e case,
overhearing the affair thus compromised, returned to his mistress, who
was highly entertained with an account of what had passed, foreseeing
that for the future she should be under no difficulty or restriction
from the severity of her guard.

CHAPTER LX.

Hornbeck is informed of his Wife's Adventure with Peregrine, for whom he
prepares a Stratagem, which is rendered ineffectual by the Information
of Pipes--The Husband is ducked for his Intention, and our Hero
apprehended by the Patrol.

There was another person, however, still ungained; and that was no other
than her footman, whose secrecy our hero attempted to secure in the
morning by a handsome present, which he received with many professions
of gratitude and devotion to his service; yet this complaisance was
nothing but a cloak used to disguise the design he harboured of making
his master acquainted with the whole transaction. Indeed this lacquey
had been hired, not only as a spy upon his mistress, but also as a check
on the conduct of the governante, with promise of ample reward if ever
he should discover any sinister or suspicious practices in the course of
her behaviour. As for the footman whom they had brought from England,
he was retained in attendance upon the person of his master, whose
confidence he had lost by advising him to gentle methods of reclaiming
his lady, when her irregularities had subjected her to his wrath.

The Flemish valet, in consequence of the office he had undertaken, wrote
to Hornbeck by the first post, giving an exact detail of the adventure
at Versailles, with such a description of the pretended brother as left
the husband no room to think he could be any other person than his first
dishonourer; and exasperated him to such a degree, that he resolved
to lay an ambush for this invader, and at once disqualify him from
disturbing his repose, by maintaining further correspondence with his
wife.

Meanwhile the lovers enjoyed themselves without restraint, and
Peregrine's plan of inquiry after his dear unknown was for the present
postponed. His fellow-travellers were confounded at his mysterious
motions, which filled the heart of Jolter with anxiety and terror.
This careful conductor was fraught with such experience of his pupil's
disposition, that he trembled with the apprehension of some sudden
accident, and lived in continual alarm, like a man that walks under the
wall of a nodding tower. Nor did he enjoy any alleviati