E ---- 181

CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.
I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF RECREANT PAYNIMS, AND AM
REDUCED TO A STATE OF MISERABLE SLAVERY 196

CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.
AFTER MANY SURPRISING VICISSITUDES, J. DANGEROUS
BECOMES BESTUSCHID BASHAW 230

CHAPTER THE NINTH AND LAST.
OF MY SERVICE UNDER THE GREAT TURK AS A BASHAW; OF
MY ADVENTURES IN RUSSIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES; AND
OF MY COMING HOME AT LAST AND BUYING MY GRANDMOTHER'S
HOUSE (WHICH IS NOW MINE) IN HANOVER SQUARE. 272

* * * * *

THE STRANGE ADVENTURES

OF

CAPTAIN DANGEROUS.

=A Narrative in Old fashioned English.=

CHAPTER THE FIRST.

I SEE MUCH OF THE INSIDE OF THE WORLD, AND THEN GO RIGHT ROUND IT.

1748. I was not yet Forty years of age, Hale and Stout, Comely
enough,--so said Mistress Prue and many other damsels,--with a Military
Education, an approved reputation for Valour, and very little else
besides. A gentleman at large, with a purse well-nigh as slender as an
ell-wand, and as wobegone as a dried eel-skin. But I was never one that
wanted many Superfluities; and having no Friends in the world, was of a
most Contented Disposition.

Some trouble, indeed, must I have with that luckless Mistress Prue, the
Waiting-Maid--sure, I did the girl no Harm, beyond whispering a little
soft nonsense in her ear now and then. But she must needs have a
succession of Hysterical Fits after my departure from the Tower, and
write me many scores of Letters couched in the most Lamentable
Rigmarole, threatening to throw herself into Rosamond's Pond in St.
James's Park (then a favourite Drowning-Place for Disconsolate Lovers),
with many other nonsensical Menaces. But I was firm to my Determination
to do her no harm, and therefore carefully abstained from answering any
of her letters. She did not break her heart; but (being resolved to wed
one that wore the King's cloth) she married Miles Bandolier about three
months after my Departure, and broke his head, ere the Honeymoon was
over, with a Bed-staff. A most frivolous Quean this, and I well rid of
her.

Coming out of the Tower, I took lodgings for a season in Great Ryder
Street, St. James's, and set up for a Person of Pleasure. There were
many Military Officers of my Acquaintance who honoured me with their
company over a Bottle, for even as a