gentleman on board, and 'who was in my situation, that is, had been taken by ' a privateer and was retaken, rescued me from his 'hands; for which the captain confined him, though he เ was not under his command, two days in irons; when เ he was released (for I was not suffered to visit him in 'his confinement) I went to him and thanked him, with 'the utmost acknowledgment, for what he had done and 'suffered on my account. The gentleman behaved to 'me in the handsomest manner on this occasion; told me 'he was ashamed of the high sense I seemed to enter'tain of so small an obligation of an action to which his duty as a Christian, and his honour as a man, 'obliged him. From this time I lived in great fami'liarity with this man, whom I regarded as my pro

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tector, which he professed himself ready to be on all 'occasions, expressing the utmost abhorrence of the captain's brutality, especially that shewn towards me, and the tenderness of a parent for the preservation of my virtue, for which I was not myself more 'solicitous than he appeared. He was, indeed, the only man I had hitherto met since my unhappy departure, who did not endeavour by all his looks, words, and actions, to assure me he had a liking to my unfortunate เ person. The rest seeming desirous of sacrificing the 'little beauty they complimented to their desires, with' out the least consideration of the ruin which I earnestly represented to them they were attempting to bring on me and on my future repose.

'I now passed several days pretty free from the cap'tain's molestation, till one fatal night:' here, perceiving Heartfree grew pale, she comforted him by an assurance, that heaven had preserved her chastity, and again had restored her unsullied to his arms. She continued thus:

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Perhaps I gave it a wrong epithet in the word fatal: but a wretched night, I am sure I may call it, for no woman, who came off victorious, was, I believe ever in greater danger. One night, I say, having drank 'his spirits high with punch, in company with the . purser, who was the only man in the ship he admitted 'to his table, the captain sent for me into his cabin; whither, though unwilling, I was obliged to go. We 'were no sooner alone together than he seized me by 'the hand, and after affronting my ears with discourse ' which I am unable to repeat, he swore a great oath that his passion was to be dallied with no longer: 'that I must not expect to treat him in the manner 'to which a set of blockhead landmen submitted. None of your coquet airs, therefore, with me, Madam, said he, for I have resolved to have you this night. No

VOL. IV.

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