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dear Lalage; and, filling Dowling's glass likewise up to the brim,insisted on his pledging him. "Why, then, here's Miss Lalage's healthwith all my heart," cries Dowling. "I have heard her toasted often, Iprotest, though I never saw her; but they say she's extremelyhandsome."Though the Latin was not the only part of this speech which Dowlingdid not perfectly understand; yet there was somewhat in it that made avery strong impression upon him. And though he endeavoured by winking,nodding, sneering, and grinning, to hide the impression from Jones(for we are as often ashamed of thinking right as of thinking wrong),it is certain he secretly approved as much of his sentiments as heunderstood, and really felt a very strong impulse of compassion forhim. But we may possibly take some other opportunity of commentingupon this, especially if we should happen to meet Mr Dowling any morein the course of our history. At present we are obliged to take ourleave of that gentleman a little abruptly, in imitation of Mr Jones;who was no sooner informed, by Partridge, that his horses were ready,than he deposited his reckoning, wished his companion a good night,mounted, and set forward towards Coventry, though the night was dark,and it just then began to rain very hard.Chapter xi.The disasters which befel Jones on his departure for Coventry; withthe sage remarks of Partridge.No road can be plainer than that from the place where they now were toCoventry; and though neither Jones, nor Partridge, nor the guide, hadever travelled it before, it would have been almost impossible to havemissed their way, had it not been for the two reasons mentioned in theconclusion of the last chapter.These two circumstances, however, happening both unfortunately tointervene, our travellers deviated into a much less frequented track;and after riding full six miles, instead of arriving at the statelyspires of Coventry, they found themselves still in a very dirty lane,where they saw no symptoms of approaching the suburbs of a large city.Jones now declared that they must certainly have lost their way; butthis the guide insisted upon was impossible; a word which, in commonconversation, is often used to signify not only improbable, but oftenwhat is really very likely, and, sometimes, what hath certainlyhappened; an hyperbolical violence like that which is so frequentlyoffered to the words infinite and eternal; by the former of which itis usual to express a distance of half a yard, and by the latter, aduration of five minutes. And thus it is as usual to assert theimpossibility of losing what is already actually lost. This was, infact, the case at present; for, notwithstanding all the confidentassertions of the lad to the contrary, it is certain they were no morein the right road to Coventry, than the fraudulent, griping, cruel,canting miser is in the right road to heaven.It is not, perhaps, easy for a reader, who hath never been in thosecircumstances, to imagine the horror with which darkness, rain, andwind, fill persons who have lost their way in the night; and who,consequently, have not the pleasant prospect of warm fires, dry