for him, when
he heard the clashing of swords at some distance from him: guided by his
generosity, he flew to the place where the noise directed him, and saw
by the lights, which hang out very thick in that city, one person
defending himself against three who pressed very hard upon him, and had
got him down just as Horatio arrived to his relief: he ran among the
assaillants; and either the greatness of his courage, or the belief that
others would come to his assistance, threw them into such a
consternation, that they all sought their safety in their flight, while
the person they had attacked got up again and thanked his deliverer,
without whose timely aid, he said, he could have expected nothing but
death: those who set upon him being robbers, and, as he perceived by
their behaviour, desperate wretches, who were for securing themselves by
taking the lives, as well as money, of those who were too weak to resist
them: he pointed to a dead body on the ground, who he told Horatio was
his servant, and had been killed in his defence.

But how transported was our young lover when, he found that the person
to whom he had done so signal a piece of service, was the father of his
mistress. As he perceived he had some wounds, tho' they proved but
slight, he compleated the obligation he had began to confer, by
supporting him under the arm till he got home, where the baron made him
enter with him, and would have prevailed with him to stay all night; but
Horatio told him he could not well dispense with being absent from his
post; that it was highly proper he should return to St. Germains that
night late as it was, but would do himself the honour of waiting on him
the next day to enquire after the state of the wounds he had received.

Mademoiselle Charlotta was gone to bed; but being rouzed by the
accident, no sooner was informed by the surgeons, who were immediately
sent for, that there was nothing dangerous in the hurts her father had
received, than she blessed heaven for making Horatio the instrument of
his preservation. The sense the baron seemed to have of this obligation,
and the praises he bestowed on the gallant manner in which the young
gentleman came to his relief, made her almost ready to flatter herself
that fate interested itself in behalf of their love; and indeed monsieur
the baron, notwithstanding the haughtiness of his nature, had the most
just notions of gratitude; and to testify it to Horatio, would have
refused him