in a thousand imprecations and invectives against the writer,
whom he dishonoured with the appellations of a coquette, a jilt, an
adventurer, who, by means of a pimping priest, had defrauded him of his
money. He denounced vengeance against the mendicant, whom he swore he
would destroy if ever he should set eyes on him again.

The painter unluckily appearing during this paroxysm of rage, he seized
him by the throat, saying he was ruined by his accursed folly; and in
all likelihood poor Pallet would have been strangled had not Jolter
interposed in his behalf, beseeching his pupil to have mercy upon the
sufferer, and, with infinite anxiety, desiring to know the cause of
this violent assault. He received no answer but a string of incoherent
curses. When the painter, with unspeakable astonishment, took God to
witness that he had done nothing to disoblige him, the governor began to
think, in sad earnest, that Peregrine's vivacity had at length risen to
the transports of actual madness, and was himself almost distracted with
this supposition. That he might the better judge what remedy ought to
be applied, he used his whole influence, and practised all his eloquence
upon the youth, in order to learn the immediate cause of his delirium.
He employed the most pathetic entreaties, and even shed tears in the
course of his supplication; so that Pickle, the first violence of the
hurricane being blown over, was ashamed of his own imprudence, and
retired to his chamber in order to recollect his dissipated thoughts;
there he shut himself up, and for the second time perusing the fatal
epistle, began to waver in his opinion of the author's character and
intention. He sometimes considered her as one of those nymphs, who,
under the mask of innocence and simplicity, practise upon the hearts and
purses of unwary and inexperienced youths: this was the suggestion of
his wrath inflamed by disappointment; but when he reflected upon the
circumstances of her behaviour, and recalled her particular charms to
his imagination, the severity of his censure gave way and his heart
declared in favour of her sincerity.

Yet even this consideration aggravated the sense of his loss, and he was
in danger of relapsing into his former distraction, when his passion was
a little becalmed by the hope of seeing her again, either by accident
or in the course of a diligent and minute inquiry, which he forthwith
resolved to set on foot. He had reason to believe that her