The Adventures of Roderick Random

Financial Insolvency and Pawning of the Gold-Inlaid Sword

Reduced to his last guinea, the narrator is forced to disclose his necessity to Strap, tempering the blow by rehearsing the daily assurances received from his patron. Strap, hearing of the low state of their finances, utters a dreadful groan and cries out in despair; the narrator comforts him by pointing to gentlemen in worse case and proposing that the gold-inlaid steel sword be pawned. Though this expedient is gall to Strap, he complies and raises seven pieces in a trifle of time, a sum that lifts the narrator’s spirits for the moment. The supply is soon exhausted when the landlord demands five guineas owed for lodging, which the narrator disburses with an air of scorn, though he is secretly thunderstruck and Strap wrings his hands in despair.

Unexpected Success at the Gaming Tables

At dinner in the coffee-house and afterwards at the tavern, the narrator cannot share in the company’s mirth, and wine has lost its customary effect upon him. Banter, perceiving his anxiety, reproaches him with pusillanimity and, on learning he has less than two guineas left, assures him there are a thousand ways of living by wit and conducts him to a gaming house under the piazzas in Covent Garden kept by a Scottish lord who enjoys the privilege of his peerage. Although horrified by the villainous faces of the sitters and bettors, the narrator is persuaded to begin by risking a shilling, wins thirty within an hour, advances to the gold table, and by broad day finds himself 150 guineas in pocket. An irate Gascon demanding “mon ravanchio” and a Jewish sitter insinuating that his gains were owing to greasy wiping of the table move the losers to threaten a warrant for sharper’s practice; but the narrator, relying on his innocence, threatens prosecution for defamation and offers to submit to any Westminster justice, whereupon they drop their plea and allow him to withdraw after the Israelite has retracted and asked pardon before the assembly.