第 5 节
作者:中国必胜      更新:2021-02-20 05:34      字数:9322
  on some other parts of the English colonies in America。
  He told me he wrote two or three letters to me; directed
  according to my order; but heard nothing from me。  This I
  indeed knew to be true; but the letters coming to my hand in
  the time of my latter husband; I could do nothing in it; and
  therefore chose to give no answer; that so he might rather
  believe they had miscarried。
  Being thus disappointed; he said; he carried on the old trade
  ever since; though when he had gotten so much money; he
  said; he did not run such desperate risks as he did before。
  Then he gave me some account of several hard and desperate
  encounters which he had with gentlemen on the road; who
  parted too hardly with their money; and showed me some
  wounds he had received; and he had one or two very terrible
  wounds indeed; as particularly one by a pistol bullet; which
  broke his arm; and another with a sword; which ran him quite
  through the body; but that missing his vitals; he was cured
  again; one of his comrades having kept with him so faithfully;
  and so friendly; as that he assisted him in riding near eighty
  miles before his arm was set; and then got a surgeon in a
  considerable city; remote from that place where it was done;
  pretending they were gentlemen travelling towards Carlisle
  and that they had been attacked on the road by highwaymen;
  and that one of them had shot him into the arm and broke
  the bone。
  This; he said; his friend managed so well; that they were not
  suspected at all; but lay still till he was perfectly cured。  He
  gave me so many distinct accounts of his adventures; that it
  is with great reluctance that I decline the relating them; but I
  consider that this is my own story; not his。
  I then inquired into the circumstances of his present case at
  that time; and what it was he expected when he came to be
  tried。  He told me that they had no evidence against him; or
  but very little; for that of three robberies; which they were all
  charged with; it was his good fortune that he was but in one
  of them; and that there was but one witness to be had for that
  fact; which was not sufficient; but that it was expected some
  others would come in against him; that he thought indeed;
  when he first saw me; that I had been one that came of that
  errand; but that if somebody came in against him; he hoped
  he should be cleared; that he had had some intimation; that if
  he would submit to transport himself; he might be admitted
  to it without a trial; but that he could not think of it with any
  temper; and thought he could much easier submit to be hanged。
  I blamed him for that; and told him I blamed him on two
  accounts; first; because if he was transported; there might be
  a hundred ways for him that was a gentleman; and a bold
  enterprising man; to find his way back again; and perhaps
  some ways and means to come back before he went。  He
  smiled at that part; and said he should like the last the best of
  the two; for he had a kind of horror upon his mind at his being
  sent over to the plantations; as Romans sent condemned
  slaves to work in the mines; that he thought the passage into
  another state; let it be what it would; much more tolerable at
  the gallows; and that this was the general notion of all the
  gentlemen who were driven by the exigence of their fortunes
  to take the road; that at the place of execution there was at
  least an end of all the miseries of the present state; and as for
  what was to follow; a man was; in his opinion; as likely to
  repent sincerely in the last fortnight of his life; under the
  pressures and agonies of a jail and the condemned hole; as he
  would ever be in the woods and wilderness of America; that
  servitude and hard labour were things gentlemen could never
  stoop to; that it was but the way to force them to be their own
  executioners afterwards; which was much worse; and that
  therefore he could not have any patience when he did but
  think of being transported。
  I used the utmost of my endeavour to persuade him; and joined
  that known woman's rhetoric to itI mean; that of tears。  I told
  him the infamy of a public execution was certainly a greater
  pressure upon the spirits of a gentleman than any of the
  mortifications that he could meet with abroad could be; that
  he had at least in the other a chance for his life; whereas here
  he had none at all; that it was the easiest thing in the world
  for him to manage the captain of a ship; who were; generally
  speaking; men of good…humour and some gallantry; and a
  small matter of conduct; especially if there was any money
  to be had; would make way for him to buy himself off when
  he came to Virginia。
  He looked wistfully at me; and I thought I guessed at what he
  meant; that is to say; that he had no money; but I was mistaken;
  his meaning was another way。  'You hinted just now; my dear;'
  said he; 'that there might be a way of coming back before I
  went; by which I understood you that it might be possible to
  buy it off here。  I had rather give #200 to prevent going; than
  #100 to be set at liberty when I came there。'  'That is; my dear;'
  said I; 'because you do not know the place so well as I do。'
  'That may be;' said he; 'and yet I believe; as well as you know
  it; you would do the same; unless it is because; as you told
  me; you have a mother there。'
  I told him; as to my mother; it was next to impossible but
  that she must be dead many years before; and as for any other
  relations that I might have there; I knew them not now; that
  since the misfortunes I had been under had reduced me to the
  condition I had been in for some years; I had not kept up any
  correspondence with them; and that he would easily believe;
  I should find but a cold reception from them if I should be
  put to make my first visit in the condition of a transported
  felon; that therefore; if I went thither; I resolved not to see
  them; but that I had many views in going there; if it should be
  my fate; which took off all the uneasy part of it; and if he
  found himself obliged to go also; I should easily instruct him
  how to manage himself; so as never to go a servant at all;
  especially since I found he was not destitute of money; which
  was the only friend in such a condition。
  He smiled; and said he did not tell me he had money。  I took
  him up short; and told him I hoped he did not understand by
  my speaking; that I should expect any supply from him if he
  had money; that; on the other hand; though I had not a great
  deal; yet I did not want; and while I had any I would rather
  add to him than weaken him in that article; seeing; whatever
  he had; I knew in the case of transportation he would have
  occasion of it all。
  He expressed himself in a most tender manner upon that head。
  He told me what money he had was not a great deal; but that
  he would never hide any of it from me if I wanted it; and that
  he assured me he did not speak with any such apprehensions;
  that he was only intent upon what I had hinted to him before
  he went; that here he knew what to do with himself; but that
  there he should be the most ignorant; helpless wretch alive。
  I told him he frighted and terrified himself with that which
  had no terror in it; that if he had money; as I was glad to hear
  he had; he might not only avoid the servitude supposed to be
  the consequence of transportation; but begin the world upon
  a new foundation; and that such a one as he could not fail of
  success in; with the common application usual in such cases;
  that he could not but call to mind that is was what I had
  recommended to him many years before and had proposed it
  for our mutual subsistence and restoring our fortunes in the
  world; and I would tell him now; that to convince him both
  of the certainty of it and of my being fully acquainted with the
  method; and also fully satisfied in the probability of success;
  he should first see me deliver myself from the necessity of
  going over at all; and then that I would go with him freely;
  and of my own choice; and perhaps carry enough with me to
  satisfy him that I did not offer it for want of being able to live
  without assistance from him; but that I thought our mutual
  misfortunes had been such as were sufficient to reconcile us
  both to quitting this part of the world; and living where
  nobody could upbraid us with what was past; or we be in any
  dread of a prison; and without agonies of a condemned hole
  to drive us to it; this where we should look back on all our
  past disasters with infinite satisfaction; when we should
  consider that our enemies should entirely forget us; and that
  we should live as new people in a new world; nobody having
  anything to say to us; or we to them。
  I pressed this home to him with so many arguments; and
  answered all his own passionate objections so effec