<SPAN name="V3_CXV" id="V3_CXV"></SPAN>
<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
<p>It is as I foreboded. The presage with which I was visited was prophetic.
I am now to record a new and terrible revolution of my fortune and my
mind.</p>
<p>Having made experiment of various situations with one uniform result, I
at length determined to remove myself, if possible, from the reach of my
persecutor, by going into voluntary banishment from my native soil. This was
my last resource for tranquillity, for honest fame, for those privileges to
which human life is indebted for the whole of its value. "In some distant
climate," said I, "surely I may find that security which is necessary to
persevering pursuit; surely I may lift my head erect, associate with men
upon the footing of a man, acquire connections, and preserve them!" It is
inconceivable with what ardent Teachings of the soul I aspired to this
termination.</p>
<p>This last consolation was denied me by the inexorable Falkland.</p>
<p>At the time the project was formed I was at no great distance from the
east coast of the island, and I resolved to take ship at Harwich, and pass
immediately into Holland. I accordingly repaired to that place, and went,
almost as soon as I arrived, to the port. But there was no vessel perfectly
ready to sail. I left the port, and withdrew to an inn, where, after some
time, I retired to a chamber. I was scarcely there before the door of the
room was opened, and the man whose countenance was the most hateful to my
eyes, Gines, entered the apartment. He shut the door as soon as he
entered.</p>
<p>"Youngster," said he, "I have a little private intelligence to
communicate to you. I come as a friend, and that I may save you a
labour-in-vain trouble. If you consider what I have to say in that light, it
will be the better for you. It is my business now, do you see, for want of a
better, to see that you do not break out of bounds. Not that I much matter
having one man for my employer, or dancing attendance after another's heels;
but I have special kindness for you, for some good turns that you wot of,
and therefore I do not stand upon ceremonies! You have led me a very pretty
round already; and, out of the love I bear you, you shall lead me as much
further, if you will. But beware the salt seas! They are out of my orders.
You are a prisoner at present, and I believe all your life will remain so.
Thanks to the milk-and-water softness of your former master! If I had the
ordering of these things, it should go with you in another fashion. As long
as you think proper, you are a prisoner within the rules; and the rules with
which the soft-hearted squire indulges you, are all England, Scotland, and
Wales. But you are not to go out of these climates. The squire is determined
you shall never pass the reach of his disposal. He has therefore given
orders that, whenever you attempt so to do, you shall be converted from a
prisoner at large to a prisoner in good earnest. A friend of mine followed
you just now to the harbour; I was within call; and, if there had been any
appearance of your setting your foot from land, we should have been with you
in a trice, and laid you fast by the heels. I would advise you, for the
future, to keep at a proper distance from the sea, for fear of the worst.
You see I tell you all this for your good. For my part, I should be better
satisfied if you were in limbo, with a rope about your neck, and a
comfortable bird's eye prospect to the gallows: but I do as I am directed;
and so good night to you!"</p>
<p>The intelligence thus conveyed to me occasioned an instantaneous
revolution in both my intellectual and animal system. I disdained to answer,
or take the smallest notice of the fiend by whom it was delivered. It is now
three days since I received it, and from that moment to the present my blood
has been in a perpetual ferment. My thoughts wander from one idea of horror
to another, with incredible rapidity. I have had no sleep. I have scarcely
remained in one posture for a minute together. It has been with the utmost
difficulty that I have been able to command myself far enough to add a few
pages to my story. But, uncertain as I am of the events of each succeeding
hour, I determined to force myself to the performance of this task. All is
not right within me. How it will terminate, God knows. I sometimes fear that
I shall be wholly deserted of my reason.</p>
<p>What—dark, mysterious, unfeeling, unrelenting tyrant!--is it come
to this? When Nero and Caligula swayed the Roman sceptre, it was a fearful
thing to offend these bloody rulers. The empire had already spread itself
from climate to climate, and from sea to sea. If their unhappy victim fled
to the rising of the sun, where the luminary of day seems to us first to
ascend from the waves of the ocean, the power of the tyrant was still behind
him. If he withdrew to the west, to Hesperian darkness, and the shores of
barbarian Thule, still he was not safe from his gore-drenched
foe.—Falkland! art thou the offspring, in whom the lineaments of these
tyrants are faithfully preserved? Was the world, with all its climates, made
in vain for thy helpless unoffending victim?</p>
<p>Tremble!</p>
<p>Tyrants have trembled, surrounded with whole armies of their Janissaries!
What should make thee inaccessible to my fury? No, I will use no daggers! I
will unfold a tale!--I will show thee to the world for what thou art; and
all the men that live, shall confess my truth!--Didst thou imagine that I
was altogether passive, a mere worm, organised to feel sensations of pain,
but no emotion of resentment? Didst thou imagine that there was no danger in
inflicting on me pains however great, miseries however dreadful? Didst thou
believe me impotent, imbecile, and idiot-like, with no understanding to
contrive thy ruin, and no energy to perpetrate it?</p>
<p>I will tell a tale—! The justice of the country shall hear me! The
elements of nature in universal uproar shall not interrupt me! I will speak
with a voice more fearful than thunder!--Why should I be supposed to speak
from any dishonourable motive? I am under no prosecution now! I shall not
now appear to be endeavouring to remove a criminal indictment from myself,
by throwing it back on its author!--Shall I regret the ruin that will
overwhelm thee? Too long have I been tender-hearted and forbearing! What
benefit has ever resulted from my mistaken clemency? There is no evil thou
hast scrupled to accumulate upon me! Neither will I be more scrupulous! Thou
hast shown no mercy; and thou shalt receive none!--I must be calm! bold as a
lion, yet collected!</p>
<p>This is a moment pregnant with fate. I know—I think I
know—that I will be triumphant, and crush my seemingly omnipotent foe.
But, should it be otherwise, at least he shall not be every way successful.
His fame shall not be immortal as he thinks. These papers shall preserve the
truth; they shall one day be published, and then the world shall do justice
on us both. Recollecting that, I shall not die wholly without consolation.
It is not to be endured that falsehood and tyranny should reign for
ever.</p>
<p>How impotent are the precautions of man against the eternally existing
laws of the intellectual world! This Falkland has invented against me every
species of foul accusation. He has hunted me from city to city. He has drawn
his lines of circumvallation round me that I may not escape. He has kept his
scenters of human prey for ever at my heels. He may hunt me out of the
world.—In vain! With this engine, this little pen, I defeat all his
machinations; I stab him in the very point he was most solicitous to
defend!</p>
<p>Collins! I now address myself to you. I have consented that you should
yield me no assistance in my present terrible situation. I am content to die
rather than do any thing injurious to your tranquillity. But remember, you
are my father still! I conjure you, by all the love you ever bore me, by the
benefits you have conferred on me, by the forbearance and kindness towards
you that now penetrates my soul, by my innocence—for, if these be the
last words I shall ever write, I die protesting my innocence!--by all these,
or whatever tie more sacred has influence on your soul, I conjure you,
listen to my last request! Preserve these papers from destruction, and
preserve them from Falkland! It is all I ask! I have taken care to provide a
safe mode of conveying them into your possession: and I have a firm
confidence, which I will not suffer to depart from me, that they will one
day find their way to the public!</p>
<p>The pen lingers in my trembling fingers! Is there any thing I have left
unsaid?—The contents of the fatal trunk, from which all my misfortunes
originated, I have never been able to ascertain. I once thought it contained
some murderous instrument or relic connected with the fate of the unhappy
Tyrrel. I am now persuaded that the secret it encloses, is a faithful
narrative of that and its concomitant transactions, written by Mr. Falkland,
and reserved in case of the worst, that, if by any unforeseen event his
guilt should come to be fully disclosed, it might contribute to redeem the
wreck of his reputation. But the truth or the falsehood of this conjecture
is of little moment. If Falkland shall never be detected to the satisfaction
of the world, such a narrative will probably never see the light. In that
case this story of mine may amply, severely perhaps, supply its place.</p>
<p>I know not what it is that renders me thus solemn. I have a secret
foreboding, as if I should never again be master of myself. If I succeed in
what I now meditate respecting Falkland, my precaution in the disposal of
these papers will have been unnecessary; I shall no longer be reduced to
artifice and evasion. If I fail, the precaution will appear to have been
wisely chosen.</p>
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