The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

Chapter XC

Volume Three, Chapter XC 459 profligate virago, lost to all sense of œ conomy and decorum, and a just punishment inflicted upon an infamous adventurer, who not only pillaged, but also disgraced the company by whom he was caressed. It was in consequence of this adventure, that Peregrine conceived a very ludicrous project, the execution of which furnished entertainment and admiration to all the fashionable people in town. The appearance of Cadwallader in a female dress, was so uncouth and preternatural, that the good milliner, who chanced to be favoured with a glimpse of him, as he went up stairs with his supposed gallant, was not only astonished, but affrighted at the peculiarity of his countenance; and notwithstanding her well-tried discretion, which had never permitted her curiosity to exceed the bounds of complaisance, she could not forbear calling her son Pickle into another room, after her ladyship’s retreat; and asking with manifest marks of confusion and disquiet, if the person whom he had brought into her house, was really and bona fide a woman and a christian; at the same time, expressing her suspicion, from the disposition of his companion’s wrinkles, and the bristles that appeared upon her chin, that she was no better than a witch or a conjurer, whom he had employed to embroil and expose her customers by the art of sorcery, for which she prayed God would forgive him. “Certain I am (said she) the count and my lady went into the chamber with the disposition of two lambs, and in the twinkling of an eye, (Lord have mercy upon us!) there was nothing to be heard but discord and desperation! Ah! Mr. Pickle, Mr. Pickle! it was for no charitable end, that you was so anxious to occupy the next room. I thought there was something unnatural in the case, when I saw you lead up that old beldame with the beard.14 You have ruined the reputation of my house, Mr. Pickle. My good friends the countess of Peppermarsh, lady Tickletoe, and Mrs. Riggle, will never enter my doors again. I shall be deprived of getting an honest livelihood; and all by the cruelty of one that I loved as well as if I had been the mother that bore him. O that ever I was born to see this unlucky day!” These words she accompanied with sundry sobs, and a few extempore tears, the nature of which he perfectly understood; and therefore prescribed a cordial which in a moment set her heart at ease. chapter xc. He persuades Cadwallader to assume the character of a magician, in which he acquires a great share of reputation, by his responses to three females of distinction, who severally consult the researches of his art. Her suspicion of his associate, while it afforded him subject for mirth, struck his imagination with an idea which he could not help indulging; and when he communicated the conceit to Cadwallader, it in a moment acquired his approbation. This notion he imparted in a proposal, to subject the town to their ridicule, by giving re- 460 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle sponses in the character of a professed conjurer, to be personated by the old Misanthrope , whose aspect was extremely well calculated for the purpose.1 The plan was immediately adjusted in all its parts; an apartment hired in an house accommodated with a public stair; so that people might have free ingress and egress, without being exposed to observation; and this tenement being furnished with the apparatus of a magician, such as globes, telescopes, a magic lanthorn, a skeleton, a dried monkey, together with the skins of an alligator, otter and snake, the conjurer himself took possession of his castle, after having distributed printed advertisements, containing the particulars of his undertaking. These bills soon operated according to the wish of the projectors. As the price of the oracle was fixed at half a guinea, the public naturally concluded, that the author was no common fortune-teller; and the very next day, Peregrine found some ladies of his quality-acquaintance, infected with the desire of making an experiment upon the skill of this new conjurer, who pretended to be just arrived from the Mogul’s empire,2 where he had learned the art from a Brachman philosopher.3 Our young gentleman affected to talk of the pretensions of this sage with ridicule and contempt, and with seeming reluctance , undertook to attend them to his apartment, observing, that...