The Adventures of Roderick Random

Carried Before the Justice

The group is escorted to a justice’s house near Covent Garden at about nine o’clock. The justice immediately assumes they are thieves and greets them with hostility. He mistakes the narrator for a transported criminal named Patrick Gaghagan, despite the narrator’s protests. When Jackson attempts to correct the justice, he is threatened with being called a notorious felon. The terrified Jackson falls silent, which the justice interprets as proof of guilt. However, after speaking privately with the constable and learning the truth, the justice adopts a different demeanor. He explains that terrifying young people upon their first appearance before him is his usual practice to deter them from future riot and debauchery. After cloaking his initial error under this pretense of paternal concern, the justice dismisses them all, leaving the narrator immensely relieved.

第十八章

This chapter follows the narrator through a series of setbacks and fortuitous encounters: his disappointing visit to the Navy Office where qualification for a naval position proves fruitless, Strap’s frantic search that culminates in a physical altercation with a blacksmith, and the schoolmaster’s intervention that secures the narrator a journeyman position with a French apothecary. The narrative explores themes of poverty, pride, loyalty, and the serendipitous nature of opportunity in 18th-century London.

Qualification at the Navy Office

The narrator accompanies his companions to deliver their qualification letters at the Navy Office before one o’clock. He discovers he is qualified to serve as second mate of a third-rate ship, which pleases him greatly. The group asks the secretary about vacancies, but receives a curt “No!” in response. When the narrator inquires about ships being put in commission soon, the secretary regards him with utter contempt before pushing them out and locking his office door without further comment.