Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 1).pdf/95

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persons, whose misfortunes have been the effect of their crimes: I have no way to prove my innocence; and assertion may but make it seem more doubtful; yet—"

"You are right! you are right!" interrupted he; "I am no abettor of assertions. They are but a sort of cheap coinage, to make right and wrong pass current together."

"I find I have been too quick," she answered, "in thinking myself happy! to receive bounty under so dreadful a suspicion, proves me to be in a desolate state indeed!"

"Young woman," said the Admiral, in a tone approaching to severity, "don't complain! We must all bear what we have earned. I can't but see what you are, though it's what I won't own to the rest of the crew, who think a flaw in the character excuse plenty for letting a poor weak female starve alive; for which, to my seeming, they deserve to want a crust of bread themselves. But I hope