those persons who had had occasion to be in any
degree acquainted with our history, did not entertain less abhorrence
against me for my own sake. If they should at any time know the pains he
exerted in causing my evil reputation to follow me, they would consider
it as an act of impartial justice, perhaps as a generous anxiety to
prevent other men from being imposed upon and injured, as he had been.

What expedient was I to employ for the purpose of counteracting the
meditated and barbarous prudence, which was thus destined, in all
changes of scene, to deprive me of the benefits and consolations of
human society? There was one expedient against which I was absolutely
determined--disguise. I had experienced so many mortifications, and such
intolerable restraint, when I formerly had recourse to it; it was
associated in my memory with sensations of such acute anguish, that my
mind was thus far entirely convinced: life was not worth purchasing at
so high a price! But, though in this respect I was wholly resolved,
there was another point that did not appear so material, and in which
therefore I was willing to accommodate myself to circumstances. I was
contented, if that would insure my peace, to submit to the otherwise
unmanly expedient of passing by a different name.

But the change of my name, the abruptness with which I removed from
place to place, the remoteness and the obscurity which I proposed to
myself in the choice of my abode, were all insufficient to elude the
sagacity of Gines, or the unrelenting constancy with which Mr. Falkland
incited my tormentor to pursue me. Whithersoever I removed myself it was
not long before I had occasion to perceive this detested adversary in my
rear. No words can enable me to do justice to the sensations which this
circumstance produced in me. It was like what has been described of the
eye of Omniscience, pursuing the guilty sinner, and darting a ray that
awakens him to new sensibility, at the very moment that, otherwise,
exhausted nature would lull him into a temporary oblivion of the
reproaches of his conscience. Sleep fled from my eyes. No walls could
hide me from the discernment of this hated foe. Every where his industry
was unwearied to create for me new distress. Rest I had none; relief I
had none: never could I count upon an instant's security; never could I
wrap myself in the shroud of oblivion. The minutes in which I did not
actually perceive him, were contaminated and blast