The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete
consequence, which, though he had not foreseen it, he did not fail to
convert to his own use and advantage.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ENGAGES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH A FEMALE ASSOCIATE, IN ORDER TO PUT HIS
TALENTS IN ACTION.
While he displayed his qualifications in order to entrap the heart of
his young mistress, he had unwittingly enslaved the affections of her
maid. This attendant was also a favourite of the young lady, and,
though her senior by two or three good years at least, unquestionably
her superior in point of personal beauty; she moreover possessed a good
stock of cunning and discernment, and was furnished by nature with a
very amorous complexion. These circumstances being premised, the reader
will not be surprised to find her smitten by those uncommon
qualifications which we have celebrated in young Fathom. She had in
good sooth long sighed in secret, under the powerful influence of his
charms, and practised upon him all those little arts, by which a woman
strives to attract the admiration, and ensnare the heart of a man she
loves; but all his faculties were employed upon the plan which he had
already projected; that was the goal of his whole attention, to which
all his measures tended; and whether or not he perceived the impression
he had made upon Teresa, he never gave her the least reason to believe
he was conscious of his victory, until he found himself baffled in his
design upon the heart of her mistress.—She therefore persevered in her
distant attempts to allure him, with the usual coquetries of dress and
address, and, in the sweet hope of profiting by his susceptibility,
made shift to suppress her feelings, and keep her passion within
bounds, until his supposed danger alarmed her fears, and raised such a
tumult within her breast, that she could no longer conceal her love,
but gave a loose to her sorrow in the most immoderate expressions of
anguish and affliction, and, while his delirium lasted, behaved with
all the agitation of a despairing shepherdess.
Ferdinand was, or pretended to be, the last person in the family who
understood the situation of her thoughts; when he perceived her
passion, he entered into deliberation with himself, and tasked his
reflection and foresight, in order to discover how best he might
convert this conquest to his own advantage. Here, then, that we may
neglect no opportunity of doing justice to our hero, it will be proper
to observe, that, howsoever unapt his understanding might be to receive
and retain the usual culture of the schools, he was naturally a genius
self-taught, in point of sagacity and invention.—He dived into the
characters of mankind, with a penetration peculiar to himself, and, had
he been admitted as a pupil in any political academy, would have
certainly become one of the ablest statesmen in Europe.
Having revolved all the probable consequences of such a connexion, he
determined to prosecute an amour with the lady whose affection he had
subdued; because he hoped to interest her as an auxiliary in his grand
scheme upon Mademoiselle, which he did not as yet think proper to lay
aside; for he was not more ambitious in the plan, than indefatigable in
the prosecution of it. He knew it would be impossible to execute his
aims upon the Count’s daughter under the eye of Teresa, whose natural
discernment would be whetted with jealousy, and who would watch his
conduct, and thwart his progress with all the vigilance and spite of a
slighted maiden. On the other hand, he did not doubt of being able to
bring her over to his interest, by the influence he had already gained,
or might afterwards acquire over her passions; in which case, she would
effectually espouse his cause, and employ her good offices with her
mistress in his behalf; besides, he was induced by another motive,
which, though secondary, did not fail in this case to have an effect
upon his determination. He looked upon Teresa with the eyes of
appetite, which he longed to gratify; for he was not at all dead to the
instigations of the flesh, though he had philosophy enough to resist
them, when he thought they interfered with his interest. Here the case
was quite different. His desire happened to be upon the side of his
advantage, and therefore, resolving to indulge it, he no sooner found
himself in a condition to manage such an adventure, than he began to
make gradual advances in point of warmth and particular complacency to
the love-sick maid.
He first of all thanked her, in the most grateful terms, for the
concern she had manifested at his distemper, and the kind services he
had received from her during the course of it; he treated her upon all
occasions with unusual affability and regard, assiduously courted her
acquaintance and conversation, and contracted an intimacy that in a
little time produced a declaration of love. Although her heart was too
much intendered to hold out against all the forms of assault, far from
yielding at discretion, she stood upon honourable terms, with great
obstinacy of punctilio, and, while she owned he was master of her
inclinations, gave him to understand, with a peremptory and resolute
air, that he should never make a conquest of her virtue; observing,
that, if the passion he professed was genuine, he would not scruple to
give such a proof of it as would at once convince her of his sincerity;
and that he could have no just cause to refuse her that satisfaction,
she being his equal in point of birth and situation; for, if he was the
companion and favourite of the young Count, she was the friend and
confidant of Mademoiselle.
He acknowledged the strength of her argument, and that her
condescension was greater than his deserts, but objected against the
proposal, as infinitely prejudicial to the fortunes of them both. He
represented the state of dependence in which they mutually stood; their
utter incapacity to support one another under the consequences of a
precipitate match, clandestinely made, without the consent and
concurrence of their patrons. He displayed, with great eloquence, all
those gay expectations they had reason to entertain, from that eminent
degree of favour which they had already secured in the family; and set
forth, in the most alluring colours, those enchanting scenes of
pleasure they might enjoy in each other, without that disagreeable
consciousness of a nuptial chain, provided she would be his associate
in the execution of a plan which he had projected for their reciprocal
convenience.
Having thus inflamed her love of pleasure and curiosity, he, with great
caution, hinted his design upon the young lady’s fortune, and,
perceiving her listening with the most greedy attention, and perfectly
ripe for the conspiracy, he disclosed his intention at full length,
assuring her, with the most solemn protestations of love and
attachment, that, could he once make himself legal possessor of an
estate which Mademoiselle inherited by the will of a deceased aunt, his
dear Teresa should reap the happy fruits of his affluence, and wholly
engross his time and attention.
Such a base declaration our hero would not have ventured to make, had
he not implicitly believed the damsel was as great a latitudinarian as
himself, in point of morals and principle; and been well assured, that,
though he should be mistaken in her way of thinking, so far as to be
threatened with a detection of his purpose, he would always have it in
his power to refute her accusation as mere calumny, by the character he
had hitherto maintained, and the circumspection of his future conduct.
He seldom or never erred in his observations on the human heart.
Teresa, instead of disapproving, relished the plan in general, with
demonstrations of singular satisfaction. She at once conceived all the
advantageous consequences of such a scheme, and perceived in it only
one flaw, which, however, she did not think incurable. This defect was
no other than a sufficient bond of union, by which they might be
effectually tied down to their mutual interest. She foresaw, that, in
case Ferdinand should obtain possession of the prize, he might, with
great ease, deny their contract, and disavow her claim of
participation. She therefore demanded security, and proposed, as a
preliminary of the agreement, that he should privately take her to
wife, with a view to dispel all her apprehensions of his inconstancy or
deceit, as such a previous engagement would be a check upon his
behaviour, and keep him strictly to the letter of their contract.
He could not help subscribing to the righteousness of this proposal,
which, nevertheless, he would have willingly waived, on the supposition
that they could not possibly be joined in the bands of wedlock with
such secrecy as the nature of the case absolutely required. This would
have been a difficulty soon removed, had the scene of the transaction
been laid in the metropolis of England, where passengers are plied in
the streets by clergymen, who prostitute their characters and
consciences for hire, in defiance of all decency and law; but in the
kingdom of Hungary, ecclesiastics are more scrupulous in the exercise
of their function, and the objection was, or supposed to be, altogether
insurmountable; so that they were fain to have recourse to an
expedient, with which, after some hesitation, our she-adventurer was
satisfied. They joined hands in the sight of Heaven, which they called
to witness, and to judge the sincerity of their vows, and engaged, in a
voluntary oath, to confirm their union by the sanction of the church,
whenever a convenient opportunity for so doing should occur.
The scruples of Teresa being thus removed, she admitted Ferdinand to
the privileges of a husband, which he enjoyed in stolen interviews, and
readily undertook to exert her whole power in promoting his suit with
her young mistress, because she now considered his interest as
inseparably connected with her own. Surely nothing could be more absurd
or preposterous than the articles of this covenant, which she insisted
upon with such inflexibility. How could she suppose that her pretended
lover would be restrained by an oath, when the very occasion of
incurring it was an intention to act in violation of all laws human and
divine? and yet such ridiculous conjuration is commonly the cement of
every conspiracy, how dark, how treacherous, how impious soever it may
be: a certain sign that there are some remains of religion left in the
human mind, even after every moral sentiment hath abandoned it; and
that the most execrable ruffian finds means to quiet the suggestions of
his conscience, by some reversionary hope of Heaven’s forgiveness.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT; WITH A DIGRESSION WHICH SOME READERS MAY THINK
IMPERTINENT.
Be this as it will, our lovers, though real voluptuaries, amidst the
first transports of their enjoyment did not neglect the great political
aim of their conjunction. Teresa’s bedchamber, to which our hero
constantly repaired at midnight, was the scene of their deliberations,
and there it was determined that the damsel, in order to avoid
suspicion, should feign herself irritated at the indifference of
Ferdinand, her passion for whom was by this time no secret in the
family; and that, with a view to countenance this affectation, he
should upon all occasions treat her with an air of loftiness and
disdain.
So screened from all imputation of fraud, she was furnished by him with
artful instructions how to sound the inclinations of her young
mistress, how to recommend his person and qualifications by the sure
methods of contradiction, comparisons, revilings, and reproach; how to
watch the paroxysms of her disposition, inflame her passions, and
improve, for his advantage, those moments of frailty from which no