m in the rear; for which reason, when the tutor was
quelled, the victor faced about, snatched the weapon out of his hand,
and having broken it to pieces, remounted his horse and rode off,
without deigning to honour him with any other notice.

The condition in which they returned produced infinite clamour against
the conqueror, who was represented as a ruffian who had lain in ambush
to make away with his brother, in whose defence the curate was said to
have received those cruel stripes that hindered him from appearing for
three whole weeks in the performance of his duty at church. Complaints
were made to the commodore, who, having inquired into the circumstances
of the affair, approved of what his nephew had done, adding, with many
oaths, that provided Peregrine had been out of the scrape, he wished
Crook-back had broken his neck in the fall.

CHAPTER XXIX.

He projects a plan of Revenge, which is executed against the Curate.

Our hero, exasperated at the villainy of the curate, in the treacherous
misrepresentation he had made of this encounter, determined to rise upon
him a method of revenge, which should be not only effectual but also
unattended any bad consequence to himself. For this purpose he and
Hatchway, to whom he imparted his plan, went to the ale-house one
evening, and called for an empty room, knowing there was no other but
that which they had chosen for the scene of action. This apartment was
a sort of a parlour that fronted the kitchen, with a window towards the
yard, where after they had sat some time, the lieutenant found means to
amuse the landlord in discourse, while Peregrine, stepping out into
the yard, by the talent of mimickry, which he possessed in a surprising
degree, counterfeited a dialogue between the curate and Tunley's
wife. This reaching the ears of the publican, for whose hearing it was
calculated, inflamed his naturally jealous disposition to such a degree,
that he could not conceal his emotion, but made a hundred efforts
to quit the room; while the lieutenant, smoking his pipe with great
gravity, as if he neither heard what passed nor took notice of the
landlord's disorder, detained him on the spot by a succession of
questions, which he could not refuse to answer, though he stood sweating
with agony all the time, stretching his neck every instant towards the
window through which the voices were conveyed, scratching his head, and
exhibiting sundry other symptoms of impatience