Recollect yourself! I
did not proceed to the step with which you reproach me, till I was
apparently urged to the very last extremity. I had suffered as much as
human nature can suffer; I had lived in the midst of eternal alarm and
unintermitted watchfulness; I had twice been driven to purposes of
suicide. I am now sorry however, that the step of which you complain was
ever adopted. But, urged to exasperation by an unintermitted rigour, I
had no time to cool or to deliberate. Even at present I cherish no
vengeance against you. All that is reasonable, all that can really
contribute to your security, I will readily concede; but I will not be
driven to an act repugnant to all reason, integrity, and justice."

Mr. Falkland listened to me with astonishment and impatience. He had
entertained no previous conception of the firmness I displayed. Several
times he was convulsed with the fury that laboured in his breast. Once
and again he betrayed an intention to interrupt; but he was restrained
by the collectedness of my manner, and perhaps by a desire to be
acquainted with the entire state of my mind. Finding that I had
concluded, he paused for a moment; his passion seemed gradually to
enlarge, till it was no longer capable of control.

"It is well!" said he, gnashing his teeth, and stamping upon the ground.
"You refuse the composition I offer! I have no power to persuade you to
compliance! You defy me! At least I have a power respecting you, and
that power I will exercise; a power that shall grind you into atoms. I
condescend to no more expostulation. I know what I am, and what I can
be. I know what you are, and what fate is reserved for you!"

Saying this he quitted the room.

Such were the particulars of this memorable scene. The impression it has
left upon my understanding is indelible. The figure and appearance of
Mr. Falkland, his death-like weakness and decay, his more than mortal
energy and rage, the words that he spoke, the motives that animated him,
produced one compounded effect upon my mind that nothing of the same
nature could ever parallel. The idea of his misery thrilled through my
frame. How weak in comparison of it is the imaginary hell, which the
great enemy of mankind is represented as carrying every where about with
him!

From this consideration, my mind presently turned to the menaces he had
vented against myself. They were all mysterious and undefined. He had
talked of power, but had given no hint from