Terrified at this exclamation, she instantly broke off the treaty,
beseeching him to retire from the door, that her honour might
receive no injury from his being found in that place; and he had
just enough of recollection left to see the necessity of obeying
the order; in conformity to which he retreated well nigh deprived
of his senses, and almost persuaded that so many unaccountable
disappointments must have proceeded from some supernatural cause,
of which the idiot Pallet was no more than the involuntary instrument.
Meanwhile, the doctor having ascertained the malady of the patient,
whose cries, interrupted by frequent sobs and sighs, he interpreted
into the barking of a dog, and having no more salt-water at hand,
resolved to renew the bath with such materials as chance would
afford. He actually laid hold of the bottle and basin; but by this
time the painter had recovered the use of his senses so well as
to perceive his drift, and, starting up like a frantic bedlamite,
ran directly to his sword, swearing, with many horrid imprecations,
that he would murder them both immediately, if he should be hanged
before dinner, They did not choose to wait the issue of his threat,
but retired with such precipitation that the physician had almost
dislocated his shoulder by running against one side of the entry.
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