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Page 49
This proposal was no sooner made than it was answered by Heartfree
in the following manner:--
"I might have hoped the answer which I gave to your former advice
would have prevented me from the danger of receiving a second
affront of this kind. An affront I call it, and surely, if it be
so to call a man a villain, it can be no less to shew him you
suppose him one. Indeed, it may be wondered how any man can arrive
at the boldness, I may say impudence, of first making such an
overture to another; surely it is seldom done, unless to those who
have previously betrayed some symptoms of their own baseness. If I
have therefore shewn you any such, these insults are more
pardonable; but I assure you, if such appear, they discharge all
their malignance outwardly, and reflect not even a shadow within;
for to me baseness seems inconsistent with this rule, OF DOING NO
OTHER PERSON AN INJURY FROM ANY MOTIVE OR ON ANY CONSIDERATION
WHATEVER. This, sir, is the rule by which I am determined to walk,
nor can that man justify disbelieving me who will not own he walks
not by it himself. But, whether it be allowed to me or no, or
whether I feel the good effects of its being practised by others,
I am resolved to maintain it; for surely no man can reap a benefit
from my pursuing it equal to the comfort I myself enjoy: for what
a ravishing thought, how replete with extasy, must the
consideration be, that Almighty Goodness is by its own nature
engaged to reward me! How indifferent must such a persuasion make
a man to all the occurrences of this life! What trifles must he
represent to himself both the enjoyments and the afflictions of
this world! How easily must he acquiesce under missing the former,
and how patiently will he submit to the latter, who is convinced
that his failing of a transitory imperfect reward here is a most
certain argument of his obtaining one permanent and complete
hereafter! Dost thou think then, thou little, paltry, mean animal
(with such language did he treat our truly great man), that I will
forego such comfortable expectations for any pitiful reward which
thou canst suggest or promise to me; for that sordid lucre for
which all pains and labour are undertaken by the industrious, and
all barbarities and iniquities committed by the vile; for a
worthless acquisition, which such as thou art can possess, can
give, or can take away?" The former part of this speech occasioned
much yawning in our hero, but the latter roused his anger; and he
was collecting his rage to answer, when Friendly and the
constable, who had been summoned by Heartfree on Wild's first
appearance, entered the room, and seized the great man just as his
wrath was bursting from his lips.
The dialogue which now ensued is not worth relating: Wild was soon
acquainted with the reason of this rough treatment, and presently
conveyed before a magistrate.
Notwithstanding the doubts raised by Mr. Wild's lawyer on his
examination, he insisting that the proceeding was improper, for
that a writ de homine replegiando should issue, and on the return
of that a capias in withernam, the justice inclined to commitment,
so that Wild was driven to other methods for his defence. He
therefore acquainted the justice that there was a young man
likewise with him in the boat, and begged that he might be sent
for, which request was accordingly granted, and the faithful
Achates (Mr. Fireblood) was soon produced to bear testimony for
his friend, which he did with so much becoming zeal, and went
through his examination with such coherence (though he was forced
to collect his evidence from the hints given him by Wild in the
presence of the justice and the accusers), that, as here was
direct evidence against mere presumption, our hero was most
honourably acquitted, and poor Heartfree was charged by the
justice, the audience, and all others who afterwards heard the
story, with the blackest ingratitude, in attempting to take away
the life of a man to whom he had such eminent obligations.
Lest so vast an effort of friendship as this of Fireblood's should
too violently surprize the reader in this degenerate age, it may
be proper to inform him that, beside the ties of engagement in the
same employ, another nearer and stronger alliance subsisted
between our hero and this youth, which latter was just departed
from the arms of the lovely Laetitia when he received her
husband's message; an instance which may also serve to justify
those strict intercourses of love and acquaintance which so
commonly subsist in modern history between the husband and
gallant, displaying the vast force of friendship contracted by
this more honourable than legal alliance, which is thought to be
at present one of the strongest bonds of amity between great men,
and the most reputable as well as easy way to their favour.
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