r,
who arose as I came forward, half in curiosity, half in respect; and as
I was asking them in what quarter I might find a lodging for the night,
the landlord came out. No sooner did his eyes fall on me than he started
back in seeming terror, and, after a pause of a few seconds, cried
out,--

"Molly! Molly! come here quick! Who's that standing there?" said he, as
he pointed with his finger towards me.

"The heavens be about us! but it's Mr. Walter Carew himself," said the
woman, crossing herself.

This sudden recognition of my resemblance to my father so overcame me
that though I struggled hard for speech, the words would not come; and I
stood pale and gasping before them.

"For Heaven's sake, speak!" cried the man, in terror.

I heard no more; faint, agitated, and exhausted, I tottered towards the
bank, and swooned away.

CHAPTER XLVIII. THE PERILS OF EVIL

The last few pages I mean to append to these notices of my life might
be, perhaps, equally well derived from the public newspapers of the
time. At a period when great events were occurring; when the conquering
armies of France marched over the length and breadth of Europe,--the
humble historian of these pages was able, for a brief space, to engage
public attention, and become for a short season the notoriety of the
hour. I will not presume so far as to say that the fame to which I
attained was of that kind which flatters most, or that the reputation
attaching to me was above reproach. Still, I had my partisans
and adherents, nay, I believe I might even aver, my friends and
well-wishers. He must, perchance, have had a fortunate existence who can
say more.

Of what followed after the event detailed in my last chapter I can
relate nothing, for I was seized with shivering and other signs of fever
that same night, and for several weeks my life was despaired of. Even
when the dangerous period passed over, my convalescence made but little
progress. For me there were none of those aids which so powerfully
assist the return to health. The sympathy of friends, the affections of
family, the very hope of once more assuming one's place at hearth and
board,--I had none of these. If the past was filled with trouble and
suffering, the future was a bleak expanse that offered nothing to
speculate on. My thoughts turned to the New World beyond the seas, to a
region wherein nothing should recall a memory of the bygone, and where
even I might at last forget the early y