th, and in my passion threw some beer in her face, on which she
ran out to her mother's. I challenged _Jones_ to fight me, but he would
not. But meeting with him afterward, he then challenged me, for
reporting the familiarity between him and my wife. On this we stripped,
and had two or three blows; he fell against a table, and, as he says,
broke two of his ribs, for which he took me up, but I was bailed out by
my mistress. As my wife thought proper not to come nigh me, I lett the
shop which she kept and lodged at my master's. She continued away about
seven weeks, only calling upon me now and then to abuse me; and going
home to my house to scold and threaten my lodgers, whom I had admitted
upon her deserting me.

"At length she and her mother came together to me; her mother threatened,
if I would not take my wife home again, to arrest me for her board; upon
this I urged her bad treatment of me while she was at home, her neglect
of her family affairs, and her scandalous attachment to this _John
Jones_; and lastly, her voluntary elopement. However we entered into a
treaty of pacification, in the course of which, she confessed her
intimacy with _Jones_, and the terms on which it had subsisted. It seems
their connexion began while I was on my cruize in the _Britannia_
privateer; he promised to marry her if I should not return, and if I
did, that he would still continue his kindness to her, and that in case
he was to die, to leave her all his goods, and all his interest in the
capital of a box-club, of which he was a member. This confession, though
it was an odd one for me to hear, yet, as it was accompanied with what
appeared to me sincere promises of amendment, I, in an evil hour, agreed
to live with her once more. Accordingly I moved my bed into the two pair
of stairs room, which one of my lodgers then quitted; this was about
nine months before her unhappy death.

"When she came home again, though I believe she did not continue her
acquaintance with _Jones_, yet her behaviour was otherwise so disorderly
as rendered me very unhappy. For at times, when I came from work,
expecting my breakfast, dinner, or supper, I frequently found the door
locked, and so was drove to the necessity of eating my meals at an
alehouse; a very disagreeable resource to a man, who, having a wife and
a home, naturally expected the comforts resulting from such seeming
advantages. But this was not all; she sometimes coming home in the
interim, would