that species of inertness. In the
scene that had just passed I had indulged, as I have said, in a wantonness and
luxury of refinement. It was time that that indulgence should be brought to a
period. It was dangerous to trifle any more upon the brink of fate; and,
penetrated as I was with sadness by the result of my last attempt, I was little
disposed to unnecessary circumambulation. I was exactly in the temper in which
the gentlemen who had me in their power, would have desired to find me.
Accordingly we entered immediately upon business; and, after some chaffering,
they agreed to accept eleven guineas as the price of my freedom. To preserve
however the chariness of their reputation, they insisted upon conducting me with
them for a few miles on the outside of a stage coach. They then pretended that
the road they had to travel lay in a cross-country direction; and, having
quitted the vehicle, they suffered me, almost as soon as it was out of sight, to
shake off this troublesome association, and follow my own inclinations. It may
be worth remarking by the way, that these fellows outwitted themselves at their
own trade. They had laid hold of me at first under the idea of a prize of a
hundred guineas; they had since been glad to accept a composition of eleven;
but, if they had retained me a little longer in their possession, they would
have found the possibility of acquiring the sum that had originally excited
their pursuit, upon a different score.
    The mischances that had befallen me in my late attempt to escape from my
pursuers by sea, deterred me from the thought of repeating that experiment. I
therefore once more returned to the suggestion of hiding myself, at least for
the present, amidst the crowds of the metropolis. Meanwhile I by no means
thought proper to venture by the direct route, and the less so as that was the
course which would be steered by my late conductors; but took my road along the
borders of Wales. The only incident worth relating in this place, occurred in an
attempt to cross the Severn in a particular point. The mode was by a ferry; but
by some strange inadvertence I lost my way so completely as to be wholly unable
that night to reach the ferry, and arrive at the town which I had destined for
my repose.
    This may seem a petty disappointment, in the midst of the overwhelming
considerations that might have been expected to engross every thought of my
mind. Yet it was borne by me with singular impatience. I was that day uncommonly
fatigued. Previously