CHAPTER XCVIII.

"I am a poor postillion, as you see; yet, as I have seen a thing or two,
and heard a thing or two of what is going on in the world, perhaps what I
have to tell you connected with myself may not prove altogether
uninteresting. Now, my friends, this manner of opening a story is what
the man who taught rhetoric would call a hex--hex--"

"Exordium," said I.

"Just so," said the postillion; "I treated you to a per--per--peroration
some time ago, so that I have contrived to put the cart before the horse,
as the Irish orators frequently do in the honourable House, in whose
speeches, especially those who have taken lessons in rhetoric, the
per--per--what's the word?--frequently goes before the exordium.

"I was born in the neighbouring county; my father was land-steward to a
squire of about a thousand a year. My father had two sons, of whom I am
the youngest by some years. My elder brother was of a spirited, roving
disposition, and for fear that he should turn out what is generally
termed ungain, my father determined to send him to sea: so once upon a
time, when my brother was about fifteen, he took him to the great sea-
port of the county, where he apprenticed him to a captain of one of the
ships which trade to the high Barbary coast. Fine ships they were, I
have heard say, more than thirty in number, and all belonging to a
wonderful great gentleman, who had once been a parish boy, but had
contrived to make an immense fortune by trading to that coast for gold
dust, ivory and other strange articles; and for doing so, I mean for
making a fortune, had been made a knight baronet. So my brother went to
the high Barbary shore, on board the fine vessel, and in about a year
returned and came to visit us; he repeated the voyage several times,
always coming to see his parents on his return. Strange stories he used
to tell us of what he had been witness to on the high Barbary coast, both
off shore and on. He said that the fine vessel in which he sailed was
nothing better than a painted hell; that the captain was a veritable
fiend, whose grand delight was in tormenting his men, especially when
they were sick, as they frequently were, there being always fever on the
high Barbary coast; and that though the captain was occasionally sick
himself, his being so made no difference, or rather it did make a
difference, though for the worse, he being when sick always more
inveterate and malignant than at other times