The Adventures of Roderick Random
the most winning and gay manner I could assume. Having the advantage of
a good voice and education, I exerted my talents to the uttermost, and
soon became the favourite with all company. This success alarmed the
pride and jealousy of Mrs. Coupler, who could not bear the thoughts of
being eclipsed: she therefore made a merit of her envy, and whispered
among the customers that I was unsound. There needed no more to ruin my
reputation and blast my prosperity; everybody shunned me with marks of
aversion and disdain, and in a very short time I was as solitary as
ever. Want of gallants was attended with want of money to satisfy my
malicious landlady, who having purposely given me credit to the amount
of eleven pounds, took out a writ against me and I was arrested in her
own house. Though the room was crowded with people when the bailiff
entered, not one of them had compassion enough to mollify my
prosecutrix, far less to pay the debt; they even laughed at my tears,
and one of them bade me be of good cheer, for I should not want
admirers in Newgate.
‘At this instant a sea-lieutenant came in, and seeing my plight, began
to inquire into the circumstances of my misfortune. “Harkee, my girl,”
he inquired “how far have you overrun the constable?” I told him that
the debt amounted to eleven pounds, besides the expenses of the writ.
“An that be all,” said he, “you shan’t go to the bilboes this bout.”
And taking out his purse, he paid the money, discharged the bailiff,
and telling me I had got into the wrong port, advised me to seek out a
more convenient harbour, where I could be safely hove down; for which
purpose he made me a present of five guineas more. I was so touched
with this singular piece of generosity, that for some time I had not
power to thank him. However, as soon as I recollected myself, I begged
the favour of him to go with me to the next tavern, where I explained
the nature of my disaster, and convinced him of the falsehood of what
was reported to my prejudice so effectually, that he from that moment
attached himself to me, and we lived in great harmony together, until
he was obliged to go to sea, where he perished in a storm.
‘Having lost my benefactor, and almost consumed the remains of his
bounty, I saw myself in danger of relapsing into my former necessity,
and began to be very uneasy at the prospect of bailiffs and jails! when
one of the sisterhood advised me to take lodgings in a part of the town
where I was unknown, and pass for an heiress, by which artifice I might
entrap somebody to be my husband, who would possibly be able to allow
me a handsome maintenance, or at worst screen me from the dread and
danger of a prison, by becoming liable for whatever debts I should
contract. I approved of this scheme, towards the execution of which my
companion clubbed her wardrobe, and undertook to live with me in
quality of my maid, with the proviso that she should be reimbursed and
handsomely considered out of the profits of my success. She was
immediately detached to look out for a convenient place, and that very
day hired a genteel apartment in Park Street, whither I moved in a
coach loaded with her baggage, and my own. I made my first appearance
in a blue riding habit trimmed with silver; and my maid acted her part
so artfully, that in a day or two my fame spread all over the
neighbourhood, and I was said to be a rich heiress just arrived from
the country. This report brought a swarm of gay young fellows about me;
but I soon found them to be all indigent adventurers like myself, who
crowded to me like crows to a carrion, with a view of preying upon my
fortune. I maintained, however, the appearance of wealth as long as
possible, in hopes of gaining some admirer more for my purpose, and at
length attracted the regard of one who would have satisfied my wishes,
and managed matters so well, that a day was actually fixed for our
nuptials. In the interim, he begged leave to introduce an intimate
friend to me, which request, as I could not refuse, I had the extreme
mortification and surprise to see, next night, in that friend, my old
keeper Horatio, who no sooner beheld me than he changed colour, but had
presence of mind to advance and salute me, bidding me (with a low
voice) be under no apprehension, for he would not expose me. In spite
of his assurance, I could not recover myself so far as to entertain
them, but withdrew to my chamber on pretence of a severe headache, to
the no small concern of my adorer, who took his leave in the tenderest
manner, and went off with his friend.
‘Having imparted my situation to my companion, she found it high time
for us to decamp, and that without any noise, because we were not only
indebted to our landlady, but also to several tradesmen in the
neighbourhood. Our retreat, therefore, was concerted and executed in
this manner: Having packed up all our clothes and moveables in small
parcels, she (on pretence of fetching cordials for me) carried them at
several times to the house of an acquaintance, where she likewise
procured a lodging, to which we retired in the middle of the night,
when every other body in the house was asleep. I was now obliged to aim
at lower game, and accordingly spread my nets among tradespeople, but
found them all too phlegmatic or cautious for my art and attractions,
till at last I became acquainted with you, on whom I practised all my
dexterity; not that I believed you had any fortune, or expectation of
me, but that I might transfer the burden of such debts as I had
incurred, or should contract, from myself to another, and at the same
time avenge myself of your sex, by rendering miserable one who bore
such resemblance to the wretch who ruined me; but Heaven preserved you
from my snares by the discovery you made, which was owing to the
negligence of my maid in leaving the chamber-door unlocked when she
went to buy sugar for breakfast. When I found myself detected and
forsaken by you, I was fain to move my lodging, and dwell two pair of
stairs higher than before. My companion, being disappointed in her
expectations, left me, and I had no other resource than to venture
forth, like the owls in the dark, to pick up a precarious and
uncomfortable subsistence. I have often sauntered between Ludgate Hill
and Charing Cross a whole winter night, exposed not only to the
inclemency of the weather, but likewise to the rage of hunger and
thirst, without being so happy as to meet with one dupe, then creep up
to my garret, in a deplorable draggled condition, sneak to bed, and try
to bury my appetite and sorrows in sleep. When I lighted on some rake
or tradesman reeling home drunk, I frequently suffered the most brutal
treatment, in spite of which I was obliged to affect gaiety and good
humour, though my soul was stung with resentment and disdain, and my
heart loaded with grief and affliction. In the course of these
nocturnal adventures, I was infected with the disease, that in a short
time rendered me the object of my own abhorrence, and drove me to the
retreat where your benevolence rescued me from the jaws of death.’
So much candour and good sense appeared in this lady’s narration, that
I made no scruple of believing every syllable of what she said, and
expressed my astonishment at the variety of miseries she had undergone
in so little time, for all her misfortunes had happened within the
compass of two years; I compared her situation with my own, and found
it a thousand times more wretched. I had endured hardships, ’tis
true—my whole life had been a series of such; and when I looked
forward, the prospect was not much bettered, but then they were become
habitual to me, and consequently I could bear them with less
difficulty. If one scheme of life should not succeed, I could have
recourse to another, and so to a third, veering about to a thousand
different shifts, according to the emergencies of my fate, without
forfeiting the dignity of my character beyond a power of retrieving it,
or subjecting myself wholly to the caprice and barbarity of the world.
On the other hand, she had known and relished the sweets of prosperity,
she had been brought up under the wings of an indulgent parent, in all
the delicacies to which her sex and rank entitled her; and without any
extravagance of hope, entertained herself with the view of
uninterrupted happiness through the whole scene of life. How fatal
then, how tormenting, how intolerable, must her reverse of fortune
be!—a reverse, that not only robs her of these external comforts, and
plunges her into all the miseries of want, but also murders her peace
of mind, and entails upon her the curse of eternal infamy! Of all
professions I pronounced that of a courtesan the most deplorable, and
her of all courtesans the most unhappy. She allowed my observation to
be just in the main, but at the same time affirmed that notwithstanding
the disgraces which had fallen to her share, she had not been so
unlucky in the condition of a prostitute as many others of the same
community. “I have often seen,” said she, “while I strolled about the
streets at midnight, a number of naked wretches reduced to rags and
filth, huddled together like swine, in the corner of a dark alley, some
of whom, but eighteen months before, I had known the favourites of the
town, rolling in affluence, and glittering in all the pomp of equipage
and dress. Miserable wretch that I am! perhaps the same horrors are
decreed for me!” “No!” cried she, after some pause, “I shall never live
to such extremity of distress; my own hand shall open a way for my
deliverance, before I arrive at that forlorn period!” Her condition
filled me with sympathy and compassion: I revered her qualifications,
looked upon her as unfortunate, not criminal, and attended her with
such care and success, that in less than two months her health, as well
as my own, was perfectly re-established. As we often conferred upon our
mutual affairs, and interchanged advice, a thousand different projects
were formed, which, upon further canvassing, appeared impracticable. We
would have gladly gone to service, but who would take us in without
recommendation? At length an expedient occurred to her, of which she
intended to lay hold; and this was, to procure with the first money she
should earn, the homely garb of a country wench, go to some village at
a good distance from town, and come up in a waggon, as a fresh girl for
service: by which means she might be provided for, in a manner much
more suitable to her inclination than her present way of life.
CHAPTER XXIV
I am reduced to a great misery—assaulted on Tower Hill by a press-gang,
who put me on board a tender—my usage there—my arrival on board at a
man-of-war, where I am put in irons, and released by the good offices
of Mr. Thompson, who recommends me as assistant to the surgeon—-he
relates his own story—characters of the captain, surgeon, and first
mate
I applauded the resolution of Miss Williams, who a few days after, was
hired in quality of bar-keeper, by one of the ladies who had witnessed
in her behalf at the Marshalsea, and who since that time had got credit
with a wine merchant, whose favourite she was, to set up a convenient
house of her own. Thither my fellow-lodger repaired, after having taken
leave of me with a torrent of tears, and a thousand protestations of
eternal gratitude; assuring me she would remain in this situation no
longer than she could pick up money sufficient to put her other design
in execution.
As for my own part, I saw no resource but the army or navy, between
which I hesitated so long that I found myself reduced to a starving
condition. My spirit began to accommodate itself to my beggarly fate,
and I became so mean as to go down towards Wapping, with an intention