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that Benn[1] suspected this stratagem, for, after trying all he could to obstruct my success, he used these remarkable words at parting, "Aye, you may go;—but if you are six months in the hospital, I'll have you again when you come out. I know you're of no use to me, but I'll keep you, if it's only to torment you." However, as his avarice would not allow him to send a fortnight's ration with me to the hospital, (in which case he might have reclaimed me had I been then discharged,) I knew myself to be effectually free from his further persecution; and I had soon afterwards the pleasure to hear that he had applied for, and obtained, another man in my room. Indeed, so great was my aversion to this unfeeling monster, that I was determined to endure corporal or other punishment rather than have returned to him: but surely, the threat he used on my leaving him, ought, when made known, to have precluded him from ever having it in his power to realize so hellish an idea!
- ↑ His real name was John Benn.
