To corroborate this assertion, the
minister actually called in the evidence of his own porter, and one
of the gentlemen of his household, who had heard the execrations
that escaped our youth, when he first found himself excluded. In
short, the nobleman was convinced that Peregrine was certainly and
bona fide mad as a March hare; and, by the help of this intimation,
began to recollect some symptoms of distraction which appeared in
his last visit; he remembered a certain incoherence in his speech,
a violence of gesture and wildness of look, that now evidently
denoted a disturbed understanding; and he determined, for his own
credit and security, to disentangle himself from such a dangerous
acquaintance.
With this view, he, in imitation of Sir Steady, commanded his gate
to be shut against our adventurer; so that, when he went to know
the result of his lordship's conference with the minister, the door
was flung in his face, and the janitor told him through an iron
grate, that he needed not to give himself the trouble of calling
again, for his lord desired to be excused from seeing him.
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