Peregrine pretended to be very much concerned at what had happened,
and even cursed the driver for his inadvertency, expressing infinite
impatience to be at Brussels, and wishing that this misfortune
might not detain them another night upon the road; but when his
understrapper, according to his instructions, came afterwards to the
inn, and gave them to understand that the workman he had employed
could not possibly refit the machine in less then six hours, the
crafty youth affected to lose all temper, stormed at his emissary,
whom he reviled in the most opprobrious terms, and threatened to
cane for his misconduct. The fellow protested, with great humility,
that their being overturned was owing to the failure of the axle-tree,
and not to his want of care or dexterity in driving; though rather
than be thought the cause of incommoding him, he would inquire for
a post-chaise, in which he might depart for Brussels immediately.
This expedient Pickle rejected, unless the whole company could be
accommodated in the same manner; and he had been previously informed
by the driver that the town could not furnish more than one vehicle
of that sort.
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