The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

Chapter XLVI

Volume Two, Chapter XLVI 203 chapter xlvi. Peregrine resolves to return to England, is diverted with the odd characters of two of his countrymen, with whom he contracts an acquaintance in the apartments of the Palais Royal. In the mean time, our hero received a letter from his aunt, importing that the commodore was in a very declining way, and longed much to see him at the garison; and at the same time he heard from his sister, who gave him to understand that the young gentleman who had for some time made his addresses to her, was become very pressing in his solicitations; so that she wanted to know in what manner she should answer his repeated intreaties. These two considerations determined the young gentleman to return to his native country, a resolution that was far from being disagreeable to Jolter, who knew that the incumbent on a living which was in the gift of Trunnion,1 was extremely old, and that it would be his interest to be upon the spot at the said incumbent ’s decease. Peregrine, who had resided about fifteen months in France, thought he was now sufficiently qualified for eclipsing most of his cotemporaries in England, and therefore prepared for his departure with infinite alacrity, being moreover inflamed with the most ardent desire of revisiting his friends, and renewing his connections, particularly with Emilia, whose heart, he by this time, thought he was able to reduce on his own terms. As he proposed to make the tour of Flanders and Holland in his return to England , he resolved to stay in Paris a week or two after his affairs were settled, in hopes of finding some agreeable companion disposed for the same journey, and in order to refresh his memory, made a second circuit round all the places in that capital, where any curious production of art is to be seen. In the course of this second examination he chanced to enter the Palais Royal,2 just as two gentlemen alighted from a Fiacre at the gate, and all three being admitted at the same time, he soon perceived that the strangers were of his own country. One of them was a young man, in whose air and countenance appeared all the uncouth gravity and supercilious self-conceit of a physician piping hot from his studies,3 while the other, to whom his companion spoke by the appellation of Mr. Pallet,4 displayed at first sight a strange composition of levity and assurance. Indeed their characters, dress and address were strongly contrasted; the doctor wore a suit of black, and a huge tye-wig,5 neither suitable to his own age, nor the fashion of the country where he then lived; whereas the other, though seemingly turned of fifty, strutted in a gay summer dress of the Parisian cut, with a bag to his own grey hair,6 and a red feather in his hat, which he carried under his arm. As these figures seemed to promise something entertaining, Pickle entered into conversation with them immediately, and soon discovered that the old gentleman was a painter from London, who had stole a fortnight from his occupation, in order to visit the remarkable paintings of France and Flanders; and that the doctor had taken the opportunity 204 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle of accompanying him in his tour. Being extremely talkative, he not only communicated these particulars to our hero in a very few minutes after their meeting, but also took occasion to whisper in his ear, that his fellow traveller was a man of vast learning, and beyond all doubt, the greatest poet of the age. As for himself, he was under no necessity of making his own elogium; for he soon gave such specimens of his taste and talents , as left Pickle no room to doubt of his capacity. While they stood considering the pictures in one of the first apartments, which are by no means the most masterly compositions, the Swiss, who sets up for a connoisseur , looking at a certain piece, pronounced the word magnifique! with a note of admiration ; upon which Mr. Pallet, who was not at all a critick in the French language, replied with great vivacity, “Manufac, you mean, and a very indifferent piece of manufacture it is; pray gentlemen take notice, there is no keeping in those heads upon the back ground,7 nor no relief in the principal figure: then you...