'It is true,' said my
brother, 'we have been greatly to blame; for the future we will be
more careful of our conduct; but do, my dear Nimble,' continued he,
'endeavour to compose yourself, and take a little rest, after the pain
and fatigue which you have gone through, otherwise you may be sick; and
what will become of me, if any mischief should befall you? I shall then
have no brother to converse with, no friend to advise me what to do.'
Here he stopped, overpowered with his grief for the loss of our two
murdered brothers, and with his tender solicitude for my welfare. I
endeavoured all in my power to comfort him, and said I hoped that I
should soon recover from the bruises I had received both from the boy's
hat and book, as well as the pinches in my neck with his finger and
thumb, by which he held me, and promised to compose myself. This promise
I fulfilled by endeavouring to sleep; but the scene that I had so lately
been witness to was too fresh in my imagination to suffer me to close my
eyes: however, I kept for some time quiet.

The rest of the day we spent in almost total silence, having no spirits
for conversation, our hearts being almost broken with anguish. When
it grew toward evening, we agreed to find our way out of that detested
house, and seek for some other habitation, which might be more
propitious. But we found more difficulty in this undertaking than we
were at all aware of; for though we could with tolerable ease go from
room to room within the house, still, when we attempted to quit it, we
found it every way surrounded with so thick a brick wall, that it was
impossible for us to make our way through it: we therefore ran round and
round it several times, searching for some little crevice through which
we might escape; but all to no purpose, not the least crack could we
discover: and we might have continued there till this time, had we not
at length, after the family were in bed, resolved to venture through one
of the apartments into the hall, and so creep out under the house door.
But the dangers we exposed ourselves to in this expedition were many
and great; we knew that traps were set for us about the house, and where
they might chance to be placed we could not tell. I had likewise been
eye-witness to no less than four cats, who might, for ought we knew to
the contrary, at that hour of darkness, be prowling in search of some of
our unhappy species.

But, in spite of every difficulty and hazard, we de