 good Man, should have applied his chief Care, rather to secure the
Offender, than to preserve the Life of the wounded Person. We mention this
Observation, not with any View of pretending to account for so odd a Behaviour,
but lest some Critic should hereafter plume himself on discovering it. We would
have these Gentlemen know we can see what is odd in Characters as well as
themselves, but it is our Business to relate Facts as they are; which when we
have done, it is the Part of the learned and sagacious Reader to consult that
original Book of Nature, whence every Passage in our Work is transcribed, tho'
we quote not always the particular Page for its Authority.
    The Company which now arrived were of a different Disposition. They
suspended their Curiosity concerning the Person of the Ensign, till they should
see him hereafter in a more engaging Attitude. At present, their whole Concern
and Attention were employed about the bloody Object on the Floor; which being
placed upright in a Chair, soon began to discover some Symptoms of Life and
Motion. These were no sooner perceived by the Company (for Jones was, at first,
generally concluded to be dead) than they all fell at once to prescribing for
him: (For as none of the physical Order was present, every one there took that
Office upon him).
    Bleeding was the unanimous Voice of the whole Room; but unluckily there was
no Operator at hand: Every one then cry'd, »Call the Barber;« but none stirred a
Step. Several Cordials were likewise prescribed in the same ineffective Manner;
till the Landlord ordered up a Tankard of strong Beer, with a Toast, which he
said was the best Cordial in England.
    The Person principally assistant on this Occasion, indeed the only one who
did any Service, or seemed likely to do any, was the Landlady. She cut off some
of her Hair, and applied it to the Wound to stop the Blood. She fell to chafing
the Youth's Temples with her Hand; and having exprest great Contempt for her
Husband's Prescription of Beer, she dispatched one of her Maids to her own
Closet for a Bottle of Brandy, of which, as soon as it was brought, she
prevailed upon Jones, who was just returned to his Senses, to drink a very large
and plentiful Draught.
    Soon afterwards arrived the Surgeon, who having viewed the Wound, having
shaken his Head, and blamed every Thing which was done, ordered his Patient
instantly to Bed; in which Place, we think proper to leave him, some Time
