The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Volume 01Smollett, T. (Tobias)
General
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Volume 01
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Adventure stories; Gothic fiction
The smuggler, instead of acting the part of a faithful interpreter, told
his worship, that the prisoner's answer was no more than a simple denial,
which every felon would make who had nothing else to plead in his own
behalf, and that this alone was a strong presumption of his guilt,
because, if he was not really the person they suspected him to be, the
thing would speak for itself, for, if he was not the Young Pretender, who
then was he? This argument had great weight with the justice, who,
assuming a very important aspect, observed, "Very true, friend, if you
are not the Pretender, in the name of God, who are you? One may see with
half an eye that he is no better than a promiscuous fellow."
Ferdinand now began to repent of having pretended ignorance of the
English language, as he found himself at the mercy of a rascal, who put a
false gloss upon all his words, and addressed himself to the audience
successively in French, High Dutch, Italian, and Hungarian Latin,
desiring to know if any person present understood any of these tongues,
that his answers might be honestly explained to the bench. But he might
have accosted them in Chinese with the same success: there was not one
person present tolerably versed in his mother-tongue, much less
acquainted with any foreign language, except the wine merchant, who,
incensed at this appeal, which he considered as an affront to his
integrity, gave the judge to understand, that the delinquent, instead of
speaking to the purpose, contumaciously insulted his authority in sundry
foreign lingos, which he apprehended was an additional proof of his being
the Chevalier's son, inasmuch as no person would take the pains to learn
such a variety of gibberish, except with some sinister intent.
This annotation was not lost upon the squire, who was too jealous of the
honour of his office to overlook such a flagrant instance of contempt.
His eyes glistened, his cheeks were inflated with rage. "The case is
plain," said he; "having nothing of signification to offer in his own
favour, he grows refractory, and abuses the court in his base Roman
Catholic jargon; but I'll let you know, for all you pretend to be a
prince, you are no better than an outlawed vagrant, and I'll show you
what a thing you are when you come in composition with an English
justice, like me, who have more than once extinguished myself in the
service of my country. As nothing else accrues, your purse, black box,
and papers shall be sealed up before witnesses, and sent by express to
one of his Majesty's secretaries of state; and, as for yourself, I will
apply to the military at Canterbury, for a guard to conduct you to
London."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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