ous undertaking; and thought that they had already suffered
severely for their imprudence. He was affected with the account of their
diurnal pilgrimage to the sea-side, which he considered as a pathetic
proof of their affliction, and invested Mr. Jolter with the agreeable
office of going to them with a compliment in his name, and begging the
honour of drinking a glass with them in the evening. They accepted the
proposal with great satisfaction and respectful acknowledgment, and
in the afternoon waited upon the kind inviter, who treated them with
coffee, and would have detained them to supper, but they entreated the
favour of his company at the house which they frequented so earnestly,
that he yielded to their solicitations, and, with his governor, was
conducted by them to the place, where they had provided an elegant
repast, and regaled them with some of the best claret in France.

It was easy for them to perceive that their principal guest was no
favourer of their state maxims, and therefore they industriously avoided
every subject of conversation which could give the least offence: not
but they lamented their own situation, which cut them off from all their
dearest connections, and doomed them to perpetual banishment from their
families and friends: but they did not, even by the most distant hint,
impeach the justice of that sentence by which they were condemned;
although one among them, who seemed to be about the age of thirty, wept
bitterly over his misfortune, which had involved a beloved wife and
three children in misery and distress; and, in the impatience of his
grief, cursed his own fate with frantic imprecations. His companions,
with a view of beguiling his sorrow, and manifesting their own
hospitality at the same time, changed the topic of discourse, and
circulated the bumpers with great assiduity; so that all their cares
were overwhelmed and forgotten, several French drinking catches were
sung, and mirth and good-fellowship prevailed.

In the midst of this elevation, which commonly unlocks the most hidden
sentiment, and dispels every consideration of caution and constraint,
one of the entertainers, being more intoxicated than his fellows,
proposed a toast, to which Peregrine, with some warmth, excepted as an
unmannerly insult. The other maintained his proposition with indecent
heat; and the dispute beginning to grow very serious, the company
interposed, and gave judgment against their friend, who was so keen