Page:Adventures of Roderick Random.pdf/103

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I am informed that you make love to Miss Melinda Goosetrap. This is to let you know, that she is under promise of marriage to me; and that I am at this present waiting, at the back of Montague-house, with a pair of good pistols in my hand; and if you will keep your appointment, I will make your tongue confess (after the breath is out of your body) that you do not deserve her as well as

Yours, &c.

I guessed, from the stile and subscription of this letter. that my rival was a true Milesian; I therefore immediately loaded my pistols, and betook myself in a hackney-coach to the place appointed. where I found a tall raw-boned man with a hard-featured countenance, and a black bushy beard, walking by himself, wrapped up in a shabby great coat. He no sooner perceived me advancing, than. without any preamble. he pulled out a pistol from his bosom, and presenting it at me, snapt it. Alarmed at this rude salutation, I made a stand, and before he could adjust his other piece, I fired one of mine at him, without doing any damage. By this time he was ready with his second, that flashed in the pan without going off. Upon which he called, with a true Tipperary cadence, "Fire away; honey;" and began to ham-