tinctness of utterance,
but with an immovable gravity of countenance. I never saw a Man who was
manifestly so Drunk speak so sensibly, and behave himself in such a
proper manner in my life.

As he turned on his heel to leave the parlour where all this took place,
I saw one of the Bailiffs rise stealthily as if to follow us.

"Belay there!" the Captain cried, advancing his mahogany paw in a
warning manner. "Hold hard, shipmates. I'm a peaceable man, and aboard
they call me Billy the Lamb; but, by the Lord Harry, if I catch you
sneaking about, or trying to find out where I and this noble gentleman
be agoing, I'm blest if I don't split your skull in two with this here
speaking-trumpet." And so saying the Captain produced a very long tin
tube, such as Mariners carry to make their voices heard at a distance at
sea, but which they generally have aboard, and do not carry with them in
their walks.

The Bailiffs were sensible men, and forbore to intermeddle with us any
more. So we marched out of the House, it being now about nine o'clock at
night; and, upon my word, from that moment to this, I never set eyes
upon Madam Taffetas, or Dangerous, or Blokes,--for the Sea Captain's
name, he afterwards told me, was Blokes,--or whatever her real name was.
It is very certain that she used me most scandalously, and cruelly
betrayed the trusting confidence of one that was not only a Bachelor,
but an Orphan.

Captain Blokes was a strange character. We had a grand Carouse that
night, he paying the Shot like a gentleman; and over our flowing Bowls,
he told me that he had long had suspicions of his wife's real
character; and was, indeed, in possession of evidence (though he had
kept it secret) to prove that she had given herself in marriage to
another man before she had wedded him. And then, through the
serving-lad, he had heard that very morning, on his coming into the Pool
from Gravesend and Foreign Parts, that Madam, who thought him in China
at least, and hoped him Dead, was about to enter into Wedlock once
again; so that, determined to have Sport, he had well Primed himself
with Punch, and lurked about the neighbourhood until Monsieur Tomfool
and his Spouse (by which I mean myself, although no other man should
call me so) had come home from the Fleet. And so all the Crying, and
Lord ha' Mercies, of the Wench and the Boy, were all subterfuges; and
they knew very well, the sly rogues, that the Sea Captain would soon be
to the Fore.

N