 the
carpenters in irons, for having audaciously assaulted him in his own house.
    His myrmidons seeing he had been evil-intreated, were exasperated at the
insult he had suffered, which they considered as an affront upon the dignity of
the garrison; the more so, as the mutineers seemed to put themselves in a
posture of defence, and set their authority at defiance: they therefore
unsheathed their cutlasses, which they commonly wore as badges of their
commission; and a desperate engagement, in all probability, would have ensued,
had not the lady of the castle interposed, and prevented the effects of their
animosity, by assuring the lieutenant that the commodore had been the aggressor;
and that the workmen, finding themselves attacked in such an extraordinary
manner, by a person whom they did not know, were obliged to act in their own
defence, by which he had received that unlucky contusion.
    Mr. Hatchway no sooner learnt the sentiments of Mrs. Trunnion, than
sheathing his indignation, he told the commodore he should always be ready to
execute his lawful commands; but that he could not in conscience be concerned in
oppressing poor people who had been guilty of no offence.
    This unexpected declaration, together with the behaviour of his wife, who in
his hearing desired the carpenters to resume their work, filled the breast of
Trunnion with rage and mortification. He pulled off his woollen night-cap,
pummelled his bare pate, beat the floor alternately with his feet, swore his
people had betrayed him, and cursed himself to the lowest pit of hell, for
having admitted such a cockatrice into his family. But all these exclamations
did not avail; they were among the last essays of his resistance to the will of
his wife, whose influence among his adherents had already swallowed up his own;
and who now peremptorily told him, that he must leave the management of every
thing within doors to her, who understood best what was for his honour and
advantage. She then ordered a poultice to be prepared for his eye, which being
applied, he was committed to the care of Pipes, by whom he was led about the
house like a blind bear growling for prey, while his industrious yoke-fellow
executed every circumstance of the plan she had projected; so that, when he
recovered his vision, he was an utter stranger in his own house.
 

                                   Chapter X

The Commodore being in some Cases restif, his Lady has recourse to Artifice in
the establishment of her Throne; she exhibits Symptoms of Pregnancy, to the
unspeakable Joy of Trunnion, who nevertheless is baulked in his Expectation
 
These innovations were not effected without
