ed, and who never gave their prisoners better
quarter than to devour them, but that they must likewise endure heats
that were insupportable, and rains that were intolerable, every drop of
which was changed into a serpent: that, if they penetrated farther into
the country, they would be assaulted by monsters a thousand times more
hideous and destructive than all the beasts mentioned in the Revelations.

But all these reports were vain and ineffectual: for so far from striking
terror into those who were appointed to go upon this expedition, it
rather acted as an incentive to glory, upon those who had no manner of
business in it. Jermyn appeared among the foremost of those; and,
without reflecting that the pretence of his indisposition had delayed
the conclusion of his marriage with Miss Jennings, he asked the duke's
permission, and the king's consent to serve in it as a volunteer.

Some time before this, the infatuation which had imposed upon the fair
Jennings in his favour had begun to subside. All that now inclined her
to this match were the advantages of a settlement. The careless
indolence of a lover, who faintly paid his addresses to her, as it were
from custom or habit, disgusted her; and the resolution he had taken,
without consulting her, appeared so ridiculous in him, and so injurious
to herself, that, from that moment, she resolved to think no more of him.
Her eyes being opened by degrees, she saw the fallacy of the splendour,
which had at first deceived her; and the renowned Jermyn was received
according to his real merit when he came to acquaint her with his
heroical project. There appeared so much indifference and ease in the
raillery with which she complimented him upon his voyage, that he was
entirely disconcerted, and so much the more so, as he had prepared all
the arguments he thought capable of consoling her, upon announcing to her
the fatal news of his departure. She told him, "that nothing could be
more glorious for him, who had triumphed over the liberty of so many
persons in Europe, than too and extend his conquests in other parts of
the world; and that she advised him to bring home with him all the female
captives he might make in Africa, in order to replace those beauties whom
his absence would bring to the grave."

Jermyn was highly displeased that she should be capable of raillery in
the condition he supposed her reduced to; but he soon perceived she was
in earnest: she told him, that she consid