 been enabled, by a most accidental piece of good
fortune, to lift himself into the sphere of an officer, he had all the reason in
the world to believe, that this gentleman, and all the rest of his wealthy
relations, would have suffered him to languish in obscurity and distress; and,
by turning his misfortune into reproach, made it a plea for their own want of
generosity and friendship.
    Peregrine, understanding this situation of his friend's affairs, would have
accommodated him, upon the instant, with a sum to accelerate the passage of his
commission through the offices; but, being too well acquainted with his
scrupulous disposition, to manifest his benevolence in that manner, he found
means to introduce himself to one of the gentlemen of the war-office, who was so
well satisfied with the arguments he used in behalf of his friend, that
Godfrey's business was transacted in a very few days, though he himself knew
nothing of his interest's being thus reinforced.
    By this time, the season at Bath was begun; and our hero, panting with the
desire of distinguishing himself at that resort of the fashionable world,
communicated his design of going thither to his friend Godfrey, whom he
importuned to accompany him in the excursion: and leave of absence from his
regiment being obtained, by the influence of Peregrine's new quality-friends,
the two companions departed from London in a post-chaise, attended, as usual, by
the valet de chambre and Pipes, who were become almost as necessary to our
adventurer as any two of his own organs.
    At the inn, when they alighted for dinner, Godfrey perceived a person
walking by himself in the yard, with a very pensive air, and upon observing him
more narrowly, recognized him to be a professed gamester, whom he had formerly
known at Tunbridge. On the strength of this acquaintance, he accosted the
peripatetic, who knew him immediately; and, in the fulness of his grief and
vexation, told him, that he was now on his return from Bath, where he had been
stripp'd by a company of sharpers, who resented that he should presume to trade
upon his own bottom.
    Peregrine, who was extremely curious in his inquiries, imagining that he
might learn some entertaining and useful anecdotes from this artist, invited him
to dinner, and was accordingly fully informed of all the political systems at
the Bath. He understood, that there was at London one great company of
adventurers, who employed agents, in all the different branches of imposition,
throughout the whole kingdom of England
