 the other. My mind was full of confidence and
energy. I felt my own innocence, and was determined to assert it. I was willing
to be driven out a fugitive; I even rejoiced in my escape, and chearfully went
out into the world destitute of every provision, and depending for my future
prospects upon my own ingenuity.
    Thus much, said I, Falkland! you may do. Dispose of me as you please with
respect to the goods of fortune; but you shall neither make prize of my liberty,
nor sully the whiteness of my name. I repassed in my thoughts every memorable
incident that had happened to me under his roof. I could recollect nothing,
except the affair of the mysterious trunk, out of which the shadow of a criminal
accusation could be extorted. In that instance my conduct had been highly
reprehensible and I had never looked back upon it without remorse and
self-condemnation. But I did not believe that it was of the nature of those
actions which can be brought under legal censure. I could still less persuade
myself that Mr. Falkland, who shuddered at the very possibility of detection,
and who considered himself as completely in my power, would dare to bring
forward a subject so closely connected with the internal agony in his soul. In a
word, the more I reflected on the phrases of Mr. Forester's billet, the less
could I imagine the nature of those scenes to which they were to serve as a
prelude.
    The inscrutableness however of the mystery they contained, did not suffice
to overwhelm my courage. My mind seemed to undergo an entire revolution. Timid
and embarrassed as I had felt myself, when I regarded Mr. Falkland as my
clandestine and domestic foe, I now conceived that the case was entirely
altered. Meet me, said I, as an open accuser; if we must contend, let us contend
in the face of day; and then, unparalleled as your resources may be, I will not
fear you. Innocence and guilt were, in my apprehension, the things in the whole
world the most opposite to each other. I would not suffer myself to believe,
that the former could be confounded with the latter, unless the innocent man
first allowed himself to be subdued in mind, before he was defrauded of the good
opinion of mankind. Virtue rising superior to every calumny, defeating by a
plain, unvarnished tale all the stratagems of vice, and throwing back upon her
adversary the confusion with which he had hoped to overwhelm her, was one of the
favourite subjects of my youthful reveries. I determined never to
