 ship,
and drove them to close quarters, so that they were obliged to strike; and from
that day Guntlet and I were sworn brothers as long as he remained on board. He
was exchanged into a marching regiment, and what became of him afterwards, Lord
in heaven knows; but this I'll say of him, whether he be dead or alive, he
feared no man that ever wore a head, and was, moreover, a very hearty messmate.«
    The stranger's breast glowed at this eulogium, which was no sooner
pronounced, than he eagerly asked, if the French ship was not the Diligence? The
commodore replied with a stare, »The very same, my lad.« »Then (said Gauntlet)
the person of whom you are pleased to make such honourable mention was my own
father.« »The devil he was! (cried Trunnion, shaking him by the hand) I am
rejoiced to see a son of Ned Gauntlet in my house.«
    This discovery introduced a thousand questions, in the course of which, the
old gentleman learnt the situation of his friend's family, and discharged
innumerable execrations upon the ingratitude and injustice of the ministry,
which had failed to provide for the son of such a brave soldier. Nor was his
friendship confined to such ineffectual expressions; he that same evening
signified to Peregrine a desire of doing something for his friend; and this
inclination was so much praised, encouraged and promoted by his godson, and even
supported by his counsellor Hatchway, that our hero was empowered to present him
with a sum of money sufficient to purchase a commission.
    Though nothing could be more agreeable to Pickle than this permission, he
was afraid that Godfrey's scrupulous disposition would hinder him from
subjecting himself to any such obligation; and therefore proposed that he should
be decoyed into his own interest by a feigned story, in consequence of which he
would be prevailed upon to accept of the money, as a debt which the commodore
had contracted of his father at sea. Trunnion made wry faces at this expedient,
the necessity of which he could not conceive, without calling in question the
common sense of Gauntlet, as he took it for granted, that such offers as those
were not to be rejected on any consideration whatever. Besides, he could not
digest an artifice, by which he himself must own that he had lived so many
years, without manifesting the least intention of doing justice to his creditor.
All these objections, however, were removed by the zeal and rhetoric of
Peregrine, who represented that it would be impossible to
