n;
I durst not presume to call; and if I had, it would have been in vain,
with such a voice as mine, at so great a distance from the room where I
lay to the kitchen where the family kept. While I was under these
circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards
and forwards on the bed. One of them came up almost to my face,
whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself.
These horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both sides, and
one of them held his fore-feet at my collar; but I had the good fortune
to rip up his belly before he could do me any mischief. He fell down at
my feet; and the other, seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape,
but not without one good wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled,
and made the blood run trickling from him. After this exploit, I walked
gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and loss of spirits.
These creatures were of the size of a large mastiff, but infinitely more
nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken off my belt before I went to
sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to pieces and devoured. I
measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long,
wanting an inch; but it went against my stomach to drag the carcass off
the bed, where it lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life,
but with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it.

Soon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all bloody, ran
and took me up in her hand. I pointed to the dead rat, smiling, and
making other signs to show I was not hurt; whereat she was extremely
rejoiced, calling the maid to take up the dead rat with a pair of tongs,
and throw it out of the window. Then she set me on a table, where I
showed her my hanger all bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of my coat,
returned it to the scabbard. I was pressed to do more than one thing
which another could not do for me, and therefore endeavoured to make my
mistress understand, that I desired to be set down on the floor; which
after she had done, my bashfulness would not suffer me to express myself
farther, than by pointing to the door, and bowing several times. The
good woman, with much difficulty, at last perceived what I would be at,
and taking me up again in her hand, walked into the garden, where she set
me down. I went on one side about two hundred yards, and beckoning to
her not to look or to follow me, I hid m