
dismissed with much Wrath by Mr. Allworthy, who told him, he should have to the
next Morning to consider of it, when he should be questioned by another Person,
and in another Manner.
    Poor Jones spent a very melancholy Night, and the more so, as he was without
his usual Companion: for Master Blifil was gone abroad on a Visit with his
Mother. Fear of the Punishment he was to suffer was on this Occasion his least
Evil; his chief Anxiety being, lest his Constancy should fail him, and he should
be brought to betray the Game-keeper, whose Ruin he knew must now be the
Consequence.
    Nor did the Game-keeper pass his Time much better. He had the same
Apprehensions with the Youth; for whose Honour he had likewise a much tenderer
Regard than for his Skin.
    In the Morning, when Tom attended the Reverend Mr. Thwackum, the Person to
whom Mr. Allworthy had committed the Instruction of the two Boys, he had the
same Questions put to him by that Gentleman, which he had been asked the Evening
before, to which he returned the same Answers. The Consequence of this was, so
severe a Whipping, that it possibly fell little short of the Torture with which
Confessions are in some Countries extorted from Criminals.
    Tom bore his Punishment with great Resolution; and tho' his Master asked him
between every Stroke, whether he would not confess, he was contented to be flead
rather than betray his Friend, or break the Promise he had made.
    The Game-keeper was now relieved from his Anxiety, and Mr. Allworthy himself
began to be concerned at Tom's Sufferings: For, besides that Mr. Thwackum, being
highly enraged that he was not able to make the Boy say what he himself pleased,
had carried his Severity much beyond the good Man's Intention, this latter began
now to suspect that the Squire had been mistaken; which his extreme Eagerness
and Anger seemed to make probable; and as for what the Servants had said in
Confirmation of their Master's Account, he laid no great Stress upon that. Now,
as Cruelty and Injustice were two Ideas, of which Mr. Allworthy could by no
Means support the Consciousness a single Moment, he sent for Tom, and after many
kind and friendly Exhortations, said, »I am convinced, my dear Child, that my
Suspicions have wronged you; I am sorry that you have been so severely punished
on this Account.« - And at last gave him a little Horse to make him amends;
again repeating his Sorrow for what had
