 the
circumstances of the affair, approved of what his nephew had done; adding, with
many oaths, that, provided Peregrine had been out of the scrape, he wished
Crookback had broke his neck in the fall.
 

                                 Chapter XXXII

He projects a Plan of Revenge, which is executed against the Curate
 
Our hero, exasperated at the villainy of the curate, in the treacherous
misrepresentation he had made of this rencounter, determined to practise upon
him a method of revenge, which should be not only effectual, but also unattended
with any bad consequence to himself. For this purpose he and Hatchway, to whom
he imparted his plan, went to the alehouse one evening, and called for an empty
room, knowing there was no other but that which they had chosen for the scene of
action. This apartment was a sort of a parlour that fronted the kitchen, with a
window towards the yard; where, after they had sat some time, the lieutenant
found means to amuse the landlord in discourse, while Peregrine stepping out
into the yard, by the talent of mimickry, which he possessed in a surprising
degree, counterfeited a dialogue between the curate and Tunley's wife; which
reaching the ears of the publican, for whose hearing it was calculated, inflamed
his naturally jealous disposition to such a degree, that he could not conceal
his emotion, but made an hundred efforts to quit the room; while the lieutenant,
smoaking his pipe with great gravity, as if he neither heard what passed, nor
took notice of the landlord's disorder, detained him on the spot by a succession
of questions which he could not refuse to answer; though he stood sweating with
agony all the time, stretching his neck every instant towards the window thro'
which the voices were conveyed, scratching his head, and exhibiting sundry other
symptoms of impatience and agitation. At length, the supposed conversation came
to such a pitch of amorous complaisance, that the husband, quite frantic with
his imaginary disgrace, rushed out at the door, crying, »Coming, Sir.« But, as
he was obliged to make a circuit round one half of the house, Peregrine had got
in by the window, before Tunley arrived in the yard.
    According to the feigned intelligence he had received, he ran directly to
the barn, in expectation of making some very extraordinary discovery; and having
employed some minutes in rummaging the straw to no purpose, returned in a state
of distraction to the kitchen, just as his wife chanced to enter at the other
door. The circumstance of her appearance confirmed him in the opinion, that the
