, and altogether
crippled by the gout, seldom went abroad; and as his conversation was not very
entertaining, had but little company within doors; so that his spirits must have
quite stagnated, had not they been kept in motion by the conversation of
Hatchway, and received at different times an wholesome fillip from the
discipline of his spouse, who, by the force of pride, religion and Coniac, had
erected a most terrible tyranny in the house. There was such a quick circulation
of domesticks in the family, that every suit of livery had been worn by figures
of all dimensions: Trunnion himself had long before this time yielded to the
torrent of her arbitrary sway; though not without divers obstinate efforts to
maintain his liberty; and now, that he was disabled by his infirmities, when he
used to hear his empress singing the loud Orthyan song among the servants below,
he would often in whispers communicate to the lieutenant, hints of what he would
do if so be he was not deprived of the use of his precious limbs. Hatchway was
the only person whom the temper of Mrs. Trunnion respected, either because she
dreaded his ridicule, or looked upon his person with the eyes of affection. This
being the situation of things in the garison, it is not to be doubted that the
old gentleman highly enjoyed the presence of Peregrine, who found means to
ingratiate himself so effectually with his aunt, that while he remained at home,
she seemed to have exchanged the disposition of a tygress, for that of a gentle
kid; but he found his own mother as implacable, and his father as much
hen-pecked as ever.
    Gamaliel, who now very seldom enjoyed the conversation of his old friend the
commodore, had some time ago entered into an amicable society, consisting of the
barber, apothecary, attorney and exciseman of the parish, among whom he used to
spend the evening at Tunley's, and listen to their disputes upon philosophy and
politicks, with great comfort and edification, while his sovereign lady
domineered at home as usual, visited with great pomp in the neighbourhood, and
employed her chief care in the education of her darling son Gam, who was now in
the fifteenth year of his age, and so remarkable for his perverse disposition,
that in spite of his mother's influence and authority, he was not only hated,
but also despised both at home and abroad. She had put him under the tuition of
the curate who lived in the family, and was obliged to attend him in all his
exercises and excursions. This governor was a low bred fellow, who
