, if truth, as I hope, will serve your
purpose; but, if not, the most plausible and ingenious you can invent. That is
what self-defence requires from every man where, as it always happens to a man
upon his trial, he has the whole world against him, and has his own battle to
fight against the world. Farewel, and God send you a good deliverance! If Mr.
Falkland's accusation, whatever it be, shall appear premature, depend upon
having me more zealously your friend than ever. If not, this is the last act of
friendship you will ever receive from me!
    It may be believed that this address, so singular, so solemn, so big with
conditional menace, did not greatly tend to encourage me. I was totally ignorant
of the charge to be advanced against me; and not a little astonished, when it
was in my power to be in the most formidable degree the accuser of Mr. Falkland,
to find the principles of equity so completely reversed, as for the innocent,
but instructed individual to be the party accused and suffering, instead of
having, as was natural, the real criminal at his mercy. I was still more
astonished at the super-human power Mr. Falkland seemed to possess of bringing
back the object of his persecution within the sphere of his authority; a
reflection attended with some check to that eagerness and boldness of spirit
which now constituted the ruling passion of my mind.
    But this was no time for meditation. To the sufferer the course of events is
taken out of his direction, and he is hurried along with an irresistible force,
without finding it within the compass of his efforts to check their rapidity. I
was allowed only a short time to recollect myself when my trial commenced. I was
conducted to the library where I had passed so many happy and so many
contemplative hours, and found there Mr. Forester and three or four of the
servants already assembled in expectation of me and my accuser. Every thing was
calculated to suggest to me that I must trust only in the justice of the parties
concerned, and had nothing to hope from their indulgence. Mr. Falkland entered
at one door, almost as soon as I entered at the other.
 

                                   Chapter X

He began: It has been the principle of my life never to inflict a wilful injury
upon any thing that lives; I need not express my regret when I find myself
obliged to be the promulgator of a criminal charge. How gladly would I pass
unnoticed the evil I have sustained; but I owe it to society