 XIV. I was conducted to the Keeper's room for that night, and the two men sat up with me. I was accosted with many interrogatories, to which I gave little answer, but complained of the hurt in my leg. To this I could obtain no reply except, curse you, my lad, if that be all we will give you some ointment for that. We will anoint it with a little cold iron. They were indeed excessively sulky with me, for having broken their night's rest, and given them all this trouble. In the morning they were as good as their word, fixing a pair of fetters upon both my legs, regardless of the ankle which was now swelled to a considerable size, and then fastening me, with a padlock, to a staple in the floor of my dungeon. I expostulated with warmth upon this treatment, and told them that I was a man upon whom the law as yet had passed no censure, and who therefore, in the eye of the law, was innocent. But they bid me keep such fudge for people who knew no better. They knew what they did, and would answer it to any court in England. The pain of the fetter was intolerable. I endeavored in various ways to relieve it, and even privily to free my leg. But the more it was swelled, the more was this rendered impossible. I then resolved to bear it with patience. Still, the longer it continued, the worse it grew. After two days and two nights I entreated the turnkey to go and ask the surgeon, who usually attended the prison, to look at it. For, if it continued longer as it was, I was convinced it would mortify. But he glared surly at me, and said, Damn my blood, I should like to see that day. To die of a mortification is too good an end for such a rascal. At the time that he thus addressed me, the whole mass of my blood was already fevered by the anguish I had undergone. My patience was wholly exhausted, and I was silly enough to be irritated beyond bearing by his impertinence and vulgarity. Look you, Mr. Turnkey, said I, there is one thing that such fellows as you are set over us for, and another thing that you are not. You are to take care we do not escape, but it is no part of your office to call us names and abuse us. If I were not chained to the floor you dare as well eat your fingers as you such language, and take my word for it you shall yet live to repent of your insolence. While I thus spoke the man stared at me with astonishment. He was so little accustomed to such retorts, that at first he could scarcely believe his ears, and such was the firmness of my manner that he seemed to forget for a moment that I was not at large. But as soon as he had time to recollect himself, he did not deign to be angry. His face relaxed into a smile of contempt. He snapped his fingers at me, and turning upon his heel exclaimed, Well said, my cock, crow away, have a care you do not burst! And as he shut the door upon me mimicked the voice of the animal he mentioned. This rejoinder brought me to myself in a moment, and showed me the impotence of the resentment I was expressing. But though he thus put an end to the violence of my speech, the torture of my body continued as great as ever. I was determined to change my mode of attack. The same turn he returned in a few minutes, and as he approached me to put down some food he had brought, I slipped a shilling into his hand, saying at the same time, My good fellow, for God's sake, go to the surgeon. I am sure you do not wish me to perish for want of assistance. The fellow put the shilling into his pocket, looked hard at me, and then, with one nod of his head, and without uttering a single word, went away. The surgeon presently after made his appearance, and finding the part in a high state of inflammation ordered certain applications, and gave peremptory directions that the fetter should not be replaced upon that leg till a cure had been affected. It was a full month before the leg was perfectly healed, and made equally strong and flexible with the other. The condition in which I was now placed was totally different from that which had preceded this attempt. I was chained all day in my dungeon, with no other mitigation, except that the door was regularly opened for a few hours in an afternoon, at which time some of the prisoners occasionally came and spoke to me, particularly one, who, though he could ill replace my benevolent Brightwell, was not deficient in excellent qualities. This was no other than the individual whom Mr. Falkland had, some months before, dismissed upon an accusation of murder. His courage was gone, his garb was squalid, and the comeliness and clearness of his countenance was utterly obliterated. He also was innocent, worthy, brave, and benevolent. He was, I believe, afterwards acquitted, and turned loose, to wander a desolate and perturbed spectre through the world. My manual labours were now at an end. My dungeon was searched every night, and every kind of tool carefully kept from me. The straw, which had been hitherto allowed me, was removed. The keeper pretends that it was adapted for concealment, and the only conveniences with which I was indulged were a chair and a blanket. A prospect of some alleviation in no long time opened upon me, but this my usual ill-fortune rendered abortive. The keeper once more made his appearance, and with his former constitutional and ambiguous humanity. He pretended to be surprised at my want of every accommodation. He reprehended in strong terms my attempt to escape, and observed that there must be an end of civility from people in his situation, if gentlemen, after all, would not know when they were well. It was necessary, in cases, the like of this, to let the law take its course, and it would be ridiculous in me to complain, if, after a regular trial, things should go hard with me. He was desirous of being in every respect my friend, if I would let him. In the midst of this circumlocution and preamble, he was called away from me for something relating to the business of his office. In the meantime I ruminated upon his overtures, and detesting as I did the source from which I conceived them to flow, I could not help reflecting how far it would be possible to extract from them the means of escape. But my meditations in this case were vain. The keeper returned no more during the remainder of that day, and on the next an incident occurred which put an end to all expectations from his kindness. An active mind which has once been forced into any particular train can scarcely be persuaded to desert it as hopeless. I had studied my chains during the extreme anguish that I endured from the pressure of the fetter upon the ankle which had been sprained, and though from the swelling and acute sensibility of the part I had found all attempts at relief in that instance impracticable, I obtained, from the coolness of my investigation, another and apparently superior advantage. During the night my dungeon was in a complete state of darkness, but when the door was open the case was somewhat different. The passage indeed into which it opened was so narrow and the opposite dead wall so near that it was but a glimmering and melancholy light that entered my apartment, even at full noon, and when the door was at its widest extent. But my eyes, after a practice of two or three weeks, accommodated themselves to this circumstance, and I learned to distinguish the minutest object. One day, as I was alternately meditating and examining the objects around me, I chanced to observe a nail trodden into the mud-floor at no great distance from me. I immediately conceived the desire of possessing myself of this implement. But for fear of surprise, people passing perpetually to and fro, I contented myself for the present, with remarking its situation so accurately that I might easily find it again in the dark. Finally as soon as my door was shut, I seized upon this new treasure, and having contrived to fashion it to my purpose, found that I could unlock with it the padlock that fastened me to the staple in the floor. This I regarded as no inconsiderable advantage, separately from the use I might derive from it in relation to my principal object. My chain permitted me to move only about eighteen inches to the right or left, and having borne this confinement for several weeks my very heart leaped at the pitiful consolation of being able to range, without constraint, the miserable coop in which I was immured. This incident had occurred several days previously to the last visit of my keeper. From this time it had been my constant practice to liberate myself every night, and not to replace things in their former situation till I awoke in the morning, and expected shortly to perceive the entrance of the turnkey. Security Breeds Negligence On the morning succeeding my conference with the jailer, it so happened, whether I overslept myself or the turnkey went his round earlier than usual, that I was roused from my sleep by the noise he made in opening the cell next to my own, and though I exerted the utmost diligence, yet having to grope for my materials in the dark, I was unable to fasten the chain to the staple before he entered, as usual with his lantern. He was extremely surprised to find me disengaged, and immediately summoned the principal keeper. I was questioned respecting my method of proceeding, and as I believed concealment could lead to nothing but a severer search and a more accurate watch, I readily acquainted them with the exact truth. The illustrious personage, whose function it was to control the inhabitants of these walls, was, by this last instance, completely exasperated against me. Artifice and fair speaking were at an end. His eyes sparkled with fury. He exclaimed that he was now convinced of the folly of showing kindness to rascals, the scum of the earth, such as I was, and damn him if anybody should catch him at that again towards any one. I had cured him effectually. He was astonished that the laws had not provided some terrible retaliation for thieves that attempted to deceive their jailers. Hanging was a thousand times too good for me. Having vented his indignation, he proceeded to give such orders as the united instigations of anger and alarm suggested to his mind. My apartment was changed. I was conducted to a room called the Strong Room, the door of which opened into the middle cell of the range of dungeons. It was underground, as they were, and had also the day-room for felons already described, immediately over it. It was spacious and dreary. The door had not been opened for years, the air was putrid, and the walls hung round with damps and mildew. The fetters, the padlock, and the staple were employed, as in the former case, in addition to which they put on me a pair of handcuffs. For my first provision the keeper sent me nothing but a bit of bread, moldy and black, and some dirty and stinking water. I know not, indeed, whether this is to be regarded as gratuitous tyranny on the part of the jailer, the law having providently directed in certain cases, that the water to be administered to the prisoners shall be taken from the next sink or puddle nearest to the jail. It was further ordered that one of the turnkeys should sleep in the cell that formed a sort of anti-chamber to my apartment. Though every convenience was provided to render this chamber fit for the reception of a personage of a dignity so superior to the felon he was appointed to guard, he expressed much dissatisfaction at the mandate, but there was no alternative. The situation to which I was thus removed was, apparently, the most undesirable that could be imagined, but I was not discouraged. I had for some time learned not to judge by appearances. The apartment was dark and unwholesome, but I had acquired the secret of counteracting these influences. My door was kept continually shut, and the other prisoners were debarred access to me. But if the intercourse of our fellow man has its pleasure, solitude, on the other hand, is not without its advantages. In solitude we can pursue our own thoughts undisturbed, and I was able to call up, at will, the most pleasing avocations. Since which, to one who meditated such designs as now filled my mind, solitude had peculiar recommendations. I was scarcely left to myself before I tried an experiment, the idea of which I conceived while they were fixing my handcuffs, and with my teeth only, disengaged myself from this restraint. The hours at which I was visited by the keepers were regular, and I took care to be provided for them. Add to which I had a narrow, grated window near the ceiling, about nine inches in perpendicular, and a foot and a half horizontally, which, though small, admitted a much stronger light than that to which I had been accustomed for several weeks. Thus circumstance I scarcely ever found myself in total darkness, and was better provided against surprises than I had been in my preceding situation. Such were the sentiments which this change of abode immediately suggested. I had been a very little time removed when I received an unexpected visit from Thomas, Mr. Falkland's footman, whom I have already mentioned in the course of my narrative. A servant of Mr. Forrester happened to come to the town where I was imprisoned, a few weeks before, while I was confined with the hurt in my ankle, and had called in to see me. The account he gave of what he observed had been the source of many an uneasy sensation to Thomas. The former visit was a matter of mere curiosity, but Thomas was of the better order of servants. He was considerably struck at the sight of me, though my mind was now serene and my health sufficiently good, yet the floridness of my complexion was gone, and there was a rudeness in my physiognomy. The consequence of hardship and fortitude extremely unlike the sleekness of my better days. Thomas looked alternately in my face, at my hands and my feet, and then fetched a deep sigh. After a pause. "'Lord bless us,' said he, in a voice in which commiseration was sufficiently perceptible. Is this you?' "'Why not, Thomas? You knew I was sent to prison, did not you?' "'Prison, and must people in prison be shackled and bound if that fashion? And where do you lay of nights?' "'Here?' "'Here, why, there is no bed.' "'No, Thomas, I am not allowed a bed. I had straw formerly, but that has taken away.' "'And do they take off them their things of nights?' "'No, I am expected to sleep, just as you see.' "'Sleep? Why, I thought this was a Christian country, but this usage is too bad for a dog. You must not say so, Thomas. It is what the wisdom of government has thought fit to provide.' "'Zounds! How I have been deceived! They told me what a fine thing it was to be an Englishman, and about liberty and property and all that there. And I find it is all a flam. Lord what fools we be! Things are done under our very noses and we know nothing of the matter, and a parcel of fellows with grave faces swear to us that such things never happen but in France, and other countries the like of that. "'Why, you haint been tried, ha' ye?' "'No.' "'And what signifies being tried when they do worse than hang a man and all beforehand? "'Well, Master Williams, you have been very wicked to be sure, and I thought it would have done me good to see you hanged. But I do not know how it is, one's heart melts, and pity comes over one if we take time to cool. I know that ought not to be, but, damn it, when I talked of your being hanged, I did not think of your suffering all this into the bargain. Soon after this conversation Thomas left me. The idea of the long connection of our families rushed upon his memory, and he felt more for my sufferings at the moment than I did for myself. In the afternoon I was surprised to see him again. He said that he could not get the thought of me out of his mind, and therefore he hoped I would not be displeased at his coming once more to take leave of me. I could perceive that he had something upon his mind which he did not know how to discharge. One of the turnkeys had each time come into the room with him, and continued as long as he stayed. Upon some avocation, however, a noise I believe in the passage, the turnkey went as far as the door to satisfy his curiosity, and Thomas, watching the opportunity, slipped into my hand a chisel, a file, and a saw, exclaiming at the same time with a sorrowful tone. I know I am doing wrong, but if they hang me too I cannot help it. I cannot do no other. For Christ's sake get out of this place. I cannot bear the thoughts of it." I received the implements with great joy and thrust them into my bosom, and as soon as he was gone concealed them in the rushes of my chair. For himself he had accomplished the object for which he came, and presently after bade me farewell. The next day the keepers, I know not for what reason, were more than usually industrious in their search, saying, though without assigning any ground for their suspicion, that they were sure I had some tool in my possession that I ought not, but the depository I had chosen escaped them. I waited from this time the greater part of a week that I might have the benefit of a bright moonlight. It was necessary that I should work in the night. It was necessary that my operations should be performed between the last visit of the keepers at night and their first in the morning, that is, between nine in the evening and seven. In my dungeon, as I have already said, I passed fourteen or sixteen hours of the four-and-twenty undisturbed, but since I had acquired a character for mechanical ingenuity, a particular exception with respect to me was made from the general rules of the prison. It was ten o'clock when I entered on my undertaking. The room in which I was confined was secured with a double door. This was totally superfluous for the purpose of my detention, since there was a sentinel planted on the outside. But it was very fortunate for my plan, because these doors prevented the easy communication of sound, and afforded me tolerable satisfaction that, with the little care in my mode of proceeding, I might be secure against the danger of being overheard. I first took off my handcuffs. I then filed through my fetters, and then performed the same service to three of the iron bars that secured my window, to which I climbed, partly by the assistance of my chair, and partly by means of certain irregularities in the wall. All this was the work of more than two hours. When the bars were filed through I easily forced them a little from the perpendicular, and then drew them one by one, out of the wall into which they were sunk about three inches, perfectly straight, and without any precaution to prevent their being removed. But the space thus obtained was by no means wide enough to admit the passing of my body. I therefore applied myself, partly with my chisel, and partly with one of the iron bars, to the loosening the brickwork. And when I had thus disengaged four or five bricks, I got down and piled them upon the floor. This operation I repeated three or four times. The space was now sufficient for my purpose, and having crept through the opening, I stepped upon a shed on the outside. I was now in a kind of rude area between two dead walls, that south of the felon's day-room, the windows of which were at the east end, and the wall of the prison. But I had not, as formerly, any instruments to assist me in scaling the wall, which was of considerable height. There was, of consequence, no resource for me but that of affecting a practicable breach in the lower part of the wall, which was of no contemptible strength, being of stone on the outside with a facing of brick within. The rooms for the debtors were at right angles with the building from which I had just escaped, and as the night was extremely bright I was in momentary danger, particularly in case of the leased noise of being discovered by them several of their windows commanding this area. Thus circumstance I determined to make the shed answer the purpose of concealment. It was locked, but with the broken link of my fetters, which I had had the precaution to bring with me, I found no great difficulty in opening the lock. I had now got a sufficient means of hiding my person while I proceeded in my work, attended with no other disadvantage than that of being obliged to leave the door, through which I had thus broken, a little open for the sake of light. After some time I had removed a considerable part of the brickwork of the outer wall. But when I came to the stone I found the undertaking infinitely more difficult. The mortar which bound together the building was by length of time nearly petrified, and appeared to my first efforts one solid rock of the hardest adamant. I had now been six hours incessantly engaged in incredible labor. My chisel broke in the first attempt upon this new obstacle, and between fatigue already endured and the seemingly invincible difficulty before me, I concluded that I must remain where I was, and gave up the idea of further effort as useless. At the same time the moon, whose light had till now been of the greatest use to me, set, and I was left in total darkness. After a respite of ten minutes, however, I returned to the attack with new vigor. It could not be less than two hours before the first stone was loosened from the edifice. In one hour more the space was sufficient to admit of my escape. The pile of bricks I had left in the strong room was considerable, but it was a mole hill compared with the ruins I had forced from the outer wall. I am fully assured that the work I had thus performed would have been to a common labourer with every advantage of tools, the business of two or three days, but my difficulties, instead of being ended, seemed to be only begun. The day broke before I had completed the opening, and in ten minutes more the keepers would probably enter my apartment and perceive the devastation I had left. The lane, which connected the side of the prison through which I had escaped, with the adjacent country, was formed chiefly by two dead walls, with here and there a stable, a few warehouses, and some mean habitations, tenanted by the lower order of people. My best security lay in clearing the town as soon as possible, and depending upon the open country for protection. My arms were intolerably swelled and bruised with my labour, and my strength seemed wholly exhausted with fatigue. Indeed I was nearly unable to exert for any continuance, and if I could, with the enemy so close at my heels, speed would too probably have been useless. It appeared as if I were now in almost the same situation as that in which I had been placed five or six weeks before, in which, after having completed my escape, I was obliged to yield myself up, without resistance to my pursuers. I was not, however, disabled as then. I was capable of exertion, to what precise extent I could not ascertain, and I was well aware that every instance in which I should fail of my purpose would contribute to enhance the difficulty of any future attempt. Such were the considerations that presented themselves in relation to my escape, and even if that were affected, I had to reckon among my difficulties, that, at the time I quitted my prison, I was destitute of every resource, and had not a shilling remaining in the world. CHAPTER 1 I passed along the lane I have described, without perceiving or being observed by a human being. The doors were shut, the window-shutters closed, and all was still as night. I reached the extremity of the lane unmolested. My pursuers, if they immediately followed, would know that the likelihood was small of my having in the interval found shelter in this place, and would proceed without hesitation, as I, on my part, was obliged to do, from the end nearest to the prison to its furthest termination. The face of the country, in the spot to which I had thus opened myself a passage, was rude and uncultivated. It was overgrown with brushwood and furs. The soil was, for the most part, of a loose sand, and the surface extremely irregular. I climbed a small eminence, and could perceive, not very remote in the distance, a few cottages thinly scattered. This prospect did not altogether please me. I conceived that my safety would, for the present, be extremely assisted by keeping myself from the view of any human being. I therefore came down again into the valley, and upon a careful examination perceived that it was interspersed with cavities, some deeper than others, but all of them so shallow, as neither to be capable of hiding a man, nor of exciting suspicion as places of possible concealment. Meanwhile the day had but just begun to dawn. The morning was lowering and drizzly, and though the depth of these caverns was, of course, well known to the neighbouring inhabitants, the shadows they cast were so black and impenetrable, as might well have produced wider expectations in the mind of a stranger. Poor therefore, as was the protection they were able to afford, I thought it right to have recourse to it for the moment, as the best the emergency would supply. It was for my life, and the greater was the jeopardy to which it was exposed, the more dear did that life seem to become to my affections. The recess I chose, as most secure, was within little more than a hundred yards of the end of the lane, and the extreme buildings of the town. I had not stood up in this manner two minutes, before I heard the sound of feet, and presently saw the ordinary turnkey and another pass the place of my retreat. They were so close to me, that if I had stretched out my hand I believe I could have caught hold of their clothes, without so much as changing my posture. As no part of the overhanging earth intervened between me and them I could see them entire, though the deepness of the shade rendered me almost completely invisible. I heard them say to each other, in tones of vehement asperity, Curse the rascal! Which way can he be gone? The reply was, Damn him! I wish we had him but safe once again. Never fear, rejoined the first, he cannot have, above half a mile, the start of us. They were presently out of hearing, for as to sight I dared not advance my body, so much as an inch to look after them, lest I should be discovered by my pursuers in some other direction. From the very short time that elapsed, between my escape and the appearance of these men, I concluded that they had made their way through the same outlet as I had done. It being impossible that they could have had time to come from the gate of the prison, and so round a considerable part of the town, as they must otherwise have done. I was so alarmed at this instance of diligence on the part of the enemy, that for some time I scarcely ventured to proceed an inch from my place of concealment, or almost to change my posture. The morning which had been bleak and drizzly was succeeded by a day of heavy and incessant rain, and the gloomy state of the air and surrounding objects, together with the extreme nearness of my prison, and a total want of food, caused me to pass the hours in no very agreeable sensations. This inclemency of the weather, however, which generated a feeling of stillness and solitude, encouraged me, by degrees, to change my retreat for another of the same nature, out of somewhat greater security. I hovered with little variation about a single spot as long as the sun continued above the horizon. Towards evening the clouds began to disperse and the moon shone as on the preceding night, in full brightness. I had perceived no human creature during the whole day, except in the instance already mentioned. This had perhaps been owing to the nature of the day, at all events I considered it as too hazardous an experiment, to venture from my hiding-place, in so clear and fine a night. I was therefore obliged to wait for the setting of this luminary, which was not till near five o'clock in the morning. My only relief during this interval was to allow myself to sink to the bottom of my cavern, it being scarcely possible for me to continue any longer on my feet. Here I fell into an interrupted and unrefreshing doves, the consequence of a laborious night and a tedious melancholy day, though I rather sought to avoid sleep, which cooperating with the coldness of the prison would tend more to injury than advantage. The period of darkness which I had determined to use for the purpose of removing to a greater distance from my prison was, in its whole duration, something less than three hours. When I rose from my seat I was weak with hunger and fatigue, and, which was worse, I seemed between the dampness of the preceding day and the sharp clear frost of the night to have lost the command of my limbs. I stood up and shook myself. I leaned against the side of the hill, impelling in different directions the muscles of the extremities, and at length recovered in some degree the sense of feeling. This operation was attended with an incredible aching pain, and required no common share of resolution to encounter and prosecute it. Having quitted my retreat, I at first advanced with weak and tottering steps, but as I proceeded increased my pace. The barren heath which reached to the edge of the town was at least on this side without a path, but the stars shone and guiding myself by them I determined to steer as far as possible from the hateful scene where I had been so long confined. The line I pursued was of a regular surface, sometimes obliging me to climb a steep ascent and at others to go down into a dark and impenetrable dell. I was often compelled, by the dangerousness of the way, to deviate considerably from the direction I wished to pursue. In the meantime I advanced with as much rapidity as these and similar obstacles would permit me to do. The swiftness of the motion and the thinness of the air restored to me my alacrity. I forgot the inconvenience under which I labored, and my mind became lively, spirited, and enthusiastic. I had now reached the border of the heath, and entered upon what is usually termed the forest. Strange as it may seem it is nevertheless true that in this conjuncture exhausted with hunger, destitute of all provision for the future, and surrounded with the most alarming dangers, my mind suddenly became glowing, animated, and cheerful. I thought that by this time the most formidable difficulties of my undertaking were surmounted, and I could not believe that after having affected so much I should find anything invincible in what remained to be done. I recollected the confinement I had undergone, and the fate that had impended over me with horror. Never did man feel more vividly than I felt at that moment, the sweets of liberty. Never did man more strenuously prefer poverty with independence, to the artificial allurements of a life of slavery. I stretched forth my arms with rapture. I clapped my hands one upon the other end exclaimed, Ah! this is indeed to be a man. These wrists were lately gulled with fetters. All my motions, whether I rose up or sat down, were echoed to, with the clanking of chains. I was tied down like a wild beast and could not move but in a circle of a few feet in circumference. Now I can run fleet as a greyhound, and leap like a young row upon the mountains. Oh, God! if God there be that condescends to record the lonely beatings of an anxious heart! Thou only canst tell with what delight a prisoner, just broke forth from his dungeon, hugs the blessings of newfound liberty. There was a great and indescribable moment when man regains his rights. But lately I held my life in jeopardy, because one man was unprincipled enough to assert what he knew to be false. I was destined to suffer an early and inexorable death from the hands of others, because none of them had penetration enough to distinguish from falsehood what I uttered with the entire conviction of a full fraught heart. Strange that men, from age to age, should consent to hold their lives at the breath of another, merely that each in his turn may have a power of acting the tyrant according to law. Oh, God! give me poverty! Shower upon me all the imaginary hardships of human life. I will receive them all with thankfulness. Turn me a prey to the wild beasts of the desert, so I be never again the victim of man, dressed in the gore-dripping robes of authority. Suffer me at least to call life and the pursuits of life my own. Let me hold it at the mercy of the elements of the hunger of beasts or the revenge of barbarians, but not of the cold-blooded prudence of monopolists and kings. How enviable was the enthusiasm which could thus furnish me with energy in the midst of hunger, poverty, and universal desertion. I had now walked at least six miles. At first I carefully avoided the habitations that lay in my way, and feared to be seen by any of the persons to whom they belonged, lest it should in any degree furnish a clue to the researches of my pursuers. As I went forward I conceived it might be proper to relax a part of my precaution. At this time I perceived several persons coming out of a thicket close to me. I immediately considered this circumstance as rather favourable than the contrary. It was necessary for me to avoid entering any of the towns and villages in the vicinity. It was, however, full time that I should procure for myself some species of refreshment, and by no means improbable, that these men might be in some way assisting to me in that respect. In my situation it appeared to me indifferent what might be their employment or profession. I had little to apprehend from thieves, and I believed that they, as well as honest men, could not fail to have some compassion for a person under my circumstances. I therefore rather threw myself in their way than avoided them. They were thieves. One of the company cried out, Who goes there? Stand! I accosted them. Gentlemen, said I, I am a poor traveller, almost. While I spoke they came round me, and he that had first hailed me, said, Damn me! Tip us none of your plover. We have heard that story of a poor traveller any time these five years. Come, down with your dust. Let us see what you have got. Sir, I replied, I have not a shilling in the world, and am more than half-starved to be sired. Not a shilling, answered my assailant, what! I suppose you are as poor as a thief? But if you have not money, you have clothes, and those you must resign. My clothes, rejoined I with indignation, you cannot desire such a thing. Is it not enough that I am penniless? I have been all night upon the open heath. It is now the second day that I have not eaten a morsel of bread. Would you strip me naked to the weather in the midst of this depopulated forest? No, no, you are men. The same hatred of oppression that arms you against the insolence of wealth will teach you to relieve those who are perishing like me. For God's sake, give me food. Do not strip me of the comforts I still possess. While I uttered this apostrophe, the unpremeditated eloquence of sentiment, I could perceive by their gestures, though the day had not yet begun to dawn, that the feelings of one or two of the company appeared to take my part. The man who had already undertaken to be their spokesman perceived the same thing, and excited either by the brutality of his temper or the love of command, hastened to anticipate the disgrace of a defeat. He brushed suddenly up to me, and by main force pushed me several feet from the place where I stood. The shock I received drove me upon a second of the gang, not one of those who had listened to my expostulation, and he repeated the brutality. My indignation was strongly excited by this treatment, and after being thrust backward and forward two or three times in this manner, I broke through my assailants, and turned round to defend myself. The first that advanced within my reach was my original enemy. In the present moment I listened to nothing but the dictates of passion, and I laid him at his length on the earth. I was immediately assailed with sticks and bludgeons on all sides, and presently received a blow that almost deprived me of my senses. The man I had knocked down was now upon his feet again and aimed a stroke at me with a cutlass as I fell, which took place in a deep wound upon my neck and shoulder. He was going to repeat his blow. The two who had seemed to waver at first in their animosity afterwards appeared to me to join in the attack, urged either by animal sympathy or the spirit of imitation. One of them, however, as I afterwards understood, seized the arm of the man who was going to strike me a second time with his cutlass, and who would otherwise probably have put an end to my existence. I could hear the words, Damn it! Enough! Enough! That is too bad, Jines! How so? replied a second voice. He will but pine here upon the forest and die by inches. It will be an act of charity to put him out of his pain. It will be imagined that I was not uninterested in this sort of debate. I made an effort to speak. My voice failed me. I stretched out one hand with a gesture of entreaty. You shall not strike by God, said one of the voices. Why should we be murderers? The side of forbearance at length prevailed. They therefore contented themselves with stripping me of my coat and waistcoat, and rolling me into a dry ditch. They then left me, totally regardless of my distressed condition, and the plentiful effusion of blood which streamed from my wound. CHAPTER II In this woeful situation, though extremely weak, I was not deprived of sense. I tore my shirt from my naked body and endeavored, with some success, to make of it a bandage to staunch the flowing of the blood. I then exerted myself to crawl up the side of the ditch. I had scarcely affected the latter when, with equal surprise and joy, I perceived a man advancing at no great distance. I called for help as well as I could. The man came towards me with evident signs of compassion, and the appearance I exhibited was indeed sufficiently calculated to excite it. I had no hand, my hair was dishevelled, and the ends of the locks clotted with blood. My shirt was wrapped about my neck and shoulders and was plentifully stained with red. My body, which was naked to my middle, was variegated with streams of blood, nor had my lower garments, which were white, by any means escaped. For God's sake, my good fellow, said he, with a tone of the greatest imaginable kindness, how came you thus? And saying this, he lifted me up and set me on my feet. Can you stand? added he doubtfully. Oh, yes, very well, I replied. Having received this answer he quitted me and began to take off his own coat, that he might cover me from the cold. I had, however, overrated my strength, and was no sooner left to myself than I reeled, and fell almost at my length upon the ground. But I broke my fall by stretching out my sound arm, and again raised myself upon my knees. My benefactor now covered me, raised me, and bidding me lean upon him, told me he would presently conduct me to a place where I should be taken care of. Courage is a capricious property, and though while I had no one to depend upon but myself, I possessed a mine of seemingly inexhaustible fortitude. Yet no sooner did I find this unexpected sympathy on the part of another, than my resolution appeared to give way, and I felt ready to faint. My charitable conductor perceived this, and every now and then encouraged me, in a manner so cheerful, so good-humoured and benevolent, equally free from the torture of droning expostulation and the weakness of indulgence, that I thought myself under the conduct of an angel rather than a man. I could perceive that his behaviour had in it nothing of boorishness, and that he was thoroughly imbued with the principles of affectionate civility. We walked about three-quarters of a mile, and that not towards the open, but the most uncouth and unfrequented part of the forest. We crossed a place which had once been a moat, but which was now in some parts dry, and in others contained a little muddy and stagnated water. In the enclosure of this moat I could only discover a pile of ruins, and several walls, the upper part of which seemed to overhang their foundations, and to totter to their ruin. After having entered, however, with my conductor, through an archway, and passed along a winding passage that was perfectly dark, we came to a stand. At the upper end of this passage was a door, which I was unable to perceive. My conductor knocked at the door and was answered by a voice from within, which for body and force might have been the voice of a man, but with a sort of female sharpness and acidity, inquiring—'Who's there?' Satisfaction was no sooner given on this point than I heard two bolts pushed back and the door unlocked. The apartment opened and we entered. The interior of this habitation by no means corresponded with the appearance of my protector, but, on the contrary, wore the face of discomfort, carelessness, and dirt. The only person I saw within was a woman, rather advanced in life, and whose person had I know not what of extraordinary and loathsome. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, her hair was pendant in matted and shaggy tresses about her shoulders, her complexion swarthy and of the consistency of parchment, her form, spare, and her whole body, her arms in particular, and commonly vigorous and muscular. Not the milk of human kindness, but the feverous blood of savage ferocity seemed to flow from her heart, and her whole figure suggested an idea of unmitigable energy, and an appetite gorged in malevolence. This infernal thelestris had no sooner cast her eyes upon us as we entered, than she exclaimed in a discordant and discontented voice. What have we got here? This is not one of our people. My conductor, without answering this apostrophe, bade her push an easy chair, which stood in one corner, and set it directly before the fire. This she did with apparent reluctance, murmuring, Ah, you're at your old tricks. I wonder what such folks as we have to do with charity. It will be the ruin of us at last. I can see that. Hold your tongue-beldom," said he, with a stern significance of manner, and fetch one of my best shirts, a waistcoat, and some dressings. Saying this, he, at the same time, put into her hand a small bunch of keys. In a word he treated me with as much kindness as if he had been my father. He examined my wound, washed and dressed it, at the same time that the old woman, by his express order, prepared for me such nourishment as he thought most suitable to my weak and languid condition. These operations were no sooner completed than my benefactor recommended to me to retire to rest, and preparations were making for that purpose, when suddenly a trampling of feet was heard, succeeded by a knock at the door. The old woman opened the door with the same precautions as had been employed upon our arrival, and immediately six or seven persons tumultuously entered the apartment. Their appearance was different, some having the air of mere rustics, and others that of a tarnished sort of gentry. All had a feature of boldness, in quietude and disorder, extremely unlike anything I had before observed in such a group. But my astonishment was still increased, when upon a second glance I perceived something in the general air of several of them, and of one in particular, that persuaded me they were the gang from which I had just escaped, and this one, the antagonist by whose animosity I was so near having been finally destroyed. I imagined they had entered the hovel with a hostile intention, that my benefactor was upon the point of being robbed, and I probably murdered. This suspicion, however, was soon removed. They addressed my conductor with respect, under the appellation of captain. They were boisterous and noisy in their remarks and exclamations, but their turbulence was tempered by a certain deference to his opinion and authority. I could observe, in the person who had been my active opponent, some awkwardness and a resolution as he first perceived me, which he dismissed with a sort of effort exclaiming, Who the devil is here? There was something in the tone of this apostrophe that roused the attention of my protector. He looked at the speaker with a fixed and penetrating glance, and then said, Hey, Jines, do you know? Did you ever see the person before? Cursed Jines, interrupted a third, you are damnably out of luck. They say dead men walk, and you see there is some truth in it. Truce with your impertinence jackals, replied my protector. This is no proper occasion for a joke. Answer me, Jines, were you the cause of this young man being left naked and wounded this bitter morning upon the forest? May have I was, what then? What provocation could induce you to so cruel a treatment? Provocation enough he had no money. What, did you use him thus without so much as being irritated by any resistance on his part? Yes, he did resist. I only hustled him, and he had the impudence to strike me. Jines, you are an incorrigible fellow. Puh! What signifies what I am? You, with your compassion and your fine feelings, will bring us all to the gallows. I have nothing to say to you. I have no hopes of you. Comrades, it is for you to decide upon the conduct of this man as you think proper. You know how repeated his offenses have been. You know what pains I have taken to mend him. Our profession is the profession of justice. It is thus that the prejudices of men universally teach them to color the most desperate cause to which they have determined to adhere. We who are thieves, without a license, are at open war with another set of men who are thieves according to law. With such a cause, then, to bear us out, shall we stain it with cruelty, malice, and revenge? A thief is, of course, a man living among his equals. I do not pretend therefore to assume any authority among you. Act as you think proper, but so far as relates to myself, I vote that Jines be expelled from among us as a disgrace to our society. This proposition seemed to meet the general sense. It was easy to perceive that the opinion of the rest coincided with that of their leader, not withstanding which a few of them hesitated as to the conduct to be pursued. In the meantime Jines muttered something in a surly and irresolute way about taking care how they provoked him. This insinuation instantly roused the courage of my protector, and his eyes flashed with contempt. Rascal! said he, do you menace us? Do you think we will be your slaves? No, no, do your worst. Go to the next justice of the peace and impeach us. I can easily believe you are capable of it. Sir, when we entered into this gang we were not such fools as not to know that we entered upon a service of danger. One of its dangers consists in the treachery of fellows like you. But we did not enter at first to flinch now. Did you believe that we would live in a horly fear of you, tremble at your threats and compromise whenever you should so please with your insolence? That would be a blessed life indeed. I would rather see my flesh torn piecemeal from my bones. Go, sir, I defy you. You dare not do it. You dare not sacrifice these gallant fellows to your rage and publish yourself to all the world a traitor and a scoundrel. If you do you will punish yourself, not us. Be gone. The intrepidity of the leader communicated itself to the rest of the company. Jines easily saw that there was no hope of bringing them over to a contrary sentiment. After a short pause he answered, I did not mean—no, damn it—I will not snivel neither. I was always true to my principles and a friend to you all. But since you are resolved to term me out, why—good-bye to you. The expulsion of this man produced a remarkable improvement in the whole gang. Those who were before inclined to humanity assumed new energy and proportion as they saw such sentiments likely to prevail. They had, before, suffered themselves to be overborn by the boisterous insolence of their antagonist. Just now they adopted, and with success, a different conduct. Those who envied the ascendancy of their comrade and therefore imitated his conduct began to hesitate in their career. Stories were brought forward of the cruelty and brutality of Jines, both to men and animals, which had never before reached the ear of the leader. The stories I shall not repeat. They could excite only emotions of abhorrence and disgust, and some of them argued a mind of such a stretch of depravity as to many readers would appear utterly incredible. And yet this man had his virtues. He was enterprising, persevering, and faithful. His removal was a considerable benefit to me. It would have been no small hardship to have been turned adrift immediately under my unfavorable circumstances, with the additional disadvantage of the wound I had received. And yet I could scarcely have ventured to remain under the same roof with a man to whom my appearance was, as a guilty conscience, perpetually reminding him of his own offence, and the displeasure of his leader. His profession accustomed him to a certain degree of indifference to consequences, and indulgence to the sallies of passion. And he might easily have found his opportunity to insult or injure me, when I should have had nothing but my own debilitated exertions to protect me. Freed from this danger, I found my situation sufficiently fortunate for a man under my circumstances. It was attended with all the advantages for concealment my fondest imagination could have hoped, and it was by no means destitute of the benefits which arise from kindness and humanity. Everything could be more unlike than the thieves I had seen in jail, and the thieves of my new residence. The latter were generally full of cheerfulness and merriment. They could expatiate freely wherever they thought proper. They could form plans and execute them. They consulted their inclinations. They did not impose upon themselves the task, as is too often the case in human society, of seeming tacitly to approve that from which they suffered most, or which is worst, of persuading themselves that all the wrongs they suffered were right, but were at open war with their oppressors. On the contrary, the imprisoned felons I had lately seen were shut up like wild beasts in a cage, deprived of activity and pulsed with indolence. The occasional demonstrations that still remained of their former enterprising life were the starts and convulsions of disease, not the meditated and consistent exertions of a mind in health. They had no more of hope, of project, of golden and animated dreams, but were reserved to the most dismal prospects, and forbidden to think upon any other topic. It is true that these two scenes were parts of one whole, the one, the consummation, the hourly to be expected successor of the other. But the men I now saw were wholly inattentive to this, and in that respect appeared to hold no commerce with reflection or reason. I might, in one view, as I have said, congratulate myself upon my present residence. It answered completely the purposes of concealment. It was the seat of merriment and hilarity, but the hilarity that characterised it produced no corresponding feelings in my bosom. The persons who composed this society had each of them cast off all control from established principle. Their trade was terror and their constant object to elude the vigilance of the community. The influence of these circumstances was visible in their character. I found among them benevolence and kindness. They were strongly susceptible of emotions of generosity. But as their situation was precarious, their dispositions were proportionably fluctuating. Inured to the animosity of their species, they were irritable and passionate. Acustomed to exercise harshness towards the subject of their depredations, they did not always confine their brutality within that scope. They were habituated to consider wounds and bludgeons and stabbing as the obvious mode of surmounting every difficulty. Uninvolved in the debilitating routine of human affairs, they frequently displayed an energy which, from every impartial observer, would have extorted veneration. Energy is perhaps of all qualities the most valuable, and a just political system would possess the means of extracting from it, plus, circumstances, its beneficial qualities, instead of consigning it, as now, to indiscriminate destruction. We act like the chemist, who should reject the finest ore and employ none but what was sufficiently debased to fit it immediately for the by-list uses. But the energy of these men, such as I beheld it, was in the highest degree misapplied, unassisted by liberal and enlightened views, and directed only to the most narrow and contemptible purposes. The residents I have been describing might to many persons have appeared attended with intolerable inconveniences. But exclusively of its advantages as a field for speculation it was illicium, compared with that from which I had just escaped. Displeasing company, incomodious apartments, filthiness and riot, lost the circumstance by which they could most effectually disgust, when I was not compelled to remain with them. All hardships I could patiently endure, in comparison with the menace of a violent and untimely death. There was no suffering that I could not persuade myself to consider as trivial, except that which flowed from the tyranny, the frigid precaution, or the inhuman revenge of my own species. My recovery advanced in the most favourable manner. The attention and kindness of my protector were incessant, and the rest caught the spirit from his example. The old woman who superintended the household still retained her animosity. She considered me as the cause of the expulsion of Jines from the fraternity. Jines had been the object of her particular partiality, and zealous as she was for the public concern, she thought an old and experienced sinner, for a raw probationer, but an ill exchange. Add to which, that her habits inclined her to moroseness and discontent, and that persons of her complexion seem unable to exist without some object upon which to pour out the superfluity of their gall. She lost no opportunity upon the most trifling occasion of displaying her animosity, and ever and anon eyed me with a furious glance of canine hunger for my destruction. Nothing was more evidently mortifying to her than the procrastination of her malice. Nor could she bear to think that a fierceness so gigantic and uncontrollable should show itself in nothing more terrific than the pygmy spite of a chambermaid. For myself I had been accustomed to the warfare of formidable adversaries, and the encounter of alarming dangers. But what I saw of her spleen had not power sufficient to disturb my tranquillity. As I recovered I told my story, except so far as related to the detection of Mr. Falkland's eventful secret to my protector. But particular I could not, as yet, prevail upon myself to disclose, even in a situation like this, which seemed to preclude the possibility of its being made use of, to the disadvantage of my persecutor. My present auditor, however, whose habits of thinking were extremely opposite to those of Mr. Forrester, did not, from the obscurity which flowed from this reserve, deduce any unfavorable conclusion. His penetration was such as to afford little room for an imposter to hope to mislead him by a fictitious statement, and he confided in that penetration. So confiding the simplicity and integrity of my manner carried conviction to his mind and ensured his good opinion and friendship. He listened to my story with eagerness and commented on the several parts as I related them. He said that this was only one fresh instance of the tyranny and perfidiousness exercised by the powerful members of the community, against those who were less privileged than themselves. Nothing could be more clear than their readiness to sacrifice the human species at large to their meanest interest, or wildest caprice. Who that saw the situation in its true light would wait till their oppressors thought fit to decree their destruction and not take arms in their defence while it was yet in their power? Which was most meritorious, the unresisting and dastardly submissions of a slave, or the enterprise and gallantry of the man who dared to assert his claims? Since by the partial administration of our laws, innocence, when power was armed against it, had nothing better to hope for than guilt. That man of true courage would fail to set these laws at defiance, and if he must suffer by their injustice, at least take care that he had first shown his contempt of their yoke. For himself he should certainly never have embraced his present calling had he not been stimulated to it by these cogent and irresistible reasons. And he hoped, as experience had so forcibly brought a conviction of this sort to my mind, that he should, for the future, have the happiness to associate me to his pursuits. It will presently be seen with what event these hopes were attended. Numerous were the precautions exercised by the gang of thieves with whom I now resided, to elude the vigilance of the satellites of justice. It was one of their rules to commit no depredations but at a considerable distance from the place of their residence, and the joints had at transgressed this regulation in the attack to which I was indebted for my present asylum. After having possessed themselves of any booty they took care in the sight of the persons whom they had robbed, to pursue a route as nearly as possible opposite to that which led to their true haunts. The appearance of their place of residence, together with its environs, was particularly desolate and falorn, and it had the reputation of being haunted. The old woman I have described had long been its inhabitant, and was commonly supposed to be its only inhabitant, and her person well accorded with the rural ideas of a witch. Her lodgers never went out or came in but with the utmost circumspection, and generally by night. The lights, which were occasionally seen from various parts of her habitation, were, by the country people, regarded with horror as supernatural, and if the noise of revelry at any time saluted their ears, it was imagined to proceed from a carnival of devils. With all these advantages the thieves did not venture to reside here but by intervals. They frequently absented themselves for months, and removed to a different part of the country. The old woman sometimes attended them in these transportations, and sometimes remained, but in all cases her decampment took place either sooner or later than theirs, so that the nicest observer could scarcely have traced any connection between her reappearance and the alarms of depredation that were frequently given, and the festival of demons seemed, to the terrified rustics, indifferently to take place whether she were present or absent. CHAPTER III One day, while I continued in this situation, the circumstance occurred which involuntarily attracted my attention. Two of our people had been sent to a town at some distance for the purpose of procuring us the things of which we were in want. After having delivered these to our landlady they retired to one corner of the room, and one of them, pulling a printed paper from his pocket, they mutually occupied themselves in examining its contents. I was sitting in an easy chair by the fire, being considerably better than I had been, though still in a weak and languid state. Having read for a considerable time, they looked at me and then at the paper, and then at me again. They then went out of the room together as if to consult without interruption upon something which that paper suggested to them. Some time after they returned, and my protector, who had been absent upon the former occasion, entered the room at the same instant. Captain, said one of them, with an air of pleasure, look here! We have found a prize! I believe it is as good as a banknote of a hundred guineas. Mr. Raymond, that was his name, took the paper and read. He paused for a moment. He then crushed the paper in his hand, and turning to the person from whom he had received it said, with the tone of a man confident in the success of his reasons, what use of you for these hundred guineas? Are you in want? Are you in distress? Can you be contented to purchase them at the price of treachery, of violating the laws of hospitality? Faith, Captain, I do not very well know. After having violated other laws, I do not see why we should be frightened at an old saw. We pretend to judge for ourselves, and ought to be above shrinking from a bugbear of a proverb. Beside, this is a good deed, and I should think no more harm of being the ruin of such a thief than of getting my dinner. A thief! You talk of thieves! Not so fast, Captain. God defend that I should say a word against thieving as a general occupation. But one man steals in one way, and another in another. For my part I go upon the highway, and take from any stranger I meet. What it is a hundred to one he can very well spare. I see nothing to be found fault with in that. But I have as much conscience as another man. Because I laugh at assizes, and great wigs, and the gallows, and because I will not be frightened from an innocent action when the lawyers say me nay. Does it follow that I am to have a fellow feeling for pilferers, and rascally servants, and people that have neither justice nor principle? No, I have too much respect for the trade, not to be a foe to interlopers, and people that so much the more deserve my hatred, because the world calls them by my name. You are wrong, Larkins! You certainly ought not to employ against people that you hate, using your hatred to be reasonable, the instrumentality of that law which in your practice you defy. Be consistent, either be the friend of the law, or its adversary. Depend upon it, that wherever there are laws at all, there will be laws against such people as you and me. Either therefore we all of us deserve the vengeance of the law, or law is not the proper instrument for correcting the misdeeds of mankind. I tell you this because I would feign have you aware, that an informer, or a king's evidence, a man who takes advantage of the confidence of another in order to betray him, who sells the life of his neighbor for money, or coward-like, upon any pretense, calls in the law to do that for him, which he cannot or dare not do for himself, is the vilest of rascals. But in the present case, if your reasons were the best in the world, they do not apply. While Mr. Raymond was speaking, the rest of the gang came into the room. He immediately turned to them and said, My friends, here is a piece of intelligence that Larkins has just brought in, which, with his leave, I will lay before you. Then unfolding the paper he had received he continued. This is the description of a felon with the offer of a hundred guineas for his apprehension. Larkins picked it up at—blank. By the time and other circumstances, but particularly by the minute description of his person, there can be no doubt but the object of it is our young friend, whose life I was a while ago the instrument of saving. He is charged here with having taken advantage of the confidence of his patron and benefactor to rob him of property to a large amount. Upon this charge he was committed to the county jail, from whence he made his escape about a fortnight ago, without venturing to stand his trial—a circumstance which is stated by the advertiser as tantamount to a confession of his guilt. My friends, I was acquainted with the particulars of this story some time before. This lad let me into his history, at a time that he could not possibly foresee that he should stand in need of that precaution, as an antidote against danger. He is not guilty of what is laid to his charge. Which of you is so ignorant as to suppose that his escape is any confirmation of his guilt? Whoever thinks, when he is apprehended for trial, of his innocence or guilt, as being at all material to the issue? Whoever was fool enough to volunteer a trial, were those who are to decide, think more of the horror of the thing of which he is accused, than whether he were the person that did it, and where the nature of our motives is to be collected from a set of ignorant witnesses, that no wise man would trust for a fair representation of the most indifferent action of his life. The poor lad's story is a long one, and I will not trouble you with it now. But from that story it is as clear as the day, that because he wished to leave the service of his master, because he had been perhaps a little too inquisitive in his master's concerns, and because, as I suspect, he had been trusted with some important secrets, his master conceived an antipathy against him. The antipathy gradually proceeded to such a length, as to induce the master to forge this vile accusation. He seemed willing to hang the lad out of the way, rather than suffer him to go where he pleased, or get beyond the reach of his power. Williams has told me the story with such ingeniousness, that I am as sure that he is guiltless of what they lay to his charge, as that I am so myself. Nevertheless the man's servants who were called in to hear the accusation, and his relation, who as justice of the peace made out the minimus, and who had the folly to think he could be impartial, gave it on his side with one voice, and thus afforded Williams a sample of what he had to expect in the sequel. Larkins, who when he received this paper had no previous knowledge of particulars, was for taking advantage of it for the purpose of earning the hundred guineas. Are you of that mind now that you have heard them? Will you, for so paltry a consideration, deliver up the lamb into the jaws of the wolf? Will you abet the purposes of this sanguinary rascal, who not contented with driving his late dependent from house and home, depriving him of character and all the ordinary means of subsistence, and leaving him almost without a refuge, still thirst for his blood? If no other person have the courage to set limits to the tyranny of courts of justice, shall not we? Shall we, who earn our livelihood by generous daring, be indebted for a penny to the vile artifices of the informer? Shall we, against whom the whole species is in arms, refuse our protection to an individual more exposed to but still less deserving of their persecution than ourselves? The representation of the captain produced an instant effect upon the whole company. They all exclaimed, Betray him! No, not for worlds. He is safe. We will protect him at the hazard of our lives. If fidelity and honour be banished from thieves, where shall they find refuge upon the face of the earth? And in particular thanked the captain for his interference and swore that he would rather part with his right hand than injure so worthy a lad, or assist such an unheard of villainy. Saying this he took me by the hand and bade me fear nothing. Under their roof no harm should ever befall me, and even if the understrapers of the law should discover my retreat, they would, to a man, die in my defence, sooner than a hair of my head should be hurt. I thanked him most sincerely for his good will, but I was principally struck with the fervent benevolence of my benefactor. I told them I found that my enemies were inexorable, and would never be appeased but with my blood, and I assured them with the most solemn and earnest veracity that I had done nothing to deserve the persecution which was exercised against me. The spirit and energy of Mr. Raymond had been such as to leave no part for me to perform in repelling this unlooked for danger. Nevertheless it left a very serious impression upon my mind. I had always placed some confidence in the returning equity of Mr. Falkland. Though he persecuted me with bitterness I could not help believing that he did it unwillingly, and I was persuaded it would not be for ever. A man whose original principles had been so full of rectitude and honour could not fail at some time to recollect the injustice of his conduct and to remit his asperity. This idea had been always present to me, and had in no small degree conspired to instigate my exertions. I said, I will convince my persecutor that I am of more value than that I should be sacrificed purely by way of precaution. These expectations on my part had been encouraged by Mr. Falkland's behaviour upon the question of my imprisonment and by various particulars which had occurred since. But this new incident gave the subject a totally different appearance. I saw him not contented with blasting my reputation, confining me for a period in jail, and reducing me to the situation of a houseless vagabond, still continuing his pursuit under these forlorn circumstances with unmitigable cruelty. Indignation and resentment seemed now for the first time to penetrate my mind. I knew his misery so well. I was so fully acquainted with its cause, and strongly impressed with the idea of its being unmerited, that while I suffered deeply I still continued to pity, rather than hate, my persecutor. But this incident introduced some change into my feelings. I said, surely he might now believe that he had sufficiently disarmed me, and might at length suffer me to be at peace? At least ought he not to be contented to leave me to my fate, the perilous and uncertain condition of an escaped felon, instead of thus wetting the animosity and vigilance of my countrymen against me? Were his interference on my behalf, in opposition to the stern severity of Mr. Forrester, and his various acts of kindness since, a mere part that he played in order to lull me into patience? Was he perpetually haunted with the fear of an ample retaliation, and for that purpose did he personate remorse, at the very moment that he was secretly keeping every engine at play that could secure my destruction? The very suspicion of such a fact filled me with inexpressible horror, and struck a sudden chill through every fibre of my frame. My wound was by this time completely healed, and it became absolutely necessary that I should form some determination respecting the future. My habits of thinking were such as gave me an uncontrollable repugnance to the vocation of my hosts. I did not indeed feel that aversion and apporance to the men which are commonly entertained. I saw and respected their good qualities and their virtues. I was by no means inclined to believe them worse men, or more hostile in their dispositions to the welfare of their species, than the generality of those that looked down upon them with most censure. But though I did not cease to love them as individuals, my eyes were perfectly open to their mistakes. If I should otherwise have been in danger of being misled, it was my fortune to have studied felons in a jail before I studied them in their state of comparative prosperity, and this was an infallible antidote to the poison. I saw that in this profession were exerted uncommon energy, ingenuity, and fortitude, and I could not help recollecting how admirably beneficial such qualities might be made in the great theatre of human affairs. While in their present direction they were thrown away upon purposes diametrically at war with the first interests of human society. Nor were their proceedings less injurious to their own interest than incompatible with the general welfare. The man who risks or sacrifices his life for the public cause is rewarded with the testimony of an approving conscience. But persons who wantonly defy the necessary, though atrociously exaggerated, precautions of government in the matter of property, at the same time that they commit an alarming hostility against the whole, are, as to their own concerns, scarcely less observed and self-neglectful than the man who should set himself up as a mark for a file of musketeers to shoot at. Viewing the subject in this light I not only determined that I would have no share in their occupation myself, but thought I could do no less in return for the benefits I had received from them, than endeavour to dissuade them from an employment in which they must themselves be the greatest sufferers. My expostulation met with a various reception. All the persons to whom it was addressed had been tolerably successful in persuading themselves of the innocence of their calling, and what remained of doubt in their mind was smothered, and so to speak laboriously forgotten. Some of them laughed at my arguments as a ridiculous piece of missionary quicksotism. Those and particularly our captain repelled them with the boldness of a man that knows he has got the strongest side. But this sentiment of ease and self-satisfaction did not long remain. They had been used to arguments derived from religion and the sacredness of law. They had long ago shaken these from them as so many prejudices. But my view of the subject appealed to principles which they could not contest, and had by no means the air of that customary reproof, which is forever dined in our ears without finding one responsive cord in our hearts. Urged as they now were, with objections unexpected and cogent, some of those to whom I addressed them began to grow peevish and impatient of the intrusive remonstrance. But this was by no means the case with Mr. Raymond. He was possessed of a candor that I have seldom seen equaled. He was surprised to hear objections so powerful to that which, as a matter of speculation, he believed he had examined on all sides. He revolved them with impartiality and care. He admitted them slowly, but he at length fully admitted them. He had now but one rejoinder in reserve. Alas, Williams, said he, it would have been fortunate for me if these views had been presented to me previously to my embracing my present profession. It is now too late. Those very laws which, by a perception of their iniquity, drove me to what I am preclude my return. God, we are told, judges of men by what they are at the period of arraignment, and whatever be their crimes, if they have seen and abjured the folly of those crimes, receives them to favour. But the institutions of countries that profess to worship this God admit no such distinctions. They leave no room for amendment, and seem to have a brutal delight in confounding the demerits of offenders. It signifies not what is the character of the individual at the hour of trial, how changed, how spotless, and how useful, avails him nothing. If they discover at the distance of fourteen or of forty years, an action for which the law ordains that his life shall be the forfeit, though the interval should have been spent with the purity of a saint and the devotedness of a patriot, they disdain to inquire into it. What then can I do? Am I not compelled to go on in folly, having once begun? extremely affected by this plea. I could only answer that Mr. Raymond must himself be the best judge of the course it became him to hold. I trusted the case was not so desperate as he imagined. This subject was pursued no further, and was in some degree driven from my thoughts by an incident of a very extraordinary nature. I have already mentioned the animosity that was entertained against me by the infernal fortress of this solitary mansion. Jines, the expelled member of the gang, had been her particular favourite. She submitted to his exile, indeed, because her genius felt subdued by the energy and inherent superiority of Mr. Raymond. But she submitted with murmuring and discontent. Not daring to resent the conduct of the principal in this affair, she collected all the bitterness of her spirit against me. To the unpardonable offence I had thus committed in the first instance were added the reasonings I had lately offered against the profession of robbery. Robbery was a fundamental article in the creed of this horny veteran, and she listened to my objections with the same unaffected astonishment and horror that an old woman of other habits would listen to one who objected to the agonies and dissolution of the creator of the world, or to the garment of imputed righteousness prepared to envelop the souls of the elect. Like the religious bigot she was sufficiently disposed to avenge a hostility against her opinions with the weapons of sublunary warfare. Meanwhile, I had smiled at the impotence of Hermalis, as an object of contempt, rather than alarm. She perceived, as I imagine, the slight estimation in which I held her, and this did not a little increase the perturbation of her thoughts. One day I was left alone, with no other person in the house, than this swarthy sable. The thieves had set out upon an expedition about two hours after sunset on the preceding evening, and had not returned as they were accustomed to do before daybreak the next morning. This was a circumstance that sometimes occurred, and therefore did not produce any extraordinary alarm. At one time the scent of prey would lead them beyond the bounds they had prescribed themselves, and at another the fear of pursuit. The life of a thief is always uncertain. The old woman had been preparing during the night for the meal to which they would expect to sit down as soon as might be after their return. For myself I had learned from their habits to be indifferent to the regular return of the different parts of the day, and in some degree to turn day into night, and night into day. I had been now several weeks in this residence, and the season was considerably advanced. I had passed some hours during the night in ruminating on my situation. The character and manners of the men among whom I lived were disgusting to me. Their brutal ignorance, their ferocious habits, and their course behaviour, instead of becoming more tolerable by custom, hourly added force to my original aversion. The uncommon vigour of their minds and acuteness of their invention in the business they pursued, compared with the odiousness of that business and their habitual depravity, awakened in me sensations too painful to be endured. Moral disapprobation, at least in a mind unsubdued by philosophy, I found to be one of the most fertile sources of disquiet and uneasiness. From this pain the society of Mr. Raymond by no means relieved me. He was indeed eminently superior to the vices of the rest, but I did not less exquisitely feel how much he was out of his place, how disproportionately associated, or how contemptibly employed. I had attempted to counteract the errors under which he and his companions labored, but I had found the obstacles that presented themselves greater than I had imagined. What was I to do? Was I to wait the issue of this, my missionary undertaking, or was I to withdraw myself immediately? When I withdrew ought that to be done privately, or with an open avowal of my design, and an endeavour to supply by the force of an example, what was deficient in my arguments? It was certainly improper, as I declined all participation in the pursuits of these men, did not pay my contribution of hazard to the means by which they subsisted, and had no congeniality with their habits, that I should continue to reside with them longer than was absolutely necessary. There was one circumstance that rendered this deliberation particularly pressing. They intended, in a few days, removing from their present habitation, to a haunt to which they were accustomed in a distant county. If I did not propose to continue with them, it would perhaps be wrong to accompany them in this removal. The state of calamity to which my inexorable prosecutor had reduced me had made the encounter even of a den of robbers a fortunate adventure. But the time that had since elapsed had probably been sufficient to relax the keenness of the quest that was made after me. I sighed for that solitude and obscurity, that retreat from the vexations of the world, and the voice even of common fame, which I had proposed to myself when I broke my prison. Such were the meditations which now occupied my mind. At length I grew fatigued with continual contemplation, and to relieve myself pulled out a pocket-horris, the legacy of my beloved Brightwell. I read with avidity the epistle in which he so beautifully describes to Fuscus, the Gramarian, the pleasures of rural tranquility and independence. By this time the sun rose from behind the eastern hills, and I opened my casement to contemplate it. The day commenced with peculiar brilliancy, and was accompanied with all those charms which the poets of nature, as they have been styled, have so much delighted to describe. There was something in this scene, particularly as succeeding to the active exertions of intellect, that soothed the mind to composure. Insensibly a confused reverie invaded my faculties. I withdrew from the window, threw myself upon the bed, and fell asleep. I do not recollect the precise images which in this situation passed through my thoughts, but I know that they concluded with the idea of some person, the agent of Mr. Falkland, approaching to assassinate me. This thought had probably been suggested by the project I meditated of entering once again into the world, and throwing myself within the sphere of his possible vengeance. I imagined that the design of the murderer was to come upon me by surprise, that I was aware of his design, and yet by some fascination had no thought of evading it. I heard the steps of the murderer as he cautiously approached. I seemed to listen to his constrained yet audible breathings. He came up to the corner where I was placed, and then stopped. The idea became too terrible. I started, opened my eyes, and beheld the excruble hag before mentioned, standing over me with a butcher's cleaver. I shifted my situation with a speed that seemed too swift for volition, and the blow already aimed at my skull sunk impotent upon the bed. Before she could wholly recover her posture, I sprung upon her, seized hold of the weapon, and had nearly rested it from her. But in a moment she resumed her strength and her desperate purpose, and we had a furious struggle. She impelled by inveterate malice, and I resisting for my life. Her vigour was truly Amazonian, and at no time had I ever occasioned to contend with a more formidable opponent. Her glance was rapid and exact, and the shock with which from time to time she impelled her whole frame inconceivably vehement. At length I was victorious, took from her the instrument of death, and threw her upon the ground. Till now the earnestness of her exertions had curbed her rage. But now she gnashed with her teeth her eyes seemed as if starting from their sockets, and her body heaved with uncontrollable insanity. Rascal! Devil! she exclaimed. What do you mean to do to me? Till now the scene had passed uninterrupted by a single word. Nothing, I replied, be gone, infernal witch, and leave me to myself. Leave you. No. I will thrust my fingers through your ribs and drink your blood. You conquer me. Ha! Ha! Yes. Yes, you shall. I will sit upon you and press you to hell. I will roast you with brimstone and dasher entrails into your eyes. Ha! Ha! Ha! Saying this, she sprang up and prepared to attack me with redoubled fury. I seized her hands and compelled her to sit upon the bed. Thus restrained she continued to express the tumult of her thoughts by grinning, by certain furious motions of her head, and by occasional vehement efforts to disengage herself from my grasp. These contortions and starts were of the nature of those fits in which the patients are commonly supposed to need three or four persons to hold them. But I found, by experience, that under the circumstances in which I was placed, my single strength was sufficient. The spectacle of her emotions was inconceivably frightful. Her violence, at length, however, began to abate, and she became convinced of the hopelessness of the contest. Let me go! said she. Why do you hold me? I will not be held. I wanted you gone from the first, replied I. Are you contented to go now? Yes, I tell you, Miss Begotten-Villain, yes, Rascal. I immediately loosed my hold. She flew to the door, and holding it in her hand said, I will be the death of you yet. You shall not be your own man twenty-four hours longer. With these words she shut the door and locked it upon me. An action so totally unexpected startled me. Wither was she gone? What was it she intended? To perish by the machinations of such a hag as this was a thought not to be endured. Death in any form brought upon us by surprise, and for which the mind has had no time to prepare, is inexpressibly terrible. My thoughts wandered in breathless horror and confusion, and all within was uproar. I endeavored to break the door, but in vain I went round the room in search of some tool to assist me. At length I rushed against it with a desperate effort, to which it yielded, and had nearly thrown me from the top of the stairs to the bottom. I descended with all possible caution and vigilance. I entered the room which served us for a kitchen, but it was deserted. I searched every other apartment in vain. I went out among the ruins. Still I discovered nothing of my late assailant. It was extraordinary what could become of her. What was I to conclude from her disappearance? I reflected on her parting menace. I should not be my own man twenty-four hours longer. It was mysterious. It did not seem to be the menace of assassination. Suddenly the recollection of the hand-bill brought to us by Larkin's rushed upon my memory. Was it possible that she alluded to that in her parting words? Would she set out upon such an expedition by herself? Was it not dangerous to the whole fraternity if, without the smallest precaution, she should bring the officers of justice in the midst of them? It was perhaps improbable she would engage in an undertaking thus desperate. It was not, however, easy to answer for the conduct of a person in her state of mind. Should I wait and risk the preservation of my liberty upon the issue? To this question I returned an immediate negative. I had resolved, in a short time, to quit my present situation, and the difference of a little sooner or a little later could not be very material. It promised to be neither agreeable nor prudent for me to remain under the same roof, with a person who had manifested such a fierce and inexpeable hostility. But the consideration which had inexpressibly the most weight with me belonged to the ideas of imprisonment, trial, and death. The longer they had formed the subject of my contemplation, the more forcibly was I impelled to avoid them. I had entered upon a system of action for that purpose. I had already made many sacrifices, and I believed that I would never miscarry in this project through any neglect of mine. The thought of what was reserved for me by my persecutors sickened my very soul, and the more intimately I was acquainted with oppression and injustice, the more deeply was I penetrated with the abhorrence to which they are entitled. Such were the reasons that determined me instantly, abruptly, without leave-taking or acknowledgment for the peculiar and repeated favours I had received, to quit a habitation, to which, for six weeks, I had apparently been indebted for protection from trial, conviction, and an ignominious death. I had come hither penniless. I quitted my abode with the sum of a few guineas in my possession. Mr. Raymond, having insisted upon my taking a share, at the time that each man received his dividend from the common stock, though I had reason to suppose that the heat of the pursuit against me would be somewhat remitted by the time that had elapsed, the magnitude of the mischief that, in an unfavourable event, might fall on me, determined me to neglect no imaginable precaution. I recollected the hand-bill which was the source of my present alarm, and conceived that one of the principal dangers which threatened me was the recognition of my person, either by such as had previously known me, or even by strangers. It seemed prudent, therefore, to disguise it, as effectually as I could. For this purpose I had recourse to a parcel of tattered garments, that lay in a neglected corner of our habitation. The disguise I chose was that of a beggar. Upon this plan I threw off my shirt. I tied a handkerchief about my head, with which I took care to cover one of my eyes. Over this I drew a piece of an old woollen nightcap. I selected the worst apparel I could find, and this I reduced to a still more deplorable condition by rents that I purposely made in various places. Thus equipped I surveyed myself in a looking-glass. I had rendered my appearance complete, nor would any one have suspected that I was not one of the fraternity to which I assumed to belong. I said, this is the form in which tyranny and injustice oblige me to seek for refuge. But better a thousand times better is it, thus to incur contempt with the dregs of mankind, than trust to the tender mercies of our superiors. End of Chapter 4 of Volume III