The Adventures of Peregrine PickleSmollett, T. (Tobias)
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The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Adventure stories; Fiction; Picaresque literature
The soldier, exasperated at the disgrace he had undergone, as well as
the outrageous insult of the English valet, whom he believed his master
had tutored for that purpose, no sooner extricated himself from the
opprobrious situation he had incurred, than, breathing vengeance
against the author of the affront, he came to Peregrine's apartment, and
demanded satisfaction upon the ramparts next morning before sunrise.
Our hero assured him he would not fail to pay his respects to him at the
time and place appointed; and foreseeing that he might be prevented from
keeping this engagement by the officious care of his governor, who saw
the mousquetaire come in, he told Mr. Jolter, that the Frenchman
had visited him in consequence of an order he had received from his
superiors, to make an apology for his rude behaviour to him in the
playhouse, and that they had parted very good friends. This assurance,
together with Pickle's tranquil and unconcerned behaviour through the
day, quieted the terrors which had begun to take possession of his
tutor's imagination; so that the youth had an opportunity of giving him
the slip at night, when he betook himself to the lodgings of a friend,
whom he engaged as his second, and with whom he immediately took the
field, in order to avoid the search which Jolter, upon missing him,
might set on foot.
This was a necessary precaution; for as he did not appear at supper, and
Pipes, who usually attended him in his excursions, could give no account
of his motions, the governor was dreadfully alarmed at his absence, and
ordered his man to run in quest of his master to all the places which
he used to frequent, while he himself went to the commissaire, and,
communicating his suspicions, was accommodated with a party of the
horse-guards, who patrolled round all the environs of the city, with a
view of preventing the rencounter. Pipes might have directed them to the
lady, by whose information they could have learned the name and lodgings
of the mousquetaire, and if he had been apprehended the duel would not
have happened; but he did not choose to run the risk of disobliging his
master by intermeddling in the affair, and was moreover very desirous
that the Frenchman should be humbled; for he never doubted that
Peregrine was more than a match for any two men in France. In this
confidence, therefore, he sought his master with great diligence, not
with a view of disappointing his intention, but in order to attend him
to the battle, that he might stand by him, and see justice done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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