CHAPTER V.
SIR CHARLES POMANDER was detained in the country much longer than he expected.
He was rewarded by a little adventure.

As he cantered up to London with two servants and a post-boy, all riding on horses ordered in relays beforehand, he came up with an antediluvian coach, stuck fast by the road-side.

Looking into the window, with the humane design of quizzing the elders who should be there, he saw a young lady of surpassing beauty.

This altered the case; Sir Charles instantly drew bridle and offered his services.
The lady thanked him, and being an innocent country lady, she opened those sluices, her eyes, and two tears gently trickled down, while she told him how eager she was to reach London, and how mortified at this delay.
The good Sir Charles was touched.

He leaped his horse over a hedge, galloped to a farm-house in sight, and returned with ropes and rustics.
These and Sir Charles's horses soon drew the coach out of some stiffish clay.
The lady thanked him, and thanked him, and thanked him, with heightening color and beaming eyes, and he rode away like a hero.
Before he had gone five miles he became thoughtful and self-dissatisfied, finally his remorse came to a head; he called to him the keenest of his servants, Hunsdon, and ordered him to ride back past the carriage, then follow and put up at the same inn, to learn who the lady was, and whither going; and, this knowledge gained, to ride into town full speed and tell his master all about it.