University of Virginia Library

19. CHAPTER XIX.
Robin Day is turned out of his lodgings, and hospitably invited to
the house of a friend.

I made my way without any difficulty to the
chop-house, which, I had been in fear, from the lateness
of the hour, I should find closed. I found it,
however, open and filled with guests, who were, in
general, of such a mean, and some of them of so
raggamuffinly an appearance, and were, besides, drinking
and carousing in so noisy and riotous a manner,
that I was filled with disgust, and repented that I
had not searched out a better lodging.

Nor was my uneasiness abated, when I ascended
to the chamber where I was to sleep, and found it
full of beds, in some of which lodgers were already
soundly snoring, men, to all appearance, of a class no
better than the roisterers below. I liked not the
idea of sleeping in such company; and even feared
I might among them be robbed before morning.
Upon examining my wallet, however, I found my
apprehensions were, in this particular, entirely superfluous,
and for the best reason in the world—
namely, that I was robbed already; the wallet, which
was without lock and key, and only secured by straps
and buttons, having been opened in my absence, and
plundered of the few little articles of dress it had
contained.

Confounded and enraged at this discovery, I proceeded
to the bar-room, where I preferred a complaint
to mine host, exhibiting the empty pack as
evidence of the truth of the charge; and mine host
was instantly in as great a passion as myself. The
only difficulty was, that, instead of being in a rage
with, he was in a passion at me, swearing, with
great volubility, that the charge was a slander upon
his house, and him,—not to speak of his lodgers and
guests, who were as honest people as any in the
world; and his guests—that is, such of them as were
drinking in the bar-room—taking part against me,
there was presently a furious quarrel begun, some
accusing me of robbing myself, others of robbing
the sleepers up stairs, while a third class went the
length of insisting that I had robbed the landlord, if
not even themselves; and all agreed that I ought
either to be taken in hand by themselves and flogged
on the spot, or given over to the watch; both which
penalties, I believe in my conscience, would have
been enforced against me, had not one vagabond,
who was wiser and more humane than the rest, proposed
a new punishment, which was that I should
treat the company to a gallon of gin, and then he
turned out of the house. And this penalty was
straightway put into execution, the company being
treated to a glass all round at my expense, (for I found
I should be maltreated, if I refused to pay,) and myself,
the moment the libation was made and accounted
for, turned neck and heels out of doors.

I was in a frenzy of rage at this vile and ignominious
usage, and felt, for a moment, inclined to call
the watch, and give the whole company into charge
of the authorities; but a moment's reflection satisfied
me that my hard fate did not permit me to indulge
in the sweets of revenge; since the probability was,

that, whatever might be the fate of my oppressors,
when brought before the Mayor, I should myself
remain a victim in his hands. I was constrained,
therefore, to rest satisfied with such smaller revenge
as I had it in my power to enjoy; and this I effected
by launching a brickbat through the window of the
bar-room into the midst of the revellers; and, judging
by the direful tumult that immediately ensued,
I must have done considerable execution among
them; though this I did not wait to ascertain; but,
on the contrary, took to my heels and ran, until persuaded
I was no longer in danger of pursuit.

And now I began to be in despair, not knowing
whither to direct my steps, or where to seek for
shelter in all this great and inhospitable city; when,
by and by, my thoughts happily reverted to the
little tavern where I had supped with Mr. Bloodmoney,
and which, although of an appearance not a
whit better than the chop-house, was yet, as Mr.
Bloodmoney had said, a very decent sort of place,
where I might, perhaps, procure a bed, provided its
doors were still open.

Thither, accordingly, I resolved to make my way;
and I proceeded with greater speed, as I perceived
that foul weather was brewing, with every appearance
of a furious storm. Indeed, it had been cloudy
all the evening, and a gale of wind was already
blowing, though as yet without rain; but before I
had gone much more than half the distance, it began
to fall in showers, that grew every moment heavier
and more frequent, so that I was by and by soaked
to the skin.

To add to my distress, I became aware, after a
time, that, what with the darkness and my hurry, I
had missed my way, and knew not how to regain
it, unless by betaking myself to a watchman; which

I was loath to do, as I thought the chances were that
he would take me up as a vagrant, and introduce me
to lodgings I should like still less than those in the
chop-house. As for asking assistance of other persons
in the street, which I was well enough disposed
to do, there was the great difficulty that no such persons
were to be found, it being now after one
o'clock, and the streets as solitary as the walks of a
graveyard, in which I was the only ghost that
roamed. The winds blew, the lightnings gleamed,
the rains fell, the spouts rattled, the gutters gurgled,
the shutters clattered; but I had it all to myself, and
bade fair to have it so all night, being monarch of
all I surveyed, the storm and the city, without,
however, being the master of so much as a straw
bed.

In this exigency, whilst I was now bewailing and
now cursing my fate, which I began to consider the
hardest in the world, now tumbling over a curbstone,
and now plumping into a gutter, and all the
while shivering with cold and despair; it was my
hap to discover, when I least expected it, a man
who seemed to be a wayfarer like myself, and no
watchman: and, in truth, I had seen but little of the
guardians of the night since the storm began.

As the individual was at a distance, and only revealed
to me by a flash of lightning, I was obliged
to run forward to overtake him, which I soon did;
and then asked him, with a voice all chattering with
cold, if he could direct me where Mr. Bloodmoney
lived—not that I wished to find Mr. Bloodmoney's
house in particular; but I knew, when once in the
street where it stood, I could make my own way to
the little tavern. To this question the gentleman
answered by discharging a terrible oath, that was
directed especially against his eyes and blood, and

asking, ejaculatorily, “whether the devils were all
broke loose?” and “what I wanted with Mr. Bloodmoney?”

I thought I knew the voice; and, indeed, a sheet
of lightning now bursting over the sky, and revealing
his features, I saw to my surprise, that I had
fallen a second time upon Mr. Bloodmoney himself.

He seemed, on his part, quite as much surprised,
and demanded, with another choice execration,
“what I was doing in the street, swimming about
like a lost tadpole?”

I replied, that I had been turned out of my
lodgings; at which he was prodigiously diverted;
but he laughed still more, when I told him how my
knapsack had been rifled; though he expressed some
indignation at that, and swore that robbery was
becoming intolerably frequent, and that strangers in
a city were plundered and imposed upon by every
body—especially young ones.

I then told him how I had lost my way in
attempting to find the little tavern; in which if I
could not procure admission, I must walk the streets
in the rain all night, as I knew not how else to help
myself.

This I uttered in a very dolorous tone; but its
only effect was to increase the mirth of Mr. Bloodmoney,
who told me I was “a pig in a strange latitude;”
with other expressions which, from their
abounding with salt-water technicalities, I did not
exactly understand. He concluded, however, by
declaring, in a sudden fit of hospitality, at which I
was both surprised and pleased, that, as he saw I
was no more capable of taking care of myself than
an unshelled oyster, he would carry me to his own
house, and see what he could do for me; and this
resolution he immediately proceeded to put into

execution, by bidding me follow him, and leading
the way to the square in which he lived. This, as
it proved, was at no great distance; and I had soon
the satisfaction of finding myself at the corner of the
street, where was a watchman's box that I had
noticed before. As we passed it by, I perceived
the wind had blown the door open, and exposed the
watchman sitting sound asleep; which being noticed
by Mr. Bloodmoney, he closed the door, “to keep the
rain,” as he said, with a smothered laugh, “from
blowing in the poor fellow's face;” though he immediately
after swore, “it was a rascally thing for the
man to be thus snoozing away the night, who was so
well paid for guarding the property of the citizens;”
adding that such negligence encouraged, and even
invited, burglary, and that he should not be surprised
if some of the neighbours had their houses
robbed that very night.