of a night-owl, the caterwauling of cats, the howling of a dog,
the squeaking of a pig, the crowing of a cock; and he had learned
the war-whoop uttered by the Indians in North America. These talents
were exerted successively, at different times and places, to the
terror of Mrs. Trunnion, the discomposure of the commodore himself,
and the consternation of all the servants in the castle. Peregrine,
with a sheet over his clothes, sometimes tumbled before his aunt
in the twilight, when her organs of vision were a little impaired
by the cordial she had swallowed; and the boatswain's mate taught
him to shoe cats with walnut-shells, so that they made a most
dreadful clattering in their nocturnal excursions.

The mind of Mrs. Trunnion was not a little disturbed by these alarms,
which, in her opinion, portended the death of some principal person
in the family; she redoubled her religious exercises, and fortified
her spirits with fresh potations; nay, she began to take notice
that Mr. Trunnion's constitution was very much broken, and seemed
dissatisfied when people observed that they never saw him look
better. Her frequent visits to the closet, where all her consolation
was deposited, inspired the confederates with a device which had
like to have been attended with tragical consequences. They found
an opportunity to infuse jalap in one of her case-bottles; and
she took so largely of this medicine, that her constitution had
well nigh sunk under the violence of its effect. She suffered a
succession of fainting fits that reduced her to the brink of the
grave, in spite of all the remedies that were administered by a
physician, who was called in the beginning of her disorder.

After having examined the symptoms, he declared that the patient
had been poisoned with arsenic, and prescribed only draughts and