The Adventures of Peregrine PickleSmollett, T. (Tobias)
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The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Adventure stories; Fiction; Picaresque literature
Hatchway disappeared; and Ravine proceeded with great fluency of abuse,
until he was interrupted by the arrival of Pipes, who, without any
expostulation, led him out by the hand, and conducted him to the yard,
where he was put into a carpet, and in a twinkling sent into the air by
the strength and dexterity of five stout operators, whom the lieutenant
had selected from the number of domestics for that singular spell of
duty.
In vain did the astonished vaulter beg, for the love of God, that they
would take pity upon him, and put an end to his involuntary gambols:
they were deaf to his prayers and protestations, even when he swore,
in the most solemn manner, that if they would cease tormenting him, he
would forget and forgive what was past, and depart in peace to his own
habitation; and continued the game till they were fatigued with the
exercise.
Ravine being dismissed in a most melancholy plight, brought an action
of assault and battery against the commodore, and subpoenaed all the
servants as evidences in the cause; but as none of them had seen what
happened, he did not find his account in the prosecution, though he
himself examined all the witnesses, and, among their questions, asked,
whether they had not seen him come in like another man? and whether they
had ever seen any other man in such condition as that in which he
had crawled off. But this last interrogation they were not obliged
to answer, because it had reference to the second discipline he had
undergone, in which they, and they only, were concerned; and no person
is bound to give testimony against himself.
In short, the attorney was nonsuited, to the satisfaction of all who
knew him, and found himself under the necessity of proving that he had
received, in course of post, the letter which was declared in court a
scandalous forgery, in order to prevent an indictment with which he was
threatened by the commodore, who little dreamt that the whole affair had
been planned and executed by Peregrine and his associates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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