termined to
pursue his footsteps in the road of chivalry. Fillet and his friend the
lawyer could not help conceiving an affection, and even a profound
esteem for the exalted virtue, the person, and accomplishments of the
knight, dashed as they were with a mixture of extravagance and insanity.
Even Sir Launcelot himself was elevated to an extraordinary degree of
self-complacency on the fortunate issue of his adventure, and became more
and more persuaded that a knight-errant's profession might be exercised,
even in England, to the advantage of the community. The only person of
the company who seemed unanimated with the general satisfaction was Mr.
Thomas Clarke. He had, not without good reason, laid it down as a maxim,
that knight-errantry and madness were synonymous terms; and that madness,
though exhibited in the most advantageous and agreeable light, could not
change its nature, but must continue a perversion of sense to the end of
the chapter. He perceived the additional impression which the brain of
his uncle had sustained, from the happy manner in which the benevolence
of Sir Launcelot had so lately operated; and began to fear it would be in
a little time quite necessary to have recourse to a commission of lunacy,
which might not only disgrace the family of the Crowes, but also tend to
invalidate the settlement which the captain had already made in favour of
our young lawyer.

Perplexed with these cogitations, Mr. Clarke appealed to our adventurer's
own reflection. He expatiated upon the bad consequences that would
attend his uncle's perseverance in the execution of a scheme so foreign
to his faculties; and entreated him, for the love of God, to divert him
from his purpose, either by arguments or authority; as, of all mankind,
the knight alone had gained such an ascendency over his spirits, that he
would listen to his exhortations with respect and submission.

Our adventurer was not so mad, but that he saw and owned the rationality
of these remarks. He readily undertook to employ all his influence with
Crowe, to dissuade him from his extravagant design; and seized the first
opportunity of being alone with the captain, to signify his sentiments on
this subject. "Captain Crowe," said he, "you are then determined to
proceed in the course of knight-errantry?" "I am," replied the seaman,
"with God's help, d'ye see, and the assistance of wind and weather"--
"What dost thou talk of wind and weather?" cried the knig