Tom Jones Book 12, Chapter 7

Containing a Remark or Two of Our Own, and Many More of the Good Company Assembled in the Kitchen

• Partridge tells the group at the inn (puppeteer, landlady, landlord, clerk, and taxman) that Tom is an heir to a fortune but that he seems to be going crazy.
• The puppet-show man knew he was crazy all along: how else could Tom have disliked his show?
• The taxman wants to catch him and send him home.
• But the landlady thinks Tom is too pretty to be crazy. He's just unlucky in love—that changes a person.
• The lawyer's clerk also objects that it's not particularly legal to lock someone up against his will.
• A man comes by the inn to tell the landlord that the rebels are on their way to London.
• Everyone believes that it's true, even though it's totally word-of-mouth information.
• They argue over whether or not the rebels will force everyone to convert to Catholicism.
• Partridge adds that the Catholics don't actually want forced conversion.
• That's the landlord's primary worry: he is an anti-Catholic bigot.
• The puppet-show man doesn't care about the religion of the government, as long as he can still have his puppet shows.
• The taxman will be able to collect taxes under the new government, but he doesn't expect to give up his Protestant faith.
• Both the taxman and Partridge drink to the Jacobite cause (so, to the rebels).
• The landlord is not a Jacobite, but he eventually drinks a toast, too (anything to keep his customers happy).