h you. I
see in you a new instance of that abuse which is so generally made of
talents, the admiration of an undiscerning public. I regard you with
horror. All that remains is, that I should discharge my duty, in
consigning you, as a monster of depravity, to the justice of your
country."

"No," rejoined Mr. Falkland, "to that I can never consent. I have put a
restraint upon myself thus far, because it was right that evidence and
enquiry should take their course. I have suppressed all my habits and
sentiments, because it seemed due to the public that hypocrisy should be
unmasked. But I can suffer this violence no longer. I have through my
whole life interfered to protect, not overbear, the sufferer; and I must
do so now. I feel not the smallest resentment of his impotent attacks
upon my character; I smile at their malice; and they make no diminution
in my benevolence to their author. Let him say what he pleases; he
cannot hurt me. It was proper that he should be brought to public shame,
that other people might not be deceived by him as we have been. But
there is no necessity for proceeding further; and I must insist upon it
that he be permitted to depart wherever he pleases. I am sorry that
public interest affords so gloomy a prospect for his future happiness."

"Mr. Falkland," answered Mr. Forester, "these sentiments do honour to
your humanity; but I must not give way to them. They only serve to set
in a stronger light the venom of this serpent, this monster of
ingratitude, who first robs his benefactor, and then reviles him. Wretch
that you are, will nothing move you? Are you inaccessible to remorse?
Are you not struck to the heart with the unmerited goodness of your
master? Vile calumniator! you are the abhorrence of nature, the
opprobrium of the human species, and the earth can only be freed from an
insupportable burthen by your being exterminated! Recollect, sir, that
this monster, at the very moment that you are exercising such unexampled
forbearance in his behalf, has the presumption to charge you with
prosecuting a crime of which you know him to be innocent, nay, with
having conveyed the pretended stolen goods among his property, for the
express purpose of ruining him. By this unexampled villainy, he makes it
your duty to free the world from such a pest, and your interest to admit
no relaxing in your pursuit of him, lest the world should be persuaded
by your clemency to credit his vile insinuations."

"I care