The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 3: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave; among the moors...Sala, George Augustus
General
The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 3: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave; among the moors...
Sala, George Augustus
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction
The Bailiffs were sensible men, and forbore to intermeddle with us any
more. So we marched out of the House, it being now about nine o'clock at
night; and, upon my word, from that moment to this, I never set eyes
upon Madam Taffetas, or Dangerous, or Blokes,--for the Sea Captain's
name, he afterwards told me, was Blokes,--or whatever her real name was.
It is very certain that she used me most scandalously, and cruelly
betrayed the trusting confidence of one that was not only a Bachelor,
but an Orphan.
Captain Blokes was a strange character. We had a grand Carouse that
night, he paying the Shot like a gentleman; and over our flowing Bowls,
he told me that he had long had suspicions of his wife's real
character; and was, indeed, in possession of evidence (though he had
kept it secret) to prove that she had given herself in marriage to
another man before she had wedded him. And then, through the
serving-lad, he had heard that very morning, on his coming into the Pool
from Gravesend and Foreign Parts, that Madam, who thought him in China
at least, and hoped him Dead, was about to enter into Wedlock once
again; so that, determined to have Sport, he had well Primed himself
with Punch, and lurked about the neighbourhood until Monsieur Tomfool
and his Spouse (by which I mean myself, although no other man should
call me so) had come home from the Fleet. And so all the Crying, and
Lord ha' Mercies, of the Wench and the Boy, were all subterfuges; and
they knew very well, the sly rogues, that the Sea Captain would soon be
to the Fore.
Nothing would suit him after this but that we should have Supper at the
King of Prussia's Head, in the Savoy, and, as I had given up my Lodgings
as not Grand enough for me on the eve of my wedding, and the Vessel of
which he was Commander was lying in the Pool, that we should have
Beds--at his charges--at the same Tavern; and, indeed, your Seafaring
Men, although rough enough, and smelling woundily of tar and
bilge-water, are the most Hospitable Creatures breathing; and that makes
Me so free with my Money when there is a treat afoot; albeit I can,
without Vanity, declare myself Amphibious, for I have seen as much
service by Sea as by Land, and have always approved myself a Gentleman
of Courage, Honour, and Discretion, on both Elements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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