" This challenge effectually
silenced Partridge, whose stomach for drubbing did not so soon return
after the hearty meal which he had lately been treated with; but the
coachman, whose bones were less sore, and whose appetite for fighting
was somewhat sharper, did not so easily brook the affront, of which he
conceived some part at least fell to his share. He started therefore
from his seat, and, advancing to the serjeant, swore he looked on
himself to be as good a man as any in the army, and offered to box for
a guinea. The military man accepted the combat, but refused the wager;
upon which both immediately stript and engaged, till the driver of
horses was so well mauled by the leader of men, that he was obliged to
exhaust his small remainder of breath in begging for quarter.
*Alas! I am not what I was.
*(2) This word, which the serjeant unhappily mistook for an effront,
is a term in logic, and means that the conclusion does not follow from
the premises.
The young lady was now desirous to depart, and had given orders
for her coach to be prepared: but all in vain, for the coachman was
disabled from performing his office for that evening. An antient
heathen would perhaps have imputed this disability to the god of
drink, no less than to the god of war; for, in reality, both the
combatants had sacrificed as well to the former deity as to the
latter. To speak plainly, they were both dead drunk, nor was Partridge
in a much better situation.
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