The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and his Friend, Mr. Abraham Abrams/Book II, Chapter VII

CHAPTER VII.

_A very short chapter, in which parson Adams went a great way._

The lady, having finished her story, received the thanks of the company;

and now Joseph, putting his head out of the coach, cried out, "Never

believe me if yonder be not our parson Adams walking along without his

horse!"--"On my word, and so he is," says Slipslop: "and as sure as

twopence he hath left him behind at the inn." Indeed, true it is, the

parson had exhibited a fresh instance of his absence of mind; for he was

so pleased with having got Joseph into the coach, that he never once

thought of the beast in the stable; and, finding his legs as nimble as

he desired, he sallied out, brandishing a crabstick, and had kept on

before the coach, mending and slackening his pace occasionally, so that

he had never been much more or less than a quarter of a mile

distant from it.

Mrs Slipslop desired the coachman to overtake him, which he attempted,

but in vain; for the faster he drove the faster ran the parson, often

crying out, "Aye, aye, catch me if you can;" till at length the coachman

swore he would as soon attempt to drive after a greyhound, and, giving

the parson two or three hearty curses, he cry'd, "Softly, softly, boys,"

to his horses, which the civil beasts immediately obeyed.

But we will be more courteous to our reader than he was to Mrs

Slipslop; and, leaving the coach and its company to pursue their

journey, we will carry our reader on after parson Adams, who stretched

forwards without once looking behind him, till, having left the coach

full three miles in his rear, he came to a place where, by keeping the

extremest track to the right, it was just barely possible for a human

creature to miss his way. This track, however, did he keep, as indeed he

had a wonderful capacity at these kinds of bare possibilities, and,

travelling in it about three miles over the plain, he arrived at the

summit of a hill, whence looking a great way backwards, and perceiving

no coach in sight, he sat himself down on the turf, and, pulling out his

Aeschylus, determined to wait here for its arrival.

He had not sat long here before a gun going off very near, a little

startled him; he looked up and saw a gentleman within a hundred paces

taking up a partridge which he had just shot.

Adams stood up and presented a figure to the gentleman which would have

moved laughter in many; for his cassock had just again fallen down below

his greatcoat, that is to say, it reached his knees, whereas the skirts

of his greatcoat descended no lower than half-way down his thighs; but

the gentleman's mirth gave way to his surprize at beholding such a

personage in such a place.

Adams, advancing to the gentleman, told him he hoped he had good sport,

to which the other answered, "Very little."--"I see, sir," says Adams,

"you have smote one partridge;" to which the sportsman made no reply,

but proceeded to charge his piece.

Whilst the gun was charging, Adams remained in silence, which he at last

broke by observing that it was a delightful evening. The gentleman, who

had at first sight conceived a very distasteful opinion of the parson,

began, on perceiving a book in his hand and smoaking likewise the

information of the cassock, to change his thoughts, and made a small

advance to conversation on his side by saying, "Sir, I suppose you are

not one of these parts?"

Adams immediately told him, "No; that he was a traveller, and invited by

the beauty of the evening and the place to repose a little and amuse

himself with reading."--"I may as well repose myself too," said the

sportsman, "for I have been out this whole afternoon, and the devil a

bird have I seen till I came hither."

"Perhaps then the game is not very plenty hereabouts?" cries Adams. "No,

sir," said the gentleman: "the soldiers, who are quartered in the

neighbourhood, have killed it all."--"It is very probable," cries Adams,

"for shooting is their profession."--"Ay, shooting the game," answered

the other; "but I don't see they are so forward to shoot our enemies. I

don't like that affair of Carthagena; if I had been there, I believe I

should have done other-guess things, d--n me: what's a man's life when

his country demands it? a man who won't sacrifice his life for his

country deserves to be hanged, d--n me." Which words he spoke with so

violent a gesture, so loud a voice, so strong an accent, and so fierce a

countenance, that he might have frightened a captain of trained bands at

the head of his company; but Mr Adams was not greatly subject to fear;

he told him intrepidly that he very much approved his virtue, but

disliked his swearing, and begged him not to addict himself to so bad a

custom, without which he said he might fight as bravely as Achilles did.

Indeed he was charmed with this discourse; he told the gentleman he

would willingly have gone many miles to have met a man of his generous

way of thinking; that, if he pleased to sit down, he should be greatly

delighted to commune with him; for, though he was a clergyman, he would

himself be ready, if thereto called, to lay down his life for

his country.

The gentleman sat down, and Adams by him; and then the latter began, as

in the following chapter, a discourse which we have placed by itself, as

it is not only the most curious in this but perhaps in any other book.