Page:Adventures of Roderick Random.pdf/106

 of which advice, he made up to Melinda; and having heard by means of an Irish footman in the family, that I was her chief favourite, had called me out; but now he was convinced of my honour, and swore by the blessed Virgin he would think of her no more. As a further proof of his veracity, he opened an old snuff box and pulled out his commission in the imperial army, and his captain's challenge, which he had preserved.

As we walked along, conversing socially together, we were met by a file of musqueteers, and Strap at their head, who no sooner approached than with a frantic look, he cried, “Seize them! in the name of God seize them!” We were accordingly surrounded. and I put in arrest by the corporal, who was commanding officer; but Captain O'Regan disengaged himself and run with such speed towards Tottenham court-road, that he was out of sight in a moment. When my arms were delivered up and myself secured. I thanked the corporal for his care, and gave him a crown to drink with his men, assuring him that the encounter was over, long before he came up, and every thing compromised.

He was not gone an hundred wards when my friend O'Regan came up, in order to rescue me, with two tatterdemalions whom he had engaged for that purpose about the of St. Gile's: One of them was armed with