Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/60

48 fine in oratory and declamation, such was not the language of passion, and she defended her opinion from the short outbursts of despair of Shakespeare's Constance: "Gone to be married!" "Gone to swear a truce!" "False blood with false blood joined!" Then they had an argument on the slave trade, which he admired "on principle." However, Hannah drove him to confess that his principle meant that Plutarch had justified the like proceeding, and she had her revenge in a story she had just heard from a Dutch Captain, a prisoner on parole, who had been taken by Commodore Johnson in that naval war against Holland which was an offshoot of the American War of Independence.

This Dutch captain had been dining on board another ship, when a storm came on which completely wrecked his own vessel, in which he had left his two little sons, four and five years old, under the care of a negro. There was one large boat, and all crowded into it. The black carefully placed the two children in a large bag, with a little pot of sweetmeats for them to eat, slung them across his shoulder, and put them into the boat. He was stepping into it himself when he was told there was no room, either the children or he must be left to their fate.

"Very well," he said; "give my duty to my master, and tell him I beg pardon for all my faults." With which he let himself sink.