The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Volume 02Smollett, T. (Tobias)
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The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Volume 02
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Adventure stories; Gothic fiction
He recalled the moment on which he first beheld her, with that pleasing
regret which attends the memory of a dear deceased friend. Then he
bitterly cursed it, as the source of all his misfortunes and affliction.
He thanked Heaven for having blessed him with a friend to detect her
perfidy and ingratitude; and then ardently wished he had still continued
under the influence of her delusion. In a word, the loneliness of his
situation aggravated every horror of his reflection; for, as he found
himself without company, his imagination was never solicited, or his
attention diverted from these subjects of woe; and he travelled to
Brussels in a reverie, fraught with such torments as must have entirely
wrecked his reason, had not Providence interposed in his behalf. He was,
by his postillion, conducted to one of the best inns of the place, where
he understood the cloth was already laid for supper; and as the ordinary
is open to strangers in all these houses of entertainment, he introduced
himself into the company, with a view to alleviate, in some measure, his
sorrow and chagrin, by the conversation of his fellow-guests. Yet he was
so ill prepared to obtain the relief which he courted, that he entered
the apartment, and sat down to table, without distinguishing either the
number or countenances of those who were present, though he himself did
not long remain so unregarded. His mien and deportment produced a
prepossession in his favour; and the air of affliction, so remarkable in
his visage, did not fail to attract their sympathy and observation.
Among the rest, was an Irish officer in the Austrian service, who having
eyed Renaldo attentively, "Sir," said he, rising, "if my eyes and memory
do not deceive me, you are the Count de Melvil, with whom I had the
honour to serve upon the Rhine during the last war." The youth, hearing
his own name mentioned, lifted up his eyes, and at once recognising the
other to be a gentleman who had been a captain in his father's regiment,
ran forwards, and embraced him with great affection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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