the thing lay
deep upon my nerves, and I knew well that if I stopped there much longer
I should fall a victim to it in the body. In this emergency, by means
of Antonio, I opened negotiations with the officer of the _rurales_,
and finally, after much secret bargaining, it was arranged that in
consideration of a sum of two hundred dollars--for by good luck I had
escaped from the brigands with my money--our flight through the cordon
of guards should not be observed in the darkness.

We were to start at nine o'clock on a certain night. At a quarter to
that hour I went to the stable to see that everything was ready, and in
the courtyard outside of it found Antonio seated against the water tank
groaning and writhing with pains in the back. One looked showed me that
he had developed the usual symptoms, so, feeling that no time was to be
lost, I saddled the mules myself and took them round.

"Where is Antonio?" asked Emma as she mounted.

"He has gone on ahead," I answered, "to be sure that the road is clear;
he will meet us beyond the mountains."

Poor Antonio! I wonder what became of him; he was a good fellow, and I
hope that he recovered. It grieved me much to leave him, but after all
I had my own safety to think of, and still more that of Emma, who had
grown very dear to me. Perhaps one day I shall find him "beyond the
mountains," but, if so, that is a meeting from which I expect no joy.

The rest of our journey was strange enough, but it has nothing to do
with this history. Indeed, I have only touched upon these long past
adventures in a far land because they illustrate the curious fatality by
the workings of which every important event of my life has taken place
under the dreadful shadow of smallpox. I was born under that shadow, I
wedded under it, I--but the rest shall be told in its proper order.

In the end we reached Mexico City in safety, and there Emma and I were
married. Ten days later we were on board ship steaming for England.

CHAPTER III

SIR JOHN BELL

Now it is that I came to the great and terrible event of my life, which
in its result turned me into a false witness and a fraud, and bound
upon my spirit a weight of blood-guiltiness greater than a man is
often called upon to bear. As I have not scrupled to show I have
constitutional weaknesses--more, I am a sinner, I know it; I have sinned
against the code of my profession, and have preached a doctrine I knew
to be false, using all my skill