The
two conductors were confounded at this asseveration, which, being
communicated to the cheesemonger, he shook his head with a significant
grin; and, though he did not choose to express his incredulity in
words, gave our hero to understand, that he did not much depend
upon his veracity. From the house of this Dutch naturalist, they
were draggled all round the city by the painful civility of their
attendants, who did not quit them till the evening was well advanced,
and then not till after they had promised to be with them before
ten o'clock next day, in order to conduct them to a country house,
situated in a pleasant village on the other side of the river.
Pickle was already so much fatigued with their hospitality, that,
for the first time of his life, he suffered a dejection of spirits;
and resolved, at any rate, to avoid the threatened persecution of
to-morrow. With this view, he ordered his servants to pack up some
clothes and linen in a portmanteau; and in the morning embarked,
with his governor, in the treckskuyt, for the Hague, whither
he pretended to be called by some urgent occasion, leaving his
fellow-travellers to make his apology to their friends, and assuring
them, that he would not proceed for Amsterdam without their society.
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