CHAP. IX. The surprizing Adventures of Tom Traveller are continued in this Chapter.

The happiest dexterity and the greatest activeness in an author, is to give his reader a specimen of his talents, to introduce a pleasing narrative, and when he has worked up his curiosity to the highest pitch, to leave him in the middle of a most interesting event. This was the peculiar cunning of those famous stories, which go by the name of the Arabian night’s entertainments, which are for that reason divided into a century of nights, each being employed in some very engaging tale. A late celebrated Biographer has followed this ingenious method, and now and then diverts the reader with a curious history, I mean the author of Tom Jones, and Joseph Andrews, in which several other adventures beside that of the hero, are artfully interwoven, which at once displays a delightful variety, feasts the mental appetite with a pleasing desert, which otherwise might be apt to cloy by feeding on one dish, though ever so delicate; for this reason that celebrated writer, entitles the heads of his chapters a bill of fare, which points out to them the ensuing entertainment. We shall not therefore disappoint our reader, but shall, to answer the expectation, which we are sensible we have raised, proceed with the history of Tom Traveller, forbidding all compilers whatsoever, to insert, or abstract this unparallel’d history in their future collections of voyages, travels, &c.

Tom the Cat, was no sooner gone home with his benevolent Mistress, than Tom Traveller, at the importunity of Hugh of the Borough, continued his narrative.

My courage encreased, as I said, with my success, and having obliged those terraqueous militants to stand and deliver, I found my purse grow heavy, and believing I had made a competent fortune, I resolved, as Gibbet says in the play, to buy myself a place in the houshold, and live as snug as ’ere a courtier of them all; with this view I was returning to London, from Finchley Common, which had been my last stage, when a gentleman rode up in a full gallop saying he was pursued by a highwayman, and desired me to accompany him in order to get out of the road. In the confusion I was in, at his mentioning being pursued, I began to fear for myself, and looking back saw two men, riding very fast after us, yet not so fast as to appear in pursuit, however I took the gentleman’s advice, and rode with him full speed, following the course he made which he directed to the right hand, from the high road across the country, when all of a sudden he snatched my reins, and desired me to deliver, or he would blow my brains to the Devil; I had neither time nor presence of mind, to refuse his unreasonable request, and he robbed me of all I had in the world, except twenty pounds I had left with a favourite girl, whom I then kept, after this he rode off, taking my pistols with him, leaving me to reflect on so unexpected an adventure; but I had no opportunity to consider much about it. I had no cash left, and I found myself in possession of no property on the face of the earth, but my horse and clothes, the former of which I was now resolved to sell, and never more venture my life to scrape up riches for other people to enjoy; I saw the hazard, the danger, and the folly in it, and with this determination I pursued my way to London, saying with Juvenal, Cantabit Vacuus Viator; where I arrived, and having sold my horse, walked to my lodgings, where to my amazement I found the bird flown, and nothing but the nest, and a few scattered feathers left behind. Thus in one day was I deprived of what I had been amassing for several months, to the value of three hundred pounds sterling, one hundred of which I laid out on my mistress in cloaths and equipage. I had cultivated a good acquaintance with several young Gentlemen (strangers to my new way of life) at Art——rs, and telling them I had a mind to see the world, made it my request to them to serve me.