The Adventures of Roderick Random

Departure from the House

With defiance, the uncle declared he perceived how the land lay, affirmed that while he had a shilling the narrator should not want a tester, and pronounced the old gentleman bound for the other world but damnably ill-provided for the voyage. Thus ended their visit. They returned to the village, the uncle muttering curses all the way against the old shark and the young fry that surrounded him.

CHAPITRE IV.

This is Chapter IV of the work, chronicling the final days, death, and posthumous estate proceedings of the narrator’s grandfather, along with the varied reactions of his extended family to the terms of his will.

Grandfather makes his will

A few weeks after the family’s first visit to the ailing judge, he sends for a notary to formalize his will, as his illness has advanced from his legs to his stomach and he is conscious of his impending death.

Second visit to grandfather’s deathbed

Per the grandfather’s request that all his descendants visit him before he dies, the narrator and his uncle make a second trip to his deathbed, joining a crowd of relations gathered in his chamber. The uncle offers the dying man unorthodox, crude consolation that scandalizes the other attendees, particularly the parish parson.

Uncle’s deathbed comments

After the group retreats to another room to escape the uncle’s irreverent remarks, a piteous yell from the grandfather’s chamber confirms his death. When the group returns to the room, the uncle interprets a recent dream as a portent of the death, making crude comparisons between the grandfather’s passing and a dead shark being carried to the bottom of the sea by the devil, which infuriates the parson and sparks a heated argument.

Grandfather’s death

The group confirms the grandfather’s death after hearing the distress cries of the young women attending him in his final moments. The family’s heir, the young squire, pretends to grief, asking tearfully if his grandfather is truly deceased, and the uncle bluntly confirms the death, further escalating tensions with the outraged parson who condemns his irreverence.

Conjectures about the will’s contents

While waiting for the formal will reading scheduled after the grandfather’s funeral, family members speculate about the will’s contents. Aware the grandfather holds a £700 annual landed estate and £6,000 to £7,000 in interest-bearing funds, guesses include the young squire inheriting all real estate with the personal funds split between the narrator and his five female cousins, or the bulk of the money going to the narrator to atone for the grandfather’s mistreatment of his father, with smaller legacies for the granddaughters.

Reading of the will before descendants

At the appointed time following the funeral, the will is read aloud in front of all the grandfather’s living descendants. The attorney announces the young squire is the sole heir to all of the grandfather’s real and personal estate, with no additional legacies allocated to any other family members.

Female cousins’ will disappointment

The female cousins, who had expected to receive inheritances, react with shock and distress. The eldest and most outspoken of the five faints upon learning there are no legacies whatsoever, while the others display clear signs of indignation and grief at least as genuine as their mourning for their grandfather.

Uncle’s reaction to the will

The uncle reacts to the will’s terms with furious, crude outrage, insulting the deceased grandfather. The parson confronts him for his irreverence, but the young female cousins side with the uncle against the parson, accusing him of meddling in their grandfather’s affairs and spreading false stories that led to their exclusion from the will. The young squire teases the uncle about hunting the parson like a badger, and the frustrated uncle declares he and the narrator will depart immediately.

CHAPITRE V.

After the schoolmaster’s abusive behavior drives the narrator to seek revenge, he conspires with his loyal friends Jeremy Gawky and Hugh Strap, two classmates who owe him debts of gratitude for past services, to ambush and flog the tyrannical pedagogue before departing for the university. The uncle, having learned of the schoolmaster’s cruelty, joins the scheme and personally carries out the punishment by binding the terrified master to a post and administering a sound thrashing with a cat-and-nine-tails, after which the narrator is settled into lodgings at an apothecary’s house in a university town, where his uncle provides funds for his maintenance and education before departing for his ship.