and
fear she knows me too.

_Tow._ Pray, countrywoman, speak.

_Eng Wom._ Then thus in brief; in my dear husband's company, I parted
from our sweet native isle: we to Lantore were bound, with letters
from the States of Holland, gained for reparation of great damages
sustained by us; when, by the insulting Dutch, our countrymen, against
all show of right, were dispossessed, and naked sent away from that
rich island, and from Poleroon.

_Har. Sen._ Woman, you speak with too much spleen; I must not hear my
countrymen affronted.

_Eng. Wom.._ I wish they did not merit much worse of me, than I can
say of them.--Well, we sailed forward with a merry gale, till near St
Helen's isle we were overtaken, or rather waylaid, by a Holland
vessel; the captain of which ship, whom here I see, the man who
quitted us of all we had in those rich parts before, now fearing to
restore his ill-got goods, first hailed, and then invited us on board,
keeping himself concealed; his base lieutenant plied all our English
mariners with wine, and when in dead of night they lay secure in
silent sleep, most barbarously commanded they should be thrown
overboard.

_Fisc._ Sir, do not hear it out.

_Har. Sen._ This is all false and scandalous.

_Tow._ Pray, sir, attend the story.

_Eng. Wom._ The vessel rifled, and the rich hold rummaged, they sink
it down to rights; but first I should have told you, (grief, alas, has
spoiled my memory) that my dear husband, wakened at the noise, before
they reached the cabin where we lay, took me all trembling with the
sudden fright, and leapt into the boat; we cut the cordage, and so put
out to sea, driving at mercy of the waves and wind; so scaped we in
the dark. To sum up all, we got to shore, and in the mountains hid us,
until the barbarous Hollanders were gone.

_Tow._ Where is your husband, countrywoman?

_Eng. Wom._ Dead with grief; with these two hands I scratched him out
a grave, on which I placed a cross, and every day wept o'er the ground
where all my joys lay buried. The manner of my life, who can express!
the fountain-water was my only drink; the crabbed juice and rhind of
half-ripe lemons almost my only food, except some roots; my house, the
widowed cave of some wild beast. In this sad state, I stood upon the
shore, when this brave captain with his ship approached, whence
holding up and waving both my hands, I stood, and by my actions begged
their mercy; yet, when they nearer came, I would have