n disgrace, but to extort a
round sum of money from the Count, by way of composition. Confiding in
this protestation, she in a few days gave him intelligence of an
assignation she had made with our adventurer, at a certain bagnio near
Covent Garden; upon which he secured the assistance of a particular
friend and his own journeyman, with whom, and a constable, he repaired to
the place of rendezvous, where he waited in an adjoining room, according
to the directions of his virtuous spouse, until she made the preconcerted
signal of hemming three times aloud, when he and his associates rushed
into the chamber and surprised our hero in bed with his inamorata.

The lady on this occasion acted her part to a miracle; she screamed at
their approach; and, after an exclamation of "Ruined and undone!"
fainted away in the arms of her spouse, who had by this time seized her
by the shoulders, and begun to upbraid her with her infidelity and guilt.
As for Fathom, his affliction was unutterable, when he found himself
discovered in that situation, and made prisoner by the two assistants,
who had pinioned him in such a manner, that he could not stir, much less
accomplish an escape. All his ingenuity and presence of mind seemed to
forsake him in this emergency. The horrors of an English jury overspread
his imagination; for he at once perceived that the toil into which he had
fallen was laid for the purpose; consequently he took it for granted that
there would be no deficiency in point of evidence. Soon as he
recollected himself, he begged that no violence might be offered to his
person, and entreated the husband to favour him with a conference, in
which the affair might be compromised, without prejudice to the
reputation of either.

At first Trapwell breathed nothing but implacable revenge, but, by the
persuasion of his friends, after he had sent home his wife in a chair, he
was prevailed upon to hear the proposals of the delinquent, who having
assured him, by way of apology, that he had always believed the lady was
a widow, made him an offer of five hundred pounds, as an atonement for
the injury he had sustained. This being a sum no ways adequate to the
expectation of the citizen, who looked upon the Count as possessor of an
immense estate, he rejected the terms with disdain, and made instant
application to a judge, from whom he obtained a warrant for securing his
person till the day of trial. Indeed, in this case, money was but a
s