He whom I had accompanied to the midst of the river;
whom I had imagined that I saw sink to rise no more, was
now before me. Though incapable of precluding the groundless
belief of preternatural visitations, I was able to banish the
phantom almost at the same instant at which it appeared.
Welbeck had escaped from the stream alive; or had, by
some inconceivable means, been restored to life.

The first was the most plausible conclusion. It instantly
engendered a suspicion, that his plunging into the water was
an artifice, intended to establish a belief of his death. His
own tale had shewn him to be versed in frauds, and flexible
to evil. But was he not associated with Colvill; and what,
but a compact in iniquity, could bind together such men?

While thus musing, Welbeck's countenance and gesture
displayed emotions too vehement for speech. The glances
that he fixed upon me were unsteadfast and wild. He
walked along the floor, stopping at each moment, and darting
looks of eagerness upon me. A conflict of passions
kept him mute. At length, advancing to the bed, on the
side of which I was now sitting, he addressed me.

What is this? Are you here? In defiance of pestilence,
are you actuated by some demon to haunt me, like the

[figure description] Page 174.[end figure description]

ghost of my offences, and cover me with shame? What
have I to do with that dauntless, yet guiltless front? With
that foolishly, confiding, and obsequious, yet erect and unconquerable
spirit? Is there no means of evading your
pursuit? Must I dip my hands, a second time, in blood;
and dig for you a grave by the side of Watson?

These words were listened to with calmness. I suspected
and pitied the man, but I did not fear him. His words and
his looks were indicative less of cruelty than madness. I
looked at him with an air compassionate and wistful. I
spoke with mildness and composure.

Mr. Welbeck, you are unfortunate and criminal. Would
to God I could restore you to happiness and virtue; but,
though my desire be strong, I have no power to change
your habits or rescue you from misery.

I believed you to be dead. I rejoice to find myself mistaken.
While you live, there is room to hope that your
errors will be cured; and the turmoils, and inquietudes that
have hitherto beset your guilty progress, will vanish by your
reverting into better paths.

From me you have nothing to fear. If your welfare will
be promoted by my silence on the subject of your history,
my silence shall be inviolate. I deem not lightly of my
promises. They are given and shall not be recalled.

This meeting was casual. Since I believed you to be
dead, it could not be otherwise. You err, if you suppose
that any injury will accrue to you from my life; but you
need not discard that error. Since my death is coming, I
am not averse to your adopting the belief that the event is
fortunate to you.

Death is the inevitable and universal lot. When or how
it comes, is of little moment. To stand, when so many
thousands are falling around me, is not to be expected. I
have acted an humble and obscure part in the world, and
my career has been short; but I murmur not at the decree
that makes it so.

The pestilence is now upon me. The chances of recovery
are too slender to deserve my confidence. I came
hither to die unmolested, and at peace. All I ask of you is
to consult your own safety by immediate flight; and not to

[figure description] Page 175.[end figure description]

disappoint my hopes of concealment, by disclosing my condition
to the agents of the hospital.

Welbeck listened with the deepest attention. The wildness
of his air disappeared, and gave place to perplexity
and apprehension.

You are sick, said he, in a tremulous tone, in which terror
was mingled with affection. You know this, and expect not
to recover. No mother, nor sister, nor friend will be near
to administer food, or medicine, or comfort; yet you can
talk calmly; can be thus considerate of others—of me;
whose guilt has been so deep, and who has merited so little
at your hands!

Wretched coward! Thus miserable as I am, and expect
to be, I cling to life. To comply with your heroic counsel,
and to fly; to leave you thus desolate and helpless, is the
strongest impulse. Fain would I resist it, but cannot.

To desert you would be flagitious and dastardly beyond
all former acts, yet to stay with you is to contract the disease,
and to perish after you.

Life, burthened as it is with guilt and ignominy, is still
dear—yet you exhort me to go; you dispense with my assistance.
Indeed, I could be of no use, I should injure
myself and profit you nothing. I cannot go into the city
and procure a physician or attendant. I must never more
appear in the streets of this city. I must leave you then.—
He hurried to the door. Again, he hesitated. I renewed
my entreaties that he would leave me; and encouraged his
belief that his presence might endanger himself without
conferring the slightest benefit upon me.

Whither should I fly? The wide world contains no
asylum for me. I lived but on one condition. I came
hither to find what would save me from ruin—from death.
I find it not. It has vanished. Some audacious and fortunate
hand has snatched it from its place, and now my
ruin is complete. My last hope is extinct.

Yes. Mervyn! I will stay with you. I will hold your
head. I will put water to your lips. I will watch night
and day by your side. When you die, I will carry you by
night to the neighboring field; will bury you, and water
your grave with those tears that are due to your

[figure description] Page 176.[end figure description]

incomparable worth and untimely destiny. Then I will lay myself
in your bed, and wait for the same oblivion.

Welbeck seemed now no longer to be fluctuating between
opposite purposes. His tempestuous features subsided
into calm. He put the candle, still lighted, on the
table, and paced the floor with less disorder than at his first
entrance.

His resolution was seen to be the dictate of despair. I
hoped that it would not prove invincible to my remonstrances.
I was conscious that his attendance might preclude,
in some degree, my own exertions, and alleviate the
pangs of death; but these consolations might be purchased
too dear. To receive them at the hazard of his life would
be to make them odious.

But if he should remain, what conduct would his companion
pursue? Why did he continue in the study when
Welbeck had departed? By what motives were those men
led hither? I addressed myself to Welbeck.

Your resolution to remain is hasty and rash. By persisting
in it, you will add to the miseries of my condition;
you will take away the only hope that I cherished. But,
however you may act, Colvill or I must be banished from
this roof. What is the league between you? Break it, I
conjure you; before his frauds have involved you in inextricable
destruction.

Welbeck looked at me with some expression of doubt.

I mean, continued I, the man whose voice I heard above.
He is a villain and betrayer. I have manifold proofs of his
guilt. Why does he linger behind you? However you may
decide, it is fitting that he should vanish.

Alas! said Welbeck, I have no companion; none to partake
with me in good or evil. I came hither alone.

How? exclaimed I. Whom did I hear in the room
above? Some one answered my interrogations and entreaties,
whom I too certainly recognised. Why does he
remain?

You heard no one but myself. The design that brought
me hither, was to be accomplished without a witness. I
desired to escape detection, and repelled your solicitations
for admission in a counterfeited voice.

[figure description] Page 177.[end figure description]

That voice belonged to one from whom I had lately
parted. What his merits or demerits are, I know not. He
found me wandering in the forests of New Jersey. He
took me to his home. When seized by a lingering malady,
he nursed me with fidelity and tenderness. When somewhat
recovered, I speeded hither; but our ignorance of each
others character and views was mutual and profound.

I deemed it useful to assume a voice different from my
own. This was the last which I had heard, and this arbitrary
and casual circumstance decided my choice.

This imitation was too perfect, and had influenced my
fears too strongly, to be easily credited. I suspected Welbeck
of some new artifice to baffle my conclusions and
mislead my judgment. This suspicion, however, yielded to
his earnest and repeated declarations. If Colvill were not
here, where had he made his abode? How came friendship
and intercourse between Welbeck and him? By what
miracle escaped the former from the river, into which I had
imagined him forever sunk?

I will answer you, said he, with candor. You know already
too much for me to have any interest in concealing
any part of my life. You have discovered my existence,
and the causes that rescued me from destruction may be
told without detriment to my person or fame.

When I leaped into the river, I intended to perish. I
harbored no previous doubts of my ability to execute my
fatal purpose. In this respect I was deceived. Suffocation
would not come at my bidding. My muscles and limbs
rebelled against my will. There was a mechanical repugnance
to the loss of life, which I could not vanquish. My
struggles might thrust me below the surface, but my lips
were spontaneously shut, and excluded the torrent from
my lungs. When my breath was exhausted, the efforts that
kept me at the bottom were involuntarily remitted, and I
rose to the surface.

I cursed my own pusillanimity. Thrice I plunged to the
bottom, and as often rose again. My aversion to life swiftly
diminished, and at length, I consented to make use of my
skill in swimming, which has seldom been exceeded, to prolong
my existence. I landed in a few minutes on the Jersey
shore.

[figure description] Page 178.[end figure description]

This scheme being frustrated, I sunk into dreariness and
inactivity. I felt as if no dependence could be placed upon
my courage, as if any effort I should make for self-destruction
would be fruitless; yet existence was as void as ever of
enjoyment and embellishment. My means of living were
annihilated. I saw no path before me. To shun the
presence of mankind was my sovereign wish. Since I
could not die, by my own hands, I must be content to crawl
upon the surface, till a superior fate should permit me to
perish.

I wandered into the centre of the wood. I stretched
myself on the mossy verge of a brook, and gazed at the
stars till they disappeared. The next day was spent with
little variation. The cravings of hunger were felt, and the
sensation was a joyous one, since it afforded me the practicable
means of death. To refrain from food was easy,
since some efforts would be needful to procure it, and these
efforts should not be made. Thus was the sweet oblivion
for which I so earnestly panted, placed within my reach.

Three days of abstinence, and reverie, and solitude succeeded.
On the evening of the fourth, I was seated on a
rock, with my face buried in my hands. Some one laid
his hand upon my shoulder. I started and looked up. I beheld
a face, beaming with compassion and benignity. He
endeavored to extort from me the cause of my solitude and
sorrow. I disregarded his entreaties, and was obstinately
silent.

Finding me invincible in this respect, he invited me to
his college, which was hard by. I repelled him at first, with
impatience and anger, but he was not to be discouraged or
intimidated. To elude his persuasions I was obliged to comply.
My strength was gone and the vital fabric was crumbling
into pieces. A fever raged in my veins, and I was
consoled by reflecting that my life was at once assailed by
famine and disease.

Meanwhile, my gloomy meditations experienced no respite.
I incessantly ruminated on the events of my past
life. The long series of my crimes arose daily and afresh
to my imagination. The image of Lodi was recalled, his
expiring looks and the directions which were mutually
given respecting his sister's and his property.

[figure description] Page 179.[end figure description]

As I perpetually revolved these incidents, they assumed
new forms, and were linked with new associations. The
volume written by his father, and transferred to me by
tokens, which were now remembered to be more emphatic
than the nature of the composition seemed to justify, was
likewise remembered. It came attended by recollections
respecting a volume which I filled, when a youth, with extracts
from the Roman and Greek poets. Besides this literary
purpose I likewise used to preserve in it the bank-bills,
with the keeping or carriage of which I chanced to be entrusted.
This image led me back to the leather-case containing
Lodi's property, which was put into my hands at the
same time with the volume.

These images now gave birth to a third conception, which
darted on my benighted understanding like an electrical flash.
Was it not possible that part of Lodi's property might be
enclosed within the leaves of this volume? In hastily turning
it over, I recollected to have noticed leaves whose edges by
accident or design adhered to each other. Lodi, in speaking
of the sale of his father's West-India property, mentioned
that the sum obtained for it, was forty thousand dollars.
Half only of this sum had been discovered by me. How had
the remainder been appropriated? Surely this volume contained
it.

The influence of this thought was like the infusion of a
new soul into my frame. From torpid and desperate, from
inflexible aversion to medicine and food, I was changed in
a moment into vivacity and hope, into ravenous avidity for
whatever could contribute to my restoration to health.

I was not without pungent regrets and racking fears. That
this volume would be ravished away by creditors or plunderers,
was possible. Every hour might be that which decided
my fate. The first impulse was to seek my dwelling
and search for this precious deposit.

Meanwhile, my perturbations and impatience only exasperated
my disease. While chained to my bed, the rumor
of pestilence was spread abroad. This event, however,
generally calamitous, was propitious to me, and was hailed
with satisfaction. It multiplied the chances that my house
and its furniture would be unmolested.

[figure description] Page 180.[end figure description]

My friend was assiduous and indefatigable in his kindness.
My deportment, before and subsequent to the revival of my
hopes, was incomprehensible, and argued nothing less than
insanity. My thoughts were carefully concealed from him,
and all that he witnessed was contradictory and unintelligible.

At length, my strength was sufficiently restored. I resisted
all my protector's importunities, to postpone my departure
till the perfect confirmation of my health. I designed
to enter the city at midnight, that praying eyes might be
eluded; to bear with me a candle and the means of lighting
it, to explore my way to my ancient study, and to ascertain
my future claim to existence and felicity.

I crossed the river this morning. My impatience would
not suffer me to wait till evening. Considering the desolation
of the city, I thought I might venture to approach
thus near, without hazard of detection. The house, at all
its avenues was closed. I stole into the back court. A
window shutter proved to be unfastened. I entered, and
discovered closets and cabinets, unfastened and emptied of
all their contents. At this spectacle my heart sunk. My
books, doubtless, had shared the common destiny. My
blood throbbed with painful vehemence as I approached the
study and opened the door.

My hopes, that languished for a moment, were revived by
the sight of my shelves, furnished as formerly. I had lighted
my candle below, for I desired not to awaken observation
and suspicion, by unclosing the windows. My eye eagerly
sought the spot where I remembered to have left the volume.
Its place was empty. The object of all my hopes had
eluded my grasp, and disappeared forever.

To paint my confusion, to repeat my execrations on the
infatuation, which had rendered, during so long a time, that
it was in my possession, this treasure useless to me, and my
curses of the fatal interference which had snatched away
this prize, would be only aggravations of my disappointment
and my sorrow. You found me in this state, and know
what followed.