273

CHAPTER LVI 279

CHAPTER LVII 285

CHAPTER LVIII 290

CHAPTER LIX 294

CHAPTER LX 299

CHAPTER LXI 305

CHAPTER LXII 310

CHAPTER LXIII 314

CHAPTER LXIV 319

CHAPTER LXV 322

CHAPTER LXVI 327

CHAPTER LXVII 333

CHAPTER LXVIII 338

CHAPTER LXIX 344

CHAPTER LXX 349

CHAPTER LXXI 355

CHAPTER LXXII 362

CHAPTER LXXIII 259

CHAPTER LXXIV 378

CHAPTER LXXV 387

CHAPTER LXXVI 394

CHAPTER LXXVII 400

CHAPTER LXXVIII 408

CHAPTER LXXIX 414

Prefatory Note

In the _Metropolitan Magazine_, where this novel originally appeared
(Sep. 1834-Jan. 1836), Marryat prepared his readers for its reception in
the following words:--

"And having now completed 'Jacob Faithful,' we trust to the satisfaction
of our readers, we will make a few remarks. We commenced writing on our
own profession, and having completed four tales, novels, or whatever you
may please to call them" (viz., Frank Mildmay, The King's Own, Newton
Forster, Peter Simple), "in 'Jacob Faithful' we quitted the _salt_ water
for the _fresh_. From the wherry we shall now step on shore, and in our
next number we shall introduce to our readers 'The Adventures of
_Japhet_, in search of his Father.'"

The promise was faithfully kept, and Japhet, with all his varied
experience, never went to sea. There were indeed few companies on land
to which he did not penetrate. Reared in a foundling hospital, and
apprenticed to a Smithfield apothecary, his good looks, impulsive
self-confidence, and unbounded talent for lying, carried him with eclat
through the professions of quack doctor, juggler, and mountebank,
gentleman about town, tramp, and quaker: to emerge triumphantly at last
as the only son of a wealthy Anglo-Indian general, or "Bengal tiger," as
his friends preferred to call him.

Japhet's "adventures," of course, are shared by a faithful friend and
ally, Timothy Oldmixon, the Sancho to his Quixote, originally an orphan
pauper like himself, composed of two qualities--fun and affection. He
encounters villains, lawyers, kind-hearted peers, "rooks" and "pigeons,"
gipsies, leaders of fashion, fair maidens--enough and to spare. In a
word, Marryat here makes use of well-worn material, and uses it well. He
has constructed a tale of private adventure on the old familiar lines,
i