Composed, however, by this piece of intelligence, she
exerted her patience for the space of another half-hour, during which
period, seeing no bridegroom arrive, she was exceedingly alarmed;
so that all the spectators could easily perceive her perturbation,
which manifested itself in frequent palpitations, heart-heavings,
and alterations of countenance, in spite of the assistance of a
smelling-bottle which she incessantly applied to her nostrils.
Various were the conjectures of the company on this occasion: some
imagined he had mistaken the place of rendezvous, as he had never
been at church since he first settled in that parish; others
believed he had met with some accident, in consequence of which
his attendants had carried him back to his own house; and a third
set, in which the bride herself was thought to be comprehended,
could not help suspecting that the commodore had changed his mind.
But all these suppositions, ingenious as they were, happened to be
wide of the true cause that detained him, which was no other than
this: the commodore and his crew had, by dint of turning, almost
weathered the parson's house that stood to windward of the church,
when the notes of a pack of hounds unluckily reached the ears of
the two hunters which Trunnion and the lieutenant bestrode.
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