This unexpected declaration, together with the behaviour of his
wife, who in his hearing desired the carpenters to resume their
work, filled the breast of Trunnion with rage and mortification.
He pulled off his woollen night-cap, pummeled his bare pate, beat
the floor alternately with his feet, swore his people had betrayed
him, and cursed himself to the lowest pit of hell for having admitted
such a cockatrice into his family. But all these exclamations did
not avail; they were among the last essays of his resistance to the
will of his wife, whose influence among his adherents had already
swallowed up his own, and peremptorily told him that he must leave
the management of everything within-doors to her, who understood best
what was for his honour and advantage. She then ordered a poultice
to be prepared for his eye, which being applied, he was committed
to the care of Pipes, by whom he was led about the house like
a blind bear growling for prey, while his industrious yoke-fellow
executed every circumstance of the plan she had projected; so that
when he recovered his vision he was an utter stranger in his own
house.
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