 from his
sister, that our youth might have an opportunity to surprise her in a more
interesting manner, after he should have settled his affairs.
    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 garison, 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; so that his breast was absolutely a stranger to that boasted Storgo, 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 extasy 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.
    In the middle of their journey, while they halted at an inn for a short
refreshment and change of horses, a postilion ran up to Peregrine in the yard,
and falling at his feet, clasped his knees with great eagerness and agitation,
and presented to him the individual face of his old valet de chambre. The youth
perceiving him in such an abject garb and attitude, commanded him to rise, and
tell the cause of such a miserable reverse in his fortune. Upon which Hadgi gave
him to understand, that he had been ruined by his wife, who having robbed him of
all his cash and valuable effects, had eloped from his house, with one of his
own customers, who appeared in the character of a French count, but was in
reality no other than an Italian fidler; that, in consequence of this retreat,
he (the husband) was disabled from paying a considerable sum which he had set
apart for his wine-merchant, who being disappointed in his expectation, took out
an extent against his
