asleep; and when he awoke he perceived it was dark, and heard near him the voices of two persons, which raised his curiosity. His surprise increased to find by the conversation, that his mistress was forming a plot with Stephano, their neighbour's slave, to rob her husband and go off with him for Europe in a ship he had prepared for that purpose. The noble youth was struck with horror at the discovery; for the perfidious woman, in outward appearance, seemed to live very happily with her husband, who was fond of her to excess. He resolved to prevent the villany at first, by revealing the whole to his master; but reflecting, that a woman capable of such treachery, might have art enough to make a good-natured husband believe her innocent, he resolved to try another method. He waited till the guilty pair separated, and following his mistress, hastily overtook her, and told her he was informed of all that passed. He remonstrated with her on the baseness of her designed flight, and ended with conjuring her to reflect, and change her purpose; in which case, he assured her, what had passed should remain with him for ever secret. “The mistress, finding herself discovered, pretended a sincere repentance for her fault, which she promised him she would never repeat; adding such marks of kindness to him, as gave him too much cause to imagine her unlawful passion had changed its object. "As the young baron could not prevail with himself to gratify the passion of his mistress, she at last considered him as a dangerous person, and endeavoured to get rid of him by poison; which, though his servitude was almost expired, determined him to make his escape. He luckily met with a ship that brought him to Jamaica, and, in September, 1740, he entered on board one of the ships of war as a common sailor; but a discovery being soon made of his birth, and several circumstances of his story remembered by some in the fleet, he was introduced to the captain, who showed him particular regard, and the admiral, commiserating his misfortunes, not only accepted of a petition for his discharge, but soon sent him to England to prosecute his claim. When he arrived, he applied himself to a gentleman who had been an agent for the family, and it was not long before he had an opportunity of giving a strong proof of the justice of his cause. "The woman who had nursed this unfortunate young nobleman three years, hearing of his arrival, and being desirous to see him, was introduced to another gentleman, when she said, 'You are not my boy, you are a cheat.' Afterwards she was brought into a room, in which were five or six gentlemen at a table, and one at a window looking out of it, and after viewing the former, said, 'My boy is not here, except he be at the window;' then seeing his face, she immediately cried out in great rapture, This is he !' and kissed him. Being asked to give a particular circumstance which might convince others that she was not deceived, she answered, that he had a scar on his thigh; for, having in his father's house seen two gentlemen learning to fence, the foils being carried away, he and his young playfellow got two swords, and went to fencing, by which he received a deep wound in the thigh. Upon examination, the scar of it was very visible." INTRODUCTION. WHEN the plague made its appearance in Malta, many of the inhabitants fled from the island, and sought refuge in the ports of Sicily. The principal resort was to Messina ; and the Lazaretto containing at the time an unusual number of passengers from the Levant, who had arrived with a convoy from Smyrna a few days before, a more diversified assemblage of persons has perhaps rarely been collected into so small a compass. It was in truth an epitome of the world-the riddlings of all nations; but still among them were many clever and curious adventurers, who had lived much, and seen a great deal. |