nd the outcries of those who
were engaged, came up-stairs in a body with lights to reconnoitre, and,
if possible, quell this hideous tumult.

Objects were no sooner rendered visible, than the field of battle
exhibited strange groups of the standing and the fallen. Each of Mr.
Metaphor's eyes was surrounded with a circle of a livid hue; and the
president's nose distilled a quantity of clotted blood. One of the
tragic authors, finding himself assaulted in the dark, had, by way of a
poniard, employed upon his adversary's throat a knife which lay upon the
table, for the convenience of cutting cheese; but, by the blessing of
God, the edge of it was not keen enough to enter the skin, which it had
only scratched in divers places. A satirist had almost bit off the ear
of a lyric bard. Shirts and neckcloths were torn to rags; and there was
such a woeful wreck of periwigs on the floor, that no examination
could adjust the property of the owners, the greatest part of whom were
obliged to use handkerchiefs by way of nightcap.

The fray, however, ceased at the approach of those who interposed; part
of the combatants being tired of an exercise in which they had
received nothing but hard blows; part of them being intimidated by the
remonstrances of the landlord and his company, who threatened to call
the watch; and a very few being ashamed of the scandalous dispute
in which they were detected. But though the battle was ended, it was
impossible, for that evening, to restore harmony and good order to the
society, which broke up, after the president had pronounced a short and
confused apology to our adventurer, for the indecent uproar which had
unfortunately happened on the first night of his admission. Indeed,
Peregrine deliberated with himself, whether or not his reputation would
allow him to appear again among this venerable fraternity; but, as he
knew some of them to be men of real genius, how ridiculous soever their
carriage might be modified, and was of that laughing disposition, which
is always seeking food for mirth, as Horace observes of Philippus:

Risus undique quaerit;--

he resolved to frequent the college, notwithstanding this accident,
which happened at his inauguration; being thereto, moreover, induced by
his desire of knowing the private history of the stage, with which he
supposed some of the members perfectly well acquainted. He was also
visited, before the next meeting, by his introductor, who assured him,
that su