“ I take Saint Nicolas de Tolentino to witness replied he, that I know of no other crime, for which I can be responsible at this righteous tribunal, save smiting my unruly beast. Take notice, brethren, exclaimed the Inquisidor, this unholy wretch holds trampling over friars to be no crime.
Pardon me, holy father, rep’ied Nicolas, I hold it for the worst of crimes, and therefore willingly surrender my refractory mule to be dealt with as you see fit; and if you impale her alive, it will be no more than she deserves. ”

“ Every body knows, that the ladies in Spain in certain cases, do not give long warning to practitioners of a certain description, and nobody knew it better than Nicolas, who was resolved not to lose an inch of his way, nor of his mule's best speed by the way, if cudgelling could beat it out of her. ”

“ If your Excellency had seen the lovely creature that was screaming in agony till I came to her relief, and how fine a boy I ushered into the world, which would have been lost but for my assistance, I am sure I should not be condemned for a few hasty words spoken in passion. ”

“ Let us drop the curtain over this melancholy pause in our narration, and attend upon the mournful widower, now landed upon English ground, and conveyed by his humane and generous preserver to the house of a noble Earl, the father of our amiable captain. At the period of a few tranquilizing weeks, here passed in the bosom of humanity, letters came to hand from the British Ministers at Lisbon, in answer to a memorial, that I should have stated to have been drawn up by the friendly captain before his departure from that port. ”

“ Will he not accept my sword? cried the Spaniard. He desires you to wear it, till he has the honour of presenting you to his captain, Ah! then he has a captain, exclaimed, Don Manuel, his superior will be of another way of thinking; tell him this casket contains my jewels; they are valuable; let him present them as a lawful prize, which will enrich the captor ”

“ Nicolas de Tolentino, by the way, that if curses could have made the mule go, the dispute would have been soon ended ; but not a saint could make, her stir a bit any other ways than upwards and downwards at a stand. A small troop of mendicant friars were at this moment conducting the host to a thing man.—“ Nicolas Pedrosa,” said an old friar, “ be patient with your beast, and spare your blasphemies ; remember Balaam.”—“ Ah! father,” replied Pedrosa, “ Balaam cudgelled his beast till she spoke, so will I mine till she roars.”—“ Fie, fie, prophane fellow,” cries another of the fraternity. ”

“ No sooner, then did he discover the British ensign flying on the poop of an English frigate then lying in the Tagus, than he eagerly caught the opportunity of paying a visit to the surgeon; and finding he was in want of a mate, offered himself, and was entered in that capacity for a cruise against the French and Spaniards, with whom Great Britain was then at war. ”

“ When they were out upon their cruise, hovering on the Spanish coast it occurred to Nicolas, that the Inquisitor-general at Madrid had told him of the expected arrival of the President of Quito, and having imparted this to one of the lieutenants, he reported it to the captain; and as the intelligenee seemed of importanee, he availed himself of it, by hawling into the track of the homeward-bound galleons, and great was the joy, when at the break of the morning the man at the mast-head announced a square-rigged vessel in view. The ardour of a chase now sct all hands at work ”

“ The embarrassment, however, which accompanied these answers did not escape the Eng ish captain, who, shortly after, drawing Pedrosa aside into the surgeon’s cabin, was by him made acquainted with the melancholy situation of that unfortunate lady, and every particular of the story as before related; nay, the very vial was produced with its vile eontents, as put into the hands of Pedrosa by the Inquisitor.
Can there be such villainy in man? cried the British captain, when Pedrosa lied concluded his detail: alas! my heart bleeds for this unhappy husband ”

“ Senior Pedrosa, your imprisonment is not likely to be very tedious, for I have a commission you must execute without loss of time: you have too much consideration for yourself to betray a trust, the violation of which must involve you in inevitable ruin, and can in no degree attaint my character, which is far enough beyond the reach of maliee ”