the same time
hinting, with a look of infinite sagacity, that it was not difficult to
divine the whole mystery. He affected to deplore the poor lady, as if
she was exposed to more attempts of the same nature; thereby glancing
obliquely at the innocent commodore, whom the officious son of
Aesculapius suspected as the author of this expedient, to rid his hands
of a yoke-fellow for whom he was well known to have no great devotion.
This impertinent and malicious insinuation made some impression upon the
bystanders, and furnished ample field for slander to asperse the morals
of Trunnion, who was represented through the whole district as a monster
of barbarity. Nay, the sufferer herself, though she behaved with great
decency and prudence, could not help entertaining some small diffidence
of her husband; not that she imagined he had any design upon her life,
but that he had been at pains to adulterate the brandy with a view of
detaching her from that favourite liquor.

On this supposition, she resolved to act with more caution for the
future, without setting on foot any inquiry about the affair; while the
commodore, imputing her indisposition to some natural cause, after the
danger was past, never bestowed a thought upon the subject; so that the
perpetrators were quit of their fear, which, however, had punished them
so effectually, that they never would hazard any more jokes of the same
nature.

The shafts of their wit were now directed against the commander himself,
whom they teased and terrified almost out of his senses. One day, while
he was at dinner, Pipes came and told him that there was a person
below that wanted to speak with him immediately, about an affair of the
greatest importance, that would admit of no delay; upon which he ordered
the stranger to be told that he was engaged, and that he must send up
his name and business. To this demand he received for answer a message
importing that the person's name was unknown to him, and his business
of such a nature, that it could not be disclosed to any one but the
commodore himself, whom he earnestly desired to see without loss of
time.

Trunnion, surprised at this importunity, got up with great reluctance,
in the middle of his meal, and descending to a parlour where the
stranger was, asked him, in a surly tone, what he wanted with him in
such a d--d hurry, that he could not wait till he had made an end of his
mess? The other, not at all disconcerted at this rough addre