Page:Travels and adventures of Wm. Lithgow (1).pdf/11

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

11

mount Ida; near which, ha disproved the assertion of there being no venomous creature in Crete, by killing two serpents and a viper. Being disappointed at Candia, he was forced to return to Canea the same way he went, where, soon after, an English renegado, named Wilson arrived from Paris, in his way to Phodes; and, after some conversation with his countrymen, the English soldiers hearing that Lithgow was a Scotsman, he spoke as follows. “My elder brother, the master of a ship, was killed at Brunt island in Scotland, by one Keere; and though he was beheaded, I have long since sworn to be revenged on the first Scotsman I should see or meet, and therefore I am determined to stab this man to night as he goes home to his lodging;” desiring their assistance, which two of them promised, but the other three refused, meantime Smith found him at supper in a cutler’s house, where, acquainting him with this conspiracy, he was escorted to his lodging by Smith and three Italian soldiers, passing by the ruffian and his confederates, who, seeing his treachery discovered, made his escape.

Smith having thus most eminently served him twice, first in freeing him from the danger of galley slavery, and now in saving his life, Lithgow resolved to return the obligation, by discharging