The Governor having remain’d wounded at _Parham_, till his Recovery was
completed, _Cæsar_ did not know but he was still there, and indeed for
the most Part, his Time was spent there: for he was one that loved to
live at other Peoples Expence, and if he were a Day absent, he was ten
present there; and us’d to play, and walk, and hunt, and fish with
_Cæsar_: So that _Cæsar_ did not at all doubt, if he once recover’d
Strength, but he should find an Opportunity of being revenged on him;
though, after such a Revenge, he could not hope to live: for if he
escaped the Fury of the _English_ Mobile, who perhaps would have been
glad of the Occasion to have killed him, he was resolved not to survive
his Whipping; yet he had some tender Hours, a repenting Softness, which
he called his Fits of Cowardice, wherein he struggled with Love for the
Victory of his Heart, which took Part with his charming _Imoinda_ there;
but for the most Part, his Time was pass’d in melancholy Thoughts, and
black Designs. He consider’d, if he should do this Deed, and die either
in the Attempt, or after it, he left his lovely _Imoinda_ a Prey, or at
best a Slave to the enraged Multitude; his great Heart could not endure
that Thought: _Perhaps_ (said he) _she may be first ravish’d by every
Brute; expos’d first to their nasty Lusts, and then a shameful Death_:
No, he could not live a Moment under that Apprehension, too
insupportable to be borne. These were his Thoughts, and his silent
Arguments with his Heart, as he told us afterwards: So that now
resolving not only to kill _Byam_, but all those he thought had enraged
him; pleasing his great Heart with the fancy’d Slaughter he should make
over the whole Face of the Plantation; he first resolved on a Deed,
(that however horrid it first appear’d to us all) when we had heard his
Reasons, we thought it brave and just. Being able to walk, and, as he
believed, fit for the Execution of his great Design, he begg’d _Trefry_
to trust him into the Air, believing a Walk would do him good; which was
granted him; and taking _Imoinda_ with him, as he used to do in his more
happy and calmer Days, he led her up into a Wood, where (after with a
thousand Sighs, and long gazing silently on her Face, while Tears
gush’d, in spite of him, from his Eyes) he told her his Design, first of
killing her, and then his Enemies, and next himself, and the
Impossibility of escaping, and therefore he told her the Necessity of
dying. He found the heroick Wife faster pleading for Death, than he was
to propose it, when she found his fix’d Resolution; and, on her Knees,
besought him not to leave her a Prey to his Enemies. He (grieved to
Death) yet pleased at her noble Resolution, took her up, and embracing
of her with all the Passion and Languishment of a dying Lover, drew his
Knife to kill this Treasure of his Soul, this Pleasure of his Eyes;
while Tears trickled down his Cheeks, hers were smiling with Joy she
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