as strong enough to draw the person to whom it
was addressed from one end of the earth to the other. My mind was full
of confidence and energy. I felt my own innocence, and was determined to
assert it. I was willing to be driven out a fugitive; I even rejoiced in
my escape, and cheerfully went out into the world destitute of every
provision, and depending for my future prospects upon my own ingenuity.

Thus much, said I, Falkland! you may do. Dispose of me as you please
with respect to the goods of fortune; but you shall neither make prize
of my liberty, nor sully the whiteness of my name. I repassed in my
thoughts every memorable incident that had happened to me under his
roof. I could recollect nothing, except the affair of the mysterious
trunk, out of which the shadow of a criminal accusation could be
extorted. In that instance my conduct had been highly reprehensible, and
I had never looked back upon it without remorse and self-condemnation.
But I did not believe that it was of the nature of those actions which
can be brought under legal censure. I could still less persuade myself
that Mr. Falkland, who shuddered at the very possibility of detection,
and who considered himself as completely in my power, would dare to
bring forward a subject so closely connected with the internal agony of
his soul. In a word, the more I reflected on the phrases of Mr.
Forester's billet, the less could I imagine the nature of those scenes
to which they were to serve as a prelude.

The inscrutableness however of the mystery they contained, did not
suffice to overwhelm my courage. My mind seemed to undergo an entire
revolution. Timid and embarrassed as I had felt myself, when I regarded
Mr. Falkland as my clandestine and domestic foe, I now conceived that
the case was entirely altered. "Meet me," said I, "as an open accuser:
if we must contend, let us contend in the face of day; and then,
unparalleled as your resources may be, I will not fear you." Innocence
and guilt were, in my apprehension, the things in the whole world the
most opposite to each other. I would not suffer myself to believe, that
the former could be confounded with the latter, unless the innocent man
first allowed himself to be subdued in mind, before he was defrauded of
the good opinion of mankind. Virtue rising superior to every calamity,
defeating by a plain unvarnished tale all the stratagems of Vice, and
throwing back upon her adversary the confusion with which he