 was better
pleased to retrace the particulars of calamities that had formerly afflicted me,
than to look forward, as at other times I was too apt to do, to those by which I
might hereafter be overtaken. I conceived that my story faithfully digested
would carry in it an impression of truth that few men would be able to resist;
or at worst that, by leaving it behind me when I should no longer continue to
exist, posterity might be induced to do me justice, and, seeing in my example
what sort of evils are entailed upon mankind by society as it is at present
constituted, might be inclined to turn their attention upon the fountain from
which such bitter waters have been accustomed to flow. But these motives have
diminished in their influence. I have contracted a disgust for life and all its
appendages. Writing, which was at first a pleasure, is changed into a burthen. I
shall compress into a small compass what remains to be told.
    I discovered not long after the period of which I am speaking the precise
cause of the reverse I had experienced in my residence in Wales, and included in
that cause what it was I had to look for in my future adventures. Mr. Falkland
had taken the infernal Gines into his pay, a man critically qualified for the
service in which he was now engaged; by the unfeeling brutality of his temper,
by his habits of mind at once audacious and artful, and by the peculiar
animosity and vengeance he had conceived against me. The employment to which
this man was hired was that of following me from place to place blasting my
reputation, and preventing me from the chance, by continuing long in one
residence, of acquiring a character for integrity that should give new weight to
any accusation I might at a future time be induced to prefer. He had come to the
seat of my residence with the bricklayers and labourers I have mentioned; and,
while he took care to keep out of sight so far as related to me, was industrious
in disseminating that which in the eye of the world seemed to amount to a
demonstration of the profligacy and detestableness of my character. It was, no
doubt, from him that the detested scroll had been procured, which I had found in
my habitation immediately prior to my quitting it. In all this Mr. Falkland,
reasoning upon his principles, was only employing a necessary precaution. There
was something in the temper of his mind that impressed him with aversion to the
idea of violently putting an end to my existence; at the same time that
unfortunately he could never deem himself sufficiently secured
