第 5 节
作者:
中国必胜 更新:2021-02-20 05:34 字数:9322
on some other parts of the English colonies in America。
He told me he wrote two or three letters to me; directed
according to my order; but heard nothing from me。 This I
indeed knew to be true; but the letters coming to my hand in
the time of my latter husband; I could do nothing in it; and
therefore chose to give no answer; that so he might rather
believe they had miscarried。
Being thus disappointed; he said; he carried on the old trade
ever since; though when he had gotten so much money; he
said; he did not run such desperate risks as he did before。
Then he gave me some account of several hard and desperate
encounters which he had with gentlemen on the road; who
parted too hardly with their money; and showed me some
wounds he had received; and he had one or two very terrible
wounds indeed; as particularly one by a pistol bullet; which
broke his arm; and another with a sword; which ran him quite
through the body; but that missing his vitals; he was cured
again; one of his comrades having kept with him so faithfully;
and so friendly; as that he assisted him in riding near eighty
miles before his arm was set; and then got a surgeon in a
considerable city; remote from that place where it was done;
pretending they were gentlemen travelling towards Carlisle
and that they had been attacked on the road by highwaymen;
and that one of them had shot him into the arm and broke
the bone。
This; he said; his friend managed so well; that they were not
suspected at all; but lay still till he was perfectly cured。 He
gave me so many distinct accounts of his adventures; that it
is with great reluctance that I decline the relating them; but I
consider that this is my own story; not his。
I then inquired into the circumstances of his present case at
that time; and what it was he expected when he came to be
tried。 He told me that they had no evidence against him; or
but very little; for that of three robberies; which they were all
charged with; it was his good fortune that he was but in one
of them; and that there was but one witness to be had for that
fact; which was not sufficient; but that it was expected some
others would come in against him; that he thought indeed;
when he first saw me; that I had been one that came of that
errand; but that if somebody came in against him; he hoped
he should be cleared; that he had had some intimation; that if
he would submit to transport himself; he might be admitted
to it without a trial; but that he could not think of it with any
temper; and thought he could much easier submit to be hanged。
I blamed him for that; and told him I blamed him on two
accounts; first; because if he was transported; there might be
a hundred ways for him that was a gentleman; and a bold
enterprising man; to find his way back again; and perhaps
some ways and means to come back before he went。 He
smiled at that part; and said he should like the last the best of
the two; for he had a kind of horror upon his mind at his being
sent over to the plantations; as Romans sent condemned
slaves to work in the mines; that he thought the passage into
another state; let it be what it would; much more tolerable at
the gallows; and that this was the general notion of all the
gentlemen who were driven by the exigence of their fortunes
to take the road; that at the place of execution there was at
least an end of all the miseries of the present state; and as for
what was to follow; a man was; in his opinion; as likely to
repent sincerely in the last fortnight of his life; under the
pressures and agonies of a jail and the condemned hole; as he
would ever be in the woods and wilderness of America; that
servitude and hard labour were things gentlemen could never
stoop to; that it was but the way to force them to be their own
executioners afterwards; which was much worse; and that
therefore he could not have any patience when he did but
think of being transported。
I used the utmost of my endeavour to persuade him; and joined
that known woman's rhetoric to itI mean; that of tears。 I told
him the infamy of a public execution was certainly a greater
pressure upon the spirits of a gentleman than any of the
mortifications that he could meet with abroad could be; that
he had at least in the other a chance for his life; whereas here
he had none at all; that it was the easiest thing in the world
for him to manage the captain of a ship; who were; generally
speaking; men of good…humour and some gallantry; and a
small matter of conduct; especially if there was any money
to be had; would make way for him to buy himself off when
he came to Virginia。
He looked wistfully at me; and I thought I guessed at what he
meant; that is to say; that he had no money; but I was mistaken;
his meaning was another way。 'You hinted just now; my dear;'
said he; 'that there might be a way of coming back before I
went; by which I understood you that it might be possible to
buy it off here。 I had rather give #200 to prevent going; than
#100 to be set at liberty when I came there。' 'That is; my dear;'
said I; 'because you do not know the place so well as I do。'
'That may be;' said he; 'and yet I believe; as well as you know
it; you would do the same; unless it is because; as you told
me; you have a mother there。'
I told him; as to my mother; it was next to impossible but
that she must be dead many years before; and as for any other
relations that I might have there; I knew them not now; that
since the misfortunes I had been under had reduced me to the
condition I had been in for some years; I had not kept up any
correspondence with them; and that he would easily believe;
I should find but a cold reception from them if I should be
put to make my first visit in the condition of a transported
felon; that therefore; if I went thither; I resolved not to see
them; but that I had many views in going there; if it should be
my fate; which took off all the uneasy part of it; and if he
found himself obliged to go also; I should easily instruct him
how to manage himself; so as never to go a servant at all;
especially since I found he was not destitute of money; which
was the only friend in such a condition。
He smiled; and said he did not tell me he had money。 I took
him up short; and told him I hoped he did not understand by
my speaking; that I should expect any supply from him if he
had money; that; on the other hand; though I had not a great
deal; yet I did not want; and while I had any I would rather
add to him than weaken him in that article; seeing; whatever
he had; I knew in the case of transportation he would have
occasion of it all。
He expressed himself in a most tender manner upon that head。
He told me what money he had was not a great deal; but that
he would never hide any of it from me if I wanted it; and that
he assured me he did not speak with any such apprehensions;
that he was only intent upon what I had hinted to him before
he went; that here he knew what to do with himself; but that
there he should be the most ignorant; helpless wretch alive。
I told him he frighted and terrified himself with that which
had no terror in it; that if he had money; as I was glad to hear
he had; he might not only avoid the servitude supposed to be
the consequence of transportation; but begin the world upon
a new foundation; and that such a one as he could not fail of
success in; with the common application usual in such cases;
that he could not but call to mind that is was what I had
recommended to him many years before and had proposed it
for our mutual subsistence and restoring our fortunes in the
world; and I would tell him now; that to convince him both
of the certainty of it and of my being fully acquainted with the
method; and also fully satisfied in the probability of success;
he should first see me deliver myself from the necessity of
going over at all; and then that I would go with him freely;
and of my own choice; and perhaps carry enough with me to
satisfy him that I did not offer it for want of being able to live
without assistance from him; but that I thought our mutual
misfortunes had been such as were sufficient to reconcile us
both to quitting this part of the world; and living where
nobody could upbraid us with what was past; or we be in any
dread of a prison; and without agonies of a condemned hole
to drive us to it; this where we should look back on all our
past disasters with infinite satisfaction; when we should
consider that our enemies should entirely forget us; and that
we should live as new people in a new world; nobody having
anything to say to us; or we to them。
I pressed this home to him with so many arguments; and
answered all his own passionate objections so effec