Aurelia, whom I value no more than old junk, pork
slush, or stinking stock-fish."

"Enough, enough!--such blasphemy shall not pass unchastised. In
consideration of our having fed from the same table, and maintained
together a friendly, though short intercourse, I will not demand the
combat before you are duly prepared. Proceed to the first great town,
where you can be furnished with horse and harnessing, with arms offensive
and defensive; provide a trusty squire, assume a motto and device,
declare yourself a son of chivalry, and proclaim the excellence of her
who rules your heart. I shall fetch a compass; and wheresoever we may
chance to meet, let us engage with equal arms in mortal combat, that
shall decide and determine this dispute."

So saying, our adventurer stalked with great solemnity into another
apartment; while Crowe, being sufficiently irritated, snapped his fingers
in token of defiance. Honest Crowe thought himself scurvily used by a
man whom he had cultivated with such humility and veneration; and, after
an incoherent ejaculation of sea oaths, went in quest of his nephew, in
order to make him acquainted with this unlucky transaction.

In the meantime, Sir Launcelot, having ordered supper, retired into his
own chamber, and gave a loose to the most tender emotions of his heart.
He recollected all the fond ideas which had been excited in the course of
his correspondence with the charming Aurelia. He remembered, with
horror, the cruel letter he had received from that young lady, containing
a formal renunciation of his attachment, so unsuitable to the whole tenor
of her character and conduct. He revolved the late adventure of the
coach, and the declaration of Mr. Clarke, with equal eagerness and
astonishment; and was seized with the most ardent desire of unravelling a
mystery so interesting to the predominant passion of his heart. All
these mingled considerations produced a kind of ferment in the economy of
his mind, which subsided into a profound reverie, compounded of hope and
perplexity.

From this trance he was waked by the arrival of his squire, who entered
the room with the blood trickling over his nose, and stood before him
without speaking. When the knight asked whose livery was that he wore?
he replied, "'T is your honour's own livery; I received it on your
account, and hope as you will quit the score." Then he proceeded to
inform his master, that two officers of the army having come into th