red a party to the transaction, remained quietly on his horse, and
as soon as they had taken my effects, turned round and drove off. They
then rifled my person, taking away everything that I had, leaving me
nothing but my trowsers and shirt. After a short consultation, they
ordered me to walk on in the direction in which we had been proceeding
in the chaise, and to hasten as fast as I could, or they would blow my
brains out. I complied with their request, thinking myself fortunate to
have escaped so well. I knew that I was still thirty miles at least
from the vicarage; but ill as I was, I hoped to be able to reach it on
foot. I walked during the remainder of the night, but I got on but
slowly. I reeled from one side of the road to the other, and
occasionally sat down to rest. Morning dawned, and I perceived
habitations not far from me. I staggered on in my course.

The fever now raged in me, my head was splitting with agony, and I
tottered to a bank near a small neat cottage, on the side of the road.
I have a faint recollection of some one coming to me and taking my hand,
but nothing further; and it was not till many months afterwards, that I
became acquainted with the circumstances which I now relate. It appears
that the owner of the cottage was a half-pay lieutenant in the army, who
had sold out on account of his wounds. I was humanely taken into his
house, laid on a bed, and a surgeon requested to come to me immediately.
I had now lost all recollection, and who I was they could not
ascertain. My pockets were empty, and it was only by the mark on my
linen that they found that my name was Simple. For three weeks I
remained in a state of alternate stupor and delirium. When the latter
came on, I raved of Lord Privilege, O'Brien, and Celeste. Mr Selwin,
the officer who had so kindly assisted me, knew that Simple was the
patronymic name of Lord Privilege, and he immediately wrote to his
lordship, stating that a young man of the name of Simple, who, in his
delirium called upon him and Captain O'Brien, was lying in a most
dangerous state in his house, and, that as he presumed. I was a
relative of his lordship's, he had deemed it right to apprise him of the
fact.

My uncle, who knew that it must be me, thought this too favourable an
opportunity, provided I should live, not to have me in his power. He
wrote to say that he would be there in a day or two; at the same time
thanking Mr Selwin for his kind attentio