ere, observing a
carrier's waggon on the point of departure for Normandy, he availed
himself of the opportunity to facilitate his escape, by putting a few
essentials into a cloak-bag, and forwarding his heavy trunk by the
carrier. After some delay, of which every moment appeared an age, the
diligence departed; and when the church-towers were lost in distance,
the goading terrors of the unhappy fugitive yielded for a time to
feelings of comparative security. His apprehensions, however, were
renewed by every rising cloud of dust behind the diligence, and by every
equestrian who followed and passed the vehicle. In vain did he endeavour
to console himself with the consciousness that he was innocent, and
under the protection of a just and merciful Providence. The judicial
murder of Calas, and of other innocent sufferers, detailed in the
_Causes Celebres_ of Pitaval, were ever present to his fevered fancy;
and when he closed his eyes and assumed the semblance of sleep, to avoid
the conversation of his fellow-travellers, his imagination conjured up
the staring orbs and satanic smile of Bartholdy, who pointed at him
jeeringly, and exclaimed, "In vain you seek to shun your destiny! In
France, the innocent and the guilty bleed alike upon the scaffold." And
then he shouted in the ear of Florian, "Why did you part with the knife
I confided to you? Why provoke me to become your evil genius?" Or, with
a hoarse and fiendish laugh, he seemed to whisper to the shrinking
fugitive--"You are a doomed man, Florian! doomed to the scaffold!"

Thus busily did the frenzied fancy of the unhappy youth call up a
succession of imaginary terrors, until at dusk the diligence stopped at
a solitary inn, and Florian heard, with new alarm, that here the
passengers were to remain the night. "And here," thought the timid
fugitive, "I shall certainly be overtaken and arrested by the
gens-d'armes." A traveller, who arrived soon after the diligence, and
supped with the passengers, afforded him, however, another chance of
escape. This man was lamenting that, at a neighbouring fair, he had not
been able to sell an excellent horse, and Florian, watching his
opportunity, concluded the purchase with little bargaining. Pleading the
necessity of going forward on urgent business, he mounted his purchase,
and quitted the inn-yard, with a heart lightened by the certainty that
he should gain a night upon his pursuers. At that time France was at
peace both abroad and at