The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — CompleteSmollett, T. (Tobias)
General
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Adventure stories; Gothic fiction
This generous proffer served only to confirm Don Diego’s resolution,
which he forthwith executed, by putting into the hands of Ferdinand
jewels to the value of a thousand crowns, and desiring him to detain
for his own use any part of the sum they would raise. Our adventurer
thanked him for the good opinion he entertained of his integrity, an
opinion fully manifested in honouring him with such important
confidence, and assured him he would transact his affairs with the
utmost diligence, caution, and despatch. The evening being by this time
almost consumed, these new allies retired separately to rest; though
each passed the night without repose, in very different reflections,
the Castilian being, as usual, agitated with the unceasing pangs of his
unalterable misery, interspersed with gleaming hopes of revenge; and
Fathom being kept awake with revolving plans for turning his
fellow-lodger’s credulity to his own advantage. From the nature of the
Spaniard’s situation, he might have appropriated the jewels to himself,
and remained in Paris without fear of a prosecution, because the
injured party had, by the above narrative, left his life and liberty at
discretion.—But he did not think himself secure from the personal
resentment of an enraged desperate Castilian; and therefore determined
to withdraw himself privately into that country where he had all along
proposed to fix the standard of his finesse, which fortune had now
empowered him to exercise according to his wish.
Bent upon this retreat, he went abroad in the morning, on pretence of
acting in the concerns of his friend Don Diego, and having hired a
post-chaise to be ready at the dawning of next day, returned to his
lodgings, where he cajoled the Spaniard with a feigned report of his
negotiation; then, securing his most valuable effects about his person,
arose with the cock, repaired to the place at which he had appointed to
meet the postillion with the carriage, and set out for England without
further delay, leaving the unhappy Zelos to the horrors of indigence,
and the additional agony of this fresh disappointment. Yet he was not
the only person affected by the abrupt departure of Fathom, which was
hastened by the importunities, threats, and reproaches of his
landlord’s daughter, whom he had debauched under promise of marriage,
and now left in the fourth month of her pregnancy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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