Adventures and adventurers > Voyages and travels of a Bible

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS OF A BIBLE.
After remaining a close prisoner for some months in a
bookseller's shop, I was liberated, and taken to the country,
to be a companion to a young gentleman who had lately
come of age. The moment I entered the parlour where he
sat, he rose up, and took me in his hands, expressing his
surprise at the elegance of my dress, which was scarlet
embroidered with gold. The whole family seemed greatly
pleased with my appearance, but they would not permit me
to say one word. After their curiosity was satisfied, they
desired me to sit down upon a chair in the corner of the
room. In the evening, I was taken up stairs and confined iu
the family-prison, called by them the library. Several thou¬
sand prisoners were under the same sentence, standing in
rows round the room ; they had their names written upon
their foreheads, but none of them were allowed to speak.
We all remained in this silent, inactive posture for some
years. Now and then a stranger was admitted to see us ;
these generally wondered at our number, beauty, and the
orderly manner in which we stood, but our young keeper
would never allow a person to touch us, or take us from our
cell.
A gentleman came in one morning, and spoke in high
commendation of some Arabians and Turks who stood at my
right side; he said they would afford fine amusement on a
winter evening. Upon his recommendation, they were all
discharged from prison, and carried down stairs. After they
had finished their fund of stories, and had not one word more
to say, they were all remanded back to prison, and one who
called himself Don Quixote was set at liberty. This man,
being extremely witty, afforded fine sport for Mr William,
(for that was our keeper’s name.) Indeed, for more than a
fortnight, he kept the whole house in what is called good
humour. After Quixote had concluded his harangues, Mr
William chose a Man of Feeling for his companion, who
wrought upon his passions in a way which pleased him vastly.
Mr William now began to put a higher value upon his pri¬
soners, and to use them more politely. Almost daily he held
a little chit-chat with one prisoner or another. Mr Hume
related to him the history of England down to the Revolution,
which he intersected with a great many anecdotes about
Germany, France, Italy, and various other kingdoms. Dr
Robertson then described the state of South America when
first discovered, and related the horrid barbarities committed
by the Spaniards, when they stole it from the natives. Air