er or
suffering by which the general good may be promoted, then brand me for a
coward!

"These reasonings, however simple and irresistible they must be found by
a dispassionate enquirer, are little reflected on by the world at large,
and were most of all uncongenial to the prejudices of Mr. Falkland.

"But the public disgrace and chastisement that had been imposed upon
him, intolerable as they were to be recollected, were not the whole of
the mischief that redounded to our unfortunate patron from the
transactions of that day. It was presently whispered that he was no
other than the murderer of his antagonist. This rumour was of too much
importance to the very continuance of his life, to justify its being
concealed from him. He heard it with inexpressible astonishment and
horror; it formed a dreadful addition to the load of intellectual
anguish that already oppressed him. No man had ever held his reputation
more dear than Mr. Falkland; and now, in one day, he was fallen under
the most exquisite calamities, a complicated personal insult, and the
imputation of the foulest of crimes. He might have fled; for no one was
forward to proceed against a man so adored as Mr. Falkland, or in
revenge of one so universally execrated as Mr. Tyrrel. But flight he
disdained. In the mean time the affair was of the most serious
magnitude, and the rumour unchecked seemed daily to increase in
strength. Mr. Falkland appeared sometimes inclined to adopt such steps
as might have been best calculated to bring the imputation to a speedy
trial. But he probably feared, by too direct an appeal to judicature, to
render more precise an imputation, the memory of which he deprecated; at
the same time that he was sufficiently willing to meet the severest
scrutiny, and, if he could not hope to have it forgotten that he had
ever been accused, to prove in the most satisfactory manner that the
accusation was unjust.

"The neighbouring magistrates at length conceived it necessary to take
some steps upon the subject. Without causing Mr. Falkland to be
apprehended, they sent to desire he would appear before them at one of
their meetings. The proceeding being thus opened, Mr. Falkland expressed
his hope that, if the business were likely to stop there, their
investigation might at least be rendered as solemn as possible. The
meeting was numerous; every person of a respectable class in society was
admitted to be an auditor; the whole town, one of the most consi