The Adventures of Roderick Random

CAPÍTULO XLIII.

This chapter continues the narrator’s journey through France, detailing his robbery by a traveling companion, subsequent desperation, and enlistment in military service.

Robbed by Capuchin Near Amiens

Near Amiens, the narrator lodges at a house with a fellow traveler—a Capuchin friar—and falls asleep exhausted after a long march. Upon waking the next morning, he discovers the monk has fled with all his money. The friar had departed four hours earlier, having told the innkeepers the narrator was indisposed and should not be disturbed. The monk had claimed he would wait at the Coq d’Or in Noyons.

Unsuccessful Search for Thief at Noyons

The narrator pursues the thief to Noyons, arriving faint with weariness and hunger, only to find no trace of the Capuchin. He reveals his deplorable situation to the innkeeper, who expresses sympathy but offers no practical assistance, merely recommending patience before attending to other guests.

Desperation After Denied Local Aid

While standing dejectedly at the inn, the narrator encounters a richly dressed young gentleman and explains his predicament. The gentleman asks pointlessly, “Well, monsieur, what would you have me do?”—a question that shames the narrator. When ordered to leave by the innkeeper, he suffers a nosebleed from grief and anger. He wanders into the fields, collapsing exhausted under a tree, reflecting bitterly on his misfortunes and questioning divine justice for allowing him to face famine in a foreign land.

Enlistment in Regiment of Picardy

The narrator hears a violin and discovers soldiers dancing with their families. Despite their gaunt, ragged appearance, they welcome him cordially. He joins their feast of bread, onions, and cheap wine, then dances with them. The sergeant charms him with descriptions of military life, and weighing his desperate circumstances, the narrator enlists in the Regiment of Picardy—one of Europe’s oldest corps. He is fitted with clothes, arms, and accoutrements, sells his livery suit, purchases linen, and applies himself to learning drill, quickly becoming a competent soldier.

Harsh March Conditions to Germany

Orders arrive to march into Germany to reinforce Marshal Duc de Noailles, who is watching an Anglo-Hanoverian-Austrian-Hessian force under the Earl of Stair along the River Main. The narrator endures extreme hunger, thirst, and fatigue. His plump constitution proves a disadvantage—his thighs and legs become raw and skinned from heat and friction, while his leaner comrades remain unbothered. This physical torment makes him irritable and mortified to see weaker soldiers bear these hardships with apparent ease.

Political Dispute with Comrade

During a halt, the narrator’s comrade stays behind to offer “consolation,” advising that he will soon be seasoned to military life and praising the honor of serving Louis the Great. The narrator flies into outrage at this reasoning, condemning the absurdity of willingly enduring poverty, oppression, and death merely to satisfy a prince’s ambition. The soldier takes offense at this criticism of the king, accusing the narrator of imbibing rebellious English principles.

Comrade Duel Challenge Over Politics

The political argument intensifies as the narrator argues that English resistance to tyranny was glorious rather than rebellious—protecting the natural right to liberty. When the French soldier provokes him beyond endurance, the narrator clenches his fist to strike him, but the Frenchman parries and declares that a Frenchman never forgives a blow, challenging him to a duel.

Wounded and Disarmed in Duel

They proceed to a nearby field. The narrator despises his opponent’s pitiful appearance—a small, decrepit, one-eyed man. However, at the second exchange, the narrator is wounded in his sword hand and immediately disarmed with such force he believes his joint is dislocated. The victor then demands the narrator beg his pardon for insulting his king, which the narrator refuses, threatening to continue the duel with muskets instead.

CAPÍTULO XLIV.

The narrator, still nursing his wounded honour from an earlier humiliation by a Gascon soldier, accepts swordsmanship lessons from an Irish drummer whose real motive is jealousy of the Gascon, and soon after joins Marshal Duc de Noailles’ forces at the Battle of Dettingen, where the French suffer a calamitous defeat, losing around five thousand men as they flee in panic across the river. Inflamed by the Gascon’s bragging after the rout, the narrator taunts him into a second duel, this time disarming the older man and humiliating him before their comrades. After the campaign ends, the regiment is sent into winter quarters at Rheims in Champagne, where the narrator is reduced to poverty and ragged linen on his meagre pay of five sols a day. While on sentry duty he recognises his old companion Strap, now living as the prosperous Monsieur d’Estrapes after inheriting the estate of a deceased English gentleman he had faithfully served. Overjoyed at the reunion, Strap feeds and clothes him, pledges three hundred pounds to his use, and resolves to use his connections to procure the narrator’s discharge from the French service.