rtain guilt does the
heavy penalty fall on me. You, innocent being as you are, shall no
longer bind your destiny to mine, I will no longer let it be so. To-night
I will hasten away. Saddle me my horse--I ride alone--you must remain--I
require it. Some chests of gold must yet be here. They are now yours. I
shall wander restlessly through the world; but if a happier day should
dawn, and bliss should again smile upon me, I will faithfully think of
you; for on your faithful bosom I have wept in many a weary, wretched,
sorrowful hour."

The honest fellow obeyed with a broken heart this last command of his
master. It agonized his soul; but I was deaf to his representations and
entreaties, and blind to his tears. He brought the horse to me, I
pressed him while he wept against my breast, sprang into the saddle, and
pursued my way under the mantle of night from the grave of my existence;
indifferent as to the direction my horse might take. On the earth I had
no goal--no wish--no hope.

CHAPTER VIII.

A foot passenger soon joined me, and, after walking some time by my
horse's side, begged me, as we were bound the same way, to be allowed to
throw the cloak which he carried on the crupper; I quietly allowed him to
do so. He thanked me with a graceful address for this trifling service,
praised my horse, and thence took the opportunity of lauding the
happiness and the influence of the wealthy. He went on I know not how,
in a sort of soliloquy, for I was only a hearer.

He unfolded his views of life and the world, and soon introduced
metaphysics, from whence the word was to emanate which should solve all
mysteries. He developed his theme with great distinctness, and led
forward to its deductions.

You know very well that I have often confessed, since I drove through the
school of philosophy, that I do not consider myself as by any means
calculated for philosophical speculations, and that I have altogether
renounced that branch of study. From that time I have let many things be
settled as they could, renounced much which I might have understood or
learnt, and, following your counsels by trusting to my innate senses,
that voice of the heart, I have gone forward in my own road as far as I
was able. This rhetorician appeared to me to build his firmly-cemented
edifice with great ability. It seemed to bear itself on its firm and
solid foundation, and stood, as it were, on its own absolute necessity.
Then I misse