Part 14 (2/2)
My only comfort is, that now My dubbolt fortune is so low, That either it ain and ression, you will perhaps be surprised to hear that the head or chairn prince; no less, I'll assure you, than the celebrated Theodore king of Corsica, who lies in prison for a debt of a few hundred pounds Heu!
quantum mutatus ab illo It is not my business to censure the conduct of my superiors; but I always speakto the Spectator, talking to a friend is noaloud, entre nous, his Corsican majesty has been scurvily treated by a certain ade of a very portly appearance, and is quite master of the bienseance Besides, they will find it their interest to have recourse again to his alliance; and in that case some of us may expect to profit by his restoration But feords are best
”He that maintains the second rank in our asseentleman, who has served abroad; a soldier of fortune, sir, a e, but a little overbearing, in consequence of his knowledge and experience He is a person of good address,--to be sure, and quite free of the ood deal of service But what then? other people h they have not had such opportunities; if he speaks five or six languages, he does not pretend to any taste in the liberal arts, which are the criterion of an accoo Barebones, the representative of a very ancient faed, but he is a gentleed in a very grand sche it to bear, will render him famous to all posterity; no less than the conversion of the Jews and the Gentiles The project, I own, looks chimerical to one who has not conversed with the author; but, in rammatical analysis of a certain Hebreord, that his present Majesty, whom God preserve, is the person pointed at in Scripture as the temporal Messiah of the Jews; and, if he could once raise by subscription such a trifling sum as twelve hundred thousand pounds, I make no doubt but he would accomplish his aim, vast and romantic as it seems to be
”Besides these, we have another messmate, who is a French chevalier, an odd sort of a man, a kind of Lazarillo de Torreat poet, and ed to exert his authority over hi him into close confinement, for which he was so rash as to send his e; but he afterwards ain taken into favour The truth is, I believe his brain is a little disordered, and, he being a stranger, we overlook his extravagancies
”Sir, we shall think ourselves happy in your accession to our society
You will be under no sort of restraint; for, though we dine at one table, every individual calls and pays for his own mess Our conversation, such as it is, will not, I hope, be disagreeable; and though we have not opportunities of breathing the pure Arcadian air, and cannot, 'under the shade ofhours of tilass of punch or a dish of tea Nor are we destitute of friends, who visit us in these shades of distress Theothers, a first cousin of good fortune, ith her daughters, often cheer our solitude; she is a very sensible ladylike gentlewoee air, that plainly shows they have seen the best company Besides, I will venture to reco and capacity, who, I hope, will not be found altogether deficient in the accomplishments of the sex So that we find lides away insensibly
Then I have a small collection of books which are at your service You may amuse yourself with Shakespeare, or Milton, or Don Quixote, or any of our , such as the Adventures of Loveill, Lady Frail, George Edwards, Joe Tho Scarron, and Miss Betsy Thoughtless; and if you have a taste for drawing, I can entertain you with a parcel of prints by the best masters”
Ahiratitude for this courteous declaration He thanked the captain in particular for his obliging offers, and begged he would be so good as to present his respects to the society, of which he longed to be a member It was determined, therefore, that Minikin should return in an hour, when the Count would be dressed, in order to conduct him into the presence of his majesty; and he had already taken his leave for the present, when all of a sudden he ca hold of a waistcoat that lay upon a chair, ”Sir,” said he, ”give ant knitting I ever saw But pray, sir, are not these quite out of fashi+on? I thought plain silk, such as this that I wear, had been the mode, with the pockets very low”
Before Fathom had time to make any sort of reply, he took notice of his hat and pumps; the first of which, he said, was too narrow in the brims, and the last an inch too low in the heels Indeed, they formed a remarkable contrast with his own; for, exclusive of the fashi+on of the cock, which resealley, the brim of his hat, if properly spread, would have projected a shade sufficient to shelter a whole file of musketeers from the heat of a suh as to raise his feet three inches at least fro made these observations, for the credit of his taste, he retired, and returning at the time appointed, acco, at the doors of which their ears were invaded with a strange sound, being that of a hu this alar the Count to understand that his ed he would not take it amiss, if the introduction should be delayed for a fewof what he had heard, applied to his guide for infor and the eneral-in-chief, were e troops upon the Genoese territory; that is, that they were settling beforehand the manner of their disembarkation
He then, by the direction of his conductor, reconnoitred then and hison opposite sides of a deal board table, covered with a large chart or reat nued in a certain order, and, at a little distance, several regular squares and columns made of cards cut in small pieces The prince himself, whose eyes were reinforced by spectacles, surveyed this areneral put the whole in action, and conducted theirto Minikin's explanation, represented the transports, the oyster-shells were considered as the , and the pieces of card exhibited the different bodies into which the army was formed upon its disembarkation
As an affair of such consequence could not be transacted without opposition, they had provided divers arey peas; and accordingly General Macleaver, perceiving the said grey peasshore to attack his forces before they could be drawn up in battalia, thus addressed himself to the oyster-shells, in an audible voice:--”You , and the rest of the detachht? Arrah! the devil burn you, why don't you co, he pushed the shells towards the breach, perforrey peas were soon put in confusion, the general was beat, the cardsretreated with great precipitation, they took possession of their ground without farther difficulty
CHAPTER FORTY
HE CONTEMPLATES MAJESTY AND ITS SATELLITES IN ECLIPSE
This expedition being happily finished, General Macleaver put the whole ar, the prince unsaddled his nose, and Captain Minikin being adracious was the reception he met with from his majesty, ith a most princely deht hand, in token of particular regard True it is, this presence-chanificent, as to render such an honour intoxicating to any person of our hero's coolness and discretion In lieu of tapestry, the apart with halfpenny ballads, a truckle-bed without curtains supplied the place of a canopy, and instead of a crown his ht-cap Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, there was an air of dignity in his deport majestic in the features of his countenance
He was certainly a personage of very prepossessing reeable, and any s of humanity would have deplored his distress, and looked upon him as a most pathetic instance of that randeur is exposed His fall was even greater than that of Belisarius, who, after having obtained lorious victories over the enemies of his country, is said to have been reduced to such extree, when he was deprived of his eyesight, he sat upon the highway like a coers in the piteous excla to your poor old soldier Belisarius” I say, this general's disgrace was not so remarkable as that of Theodore, because he was the servant of Justinian, consequently his fortune depended upon the nod of that emperor; whereas the other actually possessed the throne of sovereignty by the best of all titles, naned; and attracted the eyes of all Europe, by the efforts hethat liberty which is the birthright of enerosity and valour, treated those hostile princes, whose fate it was to wear their chains, with such delicacy of benevolence, as even dispelled the horrors of captivity; but their posterity of this refined age feel no co an unfortunate uish amidst the miseries of a loathsome jail, for a paltry debt contracted in their own service But,conversed with this extraordinary debtor, who in his present condition assumed no other title than that of Baron, than he perceived in hiether with the vicissitudes of his fortune, had not been able to overcoant hope as that which took possession of his messmates, who frequently quarrelled one with another about the degrees of favour to which they should be entitled after the king's restoration; but he firmly believed that affairs would speedily take such a turn in Italy, as would point out to the English court the expediency of eain; and his persuasion seeainst every species of poverty andthe balance of power on the other side of the Alps, their deliberations were interrupted by the arrival of a scullion, who ca the bill of fare for dinner, and histhis i all the differences between the Eth, however, General Macleaver undertook the office of purveyor for his prince; Captain Minikin insisted upon treating the Count; and in a little time the table was covered with a cloth, which, for the sake of my delicate readers, I will not attempt to describe
At this period they were joined by Sir Mungo Barebones, who, having found means to purchase a couple of ht in a saucepan to the general rendezvous This was the most remarkable object which had hitherto presented itself to the eyes of Fathoence and hard study, wore almost to the bone, and so bended towards the earth, that in walking his body described at least 150 degrees of a circle The want of stockings and shoes he supplied with a jockey straight boot and an half jack His thighs and middle were cased in a ht for his use from the executor of a Dutch seaman who had lately died in the jail His shi+rt retained no signs of its original colour, his body was shrouded in an old greasy tattered plaid nightgown; a blue and white handkerchief surrounded his head, and his looks betokened that immense load of care which he had voluntarily incurred for the eternal salvation of sinners Yet this figure, uncouth as it was, made his coant address, and, in the course of conversation, disclosed a great fund of valuable knowledge He had appeared in the great world, and borne divers offices of dignity and trust with universal applause His courage was undoubted, his reat veneration and esteeed him in the study of Hebrew, and the ion, which fairly disordered his brain, and rendered hiht to have been employed in the functions of his post, he was alrapt in visionary conferences with Moses on the Mount; rather than regulate the economy of his household, he chose to exert his endeavours in settling the precisediscovered that now the period was come, when the Jews and Gentiles would be converted, he postponed every other consideration, in order to facilitate that great and glorious event
By this time Ferdinand had seen every member of the club, except the French chevalier, who seelected by the society; for his na this co whether he was dead or alive The king regaled himself with a plate of ox-cheek; the major, who complained that his appetite had forsaken his, ed upon his soup and bouilli, and the captain entertained our adventurer with a neck of veal roasted with potatoes; but before Fathom could make use of his knife and fork, he was suitation, his eyes sparkling like coals of fire
Our hero was not a little surprised at this apparition, who, having asked pardon for the freedo the Count was a foreigner, he could not dispense with appealing to hie he had suffered froard to his rank or h to refuse him credit for a few necessaries, until he could have a remittance from his steward in France; he therefore conjured Count Fathoer and nobleer of defiance, which he resolved to send to that brutal jailor, that, for the future, he ht learn to make proper distinctions in the exercise of his function