All these previous steps being taken, in less than an hour our hero
took his leave of the Fleet, after he had left twenty guineas with
the warden for the relief of the poor prisoners, a great number of
whom conveyed him to the gate, pouring forth prayers for his long
life and prosperity; and he took the road to the garrison, in the
most elevated transports of joy, unallayed with the least mixture
of grief at the death of a parent whose paternal tenderness he had
never known. His breast was absolutely a stranger to that boasted
storyn, or instinct of affection, by which the charities are supposed
to subsist.
Of all the journeys he had ever made, this, sure, was the most
delightful. He felt all the ecstasy that must naturally be produced
in a young man of his imagination, from such a sudden transition in
point of circumstance, he found himself delivered from confinement
and disgrace, without being obliged to any person upon earth for
his deliverance; he had it now in his power to retort the contempt
of the world in a manner suited to his most sanguine wish; he was
reconciled to his friend, and enabled to gratify his love, even
upon his own terms; and saw himself in possession of a fortune more
ample than his first inheritance, with a stock of experience that
would steer him clear of all those quicksands among which he had
been formerly wrecked.
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