"With a monkey! Mr. Seddon? Gentlemen, I would have you know that it was no ordinary monkey that Botts so brutally assaulted in the ball-room. He was a royal present from her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar. I would defend that monkey with my blood; and had not Botts challenged me, I would have challenged him for the insult offered to my monkey. Monkeys have emotions and sensibilities in their bosoms as well as we have, Mr. Seddon."
"Then, they have souls as well as tails?" said Seddon.
"I have no doubt," said Bragg, "that a high-bred monkey, like mine, brought up in a royal palace and tenderly cared for, can feel an insult as keenly as a man."
"Then, Captain Bragg," said Seddon, "why not refer Botts for satisfaction to the monkey?"
"Because, sir, monkeys are not yet sufficiently advanced in civilization to understand the code of honor. But the time may come when they will."
"What!" exclaimed Seddon, "do you mean to say that the time may come when monkeys will challenge one another to single combat, and fight with hair-trigger pistols like civilized men?"
"Yes, sir," said Bragg.
"I suppose that will be after they have dropped their tails," said Seddon.
"Of course," said Bragg. "Man is but an improved species of monkey. Our ancestors were once monkeys, and carried long tails behind them."[2]
Here Tom Seddon fell back on a sofa and roared with laughter. Toney Belton reproved his friend for this unbecoming levity, and gravely remarked that learned men coincided with Captain Bragg in opinion, and that Lord Monboddo confidently asserted there was a race of men in Africa who still had tails.