brought you to the gallows, I will not pretend to say. But I am sure
this story will. There would be a speedy end to all order and good government,
if fellows that trample upon ranks and distinctions in this atrocious sort, were
upon any consideration suffered to get off.
    And do you refuse, sir, to attend to the particulars of the charge I allege?
    Yes, sir, I do. - But, if I did not, pray what witnesses have you of the
murder?
    This question staggered me.
    None. - But I believe I can make out a circumstantial proof of a nature to
force attention from the most indifferent hearer.
    I thought so. - Officers, take him from the bar!
    Such was the success of this ultimate resort on my part, upon which I had
built with such undoubting confidence. Till now I had conceived that the
unfavourable situation in which I was placed was prolonged by my own
forbearance; and I had determined to endure all that human nature could support,
rather than have recourse to this extreme recrimination. That idea secretly
consoled me under all my calamities: it was a voluntary sacrifice, and was
chearfully made. I thought myself allied to the army of martyrs and confessors;
I applauded my fortitude and self-denial; and I pleased myself with the idea,
that I had the power, though I hoped never to employ it, by an unrelenting
display of all my resources to put an end at once to my sufferings and
persecutions.
    And this at last was the justice of mankind! A man under certain
circumstances shall not be heard in the detection of a crime, because he has not
been a participator of it! The story of a flagitious murder shall be listened to
with indifference, while an innocent man is hunted like a wild beast to the
farthest corners of the earth! Six thousand a year shall protect a man from
accusation; and the validity of an impeachment shall be superseded, because the
author of it is a servant!
    I was conducted back to the very prison from which a few months before I had
made my escape. With a bursting heart I entered those walls, compelled to feel
that all my more than Herculean labours served for my own torture, and for no
other end. Since my escape from prison, I had acquired some knowledge of the
world; I had learned by bitter experience by how many links society had a hold
upon me, and how closely the snares of despotism beset me. I no longer beheld
the world, as my youthful fancy had once induced me to do, as a