 spirits, sense and strength decay,
My resolution dies away,
And ev'ry faculty opprest,
Almighty love invades my breast!
 
Her ladyship having perused this production, »Were I inclined to be suspicious,
(said she) I should believe that I had no share in producing this composition,
which seems to have been inspired by a much more amiable object. However, I will
take your word for your intention, and thank you for the unmerited compliment,
though I have met with it in such an accidental manner. Nevertheless, I must be
so free as to tell you, it is now high time for you to contract that unbounded
spirit of gallantry, which you have indulged so long, into a sincere attachment
for the fair Emilia, who, by all accounts, deserves the whole of your attention
and regard.« His nerves thrilled at mention of that name, which he never heard
pronounced without agitation; and rather than undergo the consequence of a
conversation upon this subject, he chose to drop the theme of love altogether,
and industriously introduced some other topic of discourse.
 

                                   Chapter CV

He writes against the Minister, by whose Instigation he is arrested, and moves
himself by Habeas Corpus into the Fleet
 
My lady having prolonged her stay beyond the period of a common visit, and
repeated her protestations in the most frank and obliging manner, took her leave
of our adventurer, who promised to pay his respects to her in a few days, at her
own house. Mean while, he resumed his task; and having finished a most severe
remonstrance against Sir Steady, not only with regard to his private
ingratitude, but also to his male-administration of public affairs, he sent it
to the author of a weekly paper, who had been long a professed reformer in
politics; and it appeared in a very few days, with a note of the publisher,
desiring the favour of a further correspondence with the author.
    The animadversions contained in this small essay were so spirited and
judicious, and a great many new lights thrown upon the subject with such
perspicuity, as attracted the notice of the public in an extraordinary manner,
and helped to raise the character of the paper in which it was inserted. The
minister was not the last who examined the performance, which, in spite of all
his boasted temper, provoked him to such a degree, that he set his emissaries at
work, and by dint of corruption, procured a sight of the manuscript in
Peregrine's own hand-writing, which he immediately recognized; and, for further
confirmation of his opinion, compared with the two
