e well.

The effect was, for a time, salutary and delicious. My fervours were
abated, and my faculties relieved from the weight which had lately
oppressed them. My present condition was unspeakably more advantageous
than the former. I did not believe that it could be improved, till,
casting my eye vaguely over the building, I happened to observe the
shutters of a lower window partly opened.

Whether this was occasioned by design or by accident there was no means
of deciding. Perhaps, in the precipitation of the latest possessor, this
window had been overlooked. Perhaps it had been unclosed by violence,
and afforded entrance to a robber. By what means soever it had
happened, it undoubtedly afforded ingress to me. I felt no scruple in
profiting by this circumstance. My purposes were not dishonest. I should
not injure or purloin any thing. It was laudable to seek a refuge from
the well-meant persecutions of those who governed the city. All I sought
was the privilege of dying alone.

Having gotten in at the window, I could not but remark that the
furniture and its arrangements had undergone no alteration in my
absence. I moved softly from one apartment to another, till at length I
entered that which had formerly been Welbeck's bedchamber.

The bed was naked of covering. The cabinets and closets exhibited their
fastenings broken. Their contents were gone. Whether these appearances
had been produced by midnight robbers, or by the ministers of law and
the rage of the creditors of Welbeck, was a topic of fruitless
conjecture.

My design was now effected. This chamber should be the scene of my
disease and my refuge from the charitable cruelty of my neighbours. My
new sensations conjured up the hope that my indisposition might prove a
temporary evil. Instead of pestilential or malignant fever, it might be
a harmless intermittent. Time would ascertain its true nature;
meanwhile, I would turn the carpet into a coverlet, supply my pitcher
with water, and administer without sparing, and without fear, that
remedy which was placed within my reach.

CHAPTER XX.

I laid myself on the bed and wrapped my limbs in the folds of the
carpet. My thoughts were restless and perturbed. I was once more busy in
reflecting on the conduct which I ought to pursue with regard to the
bank-bills. I weighed, with scrupulous attention, every circumstance
that might influence my decision. I could not conceive any more
beneficial application