must briefly speak. I conducted
my cousin to his father, as I had promised, and sought to reconcile
them. But I found my uncle to be harsher than I had expected. He had,
besides, married again, and his wife looked sourly on the blind man
she was asked to entertain in her house. The upshot of it was that I
told her if she would take care of Rupert till I was married I would
then have him to live with me. And in our house he still abides, a
much altered man, given to the hearing of sermons, and never so happy
as when Patience sits down to read him a piece from the Bible or the
_Norwich Journal_; though sometimes a flash of his old spirit returns
when I sit beside him after supper and talk over our old adventures in
the East.

I found it more difficult at first to befriend old Muzzy. For though
the old man professed to be, and I am sure really was, anxious to
reform and lead a better life, he made but a poor business of it, and
his constant profane oaths and habits of rum-drinking proved a severe
trial to my mother and Patience. I had told them of his many services
to me, including his having saved my life, and therefore they made it
a duty to show kindness to the old man, and endeavour to bear with
his ways. But I think they would have failed, and I should have been
obliged to find a home for him elsewhere, but for his having
accidentally told them of the affair outside Calcutta. No sooner did
these tender-hearted women learn that I had saved old Muzzy's life (as
they chose to consider it) than they instantly conceived a strong
affection for the old man, and instead of finding him a burden nothing
pleased them better than to sit in his company while the boatswain
related the story of my prowess, interrupting it at every minute to
excuse himself for some dreadful expression which had brought the
tears into their eyes. The tale lost nothing in the telling, and I am
ashamed to say that he so improved upon it in course of time as to
make it appear that I had marched single-handed through the Nabob's
entire army, severely wounded the Nabob himself, and slain many of his
principal generals, and finally emerged, carrying old Muzzy himself
across my shoulders like a suckling lamb.

Peace to old Muzzy! His heart was as innocent as his life and
conversation were depraved. I believe my mother used to buy tobacco
for him; and I am certain I once detected my wife secretly giving him
rum.

In this peaceful manner my adventures ende