Nor was it any satisfaction to him to say, that it was owing to the like
breach of promise in the shopkeepers, and gentlemen, and people whom he
dealt with, who owed him money, and who made no conscience of promising
and disappointing him, and thereby drove him to the necessity of
breaking his own promises; for this did not satisfy his mind in the
breaches of his word, though they really drove him to the necessity of
it: but that which lay heaviest upon him was the violence and clamour of
creditors, who would not be satisfied without such promises, even when
he knew, or at least believed, he should not be able to perform.

Nay, such was the importunity of one of his merchants, that when he came
for money, and he was obliged to put him off, and to set him another
day, the merchant would not be satisfied, unless he would swear that he
would pay him on that day without fail. 'And what said you to him?' said
I. 'Say to him!' said he, 'I looked him full in the face, and sat me
down without speaking a word, being filled with rage and indignation at
him; but after a little while he insisted again, and asked me what
answer I would make him, at which I smiled, and asked him, if he were in
earnest? He grew angry then, and asked me if I laughed at him, and if I
thought to laugh him out of his money? I then asked him, if he really
did expect I should swear that I would pay him the next week, as I
proposed to promise? He told me, yes, he did, and I should swear it, or
pay him before he went out of my warehouse.

I wondered, indeed, at the discourse, and at the folly of the merchant,
who, I understood afterwards, was a foreigner; and though I thought he
had been in jest at first, when he assured me he was not, I was curious
to hear the issue, which at first he was loth to go on with, because he
knew it would bring about all the rest; but I pressed him to know--so he