 prove an
instrument of destruction to Mr. Falkland; but I was not less resolute to obtain
justice to myself.
    The issue of all these confident hopes I shall immediately have occasion to
relate. It was thus, with the most generous and undoubting spirit, that I rushed
upon irretrievable ruin.
    Friend, said I to the bearer, after a considerable interval in silence; You
are right. This is indeed an extraordinary letter you have brought me; but it
answers its purpose. I will certainly go with you now, whatever be the
consequence. No person shall ever impute blame to me, so long as I have it in my
power to clear myself. I felt, in the circumstances in which I was placed by Mr.
Forester's letter, not merely a willingness, but an alacrity and impatience to
return. We procured a second horse. We proceeded on our journey in silence. My
mind was occupied again in endeavouring to account for Mr. Forester's letter. I
knew the inflexibility and sternness of Mr. Falkland's mind in accomplishing the
purposes he had at heart; but I also knew that every virtuous and magnanimous
principle was congenial to his character.
    When we arrived, midnight was already past, and we were obliged to waken one
of the servants to give us admittance. I found that Mr. Forester had left a
message for me in consideration of the possibility of my arrival during the
night, directing me immediately to go to bed, and to take care that I did not
come weary and exhausted to the business of the following day. I endeavoured to
take his advice; but my slumbers were unrefreshing and disturbed. I suffered
however no reduction of courage; the singularity of my situation, my conjectures
with respect to the present, my eagerness for the future did not allow me to
sink into a languid and inactive state.
    Next morning the first person I saw was Mr. Forester. He told me that he did
not yet know what Mr. Falkland had to allege against me, for that he had refused
to know. He had arrived at the house of his brother by appointment on the
preceding day to settle some indispensible business, his intention having been
to depart the moment the business was finished, as he knew that conduct on his
part would be most agreeable to Mr. Falkland. But he was no sooner come than he
found the whole house in confusion, the alarm of my elopement having been given
a few hours before. Mr. Falkland had dispatched servants in all directions in
pursuit of me; and the servant from the market town arrived at
