 politely, as usual, and
with great patience heard his complaint, which, by the bye, he could not repeat
without some hasty ebullitions of passionate resentment. This peer, after having
gently disapproved of the letter of expostulation, which had produced such
unfortunate effects, kindly undertook to recommend his case to the minister, and
actually performed his promise that same day, when Sir Steady informed him, to
his utter astonishment, that the poor young gentleman was disordered in his
brain, so that he could not possibly be provided for in a place of importance,
with any regard to the service; and it could not be expected that he (Sir
Steady) would support his extravagance from his own private purse: that he had
indeed, at the solicitation of a nobleman deceased, made him a present of three
hundred pounds, in consideration of some loss that he pretended to have
sustained in an election; but, since that time, had perceived in him such
indisputable marks of lunacy, both by his distracted letters and personal
behaviour, as obliged him to give order, that he should not be admitted into the
house. To corroborate this assertion, the minister actually called in the
evidence of his own porter, and one of the gentlemen of his houshold, who had
heard the execrations that escaped our youth, when he first found himself
excluded. In short, the nobleman was convinced, that Peregrine was certainly and
bona fide mad as a March hare; and, by the help of this intimation, began to
recollect some symptoms of distraction which appeared in his last visit; he
remembered a certain incoherence in his speech, a violence of gesture and
wildness of look, that now evidently denoted a disturbed understanding: and he
determined, for his own credit and security, to disentangle himself from such a
dangerous acquaintance.
    With this view, he, in imitation of Sir Steady, commanded his gate to be
shut against our adventurer; so that when he went to know the result of his
lordship's conference with the minister, the door was flung in his face, and the
janitor told him through an iron grate, that he needed not give himself the
trouble of calling again, for his lord desired to be excused from seeing him. He
spoke not a word in answer to this declaration, which he immediately imputed to
the ill offices of the minister, against whom he breathed defiance and revenge,
in his way to the lodgings of Cadwallader; who being made acquainted with the
manner of his reception, begg'd he would desist from all schemes of vengeance,
until he (Crabtree) should be
