he was in the least hampered in his
circumstances. The captain took coach immediately, and set out for the
place, according to the direction which Pipes had procured.

Cadwallader, having seen him at Bath, knew him again at first sight;
and, though reduced to a skeleton, believed himself in such a fair
way of doing well, that he would have accompanied him to the Fleet
immediately, had he not been restrained by his nurse, who was, by his
physician, invested with full authority to dispute and oppose his will
in everything that she should think prejudicial to his health; for he
was considered, by those who had the care of him, as an old humourist,
not a little distempered in his brain. He inquired particularly about
the sailors, who, he said, had deterred him from carrying on his
usual correspondence with Pickle, and been the immediate cause of his
indisposition, by terrifying him into a fever. Understanding that the
breach between Pickle and Hatchway was happily cemented, and that he was
no longer in any danger from the lieutenant's resentment, he promised
to be at the Fleet with the first convenient opportunity; and, in the
meantime, wrote an answer to Peregrine's letter, importing, that he was
obliged to him for his offer, but had not the least occasion for his
assistance.

In a few days, our adventurer recovered his vigour, complexion, and
vivacity; he mingled again in the diversions and parties of the place;
and he received, in a little time, the money he had lent upon bottomry,
which, together with the interest, amounted to upwards of eleven hundred
pounds. The possession of this sum, while it buoyed up his spirits,
involved him in perplexity. Sometimes he thought it was incumbent
on him, as a man of honour, to employ the greatest part of it in
diminishing the debt for which he suffered; on the other hand, he
considered that obligation effaced, by the treacherous behaviour of his
creditor, who had injured him to ten times the value of the sum; and,
in these sentiments, entertained thoughts of attempting his escape from
prison, with a view of conveying himself, with the shipwreck of
his fortune, to another country, in which he might use it to better
advantage.

Both suggestions were attended with such doubts and difficulties, that
he hesitated between them, and for the present laid out a thousand
pounds in stock, the interest of which, together with the fruits of his
own industry, he hoped, would support him above