Peregrine is released--Jolter confounded at his mysterious Conduct--A
Contest happens between the Poet and Painter, who are reconciled by the
Mediation of their Fellow-Travellers.
Our hero, understanding from some expressions which escaped the prince,
that he was considered in the light of a sharper and assassin, begged
that he might have the liberty of sending for some vouchers, that would
probably vindicate his character from the malicious aspersions of his
adversary. This permission being granted, he wrote a letter to
his governor, desiring that he would bring to him the letters of
recommendation which he had received from the British ambassador at
Paris, and such other papers as he thought conducive to evince the
importance of his situation.
The billet was given in charge to one of the subaltern officers on
duty, who carried it to the inn, and demanded to speak with Mr. Jolter.
Pallet, who happened to be at the door when this messenger arrived,
and heard him inquire for the tutor, ran directly to that gentleman's
apartment, and in manifest disorder, told him that a huge fellow of
a soldier, with a monstrous pair of whiskers, and fur cap as big as a
bushel, was asking for him at the door. The poor governor began to shake
at this intimation, though he was not conscious of having committed
anything that could attract the attention of the state. When the officer
appeared at his chamber door, his confusion increased to such a degree,
that his perception seemed to vanish, and the subaltern repeated the
purport of his errand three times, before he could comprehend his
meaning, or venture to receive the letter which he presented. At length
he summoned all his fortitude, and having perused the epistle, his
terror sank into anxiety. His ingenuous fear immediately suggested, that
Peregrine was confined in a dungeon, for some outrage he had committed.
He ran with great agitation to a trunk, and, taking out a bundle of
papers, followed his conductor, being attended by the painter, to whom
he had hinted his apprehension.
When they passed through the guard, which was under arms, the hearts of
both died within them; and when they came into the presence, there was
such an expression of awful horror on the countenance of Jolter, that
the prince, observing his dismay, was pleased to encourage him with an
assurance that he had nothing to fear. Thus comforted, he recollected
himself so well as to understand his pupil, when he desired him to
produce the ambassador's letters; some of which being open, were
immediately read by his highness, who was personally acquainted with the
writer, and knew several of the noblemen to whom they were addressed.
These recommendations were so warm, and represented the young gentleman
in such an advantageous light, that the prince, convinced of the
injustice his character had suffered by the misrepresentation of
Hornbeck, took our hero by the hand, asked pardon for the doubts he had
entertained of his honour, declared him from that moment at liberty,
ordered his domestics to be enlarged, and offered him his countenance
and protection as long as he should remain in the Austrian Netherlands.
At the same time, he cautioned him against indiscretion in the course
of his gallantries; and took his word of honour, that he should drop
all measures of resentment against the person of Hornbeck during his
residence in that place.
The delinquent, thus honourably acquitted, thanked the prince in the
most respectful manner for his generosity and candour, and retired with
his two friends, who were amazed and bewildered in their thoughts
at what they had seen and heard, the whole adventure still remaining
without the sphere of their comprehension, which was not at all
enlarged by the unaccountable appearance of Pipes, who, with the
valet-de-chambre, joined them at the castle gate. Had Jolter been a man
of a luxuriant imagination, his brain would undoubtedly have suffered in
the investigation of his pupil's mysterious conduct, which he strove in
vain to unravel; but his intellects were too solid to be affected by the
miscarriage of his invention; and, as Peregrine did not think proper
to make him acquainted with the cause of his being apprehended, he
contented himself with supposing that there was a lady in the case.
The painter, whose imagination was of a more flimsy texture, formed a
thousand chimerical conjectures, which he communicated to Pickle,
in imperfect insinuations, hoping, by his answers and behaviour, to
discover the truth: but the youth, in order to tantalise him, eluded all
his inquiries, with such appearance of industry and art, as heightened
his curiosity, while it disappointed his aim, and inflamed him to such
a degree of impatience, that his wits began to be unsettled: then
Peregrine was fain to recompose his brain, by telling him in confidence,
that he had been arrested as a spy. This secret he found more
intolerable than his former uncertainty. He ran from one apartment to
another, like a goose in the agonies of egg-laying, with intention of
disburdening this important load; but Jolter being engaged with the
pupil, and all the people of the house ignorant of the only language
he could speak, he was compelled, with infinite reluctance, to address
himself to the doctor, who was at that time shut up in his own chamber.
Having knocked at the door to no purpose, he peeped through the
key-hole, and saw the physician sitting at a table, with a pen in one
hand, and paper before him, his head reclined upon his other hand, and
his eyes fixed upon the ceiling, as if he had been entranced. Pallet,
concluding that he was under the power of some convulsion, endeavoured
to force the door open, and the noise of his efforts recalled the doctor
from his reverie.
This poetical republican, being so disagreeably disturbed, started up
in a passion, and, opening the door, no sooner perceived who had
interrupted him, than he flung it in his face with great fury, and
cursed him for his impertinent intrusion, which had deprived him of the
most delightful vision that ever regaled the human fancy. He imagined,
as he afterwards imparted to Peregrine, that, as he enjoyed himself in
walking through the flowery plain that borders on Parnassus, he was met
by a venerable sage, whom, by a certain divine vivacity that lightened
from his eyes, he instantly knew to be the immortal Pindar. He was
immediately struck with reverence and awe, and prostrated himself before
the apparition, which, taking him by the hand, lifted him gently from
the ground and, with words more sweet than the honey of the Hybla
bees, told him, that, of all the moderns, he alone was visited by
that celestial impulse by which he himself had been inspired, when he
produced his most applauded odes. So saying, he led him up the sacred
hill, persuaded him to drink a copious draught of the waters of the
Hippocrene, and then presented him to the harmonious Nine, who crowned
his temples with a laurel wreath.
No wonder that he was enraged to find himself cut off from such sublime
society. He raved in Greek against the invader, who was so big with
his own purpose, that, unmindful of the disgrace he had sustained, and
disregarding all the symptoms of the physician's displeasure, he applied
his mouth to the door, in an eager tone. “I'll hold you any wager,” said
he, “that I guess the true cause of Mr. Pickle's imprisonment.” To this
challenge he received no reply, and therefore repeated it, adding, “I
suppose you imagine he was taken up for fighting a duel, or affronting a
nobleman, or lying with some man's wife, or some such matter: but, egad!
you was never more mistaken in your life; and I'll lay my Cleopatra
against your Homer's head, that in four-and-twenty hours you shan't
light on the true reason.”
The favourite of the muses, exasperated at this vexatious perseverance
of the painter, who he imagined had come to tease and insult him, “I
would,” said he, “sacrifice a cock to Esculapius, were I assured that
any person had been taken up for extirpating such a troublesome Goth as
you are from the face of the earth. As for your boasted Cleopatra, which
you say was drawn from your own wife, I believe the copy has as much
as the original: but, were it mine, it should be hung up
in the Temple of Cloacina, as the picture of that goddess; for any
other apartment would be disgraced by its appearance.”--“Hark ye, sir,”
replied Pallet, enraged in his turn at the contemptuous mention of his
darling performance, “you may make as free with my wife as you think
proper, but 'ware my works; those are the children of my fancy,
conceived by the glowing imagination, and formed by the art of my own
hands: and you yourself are a Goth, and a Turk, and a Tartar, and
an impudent pretending jackanapes, to treat with such disrespect a
production which, in the opinion of all the connoisseurs of the age,
will, when finished, be a masterpiece in its kind, and do honour to
human genius and skill. So I say again and again, and I care not
though your friend Playtor heard me, that you have no more taste than a
drayman's horse, and that those foolish notions of the ancients ought to
be drubbed out of you with a good cudgel, that you might learn to treat
men of parts with more veneration. Perhaps you may not always be in the
company of one who will halloo for assistance when you are on the brink
of being chastised for your insolence, as I did, when you brought upon
yourself the resentment of that Scot, who, by the Lord! would have paid
you both Scot and lot, as Falstaff says, if the French officer had not
put him in arrest.”
The physician, to this declamation, which was conveyed through the
key-hole, answered, that he (the painter) was a fellow so infinitely
below his consideration, that his conscience upbraided him with no
action of his life, except that of choosing such a wretch for his
companion and fellow-traveller. That he had viewed his character through
the medium of good-nature and compassion, which had prompted him to give
Pallet an opportunity of acquiring some new ideas under his immediate
instruction; but he had abused his goodness and condescension in such a
flagrant manner, that he was now determined to discard him entirely
from his acquaintance; and desired him, for the present, to take himself
away, on pain of being kicked for his presumption.
Pallet was too much incensed to be intimidated by this threat, which he
retorted with great virulence, defying him to come forth, that it might
appear which of them was best skilled in that pedestrian exercise, which
he immediately began to practise against the door with such thundering
application, as reached the ears of Pickle and his governor, who coming
out into the passage, and seeing him thus employed, asked if he had
forgot the chamber-pots of Alost, that he ventured to behave in such a
manner as entitled him to a second prescription of the same nature.
The doctor, understanding that there was company at hand, opened the
door in a twinkling, and, springing upon his antagonist like a tiger, a
fierce contention would have ensued, to the infinite satisfaction of
our hero, had not Jolter, to the manifest peril of his own person,
interposed, and partly by force, and partly by exhortations, put a stop
to the engagement before it was fairly begun. After having demonstrated
the indecency of such a vulgar rencontre, betwixt two fellow-citizens
in a foreign land, he begged to know the cause of their dissension,
and offered his good offices towards an accommodation. Peregrine also,
seeing the fray was finished, expressed himself to the same purpose;
and the painter, for obvious reasons, declining an explanation, his
antagonist told the youth what a mortifying interruption he had suffered
by the impertinent intrusion of Pallet, and gave him a detail of the
particulars of his vision, as above recited. The arbiter owned the
provocation was not to be endured; and decreed that the offender should
make some atonement for his transgression. Upon which the painter
observed, that, however he might have been disposed to make
acknowledgments, if the physician had signified his displeasure like
a gentleman, the complainant had now forfeited all claim to any such
concessions, by the vulgar manner in which he had reviled him and his
productions; observing, that, if he (the painter) had been inclined to
retort his slanderous insinuations, the republican's own works would
have afforded ample subject for his ridicule and censure.
After divers disputes and representations, peace was at length
concluded, on condition, that, for the future, the doctor should never
mention Cleopatra, unless he could say something in her praise; and that
Pallet, in consideration of his having been the first aggressor, should
make a sketch of the physician's vision, to be engraved and prefixed to
the next edition of his odes.