lubricating injections, to defend the coats of the stomach and
intestines from the vellicating particles of that pernicious mineral;
at the same time hinting, with a look of infinite sagacity, that
it was not difficult to divine the whole mystery. He affected to
deplore the poor lady, as if she was exposed to more attempts of the
same nature; thereby glancing obliquely at the innocent commodore,
whom the officious son of Aesculapius suspected as the author of
this expedient, to rid his hands of a yoke-fellow for whom he was
well known to have no great devotion. This impertinent and malicious
insinuation made some impression upon the bystanders, and furnished
ample field for slander to asperse the morals of Trunnion, who was
represented through the whole district as a monster of barbarity.
Nay, the sufferer herself, though she behaved with great decency
and prudence, could not help entertaining some small diffidence
of her husband; not that she imagined he had any design upon her
life, but that he had been at pains to adulterate the brandy with
a view of detaching her from that favourite liquor.

On this supposition, she resolved to act with more caution for
the future, without setting on foot any inquiry about the affair;
while the commodore, imputing her indisposition to some natural
cause, after the danger was past, never bestowed a thought upon the
subject; so that the perpetrators were quit of their fear, which,
however, had punished them so effectually, that they never would
hazard any more jokes of the same nature.

The shafts of their wit were now directed against the commander
himself, whom they teased and terrified almost out of his senses.
One day, while he was at dinner, Pipes came and told him that there
was a person below that wanted to speak with him immediately, about