The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete
declare myself displeased with your visits and behaviour to my
mistress, and demand that you will instantly promise to drop the
correspondence.” “Else what follows?” answered Ferdinand, with a cool
and temperate voice. “My resentment and immediate defiance,” replied
the other; “for the only alternative I propose is, to forego your
design upon that lady, or to decide our pretension by the sword.”
Our hero, having expressed a regard for this visitant as the son of a
gentleman whom he honoured, was at the pains to represent the
unreasonableness of his demand, and the folly of his presumption; and
earnestly exhorted him to put the issue of his cause upon a more safe
and equitable footing. But this admonition, instead of appeasing the
wrath, seemed to inflame the resentment of the opponent, who swore he
would not leave him until he should have accomplished the purport of
his errand. In vain our adventurer requested half an hour for the
despatch of some urgent business, in which he was engaged with a
gentleman in the other parlour. This impetuous rival rejected all the
terms he could propose, and even challenged him to decide the
controversy upon the spot; an expedient to which the other having
assented with reluctance, the door was secured, the swords unsheathed,
and a hot engagement ensued, to the inexpressible pleasure of the
Swiss, who did not doubt that he himself would be screened from all
danger by the event of this rencontre. Nevertheless, his hope was
disappointed in the defeat of the stranger, who was quickly disarmed,
in consequence of a wound through the sword-arm; upon which occasion
Fathom was heard to say, that, in consideration of his youth and
family, he had spared his life; but he would not act with the same
tenderness towards any other antagonist. He then bound up the limb he
had disabled, conducted the vanquished party to his chair, rejoined the
chevalier with a serene countenance, and, asking pardon for having
detained him so long, proposed they should instantly set out in a
hackney-coach for the place of appointment.
The stratagem thus conducted, had all the success the inventor could
desire. The fear of the Swiss had risen almost to an ecstasy before the
Count quitted the room; but after this sham battle, which had been
preconcerted betwixt our adventurer and his friend Ratchcali, the
chevalier’s terrors were unspeakable. He considered Fathom as a devil
incarnate, and went into the coach as a malefactor bound for Tyburn. He
would have gladly compounded for the loss of a leg or arm, and
entertained some transient gleams of hope, that he should escape for
half a dozen flesh-wounds, which he would have willingly received as
the price of his presumption; but these hopes were banished by the
remembrance of that dreadful declaration which he had heard the Count
make, after having overcome his last adversary; and he continued under
the power of the most unsupportable panic, until the carriage halted at
Hyde Park Corner, where he crawled forth in a most piteous and
lamentable condition; so that, when they reached the spot, he was
scarce able to stand.
Here he made an effort to speak, and propose an accommodation upon a
new plan, by which he promised to leave his cause to the arbitrement of
those gentlemen who were present at the rupture, and to ask pardon of
the Count, provided he should be found guilty of a trespass upon good
manners; but this proposal would not satisfy the implacable Ferdinand,
who, perceiving the agony of the Swiss, resolved to make the most of
the adventure, and giving him to understand he was not a man to be
trifled with, desired him to draw without further preamble. Thus
compelled, the unfortunate gamester pulled off his coat, and, putting
himself in a posture, to use the words of Nym, “winked, and held out
his cold iron.”
Our adventurer, far from making a gentle use of the advantages he
possessed, fiercely attacked him, while he was incapable of making
resistance, and, aiming at a fleshy part, ran him through the arm and
outside of the shoulder at the very first pass. The chevalier, already
stupefied with the horror of expectation, no sooner felt his
adversary’s point in his body than he fell to the ground, and,
concluding he was no longer a man for this world, began to cross
himself with great devotion; while Fathom walked home deliberately, and
in his way sent a couple of chairmen to the assistance of the wounded
knight.
This achievement, which could not be concealed from the knowledge of
the public, not only furnished the character of Fathom with fresh
wreaths of admiration and applause, but likewise effectually secured
him from any future attempts of his enemies, to whom the Swiss, for his
own sake, had communicated such terrible ideas of his valour, as
overawed the whole community.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
HE PERFORMS ANOTHER EXPLOIT, THAT CONVEYS A TRUE IDEA OF HIS GRATITUDE
AND HONOUR.
It was not long after this celebrated victory, that he was invited to
spend part of the summer at the house of a country gentleman, who lived
about one hundred miles from London, possessed of a very opulent
fortune, the greatest part of which was expended in acts of old English
hospitality. He had met with our hero by accident at the table of a
certain great man, and was so struck with his manner and conversation,
as to desire his acquaintance, and cultivate his friendship; and he
thought himself extremely happy in having prevailed upon him to pass a
few weeks in his family.
Fathom, among his other observations, perceived that there was a
domestic uneasiness, occasioned by a very beautiful young creature
about the age of fifteen, who resided in the house under the title of
the gentleman’s niece, though she was in reality his natural daughter,
born before his marriage. This circumstance was not unknown to his
lady, by whose express approbation he had bestowed particular attention
upon the education of the child, whom we shall distinguish by the name
of Celinda. Their liberality in this particular had not been
misapplied; for she not only gave marks of uncommon capacity, but, as
she grew up, became more and more amiable in her person, and was now
returned from the boarding school, possessed of every accomplishment
that could be acquired by one of her age and opportunities. These
qualifications, which endeared her to every other person, excited the
jealousy and displeasure of her supposed aunt, who could not bear to
see her own children eclipsed by this illegitimate daughter, whom she
therefore discountenanced upon all occasions, and exposed to such
mortifications as would in all appearance drive her from her father’s
house. This persecuting spirit was very disagreeable to the husband,
who loved Celinda with a truly paternal affection, and produced
abundance of family disquiet; but being a man of a peaceable and
yielding disposition, he could not long maintain the resolution he had
taken in her favour, and therefore he ceased opposing the malevolence
of his wife.
In this unfortunate predicament stood the fair bastard, at the arrival
of our adventurer, who, being allured by her charms, apprised of her
situation at the same time, took the generous resolution to undermine
her innocence, that he might banquet his vicious appetite with the
spoils of her beauty. Perhaps such a brutal design might not have
entered his imagination, if he had not observed, in the disposition of
this hapless maiden, certain peculiarities from which he derived the
most confident presages of success. Besides a total want of experience,
that left her open and unguarded against the attacks of the other sex,
she discovered a remarkable spirit of credulity and superstitious fear,
which had been cherished by the conversation of her school-fellows. She
was particularly fond of music, in which she had made some progress;
but so delicate was the texture of her nerves, that one day, while
Fathom entertained the company with a favourite air, she actually
swooned with pleasure.
Such sensibility, our projector well knew, must be diffused through all
the passions of her heart; he congratulated himself upon the sure
ascendency he had gained over her in this particular; and forthwith
began to execute the plan he had erected for her destruction. That he
might the more effectually deceive the vigilance of her father’s wife,
he threw such a dash of affectation in his complaisance towards
Celinda, as could not escape the notice of that prying matron, though
it was not palpable enough to disoblige the young lady herself, who
could not so well distinguish between overstrained courtesy and real
good breeding. This behaviour screened him from the suspicion of the
family, who considered it as an effort of politeness, to cover his
indifference and disgust for the daughter of his friend, who had by
this time given some reason to believe she looked upon him with the
eyes of affection; so that the opportunities he enjoyed of conversing
with her in private, were less liable to intrusion or inquiry. Indeed,
from what I have already observed, touching the sentiments of her
stepdame, that lady, far from taking measures for thwarting our hero’s
design, would have rejoiced at the execution of it, and, had she been
informed of his intent, might have fallen upon some method to
facilitate the enterprise; but, as he solely depended upon his own
talents, he never dreamed of soliciting such an auxiliary.
Under cover of instructing and accomplishing her in the exercise of
music, he could not want occasions for promoting his aim; when, after
having soothed her sense of hearing, even to a degree of ravishment, so
as to extort from her an exclamation, importing, that he was surely
something supernatural! he never failed to whisper some insidious
compliment or tale of love, exquisitely suited to the emotions of her
soul. Thus was her heart insensibly subdued; though more than half his
work was still undone; for, at all times, she disclosed such purity of
sentiment, such inviolable attachment to religion and virtue, and
seemed so averse to all sorts of inflammatory discourse, that he durst
not presume upon the footing he had gained in her affection, to explain
the baseness of his desire; he therefore applied to another of her
passions, that proved the bane of her virtue. This was her timidity,
which at first being constitutional, was afterwards increased by the
circumstances of her education, and now aggravated by the artful
conversation of Fathom, which he chequered with dismal stories of
omens, portents, prophecies, and apparitions, delivered upon such
unquestionable testimony, and with such marks of conviction, as
captivated the belief of the devoted Celinda, and filled her
imagination with unceasing terrors.
In vain she strove to dispel those frightful ideas, and avoid such
topics of discourse for the future. The more she endeavoured to banish
them, the more troublesome they became; and such was her infatuation,
that as her terrors increased, her thirst after that sort of knowledge
was augmented. Many sleepless nights did she pass amidst those horrors
of fancy, starting at every noise, and sweating with dreary
apprehension, yet ashamed to own her fears, or solicit the comfort of a
bedfellow, lest she should incur the ridicule and censure of her
father’s wife; and what rendered this disposition the more irksome, was
the solitary situation of her chamber, that stood at the end of a long
gallery scarce within hearing of any other inhabited part of the house.
All these circumstances had been duly weighed by our projector, who,
having prepared Celinda for his purpose, stole at midnight from his
apartment, which was in another storey, and approaching her door, there