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Page 63
When he entered the room Mrs. Heartfree was speaking with some
earnestness: as he perceived, therefore, he had interrupted her,
he begged she would continue her discourse, which, if he prevented
by his presence, he desired to depart; but Heartfree would not
suffer it. He said she had been relating some adventures which
perhaps, might entertain him to hear, and which she the rather
desired he would hear, as they might serve to illustrate the
foundation on which this falsehood had been built, which had
brought on her husband all his misfortunes.
The justice very gladly consented, and Mrs. Heartfree, at her
husband's desire, began the relation from the first renewal of
Wild's acquaintance with him; but, though this recapitulation was
necessary for the information of our good magistrate, as it would
be useless, and perhaps tedious, to the reader, we shall only
repeat that part of her story to which he is only a stranger,
beginning with what happened to her after Wild had been turned
adrift in the boat by the captain of the French privateer.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MRS. HEARTFREE RELATES HER ADVENTURES.
Mrs. Heartfree proceeded thus: "The vengeance which the French
captain exacted on that villain (our hero) persuaded me that I was
fallen into the hands of a man of honour and justice; nor indeed
was it possible for any person to be treated with more respect and
civility than I now was; but if this could not mitigate my sorrows
when I reflected on the condition in which I had been betrayed to
leave all that was dear to me, much less could it produce such an
effect when I discovered, as I soon did, that I owed it chiefly to
a passion which threatened me with great uneasiness, as it quickly
appeared to be very violent, and as I was absolutely in the power
of the person who possessed it, or was rather possessed by it. I
must however do him the justice to say my fears carried my
suspicions farther than I afterwards found I had any reason to
carry them: he did indeed very soon acquaint me with his passion,
and used all those gentle methods which frequently succeed with
our sex to prevail with me to gratify it; but never once
threatened, nor had the least recourse to force. He did not even
once insinuate to me that I was totally in his power, which I
myself sufficiently saw, and whence I drew the most dreadful
apprehensions, well knowing that, as there are some dispositions
so brutal that cruelty adds a zest and savour to their pleasures,
so there are others whose gentler inclinations are better
gratified when they win us by softer methods to comply with their
desires; yet that even these may be often compelled by an unruly
passion to have recourse at last to the means of violence, when
they despair of success from persuasion; but I was happily the
captive of a better man. My conqueror was one of those over whom
vice hath a limited jurisdiction; and, though he was too easily
prevailed on to sin, he was proof against any temptation to
villany.
"We had been two days almost totally becalmed, when, a brisk gale
rising as we were in sight in Dunkirk, we saw a vessel making full
sail towards us. The captain of the privateer was so strong that
he apprehended no danger but from a man-of-war, which the sailors
discerned this not to be. He therefore struck his colours, and
furled his sails as much as possible, in order to lie by and
expect her, hoping she might be a prize." (Here Heartfree smiling,
his wife stopped and inquired the cause. He told her it was from
her using the sea-terms so aptly: she laughed, and answered he
would wonder less at this when he heard the long time she had been
on board; and then proceeded.) "This vessel now came alongside of
us, and hailed us, having perceived that on which we were aboard
to be of her own country; they begged us not to put into Dunkirk,
but to accompany them in their pursuit of a large English
merchantman, whom we should easily overtake, and both together as
easily conquer. Our captain immediately consented to this
proposition, and ordered all his sail to be crowded. This was most
unwelcome news to me; however, he comforted me all he could by
assuring me I had nothing to fear, that he would be so far from
offering the least rudeness to me himself, that he would, at the
hazard of his life, protect me from it. This assurance gave me all
the consolation which my present circumstances and the dreadful
apprehensions I had on your dear account would admit." (At which
words the tenderest glances passed on both sides between the
husband and wife.)
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