The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete
thousand objects which had never before come under his cognisance.
He had formerly imagined, but was now fully persuaded, that the sons of
men preyed upon one another, and such was the end and condition of
their being. Among the principal figures of life, he observed few or no
characters that did not bear a strong analogy to the savage tyrants of
the wood. One resembled a tiger in fury and rapaciousness; a second
prowled about like an hungry wolf, seeking whom he might devour; a
third acted the part of a jackal, in beating the bush for game to his
voracious employer; and the fourth imitated the wily fox, in practising
a thousand crafty ambuscades for the destruction of the ignorant and
unwary. This last was the department of life for which he found himself
best qualified by nature and inclination; and he accordingly resolved
that his talent should not rust in his possession. He was already
pretty well versed in all the sciences of play; but he had every day
occasion to see these arts carried to such a surprising pitch of
finesse and dexterity, as discouraged him from building his schemes on
that foundation.
He therefore determined to fascinate the judgment, rather than the eyes
of his fellow-creatures, by a continual exercise of that gift of
deceiving, with which he knew himself endued to an unrivalled degree;
and to acquire unbounded influence with those who might be subservient
to his interest, by an assiduous application to their prevailing
passions. Not that play was altogether left out in the projection of
his economy.— Though he engaged himself very little in the executive
part of gaming, he had not been long in Vienna, when he entered into
league with a genius of that kind, whom he distinguished among the
pupils of the academy, and who indeed had taken up his habitation in
that place with a view to pillage the provincials on their first
arrival in town, before they could be armed with proper circumspection
to preserve their money, or have time to dispose of it in any other
shape.
Similar characters naturally attract each other, and people of our
hero’s principles are, of all others, the most apt to distinguish their
own likeness wheresoever it occurs; because they always keep the
faculty of discerning in full exertion. It was in consequence of this
mutual alertness, that Ferdinand and the stranger, who was a native of
Tyrol, perceived themselves reflected in the dispositions of each
other, and immediately entered into an offensive and defensive
alliance; our adventurer undertaking for the articles of intelligence,
countenance, and counsel, and his associate charging himself with the
risk of execution.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FATHOM MAKES VARIOUS EFFORTS IN THE WORLD OF GALLANTRY.
Thus connected, they began to hunt in couples; and Fathom, in order to
profit by the alliance with a good grace, contrived a small scheme that
succeeded to his wish. Renaldo being one night intoxicated in the
course of a merry-making with his fellow-pupils, from which Fathom had
purposely absented himself, was by the Tyrolese so artfully provoked to
play, that he could not resist the temptation, but engaged at passdice
with that fell adversary, who, in less than an hour, stripped him of a
pretty round sum. Next day, when the young gentleman recovered the use
of his reflection, he was sensibly chagrined at the folly and
precipitation of his own conduct, an account of which he communicated
in confidence to our hero, with demonstrations of infinite shame and
concern.
Ferdinand, having moralised upon the subject with great sagacity, and
sharply inveighed against the Tyrolese, for the unfair advantage he had
taken, retired to his closet, and wrote the following billet, which was
immediately sent to his ally:—
“The obligations I owe, and the attachments I feel, to the Count de
Melvil, will not suffer me to be an idle spectator of the wrongs
offered to his son, in the dishonourable use, I understand, you made
last night of his unguarded hours. I therefore insist upon your making
immediate restitution of the booty which you so unjustly got; otherwise
I expect you will meet me upon the ramparts, near the bastion de la
Port Neuve, to-morrow morning at daybreak, in order to justify, with
your sword, the finesse you have practised upon the friend of FERDINAND
DE FATHOM.”
The gamester no sooner received this intimation, than, according to the
plan which had been preconcerted betwixt the author and him, he went to
the apartment of Renaldo, and presenting the sum of money which he had
defrauded him of the preceding night, told him, with a stern
countenance, that, though it was a just acquisition, he scorned to
avail himself of his good fortune against any person who entertained
the smallest doubt of his honour.
The young Count, surprised at this address, rejected his offer with
disdain, and desired to know the meaning of such an unexpected
declaration. Upon which, the other produced Ferdinand’s billet, and
threatened, in very high terms, to meet the stripling according to his
invitation, and chastise him severely for his presumption. The
consequence of this explanation is obvious. Renaldo, imputing the
officiousness of Fathom to the zeal of his friendship, interposed in
the quarrel, which was amicably compromised, not a little to the honour
of our adventurer, who thus obtained an opportunity of displaying his
courage and integrity, without the least hazard to his person; while,
at the same time, his confederate recommended himself to the esteem of
the young Count, by his spirited behaviour on this occasion; so that
Renaldo being less shy of his company for the future, the Tyrolese had
the fairer opportunities to prosecute his designs upon the young
gentleman’s purse.
It would be almost superfluous to say, that these were not neglected.
The son of Count Melvil was not deficient in point of penetration; but
his whole study was at that time engrossed by the care of his
education, and he had sometimes recourse to play as an amusement by
which he sought to unbend the severity of his attention. No wonder then
that he fell a prey to an artful gamester, who had been regularly
trained to the profession, and made it the sole study of his life;
especially as the Hungarian was remarkable for a warmth of temper,
which a knight of the post always knows how to manage for his own
advantage.
In the course of these operations, Fathom was a very useful
correspondent. He instructed the Tyrolese in the peculiarities of
Renaldo’s disposition, and made him acquainted with the proper seasons
for profiting by his dexterity. Ferdinand, for example, who, by the
authority derived to him from the injunctions of the old Count,
sometimes took upon himself the office of an adviser, cunningly chose
to counsel the son at those conjunctures when he knew him least able to
bear such expostulation. Advice improperly administered generally acts
in diametrical opposition to the purpose for which it is supposed to be
given; at least this was the case with the young gentleman, who,
inflamed by the reproof of such a tutor, used to obey the dictates of
his resentment in an immediate repetition of that conduct which our
adventurer had taken the liberty to disapprove; and the gamester was
always at hand to minister unto his indignation. By these means he was
disencumbered of divers considerable remittances, with which his father
cheerfully supplied him, on the supposition that they were spent with
taste and liberality, under the direction of our adventurer.
But Ferdinand’s views were not confined to the narrow field of this
alliance. He attempted divers enterprises in the world of gallantry,
conscious of his own personal qualifications, and never doubting that
he could insinuate himself into the good graces of some married lady
about court, or lay an opulent dowager under contribution. But he met
with an obstacle in his endeavours of this kind, which all his art was
unable to surmount. This was no other than the obscurity of his birth,
and the want of a title, without which no person in that country lays
claim to the privileges of a gentleman. Had he foreseen this
inconvenience he might have made shift to obviate the consequences, by
obtaining permission to appear in the character of the Count’s kinsman;
though, in all probability, such an expedient would not have been
extremely agreeable to the old gentleman, who was very tenacious of the
honour of his family; nevertheless, his generosity might have been
prevailed upon to indulge Fathom with such a pretext, in consideration
of the youth’s supposed attachment, and the obligations for which he
deemed himself indebted to his deceased mother.
True it is, Ferdinand, upon his first arrival at Vienna, had been
admitted into fashionable company, on the footing of Renaldo’s
companion, because nobody suspected the defect of his pedigree; and
even after a report had been circulated to the prejudice of his
extraction, by the industry of a lacquey who attended the young Count,
there were not wanting many young people of distinction who still
favoured him with their countenance and correspondence; but he was no
longer invited to private families, in which only he could expect to
profit by his address among the ladies, and had the mortification of
finding himself frequently excepted from parties which were expressly
calculated for the entertainment of the young Count. Luckily, his
spirit was so pliant as to sustain these slights without being much
dejected; instead of repining at the loss of that respect which had
been paid to him at first, he endeavoured, with all his might, to
preserve the little that still remained, and resolved to translate into
a humbler sphere that gallantry which he had no longer opportunities of
displaying in the world of rank and fashion.
CHAPTER TWELVE
HE EFFECTS A LODGMENT IN THE HOUSE OF A RICH JEWELLER.
In consequence of this determination, he to the uttermost exerted his
good-humour among the few friends of consequence his fortune had left,
and even carried his complaisance so far as to become the humble
servant of their pleasures, while he attempted to extend his
acquaintance in an inferior path of life, where he thought his talents
would shine more conspicuous than at the assemblies of the great, and
conduce more effectually to the interest of all his designs. Nor did he
find himself disappointed in that expectation, sanguine as it was. He
soon found means to be introduced to the house of a wealthy bourgeois,
where every individual was charmed with his easy air and extraordinary
qualifications. He accommodated himself surprisingly to the humours of
the whole family; smoked tobacco, swallowed wine, and discoursed of
stones with the husband, who was a rich jeweller; sacrificed himself to
the pride and loquacity of the wife; and played upon the violin, and
sung alternately, for the amusement of his only daughter, a buxom lass,
nearly of his own age, the fruit of a former marriage.
It was not long before Ferdinand had reason to congratulate himself on
the footing he had gained in this society. He had expected to find, and
in a little time actually discovered, that mutual jealousy and rancour
which almost always subsist between a daughter and her step-dame,
inflamed with all the virulence of female emulation; for the disparity
in their ages served only to render them the more inveterate rivals in
the desire of captivating the other sex. Our adventurer having
deliberated upon the means of converting this animosity to his own
advantage, saw no method for this purpose so feasible as that of making
his approaches to the hearts of both, by ministering to each in
private, food for their reciprocal envy and malevolence; because he