in from
making free with some money with which he was intrusted by his officer;
being detected, he was punished with that rigorous severity with which
thefts in the army usually are, and being afterwards thrown into the
Savoy prison, to prevent a repetition of his crime, he died there in a
few days of his wounds in the utmost misery. When the Bramin had
finished this melancholy tale, the poor wolf, as if he was conscious
how nearly it concerned him, heightened the horrour with which it had
filled us by such a mournful and terrifying howl, as made us heartily
glad to quit the room."

CHAP. VII.

_Of the wonderful Transmigration of Master_ RICHARD RUSTICK _into the
Body of a Bear._

In the next apartment into which Mr. _Wiseman_ conducted us, we saw the
cub of a bear, who lay upon the floor to which he was chained, without
having the good manners to rise when we entered; but when the Bramin
applied his wand to young Bruin's buttocks, he heaved up his shaggy
hide with a kind of lazy resentment, and saluted us with a reluctant
grin and a savage growl, which plainly intimated that he did not think
himself much beholden to us for our company. "This young brute, said
our conductor, is animated by the soul of the late matter _Rustick_, of
clownish memory. His father was a gentleman of rank and fortune, and
greatly beloved and respected by all his acquaintance; and if his son
Richard had possessed the same virtues and accomplishments, he might
afterwards have enjoyed his title and estate with equal comfort and
reputation. But as merit does not go by inheritance, like house and
land, young _Rustick's_ character was entirely the reverse of his
father's. He was of an awkward clumsy make; and the heaviness of his
disposition, and the coarseness of his manners perfectly corresponded
with the shape of his body. Though he was sent to school very early,
and put under the care of the best instructors which the country
afforded, he was a considerable time before he could tell his letters,
and much longer before he could read with tolerable accuracy: and even
then he pronounced every thing with such a clownish accent and such a
drawling tone, that any stranger would have taken him for a young
country bumkin, who had been used to follow the plow tail, and not for
the son and heir of a wealthy gentleman. He was equally eminent for his
neatness and dexterity in the art of penmanship; for, even when he was
twelve years old, if you