The Adventures of Roderick Random

The Lieutenant’s Tale of the Standard

The officer, having been smartly handled, changes his battery and begins to expatiate on his own exploits. He recounts being wounded at Dettingen by a pistol ball in the shoulder. He tells of recovering a lost regiment’s standard from a French guardsman, shooting the horse, running the man through the body, and being wounded again by a comrade. He tells of the cowardly cornet demanding the standard back and his reply demanding to know where the cornet lost it. Despite this brave deed, he remains no more than a poor lieutenant.

The Officer’s Song

The lieutenant, unwilling to conceal any of his accomplishments, offers to regale the company with a song. He warbles a fashionable air with nonsensical words, perverting the sense with surprising facility. Miss Snapper ascribes this to ignorance and observes that the music and words are much of a piece. The officer takes this as a compliment, believing the words are damnably fine.

Legal Banter

The lawyer interposes by telling the officer there are some things he must not speak, and upon being defied, mentions treason and defamation. When the officer declares he dares say anything to any other man, the lawyer responds that the officer dares not call him rogue because he would have good action against him and recover. The officer declares he dares think the lawyer a rogue, accompanying this stroke of wit with a loud laugh of self-approbation that does not affect the audience and silences his antagonist for an hour.

KAPITEL LIV.

Chapter LIV opens at daybreak, as the coach’s travelers see one another clearly for the first time. The narrator gets his first look at Miss Snapper, whom he had not seen before, and begins forming plans to win her hand and her £20,000 fortune. Their journey is soon interrupted by the warning cry of approaching highwaymen.

Miss Snapper’s First Appearance

At daybreak, the narrator gets his first clear view of Miss Snapper, finding her less physically unappealing than he had been led to believe. Though her face is hatchet-shaped, her large black eyes are lively, and her prominent front and back balances her body’s proportions, though her curved spine gives her a distinct side-to-side, crablike gait. Concluding he would happily marry her for her £20,000 fortune, he begins mentally devising ways to win her affection, paying so little attention to the rest of the coach’s occupants that he does not hear the wager the soldier and lawyer are debating, leading the soldier to insult him when he fails to respond.

The Soldier’s Valor and Threats

The boisterous soldier, who has bragged repeatedly of his courage and royal military commission, grows enraged when the narrator does not weigh in on his debate with the lawyer. He hurls insults at the narrator, swears he fears no man alive, and brandishes a pair of pistols he claims to have taken from a horse officer at the Battle of Dettingen, promising to protect the coach’s occupants from highwaymen. A prim, severe gentlewoman reprimands him for pulling out weapons in front of ladies, and says she will walk to the next village immediately if he dares to use firearms in her presence. Miss Snapper interjects to defend the soldier’s display of arms as a useful protection against robbers, saying she feels lucky to be in the company of a man brave enough to fend off highwaymen. The severe gentlewoman scoffs that people with little to lose are often the most anxious to protect what they have; Mrs. Snapper retorts that people should be well-informed before speaking slightingly of others’ fortunes, lest they reveal their own envy. Miss Snapper says she does not compete with anyone in wealth, and offers to persuade the captain to surrender if attacked, as long as the severe gentlewoman agrees to indemnify the group for any losses they suffer. The severe gentlewoman dismisses the reasonable proposal with only a scornful glance and a toss of her head.