wouldst let a fool kick thee and spit in thy face because a fool was thy father. I hope she will murder thee in her next fit of spite. Loose her—let her go; now we shall see how soon she will tear him to pieces.'
But to the astonishment of all in the room, the woman, when she found herself free, fell on her face at her husband's feet, and implored him with tears to forgive her.
Greatly ashamed and bewildered at this scene, the tyrannical monarch turned to the stranger, and asked him who and what he was, and whence he came.
'I have been Governor and Captain-General, by my own appointment, of a large island somewhere on the surface of the earth, but the name of which has been obliterated from my mind. I came here from another island, to which I was sent against my will. I have been a great traveller, and have seen some strange sights. May I have the honour of relating some of my adventures to your Majesty?'
'Do so, but briefly. We will hear thee with patience.'
These adventures may not, critically speaking, be worth repetition, but I shall give them a place here, and a chapter to themselves, trusting to the kind forgiveness of my readers if they do not find them as interesting to them as they were to me when I heard them from the ghostly lips of the hero himself. From the fact of his having forgotten the name of Land of which he had been governor I concluded that there was a hitch in his intellect, and this was confirmed when he came to the close of his narrative. He appeared to be one of those imperfectly educated, or imperfectly trained, men who are so numerous in the world, men who posses great strength in some directions, but in others are like children; and I think we often receive more practical and useful lessons from the conduct and failings of such men than we are ever likely to do from whole libraries of Johnsonian moralities, with Bampton and Hulsean Lectures to boot.
