audaciously assaulted him in his own house.

His myrmidons, seeing he had been evil-treated, were exasperated
at the insult he had suffered, which they considered as an affront
upon the dignity of the garrison; the more so as the mutineers seemed
to put themselves in a posture of defence and set their authority
at defiance; they therefore unsheathed their cutlasses, which
they commonly wore as badges of their commission; and a desperate
engagement in all probability would have ensued, had not the
lady of the castle interposed, and prevented the effects of their
animosity, by assuring the lieutenant that the commodore had been
the aggressor, and that the workmen, finding themselves attacked in
such an extraordinary manner, by a person whom they did not know,
were obliged to act in their own defence, by which he had received
that unlucky contusion.

Mr. Hatchway no sooner learnt the sentiments of Mrs. Trunnion, than,
sheathing his indignation, he told the commodore he should always
be ready to execute his lawful commands; but that he could not
in conscience be concerned in oppressing poor people who had been
guilty of no offence.

This unexpected declaration, together with the behaviour of his
wife, who in his hearing desired the carpenters to resume their
work, filled the breast of Trunnion with rage and mortification.
He pulled off his woollen night-cap, pummeled his bare pate, beat
the floor alternately with his feet, swore his people had betrayed
him, and cursed himself to the lowest pit of hell for having admitted
such a cockatrice into his family. But all these exclamations did
not avail; they were among the last essays of his resistance to the