ledgments for the
trouble his honour had taken; 'I have not interest sufficient to make you
curate,' said the knight, 'but I can give you the living itself, and that
you shall have.' So saying, he retired, leaving Mr. Jenkins incapable of
uttering one syllable, so powerfully was he struck with this unexpected
turn of good fortune. The presentation was immediately made out, and in
a few days Mr. Jenkins was put in possession of his benefice, to the
inexpressible joy of the congregation.

"Hitherto everything went right, and every unprejudiced person commended
the knight's conduct; but in a little time his generosity seemed to
overleap the bounds of discretion, and even in some cases might be
thought tending to a breach of the king's peace. For example, he
compelled, vi et armis, a rich farmer's son to marry the daughter of a
cottager, whom the young fellow had debauched. Indeed, it seems there
was a promise of marriage in the case, though it could not be legally
ascertained. The wench took on dismally, and her parents had recourse to
Sir Launcelot, who, sending for the delinquent, expostulated with him
severely on the injury he had done the young woman, and exhorted him to
save her life and reputation by performing his promise, in which case he,
Sir Launcelot, would give her three hundred pounds to her portion.
Whether the farmer thought there was something interested in this
uncommon offer, or was a little elevated by the consciousness of his
father's wealth, he rejected the proposal with rustic disdain, and said,
if so be as how the wench would swear the child to him, he would settle
it with the parish; but declared, that no squire in the land should
oblige him to buckle with such a cracked pitcher. This resolution,
however, he could not maintain; for, in less than two hours the rector of
the parish had direction to publish the banns, and the ceremony was
performed in due course.

"Now, though we know not precisely the nature of the arguments that were
used with the farmer, we may conclude they were of the minatory species,
for the young fellow could not, for some time, look any person in the
face.

"The knight acted as the general redresser of grievances. If a woman
complained to him of being ill-treated by her husband, he first inquired
into the foundation of the complaint, and, if he found it just,
catechised the defendant. If the warning had no effect, and the man
proceeded to fresh acts of violence, the