by T. Smollett
He is engaged in a very extraordinary Correspondence, which isinterrupted by a very unexpected Event.
While this affair was in agitation, the captain told him in the courseof conversation, that Emilia was arrived in town, and had inquired aboutMr. Pickle with such an eagerness of concern, as seemed to proclaim thatshe was in some measure informed of his misfortune: he thereforedesired to know if he might be allowed to make her acquainted withhis situation, provided he should be again importuned by her on thatsubject, which he had at first industriously waived. This proof, orrather presumption, of her sympathizing regard, did not fail to operatepowerfully upon the bosom of Peregrine, which was immediately filledwith those tumults which love, ill-stifled, frequently excites. Heobserved, that his disgrace was such as could not be effectuallyconcealed; therefore he saw no reason for depriving himself of Emilia'scompassion, since he was for ever excluded from her affection; anddesired Godfrey to present to his sister the lowly respects of adespairing lover.
But, notwithstanding his declaration of despondence on this head, hisimagination involuntarily teemed with more agreeable ideas. The proposalof Crabtree had taken root in his reflection, and he could not helpforming plans of pastoral felicity in the arms of the lovely Emilia,remote from those pompous scenes which he now detested and despised.He amused his fancy with the prospect of being able to support her in astate of independency, by means of the slender annuity which it wasin his power to purchase, together with the fruits of those endeavourswhich would profitably employ his vacant hours; and foresaw provisionfor his growing family in the friendship of the lieutenant, who hadalready constituted him his heir. He even parcelled out his hours amongthe necessary cares of the world, the pleasures of domestic bliss, andthe enjoyments of a country life; and spent the night in ideal partieswith his charming bride, sometimes walking by the sedgy bank of sometransparent stream, sometimes pruning the luxuriant vine, and sometimessitting in social converse with her in a shady grove of his ownplanting.
These, however, were no more than the shadowy phantoms of imagination,which, he well knew, would never be realized: not that he believed suchhappiness unattainable by a person in his circumstances, but because hewould not stoop to propose a scheme which might, in any shape, seem tointerfere with the interest of Emilia, or subject himself to a repulsefrom that young lady, who had rejected his addresses in the zenith ofhis fortune.
While he diverted himself with these agreeable reveries, an unexpectedevent intervened, in which she and her brother were deeply interested.The uncle was tapped for the dropsy, and died in a few days after theoperation, having bequeathed, in his will, five thousand pounds to hisnephew, and twice that sum to his niece, who had always enjoyed thegreatest share of his favour.
If our adventurer, before this occurrence, looked upon his love forEmilia as a passion which it was necessary, at any rate, to conquer orsuppress, he now considered her accession of fortune as a circumstancewhich confirmed that necessity, and resolved to discourage every thoughton that subject which should tend to the propagation of hope. One day,in the midst of a conversation calculated for the purpose, Godfrey putinto his hand a letter directed to Mr. Pickle, in the handwriting ofEmilia, which the youth no sooner recognized, than his cheeks werecovered with a crimson dye, and he began to tremble with violentagitation; for he at once guessed the import of the billet, which hekissed with great reverence and devotion, and was not at all surprisedwhen he read the following words:--
Sir,--I have performed a sufficient sacrifice to my reputation, in retaining hitherto the appearance of that resentment which I had long ago dismissed; and as the late favourable change in my situation empowers me to avow my genuine sentiments, without fear of censure, or suspicion of mercenary design, I take this opportunity to assure you, that, if I still maintain that place in your heart which I was vain enough to think I once possessed, I am willing to make the first advances to an accommodation, and have actually furnished my brother with full powers to conclude it in the name of your appeased
"Emilia."
Pickle, having kissed the subscription with great ardour, fell upon hisknees, and lifting up his eyes, "Thank Heaven!" cried he, with an airof transport, "I have not been mistaken in my opinion of that generousmaid. I believed her inspired with the most dignified and heroicsentiments, and now she gives me a convincing proof of her magnanimity.It is now my business to approve myself worthy of her regard. May Heaveninflict upon me the keenest arrows of its vengeance, if I do not, atthis instant, contemplate the character of Emilia with the most perfectlove and adoration; yet, amiable and enchanting as she is, I am, morethan ever, determined to sacrifice the interest of my passion to myglory, though my life should fail in the contest; and even to refusean offer, which, otherwise, the whole universe should not bribe me toforego."
This declaration was not so unexpected as unwelcome to his friendGauntlet, who represented that his glory was not at all interested inthe affair; because he had already vindicated his generosity inrepeated proffers to lay his whole fortune at Emilia's feet, when itwas impossible that anything selfish could enter into the proposal;but that, in rejecting her present purpose, he would give the worldan opportunity to say, that his pride was capricious, his obstinacyinvincible; and his sister would have undeniable reason to believe,that either his passion for her was dissembled, or the ardour of itconsiderably abated.
In answer to these remonstrances, Pickle observed, that he had longset the world at defiance; and, as to the opinion of Emilia, he did notdoubt that she would applaud in her heart the resolution he had taken,and do justice to the purity of his intention. It was not an easy taskto divert our hero from his designs at any time of life; but, since hisconfinement, his inflexibility was become almost insurmountable. Thecaptain, therefore, after having discharged his conscience, in assuringhim that his sister's happiness was at stake, that his mother hadapproved of the step she had taken, and that he himself should beextremely mortified at his refusal, forbore to press him with furtherargument, which served only to rivet him the more strongly in his ownopinion, and undertook to deliver this answer to Emilia's letter:--
Madam,--That I revere the dignity of your virtue with the utmost veneration, and love you infinitely more than life, I am at all times ready to demonstrate; but the sacrifice to honour it is now my turn to pay; and such is the rigour of my destiny, that, in order to justify your generosity, I must refuse to profit by your condescension. Madam, I am doomed to be for ever wretched; and to sigh without ceasing for the possession of that jewel, which, though now in my offer, I dare not enjoy. I shall not pretend to express the anguish that tears my heart, whilst I communicate this fatal renunciation, but appeal to the delicacy of your own sentiments, which can judge of my sufferings, and will, doubtless, do justice to the self-denial of your forlorn "P. Pickle."
Emilia, who knew the nicety of our hero's pride, had foreseen thepurport of this epistle before it came to her hands; she did not,therefore, despair of success, nor desist from the prosecution of herplan, which was no other than that of securing her own happiness, inespousing the man upon whom she had fixed her unalterable affection.Confident of his honour, and fully satisfied of the mutual passion withwhich they were inspired, she gradually decoyed him into a literarycorrespondence, wherein she attempted to refute the arguments on whichhe grounded his refusal; and, without doubt, the young gentleman was nota little pleased with the enjoyment of such delightful commerce, in thecourse of which he had, more than ever, an opportunity of admiring thepoignancy of her wit, and the elegance of her understanding.
The contemplation of such excellency, while it strengthened the chainswith which she held him enslaved, added emulation to the other motivesthat induced him to maintain the dispute; and much subtlety of reasoningwas expended upon both sides of this very particular question, withoutany prospect of conviction on either p
art, till, at last, she began todespair of making him a proselyte to her opinion by dint of argument;and resolved for the future to apply herself chiefly to the irresistibleprepossessions of his love, which were not at all diminished or impairedby the essays of her pen. With this view she proposed a conference,pretending that it was impossible to convey all her reflections uponthis subject in a series of short letters; and Godfrey undertook to bailhim for the day. But, conscious of her power, he would not trust himselfin her presence, though his heart throbbed with all the eagerness ofdesire to see her fair eyes disrobed of that resentment which theyhad worn so long, and to enjoy the ravishing sweets of a fondreconciliation.
Nature could not have held out against such powerful attacks, had notthe pride and caprice of his disposition been gratified to the full inthe triumph of his resistance; he looked upon the contest as altogetheroriginal, and persevered with obstinacy, because he thought himselfsure of favourable terms, whenever he should be disposed tocapitulate. Perhaps he might have overshot himself in the course of hisperseverance. A young lady of Emilia's fortune and attractions couldnot fail to find herself surrounded by temptations, which few women canresist. She might have misinterpreted the meaning of some paragraph ortaken umbrage at an unguarded expression in one of Peregrine's letters.She might have been tired out by his obstinate peculiarity, or, at thelong run, construed it into madness, slight, or indifference; or, ratherthan waste her prime in fruitless endeavours to subdue the pride ofa headstrong humourist, she might have listened to the voice of someadmirer, fraught with qualifications sufficient to engage her esteem andaffection. But all these possibilities were providentially prevented byan accident attended with more important consequences than any we havehitherto recounted.
Early one morning Pipes was disturbed by the arrival of a messenger, whohad been sent express from the country by Mr. Clover, with a packet forthe lieutenant, and arrived in town overnight; but as he was obliged tohave recourse to the information of Jack's correspondent in the city,touching the place of his abode, before he demanded entrance at theFleet the gate was shut; nor would the turnkeys admit him, although hetold them that he was charged with a message of the utmost consequence;so that he was fain to tarry till daybreak, when he, at his earnestsolicitation, was allowed to enter.
Hatchway, opening the packet, found a letter enclosed for Peregrine,with an earnest request that he should forward it to the hands of thatyoung gentleman with all possible despatch. Jack, who could not diveinto the meaning of this extraordinary injunction, began to imaginethat Mrs. Clover lay at the point of death, and wanted to take a lastfarewell of her brother; and this conceit worked so strongly upon hisimagination, that, while he huddled on his clothes, and made the best ofhis way to the apartment of our hero, he could not help cursing, withinhimself, the folly of the husband in sending such disagreeable messagesto a man of Peregrine's impatient temper, already soured by his ownuneasy situation. This reflection would have induced him to suppress theletter, had not he been afraid to tamper with the ticklish dispositionof his friend, to whom, while he delivered it, "As for my own part,"said he, "mayhap I may have as much natural affection as another, butwhen my spouse parted, I bore my misfortune like a British man, and aChristian. For why? He's no better than a fresh-water sailor, who knowsnot how to stem the current of mischance."
Pickle being waked from a pleasant dream, in which the fair Emilia wasprincipally concerned, and hearing this strange preamble, sat up in hisbed, and unsealed the letter, in a state of mortification and disgust.But what were the emotions of his soul, when he read the followingintimation:--
Dear Brother,--It hath pleased God to take your father suddenly off by a fit of apoplexy; and as he has died intestate, I give you this notice, that you may, with all speed, come down and take possession of your right, in despite of Master Gam and his mother, who, you may be sure, do not sit easy under this unexpected dispensation of Providence. I have, by virtue of being a justice of the peace, taken such precautions as I thought necessary for your advantage; and the funeral shall be deferred until your pleasure be known. Your sister, though sincerely afflicted by her father's fate, submits to the will of Heaven with laudable resignation, and begs you will set out for this place without delay; in which request she is joined by, sir, your affectionate brother, and humble servant, "Charles Clover."
Peregrine at first looked upon this epistle as a mere illusion of thebrain, and a continuation of the reverie in which he had been engaged.He read it ten times over, without being persuaded that he was actuallyawake. He rubbed his eyes, and shook his head, in order to shake offthe drowsy vapours that surrounded him. He hemmed thrice with greatvociferation, snapped his fingers, tweaked his nose, started up from hisbed, and, opening the casement, took a survey of the well-knownobjects that appeared on each side of his habitation. Everything seemedcongruous and connected, and he said within himself, "Sure this is themost distinct dream that ever sleep produced." Then he had recourseagain to the paper, which he carefully perused, without finding anyvariation from his first notion of the contents.
Hatchway, seeing all his extravagances of action, accompanied with awild stare of distraction, began to believe that his head was at lengthfairly turned, and was really meditating means for securing his person,when Pickle, in a tone of surprise, exclaimed, "Good God! am I or am Inot awake?"--"Why look ye, cousin Pickle," replied the lieutenant, "thatis a question which the deep sea-line of my understanding is not longenough to sound; but howsomever, thof I can't trust to the observationI have taken, it shall go hard but I will fall upon a way to guesswhereabouts we are." So saying, he lifted up a pitcher full of coldwater, that stood behind the outward door, and discharged it in the faceof Peregrine without ceremony or hesitation. This remedy produced thedesired effect. Unpalatable as it was, the young gentleman no soonerrecovered his breath, which was endangered by such a sudden application,than he thanked his friend Jack for the seasonable operation he hadperformed. Having no longer any just reason to doubt the reality ofwhat appeared so convincingly to his senses, he shifted himself on theinstant, not without hurry and trepidation; and, putting on his morningdress, sallied forth to the Bare, in order to deliberate with himself onthe important intelligence he had received.
Hatchway, not yet fully convinced of his sanity, and curious to know thepurport of the letter, which had affected him in such an extraordinarymanner, carefully attended his footsteps in this excursion, in hopeof being favoured with his confidence, in the course of theirperambulation. Our hero no sooner appeared at the street door, than hewas saluted by the messenger, who having posted himself in the way forthat purpose, "God bless your noble honour, Squire Pickle," cried he,"and give you joy of succeeding to your father's estate." These wordshad scarce proceeded from his mouth, when the lieutenant, hoppingeagerly towards the countryman, squeezed his hand with great affection,and asked if the old gentleman had actually taken his departure. "Ay,Master Hatchway," replied the other, "in such a woundy haste, that heforgot to make a will."--"Body of me!" exclaimed the seaman; "these arethe best tidings I have ever heard since I first went to sea. Here, mylad, take my purse, and stow thyself chuck full of the best liquorin the land." So saying, he tipped the peasant with ten pieces, andimmediately the whole place echoed the sound of Tom's instrument.Peregrine, repairing to the walk, communicated the billet to his honestfriend, who at his desire went forthwith to the lodgings of CaptainGauntlet, and returned in less than an hour with that gentleman, who, Ineed not say, was heartily rejoiced at the occasion.
CHAPTER CIV.