Page:Modern literature (1804 Volume 1).djvu/214

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obstruction should be made. From the quantity he had drunk, the heat of the weather, and the dustiness of the roads, being excessively thirsty, he had at every hedge-alehouse that he passed poured in large potations, and by the time he arrived at Ferrybridge was in that state of drunkenness in which a man says whatever he thinks or feels, without any regard to time, place, or company. He inquired for Brotherton, and informed the landlord, waiters, and hostlers, that he was going to fetch the fool his father-in-law from the clutches of that scoundrel colonel Hamilton. It was now the end of June; and the colonel, having continued free from any fresh attack, was sitting with his wife and son at a parlour window facing the gate, while his brother and the reverend old gentleman were amusing themselves at another window with a hit at backgammon, and