;
and, though she was invidiously snatched from his embrace in the midst of
such endearments as had wound up his soul to ecstasy and transport, he
did not doubt of being able to rescue her from the power of an inhuman
kinsman, whose guardianship would soon of course expire; and in the
meantime he rested with the most perfect dependence on her constancy and
virtue.

As he next day crossed the country, ruminating on the disaster that had
befallen his squire, and could now compare circumstances coolly, he
easily comprehended the whole scheme of that adventure, which was no
other than an artifice of Anthony Darnel and his emissaries to draw him
from the inn, where he proposed to execute his design upon the innocent
Aurelia. He took it for granted that the uncle, having been made
acquainted with his niece's elopement, had followed her track by the help
of such information as he received, from one stage to another; and that,
receiving more particulars at the White Hart touching Sir Launcelot, he
had formed the scheme in which Crabshaw was an involuntary instrument
towards the seduction of his master.

Amusing himself with these and other cogitations, our hero in the
afternoon reached the place of his destination, and, entering the inn
where Timothy had been left at sick quarters, chanced to meet the
apothecary retiring precipitately in a very unsavoury pickle from the
chamber of his patient. When he inquired about the health of his squire,
this retainer to medicine, wiping himself all the while with a napkin,
answered in manifest confusion, that he apprehended him to be in a very
dangerous way from an inflammation of the piamater, which had produced a
most furious delirium. Then he proceeded to explain, in technical terms,
the method of cure he had followed; and concluded with telling him the
poor squire's brain was so outrageously disordered, that he had rejected
all administration, and just thrown an urinal in his face.

The knight's humanity being alarmed at this intelligence, he resolved
that Crabshaw should have the benefit of further advice, and asked if
there was not a physician in the place? The apothecary, after some
interjections of hesitation, owned there was a doctor in the village, an
odd sort of a humourist; but he believed he had not much to do in the way
of his profession, and was not much used to the forms of prescription.
He was counted a scholar, to be sure, but as to his medical capacity--he
would n