Part 8 (2/2)
said he, ”they thought you as great a nincompoop as your squire-triive them a Rowland for their Oliver”
”Miscreant!” cried the knight, ”you have provoked the gentlemen with your impertinence, and they have chastised you as you deserve I tell thee, Crabshaw, they have savedthee with my own hands; and well it is for thee, sinner as thou art, that they themselves have performed the office, for, had they complained to me of thy insolence and rusticity, by Heaven! I would have made thee an example to all the impudent squires upon the face of the earth Hence, then!
avaunt, caitiff! let his ued with hard duty in the service of their country, comfort themselves with the supper which was intended for me, and leave me undisturbed to my own meditations”
Timothy did not require a repetition of this co within himself, that thenceforward he should let every cuckold wear his own horns; but he could not help entertaining soe of his master, who, he supposed, was one of those hectors who have their fighting days, but are not at all ti taken a slight repast, retired to his repose, and had for soreeable slu at his cha your honour's pardon,” said the landlady, ”but there are two uncivil persons in the kitchen who have well-nigh turnedviolent hands on your honour's supper, they want to be rude to two young ladies who are just arrived, and have called for a post-chaise to go on
They are afraid to open their cha lawyer is like to bethe ladies' part”
Sir Launcelot, though he refused to take notice of the insult which had been offered to himself, no sooner heard of the distress of the ladies than he started up, huddled on his clothes, and girding his sword to his loins, advanced with a deliberate pace to the kitchen, where he perceived Thoed in altercation with a couple of young ance and ferocity, treated hi to persuade theland, the military was always subservient to the civil power, and that their behaviour to a couple of helpless young woentleht be sued for an assault on an action of daes
To this remonstrance the two heroes in red replied by a volley of dreadful oaths, interled with threats, which put the lawyer in some pain for his ears
While one thus endeavoured to intimidate honest Tom Clarke, the other thundered at the door of the apart admittance, but received no other answer than a loud shriek
Our adventurer advancing to this uncivil charave and solemn tone: ”assuredly I could not have believed, except upon the evidence of entlemen, and bear his majesty's honourable commission in the army, could behave so wide of the decorum due to society, of a proper respect to the laws, of that humanity which e to our fellow-creatures, and that delicate regard for the fair sex which ought to prevail in the breast of every gentlenifies the character of a soldier To whoh more amiable part of the creation, fly for protection, if they are insulted and outraged by those whose more immediate duty it is to afford theht have you, or any man upon earth, to excite riot in a public inn, which may be deemed a temple sacred to hospitality; to disturb the quiet of your fellow-guests, soue, soes in their course of journeying upon their lawful occasions? Above all, what motive but wanton barbarity could prompt you to violate the apart ladies, travelling, no doubt, upon soency, which coers of the highway?”
”Hearkye, Don Bethle his hat in the face of our adventurer, ”you may be ht I care, but damme! don't you be saucy, otherwise I shall dub your worshi+p with a good stick across your shoulders” ”How! petulant boy,” cried the knight, ”since you are so ignorant of urbanity, I will give you a lesson that you shall not easily forget” So saying, he unsheathed his sword, and called upon the soldier to draw in his defence
The reader nomy of a stockholder at Jonathan's when the rebels were at Derby, or the features of a bard when accosted by a bailiff, or the countenance of an alderman when his banker stops payment; if he has seen either of these phenomena, he may conceive the appearance that was now exhibited by the visage of the ferocious captain, when the naked sword of Sir Launcelot glanced before his eyes; far fro to produce his ohich was of unconscionable length, he stood hastly look of terror and astonish ht to a very serious crisis, interposed with a crest-fallen countenance, assuring Sir Launcelot they had no intention to quarrel, and what they had done was entirely for the sake of the frolic
”By such frolics,” cried the knight, ”you beco yourselves into conte I now perceive the truth of the observation, that cruelty always resides with cowardice My conteood fa his sword, and acquitting himself in such a manner as may screen hio”
”Lack-a-day, sir,” said the other, ”we are no officers, but prentices to two London haberdashers, travellers for orders; Captain is a good travelling name, and we have dressed ourselves like officers to procure ht said he was very glad, for the honour of the service, to find they were i to themselves an honourable character which they had not spirit to sustain
These words were scarce pronounced, when Mr Clarke approaching one of the bravadoes, who had threatened to crop his ears, bestowed such a benediction on his jaw, as he could not receive without i from his broken head and his want of supper, saluted the other with a Yorkshi+re hug, that laid him across the body of his cohly handled, for their presu to act characters for which they were so ill qualified
While Clarke and Crabshaere thus laudably eh the kitchen so suddenly, that the knight had only a transient glimpse of their backs, and they disappeared before he could possibly make a tender of his services The truth is, they dreaded nothing sodiscovered, and took the first opportunity of gliding into the chaise, which had been for soe
Mr Clarke was much more disconcerted than our adventurer by their sudden escape He ran with great eagerness to the door, and, perceiving they were flown, returned to Sir Launcelot, saying, ”Lord bless my soul, sir, didn't you see who it was?” ”Ha! how!” exclai with alarm, ”as it?” ”One of thehter at the Black Lion I knew her when first she 'lighted, notwithstanding her being neatly dressed in a green joseph, which, I'll assure you, sir, becomes her remarkably well
--I'd never desire to see a prettier creature As for the other, she's a very genteel woly or handsome, I can't pretend to say, for she was masked I had just time to salute Dolly, and ask a few questions; but all she could tell me was, that the masked lady's name was Miss Meadows; and that she, Dolly, was hired as her waiting-woman”
When the name of Meadoas mentioned, Sir Launcelot, whose spirits had been in violent coan to coue which had passed between hi herself to our errant, ”Well,” said she, ”I have had the honour to accommodate many ladies of the first fashi+on at the White Hart, both young and old, proud and lowly, ordinary and handsome; but such a miracle as Miss Meadows I never yet did see--Lord, letmore than a human creature!--Oh! had your honour but set eyes on her, you would have said it was a vision from heaven, a cherubi but a dreaenerous! I say, blessed is the young woman who tends upon such a heavenly creature:--And, poor dear young lady! she seerief and affliction, for the tears stole down her lovely cheeks, and looked for all the world like orient pearl”
Sir Launcelot listened attentively to the description, which re bitterly, withdrew to his own apartment
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN CANNOT ALWAYS SIP, WHEN THE CUP IS AT HIS LIP
Those who have felt the doubts, the jealousies, the resentments, the humiliations, the hopes, the despair, the impatience, and, in a word, the infinite disquiets of love, will be able to conceive the sea of agitation on which our adventurer was tossed all night long, without repose or intermission Sometimes he resolved to e the place in which Aurelia was sequestered, that he ht rescue her from the supposed restraint to which she had been subjected But when his heart beat high with the anticipation of this exploit, he was suddenly invaded, and all his ardour checked, by the rened by her own hand, which had divorced hi The e, that he leaped fro in the chiht once inal billet, which, together with the ring he had received from Miss Darnel's mother, he kept in a small box, carefully deposited within his port instantly unlocked, he unfolded the paper, and recited the contents in these words:--
”SIR,--Obliged as I aerness hich you endeavour to give ard, I feel so you acquainted with a circumstance, which, in all probability, you will not learn without so, I areeable your proposals ht it my duty to please by every reasonable concession, and howsoever youcomplacency hich I have heard your addresses, I now find it absolutely necessary to speak in a decisive strain, to assure you, that, without sacrificing my own peace, I cannot adard forfroether inconsistent with the happiness of AURELIA DARNEL”