f creditable women, if they were not provided
with such conveniences. To one of these night-houses did our travellers
repair, under the conduct of the English merchant, and were introduced
into such another place as the ever-memorable coffee-house of Moll King;
with this difference, that the company here were not so riotous as the
bucks of Covent Garden, but formed themselves into a circle, within
which some of the number danced to the music of a scurvy organ and a few
other instruments, that uttered tunes very suitable to the disposition
of the hearers, while the whole apartment was shrouded with clouds of
smoke impervious to the view. When our gentlemen entered, the floor was
occupied by two females and their gallants, who, in the performance of
their exercise, lifted their legs like so many oxen at plough and the
pipe of one of those hoppers happening to be exhausted, in the midst of
his saraband, he very deliberately drew forth his tobacco-box, filling
and lighting it again, without any interruption to the dance.

Peregrine being unchecked by the presence of his governor, who was too
tender of his own reputation to attend them in this expedition, made up
to a sprightly French girl who sat in seeming expectation of a customer,
and prevailing upon her to be his partner, led her into the circle, and
in his turn took the opportunity of dancing a minuet, to the admiration
of all present. He intended to have exhibited another specimen of his
ability in this art, when a captain of a Dutch man-of-war chancing to
come in, and seeing a stranger engaged with the lady whom, it seems,
he had bespoke for his bedfellow, he advanced without any ceremony, and
seizing her by the arm, pulled her to the other side of the room. Our
adventurer, who was not a man to put up with such a brutal affront,
followed the ravisher with indignation in his eyes; and pushing him on
one side, retook the subject of their contest, and led her back to the
place from whence she had been dragged. The Dutchman, enraged at the
youth's presumption, obeyed the first dictates of his choler, and lent
his rival a hearty box on the ear; which was immediately repaid with
interest, before our hero could recollect himself sufficiently to lay
his hand upon his sword, and beckon the aggressor to the door.

Notwithstanding the confusion and disorder which this affair produced
in the room, and the endeavours of Pickle's company, who interposed,
in order to prevent bloods