aggish impostor, "odds heart! I have
got something for you that will make your very entrails rejoice within
your body. Here's a letter from a dear and worthy friend of yours. Take,
read it, and be happy. Blessings on his old heart! one would think he
had renewed his age, like the eagle's." Trunnion's expectation being
thus raised, he called for his spectacles, adjusted them to his eye,
took the letter, and being curious to know the subscription, no sooner
perceived his uncle's name, then he started back, his lip quivered, and
he began to shake in every limb with resentment and surprise; eager
to know the subject of an epistle from a person who had never before
troubled him with any sort of address, he endeavoured to recollect
himself, and perused the contents, which were these;--

"Loving Nephew,--I doubt not but you will be rejoiced to
hear of my welfare; and well you may, considering what a
kind uncle I have been to you in the days of your youth, and
how little you deserved any such thing; for yet, was always
a graceless young man, given to wicked courses and bad company,
whereby you would have come to a shameful end, had it not been
for my care in sending you out of mischief's way. But this is
not the cause of my present writing. The bearer, Mr. Timothy
Trickle, is a distant relation of yours, being the son of the
cousin of your aunt Margery, and is not over and above well as
to worldly matters. He thinks of going to London, to see for
some post in the excise or customs if so be that you will
recommend him to some great man of your acquaintance, and give
him a small matter to keep him till he is provided. I doubt not,
nephew, but you will be glad to serve him, if it was no more
but for the respect you bear to me, who am,--Loving nephew,
your affectionate uncle, and servant to command,
"Tobiah Trunnion."

It would be a difficult task for the inimitable Hogarth himself to
exhibit the ludicrous expression of the commodore's countenance while
he read this letter. It was not a stare of astonishment, a convulsion
of rage, or a ghastly grin of revenge; but an association of all three,
that took possession of his features. At length, he hawked up, with
incredible straining, the interjection, "Ah!" that seemed to have stuck
some time in his windpipe; and thus gave vent to his indignation: "Have
I come alongside of