Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/183

Rh was left a loser by the payment of the duty on the first cargo. I drew upon the merchant for the deficiency, but he allowed the bill to be protested and never paid me the balance.

Before proceeding, I must relate a very extraordinary event. I have already mentioned sending my two older boys, James and Aaron, to Amsterdam at the time I left Taunton. They remained there two whole years, and when I wished them to return, a captain of a vessel, who was named De Coudre, was going from Cork to Ostend, and I made an arrangement with him to bring them back on his return voyage. We were quite ignorant of the character of De Coudre, we only knew that he had relations living in that part of France from which my wife came, but the opportunity seemed most favorable for the return of our boys, and we had no reason to mistrust the man. I shipped £40 worth of my manufactures on board his vessel. I wrote by him and desired the boys to join him at Ostend, which they did. The vessel was not to come direct to Cork, but to stop first and discharge part of the cargo in London. The Captain was instructed to take the boys immediately on arrival to my brother Peter, at the Pest House. I had a letter announcing their safety at my brother's house, where they were to stay until the merchandise was discharged and the vessel ready for sea. The night after I received this letter I was disturbed by the most distressing dream that could be imagined. I saw my poor boys struggling in the water, without any possibility of receiving help, they must inevitably be drowned. I awoke in perfect agony, and only closed my eyes to be distressed again by a recurrence of the same dreadful vision. In the morning I wrote a letter to my brother; I told him I had altered my plan, and did not like to trust the boys at sea any more, so he must