Peregrine's Progress Read online

  Produced by Yvonne Dailey, Charles Franks and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team

  PEREGRINE'S PROGRESS

  BY JEFFERY FARNOL

  _He who hath Imagination is blessed or cursed with a fearful magicwhereby he may scale the heights of Heaven or plumb the deeps ofHell_

  CONTENTS

  ANTE SCRIPTUM

  BOOK I--THE SILENT PLACES

  I Introducing Myself

  II Tells How and Why I Set Forth Upon the Quest in Question

  III Wherein the Reader Shall Find Some Description of an ExtraordinaryTinker

  IV In Which I Meet a Down-at-Heels Gentleman

  V Further Concerning the Aforesaid Gentleman, One Anthony

  VI Describes Certain Lively Happenings at the "Jolly Waggoner" Inn

  VII White Magic

  VIII I Am Left Forlorn

  IX Describes the Woes of Galloping Jerry, a Notorious Highwayman

  X The Philosophy of the Same

  XI Which Proves Beyond All Argument That Clothes Make the Man

  XII The Price of a Goddess

  XIII Which Tells Somewhat of My Deplorable Situation

  XIV In Which I Satisfy Myself of My Cowardice

  XV Proving That a Goddess Is Wholly Feminine

  XVI In Which I Begin to Appreciate the Virtues of the Chaste Goddess

  XVII How We Set Out for Tonbridge

  XVIII Concerning the Grammar of a Goddess

  XIX How and Why I Fought with One Gabbing Dick, a Peddler

  XX Of the Tongue of a Woman and the Feet of a Goddess

  XXI In Which I Learned That I Am Less of a Coward Than I Had Supposed

  XXII Describing the Hospitality of One Jerry Jarvis, a Tinker

  XXIII Discusses the Virtues of the Onion

  XXIV How I Met One Jessamy Todd, a Snatcher of Souls

  XXV Tells of My Adventures at the Fair

  XXVI The Ethics of Prigging

  XXVII Juno Versus Diana

  XXVIII Exemplifying That Clothes Do Make the Man

  XXIX Tells of an Ominous Meeting

  XXX Of a Truly Memorable Occasion

  XXXI A Vereker's Advice to a Vereker

  XXXII How I Made a Surprising Discovery, Which, However, May NotSurprise the Reader in the Least

  XXXIII Of Two Incomparable Things. The Voice of Diana and Jessamy's"Right"

  XXXIV The Noble Art of Organ-Playing

  XXXV Of a Shadow in the Sun

  XXXVI Tells How I Met Anthony Again

  XXXVII A Disquisition on True Love

  XXXVIII A Crucifixion

  XXXIX How I Came Home Again

  TO THE READER

  BOOK II--SHADOW

  I The Incidents of an Early Morning Walk

  II Introducing Jasper Shrig, a Bow Street Runner

  III Concerning a Black Postchaise

  IV Of a Scarabaeus Ring and a Gossamer Veil

  V Storm and Tempest

  VI I Am Haunted of Evil Dreams

  VII Concerning the Song of a Blackbird at Evening

  VIII The Deeps of Hell

  IX Concerning the Opening of a Door

  X Tells How a Mystery Was Resolved

  XI Which Shows That My Uncle Jervas Was Right, After All

  XII Tells How I Went Upon an Expedition with Mr. Shrig

  TO MY PATIENT AND KINDLY READER

  BOOK III--DAWN

  I Concerning One Tom Martin, an Ostler

  II I Go to Find Diana

  III Tells How I Found Diana and Sooner Than I Deserved

  IV I Wait for a Confession

  V In Which We Meet Old Friends

  VI Which, as the Patient Reader Sees, Is the Last