My Uncle Thomas Volume 2; A Romance

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1810 Excerpt: ... six years of age I could read; at twelve I was a little gentleman, fit to be presented in any company, and my father took me with him wherever he went. He had long quitted his humble situation; the stale of his fortune had enabled.inn. to make an appearance in the world, and he at first had become Secretary to a Counsellor of Puniavuent, whom he quitted, because he became enamoured of my mother. He successively entered into the service of a President, an Archbishop, and the Chancellor, all of whom he quitted for the same reason; he turned grocer, but soon sold off his stock, because those who purchased the least trifling article, thought themselves at liberty to address the most tender things to the lady behind the counter. He bought a good farm, which he immediately after sold again, because the Lord of the Manor claimed the right ot conqubinage: it was a charming privilege imagined in the time of the Crusades, and authorized the Lord to lay with his tenants' wives on their wedding night. My mother had long since lost the power of making an offering of the first fruits of her love; but the right of the Lord would have attached retrospectively the moment she became appurtenant to his domains, and a first night is always agreeable with a pretty woman. To terminate unpleasant contests--contests peculiarly disagreeable to a husband, my father soon carried off his turtle from this hotbed of adultery, and obtained the situation of a Register at the Court at Paris, which he kept, because he, had no other clerk but myself; and those who called upon him on business, never penetrated farther than his office. I was now eighteen years of age. My mother's charms had ceased to give my father any uneasiness, and he began to think of my advancement in life. The.son of a b...