Page:Adventures of Roderick Random.pdf/27

 street, where, seeing a footman standing at a door, we made up to him, and asked if he knew where our patron lived. This member of the party-coloured fraternity, surveying us both very minutely, said, he knew Mr. Cringer very well, and bid us turn down the first street on our left, then turn to the right, and then to the left again, after which we would observe a lane, through which we must pass, and at the other end we should find an alley that leads to another street where we should see the sign of the thistle and three pedlars, and there be lodged. We thanked him for his information, and went forward Strap telling me, that he knew this person to be an honest friendly man by his countenance, before he opened his mouth. We followed his directions punctually in turning to the left, and to the right, and to the left again; but instead of seeing a lane before us, we found ourselves at the side of the river, which perplexed us not a little. By this time we were pretty much fatigued with our walk and went into a small snuff shop hard by, encouraged by the sign of the Highlander, where I found, to my inexpressible satisfaction, the shop keeper my countryman. He was no sooner informed of our peregrination, and the directions we had received from the footman, than he informed us we had been imposed upon, telling us, that Mr. Cringer lived in the other side of the town; and that Rh