Page:Brief relation of the adventures of Bamfylde Moore Carew (2).pdf/14

 14 joint contribution of the community, yet he did not give himself up to indolence. Our hero, though a king, was as active in his stratagems as ever, and ready to encounter any difficulty which seemed to promise success. Mr. Carew being in the town of South Molton, in Devonshire, and having been ill-used by an officer there, called the bellman, resolved on the following stratagem, by way of revenge. It was at that time reported that a gentleman of the town, lately buried, walked nightly in the church-yard ; and as the bellman was obliged by his nightly duty to go through it just at the very hour of one, Mr. Carew repaired thither a little before the time, and strip- ping in his shirt, lay down upon the gentleman's grave. Soon after, hearing the bellman approach, he raised himself up with a solemn slowness, which the bellman beholding, by the glimmerings of the moon through a dark cloud, was terribly frightened, so took to his heels and ran away. In his fright he looked behind him, and seeing the ghost following him, dropped his bell and ran the faster ; which Carew seized on as a trophy, and forbore any further pursuit. The bellman did not stop till he reached home, where he obstinately affirmed he had seen the gentleman's ghost, who had taken away the bell, which greatly alarmed the whole town. Coming to the seat of 'Squire Rhodes, in Devon- shire, and knowing he had lately married a Dorset- shire lady, he thought proper to become a Dorset- shire man of Lyme, the place of the lady's nativity: and meeting the 'squire and his bride, he gave them to understand that he was lost in a vessel belonging to Lyme, Captain Courtney commander. The 'squire and his lady gave him half-a-crown each, for country sake, and entertained him at their house.