Mr. Jolter threatens to leave him on account of his Misconduct, which he
promises to rectify; but his Resolution is defeated by the Impetuosity
of his Passions--He meets accidentally with Mrs. Hornbeck, who elopes
with him from her Husband, but is restored by the Interposition of the
British Ambassador.
Though Mr. Jolter was extremely well pleased at the safety of his pupil,
he could not forgive him for the terror and anxiety he had undergone on
his account; and roundly told him, that notwithstanding the inclination
and attachment he had to his person, he would immediately depart for
England, if ever he should hear of his being involved in such another
adventure; for it could not be expected that he would sacrifice his own
quiet, to an unrequited regard for one who seemed determined to keep him
in continual uneasiness and apprehension.
To this declaration Pickle made answer, that Mr. Jolter, by this time,
ought to be convinced of the attention he had always paid to his ease
and satisfaction; since he well knew that he had ever looked upon him in
the light of a friend rather than as a counsellor or tutor; and desired
his company in France with a view of promoting his interest, not for any
emolument he could expect from his instruction. This being the case, he
was at liberty to consult his own inclinations, with regard to going or
staying; though he could not help owning himself obliged by the concern
he expressed for his safety, and would endeavour, for his own sake, to
avoid giving him any cause of disturbance in time to come.
No man was more capable of moralizing upon Peregrine's misconduct than
himself: his reflections were extremely just and sagacious, and attended
with no other disadvantage but that of occurring too late. He projected
a thousand salutary schemes of deportment, but, like other projectors,
he never had interest enough with the ministry of his passions to bring
any of them to bear. He had, in the heyday of his gallantry received a
letter from his friend Gauntlet with a kind postscript from his charming
Emilia; but it arrived at a very unseasonable juncture, when his
imagination was engrossed by conquests that more agreeably flattered his
ambition; so that he could not find leisure and inclination, from that
day, to honour the correspondence which he himself had solicited. His
vanity had, by the time, disapproved of the engagement he had contracted
in the rawness and inexperience of youth; suggesting, that he was born
to such an important figure in life, as ought to raise his ideas
above the consideration of any such middling connections, and fix his
attention upon objects of the most sublime attraction. These dictates
of ridiculous pride had almost effaced the remembrance of his amiable
mistress, or at least so far warped his morals and integrity, that he
actually began to conceive hopes of her altogether unworthy of his own
character and her deserts.
Meanwhile, being destitute of a toy for the dalliance of his idle hours,
he employed several spies, and almost every day made a tour of the
public places in person, with a view of procuring intelligence of Mr.
Hornbeck, with whose wife he longed to have another interview. In this
course of expectation had he exercised himself a whole fortnight, when,
chancing to be at the Hospital of the Invalids with a gentleman lately
arrived from England, he no sooner entered the church than he perceived
his lady, attended by her spouse, who at sight of our hero changed
colour and looked another way, in order to discourage any communication
between them. But the young man, who was not so easily repulsed,
advanced with great assurance to his fellow-traveller, and taking him by
the hand, expressed his satisfaction at this unexpected meeting; kindly
upbraiding him for his precipitate retreat from Chantilly. Before
Hornbeck could make any reply he went up to his wife, whom he
complimented in the same manner; assuring her, with some significant
glances, he was extremely mortified that she had put it out of his power
to pay his respects to her on his first arrival at Paris; and then,
turning to her husband, who thought proper to keep close to him in this
conference, begged to know where he could have the honour of waiting
upon him; observing at the same time, that he himself lived a l'Academie
de Palfrenier.
Mr. Hornbeck, without making any apology for his elopement on the road,
thanked Mr. Pickle for his complaisance in a very cool and disobliging
manner; saying that as he intended to shift his lodgings in a day or
two, he could not expect the pleasure of seeing him, until he should be
settled, when he would call at the academy, and conduct him to his new
habitation.
Pickle, who was not unacquainted with the sentiments of this jealous
gentleman, did not put much confidence in his promise, and therefore
made divers efforts to enjoy a little private conversation with his
wife; but he was baffled in all his attempts by the indefatigable
vigilance of her keeper, and reaped no other immediate pleasure from
this accidental meeting, than that of a kind squeeze while he handed her
into the coach. However, as he had been witness to some instances of
her invention, and was no stranger to the favourable disposition of
her heart, he entertained some faint hopes of profiting by her
understanding, and was not deceived in his expectation; for the very
next forenoon, a Savoyard called at the academy, and put the following
billet in his hand:--
“Coind Sur,--Heaving the playsure of meating with you at the
osspital of awilheads, I take this lubbertea of latin you
know, that I lotch at the hottail de May cong dangle rouy
Doghouseten, with two postis at the gait, naytheir of um very
hole, ware I shall be at the windore, if in kais you will be
so good as to pass that way at sicks a cloak in the heavening
when Mr. Hornbeck goes to the Calf hay de Contea. Prey for the
loaf of Geesus keep this from the nolegs of my hussban, ells he
will make me leed a hell upon urth.--Being all from, deer Sur,
your most umbell servan wile
“Deborah Hornbeck.”
Our young gentleman was ravished at the receipt of this elegant epistle,
which was directed, A Monsr. Monsr. Pickhell, a la Gaddamme de Paul
Freny, and did not fail to obey the summons at the hour of assignation;
when the lady, true to her appointment, beckoned him up-stairs, and he
had the good fortune to be admitted unseen.
After the first transports of their mutual joy at meeting, she told him,
that her husband had been very surly and cross ever since the adventure
at Chantilly, which he had not yet digested; that he had laid severe
injunctions upon her to avoid all commerce with Pickle, and even
threatened to shut her up in a convent for life, if ever she should
discover the least inclination to renew that acquaintance; that she had
been cooped up in her chamber since her arrival at Paris, without being
permitted to see the place, or indeed any company, except that of her
landlady, whose language she did not understand; so that her spirit
being broken, and her health impaired, he was prevailed upon some days
ago to indulge her in a few airings, during which she had seen the
gardens of the Luxembourg, the Tuileries, and Palais Royal, though at
those times when there was no company in the walks; and that it was
in one of those excursions she had the happiness of meeting with him.
Finally, she gave him to understand, that rather than continue longer
in such confinement with the man whom she could not love, she would
instantly give him the slip, and put herself under the protection of her
lover.
Rash and unthinking as this declaration might be, the young
gentleman was so much of a gallant, that he would not balk the
lady's inclinations; and too infatuated by his passion to foresee the
consequences of such a dangerous step: he therefore, without hesitation,
embraced the proposal; and the coast being clear, they sallied out into
the street, where Peregrine, calling a fiacre, ordered the coachman
to drive them to a tavern; but knowing it would not be in his power to
conceal her from the search of the lieutenant de police, if she should
remain within the walls of Paris, he hired a remise, and carried her
that same evening to Villejuif, about four leagues from town, where he
stayed with her all night; and having boarded her on a genteel pension,
and settled the economy of his future visits, returned next day to his
own lodgings.
While he thus enjoyed his success, her husband endured the tortures of
the damned. When he returned from the coffee-house, and understood
that his wife had eloped, without being perceived by any person in the
family, he began to rave and foam with rage and jealousy; and, in the
fury of distraction, accused the landlady of being an accomplice in her
escape, threatening to complain of her to the commissaire. The woman
could not conceive how Mrs. Hornbeck, who she knew was an utter stranger
to the French language, and kept no sort of company, could elude the
caution of her husband, and find any refuge in a place where she had
no acquaintance, and began to suspect the lodger's emotion was no other
than an affected passion to conceal his own practices upon his wife, who
had perhaps fallen a sacrifice to his jealous disposition. She therefore
spared him the trouble of putting his menaces into execution by going to
the magistrate, without any further deliberation, and giving an account
of what she knew concerning this mysterious affair, with certain
insinuations against Hornbeck's character, which she represented as
peevish and capricious to the last degree.
While she thus anticipated the purpose of the plaintiff, her information
was interrupted by the arrival of the party himself, who exhibited
his complaint with such evident marks of perturbation, anger, and
impatience, that the commissaire could easily perceive that he had
no share in the disappearance of his wife, and directed him to the
lieutenant de police, whose province it is to take cognizance of such
occurrences. This gentleman, who presides over the city of Paris, having
heard the particulars of Hornbeck's misfortune, asked if he suspected
any individual person as the seducer of his yoke-fellow; and when he
mentioned Peregrine as the object of his suspicion, granted a warrant
and a detachment of soldiers, to search for and retrieve the fugitive.
The husband conducted them immediately to the academy where our hero
lodged; and having rummaged the whole place, to the astonishment of
Mr. Jolter, without finding either his wife or the supposed ravisher,
accompanied them to all the public-houses in the Faubourg, which having
examined also without success, he returned to the magistrate in a state
of despair, and obtained a promise of his making such an effectual
inquiry, that in three days he should have an account of her, provided
she was alive, and within the walls of Paris.
Our adventurer, who had foreseen all this disturbance, was not at all
surprised when his governor told him what had happened, and conjured
him to restore the woman to the right owner, with many pathetic
remonstrances touching the heinous sin of adultery, the distraction of
the unfortunate husband, and the danger of incurring the resentment of
an arbitrary government, which, upon application being made would
not fail of espousing the cause of the injured. He denied, with great
effrontery, that he had the least concern in the matter, pretended to
resent the deportment of Hornbeck, whom he threatened to chastise for
his scandalous suspicion, and expressed his displeasure at the credulity
of Jolter, who seemed to doubt the veracity of his asseveration.
Notwithstanding this confident behaviour, Jolter could not help
entertaining doubts of his sincerity, and, visiting the disconsolate
swain, begged he would, for the honour of his country, as well as
for the sake of his own reputation, discontinue his addresses to the
lieutenant de police, and apply to the British ambassador, who, by dint
of friendly admonitions, would certainly prevail upon Mr. Pickle to do
him all the justice in his power, if he was really the author of
the injury he had sustained. The governor urged this advice with the
appearance of so much sympathy and concern, promising to co-operate
within his influence in his behalf, that Hornbeck embraced the proposal,
communicated his purpose to the magistrate, who commended the resolution
as the most decent and desirable expedient he could use, and then waited
upon his excellency, who readily espoused his cause, and sending for the
young gentleman that same evening, read him such a lecture in private,
as extorted a confession of the whole affair. Not that he assailed him
with sour and supercilious maxims, or severe rebuke; because he
had penetration enough to discern that Peregrine's disposition was
impregnable to all such attacks; but he first of all rallied him on his
intriguing genius; then, in a humorous manner, described the distraction
of the poor cuckold, who he owned was justly punished for the absurdity
of his conduct; and lastly, upon the supposition that it would be no
great effort in Pickle to part with such a conquest, especially after
it had been for some time possessed, represented the necessity and
expediency of restoring her, not only out of regard to his own character
and that of his nation, but also with a view to his ease, which would in
a little time be very much invaded by such an incumbrance, that in all
probability would involve him in a thousand difficulties and disgusts.
Besides, he assured him that he was already, by order of the lieutenant
de police, surrounded with spies, who would watch all his motions, and
immediately discover the retreat in which he had disposed his prize.
These arguments, and the frank familiar manner in which they were
delivered--but, above all, the last consideration--induced the young
gentleman to disclose the whole of his proceedings to the ambassador;
and he promised to be governed by his direction, provided the lady
should not suffer for the step she had taken, but, be received by her
husband with due reverence and respect. These stipulations being agreed
to, he undertook to produce her in eight-and-forty hours; and, taking
coach, immediately drove to the place of her residence, where he spent
a whole day and night in convincing her of the impossibility of their
enjoying each other in that manner; then, returning to Paris, he
delivered her into the hands of the ambassador, who, having assured her
that she might depend upon his friendship and protection, in case she
should find herself aggrieved by the jealous temper of Mr. Hornbeck,
restored her to her legitimate lord, whom he counselled to exempt her
from that restraint which in all probability had been the cause of
her elopement, and endeavour to conciliate her affection by tender and
respectful usage.
The husband behaved with great humility and compliance, protesting
that his chief study should be to contrive parties for her pleasure and
satisfaction. But no sooner did he regain possession of his stray sheep,
than he locked her up more closely than ever; and after having revolved
various schemes for her reformation, determined to board her in
a convent, under the inspection of a prudent abbess, who should
superintend her morals, and recall her to the paths of virtue which
she had forsaken. With this view, he consulted an English priest of his
acquaintance, who advised him to settle her in a monastery at Lisle,
that she might be as far as possible from the machinations of her lover,
and gave him a letter of recommendation to the superior of a certain
convent in that place, for which Mr. Hornbeck set out in a few days with
his troublesome charge.