recommend him to some great man of your acquaintance, and give
him a small matter to keep him till he is provided. I doubt not,
nephew, but you will be glad to serve him, if it was no more
but for the respect you bear to me, who am,--Loving nephew,
your affectionate uncle, and servant to command,
"Tobiah Trunnion."


It would be a difficult task for the inimitable Hogarth himself
to exhibit the ludicrous expression of the commodore's countenance
while he read this letter. It was not a stare of astonishment, a
convulsion of rage, or a ghastly grin of revenge; but an association
of all three, that took possession of his features. At length, he
hawked up, with incredible straining, the interjection, "Ah!" that
seemed to have stuck some time in his windpipe; and thus gave vent
to his indignation: "Have I come alongside of you at last, you old
stinking curmudgeon? You lie, you lousy hulk! ye lie! you did all
in your power to founder me when I was a stripling; and as for being
graceless and wicked, and keeping bad company, you tell a d--d lie
again, you thief! there was not a more peaceable lad in the county,
and I kept no bad company but your own, d'ye see. Therefore, you
Trickle, or what's your name, tell the old rascal that sent you
hither, that I spit in his face, and call him horse; that I tear
his letter into rags, so; and that I trample upon it as I would
upon his own villainous carcase, d'ye see." So saying, he danced
in a sort of frenzy upon the fragments of the paper, which he had
scattered about the room, to the inexpressible satisfaction of the
triumvirate, who beheld the scene.

The exciseman having got between him and the door, which was left