hesitation, the painter
took his advice; and, without quitting the utensil, which in his hurry
he forgot to lay down, sallied out in the rear of our hero, with all the
wildness of terror and impatience which may be reasonably supposed to
take possession of a man who flies from perpetual imprisonment. Such was
the tumult of his agitation, that his faculty of thinking was for the
present utterly overwhelmed, and he saw no object but his conductor,
whom he followed by a sort of instinctive impulse, without regarding the
keepers and sentinels, who, as he passed with his clothes under one arm,
and his chamber-pot brandished above his head, were confounded, and even
dismayed, at the strange apparition.

During the whole course of this irruption, he ceased nor to cry, with
great vociferation, "Drive, coachman, drive, in the name of God!"
and the carriage had proceeded the length of a whole street before he
manifested the least sign of reflection, but stared like the Gorgon's
head, with his mouth wide open, and each particular hair crawling
and twining like an animated serpent. At length, however, he began to
recover the use of his senses, and asked if Peregrine thought him
now out of all danger of being retaken. This unrelenting wag, not yet
satisfied with the affliction he imposed upon the sufferer, answered,
with an air of doubt and concern, that he hoped they would not be
overtaken, and prayed to God they might not be retarded by a stop
of carriages. Pallet fervently joined in this supplication; and they
advanced a few yards farther, when the noise of a coach at full speed
behind them invaded their ears; and Pickle, having looked out of the
window, withdrew his head in seeming confusion, and exclaimed, "Lord
have mercy upon us! I wish that may not be a guard sent after us.
Methinks I saw the muzzle of a fusil sticking out of the coach." The
painter, hearing these tidings, that instant thrust himself half out
at the window, with his helmet still in his hand, bellowing to the
coachman, as loud as he could roar, "Drive, d-- ye, dive to the gates
of Jericho and the ends of the earth! Drive, you ragamuffin, you
rascallion, you hell-hound! Drive us to the pit Of hell, rather than we
should be taken!"

Such a phantom could not pass without attracting the curiosity of the
people, who ran to their doors and windows, in order to behold this
object of admiration. With the same view, that coach, which was supposed
to be in pursuit o