apprehend half the danger you do.  I dare say the gentleman would be glad of our company, and we should be pleased with his.  Come, hang fear, I’ll lead the way. So said, so done, in they came, five of them, all disguised so effectually that I declare, unless it were in the same disguise, I should not be able to distinguish any one of them.

Down they sat, and he who I suppose was constituted their captain pro hac vice, accosted me with great civility, and asked me if I would honour them with my company to supper.  I acknowledge I did not yet guess the profession of my new acquaintances, but supposing my landlord would be cautious of suffering either a robbery or a murder in his own house, I know not how, but by degrees my mind grew perfectly easy.  About ten o’clock I heard a very great noise of horses, and soon after men’s feet tramping in a room over my head.  Then my landlord came down and informed us supper was just ready to go upon the table.

Upon this we were all desired to walk up, and he whom I before called the captain, presented me, with a humorous kind of ceremony, to a man more dignified than the rest who sat at the end of the table, telling me at the same time, he hoped I would not refuse to pay my respects to Prince Oroonoko, King of the Blacks.  It then immediately struck into my head who those worthy persons were, into whose company I was thus accidentally fallen.  I called myself a thousand blockheads for not finding out before, but the hurry of things, or to speak the truth, the fear I was in, prevented my judging even from the most evident signs.

As soon as our awkward ceremony was over, supper was brought in; it consisted of eighteen dishes of venison in every shape, roasted, boiled with broth, hashed collops, pasties, umble pies, and a large haunch in the middle, larded.  I easily saw that of three ordinary rooms of which the first floor of the house consisted, ours (by taking down the partitions) was very large, and the company in all twenty-one persons.  At each of our elbows there was set a bottle of claret, and the man and woman of the house sat down at the lower end.  Two or three of the fellows had good natural voices, and so the evening was spent as merrily as the rakes pass theirs in the King’s Arms, or the City apprentices with their master’s maids at Sadler’s Wells.  About two the company seemed inclined to break up, having first assured me that they should take my company as a favour any Thursday evening, if I came that way.

I confess I did not sleep all night with reflecting on what had passed, and could not resolve with myself whether these humorous gentlemen in masquerade were to be ranked under the denomination of knight-errants, or plain robbers.  This I must tell you, by the by, that with respect both to honesty and hardship, their life resembles much that of the hussars, since drinking is all their delight, and plundering their employment.