all other
objects, and consecrate every faculty of his mind to the unkenneling me from my
hiding place. The offered reward, which his vanity made him consider as
assuredly his own, appeared as the complete indemnification of his labour and
expence. Thus I had to encounter the sagacity he possessed in the way of his
profession, whetted and stimulated by a sentiment of vengeance in a mind that
knew no restraint from conscience or humanity.
    When I drew to myself a picture of my situation soon after having fixed on
my present abode, I foolishly thought, as the unhappy are accustomed to do, that
my calamity would admit of no aggravation. The aggravation which, unknown to me,
at this time occurred, was the most fearful that any imagination could have
devised. Nothing could have happened more critically hostile to my future peace,
than my fatal encounter with Gines upon - forest. By this means, as it now
appears, I had fastened upon myself a second enemy, of that singular and
dreadful sort, that is determined never to dismiss its animosity, as long as
life shall endure. While Falkland was the hungry lion whose roarings astonished
and appalled me, Gines was a noxious insect, scarcely less formidable and
tremendous, that hovered about my goings, and perpetually menaced me with the
poison of his sting.
    The first step pursued by him in execution of his project, was to set out
for the seaport town where I had formerly been apprehended. From thence he
traced me to the banks of the Severn, and from the banks of the Severn to
London. It is scarcely necessary to observe that this is always practicable,
provided the pursuer have motives strong enough to excite him to perseverance,
unless the precautions of the fugitive be in the highest degree both judicious
in the conception and fortunate in the execution. Gines indeed in the course of
his pursuit was often obliged to double his steps; and, like the harrier,
whenever he was at a fault, return to the place where he had last perceived the
scent of the animal whose death he had decreed. He spared neither pains nor time
in the gratification of the passion which choice had made his ruling one.
    Upon my arrival in town he for a moment lost all trace of me, London being a
place in which, on account of the magnitude of its dimensions, it might well be
supposed that an individual could remain hidden and unknown. But no difficulty
could discourage this new adversary. He went from inn to inn, reasonably
supposing that there was no private house to which I could immediately repair,
till he found, by the description he