mentioned.
"'I am sorry for it with all my heart,' quoth he, 'and I wish thee
better success another time. Though, if you will take my advice, you
shall have no occasion to run any such risque. Here,' said he,
taking some dice out of his pocket, 'here's the stuff. Here are the
implements; here are the little doctors which cure the distempers of
the purse. Follow but my counsel, and I will show you a way to empty
the pocket of a queer cull without any danger of the nubbing cheat.'"
"Nubbing cheat!" cries Partridge: "pray, sir, what is that?"
"Why that, sir," says the stranger, "is a cant phrase for the
gallows; for as gamesters differ little from highwaymen in their
morals, so do they very much resemble them in their language.
"We had now each drank our bottle, when Mr. Watson said, the board
was sitting, and that he must attend, earnestly pressing me at the
same time to go with him and try my fortune. I answered he knew that
was at present out of my power, as I had informed him of the emptiness
of my pocket. To say the truth, I doubted not from his many strong
expressions of friendship, but that he would offer to lend me a
small sum for that purpose, but he answered, 'Never mind that, man;
e'en boldly run a levant' [Partridge was going to inquire the
meaning of that word, but Jones stopped his mouth]: 'but be
circumspect as to the man. I will tip you the proper person, which may
be necessary, as you do not know the town, nor can distinguish a rum
cull from a queer one."
"The bill was now brought, when Watson paid his share, and was
departing. I reminded him, not without blushing, of my having no
money. He answered, 'That signifies nothing; score it behind the door,
or make a bold rush and take no notice.- Or- stay,' says he; 'I will
go down-stairs first, and then do you take up my money, and score
the whole reckoning at the bar, and I will wait for you at the
corner.' I expressed some dislike at this, and hinted my
expectations that he would have deposited the whole; but he swore he
had not another sixpence in his pocket.
"He then went down, and I was prevailed on to take up the money
and follow him, which I did close enough to hear him tell the drawer
the reckoning was upon the table. The drawer past by me up-stairs; but
I made such haste into the street, that I heard nothing of his
disappointment, nor did I mention a syllable at the bar, according
to my instructions.
"We now went directly to the gaming-table, where Mr. Watson, to my
surprize, pulled out a large sum of money placed it before him, as did
many others; all of them, no doubt, considering their own heaps as
so many decoy birds, which were to intice and draw over the heaps of
their neighbours.
"Here it would be tedious to relate all the freaks which Fortune, or
rather the dice, played in this her temple. Mountains of gold were
in a few moments reduced to nothing at one part of the table, and rose
as suddenly in another. The rich grew in a moment poor, and the poor
as suddenly became rich; so that it seemed a philosopher could nowhere
have so well instructed his pupils in the contempt of riches, at least
he could nowhere have better inculcated the incertainty of their
duration.
"For my own part, after having considerably improved my small
estate, I at last entirely demolished it. Mr. Watson too, after much
variety of luck, rose from the table in some heat, and declared he had
lost a cool hundred, and would play no longer. Then coming up to me,
he asked me to return with him to the tavern; but I positively
refused, saying, I would not bring myself a second time into such a
dilemma, and especially as he had lost all his money and was now in my
own condition. 'Pooh!' says he, 'I have just borrowed a couple of
guineas of a friend, and one of them is at your service.' He
immediately put one of them into my hand, and I no longer resisted his
inclination.
"I was at first a little shocked at returning to the same house
whence we had departed in so unhandsome a manner; but when the drawer,
with very civil address, told us, believed we had forgot to pay our
reckoning,' I became perfectly easy, and very readily gave him a
guinea, bid him pay himself, and acquiesced in the unjust charge which
had been laid on my memory.
"Mr. Watson now bespoke the most extravagant supper he could well
think of; and though he had contented himself with simple claret
before, nothing now but the most precious Burgundy would serve his
purpose.
"Our company was soon encreased by the addition of several gentlemen
from the gaming-table; most of whom, as I afterwards found, came not
to the tavern to drink, but in the way of business; for the true
gamesters pretended to be ill, and refused their glass, while they
plied heartily two young fellows, who were to be afterwards
pillaged, as indeed they were without mercy. Of this plunder I had the
good fortune to be a sharer, though I was not yet let into the secret.
"There was one remarkable accident attended this tavern play; for
the money by degrees totally disappeared; so that though at the
beginning the table was half covered with gold, yet before the play
ended, which it did not till the next day, being Sunday, at noon,
there was scarce a single guinea to be seen on the table; and this was
the stranger as every person present, except myself, declared he had
lost; and what was become of the money, unless the devil himself
carried it away, is difficult to determine."
"Most certainly he did," says Partridge, "for evil spirits can carry
away anything without being seen, though there were never so many folk
in the room; and I should not have been surprized if he had carried
away all the company of a set of wicked wretches, who were at play
in sermon time. And I could tell you a true story, if I would, where
the devil took a man out of bed from another man's wife, and carried
him away through the keyhole of the door. I've seen the very house
where it was done, and nobody hath lived in it these thirty years."
Though Jones was a little offended by the impertinence of Partridge,
he could not however avoid smiling at his simplicity. The stranger did
the same, and then proceeded with his story, as will be seen in the
next chapter.
Chapter 13
In which the foregoing story is farther continued
"My fellow-collegiate had now entered me in a scene of life. I
soon became acquainted with the whole fraternity of sharpers, and
was let into their secrets; I mean, into the knowledge of those
gross cheats which are proper to impose upon the raw and
unexperienced; for there are some tricks of a finer kind, which are
known only to a few of the gang, who are at the head of their
profession; a degree of honour beyond my expectation; for drink, to
which I was immoderately addicted, and the natural warmth of my
passions, prevented me from arriving at any great success in an art
which requires as much coolness as the most austere school of
philosophy.
"Mr. Watson, with whom I now lived in the closest amity, had
unluckily the former failing to a very great excess; so that instead
of making a fortune by his profession, as some others did, he was
alternately rich and poor, and was often obliged to surrender to his
cooler friends, over a bottle which they never tasted, that plunder
that he had taken from culls at the public table.
"However, we both made a shift to pick up an uncomfortable
livelihood; and for two years I continued of the calling; during which
time I tasted all the varieties of fortune, sometimes flourishing in
affluence, and at others being obliged to struggle with almost
incredible difficulties. To-day wallowing in luxury, and to-morrow
reduced to the coarsest and most homely fare. My fine clothes being
often on my back in the evening, and at the pawn-shop the next
morning.
"One night, as I was returning pennyless from the gaming-table, I
observed a very great disturbance, and a large mob gathered together
in the street. As I was in no danger from pickpockets, I ventured into
the croud, where upon enquiry I found that a man had been robbed and
very ill used by some ruffians. The wounded man appeared very
bloody, and seemed scarce able to support himself on his legs. As I
had not therefore been deprived of my humanity by my present life
and conversation, though they had left me very little of either
honesty or shame, I immediately offered my assistance to the unhappy
person, who thankfully accepted it, and, putting himself under my
conduct, begged me to convey him to some tavern, where he might send
for a surgeon, being, as he said, faint with loss of blood. He
seemed indeed highly pleased at finding one who appeared in the
dress of a gentleman; for as to all the rest of the company present,
their outside was such that he could not wisely place any confidence
in them.
"I took the poor man by the arm, and led him to the tavern where
we kept our rendezvous, as it happened to be the nearest at hand. A
surgeon happening luckily to be in the house, immediately attended,
and applied himself to dressing his wounds, which I had the pleasure
to hear were not likely to be mortal.
"The surgeon having very expeditiously and dextrously finished his
business, began to enquire in what part of the town the wounded man
lodged; who answered, 'That he was come to town that very morning;
that his horse was at an inn in Piccadilly, and that he had no other
lodging, and very little or no acquaintance in town.'
"This surgeon, whose name I have forgot, though I remember it
began with an R, had the first character in his profession, and was
serjeant-surgeon to the king. He had moreover many good qualities, and
was a very generous good-natured man, and ready to do any service to
his fellow-creatures. He offered his patient the use of his chariot to
carry him to his inn, and at the same time whispered in his ear, 'That
if he wanted any money, he would furnish him.'
"The poor man was not now capable of returning thanks for this
generous offer; for having had his eyes for some time stedfastly on
me, he threw himself back in his chair, crying, 'Oh, my son! my
son!' and then fainted away.
"Many of the people present imagined this accident had happened
through his loss of blood; but I, who at the same time began to
recollect the features of my father, was now confirmed in my
suspicion, and satisfied that it was he himself who appeared before
me. I presently ran to him, raised him in my arms, and kissed his cold
lips with the utmost eagerness. Here I must draw a curtain over a
scene which I cannot describe; for though I did not lose my being,
as my father for a while did, my senses were however so overpowered
with affright and surprize, that I am a stranger to what passed during
some minutes, and indeed till my father had again recovered from his
swoon, and I found myself in his arms, both tenderly embracing each
other, while the tears trickled a-pace down the cheeks of each of us.
"Most of those present seemed affected by this scene, which we,
who might be considered as the actors in it, were desirous of removing
from the eyes of all spectators as fast as we could; my father
therefore accepted the kind offer of the surgeon's chariot, and I
attended him in it to his inn.
"When we were alone together, he gently upbraided me with having
neglected to write to him during so long a time, but entirely
omitted the mention of that crime which had occasioned it. He then
informed me of my mother's death, and insisted on my returning home
with him, saying, 'That he had long suffered the greatest anxiety on
my account; that he knew not whether he had most feared my death or
wished it, since he had so many more dreadful apprehensions for me. At
last, he said, a neighbouring gentleman, who had just recovered a
son from the same place, informed him where I was; and that to reclaim
me from this course of life was the sole cause of his journey to
London.' He thanked Heaven he had succeeded so far as to find me out
by means of an accident which had like to have proved fatal to him;
and had the pleasure to think he partly owed his preservation to my
humanity, with which he profest himself to be more delighted than he
should have been with my filial piety, if I had known that the
object of all my care was my own father.
"Vice had not so depraved my heart as to excite in it an
insensibility of so much paternal affection, though so unworthily
bestowed. I presently promised to obey his commands in my return
home with him, as soon as he was able to travel, which indeed he was
in a very few days, by the assistance of that excellent surgeon who
had undertaken his cure.
"The day preceding my father's journey (before which time I scarce
ever left him), I went to take my leave of some of my most intimate
acquaintance, particularly of Mr. Watson, who dissuaded me from
burying myself, as he called it, out of a simple compliance with the
fond desires of a foolish old fellow. Such sollicitations, however,
had no effect, and I once more saw my own home. My father now
greatly sollicited me to think of marriage; but my inclinations were
utterly averse to any such thoughts. I had tasted of love already, and
perhaps you know the extravagant excesses of that most tender and most
violent passion."-- Here the old gentleman paused, and looked
earnestly at Jones; whose countenance, within a minute's space,
displayed the extremities of both red and white. Upon which the old
man, without making any observations, renewed his narrative.
"Being now provided with all the necessaries of life, I betook
myself once again to study, and that with a more inordinate
