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206 your air and mien demonstrate you not to be of the inferior rank of men; I should be glad to entertain you in a manner becoming your rank, but dare not make a public show of the regard I have for you, lest it should be fatal to us both, but will soon contrive a way to lessen the hardships you endure; in the mean time, desire you will not fail to be in the grove of oranges, behind the banquetting-house, this night at twelve o'clock. Burn this billet, and take care to conceal the diamond which I inclosed in it, more to give it weight, than that I thought such a trifle worthy the notice of a man I am resolved to favour." There was no name at the bottom; nor was it in his power to form any conjecture, to whom it was he was so much obliged: it is needless, therefore, to say he longed, with the utmost impatience, for the hour in which he hoped to have this riddle solved; you must believe, that in the circumstance of being a slave among the most barbarous people in the world, condemned to offices with which he was no way acquainted, and for want of understanding the language in which he was commanded, little able to comprehend his master's meaning, was but by stripes made to discover their otherwise unintelligible directions; languishing his nights, painful his days; and what doubled the misery of both, was the belief, that his service was eternal; that the whole remainder of his life must be passed among those wretched savages, for ever debarred from all social conversation, his friends, his country, and his more dear Iseria. You must, I say, believe, madam, that in such a state, it was no inconsiderable consolation to think there was a person of his own country who pitied him, and seemed to have power to afford some mitigation of his misfortunes.

At last the expected moment came, he attended at the appointed place, and had not waited long before he saw, by the light of the moon, which at that time shone