 arose, acquitted the Prisoner, and broke up
the Court.
    Mr. Western now gave every one present a hearty Curse, and immediately
ordering his Horses, departed in Pursuit of his Daughter, without taking the
least Notice of his Nephew Fitzpatrick, or returning any Answer to his Claim of
Kindred, notwithstanding all the Obligations he had just received from that
Gentleman. In the Violence, moreover, of his Hurry, and of his Passion, he
luckily forgot to demand the Muff of Jones: I say luckily; for he would have
died on the Spot rather than have parted with it.
    Jones likewise, with his Friend Partridge, set forward the Moment he had
paid his Reckoning, in Quest of his lovely Sophia, whom he now resolved never
more to abandon the Pursuit of. Nor could he bring himself even to take Leave of
Mrs. Waters; of whom he detested the very Thoughts, as she had been, tho' not
designedly, the Occasion of his missing the happiest Interview with Sophia, to
whom he now vowed eternal Constancy.
    As for Mrs. Waters, she took the Opportunity of the Coach which was going to
Bath; for which Place she set out in Company with the two Irish Gentlemen, the
Landlady kindly lending her her Clothes; in Return for which she was contented
only to receive about double their Value, as a Recompence for the Loan. Upon the
Road she was perfectly reconciled to Mr. Fitzpatrick, who was a very handsome
Fellow, and indeed did all she could to console him in the Absence of his Wife.
    Thus ended the many odd Adventures which Mr. Jones encountered at his Inn at
Upton, where they talk, to this Day, of the Beauty and lovely Behaviour of the
charming Sophia, by the Name of the Somersetshire Angel.
 

                                  Chapter VIII

                      In which the History goes backward.
 
Before we proceed any farther in our History, it may be proper to look a little
back, in order to account for the extraordinary Appearance of Sophia and her
Father at the Inn at Upton.
    The Reader may be pleased to remember, that in the Ninth Chapter of the
Seventh Book of our History, we left Sophia, after a long Debate between Love
and Duty, deciding the Cause, as it usually, I believe, happens, in Favour of
the Former.
    This Debate had arisen, as we have there shewn, from a Visit which her
Father had just before made her, in order to force her Consent to a Marriage
with Blifil; and which he had understood to be fully implied in her
Acknowledgment, that she neither must, nor could refuse any
