ressed, they went to
breakfast about five in the morning; and in less than an hour after were
seated in the diligence, where a profound silence prevailed. Peregrine,
who used to be the life of the society, was extremely pensive and
melancholy on account of his mishap, the Israelite and his dulcinea
dejected in consequence of their disgrace, the poet absorbed in lofty
meditation, the painter in schemes of revenge; while Jolter, rocked by
the motion of the carriage, made himself amends for the want of rest he
had sustained; and the mendicant, with his fair charge, were infected
by the cloudy aspect of our youth, in whose disappointment each of
them, for different reasons, bore no inconsiderable share. This general
languor and recess from all bodily exercise disposed them all to receive
the gentle yoke of slumber; and in half-an-hour after they had embarked,
there was not one of them awake, except our hero and his mistress,
unless the Capuchin was pleased to counterfeit sleep, in order to
indulge our young gentleman with an opportunity of enjoying some private
conversation with his beauteous ward.

Peregrine did not neglect the occasion; but, on the contrary, seized
the first minute, and, in gentle murmurs, lamented his hard hap in
being thus the sport of fortune. He assured her, and that with great
sincerity, that all the cross accidents of his life had not cost him one
half of the vexation and keenness of chagrin which he had suffered last
night; and that now he was on the brink of parting from her, he should
be overwhelmed with the blackest despair, if she would not extend her
compassion so far as to give him an opportunity of sighing at her feet
in Brussels, during the few days his affairs would permit him to spend
in that city. This young lady, with an air of mortification, expressed
her sorrow for being the innocent cause of his anxiety; said she hoped
last night's adventure would be a salutary warning to both their souls;
for she was persuaded, that her virtue was protected by the intervention
of Heaven; that whatever impression it might have made upon him, she was
enabled by it to adhere to that duty from which her passion had begun to
swerve; and, beseeching him to forget her for his own peace, gave him to
understand, that neither the plan she had laid down for her own conduct,
nor the dictates of her honour, would allow her to receive his visits,
or carry on any other correspondence with him, while she was restric