im no Egyptian
taskmaster, but a benefactor, lavish of favours? What matters it that he
has in charge things of trust and moment which, by miscarrying, will
work distress to many? What matters it that others are about him,
engaged in this same drudgery of doing one's duty, to whom, should he
succeed in villainy as he trusts to do, his example will remain, a
wrecker's light to entice the storm-tossed upon a rocky shore? What
matters it,--I am told, gentlemen, that the prisoner has a good and
industrious sister,--what matters it that rarely, rarely, is there
ill-doing without, somewhere in the shadowed background, some bruised
and broken heart? What does it matter that he betrays his trust, breaks
his oath, blackens his name, slurs his friends, and recruits the army,
wan and sinister, of all the fallen since time began? To him,
apparently, it matters less than a drifting leaf in the wind of this
October day. He remembers all that he should forget, and forgets all
that should be remembered. There pass by him in long parade Tom and Dick
and Harry and others of their ilk. He sees them, and he sees little
else. It is a host of choice spirits, and they have banners flying. His
courage mounts. Brave emulation! noble rivalry! He, too, will be bold;
he, too, will join their regiment! For him, too, the spoils of
opportunity and a daughter of the game! He feels the summer in the air,
and all Brummagem rises upon his horizon. Farewell to patient drudgery
and the slow playing over of the tune of life! He's for a brisker air,
he's for 'Over the hills and far away.'

"His little plans are laid. I say 'little,' gentlemen, advisedly, for in
all this there is no greatness. We speak of a self-seeker here, and all
the ends of such an one are small, and he himself has not attained the
full stature of a man. The ambitious soul before us! By stealth he
practises until he can sign his employer's name, more lifelike almost
than life! By stealth he gains impressions of the keys. By stealth he
eyes the only wealth that his mole mind can value! By stealth he makes
his preparations, and by stealth he cons the miles and the post-houses
between him and the country to which he means to carry himself and his
stolen goods! He is assiduous at his desk; his employers nod approval,
praise him for a lad of parts, and hold him up for emulation. In his
brain one air continues,--'Over the hills and far away.'

"The day approaches. The forgery is done, the accu