The Adventures of Roderick Random

The Chaplain’s Visit

Morgan brings diaphoretic medicines, which the narrator secretly spits out, believing medicine cooperates with the disease rather than fighting it. He seemingly complies to avoid affronting Morgan’s professional pride. When the fever reaches its height, Morgan applies a blister to the narrator’s neck and summons the chaplain for spiritual consolation. The chaplain arrives and, after feeling the narrator’s pulse, begins asking about his soul. He recommends confession of sins, especially “whoredom and adultery,” and asks about his religion. The narrator, not fearing death, smiles at the inquiry and declines auricular confession, saying it savors more of the Roman than Protestant church. When the narrator reveals he was bred a Presbyterian and has not taken the oaths or received the sacrament, the chaplain declares he can do no service and leaves.

Favorable Crisis

The fever soon grows outrageous and the narrator begins seeing strange visions, concluding he is becoming delirious. In danger of suffocation, he attempts to plunge into the sea but notices moisture on his thigh, a favorable symptom. He seizes this advantage by tearing off his shirt and sheets, wrapping himself in a thick blanket for a quarter of an hour in intense pain. A profuse sweat follows, relieving his complaints within two hours except for weakness. He enjoys a nap and awakens hungry.

Morgan’s Affection

While sleeping, Morgan arrives and, believing the narrator dead, asks the sergeant about him. When informed the narrator has slept peacefully for five hours, Morgan assumes he has died and begins mourning, saying he was a promising youth who paid his debt like an honest man. The sergeant, alarmed, enters the berth but finds the narrator smiling and winking. Morgan approaches with tears to view the body, and the narrator counterfeits death so well that Morgan observes the distortion of his face as evidence of a struggle. When Morgan begins closing the narrator’s eyes and mouth, the narrator snaps at his fingers, startling him. Morgan turns pale but the narrator reassures him with hopes of eating salmagundy together in England. Upon feeling the pulse and finding the favorable crisis, Morgan congratulates him, attributing the recovery to the blister he claims to have applied—though the narrator secretly knows the plaster is missing from his back.