The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, Commonly Called Colonel JackDefoe, Daniel
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The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, Commonly Called Colonel Jack
Defoe, Daniel
Adventure stories, English; England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century -- Fiction; Picaresque fiction
My captain raved like a madman, swore at the captain, told him he would
not fail to cut his throat, either on board or ashore, whenever he came
within his reach; and that, if he could not do it now, he would do it
after he came to England again, if ever he durst show his face there
again. For he might depend upon it, if he was carried away to Virginia,
he should find his way to England again; that, if it was twenty years
after, he would have satisfaction of him. “Well, young man,” says the
captain, smiling, “’tis very honestly said, and then I must take care
of you while I have you here, and afterwards I must take care of
myself.” “Do your worst,” says Jacque boldly; “I’ll pay you home for it
one time or other.” “I must venture that, young man,” says he, still
calmly, “but for the present you and I must talk a little;” so he bids
the boatswain, who stood near him, secure him, which he did. I spoke to
him to be easy and patient, and that the captain had no hand in our
misfortune.
“No hand in it! D—n him,” said he aloud, “do you think he is not
confederate in this villainy? Would any honest man receive innocent
people on board his ship and not inquire of their circumstances, but
carry them away and not speak to them? And now he knows how barbarously
we are treated, why does he not set us on shore again? I tell you he is
a villain, and none but him. Why does he not complete his villainy and
murder us, and then he will be free from our revenge? But nothing else
shall ever deliver him from my hands but sending us to the d—l, or
going thither himself; and I am honester in telling him so fairly than
he has been to me, and am in no passion any more than he is.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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