But all these possibilities were providentially prevented
by an accident attended with more important consequences than any
we have hitherto recounted.
Early one morning Pipes was disturbed by the arrival of a messenger,
who had been sent express from the country by Mr. Clover, with
a packet for the lieutenant, and arrived in town overnight; but
as he was obliged to have recourse to the information of Jack's
correspondent in the city, touching the place of his abode, before
he demanded entrance at the Fleet. the gate was shut; nor would
the turnkeys admit him, although he told them that he was charged
with a message of the utmost consequence; so that he was fain
to tarry till daybreak, when he, at his earnest solicitation, was
allowed to enter.
Hatchway, opening the packet, found a letter enclosed for Peregrine,
with an earnest request that he should forward it to the hands of
that young gentleman with all possible despatch. Jack, who could
not dive into the meaning of this extraordinary injunction, began
to imagine that Mrs. Clover lay at the point of death, and wanted
to take a last farewell of her brother; and this conceit worked so
strongly upon his imagination, that, while he huddled on his clothes,
and made the best of his way to the apartment of our hero, he
could not help cursing, within himself, the folly of the husband
in sending such disagreeable messages to a man of Peregrine's
impatient temper, already soured by his own uneasy situation.
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