a
postillion's leathern jerkin, covered with thin plates of tinned iron.
His buckler was a potlid, his lance a hop-pole shod with iron, and a
basket-hilt broadsword, like that of Hudibras, depended by a broad buff
belt, that girded his middle. His feet were defended by jack-boots, and
his hands by the gloves of a trooper. Sir Launcelot would not lose time
in examining particulars, as he perceived some mischief had been done,
and that the enemy had rallied at a distance; he therefore commanded
Crowe to follow him, and rode off with great expedition; but he did not
perceive his squire was taken prisoner; nor did the captain recollect
that his nephew, Tom Clarke, had been disabled and secured in the
beginning of the fray. The truth is, the poor captain had been so
belaboured about the pate, that it was a wonder he remembered his own
name.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CONTAINING ADVENTURES OF CHIVALRY EQUALLY NEW AND SURPRISING.

The knight Sir Launcelot, and the novice Crowe, retreated with equal
order and expedition to the distance of half a league from the field of
battle, where the former, halting, proposed to make a lodgment in a very
decent house of entertainment, distinguished by the sign of St. George of
Cappadocia encountering the dragon, an achievement in which temporal and
spiritual chivalry were happily reconciled. Two such figures alighting
at the inn gate did not pass through the yard unnoticed and unadmired by
the guests and attendants, some of whom fairly took to their heels, on
the supposition that these outlandish creatures were the avant-couriers
or heralds of a French invasion. The fears and doubts, however, of those
who ventured to stay were soon dispelled, when our hero accosted them in
the English tongue, and with the most courteous demeanour desired to be
shown into an apartment.

Had Captain Crowe been spokesman, perhaps their suspicions would not have
so quickly subsided, for he was, in reality, a very extraordinary novice,
not only in chivalry, but also in his external appearance, and
particularly in those dialects of the English language which are used by
the terrestrial animals of this kingdom. He desired the ostler to take
his horse in tow, and bring him to his moorings in a safe riding. He
ordered the waiter, who showed them into a parlour, to bear a hand, ship
his oars, mind his helm, and bring alongside a short allowance of brandy
or grog, that he might cant a slug into his bread-r