CHAPTER TEN
THEY PROCEED TO LEVY CONTRIBUTIONS WITH GREAT SUCCESS, UNTIL OUR HEROSETS OUT WITH THE YOUNG COUNT FOR VIENNA, WHERE HE ENTERS INTO LEAGUEWITH ANOTHER ADVENTURER.
Under this secure cover, Teresa levied contributions upon her mistresswith great success. Some trinket was missing every day; the young lady'spatience began to fail; the faithful attendant was overwhelmed withconsternation, and, with the appearance of extreme chagrin, demanded herdismission, affirming that these things were certainly effected by someperson in the family, with a view of murdering her precious reputation.Miss Melvil, not without difficulty, quieted her vexation with assurancesof inviolable confidence and esteem, until a pair of diamond earringsvanished, when Teresa could no longer keep her affliction within bounds.Indeed, this was an event of more consequence than all the rest which hadhappened, for the jewels were valued at five hundred florins.
Mademoiselle was accordingly alarmed to such a degree, that she made hermother acquainted with her loss, and that good lady, who was an excellenteconomist, did not fail to give indications of extraordinary concern.She asked, if her daughter had reason to suspect any individual in thefamily, and if she was perfectly confident of her own woman's integrity?Upon which Mademoiselle, with many encomiums on the fidelity andattachment of Teresa, recounted the adventure of the chambermaid, whoimmediately underwent a strict inquiry, and was even committed to prison,on the strength of her former misdemeanour. Our adventurer's mateinsisted upon undergoing the same trial with the rest of the domestics,and, as usual, comprehended Fathom in her insinuations; while he secondedthe proposal, and privately counselled the old lady to introduce Teresato the magistrate of the place. By these preconcerted recriminations,they escaped all suspicion of collusion. After a fruitless inquiry, theprisoner was discharged from her confinement, and turned out of theservice of the Count, in whose private opinion the character of no personsuffered so much, as that of his own son, whom he suspected of havingembezzled the jewels, for the use of a certain inamorata, who, at thattime, was said to have captivated his affections.
The old gentleman felt upon this occasion all that internal anguish whicha man of honour may be supposed to suffer, on account of a son'sdegeneracy; and, without divulging his sentiments, or even hinting hissuspicions to the youth himself, determined to detach him at once fromsuch dangerous connexions, by sending him forthwith to Vienna, onpretence of finishing his exercises at the academy, and ushering him intoacquaintance with the great world. Though he would not be thought by theyoung gentleman himself to harbour the least doubt of his morals, he didnot scruple to unbosom himself on that subject to Ferdinand, whosesagacity and virtue he held in great veneration. This indulgent patronexpressed himself in the most pathetic terms, on the untoward dispositionof his son; he told Fathom, that he should accompany Renaldo (that wasthe youth's name) not only as a companion, but a preceptor and pattern;conjured him to assist his tutor in superintending his conduct, and toreinforce the governor's precepts by his own example; to inculcate uponhim the most delicate punctilios of honour, and decoy him intoextravagance, rather than leave the least illiberal sentiment in hisheart.
Our crafty adventurer, with demonstrations of the utmost sensibility,acknowledged the great goodness of the Count in reposing such confidencein his integrity; which, as he observed, none but the worst of villainscould abuse; and fervently wished that he might no longer exist, than heshould continue to remember and resent the obligations he owed to hiskind benefactor. While preparations were making for their departure, ourhero held a council with his associate, whom he enriched with many sageinstructions touching her future operations; he at the same timedisburdened her of all or the greatest part of the spoils she had won,and after having received divers marks of bounty from the Count and hislady, together with a purse from his young mistress, he set out forVienna, in the eighteenth year of his age, with Renaldo and his governor,who were provided with letters of recommendation to some of the Count'sfriends belonging to the Imperial court.
Such a favourable introduction could not fail of being advantageous to ayouth of Ferdinand's specious accomplishments; for he was consideredas the young Count's companion, admitted into his parties, and includedin all the entertainments to which Renaldo was invited. He soondistinguished himself by his activity and address, in the course ofthose exercises that were taught at the academy of which he was pupil;his manners were so engaging as to attract the acquaintance of hisfellow-students, and his conversation being sprightly and inoffensive,grew into very great request; in a word, he and the young Count formed aremarkable contrast, which, in the eye of the world, redounded to hisadvantage.
They were certainly, in all respects, the reverse of each other.Renaldo, under a total defect of exterior cultivation, possessed a mostexcellent understanding, with every virtue that dignifies the humanheart; while the other, beneath a most agreeable outside, with aninaptitude and aversion to letters, concealed an amazing fund of villanyand ingratitude. Hitherto his observation had been confined to a narrowsphere, and his reflections, though surprisingly just and acute, had notattained to that maturity which age and experience give; but now, hisperceptions began to be more distinct, and extended to a thousand objectswhich had never before come under his cognisance.
He had formerly imagined, but was now fully persuaded, that the sons ofmen preyed upon one another, and such was the end and condition of theirbeing. Among the principal figures of life, he observed few or nocharacters that did not bear a strong analogy to the savage tyrants ofthe wood. One resembled a tiger in fury and rapaciousness; a secondprowled about like an hungry wolf, seeking whom he might devour; a thirdacted the part of a jackal, in beating the bush for game to his voraciousemployer; and the fourth imitated the wily fox, in practising a thousandcrafty ambuscades for the destruction of the ignorant and unwary. Thislast was the department of life for which he found himself best qualifiedby nature and inclination; and he accordingly resolved that his talentshould not rust in his possession. He was already pretty well versed inall the sciences of play; but he had every day occasion to see these artscarried to such a surprising pitch of finesse and dexterity, asdiscouraged him from building his schemes on that foundation.
He therefore determined to fascinate the judgment, rather than the eyesof his fellow-creatures, by a continual exercise of that gift ofdeceiving, with which he knew himself endued to an unrivalled degree; andto acquire unbounded influence with those who might be subservient to hisinterest, by an assiduous application to their prevailing passions. Notthat play was altogether left out in the projection of his economy.--Though he engaged himself very little in the executive part of gaming, hehad not been long in Vienna, when he entered into league with a genius ofthat kind, whom he distinguished among the pupils of the academy, and whoindeed had taken up his habitation in that place with a view to pillagethe provincials on their first arrival in town, before they could bearmed with proper circumspection to preserve their money, or have time todispose of it in any other shape.
Similar characters naturally attract each other, and people of our hero'sprinciples are, of all others, the most apt to distinguish their ownlikeness wheresoever it occurs; because they always keep the faculty ofdiscerning in full exertion. It was in consequence of this mutualalertness, that Ferdinand and the stranger, who was a native of Tyrol,perceived themselves reflected in the dispositions of each other, andimmediately entered into an offensive and defensive alliance; ouradventurer undertaking for the articles of intelligence, countenance, andcounsel, and his associate charging himself with the risk of execution.