quitted my retreat in the habitation of Mr.
Raymond, I adopted along with my beggar's attire a peculiar slouching and
clownish gait to be used whenever there should appear the least chance of my
being observed, together with an Irish brogue which I had had an opportunity of
studying in my prison. Such are the miserable expedients and so great the
studied artifice, which man, who never deserves the name of manhood but in
proportion as he is erect and independent, may find it necessary to employ for
the purpose of eluding the inexorable animosity and unfeeling tyranny of his
fellow man! I had made use of this brogue, though I have not thought it
necessary to write it down in my narrative, in the conversation of the village
alehouse. Mr. Forester's servant as he came up observed that his companions were
engaged in conversation with me; and, guessing at the subject, asked whether
they had gained any intelligence. He added to the information at which they had
already hinted, that a resolution was taken to spare neither diligence nor
expence for my discovery and apprehension, and that they were satisfied that, if
I were above ground and in the kingdom, it would be impossible for me to escape
them.
    Every new incident that had occurred to me, thus tended to impress upon my
mind the extreme danger to which I was exposed. I could almost have imagined
that I was the sole subject of general attention, and that the whole world was
in arms to exterminate me. The very idea tingled through every fibre of my
frame. But, terrible as it appeared to my imagination, it did but give new
energy to my purpose; and I determined that I would not voluntarily resign the
field, that is literally speaking my neck to the cord of the executioner,
notwithstanding the greatest superiority in my assailants. But the incidents
which had befallen me, though they did not change my purpose, induced me to
examine over again the means by which it might be effected. The consequence of
this revisal was to determine me to bend my course to the nearest sea port on
the west side of the island, and transport myself to Ireland. I cannot now tell
what it was that inclined me to prefer this scheme to that which I had
originally formed. Perhaps the latter, which had been for some time present to
my imagination, for that reason appeared the more obvious of the two; and I
found an appearance of complexity, which the mind did not stay to explain, in
substituting the other in its stead.
    I arrived without farther impediment at the place from which I intended to