s to promise that he would next day annul the
condescensions he had made, and for ever renounce the ungracious object
of her disgust. This undertaking was punctually performed in a letter to
the commodore, which she herself dictated in these words:--

"Sir--Whereas my good-nature being last night imposed upon, I
was persuaded to countenance and promise I know not what to
that vicious youth, whose parent I have the misfortune to be;
I desire you will take notice that I will revoke all such
countenance and promises, and shall never look upon that man
as my friend who will, in such a cause, solicit,--
Sir, yours, etc.
"Gam. Pickle."

CHAPTER XXI.

Trunnion is enraged at the conduct of Pickle--Peregrine resents the
Injustice of his Mother, to whom he explains his Sentiments in a
Letter-Is entered at the University of Oxford, where he signalizes
himself as a Youth of an enterprising Genius.

Unspeakable were the transports of rage to which Trunnion was incensed
by this absurd renunciation: he tore the letter with his gums (teeth
he had none), spit with furious grimaces, in token of the contempt
he entertain the for the author, whom he not only damned as a lousy,
scabby, nasty, scurvy, skulking lubberly noodle, but resolved to
challenge to single combat with fire and sword; but, he was dissuaded
from this violent measure, and appeased by the intervention and advice
of the lieutenant and Mr. Jolter, who represented the message as the
effect of the poor man's infirmity, for which he was rather an object
of pity than of resentment, and turned the stream of his indignation
against the wife, whom he reviled accordingly. Nor did Peregrine himself
bear with patience this injurious declaration, the nature of which he no
sooner understood from Hatchway than, equally shocked and exasperated,
he retired to his apartment, and, in the first emotions of his ire,
produced the following epistle, which was immediately conveyed to his
mother,--

"Madam,--Had nature formed me a bugbear to the sight, and
inspired me with a soul as vicious as my body was detestable,
perhaps I might have enjoyed particular marks of your affection
and applause; seeing you have persecuted me with such unnatural
aversion, for no other visible reason than that of my differing
so widely in shape as well as disposition from that deformed
urchin who is the object of your