The Expedition of Humphry ClinkerSmollett, T. (Tobias)
General
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Epistolary fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Travelers -- Fiction
The dispute between the two rivals was soon brought to a very unexpected
issue. Among our fellow-lodgers at Berwick, was a couple from London,
bound to Edinburgh, on the voyage of matrimony. The female was the
daughter and heiress of a pawnbroker deceased, who had given her
guardians the slip, and put herself under the tuition of a tall
Hibernian, who had conducted her thus far in quest of a clergyman to
unite them in marriage, without the formalities required by the law
of England. I know not how the lover had behaved on the road, so as to
decline in the favour of his inamorata; but, in all probability, Dutton
perceived a coldness on her side, which encouraged him to whisper,
it was a pity she should have cast affections upon a taylor, which he
affirmed the Irishman to be. This discovery completed her disgust, of
which my man taking the advantage, began to recommend himself to her
good graces, and the smooth-tongued rascal found no difficulty to
insinuate himself into the place of her heart, from which the other had
been discarded--Their resolution was immediately taken. In the morning,
before day, while poor Teague lay snoring a-bed, his indefatigable rival
ordered a post-chaise, and set out with the lady for Coldstream, a few
miles up the Tweed, where there was a parson who dealt in this branch of
commerce, and there they were noosed, before the Irishman ever dreamt
of the matter. But when he got up at six o’clock, and found the bird was
flown, he made such a noise as alarmed the whole house. One of the first
persons he encountered, was the postilion returned from Coldstream,
where he had been witness to the marriage, and over and above an
handsome gratuity, had received a bride’s favour, which he now wore in
his cap--When the forsaken lover understood they were actually married,
and set out for London; and that Dutton had discovered to the lady, that
he (the Hibernian) was a taylor, he had like to have run distracted. He
tore the ribbon from the fellow’s cap, and beat it about his ears.
He swore he would pursue him to the gates of hell, and ordered
a post-chaise and four to be got ready as soon as possible; but,
recollecting that his finances would not admit of this way of
travelling, he was obliged to countermand this order.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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