The Adventures of Roderick Random

Relieving Uncle Bowling’s financial distress

Moved by his uncle’s poverty, Roderick gives Bowling five guineas to cover his passage back to London to petition the Admiralty; Bowling initially tries to refuse more than two guineas, but relents after Roderick insists. Roderick immediately orders food and drink for his uncle, who has not eaten in two days after being shipwrecked and abandoned by his former Dutch shipmates.

Conversation recounting Uncle Bowling’s past misadventures

After eating, Bowling recounts his misadventures since the accident at Cape Tiberoon: he spent his last money at Port Louis, was forced to enlist as a common foremast man on a French king’s ship for two years to avoid starving, was promoted to quartermaster on a West Indies voyage under Monsieur D’Antin, left the French service out of guilt for fighting his countrymen, reached Curaçao, tried to work passage to Holland to contact his English friends, but was shipwrecked on the French coast and left destitute until Roderick found him. He also outlines his plan to petition the Admiralty to clear his name and get reinstated, and promises to use his connections to help Roderick become a surgeon’s mate.

第四十二章

The narrator and his uncle Bowling arrange passage on a cutter bound for Deal, but before departing they are approached by a Scottish priest who discovers they share the same regional origins and becomes emotional with recognition. The uncle quarrels with the priest over religion, but the narrator cultivates the priest’s friendship and accepts his invitation to visit the convent, where he declines an offer to join as a noviciate despite eloquent praise of monastic life. The priest instead procures letters of recommendation and introduces him to a Capuchin friar named Frere Balthazar, with whom he sets out for Paris. During the journey, the narrator discovers his lewd companion to be a carnally-minded hypocrite who makes free with the favors of peasant girls along the road. At a night’s lodging near Abbeville, Balthazar facilitates the narrator’s assignation with a pretty girl named Nanette, then reveals to the horrified traveler that he has also been intimate with her sister for the sake of family harmony. The narrator is disgusted by the monk’s want of principle and his complete departure from his vows of chastity and mortification.