take care of me. I was very much tired and disposed to sleep, which, my
mistress perceiving, she put me on her own bed, and covered me with a
clean white handkerchief, but larger and coarser than the mainsail of a
man-of-war.

I slept about two hours, and dreamed I was at home with my wife and
children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked and found myself
alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred feet wide, and above
two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty yards wide. My mistress was gone
about her household affairs, and had locked me in. The bed was eight
yards from the floor.

[Illustration: "I ... DREW MY HANGER TO DEFEND MYSELF." P. 18.]

Presently two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards and
forwards on my bed. One of them came almost up to my face; whereupon I
rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself. The horrible
animals had the boldness to attack me both sides, and one of them held
his forefeet at my collar; but I killed him before he could do me any
mischief. He fell down at my feet; and the other, seeing the fate of his
comrade, made his escape, but not without one good wound on the back,
which I gave him as he fled, and made the blood run trickling from him.
After this exploit I walked gently to and fro on the bed to recover my
breath and loss of spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large
mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that, if I had
taken off my belt before I went to sleep, I must infallibly have been
torn to pieces and devoured. I measured the tail of the dead rat, and
found it to be two yards long wanting an inch; but it went against my
stomach to draw the carcase off the bed, where it still lay bleeding. I
observed it had yet some life; but, with a strong slash across the neck,