purse, I said that as he was a stranger I would immediately pay him
whatever he might demand for the use of the room. He still, however,
persisted that I should leave his house. I demanded my trunk, and
declared I would dress there first; he swore I should not, and made an
effort to hustle me out of the room. I then told him to keep his hands
off, or I would thrash him; upon which he put himself into a boxing
attitude, and offered to fight me. He was a little insignificant
creature, and I was just upon the point of kicking him out of the room,
when I saw a fellow peeping round the corner of the door. It immediately
struck me that this was a trap to get me into a scrape, and I paused and
drew back in consequence. I told the little gentleman, who said his name
was Morley, that I would meet him and talk over the matter at any
other time; but, as I was at present engaged, I asked him as a _favour_
to let me have my trunk to dress, and I would leave his house in ten
minutes. It was agreed that we should meet at Mr. Jackson's rooms, some
day in the following week. Thither I went at the time appointed, with
perhaps the worst second in the world, Mr. Cobbett. When I got there
each told his story, and Jackson proposed that we should go into the
fields to settle the dispute, but this was not assented to by either Mr.
Morley or myself, and Mr. Cobbett was vehement against my having any
thing to do with my antagonist. The affair, therefore, terminated with
some smart words, without either of us offering to fight. This affair
was, however, blazoned forth in all the morning papers, which, in utter
defiance of truth, asserted that I had behaved ill to a man of the name
of Morley, who kept the British Coffee-house in Cockspur-street; that
we had met by appointment at Jackson's, and that I had refused to
fight him. Supposing that I had done so, I should, under all the
circumstances, have been perfectly justified; but it was no such thing,
the fellow never offered to fight me at any other time but in his own
house, where, if I had struck him, I am thoroughly convinced that a