by T. Smollett
Peregrine is overtaken by Mr. Gauntlet, with whom he fights a Duel, andcontracts an intimate Friendship--He arrives at the Garrison, and findshis Mother as implacable as ever--He is insulted by his Brother Gam,whose Preceptor he disciplines with a Horsewhip.
In order to expel the melancholy images that took possession of hisfancy, at parting from his mistress, he called in the flattering ideasof those pleasures he expected to enjoy in France; and before he hadrode ten miles, his imagination was effectually amused. While he thusprosecuted his travels by anticipation, and indulged himself in allthe insolence of hope, at the turning of a lane he was all of a suddenovertaken by Emilia's brother on horseback, who told him he was ridingthe same way, and should be glad of his company. This young gentleman,whether prompted by personal pique, or actuated with zeal for the honourof his family, had followed our hero, with the view of obliging him toexplain the nature of his attachment to his sister.
Peregrine returned his compliment with such disdainful civility as gavehim room to believe that he suspected his errand; and therefore, withoutfurther preamble, he declared his business in these words: "Mr. Pickle,you have carried on a correspondence with my sister for some time, andI should be glad to know the nature of it." To this question our loverreplied, "Sir, I should be glad to know what title you have to demandthat satisfaction?"--"Sir," answered the other, "I demand it in thecapacity of a brother, jealous of his own honour, as well as of hissister's reputation; and if your intentions are honourable, you willnot refuse it."--"Sir," said Peregrine, "I am not at present disposed toappeal to your opinion for the rectitude of my intentions: and I thinkyou assume a little too much importance, in pretending to judge myconduct."--"Sir," replied the soldier, "I pretend to judge the conductof every man who interferes with my concerns, and even to chastisehim, if I think he acts amiss."--"Chastise!" cried the youth, withindignation in his looks, "sure you dare not apply that term tome?"--"You are mistaken," said Godfrey; "I dare do anything that becomesthe character of a gentleman."--"Gentleman, God wot!" replied the other,looking contemptuously at his equipage, which was none of the mostsuperb, "a very pretty gentleman, truly!"
The soldier's wrath was inflamed by this ironical repetition, thecontempt of which his conscious poverty made him feel; and he called hisantagonist presumptuous boy, insolent upstart, and with other epithets,which Perry retorted with great bitterness. A formal challenge havingpassed between them, they alighted at the first inn, and walked intothe next field, in order to decide their quarrel by the sword. Havingpitched upon the spot, helped to pull off each other's boots, and laidaside their coats and waistcoats, Mr. Gauntlet told his opponent, thathe himself was looked upon in the army as an expert swordsman, andthat if Mr. Pickle had not made that science his particular study, theyshould be upon a more equal footing in using pistols. Peregrine was toomuch incensed to thank him for his plain dealing, and too confidentof his own skill to relish the other's proposal, which he accordinglyrejected: then, drawing his sword, he observed, that were he to treatMr. Gauntlet according to his deserts, he would order his man to punishhis audacity with a horsewhip. Exasperated at this expression, which heconsidered as an indelible affront, he made no reply, but attacked hisadversary with equal ferocity and address. The youth parried hisfirst and second thrust, but received the third in the outside of hissword-arm. Though the wound was superficial, he was transported withrage at sight of his own blood, and returned the assault with suchfury and precipitation, that Gauntlet, loath to take advantage ofhis unguarded heat, stood upon the defensive. In the second lounge,Peregrine's weapon entering a kind of network in the shell of Godfrey'ssword, the blade snapped in two, and left him at the mercy of thesoldier, who, far from making an insolent use of the victory he hadgained, put up his Toledo with great deliberation, like a man who hadbeen used to that kind of reencounters, and observed that such a bladeas Peregrine's was not to be trusted with a man's life: then advisingthe owner to treat a gentleman in distress with more respect for thefuture, he slipped on his boots, and with sullen dignity of demeanourstalked back to the inn.
Though Pickle was extremely mortified at his miscarriage in thisadventure, he was also struck with the behaviour of his antagonist,which affected him the more, as he understood that Godfrey's fierte hadproceeded from the jealous sensibility of a gentleman declined into thevale of misfortune. Gauntlet's valour and moderation induced him toput a favourable construction on all those circumstances of that youngsoldier's conduct, which before had given him disgust. Though in anyother case he would have industriously avoided the least appearance ofsubmission, he followed his conqueror to the inn with a view of thankinghim for his generous forbearance, and of soliciting his friendship andcorrespondence.
Godfrey had his foot in the stirrup to mount, when Peregrine, coming upto him, desired he would defer his departure for a quarter of an hour,and favour him with a little private conversation. The soldier, whomistook the meaning of the request, immediately quitted his horse, andfollowed Pickle into a chamber, where he expected to find a brace ofpistols loaded on the table: but he was very agreeably deceived,when our hero, in the most respectful terms, acknowledged his nobledeportment in the field, owned that till then he had misunderstood hischaracter, and begged that he would honour him with his intimacy andcorrespondence.
Gauntlet, who had seen undoubted proofs of Peregrine's courage, whichhad considerably raised him in his esteem, and had sense enough toperceive that this concession was not owing to any sordid or sinistermotive, embraced his offer with demonstrations of infinite satisfaction.When he understood the terms on which Mr. Pickle was with his sister,he proffered his service in his turn, either as agent, mediator, orconfidant: nay, to give this new friend a convincing proof of hissincerity, he disclosed to him a passion which he had for some timeentertained for his cousin Miss Sophy, though he durst not reveal hissentiments to her father, lest he should be offended at his presumption,and withdraw his protection from the family.
Peregrine's generous heart was wrung with anguish, when he understoodthat this young gentleman, who was the only son of a distinguishedofficer, had carried arms for the space of five years, without beingable to obtain a subaltern's commission, though he always had behavedwith remarkable regularity and spirit, and, acquired the friendship andesteem of all the officers under whom he had served. He would, at thattime, with the utmost pleasure, have shared his finances with him; butas he would not run the risk of offending the young soldier's delicacyof honour by a premature exertion of his liberality, he resolved toinsinuate himself into an intimacy with him, before he would venture totake such freedoms; and with that view pressed Mr. Gauntlet to accompanyhim to the garrison, where he did not doubt of having influence enoughto make him a welcome guest. Godfrey thanked him very courteously forhis invitation, which he said he could not immediately accept; butpromised, if he would favour him with a letter, and fix the time atwhich he proposed to set out for France, he would endeavour to visithim at the commodore's habitation, and from thence give him a convoy toDover. This new treaty being settled, and a dossil of lint, with asnip of plaster, applied to our adventurer's wound, he parted from thebrother of his dear Emilia, to whom and his friend Sophy he sent hiskindest wishes; and having lodged one night upon the road, arrived nextday in the afternoon at the garrison, where he found all his friends ingood health, and overjoyed at his return.
The commodore, who was by this time turned of seventy, and altogethercrippled by the gout, seldom went abroad; and as his conversation wasnot very entertaining, had but little company within doors; so that hisspirits must have quite stagnated, had not they been kept in motionby the conversation of Hatchway, and received at different times awholesome fillip from the discipline of his spouse, who, by the force ofpride, religion, and Cognac, had erected a most terrible tyranny in thehouse. There was such a quick circulation of domestics in the family,that every suit of livery had been worn by figures of all dimensions.Trunnion himself had long before this time yielded to the torrent of he
rarbitrary sway, though not without divers obstinate efforts to maintainhis liberty; and now, that he was disabled by his infirmities, whenhe used to bear his empress singing the loud Orthyan song among theservants below, he would often in whispers communicate to the lieutenanthints of what he would do if so be as how he was not deprived of the useof his precious limbs. Hatchway was the only person whom the temper ofMrs. Trunnion respected, either because she dreaded his ridicule, orlooked upon his person with eyes of affection. This being the situationof things in the garrison, it is not to be doubted that the oldgentleman highly enjoyed the presence of Peregrine, who found means toingratiate himself so effectually with his aunt, that while he remainedat home, she seemed to have exchanged the disposition of a tigress forthat of a gentle kid; but he found his own mother as implacable, and hisfather as much henpecked, as ever.
Gamaliel, who now very seldom enjoyed the conversation of his old friendthe commodore, had some time ago entered into an amicable society,consisting of the barber, apothecary, attorney, and exciseman of theparish, among whom he used to spend the evening at Tunley's, and listento their disputes upon philosophy and politics with great comfort andedification, while his sovereign lady domineered at home as usual,visited with pomp in the neighbourhood, and employed her chief care inthe education of her darling son Gam, who was now in the fifteenth yearof his age, and so remarkable for his perverse disposition, that, inspite of his mother's influence and authority, he was not only hated,but also despised, both at home and abroad. She had put him under thetuition of the curate, who lived in the family, and was obliged toattend him in all his exercises and excursions. This governor was alow-bred fellow, who had neither experience nor ingenuity, but possesseda large fund of adulation and servile complaisance, by which he hadgained the good graces of Mrs. Pickle, and presided over all herdeliberations in the same manner as his superior managed those of Mrs.Trunnion.
He had one day rode out to take the air with his pupil, who, as I havealready observed, was odious to the poor people, for having killedtheir dogs and broken their inclosures, and, on account of his hump,distinguished by the title of My Lord, when in a narrow lane theychanced to meet Peregrine on horseback. The young squire no soonerperceived his elder brother, for whom he had been instructed toentertain the most inveterate grudge, than he resolved to insult him enpassant, and actually rode against him from gallop. Our hero, guessinghis aim, fixed himself in his stirrups, and by a dexterous managementof the reins avoided the shock in such a manner as that their legs onlyshould encounter; by which means my lord was tilted out of his saddle,and in a twinkling laid sprawling in the dirt. The governor, enraged atthe disgrace of his charge, advanced with great insolence and fury, andstruck at Peregrine with his whip. Nothing could be more agreeableto our young gentleman than this assault, which furnished him withan opportunity of chastising an officious wretch, whose petulance andmalice he had longed to punish. He therefore, spurring up his horsetowards his antagonist, overthrew him in the middle of a hedge. Beforehe had time to recollect himself from the confusion of the fall, Picklealighted in a trice, and exercised his horsewhip with such agility aboutthe curate's face and ears, that he was fain to prostrate himself beforehis enraged conqueror, and implore his forbearance in the most abjectterms. While Peregrine was thus employed, his brother Gam had made shiftto rise and attack him in the rear; for which reason, when the tutor wasquelled, the victor faced about, snatched the weapon out of his hand,and having broken it to pieces, remounted his horse and rode off,without deigning to honour him with any other notice.
The condition in which they returned produced infinite clamour againstthe conqueror, who was represented as a ruffian who had lain in ambushto make away with his brother, in whose defence the curate was said tohave received those cruel stripes that hindered him from appearing forthree whole weeks in the performance of his duty at church. Complaintswere made to the commodore, who, having inquired into the circumstancesof the affair, approved of what his nephew had done, adding, with manyoaths, that provided Peregrine had been out of the scrape, he wishedCrook-back had broken his neck in the fall.
CHAPTER XXIX.