The Adventures of Roderick Random

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.

第五章

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.