"If it had been a
loyal gentleman's tomb," said he, "I dare say I could have slept in it
all night very well, but I know the Baronet was no better than a rebel
in his heart, and the malice of those scoundrels is not cured by
knocking their brains out. To say the truth, my teeth chattered in my
head, and my legs twitched so about, that I am sure I never should have
got well while I staid there."
Jobson's light heart now foreboded that his wound would quickly heal,
and that the brave gentleman, who was his companion in affliction, would
take him to be his servant, when he should be able to leave England; he,
therefore, settled in his own mind, that he would stay in Colonel
Evellin's service till the King sent for him to make him a Beef-eater.
The concealed Loyalists soon fell into that intimacy which suffering in
the same cause naturally inspires. Adversity is a great leveller, not
only of artificial distinctions, but also of personal qualities. The
dispossessed nobleman, and the village-ploughman, conversed familiarly
together of many a hard-fought day.
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