The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete
amiss of Ferdinand, until some undoubted mark of his guilt should
appear; and this was so far from being the case, that hitherto there
was scarce a presumption. “On the contrary,” said he to himself, “I am
hourly receiving proofs of his sympathy and attachment. Not but that he
may be the innocent cause of my mishap. His superior qualifications may
have attracted the eye, and engaged the heart of that inconstant fair,
without his being sensible of the victory he has won; or, perhaps,
shocked at the conquest he hath unwillingly made, he discourages her
advances, tries to reason down her unjustifiable passion, and in the
meantime conceals from me the particulars, out of regard to my
happiness and quiet.”
Under cover of these favourable conjectures, our adventurer securely
prosecuted his scheme upon the unfortunate Monimia. He dedicated
himself wholly to her service and conversation, except at those times
when his company was requested by Renaldo, who now very seldom exacted
his attendance. In his ministry about the person of the beauteous
orphan, this cunning incendiary mingled such awful regard, such melting
compassion, as effectually screened him from the suspicion of
treachery, while he widened the fatal breach between her and her lover
by the most diabolical insinuations. He represented his friend as a
voluptuary, who gratified his own appetite without the least regard to
honour or conscience; and, with a show of infinite reluctance, imparted
some anecdotes of his sensuality, which he had feigned for the purpose;
then he would exclaim in an affected transport, “Gracious Heaven! is it
possible for any man who has the least title to perception or humanity
to injure such innocence and perfection! for my own part, had I been so
undeservedly happy—Heaven and earth! forgive my transports, madam, I
cannot help seeing and admiring such divine attractions. I cannot help
resenting your wrongs; it is the cause of virtue I espouse; it ought to
be the cause of every honest man.”
He had often repeated such apostrophes as these, which she ascribed to
nothing else than sheer benevolence and virtuous indignation, and
actually began to think he had made some impression upon her heart, not
that he now entertained the hope of an immediate triumph over her
chastity. The more he contemplated her character, the more difficult
the conquest seemed to be: he therefore altered his plan, and resolved
to carry on his operations under the shelter of honourable proposals,
foreseeing that a wife of her qualifications, if properly managed,
would turn greatly to the account of the husband, or, if her virtue
should prove refractory, that he could at any time rid himself of the
encumbrance, by decamping without beat of drum, after he should be
cloyed with possession.
Elevated by these expectations, he one day, in the midst of a
preconcerted rhapsody, importing that he could no longer conceal the
fire that preyed upon his heart, threw himself on his knees before the
lovely mourner, and imprinted a kiss on her fair hand. Though he did
not presume to take this liberty till after such preparation as he
thought had altogether extinguished her regard for Melvil, and paved
the way for his own reception in room of that discarded lover, he had
so far overshot his mark, that Monimia, instead of favouring his
declaration, started up, and retired in silence, her cheeks glowing
with shame, and her eyes gleaming with indignation.
Ferdinand no sooner recovered from the confusion produced by this
unexpected repulse, than he saw the necessity of coming to a speedy
determination, lest the offended fair one should appeal to Renaldo, in
which case they might be mutually undeceived, to his utter shame and
confusion; he therefore resolved to deprecate her anger by humble
supplications, and by protesting, that, whatever tortures he might
suffer by suppressing his sentiments, she should never again be
offended with a declaration of his passion.
Having thus appeased the gentle Monimia, and discovered that, in spite
of her resentment, his friend still kept possession of her heart, he
determined to work an effectual separation, so as that the young lady,
being utterly deserted by Melvil, should be left altogether in his
power. With this Christian intention, he began to sadden his visage
with a double shade of pensive melancholy, in the presence of Renaldo,
to stifle a succession of involuntary sighs, to answer from the
purpose, to be incoherent in his discourse, and, in a word, to act the
part of a person wrapt up in sorrowful cogitation.
Count Melvil, soon as he perceived these symptoms, very kindly inquired
into the cause of them, and was not a little alarmed to hear the artful
and evasive answers of Ferdinand, who, without disclosing the source of
his disquiet, earnestly begged leave to retire into some other corner
of the world. Roused by this entreaty, the Hungarian’s jealousy awoke,
and with violent agitation, he exclaimed, “Then are my fears too true,
my dear Fathom: I comprehend the meaning of your request. I have for
some time perceived an host of horrors approaching from that quarter. I
know your worth and honour. I depend upon your friendship, and conjure
you, by all the ties of it, to free me at once from the most miserable
suspense, by owning you have involuntarily captivated the heart of that
unhappy maiden.”
To this solemn interrogation he made no reply, but shedding a flood of
tears, of which he had always a magazine at command, he repeated his
desire of withdrawing, and took God to witness, that what he proposed
was solely for the quiet of his honoured patron and beloved friend.
“Enough,” cried the unfortunate Renaldo, “the measure of my woes is now
filled up.” So saying, he fell backwards in a swoon, from which he was
with difficulty recovered to the sensation of the most exquisite
torments. During this paroxysm, our adventurer nursed him with infinite
care and tenderness, he exhorted him to summon all his fortitude to his
assistance, to remember his forefathers, and exert himself in the
imitation of their virtues, to fly from those bewitching charms which
had enslaved his better part, to retrieve his peace of mind by
reflecting on the inconstancy and ingratitude of woman, and amuse his
imagination in the pursuit of honour and glory.
After these admonitions he abused his ears with a forged detail of the
gradual advances made to him by Monimia, and the steps he had taken to
discourage her addresses, and re-establish her virtue, poisoning the
mind of that credulous youth to such a degree, that, in all
probability, he would have put a fatal period to his own existence, had
not Fathom found means to allay the rage of his ecstasy, by the cunning
arrangement of opposite considerations. He set his pride against his
love, he opposed his resentment to his sorrow, and his ambition to his
despair. Notwithstanding the balance of power so settled among these
antagonists, so violent were the shocks of their successive conflicts,
that his bosom fared like a wretched province, harassed, depopulated,
and laid waste, by two fierce contending armies. From this moment his
life was nothing but an alternation of starts and reveries; he wept and
raved by turns, according to the prevailing gust of passion; food
became a stranger to his lips, and sleep to his eyelids; he could not
support the presence of Monimia, her absence increased the torture of
his pangs; and, when he met her by accident, he started back with
horror, like a traveller who chances to tread upon a snake.
The poor afflicted orphan, worn to a shadow with self-consuming
anguish, eager to find some lowly retreat, where she could breath out
her soul in peace, and terrified at the frantic behaviour of Renaldo,
communicated to Fathom her desire of removing, and begged that he would
take a small picture of her father, decorated with diamonds, and
convert them into money, for the expense of her subsistence. This was
the last pledge of her family, which she had received from her mother,
who had preserved it in the midst of numberless distresses, and no
other species of misery but that which she groaned under could have
prevailed upon the daughter to part with it; but, exclusive of other
motives, the very image itself, by recalling to her mind the honours of
her name, upbraided her with living in dependence upon a man who had
treated her with such indignity and ingratitude; besides, she flattered
herself with the hope that she should not long survive the loss of this
testimonial.
Our adventurer, with many professions of sorrow and mortification at
his own want of capacity to prevent such an alienation, undertook to
dispose of it to the best advantage, and to provide her with a cheap
and retired apartment, to which he would conduct her in safety, though
at the hazard of his life. In the meantime, however, he repaired to his
friend Renaldo, and, after having admonished him to arm his soul with
patience and philosophy, declared that Monimia’s guilty passion for
himself could no longer be kept within bounds, that she had conjured
him, in the most pressing manner, to assist her in escaping from an
house which she considered as the worst of dungeons, because she was in
it daily exposed to the sight and company of a man whom she detested,
and that she had bribed him to compliance with her request, not only
with repeated promises of eternal love and submission, but also with
the picture of her father set with diamonds, which she had hitherto
reserved as the last and greatest testimony of her affection and
esteem.
With these words he presented the fatal pledge to the eyes of the
astonished youth, upon whom it operated like the poisonous sight of the
basilisk, for in an instant, the whole passions of his soul were in the
most violent agitation. “What!” cried he, in an ecstasy of rage, “is
she so abandoned to perfidy, so lost to shame, so damned to constancy,
to gratitude, and virtuous love, as to meditate the means of leaving me
without decency, without remorse! to forsake me in my adversity, when
my hapless fortune can no longer flatter the pride and vanity of her
expectation! O woman! woman! woman! what simile shall I find to
illustrate the character of the sex? But I will not have recourse to
vain complaints and feeble exclamations. By Heaven! she shall not
’scape, she shall not triumph in her levity, she shall not exult in my
distress; no! I will rather sacrifice her to my just resentment, to the
injured powers of love and friendship. I will act the avenging minister
of Heaven! I will mangle that fair bosom, which contains so false a
heart! I will tear her to pieces, and scatter those beauteous limbs as
a prey to the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air!”
Fathom, who expected this storm, far from attempting to oppose its
progress, waited with patience until its first violence was overblown;
then, assuming an air of condolence, animated with that resolution
which a friend ought to maintain on such occasions, “My dear Count,”
said he, “I am not at all surprised at your emotion, because I know
what an heart, susceptible as yours, must feel from the apostasy of one
who has reigned so long the object of your love, admiration, and
esteem. Your endeavours to drive her from your thoughts must create an
agony much more severe than that which divorces the soul from the body.
Nevertheless, I am so confident of your virtue and your manhood, as to
foresee, that you will allow the fair Monimia to execute that
resolution which she hath so unwisely taken, to withdraw herself from
your love and protection. Believe me, my best friend and benefactor,
this is a step, in consequence of which you will infallibly retrieve
your peace of mind. It may cost you many bitter pangs, it may probe