Peregrine at once conceived the meaning of this arrest, and it
was well for him that he had no weapon wherewith to stand upon his
defence; for such was the impetuosity and rashness of his temper,
that, had he been armed, he would have run all risks rather than
surrender himself to any odds whatever; but Pallet, imagining that
the officer was some gentleman who had mistaken their carriage for
his own, desired his friend to undeceive the stranger; and when he
was informed of the real state of their condition, his knees began
to shake, his teeth to chatter, and he uttered a most doleful
lamentation, importing his fear of being carried to some hideous
dungeon of the Bastille, where he should spend the rest of his
days in misery and horror, and never see the light of God's sun,
nor the face of a friend; but perish in a foreign land, far removed
from his family and connexions. Pickle d--d him for his pusillanimity;
and the exempt hearing a lady bemoan herself so piteously, expressed
his mortification at being the instrument of giving her such pain,
and endeavoured to console them by representing the lenity of the
French government, and the singular generosity of the prince, by
whose order they were apprehended.
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