The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Complete - Tobias Smollett
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This grand affair being accomplished to his satisfaction, he, next day,
visited her brother, who was a counsellor of the Temple, to make him
acquainted with the step his sister had taken; and though the lawyer was
not a little mortified to find that she had made such a clandestine
match, he behaved civilly to his new brother-in-law, and gave him to
understand, that his wife's fortune consisted of a jointure of one
hundred and fifty pounds a year, and fifteen hundred pounds bequeathed to
her during her widowhood, by her own father, who had taken the precaution
of settling it in the hands of trustees, in such a manner as that any
husband she might afterwards espouse should be restricted from
encroaching upon the capital, which was reserved for the benefit of her
heirs. This intimation was far from being agreeable to our hero, who had
been informed, that this sum was absolutely at the lady's disposal, and
had actually destined the greatest part of it for the payment of his
debts, for defraying the expense of furnishing an elegant house, and
setting up a new equipage.
Notwithstanding this disappointment, he resolved to carry on his plan
upon the credit of his marriage, which was published in a very pompous
article of the newspapers; a chariot was bespoke, a ready furnished house
immediately taken, and Doctor Fathom began to reappear in all his former
splendour.
His good friend the empiric, alarmed at this event, which not only raised
our adventurer into the sphere of a dangerous rival, but also furnished
him with means to revenge the ill office he had sustained at his hands on
the adventure of the former match--for, by this time, Fathom had given
him some hints, importing, that he was not ignorant of his treacherous
behaviour--roused, I say, by these considerations, he employed one of his
emissaries, who had some knowledge of Fathom's brother-in-law, to
prejudice him against our adventurer, whom he represented as a needy
sharper, not only overwhelmed with debt and disgrace, but likewise
previously married to a poor woman, who was prevented by nothing but want
from seeking redress at law. To confirm these assertions, he gave him a
detail of Fathom's encumbrances, which he had learned for the purpose,
and even brought the counsellor into company with the person who had
lived with our hero before marriage, and who was so much incensed at her
abrupt dismission, that she did not scruple to corroborate these
allegations of the informer.
The lawyer, startled at this intelligence, set on foot a minute inquiry
into the life and conversation of the doctor, which turned out so little
to the advantage of his character and circumstances, that he resolved, if
possible, to disunite him from his family; and, as a previous step,
repeated to his sister all that he had heard to the prejudice of her
husband, not forgetting to produce the evidence of his mistress, who laid
claim to him by a prior title, which, she pretended, could be proved by
the testimony of the clergyman who joined them. Such an explanation
could not fail to inflame the resentment of the injured wife, who, at the
very first opportunity, giving a loose to the impetuosity of her temper,
upbraided our hero with the most bitter invectives for his perfidious
dealing.
Ferdinand, conscious of his own innocence, which he had not always to
plead, far from attempting to soothe her indignation, assumed the
authority and prerogative of a husband, and sharply reprehended her for
her credulity and indecent warmth. This rebuke, instead of silencing,
gave new spirit and volubility to her reproaches, in the course of which
she plainly taxed him with want of honesty and affection, and said that,
though his pretence was love, his aim was no other than a base design
upon her fortune.
Fathom, stung with these accusations, which he really did not deserve,
replied with uncommon heat, and charged her in his turn with want of
sincerity and candour, in the false account she had given of that same
fortune before marriage. He even magnified his own condescension, in
surrendering his liberty to a woman who had so little to recommend her to
the addresses of the other sex; a reflection which provoked this mild
creature to such a degree of animosity, that, forgetting her duty and
allegiance, she lent him a box on the ear with such energy as made his
eyes water; and he, for the honour of manhood and sovereignty, having
washed her face with a dish of tea, withdrew abruptly to a coffee-house
in the neighbourhood, where he had not long remained, when his passion
subsided, and he then saw the expediency of an immediate reconciliation,
which he resolved to purchase, even at the expense of a submission.
It was pity that such a salutary resolution had not been sooner taken.
For, when he returned to his own house, he understood, that Mrs. Fathom
had gone abroad in a hackney-coach; and, upon examining her apartment, in
lieu of her clothes and trinkets, which she had removed with admirable
dexterity and despatch, he found this billet in one of the drawers of her
bureau:--"Sir, being convinced that you are a cheat and an impostor, I
have withdrawn myself from your cruelty and machinations, with a view to
solicit the protection of the law; and I doubt not but I shall soon be
able to prove, that you have no just title to, or demand upon, the person
or effects of the unfortunate Sarah Muddy."
The time had been when Mr. Fathom would have allowed Mrs. Muddy to refine
at her leisure, and blessed God for his happy deliverance; but at present
the case was quite altered. Smarting as he was from the expense of
lawsuits, he dreaded a prosecution for bigamy, which, though he had
justice on his side, he knew he could not of himself support. Besides,
all his other schemes of life were frustrated by this unlucky elopement.
He therefore speedily determined to anticipate, as much as in him lay,
the malice of his enemies, and to obtain, without delay, authentic
documents of his marriage. With this view, he hastened to the house of
the tradesman, who, with his wife, had been witness to the ceremony and
consummation; and, in order to interest them the more warmly in his
cause, made a pathetic recital of this unhappy breach, in which he had
suffered such injury and insult. But all his rhetoric would not avail.
Mrs. Muddy had been beforehand with him, and had proved the better orator
of the two; for she had assailed this honest couple with such tropes and
figures of eloquence, as were altogether irresistible.
Nevertheless, they heard our hero to an end, with great patience. Then
the wife, who was the common mouth upon all such occasions, contracting
her features into a very formal disposition, "I'll assure you," said she,
"Doctor Fathom, my husband and I have been in a very great terrification
and numplush, to hear such bad things of a person, whom, as one may say,
we thought a worthy gentleman, and were ready to serve at all times, by
day and by night, as the saying is. And besides, for all that, you know,
and God knows, as we are dustrious people, and work hard for what we get,
and we have served gentlemen to our own harm, whereby my husband was last
Tuesday served with a siserary, being that he was bound for an officer
that ran away. And I said to my husband, Timothy, says I, 'tis a very
hard thing for one to ruin one's self for stranger people--There's Doctor
Fathom, says I, his account comes to nine-and-forty pounds seven
shillings and fourpence halfpenny; and you know, doctor, that was before
your last bill began. But, howsomever, little did I think, as how a
gentleman of your learning would go to deceive a poor gentlewoman, when
you had another wife alive."
In vain did our adventurer endeavour to vindicate himself from this
aspersion; the good woman, like a great many modern disputants, proceeded
with her declamation, without seeming to hear what was said on the other
side of the question; and the husband was altogether neutral. At length,
Ferdinand, finding all his protestations ineffectual, "Well," said he,
"though you are resolved, I see, to discredit all that I can say in
opposition to that scandalous slander, of which I can easily acquit
myself in a court of justice, surely you will not refuse to grant me a
certificate, signifying that you were present at the ceremony of my
marriage with this unhappy woman." "You shall excuse us," replied the
female orator; "people cannot be too wary in signing their names in this
wicked world; many a one has been brought to ruination by signing his
name, and my husband shall not, with my goodwill, draw himself into such
a primmineery."
Fathom, alarmed at this refusal, earnestly argued against the inhumanity
and injustice of it, appealing to their own consciences for the
reasonableness of his proposal; but, from the evasive answers of the
wife, he had reason to believe, that, long before the time of trial, they
would take care to have forgotten the whole transaction.
Though he was equally confounded and incensed at this instance of their
perfidy, he durst not manifest his indignation, conscious of the
advantage they had over him in divers respects; but repaired, without
loss of time, to the lodging of the clergyman who had noosed him,
resolved to consult his register, and secure his evidence. Here too his
evil genius had got the start of him; for the worthy ecclesiastic not
only could not recollect his features, or find his name in the register,
but, when importuned by his pressing remonstrances, took umbrage at the
freedom of his behaviour, and threatened, if he would not immediately
take himself away, to raise the posse of the Fleet, for the safety of his
own person.
Rather than put the pastor to the trouble of alarming his flock, he
retreated with a heavy heart, and went in quest of his mistress, whom he
had dismissed at his marriage, in hopes of effecting a reconciliation,
and preventing her from joining in the conspiracy against him. But,
alas! he met with such a reception as he had reason to expect from a
slighted woman, who had never felt any real attachment for his person.
She did not upbraid him with his cruelty in leaving her as a mistress,
but, with a species of effrontery never enough to be admired, reproached
him with his villany, in abandoning her, who was his true and lawful
wife, to go and ruin a poor gentlewoman, by whose fortune he had been
allured.
When he attempted to expostulate with this virago, upon the barbarity of
this assertion, she very prudently declined engaging in private
conversation with such an artful and wicked man; and, calling up the
people of the house, insisted upon his being conducted to the door.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
IN WHICH HIS FORTUNE IS EFFECTUALLY STRANGLED.
The last resource, and that upon which he least depended, was the advice
and assistance of his old friend the empiric, with whom he still
maintained a slight correspondence; and to whose house he steered his
course, in great perplexity and tribulation. That gentleman, instead of
consoling him with assurances of friendship and protection, faithfully
recapitulated all the instances of his indiscretion and misconduct, taxed
him with want of sincerity in the West India affair, as well as with want
of honesty in this last marriage, while his former wife was alive; and,
finally, reminded him of his notes, which he desired might be immediately
taken up, as he (the quack) had present occasion for a sum of money.
Ferdinand, seeing it would be impracticable to derive any succour from
this quarter, sneaked homewards, in order to hold a consultation with his
own thoughts; and the first object that presented itself to his eyes when
he entered his apartment, was a letter from the tradesman, with his
account inclosed, amounting to forty-five pounds, which the writer
desired might be paid without delay. Before he had time to peruse the
articles, he received a summons, in consequence of a bill of indictment
for bigamy, found against him in Hicks' Hall, by Sarah Muddy, widow; and,
while he was revolving measures to avert these storms, another billet
arrived from a certain attorney, giving him to understand, that he had
orders from Doctor Buffalo, the quack, to sue him for the payment of
several notes, unless he would take them up in three days from the date
of this letter.
Such a concurrence of sinister events made a deep impression upon the
mind of our adventurer. All his fortitude was insufficient to bear him
up against this torrent of misfortunes; his resources were all dried up,
his invention failed, and his reflection began to take a new turn. "To
what purpose," said he to himself, "have I deserted the paths of
integrity and truth, and exhausted a fruitful imagination, in contriving
schemes to betray my fellow-creatures, if, instead of acquiring a
splendid fortune, which was my aim, I have suffered such a series of
mortifications, and at last brought myself to the brink of inevitable
destruction? By a virtuous exertion of those talents I inherit from
nature and education, I might, long before this time, have rendered
myself independent, and, perhaps, conspicuous in life. I might have
grown up like a young oak, which, being firmly rooted in its kindred
soil, gradually raises up its lofty head, expands its leafy arms,
projects a noble shade, and towers the glory of the plain. I should have
paid the debt of gratitude to my benefactors, and made their hearts sing
with joy for the happy effects of their benevolence. I should have been
a bulwark to my friends, a shelter to my neighbours in distress. I
should have run the race of honour, seen my fame diffused like a
sweet-smelling odour, and felt the ineffable pleasure of doing good.
Whereas I am, after a vicissitude of disappointments, dangers, and
fatigues, reduced to misery and shame, aggravated by a conscience loaded
with treachery and guilt. I have abused the confidence and generosity of
my patron; I have defrauded his family, under the mask of sincerity and
attachment; I have taken the most cruel and base advantages of virtue in
distress; I have seduced unsuspecting innocence to ruin and despair; I
have violated the most sacred trust reposed in me by my friend and
benefactor; I have betrayed his love, torn his noble heart asunder, by
means of the most perfidious slander and false insinuations; and,
finally, brought to an untimely grave the fairest pattern of human beauty
and perfection. Shall the author of these crimes pass with impunity?
Shall he hope to prosper in the midst of such enormous guilt? It were an
imputation upon Providence to suppose it! Ah, no! I begin to feel myself
overtaken by the eternal justice of Heaven! I totter on the edge of
wretchedness and woe, without one friendly hand to save me from the
terrible abyss!"
These reflections, which, perhaps, the misery of his fellow-creatures
would never have inspired, had he himself remained without the verge of
misfortune, were now produced from the sensation of his own calamities;
and, for the first time, his cheeks were bedewed with the drops of
penitence and sorrow. "Contraries," saith Plato, "are productive of each
other." Reformation is oftentimes generated from unsuccessful vice; and
our adventurer was, at this juncture, very well disposed to turn over a
new leaf in consequence of those salutary suggestions; though he was far
from being cured beyond the possibility of a relapse. On the contrary,
all the faculties of his soul were so well adapted, and had been so long
habituated to deceit, that, in order to extricate himself from the evils
that environed him, he would not, in all probability, have scrupled to
practise it upon his own father, had a convenient opportunity occurred.
Be that as it may, he certainly, after a tedious and fruitless exercise
of his invention, resolved to effect a clandestine retreat from that
confederacy of enemies which he could not withstand, and once more join
his fortune to that of Renaldo, whom he proposed to serve, for the
future, with fidelity and affection, thereby endeavouring to atone for
the treachery of his former conduct. Thus determined, he packed up his
necessaries in a portmanteau, attempted to amuse his creditors with
promises of speedy payment, and, venturing to come forth in the dark,
took a place in the Canterbury stage-coach, after having converted his
superfluities into ready money. These steps were not taken with such
privacy as to elude the vigilance of his adversaries; for, although he
had been cautious enough to transport himself and his baggage to the inn
on Sunday evening, and never doubted that the vehicle, which set out at
four o'clock on Monday morning, would convey him out of the reach of his
creditors, before they could possibly obtain a writ for securing his
person, they had actually taken such precautions as frustrated all his
finesse; and the coach being stopped in the borough of Southwark, Doctor
Fathom was seized by virtue of a warrant obtained on a criminal
indictment, and was forthwith conducted to the prison of the King's
Bench; yet, not before he had, by his pathetic remonstrances, excited the
compassion, and even drawn tears from the eyes of his fellow-passengers.
He no sooner recollected himself from the shock which must have been
occasioned by this sinister incident, than he despatched a letter to his
brother-in-law, the counsellor, requesting an immediate conference, in
which he promised to make such a proposal as would save him all the
expense of a lawsuit and trial, and, at the same time, effectually answer
all the purposes of both. He was accordingly favoured with a visit from
the lawyer, to whom, after the most solemn protestations of his own
innocence, he declared, that, finding himself unable to wage war against
such powerful antagonists, he had resolved even to abandon his
indubitable right, and retire into another country, in order to screen
himself from persecution, and remove all cause of disquiet from the
prosecutrix, when he was, unfortunately, prevented by the warrant which
had been executed against him. He said he was still willing, for the
sake of his liberty, to sign a formal renunciation of his pretensions to
Mrs. Fathom and her fortune, provided the deeds could be executed, and
the warrant withdrawn, before he should be detained by his other
creditors; and, lastly, he conjured the barrister to spare himself the
guilt and the charge of suborning evidence for the destruction of an
unhappy man, whose misfortune was his only fault.
The lawyer felt the force of his expostulations; and though he would by
no means suppose him innocent of the charge of bigamy, yet, under the
pretext of humanity and commiseration, he undertook to persuade his
sister to accept of a proper release, which, he observed, would not be
binding, if executed during the confinement of Fathom; he therefore took
his leave, in order to prepare the papers, withdraw the action, and take
such other measures as would hinder the prisoner from giving him the
slip. Next day, he returned with an order to release our hero, who,
being formally discharged, was conducted by the lawyer to a tavern in the
neighbourhood, where the releases were exchanged, and everything
concluded with amity and concord. This business being happily
transacted, Fathom stept into a hackney-coach, with his baggage, and was
followed by a bailiff, who told him, with great composure, that he was
again a prisoner, at the suit of Doctor Buffalo, and desired the coachman
to reconduct him to the lodging he had so lately discharged.
Fathom, whose fortitude had been hitherto of the pagan temper, was now
fain to reinforce it with the philosophy of Christian resignation, though
he had not as yet arrived to such a pitch of self-denial as to forgive
the counsellor, to whose double dealing he imputed this new calamity.
After having received the compliments of the jailer on his recommitment,
he took pen, ink, and paper, and composed an artful and affecting epistle
to the empiric, imploring his mercy, flattering his weakness, and
demonstrating the bad policy of cooping up an unhappy man in a jail,
where he could never have an opportunity of doing justice to his
creditors; nor did he forget to declare his intention of retiring into
another country, where he might have some chance of earning a
subsistence, which he had so long toiled for to no purpose in England.
This last declaration he made in consequence of the jealous disposition
of the quack, who he knew had long looked upon him in the odious light of
an interloping rival. However, he reaped no benefit from this
supplication, which served only to gratify the pride of Buffalo, who
produced the extravagant encomiums which Fathom had bestowed upon him, as
so many testimonials of his foe's bearing witness to his virtue.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
FATHOM BEING SAFELY HOUSED, THE READER IS ENTERTAINED WITH A RETROSPECT.
But now it is high time to leave our adventurer to chew the cud of
reflection and remorse in this solitary mansion, that we may trace
Renaldo in the several steps he took to assert his right, and do justice
to his family. Never man indulged a more melancholy train of ideas than
that which accompanied him in his journey to the Imperial court. For,
notwithstanding the manifold reasons he had to expect a happy issue to
his aim, his imagination was incessantly infected with something that
chilled his nerves and saddened his heart, recurring, with quick
succession, like the unwearied wave that beats upon the bleak,
inhospitable Greenland shore. This, the reader will easily suppose, was
no other than the remembrance of the forlorn Monimia, whose image
appeared to his fancy in different attitudes, according to the prevalence
of the passions which raged in his bosom. Sometimes he viewed her in the
light of apostasy, and then his soul was maddened with indignation and
despair. But these transitory blasts were not able to efface the
impressions she had formerly made upon his heart; impressions which he
had so often and so long contemplated with inconceivable rapture. These
pictures still remained, representing her fair as the most perfect idea
of beauty, soft and tender as an angel of mercy and compassion, warmed
with every virtue of the heart, and adorned with every accomplishment of
human nature. Yet the alarming contrast came still in the rear of this
recollection; so that his soul was by turns agitated by the tempests of
horror, and overwhelmed by the floods of grief.
He recalled the moment on which he first beheld her, with that pleasing
regret which attends the memory of a dear deceased friend. Then he
bitterly cursed it, as the source of all his misfortunes and affliction.
He thanked Heaven for having blessed him with a friend to detect her
perfidy and ingratitude; and then ardently wished he had still continued
under the influence of her delusion. In a word, the loneliness of his
situation aggravated every horror of his reflection; for, as he found
himself without company, his imagination was never solicited, or his
attention diverted from these subjects of woe; and he travelled to
Brussels in a reverie, fraught with such torments as must have entirely
wrecked his reason, had not Providence interposed in his behalf. He was,
by his postillion, conducted to one of the best inns of the place, where
he understood the cloth was already laid for supper; and as the ordinary
is open to strangers in all these houses of entertainment, he introduced
himself into the company, with a view to alleviate, in some measure, his
sorrow and chagrin, by the conversation of his fellow-guests. Yet he was
so ill prepared to obtain the relief which he courted, that he entered
the apartment, and sat down to table, without distinguishing either the
number or countenances of those who were present, though he himself did
not long remain so unregarded. His mien and deportment produced a
prepossession in his favour; and the air of affliction, so remarkable in
his visage, did not fail to attract their sympathy and observation.
Among the rest, was an Irish officer in the Austrian service, who having
eyed Renaldo attentively, "Sir," said he, rising, "if my eyes and memory
do not deceive me, you are the Count de Melvil, with whom I had the
honour to serve upon the Rhine during the last war." The youth, hearing
his own name mentioned, lifted up his eyes, and at once recognising the
other to be a gentleman who had been a captain in his father's regiment,
ran forwards, and embraced him with great affection.
This was, in divers respects, a fortunate rencontre for young Melvil; as
the officer was not only perfectly well acquainted with the situation of
the Count's family, but also resolved, in a few days, to set out for
Vienna, whither he promised to accompany Renaldo, as soon as he
understood his route lay the same way. Before the day fixed for their
departure arrived, this gentleman found means to insinuate himself so far
into the confidence of the Count, as to learn the cause of that distress
which he had observed in his features at their first meeting; and being a
gentleman of uncommon vivacity, as well as sincerely attached to the
family of Melvil, to which he had owed his promotion, he exerted all his
good-humour and good sense in amusing the fancy, and reasoning down the
mortification of the afflicted Hungarian. He in particular endeavoured
to wean his attention from the lost Monimia, by engaging it upon his
domestic affairs, and upon the wrongs of his mother and sister, who, he
gave him to understand, were languishing under the tyranny of his
father-in-law.