he state, he was accosted by a bailiff, who, entering the room with
five or six followers, told him aloud that he had a writ against him for
twelve hundred pounds, at the suit of Mr. Ravage Gleanum.

The whole company were astonished at this address, which did not fail to
discompose the defendant himself, who, as it were instinctively, in the
midst of his confusion, saluted the officer across the head with
his cane; in consequence of which application, he was surrounded and
disarmed in an instant by the gang, who carried him off to the next
tavern in the most opprobrious manner. Nor did one of the spectators
interpose in his behalf, or visit him in his confinement with the
least tender of advice or assistance; such is the zeal of coffee-house
friendship. This stroke was the more severe upon our hero, as it was
altogether unexpected; for he had utterly forgot the debt for which
he was arrested. His present indignation was, however, chiefly kindled
against the bailiff, who had done his office in such a disrespectful
manner; and the first use he made of his recollection in the house to
which they conducted him, was to chastise him for the insolence and
indecency of his behaviour. This task he performed with his bare fists,
every other weapon being previously conveyed out of his reach; and
the delinquent underwent his discipline with surprising patience and
resignation, asking pardon with great humility, and protesting before
God, that he had never willingly and wittingly used any gentleman with
ill manners, but had been commanded to arrest our adventurer according
to the express direction of the creditor, on pain of forfeiting his
place.

By this declaration Peregrine was appeased, and, out of a delirium of
passion, waked to all the horrors of reflection. All the glory of his
youth was now eclipsed, all the blossoms of his hope were blasted,
and he saw himself doomed to the miseries of a jail, without the least
prospect of enlargement, except in the issue of his lawsuit, of which he
had, for some time past, grown less and less confident every day. What
would become of the unfortunate, if the constitution of the mind did
not permit them to bring one passion into the field against another?
passions that operate in the human breast, like poisons of a different
nature, extinguishing each other's effect. Our hero's grief reigned in
full despotism, until it was deposed by revenge, during the predominancy
of which he considered