. . . Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he. What is the denotation of the word "bound" in this excerpt?

trapped

Explanation:

Hello. The word "bound" was not presented in this passage, but in the paragraph that is presented before him in "The Crisis" No. 1, written by Thomas Paine, where he shows, that Great Britain has declared that I have all right keep the American colonies tied, cornered to it.

In this sense, the word "bound" was presented in the denotative sense, that is, in the real sense presented in the dictionary. This sense is the same as the word "trapped" and shows how the colonies were completely trapped and dominated by the British.

the words “strangest” and “unusual” suggest that the narrator is about to tell the story of an odd or puzzling group of people.