dignity of the garrison; the more so as the mutineers seemed to put
themselves in a posture of defence and set their authority at defiance;
they therefore unsheathed their cutlasses, which they commonly wore
as badges of their commission; and a desperate engagement in all
probability would have ensued, had not the lady of the castle
interposed, and prevented the effects of their animosity, by assuring
the lieutenant that the commodore had been the aggressor, and that the
workmen, finding themselves attacked in such an extraordinary manner,
by a person whom they did not know, were obliged to act in their own
defence, by which he had received that unlucky contusion.

Mr. Hatchway no sooner learnt the sentiments of Mrs. Trunnion, than,
sheathing his indignation, he told the commodore he should always
be ready to execute his lawful commands; but that he could not in
conscience be concerned in oppressing poor people who had been guilty of
no offence.

This unexpected declaration, together with the behaviour of his wife,
who in his hearing desired the carpenters to resume their work, filled
the breast of Trunnion with rage and mortification. He pulled off his
woollen night-cap, pummeled his bare pate, beat the floor alternately
with his feet, swore his people had betrayed him, and cursed himself to
the lowest pit of hell for having admitted such a cockatrice into his
family. But all these exclamations did not avail; they were among the
last essays of his resistance to the will of his wife, whose influence
among his adherents had already swallowed up his own, and peremptorily
told him that he must leave the management of everything within-doors to
her, who understood best what was for his honour and advantage. She then
ordered a poultice to be prepared for his eye, which being applied, he
was committed to the care of Pipes, by whom he was led about the house
like a blind bear growling for prey, while his industrious yoke-fellow
executed every circumstance of the plan she had projected; so that when
he recovered his vision he was an utter stranger in his own house.

CHAPTER X.

The Commodore being in some cases restive, his Lady has recourse to
Artifice in the Establishment of her Throne--She exhibits Symptoms of
Pregnancy, to the unspeakable joy of Trunnion, who, nevertheless, is
balked in his expectation.

These innovations were not effected without many loud objections on
his part; and divers curious dialogu