But if his errand should
be delivered and received literally, as he was conscious the
smugglers expected, it was likely that it might, by suspending alarm
about his absence from home, postpone all search after him till it
might be useless. Making a merit of necessity, therefore, he
instructed and dispatched his messenger, and went with the
contraband traders, with seeming willingness, to one of their
ordinary haunts. He sat down at table with them, and they began to
drink and indulge themselves in gross jokes, while, like Mirabel in
the "Inconstant," their prisoner had the heavy task of receiving
their insolence as wit, answering their insults with good-humour,
and withholding from them the opportunity which they sought of
engaging him in a quarrel, that they might have a pretence for
misusing him. He succeeded for some time, but soon became satisfied
it was their purpose to murder him out-right, or else to beat him in
such a manner as scarce to leave him with life. A regard for the
sanctity of the Sabbath evening, which still oddly subsisted among
these ferocious men, amidst their habitual violation of divine and
social law, prevented their commencing their intended cruelty until
the Sabbath should be terminated.
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