than a false vision; for in a few
weeks, one of them arrived at her moorings in the river, and he received
a thousand in lieu of eight hundred pounds which he had lent upon bond
to one of the mates. At the same time he was informed, that the other
ship, in which he was concerned, had, in all probability, lost her
passage for the season, by being unable to weather the Cape. He was
not at all concerned at that piece of news, knowing, that the longer he
should be out of his money, he would have the more interest to receive;
and, finding his present difficulties removed by this supply, his heart
began to dilate, and his countenance to resume its former alacrity. This
state of exultation, however, was soon interrupted by a small accident,
which he could not foresee. He was visited one morning by the person
who had lent his friend a thousand pounds on his security, and given
to understand, that the borrower had absconded, in consequence of a
disappointment, by which he had lost the whole sum and all hopes of
retrieving it; so that our hero was now liable for the debt, which he
besought him to discharge according to the bond, that he, the lender,
might not suffer by his humanity. It may be easily conceived that
Peregrine did not receive this intelligence in cold blood. He cursed his
own imprudence in contracting such engagements with an adventurer, whom
he did not sufficiently know. He exclaimed against the treachery of the
projector; and having for some time indulged his resentment in threats
and imprecations, inquired into the nature of the scheme which had
miscarried.

The lender, who had informed himself of the whole affair, gratified his
curiosity in this particular, by telling him that the fugitive had been
cajoled by a certain knight of the post, who undertook to manage the
thousand pounds in such a manner as would, in a very little time, make
him perfectly independent; and thus he delineated the plan: "One half
of the sum," said he, "shall be laid out in jewels, which I will pawn to
certain persons of credit and fortune, who lend money upon such pledges
at an exorbitant interest. The other shall be kept for relieving
them, so that they may be again deposited with a second set of those
honourable usurers; and when they shall have been circulated in this
manner through a variety of hands, we will extort money from each of the
pawnbrokers, by threatening them with a public prosecution, for exacting
illegal interest; and