pear; and such was he, the impostor, who,
with fear of hell for his scourge, most ravenous wolf, played the driver to
a credulous flock.

It was a moment of suspense, that shook even the resolution of the
unyielding friend of man. Adrian for one moment was about to give in, to
cease the struggle, and quit, with a few adherents, the deluded crowd,
leaving them a miserable prey to their passions, and to the worse tyrant
who excited them. But again, after a brief fluctuation of purpose, he
resumed his courage and resolves, sustained by the singleness of his
purpose, and the untried spirit of benevolence which animated him. At this
moment, as an omen of excellent import, his wretched enemy pulled
destruction on his head, destroying with his own hands the dominion he had
erected.

His grand hold upon the minds of men, took its rise from the doctrine
inculcated by him, that those who believed in, and followed him, were the
remnant to be saved, while all the rest of mankind were marked out for
death. Now, at the time of the Flood, the omnipotent repented him that he
had created man, and as then with water, now with the arrows of pestilence,
was about to annihilate all, except those who obeyed his decrees,
promulgated by the ipse dixit prophet. It is impossible to say on what
foundations this man built his hopes of being able to carry on such an
imposture. It is likely that he was fully aware of the lie which murderous
nature might give to his assertions, and believed it to be the cast of a
die, whether he should in future ages be reverenced as an inspired delegate
from heaven, or be recognized as an impostor by the present dying
generation. At any rate he resolved to keep up the drama to the last act.
When, on the first approach of summer, the fatal disease again made its
ravages among the followers of Adrian, the impostor exultingly proclaimed
the exemption of his own congregation from the universal calamity. He was
believed; his followers, hitherto shut up in Paris, now came to Versailles.
Mingling with the coward band there assembled, they reviled their admirable
leader, and asserted their own superiority and exemption. At length the
plague, slow-footed, but sure in her noiseless advance, destroyed the
illusion, invading the congregation of the elect, and showering promiscuous
death among them. Their leader endeavoured to conceal this event; he had a
few followers, who, admitted into the arcana of his wickedness, could help