Jumble,
his own tutor, who could not at all digest the mortifying affront
he had received, and was resolved to be revenged on the insulting
author. With this view he watched the conduct of Mr. Pickle with
the utmost rancour of vigilance, and let slip no opportunity of
treating him disrespect, which he knew the disposition of his pupil
could less brook than any other severity it was in his power to
exercise.
Peregrine had been several mornings absent from chapel; and as Mr.
Jumble never failed to question him in a very peremptory style
about his non-attendance, he invented some very plausible excuses;
but at length his ingenuity was exhausted: he received a very galling
rebuke for his proffigacy of morals; and, that he might feel it
the more sensibly, was ordered, by way of exercise, to compose a
paraphrase in English verse upon these two lines in Virgil:--
Vane Ligur, frustraque animis elate superbis,
Nequicquam patrias tentasti lubricus artes.
The imposition of this invidious theme had all the desired effect
upon Peregrine, who not only considered it as a piece of unmannerly
abuse leveled against his own conduct, but also a retrospective
insult on the memory of his grandfather, who, as he had been informed,
was in his lifetime more noted for his cunning than candour in
trade.
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