Having thus
cleared the room of such disagreeable company, he went back to his
mistress, and assuring her that this was only some foolish prank
of Pallet, took his leave, with a promise of returning after the
quiet of the inn should be re-established.
In the mean time, the noise of the bourrique, the cries of the
painter, and the lady's scream, had alarmed the whole house; and
the ass, in the precipitation of his retreat, seeing people with
lights before him, took shelter in the apartment for which he was
at first designed, just as the Levite, aroused at the uproar, had
quitted his dulcinea, and was attempting to recover his own chamber
unperceived. Seeing himself opposed by such an animal, mounted
by a tall, meagre, lantern-jawed figure, half naked, with a white
nightcap upon his head which added to the natural paleness of his
complexion,--the Jew was sorely troubled in mind and believing it
to be an apparition of Balaam and his ass, flew backward with a
nimble pace, and crept under the bed, where he lay, concealed. Mr.
Jolter and the priest, who were the foremost of those who had been
aroused by the noise, were not unmoved when they saw such a spectacle
rushing into the chamber, whence the lady of pleasure began to
shriek.
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