perceive any
load in your bowels?"--"I would the apothecary's conscience was as
clear."--"Are you thirsty?"--"Not thirsty enough to drink barley-water."
--"Be pleased to look into his fauces," said the apothecary; "he has got
a rough tongue, and a very foul mouth, I'll assure you."--"I have known
that the case with some limbs of the faculty, where they stood more in
need of correction than of physic.--Well, my honest friend, since you
have already undergone the proper purgations in due form, and say you
have no other disease than the doctor, we will set you on your legs again
without further question. Here, nurse, open that window, and throw these
phials into the street. Now lower the curtain, without shutting the
casement, that the man may not be stifled in his own steam. In the next
place, take off two-thirds of these coals, and one-third of these
blankets.--How dost feel now, my heart?" "I should feel heart-whole, if
so be as yow would throw the noorse a'ter the bottles, and the 'pothecary
a'ter the noorse, and oorder me a pound of chops for my dinner, for I be
so hoongry, I could eat a horse behind the saddle."

The apothecary, seeing what passed, retired of his own accord, holding up
his hands in sign of astonishment. The nurse was dismissed in the same
breath. Crabshaw rose, dressed himself without assistance, and made a
hearty meal on the first eatable that presented itself to view. The
knight passed the evening with the physician, who, from his first
appearance, concluded he was mad; but, in the course of the conversation,
found means to resign that opinion without adopting any other in lieu of
it, and parted with him under all the impatience of curiosity. The
knight, on his part, was very well entertained with the witty sarcasms
and erudition of the doctor, who appeared to be a sort of cynic
philosopher tinctured with misanthropy, and at open war with the whole
body of apothecaries, whom however it was by no means his interest to
disoblige.

Next day, Crabshaw, being to all appearance perfectly recovered, our
adventurer reckoned with the apothecary, paid the landlord, and set out
on his return for the London road, resolving to lay aside his armour at
some distance from the metropolis; for, ever since his interview with
Aurelia, his fondness for chivalry had been gradually abating. As the
torrent of his despair had disordered the current of his sober
reflection, so now, as that despair subsided, his t