He makes a fruitless Attempt in Gallantry--Departs for Boulogne, where
he spends the evening with certain English Exiles.
Having thus yielded to the hand of power, he inquired if there was any
other English company in the house; when, understanding that a gentleman
and lady lodged in the next apartment, and had bespoke a post-chaise for
Paris, he ordered Pipes to ingratiate himself with their footman, and,
if possible, learn their names and condition, while he and Mr. Jolter,
attended by the lacquey, took a turn round the ramparts, and viewed the
particulars of the fortification.
Tom was so very successful in his inquiry, that when his master
returned he was able to give him a very satisfactory account of his
fellow-lodgers, in consequence of having treated his brother with a
bottle of wine. The people in question were a gentleman and his lady
lately arrived from England, in their way to Paris. The husband was
a man of good fortune, who had been a libertine in his youth, and a
professed declaimer against matrimony. He wanted neither sense nor
experience, and piqued himself in particular upon his art of avoiding
the snares of the female sex, in which he pretended to be deeply versed;
but, notwithstanding all his caution and skill, he had lately fallen a
sacrifice to the attractions of an oyster-wench, who had found means
to decoy him into the bands of wedlock; and, in order to evade the
compliments and congratulations of his friends and acquaintance, he had
come so far on a tour to Paris, where he intended to initiate his spouse
in the beau monde. In the mean time, he chose to live upon the reserve,
because her natural talents had as yet received but little cultivation;
and he had not the most implicit confidence in her virtue and
discretion, which, it seems, had like to have yielded to the addresses
of an officer at Canterbury, who had made shift to insinuate himself
into her acquaintance and favour.
Peregrine's curiosity being inflamed by this information, he lounged
about the yard, in hopes of seeing the dulcinea who had captivated the
old bachelor; and at length observing her at a window, took the liberty
of bowing to her with great respect. She returned the compliment with a
curtsy, and appeared so decent in her dress and manner, that unless he
had been previously informed of her former life and conversation, he
never would have dreamt that her education was different from that
of other ladies of fashion; so easy is it to acquire that external
deportment on which people of condition value themselves so much. Not
but that Mr. Pickle pretended to distinguish a certain vulgar audacity
in her countenance, which in a lady of birth and fortune would have
passed for an agreeable vivacity that enlivens the aspect, and gives
poignancy to every feature; but as she possessed a pair of fine eyes,
and a clear complexion overspread with a glow of health, which never
fails of recommending the owner, he could not help gazing at her with
desire, and forming the design of making a conquest of her heart.
With this view, he sent his compliments to her husband whose name was
Hornbeck, with an intimation that he proposed to set out the next day
for Paris, and as he understood that he was resolved upon the same
journey, he should be extremely glad of his company on the road, if he
was not better engaged. Hornbeck, who in all probability did not choose
to accommodate his wife with a squire of our hero's appearance, sent a
civil answer to his message, professing infinite mortification at his
being unable to embrace the favour of this kind offer, by reason of
the indisposition of his wife, who, he was afraid, would not be in a
condition for some days to bear the fatigue of travelling.
This rebuff, which Peregrine ascribed to the husband's jealousy, stifled
his project in embryo: he ordered his French servant to take a place
for himself in the diligence, where all his luggage was stowed, except a
small trunk, with some linen and other necessaries, that was fixed upon
the post-chaise which they hired of the landlord; and early next morning
he and Mr. Jolter departed from Calais, attended by his valet-de-chambre
and Pipes on horseback. They proceeded without any accident as far
as Boulogne, where they breakfasted, and visited old Father Graham, a
Scottish gentleman of the governor's acquaintance, who had lived as a
Capuchin in that place for the space of threescore years, and during
that period conformed to all the austerities of the order with the most
rigorous exactness, being equally remarkable for the frankness of his
conversation, the humanity of his disposition, and the simplicity of his
manners. From Boulogne they took their departure about noon; and as they
proposed to sleep that night at Abbeville, commanded the postilion to
drive with extra ordinary speed. Perhaps it was well for his cattle that
the axletree gave way and the chaise of course overturned, before they
had travelled one-third part of the stage.
This accident compelled them to return to the place from whence they had
set out; and as they could not procure another conveyance, they found
themselves under the necessity of staying till their chaise could be
refitted. Understanding that this operation would detain them a whole
day, our young gentleman had recourse to his patience, and demanded
to know what they could have for dinner; the garcon or waiter, thus
questioned, vanished in a moment, and immediately they were surprised
with the appearance of a strange figure, which, from the extravagance
of its dress and gesticulation, Peregrine mistook for a madman of the
growth of France. This phantom (which, by the bye, happened to be no
other than the cook) was a tall, long-legged, meagre, swarthy fellow,
that stooped very much; his cheek-bones were remarkably raised, his nose
bent into the shape and size of a powder-horn, and the sockets of his
eyes as raw round the edges as if the skin had been pared off. On his
head he wore a handkerchief, which had once been white, and now served
to cover the upper part of a black periwig, to which was attached a bag
at least a foot square, with a solitaire and rose that stuck upon each
side of his ear; so that he looked like a criminal on the pillory. His
back was accommodated with a linen waistcoat, his hands adorned with
long ruffles of the same piece, his middle was girded by an apron,
tucked up, that it might not conceal his white silk stockings, rolled;
and at his entrance he brandished a bloody weapon full three feet in
length.
Peregrine, when he first saw him approach in this menacing attitude, put
himself upon his guard; but being informed of his quality, perused
his bill of fare, and having bespoken three or four things for dinner,
walked out with Mr. Jolter to view both towns, which they had not
leisure to consider minutely before. In their return from the harbour
they met with four or five gentlemen, all of whom seemed to look with an
air of dejection, and perceiving our hero and his governor to be English
by their dress, bowed with great respect as they passed. Pickle, who
was naturally compassionate, felt an emotion of sympathy; and seeing a
person, who by his habit he judged to be one of their servants, accosted
him in English, and asked who the gentlemen were. The lacquey gave
him to understand that they were his own countrymen, called from their
native homes in consequence of their adherence to an unfortunate and
ruined cause; and that they were gone to the sea-side, according to
their daily practice, in order to indulge their longing eyes with a
prospect of the white cliffs of Albion, which they must never more
approach.
Though our young gentleman differed widely from them in point of
political principles, he was not one of those enthusiasts who look upon
every schism from the established articles of faith as damnable,
and exclude the sceptic from every benefit of humanity and Christian
forgiveness: he could easily comprehend how a man of the most
unblemished morals might, by the prejudice of education, or
indispensable attachments, be engaged in such a blameworthy and
pernicious undertaking; and thought that they had already suffered
severely for their imprudence. He was affected with the account of their
diurnal pilgrimage to the sea-side, which he considered as a pathetic
proof of their affliction, and invested Mr. Jolter with the agreeable
office of going to them with a compliment in his name, and begging the
honour of drinking a glass with them in the evening. They accepted the
proposal with great satisfaction and respectful acknowledgment, and
in the afternoon waited upon the kind inviter, who treated them with
coffee, and would have detained them to supper, but they entreated the
favour of his company at the house which they frequented so earnestly,
that he yielded to their solicitations, and, with his governor, was
conducted by them to the place, where they had provided an elegant
repast, and regaled them with some of the best claret in France.
It was easy for them to perceive that their principal guest was no
favourer of their state maxims, and therefore they industriously avoided
every subject of conversation which could give the least offence: not
but they lamented their own situation, which cut them off from all their
dearest connections, and doomed them to perpetual banishment from their
families and friends: but they did not, even by the most distant hint,
impeach the justice of that sentence by which they were condemned;
although one among them, who seemed to be about the age of thirty, wept
bitterly over his misfortune, which had involved a beloved wife and
three children in misery and distress; and, in the impatience of his
grief, cursed his own fate with frantic imprecations. His companions,
with a view of beguiling his sorrow, and manifesting their own
hospitality at the same time, changed the topic of discourse, and
circulated the bumpers with great assiduity; so that all their cares
were overwhelmed and forgotten, several French drinking catches were
sung, and mirth and good-fellowship prevailed.
In the midst of this elevation, which commonly unlocks the most hidden
sentiment, and dispels every consideration of caution and constraint,
one of the entertainers, being more intoxicated than his fellows,
proposed a toast, to which Peregrine, with some warmth, excepted as an
unmannerly insult. The other maintained his proposition with indecent
heat; and the dispute beginning to grow very serious, the company
interposed, and gave judgment against their friend, who was so keenly
reproached and rebuked for his impolite behaviour, that he retired in
high dudgeon, threatening to relinquish their society, and branding them
with the appellation apostates from the common cause. Mortified at the
behaviour of their companion, those that remained were earnest in
their apologies to their guests, whom they besought to forgive his
intemperance, assuring them with great confidence that he would, upon
the recovery of his reflection, wait upon them in person, and ask
pardon for the umbrage he had given. Pickle was satisfied with their
remonstrances, resumed his good humour, and the night being pretty far
advanced resisted all their importunities with which he was entreated to
see another bottle go round, and was escorted to his own lodgings more
than half-seas over. Next morning, about eight o'clock, he was waked by
his valet-de-chambre, who told him that two of the gentlemen with whom
he had spent the evening were in the house, and desired the favour of
being admitted into his chamber. He could not conceive the meaning of
this extraordinary visit; and, ordering his man to show them enter into
his apartment, beheld the person who had affronted him enter with the
gentleman who had reprehended his rudeness.
He who had given the offence, after having made an apology for
disturbing Mr. Pickle, told him that his friend there present had been
with him early that morning, and proposed the alternative of either
fighting with him immediately, or coming to beg pardon for his
unmannerly deportment over-night: that though he had courage enough to
face any man in the field in a righteous cause, he was not so brutal as
to disobey the dictates of his own duty and reflection, in consequence
of which, and not out of any regard to the other's menaces, which he
despised, he had now taken the liberty of interrupting his repose, that
he might, as soon as possible, atone for the injury he had done him,
which he protested was the effect of intoxication alone, and begged his
forgiveness accordingly. Our hero accepted of this acknowledgment very
graciously; thanked the other gentleman for the gallant part he had
acted in his behalf; and perceiving that his companion was a little
irritated at his officious interposition, effected a reconciliation, by
convincing him that what he had done was for the honour of the company.
He then kept them to his breakfast; expressed a desire of seeing their
situation altered for the better; and the chaise being repaired, took
his leave of his entertainers, who came to wish him a good journey, and
with his attendants left Boulogne for the second time.