 against the commodore as an old
ruffian who spirited up a rebellion among her children, and imputed the
hospitality of his wife, in countenancing them, to nothing else but her
inveterate enmity to their mother, whom they had disobliged. She now insisted,
in the most peremptory terms, upon her husband's renouncing all commerce with
the old lad of the castle and his adherents; and Mr. Gamaliel having by this
time contracted other friendships, readily submitted to her will, and even
refused to communicate with the commodore one night, when they happened to meet
by accident at the public house.
 

                                 Chapter XXXVI

The Commodore sends a Challenge to Gamaliel, and is imposed upon by a waggish
Invention of the Lieutenant, Peregrine and Gauntlet
 
This affront Trunnion could by no means digest: he advised with the lieutenant
upon the subject; and the result of their consultation was a defiance which the
old commander sent to Pickle, demanding that he would meet him at such a place
on horseback with a brace of pistols, and give satisfaction for the slight he
had put upon him.
    Nothing could have afforded more pleasure to Jack, than the acceptance of
this challenge, which he delivered verbally to Mr. Gamaliel, who was called out
from the club at Tunley's for that purpose. The nature of this message had an
instantaneous effect upon the constitution of the pacific Pickle, whose bowels
yearned with apprehension, and underwent such violent agitation on the spot,
that one would have thought the operation proceeded from some severe joke of the
apothecary which he had swallowed in his beer.
    The messenger despairing of a satisfactory answer, left him in this woeful
condition; and being loath to lose any opportunity of raising the laugh against
the commodore, went immediately and communicated the whole affair to the young
gentlemen, intreating them, for the love of God, to concert some means of
bringing old Hannibal into the field. The two friends relished the proposal, and
after some deliberation, it was resolved that Hatchway should tell Trunnion his
invitation was accepted by Gamaliel, who would meet him at the place appointed,
with his second, to-morrow in the twilight, because if either should fall, the
other would have the better chance for escaping in the dark; that Godfrey should
personate old Pickle's friend, and Peregrine represent his own father, while the
lieutenant should take care in loading the pistols to keep out the shot, so as
that no damage might be done in the rencounter.
    These circumstances being adjusted, the lieutenant returned to his principal
with a most thundering reply from his antagonist, whose courageous behaviour,
though it could
