, if
I had not been certain of his death." To this address, after some pause,
he replied, "There are many voices as well as faces that resemble one
another; but, pray, what was your friend's name." I satisfied him in
that particular, and gave a short detail of the melancholy fate of
Thompson, not without many sighs and some tears. A silence ensued,
which lasted some minutes, and then the conversation turned on different
subjects, till we arrived at a house on the road, where the horseman
alighted, and begged with so much earnestness that we would go in and
drink a bowl of punch with him, that we could not resist. But, if I was
alarmed at his voice, what must my amazement be, when I discovered
by the light the very person of my lamented friend! Perceiving my
confusion, which was extreme, he clasped me in his arms, and bedewed my
face with tears. It was some time ere I recovered the use of my reason,
overpowered with this event, and longer still before I could speak. So
that all I was capable of was to return his embraces, and to mingle the
overflowings of my joy with his; whilst honest Brayl, affected with the
scene, wept as fast as either of us, and signified his participation
of our happiness by hugging us both, and capering about the room like a
madman. At length, I retrieved the use of my tongue, and cried, "Is
it possible! you can be my friend Thompson? No certainly, alas! he was
drowned; and I am now under the deception of a dream!" He was at
great pains to convince me of his being the individual person whom
I regretted, and bidding me sit down and compose myself, promised to
explain his sudden disappearance from the Thunder, and to account for
his being at present in the land of the living. This task he acquitted
himself of, after I had drunk a glass of punch, and recollected my
spirits, by informing us, that with a determination to rid himself of
a miserable existence, he had gone in the night-time to the head, while
the ship was on her way, from whence he slipped down as softly as he
could, by the bows into the sea, where, after he was heartily ducked, he
began to repent of his precipitation; and, as he could swim very well,
kept himself above water, in hopes of being taken up by some of the
ships astern; that, in this situation, he hailed a large vessel, and
begged to be taken in, but was answered that she was a heavy sailer, and
therefore they did not choose to lose time by bringing to; however, they
threw an o