he transition easy, from one to the other extreme of injustice;
and the peasant who voted for the banishment of the just man, in another
sphere and under other circumstances, would have been a Borgia or a
Catiline. With this feeling in his bosom, Munro was yet unapprized of
its existence. It is not with the man, so long hurried forward by his
impulses as at last to become their creature, to analyze either their
character or his own. Vice, though itself a monster, is yet the slave of
a thousand influences, not absolutely vicious in themselves; and their
desires it not uncommonly performs when blindfolded. It carries the
knife, it strikes the blow, but is not always the chooser of its own
victim.

But, fortunately for Ralph Colleton, whatever and how many or how few
were the impelling motives leading to this determination, Munro had
decided upon the preservation of his life; and, with that energy of
will, which, in a rash office, or one violative of the laws, he had
always heretofore displayed, he permitted no time to escape him
unemployed for the contemplated purpose. His mind immediately addressed
itself to its chosen duty, and, in one disguise or another, and those
perpetually changing, he perambulated the village, making his
arrangements for the desired object. The difficulties in his way were not
trifling in character nor few in number; and the greatest of these was
that of finding coadjutors willing to second him. He felt assured that
he could confide in none of his well-known associates, who were to a man
the creatures of Rivers; that outlaw, by a liberality which seemed to
disdain money, and yielding every form of indulgence, having acquired
over them an influence almost amounting to personal affection.
Fortunately for his purpose, Rivers dared not venture much into the
village or its neighborhood; therefore, though free from any fear of
obstruction from one in whose despite his whole design was undertaken,
Munro was yet not a little at a loss for his co-operation. To whom, at
that moment, could he turn, without putting himself in the power of an
enemy? Thought only raised up new difficulties in his way, and in utter
despair of any better alternative, though scarcely willing to trust to
one of whom he deemed so lightly, his eyes were compelled to rest, in
the last hope, upon the person of the pedler, Bunce.

Bunce, if the reader will remember, had, upon his release from prison,
taken up his abode temporarily in t