: band! Is this the condition in which I find you make him wait no longer; then, with the deepest sigh, cried, "O my angel!" and embracing his wife with the utmost eagerness, kissed her pale lips with more fervency than ever bridegroom did the blushing cheeks of his bride; he then cried, "The Almighty bless thee, and, if it be his pleasure, restore thee to life! if not, I beseech him we may presently meet again, in a better world than this." He was breaking from her, when, perceiving her sense returning, he could not forbear renewing his embrace, and again pressing her lips, which now recovered life and warmth so fast, that he begged one ten minutes more to tell her what her swooning had prevented her hearing. The worthy commander, being perhaps a little touched at this tender scene, took Friendly aside, and asked him, what he would give if he would suffer his friend to remain half an hour? Friendly answered, "Any thing; that he had no more money in his pocket, but he would certainly pay him that afternoon." "Well, then, I'll be moderate," said he, "twenty guineas." Friendly answered, "It is a bargain." The commander having exacted a firm promise, cried, "Then I don't care if they stay a whole hour together, for what signifies hiding good news?-The gentleman is reprieved;"-of which he had just before received notice in a whisper. It would be very impertinent to offer at a description of the joy this occasioned to the two friends, or to Mrs Heartfrec, who was now again recovered. A surgeon, who was happily present, was employed to bleed them all. After which the commander, who had the promise of the money again confirmed to him, wished Heartfree joy, and shaking him very friendly by the hands, cleared the room of all the company, and lett the three friends together. CHAP. VI. ed for. This tender wretched couple were now retired for these few minutes, which the commander without carefully measured with his watch; and Heartfree was mustering all his resolution to part with what his soul so ardently doated on, and to conjure her to support his loss for the sake of her poor infants, and to comfort her with the promise of Friendly on their account; In which the foregoing happy Incident is accountbut all his design was frustrated. Mrs Heartfree could not support the shock, but again fainted away, and so entirely lost every symptom of life, that Heart free called vehemently for assistance. Friendly rushed first into the room, and was soon followed by many others; and, what was remarkable, one who had unmoved beheld the tender scene between these parting lovers, was touched to the quick by the pale looks of the woman, and ran up and down for water, drops, &c. with the utmost hurry and confusion. The ten minutes were expired, which the commander now hinted, and seeing nothing offered for the renewal of the term, (for indeed Friendly had unhappily emptied his pockets), he began to grow very importunate, and at last told Hearttree, "He should be ashamed not to act more like a man." Heart free begged his parden, and said, he would BUT here, though I am convinced my goodnatured reader may almost want the surgeon's assistance also, and that there is no passage in this whole story which can afford him equal delight; yet, lest our reprieve should seem to resemble that in the Beggar's Opera, I shall endeavour to shew him, that this incident, which is undoubtedly true, is at least as natural as delightful; for we assure him, we would rather have suffered half mankind to be hanged, than have saved one contrary to the strictest rules of writing and probability. Be it known, then, (a circumstance which I think highly credible,) that the great Fireblood had been, a few days before, taken in the fact of a robbery, and carried before the same justice of peace who had, on his evidence, committed Heartfree to prison. This magistrate, who did indeed no small honour to the commission he bore, duly considered the weighty charge committed to him, by which he was entrusted with decisions affecting the lives, liberties, and properties of his countrymen; he, therefore, examined always with the utmost diligence and caution into every minute circumstance. And, as he had a good deal balanced, even when he committed Heartfree, on the excellent character given him by Friendly and the maid; and as he was much staggered on finding that of the two persons on whose evidence alone Heartfree had been committed, and had been since convicted, one was in Newgate for a felony, and the other was now brought before him for a robbery; he thought proper to put the matter very home to Fireblood at this time. The young Achates was taken, as we have said, in the fact; so that denial, he saw, was in vain. He, therefore, honestly confessed what he knew must be proved; and desired, on the merit of the discoveries he made, to be admitted as an evidence against his accomplices. This afforded the happiest opportunity to the justice, to satisfy his conscience in relation to Heartfree. He told Fireblood, that, if he expected the favour he solicited, it must be on condition that he revealed the whole truth to him concerning the evidence which he had lately given against a bankrupt, and which some circumstances had induced a suspicion of; that he might depend on it the truth would be discovered by other means, and gave some oblique hints (a deceit entirely justifiable), that Wild himself had offered such a discovery. The very mention of Wild's name immediately alarmed Fireblood, who did not in the least doubt the readiness of that GREAT MAN to hang any of the gang, when his own interest seemed to require it. He, therefore, hesitated not a moment, but having obtained a promise from the justice that he should be accepted as an evidence, he discovered the whole falsehood, and declared that he had been seduced by Wild to depose as he had done. The justice having thus luckily and timely discovered this scene of villainy, alias greatness, lost not a moment in using his utmost endeavours to get the case of that unhappy convict represented to the sovereign, who immediately granted him that gracious reprieve, which caused such happiness to the persons concerned; and which, we hope, we have now accounted for to the satisfaction of the reader. The good magistrate having obtained this reprieve for Heartfree, thought it incumbent on him to visit him in the prison, and to sound, if possible, the depth of this affair; that if he should appear as innocent as he now began to conceive him, he might use all imaginable methods to obtain his pardon and enlargement. The next day, therefore, after that when the miserable scene above-described had passed, he went to Newgate, where he found those three persons, viz. Heartfree, his wife, and Friendly, sitting together. The justice informed the prisoner of the confession of Fireblood, with the steps which he had taken upon it. The reader will easily conceive the many outward thanks, as well as inward gratitude, which he received from all three; but these were of very little consequence to him, compared with the secret satisfaction he felt in his mind, from reflecting on the preservation of innocence, as he soon after very clearly perceived was the case. When he entered the room, Mrs Heartfree was speaking with some earnestness: as he perceived, therefore, he had interrupted her, he begged she would continue her discourse, which, if he prevented by his presence, he desired to depart; but Heartfree would not suffer it. He said, she had been relating some adventures, which, perhaps, might entertain him to hear, and which she the rather desired he would hear, as they might serve to illustrate the foundation on which this falsehood had been built, which had brought on her husband all his misfortunes. The justice very gladly consented; and Mrs Heartfree, 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 he is only a stranger, beginning with what happened to her after Wild had been turned adrift in the boat, by the captain of the French privateer. CHAP. 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 person to be treated with more respect and civility than I now was. But if 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 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 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 villainy. "We had been two days almost totally becalmned, when a brisk gale arising, 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 seaterms 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 alongside of us, and hailed us, having perceived that on which we were aboard to be of her own country. They begged us not to put into Dunkirk, 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 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 apprehensions 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 several hours, and when it cleared up we discovered our companion at a great distance from us; but what gave us (I mean the 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. "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 universe. 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 England; but that they were proceeding to the West Indies. "I had not been long on board the mau of war, before I discovered just reason rather to lament than to rejoice at the exchange of my captivity, for such I concluded 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 good-breeding 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 Circassian slave; he talked to me with the loose licence 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 was not under his command, two days in irons. When 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 entertain 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 familiarity with this man, whom I regarded as my protector, which he professed himself ready to be on all occasions, expressing the ut At most abhorrence of the captain's brutality, espe-Oh!' said he, if that be all, you shall have cially that shewn towards me; and the tender- punch enough to drown yourself in.' At which ness of a parent for the preservation of my vir- words he rung the bell, and ordered in a galtue, for which I was not myself more solicitous lon of that liquor. I was, in the mean time, than he appeared. He was, indeed, the only obliged to suffer his nauseous kisses, and some man I had hitherto met, since my unhappy de- rudenesses which I had great difficulty to reparture, who did not endeavour, by all his looks, strain within moderate bounds. When the words, and actions, to assure me he had a liking punch came in, he took up the bowl and drank to my unfortunate person; the rest seeming de- my health ostentatiously, in such a quantity, sirous of sacrificing the little beauty they com- that it considerably advanced my scheme. I plimented to their desires, without the least con- followed him with bumpers as fast as possible, sideration of the ruin which I earnestly repre- and was myself obliged to drink so much, that sented to them they were attempting to bring at another time it would have staggered my own on me, and on my future repose. reason, but at present it did not affect me. length, perceiving him very far gone, I watched an opportunity, and ran out of the cabin, resolving to seek protection of the sea, if I could find no other: But Heaven was now graciously pleased to relieve me; for, in his attempt to pursue me, he reeled backwards, and falling down the cabin stairs, he dislocated his shoulder, and so bruised himself, that I was not only preserved that night from any danger of my intended ravisher, but the accident threw him into a fever, which endangered his life, and whether he ever recovered or no I am not certain; for, during his delirious fits, the eldest lieutenant commanded the ship. This was a virtuous and a brave fellow, who had been twenty-five years in that post without being able to obtain a ship, and had seen several boys, the bastards of noblemen, put over his head. One day, while the ship remained under his command, an English vessel, bound to Cork, passed by; myself and my friend, who had formerly lain two days in irons on my account, went on board this ship, with the leave of the good lieutenant, who made us such presents as he was able of provisions, and congratulating me on my delivery from a danger to which none of the ship's crew had been strangers, he kindly wished us both a safe voyage." "I now passed several days pretty free from the captain'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. "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 am resolved to have you this night. No struggling nor squawling, for both will be impertinent. The first man who offers to come in here, I will have his skin flea'd off at the gangway.' He then attempted to pull me violently towards his bed. I threw myself on my knees, and with tears and entreaties besought his compassion; but this was, I found, to no purpose: I then had recourse to threats, and endeavoured to frighten him with the con- In which Mrs Heartfree continues the relation of sequence; but neither had this, though it seemed to stagger him more than the other method, sufficient force to deliver me. At last a stratagem came into my head, of which my perceiving him reel, gave me the first hint. I entreated a moment's reprieve only, when collecting all the spirits I could muster, I put on a constrained air of gaiety, and told him, with an affected laugh, he was the roughest lover I had ever met with, and that I believed I was the first woman he had paid his addresses to. Addresses,' said he, 'd-n your addresses-I want to undress you.' I then begged him to let us drink some punch together, for that I loved a cann as well as himself, and never would grant the favour to any man till I had drank a hearty glass with him. CHAP. VIII. her Adventures. "THE first evening after we were aboard this vessel, which was a brigantine, we being then at no very great distance from the Madeiras, the most violent storm arose from the north-west, in which we presently lost both our masts; and indeed death now presented itself as inevitable to us.-I need not tell my Tommy what were then my thoughts. Our danger was so great, that the captain of the ship, a professed atheist, betook himself to prayers, and the whole crew, abandoning themselves for lost, fell with the utmost eagerness to the emptying a cask of brandy, not one drop of which, they swore, should be polluted with salt-water. I observed here, my old friend displayed less courage than I expect ed from him; he seemed entirely swallowed up in despair. But, Heaven be praised! we were all at last preserved. The storm, after above eleven hours continuance, began to abate, and by degrees entirely ceased; but left us still rolling at the mercy of the waves, which carried us, at their own pleasure, to the south-east, a vast number of leagues. Our crew were all dead drunk with the brandy which they had taken such care to preserve from the sea; but, indeed, had they been awake, their labour would have been of very little service, as we had lost all our rigging; our brigantine being reduced to a naked hulk only. In this condition we floated above thirty hours, till in the midst of a very dark night we espied a light, which seeming to approach us, grew so large, that our sailors concluded it to be the lantern of a man of war; but when we were cheering ourselves with the hopes of our deliverance from this wretched situation, on a sudden, to our great concern, the light entirely disappeared, and left us in a despair, increased by the remembrance of those pleasing imaginations with which we had entertained our minds during its appearance. The rest of the night we passed in melancholy conjectures on the light which had deserted us, which the major part of the sailors concluded to be a meteor. In this distress we had one comfort, which was a plentiful store of provision; this so supported the spirits of the sailors, that they declared, had they but a sufficient quantity of brandy, they cared not whether they saw land for a month to come: but, indeed, we were much nearer it than we imagined, as we perceived at break of day. One of the most knowing of the crew declared we were near the continent of Africa; but when we were within three leagues of it, a second violent storm arose from the north, so that we again gave over all hopes of safety. This storm was not quite so outrageous as the former, but of much longer continuance, for it lasted near three days, and drove us an immense number of leagues to the south. We were within a league of the shore, expecting every moment our ship to be dashed to pieces, when the tempest ceased all on a sudden; but the waves still continued to roll like mountains, and before the sea recovered its calm motion, our ship was thrown so near the land, that the captain ordered out his boat, declaring he had scarce any hopes of saving her; and, indeed, we had not quitted her many minutes, before we saw the justness of his apprehensions, for she struck against a rock, and immediately sunk. The behaviour of the sailors on this occasion very much affected me; they beheld their ship perish with the tenderness of a lover or a parent; they spoke of her as the fondest husband would of his wife, and many of them, who seemed to have no tears in their composition, shed them plentifully at her sinking. The captain himself cried out, Go thy way, charming Molly, the sea never devoured a lovelier morsel. If I have fifty vessels, I shall never love another like thee. Poor slut! I shall remember thee to my dying day.'-Well, the boat now conveyed us all safe on shore, where we landed with very little difficulty. It was now about noon, and the rays of the sun, which descended almost perpendicular on our heads, were extremely hot and troublesome. However, we travelled through this extreme heat about five miles over a plain. This brought us to a vast wood, which extended itself as far as we could see both to the right and left, and seemed to me to put an entire end to our progress. Here we decreed to rest, and dine on the provisions which we had brought from the ship, of which we had sufficient for very few meals; our boat being so overloaded with people, that we had very little room for luggage of any kind. Our repast was salt pork broiled, which the keenness of hunger made so delicious to my companions, that they fed very heartily upon it. As for myself, the fatigue of my body, and the vexation of my mind, had so thoroughly weakened me, that I was almost entirely deprived of appetite, and the utmost dexterity of the most accomplished French cook would have been ineffectual, had he endeavoured to tempt me with delicacies. I thought myself very little a gainer by my late escape from the tempest, by which I seemed only to have exchanged the element in which I was presently to die. When our company had sufficiently, and indeed very plentifully, feasted themselves, they resolved to enter the wood, and endeavour to pass it, in expectation of finding some inhabitants, at least some provision. We proceeded therefore in the following order; one man in the front with a hatchet to clear our way, and two others followed him with guns to protect the rest from the wild beasts; then walked the rest of our company, and last of all the captain himself, being armed likewise with a gun, to defend us from any attack behind, in the rear, I think, you call it. And thus our whole company, being fourteen in number, travelled on till night overtook us, without seeing any thing unless a few birds, and some very insignificant animals. We rested all night under the covert of some trees, and indeed we very little wanted shelter at that season, the heat in the day being the only inclemency we had to combat with in this climate. I cannot help telling you, my old friend lay still nearest to me on the ground, and declared he would be my protector, should any of the sailors offer rudeness; but I can acquit them of any such attempt; nor was I ever affronted by any one, more than with a coarse expression, proceeding rather from the roughness and ignorance of their education, than from any abandoned principle, or want of humanity. "We had now proceeded very little way on our next day's march, when one of the sailors |