mind. You must know, honoured gentleman, that yesterday, as I sat alone,
at this very hour, on my board, reflecting in my thoughts--for the plain
reason that my envious neighbour had enticed all the newly arrived
customers to his own shop--well, sir, the head will be busy when the hands
are idle; there I sat, as I have briefly told you, reflecting in my
thoughts, like any other accountable being, on the calamities of life,
and on the great experiences that I have had in the wars. For you must
know, valiant gentleman, besides the affair in the land of the Medes and
Persians, and the Porteous mob in Edinbro', five cruel and bloody"----

"There is that in your air which sufficiently proclaims the soldier,"
interrupted his listener, who evidently struggled to keep down his rising
impatience; "but, as my time is so precious, I would now more especially
hear what you have to say concerning yonder ship."

"Yes, sir, one gets a military look after seeing numberless wars; and so,
happily for the need of both, I have now come to the part of my secret
which touches more particularly on the character of that vessel. There sat
I, reflecting on the manner in which the strange seamen had been deluded
by my tonguey neighbour--for, as you should know, sir, a desperate talker
is that Tape, and a younker who has seen but one war at the
utmost--therefore, was I thinking of the manner in which he had enticed my
lawful customers from my shop, when, as one thought is the father of
another, the following concluding reasoning, as our pious priest has it
weekly in his reviving and searching discourses, came uppermost in my
mind: If these mariners were honest and conscientious slavers, would they
overlook a labouring man with a large family, to pour their well-earned
gold into the lap of a common babbler? I proclaimed to myself at once,
sir, that they would not. I was bold to say the same in my own mind, and,
thereupon, I openly put the question to all in hearing, If they are not