respected and beloved by
all the world, attend as the priests and ministers of mirth, good cheer,
and jollity, and assist with culinary art the raw, unpractised, awkward
guest.

But to return from this digressive simile. The ostler no sooner stept
between those menacing antagonists, than Tom Clarke very quietly resumed
his clothes, and Mr. Ferret resigned the gridiron without further
question. The doctor did not find it quite so easy to release the throat
of Captain Crowe from the masculine grasp of the virago Dolly, whose
fingers could not be disengaged until the honest seaman was almost at the
last gasp. After some pause, during which he panted for breath, and
untied his neckcloth, "D--n thee, for a brimstone galley," cried he; "I
was never so grappled withal since I knew a card from a compass.--
Adzooks! the jade has so tautened my rigging, d'ye see, that I--Snatch my
bowlines, if I come athwart thy hawser, I'll turn thy keel upwards--or
mayhap set thee a-driving under thy bare poles--I will--I will, you
hell-fire, saucy--I will."

Dolly made no reply; but seeing Mr. Clarke sit down again with great
composure, took her station likewise at the opposite side of the
apartment. Then Mr. Fillet requested the lawyer to proceed with his
story, which, after three hems, he accordingly prosecuted in these words:

"I told you, gemmen, that Mr. Greaves was mounted on Scipio, when he saw
Miss Darnel and her mother in danger of being hurried over a precipice.
Without reflecting a moment, he gave Scipio the spur, and at one spring
he cleared five-and-twenty feet, over hedge and ditch and every
obstruction. Then he rode full speed, in order to turn the coach-horses;
and, finding them quite wild and furious, endeavoured to drive against
the counter of the hither horse, which he missed, and staked poor Scipio
on the pole of the coach. The shock was so great, that the coach-horses
made a full stop within ten yards of the quarry, and Mr. Greaves was
thrown forwards towards the coach-box, which mounting with admirable
dexterity, he seized the reins before the horses could recover of their
fright. At that instant the coachman came running up, and loosed them
from the traces with the utmost despatch. Mr. Greaves had now time to
give his attention to the ladies, who were well-nigh distracted with
fear. He no sooner opened the chariot door than Aurelia, with a wildness
of look, sprung into his arms, and, clasping him round the ne