is in no manner of danger. But this I think I may assure you, that I
yet perceive no very bad symptoms, and, unless something worse should
appear, or a fever be the consequence, I hope you may live to be
again, with all your dignity, at the head of a line of battle."

"I am glad to hear that is your opinion," quoth the colonel, "for I am
not desirous of dying, though I am not afraid of it. But, if anything
worse than you apprehend should happen, I desire you will be a witness
of my declaration that this young gentleman is entirely innocent. I
forced him to do what he did. My dear Booth, I am pleased matters are
as they are. You are the first man that ever gained an advantage over
me; but it was very lucky for you that you disarmed me, and I doubt
not but you have the equananimity to think so. If the business,
therefore, hath ended without doing anything to the purpose, it was
Fortune's pleasure, and neither of our faults."

Booth heartily embraced the colonel, and assured him of the great
satisfaction he had received from the surgeon's opinion; and soon
after the two combatants took their leave of each other. The colonel,
after he was drest, went in a chair to his lodgings, and Booth walked
on foot to his; where he luckily arrived without meeting any of Mr.
Murphy's gang; a danger which never once occurred to his imagination
till he was out of it.

The affair he had been about had indeed so entirely occupied his mind,
that it had obliterated every other idea; among the rest, it caused
him so absolutely to forget the time of the day, that, though he had
exceeded the time of dining above two hours, he had not the least
suspicion of being at home later than usual.