’Trust not a Man, we are by Nature False,
  Dissembling, Subtle, Cruel, and Unconstant: 
  When a Man talks of Love, with Caution trust him: 
  But if he Swears, he’ll certainly deceive thee.’

I might very much enlarge upon this Subject, but shall conclude it with a Story which I lately heard from one of our Spanish Officers, [3] and which may shew the Danger a Woman incurs by too great Familiarities with a Male Companion.

An Inhabitant of the Kingdom of Castile, being a Man of more than ordinary Prudence, and of a grave composed Behaviour, determined about the fiftieth Year of his Age to enter upon Wedlock.  In order to make himself easy in it, he cast his Eye upon a young Woman who had nothing to recommend her but her Beauty and her Education, her Parents having been reduced to great Poverty by the Wars, [which [4]] for some Years have laid that whole Country waste.  The Castilian having made his Addresses to her and married her, they lived together in perfect Happiness for some time; when at length the Husband’s Affairs made it necessary for him to take a Voyage to the Kingdom of Naples, where a great Part of his Estate lay.  The Wife loved him too tenderly to be left behind him.  They had not been a Shipboard above a Day, when they unluckily fell into the Hands of an Algerine Pirate, who carried the whole Company on Shore, and made them Slaves.  The Castilian and his Wife had the Comfort to be under the same Master; who seeing how dearly they loved one another, and gasped after their Liberty, demanded a most exorbitant Price for their Ransom.  The Castilian, though he would rather have died in Slavery himself, than have paid such a Sum as he found would go near to ruin him, was so moved with Compassion towards his Wife, that he sent repeated Orders to his Friend in Spain, (who happened to be his next Relation) to sell his Estate, and transmit the Money to him.  His Friend hoping that the Terms of his Ransom might be made more reasonable, and unwilling to sell an Estate which he himself had some Prospect of inheriting, formed so many delays, that three whole Years passed away without any thing being done for the setting of them at Liberty.

There happened to live a French Renegado in the same Place where the Castilian and his Wife were kept Prisoners.  As this Fellow had in him all the Vivacity of his Nation, he often entertained the Captives with Accounts of his own Adventures; to which he sometimes added a Song or a Dance, or some other Piece of Mirth, to divert them [during [5]] their Confinement.  His Acquaintance with the Manners of the Algerines, enabled him likewise to do them several good Offices.  The Castilian, as he was one Day in Conversation with this Renegado, discovered to him the Negligence and Treachery of his Correspondent in Castile, and at the same time asked his Advice how he should behave himself