 flung out
of the room, leaving Cadwallader very well satisfied with the chastisement he
had bestowed.
    Peregrine having cooled himself with a solitary walk in the park, during
which the violence of his choler gradually evaporated, and his reflection was
called to a serious deliberation upon the posture of his affairs; he resolved to
redouble his diligence and importunity with his patron and the minister, in
order to obtain some sine-cure, which would indemnify him for the damage he had
sustained on their account. He accordingly went to his lordship, and signified
his demand, after having told him, that he had suffered several fresh losses,
which rendered an immediate provision of that sort necessary to his credit and
subsistence.
    His noble friend commended him for the regard he manifested for his own
interest, which he considered as a proof of his being at last detached from the
careless inadvertency of youth; he approved of his demand, which, he assured
him, should be faithfully transmitted to the minister, and backed with all his
influence; and encouraged his hope, by observing, that some profitable places
were at that time vacant, and, so far as he knew, unengaged.
    This conversation helped to restore the tranquillity of Pickle's breast,
tho' he still harboured resentment against Cadwallader, on account of the last
insult; and on the instant he formed a plan of revenge. He knew the
Misanthrope's remittances from his estate in the country, had been of late very
scanty, in consequence of repairs and bankruptcies among his tenants: so that,
in spite of all his frugality, he had been but barely able to maintain his
credit, and even that was engaged on the strength of his running rent. Being
therefore intimately acquainted with the particulars of his fortune, he wrote a
letter to Crabtree, subscribed with the name of his principal farmer's wife,
importing, that her husband being lately dead, and the greatest part of her
cattle destroyed by the infectious distemper, she found herself utterly
incapable of paying the rent which was due, or even of keeping the farm, unless
he would, out of his great goodness, be pleased to give her some assistance, and
allow her to sit free for a twelvemonth to come. This intimation he found means
to convey by post from a market-town adjoining to the farm, directed in the
usual stile to the cynic, who seeing it stamped with the known marks, could not
possibly suspect any imposition.
    Hackneyed as he was in the ways of life, and steeled with his boasted
stoicism, this epistle threw him into such an agony of
