mselves an honourable character which they had not spirit to
sustain.

These words were scarce pronounced, when Mr. Clarke approaching one of
the bravadoes, who had threatened to crop his ears, bestowed such a
benediction on his jaw, as he could not receive without immediate
humiliation; while Timothy Crabshaw, smarting from his broken head and
his want of supper, saluted the other with a Yorkshire hug, that laid him
across the body of his companion. In a word, the two pseudo-officers
were very roughly handled, for their presumption in pretending to act
characters for which they were so ill qualified.

While Clarke and Crabshaw were thus laudably employed, the two young
ladies passed through the kitchen so suddenly, that the knight had only a
transient glimpse of their backs, and they disappeared before he could
possibly make a tender of his services. The truth is, they dreaded
nothing so much as their being discovered, and took the first opportunity
of gliding into the chaise, which had been for some time waiting in the
passage.

Mr. Clarke was much more disconcerted than our adventurer by their
sudden escape. He ran with great eagerness to the door, and, perceiving
they were flown, returned to Sir Launcelot, saying, "Lord bless my soul,
sir, didn't you see who it was?" "Ha! how!" exclaimed the knight,
reddening with alarm, "who was it?" "One of them," replied the lawyer,
"was Dolly, our old landlady's daughter at the Black Lion. I knew her
when first she 'lighted, notwithstanding her being neatly dressed in a
green joseph, which, I'll assure you, sir, becomes her remarkably well.
--I'd never desire to see a prettier creature. As for the other, she's a
very genteel woman, but whether old or young, ugly or handsome, I can't
pretend to say, for she was masked. I had just time to salute Dolly, and
ask a few questions; but all she could tell me was, that the masked
lady's name was Miss Meadows; and that she, Dolly, was hired as her
waiting-woman."

When the name of Meadows was mentioned, Sir Launcelot, whose spirits had
been in violent commotion, became suddenly calm and serene, and he began
to communicate to Clarke the dialogue which had passed between him and
Captain Crowe, when the hostess, addressing herself to our errant,
"Well," said she, "I have had the honour to accommodate many ladies of
the first fashion at the White Hart, both young and old, proud and lowly,
ordinary and handsome; but such a miracle