The Adventures of Roderick Random

Priest introduces narrator to Paris-bound Capuchin

The narrator visits the priest the next morning, imploring his advice and assistance. The priest receives him kindly and suggests a way of life in which a person of his talents could not fail to make a great figure. The narrator guesses his meaning and firmly declares he is fully determined against any alteration in point of religion, understanding the proposal must concern the church. The priest sighs at this stubborn prejudice and offers instead to procure letters of recommendation to people of rank at Versailles where the narrator might be entertained as a maitre d’hotel. The narrator embraces this offer eagerly, and the priest appoints him to return in the afternoon when he would give him letters and introduce him to a capuchin acquaintance setting out for Paris next morning whose company would save him the expense of one livre during the whole journey.

Character of fellow traveler Frere Balthazar

The capuchin proves to be Frere Balthazar, a merry facetious fellow who, despite his profession and appearance of mortification, loves good eating and drinking better than his rosary and pays more adoration to pretty girls than to the Virgin Mary or St. Genevieve. He is a thick brawny young man with red eyebrows, a hook nose, and a freckled face. His order does not permit him to wear linen, so he seldom undresses and is none of the cleanliest animals, his constitution naturally so strongly scented that the narrator finds it convenient to keep to windward of him. He is perfectly well known on the road, so they fare sumptuously without cost, and their journey’s fatigue is much alleviated by his good humour as he sings infinite catches on the subjects of love and wine.

Abbeville inn overnight adventure

They take their first night’s lodging at a peasant’s house near Abbeville, where they are entertained with an excellent ragout cooked by the landlord’s handsome daughters. After eating heartily and drinking sufficient small wine, they are conducted to a barn with carpets spread upon clean straw. Within half an hour, someone knocks softly at the door and Balthazar lets in the two daughters for private conversation in the dark. The capuchin asks the narrator if he is insensible to love and would refuse a share of his bed with a pretty maid who has a tendre for him. Suffering himself to be overcome by passion, the narrator eagerly seizes the occasion with the agreeable Nanette despite his reason suggesting respect for his dear mistress Narcissa. Early in the morning the kind creatures leave them to rest until eight o’clock, when they are treated at breakfast with chocolate and eau-de-vie by their paramours before taking a tender leave, after which Balthazar confesses and gives them absolution.

Narrator’s shock at the Capuchin’s immoral conduct

During their journey, conversation turns upon the night’s adventure. The capuchin asks how the narrator liked his lodging and, when the narrator speaks in rapture of Nanette, Balthazar reveals she was a morceau pour la bonne bouche and boasts he has been pretty fortunate in his amours. The narrator is shocked to learn of his intimacy with her sister, suspecting incest. Balthazar explains he distributes his favours equally between the sisters to preserve peace in the family, and because Nanette had conceived an affection for the narrator, he loved her too well to balk her inclination while obliging his friend at the same time. The narrator thanks him for this instance of friendship while being extremely disgusted at his want of delicacy and cursed the occasion that threw him in his way. Despite his own libertine tendencies, the narrator cannot bear to see a man behave so far from his assumed character. He looks upon Balthazar as a person of very little worth or honesty and would have kept a wary eye upon his pocket had he thought temptation to steal existed, but he cannot conceive the use of money to a capuchin who must appear like a beggar. The narrator proceeds with confidence toward his journey’s end.