The Adventures of Roderick Random | Page 8

School--neglected by my

Grandfather--maltreated by my Master--seasoned to Adversity--I form
Cabals against the Pedant--am debarred Access to my
Grandfather--hunted by his Heir--I demolish the Teeth of his Tutor
There were not wanting some who suspected my uncles of being
concerned in my father's fate, on the supposition that they would all
share in the patrimony destined for him; and this conjecture was
strengthened by reflecting that in all his calamities they never
discovered the least inclination to serve him; but, on the contrary, by all
the artifices in their power, fed his resentment and supported his
resolution of leaving him to misery and want. But people of judgment
treated this insinuation as an idle chimera; because, had my relations
been so wicked as to consult their interest by committing such an
atrocious crime, the fate of my father would have extended to me too
whose life was another obstacle to their expectation. Meanwhile, I grew
apace, and as I strongly resembled my father, who was the darling of
the tenants, I wanted nothing which their indigent circumstances could
afford: but their favour was a weak resource against the jealous enmity
of my cousins; who the more my infancy promised, conceived the more
implacable hatred against me: and before I was six years of age, had so
effectually blockaded my grandfather that I never saw him but by
stealth, when I sometimes made up to his chair as he sat to view his
labourers in the field: on which occasion he would stroke my head, bid
me be a good boy, and promise to take care of me.
I was soon after sent to school at a village hard by, of which he had
been dictator time out of mind; but as he never paid for my board, nor
supplied me with clothes, books, and other necessaries I required, my
condition was very ragged and contemptible, and the schoolmaster,
who, through fear of my grandfather, taught me gratis, gave himself no
concern about the progress I made under his instruction. In spite of all
these difficulties and disgraces, I became a good proficient in the Latin
tongue; and, as soon as I could write tolerably, pestered my grandfather
with letters to such a degree that he sent for my master, and chid him
severely for bestowing such pains on my education, telling him that, if
ever I should be brought to the gallows for forgery, which he had
taught me to commit, my blood would lie on his head.

The pedant, who dreaded nothing more than the displeasure of his
patron, assured his honour that the boy's ability was more owing to his
own genius and application than to any instruction or encouragement
he received; that, although he could not divest him of the knowledge he
had already imbibed, unless he would empower him to disable his
fingers, he should endeavour, with God's help, to prevent his future
improvement. And, indeed, he punctually performed what he had
undertaken; for, on pretence that I had written impertinent letters to my
grandfather, he caused a board to be made with five holes in it, through
which he thrust the fingers and thumb of my right hand, and fastened it
by whipcord to my wrist, in such a manner as effectually debarred me
the use of my pen. But this restraint I was freed from in a few days, by
an accident which happened in a quarrel between me and another boy;
who, taking upon him to insult my poverty, I was so incensed at his
ungenerous reproach that with one stroke with my machine I cut him to
the skull, to the great terror of myself and schoolfellows, who left him
bleeding on the ground, and ran to inform the master of what had
happened. I was so severely punished for this trespass that, were I to
live to the age of Methusalem, the impression it made on me would not
be effaced; the more than the antipathy and horror I conceived for the
merciless tyrant who inflicted it. The contempt which my appearance
naturally produced in all who saw me, the continual wants to which I
was exposed, and my own haughty disposition, impatient of affronts,
involved me in a thousand troublesome adventures, by which I was at
length inured in adversity, and emboldened to undertakings far above
my years. I was often inhumanly scourged for crimes I did not commit,
because, having the character of a vagabond in the village, every piece
of mischief, whose author lay unknown, was charged upon me. I have
been found guilty of robbing orchards I never entered, of killing cats I
never hunted, of stealing gingerbread I never touched, and of abusing
old women I never saw. Nay, a stammering carpenter had eloquence
enough to persuade my