interposed; when (according to the slip-knot of matrimony, which makes
them return to one another when any put in between) the ladies and their
husbands fell upon all the rest of the company; and having beat all
their friends and relations out of the house, came to themselves time
enough to know, there was no bearing the jest of the place after these
adventures, and therefore marched off the next day. It is said, the
governor has sent several joints of mutton, and has proposed divers
dishes very exquisitely dressed, to bring them down again. From his
address and knowledge in roast and boiled, all our hopes of the return
of this good company depend. I am,

"Dear Jenny,

"Your ready Friend

"And Servant,

"MARTHA TATLER."

White's Chocolate-house, June 30.

This day appeared here a figure of a person, whose services to the fair
sex have reduced him to a kind of existence, for which there is no name.
If there be a condition between life and death, without being absolutely
dead or living, his state is that. His aspect and complexion in his
robust days gave him the illustrious title of Africanus:[366] but it is
not only from the warm climates in which he has served, nor from the
disasters which he has suffered, that he deserves the same appellation
with that renowned Roman; but the magnanimity with which he appears in
his last moments, is what gives him the undoubted character of Hero.
Cato stabbed himself, and Hannibal drank poison; but our Africanus lives
in the continual puncture of aching bones and poisoned juices. The old
heroes fled from torments by death, and this modern lives in death and
torments, with a heart wholly bent upon a supply for remaining in them.
An ordinary spirit would sink under his oppressions; but he makes an
advantage of his very sorrow, and raises an income from his diseases.
Long has this worthy been conversant in bartering, and knows, that when
stocks are lowest, it is the time to buy. Therefore, with much prudence
and tranquillity, he thinks, that now he has not a bone sound, but a
thousand nodous parts for which the anatomists have not words, and more
diseases than the College ever heard of, it is the only time to purchase
an annuity for life. Sir Thomas[367] told me, it was an entertainment
more surprising and pleasant than can be imagined, to see an inhabitant
of neither world without hand to lift, or leg to move, scarce tongue to
utter his