The Adventures of Peregrine PickleSmollett, T. (Tobias)
General
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Adventure stories; Fiction; Picaresque literature
length.
Peregrine, when he first saw him approach in this menacing attitude, put
himself upon his guard; but being informed of his quality, perused
his bill of fare, and having bespoken three or four things for dinner,
walked out with Mr. Jolter to view both towns, which they had not
leisure to consider minutely before. In their return from the harbour
they met with four or five gentlemen, all of whom seemed to look with an
air of dejection, and perceiving our hero and his governor to be English
by their dress, bowed with great respect as they passed. Pickle, who
was naturally compassionate, felt an emotion of sympathy; and seeing a
person, who by his habit he judged to be one of their servants, accosted
him in English, and asked who the gentlemen were. The lacquey gave
him to understand that they were his own countrymen, called from their
native homes in consequence of their adherence to an unfortunate and
ruined cause; and that they were gone to the sea-side, according to
their daily practice, in order to indulge their longing eyes with a
prospect of the white cliffs of Albion, which they must never more
approach.
Though our young gentleman differed widely from them in point of
political principles, he was not one of those enthusiasts who look upon
every schism from the established articles of faith as damnable,
and exclude the sceptic from every benefit of humanity and Christian
forgiveness: he could easily comprehend how a man of the most
unblemished morals might, by the prejudice of education, or
indispensable attachments, be engaged in such a blameworthy and
pernicious undertaking; and thought that they had already suffered
severely for their imprudence. He was affected with the account of their
diurnal pilgrimage to the sea-side, which he considered as a pathetic
proof of their affliction, and invested Mr. Jolter with the agreeable
office of going to them with a compliment in his name, and begging the
honour of drinking a glass with them in the evening. They accepted the
proposal with great satisfaction and respectful acknowledgment, and
in the afternoon waited upon the kind inviter, who treated them with
coffee, and would have detained them to supper, but they entreated the
favour of his company at the house which they frequented so earnestly,
that he yielded to their solicitations, and, with his governor, was
conducted by them to the place, where they had provided an elegant
repast, and regaled them with some of the best claret in France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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