g the ladies' part."

Sir Launcelot, though he refused to take notice of the insult which had
been offered to himself, no sooner heard of the distress of the ladies
than he started up, huddled on his clothes, and girding his sword to his
loins, advanced with a deliberate pace to the kitchen, where he perceived
Thomas Clarke warmly engaged in altercation with a couple of young men
dressed in regimentals, who, with a peculiar air of arrogance and
ferocity, treated him with great insolence and contempt. Tom was
endeavouring to persuade them, that, in the constitution of England, the
military was always subservient to the civil power, and that their
behaviour to a couple of helpless young women was not only unbecoming
gentlemen, but expressly contrary to the law, inasmuch as they might be
sued for an assault on an action of damages.

To this remonstrance the two heroes in red replied by a volley of
dreadful oaths, intermingled with threats, which put the lawyer in some
pain for his ears.

While one thus endeavoured to intimidate honest Tom Clarke, the other
thundered at the door of the apartment to which the ladies had retired,
demanding admittance, but received no other answer than a loud shriek.
Our adventurer advancing to this uncivil champion, accosted him thus, in
a grave and solemn tone: "Assuredly I could not have believed, except
upon the evidence of my own senses, that persons who have the appearance
of gentlemen, and bear his majesty's honourable commission in the army,
could behave so wide of the decorum due to society, of a proper respect
to the laws, of that humanity which we owe to our fellow-creatures, and
that delicate regard for the fair sex which ought to prevail in the
breast of every gentleman, and which in particular dignifies the
character of a soldier. To whom shall that weaker, though more amiable
part of the creation, fly for protection, if they are insulted and
outraged by those whose more immediate duty it is to afford them security
and defence from injury and violence? What right have you, or any man
upon earth, to excite riot in a public inn, which may be deemed a temple
sacred to hospitality; to disturb the quiet of your fellow-guests, some
of them perhaps exhausted by fatigue, some of them invaded by distemper;
to interrupt the king's lieges in their course of journeying upon their
lawful occasions? Above all, what motive but wanton barbarity could
prompt you to violate the apartment, an