han Squire Sycamore, who, having received advice that Miss Aurelia
Darnel had eloped from the place of her retreat, immediately took the
field in quest of that lovely fugitive; hoping that, should he have the
good fortune to find her in present distress, his good offices would not
be rejected. He had followed the chase so close, that, immediately after
our adventurer's departure, he alighted at the inn, from whence Aurelia
had been conveyed; and there he learned the particulars which we have
related above.

Mr. Sycamore had a great deal of the childish romantic in his
disposition, and, in the course of his amours, is said to have always
taken more pleasure in the pursuit than in the final possession. He had
heard of Sir Launcelot's extravagance, by which he was in some measure
infected, and he dropped an insinuation, that he could eclipse his rival,
even in his own lunatic sphere. This hint was not lost upon his
companion, counsellor, and buffoon, the facetious Davy Dawdle, who had
some humour, and a great deal of mischief, in his composition. He looked
upon his patron as a fool, and his patron knew him to be both knave and
fool; yet, the two characters suited each other so well, that they could
hardly exist asunder. Davy was an artful sycophant, but he did not
flatter in the usual way; on the contrary, he behaved en cavalier, and
treated Sycamore, on whose bounty he subsisted, with the most sarcastic
familiarity. Nevertheless, he seasoned his freedom with certain
qualifying ingredients, that subdued the bitterness of it, and was now
become so necessary to the squire, that he had no idea of enjoyment with
which Dawdle was not somehow or other connected.

There had been a warm dispute betwixt them about the scheme of contesting
the prize with Sir Launcelot in the lists of chivalry. Sycamore had
insinuated, that if he had a mind to play the fool, he could wear armour,
wield a lance, and manage a charger, as well as Sir Launcelot Greaves.
Dawdle, snatching the hint, "I had, some time ago," said he, "contrived a
scheme for you, which I was afraid you had not address enough to execute.
It would be no difficult matter, in imitation of the bachelor, Sampson
Carrasco, to go in quest of Greaves, as a knight-errant, defy him as a
rival, and establish a compact, by which the vanquished should obey the
injunctions of the victor."--"That is my very idea," cried Sycamore.
"--Your idea!" replied the other; "had you ever an idea