ing
his fate at once. How glad I felt that the poor fellow had escaped, even
though it cost me all the penalty of personating him; yes, I really was
generous enough for that sentiment, though I perceive that my reader
smiles incredulously as I declare it. "No, no," mutters he, "the arrant
snob must not try to impose upon us in that fashion. He was trembling to
the very marrow of his bones, and nothing was further from his thoughts
than self-sacrifice or devotion." I know your opinion of me takes this
lively shape; I feel it, and I shrink under it; but I know, besides,
that I owe all this depreciating estimate of me to nothing so much as my
own frankness and candor. If my reader, therefore, scruples to accord
me the merit of the generosity that I lay claim to, let him revel in the
depreciating confession that I am about to make. I knew that when it was
discovered I was not Harpar, I must instantly be set at liberty. I
felt this, and could, therefore, be at any moment the arbiter of my own
freedom. To do this, of course, would set in motion a search after the
real delinquent, and I determined I would keep my secret till he had
ample time to get away. When I had satisfied myself that all pursuit of
him must be hopeless, I would declare myself to be Potts, and proudly
demand my liberation.

My convalescence made now such progress that I was able to walk about
the gallery, and indeed occasionally to stroll out upon a long terrace
which flanked the entire building, and gaze upon a garden, beyond which
again I could see the town of Feldkirch and the open Platz in which the
weekly market was held. By the recurrence of these--they always fell
upon a Saturday--was I enabled to mark time, and I now reckoned that
three weeks had gone over since the day of the Herr Procurator's visit,
and yet I had heard nothing more of him, nor of the accusation against
me. I was seriously thinking whether my wisest plan might not be to take
French leave and walk off, when my jailer came one morning to announce
that I was to be transferred to Innspruck, where, in due course, my
trial would take place.

"What if I refuse to go?" said I; "what if I demand my liberation here
on the spot?"

"I don't imagine that you 'd delay your journey much by that, my good
friend," said he; "the Imperial and Royal Government takes little heed
of foolish remonstrances."

"What if the Imperial and Royal Government, in the plenitude of its
sagacity, should be in t