The Adventures of Roderick Random

Departure from Newcastle

The two companions set out at daybreak on September 2nd, 1739, each armed with a sturdy cudgel and carrying their supplies in a single shared knapsack. Their money is sewn into the linings and waistbands of their breeches for security, with only loose silver kept accessible for immediate road expenses. They maintain a brisk pace throughout the day but, unfamiliar with the proper stages between towns, find themselves benighted far from any respectable inn.

The Hedge Alehouse

Compelled by darkness and distance to seek shelter, Roderick and Strap take lodging at a small alehouse situated on a byroad about half a mile from the main highway. Here they encounter a pedlar from Scotland who joins them in a hearty supper of bacon and eggs with good ale before a comfortable fire. The landlord and his buxom daughter Betty entertain them with great good humor, and Roderick feels vain enough to believe he has made some progress in winning the young woman’s affection. The three travellers retire for the night to a room furnished with two beds, while the pedlar carefully secures the door with an iron screw and offers prayers before sleeping.

A Nighttime Disturbance

At midnight, Roderick is jolted awake by violent trembling of his bed. His companion Strap is drenched in sweat and trembling through every limb, having discovered that a dangerous highwayman occupies the adjacent room. Strap guides Roderick to a small chink in the board partition through which they can observe a thick-set, brawny fellow with a fierce countenance sitting at a table with Betty, pistols placed before him. The discovery throws both travellers into a state of great alarm.

Rifle the Highwayman

The highwayman, whose name is Rifle, reveals through his conversation with Betty that he has just missed a substantial prize: four hundred pounds in cash intended to recruit soldiers for the king, along with jewels, watches, swords, and money from passengers. He expresses particular outrage at a coachman named Smack who has betrayed him. Rifle boasts of his other acquisitions that day—a pair of silver-mounted pistols, a gold watch, ten Portugal pieces taken from a Quaker’s shoes, and a gold snuffbox with a picture inside, taken from a lady’s garment. When the pedlar’s loud snoring alerts Rifle to their presence, Betty vouches for the travellers, though Rifle threatens to send them all to destruction before being persuaded to stand down.

The Pedlar’s Flight

Awakened and informed of the danger, the pedlar peeps through the hole in the partition and becomes so terrified that he falls to his knees to pray, promising Heaven to reform his dishonest practices if delivered from present peril. When Rifle and Betty fall asleep and begin snoring in concert, the pedlar quietly unties a rope from his pack, opens the window with great dexterity, and lowers his goods into the yard below. He then bids farewell to Roderick and Strap, bidding them sleep safely and inform the landlord of nothing, before dropping from the window to the ground just a yard below.

The Morning After

The following morning, Betty discovers the pedlar’s absence and questions the two remaining guests, who feign ignorance and astonishment while checking their money and the knapsack, finding all secure. Rifle, informed of the escape, dresses in haste and mounts his horse, vowing vengeance against the pedlar for raising the hue and cry against him. Over breakfast, Betty attempts to extract information through cunning questions, but Roderick and Strap maintain their guard. When the sound of horses’ feet arrives, the paranoid Strap fears the return of Rifle, though Roderick saves them from suspicion by explaining their timidity as foolish error.

CHAPITRE IX.

On their journey after departing from an inn, the narrator and his servant Strap are overtaken by the highwayman Mr. Rifle, who shoots Strap to the ground, though a company of armed horsemen arriving in pursuit of the robber saves the narrator from meeting a similar fate; upon examination, Strap proves to be merely stunned by fear rather than fatally wounded. They proceed to a nearby inn where Strap rests in bed while the narrator observes card players including two farmers, an exciseman, and a curate named Shuffle who systematically cheats the farmers out of their money before entertaining the company with fiddle-playing, and during the ensuing meal the curate bitterly resents the comfortable living of a wealthy vicar who rides through on horseback, prompting the exciseman to reveal that the curate is a notorious card sharper and pimp who secured his position through knowledge of aristocratic scandals.