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Presented  to  the 
LIBRARY  of  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 

by 

Mrs .  Andrew  Kellogg 


STANDARD 
NOVELS. 

N°  II. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS, 

BY  WILLIAM  GODWIN, 
courier!   ix  OM>   iot.au*. 


LONDON: 
HENRY  COLBURN  AND  RICHARD  BENTLEY, 

NEW   BURLINGTON   STREET; 

BELL  AND  BRADFUTE,  EDINBURGH} 
AND  CUMM1NG,  DUBLIN. 

1831. 


LONDON : 

Printed  by  A.  &  K.  Spottiswoode, 
New-Street- Square. 


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I. or, do n,.  Published  by  Hairy  c^lbum  &  Itishard B entity    1^31. 


CALEB  .  WILLIAMS 


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M  l.MOl  KS 


WILLIAM    GODWIN. 


WILLIAM  GODWIN  was  born  at  Wisbeach,  in  Cam- 
bridgeshire, 3d  March,  1756.  Hie  grandfather  had 
been  a  dissenting  minister  in  London.  His  father  was 
also  a  clergyman.  In  the  year  1760  the  father  re- 
moved with  his  family  to  a  village  about  sixteen  miles 
north  of  Norwich,  where  he  presided  over  a  congre- 
gation. William  was  one  of  many  children,  neither 
the  eldest  nor  the  youngest  among  them.  Very  early, 
even  in  childhood,  he  developed  that  love  of  acquire- 
ment and  knowledge  which  stamped  his  future  career. 
In  the  year  1767  he  was  placed  with  a  private  tutor  at 
Norwich,  for  the  purposes  of  classical  education.  Mr. 
Godwin  has  very  recently  published  a  work  ("  Thought* 
on  Man,  his  Nature,  Productions,  and  Discoveries,") 
which  contains  various  interesting  particulars  respect- 
ing himself.  From  this  we  learn  that  he  had  in  youth 
"  a  prominent  vein  of  docility/'  He  adds,  "  Whatever 
A  2 


IV  MEMOIRS    OF    WILLIAM    GODWIN. 

it  was  proposed  to  teach  me,  that  was  in  any  degree 
accordant  with  my  constitution  and  capacity,  I  was 
willing  to  learn."  He  continues  :  "  I  was  ambitious  to 
be  a  leader,  and  to  be  regarded  by  others  with  feelings 
of  complacency."  From  these  circumstances  it  is 
evident  that  Mr.  Godwin  was  not  one  of  those  youths, 
who,  strenuously  active  and  eager  in  the  pursuit  of 
some  peculiar  knowledge  of  their  own  selection,  rebel 
against  authority,  and  are  tortured  by  the  regular  ap- 
plication required  to  the  common-place  routine  of  edu- 
cation. Reason  and  a  love  of  investigation  were  the 
characteristics  of  Godwin,  even  in  boyhood,  added  to 
what  »he  himself  describes  as  "  a  sort  of  constitutional 
equanimity  and  imperturbableness  of  temper." 

In  the  year  1773  Mr.  Godwin  was  placed  at  a  col- 
lege for  dissenters  at  Hoxton,  for  the  purpose  of  being 
educated  for  the  church.  Dr.  Kippis  and  Dr.  llees  were 
two  of  the  principal  professors  at  this  college ;  and  the 
tenets  in  vogue  there  inclined  to  Unitarianism.  Mr. 
Godwin  had  been  bred  a  Calvinist,  and  was  the  farthest 
in  the  world  from  that  temper  of  mind  which  is  blown 
about  by  every  new  wind  of  opinion.  Opposition  made 
him  more  tenaciously  cling  to  his  own  turn  of  think- 
ing, and  adhere  to  the  persuasion  in  which  he  had 
been  brought  up.  In  the  year  1778  he  became  mi- 
nister to  a  congregation  not  far  from  the  metropolis. 
He  continued  in  the  exercise  of  the  duties  of  a  clergy- 
man for  five  years;  after  which  he  gave  it  up,  in  the  year 


MEMOIRS   OF    WILLIAM    GODWIN.  V 

1783,  and  came  to  reside  in  London ;  where  he  became 
an  author,  at  once  subsisting  by  the  fruits  of  his  pen, 
and  educating  himself  by  its  exercise  for  those  works  of 
genius  and  immortality  which  he  was  destined  to  pro- 
duce. He  soon  became  distinguished  among  his  con- 
temporaries, and  frequented  the  society  of  many  of  the 
political  leaders  of  the  day,  among  whom  Fox  and 
Sheridan  held  the  first  rank.  Added  to  this  was  a 
literary  circle  formed  of  men  of  talent  and  genius. 
While  at  college,  Mr.  Godwin  describes  himself  as 
reading  "  all  sorts  of  books,  on  every  side  of  any  im- 
portant question,  that  were  thrown  in  his  way;" — 
among  these  he  was  peculiarly  attracted  by  the  Roman 
historians,  and  in  particular  by  Livy.  These  works 
made  him  early  in  life  a  republican  in  theory.  The 
French  revolution,  which  broke  out  in  1789,  when  he 
was  already  engaged  in  his  career  as  an  author, 
turned  his  attention  still  more  definitely  to  political 
subjects.  Discussion  on  various  points  —  discussion, 
animated  by  the  living  drama  of  change  enacted  in 
France,  and  warmed  by  the  animated  hopes  and  fears 
of  the  parties —was,  far  more  than  now,  the  order 
of  the  day  in  society;  and  Godwin,  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  Whigs  of  this  country,  found  himself 
more  than  ever  roused  to  investigate  the  momentous 
topic  of  the  liberty  of  nations.  The  result  of  his 
meditations  and  his  labours  was  "  Political  Justice," 
published  early  in  the  year  1793.  At  once  the  book  and 


VI  MEMOIRS    OF    WILLIAM    GODWIN. 

its  author  rose  to  a  place  of  eminence  in  the  public  eye.  . 
The  daring  nature  of  his  tenets,  the  energetic  yet 
unaffected  flow  of  his  eloquence,  the  heartfelt  sincerity 
and  love  of  truth  that  accompanied  his  disquisitions, 
seemed,  as  by  magic,  to  throw  down  a  thousand  barriers, 
and  to  level  a  thousand  fortifications,  which  had  hitherto 
defended  and  kept  secure  the  inner  fortresses  of 
public  prejudices  or  opinions.  Mild  and  benevolent  of 
aspect,  gentle  and  courteous  of  manner,  the  author 
himself  presented  a  singular  contrast  in  appearance,  to 
the  boldness  of  his  speculations.  But  beneath  this 
apparent  quiescence  there  was  a  latent  fire:  his  intellect 
was  all  animation ;  he  never  receded  from  contest,  or 
declined  argument ;  and  he  derived  extreme  pleasure 
from  this  exercise  of  the  powers  of  his  mind. 

Early  in  the  following  year  Mr.  Godwin  again  ap- 
peared as  an  author:  "  Caleb  Williams"  was  published — 
a  novel  which,  in  despite  of  the  brilliant  works  of  the 
same  species  which  have  since  adorned  our  literature, 
still  holds  its  place,  and  has  been  frequently,  and  we 
are  apt  to  believe  irrevocably,  pronounced  the  best 
in -our  language.  It  raised  Godwin's  reputation  to 
the  pinnacle.  All  that  might  have  offended,  as  hard 
and  republican  in  his  larger  work,  was  obliterated  by 
the  .splendour  and  noble  beauty  of  the  character  of 
Falkland. 

Towards  the  end  of  this  year  Mr.  Godwin's  talents 
were  called  forth  on  a  still  more  conspicuous  arena. 


MEMOIRS    OF    WILLIAM    GODWIN.  i\ 

It  was  not  until  1 797  that  he  published  «  The  Enquirer," 
a  work  consisting  of  essays,  developing,  under  various 
aspects,  the  tenets  of  his  greater  work.  In  one  thing, 
from  his  very  first  outset  as  an  author,  Godwin  held 
himself  fortunate :  this  was  in  his  publisher.  Robinson 
has  often  been  mentioned  as  a  man  of  extreme  liberality : 
towards  Mr.  Godwin  he  always  acted  in  a  way  at  once 
to  encourage,  facilitate,  and  recompense  his  labours. 

Towards  the  beginning  of  the  year  1797  Godwin 
married  Mary  Wollstonecrafl.  The  writings  of  this 
celebrated  woman  are  monuments  of  her  moral  and  in- 
tellectual superiority.  Her  lofty  spirit,  her  eager  asser- 
tion of  the  claims  of  her  sex,  animate  the  "Vindication 
of  the  Rights  of  Woman ;"  while  the  sweetness  and 
taste  displayed  in  her  "  Letters  from  Norway"  depict 
the  softer  qualities  of  her  admirable  character.  Even 
now,  those  who  have  survived  her  so  many  years,  never 
speak  of  her  but  with  uncontrollable  enthusiasm. 
Her  unwearied  exertions  for  the  benefit  of  others,  her 
rectitude,  her  independence,  joined  to  a  warm  affec- 
tionate heart,  and  the  most  refined  softness  of  manners, 
made  her  the  idol  of  all  who  knew  her.  Mr.  Godwin 
was  not  allowed  long  to  enjoy  the  happiness  he  reaped 
from  this  union.  Mary  Wollstonecraft  died  the  10th 
September  1797,  having  given  birth  to  a  daughter,  the 
present  Mrs.  Shelley. 

The  next  work  of  Mr.  Godwin  was  the  romance  of 
"  St.  Leon,"  published  in  1799.  The  domestic  happi- 
ness he  had  enjoyed,  colours  and  adorns  the  scenes  of 
•  a 


X  MEMOIRS    OF    WILLIAM    GODWIN. 

this  book ;  and  the  high  idea  of  the  feminine  character 
which  naturally  resulted  from  his  intercourse  with  the 
ornament  of  her  sex,  imparted  dignity  and  grandeur  to 
the  character  of  the  heroine  of  this  work.  In  eloquence 
and  interest  and  deep  knowledge  of  human  nature,  St. 
Leon  takes  a  first  place  among  imaginative  productions. 
In  1QOO  Mr.  Godwin  visited  Ireland.  He  resided 
while  there  principally  with  Curran,  and  associated 
intimately  with  Grattan,  and  all  the  other  illustrious 
Irish  patriots.  In  1801  Mr.  Godwin  again  married 
.a  widow  lady  of  considerable  personal  attractions 
.and  accomplishments.  The  sole  offspring  of  this  mar- 
riage was  a  son,  born  in  1803.  In  the  same  year  he 
published  the  "Life  of  Chaucer;"  a  work  displaying 
accurate  research  and  refined  taste,  and  presenting  at 
once  a  correct  and  animated  picture  of  the  times  of 
the  poet.  This  was  followed  in  1804-  by  a  third 
novel,  entitled  "  Fleetwood,"  characterised  by  elegance 
•of  style  and  force  of  passion,  less  striking  perhaps 
.than  his  former  works  of  imagination,  yet  not  less  full 
of  beauty  and  interest. 

After  this  period  Mr.  Godwin  rested  for  a  consider- 
able interval  from  his  literary  labours,  being  chiefly 
occupied  by  various  exertions  and  speculations  for  the 
maintenance  of  his  family.  The  "  Essay  on  Sepulchres," 
published  in  1808,  stands  a  solitary  record  that  the 
fire  still  burnt,  pure  and  undiminished,  though  con- 
.cealed.  In  1816  he  visited  Edinburgh,  where  he 
formed  an  acquaintance  with  Walter  Scott  and  other 


MEMOIRS    OF    WILLIAM    GODWIN.  XI 

celebrated  Scotch  writers ;  and  here  also  he  entered 
into  a  treaty  with  Mr.  Constable,  the  bookseller,  for  the 
composition  of  a  new  novel.  "  Mandeville,"  published 
in  1817,  was  the  result.  We  here  trace  the  mellow- 
ness of  ripened  years ;  the  reading,  the  study,  the 
careful  polish  of  maturity,  adorning,  but  not  diminish- 
ing, the  untamed  energy  and  eloquence  of  his  earlier 
works.  Solemn  and  tragic  as  is  the  groundwork  of 
"  Mandeville,"  it  surpasses,  we  almost  venture  to  say, 
all  Mr.  Godwin's  productions  in  grace  of  diction,  and 
forcible  developement  of  human  feeling.  About  this 
time  Mr.  Godwin  sustained  a  great  personal  loss  in  the 
death  of  Mr.  Curran.  Their  friendship  was  of  many 
years'  standing ;  and  since  Cumin's  retirement  from 
public  life,  and  residence  in  London,  they  had  been 
drawn  closer  together  than  ever. 

In  1820  his  work  in  opposition  to,  and  refuting,  the 
opinions  of  Malthus  appeared.  Fervently  attached  to  all 
that  is  lofty,  independent,  and  elevating  in  his  specu- 
lations on  human  society,  Godwin  strenuously  contro- 
verted the  degrading,  hard,  and  demoralising  tenets  of 
the  author  of  the  Essay  on  Population.  His  book,  exact 
in  logic,  and  powerful  in  eloquence,  would  probably  have 
been  considered  as  a  complete  answer  to  his  adversary, 
did  not  Malthus's  notions  favour  so  memorably  the  vices 
of  the  great,  and  all  that  is  rotten  in  our  institutions. 
After  this,  Mr.  Godwin  was  occupied  several  years  in 
writing  "  The  History  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
England."  The  four  volumes  of  which  this  workjs 
a2 


Xli  MEMOIRS    OF    WILLIAM    GODWIN. 

composed  were  published  in  the  years  1824-,  1826, 
1827,  and  1828.  It  is  accurate,  which  in  an  historical 
work  is  a  quality  that  deserves  primary  consideration. 
It  is  besides  eloquent,  philosophical,  and,  above  all, 
abounds  in  new  and  valuable  research.  As  a  real 
and  true  detail  of  events  as  they  occurred,  and  a 
tracing  of  events  to  their  primary  causes,  it  far  excels 
any  other  English  historical  work  that  we  possess. 

In  1830  Mr.  Godwin  published  "  Cloudesley,"  his 
last  novel,  a  book  whose  charm  goes  to  the  heart. 
The  spirit  of  virtue  and  love  is  its  soul.  It  breathes 
peace  to  all  men,  and  a  fervid  attachment  to  all  that 
bears  the  human  form.  Nothing  can  excite  greater 
interest,  emanating  as  it  does  from  one  who  has  spent 
a  long  life  in  this  centre  of  civilisation ;  and  who, 
amidst  all  the  trials,  experiences,  and  attendant  disap- 
pointments which  must  have  chequered  his  inter- 
course with  his  species,  still  sees  in  man  all  that  is 
noble,  inspiriting,  and  worthy  to  be  loved. 

This  too  is  the  spirit  that  animates  the  work  to  which 
we  have  before  alluded  as  of  recent  publication.  Hu- 
manity may  cite  his  "  Thoughts  on  Man,"  and  so 
answer  the  aspersions  of  Swift  and  others  of  his 
school,  proudly  founding  upon  the  sentiments  of  that 
book  the  tower  of  their  hope.  The  divine  charity  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  finds  an  human  echo  in  its 
pages;  which  breathe  such  admiration  and  love  for  man 
as  must  elevate  the  desponding,  confound  the  misan- 
thrope, and  add  for  ever  dignity  and  grace  to  our  species. 


MEMOIRS    OF    WILLIAM    GODWIN.  xiii 

Perhaps  it  may  be  averred,  that,  since  the  days  of 
the  ancient  Greek  philosophers,  no  man  has  embodied 
so  entirely  the  idea  we  conceive  of  those  heroes  of 
mind  as  the  subject  of  this  memoir.  Like  them,  he  has 
forgotten  the  grandeur  of  the  world  in  the  more  ele- 
vating contemplation  of  the  immaterial  universe.  The 
universe  of  thought  has  been  that  in  which  he  had 
ambition  to  reign;  and  many  and  various  are  the  con- 
quests he  has  made  in  that  eternal  country.  He  has 
bestowed  on  us  a  whole  creation  of  imaginary  exist- 
ences, among  whom  when  we  name  Falkland,  we  select 
the  being  of  fancy  which  is  at  once  the  most  real  and 
the  most  grand  that  has  appeared  since  Shakespeare 
gave  a  «*  local  habitation"  to  the  name  of  Hamlet.  As 
a  speculative  writer,  he  is  the  mighty  parent  of  all  that 
the  reformers  of  the  day  advance  and  uphold.  As  an 
historian,  he  is  deeply  imbued  with  the  dignity  of  his 
subject,  and  unwearied  in  his  endeavours  to  'ascertain 
the  truth.  As  an  essayist  (his  latest  labour  of  author- 
ship), he  is  unequalled  for  novelty  of  thought,  closeness 
of  reasoning,  and  purity,  vigour,  and  elegance  of  style. 
As  a  morai  character,  his  reputation  is  unblemished. 
He  stands,  in  simplicity  of  wisdom,  and  consistency  of 
principle,  the  monument  of  the  last  generation,  extend- 
ing into  this  the  light  of  a  long  experience,  and 
ornamenting  our  young  and  changeful  literature  with 
the  profounder  and  loftier  views  of  a  more  contem- 
plative era, 

A  3 


XIV 


CRITICISM 

ON 

THE  NOVELS  OF  GODWIN. 


FEW  authors  have  the  faculty  of  awakening  and 
arresting  the  attention  like  Mr.  Godwin.  He  never 
fails  to  excite  in  us  the  emotion  he  wishes,  and  that 
without  resorting  to  marvellous  or  overstrained  in- 
cidents or  language.  He  has  a  might  almost  magical 
over  our  sympathies.  He  describes  a  damp  and  com- 
fortless morning ;  and  we  are  out  under  the  cold  drizzly 
dawn.  He  talks  of  Switzerland— of  the  lake  of  Uri ; 
and  the  mountains  and  the  waters  are  before  us.  He 
tells  a  tale  of  injustice  and  oppression;  and  every 
feeling  of  indignant  resistance 'stirs  within  us.  He 
holds  up  to  our  unmitigated  hatred  and  contempt  the 
wanton  and  brutal  tyrant;  and  unlocks  the  sacred 
fountain  of  our  tears  for  the  helpless  and  the  orphan, 
for  the  unresisting,  the  neglected,  and  the  misused. 

Mr.  Godwin  does  not  deal  much  in  imagination,  and 
is  seldom  purely  descriptive ;  though  we  repeat,  that 
when  he  is  so,  his  power  does  not  desert  him,  as  may 
be  seen  (to  best  advantage,  we  think,)  in  "  Fleetwood." 
The  principal  object  of  his  study  and  contemplation  is 


CRITICISM    ON  THE    NOVELS    OF    GODWIN.          XV 

man  the  enemy  of  man.  Do  we  not  remember  to 
have  seen  an  edition  of  "  Caleb  Williams"  with  these 
lines  for  a  motto  ? 

"  Amid  the  woods  the  tifer  knows  hi.  kind; 
The  panther  prey*  oat  on  the  panther  brood : 
Man  only  U  the  common  (be  of  Man. - 

Life  seems  to  have  been  but  the  instrument  to  burn 
this  truth  into  the  soul  of  our  author.  He  reads  Fox's 
Book  of  Martyrs,  and  the  History  of  the  Inquisition ; 
and  imagines  himself  now  torturer  and  now  sufferer. 
He  gets  up,  goes  abroad  into  "the  throng  miscalled 
society,"  sees  only  its  errors  and  its  vices,  its  knaves 
and  its  dupes ;  and  writes  as  if  little  or  nothing  else  was 
in  existence.  He  has  visions  of  misery,  from  deserted 
childhood  starving  in  strange  streets,  to  the  head  that 
has  become  white  in  the  solitude  of  a  dungeon.  We 
always  thought  a  great  deal  of  the  brutality  even  of 
Mr.  Tyrrel  gratuitous,  in  spite  of  the  morbid  irri- 
tability of  spirit  under  which  he  suffers ;  though  cer- 
tainly the  character  is  embodied  with  terrible  power, 
and  might  stand  for  a  real  personage.  It  is  an  attribute 
indeed  of  Mr.  Godwin,  that  he  tells  you  his  tale  like 
one  who  remembers,  not  invents.  Thus  his  story  be- 
comes not  the  relation  of  a  looker-on,  however  acute 
and  powerful,  but  is  "  compact"  of  words  hot  from  the 
burnt  and  branded  heart  of  the  miserable  sufferer.  It 
is  this  quality  which  makes  Gines,  the  thief  and  Dow- 
street  runner,  a  terrific  being ;  Williams  himself,  not 
Mr.  Godwin,  talks  to  you  about  him,  and,  good  God  ! 
how  awful  is  his  omnipresence  to  the  poor  fellow! 
Noiseless,  swift,  invisible,  he  seems  to  ride  upon  the 
clouds,  and  blast  his  victim  like  the  blight  which  falls 
upon  vegetation  from  the  air. 


XVI  CRITICISM    ON 

We  have  said  that  Mr.  Godwin  seldom  resorts  to. 
"  marvellous  or  overstrained  incidents  or  language :" 
once  however,  he  has  imagined  and  placed  a  cha- 
racter in  "  impossible  situations."  St.  Leon  becomes 
the  possessor  of  the  philosopher's  stone,  the  inheritor 
of  exhaustless  wealth,  and  of  the  power  of  renewing 
his  age.  He  is,  himself,  of  course,  an  impossibility ; 
but  the  want  of  truth  is  confined  purely  to  the  cha- 
racter, for  every  thing  which  befalls  him  is  human, 
natural,  and  possible.  How  minute,  how  pathetic,  how 
tragical  is  the  detail  of  the  gradual  ruin  which  falls  on 
this  weak,  devoted  man,  up  to  its  heart-breaking  con- 
summation, in  the  death  of  the  noble  Marguerite  de 
Damville  f  how  tremendous  and  perfect  is  his  deso- 
lation, after  voluntarily  leaving  his  daughters,  and 
cutting  the  last  thread  which  binds  him  to  his  kind  ! 
"I  saw  my  dear  children  set  forward  on  their  journey, 
and  I  knew  not  that  I  should  ever  behold  them  more. 
I  was  determined  never  to  see  them  again  to  their  in- 
jury ;  and  I  could  not  take  to  myself  the  consolation, 
on  such  a  day,  in  such  a  month,  or  even  after  such  a 
lapse  of  years,  I  shall  again  have  the  joy  to  embrace 
them.  In  a  little  while  they  were  out  of  sight,  and  I 
was  alone."  How  complete  is  the  description  of  his 
escape  from  the  procession  of  the  Auto  da  Fe ;  of  his 
entrance  into  the  Jew's  house  ;  his  fears  ;  his  decaying 
strength,  just  serving  to  make  up  the  life-restoring 
elixir ;  the  dying  taper ;  the  insensibility ;  the  resur- 
rection to  new  life,  and  the  day-spring  of  his  young 
manhood !  How  shall  we  speak  of  the  old  man,  the 
bequeather  of  the  fatal  legacy  to  St.  Leon,  and  his 
few  fearful  words:  "Friendless,  friendless — alone, 
alone."  Alas  !  how  terrible  to  imagine  a  being  in  pos- 


THE    NOVELS    OF    GODWIV.  XV11 

session  of  such  endowments,  who  could  bring  himself 
to  think  of  death  !  —  able  to  turn  back  upon  his  path 
and  meet  immortal  youth,  to  see  again  the  morning 
of  his  day,  and  find,  in  renewed  life  and  beauty,  a 
disguise  impenetrable  to  his  former  enemies ;  yet,  in 
the  sadness  of  his  experience,  so  dreading  the  mistakes 
and  persecution  of  his  fellow-men,  as  to  choose  rather 
to  lie  down  with  the  worm,  and  seek  oblivion  in  the 
seats  of  rottenness  and  corruption. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  ways  in  which  the 
faculty  of  Mr.  Godwin  is  evinced,  is  the  "  magnitude 
and  wealth  "  of  his  detail.  No  single  action  or  event  that 
could  possibly,  in  such  circumstances  as  he  imagines, 
heighten  the  effect,  is  omitted.  In  this  he  resembles 
Hogarth ;  but  he  is  always  tragical,  —  producing  his 
end  altogether  without  ludicrous  contrasts,  or  the  in- 
tervention of  any  thing  bordering  on  the  humorous. 
Mere  mental  imbecility  is  not  to  be  found  in  the 
pictures  of  Mr.  Godwin:  his  characters  are  people 
who  analyse  their  own  minds,  and  who  never  act  from 
want  of  understanding,  right  or  wrong.  Indeed,  they 
are  too  conscious ;  like  that  young  rogue,  Charles  dc 
St.  Leon,  for  instance,  who  seems  to  do  every  thing 
with  a  truly  French  eye  to  effect. 

If  we  were  asked  to  name  the  work  of  this  writer 
which  had  pleased  us  the  most,  we  should  say  "  Fleet- 
wood."  This  will  appear  strange  to  the  majority  of 
readers,  no  doubt;  but,  with  many  beauties,  it  has 
fewer  defects.  In  " Fleetwood"  we  have  no  drawbacks. 
The  story  of  Rttffigny  is  a  sort  of  epitome  of  our 
author :  it  contains  all  that  he  can  do.  And  then  the 

Murm-i/x  —  ui     mourn    tor    tlu-in    ;i>    tor    <U  ar   trinuU. 

Mary  FUehvood  is  the  best  feminine  delineation  to  be 


XX  PREFACE. 

comprehend,  as  far  as  the  progressive  nature  of  a 
single  story  would  allow,  a  general  review  of  the  modes 
of  domestic  and  unrecorded  despotism  by  which  man 
becomes  the  destroyer  of  man.  If  the  author  shall 
have  taught  a  valuable  lesson,  without  subtracting 
from  the  interest  and  passion  by  which  a  performance 
of  this  sort  ought  to  be  characterised,  he  will  have 
reason  to  congratulate  himself  upon  the  vehicle  he  has 
chosen. 

May  12.  1794. 


THIS  preface  was  withdrawn  in  the  original  edition, 
in  compliance  with  the  alarms  of  booksellers.  "  Caleb 
Williams"  made  his  first  appearance  in  the  world,  in  the 
same  month  in  which  the  sanguinary  plot  broke  out 
against  the  liberties  of  Englishmen,  which  was  happily 
terminated  by  the  acquittal  of  its  first  intended  victims, 
in  the  close  of  that  year.  Terror  vras  the  order  of  the 
day  ;  and  it  was  feared  that  even  the  humble  novelist 
might  be  shown  to  be  constructively  a  traitor. 

October  29.  1795. 


ADVENTURES 

OF 

CALEB   WILLIAMS. 


VOLUME    THE    FIRST. 


CHAPTER  I. 

MY  life  has  for  several  years  been  a  theatre  of  cala- 
mity. I  have  been  a  mark  for  the  vigilance  of  tyranny, 
and  I  could  not  escape.  My  fairest  prospects  have  been 
blasted.  My  enemy  has  shown  himself  inaccessible  to 
entreaties,  and  un tired  in  persecution.  My  fame,  as 
well  as  my  happiness,  has  become  his  victim.  Every 
one,  as  far  as  my  story  has  been  known,  has  refused 
to  assist  me  in  my  distress,  and  has  execrated  my  name. 
I  have  not  deserved  this  treatment.  My  own  con- 
science witnesses  in  behalf  of  that  innocence,  my  pre- 
tensions to  which  are  regarded  in  the  world  as  incredible. 
There  is  now,  however,  little  hope  that  I  shall  escape 
from  the  toils  that  universally  beset  me.  I  am  incited 
to  the  penning  of  these  memoirs  only  by  a  desire  to 
divert  my  mind  from  the  deplorableness  of  my  situation, 
and  a  faint  idea  that  posterity  may  by  their  means  be 
induced  to  render  me  a  justice  which  my  contempo- 
raries refuse.  My  story  will,  at  least,  appear  to  have 
that  consistency  which  is  seldom  attendant  but  upon 
truth. 
I  was  born  of  humble  parents,  in  a  remote  county  of 


2  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

England.  Their  occupations  were  such  as  usually  fall 
to  the  lot  of  peasants,  and  they  had  no  portion  to  give 
me,  but  an  education  free  from  the  usual  sources  of 
depravity,  and  the  inheritance,  long  since  lost  by  their 
unfortunate  progeny  1  of  an  honest  fame.  I  was  taught 
the  rudiments  of  no  science,  except  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic.  But  I  had  an  inquisitive  mind,  and 
neglected  no  means  of  information  from  conversation 
or  books.  My  improvement  was  greater  than  my  con- 
dition in  life  afforded  room  to  expect. 

There  are  other  circumstances  deserving  to  be  men- 
tioned as  having  influenced  the  history  of  my  future 
life.  I  was  somewhat  above  the  middle  stature.  With- 
out being  particularly  athletic  in  appearance,  or  large 
in  my  dimensions,  I  was  uncommonly  vigorous  and 
active.  My  joints  were  supple,  and  I  was  formed  to 
excel  in  youthful  sports.  The  habits  of  my  mind, 
however,  were  to  a  certain  degree  at  war  with  the 
dictates  of  boyish  vanity.  I  had  considerable  aversion 
to  the  boisterous  gaiety  of  the  village  gallants,  and 
contrived  to  satisfy  my  love  of  praise  with  an  un- 
frequent  apparition  at  their  amusements.  My  excellence 
in  these  respects,  however,  gave  a  turn  to  my  medi- 
tations. I  delighted  to  read  of  feats  of  activity,  and 
was  particularly  interested  by  tales  in  which  corporeal 
ingenuity  or  strength  are  the  means  resorted  to  for 
supplying  resources  and  conquering  difficulties.  I 
inured  myself  to  mechanical  pursuits,  and  devoted 
much  of  my  time  to  an  endeavour  after  mechanical 
invention. 

The  spring  of  action  which,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other,  characterised  the  whole  train  of  my  life,  was 
curiosity.  It  was  this  that  gave  me  my  mechanical 
turn ;  I  was  desirous  of  tracing  the  variety  of  effects 
which  might  be  produced  from  given  causes.  It  was 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  3 

i\i\<  that  made  rae  a  sort  of  natural  philosopher;  I 
could  not  rest  till  I  had  acquainted  myself  with  the 
solutions  that  had  been  invented  for  the  phenomena 
of  the-  universe.  In  fine,  this  produced  hi  me  an  in- 
vincible attachment  to  books  of  narrative  and  romance. 
I  panted  for  the  unravelling  of  an  adventure  with  an 
anxiety,  perhaps  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  man 
whose  future  happiness  or  misery  depended  on  its  issue. 
I  read,  I  devoured  compositions  of  this  sort.  They 
took  possession  of  my  soul ;  and  the  effects  they  pro- 
duced were  frequently  discernible  in  my  external  ap- 
pearance and  my  health.  My  curiosity,  however,  was 
not  entirely  ignoble  :  village  anecdotes  and  scandal  had 
no  charms  for  me :  my  imagination  must  be  excited ; 
and  when  that  was  not  done,  my  curiosity  was  dormant 

The  residence  of  my  parents  was  within  the  manor  of 
Ferdinando  Falkland,  a  country  squire  of  considerable 
opulence.  At  an  early  age  I  attracted  the  favourable 
notice  of  Mr.  Collins,  this  gentleman's  steward,  who 
used  to  call  in  occasionally  at  my  father's.  He  observed 
the  particulars  of  my  progress  with  approbation,  and 
made  a  favourable  report  to  his  master  of  my  industry 
and  genius. 

In  the  summer  of  the  year ,  Mr.  Falkland  visited 

his  estate  in  our  county  after  an  absence  of  several 
months.  This  was  a  period  of  misfortune  to  me.  I 
was  then  eighteen  years  of  age.  My  father  lay  dead 
in  our  cottage.  I  had  lost  my  mother  some  years  before. 
In  this  forlorn  situation  I  was  surprised  with  a  message 
from  the  squire,  ordering  me  to  repair  to  the  mansion- 
house  the  morning  after  my  father's  funeral. 

Though  I  was  not  a  stranger  to  books,  I  had  no 

practical  acquaintance  with  men.     I  had  never   had 

occasion  to  address  a  person  of  this  elevated  rank,  and 

1   telt  no  small  uneasiness   and  awe  on  the   present 

B  2 


£  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

occasion.  I  found  Mr.  Falkland  a  man  of  small  stature, 
with  an  extreme  delicacy  of  form  and  appearance.  In 
place  of  the  hard-favoured  and  inflexible  visages  I  had 
been  accustomed  to  observe,  every  muscle  and  petty 
line  of  his  countenance  seemed  to  be  in  an  incon- 
ceivable degree  pregnant  with  meaning.  His  manner 
was  kind,  attentive,  and  humane.  His  eye  was  full  of 
animation ;  but  there  was  a  grave  and  sad  solemnity 
in  his  air,  which,  for  want  of  experience,  I  imagined 
was  the  inheritance  of  the  great,  and  the  instrument 
by  which  the  distance  between  them  and  their  infe- 
riors was  maintained.  His  look  bespoke  the  unquiet- 
ness  of  his  mind,  and  frequently  wandered  with  an 
expression  of  disconsolateness  and  anxiety. 

My  reception  was  as  gracious  and  encouraging  as  I 
could  possibly  desire.  Mr.  Falkland  questioned  me  re- 
specting my  learning,  and  my  conceptions  of  men  and 
things,  and  listened  to  my  answers  with  condescension 
and  approbation.  This  kindness  soon  restored  to  me  a 
considerable  part  of  my  self-possession,  though  I  still 
felt  restrained  by  the  graceful,  but  unaltered  dignity  of 
his  carriage.  When  Mr.  Falkland  had  satisfied  his 
curiosity,  he  proceeded  to  inform  me  that  he  was  in 
want  of  a  secretary,  that  I  appeared  to  him  sufficiently 
qualified  for  that  office,  and  that,  if,  in  my  present  change 
of  situation,  occasioned  by  the  death  of  my  father,  I 
approved  of  the  employment,  he  would  take  me  into 
his  family. 

I  felt  highly  flattered  by  the  proposal,  and  was 
warm  in  the  expression  of  my  acknowledgments.  I  set 
eagerly  about  the  disposal  of  the  little  property  my 
father  had  left,  in  which  I  was  assisted  by  Mr.  Collins. 
I  had  not  now  a  relation  in  the  world,  upon  whose 
kindness  and  interposition  I  had  any  direct  claim.  But, 
far  from  regarding  this  deserted  situation  with  terror,  J 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  5 

formed  golden  visions  of  the  station  I  was  about  to 
occupy.  I  little  suspected  that  the  gaiety  and  light- 
ness of  heart  I  had  hitherto  enjoyed  were  upon  the 
point  of  leaving  me  for  ever,  and  that  the  rest  of  my 
days  were  devoted  to  misery  and  alarm. 

My  employment  was  easy  and  agreeable.  It  con* 
sisted  partly  in  the  transcribing  and  arranging  certain 
papers,  and  partly  in  writing  from  my  master's  dic- 
tation letters  of  business,  as  well  as  sketches  of  literary 
composition.  Many  of  these  latter  consisted  of  an 
analytical  survey  of  the  plans  of  different  authors  and 
conjectural  speculations  upon  hints  they  afforded,  tend- 
ing either  to  the  detection  of  their  errors,  or  the 
carrying  forward  their  discoveries.  All  of  them  bore 
powerful  marks  of  a  profound  and  elegant  mind,  well 
stored  with  literature,  and  possessed  of  an  uncommon 
share  of  activity  and  discrimination. 

My  station  was  in  that  pan  of  the  house  which  was 
appropriated  for  the  reception  of  books,  it  being  my 
duty  to  perform  the  functions  of  librarian  as  well  as 
secretary.  Here  my  hours  would  have  glided  in  tran- 
quillity and  peace,  had  not  my  situation  included  in  it 
circumstances  totally  different  from  those  which  at- 
tended me  in  my  father's  cottage.  In  early  life  my 
mind  had  been  much  engrossed  by  reading  and  re- 
flection: my  intercourse  with  my  fellow  mortals  was 
occasional  and  short.  But,  in  my  new  residence,  I  was 
excited  by  every  motive  of  interest  and  novelty  to 
study  my  master's  character ;  and  I  found  in  it  an 
ample  field  for  speculation  and  conjecture. 

His  mode  of  living  was  in  the  utmost  degree  re- 
cluse and  solitary.  He  had  no  inclination  to  scenes 
of  revelry  and  mirth.  He  avoided  the  busy  haunts  of 
men ;  nor  did  he  seem  desirous  to  compensate  for  this 
privation  by  the  confidence  of  friendship.  He  ap- 
B  3 


(J  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

peared  a  total  stranger  to  every  thing  which  usually 
bears  the  appellation  of  pleasure.  His  features  were 
scarcely  ever  relaxed  into  a  smile,  nor  did  that  air 
which  spoke  the  unhappiness  of  his  mind  at  any  time 
forsake  them :  yet  his  manners  were  by  no  means 
such  as  denoted  moroseness  and  misanthropy.  He  was 
compassionate  and  considerate  for  others,  though  the 
stateliness  of  his  carriage  and  the  reserve  of  his 
temper  were  at  no  time  interrupted.  His  appearance 
and  general  behaviour  might  have  strongly  interested 
all  persons  in  his  favour ;  but  the  coldness  of  his 
address,  and  the  impenetrableness  of  his  sentiments, 
seemed  to  forbid  those  demonstrations  of  kindness  to 
which  one  might  otherwise  have  been  prompted. 

Such  was  the  general  appearance  of  Mr.  Falkland  : 
but  his  disposition  was  extremely  unequal.  The  dis- 
temper which  afflicted  him  with  incessant  gloom  had 
its  paroxysms.  Sometimes  he  was  hasty,  peevish,  and 
tyrannical;  but  this  proceeded  rather  from  the  torment 
of  his  mind  than  an  unfeeling  disposition ;  and  when 
reflection  recurred,  he  appeared  willing  that  the  weight 
of  his  misfortune  should  fall  wholly  upon  himself. 
Sometimes  he  entirely  lost  his  self-possession,  and  his 
behaviour  was  changed  into  frenzy  :  he  would  strike 
his  forehead,  his  brows  became  knit,  his  features  dis- 
torted, and  his  teeth  ground  one  against  the  other. 
When  he  felt  the  approach  of  these  symptoms,  he 
would  suddenly  rise,  and,  leaving  the  occupation, 
whatever  it  was,  in  which  he  was  engaged,  hasten 
into  a  solitude  upon  which  no  person  dared  to  intrude. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  whole  of  what  I 
am  describing  was  visible  to  the  persons  about  him ; 
nor,  indeed,  was  I  acquainted  with  it  in  the  extent 
here  stated  but  after  a  considerable  time,  and  in  gra- 
dual succession.  With  respect  to  the  domestics  in 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  7 

.m-iu-ral,  they  saw  but  little  of  their  master.  None  of 
thrm,  except  myself,  from  the  nature  of  my  functions, 
and  Mr.  Collins,  from  the  antiquity  of  his  service  and 
the  respectableness  of  his  character,  approached  Mr. 
Falkland,  but  at  stated  seasons  and  for  a  very  short 
interval.  They  knew  him  only  by  the  benevolence  of 
his  actions,  and  the  principles  of  inflexible  integrity 
by  which  he  was  ordinarily  guided ;  and  though  they 
would  sometimes  indulge  their  conjectures  respecting 
his  singularities,  they  regarded  him  upon  the  whole 
with  veneration,  as  a  being  of  a  superior  order. 

One  day,  when  I  had  been  about  three  months  in 
the  service  of  my  patron,  I  went  to  a  closet,  or  small 
apartment,  which  was  separated  from  the  library  by 
a  narrow  gallery  that  was  lighted  by  a  small  window 
near  the  roof.  I  had  conceived  that  there  was  no  person 
in  the  room,  and  intended  only  to  put  any  thing  in 
order  that  I  might  find  out  of  its  place.  As  I  opened 
the  door,  I  heard  at  the  same  instant  a  deep  groan, 
expressive  of  intolerable  anguish.  The  sound  of  the 
door  in  opening  seemed  to  alarm  the  person  within ; 
I  heard  the  lid  of  a  trunk  hastily  shut,  and  the  noise 
as  of  fastening  a  lock.  I  conceived  that  Mr.  Falkland 
was  there,  and  was  going  instantly  to  retire  ;  but  at 
that  moment  a  voice,  that  seemed  supernaturally  tre- 
mendous, exclaimed,  Who  is  there?  The  voice  was 
Mr.  Falkland's.  The  sound  of  it  thrilled  my  very 
vitals.  I  endeavoured  to  answer,  but  my  speech 
failed,  and  being  incapable  of  any  other  reply,  I  in- 
stinctively advanced  within  the  door  into  the  room. 
Mr.  Falkland  was  just  risen  from  the  floor  upon  which 
he  had  been  sitting  or  kneeling.  His  face  betrayed 
strong  symptoms  of  confusion.  With  a  violent  effort, 
however,  these  symptoms  vanished,  and  instantane- 
ously gave  place  to  a  countenance  sparkling  with  rage. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 


«  Villain !  "  cried  he,  "  what  has  brought  you  here  ?"  I 
hesitated  a  confused  and  irresolute  answer.  "Wretch!" 
interrupted  Mr.  Falkland,  with  uncontrollable  impa- 
tience, "  you  want  to  ruin  me.  You  set  yourself  as  a 
spy  upon  my  actions ;  but  bitterly  shall  you  repent 
your  insolence.  Do  you  think  you  shall  watch  my 
privacies  with  impunity?"  I  attempted  to  defend 
myself.  "  Begone,  devil  I  "  rejoined  he.  "  Quit  the 
room,  or  I  will  trample  you  into  atoms."  Saying  this, 
he  advanced  towards  me.  But  I  was  already  suffi~ 
ciently  terrified,  and  vanished  in  a  moment.  I  heard  the 
door  shut  after  me  with  violence ;  and  thus  ended  this 
extraordinary  scene. 

I  saw  him  again  in  the  evening,  and  he  was  then 
tolerably  composed.  His  behaviour,  which  was  always 
kind,  was  now  doubly  attentive  and  soothing.  He 
seemed  to  have  something  of  which  he  wished  to  dis- 
burthen  his  mind,  but  to  want  words  in  which  to 
convey  it.  I  looked  at  him  with  anxiety  and  affection. 
He  made  two  unsuccessful  efforts,  shook  his  head,  and 
then  putting  five  guineas  into  my  hand,  pressed  it  in 
a  manner  that  I  could  feel  proceeded  from  a  mind 
pregnant  with  various  emotions,  though  I  could  not 
interpret  them.  Having  done  this,  he  seemed  imme- 
diately to  recollect  himself,  and  to  take  refuge  in  the 
usual  distance  and  solemnity  of  his  manner. 

I  easily  understood  that  secrecy  was  one  of  the 
things  expected  from  me ;  and,  indeed,  my  mind  was 
too  much  disposed  to  meditate  upon  what  I  had  heard 
and  seen,  to  make  it  a  topic  of  indiscriminate  com- 
munication. Mr.  Collins,  however,  and  myself  hap- 
pened to  sup  together  that  evening,  which  was  but 
seldom  the  case,  his  avocations  obliging  him  to  be 
much  abroad.  He  could  not  help  observing  an  un- 
common dejection  and  anxiety  in  my  countenance, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  9 

and  affectionately  enquired  into  the  reason.  I  endea- 
voured to  evade  his  questions,  but  my  youth  and 
ignorance  of  the  world  gave  me  little  advantage  for 
that  purpose.  Beside  this,  I  had  been  accustomed 
to  view  Mr.  Collins  with  considerable  attachment,  and 
I  conceived  from  the  nature  of  his  situation  that 
there  could  be  small  impropriety  in  making  him  my 
confident  in  the  present  instance.  I  repeated  to  htm 
minutely  every  thing  that  had  passed,  and  concluded 
with  a  solemn  declaration  that,  though  treated  with 
caprice,  I  was  not  anxious  for  myself;  no  inconve- 
nience or  danger  should  ever  lead  me  to  a  pusillani- 
mous behaviour ;  and  I  felt  only  for  my  patron,  who, 
with  every  advantage  for  happiness,  and  being  in 
the  highest  degree  worthy  of  it,  seemed  destined  to 
undergo  unmerited  distress. 

In  answer  to  my  communication,  Mr.  Collins  in- 
formed me  that  some  incidents,  of  a  nature  similar  to 
that  which  I  related,  had  fallen  under  his  own  know- 
ledge, and  that  from  the  whole  he  could  not  help 
concluding  that  our  unfortunate  patron,  was  at  times 
disordered  in  his  intellects.  "  Alas  !"  continued  he,  "  it 
was  not  always  thus  !  Fcrdinando  Falkland  was  once 
the  gayest  of  the  gay.  Not  indeed  of  that  frothy 
sort,  who  excite  contempt  instead  of  admiration,  and 
whose  levity  argues  thoughtlessness  rather  than  feli- 
city. His  gaiety  was  always  accompanied  with  dig- 
nity. It  was  the  gaiety  of  the  hero  and  the  scholar. 
It  was  chastened  with  reflection  and  sensibility,  and 
never  lost  sight  either  of  good  taste  or  humanity. 
Such  as  it  was  however,  it  denoted  a  genuine  hilarity 
of  heart,  imparted  an  inconceivable  brilliancy  to  his 
company  and  conversation,  and  rendered  him  the  per- 
petual delight  of  the  diversified  circles  he  then  wil- 
lingly frequented.  You  see  nothing  of  him,  my  dear 


10  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Williams,  but  the  ruin  of  that  Falkland  who  was  courted 
by  sages,  and  adored  by  the  fair.  His  youth,  distin- 
guished in  its  outset  by  the  most  unusual  promise,  is 
tarnished.  His  sensibility  is  shrunk  up  and  withered 
by  events  the  most  disgustful  to  his  feelings.  His 
mind  was  fraught  with  all  the  rhapsodies  of  visionary 
honour ;  and,  in  his  sense,  nothing  but  the  grosser 
part,  the  mere  shell  of  Falkland,  was  capable  of  sur- 
viving the  wound  that  his  pride  has  sustained. 

These  reflections  of  my  friend  Collins  strongly 
tended  to  inflame  my  curiosity,  and  I  requested  him 
to  enter  into  a  more  copious  explanation.  With  this 
request  he  readily  complied ;  as  conceiving  that  what- 
ever delicacy  it  became  him  to  exercise  in  ordinary 
cases,  it  would  be  out  of  place  in  my  situation ;  and 
thinking  it  not  improbable  that  Mr.  Falkland,  but  for 
the  disturbance  and  inflammation  of  his  mind,  would 
be  disposed  to  a  similar  communication.  I  shall  inter- 
weave with  Mr.  Collins's  story  various  information 
which  I  afterwards  received  from  other  quarters,  that 
I  may  give  all  possible  perspicuity  to  the  series  of 
events.  To  avoid  confusion  in  my  narrative,  I  shall 
drop  the  person  of  Collins,  and  assume  to  be  myself 
the  historian  of  our  patron.  To  the  reader  it  may 
appear  at  first  sight  as  if  this  detail  of  the  preceding 
life  of  Mr.  Falkland  were  foreign  to  my  history.  Alas  I 
I  know  from  bitter  experience  that  it  is  otherwise. 
My  heart  bleeds  at  the  recollection  of  his  misfortunes, 
as  if  they  were  my  own.  How  can  it  fail  to  do  so  ? 
To  his  story  the  whole  fortune  of  my  life  was  linked ; 
because  he  was  miserable,  my  happiness,  my  name, 
and  my  existence  have  been  irretrievably  blasted. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  11 


CHAPTER  H. 

AMONG  the  favourite  authors  of  his  early  years  were 
the  heroic  poets  of  Italy.  From  them  he  imbibed  the 
love  of  chivalry  and  romance.  He  had  too  much  good 
sense  to  regret  the  times  of  Charlemagne  and  Arthur. 
But,  while  his  imagination  was  purged  by  a  certain 
infusion  of  philosophy,  he  conceived  that  there  was  in 
the  manners  depicted  by  these  celebrated  poets  some- 
thing to  imitate,  as  well  as  something  to  avoid.  He  be- 
lieved that  nothing  was  so  well  calculated  to  make  men 
delicate,  gallant,  and  humane,  as  a  temper  perpetually 
alive  to  the  sentiments  of  birth  and  honour.  The 
opinions  he  entertained  upon  these  topics  were  illus- 
trated in  his  conduct,  which  was  assiduously  con- 
formed to  the  model  of  heroism  that  his  fancy  suggested. 
With  these  sentiments  he  set  out  upon  his  travels,  at 
the  age  at  which  the  grand  tour  is  usually  made;  and 
they  were  rather  confirmed  than  shaken  by  the  ad- 
ventures that  befel  him.  By  inclination  he  was  led  to 
make  his  longest  stay  in  Italy ;  and  here  he  fell  into 
company  with  several  young  noblemen  whose  studies 
and  principles  were  congenial  to  his  own.  By  them 
he  was  assiduously  courted,  and  treated  with  the  most 
distinguished  applause.  They  were  delighted  to  meet 
with  a  foreigner,  who  had  imbibed  all  the  peculiarities 
of  the  most  liberal  and  honourable  among  themselves. 
Nor  was  he  less  favoured  and  admired  by  the  softer 
sex.  Though  his  stature  was  small,  his  person  had  an  air 
of  uncommon  dignity.  His  dignity  was  then  heightened 
by  certain  additions  which  were  afterwards  obliterated, 
—  an  expression  of  frankness,  ingenuity,  and  unreserve, 
and  a  spirit  of  the  most  ardent  enthusiasm.  Perhaps 


12  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

no  Englishman  was  ever  in  an  equal  degree  idolised  by 
the  inhabitants  of  Italy. 

It  was  not  possible  for  him  to  have  drunk  so  deeply 
of  the  fountain  of  chivalry  without  being  engaged 
occasionally  in  affairs  of  honour,  all  of  which  were 
terminated  in  a  manner  that  would  not  have  disgraced 
the  chevalier  Bayard  himself.  In  Italy,  the  young  men 
of  rank  divide  themselves  into  two  classes,  —  those  who 
adhere  to  the  pure  principles  of  ancient  gallantry,  and 
those  who,  being  actuated  by  the  same  acute  sense 
of  injury  and  insult,  accustom  themselves  to  the  em- 
ployment of  hired  bravoes  as  their  instruments  of 
vengeance.  The  whole  difference,  indeed,  consists  in 
the  precarious  application  of  a  generally  received  dis- 
tinction. The  most  generous  Italian  conceives  that 
there  are  certain  persons  whom  it  would  be  contami- 
nation for  him  to  call  into  the  open  field.  He  never- 
theless believes  that  an  indignity  cannot  be  expiated 
but  with  blood,  and  is  persuaded  that  the  life  of  a  man 
is  a  trifling  consideration,  in  comparison  of  the  in- 
demnification to  be  made  to  his  injured  honour.  There 
is,  therefore,  scarcely  any  Italian  that  would  upon 
some  occasions  scruple  assassination.  Men  of  spirit 
among  them,  notwithstanding  the  prejudices  of  their 
education,  cannot  fail  to  have  a  secret  conviction  of  its 
baseness,  and  will  be  desirous  of  extending  as  far  as 
possible  the  cartel  of  honour.  Real  or  affected  arro- 
gance teaches  others  to  regard  almost  the  whole  species 
as  their  inferiors,  and  of  consequence  incites  them  to 
gratify  their  vengeance  without  danger  to  their  persons. 
Mr.  Falkland  met  with  some  of  these.  But  his  un- 
daunted spirit  and  resolute  temper  gave  him  a  decisive 
advantage  even  in  such  perilous  rencounters.  One 
instance,  among  many,  of  his  manner  of  conducting 
himself  among  this  proud  and  high-spirited  people  it 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  13 

may  be  proper  to  relate.  Mr.  Falkland  is  the  principal 
agent  in  my  history ;  and  Mr.  Falkland  in  the  autumn 
and  decay  of  his  vigour,  such  as  I  found  him,  cannot 
be  completely  understood  without  a  knowledge  of  his 
previous  character,  as  it  was  in  all  the  gloss  of  youth, 
yet  unassailed  by  adversity,  and  unbroken  in  upon  by 
anguish  or  remorse. 

At  Rome  he  was  received  with  particular  distinction 
at  the  house  of  marquis  Pisani,  who  had  an  only 
daughter,  the  heir  of  his  immense  fortune,  and  the 
admiration  of  all  the  young  nobility  of  that  metropolis. 
Lady  Lucretia  Pisani  was  tall,  of  a  dignified  form, 
and  uncommonly  beautiful.  She  was  not  deficient  in 
amiable  qualities,  but  her  soul  was  haughty,  and  her 
carriage  not  unfrequently  contemptuous.  Her  pride 
was  nourished  by  the  consciousness  of  her  charms, 
by  her  elevated  rank,  and  the  universal  adoration  she 
was  accustomed  to  receive. 

Among  her  numerous  lovers  count  Malvesi  was  the 
individual  most  favoured  by  her  father,  nor  did  his 
addresses  seem  indifferent  to  her.  The  count  was  a 
man  of  considerable  accomplishments,  and  of  great 
integrity  and  benevolence  of  disposition.  But  he  was 
too  ardent  a  lover,  to  be  able  always  to  preserve  the 
affability  of  his  temper.  The  admirers  whose  addresses 
were  a  source  of  gratification  to  his  mistress,  were  a 
perpetual  uneasiness  to  him.  Placing  his  whole  hap- 
piness in  the  possession  of  this  imperious  beauty,  the 
most  trifling  circumstances  were  capable  of  alarming 
him  for  the  security  of  his  pretensions.  But  most  of 
all  he  was  jealous  of  the  English  cavalier.  Marquis 
Pisani,  who  had  spent  many  years  in  France,  was  by 
no  means  partial  to  the  suspicious  precautions  of  Italian 
fathers,  and  indulged  his  daughter  in  considerable 
freedoms.  His  house  and  his  daughter,  with  in  certain 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

restraints,  were  open  to  the  resort  of  male 
visitants  But,  above  all,  Mr.  Falkland,  as  a  foreigner, 
and  a  person  little  likely  to  form  pretensions  to  i 
hand  of  Lucretia,  was  received  upon  a  footing  of  great 
familiarity.  The  lady  herself,  conscious  of  innocence, 
SSd  no  scruple  about  trifles,  and  acted  with  the 
confidence  and  frankness  of  one  who  is  superior  to 

"Mr  Falkland,  after  a  residence  of  several  weeks  at 
Rome',  proceeded  to  Naples.  Meanwhile  certain  inci- 
dents occurred  that  delayed  the  intended  nuptials  of  the 
heiress  of  Pisani.  When  he  returned  to  Rome  Count 
Malvesi  was  absent.  Lady  Lucretia,  who  had  been 
considerably  amused  before  with  the  conversation  ot 
Mr.  Falkland,  and  who  had  an  active  and  enquiring 
mind,  had  conceived,  in  the  interval  between  his  first 
and  second  residence  at  Rome,  a  desire  to  be  ac- 
quainted with  the  English  language,  inspired  by  the 
lively  and  ardent  encomiums  of  our  best  authors  that 
she  had  heard  from  their  countryman.  She  had  pro- 
vided herself  with  the  usual  materials  for  that  purpose, 
and  had  made  some  progress  during  his  absence.  But 
upon  his  return  she  was  forward  to  make  use  of  the 
opportunity,  which,  if  missed,  might  never  occur 
again  with  equal  advantage,  of  reading  select  passages 
of  our  poets  with  an  Englishman  of  uncommon  taste 
and  capacity. 

This  proposal  necessarily  led  to  a  more  frequent  in- 
tercourse. When  Count  Malvesi  returned,  he  found 
Mr.  Falkland  established  almost  as  an  inmate  of  the 
Pisani  palace.  His  mind  could  not  fail  to  be  struck 
with  the  criticalness  of  the  situation.  He  was  perhaps 
secretly  conscious  that  the  qualifications  of  the  English- 
man were  superior  to  his  own  ;  and  he  trembled  for  the 
progress  that  each  party  might  have  made  in  the  affec- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  15 

tion  of  the  other,  even  before  they  were  aware  of  the 
danger.  He  believed  that  the  match  was  in  every 
respect  such  as  to  flatter  the  ambition  of  Mr.  Falk- 
land ;  and  he  was  stung  even  to  madness  by  the  idea  of 
being  deprived  of  the  object  dearest  to  his  heart  by 
this  tramontane  upstart. 

He  had,  however,  sufficient  discretion  first  to  demand 
an  explanation  of  Lady  Lucretia.    She,  in  the  gak-t y 
of  her  heart,  trifled  with  his  anxiety.     His  patience 
was  already  exhausted,  and  he  proceeded  in  his  ex- 
postulation, in  language  that  she  was  by  no  means 
prepared  to  endure  with  apathy.     Lady  Lucretia  had 
always  been  accustomed  to  deference  and  submission  ; 
and,  having  got  over  something  like  terror,  that  was 
at  first  inspired  by  the  imperious  manner  in  which  she 
was  now  catechised,  her  next  feeling  was  that  of  the 
warmest    resentment.      She   disdained   to   satisfy  so 
insolent  a  questioner,  and  even  indulged   herself  in 
certain  oblique  hints  calculated  to  strengthen  his  sus- 
picions.    For  some  time  she  described  his  folly  and 
presumption  in  terms  of  the  most  ludicrous  sarcasm, 
and  then,  suddenly  changing  her  style,  bid  him  never 
let  her  see  him  more  except  upon  the  footing  of  the 
most   distant   acquaintance,   as  she  was   determined 
never  again  to  subject  herself  to  so  unworthy  a  treat- 
ment.    She  was  happy  that  he  had  at  length  disclosed 
to  her  his  true  character,  and  would   know  how  to 
profit  of  her  present  experience  to  avoid  a  repetition 
of  the  same  danger.    All  this  passed  in  the  full  career 
of  passion  on  both  sides,  and  Lady  Lucretia  had  no 
time  to  reflect  upon  what  might  be  the  consequence  of 
thus  exasperating  her  lover. 

Count  Malvesi  left  her  in  all  the  torments  of  frenzy. 
He  believed  that  this  was  a  premeditated  scene,  to 
find  a  pretence  for  breaking  off  an  engagement  that 


IQ  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

was  already  all  but  concluded;  or,  rather,  his  mind 
was  racked  with  a  thousand  conjectures:  he  alter- 
nately thought  that  the  injustice  might  be  hers  or  his 
own ;  and  he  quarrelled  with  Lady  Lucretia,  himself, 
and  the  whole  world.  In  this  temper  he  hastened  to 
the  hotel  of  the  English  cavalier.  The  season  of  ex- 
postulation was  now  over,  and  he  found  himself  irre- 
sistibly impelled  to  justify  his  precipitation  with  the 
lady,  by  taking  for  granted  that  the  subject  of  his 
suspicion  was  beyond  the  reach  of  doubt. 

Mr.  Falkland  was  at  home.  The  first  words  of  the 
count  were  an  abrupt  accusation  of  duplicity  in  the 
affair  of  Lady  Lucretia,  and  a  challenge.  The  English- 
man had  an  unaffected  esteem  for  Malvesi,  who  was  in 
reality  a  man  of  considerable  merit,  and  who  had  been 
one  of  Mr.  Falkland's  earliest  Italian  acquaintance, 
they  having  originally  met  at  Milan.  But  more  than 
this,  the  possible  consequence  of  a  duel  in  the  present 
instance  burst  upon  his  mind.  He  had  the  warmest 
admiration  for  Lady  Lucretia,  though  his  feelings  were 
not  those  of  a  lover ;  and  he  knew  that,  however  her 
•haughtiness  might  endeavour  to  disguise  it,  she  was 
impressed  with  a  tender  regard  for  Count  Malvesi. 
He  could  not  bear  to  think  that  any  misconduct  of 
his  should  interrupt  the  prospects  of  so  deserving 
a  pair.  Guided  by  these  sentiments,  he  endeavoured 
to  expostulate  with  the  Italian.  But  his  attempts  were 
ineffectual.  His  antagonist  was  drunk  with  choler, 
and  would  not  listen  to  a  word  that  tended  to  check 
the  impetuosity  of  his  thoughts.  He  traversed  the 
room  with  perturbed  steps,  and  even  foamed  with 
anguish  and  fury.  Mr.  Falkland,  finding  that  all  was  to 
no  purpose,  told  the  count  that,  if  he  would  return  to- 
morrow at  the  same  hour,  he  would  attend  him  to  any 
scene  of  action  he  should  think  proper  to  select. 


CALEB    \\II.l.l.\MN.  17 

From  Count  Malvesi  Mr.  Falkland  immediately 
proceeded  to  the  palace  of  Pisani.  Here  he  found 
considerable  difficulty  in  appeasing  the  indignation  of 
Lady  Lucretia.  His  ideas  of  honour  would  by  no  means 
allow  him  to  win  her  to  his  purpose  by  disclosing  the 
cartel  he  had  received ;  otherwise  that  disclosure 
would  immediately  have  operated  as  the  strongest 
motive  that  could  have  been  offered  to  this  disdainful 
beauty.  But,  though  she  dreaded  such  an  event, 
the  vague  apprehension  was  not  strong  enough  to 
induce  her  instantly  to  surrender  all  the  stateliness  of 
her  resentment.  Mr.  Falkland,  however,  drew  so 
interesting  a  picture  of  the  disturbance  of  Count  Mal- 
vesi's  mind,  and  accounted  in  so  flattering  a  manner 
for  the  abruptness  of  his  conduct,  that  this,  together 
with  the  arguments  he  adduced,  completed  the  con- 
quest  of  Lady  Lucretia's  resentment.  Having  thus  far 
accomplished  his  purpose,  he  proceeded  to  disclose 
to  her  every  thing  that  had  passed. 

The  next  day  Count  Malvesi  appeared,  punctual  to 
his  appointment,  at  Mr.  Falkland's  hotel.  Mr.  Falkland 
came  to  the  door  to  receive  him,  but  requested  him 
to  enter  tin-  house  for  a  moment,  as  he  had  still  an 
affair  of  three  minutes  to  despatch.  They  proceeded  to 
a  parlour.  Here  Mr.  Falkland  left  him,  and  presently 
returned  leading  in  Lady  Lucretia  herself,  adorned  in 
all  her  charms,  and  those  charms  heightened  upon 
the  present  occasion  by  a  consciousness  of  the  spirited 
and  generous  condescension  she  was  exerting.  Mr. 
Falkland  led  her  up  to  the  astonished  count ;  and  she, 
gently  laying  her  hand  upon  the  arm  of  her  lover,  ex- 
claimed with  the  most  attractive  grace,  "  Will  you 
allow  me  to  retract  the  precipitate  haughtiness  into 
which  I  was  betrayed?"  The  enraptured  count, 
scarcely  able  to  believe  his  senses,  threw  himself 


J8  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

upon  his  knees  before  her,  and  stammered  out  his 
reply,  signifying  that  the  precipitation  had  been  all 
his  own,  that  he  only  had  any  forgiveness  to  demand, 
and,  though  they  might  pardon,  he  could  never 
pardon  himself  for  the  sacrilege  he  had  committed 
against  her  and  this  god  like  Englishman.  As  soon  as 
the  first  tumults  of  his  joy  had  subsided,  Mr.  Falk- 
land addressed  him  thus  :  — 

"  Count  Malvesi,  I  feel  the  utmost  pleasure  in 
having  thus  by  peaceful  means  disarmed  your  re- 
sentment, and  effected  your  happiness.  But  I  must 
confess,  you  put  me  to  a  severe  trial.  My  temper 
is  not  less  impetuous  and  fiery  than  your  own,  and 
it  is  not  at  all  times  that  I  should  have  been  thus 
able  to  subdue  it.  But  I  considered  that  in  reality  the 
original  blame  was  mine.  Though  your  suspicion  was 
groundless,  it  was  not  absurd.  We  have  been  trifling 
too  much  in  the  face  of  danger.  I  ought  not,  under 
the  present  weakness  of  our  nature  and  forms  of 
society,  to  have  been  so  assiduous  in  my  attendance 
upon  this  enchanting  woman.  It  would  have  been 
little  wonder,  if,  having  so  many  opportunities,  and 
playing  the  preceptor  with  her  as  I  have  done,  I  had 
been  entangled  before  I  was  aware,  and  harboured  a 
wish  which  I  might  not  afterwards  have  had  courage  to 
subdue.  I  owed  you  an  atonement  for  this  impru- 
dence. 

"  But  the  laws  of  honour  are  in  the  utmost  degree 
rigid;  and  there  was  reason  to  fear  that,  however 
anxious  I  were  to  be  your  friend,  I  might  be  obliged  to 
be  your  murderer.  Fortunately,  the  reputation  of  my 
courage  is  sufficiently  established,  not  to  expose  it  to 
any  impeachment  by  my  declining  your  present  defiance. 
It  was  lucky,  however,  that  in  our  interview  of  yes- 
terday you  found  me  alone,  and  that  accident  by 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  19 

that  means  threw  the  management  of  the  affair  into 
my  disposal.  If  the  transaction  should  become  known, 
tin-  conclusion  will  now  become  known  along  with 
the  provocation,  and  I  am  satisfied.  But  if  the  chal- 
lenge had  been  public,  the  proofs  I  had  formerly 
given  of  courage  would  not  have  excused  my  present 
moderation ;  and,  though  desirous  to  have  avoided 
the  combat,  it  would  not  have  been  in  my  power. 
Let  us  hence  each  of  us  learn  to  avoid  haste  and 
indiscretion,  the  consequences  of  which  may  be 
inexpiable  but  with  blood;  and  may  Heaven  bless 
you  in  a  consort  of  whom  I  deem  you  every  way 
worthy!" 

I  have  already  said  that  this  was  by  no  means  the 
only  instance,  in  the  course  of  his  travels,  in  which 
Mr.  Falkland  acquitted  himself  in  the  most  brilliant 
manner  as  a  man  of  gallantry  and  virtue.  He  con- 
tinued abroad  during  several  years,  every  one  of  which 
brought  some  fresh  accession  to  the  estimation  in 
which  he  was  held,  as  well  as  to  his  own  impatience 
of  stain  or  dishonour.  At  length  he  thought  proper 
to  return  to  England,  with  tin-  intention  of  spending 
the  rest  of  his  days  at  the  residence  of  his  ancestors. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM  the  moment  he  entered  upon  the  execution  of 
this  purpose,  dictated  as  it  probably  was  by  an  un- 
affected principle  of  duty,  his  misfortunes  took  their 
commencement.  All  I  have  further  to  state  of  his 
history  is  the  uninterrupted  persecution  of  a  malignant 
destiny,  a  series  of  adventures  that  seemed  to  take  their 
rise  in  various  accidents,  but  pointing  to  one  termin- 
c  2 


20  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

ation.  Him  they  overwhelmed  with  an  anguish  he  was 
of  all  others  least  qualified  to  bear ;  and  these  waters 
of  bitterness,  extending  beyond  him,  poured  their 
deadly  venom  upon  others,  I  being  myself  the  most 
unfortunate  of  their  victims. 

The  person  in  whom  these  calamities  originated  was 
Mr.  Falkland's  nearest  neighbour,  a  man  of  estate  equal 
to  his  own,  by  name  Barnabas  Tyrrel.  This  man  one 
might  at  first  have  supposed  of  all  others  least  qualified 
from  instruction,  or  inclined  by  the  habits  of  his  life,  to 
disturb  the  enjoyments  of  a  mind  so  richly  endowed  as 
that  of  Mr.  Falkland.  Mr.  Tyrrel  might  have  passed 
for  a  true  model  of  the  English  squire.  He  was  early 
left  under  the  tuition  of  his  mother,  a  woman  of  narrow 
capacity,  and  who  had  no  other  child.  The  only  re- 
maining member  of  the  family  it  may  be  necessary  to 
notice  was  Miss  Emily  Melville,  the  orphan  daughter 
of  Mr.  Tyrrel's  paternal  aunt ;  who  now  resided  in  the 
family  mansion,  and  was  wholly  dependent  on  the  be- 
nevolence of  its  proprietors. 

Mrs.  Tyrrel  appeared  to  think  that  there  was  nothing 
in  the  world  so  precious  as  her  hopeful  Barnabas. 
Every  thing  must  give  way  to  his  accommodation  and 
advantage ;  every  one  must  yield  the  most  servile  obe- 
dience to  his  commands.  He  must  not  be  teased  or 
restricted  by  any  forms  of  instruction ;  and  of  conse- 
quence his  proficiency,  even  in  the  arts  of  writing  and 
reading,  was  extremely  slender.  From  his  birth  he 
was  muscular  and  sturdy;  and,  confined  to  the  ruelle 
of  his  mother,  he  made  much  such  a  figure  as  the 
whelp-lion  that  a  barbarian  might  have  given  for  a  lap- 
dog  to  his  mistress. 

But  he  soon  broke  loose  from  these  trammels,  and 
formed  an  acquaintance  with  the  groom  and  the  game- 
keeper. Under  their  instruction  he  proved  as  ready 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  21 

a  scholar,  as  he  had  been  indocile  and  restive  to  the 
pedant  who  held  the  office  of  his  tutor.  It  was  now 
evident  that  his  small  proficiency  in  literature  was  by 
no  means  to  be  ascribed  to  want  of  capacity.  He  dis- 
covered no  contemptible  sagacity  and  quick-wittedness 
in  the  science  of  horse-flesh,  and  was  eminently  exjn  rt 
in  the  arts  of  shooting,  fishing,  and  hunting.  Nor  did 
he  confine  himself  to  these,  but  added  the  theory 
and  practice  of  boxing,  cudgel  play,  and  quarter-staff. 
These  exercises  added  tenfold  robustness  and  vigour 
to  his  former  qualifications. 

His  stature,  when  grown,  was  somewhat  more  than 
five  feet  ten  inches  in  height,  and  his  form  might  have 
been  selected  by  a  painter  as  a  model  for  that  hero  of 
antiquity,  whose  prowess  consisted  in  felling  an  ox  with 
his  fist,  and  devouring  him  at  a  meal.  Conscious  of 
his  advantage  in  this  respect,  he  was  insupportably 
arrogant,  tyrannical  to  his  inferiors,  and  insolent  to 
his  equals.  The  activity  of  his  mind  being  diverted 
from  the  genuine  field  of  utility  and  distinction,  showed 
itself  in  the  rude  tricks  of  an  overgrown  lubber.  Here, 
as  in  all  his  other  qualifications,  he  rose  above  his  com- 
petitors ;  and  if  it  had  been  possible  to  overlook  the 
callous  and  unrelenting  disposition  which  they  mani- 
fested, one  could  scarcely  have  denied  his  applause  to 
the  invention  these  freaks  displayed,  and  the  rough, 
sarcastic  wit  with  which  they  were  accompanied. 

Mr.  Tyrrel  was  by  no  means  inclined  to  permit  these 
extraordinary  merits  to  rust  in  oblivion.  There  was  a 
weekly  assembly  at  the  nearest  market-town,  the  resort 
of  all  the  rural  gentry.  Here  he  had  hitherto  figured 
to  the  greatest  advantage  as  grand  master  of  the  coterie, 
no  one  having  an  equal  share  of  opulence,  and  the  ma- 
jority, though  still  pretending  to  the  rank  of  gentry, 
greatly  his  inferior  in  this  essential  article.  The  young 
c  3 


22  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

men  in  this  circle  looked  up  to  this  insolent  bashaw 
with  timid  respect,  conscious  of  the  comparative  emi- 
nence that  unquestionably  belonged  to  the  powers  of 
his  mind ;  and  he  well  knew  how  to  maintain  his  rank 
with  an  inflexible  hand.  Frequently  indeed  he  relaxed 
his  features,  and  assumed  a  temporary  appearance  of 
affableness  and  familiarity;  but  they  found  by  ex- 
perience, that  if  any  one,  encouraged  by  his  conde- 
scension, forgot  the  deference  which  Mr.  Tyrrel 
considered  as  his  due,  he  was  soon  taught  to  repent 
his  presumption.  It  wa&  a  tiger  that  thought  proper  to 
toy  with  a  mouse,  the  little  animal  every  moment  in 
danger  of  being  crushed  by  the  fangs  of  his  ferocious 
associate.  As  Mr.  Tyrrel  had  considerable  copiousness 
of  speech,  and  a  rich,  but  undisciplined  imagination, 
he  was  always  sure  of  an  audience.  His  neighbours 
crowded  round,  and  joined  in  the  ready  laugh,  partly 
from  obsequiousness,  and  partly  from  unfeigned  ad- 
miration. It  frequently  happened,  however,  that,  in  the 
midst  of  his  good  humour,  a  characteristic  refinement 
of  tyranny  would  suggest  itself  to  his  mind.  When 
his  subjects,  encouraged  by  his  familiarity,  had  dis- 
carded their  precaution,  the  wayward  fit  would  seize 
him,  a  sudden  cloud  overspread  his  brow,  his  voice 
transform  from  the  pleasant  to  the  terrible,  and  a 
quarrel  of  a  straw  immediately  ensue  with  the  first 
man  whose  face  he  did  not  like.  The  pleasure  that 
resulted  to  others  from  the  exuberant  sallies  of  his 
imagination  was,  therefore,  not  unalloyed  with  sudden 
qualms  of  apprehension  and  terror.  It  may  be  believed 
that  this  despotism  did  not  gain  its  final  ascendancy 
without  being  contested  in  the  outset.  But  all  op- 
position was  quelled  with  a  high  hand  by  this  rural 
Antaeus.  By  the  ascendancy  of  his  fortune,  and  his 
character  among  his  neighbours,  he  always  reduced 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  23 

his  adversary  to  the  necessity  of  encountering  him  at 
his  own  weapons,  and  did  not  dismiss  him  without 
niakinur  liim  feel  his  presumption  through  every  joint 
in  his  frame.  The  tyranny  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  would  not 
have  been  so  patiently  endured,  had  not  his  colloquial 
accomplishments  perpetually  come  in  aid  of  that  au- 
thority which  his  rank  and  prowess  originally  obtained. 

The  situation  of  our  squire  with  the  fair  was  still 
more  enviable  than  that  which  he  maintained  among 
persons  of  his  own  sex.  Every  mother  taught  her 
daughter  to  consider  the  hand  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  as  the 
highest  object  of  her  ambition.  Every  daughter  re- 
garded his  athletic  form  and  his  acknowledged  prowess 
with  a  favourable  eye.  A  form  eminently  athletic  is, 
perhaps,  always  well  proportioned;  and  one  of  the  quali- 
fications that  women  are  early  taught  to  look  for  in  the 
male  sex,  is  that  of  a  protector.  As  no  man  was 
adventurous  enough  to  contest  his  superiority,  so 
scarcely  any  woman  in  this  provincial  circle  would 
have  scrupled  to  prefer  his  addresses  to  those  of  any 
other  admirer.  His  boisterous  wit  had  peculiar  charms 
for  them ;  and  there  was  no  spectacle  more  flattering 
to  their  vanity,  than  seeing  this  Hercules  exchange  his 
club  for  a  distaff.  It  was  pleasing  to  them  to  consider, 
that  the  fangs  of  this  wild  beast,  the  very  idea  of  which 
inspired  trepidation  into  the  boldest  hearts,  might  be 
played  with  by  them  with  the  utmost  security. 

Such  was  the  rival  that  Fortune,  in  her  caprice,  had 
reserved  for  the  accomplished  Falkland.  This  un- 
tamed, though  not  undiscerning  brute,  was  found  ca- 
pable of  destroying  the  prospects  of  a  man  the  most 
eminently  qualified  to  enjoy  and  to  communicate  hap- 
piness. The  feud  that  sprung  up  between  them  was 
nourished  by  concurring  circumstances,  till  it  attained 
a  magnitude  difficult  to  be  paralleled;  and,  because 

c  4 


24>  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

they  regarded  each  other  with  a  deadly  hatred,  I  have 
become  an  object  of  misery  and  abhorrence. 

The  arrival  of  Mr.  Falkland  gave  an  alarming  shock 
to  the  authority  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  in  the  village  assembly, 
and  in  all  scenes  of  indiscriminate  resort.  His  dispo- 
sition by  no  means  inclined  him  to  withhold  himself 
from  scenes  of  fashionable  amusement ;  and  he  and  his 
competitor  were  like  two  stars  fated  never  to  appear 
at  once  above  the  horizon.  The  advantages  Mr.  Falk- 
land possessed  in  the  comparison  are  palpable ;  and  had 
it  been  otherwise,  the  subjects  of  his  rural  neighbour 
were  sufficiently  disposed  to  revolt  against  his  merci- 
less dominion.  They  had  hitherto  submitted  from 
fear,  and  not  from  love  ;  and,  if  they  had  not  rebelled, 
it  was  only  for  want  of  a  leader.  Even  the  ladies  re- 
garded Mr.  Falkland  with  particular  complacence.  His 
polished  manners  were  peculiarly  in  harmony  with  fe- 
minine delicacy.  The  sallies  of  his  wit  were  far  beyond 
those  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  in  variety  and  vigour ;  in  addition 
to  which  they  had  the  advantage  of  having  their  spon- 
taneous exuberance  guided  and  restrained  by  the  sa- 
gacity of  a  cultivated  mind.  The  graces  of  his  person 
were  enhanced  by  the  elegance  of  his  deportment ; 
and  the  benevolence  and  liberality  of  his  temper  were 
upon  all  occasions  conspicuous.  It  was  common  in- 
deed to  Mr.  Tyrrel,  together  with  Mr.  Falkland,  to  be 
little  accessible  to  sentiments  of  awkwardness  and 
confusion.  But  for  this  Mr.  Tyrrel  was  indebted  to 
a  self-satisfied  effrontery,  and  a  boisterous  and  over- 
bearing elocution,  by  which  he  was  accustomed  to  dis- 
comfit his  assailants ;  while  Mr.  Falkland,  with  great 
ingenuity  and  candour  of  mind,  was  enabled  by  his 
extensive  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  acquaintance 
with  his  own  resources,  to  perceive  almost  instantane- 
ously the  proceeding  it  most  became  him  to  adopt. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Mr.  Tvrrel  conti-mplati'd  the  progress  of  his  rival 
with  uneasiness  and  aversion.  He  often  commented 
upon  it  to  his  particular  confidents  as  a  thing  alto- 
gether inconceivable.  Mr.  Falkland  he  described  as 
an  animal  that  was  beneath  contempt.  Diminutive 
and  dwarfish  in  his  form,  he  wanted  to  set  up  a  new 
standard  of  human  nature,  adapted  to  his  miserable 
condition.  He  wished  to  persuade  people  that  the 
human  species  were  made  to  be  nailed  to  a  chair,  and 
to  pore  over  books.  He  would  have  them  exchange 
those  robust  exercises  which  make  us  joyous  in  the 
performance,  and  vigorous  in  the  consequences,  for  the 
wise  labour  of  scratching  our  heads  for  a  rhyme  and 
counting  our  fingers  for  a  verse.  Monkeys  were  as 
good  men  as  these.  A  nation  of  such  animals  would 
have  no  chance  with  a  single  regiment  of  the  old 
English  votaries  of  beef  and  pudding.  He  never 
saw  any  thing  come  of  learning  but  to  make  people 
foppish  and  impertinent;  and  a  sensible  man  would 
not  wish  a  worse  calamity  to  the  enemies  of  his  nation, 
than  to  see  them  run  mad  after  such  pernicious  ab- 
surdities. It  was  impossible  that  people  could  seri- 
ously feel  any  liking  for  such  a  ridiculous  piece  of 
goods  as  this  outlandish  foreign-made  Englishman. 
But  he  knew  very  well  how  it  was:  it  was  a  miserable 
piece  of  mummery  that  was  played  only  in  spite  of 
him.  But  God  for  ever  blast  his  soul,  if  he  were  not 
bitterly  revenged  upon  them  all ! 

If  such  were  the  sentiments  of  Mr.  Tyrrel,  his  pa- 
tience found  ample  exercise  in  the  language  which  was 
held  by  the  rest  of  his  neighbours  on  the  same  subject. 
While  he  saw  nothing  in  Mr.  Falkland  but  matter  of 
contempt,  they  appeared  to  be  never  weary  of  recount- 
ing his  praises.  Such  dignity,  such  affability,  so  per- 
petual an  attention  to  the  happiness  of  others,  such 


26  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

delicacy  of  sentiment  and  expression  I  Learned  with- 
out ostentation,  refined  without  foppery,  elegant  without 
effeminacy !  Perpetually  anxious  to  prevent  his  superi- 
ority from  being  painfully  felt,  it  was  so  much  the  more 
certainly  felt  to  be  real,  and  excited  congratulation 
instead  of  envy  in  the  spectator.  It  is  scarcely  neces- 
sary to  remark,  that  the  revolution  of  sentiment  in  this 
rural  vicinity  belongs  to  one  of  the  most  obvious  fea- 
tures of  the  human  mind.  The  rudest  exhibition  of 
art  is  at  first  admired,  till  a  nobler  is  presented,  and  we 
are  taught  to  wonder  at  the  facility  with  which  before 
we  had  been  satisfied.  Mr.  Tyrrel  thought  there  would 
be  no  end  to  the  commendation ;  and  expected  when 
their  common  acquaintance  would  fall  down  and  adore 
the  intruder.  The  most  inadvertent  expression  of  ap- 
plause inflicted  upon  him  the  torment  of  demons.  He 
writhed  with  agony,  his  features  became  distorted,  and 
his  looks  inspired  terror.  Such  suffering  would  pro- 
bably have  soured  the  kindest  temper ;  what  must  have 
been  its  effect  upon  Mr.  Tyrrel's,  always  fierce,  unre- 
lenting, and  abrupt  ? 

The  advantages  of  Mr.  Falkland  seemed  by  no  means 
to  diminish  with  their  novelty.  Every  new  sufferer 
from  Mr.  Tyrrel's  tyranny  immediately  went  over  to 
the  standard  of  his  adversary.  The  ladies,  though 
treated  by  their  rustic  swain  with  more  gentleness  than 
the  men,  were  occasionally  exposed  to  his  capricious- 
ness  and  insolence.  They  could  not  help  remarking 
the  contrast  between  these  two  leaders  in  the  fields  of 
chivalry,  the  one  of  whom  paid  no  attention  to  any  one's 
pleasure  but  his  own,  while  the  other  seemed  all  good- 
humour  and  benevolence.  It  was  in  vain  that  Mr. 
Tyrrel  endeavoured  to  restrain  the  ruggedness  of  his 
character.  His  motive  was  impatience,  his  thoughts 
were  gloomy,  and  his  courtship  was  like  the  pawings  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  27 

an  c-U -pliant.  It  appeared  as  if  his  temper  had  been 
more  human  while  he  indulged  in  its  free  bent,  than 
now  that  he  sullenly  endeavoured  to  put  fetters  upon 
its  excesses. 

Among  the"  ladies'  of  the  village-assembly  already 
mentioned,  there  was  none  that  seemed  to  engage  more 
of  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  than  Miss  Hardingham. 
She  was  also  one  of  the  few  that  had  not  yet  gone  over 
to  the  enemy,  either  because  she  really  preferred  the 
gentleman  who  was  her  oldest  acquaintance,  or  that  she 
conceived  from  calculation  this  conduct  best  adapted 
to  insure  her  success  in  a  husband.  One  day,  however, 
she  thought  proper,  probably  only  by  way  of  experi- 
ment, to  show  Mr.  Tyrrel  that  she  could  engage  in 
hostilities,  if  he  should  at  any  time  give  her  sufficient 
provocation.  She  so  adjusted  her  manoeuvres  as  to  be 
engaged  by  Mr.  Falkland  as  his  partner  for  the  dance 
of  the  evening,  though  without  the  smallest  intention 
on  the  part  of  that  gentleman  (who  was  unpardonably 
deficient  in  the  sciences  of  anecdote  and  match-making) 
of  giving  offence  to  his  country  neighbour.  Though 
the  manners  of  Mr.  Falkland  were  condescending  and 
attentive,  his  hours  of  retirement  were  principally  occu- 
pied in  contemplations  too  dignified  for  scandal,  and 
too  large  for  the  altercations  of  a  vestry,  or  the  politics 
of  an  election-borough. 

A  short  time  before  the  dances  began,  Mr.  Tyrrel 
went  up  to  his  fair  inamorata,  and  entered  into  some 
trifling  conversation  with  her  to  fill  up  the  time,  as 
intending  in  a  few  minutes  to  lead  her  forward  to  the 
field.  He  had  accustomed  himself  to  neglect  the  cere- 
mony of  soliciting  beforehand  a  promise  in  Ins  favour* 
as  not  supposing  it  possible  that  any  one  would  dare 
dispute  his  behests ;  and,  had  it  been  otherwise,  he 
would  have  thought  the  formality  unnecessary  in  this 


28  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

case,  his  general  preference  to  Miss  Hardingham  being 
notorious. 

While  he  was  thus  engaged,  Mr.  Falkland  came  up. 
Mr.  Tyrrel  always  regarded  him  with  aversion  and 
loathing.  Mr.  Falkland,  however,  slided  in  a  graceful 
and  unaffected  manner  into  the  conversation  already 
begun  ;  and  the  animated  ingenuousness  of  his  manner 
was  such,  as  might  for  the  time  have  disarmed  the  devil 
of  his  malice.  Mr.  Tyrrel  probably  conceived  that  his 
accosting  Miss  Hardingham  was  an  accidental  piece  of 
general  ceremony,  and  expected  every  moment  when 
he  would  withdraw  to  another  part  of  the  room. 

The  company  now  began  to  be  in  motion  for  the 
dance,  and  Mr.  Falkland  signified  as  much  to  Miss 
Hardingham.  "  Sir,"  interrupted  Mr.  Tyrrel  abruptly, 
"  that  lady  is  my  partner."  —  "I  believe  nbt,  sir :  that 
lady  has  been  so  obliging  as  to  accept  my  invitation."  — 
"  I  tell  you,  sir,  no.  Sir,  I  have  an  interest  in  that 
lady's  affections ;  and  I  will  suffer  no  man  to  intrude 
upon  my  claims." — "The  lady's  affections  are  not  the 
subject  of  the  present  question." — "  Sir,  it  is  to  no 
purpose  to  parley.  Make  room,  sir  !"  —  Mr.  Falkland 
gently  repelled  his  antagonist.  "  Mr.  Tyrrel !"  returned 
he,  with  some  firmness,  "  let  us  have  no  altercation  in 
this  business:  the  master  of  the  ceremonies  is  the 
proper  person  to  decide  in  a  difference  of  this  sort,  if  we 
cannot  adjust  it :  we  can  neither  of  us  intend  to  exhibit 
our  valour  before  the  ladies,  and  shall  therefore  cheer- 
fully submit  to  his  verdict."  — "  Damn  me,  sir,  if  I 
understand—"  «  Softly,  Mr.  Tyrrel ;  I  intended  you  no 
offence.  But,  sir,  no  man  shall  prevent  my  asserting 
that  to  which  I  have  once  acquired  a  claim  !" 

Mr.  Falkland  uttered  these  words  with  the  most 
unruffled  temper  in  the  world.  The  tone  in -which 
he  spoke  had  acquired  elevation,  but  neither  roughness 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  29 

nor  impatience.  There  was  a  fascination  in  his  manner 
that  made  the  ferociousness  of  his  antagonist  subside 
into  impotence.  Miss  Hardingham  had  begun  to  repent 
of  her  experiment,  but  her  alarm  was  speedily  quieted 
by  the  dignified  composure  of  her  new  partner.  Mr. 
Tynrel  walked  away  without  answering  a  word.  He 
muttered  curses  as  he  went,  which  the  laws  of  honour 
did  not  oblige  Mr.  Falkland  to  overhear,  and  which  in- 
deed it  would  have  been  no  easy  task  to  have  overheard 
with  accuracy.  Mr.  Tyrrel  would  not,  perhaps,  have 
so  easily  given  up  his  point,  had  not  his  own  good 
sense  presently  taught  him,  that,  however  eager  he 
might  be  for  revenge,  this  was  not  the  ground  he 
should  desire  to  occupy.  But,  though  he  could  not 
openly  resent  this  rebellion  against  his  authority,  he 
brooded  over  it  in  the  recesses  of  a  malignant  mind ; 
and  it  was  evident  enough  that  he  was  accumulating 
materials  for  a  bitter  account,  to  which  he  trusted  his 
adversary  should  one  day  be  brought. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THIS  was  only  one  out  of  innumerable  instances,  that 
every  day  seemed  to  multiply,  of  petty  mortifications 
whieh  Mr.  Tyrrel  was  destined  to  endure  on  the  part 
of  Mr.  Falkland.  In  all  of  them  Mr.  Falkland  con- 
ducted himself  with  such  unaffected  propriety,  as  per- 
petually  to  add  to  the  stock  of  his  reputation.  The 
more  Mr.  Tyrrel  struggled  with  his  misfortune,  the 
more  conspicuous  and  inveterate  it  became.  A  thou- 
sand times  he  cursed  his  stars,  which  took,  as  he  ap- 
prehended, a  malicious  pleasure  in  making  Mr.  Falkland, 
at  every  turn,  the  instrument  of  his  humiliation.  Smart- 


30  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

ing  under  a  succession  of  untoward  events,  he  appeare^ 
to  feel,  in  the  most  exquisite  manner,  the  distinctions 
paid  to  his  adversary,  even  in  those  points  in  which  he 
had  not  the  slightest  pretensions.  An  instance  of  this 
now  occurred.  . 

Mr.  Clare,  a  poet  whose  works  have  done  immortal 
honour  to  the  country  that  produced  him,  had  lately 
retired,  after  a  life  spent  in  the  sublimest  efforts  of 
genius,  to  enjoy  the  produce  of  his  economy,  and  the 
reputation  he  had  acquired,  in  this  very  neighbourhood. 
Such  an  inmate  was  looked  up  to  by  the  country  gen- 
tlemen with  a  degree  of  adoration.     They  felt  a  con- 
scious pride  in  recollecting  that  the  boast  of  England 
was  a  native  of  their  vicinity ;  and  they  were  by  no 
means  deficient  in  gratitude  when  they  saw  him,  who 
had  left  them  an  adventurer,   return  into  the  midst  of 
them,  in  the  close  of  his  days,  crowned  with  honours 
and  opulence.  The  reader  is  acquainted  with  his  works : 
he  has,  probably,  dwelt  upon  them  with  transport ;  and 
I  need  not  remind  him  of  their  excellence :  but  he  is, 
perhaps,  a  stranger  to  his  personal  qualifications ;  he 
does  not  know  that  his  productions  were  scarcely  more 
admirable   than   his    conversation.      In    company   he 
seemed  to  be  the  only  person  ignorant  of  the  greatness 
of  his  fame.     To  the  world  his  writings  will  long  re- 
main a  kind  of  specimen  of  what  the  human  mind  is 
capable  of  performing;    but  no  man  perceived  their 
defects  so  acutely  as  he,  or  saw  so  distinctly  how  much 
yet  remained  to  be  effected :  he  alone   appeared    to 
look  upon  his  works  with  superiority  and  indifference. 
One  of  the  features  that  most  eminently  distinguished 
him  was  a  perpetual  suavity  of  manners,  a  compre- 
hensiveness of  mind,  that  regarded  the  errors  of  others 
without  a  particle  of  resentment,   and  made  it  impos- 
sible for  any  one  to  be  his  enemy.     He  pointed  out  to 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  31 

men  their  mistakes  with  frankness  and  unreserve :  his 
remonstrances  produced  astonishment  and  conviction, 
but  without  uneasiness,  in  the  party  to  whom  they  were 
addressed :  they  felt  the  instrument  that  was  employed 
to  correct  their  irregularities,  but  it  never  mangled 
what  it  was  intended  to  heal.  Such  were  the  moral  qua- 
lities that  distinguished  him  among  his  acquaintance. 
The  intellectual  accomplishments  he  exhibited  were, 
principally,  a  tranquil  and  mild  enthusiasm,  and  a  rich- 
ness of  conception  which  dictated  spontaneously  to  his 
tongue,  and  flowed  with  so  much  ease,  that  it  was  only 
by  retrospect  you  could  be  made  aware  of  die  amazing 
variety  of  ideas  that  had  been  presented. 

Mr.  Clare  certainly  found  few  men  in  this  remote 
situation  that  were  capable  of  participating  in  his  ideas 
and  amusements.  It  has  been  among  the  weaknesses 
of  great  men  to  fly  to  solitude,  and  converse  with  woods 
and  groves,  rather  than  with  a  circle  of  strong  and 
comprehensive  minds  like  their  own.  From  the  mo- 
ment of  Mr.  Falkland's  arrival  in  the  neighbourhood, 
Mr.  Clare  distinguished  him  in  the  most  flattering 
manner.  To  so  penetrating  a  genius  there  was  no 
need  of  long  experience  and  patient  observation  to  dis- 
cover the  merits  and  defects  of  any  character  that  pre- 
sented itself.  The  materials  of  his  judgment  had  long 
since  been  accumulated ;  and,  at  the  close  of  so  illus- 
trious a  life,  he  might  almost  be  said  to  sec  through 
nature  at  a  glance.  What  wonder  that  he  took  some 
interest  in  a  mind  in  a  certain  degree  congenial  with 
his  own  ?  But  to  Mr.  Tyrrel's  diseased  imagination, 
every  distinction  bestowed  on  his  neighbour  seemed 
to  be  expressly  intended  as  an  insult  to  him.  On 
the  other  hand,  Mr.  Clare,  though  gentle  and  bene- 
volent in  his  remonstrances  to  a  degree  that  made  the 
taking  offence  impossible,  was  by  no  means  parsimo- 


32  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

nious  of  praise,  or  slow  to  make  use  of  the  deference 
that  was  paid  him,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  justice 
to  merit. 

It  happened  at  one  of  those  public  meetings  at  which 
Mr.  Falkland  and  Mr.  Tyrrel  were  present,  that  the 
conversation,  in  one  of  the  most  numerous  sets  into 
which  the  company  was  broken,  turned  upon  the 
poetical  talents  of  the  former.  A  lady,  who  was  pre- 
sent, and  was  distinguished  for  the  acuteness  of  her 
understanding,  said,  she  had  been  favoured  with  a 
sight  of  a  poem  he  had  just  written,  entitled  An  Ode 
to  the  Genius  of  Chivalry,  which  appeared  to  her  of 
exquisite  merit.  The  curiosity  of  the  company  was 
immediately  excited,  and  the  lady  added,  she  had  a 
copy  in  her  pocket,  which  was  much  at  their  service, 
provided  its  being  thus  produced  would  not  be  dis- 
agreeable to  the  author.  The  whole  circle  immedi- 
ately entreated  Mr.  Falkland  to  comply  with  their 
wishes,  and  Mr.  Clare,  who  was  one  of  the  company, 
enforced  their  petition.  Nothing  gave  this  gentleman  so 
much  pleasure  as  to  have  an  opportunity  of  witnessing 
and  doing  justice  to  the  exhibition  of  intellectual  ex- 
cellence. Mr.  Falkland  had  no  false  modesty  or  affect- 
ation, and  therefore  readily  yielded  his  consent. 

Mr.  Tyrrel  accidentally  sat  at  the  extremity  of  this 
circle.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  turn  the  con- 
versation had  taken  was  by  any  means  agreeable  to 
him.  He  appeared  to  wish  to  withdraw  himself,  but 
there  seemed  to  be  some  unknown  power  that,  as  it 
were  by  enchantment,  retained  him  in  his  place,  and 
made  him  consent  to  drink  to  the  dregs  the  bitter 
potion  which  envy  had  prepared  for  him. 

The  poem  was  read  to  the  rest  of  the  company  by 
Mr.  Clare,  whose  elocution  was  scarcely  inferior  to  his^ 
other  accomplishments.  Simplicity,  discrimination,  and 


CALEB    WII.1 .1  A  MS.  S3 

energy  constantly  attended  him  in  the  act  of  reading, 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  a  more  refined  delight 
than  tell  to  the  lot  of  those  who  had  the  good  fortune 
to  be  his  auditors.  The  beauties  of  Mr.  Falkland's 
poem  were  accordingly  exhibited  with  every  advantage. 
The  successive  passions  of  the  author  were  communi- 
cated to  the  hearer.  What  was  impetuous,  and  what 
was  solemn,  were  delivered  with  a  responsive  feeling, 
and  a  flowing  and  unlaboured  tone.  The  pictures 
conjured  up  by  the  creative  fancy  of  the  poet  were 
placed  full  to  view,  at  one  time  overwhelming  the  soul 
with  superstitious  awe,  and  at  another  transporting  it 
with  luxuriant  beauty. 

The  character  of  the  hearers  upon  this  occasion  has 
already  been  described.  They  were,  for  the  most  part, 
plain,  unlettered,  and  of  little  refinement.  Poetry  in 
general  they  read,  when  read  at  all,  from  the  mere 
force  of  imitation,  and  with  few  sensations  of  pleasure  ; 
but  this  poem  had  a  peculiar  vein  of  glowing  inspira- 
tion. This  very  poem  would  probably  have  been  seen 
by  many  of  them  with  little  effect ;  but  the  accents  of 
Mr.  Clare  carried  it  home  to  the  heart.  He  ended : 
and,  as  the  countenances  of  his  auditors  had  before 
sympathised  with  the  passions  of  the  composition, 
so  now  they  emulated  each  other  in  declaring  their 
approbation.  Their  sensations  were  of  a  sort  to  which 
they  were  little  accustomed.  One  spoke,  and  another 
followed  by  a  sort  of  uncontrollable  impulse  ;  and  the 
rude  and  broken  manner  of  their  commendations 
rendered  them  the  more  singular  and  remarkable. 
But  what  was  least  to  be  endured  was  the  behaviour 
of  Mr.  Clare.  He  returned  the  manuscript  to  the 
lady  from  whom  he  had  received  it,  and  then,  ad- 
dressing Mr.  Falkland,  said  with  emphasis  and  anima- 
tion, ••  Ha  I  this  is  as  it  should  be.  It  is  of  the  right 

D 


34,  CALEB    WILLIAMS, 

stamp.  I  have  seen  too  many  hard  essays  strained 
from  the  labour  of  a  pedant,  and  pastoral  ditties  dis- 
tressed in  lack  of  a  meaning.  They  are  such  as  you, 
sir,  that  we  want.  Do  not  forget,  however,  that  the 
Muse  was  not  given  to  add  refinements  to  idleness, 
but  for  the  highest  and  most  invaluable  purposes.  Act 
up  to  the  magnitude  of  your  destiny." 

A  moment  after,  Mr.  Clare  quitted  his  seat,  and 
with  Mr.  Falkland  and  two  or  three  more  withdrew. 
As  soon  as  they  were  gone,  Mr.  Tyrrel  edged  further 
into  the  circle.  He  had  sat  silent  so  long  that  he 
seemed  ready  to  burst  with  gall  and  indignation. 
"  Mighty  pretty  verses!"  said  he,  half  talking  to  himself, 
and  not  addressing  any  particular  person  :  "  why,  ay, 
the  verses  are  well  enough.  Damnation  !  I  should 
like  to  know  what  a  ship-load  of  such  stuff  is  good  for." 

"  Why,  surely,"  said  the  lady  who  had  introduced 
Mr.  Falkland's  Ode  on  the  present  occasion,  "you 
must  allow  that  poetry  is  an  agreeable  and  elegant 
amusement." 

"Elegant,  quotha!  —  Why,  look  at  this  Falkland! 
A  puny  bit  of  a  thing  !  In  the  devil's  name,  madam,  do 
you  think  he  would  write  poetry  if  he  could  do  any 
thing  better  ?" 

The  conversation  did  not  stop  here.  The  lady  ex- 
postulated. Several  other  persons,  fresh  from  the 
sensation  they  had  felt,  contributed  their  share.  Mr. 
Tyrrel  grew  more  violent  in  his  invectives,  and  found 
ease  in  uttering  them.  The  persons  who  were  able  in 
any  degree  to  check  his  vehemence  were  withdrawn. 
One  speaker  after  another  shrunk  back  into  silence, 
.  too  timid  to  oppose,  or  too  indolent  to  contend  with, 
the  fierceness  of  his  passion.  He  found  the  appearance 
of  his  old  ascendancy  ;  but  he  felt  its  deceitfulness  and 
uncertainty,  and  was  gloomily  dissatisfied. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS*  35 

In  his  return  from  this  assembly  he  was  accompanied 
by  a  young  man,  whom  similitude  of  manners  had 
rendered  one  of  his  principal  confidents,  and  whose 
road  home  was  in  part  the  same  as  his  own.  One 
might  have  thought  that  Mr.  Tyrrel  had  sufficiently 
vented  his  spleen  in  the  dialogue  he  bad  just  been 
holding.  But  he  was  unable  to  dismiss  from  his 
recollection  the  anguish  he  had  endured.  ••  Damn 
Falkland  !"  said  he.  "  What  a  pitiful  scoundrel  is  here 
to  make  all  this  bustle  about !  But  women  and  fools 
always  will  be  fools  ;  there  is  no  help  for  that !  Those 
that  set  them  on  have  most  to  answer  for ;  and  most  of 
all,  Mr.  Clare.  He  is  a  man  that  ought  to  know  some- 
thing  of  the  world,  and  past  being  duped  by  gewgaws 
and  tinsel.  He  seemed,  too,  to  have  some  notion  of 
things :  I  should  not  have  suspected  him  of  hallooing 
to  a  cry  of  mongrels  without  honesty  or  reason.  But 
the  world  is  all  alike.  Those  that  seem  better  than 
their  neighbours,  are  only  more  artful.  They  mean 
the  same  thing,  though  they  take  a  different  road. 
He  deceived  me  for  a  while,  but  it  is  all  out  now. 
They  are  the  maker*  of  the  mischief.  Fools  might 
blunder,  but  they  would  not  persist,  if  people  that 
ought  to  set  them  right  did  not  encourage  them  to 
go  wrong." 

A  few  days  after  this  adventure  Mr.  Tyrrel  was 
surprised  to  receive  a  visit  from  Mr.  Falkland.  Mr. 
Falkland  proceeded,  without  ceremony,  to  explain  the 
motive  of  his  coming. 

"Mr.  Tyrrel,"  said  he,  "  I  am  come  to  have  an 
amicable  explanation  with  you." 

"  Explanation  I  What  is  my  offence  ?" 

"None  in  the  world,  sir;  and  for  that  reason  I 
conceive  this  the  fittest  time  to  come  to  a  right  under- 
standing." 

D  2 


36  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

«  You  are  in  a  devil  of  a  hurry,  sir.  Are  you  clear 
that  this  haste  will  not  mar,  instead  of  make  an  under- 
standing ?  " 

« I  think  I  am,  sir.  I  have  great  faith  in  the  purity 
of  my  intentions,  and  I  will  not  doubt,  when  you 
perceive  the  view  with  which  I  come,  that  you  will 
willingly  co-operate  with  it." 

"Mayhap,  Mr.  Falkland,  we  may  not  agree  about 
that.  One  man  thinks  one  way,  and  another  man 
thinks  another.  Mayhap  I  do  not  think  I  have  any 
great  reason  to  be  pleased  with  you  already." 

"  It  may  be  so.  I  cannot,  however,  charge  myself 
with  having  given  you  reason  to  be  displeased." 

"  Well,  sir,  you  have  no  right  to  put  me  out  of 
humour  with  myself.  If  you  come  to  play  upon  me, 
and  try  what  sort  of  a  fellow  you  shall  have  to  deal 
with,  damn  me  if  you  shall  have  any  reason  to  hug 
yourself  upon  the  experiment." 

"  Nothing,  sir,  is  more  easy  for  us  than  to  quarrel. 
If  you  desire  that,  there  is  no  fear  that  you  will  find 
opportunities." 

"  Damn  me,  sir,  if  I  do  not  believe  you  are  come  to 
bully  me." 

«  Mr.  Tyrrel  I  sir— have  a  care  I  " 

"  Of  what,  sir  I  — Do  you  threaten  me  ?  Damn  my 
soul !  who  are  you  ?  what  do  you  come  here  for  ?" 

The  fieriness  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  brought  Mr.  Falkland  to 
his  recollection. 

"  I  am  wrong,"  said  he.  «  I  confess  it.  I  came  for 
purposes  of  peace.  With  that  view  I  have  taken  the 
liberty  to  visit  you.  Whatever  therefore  might  be  my 
feelings  upon  another  occasion,  I  am  bound  to  suppress 
them  now." 

"Ho! — Well,  sir:  and  what  have  you  further  to 
offer?" 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  37 

*Mr.  Tym-1."  proceeded  Mr.  Falkland,  "you  will 
readily  imagine  that  the  caate  that  brought  me  was 
not  a  slight  one.  I  would  not  have  troubled  you  with  a 
visit,  but  for  important  reasons.  My  coming  is  a  pledge 
how  deeply  I  am  myself  impressed  with  what  I  have 
to  communicate. 

"  We  are  in  a  critical  situation.  We  are  upon  the 
brink  of  a  whirlpool  which,  if  once  it  get  hold  of  us, 
will  render  all  further  deliberation  impotent.  An 
unfortunate  jealousy  seems  to  have  insinuated  itself 
between  us,  which  I  would  willingly  remove;  and  I 
come  to  ask  your  assistance.  We  are  both  of  us  nice 
of  temper ;  we  are  both  apt  to  kindle,  and  warm  of  re- 
sentment. Precaution  in  this  stage  can  be  dishonour- 
able to  neither;  the  time  may  come  when  we  shall 
wish  we  had  employed  it,  and  find  it  too  late.  Why 
should  we  be  enemies  ?  Our  tastes  are  different ;  our 
pursuits  need  not  interfere.  We  both  of  us  amply 
possess  the  means  of  happiness ;  we  may  be  respected 
by  all,  and  spend  a  long  life  of  tranquillity  and  enjoy- 
ment. Will  it  be  wise  in  us  to  exchange  this  prospect 
for  the  fruits  of  strife  ?  A  strife  between  persons  with 
our  peculiarities  and  our  weaknesses,  includes  conse- 
quences that  I  shudder  to  think  of.  I  fear,  sir,  that  it 
is  pregnant  with  death  at  least  to  one  of  us,  and  with 
misfortune  and  remorse  to  the  survivor." 

"Upon  my  soul,  you  are  a  strange  man!  Why 
trouble  me  with  your  prophecies  and  forebodings  ?  " 

"  Because  it  is  necessary  to  your  happiness !  Be- 
cause it  becomes  me  to  tell  you  of  our  danger  now, 
rather  than  wait  till  my  character  will  allow  this  tran- 
quillity no  longer  I 

••  By  quarrelling  we  shall  but  imitate  the  great  mass 
of  mankind,  who  could  easily  quarrel  in  our  place.  Let 
us  do  better.  Let  us  show  that  we  have  the  magna- 

D3 


38  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

nimity  to  contemn  petty  misunderstandings.  By  thus 
judging  we  shall  do  ourselves  most  substantial  honour. 
By  a  contrary  conduct  we  shall  merely  present  a  co- 
medy for  the  amusement  of  our  acquaintance." 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  there  may  be  something  in  that. 
Damn  me,  if  I  consent  to  be  the  jest  of  any  man 
Hving." 

«  You  are  right,  Mr.  Tyrrel.  Let  us  each  act  in  the 
manner  best  calculated  to  excite  respect.  We  neither 
of  us  wish  to  change  roads;  let  us  each  sutfer  the 
other  to  pursue  his  own  track  unmolested.  Be  this  our 
compact ;  and  by  mutual  forbearance  let  us  preserve 
mutual  peace." 

Saying  this,  Mr.  Falkland  offered  his  hand  to  Mr. 
Tyrrel  in  token  of  fellowship.  But  the  gesture  was 
too  significant.  The  wayward  rustic,  who  seemed  to 
have  been  somewhat  impressed  by  what  had  pre- 
ceded, taken  as  he  now  was  by  surprise,  shrunk  back. 
Mr.  Falkland  was  again  ready  to  take  fire  upon  this 
new  slight,  but  he  checked  himself. 

"  All  this  is  very  unaccountable,"  cried  Mr.  Tyrrel. 
"  What  the  devil  can  have  made  you  so  forward,  if  you 
had  not  some  sly  purpose  to  answer,  by  which  I  am  to 
be  overreached?" 

"  My  purpose,"  replied  Mr.  Falkland,  "  is  a  manly 
and  an  honest  purpose.  Why  should  you  refuse  a  pro- 
position dictated  by  reason,  and  an  equal  regard  to  the 
interest  of  each  ?  " 

Mr.  Tyrrel  had  had  an  opportunity  for  pause,  and 
fell  back  into  his  habitual  character. 

"Well,  sir,  in  all  this  I  must  own  there  is  some 
frankness.  Now  I  will  return  you  like  for  like.  It  is 
no  matter  how  I  canre  by  it,  my  temper  is  rough,  and 
will  not  be  controlled.  Mayhap  you  may  think  it  is  a 
weakness,  but  I  do  not  desire  to  see  it  altered.  Till 


(A  I.  KB     WILLIAMS.  39 

you  came,  I  found  myself  very  well :  I  liked  my  neigh- 
bours, and  my  m  i^hbours  humoured  me.  But  now  the 
case  is  entirely  altered ;  and,  as  long  as  I  cannot  stir 
abroad  without  meeting  with  some  mortification  in 
which  you  are  directly  or  remotely  concerned,  I  am 
determined  to  hate  you.  Now,  sir,  if  you  will  only  go 
out  of  the  county  or  the  kingdom,  to  the  devil  if  you 
please,  so  as  I  may  never  hear  of  you  any  more,  I  will 
promise  never  to  quarrel  with  you  as  long  as  I  live. 
Your  rhymes  and  your  rebusses,  your  quirks  and  your 
conundrums,  may  then  be  every  thing  that  is  grand 
for  what  I  care." 

«  Mr.  Tyrrel,  be  reasonable  I  Might  not  I  as  well 
desire  you  to  leave  the  county,  as  you  desire  me  ?  I 
come  to  you,  not  as  to  a  master,  but  an  equal.  In  the 
society  of  men  we  must  have  something  to  endure,  as 
well  as  to  enjoy.  No  man  must  think  that  the  world 
was  made  for  him.  Let  us  take  things  as  we  find 
them;  and  accommodate  ourselves  as  we  can  to  un- 
avoidable circumstances** 

"  True,  sir ;  all  this  is  fine  talking.  But  I  return  to 
my  text :  we  are  as  God  made  us.  I  am  neither  a 
philosopher  nor  a  poet,  to  set  out  upon  a  wild-goose 
chase  of  making  myself  a  different  man  from  what  you 
find  me.  As  for  consequences,  what  must  be  must  be. 
As  we  brew  we  must  bake.  And  so,  do  you  see  ?  I 
shall  not  trouble  myself  about  what  is  to  be,  but  stand 
up  to  it  with  a  stout  heart  when  it  comes.  Only  this 
I  can  tell  you,  that  as  long  as  I  find  you  thrust  into  my 
dish  every  day  I  shall  hate  you  as  bad  as  senna  and 
valerian.  And  damn  me,  if  I  do  not  think  I  hate  you  the 
more  for  coming  to-day  in  this  pragmatical  way,  when 
nobody  sent  for  you,  on  purpose  to  show  how  much 
wiser  you  are  than  all  the  world  besides." 
.  u  Mr.  Tyrrel,  I  have  done.  I  foresaw  consequences, 
o* 


40  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

and  came  as  a  friend.  I  had  hoped  that,  by  mutual 
explanation,  we  should  have  come  to  a  better  under- 
standing. I  am  disappointed;  but,  perhaps,  when  you 
coolly  reflect  on  what  has  passed,  you  will  give  me  credit 
for  my  intentions,  and  think  that  my  proposal  was  not 
an  unreasonable  one." 

Having  said  this,  Mr.  Falkland  departed.  Through 
the  interview  he,  no  doubt,  conducted  himself  in  a  way 
that  did  him  peculiar  credit.  Yet  the  warmth  of  his 
temper  could  not  be  entirely  suppressed:  and  even 
when  he  was  most  exemplary,  there  was  an  apparent 
loftiness  in  his  manner  that  was  calculated  to  irritate ; 
and  the  very  grandeur  with  which  he  suppressed  his 
passions,  operated  indirectly  as  a  taunt  to  his  opponent. 
The  interview  was  prompted  by  the  noblest  sentiments; 
but  it  unquestionably  served  to  widen  the  breach  it 
was  intended  to  heal. 

For  Mr.  Tyrrel,  he  had  recourse  to  his  old  expedient, 
and  unburthened  the  tumult  of  his  thoughts  to  his  con- 
fidential friend.  "  This,"  cried  he,  "  is  a  new  artifice 
of  the  fellow,  to  prove  his  imagined  superiority.  We 
knew  well  enough  that  he  had  the  gift  of  the  gab.  To 
be  sure,  if  the  world  were  to  be  governed  by  words, 
he  would  be  in  the  right  box.  Oh,  yes,  he  had  it  all 
hollow !  But  what  signifies  prating  ?  Business  must 
be  done  in  another  guess  way  than  that.  I  wonder 
what  possessed  me  that  I  did  not  kick  him  !  But  that 
is  all  to  come.  This  is  only  a  new  debt  added  to  the 
score,  which  he  shall  one  day  richly  pay.  This  Falk- 
land haunts  me  like  a  demon.  I  cannot  wake  but  I 
think  of  him.  I  cannot  sleep  but  I  see  him.  He 
poisons  all  my  pleasures.  I  should  be  glad  to  see  him 
torn  with  tenter-hooks,  and  to  grind  his  heart-strings 
with  my  teeth.  I  shall  know  no  joy  till  I  see  him 
ruined.  There  may  be  some  things  right  about  him ; 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  41 

but  lie  is  my  perpetual  torment.  The  thought  of  him 
huniis  like  a  dead  weight  upon  my  heart,  and  I  have  a 
ri-lit  to  shake  it  off.  Does  he  think  I  will  feel  all  that 
I  endure  for  nothing?" 

In  spite  of  the  acerbity  of  Mr.  Tyre-el's  feelings,  it 
is  probable,  however,  he  did  some  justice  to  his  rival. 
He  regarded  him,  indeed,  with  added  dislike ;  but  he  no 
longer  regarded  him  as  a  despicable  foe.  He  avoided 
his  encounter ;  he  forbore  to  treat  him  with  random 
hostility  ;  he  seemed  to  lie  in  wait  for  his  victim,  and 
to  collect  his  venom  for  a  mortal  assault. 


CHAPTER  V. 

IT  was  not  long  after  that  a  malignant  distemper  broke 
out  in  the  neighbourhood,  which  proved  fatal  to  many 
of  the  inhabitants,  and  was  of  unexampled  rapidity  in 
its  effects.  One  of  the  first  persons  that  was  seized 
with  it  was  Mr.  Clare.  It  may  be  conceived,  what 
grief  and  alarm  this  incident  spread  through  the  vici- 
nity. Mr.  Clare  was  considered  by  them  as  something 
more  than  mortal.  The  equanimity  of  his  behaviour, 
his  unassuming  carriage,  his  exuberant  benevolence  and 
goodness  of  heart,  joined  with  his  talents,  his  inoffen- 
sive wit,  and  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  intelligence, 
made  him  the  idol  of  all  that  knew  him.  In  the  scene 
of  his  rural  retreat,  at  least,  he  had  no  enemy.  All 
mourned  the  danger  that  now  threatened  him.  He 
appeared  to  have  had  the  prospect  of  long  life,  and  of 
going  down  to  his  grave  full  of  years  and  of  honour. 
Perhaps  these  appearances  were  deceitful.  Perhaps 
the  intellectual  efforts  he  had  made,  which  were  oc- 
casionally more  sudden,  violent,  and  unintermitted,  than 


42  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

a  strict  regard  to  health  would  have  dictated,  had  laid 
the  seed  of  future  disease.  But  a  sanguine  observer 
would  infallibly  have  predicted,  that  his  temperate 
habits,  activity  of  mind,  and  unabated  cheerfulness, 
would  be  able  even  to  keep  death  at  bay  for  a  time,  and 
baffle  the  attacks  of  distemper,  provided  their  approach 
were  not  uncommonly  rapid  and  violent.  The  general 
affliction,  therefore,  was  doubly  pungent  upon  the  pre- 
sent occasion. 

But  no  one  was  so  much  affected  as  Mr.  Falkland. 
Perhaps  no  man  so  well  understood  the  value  of  the  life 
that  was  now  at  stake.  He  immediately  hastened  to 
the  spot ;  but  he  found  some  difficulty  in  gaining  ad- 
mission. Mr.  Clare,  aware  of  the  infectious  nature  of 
his  disease,  had  given  directions  that  as  few  persons  as 
possible  should  approach  him.  Mr.  Falkland  sent  up  his 
name.  He  was  told  that  he  was  included  in  the  general 
orders.  He  was  not,  however,  of  a  temper  to  be  easily 
repulsed ;  he  persisted  with  obstinacy,  and  at  length 
carried  his  point,  being  only  reminded  in  the  first 
instance  to  employ  those  precautions  which  experience 
has  proved  most  effectual  for  counteracting  infection. 

He  found  Mr.  Clare  in  his  bed-chamber,  but  not  in 
bed.  He  was  sitting  in  his  night-gown  at  a  bureau 
near  the  window.  His  appearance  was  composed  and 
cheerful,  but  death  was  in  his  countenance.  "  I  had  a 
great  inclination,  Falkland,"  said  he,  "  not  to  have  suf- 
fered you  to  come  in ;  and  yet  there  is  not  a  person  in 
the  world  it  could  give  me  more  pleasure  to  see.  But, 
upon  second  thoughts,  I  believe  there  are  few  people 
that  could  run  into  a  danger  of  this  kind  with  a  better 
prospect  of  escaping.  In  your  case,  at  least,  the  garri- 
son will  not,  I  trust,  be  taken  through  the  treachery 
of  the  commander.  I  cannot  tell  how  it  is  that  I,  who 
can  preach  wisdom  to  you,  have  myself  been  caught. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  43 

But  do  not  be  discouraged  by  my  example.  I  had  no 
notice  of  my  danger,  or  I  would  have  acquitted  myself 
better." 

Mr.  Falkland  having  once  established  himself  in  the 
apartment  of  his  friend,  would  upon  no  terms  consent 
to  retire.  Mr.  Clare  considered  that  there  was  perhaps 
less  danger  in  this  choice,  than  in  the  frequent  change 
from  the  extremes  of  a  pure  to  a  tainted  air,  and  desisted 
from  expostulation.  "  Falkland,"  said  he,  "  when  you 
came  in,  I  had  just  finished  making  my  will.  I  was  not 
pleased  with  what  I  had  formerly  drawn  up  upon  that 
subject,  and  I  did  not  choose  in  my  present  situation  to 
call  in  an  attorney.  In  fact,  it  would  be  strange  if  a 
man  of  sense,  with  pure  and  direct  intentions,  should 
not  be  able  to  perform  such  a  function  for  himself." 

Mr.  Clare  continued  to  act  in  the  same  easy  and  dis- 
i-riLM-Tt  (1  riKiiiru  r  :iv  m  |u  rh  rt  lu.ilth.  To  jmlur  from 
the  cheerfulness  of  his  tone  and  the  firmness  of  his 
manner,  the  thought  would  never  once  have  occurred 
that  he  was  dying.  He  walked,  he  reasoned,  he  jested, 
in  a  way  that  argued  the  most  perfect  self-possession. 
But  his  appearance  changed  perceptibly  for  the  worse 
every  quarter  of  an  hour.  Mr.  Falkland  kept  his  eye 
perpetually  fixed  upon  him,  with  mingled  sentiments  of 
anxiety  and  admiration. 

"  Falkland,"  said  he,  after  having  appeared  for  a  short 
period  absorbed  in  thought,  "  I  feel  that  I  am  dying. 
This  is  a  strange  distemper  of  mine.  Yesterday  I 
seemed  in  perfect  health,  and  to-morrow  I  shall  be  an 
insensible  corpse.  How  curious  is  the  line  that  sepa- 
rates life  and  death  to  mortal  men  I  To  be  at  one  mo- 
ment active,  gay,  penetrating,  with  stores  of  knowledge 
at  one's  command,  capable  of  delighting,  instructing, 
and  animating  mankind,  and  the  next,  lifeless  and  loath- 
some, an  incumbrance  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  I 


44  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Such  is  the  history  of  many  men,  and  such  will  be 
mine. 

"  I  feel  as  if  I  had  yet  much  to  do  in  the  world  ;  but 
it  will  not  be.  I  must  be  contented  with  what  is  past. 
It  is  in  vain  that  I  muster  all  my  spirits  to  my  heart. 
The  enemy  is  too  mighty  and  too  merciless  for  me  ;  he 
will  not  give  me  time  so  much  as  to  breathe.  These 
things  are  not  yet  at  least  in  our  power :  they  are  parts 
of  a  great  series  that  is  perpetually  flowing.  The  ge- 
neral welfare,  the  great  business  of  the  universe,  will 
go  on,  though  I  bear  no  further  share  in  promoting  it. 
That  task  is  reserved  for  younger  strengths,  for  you, 
Falkland,  and  such  as  you.  We  should  be  contemptible 
indeed  if  the  prospect  of  human  improvement  did  not 
yield  us  a  pure  and  perfect  delight,  independently  of 
the  question  of  our  existing  to  partake  of  it.  Mankind 
would  have  little  to  envy  to  future  ages,  if  they  had 
all  enjoyed  a  serenity  as  perfect  as  mine  has  been  for 
the  latter  half  of  my  existence." 

Mr.  Clare  sat  up  through  the  whole  day,  indulging 
himself  in  easy  and  cheerful  exertions,  which  were 
perhaps  better  calculated  to  refresh  and  invigorate 
the  frame,  than  if  he  had  sought  repose  in  its  direct 
form.  Now  and  then  he  was  visited  with  a  sudden 
pang ;  but  it  was  no  sooner  felt,  than  he  seemed  to  rise 
above  it,  and  smiled  at  the  impotence  of  these  attacks. 
They  might  destroy  him,  but  they  could  not  disturb. 
Three  or  four  times  he  was  bedewed  with  profuse 
sweats ;  and  these  again  were  succeeded  by  an  ex- 
treme dryness  and  burning  heat  of  the  skin.  He  was 
next  covered  with  small  livid  spots :  symptoms  of  shi- 
vering followed,  but  these  he  drove  away  with  a  de- 
termined resolution.  He  then  became  tranquil  and 
composed,  and,  after  some  time,  decided  to  go  to  bed, 
it  being  already  night.  "  Falkland,"  said  he,  pressing 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  45 

In*  hand.  -  the  task  of  dying  is  not  so  difficult  as  some 
imagine.  When  one  looks  back  from  the  brink  of  it, 
one  wonders  that  so  total  a  subversion  can  take  place 
at  so  easy  a  prkv." 

He  had  now  been  some  time  in  bed,  and,  as  every 
thing  was  still,  Mr.  Falkland  hoped  that  he  slept;  but 
in  that  he  was  mistaken.  Presently  Mr.  Clare  threw 
back  the  curtain,  and  looked  in  the  countenance  of  his 
trimd.  "  I  cannot  sleep,"  said  he.  "  No,  if  I  could 
sleep,  it  would  be  the  same  thing  as  to  recover ;  and  I 
am  destined  to  have  the  worst  in  this  battle. 

••  Falkland,  I  have  been  thinking  about  you.  I  do 
not  know  any  one  whose  future  usefulness  I  con- 
template with  greater  hope.  Take  care  of  yourself. 
Do  not  let  the  world  be  defrauded  of  your  virtues.  I 
am  acquainted  with  your  weakness  as  well  as  your 
strength.  You  have  an  impetuosity,  and  an  impatience 
of  imagined  dishonour,  that,  if  once  set  wrong,  may 
make  you  as  eminently  mischievous  as  you  will  other- 
wise be  useful.  Think  seriously  of  exterminating  this 
error! 

••  But  if  I  cannot,  in  the  brief  expostulation  my 
present  situation  will  allow,  produce  this  desirable 
change  in  you,  there  is  at  least  one  tiling  I  can  do.  I 
can  put  you  upon  your  guard  against  a  mischief  I 
foresee  to  be  imminent.  Beware  of  Mr.  Tyrrel.  Do 
not  commit  the  mistake  of  despising  him  as  an  unequal 
opponent.  Petty  causes  may  produce  great  mischiefs. 
Mr.  Tyrrel  is  boisterous,  rugged,  and  unfeeling  ;  and 
you  are  too  passionate,  too  acutely  sensible  of  injury. 
It  would  be  truly  to  be  lamented,  if  a  man  so  inferior, 
so  utterly  unworthy  to  be  compared  with  you,  should 
be  capable  of  changing  your  whole  history  into  misery 
and  guilt.  I  have  a  painful  presentiment  upon  my 
heart,  as  if  something  dreadful  would  reach  you  from 


46  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

that  quarter.  Think  of  this.  I  exact  no  promise  from 
you.  I  would  not  shackle  you  with  the  fetters  of 
superstition;  I  would  have  you  governed  by  justice 
and  reason." 

Mr.  Falkland  was  deeply  affected  with  this  expost- 
ulation. His  sense  of  the  generous  attention  of  Mr. 
Clare,  at  such  a  moment,  was  so  great  as  almost  to  de- 
prive him  of  utterance.  He  spoke  in  short  sentences, 
and  with  visible  effort.  "  I  will  behave  better,"  replied 
he.  "  Never  fear  me  !  Your  admonitions  shall  not  be 
thrown  away  upon  me." 

Mr.  Clare  adverted  to  another  subject.  "  I  have 
made  you  my  executor ;  you  will  not  refuse  me  this 
last  office  of  friendship.  It  is  but  a  short  time  that  I 
have  had  the  happiness  of  knowing  you ;  but  in  that 
short  time  I  have  examined  you  well,  and  seen  you 
thoroughly.  Do  not  disappoint  the  sanguine  hope  I 
have  entertained ! 

"  I  have  left  some  legacies.  My  former  connections, 
while  I  lived  amidst  the  busy  haunts  of  men,  as  many 
of  them  as  were  intimate,  are  all  of  them  dear  to  me. 
I  have  not  had  time  to  summon  them  about  me  upon 
the  present  occasion,  nor  did  I  desire  it.  The  remem- 
brances of  me  will,  I  hope,  answer  a  better  purpose 
than  such  as  are  usually  thought  of  on  similar  occa- 
sions." 

Mr.  Clare,  having  thus  unburthened  his  mind,  spoke 
no  more  for  several  hours.  Towards  morning  Mr. 
Falkland  quietly  withdrew  the  curtain,  and  looked  at 
the  dying  man.  His  eyes  were  open,  and  were  now 
gently  turned  towards  his  young  friend.  His  coun- 
tenance was  sunk,  and  of  a  death-like  appearance.  "  I 
hope  you  are  better,"  said  Falkland  in  a  half  whisper, 
as  if  afraid  of  disturbing  him.  Mr.  Clare  drew  his 
hand  from  the  bed-clothes,  and  stretched  it  forward; 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  47 

Mr.  Falkland  advanced,  and  took  hold  of  it.  "  Much 
better,  said  Mr.  (lare,  in  a  voice  inward  and  hurdlv 
articulate;  "the  struggle  is  now  over;  I  have  finished 
my  part ;  farewell !  remember  !  "  These  were  his  last 
words.  He  lived  still  a  few  hours ;  his  lips  were  some- 
tinies  seen  to  move ;  he  expired  without  a  groan. 

Air.  Falkland  had  witnessed  the  scene  with  much 
anxiety.  His  hopes  of  a  favourable  crisis,  and  his  fear 
of  disturbing  the  last  moments  of  his  friend,  had  held 
him  dumb.  For  the  last  half  hour  he  had  stood  up, 
with  his  eyes  intently  fixed  upon  Mr.  Clare.  He  wit- 
nessed the  last  gasp,  the  last  little  convulsive  motion 
of  the  frame.  He  continued  to  look;  he  sometimes 
imagined  that  he  saw  life  renewed.  At  length  he  could 
deceive  himself  no  longer,  and  exclaimed  with  a  dis- 
tracted accent,  M And  is  this  all?"  He  would  have 
thrown  himself  upon  the  body  of  his  friend ;  the  at- 
tendants withheld,  and  would  have  forced  him  into 
another  apartment.  But  he  struggled  from  them,  and 
hung  fondly  over  the  bed.  "  Is  this  the  end  of  genius, 
virtue,  and  excellence?  Is  the  luminary  of  the  world 
thus  for  ever  gone  ?  Oh,  yesterday  I  yesterday !  Clare, 
why  could  not  I  have  died  in  your  stead  ?  Dreadful 
moment !  Irreparable  loss !  Lost  in  the  very  maturity 
and  vigour  of  his  mind !  Cut  off  from  a  usefulness  ten 
thousand  times  greater  than  any  he  had  already  ex- 
hibited !  Oh,  his  was  a  mind  to  have  instructed  sages, 
and  guided  the  moral  world !  This  is  all  we  have  left 
of  him  !  The  eloquence  of  those  lips  is  gone  !  The  in- 
cessant  activity  of  that  heart  is  still !  The  best  and 
wisest  of  men  is  gone,  and  the  world  is  insensible  of  its 
loss!" 

Mr.  Tynrel  heard  the  intelligence  of  Mr.  Clare's 
death  with  emotion,  but  of  a  different  kind.  He  avowed 
that  he  had  not  forgiven  him  his  partial  attachment  to 


48  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Mr.  Falkland,  and  therefore  could  not  recal  his  re- 
membrance with  kindness.  But  if  he  could  have  over- 
looked his  past  injustice,  sufficient  care,  it  seems,  was 
taken  to  keep  alive  his  resentment.  "  Falkland,  forsooth, 
attended  him  on  his  death-bed,  as  if  nobody  else  were 
worthy  of  his  confidential  communications."  But  what 
was  worst  of  all  was  this  executorship.  "  In  every  thing 
this  pragmatical  rascal  throws  me  behind.  Contemptible 
wretch,  that  has  nothing  of  the  man  about  him  !  Must 
he  perpetually  trample  upon  his  betters?  Is  every 
body  incapable  of  saying  what  kind  of  stuff  a  man  is 
made  of?  caught  with  mere  outside?  choosing  the 
flimsy  before  the  substantial  ?  And  upon  his  death-bed 
too  ?  [Mr.  Tyrrel  with  his  uncultivated  brutality  mixed, 
as  usually  happens,  certain  rude  notions  of  religion.] 
Sure  the  sense  of  his  situation  might  have  shamed  him. 
Poor  wretch !  his  soul  has  a  great  deal  to  answer  for. 
He  has  made  my  pillow  uneasy ;  and,  whatever  may 
be  the  consequences,  it  is  he  we  have  to  thank  for 
them." 

The  death  of  Mr.  Clare  removed  the  person  who 
could  most  effectually  have  moderated  the  animosities 
of  the  contending  parties,  and  took  away  the  great  ope- 
rative check  upon  the  excesses  of  Mr.  Tyrrel.  This 
rustic  tyrant  had  been  held  in  involuntary  restraint  by 
the  intellectual  ascendancy  of  his  celebrated  neighbour ; 
and,  notwithstanding  the  general  ferocity  of  his  temper, 
he  did  not  appear  till  lately  to  have  entertained  a  hatred 
against  him.  In  the  short  time  that  had  elapsed  from 
the  period  in  which  Mr.  Clare  had  fixed  his  residence 
in  the  neighbourhood,  to  that  of  the  arrival  of  Mr. 
Falkland  from  the  Continent,  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Tyrrel 
had  even  shown  tokens  of  improvement.  He  would 
indeed  have  been  better  satisfied  not  to  have  had  even 
this  intruder  into  a  circle  where  he  had  been  accus- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  49 

tonu •(!  to  ri-iini.  But  with  Mr.  Clare  he  could  have  no 
rivalship;  the  venerable  character  of  Mr.  Clare  dis- 
posed him  to  submission:  this  great  man  seemed  to 
have  survived  all  the  acrimony  of  contention,  and  all 
the  jealous  subtleties  of  a  mistaken  honour. 

The  effects  of  Mr.  Clare's  suavity  however,  so  far  as 
related  to  Mr.  Tyrrel,  had  been  in  a  certain  degree 
suspended  by  considerations  of  rivalship  between  this 
gentleman  and  Mr.  Falkland.  And,  now  that  the  in- 
fluence of  Mr.  Clare's  presence  and  virtues  was  en- 
tirely removed,  Mr.  Tyrrel's  temper  broke  out  into 
more  criminal  excesses  than  ever.  The  added  gloom 
which  Mr.  Falkland's  neighbourhood  inspired,  over- 
flowed upon  all  his  connections ;  and  the  new  examples 
of  his  sullenness  and  tyranny  which  every  day  afforded, 
reflected  back  upon  this  accumulated  and  portentous 
feud. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  consequences  of  all  this  speedily  manifested 
themselves.  The  very  next  incident  in  the  story  was 
in  some  degree  decisive  of  the  catastrophe.  Hitherto 
I  have  spoken  only  of  preliminary  matters,  seemingly 
unconnected  with  each  other,  though  leading  to  that 
state  of  mind  in  both  parties  which  had  such  fatal 
effects.  But  all  that  remains  is  rapid  and  tremendous. 
The  death-dealing  mischief  advances  with  an  accele- 
rated motion,  appearing  to  defy  human  wisdom  and 
strength  to  obstruct  its  operation. 

The  vices  of  Mr.  Tyrrel,  in  their  present  state  of 
augmentation,  were  peculiarly  exercised  upon  his 
domestics  and  dependents.  But  the  principal  sufferer 


50  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

was  the  young  lady  mentioned  on  a  former  occasion, 
the  orphan  daughter  of  his  father's  sister.  Miss  Mel- 
ville's mother  had  married  imprudently,  or  rather  un- 
fortunately, against  the  consent  of  her  relations,  all  of 
whom  had  agreed  to  withdraw  their  countenance  from 
her  in  consequence  of  that  precipitate  step.  Her 
husband  had  turned  out  to  be  no  better  than  an  ad- 
venturer ;  had  spent  her  fortune,  which  in  consequence 
of  the  irreconcilableness  of  her  family  was  less  than 
he  expected,  and  had  broken  her  heart.  Her  infant 
daughter  was  left  without  any  resource.  In  this  situ- 
ation the  representations  of  the  people  with  whom  she 
happened  to  be  placed,  prevailed  upon  Mrs.  Tyrrel,  the 
mother  of  the  squire,  to  receive  her  into  her  family. 
In  equity,  perhaps,  she  was  entitled  to  that  portion  of 
fortune  which  her  mother  had  forfeited  by  her  impru- 
dence, and  which  had  gone  to  swell  the  property  of  the 
male  representative.  But  this  idea  had  never  entered 
into  the  conceptions  of  either  mother  or  son.  Mrs. 
Tyrrel  conceived  that  she  performed  an  act  of  the 
most  exalted  benevolence  in  admitting  Miss  Emily 
into  a  sort  of  equivocal  situation,  which  was  neither 
precisely  that  of  a  domestic,  nor  yet  marked  with  the 
treatment  that  might  seem  due  to  one  of  the  family. 

She  had  not,  however,  at  first  been  sensible  of  all  the 
mortifications  that  might  have  been  expected  from  her 
condition.  Mrs.  Tyrrel,  though  proud  and  imperious, 
was  not  ill-natured.  The  female,  who  lived  in  the 
family  in  the  capacity  of  housekeeper,  was  a  person 
who  had  seen  better  days,  and  whose  disposition  was 
extremely  upright  and  amiable.  She  early  contracted 
a  friendship  for  the  little  Emily,  who  was  indeed  for 
the  most  part  committed  to  her  care.  Emily,  on  her 
side,  fully  repaid  the  affection  of  her  instructress,  and 
learned  with  great  docility  the  few  accomplishments 


CALEB    WILLIANfS.  51 

Mrs.  Jakeman  was  able  to  communicate.  But  most  of 
all  she  imbibed  her  cheerful  and  artless  temper,  that 
tcted  the  agreeable  and  encouraging  from  all  events, 
and  prompted  her  to  communicate  her  sentiments,  which 
were  never  of  the  cynical  cast,  without  modification  or 
disguise.  Besides  the  advantages  Emily  derived  from 
Mrs.  Jakeman,  she  was  permitted  to  take  lessons  from 
the  masters  who  were  employed  at  Tyrrel  Place  for  the 
instruction  of  her  cousin ;  and  indeed,  as  the  young 
gentleman  was  most  frequently  indisposed  to  attend 
to  them,  they  would  commonly  have  had  nothing  to 
do,  had  it  not  been  for  the  fortunate  presence  of  Miss 
Melville.  Mrs.  Tyrrel  therefore  encouraged  the  studies 
of  Emily  on  that  score ;  in  addition  to  which  she  ima- 
gined that  this  living  exhibition  of  instruction  might 
operate  as  an  indirect  allurement  to  her  darling  Bar- 
nabas, the  only  species  of  motive  she  would  suffer  to 
be  presented.  Force  she  absolutely  forbade;  and  of 
the  intrinsic  allurements  of  literature  and  knowledge 
she  had  no  conception. 

Emily,  as  she  grew  up,  displayed  an  uncommon 
degree  of  sensibility,  which  under  her  circumstances 
would  have  been  a  source  of  perpetual  dissatisfaction, 
had  it  not  been  qualified  with  an  extreme  sweetness 
and  easiness  of  temper.  She  was  far  from  being  en- 
titled to  the  appellation  of  a  beauty.  Her  person 
WM petite  and  trivial ;  her  complexion  savoured  of  the 

}>ni,,,tt,  ;    and  lu  r  f.uv  \\a>  ni.nkcil  with  tin-  -n:;ill-|>«»\, 

sufficiently  to  destroy  its  evenness  and  polish,  though 
not  enough  to  destroy  its  expression.  But,  though 
her  appearance  was  not  beautiful,  it  did  not  fail  to  be 
in  a  high  degree  engaging.  Her  complexion  was  at 
once  healthful  and  delicate  ;  her  long  dark  eyebrows 
adapted  themselves  with  facility  to  the  various  con- 
ceptions of  her  mind ;  and  her  looks  bore  the  united 
E  2 


52  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

impression  of  an  active  discernment  and  a  good- 
humoured  frankness.  The  instruction  she  had  received, 
as  it  was  entirely  of  a  casual  nature,  exempted  her 
from  the  evils  of  untutored  ignorance,  but  not  from  a 
sort  of  native  wildness,  arguing  a  mind  incapable  of 
guile  itself,  or  of  suspecting  it  in  others.  She  amused, 
without  seeming  conscious  of  the  refined  sense  which 
her  observations  contained;  or  rather,  having  never 
been  debauched  with  applause,  she  set  light  by  her 
own  qualifications,  arid  talked  from  the  pure  gaiety  of 
a  youthful  heart  acting  upon  the  stores  of  a  just 
understanding,  and  not  with  any  expectation  of  being 
distinguished  and  admired. 

The  death  of  her  aunt  made  very  little  change  in 
her  situation.  This  prudent  lady,  who  would  have 
thought  it  little  less  than  sacrilege  to  have  considered 
Miss  Melville  as  a  branch  of  the  stock  of  the  Tyrrels, 
took  no  more  notice  of  her  in  her  will  than  barely 
putting  her  down  for  one  hundred  pounds  in  a  cata- 
logue of  legacies  to  her  servants.  She  had  never 
been  admitted  into  the  intimacy  and  confidence  of 
Mrs.  Tyrrel ;  and  the  young  squire,  now  that  she  was 
left  under  his  sole  protection,  seemed  inclined  to  treat 
her  with  even  more  liberality  than  his  mother  had 
done.  He  had  seen  her  grow  up  under  his  eye,  and 
therefore,  though  there  were  but  six  years  difference 
in  their  ages,  he  felt  a  kind  of  paternal  interest  in  her 
welfare.  Habit  had  rendered  her  in  a  manner  neces- 
sary to  him,  and,  in  every  recess  from  the  occupations 
of  the  field  and  the  pleasures  of  the  table,  he  found 
himself  solitary  and  forlorn  without  the  society  of  Miss 
Melville.  Nearness  of  kindred,  and  Emily's  want  of 
personal  beauty,  prevented  him  from  ever  looking  on 
her  with  the  eyes  of  desire.  Her  accomplishments 
were  chiefly  of  the  customary  and  superficial  kind, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  53 

dancing  and  music.  Her  skill  in  the  first  led  him 
sometimes  to  indulge  her  with  a  vacant  corner  in  his 
carriage,  when  he  went  to  the  neighbouring  assembly; 
and,  in  whatever  light  he  might  himself  think  proper 
to  regard  her,  he  would  have  imagined  his  chamber* 
maid,  introduced  by  him,  entitled  to  an  undoubted 
place  in  the  most  splendid  circle.  Her  musical  talents 
were  frequently  employed  for  his  amusement.  She  had 
the  honour  occasionally  of  playing  him  to  sleep  after 
the  fatigues  of  the  chase ;  and,  as  he  had  some  relish 
for  harmonious  sounds,  she  was  frequently  able  to 
soothe  him  by  their  means  from  the  perturbations  of 
which  his  gloomy  disposition  was  so  eminently  a  slave. 
Upon  the  whole,  she  might  be  considered  as  in  some 
sort  his  favourite.  She  was  the  mediator  to  whom  his 
tenants  and  domestics,  when  they  had  incurred  his 
displeasure,  were  accustomed  to  apply ;  the  privileged 
companion,  that  could  approach  this  lion'with  impunity 
in  the  midst  of  his  roarings.  She  spoke  to  him  without 
fear ;  her  solicitations  were  always  good-natured  and 
disinterested ;  and  when  he  repulsed  her,  he  disarmed 
himself  of  half  his  terrors,  and  was  contented  to  smile 
at  her  presumption. 

Such  had  been  for  some  years  the  situation  of  Miss 
Melville.  Its  precariousness  had  been  beguiled  by  the 
uncommon  forbearance  with  which  she  was  treated  by 
her  savage  protector.  But  his  disposition,  always 
brutal,  had  acquired  a  gradual  accession  of  ferocity 
since  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Falkland  in  his  neighbour-* 
hood.  He  now  frequently  forgot  the  gentleness  with 
which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  treat  his  good- 
natured  cousin.  Her  little  playful  arts  were  not  always 
successful  in  softening  his  rage ;  and  he  would  some- 
times turn  upon  her  blandishments  with  an  impatient 
sternness  that  made  her  tremble.  The  careless  ease 
E  3 


54  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

of  her  disposition,  however,  soon  effaced  these  im- 
pressions, and  she  fell  without  variation  into  her  old 
habits. 

A  circumstance  occurred  about  this  time  which 
gave  peculiar  strength  to  the  acrimony  of  Mr.  Tyrrel, 
and  ultimately  brought  to  its  close  the  felicity  that 
Miss  Melville,  in  spite  of  the  frowns  of  fortune,  had 
hitherto  enjoyed.  Emily  was  exactly  seventeen  when 
Mr.  Falkland  returned  from  the  continent.  At  this  age 
she  was  peculiarly  susceptible  of  the  charms  of  beauty, 
grace,  and  moral  excellence,  when  united  in  a  person 
of  the  other  sex.  She  was  imprudent,  precisely  be- 
cause her  own  heart  was  incapable  of  guile.  She  had 
never  yet  felt  the  sting  of  the  poverty  to  which  she 
was  condemned,  and  had  not  reflected  on  the  insu- 
perable distance  that  custom  has  placed  between  the 
opulent  and  the  poorer  classes  of  the  community.  She 
beheld  Mr.  Falkland,  whenever  he  was  thrown  in  her 
way  at  any  of  the  public  meetings,  with  admiration ; 
and,  without  having  precisely  explained  to  herself 
the  sentiments  she  indulged,  her  eyes  followed  him 
through  all  the  changes  of  the  scene,  with  eagerness 
and  impatience.  She  did  not  see  him,  as  the  rest  of 
the  assembly  did,  born  to  one  of  the  amplest  estates 
in  the  county,  and  qualified  to  assert  his  title  to  the 
richest  heiress.  She  thought  only  of  Falkland,  with 
those  advantages  which  were  most  intimately  his  own, 
and  of  which  no  persecution  of  adverse  fortune  had 
the  ability  to  deprive  him.  In  a  word,  she  was  trans- 
ported when  he  was  present;  he  was  the  perpetual 
subject  of  her  reveries  and  her  dreams  ;  but  his  image 
excited  no  sentiment  in  her  mind  beyond  that  of  the 
immediate  pleasure  she  took  in  his  idea. 

The  notice  Mr.  Falkland  bestowed  on  her  in  return, 
appeared  sufficiently  encouraging  to  a  mind  so  full  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  55 

prepossession  as  that  of  Emily.  There  was  a  particular 
complacency  in  his  looks  when  directed  towards  her. 
He  had  said  in  a  company,  of  which  one  of  the  persons 
present  repeated  his  remarks  to  Miss  Melville,  that  she 
appeared  to  him  amiable  and  interesting ;  that  he  felt 
for  her  unprovided  and  destitute  situation  ;  and  that  he 
should  have  been  glad  to  be  more  particular  in  his 
attention  to  her,  had  he  not  been  apprehensive  of 
doing  her  a  prejudice  in  the  suspicious  mind  of  Mr. 
Tyrrel.  All  this  she  considered  as  the  ravishing  con- 
descension of  a  superior  nature ;  for,  if  she  did  not 
recollect  with  sufficient  assiduity  his  gifts  of  fortune, 
she  was,  on  the  other  hand,  filled  with  reverence  for 
his  unrivalled  accomplishments.  But,  while  she  thus 
seemingly  disclaimed  all  comparison  between  Mr.  Falk- 
land and  herself,  she  probably  cherished  a  confused 
feeling  as  if  some  event,  that  was  yet  in  the  womb 
of  fate,  might  reconcile  things  apparently  the  most 
incompatible.  Fraught  with  these  prepossessions, 
the  civilities  that  had  once  or  twice  occurred  in  the 
bustle  of  a  public  circle,  the  restoring  her  fan  which 
she  had  dropped,  or  the  disembarrassing  her  of  an 
empty  tea-cup,  made  her  heart  palpitate,  and  gave 
birth  to  the  wildest  chimeras  in  her  deluded  imagi- 
nation. 

About  this  time  an  event  happened,  that  helped 
to  give  a  precise  determination  to  the  fluctuations  of 
Miss  Melville's  mind.  One  evening,  a  short  time  after 
the  death  of  Mr.  Clare,  Mr.  Falkland  had  been  at  the 
house  of  his  deceased  friend  in  his  quality  of  executor, 
and,  by  some  accidents  of  little  intrinsic  importance, 
had  been  detained  three  or  four  hours  later  than  he 
expected.  He  did  not  set  out  upon  his  return  till  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  At  this  time,  in  a  situation  so 
remote  from  the  metropolis,  every  thing  is  as  silent  as 
£  4 


56  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

it  would  be  in  a  region  wholly  uninhabited.  The  moon 
shone  bright ;  and  the  objects  around  being  marked 
with  strong  variations  of  light  and  shade,  gave  a  kind 
of  sacred  solemnity  to  the  scene.  Mr.  Falkland  had 
taken  Collins  with  him,  the  business  to  be  settled  at 
Mr.  Clare's  being  in  some  respects  similar  to  that  to 
which  this  faithful  domestic  had  been  accustomed  in 
the  routine  of  his  ordinary  service.  They  had  entered 
into  some  conversation,  for  Mr.  Falkland  was  not  then 
in  the  habit  of  obliging  the  persons  about  him  by 
formality  and  reserve  to  recollect  who  he  was.  The 
attractive  solemnity  of  the  scene  made  him  break  off 
the  talk  somewhat  abruptly,  that  he  might  enjoy  it 
without  interruption.  They  had  not  ridden  far,  before 
a  hollow  wind  seemed  to  rise  at  a  distance,  and 
they  could  hear  the  hoarse  roarings  of  the  sea.  Pre- 
sently the  sky  on  one  side  assumed  the  appearance 
of  a  reddish  brown,  and  a  sudden  angle  in  the  road 
placed  this  phenomenon  directly  before  them.  As  they 
proceeded,  it  became  more  distinct,  and  it  was  at 
length  sufficiently  visible  that  it  was  occasioned  by  a 
fire.  Mr.  Falkland  put  spurs  to  his  horse ;  and,  as 
they  approached,  the  object  presented  every  instant  a 
more  alarming  appearance.  The  flames  ascended  with 
fierceness ;  they  embraced  a  large  portion  of  the  hori- 
zon ;  and,  as  they  carried  up  with  them  numerous 
little  fragments  of  the  materials  that  fed  them,  im- 
pregnated with  fire,  and  of  an  extremely  bright  and 
luminous  colour,  they  presented  some  feeble  image  of 
the  tremendous  eruption  of  a  volcano. 

The  flames  proceeded  from  a  village  directly  in  their 
road.  There  were  eight  or  ten  houses  already  on  fire, 
and  the  whole  seemed  to  be  threatened  with  immediate 
destruction.  The  inhabitants  were  in  the  utmost  con- 
sternation, having  had  no  previous  experience  of  a 


CALEB    WILLIAMS  57- 

similar  calamity.  They  conveyed  with  haste  their 
moreables  and  furniture  into  the  adjoining  fields. 
\Vlu-n  any  of  them  had  effected  this  as  far  as  it  could 
be  attempted  with  safety,  they  were  unable  to  conceive 
any  further  remedy,  but  stood  wringing  their  hands, 
and  contemplating  the  ravages  of  the  fire  in  an  agony 
of  powerless  despair.  The  water  that  could  be  pro- 
cured, in  any  mode  practised  in  that  place,  was  but 
as  a  drop  contending  with  an  clement  in  arms.  The 
wind  in  the  mean  time  was  rising,  and  the  flames 
spread  with  more  and  more  rapidity. 

Mr.  Falkland  contemplated  this  scene  for  a  few 
moments,  as  if  ruminating  with  himself  as  to  what 
could  be  done.  He  then  directed  some  of  the  country 
people  about  him  to  pull  down  a  house,  next  to  one 
that  was  wholly  on  fire,  but  which  itself  was  yet  un- 
touched. They  seemed  astonished  at  a  direction  which 
implied  a  voluntary  destruction  of  property,  and 
considered  the  task  as  too  much  in  the  heart  of  the 
danger  to  be  undertaken.  Observing  that  they  were 
motionless,  he  dismounted  from  his  horse,  and  called 
upon  them  in  an  authoritative  voice  to  follow  him. 
He  ascended  the  house  in  an  instant,  and  presently 
appeared  upon  the  top  of  it,  as  if  in  the  midst  of  the 
flames.  Having,. with  the  assistance  of  two  or  three 
of  the  persons  that  followed  him  most  closely,  and  who 
by  this  time  had  supplied  themselves  with  whatever 
tools  came  next  to  hand,  loosened  the  support  of  a 
stack  of  chimneys,  he  pushed  them  headlong  into  the 
midst  of  the  fire.  He  passed  and  repassed  along  the 
roof;  and,  having  set  people  to  work  in  all  parts, 
descended  in  order  to  see  what  could  be  done  in  any 
other  quarter. 

At  this  moment  an  elderly  woman  burst  from  the 
midst  of  a  house  in  flames :  the  utmost  consternation 


58  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

was  painted  in  her  looks ;  and,  as  soon  as  she  could 
recollect  herself  enough  to  have  a  proper  idea  of  her 
situation,  the  subject  of  her  anxiety  seemed,  in  an 
instant,  to  be  totally  changed.  "  Where  is  my  child?" 
cried  she,  and  cast  an  anxious  and  piercing  look  among 
the  surrounding  crowd.  "  Oh,  she  is  lost !  she  is 
in  the  midst  of  flames  !  Save  her !  save  her !  my 
child  I"  She  filled  the  air  with  heart-rending  shrieks. 
She  turned  towards  the  house.  The  people  that  were 
near  endeavoured  to  prevent  her,  but  she  shook  them 
off  in  a  moment.  She  entered  the  passage ;  viewed 
the  hideous  ruin ;  and  was  then  going  to  plunge  into 
the  blazing  staircase.  Mr.  Falkland  saw,  pursued,  and 
seized  her  by  the  arm ;  it  was  Mrs.  Jakeman.  "  Stop  ! " 
he  cried,  with  a  voice  of  grand,  yet  benevolent  au- 
thority. "  Remain  you  in  the  street !  I  will  seek,  and 
will  save  her  !  "  Mrs.  Jakeman  obeyed.  He  charged 
the  persons  who  were  near  to  detain  her ;  he  enquired 
which  was  the  apartment  of  Emily.  Mrs.  Jakeman 
was  upon  a  visit  to  a  sister  who  lived  in  the  village, 
and  had  brought  Emily  along  with  her.  Mr.  Falkland 
ascended  a  neighbouring  house,  and  entered  that  in 
which  Emily  was,  by  a  window  in  the  roof. 

He  found  her  already  awaked  from  her  sleep  ;  and, 
becoming  sensible  of  her  danger,  she  had  that  instant 
wrapped  a  loose  gown  round  her.  Such  is  the  almost 
irresistible  result  of  feminine  habits  ;  but,  having  done 
this,  she  examined  the  surrounding  objects  with  the 
wildness  of  despair.  Mr.  Falkland  entered  the  cham- 
ber. She  flew  into  his  arms  with  the  rapidity  of  light- 
ning. She  embraced  and  clung  to  him,  with  an  impulse 
that  did  not  wait  to  consult  the  dictates  of  her  under- 
standing. Her  emotions  were  indescribable.  In  a  few 
short  moments  she  had  lived  an  age  in  love.  In  two 
minutes  Mr.  Falkland  was  again  in  the  street  with  his 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  59 

lovely,  half-naked  burthen  in  his  arms.  Having  restored 
her  to  her  affectionate  protector,  snatched  from  the 
immediate  grasp  of  death,  from  which,  if  he  had  not, 
none  would  have  delivered  her,  he  returned  to  his 
former  task.  By  his  presence  of  mind,  by  his  inde- 
fatigable humanity  and  incessant  exertions,  he  saved 
three  fourths  of  the  village  from  destruction. 

The  conflagration  being  at  length  abated,  he  sought 
again  Mrs.  Jakeman  and  Emily,  who  by  this  time  had 
obtained  a  substitute  for  the  garments  she  had  lost  in 
the  fire.  He  displayed  the  tenderest  solicitude  for  the 
young  lady's  safety,  and  directed  Collins  to  go  with  as 
much  speed  as  he  could,  and  send  his  chariot  to  attend 
her.  .More  than  an  hour  elapsed  in  this  interval.  Mis« 
Melville  had  never  seen  so  much  of  Mr.  Falkland 
upon  any  former  occasion ;  and  the  spectacle  of  such 
humanity,  delicacy,  firmness,  and  justice  in  the  form  of 
man,  as  he  crowded  into  this  small  space,  was  altogether 
new  to  her,  and  in  the  highest  degree  fascinating.  She 
had  a  confused  feeling  as  if  there  had  been  something 
indecorous  in  her  behaviour  or  appearance,  when  Mr. 
Falkland  had  appeared  to  her  relief;  and  this  combined 
with  her  other  emotions  to  render  the  whole  critical 
and  intoxicating. 

Emily  no  sooner  arrived  at  the  family  mansion,  than 
Mr.  Tyrrel  ran  out  to  receive  her.  He  had  just  heard 
of  the  melancholy  accident  that  had  taken  place  at 
the  village,  and  was  terrified  for  the  safety  of  his  good- 
humoured  cousin.  He  displayed  those  unpremeditated 
emotions  which  are  common  to  almost  every  individual 
of  the  human  race.  He  was  greatly  shocked  at  the 
suspicion  that  Emily  might  possibly  have  become  the 
victim  of  a  catastrophe  which  had  thus  broken  out  in 
the  dead  of  night  His  sensations  were  of  the  most 
pleasing  sort  when  he  folded  her  in  his  arms,  and  fear- 


60  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

ful  apprehension  was  instantaneously  converted  into 
joyous  certainty.  Emily  no  sooner  entered  under  the 
well  known  roof  than  her  spirits  were  brisk,  and  her 
tongue  incessant  in  describing  her  danger  and  her  de- 
liverance. Mr.  Tyrrel  had  formerly  been  tortured  with 
the  innocent  eulogiums  she  pronounced  of  Mr.  Falkland. 
But  these  were  tameness  itself,  compared  with  the  rich 
and  various  eloquence  that  now  flowed  from  her  lips. 
Love  had  not  the  same  effect  upon  her,  especially  at 
the  present  moment,  which  it  would  have  had  upon  a 
person  instructed  to  feign  a  blush,  and  inured  to  a 
consciousness  of  wrong.  She  described  his  activity 
and  resources,  the  promptitude  with  which  every  thing 
was  conceived,  and  the  cautious  but  daring  wisdom 
with  which  it  was  executed.  All  was  fairy-land  and 
enchantment  in  the  tenour  of  her  artless  tale  ;  you  saw 
a  beneficent  genius  surveying  and  controlling  the  whole, 
but  could  have  no  notion  of  any  human  means  by  which 
his  purposes  were  effected. 

Mr.  Tyrrel  listened  for  a  while  to  these  innocent 
effusions  with  patience ;  he  could  even  bear  to  hear  the 
man  applauded,  by  whom  he  had  just  obtained  so  con- 
siderable a  benefit.  But  the  theme  by  amplification 
became  nauseous,  and  he  at  length  with  some  rough- 
ness put  an  end  to  the  tale.  Probably,  upon  recollection, 
it  appeared  still  more  insolent  and  intolerable  than 
while  it  was  passing ;  the  sensation  of  gratitude  wore 
off,  but  the  hyperbolical  praise  that  had  been  bestowed 
still  haunted  his  memory,  and  sounded  in  his  ear ; — 
Emily  had  entered  into  the  confederacy  that  disturbed 
his  repose.  For  herself,  she  was  wholly  unconscious  of 
offence,  and  upon  every  occasion  quoted  Mr.  Falkland 
as  the  model  of  elegant  manners  and  true  wisdom.  She 
was  a  total  stranger  to  dissimulation ;  and  she  could 
not  conceive  that  any  one  beheld  the  subject  of  her 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  61 

admiration  with  less  partiality  than  herself.  Her  art- 
less love  became  more  fervent  than  ever.  She  flattered 
herself  that  nothing  less  than  a  reciprocal  passion  could 
have  prompted  Mr.  Falkland  to  the  desperate  attempt 
of  saving  her  from  the  flames  ;  and  she  trusted  that  this 
passion  would  speedily  declare  itself,  as  well  as  induce 
the  object  of  her  adoration  to  overlook  her  comparative 
unworthiness. 

Mr.  Tyrrel  endeavoured  at  firstwith  some  moderation 
to  check  Miss  Melville  in  her  applauses,  and  to  con- 
vince her  by  various  tokens  that  the  subject  was  dis- 
agre cable  to  him.  He  was  accustomed  to  treat  her 
with  kindness.  Emily, on  her  part,  was  disposed  to  yield 
an  unreluctant  obedience,  and  therefore  it  was  not  diffi- 
cult to  restrain  her.  But  upon  the  very  next  occasion 
her  favourite  topic  would  force  its  way  to  her  lips.  Her 
obedience  was  the  acquiescence  of  a  frank  and  bene- 
volent heart ;  but  it  was  the  most  difficult  thing  in  the 
world  to  inspire  her  with  fear.  Conscious  herself  that 
she  would  not  hurt  a  worm,  she  could  not  conceive  that 
any  one  would  harbour  cruelty  and  rancour  against  her. 
Her  temper  had  preserved  her  from  obstinate  conten- 
tion with  t IK-  persons  under  whose  protection  she  was 
placed ;  and,  as  her  compliance  was  unhesitating,  she 
had  no  experience  of  a  severe  and  rigorous  treatment. 
As  Mr.  TyrreFs  objection  to  the  very  name  of  Falkland 
became  more  palpable  and  uniform,  Miss  Melville 
increased  in  her  precaution.  She  would  stop  herself 
in  the  half-pronounced  sentences  that  were  meant  to 
his  praise.  This  circumstance  had  necessarily  an 
ungracious  effect ;  it  was  a  cutting  satire  upon  the  im- 
becility of  her  kinsman.  Upon  these  occasions  she 
would  sometimes  venture  upon  a  good-humoured  ex- 
postulation : — "  Dear  sir !  well,  I  wonder  how  you  can 
be  so  ill-natured !  I  am  sure  Mr.  Falkland  would  do 


62  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

you  any  good  office  in  the  world:" — till  she  was  checked 
by  some  gesture  of  impatience  and  fierceness. 

At  length  she  wholly  conquered  her  heedlessness 
and  inattention.     But  it  was  too  late.     Mr.  Tyrrel  al- 
ready suspected  the  existence  of  that  passion  which 
she  had  thoughtlessly  imbibed.     His  imagination,  in- 
genious in  torment,  suggested  to  him  all  the  different 
openings  in  conversation,  in  which  she  would  have  in- 
troduced the  praise  of  Mr.  Falkland,  had  she  not  been 
placed  under  this  unnatural  restraint.     Her  present 
reserve  upon  the  subject  was  even  more  insufferable 
than  her  former  loquacity.     All  his  kindness  for  this 
unhappy  orphan  gradually  subsided.     Her  partiality 
for  the  man  who  was  the  object  of  his  unbounded  ab- 
horrence, appeared  to  him  as  the  last  persecution  of  a 
malicious  destiny.     He  figured  himself  as  about  to  be 
deserted  by  every  creature  in  human  form ;  all  men, 
under  the  influence  of  a  fatal  enchantment,  approving 
only  what  was  sophisticated  and  artificial,  and  holding 
the  rude  and  genuine  offspring  of  nature  in  mortal 
antipathy.     Impressed   with    these   gloomy  presages, 
he  saw  Miss  Melville  with  no  sentiments  but  those  of 
rancorous  aversion  ;  and,  accustomed  as  he  was  to  the 
uncontrolled  indulgence  of  his  propensities,  he  deter- 
mined to  wreak  upon  her  a  signal  revenge. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MR.  TYRREL  consulted  his  old  confident  respecting 
the  plan  he  should  pursue  ;  who,  sympathising  as  he 
did  in  the  brutality  and  insolence  of  his  friend,  had  no 
idea  that  an  insignificant  girl,  without  either  wealth  or 
beauty,  ought  to  be  allowed  for  a  moment  to  stand  in 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  '     63 

the  way  of  the  gratifications  of  a  man  of  Mr.  Tyrrel's 
importance.  The  first  idea  of  her  now  unrelenting 
kinsman  was  to  thrust  her  from  his  doors,  and  leave 
her  to  seek  her  bread  as  she  could.  But  he  was 
conscious  that  this  proceeding  would  involve  him  in 
considerable  obloquy ;  and  he  at  length  fixed  upon  a 
scheme  which,  at  the  same  time  that  he  believed  it 
would  sufficiently  shelter  his  reputation,  would  much 
more  certainly  secure  her  mortification  and  punishment. 
For  this  purpose  he  fixed  upon  a  young  man  of 
twenty,  the  son  of  one  Grimes,  who  occupied  a  small 
farm,  the  property  of  his  confident.  This  fellow  he 
resolved  to  impose  as  a  husband  on  Miss  Melville,  who, 
he  shrewdly  suspected,  guided  by  the  tender  senti- 
ments she  had  unfortunately  conceived  for  Mr.  Falk- 
land, would  listen  with  reluctance  to  any  matrimonial 
proposal.  Grimes  he  selected  as  being  in  all  respects 
the  diametrical  reverse  of  Mr.  Falkland.  He  was  not 
precisely  a  lad  of  vicious  propensities,  but  in  an  incon- 
ceivable degree  boorish  and  uncouth.  His  complexion 
was  scarcely  human  ;  his  features  were  coarse,  and 
strangely  discordant  and  disjointed  from  each  other. 
His  lips  were  thick,  and  the  tone  of  his  voice  broad 
and  unmodulated.  His  legs  were  of  equal  size  from 
one  end  to  the  other,  and  his  feet  misshapen  and 
clumsy.  He  had  nothing  spiteful  or  malicious  in  his 
disposition,  but  he  was  a  total  stranger  to  tenderness  ; 
he  could  not  feel  for  those  refinements  in  others,  of 
which  he  had  no  experience  in  himself.  He  was  an 
expert  boxer :  his  inclination  led  him  to  such  amuse- 
ments as  were  most  boisterous ;  and  he  delighted  in  a 
sort  of  manual  sarcasm,  which  he  could  not  conceive 
to  be  very  injurious,  as  it  led  no  traces  behind  it.  His 
general  manners  were  noisy  and  obstreperous;  inat- 
tentive to  others ;  and  obstinate  and  unyielding,  not 


g4  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

from  any  cruelty  and  ruggedness  of  temper,  but  from 
an  incapacity  to  conceive  those  finer  feelings,  that 
make  so  large  a  part  of  the  history  of  persons  who  are 
cast  in  a  gentler  mould. 

Such  was  the  uncouth  and  half-civilised  animal, 
which  the  industrious  malice  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  fixed  upon 
as  most  happily  adapted  to  his  purpose.  Emily  had 
hitherto  been  in  an  unusual  degree  exempted  from 
the  oppression  of  despotism.  Her  happy  insignifi- 
cance had  served  her  as  a  protection.  No  one  thought 
it  worth  his  while  to  fetter  her  with  those  numerous 
petty  restrictions  with  which  the  daughters  of  opu- 
lence are  commonly  tormented.  She  had  the  wildness, 
as  well  as  the  delicate  frame,  of  the  bird  that  warbles 
unmolested  in  its  native  groves. 

When  therefore  she  heard  from  her  kinsman  the 
proposal  of  Mr.  Grimes  for  a  husband,  she  was  for  a 
moment  silent  with  astonishment  at  so  unexpected  a 
suggestion.  But  as  soon  as  she  recovered  her  speech, 
she  replied,  "  No,  sir,  I  do  not  want  a  husband." 

"  You  do  !  Are  not  you  always  hankering  after  the 
men  ?  It  is  high  time  you  should  be  settled." 

"  Mr.  Grimes  I  No,  indeed !  when  I  do  have  a 
husband,  it  shall  not  be  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Grimes 
neither." 

"  Be  silent  I  How  dare  you  give  yourself  such  un- 
accountable liberties  ?" 

"  Lord,  I  wonder  what  I  should  do  with  him.  You 
might  as  well  give  me  your  great  rough  water-dog,  and 
bid  me  make  him  a  silk  cushion  to  lie  in  my  dressing- 
room.  Besides,  sir,  Grimes  is  a  common  labouring 
man,  and  I  am  sure  I  have  always  heard  my  aunt  say 
that  ours  is  a  very  great  family." 
.  "  It  is  a  lie !  Our  family !  have  you  the  impudence 
to  think  yourself  one  of  our  family?" 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  65 

"  Why,  sir,  was  not  your  grandpapa  my  grandpapa  ? 
How  then  can  we  be  of  a  different  family?" 

"  From  the  strongest  reason  in  the  world.  You  are 
the  daughter  of  a  rascally  Scotchman,  who  spent  every 
shilling  of  my  aunt  Lucy's  fortune,  and  left  you  a 
beggar.  You  have  got  an  hundred  pounds,  and 
Grimes's  father  promises  to  give  him  as  much.  How 
dare  you  look  down  upon  your  equals?" 

"  Indeed,  sir,  I  am  not  proud.  But,  indeed  and 
indeed,  I  can  never  love  Mr.  Grimes.  I  am  very 
happy  as  I  am  :  why  should  I  be  married?" 

"  Silence  your  prating!  Grimes  will  be  here  this 
afternoon.  Look  that  you  behave  well  to  him.  If  you 
do  not,  he  will  remember  and  repay,  when  you  least 
like  it," 

"  Nay,  I  am  sure,  sir— you  are  not  in  earnest?" 

"  Not  in  earnest !  Damn  me,  but  we  will  see  that. 
I  can  tell  what  you  would  be  at.  You  had  rather  be 
Mr.  Falkland's  miss,  than  the  wife  of  a  plain  downright 
yeoman.  But  I  shall  take  care  of  you. — Ay,  this 
comes  of  indulgence.  You  must  be  taken  down,  miss. 
You  must  be  taught  the  difference  between  high-flown 
notions  and  realities.  Mayhap  you  may  take  it  a  little 
in  dudgeon  or  so;  but  never  mind  that.  Pride  always 
wants  a  little  smarting.  If  you  should  be  brought  to 
shame,  it  is  I  that  shall  bear  the  blame  of  it." 

The  tone  in  which  Mr.  Tyrrel  spoke  was  so  different 
from  any  thing  to  which  Miss  Melville  had  been  accus- 
tomed, that  she  felt  herself  wholly  unable  to  determine 
what  construction  to  put  upon  it.  Sometimes  she 
thought  he  had  really  formed  a  plan  for  imposing  upon 
her  a  condition  that  she  could  not  bear  so  much  as  to 
think  of.  But  presently  she  rejected  this  idea  as  ah 
unworthy  imputation  upon  her  kinsman,  and  concluded 
that  it  was  only  his  way,  and  that  all  he  meant  was  to 

F 


66  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

try  her.  To  be  resolved  however,  she  determined  to 
consult  her  constant  adviser,  Mrs.  Jakeman,  and  ac- 
cordingly repeated  to  her  what  had  passed.  Mrs. 
Jakeman  saw  the  whole  in  a  very  different  light  from 
that  in  which  Emily  had  conceived  it,  and  trembled 
for  the  future  peace  of  her  beloved  ward. 

"  Lord  bless  me,  my  dear  mamma !"  cried  Emily, 
(this  was  the  appellation  she  delighted  to  bestow  upon 
the  good  housekeeper,)  "  you  cannot  think  so?  But  I 
do  not  care.  I  will  never  marry  Grimes,  happen  what 
will." 

"  But  how  will  you  help  yourself?  My  master  will 
oblige  you." 

"  Nay,  now  you  think  you  are  talking  to  a  child 
indeed.  It  is  I  am  to  have  the  man,  not  Mr.  Tyrrel. 
Do  you  think  I  will  let  any  body  else  choose  a  husband 
for  me  ?  1  am  not  such  a  fool  as  that  neither." 

"  Ah,  Emily!  you  little  know  the  disadvantages  of 
your  situation.  Your  cousin  is  a  violent  man,  and 
perhaps  will  turn  you  out  of  doors,  if  you  oppose 
him." 

"  Oh,  mamma !  it  is  very  wicked  of  you  to  say  so.  I 
am  sure  Mr.  Tyrrel  is  a  very  good  man,  though  he  be 
a  little  cross  now  and  then.  He  knows  very  well  that 
I  am  right  to  have  a  will  of  my  own  in  such  a  thing  as 
this,  and  nobody  is  punished  for  doing  what  is  right." 

"  Nobody  ought,  my  dear  child.  But  there  are  very 
wicked  and  tyrannical  men  in  the  world." 

"  Well,  well,  I  will  never  believe  my  cousin  is  one  of 
these." 

"  I  hope  he  is  not." 

"  And  if  he  were,  what  then  ?  To  be  sure  I  should 
be  very  sorry  to  make  him  angry." 

"  What  then !  Why  then  my  poor  Emily  would  be 
a  beggar.  Do  you  think  I  could  bear  to  see  that?" 


CALEB    WILLIAMS,  67 

?  No,  no.  Mr.  Tyrrel  has  just  told  me  that  I  have  a 
hundred  pounds.  But  if  I  had  no  fortune,  is  not  that 
the  case  with  a  thousand  other  folks  ?  Why  should  I 
grieve,  for  what  they  bear  and  are  merry?  Do  not 
make  yourself  uneasy,  mamma.  I  am  determined  that 
I  will  do  any  thing  rather  than  marry  Grimes ;  that  is 
what  I  will." 

Mrs.  Jakeman  could  not  bear  the  uneasy  state  of 
suspense  in  which  this  conversation  led  her  mind,  and 
went  immediately  to  the  squire  to  have  her  doubts 
resolved.  The  manner  in  which  she  proposed  the 
question,  sufficiently  indicated  the  judgment  she  had 
formed  of  the  match. 

««  That  is  true,"  said  Mr.  Tyrrel,  "  I  wanted  to  speak 
to  you  about  this  affair.  The  girl  has  got  unaccountable 
notions  in  her  head,  that  will  be  the  ruin  of  her.  You 
perhaps  can  tell  where  she  had  them.  But,  be  that  as 
it  will,  it  is  high  time  something  should  be  done.  The 
shortest  way  is  the  best,  and  to  keep  things  well  while 
they  are  well.  In  short,  I  am  determined  she  shall 
marry  this  lad :  you  do  not  know  any  harm  of  him,  do 
you  ?  You  have  a  good  deal  of  influence  with  her,  and 
I  desire,  do  you  see,  that  you  will  employ  it  to  lead  her 
to  her  good :  you  had  best,  I  can  tell  you.  She  is  a 
pert  vixen  !  By  and  by  she  would  be  a  whore,  and  at 
last  no  better  than  a  common  trull,  and  rot  upon  a 
dunghill,  if  I  were  not  at  all  these  pains  to  save  her 
from  destruction.  I  would  make  her  an  honest  farmer's 
wife,  and  my  pretty  miss  cannot  bear  the  thoughts  of  it !" 

In  the  afternoon  Grimes  came  according  to  appoint- 
ment, and  was  left  alone  with  the  young  lady. 

"Well,  miss,  "said  he,  "  it  seems  the  squire  has  a  mind 

to  make  us  man  and  wife.     For  my  part,  I  cannot  say 

I  should  have  thought  of  it.     But,  being  as  how  the 

squire  has  broke  the  ice,  if  so  be  as  you  like  of  the 

F  2 


68  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

match,  why  I  am  your  man.  Speak  the  word ;  a  nod 
is  as  good  as  a  wink  to  a  blind  horse." 

Emily  was  already  sufficiently  mortified  at  the  unex- 
pected proposal  of  Mr.  Tyrrel.  She  was  confounded 
at  the  novelty  of  the  situation,  and  still  more  at  the 
uncultivated  rudeness  of  her  lover,  which  even  exceeded 
her  expectation.  This  confusion  was  interpreted  by 
Grimes  into  diffidence. 

"  Come,  come,  never  be  cast  down.  Put  a  good  face 
upon  it.  What  though?  My  first  sweetheart  was  Bet 
Butterfield,  but  what  of  that  ?  What  must  be  must 
be ;  grief  will  never  fill  the  belly.  She  was  a  fine 
strapping  wench,  that  is  the  truth  of  it !  five  foot  ten 
inches,  and  as  stout  as  a  trooper.  Oh,  she  would  do  a 
power  of  work!  Up  early  and  down  late;  milked  ten 
cows  with  her  own  hands;  on  with  her  cardinal,  rode 
to  market  between  her  panniers,  fair  weather  and  foul, 
hail,  blow,  or  snow.  It  would  have  done  your  heart 
good  to  have  seen  her  frost-bitten  cheeks,  as  red  as  a 
beefen  from  her  own  orchard !  Ah !  she  was  a  maid  of 
mettle;  would  romp  with  the  harvestmen,  slap  one  upon 
the  back,  wrestle  with  another,  and  had  a  rogue's  trick 
and  a  joke  for  all  round.  Poor  girl!  she  broke  her 
neck  down  stairs  at  a  christening.  To  be  sure  I  shall 
never  meet  with  her  fellow  !  But  never  you  mind 
that;  I  do  not  doubt  that  I  shall  find  more  in  you  upon 
further  acquaintance.  As  coy  and  bashful  as  you  seem, 
I  dare  say  you  are  rogue  enough  at  bottom.  When 
I  have  touzled  and  rumpled  you  a  little,  we  shall  see. 
I  am  no  chicken,  miss,  whatever  you  may  think.  I 
know  what  is  what,  and  can  see  as  far  into  a  millstone 
as  another.  Ay,  ay;  you  will  come  to.  The  fish  will 
snap  at  the  bait,  never  doubt  it.  Yes,  yes,  we  shall  rub 
on  main  well  together." 

Emily  by  this  time  had  in  some  degree  mustered  up 


CALEB    \ClLLIAMS.  69 

her  spirits,  and  began,  though  with  hesitation,  to  thank 
Mr.  Grimes  for  his  good  opinion,  but  to  confess  that 
she  could  never  be  brought  to  favour  his  addresses. 
She  therefore  entreated  him  to  desist  from  all  further 
application.  This  remonstrance  on  her  part  would  have 
become  more  intelligible,  had  it  not  been  for  hi* 
boisterous  manners  and  extravagant  cheerfulness,  which 
indisposed  him  to  silence,  and  made  him  suppose  that 
at  half  a  word  he  had  sufficient  intimation  of  another's 
meaning.  Mr.  Tyrrel,  in  the  mean  time,  was  too  im- 
patient not  to  interrupt  the  scene  before  they  could 
have  time  to  proceed  far  in  explanation ;  and  he  was 
studious  in  the  sequel  to  prevent  the  young  folks  from 
being  too  intimately  acquainted  with  each  other's 
inclinations.  Grimes,  of  consequence,  attributed  the 
reluctance  of  Miss  Melville  to  maiden  coyness,  and  the 
skittish  shyness  of  an  unbroken  filly.  Indeed,  had  it 
been  otherwise,  it  is  not  probable  that  it  would  have 
made  any  effectual  impression  upon  him;  as  he  was 
always  accustomed  to  consider  women  as  made  for  the 
recreation  of  the  men,  and  to  exclaim  against  the  weak- 
ness of  people  who  taught  them  to  imagine  they  were 
to  judge  for  themselves. 

As  the  suit  proceeded,  and  Miss  Melville  saw  more 
of  her  new  admirer,  her  antipathy  increased.  But, 
though  her  character  was  unspoiled  by  those  false 
wants,  which  frequently  make  people  of  family  miserable 
while  they  have  every  thing  that  nature  requires  within 
their  reach,  yet  she  had  been  little  used  to  opposition, 
and  was  terrified  at  the  growing  sternness  of  her  kins- 
man. Sometimes  she  thought  of  flying  from  a  house 
which  was  now  become  her  dungeon ;  but  the  habits  of 
her  youth,  and  her  ignorance  of  the  world,  made  her 
shrink  from  this  project,  when  she  contemplated  it 
more  nearly.  Mrs.  Jakeman,  indeed,  could  not  think 
F  3 


70  CALEB    WILLIAMS.  _ 

with  patience  of  young  Grimes. as  a  husband  for  her 
darling  Emily;  but  her  prudence  determined  her  to 
resist  with  all  her  might  the  idea  on  the  part  of  the 
young  lady  of  proceeding  to  extremities.  She  could 
not  believe  that  Mr.  Tyrrel  would  persist  in  such  an 
unaccountable  persecution,  and  she  exhorted  Miss 
Melville  to  forget  for  a  moment  the  unaffected  inde- 
pendence of  her  character,  and  pathetically  to  deprecate 
her  cousin's  obstinacy.  She  had  great  confidence  in 
the  ingenuous  eloquence  of  her  ward.  Mrs.  Jakeman 
did  not  know  what  was  passing  in  the  breast  of  the 
tyrant. 

Miss  Melville  complied  with  the  suggestion  of  her 
mamma.  One  morning  immediately  after  breakfast, 
she  went  to  her  harpsichord,  and  played  one  after 
another  several  of  those  airs  that  were  most  the 
favourites  of  Mr.  Tyrrel.  Mrs.  Jakeman  had  retired ; 
the  servants  were  gone  to  their  respective  employments. 
Mr.  Tyrrel  would  have  gone  also;  his  mind  was  un- 
tuned, and  he  did  not  take  the  pleasure  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  take  in  the  musical  performances  of 
Emily.  But  her  finger  was  now  more  tasteful  than 
common.  Her  mind  was  probably  wrought  up  to  a 
firmer  and  bolder  tone,  by  the  recollection  of  the  cause 
she  was  going  to  plead ;  at  the  same  time  that  it  was 
exempt  from  those  incapacitating  tremors  which  would 
have  been  felt  by  one  that  dared  not  look  poverty  in  the 
face.  Mr.  Tyrrel  was  unable  to  leave  the  apartment. 
Sometimes  he  traversed  it  with  impatient  steps ;  then 
he  hung  over  the  poor  innocent  whose  powers  were 
exerted  to  please  him  ;  at  length  he  threw  himself  in  a 
chair  opposite,  with  his  eyes  turned  towards  Emily. 
It  was  easy  to  trace  the  progress  of  his  emotions.  The 
furrows  into  which  his  countenance  was  contracted 
were  gradually  relaxed ;  his  features  were  brightened 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  71 

into  a  smile  ;  the  kindness  with  which  he  had  upon 
former  occasions  contemplated  Emily  seemed  to  revive 
in  his  heart. 

Emily  watched  her  opportunity.  As  soon  as  she 
hail  finished  one  of  the  pieces,  she  rose  and  went  to 
Mr.  Tyrrel. 

"  Now,  have  not  I  done  it  nicely  ?  and  after  this  will 
not  you  give  me  a  reward  ?  " 

"  A  reward  !     Ay,  come  here,  and  I  will  give  you  a 


"  No,  that  is  not  it.  And  yet  you  have  not  kissed 
me  this  many  a  day.  Formerly  you  said  you  loved 
me,  and  called  me  you-  Emily.  I  am  sure  you  did  not 
love  me  better  than  I  loved  you.  You  have  not  forgot 
all  the  kindness  you  once  had  for  me?"  added  she 
anxiously. 

"  Forgot  ?  No,  no.  How  can  you  ask  such  a  ques- 
tion ?  You  shall  be  my  dear  Emily  still  !  '  ' 

"  Ah,  those  were  happy  times  !  "  she  replied,  a  little 
mournfully.  Do  you  know,  cousin,  I  wish  I  could 
wake,  and  find  that  the  last  month  —  only  about  a 
month  —  was  a  dream?" 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that?"  said  Mr.  Tyrrel  with 
an  altered  voice.  "  Have  a  care  !  Do  not  put  me  out 
of  humour.  Do  not  come  with  your  romantic  notions 
now." 

"  No,  no  :  I  have  no  romantic  notions  in  my  head. 
I  speak  of  something  upon  which  the  happiness  of  my 
life  depends." 

"  I  see  what  you  would  be  at.  Be  silent.  You  know 
it  is  to  no  purpose  to  plague  me  with  your  stubborn- 
ness. You  will  not  let  me  be  in  good  humour  with 
you  for  a  moment.  What  my  mind  is  determined 
upon  about  Grimes,  all  the  world  shall  not  move  me  to 
give  up." 

r  4 


72  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

"  Dear,  dear  cousin !  why,  but  consider  now.  Grimes 
is  a  rough  rustic  lout,  like  Orson  in  the  story-book. 
He  wants  a  wife  like  himself.  He  would  be  as  uneasy 
and  as  much  at  a  loss  with  me,  as  I  with  him.  Why 
should  we  both  of  us  be  forced  to  do  what  neither  of 
us  is  inclined  to?  I  cannot  think  what  could  ever 
have  put  it  into  your  head.  But  now,  for  goodness' 
sake,  give  it  up!  Marriage  is  a  serious  thing.  You 
should  not  think  of  joining  two  people  for  a  whim,  who 
are  neither  of  them  fit  for  one  another  in  any  respect 
in  the  world.  We  should  feel  mortified  and  disap- 
pointed all  our  lives.  Month  would  go  after  month, 
and  year  after  year,  and  I  could  never  hope  to  be  my 
own,  but  by  the  death  of  ^a  person  I  ought  to  love.  I 
am  sure,  sir,  you  cannot  mean  me  all  this  harm.  What 
have  I  done,  that  I  should  deserve  to  have  you  for  an 
enemy?" 

"  I  am  not  your  enemy.  I  tell  you  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  put  you  out  of  harm's  way.  But,  if  I  were 
your  enemy,  I  could  not  be  a  worse  torment  to  you 
than  you  are  to  me.  Are  not  you  continually  singing 
the  praises  of  Falkland?  Are  not  you  in  love  with 
Falkland  ?  That  man  is  a  legion  of  devils  to  me !  I 
might  as  well  have  been  a  beggar!  I  might  as  well 
have  been  a  dwarf  or  a  monster!  Time  was  when 
I  was  thought  entitled  to  respect.  But  now,  debauched 
by  this  Frenchified  rascal,  they  call  me  rude,  surly,  a 
tyrant !  It  is  true  that  I  cannot  talk  in  finical  phrases, 
flatter  people  with  hypocritical  praise,  or  suppress  the 
real  feelings  of  my  mind.  The  scoundrel  knows  his  pitiful 
advantages,  and  insults  me  upon  them  without  ceasing. 
He  is  my  rival  and  my  persecutor ;  and,  at  last,  as  if 
all  this  were  not  enough,  he  has  found  means  to  spread 
the  pestilence  in  my  own  family.  You,  whom  we  took 
up  out  of  charity,  the  chance-born  brat  of  a  stolen 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  73 

marriage!  you  must  turn  upon  your  benefactor,  and 
wound  me  in  the  point  that  of  all  others  I  could  least 
bear.  If  I  were  your  enemy,  should  not  I  have  reason  ? 
Could  I  ever  inflict  upon  you  such  injuries  as  you  have 
made  me  suffer?  And  who  are  you?  The  lives  of 
fifty  such  cannot  atone  for  an  hour  of  my  uneasiness. 
If  you  were  to  linger  for  twenty  years  upon  the  rack, 
you  would  never  feel  what  I  have  felt.  But  I  am  your 
friend.  I  see  which  way  you  are  going;  and  I  am  de- 
termined to  save  you  from  this  thief,  this  hypocritical 
destroyer  of  us  all  Every  moment  that  the  mischief 
is  left  to  itself,  it  does  but  make  bad  worse ;  and  I  am 
determined  to  save  you  out  of  hand." 

The  angry  expostulations  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  suggested 
new  ideas  to  the  tender  mind  of  Miss  Melville.  He 
had  never  confessed  the  emotions  of  his  soul  so  ex- 
plicitly before ;  but  the  tempest  of  his  thoughts  suffer- 
ed him  to  be  no  longer  master  of  himself.  She  saw 
with  astonishment  that  he  was  the  irreconcilable  foe 
of  Mr.  Falkland,  whom  she  had  fondly  imagined  it 
was  the  same  thing  to  know  and  admire ;  and  that  he 
harboured  a  deep  and  rooted  resentment  against  her- 
self. She  recoiled,  without  well  knowing  why,  before 
the  ferocious  passions  of  her  kinsman,  and  was  con- 
vinced that  she  had  nothing  to  hope  from  his  im- 
placable temper.  But  her  alarm  was  the  prelude  of 
firmness,  and  not  of  cowardice. 

"  No,  sir,"  replied  she,  "  indeed  I  will  not  be  driven 
any  way  that  you  happen  to  like.  I  have  been  used 
to  obey  you,  and,  in  all  that  is  reasonable,  I  will  obey 
you  still.  But  you  urge  me  too  far.  What  do  you 
tell  me  of  Mr.  Falkland?  Have  I  ever  done  any  thing 
to  deserve  your  unkind  suspicions?  I  am  innocent, 
and  will  continue  innocent.  Mr.  Grimes  is  well  enough, 
and  will  no  doubt  find  women  that  like  him ;  but  he  is 


74  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

not  fit  for  me,  and  torture  shall  not  force  me  to  be  his 
wife." 

Mr.  Tyrrel  was  not  a  little  astonished  at  the  spirit 
which  Emily  displayed  upon  this  occasion.  He  had 
calculated  too  securely  upon  the  general  mildness  and 
suavity  of  her  disposition.  He  now  endeavoured  to 
qualify  the  harshness  of  his  former  sentiments. 

"  God  damn  my  soul !  And  so  you  can  scold,  can 
you  ?  You  expect  every  body  to  turn  out  of  his  way, 
and  fetch  and  carry,  just  as  you  please?  I  could  find 
in  my  heart  —  But  you  know  my  mind.  I  insist  upon 
it  that  you  let  Grimes  court  you,  and  that  you  lay 
aside  your  sulks,  and  give  him  a  fair  hearing.  Will 
you  do  that  ?  If  then  you  persist  in  your  wilfulness, 
why  there,  I  suppose,  is  an  end  of  the  matter.  Do  not 
think  that  any  body  is  going  to  marry  you,  whether 
you  will  or  no.  You  are  no  such  mighty  prize,  I  assure 
you.  If  you  knew  your  own  interest,  you  would  be 
glad  to  take  the  young  fellow  while  he  is  willing." 

Miss  Melville  rejoiced  in  the  prospect,  which  the 
last  words  of  her  kinsman  afforded  her,  of  a  termina- 
tion at  no  great  distance  to  her  present  persecutions. 
Mrs.  Jakeman,  to  whom  she  communicated  them,  con- 
gratulated Emily  on  the  returning  moderation  and 
good  sense  of  the  squire,  and  herself  on  her  prudence 
in  having  urged  the  young  lady  to  this  happy  expos- 
tulation. But  their  mutual  felicitations  lasted  not 
long.  Mr.  Tyrrel  informed  Mrs.  Jakeman  of  the  neces- 
sity in  which  he  found  himself  of  sending  her  to  a 
distance,  upon  a  business  which  would  not  fail  to  detain 
her  several  weeks ;  and,  though  the  errand  by  no  means 
wore  an  artificial  or  ambiguous  face,  the  two  friends 
drew  a  melancholy  presage  from  this  ill-timed  separa- 
tion. Mrs.  Jakeman,  in  the  mean  time,  exhorted  her 
ward  to  persevere,  reminded  her  of  the  compunction 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  75 

which  had  already  been  manifested  by  her  kinsman, 
and  encouraged  her  to  hope  every  thing  from  her  cou- 
rage and  good  temper.  Emily,  on  her  part,  though 
grieved  at  the  absence  of  her  protector  and  counsellor 
at  so  interesting  a  crisis,  was  unable  to  suspect  Mr. 
Tyrrel  of  such  a  degree  either  of  malice  or  duplicity 
as  could  afford  ground  for  serious  alarm.  She  congra- 
tulated herself  upon  her  delivery  from  so  alarming  a 
persecution,  and  drew  a  prognostic  of  future  success 
from  this  happy  termination  of  the  first  serious  affair  of 
her  life.  She  exchanged  a  state  of  fortitude  and  alarm 
for  her  former  pleasing  dreams  respecting  Mr.  Falk- 
land. These  she  bore  without  impatience.  She  was 
even  taught  by  the  uncertainty  of  the  event  to  desire 
to  prolong,  rather  than  abridge,  a  situation  which  might 
be  delusive,  but  which  was  not  without  its  pleasures. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

NOTHING  could  be  further  from  Mr.Tyrrel's  intention 
than  to  suffer  his  project  to  be  thus  terminated.  No 
sooner  was  he  freed  from  the  fear  of  his  housekeeper's 
interference,  than  he  changed  the  whole  system  of  his 
conduct.  He  ordered  Miss  Melville  to  be  closely  con- 
fined to  her  apartment,  and  deprived  of  all  means  of 
communicating  her  situation  to  any  one  out  of  his  own 
house.  He  placed  over  her  a  female  servant,  in  whose 
discretion  he  could  confide,  and  who,  having  formerly 
been  honoured  with  the  amorous  notices  of  the  squire, 
considered  the  distinctions  that  were  paid  to  Emily  at 
Tyrrel  Place  as  an  usurpation  upon  her  more  reason- 
able claims.  The  squire  himself  did  every  thing  in  his 
power  to  blast  the  young  lady's  reputation,  and  repre- 


76  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

sented  to  his  attendants  these  precautions  as  necessary, 
to  prevent  her  from  eloping  to  his  neighbour,  and 
plunging  herself  in  total  ruin. 

As  soon  as  Miss  Melville  had  been  twenty-four  hours 
in  durance,  and  there  was  some  reason  to  suppose  that 
her  spirit  might  be  subdued  to  the  emergency  of  her 
situation,  Mr.  Tyrrel  thought  proper  to  go  to  her,  to 
explain  the  grounds  of  her  present  treatment,  and 
acquaint  her  with  the  only  means  by  which  she  could 
hope  for  a  change.  Emily  no  sooner  saw  him,  than 
she  turned  towards  him  with  an  air  of  greater  firmness 
than  perhaps  she  had  ever  assumed  in  her  life,  and 
accosted  him  thus  : — 

"  Well,  sir,  is  it  you  ?  I  wanted  to  see  you.  It  seems 
I  am  shut  up  here  by  your  orders.  What  does  this 
mean?  What  right  have  you  to  make  a  prisoner  of 
me  ?  What  do  I  owe  you  ?  Your  mother  left  me  a 
hundred  pounds  :  have  you  ever  offered  to  make  any 
addition  to  my  fortune  ?  But,  if  you  had,  I  do  not 
want  it.  I  do  not  pretend  to  be  better  than  the  children 
of  other  poor  parents ;  I  can  maintain  myself  as  they 
do.  I  prefer  liberty  to  wealth.  I  see  you  are  sur- 
prised at  the  resolution  I  exert.  But  ought  I  not  to 
turn  again,  when  I  am  trampled  upon  ?  I  should  have 
left  you  before  now,  if  Mrs.  Jakeman  had  not  over- 
persuaded  me,  and  if  I  had  not  thought  better  of  you 
than  by  your  present  behaviour  I  find  you  deserve. 
But  now,  sir,  I  intend  to  leave  your  house  this  moment, 
and  insist  upon  it,  that  you  do  not  endeavour  to  pre- 
vent me." 

Thus  saying,  she  rose,  and  went  towards  the  door, 
while  Mr.  Tyrrel  stood  thunderstruck  at  her  mag- 
nanimity. Seeing,  however,  that  she  was  upon  the 
point  of  being  out  of  the  reach  of  his  power,  he  re- 
covered himself,  and  pulled  her  back. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  77 

'•  What  is  in  the  wind  now  ?  Do  you  think,  strumpet, 
that  you  shall  get  the  better  of  me  by  sheer  impudence? 
Sit  down  !  rest  you  satisfied  !  —  So  you  want  to  know 
by  what  right  you  are  here,  do  you  ?  By  the  right  of 
possession.  This  house  is  mine,  and  you  are  in  my 
power.  There  is  no  Mrs.  Jakeman  now  to  spirit  you 
away ;  no,  nor  no  Falkland  to  bully  for  you.  I  have 
countermined  you,  damn  me !  and  blown  up  your 
schemes.  Do  you  think  I  will  be  contradicted  and 
opposed  for  nothing  ?  When  did  you  ever  know  any 
body  resist  my  will  without  being  made  to  repent  ?  And 
shall  I  now  be  brow-beaten  by  a  chitty-faced  girl  ? — 
I  have  not  given  you  a  fortune !  Damn  you !  who 
brought  you  up?  I  will  make  you  a  bill  for  clothing 
and  lodging.  Do  not  you  know  that  every  creditor  has 
a  right  to  stop  his  runaway  debtor.  You  may  think  as 
you  please ;  but  here  you  are  till  you  marry  Grimes. 
Heaven  and  earth  shall  not  prevent  but  I  will  get  the 
better  of  your  obstinacy ! " 

"  Ungenerous,  unmerciful  man !  and  so  it  is  enough 
for  you  that  I  have  nobody  to  defend  me  !  But  I  am 
not  so  helpless  as  you  may  imagine.  You  may  imprison 
my  body,  but  you  cannot  conquer  my  mind.  Marry 
Mr.  Grimes  !  And  is  this  the  way  to  bring  me  to  your 
purpose?  Every  hardship  I  suffer  puts  still  further 
distant  the  end  for  which  I  am  thus  unjustly  treated. 
You  are  not  used  to  have  your  will  contradicted  ! 
When  did  I  ever  contradict  it?  And,  in  a  concern 
that  is  so  completely  my  own,  shall  my  will  go  for 
nothing  ?  Would  you  lay  down  this  rule  for  yourself, 
and  suffer  no  other  creature  to  take  the  benefit  of  it  ? 
I  want  nothing  of  you :  how  dare  you  refuse  me  the 
privilege  of  a  reasonable  being,  to  live  unmolested  in 
poverty  and  innocence  ?  What  sort  of  a  man  do  you 


78  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

show  yourself,  you  that  lay  claim  to  the  respect  ahd 
applause  of  every  one  that  knows  you  ?" 

The  spirited  reproaches  of  Emily  had  at  first  the 
effect  to  fill  Mr.  Tyrrel  with  astonishment,  and  make 
him  feel  abashed  and  overawed  in  the  presence  of  this 
unprotected  innocent.     But  his  confusion  was  the  re- 
sult of  surprise.     When  the  first  emotion  wore  off,  he 
cursed  himself  for  being  moved  by  her  expostulations  ; 
and  was  ten  times  more  exasperated  against  her,  for 
daring  to  defy  his  resentment  at  a  time  when  she  had 
every  thing  to  fear.    His  despotic  and  unforgiving  pro- 
pensities stimulated  him  to  a  degree  little  short  of 
madness.     At  the  same  time  his  habits,  which  were 
pensive  and  gloomy,  led  him  to  meditate  a  variety  of 
schemes  to  punish  her  obstinacy.    He  began  to  suspect 
that  there  was  little  hope  of  succeeding  by  open  force, 
and  therefore  determined  to  have  recourse  to  treachery. 
He  found  in  Grimes  an  instrument  sufficiently  adapted 
to  his  purpose,     This  fellow,  without  an  atom  of  inten- 
tional malice,  was  fitted,  by  the  mere  coarseness  of  his 
perceptions,  for  the  perpetration  of  the  greatest  injuries. 
He  regarded  both  injury  and  advantage  merely  as  they 
related  to  the  gratifications  of  appetite  ;  and  considered 
it  an  essential  in  true  wisdom,  to  treat  with  insult  the 
effeminacy  of  those  who  suffer  themselves  to  be  tor- 
mented with  ideal  misfortunes.     He  believed  that  no 
happier  destiny  could  befal  a  young  woman  than  to  be 
his  wife;  and  he  conceived  that  that  termination  would 
amply  compensate  for  any  calamities  she  might  sup- 
pose herself  to  undergo  in  the  interval.   He  was  there- 
fore easily  prevailed  upon,  by  certain  temptations  which 
Mr.  Tyrrel  knew  how  to  employ,  to  take  part  in  the 
plot  into  which  Miss  Melville  was  meant  to  be  betrayed. 
Matters  being  thus  prepared,  Mr.  Tyrrel  proceeded, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  79 

through  the  means  of  the  gaoler  (for  the  experience  he 
already  had  of  personal  discussion  did  not  incline  him 
to  repeat  his  visits),  to  play  upon  the  fears  of  his  pri- 
soner. This  woman,  sometimes  under  the  pretence  of 
friendship,  and  sometimes  with  open  malice,  informed 
Emily,  from  time  to  time,  of  the  preparations  that  were 
making  for  her  marriage.  One  day,  "  the  squire  had 
rode  over  to  look  at  a  neat  little  farm  which  was  des- 
tined for  the  habitation  of  the  new-married  couple  ;w 
and  at  another,  "  a  quantity  of  live  stock  and  house- 
hold furniture  was  procured,  that  every  thing  might  be 
ready  for  their  reception."  She  then  told  her  "  of  a 
licence  that  was  bought,  a  parson  in  readiness,  and  a 
day  fixed  for  the  nuptials."  When  Emily  endeavoured, 
though  with  increased  misgivings,  to  ridicule  these 
proceedings  as  absolutely  nugatory  without  her  consent, 
her  artful  gouvernante  related  several  stories  of  forced 
marriages,  and  assured  her  that  neither  protestations, 
nor  silence,  nor  fainting,  would  be  of  any  avail,  either 
to  suspend  the  ceremony,  or  to  set  it  aside  when  per- 
formed. 

The  situation  of  Miss  Melville  was  in  an  eminent 
degree  pitiable.  She  had  no  intercourse  but  with  her 
persecutors.  She  had  not  a  human  being  with  whom 
to  consult,  who  might  afford  her  the  smallest  degree  of 
consolation  and  encouragement.  She  had  fortitude  ; 
but  it  was  neither  confirmed  nor  directed  by  the  dic- 
tates of  experience.  It  could  not  therefore  be  expected 
to  be  so  inflexible,  as  with  better  information  it  would, 
no  doubt,  have  been  found.  She  had  a  clear  and  noble 
spirit;  but  she  had  some  of  her  sex's  errors.  Her 
mind  sunk  under  the  uniform  terrors  with  which  she 
was  assailed,  and  her  health  became  visibly  impaired. 

Her  firmness  being  thus  far  undermined,  Grimes,  in 
pursuance  of  his  instructions,  took  care,  in  his  next 


80  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

interview,  to  throw  out  an  insinuation  that,  for  his  own 
part,  he  had  never  cared  for  the  match,  and  since  she 
was  so  averse  to  it,  would  be  better  pleased  that  it 
should  never  take  place.     Between  one  and  the  other 
however,  he  was  got  into  a  scrape,  and  now  he  sup- 
posed he  must  marry,  will  he,  nill  he.  The  two  squires 
would  infallibly  ruin  him  upon  the  least  appearance  of 
backwardness  on  his  part,  as  they  were  accustomed  to 
do  every  inferior  that  resisted  their  will.     Emily  was 
rejoiced  to  find  her  admirer  in  so  favourable  a  dispo- 
sition ;  and  earnestly  pressed  him  to  give  effect  to  this 
humane  declaration.     Her  representations  were  full  of 
eloquence  and  energy;    Grimes  appeared  to  be  moved 
at  the  fervency  of  her  manner ;  but  objected  the  resent- 
ment of  Mr.  Tyrrel  and  his  landlord.    At  length,  how- 
ever, he  suggested  a  project,  in  consequence  of  which 
he  might  assist  her  in  her  escape,  without  its  ever 
coming  to  their  knowledge,  as,  indeed,  there  was  no 
likelihood  that  their  suspicions  would  fix  upon  him. 
"  To  be  sure,"  said  he,  "  you  have  refused  me  in  a  dis- 
dainful sort  of  a  way,  as  a  man  may  say.     Mayhap  you 
thought  I  was  no  better  'an  a  brute :  but  I  bear  you 
no  malice,  and  I  will  show  you  that  I  am  more  kind- 
hearted  'an  you  have  been  willing  to  think.     It  is  a 
strange  sort  of  a  vagary  you  have  taken,  to  stand  in 
your  own  light,  and  disoblige  all  your  friends.     But  if 
you  are  resolute,  do  you  see  ?  I  scorn  to  be  the  hus- 
band of  a  lass  that  is  not  every  bit  as  willing  as  I ;  and 
go  I  will  even  help  to  put  you  in  a  condition  to  follow 
your  own  inclinations." 

Emily  listened  to  these  suggestions  at  first  with 
eagerness  and  approbation.  But  her  fervency  some- 
what abated,  when  they  came  to  discuss  the  minute 
parts  of  the  undertaking.  It  was  necessary,  as  Grimes 
-informed  her,  that  her  escape  should  be  effected  in  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  81 

dead  of  the  night.  He  would  conceal  himself  for  that 
purpose  in  the  garden,  and  be  provided  with  false  keys, 
by  which  to  deliver  lu-r  from  her  prison.  These  cir- 
cumstances were  by  no  means  adapted  to  calm  her 
perturbed  imagination.  To  throw  herself  into  the  arms 
of  the  man  whose  intercourse  she  was  employing  every 
method  to  avoid,  and  whom,  under  the  idea  of  a  partner 
for  life,  she  could  least  of  all  men  endure,  was,  no 
doubt,  an  extraordinary  proceeding.  The  attendant 
circumstances  of  darkness  and  solitude  aggravated  the 
picture.  The  situation  of  Tyrrel  Place  was  uncom- 
monly lonely ;  it  was  three  miles  from  the  nearest 
village,  and  not  less  than  seven  from  that  in  which 
Mrs.  Jakeman's  sister  resided,  under  whose  protection 
Miss  Melville  was  desirous  of  placing  herself.  The  in- 
genuous character  of  Emily  did  not  allow  her  once  to 
suspect  Grimes  of  intending  to  make  an  ungenerous 
and  brutal  advantage  of  these  circumstances ;  but  her 
mind  involuntarily  revolted  against  the  idea  of  com- 
mitting herself,  alone,  to  the  disposal  of  a  man,  whom 
she  had  lately  been  accustomed  to  consider  as  the  instru- 
ment of  her  treacherous  relation. 

After  having  for  some  time  revolved  these  consider- 
ations, she  thought  of  the  expedient  of  desiring  Grimes 
to  engage  Mrs.  Jakeman's  sister  to  wait  for  her  at  the 
outside  of  the  garden.  But  this  Grimes  peremptorily 
refused.  He  even  flew  into  a  passion  at  the  proposal. 
It  showed  very  little  gratitude,  to  desire  him  to  disclose 
to  other  people  his  concern  in  this  dangerous  affair. 
For  his  part,  he  was  determined,  in  consideration  of  his 
own  safety,  never  to  appear  in  it  to  any  living  soul.  If 
Miss  did  not  believe  him,  when  he  made  this  proposal 
out  of  pure  good-nature,  and  would  not  trust  him  a 
single  inch,  she  might  even  see  to  the  consequences 
herself.  He  was  resolved  to  condescend  no  further  to 


32  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

the  whims  of  a  person  who,  in  her  treatment  of  him, 
had  shown  herself  as  proud  as  Lucifer  himself. 

Emily  exerted  herself  to  appease  his  resentment;  but 
all  the  eloquence  of  her  new  confederate  could  not  prevail 
upon  her  instantly  to  give  up  her  objection.  She  desired 
till  the  next  day  to  consider  of  it.  The  day  after  was 
fixed  by  Mr.  Tyrrel  for  the  marriage  ceremony.  In 
the  mean  time  she  was  pestered  with  intimations,  in  a 
thousand  forms,  of  the  fate  that  so  nearly  awaited  her. 
The  preparations  were  so  continued,  methodical,  and 
regular,  as  to  produce  in  her  the  most  painful  and 
aching  anxiety.  If  her  heart  attained  a  moment's  inter- 
mission upon  the  subject,  her  female  attendant  was 
sure,  by  some  sly  hint  or  sarcastical  remark,  to  put  a 
speedy  termination  to  her  tranquillity.  She  felt  herself, 
as  she  afterwards  remarked,  alone,  uninstructed,  just 
broken  loose,  as  it  were,  from  the  trammels  of  infancy, 
without  one  single  creature  to  concern  himself  in  her 
fate.  She,  who  till  then  never  knew  an  enemy,  had 
now,  for  three  weeks,  not  seen  the  glimpse  of  a  human 
countenance,  that  she  had  not  good  reason  to  consider 
as  wholly  estranged  to  her  at  least,  if  not  unrelentingly 
bent  on  her  destruction.  She  now,  for  the  first  time, 
experienced  the  anguish  of  never  having  known  her 
parents,  and  being  cast  upon  the  charity  of  people  with 
whom  she  had  too  little  equality,  to  hope  to  receive 
from  them  the  offices  of  friendship^ 

The  succeeding  night  was  filled  with  the  most  anxious 
thoughts.  When  a  momentary  oblivion  stole  upon  her 
senses,  her  distempered  imagination  conjured  up  a 
thousand  images  of  violence  and  falsehood ;  she  saw 
herself  in  the  hands  of  her  determined  enemies,  who 
did  not  hesitate  by  the  most  daring  treachery  to  com- 
plete her  ruin.  Her  waking  thoughts  were  not  more 
consoling.  The  struggle  was  too  great  for  her  consti- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  83 

tution.  As  morning  approached,  she  resolved,  at  all 
hazards,  to  put  herself  into  the  hands  of  Grimes.  This 
determination  was  no  sooner  made,  than  she  felt  her 
heart  sensibly  lightened.  She  could  not  conceive  any 
evil  which  could  result  from  this  proceeding,  that  de- 
served to  be  put  in  the  balance  against  those  which, 
under  the  roof  of  her  kinsman,  appeared  unavoidable. 

When  she  communicated  her  determination  to 
Grimes,  it  was  not  possible  to  say  whether  he  received 
pleasure  or  pain  from  the  intimation.  He  smiled  in- 
deed; but  his  smile  was  accompanied  by  a  certain 
abrupt  ruggedness  of  countenance,  so  that  it  might 
equally  well  be  the  smile  of  sarcasm  or  of  congratulation. 
He,  however,  renewed  his  assurances  of  fidelity  to  his 
engagements  and  punctuality  of  execution.  Meanwhile 
the  day  was  interspersed  with  nuptial  presents  and 
preparations,  all  indicating  the  firmness  as  well  as 
security  of  the  directors  of  the  scene.  Emily  had 
hoped  that,  as  the  crisis  approached,  they  might  have 
remitted  something  of  their  usual  diligence.  She  was 
resolved,  in  that  case,  if  a  fair  opportunity  had  offered, 
to  give  the  slip  both  to  her  jailors,  and  to  her  new  and 
reluctantly  chosen  confederate.  But,  though  extremely 
vigilant  for  that  purpose,  she  found  the  execution  of 
the  idea  impracticable. 

At  length  the  night,  so  critical  to  her  happiness, 
approached.  The  mind  of  Emily  could  not  fail,  on  this 
occasion,  to  be  extremely  agitated.  She  had  first 
exerted  all  her  perspicacity  to  elude  the  vigilance  of 
her  attendant.  This  insolent  and  unfeeling  tyrant,  in- 
stead of  any  relentings,  had  only  sought  to  make  sport 
of  her  anxiety.  Accordingly,  in  one  instance  she  hid 
herself,  and,  suffering  Emily  to  suppose  that  the  coast 
was  clear,  met  her  at  the  end  of  the  gallery,  near  the 
top  of  the  staircase.  "  How  do  you  do,  my  dear?* 
G  2 


84  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

said  she,  with  an  insulting  tone.  "  And  so  the  little 
dear  thought  itself  cunning  enough  to  outwit  me,  did 
it  ?  Oh,  it  was  a  sly  little  gipsy  !  Go,  go  back,  love  ; 
troop  ! "  Emily  felt  deeply  the  trick  that  was  played 
upon  her.  She  sighed,  but  disdained  to  return  any 
answer  to  this  low  vulgarity.  Being  once  more  in  her 
chamber,  she  sat  down  in  a  chair,  and  remained  buried 
in  reverie  for  more  than  two  hours.  After  this  she 
went  to  her  drawers,  and  turned  over,  in  a  hurrying 
confused  way,  her  linen  and  clothes,  having  in  her 
mind  the  provision  it  would  be  necessary  to  make  for 
her  elopement.  Her  jailor  officiously  followed  her  from 
place  to  place,  and  observed  what  she  did  for  the 
present  in  silence.  It  was  now  the  hour  of  rest.  "  Good 
night,  child,"  said  this  saucy  girl,  in  the  act  of  retiring. 
<•'  It  is  time  to  lock  up.  For  the  few  next  hours,  the  time 
is  your  own.  Make  the  best  use  of  it !  Do'ee  think 
ee  can  creep  out  at  the  key-hole,  lovey?  At  eight 
o'clock  you  see  me  again.  And  then,  and  then,"  added 
she,  clapping  her  hands,  «  it  is  all  over.  The  sun  is 
not  surer  to  rise,  than  you  and  your  honest  man  to  be 
made  one." 

There  was  something  in  the  tone  with  which  this 
slut  uttered  her  farewell,  that  suggested  the  question 
to  Emily,  «  What  does  she  mean  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
she  should  know  what  has  been  planned  for  the  few 
next  hours?" — This  was  the  first  moment  that  suspi- 
cion had  offered  itself,  and  its  continuance  was  short. 
With  an  aching  heart  she  folded  up  the  few  neces- 
saries she  intended  to  take  with  her.  She  instinctively 
listened,  with  an  anxiety  that  would  almost  have 
enabled  her  to  hear  the  stirring  of  a  leaf.  From  time 
to  time  she  thought  her  ear  was  struck  with  the  sound 
of  feet ;  but  the  treading,  if  treading  it  were,  was  so 
soft,  that  she  could  never  ascertain  whether  it  were  a 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  85 

real  sound,  or  the  mere  creature  of  the  fancy.  Then 
all  was  still,  as  if  the  universal  motion  had  been  at  rest. 
By  and  by  she  conceived  she  overheard  a  noise  as  of 
buzzing  and  low-muttered  speech.  Her  heart  palpi- 
tated ;  for  a  second  time  she  began  to  doubt  the  honesty 
of  Grimes.  The  suggestion  was  now  more  anxious 
than  before ;  but  it  was  too  late.  Presently  she  heard 
the  sound  of  a  key  in  her  chamber-door,  and  the  rustic 
made  his  appearance.  She  started,  and  cried,  "  Are 
we  discovered?  did  not  I  hear  you  speak ?"  Grimes 
advanced  on  tiptoe  with  his  finger  to  his  lip.  "  No, 
no,"  replied  he,  "  all  is  safe!"  He  took  her  by  the 
hand,  led  her  in  silence  out  of  the  house,  and  then 
across  the  garden.  Emily  examined  with  her  eye  the 
doors  and  passages  as  they  proceeded,  and  looked  on  all 
sides  with  fearful  suspicion ;  but  every  thing  was  as 
vacant  and  still  as  she  herself  could  have  wished. 
Grime*  opened  a  back-door  of  the  garden  already 
unlocked,  that  led  into  an  unfrequented  lane.  There 
stood  two  horses  ready  equipped  for  the  journey,  and 
fastened  by  their  bridles  to  a  po.<t  not  six  yards  distant 
from  the  garden.  Grimes  pushed  the  door  after  them. 
"  By  Gemini,**  ?aid  he,  "  my  heart  was  in  my  mouth. 
As  1  corned  along  to  you,  I  saw  Mun,  coachey,  pop 
along  from  the  back-door  to  the  stables.  He  was 
within  a  hop,  step,  and  jump  of  me.  But  he  had  a 
lanthorn  in  his  hand,  and  he  did  not  see  me,  being  as  I 
was  darkling."  Saying  this,  he  assisted  Miss  Melville 
to  mount.  He  troubled  her  little  during  the  route; 
on  the  contrary,  he  was  remarkably  silent  and  contem- 
plative, a  circumstance  by  no  means  disagreeable  to 
Emily,  to  whom  his  conversation  had  never  been 
acceptable. 

After  having  proceeded  about  two  miles,  they  turned 
into  a  wood,  through  which  the  road  led  to  the  place 
0  3 


$6  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

of  their  destination.  The  night  was  extremely  dark, 
at  the  same  time  that  the  air  was  soft  and  mild,  it 
being  now  the  middle  of  summer.  Under  pretence  of 
exploring  the  way,  Grimes  contrived,  when  they  had 
already  penetrated  into  the  midst  of  this  gloomy  soli- 
tude, to  get  his  horse  abreast  with  that  of  Miss  Melville, 
and  then,  suddenly  reaching  out  his  hand,  seized  hold 
of  her  bridle*  "  I  think  we  may  as  well  stop  here  a 
bit,"  said  he. 

"  Stop ! "  exclaimed  Emily  with  surprise  ;  "  why 
should  we  stop  ?  Mr.  Grimes,  what  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Come,  come,"  said  he,  "  never  trouble  yourself  to 
wonder.  Did  you  think  I  were  such  a  goose,  to  take 
all  this  trouble  merely  to  gratify  your  whim  ?  I'  faith, 
nobody  shall  find  me  a  pack-horse,  to  go  of  other  folks' 
errands,  without,  knowing  a  reason  why.  I  cannot  say 
that  I  much  minded  to  have  you  at  first ;  but  your  ways 
are  enough  to  stir  the  blood  of  my  grand-dad.  Far- 
fetched and  dear-bought  is  always  relishing.  Your 
consent  was  so  hard  to  gain,  that  squire  thought  it  was 
surest  asking  in  the  dark.  A'  said  however,  a'  would 
have  no  such  doings  in  his  house,  and  so,  do  ye  see, 
we  are  corned  here." 

"  For  God's  sake,  Mr.  Grimes,  think  what  you  are 
about !  You  cannot  be  base  enough  to  ruin  a  poor 
creature  who  has  put  herself  under  your  protection  ! 

"  Ruin !  No,  no,  I  will  make  an  honest  woman  of 
you,  when  all  is  done.  Nay,  none  of  your  airs ;  no 
tricks  upon  travellers !  I  have  you  here  as  safe  as  a 
horse  in  a  pound;  there  is  not  a  house  nor  a  shed 
within  a  mile  of  us ;  and,  if  I  miss  the  opportunity, 
call  me  spade.  Faith,  you  are  a  delicate  morsel,  and 
there  is  no  time  to  be  lost !  " 

Miss  Melville  had  but  an  instant  in  which  to  collect 
her  thoughts.  She  felt  that  there  was  little  hope  of 


'  CALEB    WILLIAMS.  87 

softening  the  obstinate  and  insensible  brute  in  whose 
power  she  was  placed.  But  the  presence  of  mind  and 
intrepidity  annexed  to  her  character  did  not  now  desert 
her.  Grimes  had  scarcely  finished  his  harangue,  when, 
with  a  strong  and  unexpected  jerk,  she  disengaged  the 
bridle  from  his  grasp,  and  at  the  same  time  put  her  horse 
upon  full  speed.  She  had  scarcely  advanced  twice 
the  length  of  her  horse,  when  Grimes  recovered  from 
his  surprise,  and  pursued  her,  inexpressibly  mortified 
at  being  so  easily  overreached.  The  sound  of  his  horse 
behind  served  but  to  rouse  more  completely  the  mettle 
of  that  of  Emily ;  whether  by  accident  or  sagacity,  the 
animal  pursued  without  a  fault  the  narrow  and  winding 
way ;  and  the  chase  continued  the  whole  length  of  the 
wood. 

At  the  extremity  of  this  wood  there  was  a  gate. 
The  recollection  of  this  softened  a.  little  the  cutting 
disappointment  of  Grimes,  as  he  thought  himself  secure 
of  putting  an  end,  by  its  assistance,  to  the  career  of 
Emily ;  nor  was  it  very  probable  that  any  body  would 
appear  to  interrupt  his  designs,  in  such  a  place,  and 
in  the  dead  and  silence  of  the  night.  By  the  most 
extraordinary  accident,  however,  they  found  a  man 
on  horseback  in  wait  at  this  gate.  "  Help,  help !  " 
exclaimed  the  affrighted  Emily;  "thieves!  murder! 
help?"  The  man  was  Mr.  Falkland.  Grimes  knew  his 
voice;  and  therefore,  though  he  attempted  a  sort  of 
sullen  resistance,  it  was  feebly  made.  Two  other  men, 
whom,  by  reason  of  the  darkness,  he  had  not  at  first 
seen,  and  who  were  Mr.  Falkland's  servants,  hearing 
the  bustle  of  the  rencounter,  and  alarmed  for  the  safety 
of  their  master,  rode  up ;  and  then  Grimes,  disappointed 
at  the  loss  of  his  gratification,  and  admonished  by  con- 
scious guilt,  shrunk  from  farther  parley,  and  rode  off*  in 
silence. 

o  4 


88  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  Mr.  Falkland  should  thus 
a  second  time  have  been  the  saviour  of  Miss  Melville, 
and  that  under  circumstances  the  most  unexpected 
and  singular.  But  in  this  instance  it  is  easily  to  be 
accounted  for.  He  had  heard  of  a  man  who  lurked 
about  this  wood  for  robbery  or  some  other  bad  design, 
and  that  it  was  conjectured  this  man  was  Hawkins, 
another  of  the  victims  of  Mr.  Tyrrel's  rural  tyranny, 
whom  I  shall  immediately  have  occasion  to  introduce. 
Mr.  Falkland's  compassion  had  already  been  strongly 
excited  in  favour  of  Hawkins ;  he  had  in  vain  en- 
deavoured to  find  him,  and  do  him  good ;  and  he  easily 
conceived  that,  if  the  conjecture  which  had  been  made 
in  this  instance  proved  true,  he  might  have  it  in  his 
power  not  only  to  do  what  he  had  always  intended, 
but  further,  to  save  from  a  perilous  offence  against  the 
laws  and  society  a  man  who  appeared  to  have  strongly 
imbibed  the  principles  of  justice  and  virtue.  He  took 
with  him  two  servants,  because,  going  with  the  express 
design  of  encountering  robbers,  if  robbers  should  be 
found,  he  believed  he  should  be  inexcusable  if  he  did 
not  go  provided  against  possible  accidents.  But  he 
had  directed  them,  at  the  same  time  that  they  kept 
within  call,  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  being  seen ;  and 
it  was  only  the  eagerness  of  their  zeal  that  had  brought 
them  up  thus  early  in  the  present  encounter. 

This  new  adventure  promised  something  extraordi- 
nary. Mr.  Falkland  did  not  immediately  recognise 
Miss  Melville ;  and  the  person  of  Grimes  was  that  of 
a  total  stranger,  whom  he  did  not  recollect  to  have 
ever  seen.  But  it  was  easy  to  understand  the  merits 
of  the  case,  and  the  propriety  of  interfering.  The 
resolute  manner  of  Mr.  Falkland,  combined  with  the 
dread  which  Grimes,  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  wrong, 
entertained  of  the  opposition  of  so  elevated  a  per- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  89 

sonage,  speedily  put  the  ruvisher  to  flight.  Emily  was 
ktt  alone-  with  her  deliverer.  He  found  her  mueh  more 
collected  and  calm,  than  could  reasonably  have  been 
expected  from  a  person  who  had  been,  a  moment  be- 
fore, in  the  most  alarming  situation.  She  told  him  of 
the  place  to  which  she  desired  to  be  conveyed,  and 
he  immediately  undertook  to  escort  her.  As  they 
went  along,  she  recovered  that  state  of  mind  which 
inclined  her  to  make  a  person  to  whom  she  had  such 
repeated  obligations,  and  who  was  so  eminently  the 
object  of  her  admiration,  acquainted  with  the  events 
that  had  recently  befallen  her.  Mr.  Falkland  listened 
with  eagerness  and  surprise.  Though  he  had  already 
known  various  instances  of  Mr.  Tyrrel's  mean  jealousy 
and  unfeeling  tyranny,  this  surpassed  them  all ;  and  he 
could  scarcely  credit  his  ears  while  he  heard  the  tale- 
His  brutal  neighbour  seemed  to  realise  all  that  has 
been  told  of  the  passions  of  fiends.  Miss  Melville  was 
obliged  to  repeat,  in  the  course  of  her  tale,  her  kins- 
man's rude  accusation  against  her,  of  entertaining  a 
passion  for  Mr.  Falkland;  and  this  she  did  with  the 
most  bewitching  simplicity  and  charming  confusion. 
Though  this  part  of  the  tale  was  a  source  of  real  pain 
to  her  deliverer,  yet  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  but  that 
the  flattering  partiality  of  this  unhappy  girl  increased 
the  interest  he  felt  in  her  welfare,  and  the  indignation 
he  conceived  against  her  infernal  kinsman. 

They  arrived  without  accident  at  the  house  of  the 
good  lady  under  whose  protection  Emily  desired  to 
place  herself.  Here  Mr.  Falkland  willingly  left  her  as 
in  a  place  of  security.  Such  conspiracies  as  that  of 
which  she  was  intended  to  have  been  the  victim,  de- 
pend for  their  success  upon  the  person  against  whom 
they  are  formed  being  out  of  the  reach  of  help ;  and 
the  moment  they  are  detected,  they  are  annihilated. 


90  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Such  reasoning  will,  no  doubt,  be  generally  found  suffi- 
ciently solid ;  and  it  appeared  to  Mr.  Falkland  perfectly 
applicable  to  the  present  case.  But  he  was  mistaken. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

MR.  FALKLAND  had  experienced  the  nullity  of  all 
expostulation  with  Mr,  Tyrrel,  and  was  therefore  con- 
tent in  the  present  case  with  confining  his  attention 
to  the  intended  victim.  The  indignation  with  which 
he  thought  of  his  neighbour's  character  was  now  grown 
to  such  a  height,  as  to  fill  him  with  reluctance  to  the 
idea  of  a  voluntary  interview.  There  was  indeed 
another  affair  which  had  been  contemporary  with  this, 
that  had  once  more  brought  these  mortal  enemies  into 
a  state  of  contest,  and  had  contributed  to  raise  into  a 
temper  little  short  of  madness,  the  already  inflamed 
and  corrosive  bitterness  of  Mr.  TyrreL 

There  was  a  tenant  of  Mr.  Tyrrel,  one  Hawkins ; — 
I  cannot  mention  his  name  without  recollecting  the 
painful  tragedies  that  are  annexed  to  it !  This  Haw- 
kins had  originally  been  taken  up  by  Mr.  Tyrrel,  with 
a  view  of  protecting  him  from  the  arbitrary  proceedings 
of  a  neighbouring  squire,  though  he  had  now  in  his 
turn  become  an  object  of  persecution  to  Mr.  Tyrrel 
himself.  The  first  ground  of  their  connection  was  this : 
—  Hawkins,  beside  a  farm  which  he  rented  under  the 
above-mentioned  squire,  had  a  small  freehold  estate 
that  he  inherited  from  his  father.  This  of  course  en- 
titled him  to  a  vote  in  the  county  elections  ;  and,  a 
warmly  contested  election  having  occurred,  he  was 
required  by  his  landlord  to  vote  for  the  candidate  in 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  01 

whose  favour  he  had  himself  engaged.  Hawkins  re- 
ftised  to  obey  the  mandate,  and  soon  after  received 
notice  to  quit  the  farm  he  at  that  time  rented. 

It  happened  that  Mr.  Tyrrel  had  interested  himself 
strongly  in  behalf  of  the  opposite  candidate ;  and,  as 
Mr.  Tyrrel's  estate  bordered  upon  the  seat  of  Haw- 
kins's present  residence,  the  ejected  countryman  could 
think  of  no  better  expedient  than  that  of  riding  over 
to  this  gentleman's  mansion,  and  relating  the  case  to 
him.  Mr.  Tyrrel  heard  him  through  with  attention. 
"  Well,  friend,"  said  he,  "  it  is  very  true  that  I  wished 
Mr.  Jackman  to  carry  his  election  ;  but  you  know  it  is 
usual  in  these  cases  for  tenants  to  vote  just  as  their 
landlords  please.  I  do  not  think  proper  to  encourage 
rebellion.**  —  "  All  that  is  very  right,  and  please  you," 
replied  Hawkins,  "  and  I  would  have  voted  at  my  land- 
lord's bidding  for  any  other  man  in  the  kingdom  but 
Squire  Marlow.  You  must  know  one  day  his  huntsman 
rode  over  my  fence,  and  so  through  my  best  field  of 
standing  corn.  It  was  not  above  a  dozen  yards  about 
if  he  had  kept  the  cart-road.  The  fellow  had  served 
me  the  same  sauce,  an  it  please  your  honour,  three  or 
four  times  before.  So  I  only  asked  him  what  he  did 
that  for,  and  whether  he  had  not  more  conscience 
than  to  spoil  people's  crops  o'  that  fashion  ?  Presently 
the  squire  came  up.  He  is  but  a  poor,  weazen-face 
chicken  of  a  gentleman,  saving  your  honour's  reverence. 
And  so  he  flew  into  a  woundy  passion,  and  threatened 
to  horsewhip  me.  I  will  do  as  much  in  reason  to 
pleasure  my  landlord  as  arr  a  tenant  he  has  ;  but  I  will 
not  give  my  vote  to  a  man  that  threatens  to  horsewhip 
me.  And  so,  your  honour,  I  and  my  wife  and  three 
children  are  to  be  turned  out  of  house  and  home,  and 
what  I  am  to  do  to  maintain  them  God  knows.  I  have 
been  a  hard-working  man,  and  have  always  lived  well, 


92  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

and  I  do  think  the  case  is  main  hard.  Squire  Under- 
wood turns  me  out  of  my  farm  ;  and  if  your  honour  do 
not  take  me  in,  I  know  none  of  the  neighbouring  gentry 
will,  for  fear,  as  they  say,  of  encouraging  their  own 
tenants  to  run  rusty  too." 

This  representation  was  not  without  its  effect  upon 
Mr.  Tyrrel.  "  Well,  well,  man,"  replied  he,  "  we  will 
see  what  can  be  done.  Order  and  subordination  are 
very  good  things  ;  but  people  should  know  how  much  to 
require.  As  you  tell  the  story,  I  cannot  see  that  you 
are  greatly  to  blame.  Marlow  is  a  coxcombical  prig, 
that  is  the  truth  on't ;  and  if  a  man  will  expose  himself, 
why,  he  must  even  take  what  follows.  I  do  hate  a 
Frenchified  fop  with  all  my  soul ;  and  I  cannot  say  that 
I  am  much  pleased  with  my  neighbour  Underwood  for 
taking  the  part  of  such  a  rascal.  Hawkins,  I  think,  is 
your  name  ?  You  may  call  on  Barnes,  my  steward,  to- 
morrow, and  he  shall  speak  to  you." 

While  Mr.  Tyrrel  was  speaking,  he  recollected  that 
he  had  a  farm  vacant,  of  nearly  the  same  value  as  that 
which  Hawkins  at  present  rented  under  Mr.  Under- 
wood. He  immediately  consulted  his  steward,  and, 
finding  the  thing  suitable  in  every  respect,  Hawkins 
was  installed  out  of  hand  in  the  catalogue  of  Mr. 
Tyrrel's  tenants.  Mr.  Underwood  extremely  resented 
this  proceeding,  which  indeed,  as  being  contrary  to  the 
understood  conventions  of  the  country  gentlemen,  few 
people  but  Mr.  Tyrrel  would  have  ventured  upon. 
There  was  an  end,  said  Mr.  Underwood,  to  all  regu- 
lation, if  tenants  were  to  be  encouraged  in  such  dis- 
obedience. It  was  not  a  question  of  this  or  that  can- 
didate, seeing  that  any  gentleman,  who  was  a  true 
friend  to  his  country,  would  rather  lose  his  election 
than  do  a  thing  which,  if  once  established  into  a  prac- 
tice, would  deprive  them  for  ever  of  the  power  of  ma- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  93 

naging  any  election.  The  labouring  people  were  sturdy 
and  resolute  enough  of  their  own  accord ;  it  became 
CM  ry  day  more  difficult  to  keep  them  under  any  sub- 
ordination ;  and,  if  the  gentlemen  were  so  ill  advised  as 
to  neglect  the  public  good,  and  encourage  them  in  their 
insolence,  there  was  no  foreseeing  where  it  would  end. 

Mr.  Tyrrel  was  not  of  a  stamp  to  be  influenced  by 
these  remonstrances.  Their  general  spirit  was  suf- 
ficiently conformable  to  the  sentiments  he  himself  en- 
tertained ;  but  he  was  of  too  vehement  a  temper  to 
maintain  the  character  of  a  consistent  politician ;  and, 
however  wrong  his  conduct  might  be,  he  would  by  no 
means  admit  of  its  being  set  right  by  the  suggestions 
of  others.  The  more  his  patronage  of  Hawkins  was 
criticised,  the  more  inflexibly  he  adhered  to  it;  and 
he  was  at  no  loss  in  clubs  and  other  assemblies  to 
overbear  and  silence,  if  not  to  confute,  his  censurers. 
Beside  which,  Hawkins  had  certain  accomplishments 
which  qualified  him  to  be  a  favourite  with  Mr.  Tyrrel. 
The  bluntness  of  his  manner  and  the  ruggedness  of 
his  temper  gave  him  some  resemblance  to  his  lundord ; 
and,  as  these  qualities  were  likely  to  be  more  frequently 
exercised  on  such  persons  as  had  incurred  Mr.  Tyrrel's 
displeasure,  than  upon  Mr.  Tyrrel  himself,  they  were 
not  observed  without  some  degree  of  complacency.  In 
a  word,  he  every  day  received  new  marks  of  distinction 
from  his  patron,  and  after  some  time  was  appointed 
coadjutor  to  Mr.  Barnes  under  the  denomination  of 
bailiff.  It  was  about  the  same  period  that  he  obtained 
a  lease  of  the  farm  of  which  he  was  tenant. 

Mr.  Tyrrel  determined,  as  occasion  offered,  to  pro- 
mote every  part  of  the  family  of  this  favoured  de- 
pendent. Hawkins  had  a  son,  a  lad  of  seventeen,  of  an 
agreeable*  person,  a  ruddy  complexion,  and  of  quick  and 
lively  parts.  This  lad  was  in  an  uncommon  degree  the 


94  •         CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

favourite  of  his  father,  who  seemed  to  have  nothing  so 
much  at  heart  as  the  future  welfare  of  his  son.  Mr. 
Tyrrel  had  noticed  him  two  or  three  times  with  appro- 
bation ;  and  the  boy,  being  fond  of  the  sports  of  the 
field,  had  occasionally  followed  the  hounds,  anddisplayed 
various  instances,  both  of  agility  and  sagacity,  in  ,pre* 
sence  of  the  squire.  One  day  in  particular  he  ex- 
hibited himself  with  uncommon  advantage ;  and  Mr. 
Tyrrel  without  further  delay  proposed  to  his  father, 
to  take  him  into  his  family,  and  make  him  whipper-in 
to  his  hounds,  till  he  could  provide  him  with  some 
more  lucrative  appointment  in  his  service. 

This  proposal  was  received  by  Hawkins  with  various 
marks  of  mortification.  He  excused  himself  with  hesi- 
tation for  not  accepting  the  offered  favour;  said  the 
lad  was  in  many  ways  useful  to  him  ;  and  hoped  his 
honour  would  not  insist  upon  depriving  him  of  his  as- 
sistance. This  apology  might  perhaps  have  been  suf- 
ficient with  any  other  man  than  Mr.  Tyrrel ;  but  it 
was  frequently  observed  of  this  gentleman  that,  when 
he  had  once  formed  a  determination,  however  slight, 
in  favour  of  any  measure,  he  was  never  afterwards 
known  to  give  it  up,  and  that  the  only  effect  of  oppo- 
sition was  to  make  him  eager  and  inflexible,  in  pursuit 
of  that  to  which  he  had  before  been  nearly  indifferent. 
At  first  he  seemed  to  receive  the  apology  of  Hawkins 
with  good  humour,  and  to  see  nothing  in  it  but  what 
was  reasonable ;  but  afterwards,  every  time  he  saw  the 
boy,  his  desire  of  retaining  him  in  his  service  was  in- 
creased, and  he  more  than  once  repeated  to  his  father 
the  good  disposition  in  which  he  felt  himself  towards 
him.  At  length  he  observed  that  the  lad  was  no 
more  to  be  seen  mingling  in  his  favourite  sports,  and 
he  began  to  suspect  that  this  originated  in  a  determin- 
ation to  thwart  him  in  his  projects. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  95 

Housed  by  this  suspicion,  which,  to  a  man  of  Mr. 
Tyrrel's  character,  was  not  of  a  nature  to  brook  delay, 
he  sent  lor  Hawkins  to  confer  with  him.  "  Hawkin>. " 
said  he,  in  a  tone  of  displeasure,  "  I  am  not  satisfied 
with  you.  I  have  spoken  to  you  two  or  three  times 
about  this  lad  of  yours,  whom  I  am  desirous  of  taking 
into  favour.  \Vliat  is  the  reason,  sir,  that  yon  seem 
unthankful  and  averse  to  my  kindness?  You  ought  to 
know  that  I  am  not  to  be  trifled  with.  I  shall  not  be  con- 
tented,  when  I  offer  my  favours,  to  have  them  rejected 
by  such  fellows  as  you.  I  made  you  what  you  are ; 
and,  if  I  please,  can  make  you  more  helpless  and  miser- 
able than  you  were  when  I  found  you.  Have  a  care  !  " 

"  An  it  please  your  honour,"*  said  Hawkins,  "  you 
have  been  a  very  good  master  to  me,  and  I  will  tell  you 
the  whole  truth.  I  hope  you  will  n.a  be  angry.  This 
lad  is  my  favourite,  my  comfort,  and  the  stay  of  my 
age/' 

M  Well,  and  what  then  ?  Is  that  a  reason  you  should 
hinder  his  preferment  ?  " 

"  Nay,  pray  your  honour,  hear  me.  I  may  be 
very  weak  for  aught  I  know  in  this  case,  but  I  cannot 
help  it  My  father  was  a  clergyman.  We  have  all  of 
us  lived  in  a  creditable  way ;  and  I  cannot  bear  to 
think  that  this  poor  lad  of  mine  should  go  to  service. 
For  my  part,  I  do  not  see  any  good  that  comes  by 
servants.  I  do  not  know,  your  honour,  but,  I  think,  I 
should  not  like  my  Leonard  to  be  such  as  they.  God 
forgive  me,  if  I  wrong  them  !  But  this  is  a  very  dear 
case,  and  I  cannot  bear  to  risk  my  poor  boy's  welfare, 
when  I  can  so  easily,  if  yon  please,  keep  him  out  of 
harm's  way.  At  present  he  is  sober  and  industrious, 
and,  without  being  pert  or  surly,  knows  what  is  due  to 
him.  I  know,  your  honour,  that  it  is  main  foolish  of 
me  to  talk  to  you  thus;  but  your  honour  lias  been, 


96  CALEB    WILLIAMS, 

a  good  master  to  me,  and  I  cannot  bear  to  tell  you  a 
lie." 

Mr.  Tyrrel  had  heard  the  whole  of  this  harangue  in 
silence,  because  he  was  too  much  astonished  to  open 
his  mouth.  If  a  thunderbolt  had  fallen  at  his  feet,  he 
could  not  have  testified  greater  surprise.  He  had 
thought  that  Hawkins  was  so  foolishly  fond  of  his  son, 
that  he  could  not  bear  to  trust  him  out  of  his  presence; 
but  had  never  in  the  slightest  degree  suspected  what 
he  now  found  to  be  the  truth. 

"  Oh,  ho,  you  are  a  gentleman,  are  you?  A  pretty 
gentleman  truly !  your  father  was  a  clergyman  !  Your 
family  is  too  good  to  enter  into  my  service  !  Why  you 
impudent  rascal !  was  it  for  this  that  I  took  you  up, 
when  Mr.  Underwood  dismissed  you  for  your  insolence 
to  him  ?  Have  1  been  nursing  a  viper  in  my  bosom  ? 
Pretty  master's  manners  will  be  contaminated  truly ! 
He  will  not  know  what  is  due  to  him,  but  will  be  ac- 
customed to  obey  orders  !  You  insufferable  villain  !  Get 
out  of  my  sight !  Depend  upon  it,  I  will  have  no  gentle- 
men on  my  estate !  I  will  off  with  them,  root  and  branch, 
bag  and  baggage !  So  do  you  hear,  sir  ?  come  to  me 
to-morrow  morning,  bring  your  son,  and  ask  my  pardon; 
or,  take  my  word  for  it,  I  will  make  you  so  miserable, 
you  shall  wish  you  had  never  been  born." 

This  treatment  was  too  much  for  Hawkins's  patience. 
"  There  is  no  need,  your  honour,  that  I  should  come 
to  you  again  about  this  affair.  I  have  taken  up  my 
determination,  and  no  time  can  make  any  change  in  it. 
I  am  main  sorry  to  displease  your  worship,  and  I  know 
that  you  can  do  me  a  great  deal  of  mischief.  But  I 
hope  you  will  not  be  so  hardhearted  as  to  ruin  a  father 
only  for  being  fond  of  his  child,  even  if  so  be  that  his 
fondness  should  make  him  do  a  foolish  thing.  But  I 
cannot  help  it,  your  honour :  you  must  do  as  you 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  97 

please.  The  poorest  neger,  as  a  man  may  say,  has 
some  point  that  he  will  not  part  with.  I  will  lose  all 
that  I  have,  and  go  to  day-labour,  and  my  son  too,  if 
needs  must ;  but  I  will  not  make  a  gentleman's  servant 
of  him." 

«  Very  well,  friend;  very  well !"  replied  Mr.  Tyrrel, 
foaming  with  rage.  "  Depend  upon  it,  I  will  remember 
you  !  Your  pride  shall  have  a  downfal !  God  damn 
it  !  is  it  come  to  this  ?  Shall  a  rascal  that  farms  his 
forty  acres,  pretend  to  beard  the  lord  of  the  manor  ?  I 
will  tread  you  into  paste!  Let  me  advise  you,  scoundrel, 
to  shut  up  your  house  and  fly,  as  if  the  devil  was  behind 
you !  You  may  think  yourself  happy,  if  I  be  not  too 
quick  for  you  yet,  if  you  escape  in  a  whole  skin !  I  would 
not  suffer  such  a  villain  to  remain  upon  my  land  a  day 
longer,  if  I  could  gain  the  Indies  by  it !" 

"  Not  so  fast,  your  honour,"  answered  Hawkins, 
sturdily.  ••  I  hope  you  will  think  better  of  it,  and  see 
that  I  have  not  been  to  blame.  But  if  you  should 
not,  there  is  some  harm  that  you  can  do  me,  and  some 
harm  that  you  cannot.  Though  I  am  a  plain,  working 
man,  your  honour,  do  you  see  ?  yet  I  am  a  man  still. 
No;  I  have  got  a  lease  of  my  farm,  and  I  shall  not  quit  it 
o'  thaten.  I  hope  there  is  some  law  for  poor  folk,  as  well 
as  for  rich." 

Mr.  Tyrrel,  unused  to  contradiction,  was  provoked 
beyond  bearing  at  the  courage  and  independent  spirit 
of  his  retainer.  There  was  not  a  tenant  upon  his  estate, 
or  at  least  not  one  of  Hawkins's  mediocrity  of  fortune, 
whom  the  general  policy  of  landowners,  and  still  more 
the  arbitrary  and  uncontrollable  temper  of  Mr.  Tyrrel, 
did  not  effectually  restrain  from  acts  of  open  defiance, 

"  Excellent,  upon  my  soul !  God  damn  my  blood  ! 
but  you  are  a  rare  fellow.  You  have  a  lease,  have 
you  ?  You  will  not  quit,  not  you  !  a  pretty  pass  things 

H 


98  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

are  come  to,  if  a  lease  can  protect  such  fellows  as  you 
against  the  lord  of  a  manor  !  But  you  are  for  a  trial 
of  skill  ?  Oh,  very  well>  friend,  very  well !  With  all  my 
soul !  Since  it  is  come  to  that,  we  will  show  you  some 
pretty  sport  before  we  have  done !  But  get  out  of  my 
sight,  you  rascal !  I  have  not  another  word  to  say  to 
you  !  Never  darken  my  doors  again." 

Hawkins  (to  borrow  the  language  of  the  world)  was 
guilty  in  this  affair  of  a  double  imprudence.  He  talked 
to  his  landlord  in  a  more  peremptory  manner  than  the 
constitution  and  practices  of  this  country  allow  a  de- 
pendent to  assume.  But  above  all,  having  been  thus 
hurried  away  by  his  resentment,  he  ought  to  have  fore- 
seen the  consequences.  It  was  mere  madness  in  him 
to  think  of  contesting  with  a  man  of  Mr.  Tyrrel's  emi- 
nence and  fortune.  It  was  a  fawn  contending  with  a 
lion.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  easy  to  predict, 
than  that  it  was  of  no  avail  for  him  to  have  right  on  his 
side,  when  his  adversary  had  influence  and  wealth,  and 
therefore  could  so  victoriously  justify  any  extravagan- 
cies that  he  might  think  proper  to  commit.  This  maxim 
was  completely  illustrated  in  the  sequel.  Wealth  and 
despotism  easily  know  how  to  engage  those  laws  as  the 
coadjutors  of  their  oppression,  which  were  perhaps  at 
first  intended  [witless  and  miserable  precaution !]  for  the 
safeguards  of  the  poor* 

From  this  moment  Mr  Tyrrel  was  bent  upon  Haw- 
kins's destruction ;  and  he  left  no  means  unemployed 
that  could  either  harass  or  injure  the  object  of  his  per- 
secution. He  deprived  him  of  his  appointment  of  bailiff, 
and  directed  Barnes  and  his  other  dependents  to  do 
him  ill  offices  upon  all  occasions.  Mr.  Tyrrel,  by  the 
tenure  of  his  manor,  was  impropriator  of  the  great  tithes, 
and  this  circumstance  afforded  him  frequent  opportuni- 
ties of  petty  altercation.  The  land  of  one  part  of  Haw  - 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  99 

kins's  farm,  though  covered  with  corn,  was  lower  than 
the  rest;  and  consequently  exposed  to  occasional  inun- 
dations from  a  ri\rr  by  \\hich  it  was  bounded.  Mr. 
Tyrrel  had  a  dam  belonging  to  this  river  privately  cut, 
about  a  fortnight  before  the  season  of  harvest,  and  laid 
the  whole  under  water.  He  ordered  his  servants  to  pull 
away  the  fences  of  the  higher  ground  during  the  night, 
and  to  turn  in  his  cattle,  to  the  utter  destruction  of  the 
crop.  These  expedients,  however,  applied  to  only  one 
part  of  the  property  of  this  unfortunate  man.  But  Mr. 
Tyrrel  did  not  stop  here.  A  sudden  mortality  took 
place  among  Hawkins's  live  stock,  attended  with  very 
suspicious  circumstances.  Hawkins's  vigilance  was 
strongly  excited  by  this  event,  and  he  at  length  suc- 
ceeded in  tracing  the  matter  so  accurately,  that  he  con- 
ceived he  could  bring  it  home  to  Mr.  Tyrrel  himself! 

Hawkins  had  hitherto  carefully  avoided,  notwithstand- 
ing the  injuries  he  had  suffered,  the  attempting  to  right 
himself  by  legal  process ;  being  of  opinion  that  law  was 
biller  adapted  for  a  weapon  of  tyranny  in  the  hands  of 
the  rich,  than  for  a  shield  to  protect  the  humbler  part  of 
the  community  against  their  usurpations.  In  this  last 
instance  however  he  conceived  that  the  offence  was  so 
atrocious,  as  to  make  it  impossible  that  any  rank  could 
protect  the  culprit  against  the  severity  of  justice.  In 
the  sequel,  he  saw  reason  to  applaud  himself  for  his  for- 
mer inactivity  in  this  respect,  and  to  repent  that  any 
motive  had  been  strong  enough  to  persuade  him  into  a 
contrary  system. 

This  was  the  very  point  to  which  Mr.  Tyrrel  wanted 
to  bring  him,  and  he  could  scarcely  credit  his  good  for- 
tune, when  he  was  told  that  Hawkins  had  entered  an 
action.  His  congratulation  upon  this  occasion  was  im- 
moderate, as  he  now  conceived  that  the  ruin  of  his  late 
favourite  was  irretrievable.  He  consulted  his  attorney, 
ii  2 


100  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

and  urged  him  by  every  motive  he  could  devise,  to  em- 
ploy the  whole  series  of  his  subterfuges  in  the  present 
affair.  The  direct  repelling  of  the  charge  exhibited 
against  him  was  the  least  part  of  his  care ;  the  business 
was,  by  affidavits,  motions,  pleas,  demurrers,  flaws,  and 
appeals,  to  protract  the  question  from  term  to  term,  and 
from  court  to  court.  It  would,  as  Mr.  Tyrrel  argued, 
be  the  disgrace  of  a  civilized  country,  if  a  gentleman, 
when  insolently  attacked  in  law  by  the  scum  of  the 
earth,  could  not  convert  the  cause  into  a  question  of  the 
longest  purse,  and  stick  in  the  skirts  of  his  adversary 
till  he  had  reduced  him  to  beggary. 

Mr.  Tyrrel,  however,  was  by  no  means  so  far  engrossed 
by  his  law-suit,  as  to  neglect  other  methods  of  proceed- 
ing offensively  against  his  tenant.  Among  the  various 
expedients  that  suggested  "themselves,  there  was  one, 
which,  though  it  tended  rather  to  torment  than  irrepar- 
ably injure  the  sufferer,  was  not  rejected.  This  was 
derived  from  the  particular  situation  of  Hawkins's  house, 
barns,  stacks,  and  outhouses.  They  were  placed  at  the 
extremity  of  a  slip  of  land  connecting  them  witli  the 
rest  of  the  farm,  and  were  surrounded  on  three  sides 
by  fields,  in  the  occupation  of  one  of  Mr.  Tyrrel's  te- 
nants most  devoted  to  the  pleasures  of  his  landlord. 
The  road  to  the  market-town  ran  at  the  bottom  of  the 
largest  of  these  fields,  and  was  directly  in  view  of  the 
front  of  the  house.  No  inconvenience  had  yet  arisen 
from  that  circumstance,  as  there  had  always  been  abroad 
path,  that  intersected  this  field,  and  led  directly  from 
Hawkins's  house  to  the  road.  This  path,  or  private 
road,  was  now,  by  concert  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  and  his  obliging 
tenant,  shut  up,  so  as  to  make  Hawkins  a  sort  of  pri- 
soner in  his  own  domains,  and  oblige  him  to  go  near  a 
mile  about  for  the  purposes  of  his  traffic. 

Young  Hawkins,  the  lad  who  had  been  the  original 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  101 

subject  of  dispute  between  his  father  and  the  squire,  had 
much  ofhis  father's  spirit,  and  felt  an  uncontrollable  in- 
dignation again>t  the  successive  acts  of  despotism  of 
which  he  was  a  witness.  His  resentment  was  the 
greater,  because  the  sufferings  to  which  his  parent  was 
exposed,  all  of  them  flowed  from  affection  to  him,  at 
the  same  time  that  he  could  not  propose  removing  the 
ground  of  dispute,  as  by  so  doing  he  would  seem  to  fly 
in  the  face  of  his  father's  paternal  kindness.  Upon  the 
present  occasion,  without  asking  any  counsel  but  of  his 
own  impatient  resentment,  he  went  in  the  middle  of 
tin-  night,  and  removed  all  the  obstructions  that 
had  been  placed  in  the  way  of  the  old  path,  broke 
the  padlocks  that  had  been  fixed,  and  threw  open  the 
gates. 

In  these  operations  he  did  not  proceed  unobserved, 
and  the  next  day  a  warrant  was  issued  for  apprehending 
him.  He  was  accordingly  carried  before  a  meeting  of 
justices,  and  by  them  committed  to  the  county  gaol,  to 
take  his  trial  for  the  felony  at  the  next  assizes.  Mr* 
Tyrrel  was  determined  to  prosecute  the  offence  with  the 
greatest  severity ;  and  his  attorney,  having  made  the 
proper  enquiries  for  that  purpose,  undertook  to  bring  it 
under  that  clause  of  the  act  9Geo.  1.  commonly  called 
the  Black  Act,  which  declares  that  "  any  person,  armed 
with  a  sword,  or  other  offensive  weapon,  and  having  his 
face  blackened,  or  being  otherwise  disguised,  appearing 
in  any  warren  or  place  where  hares  or  conies  have  been 
or  shall  be  usually  kept,  and  being  thereof  duly  con* 
victed,  shall  be  adjudged  guilty  of  felony,  and  shall 
suffer  death,  as  in  cases  of  felony,  without  benefit  of 
clergy."  Young  Hawkins,  it  seemed,  had  buttoned  the 
cape  of  his  great  coat  over  his  face,  as  soon  as  he  per- 
ceived  himself  to  be  observed,  and  he  was  furnished 
with  a  wrenching-iron  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  the 
ii  3 


102  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

padlocks.  The  attorney  further  undertook  to  prove,  by 
sufficient  witnesses,  that  the  field  in  question  was  a  war- 
ren in  which  hares  were  regularly  fed.  Mr.  Tyrrel 
seized  upon  these  pretences  with  inexpressible  satisfac- 
tion. He  prevailed  upon  the  justices,  by  the  picture 
he  drew  of  the  obstinacy  and  insolence  of  the  Haw- 
kinses, fully  to  commit  the  lad  upon  this  miserable  charge ; 
and  it  was  by  no  means  so  certain  as  paternal  affection 
would  have  desired,  that  the  same  overpowering  in- 
fluence would  not  cause  in  the  sequel  the  penal  clause 
to  be  executed  in  all  its  strictness. 

This  was  the  finishing  stroke  to  Hawkins's  miseries : 
as  he  was  not  deficient  in  courage,  he  had  stood  up 
against  his  other  persecutions  without  flinching.  He 
was  not  unaware  of  the  advantages  which  our  laws  and 
customs  give  to  the  rich  over  the  poor,  in  contentions 
of  this  kind.  But,  being  once  involved,  there  was  a 
stubbornness  in  his  nature  that  would  not  allow  him  to 
retract,  and  he  suffered  himself  to  hope,  rather  than 
expect,  a  favourable  issue.  But  in  this  last  event  he 
was  wounded  in  the  point  that  was  nearest  his  heart. 
He  had  feared  to  have  his  son  contaminated  and  debased 
by  a  servile  station,  and  he  now  saw  him  transferred  to 
the  seminary  of  a  gaol.  He  was  even  uncertain  as  to  the 
issue  of  his  imprisonment,  and  trembled  to  think  what 
the  tyranny  of  wealth  might  effect  to  blast  his  hopes  for 
ever. 

From  this  moment  his  heart  died  within  him.  He 
had  trusted  to  persevering  industry  and  skill,  to  save  the 
wreck  of  his  little  property  from  the  vulgar  spite  of  his 
landlord.  But  he  had  now  no  longer  any  spirit  to  exert 
those  efforts  which  his  situation  more  than  ever  re- 
quired. Mr.  Tyrrel  proceeded  without  remission  in  his 
machinations ;  Hawkins's  affairs  every  day  grew  more 
desperate,  and  the  squire,  watching  the  occasion,  took 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  103 

the  earliest  opportunity  of  seizing  upon  his  remaining 
property  in  the  mode  of  a  distress  for  rent. 

It  ^ily  in  this  stage  of  the  affair,  that  Mr. 

Falkland  and  Mr.  Tyrrel  accidentally  met,  in  a  private 
road  near  the  habitation  of  the  latter.  They  were  on 
horseback,  and  Mr.  Falkland  was  going  to  the  house  of 
the  unfortunate  tenant,  who  seemed  upon  the  point  of 
perishing  under  his  landlord's  malice.  He  had  been  just 
made  acquainted  with  the  tale  of  this  persecution.  It 
had  indeed  been  an  additional  aggravation  of  Hawkins's 
calamity,  that  Mr.  Falkland,  whose  interference  might 
otherwise  have  saved  him,  had  been  absent  from  the 
neighbourhood  for  a  considerable  time.  He  had  been 
three  months  in  London,  and  from  thence  had  gone  to 
visit  his  estates  in  another  part  of  the  island.  The 
proud  and  self-confident  spirit  of  this  poor  fellow  always 
disposed  him  to  depend,  as  long  as  possible,  upon  his 
own  exertions.  He  had  avoided  applying  to  Mr. 
Falkland,  or  indeed  indulging  himself  in  any  manner  in 
communicating  and  bewailing  his  hard  hap,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  contention;  and,  when  the  extremity 
grew  more  urgent,  and  he  would  have  been  willing  to 
recede  in  some  degree  from  the  stubbornness  of  his 
measures,  he  found  it  no  longer  in  his  power.  After 
an  absence  of  considerable  duration,  Mr.  Falkland  at 
length  returned  somewhat  unexpectedly ;  and  having 
learned,  among  the  first  articles  of  country  intelli- 
gence, the  distresses  of  this  unfortunate  yeoman,  he 
resolved  to  ride  over  to  his  house  the  next  morning, 
and  surprise  him  with  all  the  relief  it  was  in  his  power 
to  bestow. 

At  sight  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  in  this  unexpected  rencounter, 

his  face  reddened  with  indignation.     His  first  feeling) 

as  he  afterwards  said,  was  to  avoid  him ;  but  finding 

that  he  must  pass  him,  he  conceived  that  it  would  be 

H  4 


104,  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

want  of  spirit  not  to  acquaint  him  with  his  feelings  on 
the  present  occasion. 

«  Mr.  Tyrrel,"  said  he,  somewhat  abruptly,  "  I  am 
sorry  for  a  piece  of  news  which  I  have  just  heard." 

«  And  pray,  sir,  what  is  your  sorrow  to  me  ?  " 

"  A  great  deal,  sir :  it  is  caused  by  the  distresses  of 
a  poor  tenant  of  yours,  Hawkins.  If  your  steward 
have  proceeded  without  your  authority,  I  think  it  right 
to  inform  you  what  he  has  done ;  and,  if  he  have  had 
your  authority,  I  would  gladly  persuade  you  to  think 
better  of  it." 

"  Mr.  Falkland,  it  would  be  quite  as  well  if  you 
would  mind  your  own  business,  and  leave  me  to  mind 
mine.  I  want  no  monitor,  and  I  will  have  none." 

"  You  mistake,  Mr.  Tyrrel ;  I  am  minding  my  own 
business.  If  I  see  you  fall  into  a  pit,  it  is  my  business 
to  draw  you  out  and  save  your  life.  If  I  see  you  pur- 
suing a  wrong  mode  of  conduct,  it  is  my  business  to  set 
you  right  and  save  your  honour." 

"  Zounds,  sir,  do  not  think  to  put  your  conundrums 
upon  me!  Is  not  the  man  my  tenant?  Is  not  my 
estate  my  own  ?  What  signifies  calling  it  mine,  if  I  am 
not  to  have  the  direction  of  it?  Sir,  1  pay  for  what  I 
have :  I  owe  no  man  a  penny ;  and  I  will  not  put  my 
estate  to  nurse  to  you,  nor  the  best  he  that  wears  a  head." 

"  It  is  very  true,"  said  Mr.  Falkland,  avoiding  any 
direct  notice  of  the  last  words  of  Mr.  Tyrrel,  "  that  there 
is  a  distinction  of  ranks.  I  believe  that  distinction  is  a 
good  thing,  and  necessary  to  the  peace  of  mankind. 
But,  however  necessary  it  may  be,  we  must  acknow- 
ledge that  it  puts  some  hardship  upon  the  lower  orders 
of  society.  It  makes  one's  heart  ache  to  think,  that  one 
man  is  born  to  the  inheritance  of  every  superfluity, 
while  the  whole  share  of  another,  without  any  demerit 
of  his,  is  drudgery  and  starving ;  and  that  all  this  is 


C\I.I.B     WII.I.l  105 

in»li<;»i  usable.  We  that  are  rich,  Mr.  Tyrrel,  must  do 
I-M  iy  thing  in  our  power  to  lighten  the  yoke  of  these 
ui i fortunate  people.  We  must  not  use  the  advantage 
that  accident  has  given  us  with  an  unmerciful  hand. 
Poor  wretches !  they  are  pressed  almost  beyond  bearing 
a-  it  is;  and,  if  we  unfeelingly  give  another  turn  to  the 
machine,  they  will  be  crushed  into  atoms." 

This  picture  was  not  without  its  effect,  even  upon  the 
obdurate  mind  of  Mr.  Tyrrel.  —  "  Well,  sir,  I  am  no 
tyrant.  I  know  very  well  that  tyranny  is  a  bad  thing. 
But  you  do  not  iufer  from  thence  that  these  people  are 
to  do  as  they  please,  and  never  meet  with  their  deserts?" 

*  Mr.  Tyrrel,  I  see  that  you  are  shaken  in  your 
animosity.  Suffer  me  to  hail  the  new-born  benevo- 
leooe  of  your  nature.  Go  with  me  to  Hawkins.  Do 
not  let  us  talk  of  his  deserts  !  Poor  fellow  !  he  has 
suffered  almost  all  that  human  nature  can  endure. 
Let  your  forgiveness  upon  this  occasion  be  the  earnest 
of  good  neighbourhood  and  friendship  between  you 
and  me." 

"  No,  sir,  I  will  not  go.  I  own  there  is  something, 
in  what  you  say.  I  always  knew  you  had  the  wit  to 
make  good  your  own  story,  and  tell  a  plausible  tale. 
But  I  will  not  be  come  over  thus.  It  has  been  my 
character,  when  I  had  once  conceived  a  scheme  of 
vengeance,  never  to  forego  it ;  and  I  will  not  change 
that  character.  I  took  up  Hawkins  when  every  body 
forsook  him,  and  made  a  man  of  him  ;  and  the  un- 
grateful rascal  has  only  insulted  me  for  my  pains. 
Curse  me,  if  I  ever  forgive  him  !  It  would  be  a  good 
jest  indeed,  if  I  were  to  forgive  the  insolence  of  my 
own  creature  at  the  desire  of  a  man  like  you  that  has 
been  my  perpetual  plague." 

"  For  God's  sake,  Mr.  Tyrrel,  have  some  reason  in 
your  resentment !  Let  us  suppose  that  Hawkins  has 


106  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

behaved  unjustifiably,  and  insulted  you :  is  that  an 
offence  that  never  can  be  expiated  ?  Must  the  father  be 
ruined,  and  the  son  hanged,  to  glut  your  resentment  ?  " 

"  Damn  me,  sir,  but  you  may  talk  your  heart  out ; 
you  shall  get  nothing  of  me.  I  shall  never  forgive 
myself  for  having  listened  to  you  for  a  moment.  I 
will  suffer  nobody  to  stop  the  stream  of  my  resent- 
ment; if  I  ever  were  to  forgive  him,  it  should  be  at 
nobody's  entreaty  but  my  own.  But.  sir,  I  never  will. 
If  he  and  all  his  family  were  at  my  feet,  I  would  order 
them  all  to  be  hanged  the  next  minute,  if  my  power 
were  as  good  as  my  will." 

"  And  this  is  your  decision,  is  it  ?  Mr.  Tyrrel,  I  am 
ashamed  of  you  !  Almighty  G  od  !  to  hear  you  talk 
gives  one  a  loathing  for  the  institutions  and  regulations 
of  society,  and  would  induce  one  to  fly  the  very  face 
of  man  !  But,  no  !  society  casts  you  out ;  man  abomi- 
nates you.  No  wealth,  no  rank,  can  buy  out  your  stain. 
You  will  live  deserted  in  the  midst  of  your  species  ; 
you  will  go  into  crowded  societies,  and  no  one  will 
deign  so  much  as  to  salute  you.  They  will  fly  from 
your  glance  as  they  would  from  the  gaze  of  a  basilisk. 
Where  do  you  expect  to  find  the  hearts  of  flint  that 
shall  sympathise  with  yours  ?  You  have  the  stamp  of 
misery,  incessant,  undivided,  unpitied  misery  ! " 

Thus  saying,  Mr.  Falkland  gave  spurs  to  his  horse, 
rudely  pushed  beside  Mr.  Tyrrel,  and  was  presently 
out  of  sight.  Flaming  indignation  annihilated  even  his 
favourite  sense  of  honour,  and  he  regarded  his  neigh- 
bour as  a  wretch,  with  whom  it  was  impossible  even  to 
enter  into  contention.  For  the  latter,  he  remained  for 
the  present  motionless  and  petrified.  The  glowing 
enthusiasm  of  Mr.  Falkland  was  such  as  might  well 
have  unnerved  the  stoutest  foe.  Mr.  Tyrrel,  in  spite 
of  himself,  was  blasted  with  the  compunctions  of  guilt, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  107 

and  unable  to  string  himself  for  the  contest.  The  pic- 
ture Mr.  Falkland  had  drawn  was  prophetic.  It  de- 
scribed what  Mr.  Tyrrel  chiefly  feared ;  and^what  in  its 
commencements  he  thought  he  already  felt.  It  was 
responsive  to  the  whispering  of  his  own  meditations ; 
it  simply  gave  body  and  voice  to  the  spectre  that 
haunted  him,  and  to  the  terrors  of  which  he  was  an 
hourly  prey. 

By  and  by,  however,  he  recovered.  The  more  he 
had  been  temporarily  confounded,  the  fiercer  was  his 
resentment  when  he  came  to  himself.  Such  hatred 
never  existed  in  a  human  bosom  without  marking  its 
progress  with  violence  and  death.  Mr.  Tyrrel,  how- 
ever, felt  no  inclination  to  have  recourse  to  personal 
defiance.  He  was  the  furthest  in  the  world  from  a 
coward ;  but  his  genius  sunk  before  the  genius  of 
Falkland.  He  left  his  vengeance  to  the  disposal  of 
circumstances.  He  was  secure  that  his  animosity  would 
never  be  forgotten  nor  diminished  by  the  interposition 
of  any  time  or  events.  Vengeance  was  his  nightly 
dream,  and  the  uppermost  of  his  waking  thoughts. 

Mr.  Falkland  had  departed  from  this  conference 
with  a  confirmed  disapprobation  of  the  conduct  of  his 
neighbour,  and  an  unalterable  resolution  to  do  every 
thing  in  his  power  to  relieve  the  distresses  of  Hawkins. 
But  he  was  too  late.  When  he  arrived,  he  found  the 
house  already  evacuated  by  its  master.  The  family 
was  removed  nobody  knew  whither ;  Hawkins  had  ab- 
sconded, and,  what  was  still  more  extraordinary,  the 
boy  Hawkins  had  escaped  on  the  very  same  day  from 
the  county  gaol.  The  enquiries  Mr.  Falkland  set  on 
foot  after  them  were  fruitless ;  no  traces  could  be 
found  of  the  catastrophe  of  these  unhappy  people. 
That  catastrophe  I  shall  shortly  have  occasion  to 
relate,  and  it  will  be  found  pregnant  with  horror,  be- 


108  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

yond  what  the  blackest  misanthropy  could  readily  have 
suggested. 

I  go  on  with  my  tale.  I  go  on  to  relate  those  in- 
cidents in  which  my  own  fate  was  so  mysteriously 
involved.  I  lift  the  curtain,  and  bring  forward  the  last 
act  of  the  tragedy. 


CHAPTER  X. 

IT  may  easily  be  supposed,  that  the  ill  temper  che- 
rished by  Mr.  Tyrrel  in  his  contention  with  Haw- 
kins, and  the  increasing  animosity  between  him  and 
Mr.  Falkland,  added  to  the  impatience  with  which 
he  thought  of  the  escape  of  Emily. 

Mr.  Tyrrel  heard  with  astonishment  of  the  miscarriage 
of  an  expedient,  of  the  success  of  which  he  had  not  pre- 
viously entertained  the  slightest  suspicion.  He  became 
frantic  with  vexation.  Grimes  had  not  dared  to  signify 
the  event  of  his  expedition  in  person,  and  the  footman 
whom  he  desired  to  announce  to  his  master  that  Miss 
Melville  was  lost,  the  moment  after  fled  from  his  pre- 
sence with  the  most  dreadful  apprehensions.  Presently 
he  bellowed  for  Grimes,  and  the  young  man  at  last 
appeared  before  him,  more  dead  than  alive.  Grimes 
he  compelled  to  repeat  the  particulars  of  the  tale ; 
which  he  had  no  sooner  done,  than  he  once  again 
slunk  away,  shocked  at  the  execrations  with  which  Mr. 
Tyrrel  overwhelmed  him.  Grimes  was  no  coward ; 
but  he  reverenced  the  inborn  divinity  that  attends  upon 
rank,  as  Indians  worship  the  devil.  Nor  was  this  all. 
The  rage  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  was  so  ungovernable  and  fierce, 
that  few  hearts  could  have  been  found  so  stout,  as  not 


:  CALEB    WILLIAMS.  109 

to  have  trembled  before  it  with  a  sort  of  unconquerable 
inferiority. 

He  no  sooner  obtained  a  moment's  pause  than  he 
began  to  recall  to  his  tempestuous  mind  the  various 
circumstances  of  the  case.  His  complaints  were  bitter; 
and,  in  a  tranquil  observer,  might  have  produced  the 
united  feeling  of  pity  for  his  sufferings,  and  horror  at 
his  depravity.  He  recollected  all  the  precautions  he 
had  used ;  he  could  scarcely  find  a  flaw  in  the  process; 
and  he  cursed  that  blind  and  malicious  power  which 
delighted  to  cross  his  most  deep-laid  schemes.  "  Of 
this  malice  he  was  beyond  all  other  human  beings  the 
object.  He  was  mocked  with  the  shadow  of  power; 
and  when  he  lifted  his  hand  to  smite,  it  was  struck 
with  sudden  palsy.  [In  the  bitterness  of  his  anguish, 
he  forgot  his  recent  triumph  over  Hawkins,  or  perhaps 
he  regarded  it  less  as  a  triumph,  than  an  overthrow, 
because  it  had  failed  of  coming  up  to  the  extent  of 
his  malice.]  To  what  purpose  had  Heaven  given  him 
a  feeling  of  injury,  and  an  instinct  to  resent,  while  he 
could  in  no  case  make  his  resentment  felt !  It  was  only 
necessary  for  him  to  be  the  enemy  of  any  person,  to 
insure  that  person's  being  safe  against  the  reach  of 
misfortune.  What  insults,  the  most  shocking  and  re- 
peated, had  he  received  from  this  paltry  girl !  And  by 
whom  was  she  now  torn  from  his  indignation?  By  that 
devil  that  haunted  him  at  every  moment,  that  crossed 
him  at  every  step,  that  fixed  at  pleasure  his  arrows  in  his 
heart,  and  made  mows  and  mockery  at  his  insufferable 
tortures." 

There  was  one  other  reflection  that  increased  his 
anguish,  and  made  him  careless  and  desperate  as  to  his 
future  conduct.  It  wa«  in  vain  to  conceal  from  himself 
that  his  reputation  would  be  cruelly  wounded  by  this 
event.  He  had  imagined  that,  while  Emily  was  forced 


110  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

into  this  odious  marriage,  she  would  be  obliged  by  de- 
corum, as  soon  as  the  event  was  decided,  to  draw  a 
veil  over  the  compulsion  she  had  suffered.  But  this 
security  was  now  lost,  and  Mr.  Falkland  would  take  a 
pride  in  publishing  his  dishonour.  Though  the  pro- 
vocations he  had  received  from  Miss  Melville  would,  in 
his  own  opinion,  have  justified  him  in  any  treatment 
he  should  have  thought  proper  to  inflict,  he  was  sensi- 
ble the  world  would  see  the  matter  in  a  different  light. 
This  reflection  augmented  the  violence  of  his  resolu- 
tions, and  determined  him  to  refuse  no  means  by  which 
he  could  transfer  the  anguish  that  now  preyed  upon 
his  own  mind  to  that  of  another. 

Meanwhile,  the  composure  and  magnanimity  of  Emily 
had  considerably  subsided,  the  moment  she  believed 
herself  in  a  place  of  safety.  While  danger  and  injustice 
assailed  her  with  their  menaces,  she  found  in  herself  a 
courage  that  disdained  to  yield.  The  succeeding  ap- 
pearance of  calm  was  more  fatal  to  her.  There  was 
nothing  now,  powerfully  to  foster  her  courage  or  excite 
her  energy.  She  looked  back  at  the  trials  she  had  passed, 
and  her  soul  sicknened  at  the  recollection  of  that, 
which,  while  it  was  in  act,  she  had  had  the  fortitude 
to  endure.  Till  the  period  at  which  Mr.  Tyrrel  had 
been  inspired  with  this  cruel  antipathy,  she  had  been 
in  all  instances  a  stranger  to  anxiety  and  fear.  Uninured 
to  misfortune,  she  had  suddenly  and  without  prepar- 
ation been  made  the  subject  of  the  most  infernal  malig- 
nity. When  a  man  of  robust  and  vigorous  constitution 
has  a  fit  of  sickness,  it  produces  a  more  powerful  effect, 
than  the  same  indisposition  upon  a  delicate  valetudi- 
narian. Such  was  the  case  with  Miss  Melville.  She 
passed  the  succeeding  night  sleepless  and  uneasy,  and 
was  found  in  the  morning  with  a  high  fever.  Her  dis- 
temper resisted  for  the  present  all  attempts  to  assuage 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  Ill 

it,  though  there  was  reason  to  hope  that  the  goodness 
of  her  constitution,  assisted  by  tranquillity  and  the 
kindness  of  those  about  her,  would  ultimately  surmount 
it.  On  the  second  day  she  was  delirious.  On  the  night 
of  that  day  she  was  arrested  at  the  suit  of  Mr.  Tyrrel, 
for  a  debt  contracted  for  board  and  necessaries  for  the 
last  fourteen  years. 

The  idea  of  this  arrest,  as  the  reader  will  perhaps 
recollect,  first  occurred,  in  the  conversation  between 
Mr.  Tyrrel  and  Miss  Melville,  soon  after  he  had  thought 
proper  to  confine  her  to  her  chamber.  But  at  that  time 
he  had  probably  no  serious  conception  of  ever  being 
induced  to  carry  it  into  execution.  It  had  merely  been 
mentioned  by  way  of  threat,  and  as  the  suggestion  of 
a  mind,  whose  habits  had  long  been  accustomed  to 
contemplate  every  possible  instrument  of  tyranny  and 
revenge.  But  now,  that  the  unlooked-for  rescue  and 
H»po  of  his  poor  kinswoman  had  wrought  up  his 
thoughts  to  a  degree  of  insanity,  and  that  he  revolved 
in  the  gloomy  recesses  of  his  mind,  how  he  might  best 
shake  off  the  load  of  disappointment  which  oppressed 
him,  the  idea  recurred  with  double  force.  He  was  not 
long  in  forming  his  resolution ;  and,  calling  for  Barnes 
his  steward,  immediately  gave  him  directions  in  what 
manner  to  proceed. 

Barnes  had  been  for  several  years  the  instrument  of 
Mr.  Tyrrel's  injustice.  His  mind  was  hardened  by  use, 
and  he  could,  without  remorse,  officiate  as  the  spectator, 
or  even  as  the  author  and  director,  of  a  scene  of  vulgar 
distress.  But  even  he  was  somewhat  startled  upon  the 
present  occasion.  The  character  and  conduct  of  Emily 
in  Mr.  Tyrrel's  family  had  been  without  a  blot  She 
had  not  a  single  enemy  ;  and  it  was  impossible  to  con- 
template her  youth,  her  vivacity,  and  her  guileless 


112  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

innocence,  without  emotions  of  sympathy  and  compas- 
sion. 

"  Your  worship  ?  —  I  do  not  understand  you  !  —  Ar- 
rest Miss  —  Miss  Emily  ! " 

«  Yes,  —  I  tell  you  !  —What  is  the  matter  with  you  ? 
—  Go  instantly  to  Swineard,  the  lawyer,  and  bid  him 
finish  the  business  out  of  hand  !  " 

"  Lord  love  your  honour  !  Arrest  her  !  Why  she  does 
not  owe  you  a  brass  farthing :  she  always  lived  upon 
your  charity !  " 

"  Ass  !  Scoundrel !  I  tell  you  she  does  owe  me,  — 
owes  me  eleven  hundred  pounds.  —  The  law  justifies 
it.  —  What  do  you  think  laws  were  made  for  ?  I  do 
nothing  but  right,  and  right  I  will  have." 

"  Your  honour,  I  never  questioned  your  orders  in  my 
life  ;  but  I  must  now.  I  cannot  see  you  ruin  Miss  Emily, 
poor  girl !  nay,  and  yourself  too,  for  the  matter  of  that, 
and  not  say  which  way  you  are  going.  I  hope  you  will 
bear  with  me.  Why,  if  she  owed  you  ever  so  much,  she 
cannot  be  arrested.  She  is  not  of  age." 

"  Will  you  have  done  ?  —  Do  not  tell  me  of —  It 
cannot,  and  It  can.  It  has  been  done  before,  —  and  it 
shall  be  done  again.  Let  him  dispute  it  that  dares  !  I 
will  do  it  now  and  stand  to  it  afterwards.  Tell  Swineard, 
—  if  he  make  the  least  boggling,  it  is  as  much  as  his  life 
is  worth ;  —  he  shall  starve  by  inches." 

"  Pray,  your  honour,  think  better  of  it.  Upon  my 
life,  the  whole  country  will  cry  shame  of  it." 

"  Barnes  ! What  do  you  mean  ?     I  am  not  used 

to  be  talked  to,  and  I  cannot  bear  it !     You  have  been 

a  good  fellow  to  me  upon  many  occasions But,  if  I 

find  you  out  for  making  one  with  them  that  dispute  my 
authority,  damn  my  soul,  if  I  do  not  make  you  sick  of 
your  life  !  " 

"  I  have  done,  your  honour.     I  will  not  say  another 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  113 

word  except  this,  —  I  have  heard  as  how  that  Miss  Emily 
is  sick  a-bed.  You  are  determined,  you  say.  to  put  her 
in  jail.  You  do  not  mean  to  kill  her,  I  take  it." 

"  Let  her  die  !   I  will  not  spare  her  for  an  hour I 

will  not  always  be  insulted.  She  had  no  consideration 
for  me,  and  I  have  no  mercy  for  her.  —  I  am  in  for  it  ! 
They  have  provoked  me  past  bearing,  —  and  they  sliall 
feel  me  !  Tell  Swiueard,  in  bed  or  up,  day  or  night,  I 
will  not  hear  of  an  instant's  delay." 

Such  were  the  directions  of  Mr.  Tyrrel,  and  in  strict 
conformity  to  his  directions  were  the  proceedings  of 
that  respectable  limb  of  the  Jaw  he  employed  upon  the 
present  occasion.  Miss  Melville  had  been  delirious, 
through  a  considerable  part  of  the  day  on  the  evening  of 
which  the  bailiff  and  his  follower  arrived.  By  the  direc- 
tion of  the  physician  whom  Mr.  Falkland  had  ordered  to 
attend  her,  a  composing  draught  was  Administered  ;  and, 
exhausted  as  she  was  by  the  wild  and  distracted  images 
that  for  several  hours  had  haunted  her  fancy,  she  was 
now  sunk  into  a  refreshing  slumber.  Mrs.  Hammond, 
the  sister  of  Mr-.  .lakeman,  was  sitting  by  her  bed-side, 
full  of  compassion  for  the  lovely  sufferer,  and  rejoicing 
in  the  calm  tranquillity  that  had  just  taken  possession 
of  her,  when  a  little  girl,  the  only  child  of  Mrs.  Ham- 
mond, opened  the  street-door  to  the  rap  of  the  bailiff. 
He  said  he  wanted  to  speak  with  Miss  Melville,  and  the 
child  answered  that  she  would  go  tell  her  mother.  So 
saying,  she  advanced  to  the  door  of  the  back-room  upon 
the  ground-floor,  in  which  Emily  lay ;  but  the  moment 
it  was  opened,  instead  of  waiting  for  the  appearance  of 
the  mother,  the  bailiff  entered  along  with  the  girl. 

Mrs.  Hammond  looked  up.  u  Who  are  you?"  said 
she.  •'  Why  do  you  come  in  here?  Hush  !  be  quiet! ' 

"  I  must  speak  with  Miss  Melville." 

"  Indeed,  but  you  must  not.    Tell  me  your  business. 
i 


CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

The  poor  child  has  been  light-headed  all  day.     She 
has  just  fallen  asleep,  and  must  not  be  disturbed." 

"  That  is  no  business  of  mine.    I  must  obey  orders." 

"  Orders?  Whose  orders?  What  is  it  you  mean?" 

At  this  moment  Emily  opened  her  eyes.  "What 
noise  is  that  ?  Pray  let  me  be  quiet." 

"  Miss,  I  want  to  speak  with  you.  I  have  got  a  writ 
against  you  for  eleven  hundred  pounds  at  the  suit  of 
squire  Tyrrel." 

At  these  words  both  Mrs.  Hammond  and  Emily 
were  dumb.  The  latter  was  scarcely  able  to  annex 
any  meaning  to  the  intelligence;  and,  though  Mrs. 
Hammond  was  somewhat  better  acquainted  with  the 
sort  of  language  that  was  employed,  yet  in  this  strange 
and  unexpected  connection  it  was  almost  as  mysterious 
to  her  as  to  poor  Emily  herself. 

"  A  writ?  How  can  she  be  in  Mr.  Tyrrel's  debt? 
A  writ  against  a  child  !  " 

"  It  is  no  signification  putting  your  questions  to  us. 
We  only  do  as  we  are  directed.  There  is  our  authority. 
Look  at  it." 

"  Lord  Almighty  !  "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Hammond, 
"  what  does  this  mean  ?  It  is  impossible  Mr.  Tyrrel 
should  have  sent  you." 

"  Good  woman,  none  of  your  jabber  to  us  !  Cannot 
you  read  ?  " 

"  This  is  all  a  trick !  The  paper  is  forged !  It  is  a 
vile  contrivance  to  get  the  poor  orphan  out  of  the  hands 
of  those  with  whom  only  she  can  be  safe.  Proceed 
upon  it  at  your  peril !  " 

"  Rest  you  content ;  that  is  exactly  what  we  mean 
to  do.  Take  my  word,  we  know  very  well  what  we  are 
about." 

"  Why,  you  would  not  tear  her  from  her  bed  ?  I  tell 
you,  she  is  in  a  high  fever ;  she  is  light-headed ;  it  would 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  115 

be  death  to  remove  her !     You  are  bailiffs,  are  not  you  ? 
You  are  not  murderers?" 

"  The  law  says  nothing  about  that  We  have  orders 
to  take  her  sick  or  well.  We  will  do  her  no  harm ; 
lAcvpt  so  far  as  we  must  perform  our  office,  be  it  how 
it  will." 

"  Where  would  you  take  her  ?  What  is  it  you  mean 
to  do?" 

"  To  the  county  jail.  Bullock,  go,  order  a  post-chaise 
from  the  griffin  !  " 

"  Stay,  I  say !  Give  no  such  orders !  Wait  only 
three  hours ;  I  will  send  off  a  messenger  express  to 
squire  Falkland,  and  I  am  sure  he  will  satisfy  you  as 
to  any  harm  that  can  come  to  you,  without  its  being 
necessary  to  take  the  poor  child  to  jail." 

"  We  have  particular  directions  against  that.  We 
are  not  at  liberty  to  lose  a  minute.  Why  are  not  you 
gone?  Order  the  horses  to  be  put  to  immediately !  " 

Emily  had  listened  to  the  course  of  this  conversation, 
which  had  sufficiently  explained  to  her  whatever  was 
enigmatical  in  the  first  appearance  of  the  bailiffs.  The 
painful  and  incredible  reality  that  was  thus  presented 
effectually  dissipated  the  illusions  bf  frenzy  to  which 
she  had  just  been  a  prey.  "  My  dear  Madam,"  said 
she  to  Mrs.  Hammond,  "  do  not  harass  yourself  with 
useless  efforts.  I  am  very  sorry  for  all  the  trouble  I 
have  given  you.  But  my  misfortune  is  inevitable.  Sir, 
if  you  will  step  into  the  next  room,  I  will  dress  myself, 
and  attend  you  immediately." 

Mrs.  Hammond  began  to  be  equally  aware  that  her 
struggles  were  to  no  purpose;  but  she  could  not  be 
equally  patient.  At  one  moment  she  raved  upon  the 
brutality  of  Mr.  Tyrrel,  whom  she  affirmed  to  be  a  devil 
incarnate,  and  not  a  man.  At  another  she  expostulated, 
with  bitter  invective,  against  the  hardheartedness  of 
i  2 


11$  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

the  bailiff,  and  exhorted  him  to  mix  some  humanity 
and  moderation  with  the  discharge  of  his  function  ;  but 
he  was  impenetrable  to  all  she  could  urge.  In  the  mean 
while  Emily  yielded  with  the  sweetest  resignation  to 
an  inevitable  evil.  Mrs.  Hammond  insisted  that,  at 
least,  they  should  permit  her  to  attend  her  young  lady 
in  the  chaise ;  and  the  bailiff,  though  the  orders  he  had 
received  were  so  peremptory  that  he  dared  not  exercise 
his  discretion  as  to  the  execution  of  the  writ,  began  to 
have  some  apprehensions  of  danger,  and  wasAvilling  to 
admit  of  any  precaution  that  was  not  in  direct  hostility 
to  his  functions.  For  the  rest  he  understood,  that  it 
was  in  all  cases  dangerous  to  allow  sickness,  or  apparent 
unfitness  for  removal,  as  a  sufficient  cause  to  interrupt 
a  direct  process ;  and  that,  accordingly,  in  all  doubtful 
questions  and  presumptive  murders,  the  practice  of  the 
law  inclined,  with  a  laudable  partiality,  to  the  vindication 
of  its  own  officers.  In  addition  to  these  general  rules, 
he  was  influenced  by  the  positive  injunctions  and  as- 
surances of  Swineard,  and  the  terror  which,  through  a 
circle  of  many  miles,  was  annexed  to  the  name  of 
Tyrrel.  Before  they  departed,  Mrs.  Hammond  des- 
patched a  messenger  with  a  letter  of  three  lines  to 
Mr.  Falkland,  informing  him  of  this  extraordinary 
event.  Mr.  Falkland  was  from  home  when  the  mes- 
senger arrived,  and  not  expected  to  return  till  the 
second  day ;  accident  seemed  in  this  instance  to 
favour  the  vengeance  of  Mr.  Tyrrel,  for  he  had  him- 
self been  too  much  under  the  dominion  of  an  uncon- 
trollable fury,  to  take  a  circumstance  of  this  sort  into 
his  estimate. 

The  forlorn  state  of  these  poor  women,  who  were 
conducted,  the  one  by  compulsion,  the  other  a  volun- 
teer, to  a  scene  so  little  adapted  to  their  accommo- 
dation as  that  of  a  common  jail,  may  easily  be  imagined. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 


117 


Mr-.  Hammond,  however,  was  endowed  with  a  mascu- 
line courage  and  impetuosity  of  spirit,  eminently  ne- 
cessary in  the  difficulties  they  had  to  encounter.  She 
was  in  some  degree  fitted  by  a  sanguine  temper,  and 
an  impassioned  sense  of  injustice,  for  the  discharge  of 
those  very  offices  which  sobriety  and  calm  reflection 
might  have  prescribed.  The  health  of  Miss  Melville 
was  materially  affected  by  the  surprise  and  removal  she 
had  undergone  at  the  very  time  that  repose  was  most 
necessary  for  her  preservation.  Her  fever  became  more 
violent;  her  delirium  was  stronger;  and  the  tortures 
of  her  imagination  were  proportioned  to  the  unfavour- 
ableness  of  the  state  in  which  the  removal  had  been 
effected.  It  was  highly  improbable  that  she  could 
recover. 

In  the  moments  of  suspended  reason  she  was  perpetually 
calling  on  the  name  of  Falkland.  Mr.  Falkland,  she  said, 
was  her  first  and  only  love,  and  he  should  be  her  husband. 
A  moment  after  she  exclaimed  upon  him  in  a  -discon- 
solate, yet  reproachful  tone,  for  his  unworthy  deference 
to  the  prejudices  of  the  world.  It  was  very  cruel  of 
him  to  show  himself  so  proud,  and  tell  her  that  he 
would  never  consent  to  marry  a  beggar.  But,  if  he 
were  proud,  she  was  determined  to  be  proud  too.  He 
should  see  that  she  would  not  conduct  herself  like  a 
slighted  maiden,  and  that,  though  he  could  reject 
her,  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  break  her  heart.  At 
another  time  she  imagined  she  saw  Mr.  Tyrrel  and 
his  engine  Grimes,  their  hands  and  garments  dropping 
with  blood ;  and  the  pathetic  reproaches  she  vented 
against  them  might  have  affected  a  heart  of  stone.  Then 
the  figure  of  Falkland  presented  itself  to  her  distracted 
fancy,  deformed  with  wounds,  and  of  a  deadly  palenesa, 
and  she  shrieked  with  agony,  while  she  exclaimed  that 
such  was  the  general  hardheartedncss,  that  no  one 
I  3 


118  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

would  make  the  smallest  exertion  for  his  rescue.  In 
such  vicissitudes  of  pain,  perpetually  imagining  to  her- 
self unkindness,  insult,  conspiracy,  and  murder,  she 
passed  a  considerable  part  of  two  days. 

On  the  evening  of  the  second  Mr.  Falkland  arrived, 
accompanied  by  Doctor  Wilson,  the  physician  by  whom 
she  had  previously  been  attended.  The  scene  he  was 
called  upon  to  witness  was  such  as  to  be  most  exqui- 
sitely agonising  to  a  man  of  his  acute  sensibility.  The 
news  of  the  arrest  had  given  him  an  inexpressible  shock ; 
he  was  transported  out  of  himself  at  the  unexampled 
malignity  of  its  author.  But,  when  he  saw  the  figure 
of  Miss  Melville,  haggard,  and  a  warrant  of  death  writ- 
ten in  her  countenance,  a  victim  to  the  diabolfcal  pas- 
sions of  her  kinsman,  it  seemed  too  much  to  be  endured. 
When  he  entered,  she  was  in  the  midst  of  one  of  her 
fits  of  delirium,  and  immediately  mistook  her  visitors 
for  two  assassins.  She  asked,  where  they  had  hid  her 
Falkland,  her  lord,  her  life,  her  husband  !  and  demanded 
that  they  should  restore  to  her  his  mangled  corpse,  that 
she  might  embrace  him  with  her  dying  arms,  breathe 
her  last  upon  his  lips,  and  be  buried  in  the  same  grave. 
She  reproached  them  with  the  sordidness  of  their  con- 
duct in  becoming  the  tools  of  her  vile  cousin,  who  had 
deprived  her  of  her  reason,  and  would  never  be  con- 
tented till  he  had  murdered  her.  Mr.  Falkland  tore 
himself  away  from  this  painful  scene,  and,  leaving  Doctor 
Wilson  with  his  patient,  desired  him,  when  he  had 
given  the  necessary  directions,  to  follow  him  to  his 
inn. 

The  perpetual  hurry  of  spirits  in  which  Miss  Melville 
had  been  kept  for  several  days,  by  the  nature  of  her  in- 
disposition, was  extremely  exhausting  to  her ;  and,  in 
about  an  hour  from  the  visit  of  Mr.  Falkland,  her 
delirium  subsided,  and  left  her  in  so  low  a  state  as  to 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  119 

render  it  difficult  to  perceive  any  signs  of  life.  Doctor 
Wilson,  who  had  withdrawn,  to  soothe,  if  possible,  the 
disturbed  and  impatient  thoughts  of  Mr.  Falkland,  was 
summoned  afresh  upon  this  change  of  symptoms, 
and  sat  by  the  bed-side  during  the  remainder  of  the 
night.  The  situation  of  his  patient  was  such,  as  to 
keep  him  in  momentary  apprehension  of  her  decease. 
While  Miss  Melville  lay  in  this  feeble  and  exhausted 
condition,  Mrs.  Hammond  betrayed  every  token  of  the 
tenderest  anxiety.  Her  sensibility  was  habitually  of 
the  acutest  sort,  and  the  qualities  of  Emily  were  such 
as  powerfully  to  fix  her  affection.  She  loved  her  like  a 
mother.  Upon  the  present  occasion,  every  sound, 
every  motion,  made  her  tremble.  Doctor  Wilson  had 
introduced  another  nurse,  in  consideration  of  the  in- 
cessant fatigue  Mrs.  Hammond  had  undergone;  and 
he  endeavoured,  by  representations,  and  even  by  autho- 
rity, to  compel  her  to  quit  the  apartment  of  the  patient. 
But  she  was  uncontrollable ;  and  he  at  length  found 
that  he  should  probably  do  her  more  injury,  by  the 
violence  that  would  be  necessary  to  separate  her  from 
the  suffering  innocent,  than  by  allowing  her  to  follow 
her  inclination.  Her  eye  was  a  thousand  times  turned, 
with  the  most  eager  curiosity,  upon  the  countenance  of 
Doctor  Wilson,  without  her  daring  to  breathe  a  question 
respecting  his  opinion,  lest  he  should  answer  her  by  a 
communication  of  the  most  fatal  tidings.  In  the  mean 
time  she  listened  with  the  deepest  attention  to  every 
thing  that  dropped  either  from  the  physician  or  the 
nurse,  hoping  to  collect  as  it  were  from  some  oblique 
hint,  the  intelligence  which  she  had  not  courage  ex- 
pressly to  require. 

Towards  morning  the  state  of  the  patient  seemed  to 
take  a  favourable  turn.     She  dozed  for  near  two  hours, 
and,  when  she  awoke,  appeared  perfectly  calm  and 
I  4 


120  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

sensible.  Understanding  that  Mr.  Falkland  had  brought 
the  physician  to  attend  her,  and  was  himself  in  her 
neighbourhood,  she  requested  to  see  him.  Mr.  Falk- 
land had  gone  in  the  mean  time,  with  one  of  his  tenants, 
to  bail  the  debt,  and  now  entered  the  prison  to  enquire 
whether  the  young  lady  might  be  safely  removed,  from 
her  present  miserable  residence,  to  a  more  airy  and 
commodious  apartment.  When  he  appeared,  the  sight 
of  him  revived  in  the  mind  of  Miss  Melville  an  imper- 
fect recollection  of  the  wanderings  of  her  delirium.  She 
covered  her  face  with  her  fingers,  and  betrayed  the 
most  expressive  confusion,  while  she  thanked  him,  with 
her  usual  unaffected  simplicity,  for  the  trouble  he  had 
taken.  She  hoped  she  should  not  give  him  much  more  ; 
she  thought  she  should  get  better.  It  was  a  shame, 
she  said,  if  a  young  and  lively  girl,  as  she  was,  could 
not  contrive  to  outlive  the  trifling  misfortunes  to  which 
she  had  been  subjected.  But,  while  she  said  this,  she 
was  still  extremely  weak.  She  tried  to  assume  a  cheerful 
countenance ;  but  it  was  a  faint  effort,  which  the  feeble 
state  of  her  frame  did  not  seem  sufficient  to  support. 
Mr.  Falkland  and  the  doctor  joined  to  request  her  to 
keep  herself  quiet,  and  avoid  for  the  present  all  occa- 
sions of  exertion. 

Encouraged  by  these  appearances,  Mrs.  Hammond 
ventured  to  follow  the  two  gentlemen  out  of  the  room,  in 
order  to  learn  from  the  physician  what  hopes  he  enter- 
tained. Doctor  Wilson  acknowledged,  that  he  found  his 
patient  at  first  in  a  very  unfavourable  situation,  that  the 
symptoms  were  changed  for  the  .better,  and  that  he  was 
not  without  some  expectation  of  her  recovery.  He 
added,  however,  that  he  could  answer  for  nothing,  that 
the  next  twelve  hours  would  be  exceedingly  critical, 
but  that  if  she  did  not  grow  worse  before  morning,  he 
would  then  undertake  fq?  her  life.  Mrs.  Hammond,  who 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  121 

had  hitherto  seen  nothing  butdespair,  now  became  frantic 
with  joy.  She  burst  into  tears  of  transport,  blessed  the 
phy.-irian  in  the  most  emphatic  and  impassioned  terms, 
and  uttered  a  thousand  extravagancies.  Doctor  Wilson 
seized  this  opportunity  to  press  her  to  give  herself  a 
little  repose,  to  which  she  consented,  a  bed  being  first 
procured  for  her  in  the  room  next  to  Miss  Melville's, 
she  having  charged  the  nurse  to  give  her  notice  of  any 
alteration  in  the  state  of  the  patient. 

Mrs.  Hammond  enjoyed  an  uninterrupted  sleep  of  se- 
veral hours.  It  was  already  night,  when  she  was  awaked 
by  an  unusual  bustle  in  the  next  room.  She  listened  for 
a  few  moments,  and  then  determined  to  go  and  discover 
the  occasion  of  it.  As  she  opened  her  door  for  that 
purpose,  she  met  the  nurse  coming  to  her.  The  coun- 
tenance of  the  messenger  told  her  what  it  was  she  had 
to  communicate,  without  the  use  of  words.  She  hurried 
to  the  bed-side,  and  found  Miss  Melville  expiring.  The 
appearances  tliat  had  at  first  been  so  encouraging  were 
of  short  duration.  The  calm  of  the  morning  proved  to 
be  only  a  sort  of  lightening  before  death.  In  a  few 
hours  the  patient  grew  worse.  The  bloom  of  her  coun- 
tenance faded  ;  she  drew  her  breath  with  difficulty ;  and 
her  eyes  became  fixed.  Doctor  Wilson  came  in  at  this 
period,  and  immediately  perceived  that  all  was  over. 
She  was  for  some  time  in  convulsions  ;  but,  these  sub- 
siding, she  addressed  the  physician  with  a  composed, 
though  feeble  voice.  She  thanked  him  for  his  attention ; 
and  expressed  the  most  lively  sense  of  her  obligations  to 
Mr.  Falkland.  She  sincerely  forgave  her  cousin,  and 
hoped  he  might  never  be  visited  by  too  acute  a  re- 
collection of  his  barbarity  to  her.  She  would  have 
been  contented  to  live.  Few  persons  had  a  sincerer 
relish  of  the  pleasures  of  life  ;  but  she  was  well  pleased 
to  die,  rather  than  have  become  the  wife  of  Grimes. 


122  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

As  Mrs.  Hammond  entered,  she  turned  her  countenance 
towards  her,  and  with  an  affectionate  expression  re- 
peated her  name.  This  was  her  last  word ;  in  less  than 
two  hours  from  that  time  she  breathed  her  last  in  the 
arms  of  this  faithful  friend. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SUCH  was  the  fate  of  Miss  Emily  Melville.  Perhaps 
tyranny  never  exhibited  a  more  painful  memorial  of 
the  detestation  in  which  it  deserves  to  be  held.  The 
idea  irresistibly  excited  in  every  spectator  of  the  scene, 
was  that  of  regarding  Mr.  Tyrrel  as  the  most  diabolical 
wretch  that  had  ever  dishonoured  the  human  form.  The 
very  attendants  upon  this  house  of  oppression,  for  the 
scene  was  acted  upon  too  public  a  stage  not  to  be  gene- 
rally understood,  expressed  their  astonishment  and  dis- 
gust at  his  unparalleled  cruelty. 

If  such  were  the  feelings  of  men  bred  to  the  commis- 
sion of  injustice,  it  is  difficult  to  say  what  must  have  been 
those  of  Mr.  Falkland.  He  raved,  he  swore,  he  beat  his 
head,  he  rent  up  his  hair.  He  was  unable  to  continue 
in  one  posture,  and  to  remain  in  one  place.  He  burst 
away  from  the  spot  with  vehemence,  as  if  he  sought  to 
leave  behind  him  his  recollection  and  his  existence. 
He  seemed  to  tear  up  the  ground  with  fierceness  and 
rage.  He  returned  soon  again.  He  approached  the 
sad  remains  of  what  had  been  Emily,  and  gazed  on  them 
with  such  intentness,  that  his  eyes  appeared  ready  to 
burst  from  their  sockets.  Acute  and  exquisite  as  were 
his  notions  of  virtue  and  honour,  he  could  not  prevent 
himself  from  reproaching  the  system  of  nature,  for 
having  given  birth  to  such  a  monster  as  Tyrrel.  He 
was  ashamed  of  himself  for  wearing  the  same  form. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  123 

He  could  not  think  of  the  human  species  with  pa- 
tience. He  foamed  with  indignation  against  the  laws 
of  the  universe,  that  did  not  permit  him  to  crush 
such  reptiles  at  a  blow,  as  we  would  crush  so  many 
noxious  insects.  It  was  necessary  to  guard  him  like 
a  madman. 

The  whole  office  of  judging  what  was  proper  to  be 
done  under  the  present  circumstances  devolved  upon 
Doctor  Wilson.  The  doctor  was  a  man  of  cool  and 
methodical  habits  of  acting.  One  of  the  first  ideas 
that  suggested  itself  to  him  was,  that  Miss  Mellvile 
was  a  branch  of  the  family  of  Tyrrel.  He  did  not 
doubt  of  the  willingness  of  Mr.  Falkland  to  discharge 
every  expense  that  might  be  further  incident  to  the 
melancholy  remains  of  this  unfortunate  victim  ;  but 
he  conceived  that  the  laws  of  fashion  and  decorum 
required  some  notification  of  the  event  to  be  made 
to  the  head  of  the  family.  Perhaps,  too,  he  had  an 
eye  to  his  interest  in  his  profession,  and  was  reluctant 
to  expose  himself  to  the  resentment  of  a  person  of 
Mr.  Tyrrel's  consideration  in  the  neighbourhood.  But, 
with  this  weakness,  he  had  nevertheless  some  feelings 
in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  must  have 
suffered  considerable  violence,  before  he  could  have 
persuaded  himself  to  be  the  messenger  ;  beside  which, 
he  did  not  think  it  right  in  the  present  situation  to  leave 
Mr.  Falkland. 

Doctor  Wilson  no  sooner  mentioned  these  ideas,  than 
they  seemed  to  make  a  sudden  impression  on  Mrs.  Ham- 
mond, and  she  earnestly  requested  that  she  might  be 
permitted  to  carry  the  intelligence.  The  proposal  was 
unexpected ;  but  the  doctor  did  not  very  obstinately  re- 
fuse his  assent.  She  was  determined,  she  said,  to  see 
what  sort  of  impression  the  catastrophe  would  make 
upon  the  author  of  it ;  and  she  promised  to  comport 


124*  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

herself  with  moderation  and  civility.  The  journey  was 
soon  performed. 

"  I  am  come,  sir,"  said  she  to  Mr.  Tyrrel,  "  to  inform 
you  that  your  cousin,  Miss  Melville,  died  this  afternoon." 

"Died?" 

"  Yes,  sir.     I  saw  her  die.     She  died  in  these  arms." 

"  Died  ?  Who  killed  her  ?    What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  WTho  ?  Is  it  for  you  to  ask  that  question  ?  Your 
cruelty  and  malice  killed  her  !" 

"  Me  ?  —  my  ?  —  Poh  !  she  is  not  dead  —  it  cannot 
be  —  it  is  not  a  week  since  she  left  this  house." 

"  Do  not  you  believe  me  ?     I  say  she  is  dead  !  " 

"  Have  a  care,  woman !  this  is  no  matter  for  jesting. 
No :  though  she  used  me  ill,  I  would  not  believe  her  dead 
for  all  the  world  !  " 

Mrs.  Hammond  shook  her  head  in  a  manner  expres- 
sive at  once  of  grief  and  indignation. 

"  No,  no,  no,  no  !  I  will  never  believe  that !  —  No, 
never !  " 

"  Will  you  come  with  me,  and  convince  your  eyes  ? 
It  is  a  sight  worthy  of  you  ;  and  will  be  a  feast  to  such 
a  heart  as  yours  !  "  —  Saying  this,  Mrs.  Hammond  of- 
fered her  hand,  as  if  to  conduct  him  to  the  spot. 

Mr.  Tyrrel  shrunk  back. 

"  If  she  be  dead,  what  is  that  to  me  ?  Am  I  to  an- 
swer for  every  thing  that  goes  wrong  in  the  world  ?  — 
What  do  you  come  here  for  ?  Why  bring  your  messages 
to  me  ?  " 

"  To  whom  should  I  bring  them  but  to  her  kinsman, 
—  and  her  murderer." 

"  Murderer  ?  —  Did  I  employ  knives  or  pistols  ? 
Did  I  give  her  poison  ?  I  did  nothing  but  what  the  law 
allows.  If  she  be  dead,  nobody  can  say  that  I  am  to 
blame !  " 

"  To  blame  ?  —  All  the  world  will  abhor  and  curse 


CALEB    WILLIAM?.  125 

you.  Were  you  such  a  fool  as  to  think,  because  men 
pay  respect  to  wealth  and  rank,  this  would  extend  to 
such  a  deed  ?  They  will  laugh  at  so  barefaced  a  cheat. 
Tlu-  meanest  beggar  will  spurn  and  spit  at  you.  Ay, 
you  may  well  stand  confounded  at  what  you  have 
done.  I  will  proclaim  you  to  the  whole  world,  and 
you  will  be  obliged  to  fly  the  very  face  of  a  human 
creature !  " 

"  Good  woman,"  said  Mr.  Tyrrel,  extremely  hum- 
bled, ••  talk  no  more  in  this  strain  ! — Emmy  is  not 
dead  !  I  am  sure  —  I  hope  —  she  is  not  dead  !  — 
—  Tell  me  that  you  have  only  been  deceiving  me,  and 
I  will  forgive  you  every  thing —  I  will  forgive  her  —  I 
will  take  her  into  favour — I  will  do  any  thing  you 
please  !  —  I  never  meant  her  any  harm  !  " 

"  I  tell  you  she  is  dead  !  You  have  murdered  the 
sweetest  innocent  that  lived  !  Can  you  bring  her  back 
to  life,  as  you  have  driven  her  out  of  it?  If  you  could, 
I  would  kneel  to  you  twenty  times  a  day  !  What  is  it 
you  have  done? — Miserable  wretch!  did  you  think 
you  could  do  and  undo,  and  change  things  this  way  and 
that,  as  you  pleased  ?  " 

The  reproaches  of  Mrs.  Hammond  were  the  first  in- 
stance in  which  Mr.  Tynrel  was  made  to  drink  the  full 
cup  of  retribution.  This  was,  however,  only  a  specimen 
of  a  long  series  of  contempt,  abhorrence,  and  insult,  that 
was  reserved  for  him.  The  words  of  Mrs.  Hammond 
were  prophetic.  It  evidently  appeared,  that  though 
wealth  and  hereditary  elevation  operate  as  an  apology 
for  many  delinquencies,  there  are  some  which  so  irre- 
sistibly address  themselves  to  the  indignation  of  man- 
kind, that,  like  death,  they  level  all  distinctions,  and 
reduce  their  perpetrator  to  an  equality  with  the  most 
indigent  and  squalid  of  his  species.  Against  Mr.  Tyr- 
rel, as  the  tyrannical  and  unmanly  murderer  of  Emily, 


126  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

those  who  dared  not  venture  the  unreserved  avowal  of 
their  sentiments  muttered  curses,  deep,  not  loud ; 
while  the  rest  joined  in  an  universal  cry  of  abhorrence 
and  execration.  He  stood  astonished  at  the  novelty  of 
his  situation.  Accustomed  as  he  had  been  to  the  obe- 
dience and  trembling  homage  of  mankind,  he  had 
imagined  they  would  be  perpetual,  and  that  no  excess 
on  his  part  would  ever  be  potent  enough  to  break  the 
enchantment.  Now  he  looked  round,  and  saw  sullen 
detestation  in  every  face,  which  with  difficulty  restrained 
itself,  and  upon  the  slightest  provocation  broke  forth 
with  an  impetuous  tide,  and  swept  away  the  mounds  of 
subordination  and  fear.  His  large  estate  could  not 
purchase  civility  from  the  gentry,  the  peasantry,  scarcely 
from  his  own  servants.  In  the  indignation  of  all  around 
him  he  found  a  ghost  that  haunted  him  with  every 
change  of  place,  and  a  remorse  that  stung  his  con- 
science, and  exterminated  his  peace.  The  neighbourhood 
appeared  more  and  more  every  day  to  be  growing  too 
hot  for  him  to  endure,  and  it  became  evident  that  he 
would  ultimately  be  obliged  to  quit  the  country.  Urged 
by  the  flagitiousness  of  this  last  example,  people  learned 
to  recollect  every  other  instance  of  his  excesses,  and  it 
was,  no  doubt,  a  fearful  catalogue  that  rose  up  in 
judgment  against  him.  It  seemed  as  if  the  sense  of 
public  resentment  had  long  been  gathering  strength 
unperceived,  and  now  burst  forth  into  insuppressible 
violence. 

There  was  scarcely  a  human  being  upon  whom  this 
sort  of  retribution  could  have  sat  more  painfully  than 
upon  Mr.  Tyrrel.  Though  he  had  not  a  consciousness 
of  innocence  prompting  him  continually  to  recoil  from 
the  detestation  of  mankind  as  a  thing  totally  unallied 
to  his  character,  yet  the  imperiousness  of  his  temper 
and  the  constant  experience  he  had  had  of  the  pliabi- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  127 

lity  of  other  men,  prepared  him  to  feel  the  general  and 
undisguised  condemnation  into  which  he  was  sunk  with 
uncommon  emotions  of  anger  and  impatience.  That 
he,  at  the  beam  of  whose  eye  every  countenance  fell, 
and  to  whom  in  the  fierceness  of  his  wrath  no  one  was 
daring  enough  to  reply,  should  now  be  regarded  with 
avowed  dislike,  and  treated  with  unceremonious  censure, 
was  a  thing  he  could  not  endure  to  recollect  or  believe. 
Symptoms  of  the  universal  disgust  smote  him  at  every 
instant,  and  at  every  blow  he  writhed  with  intolerable 
anguish.  His  rage  was  unbounded  and  raving.  He  re- 
pelled every  attack  with  the  fiercest  indignation  ;  while 
the  more  he  struggled,  the  more  desperate  his  situation 
appeared  to  become.  At  length  he  determined  to  col- 
lect his  strength  for  a  decisive  effort,  and  to  meet  the 
whole  tide  of  public  opinion  in  a  single  scene. 

In  pursuance  of  these  thoughts  he  resolved  to  repair, 
without  delay,  to  the  rural  assembly  which  I  have 
already  mentioned  in  the  course  of  my  story.  Miss 
Melville  had  now  been  dead  one  month.  Mr.  Falkland 
had  been  absent  the  last  week  in  a  distant  part  of  the 
country,  and  was  not  expected  to  return  for  a  week 
longer.  Mr.  Tyrrel  willingly  embraced  the  opportunity, 
trusting,  if  he  could  now  effect  his  re-establishment,  that 
he  should  easily  preserve  the  ground  he  had  gained, 
even  in  the  face  of  his  formidable  rival.  Mr.  Tyrrel 
was  not  deficient  in  courage;  but  he  conceived  the 
present  to  be  too  important  an  epoch  in  his  life  to 
allow  him  to  make  any  unnecessary  risk  in  his  chance 
for  future  ease  and  importance. 

There  was  a  sort  of  bustle  that  took  place  at  his  en- 
trance into  the  assembly,  it  having  been  agreed  by  the 
gentlemen  of  the  assembly,  that  Mr.  Tyrrel  was  to  be 
refused  admittance,  as  a  person  with  whom  they  did 
not  choose  to  associate.  This  vote  had  already  been 


128  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

notified  to  him  by  letter  by  the  master  of  the  cere- 
monies, but  the  intelligence  was  rather  calculated,  with 
a  man  of  Mr.  Tyrrel's  disposition,  to  excite  defiance 
than  to  overawe.  At  the  door  of  the  assembly  he  was 
personally  met  by  the  master  of  the  ceremonies,  who  had 
perceived  the  arrival  of  an  equipage,  and  who  now  en- 
deavoured to  repeat  his  prohibition :  but  he  was  thrust 
aside  by  Mr.  Tyrrel  with  an  air  of  native  authority  and 
ineffable  contempt.  As  he  entered,  every  eye  was  turned 
upon  him.  Presently  all  the  gentlemen  in  the  room 
assembled  round  him.  Some  endeavoured  to  hustle 
him,  and  others  began  to  expostulate.  But  he  found 
the  secret  effectually  to  silence  the  one  set,  and  to 
shake  off  the  other.  His  muscular  form,  the  well-known 
eminence  of  his  intellectual  powers,  the  long  habits  to 
which  every  man  was  formed  of  acknowledging  his 
ascendancy,  were  all  in  his  favour.  He  considered 
himself  as  playing  a  desperate  stake,  and  had  roused  all 
the  energies  he  possessed,  to  enable  him  to  do  justice 
to  so  interesting  a  transaction.  Disengaged  from  the 
insects  that  at  first  pestered  him,  he  paced  up  and  down 
the  room  with  a  magisterial  stride,  and  flashed  an  angry 
glance  on  every  side.  He  then  broke  silence.  "  If  any 
one  had  any  thing  to  say  to  him,  he  should  know  where 
and  how  to  answer  him.  He  would  advise  any  such 
person,  however,  to  consider  well  what  he  was  about- 
If  any  man  imagined  he  had  any  thing  personally  to 
complain  of,  it  was  very  well.  But  he  did  expect  that 
nobody  there  would  be  ignorant  and  raw  enough  to 
meddle  with  what  was  no  business  of  theirs,  and  intrude 
into  the  concerns  of  any  man's  private  family." 

This  being  a  sort  of  defiance,  one  and  another  gentle- 
man advanced  to  answer  it.  He  that  was  first  began  to 
speak ;  but  Mr.  Tyrrel,  by  the  expression  of  his  coun- 
tenance and  a  peremptory  tone,  by  well-timed  interrup- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  129 

tions  and  pertinent  insinuations,  caused  him  first  to 
hesitate,  and  then  to  be  silent.  He  seemed  to  be  fast 
advancing  to  the  triumph  he  had  promised  himself. 
Tin-  whole  company  were  astonished.  They  felt  the 
same  abhorrence  and  condemnation  of  his  character ; 
but  they  could  not  help  admiring  the  courage  and  re- 
sources he  displayed  upon  the  present  occasion.  They 
could  without  difficulty  have  concentred  afresh  their 
indignant  feelings,  but  they  seemed  to  want  a  leader. 

At  this  critical  moment  Mr.  Falkland  entered  the 
room.  Mere  accident  had  enabled  him  to  return  sooner 
than  he  expected. 

Both  he  and  Mr.  TV  ml  reddened  at  sight  of  each 
other.  He  advanced  towards  Mr.  Tyrrel  without  a 
moment's  pause,  and  in  a  peremptory  voice  asked  him 
what  he  did  there  ? 

"  Here  ?  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  This  place  is 
as  free  to  me  as  you,  and  you  are  the  last  person  to 
whom  I  shall  deign  to  give  an  account  of  myself." 

••  Sir,  the  place  is  not  free  to  you.  Do  not  you 
know,  you  have  been  voted  out  ?  Whatever  were  your 
rights,  your  infamous  conduct  has  forfeited  them." 

"  Mr.  what  do  you  call  yourself,  if  you  have  any 
thing  to  say  to  me,  choose  a  proper  time  and  place. 
Do  not  think  to  put  on  your  bullying  airs  under  shelter 
of  this  company !  I  will  not  endure  it." 

"  You  are  mistaken,  sir.  This  public  scene  is  the 
only  place  where  I  can  have  any  thing  to  say  to  you* 
If  you  would  not  hear  the  universal  indignation  of 
mankind,  you  must  not  come  into  the  society  of  men* 
— Miss  Melville!  —  Shame  upon  you,  inhuman,  unre- 
lenting tyrant !  Can  you  hear  her  name,  and  not  sink 
into  the  earth?  Can  you  retire  into  solitude,  and  not 
see  her  pale  and  patient  ghost  rising  to  reproach  you  ? 
Can  you  recollect  her  virtues,  her  innocence,  her  spot- 


ISO  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

less  manners,  her  unresentful  temper,  and  not  run  dis- 
tracted with  remorse  ?  Have  you  not  killed  her  in  the 
first  bloom  of  her  youth  ?  Can  you  bear  to  think  that 
she  now  lies  mouldering  in  the  grave  through  your 
cursed  contrivance,  that  deserved  a  crown,  ten  thousand 
times  more  than  you  deserve  to  live  ?  And  do  you  exr 
pect  that  mankind  will  ever  forget,  or  forgive  such 
a  deed?  Go,  miserable  wretch  ;  think  yourself  too 
happy  that  you  are  permitted  to  fly  the  face  of  man  ! 
Why,  what  a  pitiful  figure  do  you  make  at  this  moment ! 
Do  you  think  that  any  thing  could  bring  so  hardened  a 
wretch  as  you  are  to  shrink  from  reproach,  if  your 
conscience  were  not  in  confederacy  with  them  that  re- 
proached you  ?  And  were  you  fool  enough  to  believe 
that  any  obstinacy,  however  determined,  could  enable 
you  to  despise  the  keen  rebuke  of  justice?  Go,  shrink 
into  your  miserable  self!  Begone,  and  let  me  never  be 
blasted  with  your  sight  again  ! " 

And  here,  incredible  as  it  may  appear,  Mr.  Tyrrel  began 
to  obey  his  imperious  censurer.  His  looks  were  full  of 
wildness  and  horror;  his  limbs  trembled;  and  his  tongue 
refused  its  office.  He  felt  no  power  of  resisting  the 
impetuous  torrent  of  reproach  that  was  poured  upon 
him.  He  hesitated;  he  was  ashamed  of  his  own  defeat; 
he  seemed  to  wish  to  deny  it.  But  his  struggles  were 
ineffectual ;  every  attempt  perished  in  the  moment  it 
was  made.  The  general  voice  was  eager  to  abash  him. 
As  his  confusion  became  more  visible,  the  outcry  in- 
creased. It  swelled  gradually  to  hootings,  tumult,  and  a 
deafening  noise  of  indignation.  At  length  he  willingly 
retired  from  the  public  scene,  unable  any  longer  to  en- 
dure the  sensations  it  inflicted. 

In  about  an  hour  and  a  half  he  returned.  No  pre- 
caution had  been  taken  against  this  incident,  for  nothing 
could  be  more  unexpected.  In  the  interval  he  had 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  131 

intoxicated  himself  with  large  draughts  of  brandy.  In 
a  moment  he  was  in  a  part  of  the  room  where  Mr. 
Falkland  was  standing,  and  with  one  blow  of  his  mus- 
cular arm  levelled  him  with  the  earth.  The  blow  how- 
ever was  not  stunning,  and  Mr.  Falkland  rose  again 
immediately.  It  is  obvious  to  perceive  how  unequal  he 
must  have  been  in  this  tp^rict  of  contest.  He  wa) 
scarcely  risen,  before  Mr.  Tyrrel  repeated  his  blow. 
Mr.  Falkland  was  now  upon  his  guard,  and  did  not  fall. 
But  the  blows  of  his  adversary  were  redoubled  with  a 
rapidity  difficult  to  conceive,  and  Mr.  Falkland  was  once 
again  brought  to  the  earth.  In  this  situation  Mr.  Tyrrel 
kicked  his  prostrate  enemy,  and  stooped  apparently  with 
the  intention  of  dragging  him  along  the  floor.  All  this 
passed  in  a  moment,  and  the  gentlemen  present  had  not 
time  to  recover  their  surprise.  They  now  interfered, 
and  Mr.  Tyrrel  once  more  quitted  the  apartment. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  any  event  more  terrible  to 
the  individual  upon  whom  it  fell,  than  the  treatment 
which  Mr.  Falkland  in  this  instance  experienced.  Every 
passion  of  his  life  was  calculated  to  make  him  feel  it 
more  acutely.  He  had  repeatedly  exerted  an  uncom- 
mon energy  and  prudence,  to  prevent  the  misunder- 
standing between  Mr.  Tyrrel  and  himself  from  proceed- 
ing to  extremities  ;  but  in  vain  !  It  was  closed  with  a 
catastrophe,  exceeding  all  that  he  had  feared,  or  that 
the  most  penetrating  foresight  could  have  suggested. 
To  Mr.  Falkland  disgrace  was  worse  than  death.  The 
slightest  breath  of  dishonour  would  have  stung  him  to 
the  very  soul.  What  must  it  have  been  with  this  com- 
plication of  ignominy,  base,  humiliating,  and  public  ? 
Could  Mr.  Tyrrel  have  understood  the  evil  he  inflicted, 
even  he,  under  all  his  circumstances  of  provocation, 
could  scarcely  have  perpetrated  it.  Mr.  Falkland's 
mind  was  full  of  uproar  like  the  war  of  contending 
K  2 


132  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

elements,  and  of  such  suffering  as  casts  contempt  on  the 
refinements  of  inventive  cruelty.  He  wished  for  anni- 
hilation, to  lie  down  in  eternal  oblivion,  in  an  insensi- 
bility, which,  compared  with  what  he  experienced,  was 
scarcely  less  enviable  than  beatitude  itself.  Horror, 
detestation,  revenge,  inexpressible  longings  to  shake  off 
the  evil,  and  a  persuasion  that  in  this  case  all  effort  was 
powerless,  filled  his  soul  even  to  bursting. 

One  other  event  closed  the  transactions  of  this  me- 
.vmorable  evening.  Mr.  Falkland  was  baffled  of  the 
vengeance  that  yet  remained  to  him.  Mr.  Tyrrel  was 
found  by  some  of  the  company  dead  in  the  street,  having 
been  murdered  at  the  distance  of  a  few  yards  from  the 
assembly  house. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

I  SHALL  endeavour  to  state  the  remainder  of  this  nar- 
rative in  the  words  of  Mr.  Collins.  The  reader  has 
already  had  occasion  to  perceive  that  Mr.  Collins  was 
a  man  of  no  vulgar  order ;  and  his  reflections  on  the 
subject  were  uncommonly  judicious. 

"  This  day  was  the  crisis  of  Mr.  Falkland's  history. 
From  hence  took  its  beginning  that  gloomy  and  un- 
sociable melancholy,  of  which  he  has  since  been  the 
victim.  No  two  characters  can  be  in  certain  respects 
more  strongly  contrasted,  than  the  Mr.  Falkland  of  a 
date  prior  and  subsequent  to  these  events.  Hitherto 
he  had  been  attended  by  a  fortune  perpetually  pros- 
perous. His  mind  was  sanguine ;  full  of  that  undoubt- 
ing  confidence  in  its  own  powers  which  prosperity  is 
qualified  to  produce.  Though  the  habits  of  his  life 
were  those  of  a  serious  and  sublime  visionary,  they 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  133 

were  nevertheless  full  of  cheerfulness  and  tranquillity. 
But  from  this  moment,  his  pride,  and  the  lofty  adven- 
turousness  of  his  spirit,  were  effectually  subdued.  From 
an  object  of  envy  he  was  changed  into  an  object  of 
compassion.  Life,  which  hitherto  no  one  had  more 
exquisitely  enjoyed,  became  a  burden  to  him.  No 
more  self-complacency,  no  more  rapture,  no  more  self- 
approving  and  heart-transporting  benevolence !  He 
who  had  lived  beyond  any  man  upon  the  grand  and 
animating  reveries  of  the  imagination,  seemed  now  to 
have  no  visions  but  of  anguish  and  despair.  His  case 
was  peculiarly  worthy  of  sympathy,  since,  no  doubt, 
if  rectitude  and  purity  of  disposition  could  give  a  title 
to  happiness,  few  men  could  exhibit  a  more  consistent 
and  powerful  claim  than  Mr.  Falkland. 

"  He  was  too  deeply  pervaded  with  the  idle  and 
groundless  romances  of  chivalry,  ever  to  forget  the 
situation,  humiliating  and  dishonourable  according  to 
his  ideas,  in  which  he  had  been  placed  upon  this  oc- 
casion. There  is  a  mysterious  sort  of  divinity  annexed 
to  the  person  of  a  true  knight,  that  makes  any  species 
of  brute  violence  committed  upon  it  indelible  and  im- 
mortal. To  be  knocked  down,  cuffed,  kicked,  dragged 
along  the  floor !  Sacred  heaven,  the  memory  of  such 
a  treatment  was  not  to  be  endured !  No  future  lus- 
tration could  ever  remove  the  stain:  and,  what  was 
perhaps  still  worse  in  the  present  case,  the  offender 
having  ceased  to  exist,  the  lustration  which  the  laws 
of  knight-errantry  prescribe  was  rendered  impossible. 

"  In  some  future  period  of  human  improvement,  it 
is  probable,  that  that  calamity  will  be  in  a  manner  un- 
intelligible, which  in  the  present  instance  contributed 
to  tarnish  and  wither  the  excellence  of  one  of  the  most 
elevated  and  amiable  of  human  minds.  If  Mr.  Falkland 
bad  reflected  with  perfect  accuracy  upon  the  case,  he 
K  3 


134-  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

would  probably  have  been  able  to  look  down  with  in- 
difference upon  a  wound,  which,  as  it  was,  pierced  to 
his  very  vitals.  How  much  more  dignity,  than  in  the 
modern  duellist,  do  we  find  in  Themistocles,  the  most 
gallant  of  the  Greeks  ;  who,  when  Eurybiades,  his  com- 
mander in  chief,  in  answer  to  some  of  his  remonstrances? 
lifted  his  cane  over  him  with  a  menacing  air,  accosted 
him  in  that  noble  apostrophe,  '  Strike,  but  hear  ! ' 

"  How  would  a  man  of  true  discernment  in  such  a 
case  reply  to  his  brutal  assailant  ?  *  I  make  it  my  boast 
that  I  can  endure  calamity  and  pain :  shall  I  not  be 
able  to  endure  the  trifling  inconvenience  that  your  folly 
can  inflict  upon  me?  Perhaps  a  human  being  would 
be  more  accomplished,  if  he  understood  the  science  of 
personal  defence  ;  but  how  few  would  be  the  occasions 
upon  which  he  would  be  called  to  exert  it?  How  few 
persons  would  he  encounter  so  unjust  and  injurious  as 
you,  if  his  own  conduct  were  directed  by  the  principles 
of  reason  and  benevolence  ?  Beside,  how  narrow  would 
be  the  use  of  this  science  when  acquired?  It  will 
scarcely  put  the  man  of  delicate  make  and  petty  stature 
upon  a  level  with  the  athletic  pugilist ;  and,  if  it  did  in 
some  measure  secure  me  against  the  malice  of  a  single 
adversary,  still  my  person  and  my  life,  so  far  as  mere 
force  is  concerned,  would  always  be  at  the  mercy  of 
two.  Further  than  immediate  defence  against  actual 
violence,  it  could  never  be  of  use  to  me.  The  man 
who  can  deliberately  meet  his  adversary  for  the  pur- 
pose of  exposing  the  person  of  one  or  both  of  them  to 
injury,  tramples  upon  every  principle  of  reason  and 
equity.  Duelling  is  the  vilest  of  all  egotism,  treating 
the  public,  who  has  a  claim  to  all  my  powers  and  ex- 
ertions, as  if  it  were  nothing,  and  myself,  or  rather  an 
unintelligible  chimera  I  annex  to  myself,  as  if  it  were 
entitled  to  my  exclusive  attention.  I  am  unable  to 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  135 

ope  with  you :  what  then  ?  Can  that  circumstance 
dishonour  me?  No;  I  can  only  be  dishonoured  by 
perpetrating  an  unjust  action.  My  honour  is  in  my 
own  keeping,  beyond  the  reach  of  all  mankind.  Strike  ! 
1  am  passive.  No  injury  that  you  can  inflict,  shall  pro- 
/oke  me  to  expose  you  or  myself  to  unnecessary  evil. 
I  refuse  that;  but  I  am  not  therefore  pusillanimous: 
when  I  refuse  any  danger  or  suffering  by  which  the  gene- 
ral good  may  be  promoted,  then  brand  me  for  a  coward  ! ' 

••These  reasonings,  however  simple  and  irresistible 
they  must  be  found  by  a  dispassionate  enquirer,  are 
lit  tit  ntkiUtl  on  by  the  world  at  large,  and  were  most 
of  all  uncongenial  to  the  prejudices  of  Mr.  Falkland. 

"  But  the  public  disgrace  and  chastisement  that  had 
been  imposed  upon  him,  intolerable  as  they  were  to  be 
recollected,  were  not  the  whole  of  the  mischief  that 
redounded  to  our  unfortunate  patron  from  the  trans- 
actions of  that  day.  It  was  presently  whispered  that 
he  was  no  other  than  the  murderer  of  his  antagonist. 
This  rumour  was  of  too  much  importance  to  the  very 
continuance  of  his  life,  to  justify  its  being  concealed 
from  him.  He  heard  it  with  inexpressible  astonishment 
and  horror ;  it  formed  a  dreadful  addition  to  the  load 
of  intellectual  anguish  that  already  oppressed  him.  No 
man  had  ever  held  his  reputation  more  dear  than  Mr- 
Falkland ;  and  now,  in  one  day,  he  was  fallen  under 
the  most  exquisite  calamities,  a  complicated  personal 
insult,  and  the  imputation  of  the  foulest  of  crimes.  He 
might  have  fled;  for  no  one  was  forward  to  proceed 
against  a  man  so  adored  as  Mr.  Falkland,  or  in  revenge 
of  one  so  universally  execrated  as  Mr.  Tyrrel.  But 
flight  he  disdained.  In  the  mean  time  the  affair  was 
of  the  most  serious  magnitude,  and  the  rumour  un- 
checked seemed  daily  to  increase  in  strength.  Mr. 
Falkland  appeared  sometimes  inclined  to  adopt  such 
K  4 


1S6  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

steps  as  might  have  been  best  calculated  to  bring  the 
imputation  to  a  speedy  trial.  But  he  probably  feared 
by  too  direct  an  appeal  to  judicature,  to  render  more 
precise  an  imputation,  the  memory  of  which  he  depre- 
cated ;  at  the  same  time  that  he  was  sufficiently  willing 
to  meet  the  severest  scrutiny,  and,  if  he  could  not 
hope  to  have  it  forgotten  that  he  had  ever  been  ac- 
cused, to  prove  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner  that 
the  accusation  was  unjust. 

"  The  neighbouring  magistrates  at  length  conceived 
it  necessary  to  take  some  steps  upon  the  subject. 
Without  causing  Mr.  Falkland  to  be  apprehended,  they 
sent  to  desire  he  would  appear  before  them  at  one  of 
their  meetings.  The  proceeding  being  thus  opened, 
Mr.  Falkland  expressed  his  hope  that,  if  the  business 
were  likely  to  stop  there,  their  investigation  might  at 
least  be  rendered  as  solemn  as  possible.  The  meeting 
was  numerous ;  every  person  of  a  respectable  class  in 
society  was  admitted  to  be  an  auditor  ;  the  whole 
town,  one  of  the  most  considerable  in  the  county,  was 
apprised  of  the  nature  of  the  business.  Few  trials, 
invested  with  all  the  forms  of  judgment,  have  excited 
so  general  an  interest.  A  trial,  under  the  present  cir- 
cumstances, was  scarcely  attainable  ;  and  it  seemed  to 
be  the  wish  both  of  principal  and  umpires,  to  give  to 
this  transaction  all  the  momentary  notoriety  and  de- 
cisiveness of  a  trial. 

"  The  magistrates  investigated  the  particulars  of  the 
story.  Mr.  Falkland,  it  appeared,  had  left  the  rooms 
immediately  after  his  assailant ;  and  though  he  had 
been  attended  by  one  or  two  of  the  gentlemen  to  his  inn, 
it  was  proved  that  he  had  left  them  upon  some  slight 
occasion,  as  soon  as  he  arrived  at  it,  and  that,  when 
they  enquired  for  him  of  the  waiters,  he  had  already 
mounted  his  horse  and  ridden  home* 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  137 

"  By  the  nature  of  the  case,  no  particular  facts  could 
be  stated  in  balance  against  these.  As  soon  as  they 
had  been  sufficiently  detailed,  Mr.  Falkland  therefore 
proceeded  to  his  defence.  Several  copies  of  his  defence 
were  made,  and  Mr.  Falkland  seemed,  for  a  short  time, 
to  have  had  the  idea  of  sending  it  to  the  press,  though, 
for  some  reason  or  other,  he  afterwards  suppressed  it . 
I  have  one  of  the  copies  in  my  possession,  and  I  will 
read  it  to  you." 

Saying  this,  Mr.  Collins  rose,  and  took  it  from  a 
private  drawer  in  his  escritoire.  During  this  action  he 
appeared  to  recollect  himself.  He  did  not,  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  word,  hesitate ;  but  he  was  prompted  to 
make  some  apology  for  what  he  was  doing. 

"  You  seem  never  to  have  heard  of  this  memor- 
able transaction  ;  and,  indeed,  that  is  little  to  be 
wondered  at,  since  the  good  nature  of  the  world  is 
interested  in  suppressing  it,  and  it  is  deemed  a  dis- 
grace to  a  man  to  have  defended  himself  from  a  crimi- 
nal imputation,  though  with  circumstances  the  most 
satisfactory  and  honourable.  It  may  be  supposed  that 
this  suppression  is  particularly  acceptable  to  Mr.  Falk- 
land ;  and  I  should  not  have  acted  in  contradiction  to 
his  modes  of  thinking  in  communicating  the  story  to 
you,  had  there  not  been  circumstances  of  peculiar 
urgency,  that  seemed  to  render  the  communication  de- 
sirable." Saying  this,  he  proceeded  to  read  from  the 
paper  in  his  hand. 
"  Gentlemen, 

"  I  stand  here  accused  of  a  crime,  the  most  black 
that  any  human  creature  is  capable  of  perpetrating.  I 
am  innocent.  I  have  no  fear  that  I  shall  fail  to  make 
every  person  in  this  company  acknowledge  my  innocence. 
In  the  mean  time,  what  must  be  my  feelings?  Con- 
scious as  I  am  of  deserving  approbation  and  not  censure, 


138  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

of  having  passed  my  life  in  acts  of  justice  and  philan- 
thropy, can  any  thing  be  more  deplorable  than  for  me 
to  answer  to  a  charge  of  murder  ?  So  wretched  is  my 
situation,  that  I  cannot  accept  your  gratuitous  acquittal, 
if  you  should  be  disposed  to  bestow  it.  I  must  answer 
to  an  imputation,  the  very  thought  of  which  is  ten 
thousand  times  worse  to  me  than  death.  I  must  exert 
the  whole  energy  of  my  mind,  to  prevent  my  being 
ranked  with  the  vilest  of  men. 

"  Gentlemen,  this  is  a  situation  in  which  a  man  may 
be  allowed  to  boast.  Accursed  situation !  No  man 
need  envy  me  the  vile  and  polluted  triumph  I  am  now 
to  gain !  I  have  called  no  witnesses  to  my  character. 
Great  God  !  what  sort  of  character  is  that  which  must 
be  supported  by  witnesses  ?  But,  if  I  must  speak,  look 
round  the  company,  ask  of  every  one  present,  enquire 
of  your  own  hearts !  Not  one  word  of  reproach  was 
ever  whispered  against  me.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  call 
upon  those  who  have  known  me  most,  to  afford  me  the 
most  honourable  testimony. 

"  My  life  has  been  spent  in  the  keenest  and  most 
unintermitted  sensibility  to  reputation.  I  am  almost 
indifferent  as  to  what  shall  be  the  event  of  this  day. 
I  would  not  open  my  mouth  upon  the  occasion,  if  my 
life  were  the  only  thing  that  was  at  stake.  It  is  not  in 
the  power  of  your  decision  to  restore  to  me  my  unble- 
mished reputation,  to  obliterate  the  disgrace  I  have 
suffered,  or  to  prevent  it  from  being  remembered  that 
I  have  been  brought  to  examination  upon  a  charge  of 
murder.  Your  decision  can  never  have  the  efficacy  to 
prevent  the  miserable  remains  of  my  existence  from 
being  the  most  intolerable  of  all  burthens. 

"  I  am  accused  of  having  committed  murder  upon 
the  body  of  Barnabas  Tyrrel.  I  would  most  joyfully 
have  given  every  farthing  I  possess,  and  devoted  myself 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  139 

to  perpetual  beggary,  to  have  preserved  his  life.  His 
life  was  precious  to  me,  beyond  that  of  all  mankind. 
In  my  opinion,  the  greatest  injustice  committed  by  his 
unknown  assassin  was  that  of  defrauding  me  of  my 
just  revenge.  I  confess  that  I  would  have  called  him 
out  to  the  field,  and  that  our  encounter  should  not 
have  been  terminated  but  by  the  death  of  one  or  both 
of  us.  This  would  have  been  a  pitiful  and  inadequate 
compensation  for  his  unparalleled  insult,  but  it  was  all 
that  remained. 

"  I  ask  for  no  pity,  but  I  must  openly  declare  that 
never  was  any  misfortune  so  horrible  as  mine.  I  would 
willingly  have  taken  refuge  from  the  recollection  of 
that  night  in  a  voluntary  death.  Life  was  now  stripped 
of  all  those  recommendations,  for  the  sake  of  which  it 
was  dear  to  me.  But  even  this  consolation  is  denied 
me.  I  am  compelled  to  drag  for  ever  the  intolerable 
load  of  existence,  upon  penalty,  if  at  any  period,  how- 
ever remote,  I  shake  it  off,  of  having  that  impatience 
regarded  as  confirming  a  charge  of  murder.  Gentle* 
men,  if  by  your  decision  you  could  take  away  my  life, 
without  that  act  being  connected  with  my  disgrace,  I 
would  bless  the  cord  that  stopped  the  breath  of  my 
existence  for  ever. 

"  You  all  know  how  easily  I  might  have  fled  from 
this  purgation.  If  I  had  been  guilty,  should  I  not 
have  embraced  the  opportunity?  But,  as  it  was,  I 
could  not.  Reputation  has  been  the  idol,  the  jewel  of 
my  life.  I  could  never  have  borne  to  think  that  a 
human  creature,  in  the  remotest  part  of  the  globe, 
should  believe  that  I  was  a  criminal.  Alas  !  what  a 
deity  it  is  that  I  have  chosen  for  my  worship !  I  have 
entailed  upon  myself  everlasting  agony  and  despair ! 

"  I  have  but  one  word  to  add.  Gentlemen,  I  charge 
you  to  do  me  the  imperfect  justice  that  is  in  your 


140  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

power  !  My  life  is  a  worthless  thing.  But  my  honour, 
the  empty  remains  of  honour  I  have  now  to  boast,  is 
in  your  judgment,  and  you  will  each  of  you,  from  this 
day,  have  imposed  upon  yourselves  the  task  of  its  vin- 
dicators. It  is  little  that  you  can  do  for  me  ;  but  it  is 
not  less  your  duty  to  do  that  little.  May  that  God  who 
is  the  fountain  of  honour  and  good  prosper  and  protect 
you  !  The  man  who  now  stands  before  you  is  devoted 
to  perpetual  barrenness  and  blast !  He  has  nothing  to 
hope  for  beyond  the  feeble  consolation  of  this  day !  " 

"  You  will  easily  imagine  that  Mr.  Falkland  was  dis- 
charged with  every  circumstance  of  credit.  Nothing 
is  more  to  be  deplored  in  human  institutions,  than  Uiat 
the  ideas  of  mankind  should  have  annexed  a  sentiment 
of  disgrace  to  a  purgation  thus  satisfactory  and  decisive. 
No  one  entertained  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  upon  the 
subject,  and  yet  a  mere  concurrence  of  circumstances 
made  it  necessary  that  the  best  of  men  should  be  pub- 
licly put  on  hie  defence,  as  if  really  under  suspicion 
of  an  atrocious  crime.  It  may  be  granted  indeed  that 
Mr.  Falkland  had  his  faults,  but  those  very  faults  placed 
him  at  a  still  further  distance  from  the  criminality  in 
question.  He  was  the  fool  of  honour  and  fame :  a 
man  whom,  in  the  pursuit  of  reputation,  nothing  could 
divert ;  who  would  have  purchased  the  character  of  a 
true,  gallant,  and  undaunted  hero,  at  the  expense  of 
worlds,  and  who  thought  every  calamity  nominal  but 
a  stain  upon  his  honour.  How  atrociously  absurd  to 
suppose  any  motive  capable  of  inducing  such  a  man  to 
play  the  part  of  a  lurking  assassin  ?  How  unfeeling  to 
oblige  him  to  defend  himself  from  such  an  imputation  ? 
Did  any  man,  and,  least  of  all,  a  man  of  the  purest 
honour,  erer  pass  in  a  moment,  from  a  life  unstained 
by  a  single  act  of  injury,  to  the  consummation  of 
human  depravity? 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  141 

"  When  the  decision  of  the  magistrates  was  declared, 
a  general  murmur  of  applause  and  involuntary  transport 
burst  forth  from  every  one  present.  It  was  at  first  low, 
and  gradually  became  louder.  As  it  was  the  expression 
of  rapturous  delight,  and  an  emotion  disinterested  and 
divine,  so  there  was  an  indescribable  something  in  the 
very  sound,  that  carried  it  home  to  the  heart,  and  con- 
vinced every  spectator  that  there  was  no  merely  per- 
sonal pleasure  which  ever  existed,  that  would  not  be 
foolish  and  feeble  in  the  comparison.  Every  one  strove 
who  should  most  express  his  esteem  of  the  amiable  ac- 
cused. Mr.  Falkland  was  no  sooner  withdrawn  than  the 
gentlemen  present  determined  to  give  a  still  further 
sanction  to  the  business,  by  their  congratulations. 
They  immediately  named  a  deputation  to  wait  upon 
him  for  that  purpose.  Every  one  concurred  to  assist 
the  general  sentiment.  It  was  a  sort  of  sympathetic 
feeling  that  took  hold  upon  all  ranks  and  degrees.  The 
multitude  received  him  with  huzzas,  they  took  his 
horses  from  his  carriage,  dragged  him  along  in  triumph, 
and  attended  him  many  miles  on  his  return  to  his  own 
habitation.  It  seemed  as  if  a  public  examination  upon 
a  criminal  charge,  which  had  hitherto  been  considered 
in  every  event  as  a  brand  of  disgrace,  was  converted,  in 
the  present  instance,  into  an  occasion  of  enthusiastic 
adoration  and  unexampled  honour. 

"  Nothing  could  reach  the  heart  of  Mr.  Falkland. 
He  was  not  insensible  to  the  general  kindness  and  ex- 
ertions ;  but  it  was  too  evident  that  the  melancholy  that 
had  taken  hold  of  his  mind  was  invincible. 

"  It  was  only  a  few  weeks  after  this  memorable  scene 
that  the  real  murderer  was  discovered.  Every  part  of 
this  story  was  extraordinary.  The  real  murderer  waf 
Hawkins.  He  was  found  with  his  son,  under  a  feigned 
name,  at  a  village  about  thirty  miles  distant,  in  want  of 


142  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

all  the  necessaries  of  life.  He  had  lived  there,  from  the 
period  of  his  flight,  in  so  private  a  manner,  that  all  the 
enquiries  that  had  been  set  on  foot,  by  the  benevolence 
of  Mr.  Falkland,  or  the  insatiable  malice  of  Mr.  Tyrrel, 
had  been  insufficient  to  discover  him.  The  first  thing 
that  had  led  to  the  detection  was  a  parcel  of  clothes 
covered  with  blood,  that  were  found  in  a  ditch,  and 
that,  when  drawn  out,  were  known  by  the  people  of 
the  village  to  belong  to  this  man.  The  murder  of  Mr. 
Tyrrel  was  not  a  circumstance  that  could  be  unknown, 
and  suspicion  was  immediately  roused.  A  diligent  search 
being  made,  the  rusty  handle,  with  part  of  the  blade 
of  a  knife,  was  found  thrown  in  a  corner  of  his  lodging, 
which,  being  applied  to  a  piece  of  the  point  of  a  knife 
that  had  been  broken  in  the  wound,  appeared  exactly 
to  correspond.  Upon  further  enquiry  two  rustics,  who 
had  been  accidentally  on  the  spot,  remembered  to  have 
seen  Hawkins  and  his  son  in  the  town  that  very  evening, 
and  to  have  called  after  them,  and  received  no  answer, 
though  they  were  sure  of  their  persons.  Upon  this  ac- 
cumulated evidence  both  Hawkins  and  his  son  were  tried, 
condemned,  and  afterwards  executed.  In  the  interval 
between  the  sentence  and  execution  Hawkins  confessed 
his  guilt  with  many  marks  of  compunction  ;  though 
there  are  persons  by  whom  this  is  denied ;  but  I  have 
taken  some  pains  to  enquire  into  the  fact,  and  am  per- 
suaded that  their  disbelief  is  precipitate  and  ground- 
less. 

"  The  cruel  injustice  that  this  man  had  suffered  from 
his  village-tyrant  was  not  forgotten  upon  the  present 
occasion.  It  was  by  a  strange  fatality  that  the  barba- 
rous proceedings  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  seemed  never  to  fall 
short  of  their  completion ;  and  even  his  death  served 
eventually  to  consummate  the  ruin  of  a  man  he  hated  ; 
a  circumstance  which,  if  it  could  have  come  to  his 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  143 

knowledge,  would  perhaps  have  in  some  measure  con- 
soled him  for  his  untimely  end.  This  poor  Hawkins 
was  surely  entitled  to  some  pity,  since  his  being  finally 
urged  to  desperation,  and  brought,  together  with  his 
son,  to  an  ignominious  fate,  was  originally  owing  to 
the  sturdiness  of  his  virtue  and  independence.  But 
the  compassion  of  the  public  was  in  a  great  measure 
shut  against  him,  as  they  thought  it  a  piece  of  barbarous 
and  unpardonable  selfishness,  that  he  had  not  rather 
come  boldly  forward  to  meet  the  consequences  of  his 
own  conduct,  than  suffer  a  man  of  so  much  public 
worth  as  Mr.  Falkland,  and  who  had  been  so  desirous 
of  doing  him  good,  to  be  exposed  to  the  risk  of  being 
tried  for  a  murder  that  he  had  committed. 

"  From  this  time  to  the  present  Mr.  Falkland  has 
been  nearly  such  as  you  at  present  see  him.  Though  it 
be  several  years  }since  these  transactions,  the  impres- 
sion they  made  is  for  ever  fresh  in  the  mind  of  our  un- 
fortunate patron.  From  thenceforward  his  habiu 
became  totally  different.  He  had  before  been  fond  of 
public  scenes,  and  acting  a  part  in  the  midst  of  the 
people  among  whom  he  immediately  resided.  He  now 
made  himself  a  rigid  recluse.  He  had  no  associates,  no 
friends.  Inconsolable  himself,  he  yet  wished  to  treat 
others  with  kindness.  There  was  a  solemn  sadness  in 
his  manner,  attended  with  the  most  perfect  gentleness 
and  humanity.  Everybody  respects  him,  for  his  bene- 
volence is  unalterable ;  but  there  is  a  stately  coldness 
and  reserve  in  his  behaviour,  which  makes  it  difficult 
for  those  about  him  to  regard  him  with  the  familiarity 
of  affection.  These  symptoms  are  uninterrupted,  except 
at  certain  times  when  his  sufferings  become  intolerable, 
and  he  displays  the  marks  of  a  furious  insanity.  At 
those  times  his  language  is  fearful  and  mysterious,  and 
he  seems  to  figure  to  himself  by  turns  every  sort  of  per- 


144  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

secution  and  alarm,  which  may  be  supposed  to  attend 
upon  an  accusation  of  murder.  But,  sensible  of  his  own 
weakness,  lie  is  anxious  at  such  times  to  withdraw  into 
solitude :  and  his  domestics  in  general  know  nothing 
of  him,  but  the  uncommunicative  and  haughty,  but 
mild,  dejection  that  accompanies  every  thing  he  djes." 


END    OF    THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  1  1  ' 


VOLUME    THE    SECOND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

I  HAVE  stated  the  narrative  of  Mr.  Collins,  inter- 
spersed with  such  other  information  as  I  was  able  to 
collect,  with  all  the  exactness  that  my  memory,  assist- 
ed by  certain  memorandums  I  made  at  the  time,  will 
afford.  I  do  not  pretend  to  warrant  the  authenticity 
of  any  part  of  these  memoirs,  except  so  much  as  fell 
under  my  own  knowledge,  and  that  part  shall  be  given 
with  the  same  simplicity  and  accuracy,  that  I  would 
observe  towards  a  court  which  was  to  decide  in  the  last 
resort  upon  every  thing  dear  to  me.  The  same  scru- 
pulous fidelity  restrains  me  from  altering  the  manner 
of  Mr.  Collins's  narrative  to  adapt  it  to  the  precepts 
of  my  own  taste;  and  it  will  soon  be  perceived  how 
essential  that  narrative  is  to  the  elucidation  of  my 
history. 

The  intention  of  my  friend  in  this  communication 
was  to  give  me  ease;  but  he  in  reality  added  to  my 
embarrassment.  Hitherto  I  had  had  no  intercourse 
with  the  world  and  its  passions ;  and,  though  I  was  not 
totally  unacquainted  with  them  as  they  appear  in  books, 
this  proved  of  little  service  to  me  when  I  came  to  wit- 
ness them  myself.  The  case  seemed  entirely  altered, 
when  the  subject  of  those  passions  was  continually  be- 
fore my  eyes,  and  the  events  had  happened  but  the 
other  day  as  it  were,  in  the  very  neighbourhood  where 
I  lived.  There  was  a  connection  and  progress  in.  this 

L 


146  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

narrative,  which  made  it  altogether  unlike  the  little  vil- 
lage incidents  I  had  hitherto  known.  My  feelings 
were  successively  interested  for  the  different  persons 
that  were  brought  upon  the  scene.  My  veneration 
was  excited  for  Mr.  Clare,  and  my  applause  for  the  in- 
trepidity of  Mrs.  Hammond.  I  was  astonished  that 
any  human  creature  should  be  so  shockingly  perverted 
as  Mr.  Tyrrel.  I  paid  the  tribute  of  my  tears  to  the 
memory  of  the  artless  Miss  Melville.  I  found  a  thou- 
sand fresh  reasons  to  admire  and  love  Mr.  Falkland. 

At  present  I  was  satisfied  with  thus  considering 
every  incident  in  its  obvious  sense.  But  the  story  I 
had  heard  was  for  ever  in  my  thoughts,  and  I  was  pe- 
culiarly interested  to  comprehend  its  full  import.  I 
turned  it  a  thousand  ways,  and  examined  it  in  every 
point  of  view.  In  the  original  communication  it  ap- 
peared sufficiently  distinct  and  satisfactory;  but  as  I 
brooded  over  it,  it  gradually  became  mysterious.  There 
was  something  strange  in  the  character  of  Hawkins. 
So  firm,  so  sturdily  honest  and  just,  as  he  appeared  at 
first ;  all  at  once  to  become  a  murderer  !  His  first  be- 
haviour under  the  prosecution,  how  accurately  was  it 
calculated  to  prepossess  one  in  his  favour  !  To  be 
sure,  if  he  were  guilty,  it  was  unpardonable  in  him  to 
permit  a  man  of  so  much  dignity  and  worth  as  Mr. 
Falkland,  to  suffer  under  the  imputation  of  his  crime  I 
And  yet  I  could  not  help  bitterly  compassionating  the 
honest  fellow,  brought  to  the  gallows,  as  he  was,  strictly 
speaking,  by  the  machinations  of  that  devil  incarnate, 
Mr,  Tyrrel.  His  son,  too,  that  son  for  whom  he  volun- 
tarily sacrificed  his  all,  to  die  with  him  at  the  same 
tree  ;  surely  never  was  a  story  more  affecting  ! 

Was  it  possible,  after  all,  that  Mr.  Falkland  should 
be  the  murderer  ?  The  reader  will  scarcely  believe, 
that  tfce  Ude4  suggested  itself  to  my  mind  that  I  would 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  147 

ask  him.     It  was  but  a  passing  thought ;  but  it  serves 
to  mark  the  simplicity  of  my  character.     Then  I  recol- 
lected the  virtues  of  my  master,  almost  too  sublime  for 
human  nature;  I  thought  of  his  sufferings  so  unexam- 
pled, so  unmerited;  and  chid  myself  for  the  suspicion. 
The  dying  confession  of  Hawkins  recurred  to  my  mind  ; 
and   I  felt  that  there  was  no  longer  a  possibility  of 
doubting.     And  yet  what  was  the  meaning  of  all  Mr. 
Falkland's  agonies  and  terrors  ?  In  fine,  the  idea  having 
once  occurred  to  my  mind,  it  was  fixed  there  for  ever. 
My  thoughts  fluctuated  from  conjecture  to  conjecture, 
but  this  was  the  centre  about  which  they  revolved.     I 
determined  to  place  myself  as  a  watch  upon  my  patron. 
The  instant  I  had  chosen  this  employment  for  my- 
self, I  found  a  strange  sort  of  pleasure  in  it.     To  do 
what  is  forbidden  always  has  its  charms,  because  we 
have  an  indistinct  apprehension  of  something  arbitrary 
and  tyrannical  in  the  prohibition.      To  be  a  spy  upon 
Mr.  Falkland  !     That  there  was  danger  in  the  employ- 
ment,  served  to   give   an   alluring  pungency  to  the 
choice.     I  remembered  the  stern  reprimand  I  had  re- 
ceived, and  his   terrible   looks;  and   the  recollection 
gave  a  kind  of  tingling  sensation,  not  altogether  unal- 
lied  to  enjoyment.     The  further  I  advanced,  the  more 
the  sensation  was  irresistible.     I  seemed  to  myself  per- 
petually upon   the  brink  of  being  countermined,  and 
perpetually  roused  to  guard  my  designs.     The  more 
impenetrable  Mr.  Falkland  was  determined  to  be,  the 
more  uncontrollable  was  my  curiosity.     Through  the 
whole,  my  alarm  and  apprehension  of  personal  danger 
had  a  large  mixture  of  frankness  and  simplicity,  con- 
scious of  meaning  no  ill,  that   made  me   continually 
ready  to  say  every  thing  that  was  upon  my  mind,  and 
would  not  suffer  me  to  believe  that,  when  things  were 
L  2 


14-8  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

brought  to  the  test,  any  one  could  be  seriously  angry 
with  me. 

These  reflections  led  gradually  to  a  new  state  of  my 
mind.  When  I  had  first  removed  into  Mr.  Falkland's 
family,  the  novelty  of  the  scene  rendered  me  cautious 
and  reserved.  The  distant  and  solemn  manners  of  my 
master  seemed  to  have  annihilated  my  constitutional 
gaiety.  But  the  novelty  by  degrees  wore  off,  and  my 
constraint  in  the  same  degree  diminished.  The  story 
I  had  now  heard,  and  the  curiosity  it  excited,  restored 
to  me  activity,  eagerness,  and  courage.  I  had  always 
had  a  propensity  to  communicate  my  thoughts;  my 
age  was,  of  course,  inclined  to  talkativeness;  and  I 
ventured  occasionally  in  a  sort  of  hesitating  way,  as  if 
questioning  whether  such  a  conduct  might  be  allowed, 
to  express  my  sentiments  as  they  arose,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  Mr.  Falkland. 

The  first  time  I  did  so,  he  looked  at  me  with  an  air 
of  surprise,  made  me  no  answer,  and  presently  took  oc- 
casion to  leave  me.  The  experiment  was  soon  after 
repeated.  My  master  seemed  half  inclined  to  encou- 
rage me,  and  yet  doubtful  whether  he  might  venture. 
He  had  long  been  a  stranger  to  pleasure  of  every  sort, 
and  my  artless  and  untaught  remarks  appeared  to  pro- 
mise him  some  amusement.  Could  an  amusement  of 
this  sort  be  dangerous  ? 

In  this  uncertainty  he  could  not  probably  find  it  in 
his  heart  to  treat  with  severity  my  innocent  effusions. 
I  needed  but  little  encouragement ;  for  the  perturbation 
of  my  mind  stood  in  want  of  this  relief.  My  simplicity, 
arising  from  my  being  a  total  stranger  to  the  intercourse 
of  the  world,  was  accompanied  with  a  mind  in  some 
degree  cultivated  with  reading,  and  perhaps  not  alto- 
gether destitute  of  observation  and  talent.  My  re- 
marks were  therefore  perpetually  unexpected,  at  one 


CALKB    WILLIAMS. 


149 


time  implying  extreme  ignorance,  and  at  another  some 
portion  of  acuteness,  but  at  all  times  having  an  air  of 
innocence,  frankness,  and  courage.  There  was  still  an 
apparent  want  of  design  in  the  manner,  even  after  I 
wag  excited  accurately  to  compare  my  observations, 
and  study  the  inferences  to  which  they  led ;  for  the 
effect  of  old  Kabit  was  more  visible  than  that  of  a  re- 
cently conceived  purpose  which  was  yet  scarcely 
mature. 

Mr.  Falkland's  situation  was  like  that  of  a  fish  that 
plays  with  the  bait  employed  to  entrap  him.  By  my 
manner  he  was  in  a  certain  degree  encouraged  to  lay 
aside  his  usual  reserve,  and  relax  his  stateliness;  till 
some  abrupt  observation  or  interrogatory  stung  him 
into  recollection,  and  brought  back  his  alarm.  Still 
it  was  evident  that  he  bore  about  him  a  secret  wound. 
Whenever  the  cause  of  his  sorrows  was  touched,  though 
in  a  manner  the  most  indirect  and  remote,  his  counte 
nance  altered,  his  distemper  returned,  and  it  was  with 
difficulty  that  he  could  suppress  his  emotions,  some- 
times conquering  himself  with  painful  effort,  and  some- 
times  bursting  into  a  sort  of  paroxysm  of  insanity,  and 
hastening  to  bury  himself  in  solitude. 

These  appearances  I  too  frequently  interpreted  into 
grounds  of  suspicion,  though  I  might  with  equal  proba- 
bility and  more  liberality  have  ascribed  them  to  the 
cruel  mortifications  he  had  encountered  in  the  objects 
of  his  darling  ambition.  Mr.  Collins  had  strongly 
urged  me  to  secrecy  ;  and  Mr.  Falkland,  whenever  my 
gesture  or  his  consciousness  impressed  him  with  the 
idea  of  ray  knowing  more  than  I  expressed,  looked  at 
me  with  wistful  earnestness,  as  questioning  what  was 
the  degree  of  information  I  possessed,  and  how  it  was 
obtained.  But  again  at  our  next  interview  the  simple 
vivacity  of  my  manner  restored  his  tranquillity,  obliter- 
L  3 


150  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

ated  the  emotion  of  which  I  had  been  the  cause,  and 
placed  things  afresh  in  their  former  situation. 

The  longer  this  humble  familiarity  on  my  part  had 
continued,  the  more  effort  it  would  require  to  suppress 
it ;  and  Mr.  Falkland  was  neither  willing  to  mortify  me 
by  a  severe  prohibition  of  speech,  nor  even  perhaps  to 
make  me  of  so  much  consequence,  as  that  prohibition 
might  seem  to  imply.  Though  I  was  curious,  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  I  had  the  object  of  my  enquiry 
for  ever  in  my  mind,  or  that  my  questions  and  innuen- 
does were  perpetually  regulated  with  the  cunning  of  a 
grey-headed  inquisitor.  The  secret  wound  of  Mr. 
Falkland's  mind  was  much  more  uniformly  present  to 
his  recollection  than  to  mine ;  and  a  thousand  times  he 
applied  the  remarks  that  occurred  in  conversation ; 
when  I  had  not  the  remotest  idea  of  such  an  applica- 
tion, till  some  singularity  in  his  manner  brought  it  back 
to  my  thoughts.  The  consciousness  of  this  nrorbid 
sensibility,  and  the  imagination  that  its  influence  might 
perhaps  constitute  the  whole  of  the  case,  served  probably 
to  spur  Mr.  Falkland  again  to  the  charge,  and  connect 
a  sentiment  of  shame,  with  every  project  that  suggested 
itself  for  interrupting  the  freedom  of  our  intercourse. 

I  will  give  a  specimen  of  the  conversations  to  which 
I  allude;  and,  as  it  shall  be  selected  from  those  which 
began  upon  topics  the  most  general  and  remote,  the 
reader  will  easily  imagine  the  disturbance  that  was 
almost  daily  endured  by  a  mind  so  tremblingly  alive  as 
that  of  my  patron. 

"  Pray,  sir,"  said  I,  one  day  as  I  was  assisting  Mr. 
Falkland  in  arranging  some  papers,  previously  to  their 
being  transcribed  into  his  collection,  "  how  came  Alex- 
ander of  Macedon  to  be  surnamed  the  Great  ?  " 

"  How  came  it  ?  Did  you  never  read  his  history?" 
.  «  Yes,  sir," 


CALEB    \VI1.I.  I  VMS.  151 

"  Well,  Williams,  and  could  you  find  no  reasons 
then 

"  Why,  I  do  not  know,  sir.  I  could  find  reasons  why 
he  should  be  so  famous ;  but  every  man  that  is  talked 
of  is  not  admired.  Judges  differ  about  the  merits  of 
Alexander.  Doctor  Prideaux  says  in  his  Connections 
that  he  deserves  only  to  be  called  the  Great  Cut- 
throat ;  and  the  author  of  Tom  Jones  has  written  a 
volume,  to  prove  that  he  and  all  other  conquerors 
ought  to  be  classed  with  Jonathan  Wild." 

Mr.  Falkland  reddened  at  these  citations. 

"  Accursed  blasphemy  !  Did  these  authors  think  that, 
by  the  coarseness  of  their  ribaldry,  they  could  destroy 
his  well-earned  fame?  Are  learning,  sensibility,  and 
taste,  no  securities  to  exempt  their  possessor  from  this 
vulgar  abuse  ?  Did  you  ever  read,  Williams,  of  a  man 
more  gallant,  generous,  and  free  ?  Was  ever  mortal  so 
completely  the  reverse  of  every  thing  engrossing  and 
selfish  ?  He  formed  to  himself  a  sublime  image  of  ex- 
cellence, and  his  only  ambition  was  to  realise  it  in  his 
own  story.  Remember  his  giving  away  every  thing 
when  he  set  out  upon  his  grand  expedition,  professedly 
reserving  for  himself  nothing  but  hope.  Recollect  his 
heroic  confidence  in  Philip  the  physician,  and  his  entire 
and  unalterable  friendship  for  Ephestion.  He  treated 
the  captive  family  of  Darius  with  the  most  cordial  ur- 
banity, and  the  venerable  Sysigambis  with  all  the  ten- 
derness and  attention  of  a  son  to  his  mother.  Never 
take  the  judgment,  Williams,  upon  such  a  subject  of  a 
clerical  pedant,  or  a  Westminster  justice.  Examine 
for  yourself,  and  you  will  find  in  Alexander  a  model  of 
honour,  generosity,  and  disinterestedness, — a  man  who, 
for  the  cultivated  liberality  of  his.mind,  and  the  unpa- 
ralleled grandeur  of  his  projects,  must  stand  alone  the 
spectacle  and  admiration  of  all  ages  of  the  world." 


152  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

"  Ah,  sir  !  it  is  a  fine  thing  for  us  to  sit  here  and  com- 
pose his  panegyric.  But  shall  I  forget  what  a  vast  ex- 
pense  was  bestowed  in  erecting  the  monument  of  his 
fame  ?  Was  not  he  the  common  disturber  of  mankind  ? 
Did  not  he  over-run  nations  that  would  never  have 
heard  of  him  but  for  his  devastations  ?  How  many 
hundred  thousands  of  lives  did  he  sacrifice  in  his 
career  ?  What  must  I  think  of  his  cruelties  ;  a  whole 
tribe  massacred  for  a  crime  committed  by  their  ancestors 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before;  fifty  thousand 
sold  into  slavery ;  two  thousand  crucified  for  their  gal- 
lant defence  of  their  country  ?  Man  is  surely  a  strange 
sort  of  creature,  who  never  praises  any  one  more 
heartily  than  him  who  has  spread  destruction  and  ruin 
over  the  face  of  nations  !" 

"  The  way  of  thinking  you  express,  Williams,  is  na- 
tural enough,  and  I  cannot  blame  you  for  it.  But  let 
me  hope  that  you  will  become  more  liberal.  The  death 
of  a  hundred  thousand  men  is  at  first  sight  very  shock- 
ing ;  but  what  in  reality  are  a  hundred  thousand  such 
men,  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  sheep?  It  is 
mind,  Williams,  the  generation  of  knowledge  and  virtue, 
that  we  ought  to  love.  This  was  the  project  of  Alex- 
ander;  he  set  out  in  a  great  undertaking  to  civilise 
mankind ;  he  delivered  the  vast  continent  of  Asia  from 
the  stupidity  and  degradation  of  the  Persian  monarchy ; 
and,  though  he  was  cut  off  in  the  midst  of  his  career, 
we  may  easily  perceive  the  vast  effects  of  his  project. 
Grecian  literature  and  cultivation,  the  Seleucidae,  the 
Antiochuses,  and  the  Ptolemies  followed,  in  nations 
which  before  had  been  sunk  to  the  condition  of  brutes. 
Alexander  was  the  builder,  as  notoriously  as  the 
destroyer,  of  cities." 

"  And  yet,  sir,  I  am  afraid  that  the  pike  and  the  battle- 
axe,  are  not  the  right  instruments  for  making  men  wise. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  153 

Suppose  it  were  admitted  that  the  lives  of  men  were  to 
be  >;u-ritiri-d  without  ivmorx.'  it' a  paramount  irooil  \\  ere 
to  result,  it  seems  to  me  as  if  murder  and  massacre 
were  but  a  very  left-handed  way  of  producing  civilisa- 
tion and  love.  But  pray,  do  not  you  think  this  great 
hero  was  a  sort  of  a  madman  ?  What  now  will  you 
say  to  his  firing  the  palace  of  Persepolis,  his  weeping 
for  other  worlds  to  conquer,  and  his  marching  his 
whole  army  over  the  burning  sands  of  Libya,  merely  to 
visit  a  temple,  and  persuade  mankind  that  he  was  the 
son  of  Jupiter  Ammon?  " 

"  Alexander,  my  boy,  lias. been  much  misunderstood. 
Mankind  have  revenged  themselves  upon  him  by  mis- 
representation, for  having  so  far  eclipsed  the  rest  of  his 
species.  It  was  necessary  to  the  realising  his  project, 
that  he  should  pass  for  a  god.  It  was  the  only  way  by 
which  he  could  get  a  firm  hold  upon  the  veneration  of 
the  stupid  and  bigoted  Persians.  It  was  this,  and  not 
a  mad  vanity,  that  was  the  source  of  his  proceeding. 
And  how  much  had  he  to  struggle  with  in  this  respect, 
in  the  unapprehending  obstinacy  of  some  of  his  Mace- 
donians ?'* 

••  Why  then,  sir,  at  last  Alexander  did  but  employ 
means  that  all  politicians  profess  to  use,  as  well  as  he. 
He  dragooned  men  into  wisdom,  and  cheated  them  into 
the  pursuit  of  their  own  happiness.  But  what  is  worse, 
sir,  this  Alexander,  in  the  paroxysm  of  his  headlong 
rage,  spared  neither  friend  nor  foe.  You  will  not  pre- 
tend to  justify  the  excesses  of  his  ungovernable  passion. 
It  is  impossible,  sure,  that  a  word  can  be  said  for  a 
man  whom  a  momentary  provocation  can  hurry  into 
the  commission  of  murders " 

The  instant  I  had  uttered  these  words,  I  felt  what  it 
was  that  I  had  done.  There  was  a  magnetical  sympathy 
between  me  and  my  patron,  so  that  their  effect  was  not 


154  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

sooner  produced  upon  him,  than  my  own  mind  re- 
proached me  with  the  inhumanity  of  the  allusion.  Our 
confusion  was  mutual.  The  blood  forsook  at  once  the 
transparent  complexion  of  Mr.  Falkland,  and  then 
rushed  back  again  with  rapidity  and  fierceness.  I  dared 
not  utter  a  word,  lest  I  should  commit  a  new  error, 
worse  than  that  into  which  I  had  just  fallen.  After  a 
short,  but  severe,  struggle  to  continue  the  conversation, 
Mr.  Falkland  began  with  trepidation,  but  afterwards 
became  calmer :  — 

"  You  are  not  candid  — Alexander — You  must  learn 
more  clemency  —  Alexander,  I  say,  does  not  deserve 
this  rigour.  Do  you  remember  his  tears,  his  remorse, 
his  determined  abstinence  from  food,  which  he  could 
scarcely  be  persuaded  to  relinquish?  Did  not  that 
prove  acute  feeling  and  a  rooted  principle  of  equity  ? — 
Well,  well,  Alexander  was  a  true  and  judicious  lover  of 
mankind,  and  his  real  merits  have  been  little  compre- 
hended." 

I  know  not  how  to  make  the  state  of  my  mind  at 
that  moment  accurately  understood.  When  one  idea 
has  got  possession  of  the  soul,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to 
keep  it  from  finding  its  way  to  the  lips.  Error,  once 
committed,  has  a  fascinating  power,  like  that  ascribed 
to  the  eyes  of  the  rattlesnake,  to  draw  us  into  a  second 
error.  It  deprives  us  of  that  proud  confidence  in  our 
own  strength,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  so  much 
of  our  virtue.  Curiosity  is  a  restless  propensity,  and 
often  does  but  hurry  us  forward  the  more  irresistibly, 
the  greater  is  the  danger  that  attends  its  indulgence. 

"  Clitus,"  said  I,  "  was  a  man  of  very  coarse  and  pro- 
voking manners,  was  he  not  ?  " 

Mr.  Falkland  felt  the  full  force  of  this  appeal.  He 
gave  me  a  penetrating  look,  as  if  he  would  see  my  very 
soul.  His  eyes  were  then  in  an  instant  withdrawn. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  155 

I  could  pinvivt'  him  st-i/ed  with  a  convulsive  shud- 
dering which,  though  strongly  counteracted,  and  there- 
fore scarcely  visible,  had  I  know  not  what  of  terrible 
in  it.  He  left  his  employment,  strode  about  the  room 
in  anger,  his  visage  gradually  assumed  an  expression  as 
of  supernatural  barbarity,  he  quitted  the  apartment 
abruptly,  and  flung  the  door  with  a  violence  that  seemed 
to  shake  the  house. 

•  « Is  this,"  said  I,  « the  fruit  of  conscious  guilt,  or  of  the 
disgust  that  a  man  of  honour  conceives  at  guilt  unde- 
servedly imputed  ?  " 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  reader  will  feel  how  rapidly  I. was  advancing  to 
the  brink  of  the  precipice.  I  had  a  confused  appre- 
hension of  what  I  was  doing,  but  I  could  not  stop  my- 
self. "  Is  it  possible,"  said  I,  "  that  Mr.  Falkland,  who  is 
thus  overwhelmed  with  a  sense  of  the  unmerited  dis- 
honour that  has  been  fastened  upon  him  in  the  face  of 
the  world,  will  long  endure  the  presence  of  a  raw  and 
unfriended  youth,  who  is  perpetually  bringing  back  that 
dishonour  to  his  recollection,  and  who  seems  himself 
the  most  forward  to  entertain  the  accusation  ?  " 

I  felt  indeed  that  Mr.  Falkland  would  not  hastily  in- 
cline to  dismiss  me,  for  the  same  reason  that  restrained 
him  from  many  other  actions,  which  might  seem  to 
savour  of  a  too  tender  and  ambiguous  sensibility.  But 
this  reflection  was  little  adapted  to  comfort  me.  That 
he  should  cherish  in  his  heart  a  growing  hatred  against 
me,  and  that  he  should  think  himself  obliged  to  retain 
me  a  continual  thorn  in  his  side,  was  an  idea  by  no  means 
of  favourable  augury  to  my  future  peace. 


156  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

It  was  some  time  after  this  that,  in  clearing  out  a  case 
of  drawers,  I  found  a  paper  that,  by  some  accident,  had 
slipped  behind  one  of  the  drawers,  and  been  overlooked. 
At  another  time  perhaps  my  curiosity  might  have  given 
way  to  the  laws  of  decorum,  and  I  should  have  restored 
it  unopened  to  my  master,  its  owner.  But  my  eagerness 
for  information  had  been  too  much  stimulated  by  the 
preceding  incidents,  to  allow  me  at  present  to  neglect 
any  occasion  of  obtaining  it.  The  paper  proved  to  be  a 
letter  written  by  the  elder  Hawkins,  and  from  its  con- 
tents seemed  to  have  been  penned,  when  he  had  first 
been  upon  the  point  of  absconding  from  the  persecu- 
tions of  Mr.  Tyrrel.  It  was  as  follows : — 

"  Honourable  Sir, 

"  I  have  waited  some  time  in  daily  hope  of  your 
honour's  return  into  these  parts.  Old  Warnes  and  his 
dame,  who  are  left  to  take  care  of  your  house,  tell  me 
they  cannot  say  when  that  will  be,  nor  justly  in  what 
part  of  England  you  are  at  present.  For  my  share, 
misfortune  comes  so  thick  upon  me,  that  I  must  deter- 
mine upon  something  (that  is  for  certain),  and  out  of 
hand.  Our  squire,  who  I  must  own  at  first  used  me 
kindly  enough,  though  I  am  afraid  that  was  partly  out 
of  spite  to  squire  Underwood,  has  since  determined  to 
be  the  ruin  of  me.  Sir,  I  have  been  no  craven  ;  I  fought 
it  up  stoutly  ;  for  after  all,  you  know,  God  bless  your 
honour  !  it  is  but  a  man  to  a  man  ;  but  he  has  been  too 
much  for  me. 

"  Perhaps  if  I  were  to  ride  over  to  the  market-town 
and  enquire  of  Munsle,  your  lawyer,  he  could  tell  me 
how  to  direct  to  you.  But  having  hoped  and  waited 
o'  this  fashion,  and  all  in  vain,  has  put  me  upon  other 
thoughts.  I  was  in  no  hurry,  sir,  to  apply  to  you  ;  for 
I  do  not  love  to  be  a  trouble  to  any  body.  I  kept 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  157 

that  for  my  last  stake.  Well,  sir,  and  now  tliat  has 
failed  me  like,  I  am  ashamed,  as  it  were,  to  have 
thought  of  it.  Have  not  I,  thinks  I,  arms  and  legs 
as  well  as  other  people  ?  I  am  driven  out  of  house 
and  home.  Well,  and  what  then  ?  Sure  I  ara't  a  cab- 
bage, that  if  you  pull  it  out  of  the  ground  it  must 
die.  I  am  pennyless.  True ;  and  how  many  hundreds 
are  there  that  live  from  hand  to  mouth  all  the  days 
of  their  life  ?  (Begging  your  honour's  pardon)  thinks  I, 
if  we  little  folks  had  but  the  wit  to  do  for  ourselves,  the 
great  folks  would  not  be  such  maggotty  changelings  as 
they  are.  They  would  begin  to  look  about  them. 

«  But  there  is  another  thing  that  has  swayed  with  me 
more" than  all  the  rest.  I  do  not  know  how  to  tell  you,  sir, 
—  My  poor  boy,  my  Leonard,  the  pride  of  my  life,  has 
been  three  weeks  in  the  county  jail.  It  is  true  indeed, 
sir.  Squire  Tyrrel  put  him  there.  Now,  sir,  every  time 
that  I  lay  my  head  upon  my  pillow  under  my  own  little 
roof,  my  heart  smites  me  with  the  situation  of  my 
Leonard.  I  do  not  mean  so  much  for  the  hardship  ;  I 
do  not  so  much  matter  that.  I  do  not  expect  him  to 
go  through  the  world  upon  velvet !  I  am  not  such  a 
fool.  But  who  can  tell  what  may  hap  in  a  jail !  I  have 
been  three  times  to  see  him  ;  and  there  is  one  man  in 
the  same  quarter  of  the  prison  that  looks  so  wicked !  I 
do  not  much  fancy  the  looks  of  the  rest.  To  be  sure, 
Leonard  is  as  good  a  lad  as  ever  lived.  I  think  he  will 
not  give  his  mind  to  such.  But  come  what  will,  I  am 
determined  he  shall  not  stay  among  them  twelve  hours 
longer.  I  am  an  obstinate  old  fool  perhaps ;  but  I  have 
taken  it  into  my  head,  and  I  will  do  it.  Do  not  ask  me 
what.  But,  if  I  were  to  write  to  your  honour,  and  wait 
for  your  answer,  it  might  take  a  week  or  ten  days  more. 
I  must  not  think  of  it ! 

11  Squire  Tyrrel  is  very  headstrong,  and  you,  your 


158  CALEB     WILLIAMS. 

honour,  might  be  a  little  hottish,  or  so.  No,  I  would 
not  have  any  body  quarrel  for  me.  There  has  been 
mischief  enough  done  already;  and  I  will  get  myself 
out  of  the  way.  So  I  write  this,  your  honour,  merely 
to  unload  my  mind.  I  feel  myself  equally  as  much 
bound  to  respect  and  love  you,  as  if  you  had  done  every 
thing  for  me,  that  I  believe  you  would  have  done  if 
things  had  chanced  differently.  It  is  most  likely  you 
will  never  hear  of  me  any  more.  If  it  should  be  so,  set 
your  worthy  heart  at  rest.  I  know  myself  too  well,  ever 
to  be  tempted  to  do  any  thing  that  is  really  bad.  I 
have  now  my  fortune  to  seek  in  the  world.  I  have  been 
used  ill  enough,  God  knows.  But  I  bear  no  malice  ; 
my  heart  is  at  peace  with  all  mankind ;  and  I  forgive 
every  body.  It  is  like  enough  that  poor  Leonard  and 
I  may  have  hardship  enough  to  undergo,  among  strangers, 
and  being  obliged  to  hide  ourselves  like  housebreakers 
or  highwaymen.  But  I  defy  all  the  malice  of  fortune 
to  make  us  do  an  ill  thing.  That  consolation  we  will 
always  keep  against  all  the  crosses  of  a  heart-breaking 
world. 

'5  God  bless  you  ! 

"  So  prays, 

"  Your  honour's  humble  servant  to  command, 
"  BENJAMIN  HAWKINS." 

I  read  this  letter  with  considerable  attention,  and  it 
occasioned  me  many  reflections.  To  my  way  of  think- 
ing it  contained  a  very  interesting  picture  of  a  blunt, 
downright,  honest  mind.  "  It  is  a  melancholy  consider- 
ation," said  I  to  myself;  "  but  such  is  man  !  To  have 
judged  from  appearances  one  would  have  said,  this  is  a 
fellow  to  have  taken  fortune's  buffets  and  rewards  with 
an  incorruptible  mind.  And  yet  see  where  it  all  ends ! 
This  man  was  capable  of  afterwards  becoming  a  mur- 


CALEB    WILLIANfS.  159 

derer,  and  finished  his  life  at  tin-  gallon^.  O  poverty  ! 
thou  art  indeed  omnipotent !  Thou  grindest  us  into 
desperation  ;  thou  contbundest  all  our  boasted  and  most 
(kip-rooted  principles  ;  thou  fillest  us  to  the  very  brim 
with  malice  and  revenge,  and  renderest  us  capable  of 
acts  of  unknown  horror  !  May  I  never  be  visited  by  thee 
in  the  fulness  of  thy  power  !  " 

Having  satisfied  my  curiosity  with  respect  to  this 
paper,  I  took  care  to  dispose  of  it  in  such  a  manner 
as  that  it  shoulo!  be  found  by  Mr.  Falkland ;  at  the  same 
time  that,  in  obedience  to  the  principle  which  at  present 
governed  me  with  absolute  dominion,  I  was  willing  that 
the  way  in  which  it  offered  itself  to  his  attention  should 
suggest  to  him  the  idea  that  it  had  possibly  passed 
through  ray  hands.  The  next  morning  I  saw  him,  and 
I  exerted  myself  to  lead  the  conversation,  which  by  this 
time  I  well  knew  how  to  introduce,  by  insensible  degrees 
to  the  point  I  desired.  After  several  previous  questions, 
remarks,  and  rejoinders,  I  continued :  — 

"  Well,  sir,  after  all,  I  cannot  help  feeling  very  un- 
comfortably as  to  my  ideas  of  human  nature,  when  I  find 
that  there  is  no  dependence  to  be  placed  upon  its  perse- 
verance, and  that,  at  least  among  the  illiterate,  the  most 
promising  appearances  may  end  in  the  foulest  disgrace." 

"  You  think,  then,  that  literature  and  a  cultivated 
mind  are  the  only  assurance  from  the  constancy  of 
our  principles  ! " 

"  Humph  ! — why  do  you  suppose,  sir,  that  learning 
and  ingenuity  do  not  often  serve  people  rather  to  hide 
their  crimes  than  to  restrain  them  from  committing 
them  ?  History  tellsnis  strange  things  in  that  respect." 

"  Williams,"  said  Mr.  Falkland,  a  little  disturbed, 
u  you  are  extremely  given  to  censure  and  severity." 

"  1  hope  not.  I  am  sure  I  am  most  fond  of  looking 
on  the  other  side  of  the  picture,  and  considering  how 


160  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

many  men  have  been  aspersed,  and  even  at  some  time 
or  other  almost  torn  to  pieces  by  their  fellow-creatures, 
whom,  when  properly  understood,  we  find  worthy  of 
our  reverence  and  love." 

"  Indeed,"  replied  Mr.  Falkland,  with  a  sigh,  "  when 
I  consider  these  things  I  do  not  wonder  at  the  dying 
exclamation  of  Brutus,  '  O  Virtue,  I  sought  thee  as  a 
substance,  but  I  find  thee  an  empty  name  !'  I  am  too 
much  inclined  to  be  of  his  opinion." 

"  Why,  to  be  sure,  sir,  innocence  and  guilt  are  too 
much  confounded  in  human  life.  I  remember  an  af- 
fecting story  of  a  poor  man  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  who  would  have  infallibly  been  hanged  for 
murder  upon  the  strength  of  circumstantial  evidence,  if 
the  person  really  concerned  had  not  been  himself  upon 
the  jury  and  prevented  it." 

In  saying  this  I  touched  the  spring  that  wakened 
madness  in  his  mind.  He  came  up  to  me  with  a  fero- 
cious countenance,  as  if  determined  to  force  me  into  a 
confession  of  my  thoughts.  A  sudden  pang  however 
seemed  to  change  his  design  !  he  drew  back  with  tre- 
pidation, and  exclaimed,  "  Detested  be  the  universe, 
and  the  laws  that  govern  it !  Honour,  justice,  virtue, 
are  all  the  juggle  of  knaves  !  If  it  were  in  my  power  I 
would  instantly  crush  the  whole  system  into  nothing  !  " 

1  replied ;  "  Oh,  sir !  things  are  not  so  bad  as  you 
imagine.  The  world  was  made  for  men  of  sense  to  do 
what  they  will  with.  Its  affairs  cannot  be  better  than 
in  the  direction  of  the  genuine  heroes ;  and  as  in  the 
end  they  will  be  found  the  truest  friends  of  the  whole, 
so  the  multitude  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  look  on,  be 
fashioned,  and  admire." 

Mr.  Falkland  made  a  powerful  effort  to  recover  his 
tranquillity.  "  Williams,"  said  he,  "  you  instruct  me 
well.  You  have  a  right  notion  of  things,  and  I  have 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  161 

great  hopes  of  you.  I  will  be  more  of  a  man ;  I  will 
forget  the  past,  and  do  better  for  the  time  to  come. 
The  future,  the  future  is  always  our  own." 

"  I  am  sorry,  sir,  that  I  have  given  you  pain.  I  am 
afraid  to  say  all  that  I  think.  But  it  is  my  opinion  that 
mistakes  will  ultimately  be  cleared  up,  justice  done, 
and  the  true  state  of  things  come  to  light,  in  spite  of 
the  false  colours  that  may  for  a  time  obscure  it." 

The  idea  I  suggested  did  not  give  Mr.  Falkland  the 
proper  degree  of  delight.  He  suffered  a  temporary 
relapse.  "  Justice ! " — he  muttered.  "  I  do  not  know 
what  is  justice.  My  case  is  not  within  the  reach  of 
common  remedies ;  perhaps  of  none.  I  only  know  that 
I  am  miserable.  I  began  life  with  the  best  intentions 
and  the  most  fervid  philanthropy;  and  here  I  am— 
miserable — miserable  beyond  expression  or  endurance.'* 

Having  said  this,  he  seemed  suddenly  to  recollect 
himself,  and  re-assumed  his  acccustomed  dignity  and 
command.  "  How  came  this  conversation  ?"  cried  he. 
M  Who  gave  you  a  right  to  be  my  confidant?  Base, 
artful  wretch  that  you  are  !  learn  to  be  more  respect- 
ful !  Are  my  passions  to  be  wound  and  unwound  by  an 
insolent  domestic  ?  Do  you  think  I  will  be  an  instru- 
ment to  be  played  on  at  your  pleasure,  till  you  have 
extorted  all  the  treasures  of  my  soul  ?  Begone,  and 
fear  lest  you  be  made  to  pay  for  the  temerity  you  have 
already  committed  1 " 

There  was  an  energy  and  determination  in  the  ges- 
tures with  which  these  words  were  accompanied, 
that  did  not  admit  of  their  being  disputed.  My  mouth 
was  closed ;  I  felt  as  if  deprived  of  all  share  of  activity, 
and  was  only  able  silently  and  passively  to  quit  the 
apartment. 

M 


162  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Two  days  subsequent  to  this  conversation,  Mr.  Falk- 
land ordered  me  to  be  called  to  him.  [I  shall  continue 
to  speak  in  my  narrative  of  the  silent,  as  well  as  the 
articulate  part  of  the  intercourse  between  us.  His 
countenance  was  habitually  animated  and  expressive, 
much  beyond  that  of  any  other  man  I  have  seen.  The 
curiosity  which,  as  I  have  said,  constituted  my  ruling 
passion,  stimulated  me  to  make  it  my  perpetual  study. 
It  will  also  most  probably  happen,  while  I  am  thus 
employed  in  collecting  the  scattered  incidents  of  my 
history,  that  I  shall  upon  some  occasions  annex  to  ap- 
pearances an  explanation  which  I  was  far  from  possess- 
ing at  the  time,  and  was  only  suggested  to  me  through 
the  medium  of  subsequent  events.] 

When  I  entered  the  apartment,  I  remarked  in  Mr. 
Falkland's  countenance  an  unwonted  composure.  This 
composure  however  did  not  seem  to  result  from  in- 
ternal ease,  but  from  an  effort  which,  while  he  prepared 
himself  for  an  interesting  scene,  was  exerted  to  prevent 
his  presence  of  mind,  and  power  of  voluntary  action, 
from  suffering  any  diminution. 

"  Williams,"  said  he,  "  I  am  determined,  whatever  it 
may  cost  me,  to  have  an  explanation  with  you.  You  are 
a  rash  and  inconsiderate  boy,  and  have  given  me  much 
disturbance.  You  ought  to  have  known  that,  though 
I  allow  you  to  talk  with  me  upon  indifferent  subjects, 
it  is  very  improper  in  you  to  lead  the  conversation  to 
any  thing  that  relates  to  my  personal  concerns.  You 
have  said  many  things  lately  in  a  very  mysterious  way, 
and  appear  to  know  something  more  than  I  am  aware 
of.  I  am  equally  at  a  loss  to  guess  how  you  came  by 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  16S 

your  knowledge,  as  of  what  it  consists.  But  I  think  I 
perceive  too  much  inclination  on  your  part  to  trifle  with 
my  peace  of  mind.  That  ought  not  to  be,  nor  have  I 
deserved  any  such  treatment  from  you.  But,  be  that 
as  it  will,  the  guesses  in  which  you  oblige  me  to  employ 
myself  are  too  painful.  It  is  a  sort  of  sporting  with 
my  feelings,  which,  as  a  man  of  resolution,  I  am  de- 
termined to  bring  to  an  end.  I  expect  you  therefore 
to  lay  aside  all  mystery  and  equivocation,  and  inform 
me  explicitly  what  it  is  upon  which  your  allusions  are 
built  What  is  it  you  know  ?  What  is  it  you  want  ? 
I  have  been  too  much  exposed  already  to  unparalleled 
mortification  and  hardship,  and  my  wounds  will  not 
bear  this  perpetual  tampering." 

"  I  feel,  sir,"  answered  I,  "  how  wrong  I  have  been, 
and  am  ashamed  that  such  a  one  as  I  should  have 
given  you  all  this  trouble  and  displeasure.  I  felt  it  at 
the  time  ;but  I  have  been  hurried  along,  I  do  not  know 
how.  I  have  always  tried  to  stop  myself,  but  the  demon 
that  possessed  me  was  too  strong  for  me.  I  know  no- 
thing, sir,  but  what  Mr.  Collins  told  me.  He  told  me 
the  story  of  Mr.  Tyrrel  and  Miss  Melville  and  Hawkins. 
I  am  sure,  sir,  he  said  nothing  but  what  was  to  your 
honour,  and  proved  you  to  be  more  an  angel  than  a 


"  Well,  sir :  I  found  a  letter  written  by  that  Hawkins 
the  other  day ;  did  not  that  letter  fall  into  your  hands  ? 
Did  not  you  read  it?" 

"  For  God's  sake,  sir,  turn  me  out  of  your  house. 
Punish  me  in  some  way  or  other,  that  I  may  forgive 
myself.  I  am  a  foolish,  wicked,  despicable  wretch.  I 
confess,  sir,  I  did  read  the  letter." 

"  And  how  dared  you  read  it  ?  It  was  indeed  very 
wrong  of  you.  But  we  will  talk  of  that  by  and  by. 
M  2 


164-  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

Well,  and  what  did  you  say  to  the  letter  ?  You  know, 
it  seems,  that  Hawkins  was  hanged." 

"  I  say,  sir  ?  why  it  went  to  my  heart  to  read  it.  I 
say,  as  I  said  the  day  before  yesterday,  that  when  I 
see  a  man  of  so  much  principle  afterwards  deliberately 
proceeding  to  the  very  worst  of  crimes,  I  can  scarcely 
bear  to  think  of  it." 

"  That  is  what  you  say  ?  It  seems  too  you  know  — 
accursed  remembrance  !  —  that  I  was  accused  of  this 
crime  ?  " 

I  was  silent. 

"  Well,  sir.  You  know  too,  perhaps,  that  from  the 
hour  the  crime  was  committed  —  yes,  sir,  that  was  the 
date  [and  as  he  said  this,  there  was  somewhat  frightful, 
I  had  almost  said  diabolical,  in  his  countenance]  —  I 
have  not  had  an  hour's  peace ;  I  became  changed  from 
the  happiest  to  the  most  miserable  thing  that  lives; 
sleep  has  fled  from  my  eyes ;  joy  has  been  a  stranger  to 
my  thoughts ;  and  annihilation  I  should  prefer  a  thou- 
sand times  to  the  being  that  I  am.  As  soon  as  I  was 
capable  of  a  choice,  I  chose  honour  and  the  esteem  of 
mankind  as  a  good  I  preferred  to  all  others.  You 
know,  it  seems,  in  how  many  ways  my  ambition  has 
been  disappointed,  —  I  do  not  thank  Collins  for  having 
been  the  historian  of  my  disgrace,  —  would  to  God 
that  night  could  be  blotted  from  the  memory  of  man  ! 
—  But  the  scene  of  that  night,  instead  of  perishing, 
has  been  a  source  of  ever  new  calamity  to  me,  which 
must  flow  for  ever !  Am  I  then,  thus  miserable  and 
ruined,  a  proper  subject  upon  which  for  you  to  exercise 
your  ingenuity,  and  improve  your  power  of  torment- 
ing? Was  it  not  enough  that  I  was  publicly  disho- 
noured? that  I  was  deprived,  by  the  pestilential  in- 
fluence of  some  demon,  of  the  opportunity  of  avenging 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  165 

my  dishonour  ?  No  :  in  addition  to  this,  I  have  been 
charged  with  having  in  this  critical  moment  inter- 
cepted my  own  vengeance  by  the  foulest  of  crimes. 
That  trial  is  past.  Misery  itself  has  nothing  worse  in 
store  for  me,  except  what  you  have  inflicted  :  the 
seeming  to  doubt  of  my  innocence,  which,  after  the  fullest 
and  most  solemn  examination,  has  been  completely 
established.  You  have  forced  me  to  this  explanation. 
You  have  extorted  from  me  a  confidence  which  I  had 
no  inclination  to  make.  But  it  is  a  part  of  the  misery 
of  my  situation,  that  I  am  at  the  mercy  of  every  crea- 
ture, however  little,  who  feels  himself  inclined  to  sport 
with  my  distress.  Be  content.  You  have  brought  me 
low  enough." 

*•  Oh,  sir,  I  am  not  content ;  I  cannot  be  content !  I 
cannot  bear  to  think  what  I  have  done.  I  shall  never 
again  be  able  to  look  in  the  face  of  the  best  of  masters 
and  the  best  of  men.  I  beg  of  you,  sir,  to  turn  me  out 
of  your  service.  Let  me  go  and  hide  myself  where  I 
may  never  see  you  more." 

Mr.  Falkland's  countenance  had  indicated  great 
severity  through  the  whole  of  this  conversation ;  but 
now  it  became  more  harsh  and  tempestuous  than  ever. 
"  How  now,  rascal !"  cried  he.  "  You  want  to  leave 
me,  do  you?  Who  told  you  that  I  wished  to  part 
with  you  ?  But  you  cannot  bear  to  live  with  such  a 
miserable  wretch  as  I  am  !  You  are  not  disposed  to 
put  up  with  the  caprices  of  a  man  so  dissatisfied  and 
unjust !" 

w  Oh,  sir !  do  not  talk  to  me  thus !  Do  with  me. 
any  thing  you  will.  Kill  me  if  you  please." 

••  Kill  you !"  [Volumes  could  not  describe  the  emo* 
tions  with  which  this  echo  of  my  words  was  given  and 
received.] 

"  Sir,  I  could  die  to  serve  you !  I  love  you  more 
M  3 


166  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

than  I  can  express.  I  worship  you  as  a  being  of  a 
superior  nature.  I  am  foolish,  raw,  inexperienced,  — 
worse  than  any  of  these ;  —  but  never  did  a  thought  of 
disloyalty  to  your  service  enter  into  my  heart." 

Here  our  conversation  ended ;  and  the  impression  it 
made  upon  my  youthful  mind  it  is  impossible  to  de- 
scribe. I  thought  with  astonishment,  even  with  rapture, 
of  the  attention  and  kindness  towards  me  I  discovered 
in  Mr.  Falkland,  through  all  the  roughness  of  his 
manner.  I  could  never  enough  wonder  at  finding  myself, 
humble  as  I  was  by  my  birth,  obscure  as  I  had  hitherto 
been,  thus  suddenly  become  of  so  much  importance  to 
the  happiness  of  one  of  the  most  enlightened  and  ac- 
complished men  in  England.  But  this  consciousness 
attached  me  to  my  patron  more  eagerly  than  ever,  and 
made  me  swear  a  thousand  times,  as  I  meditated  upon 
my  situation,  that  I  would  never  prove  unworthy  of  so 
generous  a  protector. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Is  it  not  unaccountable  that,  in  the  midst  of  all  my  in- 
creased veneration  for  my  patron,  the  first  tumult  of 
my  emotion  was  scarcely  subsided,  before  the  old  ques- 
tion that  had  excited  my  conjectures  recurred  to  my 
mind,  Was  he  the  murderer  ?  It  was  a  kind  of  fatal 
impulse,  that  seemed  destined  to  hurry  me  to  my  de- 
struction. I  did  not  wonder  at  the  disturbance  that 
was  given  to  Mr.  Falkland  by  any  allusion,  however 
distant,  to  this  fatal  affair.  That  was  as  completely 
accounted  for  from  the  consideration  of  his  excessive 
sensibility  in  matters  of  honour,  as  it  would  have  been 
upon  the  supposition  of  the  most  atrocious  guilt. 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  167 

Knowing,  as  he  did,  that  such  a  charge  had  once  been 
connected  with  his  name,  he  would  of  course  be  per- 
petually uneasy,  and  suspect  some  latent  insinuation 
at  every  possible  opportunity.  He  would  doubt  and 
fear,  lest  every  man  with  whom  he  conversed  har- 
boured the  foulest  suspicion  against  him.  In  my  case 
he  found  that  I  was  in  possession  of  some  information, 
more  than  he  was  aware  of,  without  its  being  possible 
for  him  to  decide  to  what  it  amounted,  whether  I  had 
heard  a  just  or  unjust,  a  candid  or  calumniatory  tale. 
He  had  also  reason  to  suppose  that  I  gave  entertain- 
ment to  thoughts  derogatory  to  his  honour,  and  that  I 
did  not  form  that  favourable  judgment,  which  the  ex- 
quisite refinement  of  his  ruling  passion  made  indis- 
pensable to  his  peace.  All  these  considerations  would 
of  course  maintain  in  him  a  state  of  perpetual  uneasi- 
ness. But,  though  I  could  find  nothing  that  I  could 
consider  as  justifying  me  in  persisting  in  the  shadow  of 
a  doubt,  yet,  as  I  have  said,  the  uncertainty  and  rest- 
lessness of  my  contemplations  would  by  no  means  de- 
part from  me. 

The  fluctuating  state  of  my  mind  produced  a  con- 
tention of  opposite  principles,  that  by  turns  usurped 
dominion  over  my  conduct.  Sometimes  I  was  influ- 
enced by  the  most  complete  veneration  for  my  master  > 
I  placed  an  unreserved  confidence  in  his  integrity  and 
his  virtue,  and  implicitly  surrendered  my  understanding 
for  him  to  set  it  to  what  point  he  pleased.  At  other 
times  the  confidence,  which  had  before  flowed  with 
the  most  plenteous  tide,  began  to  ebb ;  I  was,  as  I  had 
already  been,  watchful,  inquisitive,  suspicious,  full  of  a 
thousand  conjectures  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  most 
indifferent  actions.  Mr.  Falkland,  who  was  most  pain- 
fully alive  to  every  thing  that  related  to  his  honour, 
saw  these  variations,  and  betrayed  his  consciousness  of 
M  4 


168  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

them  now  in  one  manner,  and  now  in  another,  fre- 
quently before  I  was  myself  aware,  sometimes  almost 
before  they  existed.  The  situation  of  both  was  dis- 
tressing ;  we  were  each  of  us  a  plague  to  the  other ; 
and  I  often  wondered,  that  the  forbearance  and  benig- 
nity of  my  master  was  not  at  length  exhausted,  and 
that  he  did  not  determine  to  thrust  from  him  for  ever 
so  incessant  an  observer.  There  was  indeed  one  emi- 
nent difference  between  his  share  in  the  transaction 
and  mine.  I  had  some  consolation  in  the  midst  of  my 
restlessness.  Curiosity  is  a  principle  that  carries  its 
pleasures,  as  well  as  its  pains,  along  with  it.  The  mind 
is  urged  by  a  perpetual  stimulus ;  it  seems  as  if  it  were.* 
continually  approaching  to  the  end  of  its  race  ;  and  as 
the  insatiable  desire  of  satisfaction  is  its  principle  of 
conduct,  so  it  promises  itself  in  that  satisfaction  an 
unknown  gratification,  which  seems  as  if  it  were  ca- 
pable of  fully  compensating  any  injuries  that  may  be 
suffered  in  the  career.  But  to  Mr.  Falkland  there  was 
no  consolation.  What  he  endured  in  the  intercourse 
between  us  appeared  to  be  gratuitous  evil.  He  had 
only  to  wish  that  there  was  no  such  person  as  myself 
in  the  world,  and  to  curse  the  hour  when  his  humanity 
led  him  to  rescue  me  from  my  obscurity,  and  place  me 
in  his  service. 

A  consequence  produced  upon  me  by  the  extraor- 
dinary nature  of  my  situation  it  is  necessary  to  mention. 
The  constant  state  of  vigilance  and  suspicion  in  which 
my  mind  was  retained,  worked  a  very  rapid  change  hi 
my  character.  It  seemed  to  have  all  the  effect  that 
might  have  been  expected  from  years  of  observation 
and  experience.  The  strictness  with  which  I  endea- 
voured to  remark  what  passed  in  the  mind  of  one  man, 
and  the  variety  of  conjectures  into  which  I  was  led, 
appeared,  as  it  were,  to  render  me  a  competent  adept 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  169 

in  the  different  modes  in  which  the  human  intellect 
displays  its  secret  workings.  I  no  longer  said  to  my- 
self, as  I  had  done  in  the  beginning,  "  I  will  ask  Mr. 
Falkland  whether  he  were  the  murderer."  On  the 
contrary,  after  having  carefully  examined  the  different 
kinds  of  evidence  of  which  the  subject  was  susceptible, 
and  recollecting  all  that  had  already  passed  upon  the 
subject,  it  was  not  without  considerable  pain,  that  I 
felt  myself  unable  to  discover  any  way  in  which  I  could 
be  perfectly  and  unalterably  satisfied  of  my  patron's 
innocence*  As  to  his  guilt,  I  could  scarcely  bring 
myself  to  doubt  that  in  some  way  or  other,  sooner  or 
later,  I  should  arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  that,  if  it 
really  existed.  But  I  could  not  endure  to  think,  almost 
for  a  moment,  of  that  side  of  the  alternative  as  true ; 
and  with  all  my  ungovernable  suspicion  arising  from 
the  mysteriousness  of  the  circumstances,  and  all  the 
delight  which  a  young  and  unfledged  mind  receives 
from  ideas  that  give  scope  to  all  that  imagination  can 
picture  of  terrible  or  sublime,  I  could  not  yet  bring 
myself  to  consider  Mr.  Falkland's  guilt  as  a  supposition 
attended  with  the  remotest  probability. 

I  hope  the  reader  will  forgive  me  for  dwelling  thus 
long  on  preliminary  circumstances.  I  shall  come  soon 
enough  to  the  story  of  my  own  misery.  I  have  already 
said,  that  one  of  the  motives  which  induced  me  to  the 
penning  of  this  narrative,  was  to  console  myself  in  my 
insupportable  distress.  I  derive  a  melancholy  pleasure 
from  dwelling  upon  the  circumstances  which  imper- 
ceptibly paved  the  way  to  my  ruin.  While  I  recollect 
or  describe  past  scenes,  which  occurred  in  a  more 
favourable  period  of  my  life,  my  attention  is  called  off 
for  a  short  interval,  from  the  hopeless  misfortune  in 
which  I  am  at  present  involved.  The  man  must  indeed 


170  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

possess  an  uncommon  portion  of  hardness  of  heart,  who 
can  envy  me  so  slight  a  relief. — To  proceed. 

For  some  time  after  the  explanation  which  had  thus 
taken  place  between  me  and  Mr.  Falkland,  his  melan- 
choly, instead  of  being  in  the  slightest  degree  dimi- 
nished by  the  lenient  hand  of  time,  went  on  perpe- 
tually to  increase.  His  fits  of  insanity  —  for  such  I 
must  denominate  them  for  want  of  a  distinct  ap- 
pellation, though  it  is  possible  they  might  not  fall 
under  the  definition  that  either  the  faculty  or  the  court 
of  chancery  appropriate  to  the  term  —  became  stronger 
and  more  durable  than  ever.  It  was  no  longer  prac- 
ticable wholly  to  conceal  them  from  the  family,  and 
even  from  the  neighbourhood.  He  would  sometimes, 
without  any  previous  notice,  absent  himself  from  his 
house  for  two  or  three  days,  unaccompanied  by  servant 
or  attendant.  This  was  the  more  extraordinary,  as  it  was 
well  known  that  he  paid  no  visits,  nor  kept  up  any  sort 
of  intercourse  with  the  gentlemen  of  the  vicinity.  But 
it  was  impossible  that  a  man  of  Mr.  Falkland's  dis- 
tinction and  fortune  should  long  continue  in  such  a 
practice,  without  its  being  discovered  what  was  become 
of  him ;  though  a  considerable  part  of  our  county  was 
among  the  wildest  and  most  desolate  districts  that  are 
to  be  found  in  South  Britain.  Mr.  Falkland  was  some- 
times seen  climbing  among  the  rocks,  reclining  motion- 
less for  hours  together  upon  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  or 
lulled  into  a  kind  of  nameless  lethargy  of  despair  by 
the  dashing  of  the  torrents.  He  would  remain  for 
whole  nights  together  under  the  naked  cope  of  heaven, 
inattentive  to  the  consideration  either  of  place  or  time  ; 
insensible  to  the  variations  of  the  weather,  or  rather 
seeming  to  be  delighted  with  that  uproar  of  the  ele- 
ments, which  partially  called  off  his  attention  from  the 
discord  and  dejection  that  occupied  his  own  mind. 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  171 

At  first,  when  we  received  intelligence  at  any  time 
of  the  place  to  which  Mr.  Falkland  had  withdrawn 
himself,  some  person  of  his  household,  Mr.  Collins  or 
myself,  but  most  generally  myself,  as  I  was  always  at 
home,  and  always,  in  the  received  sense  of  the  word, 
at  leisure,  went  to  him  to  persuade  him  to  return.  But, 
after  a  few  experiments,  we  thought  it  advisable  to 
desist,  and  leave  him  to  prolong  his  absence,  or  to  ter- 
minate it,  as  might  happen  to  suit  his  own  inclination. 
Mr.  Collins,  whose  grey  hairs  and  long  services  seemed 
to  give  him  a  sort  of  right  to  be  importunate,  some- 
times succeeded ;  though  even  in  that  case  there  was 
nothing  that  could  sit  more  uneasily  upon  Mr.  Falk- 
land than  this  insinuation  as  if  he  wanted  a  guardian 
to  take  care  of  him,  or  as  if  he  were  in,  or  in  danger 
of  falling  into,  a  state  in  which  he  would  be  incapable 
of  deliberately  controlling  his  own  words  and  actions. 
At  one  time  he  would  suddenly  yield  to  his  humble, 
venerable  friend,  murmuring  grievously  at  the  con- 
straint that  was  put  upon  him,  but  without  spirit 
enough  even  to  complain  of  it  with  energy.  At  another 
time,  even  though  complying,  he  would  suddenly 
burst  out  in  a  paroxysm  of  resentment.  Upon  these 
occasions  there  was  something  inconceivably,  savagely 
terrible  in  his  anger,  that  gave  to  the  person  against 
whom  it  was  directed  the  most  humiliating  and  insup- 
portable sensations.  Me  he  always  treated,  at  these 
times,  with  fierceness,  and  drove  me  from  him  with  a 
vehemence  lofty,  emphatical,  and  sustained,  beyond 
any  thing  of  which  I  should  have  thought  human 
nature  to  be  capable.  These  sallies  seemed  always  to 
constitute  a  sort  of  crisis  in  his  indisposition;  and, 
whenever  he  was  induced  to  such  a  premature  return, 
he  would  fall  immediately  after  into  a  state  of  the  most 
melancholy  inactivity,  in  which  he  usually  continued 


172  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

for  two  or  three  days.  It  was  by  an  obstinate  fatality 
that,  whenever  I  saw  Mr.  Falkland  in  these  deplorable 
situations,  and  particularly  when  I  lighted  upon  him 
after  having  sought  him  among  the  rocks  and  preci- 
pices, pale,  emaciated,  solitary,  and  haggard,  the  sug- 
gestion would  continually  recur  to  me,  in  spite  of  in- 
clination, in  spite  of  persuasion,  and  in  spite  of  evidence, 
Surely  this  man  is  a  murderer  I 


m  CHAPTER  V. 

IT  was  in  one  of  the  lucid  intervals,  as  I  may  term, 
them,  that  occurred  during  this  period,  that  a  peasant 
was  brought  before  him,  in  his  character  of  a  justice  of 
peace,  upon  an  accusation  of  having  murdered  his 
fellow.  As  Mr.  Falkland  had  by  this  time  acquired 
the  repute  of  a  melancholy  valetudinarian,  it  is  pro- 
bable he  would  not  have  been  called  upon  to  act  in  his 
official  character  upon  the  present  occasion,  had  it  not 
been  that  two  or  three  of  the  neighbouring  justices  were 
all  of  them  from  home  at  once,  so  that  he  was  the  only 
one  to  be  found  in  a  circuit  of  many  miles.  The  reader 
however  must  not  imagine,  though  I  have  employed  the 
word  insanity  in  describing  Mr.  Falkland's  symptoms, 
that  he  was  by  any  means  reckoned  for  a  ma<lman  by 
Jie  generality  of  those  who  had  occasion  to  observe  him. 
It  is  true  that  his  behaviour,  at  certain  times,  was  sin- 
gular and  unaccountable ;  but  then,  at  other  times,, 
there  was  in  it  so  much  dignity,  regularity,  and  eco- 
nomy ;  he  knew  so  well  how  to  command  and  make 
himself  respected ;  his  actions  and  carriage  were  so 
condescending,  considerate,  and  benevolent,  that,  far 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  17S 

from  having  forfeited  the  esteem  of  the  unfortunate  or 
the  many,  they  were  loud  and  earnest  in  his  praises. 

I  was  present  at  the  examination  of  this  peasant. 
The  moment  I  heard  of  the  errand  which  had  brought 
this  rabble  of  visitors,  a  sudden  thought  struck  me.  I 
conceived  the  possibility  of  rendering  the  incident 
subordinate  to  the  great  enquiry  which  drank  up  all 
the  currents  of  my  soul.  I  said,  this  man  is  arraigned 
of  murder,  and  murder  is  the  master-key  that  wakes 
distemper  in  the  mind  of  Mr.  Falkland.  I  will  watch 
him  without  remission.  I  will  trace  all  the  mazes  of 
his  thought.  Surely  at  such  a  time  his  secret  anguish 
must  betray  itself.  Surely,  if  it  be  not  my  own  fault, 
I  shall  now  be  able  to  discover  the  state  of  his  plea 
before  the  tribunal  of  unerring  justice. 

I  took  my  station  in  a  manner  most  favourable  to 
the  object  upon  which  my  mind  was  intent.  I  could 
perceive  in  Mr.  Falkland's  features,  as  he  entered,  a 
strong  reluctance  to  the  business  in  which  he  was  en* 
gaged;  but  there  was  no  possibility  of  retreating. 
His  countenance  was  embarrassed  and  anxious;  he 
scarcely  saw  any  body.  The  examination  had  not 
proceeded  far,  before  he  chanced  to  turn  his  eye  to 
the  part  of  the  room  where  I  was.  It  happened  in 
this  as  in  some  preceding  instances— -we  exchanged  a 
silent  look,  by  which  we  told  volumes  to  each  other. 
Mr.  Falkland's  complexion  turned  from  red  to  pale, 
and  from  pale  to  red.  I  perfectly  understood  his 
feelings,  and  would  willingly  have  withdrawn  myself. 
But  it  was  impossible ;  my  passions  were  too  deeply 
engaged ;  I  was  rooted  to  the  spot ;  though  my  own 
life,  that  of  my  master,  or  almost  of  a  whole  nation 
had  been  at  stake,  I  had  no  power  to  change  my 
position. 

The  first  surprise  however  having  subsided,   Mr. 


174?  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

Falkland  assumed  a  look  of  determined  constancy,  and 
even  seemed  to  increase  in  self-possession  .much 
beyond  what  could  have  been  expected  from  his  first 
entrance.  This  he  could  probably  have  maintained, 
had  it  not  been  that  the  scene,  instead  of  being  per- 
manent, was  in  some  sort  perpetually  changing.  The 
man  who  was  brought  before  him  was  vehemently 
accused  by  the  brother  of  the  deceased  as  having 
acted  from  the  most  rooted  malice.  He  swore  that 
there  had  been  an  old  grudge  between  the  parties, 
and  related  several  instances  of  it.  He  affirmed  that 
the  murderer  had  sought  the  earliest  opportunity  of 
wreaking  his  revenge ;  had  struck  the  first  blow ;  and, 
though  the  contest  was  in  appearance  only  a  common 
boxing  match,  had  watched  the  occasion  of  giving  a 
fatal  stroke,  which  was  followed  by  the  instant  death 
of  his  antagonist. 

*  While  the  accuser  was  giving  in  his  evidence,  the 
accused  discovered  every  token  of  the  most  poignant 
sensibility.  At  one  time  his  features  were  convulsed 
with  anguish  ;  tears  unbidden  trickled  down  his  manly 
cheeks;  and  at  another  he  started  with  apparent  asto- 
nishment at  the  unfavourable  turn  that  was  given 
to  the  narrative,  though  without  betraying  any  impa- 
tience to  interrupt.  I  never  saw  a  man  less  ferocious  in 
his  appearance.  He  was  tall,  well  made,  and  comely. 
His  countenance  was  ingenuous  and  benevolent,  with- 
out folly.  By  his  side  stood  a  young  woman,  his 
sweetheart,  extremely  agreeable  in  her  person,  and 
her  looks  testifying  how  deeply  she  interested  herself 
in  the  fate  of  her  lover.  The  accidental  spectators 
were  divided,  between  indignation  against  the  enor- 
mity of  the  supposed  criminal,  and  compassion  for  the 
poor  girl  that  accompanied  him.  They  seemed  to  take 
little  notice  of  the  favourable  appearances  visible  in 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  175 

the  person  of  the  accused,  till,  in  the  sequel,  those 
appearances  were  more  forcibly  suggested  to  their 
attention.  For  Mr.  Falkland,  he  was  at  one  moment 
engrossed  by  curiosity  and  earnestness  to  investigate 
the  tale,  while  at  another  he  betrayed  a  son  of  revul- 
sion of  sentiment,  which  made  the  investigation  too 
painful  for  him  to  support. 

When  the  accused  was  called  upon  for  his  defence, 
he  readily  owned  the  misunderstanding  that  had  ex- 
isted, and  that  the  deceased  was  the  worst  enemy  he 
had  in  the  world.  Indeed  he  was  his  only  enemy,  and 
he  could  not  tell  the  reason  that  had  made  him  so. 
He  had  employed  every  effort  to  overcome  his  ani- 
mosity, but  in  vain.  The  deceased  had  upon  all  oc- 
casions sought  to  mortify  him,  and  do  him  an  ill  turn ; 
but  he  had  resolved  never  to  be  engaged  in  a  broil 
with  him,  and  till  this  day  he  had  succeeded.  If  he 
had  met  with  a  misfortune  with  any  other  man,  people 
at  least  might  have  thought  it  accident ;  but  now  it 
would  always  be  believed  that  he  had  acted  from 
secret  malice  and  a  bad  heart. 

;•  The  fact  was,  that  he  and  his  sweetheart  had  gone 
to  a  neighbouring  fair,  where  this  man  had  met  them. 
The  man  had  <  >i u  u  tried  to  affront  him  ;  and  his  pas- 
siveness,  interpreted  into  cowardice,  had  perhaps  en- 
couraged the  other  to  additional  rudeness.  Finding 
that  he  had  endured  trivial  insults  to  himself  with  an 
even  temper,  the  deceased  now  thought  proper  to  turn 
his  brutality  upon  the  young  woman  that  accompanied 
him.  He  pursued  them ;  he  endeavoured  in  various 
manners  to  harass  and  vex  them  ;  they  had  sought  in 
vain  to  shake  him  off.  The  young  woman  was  consi- 
derably terrified.  The  accused  expostulated  with 
their  persecutor,  and  asked  him  how  he  could  be  so 
barbarous  as  to  persist  in  frightening  a  woman  ?  He 


176  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

replied  with  an  insulting  tone,  «  Then  the  woman 
should  find  some  one  able  to  protect  her ;  people  that 
encouraged  and  trusted  to  such  a  thief  as  that,  de- 
served no  better  I"  The  accused  tried  every  expedient 
he  could  invent;  at  length  he  could  enduer  it  no 
longer;  he  became  exasperated,  and  challenged  the 
assailant.  The  challenge  was  accepted ;  a  ring  was 
formed ;  he  confided  the  care  of  his  sweetheart  to  a 
bystander;  and  unfortunately  the  first  blow  he  struck 
proved  fatal. 

The  accused  added,  that  he  did  not  care  what  be- 
came of  him.  He  had  been  anxious  to  go  through  the 
world  in  an  inoffensive  manner,  and  now  he  had  the 
guilt  of  blood  upon  him.  He  did  not  know  but  it 
would  be  kindness  in  them  to  hang  him  out  of  the 
way ;  for  his  conscience  would  reproach  him  as  long 
as  he  lived,  and  the  figure  of  the  deceased,  as  he  had 
lain  senseless  and  without  motion  at  his  feet,  would 
perpetually  haunt  him.  The  thought  of  this  man, 
at  one  moment  full  of  life  and  vigour,  and  the  next 
lifted  a  helpless  corpse  from  the  ground,  and  all  owing 
to  him,  was  a  thought  too  dreadful  to  be  endured. 
He  had  loved  the  poor  maiden,  who  had  been  the  in* 
nocent  occasion  of  this,  with  all  his  heart ;  but  from 
this  time  he  should  never  support  the  sight  of  her. 
The  sight  would  bring  a  tribe  of  fiends  in  its  rear. 
One  unlucky  minute  had  poisoned  all  his  hopes,  and 
made  life  a  burden  to  him.  Saying  this,  his  counte- 
nance fell,  the  muscles^of  his  face  trembled  with  agony, 
and  he  looked  the  statue  of  despair. 

This  was  the  story  of  which  Mr.  Falkland  was  called 
upon  to  be  the  auditor.  Though  the  incidents  were, 
for  the  most  part,  wide  of  those  which  belonged  to  the 
adventures  of  the  preceding  volume,  and  there  had 
been  much  less  policy  and  skill  displayed  on  either 


i 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  177 

part  in  this  rustic  encounter,  yet  there  were  many 
points  which,  to  a  man  who  bore  the  former  strongly 
in  his  recollection,  suggested  a  sufficient  resemblance. 
In  each  case  it  was  a  human  brute  persisting  in  a 
course  of  hostility  to  a  man  of  benevolent  character, 
and  suddenly  and  terribly  cut  off  in  the  midst  of  his 
career.  These  points  perpetually  smote  upon  the 
heart  of  Mr.  Falkland.  He  at  one  time  started  with 
astonishment,  and  at  another  shifted  his  posture,  like  a 
man  who  is  unable  longer  to  endure  the  sensations 
that  press  upon  him.  Then  he  new  strung  his  nerves 
to  stubborn  patience.  I  could  see,  while  his  muscles 
preserved  an  inflexible  steadiness,  tears  of  anguish 
roll  down  his  cheeks.  He  dared  not  trust  his  eyes  to 
glance  towards  the  side  of  the  room  where  I  stood ; 
and  this  gave  an  air  of  embarrassment  to  his  whole 
figure.  But  when  the  accused  came  to  speak  of  his 
feelings,  to  describe  the  depth  of  his  compunction  for 
an  involuntary  fault,  he  could  endure  it  no  longer.  He 
suddenly  rose,  and  with  every  mark  of  horror  and  de- 
spair rushed  out  of  the  room. 

This  circumstance  made  no  material  difference  in 
the  affair  of  the  accused.  The  parties  were  detained 
about  half  an  hour.  Mr.  Falkland  had  already  heard 
the  material  parts  of  the  evidence  in  person.  At  the 
expiration  of  that  interval,  he  sent  for  Mr.  Collins  out 
of  the  room.  The  story  of  the  culprit  was  confirmed 
by  many  witnesses  who  had  seen  the  transaction. 
Word  was  brought  that  my  master  was  indisposed ; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  accused  was  ordered  to  be 
discharged.  The  vengeance  of  the  brother  however, 
as  I  afterwards  found,  did  not  rest  here,  and  he  met 
with  a  magistrate,  more  scrupulous  or  more  despotic, 
by  whom  the  culprit  was  committed  for  trial. 

This  affair  was  no  sooner  concluded,  than  I  hast- 

N 


178  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

ened  into  the  garden,  and  plunged  into  the  deepest  of 
its  thickets.  My  mind  was  full,  almost  to  bursting. 
I  no  sooner  conceived  myself  sufficiently  removed  from 
all  observation,  than  my  thoughts  forced  their  way 
spontaneously  to  my  tongue,  and  I  exclaimed,  in  a  fit 
of  uncontrollable  enthusiasm,  "  This  is  the  murderer; 
the  Hawkinses  were  innocent !  I  am  sure  of  it !  I 
will  pledge  my  life  for  it !  It  is  out  I  It  is  discovered ! 
Guilty,  upon  my  soul ! " 

While  I  thus  proceeded  with  hasty  steps  along  the 
most  secret  paths  of  the  garden,  and  from  time  to  time 
gave  vent  to  the  tumult  of  my  thoughts  in  involuntary 
exclamations,  I  felt  as  if  my  animal  system  had  under- 
gone a  total  revolution.  My  blood  boiled  within  me. 
I  was  conscious  to  a  kind  of  rapture  for  which  I  could 
not  account.  I  was  solemn,  yet  full  of  rapid  emotion, 
burning  with  indignation  and  energy.  In  the  very 
tempest  and  hurricane  of  the  passions,  I  seemed  to 
enjoy  the  most  soul-ravishing  calm.  I  cannot  better 
express  the  then  state  of  my  mind  than  by  saying,  I 
was  never  so  perfectly  alive  as  at  that  moment. 

This  state  of  mental  elevation  continued  for  several 
hours,  but  at  length  subsided,  and  gave  place  to  more 
deliberate  reflection.  One  of  the  first  questions  that 
then  occurred  was,  what  shall  I  do  with  the  knowledge 
I  have  been  so  eager  to  acquire?  I  had  no  inclination 
to  turn  informer.  I  felt  what  I  had  had  no  previous 
conception  of,  that  it  was  possible  to  love  a  murderer, 
and,  as  I  then  understood  it,  the  worst  of  murderers. 
I  conceived  it  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  absurd  and 
iniquitous,  to  cut  off  a  man  qualified  for  the  most 
essential  and  extensive  utility,  merely  out  of  retrospect 
to  an  act  which,  whatever  were  its  merits,  could  not 
be  retrieved. 

This  thought  led  me  to  another,  which  had  at  first 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  179 

passed  unnoticed.  If  I  hud  been  disposed  to  turn  in- 
former, what  had  occurred  amounted  to  no  evidence 
that  was  admissible  in  a  court  of  justice.  Well  then, 
added  I,  if  it  be  such  as  would  not  be  admitted  at  a 
criminal  tribunal,  am  I  sure  it  is  such  as  I  ought  to 
admit?  There  were  twenty  persons  besides  myself 
present  at  the  scene  from  which  I  pretend  to  derive 
such  entire  conviction.  Not  one  of  them  saw  it  in  the 
light  that  I  did.  It  either  appeared  to  them  a  casual 
and  unimportant  circumstance,  or  they  thought  it  suf- 
ficiently accounted  for  by  Mr.  Falkland's  infirmity  and 
misfortunes.  Did  it  really  contain  such  an  extent  of 
arguments  and  application,  that  nobody  but  I  was  dis- 
cerning enough  to  see? 

But  all  this  reasoning  produced  no  alteration  in  my 
way  of  thinking.  For  this  time  I  could  not  get  it  out 
of  my  mind  for  a  moment :  ••  Mr.  Falkland  is  the  mur- 
derer !  He  is  guilty !  I  see  it  I  I  feel  it !  I  am  sure  of 
it!"  Thus  was  I  hurried  along  by  an  uncontrollable 
destiny.  The  state  of  my  passions  in  their  progressive 
career,  the  inquisitiveness  and  impatience  of  my 
thoughts,  appeared  to  make  this  determination  un- 
avoidable. 

An  incident  occurred  while  I  was  in  the  garden,  that 
seemed  to  make  no  impression  upon  me  at  the  time, 
but  which  I  recollected  when  my  thoughts  were  got 
into  somewhat  of  a  slower  motion.  In  the  midst  of 
one  of  my  paroxysms  of  exclamation,  and  when  I 
thought  myself  most  alone,  the  shadow  of  a  man  as 
avoiding  me  passed  transiently  by  me  at  a  small  dis- 
tance. Though  I  had  scarcely  caught  a  faint  glimpse 
of  his  person,  there  was  something  in  the  occurrence 
that  persuaded  me  it  was  Mr.  Falkland.  I  shuddered 
at  the  possibility  of  his  having  overheard  the  words  of 
my  soliloquy.  But  this  idea,  alarming  as  it  was,  had 
N  2 


180  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

not  power  immediately  to  suspend  the  career  of  my  re-? 
flections.  Subsequent  circumstances  however  brought 
back  the  apprehension  to  my  mind.  I  had  scarcely  a 
doubt  of  its  reality,  when  dinner-time  came,  and  Mr. 
Falkland  was  not  to  be  found.  Supper  and  bed-time 
passed  in  the  same  manner.  The  only  conclusion  made 
by  his  servants  upon  this  circumstance  was,  that  he  was 
gone  upon  one  of  his  accustomed  melancholy  rambles. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  period  at  which  my  story  is  now  arrived  seemed 
as  if  it  were  the  very  crisis  of  the  fortune  of  Mr.  Falk- 
land. Incident  followed  upon  incident,  in  a  kind  of 
breathless  succession.  About  nine  o'clock  the  next 
morning  an  alarm  was  given,  that  one  of  the  chimneys 
of  the  house  was  on  fire.  No  accident  could  be  appa- 
rently more  trivial ;  but  presently  it  blazed  with  such 
fury,  as  to  make  it  clear  that  some  beam  of  the  house, 
which  in  the  first  building  had  been  improperly  placed, 
had  been  reached  by  the  flames.  Some  danger  was 
apprehended  for  the  whole  edifice.  The  confusion 
was  the  greater,  in  consequence  of  the  absence  of  the 
master,  as  well  as  of  Mr.  Collins,  the  steward.  While 
some  of  the  domestics  were  employed  in  endeavouring 
to  extinguish  the  flames,  it  was  thought  proper  that 
others  should  busy  themselves  in  removing  the  most 
valuable  moveables  to  a  lawn  in  the  garden.  I  took 
some  command  in  the  affair,  to  which  indeed  my  station 
in  the  family  seemed  to  entitle  me,  and  for  which  I 
was  judged  qualified  by  my  understanding  and  mental 
resources. 

Having  given  some  general  directions,  I  conceived, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 


181 


that  it  was  not  enough  to  stand  by  and  superintend, 
but  that  1  should  contribute  my  personal  labour  in  the 
public  concern.  I  set  out  for  that  purpose ;  and  my 
steps,  by  some  mysterious  fatality,  were  directed  to  the 
private  apartment  at  the  end  of  the  library.  Here,  as 
I  looked  round,  my  eye  was  suddenly  caught  by  the 
trunk  mentioned  in  the  first  pages  of  my  narrative. 

My  mind  was  already  raised  to  its  utmost  pitch.  In 
a  window-seat  of  the  room  lay  a  number  of  chisels  and 
other  carpenter's  tools.  I  know  not  what  infatuation 
instantaneously  seized  me.  The  idea  was  too  powerful 
to  be  resisted.  I  forgot  the  business  upon  which  I 
came,  the  employment  of  the  servants,  and  the  urgency 
of  general  danger.  I  should  have  done  the  same  if  the 
flames  that  seemed  to  extend  as  they  proceeded,  and 
already  surmounted  the  house,  had  reached  this  very 
apartment.  I  snatched  a  tool  suitable  for  the  purpose, 
threw  myself  upon  the  ground,  and  applied  with  eager- 
ness to  a  magazine  which  inclosed  all  for  which  ray 
heart  panted.  After  two  or  three  efforts,  in  which  the 
energy  of  uncontrollable  passion  was  added  to  my  bodily 
strength,  the  fastenings  gave  way,  the  trunk  opened, 
and  all  that  I  sought  was  at  once  within  my  reach. 

I  was  in  the  act  of  lifting  up  the  lid,  when  Mr. 
Falkland  entered,  wild,  breathless,  distracted  in  his 
looks !  He  had  been  brought  home  from  a  considerable 
distance  by  the  sight  of  the  flames.  At  the  moment  of 
his  appearance  the  lid  dropped  down  from  my  hand. 
He  no  sooner  saw  me  than  his  eyes  emitted  sparks  of 
rage.  He  ran  with  eagerness  to  a  brace  of  loaded 
pistols  which  hung  in  the  room,  and,  seizing  one,  pre- 
sented it  to  my  head  I  saw  his  design,  and  sprang  to 
avoid  it ;  but,  witn  tne  same  rapidity  with  which  he  had 
formed  his  resolution,  he  changed  it,  and  instantly  went 
to  the  window,  and  flung  the  pistol  into  the  court  below. 

N3 


182  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

He  bade  me  begone  with  his  usual  irresistible  energy ; 
and,  overcome  as  I  was  already  by  the  horror  of  the 
detection,  I  eagerly  complied. 

A  moment  after,  a  considerable  part  of  the  chimney 
tumbled  with  noise  into  the  court  below,  and  a  voice 
exclaimed  that  the  fire  was  more  violent  than  ever. 
These  circumstances  seemed  to  produce  a  mechanical 
effect  upon  my  patron,  who,  having  first  locked  the 
closet,  appeared  on  the  outside  of  the  house,  ascended 
the  roof,  and  was  in  a  moment  in  every  place  where  his 
presence  was  required.  The  flames  were  at  length 
extinguished. 

The  reader  can  with  difficulty  form  a  conception  of 
the  state  to  which  I  was  now  reduced.  My  act  was 
in  some  sort  an  act  of  insanity;  but  how  undescribable 
are  the  feelings  with  which  I  looked  back  upon  it !  It 
was  an  instantaneous  impulse,  a  short-lived  and  passing 
alienation  of  mind ;  but  what  must  Mr.  Falkland  th  ink 
of  that  alienation?  To  any  man  a  person  who  had 
once  shown  himself  capable  of  so  wild  a  flight  of  the 
mind,  must  appear  dangerous :  how  must  he  appear  to 
a  man  under  Mr.  Falkland's  circumstances  ?  I  had  just 
had  a  pistol  held  to  my  head,  by  a  man  resolved  to  put 
a  period  to  my  existence.  That  indeed  was  past ;  but 
what  was  it  that  fate  had  yet  in  reserve  for  me  !  The 
insatiable  vengeance  of  a  Falkland,  of  a  man  whose 
hands  were,  to  my  apprehension,  red  with  blood,  and 
his  thoughts  familiar  with  cruelty  and  murder.  Hew 
great  were  the  resources  of  his  mind,  resources  hence- 
forth to  be  confederated  for  my  destruction  I  This  was 
the  termination  of  an  ungoverned  curiosity,  an  impulse 
that  I  had  represented  to  myself  as  so  innocent  or  so 
venial. 

In  the  high  tide  of  boiling  passion  I  had  overlooked 
all  consequences.  It  now  appeared  to  me  like  a  dream. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  183 

Is  it  in  man  to  leap  from  the  high-raised  precipice,  or 
rush  unconcerned  into  the  midst  of  flames  ?  Was  it 
possible  I  could  have  forgotten  for  a  moment  the  awe- 
creating  manners  of  Falkland,  and  the  inexorable  fury 
I  should  awake  in  his  soul  ?  No  thought  of  future 
security  had  reached  my  mind.  I  had  acted  upon  no 
plan.  I  had  conceived  no  means  of  concealing  my 
deed,  after  it  had  once  been  effected.  But  it  was  over 
now.  One  short  minute  had  effected  a  reverse  in  my 
situation,  the  suddenness  of  which  the  history  of  man, 
perhaps  is  unable  to  surpass. 

I  have  always  been  at  a  loss  to  account  for  my  having 
plunged  thus  headlong  into  an  act  so  monstrous.  There 
is  something  in  it  of  unexplained  and  involuntary  sym- 
pathy. One  sentiment  flows,  by  necessity  of  nature, 
into  another  sentiment  of  the  same  general  character. 
This  was  the  first  instance  in  which  I  had  witnessed  a 
danger  by  fire.  All  was  confusion  around  me,  and  all 
changed  into  hurricane  within.  The  general  situation, 
to  my  unpractised  apprehension,  appeared  desperate, 
and  I  by  contagion  became  alike  desperate.  At  first  I 
had  been  in  some  degree  calm  and  collected,  but  that 
too  was  a  desperate  effort ;  and  when  it  gave  way,  a 
kind  of  instant  insanity  became  its  successor. 

I  had  now  every  thing  to  fear.  And  yet  what  was 
my  fault?  It  proceeded  from  none  of  those  errors 
which  are  justly  held  up  to  the  aversion  of  mankind ; 
my  object  had  been  neither  wealth,  nor  the  means  of 
indulgence,  nor  the  usurpation  of  power.  No  spark  of 
malignity  had  harboured  in  my  soul.  I  had  always 
reverenced  the  sublime  mind  of  Mr.  Falkland ;  I  reve- 
renced it  still.  My  offence  had  merely  been  a  mistaken 
thirst  of  knowledge.  Such  however  it  was,  as  to  admit 
neither  of  forgiveness  nor  remission.  This  epoch  was 
the  crisis  of  my  fate,  dividing  what  may  be  called  the 
N  4 


184?  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

offensive  part  from  the  defensive,  which  has  been  the 
sole  business  of  my  remaining  years.  Alas !  my  offence 
was  short,  not  aggravated  by  any  sinister  intention : 
but  the  reprisals  I  was  to  suffer  are  long,  and  can  ter- 
minate only  with  my  life ! 

In  the  state  in  which  I  found  myself,  when  the 
recollection  of  what  I  had  done  flowed  back  upon  my 
mind,  I  was  incapable  of  any  resolution.  All  was  chaos 
and  uncertainty  within  me.  My  thoughts  were  too 
full  of  horror  to  be  susceptible  of  activity.  I  felt  de- 
serted of  my  intellectual  powers,  palsied  in  mind,  and 
compelled  to  sit  in  speechless  expectation  of  the  misery 
to  which  I  was  destined.  To  my  own  conception  I 
was  like  a  man,  who,  though  blasted  with  lightning,  and 
deprived  for  ever  of  the  power  of  motion,  should  yet 
retain  the  consciousness  of  his  situation.  Death- 
dealing  despair  was  the  only  idea  of  which  I  was 
sensible. 

I  was  still  in  this  situation  of  mind  when  Mr.  Falk- 
land sent  for  me.  His  message  roused  me  from  my 
trance.  In  recovering,  I  felt  those  sickening  and  loath- 
some sensations,  which  a  man  may  be  supposed  at  first 
to  endure  who  should  return  from  the  sleep  of  death. 
Gradually  I  recovered  the  power  of  arranging  my 
ideas  and  directing  my  steps.  I  understood,  that  the 
minute  the  affair  of  the  fire  was  over  Mr.  Falkland  had 
retired  to  his  own  room.  It  was  evening  before  he 
ordered  me  to  be  called. 

I  found  in  him  every  token  of  extreme  distress,  ex- 
cept that  there  was  an  air  of  solemn  and  sad  composure 
that  crowned  the  whole.  For  the  present,  all  appear- 
ance of  gloom,  stateliness,  and  austerity  was  gone.  As 
I  entered  he  looked  up,  and,  seeing  who  it  was,  ordered 
me  to  bolt  the  door.  I  obeyed.  He  went  round  the 
room,  and  examined  its  other  avenues.  He  then  re- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  185 

turned  to  where  I  stood.  I  trembled  in  every  joint  of 
my  frame.  I  exclaimed  within  myself,  "  What  scene 
of  death  has  Roscius  now  to  act  ?  " 

"  Williams  1  "  said  he,  in  a  tone  which  had  more  in 
it  of  sorrow  than  resentment,  "  I  have  attempted  your 
life  I  I  am  a  wretch  devoted  to  the  scorn  and  exe- 
cration of  mankind  !"  There  he  stopped. 

••  If  there  be  one  being  on  the  whole  earth  that 
feels  the  scorn  and  execration  due  to  such  a  wretch 
more  strongly  than  another,  it  is  myself.  I  have  been 
kept  in  a  state  of  perpetual  torture  and  madness.  But 
I  can  put  an  end  to  it  and  its  consequences ;  and,  so 
far  at  least  as  relates  to  you,  I  am  determined  to  do  it. 
I  know  the  price,  and — I  will  make  the  purchase. 

"  You  must  swear,"  said  he.  "  You  must  attest 
every  sacrament,  divine  and  human,  never  to  disclose 
what  I  am  now  to  tell  you." — He  dictated  the  oath, 
and  I  repeated  it  with  an  aching  heart.  I  had  no  power 
to  offer  a  word  of  remark. 

"  This  confidence,"  said  he,  "  is  of  your  seeking, 
not  of  mine.  It  is  odious  to  me,  and  is  dangerous  to 
you." 

Having  thus  prefaced  the  disclosure  he  had  to  make, 
he  paused.  He  seemed  to  collect  himself  as  for  an 
effort  of  magnitude.  He  wiped  his  face  with  his  hand- 
kerchief. Tin-  moisture  that  incommoded  him  appeared 
not  to  be  tears,  but  sweat. 

"  Look  at  me.  Observe  me.  Is  it  not  strange  that 
such  a  one  as  I  should  retain  lineaments  of  a  human 
creature  ?  I  am  the  blackest  of  villains.  I  am  the 
murderer  of  Tyrrel.  I  am  the  assassin  of  the  Hawk- 
inses." 

I  started  with  terror,  and  was  silent. 

"  What  a  story  is  mine  I  Insulted,  disgraced,  pol- 
luted in  the  face  of  hundreds,  I  was  capable  of  any 


186 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 


act  of  desperation.  I  watched  my  opportunity,  fol- 
lowed Mr.  Tyrrel  from  the  rooms,  seized  a  sharp- 
pointed  knife  that  fell  in  my  way,  came  behind  him, 
and  stabbed  him  to  the  heart.  My  gigantic  oppressor 
rolled  at  my  feet. 

"  All  are  but  links  of  one  chain.  A  blow  I  A  mur- 
der !  My  next  business  was  to  defend  myself,  to  tell 
so  well-digested  a  lie  as  that  all  mankind  should  be- 
lieve it  true.  Never  was  a  task  so  harrowing  and 
intolerable  ! 

"  Well,  thus  far  fortune  favoured  me  ;  she  favoured 
me  beyond  my  desire.  The  guilt  was  removed  from 
me,  and  cast  upon  another;  but  this  I  was  to  endure. 
Whence  came  the  circumstantial  evidence  against  him, 
the  broken  knife  and  the  blood,  I  am  unable  to  tell.  I 
suppose,  by  some  miraculous  accident,  Hawkins  was 
passing  by,  and  endeavoured  to  assist  his  oppressor  in 
the  agonies  of  death.  You  have  heard  his  story ;  you 
have  read  one  of  his  letters.  But  you  do  not  know 
the  thousandth  part  of  the  proofs  of  his  simple  and  un- 
alterable rectitude  that  I  have  known.  His  son  suffered 
with  him ;  that  son,  for  the  sake  of  whose  happiness 
and  virtue  he  ruined  himself,  and  would  have  died  a 
hundred  times. — I  have  had  feelings,  but  I  cannot  de- 
scribe them. 

"  This  it  is  to  be  a  gentleman  !  a  man  of  honour  ! 
1  was  the  fool  of  fame.  My  virtue,  my  honesty,  my 
everlasting  peace  of  mind,  were  cheap  sacrifices  to  be 
made  at  the  shrine  of  this  divinity.  But,  what  is  worse, 
there  is  nothing  that  has  happened  that  has  in  any 
degree  contributed  to  my  cure.  I  am  as  much  the  fool 
of  fame  as  ever.  I  cling  to  it  to  my  last  breath. 
Though  I  be  the  blackest  of  villains,  I  will  leave 
behind  me  a  spotless  and  illustrious  name.  There  is 
no  crime  so  malignant,  no  scene  of  blood  so  horrible, 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  18? 

in  which  that  object  cannot  engage  me.     It    is  no 
matter  that  I  regard  these  things  at  a  distance  with 

aversion; 1  am  sure  of  it ;  bring  me  to  the  test,  and 

I  shall  yield.     I  despise  myself,  but  thus  I  am  ;  things 
are  gone  too  far  to  be  recalled. 

••  \Vhy  is  it  that  I  am  compelled  to  this  confidence? 
From  the  love  of  fame.  I  should  tremble  at  the  sight 
of  every  pistol  or  instrument  of  death  that  offered  itself 
to  my  hands ;  and  perhaps  my  next  murder  may  not 
be  so  fortunate  as  those  I  have  already  committed. 
I  had  no  alternative  but  to  make  you  my  confidant  or 
my  victim.  It  was  better  to  trust  you  with  the  whole 
truth  under  every  seal  of  secrecy,  than  to  live  in  per- 
petual fear  of  your  penetration  or  your  rashness. 

"  Do  you  know  what  it  is  you  have  done?  To  gratify 
a  foolishly  inquisitive  humour,  you  have  sold  yourself. 
You  shall  continue  in  my  service,  but  can  never  share 
my  affection.  I  will  benefit  you  in  respect  of  fortune, 
but  I  shall  always  hate  you.  If  ever  an  unguarded  word 
escape  from  your  lips,  if  ever  you  excite  my  jealousy 
or  suspicion,  expect  to  pay  for  it  by  your  death  or 
worse.  It  is  a  dear  bargain  you  have  made.  But  it 
is  too  late  to  look  back.  I  charge  and  adjure  you  by 
every  thing  that  is  sacred,  and  that  is  tremendous, 
preserve  your  faith ! 

"  My  tongue  has  now  for  the  first  time  for  several 
years  spoken  the  language  of  my  heart ;  and  the  in- 
tercourse from  this  hour  shall  be  shut  for  ever.  I  want 
no  pity.  I  desire  no  consolation.  Surrounded  as  I  am 
with  horrors,  I  will  at  least  preserve  my  fortitude  to 
the  last  If  I  had  been  reserved  to  a  different  destiny 
I  have  qualities  in  that  respect  worthy  of  a  better 
cause.  I  can  be  mad,  miserable,  and  frantic  ;  but  even 
in  frenzy  I  can  preserve  my  presence  of  mind  and 
discretion." 


188  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Such  was  the  story  I  had  been  so  desirous  to  know. 
Though  my  mind  had  brooded  upon  the  subject  for 
months,  there  was  not  a  syllable  of  it  that  did  not  come 
to  my  ear  with  the  most  perfect  sense  of  novelty. 
"  Mr.  Falkland  is  a  murderer ! "  said  I,  as  I  retired 
from  the  conference.  This  dreadful  appellative,  "  a 
murderer,"  made  my  very  blood  run  cold  within  me. 
"  He  killed  Mr.  Tyrrel,  for  he  could  not  control  his 
resentment  and  anger  :  he  sacrificed  Hawkins  the  elder 
and  Hawkins  the  younger,  because  he  could  upon  no 
terms  endure  the  public  loss  of  honour  :  how  can  I 
expect  that  a  man  thus  passionate  and  unrelenting  will 
not  sooner  or  later  make  me  his  victim  ?  " 

But,  notwithstanding  this  terrible  application  of  the 
story,  an  application  to  which  perhaps  in  some  form 
or  other,  mankind  are  indebted  for  nine  tenths  of  their 
abhorrence  against  vice,  I  could  not  help  occasionally 
recurring  to  reflections  of  an  opposite  nature.  "  Mr. 
Falkland  is  a  murderer  !  "  resumed  I.  "  He  might  yet 
be  a  most  excellent  man,  if  he  did  but  think  so."  It  is 
the  thinking  ourselves  vicious  then,  that  principally 
contributes  to  make  us  vicious. 

Amidst  the  shock  I  received  from  finding,  what  I 
had  never  suffered  myself  constantly  to  believe,  that  my 
suspicions  were  true,  I  still  discovered  new  cause  01 
admiration  for  my  master.  His  menaces  indeed  were 
terrible.  But,  when  I  recollected  the  offence  I -had 
given,  so  contrary  to  every  received  principle  of  civi- 
'ised  society,  so  insolent  and  rude,  so  intolerable  to  a 
nan  of  Mr.  Falkland's  elevation,  and  in  Mr.  Falkland's 
peculiarity  of  circumstances,  I  was  astonished  at  his 
.forbearance.  There  were  indeed  sufficiently  obvious 
reasons  why  he  might  not  choose  to  proceed  to  ex- 
tremities with  me.  But  how  different  from  the  fearful 
expectations  I  had  conceived  were  the  calmness  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  189 

his  behaviour,  and  the  regulated  mildness  of  his 
language  I  In  this  respect,  I  for  a  short  time  imagined 
that  I  was  emancipated  from  the  mischiefs  which  had 
appalled  me  ;  and  that,  in  having  to  do  with  a  man  of 
Mr.  Falkland's  liberality,  I  had  nothing  rigorous  to 
apprehend. 

"  It  is  a  miserable  prospect,"  said  I,  "  that  he  holds 
up  to  me.  He  imagines  that  I  am  restrained  by  no 
principles,  and  deaf  to  the  claims  of  personal  excel- 
lence. But  he  shall  find  himself  mistaken.  I  will 
never  become  an  informer.  I  will  never  injure  my 
patron;  and  therefore  he  will  not  be  my  enemy. 
With  all  his  misfortunes  and  all  his  errors,  I  feel  that  my 
goul  yearns  for  his  welfare.  If  he  have  been  criminal, 
that  is  owing  to  circumstances ;  the  same  qualities 
under  other  circumstances  would  have  been,  or  rather 
were,  sublimely  beneficent." 

My  reasonings  were,  no  doubt,  infinitely  more 
favourable  to  Mr.  Falkland,  than  those  which  human 
beings  are  accustomed  to  make  in  the  case  of  such  as 
they  style  great  criminals.  This  will  not  be  wondered 
at,  when  it  is  considered  that  I  had  myself  just  been 
trampling  on  the  established  boundaries  of  obligation, 
and  therefore  might  well  have  a  fellow-feeling  for 
other  offenders.  Add  to  which,  I  had  known  Mr. 
Falkland  from  the  first  as  a  beneficent  divinity.  I  had 
observed  at  leisure,  and  with  a  minuteness  which  could 
not  deceive  me,  the  excellent  qualities  of  his  heart ; 
and  I  found  him  possessed  of  a  mind  beyond  com- 
parison the  most  fertile  and  accomplished  I  had  ever 
known. 

But  though  the  terrors  which  had  impressed  me 
were  considerably  alleviated,  my  situation  was  not- 
withstanding sufficiently  miserable.  The  ease  and 
light-heartedness  of  my  youth  were  for  ever  gone. 


190  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

The  voice  of  an  irresistible  necessity  had  commanded 
me  to  "  sleep  no  more."  I  was  tormented  with  a  secret, 
of  which  I  must  never  disburthen  myself;  and  this 
consciousness  was,  at  my  age,  a  source  of  perpetual 
melancholy.     I  had  made  myself  a  prisoner,  in   the 
most  intolerable  sense  of  that  term,  for  years — perhaps 
for  the  rest  of  my  life.     Though  my  prudence  and  dis- 
cretion should  be  invariable,  I  must  remember  that  I 
should  have  an  overseer,  vigilant  from  conscious  guilt, 
full  of  resentment  at  the  unjustifiable  means  by  which 
I  had   extorted  from   him   a  confession,    and  whose 
lightest  caprice  might  at  any  time  decide  upon  every 
thing   that  was   dear  to   me.      The   vigilance    even 
of  a  public  and  systematical  despotism  is  poor,  com- 
pared with  a  vigilance  which  is  thus  goaded  by  the 
most  anxious  passions  of  the  soul.  Against  this  species 
of  persecution  I  knew  not  how  to  invent  a  refuge.     I 
dared  neither  fly  from  the  observation  of  Mr.  Falkland, 
nor  continue  exposed  to  its  operation.     I  was  at  first 
indeed  lulled  in  a  certain  degree  to  security  upon  the 
verge  of  the  precipice.     But  it  was  not  long  before  I 
found  a  thousand  circumstances  perpetually  reminding 
me  of  my  true  situation.     Those  I  am  now  to  relate 
are  among  the  most  memorable. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

IN  no  long  time  after  the  disclosure  Mr.  Falkland  had 
made,  Mr.  Forester,  his  elder  brother  by  the  mother's 
side,  came  to  reside  for  a  short  period  in  our  family. 
This  was  a  circumstance  peculiarly  adverse  to  my 
patron's  habits  and  inclinations.  He  had  broken  off,  as 
I  have  already  said,  all  intercourse  of  visiting  with  his 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  191 

neighbours.  He  debarred  himself  every  kind  of  amuse- 
ment and  relaxation.  He  shrunk  from  the  society  of 
his  fellows,  and  thought  he  could  never  be  sufficiently 
buried  in  obscurity  and  solitude.  This  principle  was, 
in  most  cases,  of  no  difficult  execution  to  a  man  of 
firmness.  But  Mr.  Falkland  knew  not  how  to  avoid 
the  visit  of  Mr.  Forester.  This  gentleman  was  just 
returned  from  a  residence  of  several  years  upon  the 
continent ;  and  his  demand  of  an  apartment  in  the  house 
of  his  half-brother,  till  his  own  house  at  the  distance 
of  thirty  miles  should  be  prepared  for  his  reception, 
was  made  with  an  air  of  confidence  that  scarcely  ad- 
mitted of  a  refusal.  Mr.  Falkland  could  only  allege, 
that  the  state  of  his  health  and  spirits  was  such,  that 
he  feared  a  residence  at  his  house  would  be  little  agree- 
able to  his  kinsman ;  and  Mr.  Forester  conceived  that 
this  was  a  disqualification  which  would  always  augment 
in  proportion  as  it  was  tolerated,  and  hoped  that  his 
society,  by  inducing  Mr.  Falkland  to  suspend  his  habits 
of  seclusion,  would  be  the  means  of  essential  benefit. 
Mr.  Falkland  opposed  him  no  further.  He  would  have 
been  sorry  to  be  thought  unkind  to  a  kinsman  for 
whom  he  had  a  particular  esteem ;  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  not  daring  to  assign  the  true  reason,  made  him 
cautious  of  adhering  to  his  objection. 

The  character  of  Mr.  Forester  was,  in  many  respects, 
the  reverse  of  that  of  my  master.  His  very  appear- 
ance indicated  the  singularity  of  his  disposition.  His 
figure  was  short  and  angular.  His  eyes  were  sunk  far 
into  his  head,  and  were  overhung  with  eye-brows, 
black,  thick,  and  bushy.  His  complexion  was  swarthy, 
and  his  lineaments  hard.  He  had  seen  much  of  the 
world ;  but,  to  judge  of  him  from  his  appearance  and 
manners,  one  would  have  thought  that  he  had  never 
moved  from  his  fire-side. 


192  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

His  temper  was  acid,  petulant,  and  harsh.  He  was 
easily  offended  by  trifles,  respecting  which,  previously 
to  the  offence,  the  persons  with  whom  he  had  inter- 
course could  have  no  suspicion  of  such  a  result.  When 
offended,  his  customary  behaviour  was  exceedingly 
rugged.  He  thought  only  of  setting  the  delinquent 
right,  and  humbling  him  for  his  error;  and,  in  his 
eagerness  to  do  this,  overlooked  the  sensibility  of  the 
sufferer,  and  the  pains  he  inflicted.  Remonstrance  in 
such  a  case  he  regarded  as  the  offspring  of  cowardice, 
which  was  to  be  extirpated  with  a  steady  and  unshrink- 
ing hand,  and  not  soothed  with  misjudging  kindness 
and  indulgence.  As  is  usual  in  human  character,  he 
had  formed  a  system  of  thinking  to  suit  the  current  of 
his  feelings.  He  held  that  the  kindness  we  entertain 
for  a  man  should  be  veiled  and  concealed,  exerted  in 
substantial  benefits,  but  not  disclosed,  lest  an  undue 
advantage  should  be  taken  of  it  by  its  object. 

With  this  rugged  outside,  Mr.  Forester  had  a  warm 
and  generous  heart.  At  first  sight  all  men  were  deterred 
by  his  manner,  and  excited  to  give  him  an  ill  character. 
But  the  longer  any  one  knew  him,  the  more  they 
approved  him.  His  harshness  was  then  only  considered 
as  habit ;  and  strong  sense  and  active  benevolence 
were  uppermost  in  the  recollection  of  his  familiar 
acquaintance.  His  conversation,  when  he  condescended 
to  lay  aside  his  snappish,  rude,  and  abrupt  half-sentences, 
became  flowing  in  diction,  and  uncommonly  amusing 
with  regard  to  its  substance.  He  combined,  with 
weightiness  of  expression,  a  dryness  of  characteristic 
humour,  that  demonstrated  at  once  the  vividness  of  his 
observation,  and  the  force  of  his  understanding. 

The  peculiarities  of  this  gentleman's  character  were 
not  undisplayed  in  the  scene  to  which  he  was  now 
introduced.  Having  much  kindness  in  his  disposition, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  193 

he  soon  became  deeply  interested  in  the  unhappiness 
of  his  relation.  He  did  every  thing  in  his  power  to 
remove  it ;  but  his  attempts  were  rude  and  unskilful. 
With  a  mind  so  accomplished  and  a  spirit  so  suscep- 
tible as  that  of  Mr.  Falkland,  Mr.  Forester  did  not 
venture  to  let  loose  his  usual  violence  of  manner ;  but, 
it'  lie  carefully  abstained  from  harshness,  he  was  how- 
ever wholly  incapable  of  that  sweet  and  liquid  eloquence 
of  the  soul,  which  would  perhaps  have  stood  the  fairest 
chance  of  seducing  Mr.  Falkland  for  a  moment  to  forget 
his  anguish.  He  exhorted  his  host  to  rouse  up  his 
spirit,  and  defy  the  foul  fiend ;  but  the  tone  of  his 
exhortations  found  no  sympathetic  chord  in  the  mind 
of  my  patron.  He  had  not  the  skill  to  carry  conviction 
to  an  understanding  so  well  fortified  in  error.  In  a 
word,  after  a  thousand  efforts  of  kindness  to  his  enter- 
tainer, he  drew  off  his  forces,  growling  and  dissatisfied 
with  his  own  impotence,  rather  than  angry  at  the 
obstinacy  of  Mr.  Falkland.  He  felt  no  diminution  of 
his  affection  for  him,  and  was  sincerely  grieved  to  find 
that  he  was  so  little  capable  of  serving  him.  Both 
parties  in  this  case  did  justice  to  the  merits  of  the 
other;  at  the  same  time  that  the  disparity  of  their 
humours  was  such,  as  to  prevent  the  stranger  from 
being  in  any  degree  a  dangerous  companion  to  the 
master  of  the  house.  They  had  scarcely  one  point  of 
contact  in  their  characters.  Mr.  Forester  was  incapable 
of  giving  Mr.  Falkland  that  degree  either  of  pain  or 
pleasure,  which  can  raise  the  soul  into  a  tumult,  and 
deprive  it  for  a  while  of  tranquillity  and  self-command. 
Our  visitor  was  a  man,  notwithstanding  appearances, 
of  a  peculiarly  sociable  disposition,  and,  where  he  was 
neither  interrupted  nor  contradicted,  considerably  lo- 
quacious. He  began  to  feel  himself  painfully  out  of 
his  element  upon  the  present  occasion.  Mr.  Falkland 
o 


194-  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

was  devoted  to  contemplation  and  solitude.  He  put 
upon  himself  some  degree  of  restraint  upon  the  arrival 
of  his  kinsman,  though  even  then  his  darling  habits 
would  break  out.  But  when  they  had  seen  each  other 
a  certain  number  of  times,  and  it  was  sufficiently 
evident  that  the  society  of  either  would  be  a  burthen 
rather  than  a  pleasure  to  the  other,  they  consented,  by 
a  sort  of  silent  compact,  that  each  should  be  at  liberty 
to  follow  his  own  inclination.  Mr.  Falkland  was,  in  a 
sense,'  the  greatest  gainer  by  this.  He  returned  to  the 
habits  of  his  choice,  and  acted,  as  nearly  as  possible, 
just  as  he  would  have  done  if  Mr.  Forester  had  not 
been  in  existence.  But  the  latter  was  wholly  at  a  loss. 
He  had  all  the  disadvantages  of  retirement,  without 
being  able,  as  he  might  have  done  at  his  house,  to  bring 
his  own  associates  or  his  own  amusements  about  him. 

In  this  situation  he  cast  his  eyes  upon  me.  It  was 
his  principle  to  do  every  thing  that  his  thoughts  sug- 
gested, without  caring  for  the  forms  of  the  world.  He 
saw  no  reason  why  a  peasant,  with  certain  advantages 
of  education  and  opportunity,  might  not  be  as  eligible 
a  companion  as  a  lord ;  at  the  same  time  that  he  was 
deeply  impressed  with  the  venerableness  of  old  insti- 
tutions. Reduced  as  he  was  to  a  kind  of  last  resort, 
he  found  me  better  qualified  for  his  purpose  than  any 
other  of  Mr.  Falkland's  household. 

The  manner  in  which  he  began  this  sort  of  corre- 
spondence was  sufficiently  characteristical.  It  was  abrupt; 
but  it  was  strongly  stamped  with  essential  benevolence. 
It  was  blunt  and  humorous ;  but  there  was  attractive- 
ness, especially  in  a  case  of  unequal  intercourse,  in  that 
very  rusticity  by  which  he  levelled  himself  with  the 
mass  of  his  species.  He  had  to  reconcile  himself  as 
well  as  to  invite  me ;  not  to  reconcile  himself  to  the 
postponing  an  aristocratical  vanity,  for  of  that  he  had  a 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  195 

very  slender  portion,  but  to  the  trouble  of  invitation, 
for  he  loved  his  ease.  All  this  produced  some  irregu- 
larity and  indecision  in  his  own  mind,  and  gave  a 
whimsical  impression  to  his  behaviour. 

On  my  part,  I  was  by  no  means  ungrateful  for  the 
distinction  that  was  paid  me.  My  mind  had  been 
relaxed  into  temporary  dejection,  but  my  reserve  had 
no  alloy  of  moroseness  or  insensibility.  It  did  not  long 
hold  out  against  the  condescending  attentions  of  Mr. 
Forester.  I  became  gradually  heedful,  encouraged, 
confiding.  I  had  a  most  eager  thirst  for  the  know- 
ledge of  mankind ;  and  though  no  person  perhaps  ever 
purchased  so  dearly  the  instructions  he  received  in 
that  school,  the  inclination  was  in  no  degree  diminished. 
Mr.  Forester  was  the  second  man  I  had  seen  uncom- 
monly worthy  of  my  analysis,  and  who  seemed  to  my 
thoughts,  arrived  as  I  was  at  the  end  of  my  first  essay, 
almost  as  much  deserving  to  be  studied  as  Mr.  Falk- 
land himself.  I  was  glad  to  escape  from  the  uneasiness 
of  my  reflections ;  and,  while  engaged  with  this  new 
friend,  I  forgot  the  criticalness  of  the  evils  with  which 
I  was  hourly  menaced. 

Stimulated  by  these  feelings,  I  was  what  Mr. 
Forester  wanted,  a  diligent  and  zealous  hearer.  I  was 
strongly  susceptible  of  impression ;  and  the  alternate 
impressions  my  mind  received,  visibly  displayed  them- 
selves in  my  countenance  and  gestures.  The  observ- 
ations Mr.  Forester  had  made  in  his  travels,  the  set 
of  opinions  he  had  formed,  all  amused  and  interested 
me.  His  manner  of  telling  a  story,  or  explaining  his 
thoughts,  was  forcible,  perspicuous,  and  original :  his 
style  in  conversation  had  an  uncommon  zest  Every 
thing  he  had  to  relate  delighted  me ;  while,  in  return, 
my  sympathy,  my  eager  curiosity,  and  my  unsophisti- 
cated passions,  rendered  me  to  Mr.  Forester  a  most 
o  2 


196  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

desirable  hearer.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  there- 
fore, that  every  day  rendered  our  intercourse  more 
intimate  and  cordial. 

Mr.  Falkland  was  destined  to  be  for  ever  unhappy; 
and  it  seemed  as  if  no  new  incident  could  occur,  from 
which  he  was  not  able  to  extract  food  for  this  impe- 
rious propensity.  He  was  wearied  with  a  perpetual 
repetition  of  similar  impressions;  and  entertained  an 
invincible  disgust  against  all  that  was  new.  The  visit 
of  Mr.  Forester  he  regarded  with  antipathy.  He  was 
scarcely  able  to  look  at  him  without  shuddering;  an 
emotion  which  his  guest  perceived,  and  pitied  as  the 
result  of  habit  and  disease,  rather  than  of  judgment. 
None  of  his  actions  passed  unremarked ;  the  most  in- 
different excited  uneasiness  and  apprehension.  The 
first  overtures  of  intimacy  between  me  and  Mr.  Forester 
probably  gave  birth  to  sentiments  of  jealousy  in  the 
mind  of  my  master.  The  irregular,  variable  character 
of  his  visitor  tended  to  heighten  them,  by  producing 
an  appearance  of  inexplicableness  and  mystery.  Atthis 
time  he  intimated  to  me  that  it  was  not  agreeable  to 
him,  that  there  should  be  much  intercourse  between 
me  and  this  gentleman. 

What  could  I  do?  Young  as  I  was,  could  it  be 
expected  that  I  should  play  the  philosopher,  and  put 
a  perpetual  curb  upon  my  inclinations?  Imprudent 
though  I  had  been,  could  I  voluntarily  subject  myself 
to  an  eternal  penance,  and  estrangement  from  human 
society  ?  Could  I  discourage  a  frankness  so  perfectly 
in  consonance  with  my  wishes,  and  receive  in  an 
ung  acious  way  a  kindness  that  stole  away  my  heart? 

Besides  this,  I  was  but  ill  prepared  for  the  servile 
submission  Mr.  Falkland  demanded.  In  early  life  I  had 
been  accustomed  to  be  much  my  own  master.  When  I 
first  entered  into  Mr.  Falkland's  service,  my  personal 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  197 

habits  were  checked  by  the  novelty  of  my  situation, 
and  my  affections  were  gained  by  the  high  accomplish* 
ments  of  my  patron.  To  novelty  and  its  influence, 
curiosity  had  succeeded:  curiosity,  so  long  as  it  lasted, 
was  a  principle  stronger  in  my  bosom  than  even  the 
love  of  independence.  To  that  I  would  have  sacrificed 
my  liberty  or  my  life;  to  gratify  it,  I  would  have  sub- 
mitted to  the  condition  of  a  West  Indian  negro,  or  to 
the  tortures  inflicted  by  North  American  savages.  But 
the  turbulence  of  curiosity  had  now  subsided. 

As  long  as  the  threats  of  Mr.  Falkland  had  been 
confined  to  generals,  I  endured  it.  I  was  conscious  of 
the  unbecoming  action  I  had  committed,  and  this  ren- 
dered me  humble.  But,  when  he  went  further,  and 
undertook  to  prescribe  to  every  article  of  my  conduct, 
my  patience  was  at  an  end.  My  mind,  before  suf- 
ficiently sensible  to  the  unfortunate  situation  to  which 
my  imprudence  had  reduced  me,  now  took  a  nearer 
and  a  more  alarming  view  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
case.  Mr.  Falkland  was  not  an  old  man ;  he  had  in 
him  the  principles  of  vigour,  however  they  might  seem 
to  be  shaken ;  he  might  live  as  long  as  I  should.  I 
was  his  prisoner ;  and  what  a  prisoner !  All  my  actions 
observed;  all  my  gestures  marked.  I  could  move 
neither  to  the  right  nor  the  left,  but  the  eye  of  my 
keeper  was  upon  me.  He  watched  me ;  and  his  vigi- 
lance  was  a  sickness  to  my  heart.  For  me  there  was 
no  more  freedom,  no  more  of  hilarity,  of  thoughtless- 
ness, or  of  youth.  Was  this  the  life  upon  which  I 
had  entered  with  such  warm  and  sanguine  expectation  ? 
Were  my  days  to  be  wasted  in  this  cheerless  gloom ;  a 
galley-slave  in  the  hands  of  the  system  of  nature,  whom 
death  only,  the  death  of  myself  or  ray  inexorable  supe- 
rior, could  free  ? 

I  had  been  adventurous  in  the  gratification  of  an 
o  3 


198  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

infantine  and  unreasonable  curiosity;  and  I  resolved 
not  to  be  less  adventurous,  if  need  were,  in  the  defence 
of  every  thing  that  can  make  life  a  blessing.  I  was 
prepared  for  an  amicable  adjustment  of  interests :  I 
would  undertake  that  Mr.  Falkland  should  never 
sustain  injury  through  my  means;  but  I  expected  in 
return  that  I  should  suffer  no  encroachment,  but  be 
left  to  the  direction  of  my  own  understanding. 

I  went  on,  then,  to  seek  Mr.  Forester's  society  with 
eagerness;  and  it  is  the  nature  of  an  intimacy  that 
does  not  decline,  progressively  to  increase.  Mr.  Falk- 
land observed  these  symptoms'with  visible  perturbation. 
Whenever  I  was  conscious  of  their  being  perceived 
by  him,  I  betrayed  tokens  of  confusion :  this  did  not 
tend  to  allay  his  uneasiness.  One  day  he  spoke  to 
me  alone ;  and,  with  a  look  of  mysterious  but  terrible 
import,  expressed  himself  thus :  — 

"  Young  man,  take  warning !  Perhaps  this  is  the 
last  time  you  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  take  it ! 
I  will  not  always  be  the  butt  of  your  simplicity  and 
inexperience,  nor  suffer  your  weakness  to  triumph 
over  my  strength  !  Why  do  you  trifle  with  me  ?  You 
little  suspect  the  extent  of  my  power.  At  this  moment 
you  are  enclosed  with  the  snares  of  my  vengeance 
unseen  by  you,  and,  at  the  instant  that  you  flatter  your- 
self you  are  already  beyond  their  reach,  they  will  close 
upon  you.  You  might  as  well  think  of  escaping  from 
the  power  of  the  omnipresent  God,  as  from  mine  !  If 
you  could  touch  so  much  as  my  finger,  you  should 
expiate  it  in  hours  and  months  and  years  of  a  torment, 
of  which  as  yet  you  have  not  the  remotest  idea.  Re- 
member !  I  am  not  talking  at  random  !  I  do  not  utter 
a  word,  that,  if  you  provoke  me,  shall  not  be  executed 
to  the  severest  letter  ! " 
It  may  be  supposed  that  these  menaces  were  not 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  199 

without  their  effect.  I  withdrew  in  silence.  My  whole 
soul  revolted  against  the  treatment  I  endured,  and 
yet  I  could  not  utter  a  word.  Why  could  not  I  speak 
the  expostulations  of  my  heart,  or  propose  the  com- 
promise I  meditated?  It  was  inexperience,  and  not 
want  of  strength,  that  awed  me.  Every  act  of  Mr. 
Falkland  contained  -unit -tliim:  new,  and  1  was  unpre- 
pared to  meet  it.  Perhaps  it  will  be  found  that  the 
greatest  hero  owes  the  propriety  of  his  conduct  to  the 
habit  of  encountering  difficulties,  and  calling  out  with 
promptness  the  energies  of  his  mind. 

I  contemplated  the  proceedings  of  my  patron  with 
the  deepest  astonishment.  Humanity  and  general 
kindness  were  fundamental  parts  of  his  character ;  but 
in  relation  to  me  they  were  sterile  and  inactive.  His 
own  interest  required  that  he  should  purchase  my  kind- 
ness ;  but  he  preferred  to  govern  me  by  terror,  and 
watch  me  with  unceasing  anxiety.  I  ruminated  with 
Uie  most  mournful  sensations  upon  the  nature  of  my 
calamity.  I  believed  that  no  human  being  was  ever 
placed  in  a  situation  so  pitiable  as  mine.  Every  atom 
of  my  frame  seemed  to  have  a  several  existence,  and 
to  crawl  within  me.  I  had  but  too  much  reason  to 
believe  that  Mr.  Falkland's  threats  were  not  empty 
words.  I  knew  his  ability  ;  I  felt  his  ascendancy.  If 
I  encountered  him,  what  chance  had  I  of  victory  ?  If 
I  were  defeated,  what  was  the  penalty  I  had  to  suffer  ? 
Well  then,  the  rest  of  my  life  must  be  devoted  to  slavish 
subjection.  Miserable  sentence  !  And,  if  it  were,  what 
security  had  I  against  the  injustice  of  a  man,  vigilant, 
capricious,  and  criminal?  1  envied  the  condemned 
wretch  upon  the  scaffold;  I  envied  the  victim  of  the 
inquisition  in  the  midst  of  his  torture.  They  know 
what  they  have  to  suffer.  I  had  only  to  imagine  everj 


200  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

thing  terrible,  and  then  say,  "  The  fate  reserved  for  me 
is  worse  than  this  ! " 

It  was  well  for  me  that  these  sensations  were  tran- 
sient :  human  nature  could  not  long  support  itself  under 
what  I  then  felt.  By  degrees  my  mind  shook  off  its 
burthen.  Indignation  succeeded  to  emotions  of  terror. 
The  hostility  of  Mr.  Falkland  excited  hostility  in  me. 
I  determined  I  would  never  calumniate  him  in  matters 
of  the  most  trivial  import,  much  less  betray  the  grand 
secret  upon  which  every  thing  dear  to  him  depended. 
But,  totally  abjuring  the  offensive,  I  resolved  to  stand 
firmly  upon  the  defensive.  The  liberty  of  acting  as  I 
pleased  I  would  preserve,  whatever  might  be  the  risk. 
If  I  were  worsted  in  the  contest,  I  would  at  least  have 
the  consolation  of  reflecting  that  I  had  exerted  myself 
with  energy.  In  proportion  as  I  thus  determined,  I 
drew  off  my  forces  from  petty  incursions,  and  felt  the 
propriety  of  acting  with  premeditation  and  system.  I 
ruminatetl  incessantly  upon  plans  of  deliverance,  but  I 
was  anxious  that  my  choice  should  not  be  precipitately 
made. 

It  was  during  this  period  of  my  deliberation  and 
uncertainty  that  Mr.  Forester  terminated  his  visit.  He 
observed  a  strange  distance  in  my  behaviour,  and,  in 
his  good-natured,  rough  way,  reproached  me  for  it.  I 
could  only  answer  with  a  gloomy  look  of  mysterious 
import,  and  a  mournful  and  expressive  silence.  He 
sought  me  for  an  explanation,  but  I  was  now  as  inge- 
nious in  avoiding  as  I  had  before  been  ardent  to  seek 
him ;  and  he  quitted  our  house,  as  he  afterwards  told 
me,  with  an  impression,  that  there  was  some  ill  destiny 
that  hung  over  it,  which  seemed  fated  to  make  all  its 
inhabitants  miserable,  without  its  being  possible  for  a 
by-stander  to  penetrate  the  reason. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  201 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MR.  FORESTER  had  left  us  about  three  weeks,  when 
Mr.  Falkland  sent  me  upon  some  business  to  an  estate 
he  possessed  in  a  neighbouring  county,  about  fifty 
miles  from  his  principal  residence.  The  road  led  in  a 
direction  wholly  wide  of  the  habitation  of  our  late 
visitor.  I  was  upon  my  return  from  the  place  to  which 
I  had  been  sent,  when  I  began  in  fancy  to  take  a  survey 
of  the  various  circumstances  of  my  condition,  and  by 
degrees  lost,  in  the  profoundness  of  my  contemplation, 
all  attention  to  the  surrounding  objects.  The  first 
determination  of  my  mind  was  to  escape  from  the 
lynx-eyed  jealousy  and  despotism  of  Mr.  Falkland ;  the 
second  to  provide,  by  every  effort  of  prudence  and 
deliberation  I  could  devise,  against  the  danger  with 
which  I  well  knew  my  attempt  must  be  accompanied. 

Occupied  with  these  meditations,  I  rode  many  miles 
before  I  perceived  that  I  had  totally  deviated  from  the 
right  path.  At  length  I  roused  myself,  and  surveyed 
the  horizon  round  me;  but  I  could  observe  nothing  with 
which  my  organ  was  previously  acquainted.  On  three 
sides,  the  heath  stretched  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach ; 
on  the  fourth,  I  discovered  at  some  distance  a  wood  of 
no  ordinary  dimensions.  Before  me,  scarcely  a  single 
track  could  be  found,  to  mark  that  any  human  being 
had  ever  visited  the  spot  As  the  best  expedient  I 
could  devise,  I  bent  my  course  towards  the  wood  I  have 
mentioned,  and  then  pursued,  as  well  as  I  was  able,  the 
windings  of  the  inclosure.  This  led  me,  after  some 
time,  to  the  end  of  the  heath ;  but  I  was  still  as  much 
at  a  loss  as  ever  respecting  the  road  I  should  pursue. 
The  «un  was  hid  from  me  by  a  grey  and  cloudy  at  mo- 


202  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

sphere ;  I  was  induced  to  continue  along  the  skirts  of 
the  wood,  and  surmounted  with  some  difficulty  the 
hedges  and  other  obstacles  that  from  time  to  time 
presented  themselves.  My  thoughts  were  gloomy  and 
disconsolate ;  the  dreariness  of  the  day,  and  the  soli- 
tude which  surrounded  me,  seemed  to  communicate  a 
sadness  to  my  soul.  I  had  proceeded  a  considerable 
way,  and  was  overcome  with  hunger  and  fatigue,  when 
I  discovered  a  road  and  a  little  inn  at  no  great  distance. 
I  made  up  to  them,  and  upon  enquiry  found  that,  instead 
of  pursuing  the  proper  direction,  I  had  taken  one  that 
led  to  Mr.  Forester's  rather  than  to  my  own  habitation. 
I  alighted,  and  was  entering  the  house,  when  the 
appearance  of  that  gentleman  struck  my  eyes. 

Mr.  Forester  accosted  me  with  kindness,  invited  me 
into  the  room  where  he  had  been  sitting,  and  enquired 
what  accident  had  brought  me  to  that  place. 

While  he  was  speaking,  I  could  not  help  recollecting 
the  extraordinary  manner  in  which  we  were  thus  once 
more  brought  together,  and  a  train  of  ideas  was  by  this 
means  suggested  to  my  mind.  Some  refreshment  was, 
by  Mr.  Forester's  order,  prepared  for  me ;  I  sat  down, 
and  partook  of  it.  Still  this  thought  dwelt  upon  my 
recollection:  —  "Mr.  Falkland  will  never  be  made 
acquainted  with  our  meeting;  I  have  an  opportunity 
thrown  in  my  way,  which  if  I  do  not  improve,  I  shall 
deserve  all  the  consequences  that  may  result.  I  can 
now  converse  with  a  friend,  and  a  powerful  friend, 
without  fear  of  being  watched  and  overlooked."  What 
wonder  that  I  was  tempted  to  disclose,  not  Mr.  Falk- 
land's secret,  but  my  own  situation,  and  receive  the 
advice  of  a  man  of  worth  and  experience,  which  might 
perhaps  be  adequately  done  without  entering  into  any 
detail  injurious  to  my  patron? 

Mr.  Forester,  on  his  part,  expressed  a  desire  to  learn 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  203 

why  it  was  I  thought  myself  unhappy,  and  why  I  had 
avoided  him  during  the  latter  part  of  his  residence 
under  the  same  roof,  as  evidently  as  I  had  before  taken 
pleasure  in  his  communications.    I  replied,  that  I  could 
give  him  but  an  imperfect  satisfaction  upon  these  points; 
but  what  I  i-oulil.  I  would  willingly  explain.     The  fact, 
I  proceeded,  was,  that  there  were  reasons  which  ren- 
dered it  impossible  for  me  to  have  a  tranquil  moment 
under  the  roof  of  Mr.  Falkland.     I  had  revolved  the 
matter  again  and  again  in  my  mind,  and  was  finally 
convinced  that  I  owed  it  to  myself  to  withdraw  from  his 
service.      I  added,  that  I  was  sensible,  by  this  half- 
confidence,  I  might  rather  seem  to  merit  the  disappro- 
bation of  Mr.  Forester  than  his  countenance ;  but  I 
declared  my  persuasion  that,  if  he  could  be  acquainted 
with  the  whole  affair,  however  strange  my  behaviour 
might  at  present  appear,  he  would  applaud  my  reserve. 
He  appeared  to  muse  for  a  moment  upon  what  I  had 
said,  and  then  asked  what  reason  I  could  have  to  com- 
plain of  Mr.  Falkland  ?     I  replied,  that  I  entertained 
the  deepest  reverence  for  my  patron;  I  admired  his 
abilities,  and  considered  him  as  formed  for  the  benefit 
of  his  species.     I  should  in  my  own  opinion  be  the 
vilest  of  miscreants,  if  I  uttered  a  whisper  to  his  disad- 
vantage.    But  this  did  not  avail:   I  was   not  fit  for 
him ;  perhaps  I  was  not  good  enough  for  him ;  at  all 
events,  I  must  be  perpetually  miserable  so  long  as  I 
continued  to  live  with  him. 

I  observed  Mr.  Forester  gaze  upon  me  eagerly  with 
curiosity  and  surprise ;  but  this  circumstance  I  did  not 
think  proper  to  notice.  Having  recovered  himself,  he 
enquired,  why  then,  that  being  the  case,  I  did  not  quit 
his  service  ?  I  answered,  what  he  now  touched  upon 
was  that  which  most  of  all  contributed  to  my  misfortune* 
Mr.  Falkland  was  not  ignorant  of  my  dislike  to  my 


204<  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

present  situation ;  perhaps  he  thought  it  unreasonable, 
unjust;  but  I  knew  that  he  would  never  be  brought  to 
consent  to  my  giving  way  to  it. 

Here  Mr.  Forester  interrupted  me,  and,  smiling,  said, 
I  magnified  obstacles,  and  overrated  my  own  import- 
ance; adding,  that  he  would  undertake  to  remove  that 
difficulty,  as  well  as  to  provide  me  with  a  more  agreeable 
appointment.  This  suggestion  produced  in  me  a  serious 
alarm.  I  replied,  that  I  must  entreat  him  upon  no 
account  to  think  of  applying  to  Mr.  Falkland  upon  the 
subject.  I  added,  that  perhaps  I  was  only  betraying 
my  imbecility;  but  in  reality,  unacquainted  as  I  was 
with  experience  and  the  world,  I  was  afraid,  though 
disgusted  with  my  present  residence,  to  expose  myself, 
upon  a  mere  project  of  my  own,  to  the  resentment  of 
so  considerable  a  man  as  Mr.  Falkland.  If  he  would 
favour  me  with  his  advice  upon  the  subject,  or  if  he 
would  only  give  me  leave  to  hope  for  his  protection  in 
case  of  any  unforeseen  accident,  this  was  all  I  presumed 
to  reque  t;  and,  thus  encouraged.  I  would  venture  to 
obey  the  dictates  of  my  inclination,  and  fly  in  pursuit 
of  my  lost  tranquillity. 

Having  thus  opened  myself  to  this  generous  friend, 
as  far  as  I  could  do  it  with  propriety  and  safety,  he  sat 
for  some  time  silent,  with  an  air  of  deep  reflection.  At 
length,  with  a  countenance  of  unusual  severity,  and  a 
characteristic  fierceness  of  manner  and  voice,  he  thus 
addressed  me :  "  Young  man,  perhaps  you  are  ignorant 
of  the  nature  of  the  conduct  you  at  present  hold.  May 
be,  you  do  not  know  that  where  there  is  mystery,  there 
is  always  something  at  bottom  that  will  not  bear  the 
telling.  Is  this  the  way  to  obtain  the  favour  of  a  man 
of  consequence  and  respectability?  To  pretend  to 
make  a  confidence,  and  then  tell  him  a  disjointed  story 
that  has  not  common  sense  in  it ! " 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  205 

I  answered,  that,  whatever  were  the  amount  of 
that  prejudice,  I  must  submit.  I  placed  my  hope  of  a 
candid  construction,  in  the  present  instance,  in  the 
rectitude  of  his  nature. 

He  went  on  :  ••  You  do  so ;  do  you  ?  I  tell  you, 
sir,  the  rectitude  of  my  nature  is  an  enemy  to  disguise. 
Come,  boy,  you  must  know  that  I  understand  these 
things  better  than  you.  Tell  all,  or  expect  nothing 
from  me  but  censure  and  contempt." 

"  Sir,"  replied  I,  "  I  have  spoken  from  deliberation; 
I  have  told  you  my  choice,  and,  whatever  be  the  result, 
I  must  abide  by  it.  If  in  this  misfortune  you  refuse 
me  your  assistance,  here  I  must  end.  having  gained 
by  the  Communication  only  your  ill  opinion  and  dis- 
pleasure." 

He  looked  hard  at  me,  as  if  he  would  see  me  through. 
At  length  he  relaxed  his  features,  and  softened  his 
manner.  "  You  are  a  foolish,  headstrong  boy,"  said 
he,  ••  and  I  shall  have  an  eye  upon  you.  I  shall  never 
place  in  you  the  confidence  I  have  done.  But — I  will 
not  desert  you.  At  present,  the  balance  between 
approbation  and  dislike  is  in  your  favour.  How  long 
it  will  last,  I  cannot  tell ;  I  engage  for  nothing.  But  it 
is  my  rule  to  act  as  I  feel.  I  will  for  this  time  do  as 
you  require;  —  and,  pray  God,  it  may  answer.  I  will 
receive  you,  either  now  or  hereafter,  under  my  roof, 
trusting  that  I  shall  have  no  reason  to  repent,  and 
that  appearances  will  terminate  as  favourably  as  I  wish, 
though  I  scarcely  know  how  to  hope  it." 

We  were  engaged  in  the  earnest  discussion  of  sub- 
jects thus  interesting  to  my  peace,  when  we  were 
interrupted  by  an  event  the  most  earnestly  to  have 
been  deprecated.  Without  the  smallest  notice,  and  as 
if  he  had  dropped  upon  us  from  the  clouds,  Mr.  Falk- 
land burst  into  the  room.  I  found  afterwards  that  Mr. 


206  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Forester  had  come  thus  far  upon  an  appointment  to 
meet  Mr.  Falkland,  and  that  the  place  of  their  intended 
rendezvous  was  at  the  next  stage.  Mr.  Forester  was 
detained  at  the  inn  where  we  now  were  by  our  acci- 
dental rencounter,  and  in  reality  had  for  the  moment 
forgotten  his  appointment;  while  Mr.  Falkland,  not 
finding  him  where  he  expected,  proceeded  thus  far 
towards  the  house  of  his  kinsman.  To  me  the  meeting 
was  most  unaccountable  in  the  world. 

I  instantly  foresaw  the  dreadful  complication  of  mis- 
fortune that  was  included  in  this  event.  To  Mr.  Falk- 
land, the  meeting  between  me  and  his  relation  must 
appear  not  accidental,  but,  on  my  part  at  least,  the 
result  of  design.  I  was  totally  out  of  the  road  I  had 
been  travelling  by  his  direction ;  I  was  in  a  road  that 
led  directly  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Forester.  What  must 
he  think  of  this?  How  must  he  suppose  I  came  to 
that  place?  The  truth,  if  told,  that  I  came  there 
without  design,  and  purely  in  consequence  of  having 
lost  my  way,  must  appear  to  be  the  most  palpable  lie 
that  ever  was  devised. 

Here  then  I  stood  detected  in  the  fact  of  that  inter- 
course which  had  been  so  severely  forbidden.  But  in 
this  instance  it  was  infinitely  worse  thaff  in  those 
which  had  already  given  so  much  disturbance  to  Mr. 
Falkland.  It  was  then  frank  and  unconcealed;  and 
therefore  the  presumption  was,  that  it  was  for  purposes 
that  required  no  concealment.  But  the  present  inter- 
view, if  concerted,  was  in  the  most  emphatical  degree 
clandestine.  Nor  was  it  less  perilous  than  it  was  clan- 
destine :  it  had  been  forbidden  with  the  most  dreadful 
menaces ;  and  Mr.  Falkland  was  not  ignorant  how 
deep  an  impression  those  menaces  had  made  upon  my 
imagination.  Such  a  meeting  therefore  could  not  have 
been  concerted  under  such  circumstances,  for  a  trivial 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  207 

purpose,  or  for  any  purpose  that  his  heart  did  not  ache 
to  think  of.  Such  was  the  amount  of  my  crime,  such 
was  the  agony  my  appearance  was  calculated  to  in- 
spire ;  and  it  was  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  penalty 
I  had  to  expect  would  be  proportionable.  The  threats 
of  Mr.  Falkland  still  sounded  in  my  ears,  and  I  was  in 
a  transport  of  terror. 

The  conduct  of  the  same  man  in  different  circum- 
stances, is  often  so  various  as  to  render  it  very  difficult 
to  be  accounted  for.  Mr.  Falkland,  in  this  to  him 
terrible  crisis,  did  not  seem  to  be  in  any  degree  hur- 
ried away  by  passion.  For  a  moment  he  was  dumb, 
his  eyes  glared  with  astonishment ;  and  the  next  mo- 
ment, as  it  were,  he  had  the  most  perfect  calmness 
and  self-command.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  I  have  no 
doubt  that  I  should  instantly  have  entered  into  an 
explanation  of  the  manner  in  which  I  came  there,  the 
ingenuousness  and  consistency  of  which  could  not  but 
have  been  in  some  degree  attended  with  a  favourable 
event.  But,  as  it  was,  I  suffered  myself  to  be  over- 
come ;  I  yielded,  as  in  a  former  instance,  to  the  dis- 
comfiting influence  of  surprise.  I  dared  scarcely 
breathe;  I  observed  the  appearances  with  equal  anxiety 
and  surprise.  Mr.  Falkland  quietly  ordered  me  to 
return  home,  and  take  along  with  me  the  groom  he 
had  brought  with  him.  I  obeyed  in  silence. 

I  afterwards  understood,  that  he  enquired  minutely 
of  Mr.  Forester  the  circumstances  of  our  meeting; 
and  that  that  gentleman,  perceiving  that  the  meeting 
itself  was  discovered,  and  guided  by  habits  of  frank- 
ness, which,  when  once  rooted  in  a  character,  it  is 
difficult  to  counteract,  told  Mr.  Falkland  every  thing 
that  had  passed,  together  with  the  remarks  it  had 
suggested  to  his  own  mind.  Mr.  Falkland  received 
the  communication  with  an  ambiguous  and  studied 


208  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

silence,  which  by  no  means  operated  to  my  advantage 
in  the  already  poisoned  mind  of  Mr.  Forester.  His 
silence  was  partly  the  direct  consequence  of  a  mind 
watchful,  inquisitive,  and  doubting;  and  partly  per- 
haps was  adopted  for  the  sake  of  the  effect  it  was 
calculated  to  produce,  Mr.  Falkland  not  being  unwilling 
to  encourage  prejudices  against  a  character  which 
might  one  day  come  in  competition  with  his  own. 

As  to  me,  I  went  home  indeed,  for  this  was  not  a 
moment  to  resist.  Mr.  Falkland,  with  a  premeditation 
to  which  he  had  given  the  appearance  of  accident,  had 
taken  care  to  send  with  me  a  guard  to  attend  upon  his 
prisoner.  I  seemed  as  if  conducting  to  one  of  those 
fortresses,  famed  in  the  history  of  despotism,  from  which 
the  wretched  victim  is  never  known  to  come  forth  alive ; 
and  when  I  entered  my  chamber,  I  felt  as  if  I  were 
entering  a  dungeon.  I  reflected  that  I  was  at  the  mercy 
of  a  man,  exasperated  at  my  disobedience,  and  who 
was  already  formed  to  cruelty  by  successive  murders. 
My  prospects  were  now  closed  ;  I  was  cut  off  for  ever 
from  pursuits  that  I  had  meditated  with  ineffable  de- 
light ;  my  death  might  be  the  event  of  a  few  hours.  I 
was  a  victim  at  the  shrine  of  conscious  guilt,  that  knew 
neither  rest  nor  satiety;  I  should  be  blotted  from  the 
catalogue  of  the  living,  and  my  fate  remain  eternally  a 
secret ;  the  man  who  added  my  murder  to  his  former 
crimes,  would  show  himself  the  next  morning,  and  be 
hailed  with  the  admiration  and  applause  of  his  species. 

In  the  midst  of  these  terrible  imaginations,  one  idea 
presented  itself  that  alleviated  my  feelings.  This  was 
the  recollection  of  the  strange  and  unaccountable  tran- 
quillity which  Mr.  Falkland  had  manifested,  when  he 
discovered  me  in  company  with  Mr.  Forester.  I  was  not 
deceived  by  this.  I  knew  that  the  calm  was  temporary, 
and  would  be  succeeded  by  a  tumult  and  whirlwind  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  209 

the  most  dreadful  sort.  But  a  man  under  the  power 
of  such  terrors  as  now  occupied  me  catches  at  every 
reed.  I  said  to  myself,  "  This  tranquillity  is  a  period 
it  is  incumbent  upon  me  to  improve ;  the  shorter  its 
duration  may  be  found,  the  more  speedy  am  I  obliged 
to  be  in  the  use  of  it,"  In  a  word,  I  took  the  resolution, 
because  I  already  stood  in  fear  of  the  vengeance  of 
Mr.  Falkland,  to  risk  the  possibility  of  provoking  it  in  a 
degree  still  more  inexpiable,  and  terminate  at  once  my 
present  state  of  uncertainty.  I  had  now  opened  my 
case  to  Mr.  Forester,  and  he  had  given  me  positive 
assurances  of  his  protection.  I  determined  immedi- 
ately to  address  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Falkland. 
The  consideration  that,  if  he  meditated  any  tiling  tra- 
gical, such  a  letter  would  only  tend  to  confirm  him,  did 
not  enter  into  the  present  feelings  of  my  mind. 

"Sir, 

"  I  have  conceived  the  intention  of  quitting  your 
service.  This  is  a  measure  we  ought  both  of  us  to 
desire.  I  shall  then  be,  what  it  is  my  duty  to  be, 
master  of  my  own  actions.  You  will  be  delivered 
from  the  presence  of  a  person,  whom  you  cannot 
prevail  upon  yourself  to  behold  without  unpleasing 
emotions. 

•  •  Why  should  you  subject  me  to  an  eternal  penance  ? 
Why  should  you  consign  my  youthful  hopes  to  suffering 
and  despair?  Consult  the  principles  of  humanity  that 
have  marked  the  general  course  of  your  proceedings, 
and  do  not  let  me,  I  entreat  you,  be  made  the  subject 
of  a  useless  severity.  My  heart  is  impressed  with  gra- 
titude for  yonr  favours.  I  sincerely  ask  your  forgive- 
ness for  the  many  errors  of  my  conduct.  I  consider 
the  treatment  I  have  received  under  your  roof,  as  one 
almost  uninterrupted  scene  of  kindness  and  generosity. 


210  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

I  shall  never  forget  my  obligations  to  you,  and  will  never 
betray  them. 

"  I  remain,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  grateful,  respectful, 
"  and  dutiful  servant, 

"  CALEB  WILLIAMS." 

Such  was  my  employment  of  the  evening  of  a  day 
which  will  be  ever  memorable  in  the  history  of  my  life. 
Mr.  Falkland  not  being  yet  returned,  though  expected 
every  hour,  I  was  induced  to  make  use  of  the  pretence 
of  fatigue  to  avoid  an  interview.  I  went  to  bed.  It 
may  be  imagined  that  my  slumbers  were  neither  deep 
nor  refreshing. 

The  next  morning  I  was  informed  that  my  patron 
did  not  come  home  till  late;  that  he  had  enquired  for 
me,  and,  being  told  that  I  was  in  bed,  had  said  nothing 
further  upon  the  subject  Satisfied  in  this  respect,  I 
went  to  the  breakfasting  parlour,  and,  though  full  of 
anxiety  and  trepidation,  endeavoured  to  busy  myself 
in  arranging  the  books,  and  a  few  other  little  occu- 
pations, till  Mr.  Falkland  should  come  down.  After  a 
short  time  I  heard  his  step,  which  I  perfectly  well  knew 
how  to  distinguish,  in  the  passage.  Presently  he  stopped, 
and,  speaking  to  some  one  in  a  sort  of  deliberate,  but 
smothered  voice,  I  overheard  him  repeat  my  name  as 
enquiring  for  me.  In  conformity  to  the  plan  I  had  per- 
suaded myself  to  adopt,  I  now  laid  the  letter  I  had 
written  upon  the  table  at  which  he  usually  sat,  and 
made  my  exit  at  one  door  as  Mr.  Falkland  entered  at 
the  other.  This  done,  I  withdrew,  with  flutterings  and 
palpitation,  to  a  private  apartment,  a  sort  of  light  closet 
at  the  end  of  the  library,  where  I  was  accustomed  not 
xinfrequently  to  sit. 

I  had  not  been  here  three  minutes,  when  I  heard  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  211 

voice  of  Mr.  Falkland  calling  me.  I  went  to  him  in 
the  library.  His  manner  was  that  of  a  man  labouring 
with  some  dreadful  thought,  and  endeavouring  to  give 
an  air  of  carelessness  and  insensibility  to  his  behaviour. 
Perhaps  no  carriage  of  any  other  sort  could  have  pro- 
duced a  sensation  of  such  inexplicable  horror,  or  have 
excited,  in  the  person  who  was  its  object,  such  anxious 
uncertainty  about  the  event — "  That  is  your  letter," 
said  he,  throwing  it . 

«  My  lad,"  continued  he,  "  I  believe  now  you  have 
played  all  your  tricks,  and  the  farce  is  nearly  at  an 
end!  With  your  apishness  and  absurdity  however 
you  have  taught  me  one  thing ;  and,  whereas  before 
I  have  winced  at  them  with  torture,  I  am  now  as 
tough  as  an  elephant.  I  shall  crush  you  in  the  end 
with  the  same  indifference,  that  I  would  any  other  little 
insect  that  disturbed  my  serenity. 

"I  am  unable  to  tell  what  brought  about  your  meeting 
with  Mr.  Forester  yesterday.  It  might  be  design  ;  it 
might  be  accident.  But,  I  shall  not  forget  it.  You 
write  me  here,  that  you  are  desirous  to  quit  my  service. 
To  that  I  have  a  short  answer :  You  never  shall  quit  it 
with  life.  If  you  attempt  it,  you  shall  never  cease  to 
rue  your  folly  as  long  as  you  exist.  That  is  my  will  ; 
and  I  will  not  have  it  resisted.  The  very  next  time 
you  disobey  me  in  that  or  any  other  article,  there  is 
an  end  of  your  vagaries  for  ever.  Perhaps  your  situ- 
ation may  be  a  pitiable  one ;  it  is  for  you  to  look  to 
that.  I  only  know  that  it  is  in  your  power  to  prevent 
its  growing  worse  ;  no  time  nor  chance  shall  ever  make 
it  better. 

"  Do  not  imagine  I  am  afraid  of  you  !     I  wear  an 

armour,  against  which  all  your  weapons  are  impotent. 

I  have  dug  a  pit  for  you ;  and,  whichever  way  you 

move,  backward  or  forward,  to  the  right  or  the  left,  it 

p  2 


212  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

is  ready  to  swallow  you.  Be  still  I  If  once  you  fall, 
call  as  loud  as  you  will,  no  man  on  earth  shall  hear 
your  cries ;  prepare  a  tale  however  plausible,  or  how- 
ever true,  the  whole  world  shall  execrate  you  for  an 
impostor.  Your  innocence  shall  be  of  no  service  to 
you ;  I  laugh  at  so  feeble  a  defence.  It  is  I  that  say 

it ;  you  may  believe  what  I   tell  you Do  you  not 

know,  miserable  wretch  I "  added  he,  suddenly  altering 
his  tone,  and  stamping  upon  the  ground  with  fury, 
"  that  I  have  sworn  to  preserve  my  reputation,  what- 
ever be  the  expense ;  that  I  love  it  more  than  tfre 
whole  world  and  its  inhabitants  taken  together  ?  And 
do  you  think  that  you  shall  wound  it  ?  Begone,  mis- 
creant! reptile!  and  cease  to  contend  with  insur- 
mountable power ! " 

The  part  of  my  history  which  I  am  now  relating  is 
that  which  I  reflect  upon  with  the  least  complacency. 
Why  was  it,  that  I  was  once  more  totally  overcome  by 
the  imperious  carriage  of  Mr.  Falkland,  and  unable  to 
utter  a  word?  The  reader  will  be  presented  with 
many  occasions  in  the  sequel,  in  which  I  wanted  neither 
facility  in  the  invention  of  expedients,  nor  fortitude  in 
entering  upon  my  justification.  Persecution  at  length 
gave  firmness  to  my  character,  and  taught  me  the  better 
part  of  manhood.  But  in  the  present  instance  I  was 
irresolute,  overawed,  and  abashed. 

The  speech  I  had  heard  was  the  dictate  of  frenzy, 
and  it  created  in  me  a  similar  frenzy.  It  determined 
me  to  do  the  very  thing  against  which  I  was  thus 
solemnly  warned,  and  fly  from  my  patron's  house.  I 
could  not  enter  into  parley  with  him ;  I  could  no 
Ipnger  endure  the  vile  subjugation  he  imposed  on  me. 
It  was  in  vain  that  my  reason  warned  me  of  the 
rashness  of  a  measure,  to  be  taken  without  concert 
or  preparation.  I  seemed  to  be  in  a  state  in  which 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  213 

reason  had  no  power.  I  felt  as  if  I  could  coolly  survey 
the  several  arguments  of  the  case,  perceive  that  they 
had  prudence,  truth,  and  common  sense  on  their  side ; 
and  then  answer,  I  am  under  the  guidance  of  a  di- 
rector more  energetic  than  you. 

I  was  not  long  in  executing  what  I  had  thus  rapidly 
determined.  I  fixed  on  the  evening  of  that  very  day 
as  the  period  of  my  evasion.  Even  in  this  short  in- 
terval I  had  perhaps  sufficient  time  for  deliberation. 
But  all  opportunity  was  useless  to  me ;  my  mind  was 
fixed,  and  each  succeeding  moment  only  increased 
the  unspeakable  eagerness  with  which  I  meditated 
my  escape.  The  hours  usually  observed  by  our  family 
in  this  country  residence  were  regular ;  and  one  in  the 
morning  was  the  time  I  selected  for  my  undertaking. 

In  searching  the  apartment  where  I  slept,  I  had 
formerly  discovered  a  concealed  door,  which  led  to  a 
small  apartment  of  the  most  secret  nature,  not  un- 
common in  houses  so  old  as  that  of  Mr.  Falkland,  and 
which  had  perhaps  served  as  a  refuge  from  persecu- 
tion, or  a  security  from  the  inveterate  hostilities  of  a 
barbarous  age.  I  believed  no  person  was  acquainted 
with  this  hiding-place  but  myself.  I  felt  unaccount- 
ably impelled  to  remove  into  it  the  different  articles 
of  my  personal  property.  I  could  not  at  present  take 
them  away  with  me.  If  I  were  never  to  recover  them, 
I  felt  that  it  would  be  a  gratification  to  my  sentiment, 
that  no  trace  of  my  existence  should  be  found  after 
my  departure.  Having  completed  their  removal,  and 
waited  till  the  hour  I  had  previously  chosen,  I  stole 
down  quietly  from  my  chamber  with  a  lamp  in  my 
hand.  I  went  along  a  passage  that  led  to  a  small  door 
opening  into  the  garden,  and  then  crossed  the  garden, 
to  a  gate  that  intersected  an  elm-walk  and  a  private 
borse-path  on  the  outside. 

p  3 


214  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

I  could  scarcely  believe  my  good  fortune  in  having 
thus  far  executed  my  design  without  interruption. 
The  terrible  images  Mr.  Falkland's  menaces  had  sug- 
gested to  my  mind,  made  me  expect  impediment  and 
detection  at  every  step ;  though  the  impassioned  state 
of  my  mind  impelled  me  to  advance  with  desperate 
resolution.  He  probably  however  counted  too  securely 
upon  the  ascendancy  of  his  sentiments,  when  impe- 
riously pronounced,  to  think  it  necessary  to  take  pre- 
cautions against  a  sinister  event.  For  myself,  I  drew 
a  favourable  omen  as  to  the  final  result  of  my  project, 
from  the  smoothness  of  success  that  attended  it  in  the 
outset. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  first  plan  that  had  suggested  itself  to  me  was, 
to  go  to  the  nearest  public  road,  and  take  the  earliest 
stage  for  London.  There  I  believed  I  should  be  most 
safe  from  discovery,  if  the  vengeance  of  Mr.  Falkland 
should  prompt  him  to  pursue  me  ;  and  I  did  not  doubt, 
among  the  multiplied  resources  of  the  metropolis,  to 
find  something  which  should  suggest  to  me  an  eligible 
mode  of  disposing  of  my  person  and  industry.  I  reserved 
Mr.  Forester  in  my  arrangement,  as  a  last  resource,  not 
to  be  called  forth  unless  for  immediate  protection  from 
the  hand  of  persecution  and  power.  I  was  destitute 
of  that  experience  of  the  world,  which  can  alone 
render  us  fertile  in  resources,  or  enable  us  to  institute 
a  just  comparison  between  the  resources  that  offer 
themselves.  I  was  like  the  fascinated  animal,  that  is 
seized  with  the  most  terrible  apprehensions,  at  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  215 

same  time  that  he  is  incapable  of  adequately  considering 
for  his  own  safety. 

The  mode  of  my  proceeding  being  digested,  I  traced, 
with  a  cheerful  heart,  the  unfrequented  path  it  was 
now  necessary  for  me  to  pursue.  The  night  was 
'gloomy,  and  it  drizzled  with  rain.  But  these  were 
circumstances  I  had  scarcely  the  power  to  perceive ; 
all  was  sunshine  and  joy  within  me.  I  hardly  felt  the 
ground  ;  I  repeated  to  myself  a  thousand  times,  "  I  am 
free.  What  concern  have  I  with  danger  and  alarm  ? 
I  feel  that  I  am  free ;  I  feel  that  I  will  continue  so. 
What  power  is  able  to  hold  in  chains  a  mind  ardent 
and  determined  ?  What  power  can  cause  that  man  to 
die,  whose  whole  soul  commands  him  to  continue  to 
live  ?"  I  looked  back  with  abhorrence  to  the  subjection 
in  which  I  had  been  held.  I  did  not  hate  the  author 
of  my  misfortunes — truth  and  justice  acquit  me  of 
that ;  I  rather  pitied  the  hard  destiny  to  which  he 
seemed  condemned.  Hut  I  thought  with  unspeakable 
loathing  of  those  errors,  in  consequence  of  which  every 
man  is  fated  to  be,  more  or  less,  the  tyrant  or  the 
slave.  I  was  astonished  at  the  folly  of  my  species, 
that  they  did  not  rise  up  as  one  man,  and  shake  off 
chains  so  ignominious,  and  misery  so  insupportable. 
So  far  as  related  to  myself,  I  resolved  — and  this  reso- 
lution has  never  been  entirely  forgotten  by  me  — to 
hold  myself  disengaged  from  this  odious  scene,  and 
never  fill  the  part  either  of  the  oppressor  or  the  sufferer. 

My  mind  continued  in  this  enthusiastical  state,  full 
of  confidence,  and  accessible  only  to  such  a  portion  of 
fear  as  served  rather  to  keep  up  a  state  of  pleasurable 
emotion  than  to  generate  anguish  and  distress,  during 
the  whole  of  this  nocturnal  expedition.  After  a  walk 
of  three  hours,  I  arrived,  without  accident,  at  the 
village  from  which  I  hoped  to  have  taken  my  passage 

p  4 


216  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

for  the  metropolis.  At  this  early  hour  every  thing  was 
quiet ;  no  sound  of  any  thing  human  saluted  my  ear. 
It  was  with  difficulty  that  I  gained  admittance  into  the 
yard  of  the  inn,  where  I  found  a  single  ostler  taking 
care  of  some  horses.  From  him  I  received  the  un- 
welcome tidings,  that  the  coach  was  not  expected  till 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  day  after  to-morrow, 
its  route  through  that  town  recurring  only  three  times 
a  week. 

This  intelligence  gave  the  first  check  to  the  raptu- 
rous inebriation  by  which  my  mind  had  been  possessed 
from  the  moment  I  quitted  the  habitation  of  Mr.  Falk- 
land. The  whole  of  my  fortune  in  ready  cash  consisted 
of  about  eleven  guineas.  I  had  about  fifty  more,  that 
had  fallen  to  me  from  the  disposal  of  my  property  at 
the  death  of  my  father ;  but  that  was  so  vested  as  to 
preclude  it  from  immediate  use,  and  I  even  doubted 
whether  it  would  not  be  found  better  ultimately  to 
resign  it,  than,  by  claiming  it,  to  risk  the  furnishing  a 
clew  to  what  I  most  of  all  dreaded,  the  persecution  of 
Mr.  Falkland.  There  was  nothing  I  so  ardently  desired 
as  the  annihilation  of  all  future  intercourse  between 
us,  that  he  should  not  know  there  was  such  a  person 
on  the  earth  as  myself,  and  that  I  should  never  more 
hear  the  repetition  of  a  name  which  had  been  so  fatal 
to  my  peace. 

Thus  circumstanced,  I  conceived  frugality  to  be  an 
object  by  no  means  unworthy  of  my  attention,  unable 
as  I  was  to  prognosticate  what  discouragements  and 
delays  might  present  themselves  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  my  wishes,  after  my  arrival  in  London.  For 
this  and  other  reasons,  I  determined  to  adhere  to  my 
design  of  travelling  by  the  stage  ;  it  only  remaining  for 
me  to  consider  in  what  manner  I  should  prevent  the 
eventful  delay  of  twenty -four  hours  from  becoming,  by 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  217 

any  untoward  event,  a  source  of  new  calamity.  It  was 
by  no  means  advisable  to  remain  in  the  village  where 
I  now  was  during  this  interval ;  nor  did  I  even  think 
proper  to  employ  it,  in  proceeding  on  foot  along  the 
great  road.  I  therefore  decided  upon  making  a  circuit, 
the  direction  of  which  should  seem  at  first  extremely 
wide  of  my  intended  route,  and  then,  suddenly  taking 
a  different  inclination,  should  enable  me  to  arrive  by 
the  close  of  day  at  a  market-town  twelve  miles  nearer 
to  the  metropolis. 

Having  fixed  the  economy  of  the  day,  and  persuaded 
myself  that  it  was  the  best  which,  under  the  circum- 
stances, could  be  adopted,  I  dismissed,  for  the  most 
part,  ah*  further  anxieties  from  my  mind,  and  eagerly 
yielded  myself  up  to  the  different  amusements  that 
arose.  I  rested  and  went  forward  at  the  impulse  of 
the  moment.  At  one  time  I  reclined  upon  a  bank 
immersed  in  contemplation,  and  at  another  exerted 
myself  to  analyse  the  prospects  which  succeeded  each 
other.  The  haziness  of  the  morning  was  followed  by 
a  spirit-stirring  and  beautiful  day.  With  the  ductility 
so  characteristic  of  a  youthful  mind,  I  forgot  the  anguish 
which  had  lately  been  my  continual  guest,  and  oc- 
cupied myself  entirely  in  dreams  of  future  novelty  and 
felicity.  I  scarcely  ever,  in  the  whole  course  of  my 
existence,  spent  a  day  of  more  various  or  exquisite 
gratification.  It  furnished  a  strong,  and  perhaps  not 
an  unsalutary  contrast,  to  the  terrors  whidi  had  pre- 
ceded, and  the  dreadful  scenes  that  awaited  me. 

In  the  evening  I  arrived  at  the  place  of  my  destin- 
ation, and. enquired  for  the  inn  at  which  the  coach  was 
accustomed  to  call.  A  circumstance  however  had 
previously  excited  my  attention,  and  reproduced  in  me 
a  state  of  alarm. 

Though  it  was  already  dark  before  I  reached  the 


218  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 


town,  my  observation  had  been  attracted  by  a  man 
who  passed  me  on  horseback  in  the  opposite  direction,' 
about  half  a  mile  on  the  other  side  of  the  town.  There 
was  an  inquisitiveness  in  his  gesture  that  I  did  not  like- 
and,  as  far  as  I  could  discern  his  figure,  I  pronounced 
him    an    ill-looking    man.     He    had  not   passed   me 
more  than  two  minutes  before  I  heard  the  sound  of  a 
horse  advancing  slowly  behind  me.      These  circum- 
stances  impressed  some  degree  of  uneasy  sensation 
upon  my  mind.     I  first  mended  my  pace  ;    and,   this 
not   appearing  to   answer    the  purpose,  I  afterwards 
Altered,   that  the  horseman  might  pass  me.     He  did 
so ;   and,  as  I  glanced  at  him,  I  thought  I  saw  that 
it  was  the  same  man.     He  now  put  his  horse  into  a 
trot,  and  entered  the  town.     I  followed  ;  and  it  was 
not  long  before  I  perceived  him  at  the  door  of  an 
alehouse,    drinking   a   mug  of  beer.      This   however 
the  darkness  prevented  me  from  discovering,  till  I  was 
m  a  manner  upon  him.     I  pushed  forward,  and  saw 
him  no  more,  till,  as  I  entered  the  yard  of  the  inn 
where  I  intended  to  sleep,   the  same  man  suddenly 
rode  up  to  me,  and  asked  if  my  name  were  Williams. 

Ihis  adventure,  while  it  had  been  passing,  expelled 
the  gaiety  of  my  mind,  and  filled  me  with  anxiety. 
Ihe  apprehension  however  that  I  felt,  appeared  to  me 
groundless :  if  I  were  pursued,  I  took  it  for  granted  it 
would  be  by  some  of  Mr.  Falkland's  people,  and  not  by 
a  stranger.  The  darkness  took  from  me  some  of  the 
simplest  expedients  of  precaution.  I  determined  at 
least  to  proceed  to  the  inn,  and  make  the  necessary 
enquiries. 

I  no  sooner  heard  the  sound  of  the  horse  as  I  en- 
tered the  yard,  and  the  question  proposed  to  me  by 
the  rider,  than  the  dreadful  certainty  of  what  I  feared 
instantly  took  possession  of  my  mind.  Every  incident 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  219 

connected  with  my  late  abhorred  situation  was  calcu- 
lated to  impress  me  with  the  deepest  alarm.  My  first 
thought  was,  to  betake  myself  to  the  fields,  and  trust 
to  the  swiftness  of  my  flight  for  safety.  But  this  was 
sr;irc-t-ly  practicable :  I  remarked  that  my  enemy  was 
alone  ;  and  I  believed  that,  man  to  man,  I  might  rea- 
sonably hope  to  get  the  better  of  him,  either  by  the 
firmness  of  my  determination,  or  the  subtlety  of  my 
invention. 

Thus  resolved,  I  replied  in  an  impetuous  and  per- 
emptory tone,  that  I  was  the  man  he  took  me  for ; 
adding,  "  I  guess  your  errand  ;  but  it  is  to  no  purpose. 
You  come  to  conduct  me  back  to  Falkland  House ;  but 
no  force  shall  ever  drag  me  to  that  place  alive.  I  have 
not  taken  my  resolution  without  strong  reasons ;  and 
all  the  world  shall  not  persuade  me  to  alter  it.  I  am 
an  Englishman,  and  it  is  the  privilege  of  an  Englishman 
to  be  sole  judge  and  master  of  his  own  actions." 

"You  are  in  the  devil  of  a  hurry,"  replied  the  man, 
«  to  guess  my  intentions,  and  tell  your  own.  But  your 
guess  is  right;  and  mayhap  you  may  have  reason  to  be 
thankful  that  my  errand  is  not  something  worse.  Sure 
enough  the  squire  expects  you; — but  I  have  a  letter, 
and  when  you  have  read  that,  I  suppose  you  will  come 
off  a  little  of  your  stoutness.  If  that  does  not  answer, 
it  will  then  be  time  to  think  what  is  to  be  done  next." 

Thus  saying,  he  gave  me  his  letter,  which  was  from 
Mr.  Forester,  whom,  as  he  told  me,  he  had  left  at  Mr. 
Falkland's  house,  I  went  into  a  room  of  the  inn  for 
the  purpose  of  reading  it,  and  was  followed  by  the 
bearer.  The  letter  was  as  follows ;  — 

"  WILLIAMS, 

"My  brother  Falkland  has  sent  the  bearer  in  pursuit 
of  you.  He  expects  that,  if  found,  you  will  return 


220  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

with  him  :  I  expect  it  too.  It  is  of  the  utmost  conse- 
quence to  your  future  honour  and  character.  After 
reading  these  lines,  if  you  are  a  villain  and  a  rascal, 
you  will  perhaps  endeavour  to  fly ;  if  your  conscience 
tells  you,  you  are  innocent,  you  will,  out  of  all  doubt, 
come  back.  Show  me  then  whether  I  have  been  your 
dupe ;  and,  while  I  was  won  over  by  your  seeming  in- 
genuousness, have  suffered  myself  to  be  made  the  tool 
of  a  designing  knave.  If  you  come,  I  pledge  myself 
that,  if  you  clear  your  reputation,  you  shall  not  only  be 
free  to  go  wherever  you  please,  but  shall  receive  every 
assistance  in  my  power  to  give.  Remember,  I  engage 
for  nothing  further  than  that. 

"  VALENTINE  FORESTER.'* 

What  a  letter  was  this  I  To  a  mind  like  mine,  glowing 
with  the  love  of  virtue,  such  an  address  was  strong 
enough  to  draw  the  person  to  whom  it  was  addressed 
from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other.  My  mind  was 
full  of  confidence  and  energy.  I  felt  my  own  innocence, 
and  was  determined  to  assert  it.  I  was  willing  to  be 
driven  out  a  fugitive ;  I  even  rejoiced  in  my  escape, 
and  cheerfully  went  out  into  the  world  destitute  of 
every  provision,  and  depending  for  my  future  prospects 
upon  my  own  ingenuity. 

Thus  much,  said  I,  Falkland !  you  may  do.  Dis- 
pose of  me  as  you  please  with  respect  to  the  goods 
of  fortune ;  but  you  shall  neither  make  prize  of  my 
liberty,  nor  sully  the  whiteness  of  my  name.  I  re- 
passed  in  my  thoughts  every  memorable  incident  that 
had  happened  to  me  under  his  roof.  I  could  recollect 
nothing,  except  the  affair  of  the  mysterious  trunk,  out 
of  which  the  shadow  of  a  criminal  accusation  could 
be  extorted.  In  that  instance  my  conduct  had  been 
highly  reprehensible,  and  I  had  never  looked  back 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  221 

upon  it  without  remorse  and  self-condemnation.  But 
I  did  not  believe  that  it  was  of  the  nature  of  those 
actions  which  can  be  brought  under  legal  censure.  I 
could  still  less  persuade  myself  that  Mr.  Falkland,  who 
shuddered  at  the  very  possibility  of  detection,  and  who 
considered  himself  as  completely  in  my  power,  would 
dare  to  bring  forward  a  subject  so  closely  connected 
with  the  internal  agony  of  his  soul.  In  a  word,  the 
more  I  reflected  on  the  phrases  of  Mr.  Forester's 
billet,  the  less  could  I  imagine  the  nature  of  those 
scenes  to  which  they  were  to  serve  as  a  prelude. 

The  inscrutableness  however  of  the  mystery  they 
contained,  did  not  suffice  to  overwhelm  my  courage. 
My  mind  seemed  to  undergo  an  entire  revolution. 
Timid  and  embarrassed  as  I  had  felt  myself,  when  I 
regarded  Mr.  Falkland  as  my  clandestine  and  domestic 
foe,  I  now  conceived  that  the  case  was  entirely  altered. 
"  Meet  me," said  I,  "as  an  open  accuser:  if  we  must 
contend,  let  us  contend  in  the  face  of  day ;  and  then, 
unparalleled  as  your  resources  may  be,  I  will  not  fear 
you.0  Innocence  and  guilt  were,  in  my  apprehension, 
the  things  in  the  whole  world  the  most  opposite  to 
each  other.  I  would  not  suffer  myself  to  believe, 
that  the  former  could  be  confounded  with  the  latter, 
unless  the  innocent  man  first  allowed  himself  to  be 
subdued  in  mind,  before  he  was  defrauded  of  the  good 
opinion  of  mankind.  Virtue  rising  superior  to  every 
calamity,  defeating  by  a  plain  unvarnished  tale  all  the 
stratagems  of  vice,  and  throwing  back  upon  her  ad- 
versary the  confusion  with  which  he  had  hoped  to 
overwhelm  her,  was  one  of  the  favourite  subjects  of 
my  youthful  reveries.  I  determined  never  to  prove 
an  instrument  of  destruction  to  Mr.  Falkland ;  but  I 
was  not  less  resolute  to  obtain  justice  to  myself. 


222  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

The  issue  of  all  these  confident  hopes  I  shall  im- 
mediately have  occasion  to  relate.  It  was  thus,  with 
the  most  generous  and  undoubting  spirit,  that  I  rushed 
upon  irretrievable  ruin. 

"  Friend,"  said  I  to  the  bearer,  after  a  considerable 
interval  of  silence,  "  you  are  right.  This  is,  indeed, 
an  extraordinary  letter  you  have  brought  me ;  but  it 
answers  its  purpose.  I  will  certainly  go  with  you  now, 
whatever  be  the  consequence.  No  person  shall  ever 
impute  blame  to  me,  so  long  as  I  have  it  in  my  power 
to  clear  myself." 

I  felt,  in  the  circumstances  in  which  I  was  placed 
by  Mr.  Forester's  letter,  not  merely  a  willingness, 
but  an  alacrity  and  impatience,  to  return.  We  pro- 
cured a  second  horse.  We  proceeded  on  our  jour- 
ney in  silence.  My  mind  was  occupied  again  in 
endeavouring  to  account  for  Mr.  Forester's  letter.  I 
knew  the  inflexibility  and  sternness  of  Mr.  Falkland's 
mind  in  accomplishing  the  purposes  he  had  at  heart ; 
but  I  also  knew  that  every  virtuous  and  magnanimous 
principle  was  congenial  to  his  character. 

When  we  arrived,  midnight  was  already  past,  and 
we  were  obliged  to  waken  one  of  the  servants  to  give 
us  admittance.  I  found  that  Mr.  Forester  had  left  a 
message  for  me,  in  consideration  of  the  possibility  of 
my  arrival  during  the  night,  directing  me  immediately 
to  go  to  bed,  and  to  take  care  that  I  did  not  come 
weary  and  exhausted  to  the  business  of  the  following 
day.  I  endeavoured  to  take  his  advice ;  but  my  slum- 
bers were  unrefreshing  and  disturbed.  I  suffered  how- 
ever no  reduction  of  courage:  the  singularity  of  my 
situation,  my  conjectures  with  respect  to  the  present, 
my  eagerness  for  the  future,  did  not  allow  me  to  sink 
into  a  languid  and  inactive  state. 

Next  morning  the  first  person  I  saw  was  Mr.  Forester. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  223 

He  told  me  that  he  did  not  yet  know  what  Mr.  Falkland 
had  to  allege  against  me,  for  that  he  had  refused  to 
know.  He  had  arrived  at  the  house  of  his  brother  by 
appointment  on  the  preceding  day  to  settle  some  in- 
dispensable business,  his  intention  having  been  to 
depart  the  moment  the  business  was  finished,  as  he 
knew  that  conduct  on  his  part  would 'be  most  agree- 
able to  Mr.  Falkland.  But  he  was  no  sooner  come, 
than  he  found  the  whole  house  in  confusion,  the  alarm 
of  my  elopement  having  been  given  a  few  hours  before. 
Mr.  Falkland  had  despatched  servants  in  all  directions 
in  pursuit  of  me ;  and  the  servant  from  the  market- 
town  arrived  at  the  same  moment  with  Mr.  Forester, 
with  intelligence  that  a  person  answering  the  descrip- 
tion he  gave,  had  been  there  very  early  in  the  morning 
enquiring  respecting  the  stage  to  London. 

Mr.  Falkland  seemed  extremely  disturbed  at  tin's 
information,  and  exclaimed  on  me  with  acrimony,  as 
an  unthankful  and  unnatural  villain. 

Mr.  Forester  replied,  "  Have  more  command  of  your- 
self, sir !  Villain  is  a  serious  appellation,  and  must  not 
be  trifled  with.  Englishmen  are  free ;  and  no  man  is 
to  be  charged  with  villainy,  because  he  changes  one 
source  of  subsistence  for  another." 

Mr.  Falkland  shook  his  head,  and  with  a  smile,  ex- 
pressive of  acute  sensibility,  said,  "  Brother,  brother, 
you  are  the  dupe  of  his  art.  I  always  considered  him 
with  an  eye  of  suspicion,  and  was  aware  of  his  de- 
pravity. But  I  have  just  discovered " 

"  Stop,  sir!"  interrupted  Mr.  Forester.  "  I  own  I 
thought  that,  in  a  moment  of  acrimony,  you  might  be 
employing  harsh  epithets  in  a  sort  of  random  style.  But 
if  you  have  a  serious  accusation  to  state,  we  must  not  be 
told  of  that,  till  it  is  known  whether  the  lad  is  within 


224  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

reach  of  a  hearing.  I  am  indifferent  myself  about  the 
good  opinion  of  others.  It  is  what  the  world  bestows  and 
retracts  with  so  little  thought,  that  I  can  make  no  ac- 
count of  its  decision.  But  that  does  not  authorise  me 
lightly  to  entertain  an  ill  opinion  of  another.  The 
slenderest  allowance  I  think  I  can  make  to  such  as  I 
consign  to  be  the  example  and  terror  of  their  species, 
is  that  of  being  heard  in  their  own  defence.  It  is  a 
wise  principle  that  requires  the  judge  to  come  into 
court  uninformed  of  the  merits  of  the  cause  he  is  to 
try;  and  to  that  principle  I  am  determined  to  conform 
as  an  individual.  I  shall  always  think  it  right  to  be 
severe  and  inflexible  in  my  treatment  of  offenders; 
but  the  severity  I  exercise  in  the  sequel,  must  be  ac- 
companied with  impartiality  and  caution  in  what  is 
preliminary." 

While  Mr.  Forester  related  to  me  these  particulars, 
he  observed  me  ready  to  break  out  into  some  of  the 
expressions  which  the  narrative  suggested;  but  he 
would  not  suffer  me  to  speak.  "  No,"  said  he ;  "I 
would  not  hear  Mr.  Falkland  against  you ;  and  I  can- 
not hear  you  in  your  defence.  I  come  to  you  at  pre- 
sent to  speak,  and  not  to  hear.  I  thought  it  right  to 
warn  you  of  your  danger,  but  I  have  nothing  more  to 
do  now.  Reserve  what  you  have  to  say  to  the  proper 
time.  Make  the  best  story  you  can  for  yourself —  true, 
if  truth,  as  I  hope,  will  serve  your  purpose ;  but,  if 
not,  the  most  plausible  and  ingenious  you  can  invent. 
That  is  what  self-defence  requires  from  every  man, 
where,  as  it  always  happens  to  a  man  upon  his  trial,  he 
has  the  whole  world  against  him,  and  has  his  own 
battle  to  fight  against  the  world.  Farewell ;  and  God 
send  you  a  good  deliverance  !  If  Mr.  Falkland's  accus- 
ation, whatever  it  be,  shall  appear  premature,  depend 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  225 

upon  having  me  more  zealously  your  friend  than  ever. 
If  not,  this  is  the  last  act  of  friendship  you  will  ever 
receive  from  nu-  '." 

It  may  be  believed  that  this  address,  so  singular,  so 
solemn,  so  big  with  conditional  menace,  did  not  greatly 
ti'iid  to  encourage  me.  I  was  totally  ignorant  of  the 
charge  to  be  advanced  against  me ;  and  not  a  little 
astonished,  when  it  was  in  my  power  to  be  in  the  most 
formidable  degree  the  accuser  of  Mr.  Falkland,  to  find 
the  principles  of  equity  so  completely  reversed,  as  for 
the  innocent  but  instructed  individual  to  be  the 
party  accused  and  suffering,  instead  of  having,  as  was 
natural,  the  real  criminal  at  his  mercy.  I  was  still 
more  astonished  at  the  superhuman  power  Mr.  Falk- 
land seemed  to  possess,  of  bringing  the  object  of  his 
persecution  within  the  sphere  of  his  authority ;  a  re- 
flection attended  with  some  check  to  that  eagerness 
and  boldness  of  spirit,  which  now  constituted  the 
ruling  passion  of  my  mind. 

But  this  was  no  time  for  meditation.  To  the  suf- 
ferer the  course  of  events  is  taken  out  of  his  direction, 
and  he  is  hurried  along  with  an  irresistible  force, 
without  finding  it  within  the  compass  of  his  efforts  to 
check  their  rapidity.  I  was  allowed  only  a  short  time 
to  recollect  myself,  when  my  trial  commenced.  I  was 
conducted  to  the  library,  where  I  had  passed  so  many 
happy  and  so  many  contemplative  hours,  and  found 
there  Mr.  Forester  and  three  or  four  of  the  servants 
already  assembled,  in  expectation  of  me  and  my  ac- 
cuser. Every  thing  was  calculated  to  suggest  to  me 
that  I  must  trust  only  in  the  justice  of  the  parties 
concerned,  and  had  nothing  to  hope  from  their  indulg- 
ence. Mr.  Falkland  entered  at  one  door,  almost  as 
soon  as  I  entered  at  the  other. 


226  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 


CHAPTER  X. 

HE  began :  "  It  has  been  the  principle  of  my  life, 
never  to  inflict  a  wilful  injury  upon  any  thing  that 
lives ;  I  need  not  express  my  regret,  when  I  find  my- 
self obliged  to  be  the  promulgator  of  a  criminal  charge. 
How  gladly  would  I  pass  unnoticed  the  evil  I  have 
sustained;  but  I  owe  it  to  society  to  detect  an  of- 
fender, and  prevent  other  men  from  being  imposed 
upon,  as  I  have  been,  by  an  appearance  of  integrity." 

"  It  would  be  better,"  interrupted  Mr.  Forester,  "  to 
speak  directly  to  the  point.  We  ought  not,  though 
unwarily,  by  apologising  for  ourselves,  to  create  at 
such  a  time  a  prejudice  against  an  individual,  against 
whom  a  criminal  accusation  will  always  be  prejudice 
enough." 

"  I  strongly  suspect,"  continued  Mr.  Falkland,  "  this 
young  man,  who  has  been  peculiarly  the  object  of 
my  kindness,  of  having  robbed  me  to  a  considerable 
amount." 

"  What,"  replied  Mr.  Forester,  «  are  the  grounds 
of  your  suspicion  ? " 

"  The  first  of  them  is  the  actual  loss  I  have  sus- 
tained, in  notes,  jewels,  and  plate.  I  have  missed  bank- 
notes to  the  amount  of  nine  hundred  pounds,  three 
gold  repeaters  of  considerable  value,  a  complete  set  of 
diamonds,  the  property  of  my  late  mother,  and  several 
other  articles." 

"  And  why,*'  continued  my  arbitrator,  astonishment, 
grief,  and  a  desire  to  retain  his  self-possession,  strongly 
contending  in  his  countenance  and  voice,  "  do  you 
fix  on  this  young  man  as  the  instrument  of  the 
depredation  ?  " 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  22? 

"  I  found  him,  on  my  coming  home,  upon  the  day 
when  every  thing  was  in  disorder  from  the  alarm  ot 
fire,  in  the  very  act  of  quitting  the  private  apartment 
where  these  articles  were  deposited.  He  was  con- 
founded at  seeing  me,  and  hastened  to  withdraw  as 
soon  as  he  possibly  could." 

••  Did  you  say  nothing  to  him — take  no  notice  of  the 
confusion  your  sudden  appearance  produced?" 

••  I  asked  what  was  his  errand  in  that  place.  He 
was  at  first  so  terrified  and  overcome,  that  he  could 
not  answer  me.  Afterwards,  with  a  good  deal  of 
faltering,  he  said  that,  when  all  the  servants  were  en- 
gaged in  endeavouring  to  save  the  most  valuable  part 
of  my  property,  he  had  come  hither  with  the  same 
view ;  but  that  he  had  as  yet  removed  nothing." 

"  Did  you  immediately  examine  to  see  that  every 
thing  was  safe  ?n 

"  No.  I  was  accustomed  to  confide  in  his  honesty ; 
and  I  was  suddenly  called  away,  in  the  present  in- 
stance, to  attend  to  the  increasing  progress  of  the 
flames.  I  therefore  only  took  out  the  key  from  the 
door  of  the  apartment,  having  first  locked  it,  and, 
putting  it  in  my  pocket,  hastened  to  go  where  my 
presence  seemed  indispensably  necessary.'* 

"  How  long  was  it  before  you  missed  your  property?" 

"  The  same  evening.  The  hurry  of  the  scene  had 
driven  the  circumstance  entirely  out  of  my  mind,  till, 
going  by  accident  near  the  apartment,  the  whole 
affair,  together  with  the  singular  and  equivocal  be- 
haviour of  Williams,  rushed  at  once  upon  my  recol- 
lection. I  immediately  entered,  examined  the  trunk 
in  which  these  things  were  contained,  and,  to  my  as- 
tonishment, found  the  locks  broken,  and  the  property 
gone." 

"  What  steps  did  you  take  upon  this  discovery  ?** 
Q  2 


228  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

"  I  sent  for  Williams,  and  talked  to  him  very  seriously 
upon  the  subject.  But  he  had  now  perfectly  recovered 
his  self-command,  and  calmly  and  stoutly  denied  all 
knowledge  of  the  matter.  I  urged  him  with  the 
enormousness  of  the  offence,  but  I  made  no  impression. 
He  did  not  discover  either  the  surprise  and  indig- 
nation one  would  have  expected  from  a  person  entirely 
innocent,  or  the  uneasiness  that  generally  attends  upon 
guilt.  He  was  rather  silent  and  reserved.  I  then 
informed  him,  that  I  should  proceed  in  a  manner  dif- 
ferent from  what  he  might  perhaps  expect.  I  would 
not,  as  is  too  frequent  in  such  cases,  make  a  general 
search;  for  I  had  rather  lose  my  property  for  ever 
without  redress,  than  expose  a  multitude  of  innocent 
persons  to  anxiety  and  injustice.  My  suspicion,  for 
the  present,  unavoidably  fixed  upon  him.  But,  in  a 
matter  of  so  great  consequence,  I  was  determined  not 
to  act  upon  suspicion.  I  would  neither  incur  the  pos- 
sibility of  ruining  him,  being  innocent,  nor  be  the 
instrument  of  exposing  others  to  his  depredations,  if 
guilty.  I  should  therefore  merely  insist  upon  his 
continuing  in  my  service.  He  might  depend  upon  it 
he  should  be  well  watched,  and  I  trusted  the  whole 
truth  would  eventually  appear.  Since  he  avoided  con- 
fession now,  I  advised  him  to  consider  how  far  it  was 
likely  he  would  come  off  with  impunity  at  last.  This 
I  determined  on,  that  the  moment  he  attempted  an 
escape,  I  would  consider  that  as  an  indication  of  guilt, 
and  proceed  accordingly." 

"  What  circumstances  have  occurred  from  that  time 
to  the  present  ?  " 

"  None  upon  which  I  can  infer  a  certainty  of  guilt; 
several  that  agree  to  favour  a  suspicion.  From  that 
time  Williams  was  perpetually  uneasy  in  his  situation, 
always  desirous,  as  it  now  appears,  to  escape,  but 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  229 

afraid  to  adopt  such  a  measure  without  certain  pre- 
cautions. It  was  not  long  after,  that  you,  Mr.  Forester, 
became  my  visitor.  I  observed,  with  dissatisfaction, 
the  growing  intercourse  between  you,  reflecting  on  the 
equivocalness  of  his  character,  and  the  attempt  he 
would  probably  make  to  render  you  the  dupe  of  his 
hypocrisy.  I  accordingly  threatened  him  severely ;  and 
I  believe  you  observed  the  change  that  presently  after 
occurred  in  his  behaviour  with  relation  to  you." 

••  I  did,  and  it  appeared  at  that  time  mysterious  and 
extraordinary." 

"  Some  time  after,  as  you  well  know,  a  rencounter 
took  place  between  you,  whether  accidental  or  intui- 
tional on  his  part  I  am  not  able  to  say,  when  he  con- 
fessed to  you  the  uneasiness  of  his  mind,  without 
discovering  the  cause,  and  openly  proposed  to  you  to 
assist  him  in  his  flight,  and  stand,  in  case  of  necessity, 
between  him  and  my  resentment.  You  offered,  it 
seems,  to  take  him  into  your  service ;  but  nothing,  as 
he  acknowledged,  would  answer  his  purpose,  that  did 
not  place  his  retreat  wholly  out  of  my  power  to  dis- 
cover." 

"  Did  it  not  appear  extraordinary  to  you,  that  he 
should  hope  for  any  effectual  protection  from  me,  while 
it  remained  perpetually  in  your  power  to  satisfy  me  of 
his  un worthiness?" 

"  Perhaps  he  had  hopes  that  I  should  not  proceed  to 
that  step,  at  least  so  long  as  the  place  of  his  retreat 
should  be  unknown  to  me,  and  of  consequence  the 
event  of  my  proceeding  dubious.  Perhaps  he  confided 
in  his  own  powers,  which  are  far  from  contemptible,  to 
construct  a  plausible  tale,  especially  as  he  had  taken 
care  to  have  the  first  impression  in  his  favpur.  After 
all,  this  protection,  on  your  part,  was  merely  reserved 
in  case  all  other  expedients  failed.  He  does  not  appear 
Q  3 


230  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

to  have  had  any  other  sentiment  upon  the  subject,  than 
that,  if  he  were  defeated  in  his  projects  for  placing 
himself  beyond  the  reach  of  justice,  it  was  better  to 
have  bespoken  a  place  in  your  patronage  than  to  be 
destitute  of  every  resource." 

Mr.  Falkland  having  thus  finished  his  evidence,  called 
upon  Robert,  the  valet,  to  confirm  the  part  of  it  which 
related  to  the  day  of  the  fire. 

Robert  stated,  that  he  happened  to  be  coming  through 
the  library  that  day,  a  few  minutes  after  Mr.  Falkland's 
being  brought  home  by  the  sight  of  the  fire ;  that  he 
had  found  me  standing  there  with  every  mark  of  per- 
turbation and  fright;  that  he  could  not  help  stopping  to 
notice  it;  that  he  had  spoken  to  me  two  or  three  times 
before  he  could  obtain  an  answer ;  and  that  all  he  could 
get  from  me  at  last  was,  that  I  was  the  most  miserable 
creature  alive. 

He  further  said,  that  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day 
Mr.  Falkland  called  him  into  the  private  apartment 
adjoining  to  the  library,  and  bid  him  bring  a  hammer 
and  some  nails.  He  then  showed  him  a  trunk  stand- 
ing in  the  apartment  with  its  locks  and  fastenings 
broken,  and  ordered  him  to  observe  and  remember  what 
he  saw,  but  not  to  mention  it  to  any  one.  Robert  did 
not  at  that  time  know  what  Mr.  Falkland  intended  by 
these  directions,  which  were  given  in  a  manner  un- 
commonly solemn  and  significant ;  but  he  entertained 
no  doubt,  that  the  fastenings  were  broken  and  wrenched 
by  the  application  of  a  chisel  or  such-like  instrument, 
with  the  intention  of  forcibly  opening  the  trunk. 

Mr.  Forester  observed  upon  this  evidence,  that  as 
much  of  it  as  related  to  the  day  of  the  fire  seemed 
indeed  to  afford  powerful  reasons  for  suspicion;  and  that 
the  circumstances  that  had  occurred  since  strangely 
concurred  to  fortify  that  suspicion.  Meantime,  that 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  231 

nothing  proper  to  be  done  might  be  omitted,  he  asked 
whether  in  my  flight  I  had  removed  my  boxes,  to  see 
whether  by  that  means  any  trace  could  be  discovered 
to  confirm  the  imputation.  Mr.  Falkland  treated  this 
suggestion  slightly,  saying,  that  if  I  were  the  thief,  I 
had  no  doubt  taken  the  precaution  to  obviate  so  pal- 
pable a  means  of  detection.  To  this  Mr.  Forester 
only  replied,  that  conjecture,  however  skilfully  formed, 
was  not  always  realised  in  the  actions  and  behaviour  of 
mankind;  and  ordered  that  my  boxes  and  trunks,  if 
found,  should  be  brought  into  the  library.  I  listened 
to  this  suggestion  with  pleasure  ;  and,  uneasy  and  con- 
founded as  I  was  at  the  appearances  combined  against 
me,  I  trusted  in  this  appeal  to  give  a  new  face  to  my 
cause.  I  was  eager,  to  declare  the  place  where  my 
property  was  deposited ;  and  the  servants,  guided  by 
my  direction,  presently  produced  what  was  enquired  for. 

The  two  boxes  that  were  first  opened,  contained 
nothing  to  confirm  the  accusation  against  me ;  in  the 
third  were  found  a  watch  and  several  jewels,  that  were 
immediately  known  to  be  the  property  of  Mr.  Falkland. 
The  production  of  this  seemingly  decisive  evidence 
excited  emotions  of  astonishment  and  concern  ;  but  no 
person's  astonishment  appeared  to  be  greater  than  that 
of  Mr.  Falkland.  That  1  should  have  left  the  stolen 
goods  behind  me,  would  of  itself  have  appeared  incre- 
dible ;  but  when  it  was  considered  what  a  secure  place 
of  concealment  I  had  found  for  them,  the  wonder 
diminished;  and  Mr.  Forester  observed,  that  it  was  by 
no  means  impossible  I  might  conceive  it  easier  to  obtain 
possession  of  them  afterwards,  than  to  remove  them  at 
the  period  of  my  precipitate  flight. 

Here  however  I  thought  it  necessary  to  interfere. 
I  fervently  urged  my  right  to  a  fair  and  impartial  con- 
struction.   I  asked  Mr.  Forester,  whether  it  were  pro- 
Q  4 


232  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

bable,  if  I  had  stolen  these  things,  that  I  should  not 
have  contrived,  at  least  to  remove  them  along  with 
me  ?  And  again,  whether,  if  I  had  been  conscious  they 
would  be  found  among  my  property,  I  should  myself 
have  indicated  the  place  where  I  had  concealed  it  ? 

The  insinuation  I  conveyed  against  Mr.  Forester's 
impartiality  overspread  his  whole  countenance,  for  an 
instant,  with  the  flush  of  anger. 

"  Impartiality,  young  man !  Yes,  be  sure,  from  me 
you  shall  experience  an  impartial  treatment !  God  send 
that  may  answer  your  purpose  !  Presently  you  shall  be 
heard  at  full  in  your  own  defence. 

"  You  expect  us  to  believe  you  innocent,  because 
you  did  not  remove  these  things  along  with  you.  The 
money  is  removed.  Where,  sir,  is  that  ?  We  cannot 
answer  for  the  inconsistences  and  oversights  of  any 
human  mind,  and,  least  of  all,  if  that  mind  should 
appear  to  be  disturbed  with  the  consciousness  of  guilt. 
"  You  observe  that  it  was  by  your  own  direction  these 
boxes  and  trunks  have  been  found :  that  is  indeed 
extraordinary.  It  appears  little  less  than  infatuation. 
But  to  what  purpose  appeal  to  probabilities  and  con- 
jecture, in  the  face  of  incontestable  facts  ?  There,  sir, 
are  the  boxes :  you  alone  knew  where  they  were  to  be 
found ;  you  alone  had  the  keys :  tell  us  then  how  this 
watch  and  these  jewels  came  to  be  contained  in  them?" 
I  was  silent. 

To  the  rest  of  the  persons  present  I  seemed  to  be 
merely  the  subject  of  detection;  but  in  reality  I  was, 
of  all  the  spectators,  that  individual  who  was  most  at  a 
loss  to  conceive,  through  every  stage  of  the  scene,  what 
would  come  next,  and  who  listened  to  every  word  that 
was  uttered  with  the  most  uncontrollable  amazement. 
Amazement  however  alternately  yielded  to  indig- 
nation and  horror.  At  first  I  could  not  refrain  from 


CALEB    WILLIAMS,  233 

repeatedly  attempting  to  interrupt ;  but  I  was  checked 
in  these  attempts  by  Mr.  Forester ;  and  I  presently 
felt  how  necessary  it  was  to  my  future  peace,  that  I 
should  collect  the  whole  energy  of  my  mind  to  repel 
the  charge,  and  assert  my  innocence. 

Every  thing  being  now  produced  that  could  be  pro- 
duced against  me,  Mr.  Forester  turned  to  me  with  a 
look  of  concern  and  pity,  and  told  me  that  now  was  the 
time,  if  I  chose  to  allege  any  thing  in  my  defence.  In 
reply  to  this  invitation,  I  spoke  nearly  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  am  innocent.  It  is  in  vain  that  circumstance!  are 
accumulated  against  me ;  there  is  not  a  person  upon 
earth  less  capable  than  I  of  the  things  of  which  I 
am  accused.  I  appeal  to  my  heart  —  I  appeal  to  my 
looks  —  I  appeal  to  every  sentiment  my  tongue  ever 
uttered." 

I  could  perceive  that  the  fervour  with  which  I  spoke 
made  some  impression  upon  every  one  that  heard  me. 
But  in  a  moment  their  eyes  were  turned  upon  the  pro- 
perty that  lay  before  them,  and  their  countenances 
changed.  I  proceeded : — 

"  One  thing  more  I  must  aver;  —  Mr.  Falkland  is  not 
deceived ;  he  perfectly  knows  that  I  am  innocent." 

I  had  no  sooner  uttered  these  words,  than  an  invo- 
luntary cry  of  indignation  burst  from  every  person  in 
the  room.  Mr.  Forester  turned  to  me  with  a  look  of 
extreme  severity,  and  said  — 

"  Young  man,  consider  well  what  you  are  doing !  It 
is  the  privilege  of  the  party  accused  to  say  whatever 
he  thinks  proper ;  and  I  will  take  care  that  you  shall 
enjoy  that  privilege  in  its  utmost  extent.  But  do  you 
think  it  will  conduce  in  any  respect  to  your  benefit, 
to  throw  out  such  insolent  and  intolerable  insinu- 
ations?" 

"  I  thank  you  most  sincerely,"  replied  I,  "  for  your 


234-  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

caution ;  but  I  well  know  what  it  is  I  am  doing.  I 
make  this  declaration,  not  merely  because  it  is  solemnly 
true,  but  because  it  is  inseparably  connected  with  my 
vindication.  I  am  the  party  accused,  and  I  shall  be  told 
that  I  am  not  to  be  believed  in  my  own  defence.  I  can 
produce  no  other  witnesses  of  my  innocence;  I  therefore 
call  upon  Mr.  Falkland  to  be  my  evidence.  I  ask  him  — 

"  Did  you  never  boast  to  me  in  private  of  your  power 
to  ruin  me  ?  Did  you  never  say  that,  if  once  I  brought 
on  myself  the  weight  of  your  displeasure,  my  fall  should 
be  irreparable  ?  Did  you  not  tell  me  that,  though  I 
should  prepare  in  that  case  a  tale  however  plausible 
or  however  true,  you  would  take  care  that  the  whole 
world  should  execrate  me  as  an  impostor  ?  Were  not 
those  your  very  words  ?  Did  you  not  add,  that  my  in- 
nocence should  be  of  no  service  to  me,  and  that  you 
laughed  at  so  feeble  a  defence?  I  ask  you  further,  — 
Did  you  not  receive  a  letter  from  me  the  morning  of 
the  day  on  which  I  departed,  requesting  your  consent 
to  my  departure?  Should  I  have  done  that  if  my 
flight  had  been  that  of  a  thief?  I  challenge  any  man 
to  reconcile  the  expressions  of  that  letter  with  this  ac- 
cusation. Should  I  have  begun  with  stating  that  I 
had  conceived  a  desire  to  quit  your  service,  if  my 
desire  and  the  reasons  for  it,  had  been  of  the  nature 
that  is  now  alleged  ?  Should  I  have  dared  to  ask  for 
what  reason  I  was  thus  subjected  to  an  eternal  pe- 
nance ?  " 

Saying  this,  I  took  out  a  copy  of  my  letter,  and  laid 
it  open  upon  the  table. 

Mr.  Falkland  returned  no  immediate  answer  to  my 
interrogations.  Mr.  Forester  turned  to  him,  and  said, 
"  Well,  sir,  what  is  your  reply  to  this  challenge  of 
your  servant  ?  " 

Mr.  Falkland  answered,    "  Such  a  mode  of  defence 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  235 

scarcely  calls  for  a  reply.  But  I  answer,  I  held  no  such 
conversation ;  I  never  used  such  words ;  I  received  no 
such  letter.  Surely  it  is  no  sufficient  refutation  of  a 
criminal  charge,  that  the  criminal  repels  what  is  alleged 
against  him  with  volubility  of  speech,  and  intrepidity 
of  manner." 

Mr.  Forester  then  turned  to  me  :  "  If,"  said  he,  "  you 
trust  your  vindication  to  the  plausibility  of  your  tale, 
you  must  take  care  to  render  it  consistent  and  com- 
plete. You  have  not  told  us  what  was  the  cause  of  the 
confusion  and  anxiety  in  which  Robert  professes  to 
have  found  you,  why  you  were  so  impatient  to  quit 
the  service  of  Mr.  Falkland,  or  how  you  account  for 
certain  articles  of  his  property  being  found  in  your 
possession." 

"  All  that,  sir,"  answered  I,  "  is  true.  There  are 
certain  parts  of  my  story  that  I  have  not  told.  If 
they  were  told,  they  would  not  conduce  to  my  disad- 
vantage, and  they  would  make  the  present  accusation 
appear  still  more  astonishing.  But  I  cannot,  as  yet  at 
least,  prevail  upon  myself  to  tell  them.  Is  it  necessary 
to  give  any  particular  and  precise  reasons  why  I  should 
wish  to  change  the  place  of  my  residence  ?  You  all  of 
you  know  the  unfortunate  state  of  Mr.  Falkland's  mind. 
You  know  the  sternness,  reservedness,  and  distance  of 
his  manners.  If  I  had  no  other  reasons,  surely  it  would 
afford  small  presumption  of  criminality  that  I  should 
wish  to  change  his  service  for  another. 

"  The  question  of  how  these  articles  of  Mr.  Falkland's 
property  came  to  be  found  in  my  possession,  is  more 
material.  It  is  a  question  I  am  wholly  unable  to  answer. 
Their  being  found  there,  was  at  least  as  unexpected 
to  me  as  to  any  one  of  the  persons  now  present.  I 
only  know  that,  as  I  have  the  most  perfect  assurance 
of  Mr.  Falkland's  being  conscious  of  my  innocence — 


236  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

for,  observe  !  I  do  not  shrink  from  that  assertion ;  I 
reiterate  it  with  new  confidence  —  I  therefore  firmly 
and  from  my  soul  believe,  that  their  being  there  is  of 
Mr.  Falkland's  contrivance." 

I  no  sooner  said  this,  than  I  was  again  interrupted 
by  an  involuntary  exclamation  from  every  one  present. 
They  looked  at  me  with  furious  glances,  as  if  they 
could  have  torn  me  to  pieces.  I  proceeded  :  — 

"  I  have  now  answered  every  thing  that  is  alleged 
against  me. 

"  Mr.  Forester,  you  are  a  lover  of  justice  ;  I  con- 
jure you  not  to  violate  it  in  my  person.  You  are  a  man 
of  penetration ;  look  at  me !  do  you  see  any  of  the 
marks  of  guilt  ?  Recollect  all  that  has  ever  passed 
under  your  observation ;  is  it  compatible  with  a  mind 
capable  of  what  is  now  alleged  against  me  ?  Could  a 
real  criminal  have  shown  himself  so  unabashed,  com- 
posed, and  firm  as  I  have  now  done  ? 

"  Fellow-servants !  Mr.  Falkland  is  a  man  of  rank 
and  fortune ;  he  is  your  master.  I  am  a  poor  country 
lad,  without  a  friend  in  the  world.  That  is  a  ground  of 
real  difference  to  a  certain  extent ;  but  it  is  not  a  suf- 
ficient ground  for  the  subversion  of  justice.  Remember, 
that  I  am  in  a  situation  that  is  not  to  be  trifled  with ; 
that  a  decision  given  against  me  now,  in  a  case  in 
which  I  solemnly  assure  you  I  am  innocent,  will  for 
ever  deprive  me  of  reputation  and  peace  of  mind, 
combine  the  whole  world  in  a  league  against  me,  and 
determine  perhaps  upon  my  liberty  and  my  life.  If 
you  believe  —  if  you  see  —  if  you  know,  that  I  am  inno- 
cent, speak  for  me.  Do  not  suffer  a  pusillanimous 
timidity  to  prevent  you  from  saving  a  fellow-creature 
from  destruction,  who  does  not  deserve  to  have  a 
human  being  for  his  enemy.  Why  have  we  the  power 
of  speech,  but  to  communicate  our  thoughts  ?  I  will 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  237 

never  believe  that  a  man,  conscious  of  innocence, 
cannot  make  other  men  perceive  that  he  has  that 
thought.  Do  not  you  feel  that  my  whole  heart  tells 
me,  I  am  not  guilty  of  what  is  imputed  to  me  ? 

"  To  you,  Mr.  Falkland,  I  have  nothing  to  say :  I 
know  you,  and  know  that  you  are  impenetrable.  At 
the  very  moment  that  you  are  urging  such  odious 
charges  against  me,  you  admire  my  resolution  and  for- 
bearance. But  I  have  nothing  to  hope  from  you.  You 
can  look  upon  my  ruin  without  pity  or  remorse.  I  am 
most  unfortunate  indeed  in  having  to  do  with  such 
an  adversary.  You  oblige  me  to  say  ill  things  of  you ; 
but  I  appeal  to  your  own  heart,  whether  my  language 
is  that  of  exaggeration  or  revenge." 

Every  thing  that  could  be  alleged  on  either  side 
being  now  concluded,  Mr.  Forester  undertook  to  make 
some  remarks  upon  the  whole. 

"Williams,"  said  he,"  the  charge  against  you  is  heavy; 
the  direct  evidence  strong ;  the  corroborating  circum- 
stances numerous  and  striking.  I  grant  that  you  have 
shown  considerable  dexterity  in  your  answers  ;  but  you 
will  learn,  young  man,  to  your  cost,  that  dexterity,  how- 
ever powerful  it  maybe  in  certain  cases,  will  avail  little 
against  the  stubbornness  of  truth.  It  is  fortunate  for 
mankind  that  the  empire  of  talents  has  its  limitations, 
and  that  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  ingenuity  to  subvert 
the  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong.  Take  my  word  for 
it,  that  the  true  merits  of  the  case  against  you  will  be 
too  strong  for  sophistry  to  overturn ;  that  justice  will 
prevail,  and  impotent  malice  be  defeated. 

"  To  you,  Mr.  Falkland,  society  is  obliged  for  having 
placed  this  black  affair  in  its  true  light.  Do  not  suffer 
the  malignant  aspersions  of  the  criminal  to  give  you 
uneasiness.  Depend  upon  it  that  they  will  be  found  of 
no  weight.  I  have  no  doubt  that  your  character,  in  the 


238  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

judgment  of  every  person  that  has  heard  them,  stands 
higher  than  ever.  We  feel  for  your  misfortune,  in 
being  obliged  to  hear  such  calumnies  from  a  person 
who  has  injured  you  so  grossly.  But  you  must  be  con- 
sidered in  that  respect  as  a  martyr  in  the  public  cause. 
The  purity  of  your  motives  and  dispositions  is  beyond 
the  reach  of  malice ;  and  truth  and  equity  will  not  fail 
to  award,  to  your  calumniator  infamy,  and  to  you  the 
love  and  approbation  of  mankind. 

"  I  have  now  told  you,  Williams,  what  I  think  of  your 
case.  But  I  have  no  right  to  assume  to  be  your  ulti- 
mate judge.  Desperate  as  it  appears  to  me,  I  will 
give  you  one  piece  of  advice,  as  if  I  were  retained  as 
a  counsel  to  assist  you.  Leave  out  of  it  whatever 
tends  to  the  disadvantage  of  Mr.  Falkland.  Defend 
yourself  as  well  as  you  can,  but  do  not  attack  your 
master.  It  is  your  business  to  create  in  those  who 
hear  you  a  prepossession  in  your  favour.  But  the  re- 
crimination you  have  been  now  practising,  will  always 
create  indignation.  Dishonesty  will  admit  of  some 
palliation.  The  deliberate  malice  you  have  now  been 
showing  is  a  thousand  times  more  atrocious.  It  proves 
you  to  have  the  mind  of  a  demon,  rather  than  of  a 
felon.  Wherever  you  shall  repeat  it,  those  who  hear 
you  will  pronounce  you  guilty  upon  that,  even  if  the 
proper  evidence  against  you  were  glaringly  defective. 
If  therefore  you  would  consult  your  interest,  which 
seems  to  be  your  only  consideration,  it  is  incumbent 
upon  you  by  all  means  immediately  to  retract  that.  If 
you  desire  to  be  believed  honest,  you  must  in  the  first 
place  show  that  you  have  a  due  sense  of  merit  in  others. 
You  cannot  better  serve  your  cause  than  by  begging 
pardon  of  your  master,  and  doing  homage  to  rectitude 
and  worth,  even  when  they  are  employed  in  vengeance 
against  you." 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  239 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  my  mind  sustained  an 
extreme  shock  from  the  decision  of  Mr.  Forester ;  but 
his  call  upon  me  to  retract  and  humble  myself  before 
my  accuser  penetrated  my  whole  soul  with  indig- 
nation. I  answered :  — 

"  I  have  already  told  you  I  am  innocent.  I  believe 
that  I  could  not  endure  the  effort  of  inventing  a  plau- 
sible defence,  if  it  were  otherwise.  You  have  just 
affirmed  that  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  ingenuity  to 
subvert  the  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong,  and  in  that 
very  instant  I  find  them  subverted.  This  is  indeed  to 
me  a  very  awful  moment.  New  to  the  world,  I  know 
nothing,  of  its  affairs  but  what  has  reached  me  by 
rumour,  or  is  recorded  in  books.  I  have  come  into  it 
with  all  the  ardour  and  confidence  inseparable  from 
ray  years.  In  every  fellow-being  I  expected  to  find  a 
friend.  I  am  unpractised  in  its  wiles,  and  have  even 
no  acquaintance  with  its  injustice.  I  have  done  nothing 
to  deserve  the  animosity  of  mankind;  but,  if  I  may 
judge  from  the  present  scene,  I  am  henceforth  to  be 
deprived  of  the  benefits  of  integrity  and  honour.  I  am 
to  forfeit  the  friendship  of  every  one  I  have  hitherto 
known,  and  to  be  precluded  from  the  power  of  ac- 
quiring that  of  others.  I  must  therefore  be  reduced 
to  derive  my  satisfaction  from  myself.  Depend  upon 
it,  I  will  not  begin  that  career  by  dishonourable  con- 
cessions. If  I  am  to  despair  of  the  good-will  of  other 
men,  I  will  at  least  maintain  the  independence  of  my 
own  mind.  Mr.  Falkland  is  my  implacable  enemy. 
Whatever  may  be  his  merits  in  other  respects,  he  is 
acting  towards  me  without  humanity,  without  remorse, 
and  without  principle.  Do  you  think  I  will  ever  make 
submissions  to  a  man  by  whom  I  am  thus  treated,  that 
I  will  fall  down  at  the  feet  of  one  who  is  to  me  a  devil, 
or  kiss  the  hand  that  is  red  with  my  blood?" 


240  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

"  In  that  respect,"  answered  Mr.  Forester,  "  do  as 
you  shall  think  proper.  I  must  confess  that  your 
firmness  and  consistency  astonish  me.  They  add 
something  to  what  I  had  conceived  of  human  powers. 
Perhaps  you  have  chosen  the  part  which,  all  things 
considered,  may  serve  your  purpose  best ;  though  I 
think  more  moderation  would  be  more  conciliating. 
The  exterior  of  innocence  will,  I  grant,  stagger  the 
persons  who  may  have  the  direction  of  your  fate,  but 
it  will  never  be  able  to  prevail  against  plain  and  in- 
controvertible facts.  But  I  have  done  with  you.  I 
see  in  you  a  new  instance  of  that  abuse  which  is  so 
generally  made  of  talents,  the  admiration  of  an  un- 
discerning  public.  I  regard  you  with  horror.  All  that 
remains  is,  that  I  should  discharge  my  duty,  in  con- 
signing you,  as  a  monster  of  depravity,  to  the  justice 
of  your  country." 

"  No,"  rejoined  Mr.  Falkland,  "  to  that  I  can  never 
consent.  I  have  put  a  restraint  upon  myself  thus  far, 
because  it  was  right  that  evidence  and  enquiry  should 
take  their  course.  I  have  suppressed  all  my  habits 
and  sentiments,  because  it  seemed  due  to  the  public 
that  hypocrisy  should  be  unmasked.  But  I  can  suffer 
this  violence  no  longer.  I  have  through  my  whole 
life  interfered  to  protect,  not  overbear,  the  sufferer ; 
•and  I  must  do  so  now.  I  feel  not  the  smallest  resent- 
ment of  his  impotent  attacks  upon  my  character ;  I 
smile  at  their  malice ;  and  they  make  no  diminution  in 
my  benevolence  to  their  author.  Let  him  say  what  he 
pleases;  he  cannot  hurt  me.  It  was  proper  that  he 
should  be  brought  to  public  shame,  that  other  people 
might  not  be  deceived  by  him  as  we  have  been.  But 
there  is  no  necessity  for  proceeding  further;  and  I 
must  insist  upon  it  that  he  be  permitted  to  depart 
wherever  he  pleases.  I  am  sorry  that  public  interest 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  241 

affords  so  gloomy  a  prospect   for  his   future   happi- 

IH  ML  ' 

"  Mr.  Falkland,"  answered  Mr.  Forester,  "  these  sen- 
timents do  honour  to  your  humanity;  but  I  must  not 
give  way  to  them.  They  only  serve  to  set  in  a  stronger 
tight  the  venom  of  this  serpent,  this  monster  of  in- 
gratitude, who  first  robs  his  benefactor,  and  then  re- 
viles him.  Wretch  that  you  are,  will  nothing  move 
you  ?  Are  you  inaccessible  to  remorse  ?  Are  you  not 
struck  to  the  heart  with  the  unmerited  goodness  of 
your  master  ?  Vile  calumniator  I  you  are  the  abhor- 
rence of  nature,  the  opprobrium  of  the  human  species, 
and  the  earth  can  only  be  freed  from  an  insupportable 
burthen  by  your  being  exterminated!  Recollect,  sir, 
that  this  monster,  at  the  very  moment  that  you  are  ex- 
ercising such  unexampled  forbearance  in  his  behalf, 
has  the  presumption  to  charge  you  with  prosecuting  a 
crime  of  which  you  know  him  to  be  innocent,  nay,  with 
having  conveyed  the  pretended  stolen  goods  among 
his  property,  for  the  express  purpose  of  ruining  him. 
By  this  unexampled  villainy,  he  makes  it  your  duty  to 
free  the  world  from  such  a  pest,  and  your  interest  to 
admit  no  relaxing  in  your  pursuit  of  him,  lest  the  world 
should  be  persuaded  by  your  clemency  to  credit  his 
vile  insinuations." 

**  I  care  not  for  the  consequences,"  replied  Mr.  Falk- 
land ;  "  I  will  obey  the  dictates  of  my  own  mind.  I 
will  never  lend  my  assistance  to  the  reforming  mankind 
by  axes  and  gibbets.  I  am  sure  things  will  never  be  as 
they  ought,  till  honour,  and  not  law,  be  the  dictator  of 
mankind,  till  vice  be  taught  to  shrink  before  the  re- 
sistless might  of  inborn  dignity,  and  not  before  the  cold 
formality  of  statutes.  If  my  calumniator  were  worthy 
of  my  resentment,  I  would  chastise  him  with  my  own 
sword,  and  not  that  of  the  magistrate ;  but  in  the  pre- 
R 


242  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

sent  case  I  smile  at  his  malice,  and  resolve  to  spare 
him,  as  the  generous  lord  of  the  forest  spares  the  insect 
that  would  disturb  his  repose." 

"  The  language  you  now  hold,"  said  Mr.  Forester, 
"  is  that  of  romance,  and  not  of  reason.  Yet  I  cannot 
but  be  struck  with  the  contrast  exhibited  before  me, 
of  the  magnanimity  of  virtue,  and  the  obstinate  im- 
penetrable injustice  of  guilt.  While  your  mind  over- 
flows with  goodness,  nothing  can  touch  the  heart  of 
this  thrice-refined  villain.  I  shall  never  forgive  myself 
for  having  once  been  entrapped  by  his  detestable  arts. 
This  is  no  time  for  us  to  settle  the  question  between 
chivalry  and  law.  I  shall  therefore  simply  insist  as  a 
magistrate,  having  taken  the  evidence  in  this  felony, 
upon  my  right  and  duty  of  following  the  course  of 
justice,  and  committing  the  accused  to  the  county  jail." 

After  some  further  contest  Mr.  Falkland,  finding 
Mr.  Forester  obstinate  and  impracticable,  withdrew  his 
opposition.  Accordingly  a  proper  officer  was  sum- 
moned from  the  neighbouring  village,  a  mittimus  made 
out,  and  one  of  Mr.  Falkland's  carriages  prepared  to 
conduct  me  to  the  place  of  custody.  It  will  easily  be 
imagined  that  this  sudden  reverse  was  very  painfully 
felt  by  me.  I  looked  round  on  the  servants  who  had 
been  the  spectators  of  my  examination,  but  not  one  of 
them,  either  by  word  or  gesture,  expressed  compassion 
for  my  calamity.  The  robbery  of  which  I  was  accused 
appeared  to  them  atrocious  from  its  magnitude ;  and 
whatever  sparks  of  compassion  might  otherwise  have 
sprung  up  in  their  ingenuous  and  undisciplined  minds, 
were  totally  obliterated  by  indignation  at  my  supposed 
profligacy  in  recriminating  upon  their  worthy  and  ex- 
cellent master.  My  fate  being  already  determined, 
and  one  of  the  servants  despatched  for  the  officer, 
Mr.  Forester  and  Mr.  Falkland  withdrew,  and  left  me 
in  the  custody  of  two  others. 


CALEB    WILLIANfS.  243 

One  of  these  was  the  son  of  a  farmer  at  no  great 
distance,  who  had  been  in  habits  of  long  established 
intimacy  with  my  late  father.  I  was  willing  accurately 
to  discover  the  state  of  mind  of  those  who  had  been 
witnesses  of  this  scene,  and  who  had  had  some  previous 
opportunity  of  observing  my  character  and  manners. 
I.  therefore,  endeavoured  to  open  a  conversation  with 
him.  "  Well,  my  good  Thomas,"  said  I,  in  a  que- 
rulous tone,  and  with  a  hesitating  manner,  ••  am  I  not 
a  most  miserable  creature  ?  * ' 

"  Do  not  speak  to  me,  Master  Williams !  You  have 
given  me  a  shock  that  I  shall  not  get  the  better  of  tor 
one  while.  You  were  hatched  by  a  hen,  as  the  saying 
is,  but  you  came  of  the  spawn  of  a  cockatrice.  I  am 
glad  to  my  heart  that  honest  farmer  Williams  is  dead  ; 
your  villainy  would  else  have  made  him  curse  the  day 
that  ever  he  was  born." 

"  Thomas,  I  am  innocent !  I  swear  by  the  great 
God  that  shall  judge  me  another  day,  I  am  in- 
nocent ! " 

"  Pray,  do  not  swear !  for  goodness*  sake,  do  not 
swear  !  your  poor  soul  is  damned  enough  without  that. 
For  your  sake,  lad,  I  will  never  take  any  body's  word, 
nor  trust  to  appearances,  thof  it  should  be  an  angel. 
Lord  bless  us !  how  smoothly  you  palavered  it  over, 
for  all  the  world,  as  if  you  had  been  as  fair  as  a  new- 
born babe  !  But  it  will  not  do ;  you  will  never  be  able 
to  persuade  people  that  black  is  white.  For  my  own 
part,  I  have  done  with  you.  I  loved  you  yesterday,  all 
one  as  if  you  had  been  my  own  brother.  To-day  I  love 
you  so  well,  that  I  would  go  ten  miles  with  all  the- 
pleasure  in  life  to  see  you  hanged." 

"  Good  God,  Thomas !  have  you  the  heart?     What 
a  change  !  I  call  God  to  witness,  I  have  done  nothing  to, 
deserve  it !    What  a  world  do  we  live  in  !  " 
H  2 


244  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

"  Hold  your  tongue,  boy !  It  makes  my  very  heart 
sick  to  hear  you  !  I  would  not  lie  a  night  under  the 
same  roof  with  you  for  all  the  world  !  I  should  expect 
the  house  to  fall  and  crush  such  wickedness  !  I  admire 
that  the  earth  does  not  open  and  swallow  you  alive  !  It 
is  poison  so  much  as  to  look  at  you  !  If  you  go  on  at 
this  hardened  rate,  I  believe  from  my  soul  that  the  peo- 
ple you  talk  to  will  tear  you  to  pieces,  and  you  will  never 
live  to  come  to  the  gallows.  Oh,  yes,  you  do  well  to  pity 
yourself;  poor  tender  thing  !  that  spit  venom  all  round 
you  like  a  toad,  and  leave  the  very  ground  upon  which 
you  crawl  infected  with  your  slime." 

Finding  the  person  with  whom  I  talked  thus  impene- 
trable to  all  I  could  say,  and  considering  that  the  advan- 
tage to  be  gained  was  small,  even  if  I  could  overcome 
his  prepossession,  I  took  his  advice,  and  was  silent.  It 
was  not  much  longer  before  every  thing  was  prepared 
for  my  departure,  and  I  was  conducted  to  the  same 
prison  which  had  so  lately  enclosed  the  wretched  and 
innocent  Hawkinses.  They  too  had  been  the  victims 
of  Mr.  Falkland.  He  exhibited,  upon  a  contracted 
scale  indeed,  but  in  which  the  truth  of  delineation  was 
faithfully  sustained,  a  copy  of  what  monarchs  are,  who 
reckon  among  the  instruments  of  their  power  prisons  of 
state. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

FOR  my  own  part,  I  had  never  seen  a  prison,  and,  like 
the  majority  of  my  brethren,  had  given  myself  little  con- 
cern to  enquire  what  was  the  condition  of  those  who 
committed  offence  against,  or  became  obnoxious  to  suspi- 
cion from,  the  community.  Oh,  how  enviable  is  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  245 

most  tottering  shed  under  which  the  labourer  retires  to 
rest,  compared  with  the  residence  of  these  walls  ! 

To  me  every  thing  was  new,  —  the  massy  doors,  the 
resounding  locks,  the  gloomy  passages,  the  grated 
windows,  and  the  characteristic  looks  of  the  keepers, 
accustomed  to  reject  every  petition,  and  to  steel  their 
hearts  against  feeling  and  pity.  Curiosity,  and  a  sense 
of  my  situation,  induced  me  to  fix  my  eyes  on  the  faces 
of  these  men ;  but  in  a  few  minutes  I  drew  them  away 
with  unconquerable  loathing.  It  is  impossible  to  de- 
scribe the  sort  of  squalidness  and  filth  with  which  these 
mansions  are  distinguished.  I  have  seen  dirty  faces  in 
dirty  apartments,  which  have  nevertheless  borne  the 
impression  of  health,  and  spoke  carelessness  and  levity 
rather  than  distress.  But  the  dirt  of  a  prison  speaks 
sadness  to  the  heart,  and  appears  to  be  already  in  a 
state  of  putridity  and  infection. 

I  was  detained  for  more  than  an  hour  in  the  apart- 
ment of  the  keeper,  one  turnkey  after  another  coming 
in,  that  they  might  make  themselves  familiar  with  my 
person.  As  I  was  already  considered  an  guilty  of  fe- 
lony to  a  considerable  amount,  I  underwent  a  rigorous 
search,  and  they  took  from  me  a  penknife,  a  pair  of  scis- 
sors, and  that  part  of  my  money  which  was  in  gold. 
It  was  debated  whether  or  not  these  should  be  sealed 
up,  to  be  returned  to  me,  as  they  said,  as  soon  as  I 
should  be  acquitted ;  and  had  I  not  displayed  an  unex- 
pected firmness  of  manner  and  vigour  of  expostulation, 
such  was  probably  the  conduct  that  would  have  been 
pursued.  Having  undergone  these  ceremonies,  I  was 
thrust  into  a  day-room,  in  which  all  the  persons  then 
under  confinement  for  felony  were  assembled,  to  the 
number  of  eleven.  Each  of  them  was  too  much  en- 
gaged  in  his  own  reflections,  to  take  notice  of  me.  Of 
these,  two  were  imprisoned  for  horse-stealing,  and  three 
R  3 


24-6  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

for  having  stolen  a  sheep,  one  for  shop-lifting,  one 
for  coining,  two  for  highway-robbery,  and  two  for 
burglary. 

The  horse-stealers  were  engaged  in  a  game  at  cards, 
which  was  presently  interrupted  by  a  difference  of  opi- 
nion, attended  with  great  vociferation,  —  they  calling 
upon  one  and  another  to  decide  it,  to  no  purpose  ;  one 
paying  no  attention  to  their  summons,  and  another 
leaving  them  in  the  midst  of  their  story,  being  no 
longer  able  to  endure  his  own  internal  anguish,  in  the 
midst  of  their  mummery. 

'  It  is  a  custom  among  thieves  to  constitute  a  sort  of 
mock  tribunal  of  their  own  body,  from  whose  decision 
every  one  is  informed  whether  he  shall  be  acquitted, 
respited,  or  pardoned,  as  well  as  respecting  the  supposed 
most  skilful  way  of  conducting  his  defence.  One  of  the 
house-breakers,  who  had  already  passed  this  ordeal,  and 
was  stalking  up  and  down  the  room  with  a  forced  bra- 
very, exclaimed  to  his  companion,  that  he  was  as  rich 
as  the  Duke  of  Bedford  himself.  He  had  five  guineas 
and  a  half,  which  was  as  much  as  he  could  possibly 
spend  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  month  ;  and  what 
happened  after  that,  it  wa$  Jack  Ketch's  business  to  see" 
to,  not  his.  As  he  uttered  these  words,  he  threw 
himself  abruptly  upon  a  bench  that  was  near  him,  and 
seemed  to  be  asleep  in  a  moment.  But  his  sleep  was 
uneasy  and  disturbed,  his  breathing  was  hard,  and,  at 
intervals,  had  rather  the  nature  of  a  groan.  A  young 
fellow  from  the  other  side  of  the  room  came  softly  to 
the  place  where  he  lay,  with  a  large  knife  in  his  hand ; 
and  pressed  the  back  of  it  with  such  violence  upon  his 
neck,  the  head  hanging  over  the  side  of  the  bench,  that 
it  was  not  till  after  several  efforts  that  he  was  able  to  rise. 
"  Oh,  Jack  !  "  cried  this  manual  jester,  "  I  had  almost 
done  your  business  for  you  !  "  The  other  expressed  no 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  24? 

marks  of  resentment,  but  sullenly  answered,  "  Damn 
you,  why  did  not  you  take-  the  edge?  It  would  have 
been  the  best  thing  you  have  done  this  many  a  day  ! "  * 
The  case  of  one  of  the  persons  committed  for 
highway-robbery  was  not  a  little  extraordinary.  He 
was  a  common  soldier  of  a  most  engaging  physiognomy, 
and  two-and-twenty  years  of  age.  The  prosecutor, 
who  had  been  robbed  one  evening,  as  he  returned  late 
from  the  alehouse,  of  the  sum  of  three  shillings,  swore 
positively  to  his  person.  The  character  of  the  prisoner 
was  such  as  has  seldom  been  equalled.  He  had  been 
ardent  in  the  pursuit  of  intellectual  cultivation,  and  was 
accustomed  to  draw  his  favourite  amusement  from  the 
works  of  Virgil  and  Horace.  The  humbleness  of  his 
situation,  combined  with  his  ardour  for  literature,  only 
served  to  give  an  inexpressible  heightening  to  the  in- 
terestingness  of  his  character.  He  was  plain  and 
unaffected;  he  assumed  nothing;  he  was  capable, 
when  occasion  demanded,  of  firmness,  but,  in  his  ordi- 
nary deportment,  he  seemed  unarmed  and  unresisting, 
unsuspicious  of  guile  in  others,  as  he  was  totally  free 
from  guile  in  himself.  His  integrity  was  proverbially 
great.  In  one  instance  he  liad  been  intrusted  by  a 
lady  to  convey  a  sum  of  a  thousand  pounds  to  a  person 
at  some  miles  distance ;  in  another,  he  was  employed 
by  a  gentleman,  during  his  absence,  in  the  care  of  his 
house  and  furniture,  to  the  value  of  at  least  five  times 
that  sum.  His  habits  of  thinking  were  strictly  his  own, 
full  of  justice,  simplicity,  and  wisdom.  He  from  time 
to  time  earned  money  of  his  officers,  by  his  peculiar 
excellence  in  furbishing  arms;  but  he  declined  offers 

*  An  incident  exactly  similar  to  this  was  witnessed  by  a  friend 
of  the    author,   a    few    years    since,    in   a  visit  to  the   prison   of 
,    Newgate. 


c24fS  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

that  had  been  made  him  to  become  a  Serjeant  or  a 
corporal,  saying  that  he  did  not  want  money,  and  that 
in  a  new  situation  he  should  have  less  leisure  for  study. 
He  was  equally  constant  in  refusing  presents  that  were 
offered  him  by  persons  who  had  been  struck  with  his 
merit ;  not  that  he  was  under  the  influence  of  false 
delicacy  and  pride,  but  that  he  had  no  inclination  to 
accept  that,  the  want  of  which  he  did  not  feel  to  be  an 
evil.  This  man  died  while  I  was  in  prison.  I  received 
his  last  breath.* 

The  whole  day  I  was  obliged  to  spend  in  the  com- 
pany of  these  men,  some  of  them  having  really  com- 
mitted the  actions  laid  to  their  charge,  others  whom 
their  ill  fortune  had  rendered  the  victims  of  suspicion. 
The  whole  was  a  scene  of  misery,  such  as  nothing 
short  of  actual  observation  can  suggest  to  the  mind. 
Some  were  noisy  and  obstreperous,  endeavouring  by  a 
false  bravery  to  keep  at  bay  the  remembrance  of  their 
condition ;  while  others,  incapable  even  of  this  effort, 
had  the  torment  of  their  thoughts  aggravated  by  the 
perpetual  noise  and  confusion  that  prevailed  around 
them.  In  the  faces  of  those  who  assumed  the  most 
courage,  you  might  trace  the  furrows  of  anxious  care ; 
and  in  the  midst  of  their  laboured  hilarity  dreadful 
ideas  would  ever  and  anon  intrude,  convulsing  their 
features,  and  working  every  line  into  an  expression  of 
the  keenest  agony.  To  these  men  the  sun  brought  no 
return  of  joy.  Day  after  day  rolled  on,  but  their  state 
was  immutable.  Existence  was  to  them  a  scene  of 
invariable  melancholy ;  every  moment  was  a  moment 
of  anguish  ;  yet  did  they  wish  to  prolong  that  moment, 
fearful  that  the  coming  period  would  bring  a  severer 
fate.  They  thought  of  the  past  with  insupportable 

*  A  story  extremely  similar  to   this   is   to   be   found  in   the 
Newgate  Calendar,  vol.  i.  p.  382. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  249 

repentance,  each  man  contented  to  give  his  right  hand 
to  have  again  the  choice  of  that  peace  and  liberty, 
which  he  had  unthinkingly  bartered  away.  We  talk  of 
instruments  of  torture ;  Englishmen  take  credit  to 
themselves  for  having  banished  the  use  of  them  from 
their  happy  shore !  Alas  !  he  that  has  observed  the 
secrets  of  a  prison,  well  knows  that  there  is  more  torture 
in  the  lingering  existence  of  a  criminal,  in  the  silent 
intolerable  minutes  that  he  spends,  than  in  the  tangible 
misery  of  whips  and  racks  ! 

Such  were  our  days.  At  sunset  our  jailors  appeared, 
and  ordered  each  man  to  come  away,  and  be  locked 
into  his  dungeon.  It  was  a  bitter  aggravation  of  our 
fate,  to  be  under  the  arbitrary  control  of  these  fellows. 
They  felt  no  man's  sorrow ;  they  were  of  all  men  least 
capable  of  any  sort  of  feeling.  They  had  a  barbarous 
and  sullen  pleasure  in  issuing  their  detested  mandates, 
and  observing  the  mournful  reluctance  with  which  they 
were  obeyed.  Whatever  they  directed,  it  was  in  vain 
to  expostulate ;  fetters,  and  bread  and  water,  were  the 
sure  consequences  of  resistance.  Their  tyranny  had 
no  other  limit  than  their  own  caprice.  To  whom  shall 
the  unfortunate  felon  appeal  ?  To  what  purpose  com- 
plain, when  his  complaints  are  sure  to  be  received  with 
incredulity  ?  A  tale  of  mutiny  and  necessary  precaution 
is  the  unfailing  refuge  of  the  keeper,  and  this  tale  is  an 
everlasting  bar  against  redress. 

Our  dungeons  were  cells,  7$  feet  by  6.J,  below  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  damp,  without  window,  light,  or 
air,  except  from  a  few  holes  worked  for  that  purpose  in 
the  door.  In  some  of  these  miserable  receptacles  three 
persons  were  put  to  sleep  together.*  I  was  fortunate 
enough  to  have  one  to  myself.  It  was  now  the  approach 

*  Sec  Howard  on  Prisons. 


250  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

of  winter.  We  were  not  allowed  to  have  candles,  and, 
as  I  have  already  said,  were  thrust  in  here  at  sunset, 
and  not  liberated  till  the  returning  day.  This  was  our 
situation  for  fourteen  or  fifteen  hours  out  of  the  four- 
and-twenty.  I  had  never  been  accustomed  to  sleep 
more  than  six  or  seven  hours,  and  my  inclination  to 
sleep  was  now  less  than  ever.  Thus  was  I  reduced  to 
spend  half  my  day  in  this  dreary  abode,  and  in  com- 
plete darkness.  This  was  no  trifling  aggravation  of 
my  lot. 

Among  my  melancholy  reflections  I  tasked  my  me- 
mory, and  counted  over  the  doors,  the  locks,  the  bolts, 
the  chains,  the  massy  walls,  and  grated  windows,  that 
were  between  me  and  liberty.  "  These,"  said  I,  "  are 
the  engines  that  tyranny  sits  down  in  cold  and  serious 
meditation  to  invent.  This  is  the  empire  that  man 
exercises  over  man.  Thus  is  a  being,  formed  to  ex- 
patiate, to  act,  to  smile,  and  enjoy,  restricted  and 
benumbed.  How  great  must  be  his  depravity  or  heed- 
lessness,  who  vindicates  this  scheme  for  changing  health 
and  gaiety  and  serenity,  into  the  wanness  of  a  dungeon, 
and  the  deep  furrows  of  agony  and  despair !" 

"  Thank  God,"  exclaims  the  Englishman,  "  we  have 
no  Bastile '  Thank  God,  with  us  no  man  can  be  punished 
without  a  crime  !  "  Unthinking  wretch  !  Is  that  a  country 
of  liberty,  where  thousands  languish  in  dungeons  and 
fetters  ?  Go,  go,  ignorant  fool !  and  visit  the  scenes  of 
our  prisons  !  witness  their  unwholesomeness,  their  filth, 
the  tyranny  of  their  governors,  the  misery  of  their 
inmates!  After  that,  show  me  the  man  shameless  enough 
to  triumph,  and  say,  England  has  no  Bastile  !  Is  there 
any  charge  so  frivolous,  upon  which  men  are  not  con- 
signed to  those  detested  abodes  ?  Is  there  any  villainy 
that  is  not  practised  by  justices  and  prosecutors?  But 
against  all  this  perhaps  you  have  been  told  there  is 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  251 

redress.  Yes ;  a  redress,  that  it  is  the  consummation  of 
insult  so  much  as  to  name  !  Where  shall  the  poor  wretch 
reduced  to  the  last  despair,  and  to  whom  acquittal 
perhaps  conies  just  time  enough  to  save  him  from 
perishing,  —  where  shall  this  man  find  leisure,  and  much 
less  money,  to  fee  counsel  and  officers,  and  purchase 
the  tedious  dear-bought  remedy  of  the  law  ?  No ;  he 
is  too  happy  to  leave  his  dungeon,  and  the  memory 
of  his  dungeon,  behind  him;  and  the  same  tyranny 
and  wanton  oppression  become  the  inheritance  of  his 
successor. 

For  myself,  I  looked  round  upon  my  walls,  and  for- 
ward upon  the  premature  death  I  had  too  much  reason 
to  expect :  I  consulted  my  own  heart,  that  whispered 
nothing  but  innocence ;  and  I  said,  "  This  is  society. 
This  is  the  object,  the  distribution  of  justice,  which  is  the 
end  of  human  reason.  For  this  sages  have  toiled,  and 
midnight  oil  has  been  wasted.  This !" 

The  reader  will  forgive  this  digression  from  the  im- 
mediate subject  of  my  story.  If  it  should  be  said  these 
are  general  remarks,  let  it  be  remembered  that  they  are 
the  dear-bought  result  of  experience.  It  is  from  the 
fulness  of  a  bursting  heart  that  reproach  thus  flows 
to  my  pen.  These  are  not  the  declamations  of  a  man 
desirous  to  be  eloquent.  I  have  felt  the  iron  of  slavery 
grating  upon  my  soul. 

I  believed  that  misery,  more  pure  than  that  which  I 
now  endured,  had  never  fallen  to  the  lot  of  a  human 
being.  I  recollected  with  astonishment  my  puerile 
eagerness  to  be  brought  to  the  test,  and  have  my 
innocence  examined.  I  execrated  it,  as  the  vilest  and 
most  insufferable  pedantry.  I  exclaimed,  in  the  hitter- 
ness  of  my  heart,  "  Of  what  value  is  a  fair  fame  ?  It  is 
the  jewel  of  men  formed  to  be  amused  with  baubles. 
Without  it,  I  might  have  had  serenity  of  heart  and 


252  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

cheerfulness  of  occupation,  peace,  and  liberty;  why 
should  I  consign  my  happiness  to  other  men's  arbitra- 
tion ?  But,  if  a  fair  fame  were  of  the  most  inexpressible 
value,  is  this  the  method  which  common  sense  would 
prescribe  to  retrieve  it?  The  language  which  these 
institutions  hold  out  to  the  unfortunate  is,  '  Come,  and 
be  shut  out  from  the  light  of  day ;  be  the  associate  of 
those  whom  society  has  marked  out  for  her  abhorrence, 
be  the  slave  of  jailers,  be  loaded  with  fetters;  thus 
shall  you  be  cleared  from  every  unworthy  aspersion, 
and  restored  to  reputation  and  honour !'  This  is  the 
consolation  she  affords  to  those  whom  malignity  or 
folly,  private  pique  or  unfounded  positiveness,  have, 
without  the  smallest  foundation,  loaded  with  calumny." 
For  myself,  I  felt  my  own  innocence ;  and  I  soon  found, 
upon  enquiry,  that  three  fourths  of  those  who  are  regu- 
larly subjected  to  a  similar  treatment,  are  persons  whom, 
even  with  all  the  superciliousness  and  precipitation  of 
our  courts  of  justice,  no  evidence  can  be  found  sufficient 
to  convict.  How  slender  then  must  be  that  man's 
portion  of  information  and  discernment,  who  is  willing 
to  commit  his  character  and  welfare  to  such  guardi- 
anship ! 

But  my  case  was  even  worse  than  this.  I  intimately 
felt  that  a  trial,  such  as  our  institutions  have  hitherto 
been  able  to  make  it,  is  only  the  worthy  sequel  of  such 
a  beginning.  What  chance  was  there  after  the  purgation 
I  was  now  suffering,  that  I  should  come  out  acquitted 
at  last  ?  What  probability  was  there  that  the  trial  I  had 
endured  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Falkland  was  not  just  as 
fair  as  any  that  might  be  expected  to  follow  ?  No  ;  I 
anticipated  my  own  condemnation. 

Thus  was  I  cut  off,  for  ever,  from  all  that  existence 
has  to  bestow  —  from  all  the  high  hopes  I  had  so  often 
conceived  —  from  all  the  future  excellence  my  soul  so 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  253 

much  delighted  to  imagine,  —  to  spend  a  few  weeks  in  a 
miserable  prison,  and  then  to  perish  by  the  hand  of  the 
public  executioner.  No  language  can  do  justice  to  the 
indignant  and  soul-sickening  loathing  that  these  ideas 
ixdted.  My  resentment  was  not  restricted  to  my  pro- 
secutor, but  extended  itself  to  the  whole  machine  of 
society.  I  could  never  believe  that  all  this  was  the  fair 
result  of  institutions  inseparable  from  the  general  good. 
I  regarded  the  whole  human  species  as  so  many  hang- 
men and  torturers ;  I  considered  them  as  confederated 
to  tear  me  to  pieces ;  and  this  wide  scene  of  inexorable 
persecution  inflicted  upon  me  inexpressible  agony.  I 
looked  on  this  side  and  on  that :  I  was  innocent ;  I  had 
a  right  to  expect  assistance  ;  but  every  heart  was  steeled 
against  me ;  every  hand  was  ready  to  lend  its  force  to 
make  my  ruin  secure.  No  man  that  has  not  felt,  in  his 
own  most  momentous  concerns,  justice,  eternal  truth, 
unalterable  equity  engaged  in  his  behalf,  and  on  the 
other  side  brute  force,  impenetrable  obstinacy,  and  un- 
feeling insolence,  can  imagine  the  sensations  that  then 
passed  through  my  mind.  I  saw  treachery  triumphant 
and  enthroned ;  I  saw  the  sinews  of  innocence  crum- 
bled into  dust  by  the  gripe  of  almighty  guilt. 

What  relief  had  I  from  these  sensations?  Was  it 
relief,  that  I  spent  the  day  in  the  midst  of  profligacy 
and  execrations — that  I  saw  reflected  from  every  coun- 
tenance agonies  only  inferior  to  my  own  ?  He  that 
would  form  a  lively  idea  of  the  regions  of  the  damned, 
need  only  to  witness,  for  six  hours,  a  scene  to  which 
I  was  confined  for  many  months.  Not  for  one  hour 
could  I  withdraw  myself  from  this  complexity  of  horrors, 
or  take  refuge  in  the  calmness  of  meditation.  Air,  ex- 
ercise, series,  contrast,  those  grand  enliveners  of  the 
human  frame,  I  was  for  ever  debarred  from,  by  the  in- 


254  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

exorable  tyranny  under  which  I  was  fallen.     Nor  did  I 
find  the  solitude  of  my  nightly  dungeon  less  insupport- 
able.    Its  only  furniture  was  the  straw  that  served  me 
for  my  repose.   It  was  narrow,  damp,  and  unwholesome* 
The  slumbers  of  a  mind,  wearied,  like  mine,  with  the 
most  detestable  uniformity,  to  whom  neither  amusement 
nor  occupation  ever  offered  themselves  to  beguile  the 
painful  hours,  were  short,  disturbed,  and  unrefreshing. 
My  sleeping,  still  more  than  my  waking  thoughts,  were 
full  of  perplexity,  deformity,  and  disorder.     To  these 
slumbers  succeeded  the  hours  which,  by  the  regulations 
of  our  prison,  I  was  obliged,  though  awake,  to  spend  in 
solitary  and  cheerless  darkness.     Here  I  had  neither 
books  nor  pens,  nor  any  thing  upon  which  to  engage 
my  attention ;  all  was  a  sightless  blank.     How  was  a 
mind,  active  and  indefatigable  like  mine,  to  endure  this 
misery  ?     I  could  not  sink  it  in  lethargy  ;  I  could  not 
forget  my  woes  :  they  haunted  me  with  uninterrupted 
and  demoniac  malice.     Cruel,  inexorable  policy  of  hu- 
man affairs,  that  condemns  a  man  to  torture  like  this; 
that  sanctions  it,  and  knows  not  what  is  done  under  its 
sanction ;  that  is   too  supine  and  unfeeling  to   enquire 
into  these  petty  details ;  that  calls  this  the  ordeal  of 
innocence,  and  the  protector  of  freedom  !    A  thousand 
times  I  could  have  dashed  my  brains  against  the  walls  of 
my  dungeon  ;  a  thousand  times  I  longed  for  death,  and 
wished,  with  inexpressible  ardour,  for  an  end  to  what  I 
suffered  ;  a  thousand  times  I  meditated  suicide,  and  ru- 
minated, in  the  bitterness  of  my  soul,  upon  the  different 
means  of  escaping  from  the  load  of  existence.     What 
had  I  to  do  with  life  ?     I  had  seen  enough  to  make  me 
regard  it  with  detestation.     Why  should   I  wait  the 
lingering  process,  of  legal  despotism,  and  not  dare  so 
much  as  to  die,  but  when  and  how  its  instruments  de- 


CALEB    WILLIAM-.  255 

creed?  Still  some  inexplicable  suggestion  withheld 
my  hand.  I  clung  with  desperate  fondness  to  this 
shadow  of  existence,  its  mysterious  attractions,  and  its 
hopeless  prospects. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SUCH  were  the  reflections  that  haunted  the  first  days 
of  my  imprisonment,  in  consequence  of  which  they 
were  spent  in  perpetual  anguish.  But,  after  a  time, 
nature,  wearied  with  distress,  would  no  longer  stoop  to 
the  burthen;  thought,  which  is  incessantly  varying, 
introduced  a  series  of  reflections  totally  different. 

My  fortitude  revived.  I  had  always  been  accustomed 
to  cheerfulness,  good  humour,  and  serenity ;  and  this 
habit  now  returned  to  visit  me  at  the  bottom  of  my 
dungeon.  No  sooner  did  my  contemplations  take  this 
turn,  than  I  saw  the  reasonableness  and  possibility  of 
tranquillity  and  peace ;  and  my  mind  whispered  to  me 
the  propriety  of  showing,  in  this  forlorn  condition,  that 
I  was  superior  to  all  my  persecutors.  Blessed  state  of 
innocence  and  self-approbation  !  The  sunshine  of  con- 
scious integrity  pierced  through  all  the  barriers  of  my 
cell,  and  spoke  ten  thousand  times  more  joy  to  my 
heart,  than  the  accumulated  splendours  of  nature  and 
art  can  communicate  to  the  slaves  of  vice. 

I  found  out  the  secret  of  employing  my  mind.  I  said, 
"  I  am  shut  up  for  half  the  day  in  total  darkness,  without 
any  external  source  of  amusement ;  the  other  half  I 
spend  in  the  midst  of  noise,  turbulence,  and  confusion. 
What  then  ?  Can  I  not  draw  amusement  from  the 
stores  of  my  own  mind  ?  Is  it  not  freighted  with  vari- 
ous knowledge  ?  Have  I  not  been  employed  from  my 


256  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

infancy  in  gratifying  an  insatiable  curiosity?  When 
should  I  derive  benefit  from  these  superior  advantages, 
if  not  at  present  ?  "  Accordingly  I  tasked  the  stores  of 
my  memory,  and  my  powers  of  invention.  I  amused 
myself  with  recollecting  the  history  of  my  life.  By 
degrees  I  called  to  mind  a  number  of  minute  circum- 
stances, which,  but  for  this  exercise,  would  have  been 
for  ever  forgotten.  I  repassed  in  my  thoughts  whole 
conversations,  I  recollected  their  subjects,  their  arrange- 
ment, their  incidents,  frequently  their  very  words.  I 
mused  upon  these  ideas,  till  I  was  totally  absorbed 
in  thought.  I  repeated  them,  till  my  mind  glowed  with 
enthusiasm.  I  had  my  different  employments,  fitted 
for  the  solitude  of  the  night,  in  which  I  could  give  full 
scope  to  the  impulses  of  my  mind ;  and  for  the  uproar 
of  the  day,  in  which  my  chief  object  was,  to  be  insen- 
sible to  the  disorder  with  which  I  was  surrounded. 

By  degrees  I  quitted  my  own  story,  and  employed  my- 
self in  imaginary  adventures.  I  figured  to  myself  every 
situation  in  which  I  could  be  placed,  and  conceived  the 
conduct  to  be  observed  in  each.  Thus  scenes  of  insult 
and  danger,  of  tenderness  and  oppression,  became  fa- 
miliar to  me.  In  fancy  I  often  passed  the  awful  hour 
of  dissolving  nature.  In  some  of  my  reveries  I  boiled 
with  impetuous  indignation,  and  in  others  patiently 
collected  the  whole  force  of  my  mind  for  some  fearful 
encounter.  I  cultivated  the  powers  of  oratory  suited 
to  these  different  states,  and  improved  more  in  elo- 
quence in  the  solitude  of  my  dungeon,  than  perhaps  I 
should  have  done  in  the  busiest  and  most  crowded 
scenes. 

At  length  I  proceeded  to  as  regular  a  disposition  of 
my  time,  as  the  man  in  his  study,  who  passes  from 
mathematics  to  poetry,  and  from  poetry  to  the  law 
of  nations,  in  the  different  parts  of  each  single  day; 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  257 

and  I  as  seldom  infringed  upon  my  plan.  Nor  were 
my  subjects  of  disquisition  less  numerous  than  his. 
I  went  over,  by  the  assistance  of  memory  only,  a 
coiiMcliiMble  part  of  Euclid  during  my  confinement, 
and  revived,  day  after  day,  the  series  of  facts  and 
incidents  in  some  of  the  most  celebrated  historians.  I 
became  myself  a  poet ;  and,  while  I  described  the  sen- 
timents cherished  by  the  view  of  natural  objects,  re- 
corded the  characters  and  passions  of  men,  and  partook 
with  a  burning  zeal  in  the  generosity  of  their  deter- 
minations, I  eluded  the  squalid  solitude  of  my  dungeon, 
and  wandered  in  idea  through  all  the  varieties  of  human 
society.  I  easily  found  expedients,  such  as  the  mind 
seems  always  to  require,  and  which  books  and  pens 
supply  to  the  man  at  large,  to  record  from  time  to  time 
the  progress  that  had  been  made. 

While  I  was  thus  employed,  I  reflected  with  exult- 
ation upon  the  degree  in  which  man  is  independent  of  the 
smiles  and  frowns  of  fortune  I  was  beyond  her  reach, 
for  I  could  fall  no  lower.  To  an  ordinary  eye  I  might 
seem  destitute  and  miserable,  but  in  reality  I  wanted  for 
nothing.  My  fare  was  coarse;  but  I  was  in  health. 
My  dungeon  was  noisome ;  but  I  felt  no  inconvenience. 
I  was  shut  up  from  the  usual  means  of  exercise  and 
air ;  but  I  found  the  method  of  exercising  myself  even 
to  perspiration  in  my  dungeon.  I  had  no  power  of 
withdrawing  my  person  from  a  disgustful  society,  in 
the  most  cheerful  and  valuable  part  of  the  day;  but  I 
soon  brought  to  perfection  the  art  of  withdrawing  my 
thoughts,  and  saw  and  heard  the  people  about  me,  for 
just  as  short  a  time,  and  as  seldom,  as  I  pleased. 

Such  is  man  in  himself  considered  ;  so  simple  his  na- 
ture ;  so  few  his  wants.  How  different  from  the  man  of 
artificial  society !  Palaces  are  built  for  his  reception,  a 
thousand  vehicles  provided  for  his  exercise,  provinces  are 


258  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

ransacked  for  the  gratification  of  his  appetite,  and  the 
whole  world  traversed  to  supply  him  with  apparel  and 
furniture.  Thus  vast  is  his  expenditure,  and  the  pur- 
chase slavery.  He  is  dependent  on  a  thousand  accidents 
for  tranquillity  and  health,  and  his  body  and  soul  are 
at  the  devotion  of  whoever  will  satisfy  his  imperious 
cravings. 

In  addition  to  the  disadvantages  of  my  present 
situation,  I  was  reserved  for  an  ignominious  death. 
What  then  ?  Every  man  must  die.  No  man  knows  how 
soon.  It  surely  is  not  worse  to  encounter  the  king  of 
terrors,  in  health,  and  with  every  advantage  for  the 
collection  of  fortitude,  than  to  encounter  him,  already 
half  subdued  by  sickness  and  suffering.  I  was  resolved 
at  least  fully  to  possess  the  days  I  had  to  live ;  and  this 
is  peculiarly  in  the  power  of  the  man  who  preserves 
his  health  to  the  last  moment  of  his  existence.  Why 
should  I  suffer  my  mind  to  be  invaded  by  unavailing 
regrets  ?  Every  sentiment  of  vanity,  or  rather  of  in- 
dependence and  justice  within  me,  instigated  me  to  say 
to  my  persecutor,  "  You  may  cut  off  my  existence,  but 
you  cannot  disturb  my  serenity." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

IN  the  midst  of  these  reflections,  another  thought,  which 
had  not  before  struck  me,  occurred  to  my  mind.  "  I 
exult,"  said  I,  "  and  reasonably,  over  the  impotence  of 
my  persecutor.  Is  not  that  impotence  greater  than  I 
have  yet  imagined  ?  I  say,  he  may  cut  off  my  existence, 
but  cannot  disturb  my  serenity.  It  is  true  :  my  mind, 
the  clearness  of  my  spirit,  the  firmness  of  my  temper, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  259 

are  beyond  his  reach ;  is  not  my  life  equally  so,  if  I 
please?  What  are  the  material  obstacles,  that  man 
never  subdued  ?  What  is  the  undertaking  so  arduous, 
that  by  some  has  not  been  accomplished?  And  if  by 
others,  why  not  by  me  ?  Had  they  stronger  motives 
than  I?  Was  existence  more  variously  endeared  to 
them  ?  or  had  they  more  numerous  methods  by  which 
to  animate  and  adorn  it  ?  Many  of  those  who  have  ex- 
erted most  perseverance  and  intrepidity,  were  obviously 
my  inferiors  in  that  respect.  Why  should  not  I  be  as 
daring  as  they  ?  Adamant  and  steel  have  a  ductility 
like  water,  to  a  mind  sufficiently  bold  and  contem- 
plative. The  mind  is  master  of  itself ;  and  is  endowed 
with  powers  that  might  enable  it  to  laugh  at  the  tyrant's 
vigilance."  I  passed  and  repassed  these  ideas  in  my 
mind ;  and,  heated  with  the  contemplation,  I  said, 
«  No,  I  will  not  die !  " 

My  reading,  in  early  youth,  had  been  extremely 
miscellaneous.  I  had  read  of  housebreakers,  to  whom 
locks  and  bolts  were  a  jest,  and  who,  vain  of  their  art, 
exhibited  the  experiment  of  entering  a  house  the  most 
strongly  barricaded,  with  as  little  noise,  and  almost  as 
little  trouble,  as  other  men  would  lift  up  a  latch.  There 
is  nothing  so  interesting  to  the  juvenile  mind,  as  the 
wonderful ;  there  is  no  power  that  it  so  eagerly  covets, 
as  that  of  astonishing  spectators  by  its  miraculous  exer- 
'tions.  Mind  appeared,  to  my  untutored  reflections, 
vague,  airy,  and  unfettered,  the  susceptible  perceiver 
of  reasons,  but  never  intended  by  nature  to  be  the 
slave  of  force.  Why  should  it  be  in  the  power  of 
man  to  overtake  and  hold  me  by  violence  ?  Why,  when 
I  choose  to  withdraw  myself,  should  I  not  be  capable 
of  eluding  the  most  vigilant  search  ?  These  limbs,  and 
this  trunk,  are  a  cumbrous  and  unfortunate  load  for  the 
power  of  thinking  to  drag  along  with  it ;  but  why  should 
s  2 


260  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

not  the  power  of  thinking  be  able  to  lighten  the  load, 
till  it  shall  be  no  longer  felt  ?  —  These  early  modes  of 
reflection  were  by  no  means  indifferent  to  my  present 
enquiries. 

Our  next-door  neighbour  at  my  father's  house  had 
been  a  carpenter.  Fresh  from  the  sort  of  reading  I 
have  mentioned,  I  was  eager  to  examine  his  tools,  their 
powers  and  their  uses.  This  carpenter  was  a  man  of 
strong  and  vigorous  mind ;  and,  his  faculties  having 
been  chiefly  confined  to  the  range  of  his  profession,  he 
was  fertile  in  experiments,  and  ingenious  in  reasoning 
upon  these  particular  topics.  I  therefore  obtained  from 
him  considerable  satisfaction ;  and,  my  mind  being  set 
in  action,  I  sometimes  even  improved  upon  the  hints 
he  furnished.  His  conversation  was  particularly  agree- 
able to  me ;  I  at  first  worked  with  him  sometimes  for 
my  amusement,  and  afterwards  occasionally  for  a  short 
time  as  his  journeyman.  I  was  constitutionally  vigor- 
ous ;  and,  by  the  experience  thus  attained,  I  added  to 
the  abstract  possession  of  power,  the  skill  of  applying 
it,  when  I  pleased,  in  such  a  manner  as  that  no  part 
should  be  inefficient. 

It  is  a  strange,  but  no  uncommon  feature  in  the 
human  mind,  that  the  very  resource  of  which  we  stand 
in  greatest  need  in  a  critical  situation,  though  already 
accumulated,  it  may  be,  by  preceding  industry,  fails  to 
present  itself  at  the  time  when  it  should  be  called  into 
action.  Thus  my  mind  had  passed  through  two  very 
different  stages  since  my  imprisonment,  before  this 
means  of  liberation  suggested  itself.  My  faculties  were 
overwhelmed  in  the  first  instance,  and  raised  to  a  pitch 
of  enthusiasm  in  the  second ;  while  in  both  I  took  it  for 
granted  in  a  manner,  that  I  must  passively  submit  to 
the  good  pleasure  of  my  persecutors. 

During  the  period  in  which  my  mind  had  been  thus 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  261 

undecided,  and  when  I  had  been  little  more  than  a 
month  in  durance,  the  assizes,  which  were  held  twice 
a  year  in  the  town  in  which  I  was  a  prisoner,  came  on. 
Upon  this  occasion  my  case  was  not  brought  forward, 
but  was  suffered  to  stand  over  six  months  longer.  It 
would  have  been  just  the  same,  if  I  had  had  as  strong 
reason  to  expect  acquittal  as  I  had  conviction.  If  I 
had  been  apprehended  upon  the  most  frivolous  reasons 
upon  which  any  justice  of  the  peace  ever  thought 
proper  to  commit  a  naked  beggar  for  trial,  I  must  still 
have  waited  about  two  hundred  and  seventeen  days 
before  my  innocence  could  be  cleared.  So  imperfect 
are  the  effects  of  the  boasted  laws  of  a  country,  whose 
legislators  hold  their  assembly  from  four  to  six  months 
in  every  year !  I  could  never  discover  with  certainty, 
whether  this  delay  were  owing  to  any  interference  on 
the  part  of  my  prosecutor,  or  whether  it  fell  out  in  the 
regular  administration  of  justice,  which  is  too  solemn 
and  dignified  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  rights  or 
benefit  of  an  insignificant  individual. 

But  this  was  not  the  only  incident  that  occurred  to 
me  during  my  confinement,  for  which  I  could  find  no 
satisfactory  solution.  It  was  nearly  at  the  same  time, 
that  the  keeper  began  to  alter  his  behaviour  to  me. 
He  sent  for  me  one  morning  into  the  part  of  the  build- 
ing which  was  appropriated  for  his  own  use,  and,  after 
some  hesitation,  told  me  he  was  sorry  rny  accommo- 
dations had  been  so  indifferent,  and  asked  whether  I 
should  like  to  have  a  chamber  in  his  family?  I  was 
struck  with  the  unexpectedness  of  this  question,  and 
desired  to  know  whether  any  body  had  employed  him 
to  ask  it.  No,  he  replied ;  but,  now  the  assizes  were 
over,  he  had  fewer  felons  on  his  hands,  and  more  time 
to  look  about  him.  He  believed  I  was  a  good  kind  -of 
a  young  man,  and  he  had  taken  a  sort  of  a  liking  to 
s  3 


262  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

me.  I  fixed  my  eye  upon  his  countenance  as  he  said 
this.  I  could  discover  none  of  the  usual  symptoms  of 
kindness ;  he  appeared  to  me  to  be  acting  a  part,  un- 
natural, and  that  sat  with  awkwardness  upon  him.  He 
went  on  however  to  offer  me  the  liberty  of  eating  at 
his  table ;  which,  if  I  chose  it,  he  said,  would  make  no 
difference  to  him,  and  he  should  not  think  of  charging 
me  any  thing  for  it.  He  had  always  indeed  as  much 
upon  his  hands  as  one  person  could  see  to  ;  but  his 
wife  and  his  daughter  Peggy  would  be  woundily  pleased 
to  hear  a  person  of  learning  talk,  as  he  understood  I 
was  ;  and  perhaps  I  might  not  feel  myself  unpleasantly 
circumstanced  in  their  company. 

I  reflected  on  this  proposal,  and  had  little  doubt, 
notwithstanding  what  the  keeper  had  affirmed  to  the 
contrary,  that  it  did  not  proceed  from  any  spontaneous 
humanity  in  him,  but  that  he  had,  to  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  persons  of  his  cast,  good  reasons  for  what  he 
did.  I  busied  myself  in  conjectures  as  to  who  could 
be  the  author  of  this  sort  of  indulgence  and  attention. 
The  two  most  likely  persons  were  Mr.  Falkland  and 
Mr.  Forester.  The  latter  I  knew  to  be  a  man  austere 
and  inexorable  towards  those  whom  he  deemed  vicious. 
He  piqued  himself  upon  being  insensible  to  those 
softer  emotions,  which,  he  believed,  answered  no  other 
purpose  than  to  seduce  us  from  our  duty.  Mr.  Falk- 
land, on  the  contrary,  was  a  man  of  the  acutest  sensi- 
bility :  hence  arose  his  pleasures  and  his  pains,  his 
virtues  and  his  vices.  Though  he  were  the  bitterest 
enemy  to  whom  I  could  possibly  be  exposed,  and 
though  no  sentiments  of  humanity  could  divert  or  con- 
trol the  bent  of  his  mind,  I  yet  persuaded  myself,  that 
he  was  more  likely  than  his  kinsman,  to  visit  in  idea  the 
scene  of  my  dungeon,  and  to  feel  impelled  to  alleviate 
my  sufferings. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  263 

This  conjecture  was  by  no  means  calculated  to  serve 
as  balm  to  my  mind.  My  thoughts  were  full  of  irrita- 
tion against  my  persecutor.  How  could  I  think  kindly 
of  a  man,  in  competition  with  the  gratification  of  whose 
ruling  passion  my  good  name  or  my  life  was  deemed  of 
no  consideration?  I  saw  him  crushing  the  one,  and 
bringing  the  other  into  jeopardy,  with  a  quietness  and 
composure  on  his  part  that  I  could  not  recollect  with- 
out horror.  I  knew  not  what  were  his  plans  respecting 
me.  I  knew  not  whether  he  troubled  himself  so  much 
as  to  form  a  barren  wish  for  the  preservation  of  one 
whose  future  prospects  he  had  so  iniquitously  tarnished. 
I  had  hitherto  been  silent  as  to  my  principal  topic  of 
recrimination.  But  I  was  by  no  means  certain,  that  I 
should  consent  to  go  out  of  the  world  in  silence,  the 
victim  of  this  man's  obduracy  and  art.  In  every  view 
I  felt  my  heart  ulcerated  with  a  sense  of  his  injustice; 
and  my  very  soul  spurned  these  pitiful  indulgences,  at  a 
time  that  he  was  grinding  me  into  dust  with  the  inex- 
orableness  of  his  vengeance. 

I  was  influenced  by  these  sentiments  in  my  reply  to 
the  jailor ;  and  I  found  a  secret  pleasure  in  pronouncing 
them  in  all  their  bitterness.  I  viewed  him  with  a  sar- 
castic smile,  and  said,  I  was  glad  to  find  him  of  a  sud- 
den become  so  humane :  I  was  not  however  without 
some  penetration  as  to  the  humanity  of  a  jailor,  and 
could  guess  at  the  circumstances  by  which  it  was  pro. 
duced.  But  he  might  tell  his  employer,  that  his  cares 
were  fruitless :  I  would  accept  no  favours  from  a  man 
that  held  a  halter  about  my  neck ;  and  had  courage 
enough  to  endure  the  worst  both  in  time  to  come  and 
now. — The  jailor  looked  at  me  with  astonishment,  and 
turning  upon  his  heel,  exclaimed,  "  Well  done,  my 
cock !  You  have  not  had  your  learning  for  nothing,  I 
see.  You  are  set  upon  not  dying  dunghill.  But  that  U 
8  4 


264?  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

to  come,  lad  ;  you  had  better  by  half  keep  your  courage 
till  you  shall  find  it  wanted." 

The  assizes,  which  passed  over  without  influence  to 
me,  produced  a  great  revolution  among  my  fellow-pri- 
soners. I  lived  long  enough  in  the  jail  to  witness  a 
general  mutation  of  its  inhabitants.  One  of  the  house- 
breakers (the  rival  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford),  and  the 
coiner,  were  hanged.  Two  more  were  cast  for  trans- 
portation, and  the  rest  acquitted.  The  transports  re- 
mained with  us ;  and,  though  the  prison  was  thus  light- 
ened of  nine  of  its  inhabitants,  there  were,  at  the  next 
half-yearly  period  of  assizes,  as  many  persons  on  the 
felons'  side,  within  three,  as  I  had  found  on  my  first 
arrival. 

The  soldier,  whose  story  I  have  already  recorded, 
died  on  the  evening  of  the  very  day  on  which  the 
judges  arrived,  of  a  disease  the  consequence  of  his 
confinement.  Such  was  the  justice,  that  resulted  from 
the  laws  of  his  country  to  an  individual  who  would 
have  been  the  ornament  of  any  age  ;  one  who,  of  all  the 
men  I  ever  knew,  was  perhaps  the  kindest,  of  the  most 
feeling  heart,  of  the  most  engaging  and  unaffected 
manners,  and  the  most  unblemished  life.  The  name 
of  this  man  was  Brightwel.  Were  it  possible  for  my  pen 
to  consecrate  him  to  never-dying  fame,  I  could  undertake 
no  task  more  grateful  to  my  heart.  His  judgment  was 
penetrating  and  manly,  totally  unmixed  with  imbecility 
and  confusion,  while  at  the  same  time  there  was  such 
an  uncontending  frankness  in  his  countenance,  that  a 
superficial  observer  would  have  supposed  he  must  have 
been  the  prey  of  the  first  plausible  knavery  that  was 
practised  against  him.  Great  reason  have  I  to  remem- 
ber him  with  affection  !  He  was  the  most  ardent,  I 
had  almost  said  the  last,  of  my  friends.  Nor  did  I  re- 
main in  this  respect  in  his  debt.  There  was  indeed  a 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  265 

great  congeniality,  if  I  may  presume  to  say  so,  in  our 
characters,  except  that  I  cannot  pretend  to  rival  the 
originality  and  self-created  vigour  of  his  mind,  or  to 
compare  with,  what  the  world  has  scarcely  surpassed, 
the  correctness  and  untainted  purity  of  his  conduct.  He 
heard  my  story,  as  far  as  I  thought  proper  to  disclose 
it,  with  interest ;  he  examined  it  with  sincere  impar- 
tiality ;  and  if,  at  first,  any  doubt  remained  upon  his 
mind,  a  frequent  observation  of  me  in  my  most  un- 
guarded moments  taught  him  in  no  long  time  to  place 
an  unreserved  confidence  in  my  innocence. 

He  talked  of  the  injustice  of  which  we  were  mutual 
victims,  without  bitterness ;  and  delighted  to  believe 
that  the  time  would  come,  when  the  possibility  of  such 
intolerable  oppression  would  be  extirpated.  But  this, 
he  said,  was  a  happiness  reserved  for  posterity ;  it  was 
too  late  for  us  to  reap  the  benefit  of  it.  It  was  some 
consolation  to  him,  that  he  could  not  tell  the  period  in 
his  past  life,  which  the  best  judgment  of  which  he  was 
capable  would  teach  him  to  spend  better.  He  could 
say,  with  as  much  reason  as  most  men,  he  had  dis- 
charged his  duty.  But  he  foresaw  that  he  should  not 
survive  his  present  calamity.  This  was  his  prediction, 
while  yet  in  health.  He  might  be  said,  in  a  certain 
sense,  to  have  a  broken  heart.  But,  if  that  phrase 
were  in  any  way  applicable  to  him,  sure  never  was 
despair  more  calm,  more  full  of  resignation  and  serenity. 

At  no  time  in  the  whole  course  of  my  adventures 
was  I  exposed  to  a  shock  more  severe,  than  I  received 
from  this  man's  death.  The  circumstances  of  his  fate 
presented  themselves  to  my  mind  in  their  full  compli- 
cation of  iniquity.  From  him,  and  the  execrations 
with  which  I  loaded  the  government  that  could  be  the 
instrument  of  his  tragedy,  I  turned  to  myself.  I  be- 
held the  catastrophe  of  Brightwel  with  envy.  A  thou- 


266  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

sand  times  I  longed  that  my  corse  had  lain  in  death, 
instead  of  his.  I  was  only  reserved,  as  I  persuaded 
myself,  for  unutterable  woe.  In  a  few  days  he  would 
have  been  acquitted;  his  liberty, his  reputation  restored; 
mankind  perhaps,  struck  with  the  injustice  he  had 
suffered,  would  have  shown  themselves  eager  to  balance 
his  misfortunes,  and  obliterate  his  disgrace.  But  this 
man  died  ;  and  I  remained  alive  !  I,  who,  though  not 
less  wrongfully  treated  than  he,  had  no  hope  of  repa- 
ration, must  be  marked  as  long  as  I  lived  for  a  villain, 
and  in  my  death  probably  held  up  to  the  scorn  and 
detestation  of  my  species  ! 

Such  were  some  of  the  immediate  reflections  which 
the  fate  of  this  unfortunate  martyr  produced  in  my 
mind.  Yet  my  intercourse  with  Brightwel  was  not,  in 
the  review,  without  its  portion  of  comfort.  I  said, 
"  This  man  has  seen  through  the  veil  of  calumny  that 
overshades  me  :  he  has  understood,  and  has  loved  me. 
Why  should  I  despair  ?  May  I  not  meet  hereafter  with 
men  ingenuous  like  him,  who  shall  do  me  justice,  and 
sympathise  with  my  calamity  ?  With  that  consolation  I 
will  be  satisfied.  I  will  rest  in  the  arms  of  friendship,  and 
forget  the  malignity  of  the  world.  Henceforth  I  will  be 
contented  with  tranquil  obscurity,  with  the  cultivation 
of  sentiment  and  wisdom,  and  the  exercise  of  benevo- 
lence within  a  narrow  circle.  It  was  thus  that  my  mind 
became  excited  to  the  project  I  was  about  to  undertake. 

I  had  no  sooner  meditated  the  idea  of  an  escape, 
than  I  determined  upon  the  following  method  of  facili- 
tating the  preparations  for  it.  I  undertook  to  ingra- 
tiate myself  with  my  keeper.  In  the  world  I  have 
generally  found  such  persons  as  had  been  acquainted 
with  the  outline  of  my  story,  regarding  me  with  a  sort 
of  loathing  and  abhorrence,  which  made  them  avoid 
me  with  as  much  care  as  if  I  had  been  spotted  with  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  267 

plague.  The  idea  of  my  having  first  robbed  my  patron, 
and  then  endeavouring  to  clear  myself  by  charging  him 
with  subornation  against  me,  placed  me  in  a  class 
distinct  from,  and  infinitely  more  guilty  than  that  of 
common  felons.  But  this  man  was  too  good  a  master 
of  his  profession,  to  entertain  aversion  against  a  fellow- 
creature  upon  that  score.  He  considered  the  persons 
committed  to  his  custody,  merely  as  so  many  human 
bodies,  for  whom  he  was  responsible  that  they  should 
be  forthcoming  in  time  and  place ;  and  the  difference 
of  innocence  and  guilt  he  looked  down  upon  as  an 
affair  beneath  his  attention.  I  had  not  therefore  the 
prejudices  to  encounter  in  recommending  myself  to 
him,  that  I  have  found  so  peculiarly  obstinate  in  other 
cases.  Add  to  which,  the  same  motive,  whatever  it 
was,  that  had  made  him  so  profuse  in  his  offers  a  little 
before,  had  probably  its  influence  on  the  present 
OOOMion. 

I  informed  him  of  my  skill  in  the  profession  of  a 
joiner,  and  offered  to  make  him  half  a  dozen  handsome 
chairs,  if  he  would  facilitate  my  obtaining  the  tools 
necessary  for  carrying  on  my  profession  in  my  present 
confinement;  for,  without  his  consent  previously  ob- 
tained, it  would  have  been  in  vain  for  me  to  expect 
that  I  could  quietly  exert  an  industry  of  this  kind, 
even  if  my  existence  had  depended  upon  it.  He  looked 
at  me  first,  as  asking  himself  what  he  was  to  understand 
by  this  novel  proposal ;  and  then,  his  countenance  most 
graciously  relaxing,  said,  he  was  glad  I  was  come  off  a 
little  of  my  high  notions  and  my  buckram,  and  he  would 
see  what  he  could  do.  Two  days  after,  he  signified  his 
compliance.  He  said  that,  as  to  the  matter  of  the  pre- 
sent I  had  offered  him,  he  thought  nothing  of  that ;  I 
might  do  as  I  pleased  in  it ;  but  I  might  depend  upon 
every  civility  from  him  that  he  could  show  with  safety 


268  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

to  himself,  if  so  be  as,  when  he  was  civil,   I  did  not 
offer  a  second  time  for  to  snap  and  take  him  up  short. 

Having  thus  gained  my  preliminary,  I  gradually 
accumulated  tools  of  various  sorts  —  gimlets,  piercers, 
chisels,  et  cetera.  I  immediately  set  myself  to  work. 
The  nights  were  long,  and  the  sordid  eagerness  of  my 
keeper,  notwithstanding  his  ostentatious  generosity, 
was  great ;  I  therefore  petitioned  for,  and  was  indulged 
with,  a  bit  of  candle,  that  I  might  amuse  myself  for  an 
hour  or  two  with  my  work  after  I  was  locked  up  in  my 
dungeon.  I  did  not  however  by  any  means  apply 
constantly  to  the  work  I  had  undertaken,  and  my  jailor 
betrayed  various  tokens  of  impatience.  Perhaps  he  was 
afraid  I  should  not  have  finished  it,  before  I  was  hanged. 
I  however  insisted  upon  working  at  my  leisure  as  I 
pleased;  and  this  he  did  not  venture  expressly  to  dispute. 
In  addition  to  the  advantages  thus  obtained,  I  procured 
secretly  from  Miss  Peggy,  who  now  and  then  came  into 
the  jail  to  make  her  observations  of  the  prisoners,  and 
who  seemed  to  have  conceived  some  partiality  for  my 
person,  the  implement  of  an  iron  crow. 

In  these  proceedings  it  is  easy  to  trace  the  vice  and 
duplicity  that  must  be  expected  to  grow  out  of  injustice. 
I  know  not  whether  my  readers  will  pardon  the  sinister 
advantage  I  extracted  from  the  mysterious  concessions 
of  my  keeper.  But  I  must  acknowledge  my  weakness 
in  that  respect ;  I  am  writing  my  adventures,  and  not 
my  apology ;  and  I  was  not  prepared  to  maintain  the 
unvaried  sincerity  of  my  manners,  at  the  expense  of  a 
speedy  close  of  my  existence. 

My  plan  was  now  digested.  I  believed  that,  by 
means  of  the  crow,  I  could  easily,  and  without  much 
noise,  force  the  door  of  my  dungeon  from  its  hinges, 
or  if  not,  that  I  could,  in  case  of  necessity,  cut  away 
the  lock.  This  door  led  into  a  narrow  passage,  bounded 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  269 

on  one  side  by  the  range  of  dungeons,  and  on  the  other 
by  the  jailor's  and  turnkeys'  apartments,  through  which 
was  the  usual  entrance  from  the  street.  This  outlet  I 
dared  not  attempt,  for  fear  of  disturbing  the  persona 
close  to  whose  very  door  I  should  in  that  case  have 
found  it  necessary  to  pass.  I  determined  therefore 
upon  another  door  at  the  further  end  of  the  passage, 
which  was  well  barricaded,  and  which  led  to  a  sort  of 
garden  in  the  occupation  of  the  keeper.  This  garden 
I  had  never  entered,  but  I  had  had  an  opportunity  of 
observing  it  from  the  window  of  the  felons'  day-room, 
which  looked  that  way,  the  room  itself  being  imme- 
diately over  the  range  of  dungeons.  I  perceived  that 
it  was  bounded  by  a  wall  of  considerable  height,  which 
I  was  told  by  my  fellow-prisoners  was  the  extremity 
of  the  jail  on  that  side,  and  beyond  which  was  a  back- 
lane  of  some  length,  that  terminated  in  the  skirts  of  the 
town.  Upon  an  accurate  observation,  and  much  re- 
flection upon  the  subject,  I  found  I  should  be  able,  if 
once  I  got  into  the  garden,  with  my  gimlets  and  piercers 
inserted  at  proper  distances  to  make  a  sort  of  ladder, 
by  means  of  which  I  could  clear  the  wall,  and  once 
more  take  possession  of  the  sweets  of  liberty.  I  pre- 
ferred this  wall  to  that  which  immediately  skirted  my 
dungeon,  on  the  other  side  of  which  was  a  populous 
street. 

I  suffered  about  two  days  to  elapse  from  the  period 
at  which  I  had  thoroughly  digested  my  project,  and 
then  in  the  very  middle  of  the  night  began  to  set  about 
its  execution.  The  first  door  was  attended  with  con- 
siderable difficulty ;  but  at  length  this  obstacle  was 
happily  removed.  The  second  door  was  fastened  on 
the  inside.  I  was  therefore  able  with  perfect  ease  to 
push  back  the  bolts.  But  the  lock,  which  of  course 
was  depended  upon  for  the  principal  security,  and  was 


270  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

therefore  strong,  was  double-shot,  and  the  key  taken 
away.  I  endeavoured  with  my  chisel  to  force  back 
the  bolt  of  the  lock,  but  to  no  purpose.  I  then  un- 
screwed the  box  of  the  lock;  and,  that  being  taken 
away,  the  door  was  no  longer  opposed  to  my  wishes. 

Thus  far  I  had  proceeded  with  the  happiest  success ; 
but  close  on  the  other  side  of  the  door  there  was  a 
kennel  with  a  large  mastiff  dog,  of  which  I  had  not  the 
smallest  previous  knowledge.  Though  I  stepped  along 
in  the  most  careful  manner,  this  animal  was  disturbed, 
and  began  to  bark.  I  was  extremely  disconcerted,  but 
immediately  applied  myself  to  soothe  the  animal,  in 
which  I  presently  succeeded.  I  then  returned  along 
the  passage  to  listen  whether  any  body  had  been  dis- 
turbed by  the  noise  of  the  dog;  resolved,  if  that  had  been 
the  case,  that  I  would  return  to  my  dungeon,  and  en- 
deavour to  replace  every  thing  in  its  former  state.  But 
the  whole  appeared  perfectly  quiet,  and  I  was  en- 
couraged to  proceed  in  my  operation. 

I  now  got  to  the  wall,  and  had  nearly  gained  half 
the  ascent,  when  I  heard  a  voice  at  the  garden- door, 
crying,  "  Holloa!  who  is  there?  who  opened  the  door?" 
The  man  received  no  answer,  and  the  night  was  too 
dark  for  him  to  distinguish  objects  at  any  distance. 
He  therefore  returned,  as  I  judged,  into  the  house  for 
a  light.  Meantime  the  dog,  understanding  the  key  in 
which  these  interrogations- were  uttered,  began  barking 
again  more  violently  than  ever.  I  had  now  no  pos- 
sibility of  retreat,  and  I  was  not  without  hopes  that  I 
might  yet  accomplish  my  object,  and  clear  the  wall. 
Meanwhile  a  second  man  came  out,  while  the  other 
was  getting  his  lantern,  and  by  the  time  I  had  got  to 
the  top  of  the  wall  was  able  to  perceive  me.  He  im- 
mediately set  up  a  shout,  and  threw  a  large  stone, 
which  grazed  me  in  its  flight.  Alarmed  at  my  situ- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  271 

ation,  I  was  obliged  to  descend  on  the  other  side 
without  taking  the  necessary  precautions,  and  in  my 
fall  nearly  dislocated  my  ankle. 

There  was  a  door  in  the  wall,  of  which  I  was  not 
previously  apprised;  and,  this  being  opened,  the  two 
men  with  the  lantern  were  on  the  other  side  in  an 
instant.  They  had  then  nothing  to  do  but  to  run  along 
the  lane  to  the  place  from  which  I  had  descended.  I 
endeavoured  to  rise  after  my  fall ;  but  the  pain  was  so 
intense,  that  I  was  scarcely  able  to  stand,  and,  after 
having  limped  a  few  paces,  I  twisted  my  foot  under 
me,  and  fell  down  again.  I  had  now  no  remedy,  and 
quietly  suffered  myself  to  be  retaken. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

I  WAS  conducted  to  the  keeper's  room  for  that  night, 
and  the  two  men  sat  up  with  me.  I  was  accosted  with 
many  interrogatories,  to  which  I  gave  little  answer,  but 
complained  of  the  hurt  in  my  leg.  To  this  I  could 
obtain  no  reply,  except  "  Curse  you,  my  lad !  if  that 
be  all,  we  will  give  you  some  ointment  for  that;  we 
will  anoint  it  with  a  little  cold  iron."  They  were  indeed 
excessively  sulky  with  me,  for  having  broken  their 
night's  rest,  and  given  them  all  this  trouble.  In  the 
morning  they  were  as  good  as  their  word,  fixing  a  pair 
of  fetters  upon  both  my  legs,  regardless  of  the  ankle 
which  was  now  swelled  to  a  considerable  size,  and  then 
fastening  me,  with  a  padlock,  to  a  staple  in  the  floor  of 
my  dungeon.  I  expostulated  with  warmth  upon  this 
treatment,  and  told  them,  that  I  was  a  man  upon  whom 
the  law  as  yet  had  passed  no  censure,  and  who  there- 
fore, in  the  eye  of  the  law,  was  innocent.  But  they 


272  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

bid  me  keep  such  fudge  for  people  who  knew  no 
better ;  they  knew  what  they  did,  and  would  answer 
it  to  any  court  in  England. 

The  pain  of  the  fetter  was  intolerable.  I  endea- 
voured in  various  ways  to  relieve  it,  and  even  privily 
to  free  my  leg;  but  the  more  it  was  swelled,  the  more 
was  this  rendered  impossible.  I  then  resolved  to  bear 
it  with  patience :  still,  the  longer  it  continued,  the 
worse  it  grew.  After  two  days  and  two  nights,  I  en- 
treated the  turnkey  to  go  and  ask  the  surgeon,  who 
usually  attended  the  prison,  to  look  at  it,  for,  if  it 
continued  longer  as  it  was,  I  was  convinced  it  would 
mortify.  But  he  glared  surlily  at  me,  and  said, 
"  Damn  my  blood !  I  should  like  to  see  that  day.  To 
die  of  a  mortification  is  too  good  an  end  for  such  a 
rascal!"  At  the  time  that  he  thus  addressed  me, 
the  whole  mass  of  my  blood  was  already  fevered  by 
the  anguish  I  had  undergone,  my  patience  was  wholly 
exhausted,  and  I  was  silly  enough  to  be  irritated  be- 
yond bearing,  by  his  impertinence  and  vulgarity : 
"  Look,  you,  Mr,  Turnkey,"  said  I,  "  there  is  one 
thing  that  such  fellows  as  you  are  set  over  us  for,  and 
another  thing  that  you  are  not.  You  are  to  take  care 
we  do  not  escape  ;  but  it  is  no  part  of  your  office  to 
call  us  names  and  abuse  us.  If  I  were  not  chained  to 
the  floor,  you  dare  as  well  eat  your  fingers  as  use  such 
language ;  and,  take  my  word  for  it,  you  shall  yet 
live  to  repent  of  your  insolence." 

While  I  thus  spoke,  the  man  stared  at  me  with 
astonishment.  He  was  so  little  accustomed  to  such 
retorts,  that,  at  first,  he  could  scarcely  believe  his 
ears ;  and  such  was  the  firmness  of  my  manner,  that 
he  seemed  to  forget  for  a  moment  that  I  was  not  at 
large.  But,  as  soon  as  he  had  time  to  recollect  him- 
self, he  did  not  deign  to  be  angry.  His  face  relaxed 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  273 

into  a  smile  of  contempt ;  he  snapped  his  fingers  at  me, 
and,  turning  upon  his  heel,  exclaimed,  "  Well  said, 
my  cock !  crow  'away  I  Have  a  care  you  do  not 
burst  1 "  and,  as  he  shut  the  door  upon  me,  mimicked 
the  voice  of  the  animal  he  mentioned. 

This  rejoinder  brought  me  to  myself  in  a  moment, 
and  showed  me  the  impotence  of  the  resentment  I 
was  expressing.  But,  though  he  thus  put  an  end  to 
the  violence  of  my  speech,  the  torture  of  my  body 
continued  as  great  as  ever.  I  was  determined  to 
change  my  mode  of  attack.  The  same  turnkey  re- 
turned in  a  few  minutes ;  and,  as  he  approached  me, 
to  put  down  some  food  he  had  brought,  I  slipped  a 
shilling  into  his  hand,  saying  at  the  same  time,  ••  My 
good  fellow,  for  God's  sake,  go  to  the  surgeon ;  I  am 
sure  you  do  not  wish  me  to  perish  for  want  of  assist- 
ance." The  fellow  put  the  shilling  into  his  pocket, 
looked  hard  at  me,  and  then  with  one  nod  of  his  head, 
and  without  uttering  a  single  word,  went  away.  The 
surgeon  presently  after  made  his  appearance;  and, 
finding  the  part  in  a  high  state  of  inflammation,  or- 
dered certain  applications,  and  gave  peremptory  direc- 
tions that  the  fetter  should  not  be  replaced  upon  that 
leg,  till  a  cure  had  been  effected.  It  was  a  full  month 
before  the  leg  was  perfectly  healed,  and  made  equally 
strong  and  flexible  with  the  other. 

The  condition  in  which  I  was  now  placed,  was 
totally  different  from  that  which  had  preceded  this 
attempt.  I  was  chained  all  day  in  my  dungeon,  with 
no  other  mitigation,  except  that  the  door  was  regu- 
larly opened  for  a  few  hours  in  an  afternoon,  at  which 
time  some  of  the  prisoners  occasionally  came  and 
spoke  to  me,  particularly  one,  who,  though  he  could 
ill  replace  my  benevolent  Brightwel,  was  not  deficient 
in  excellent  qualities.  This  was  no  other  than  the 
T 


274-  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

individual  whom  Mr.  Falkland  had,  some  months  be- 
fore, dismissed  upon  an  accusation  of  murder.  His 
courage  was  gone,  his  garb  was  squalid,  and  the  come- 
liness and  clearness  of  his  countenance  was  utterly 
obliterated.  He  also  was  innocent,  worthy,  brave,  and 
benevolent.  He  was,  I  believe,  afterwards  acquitted, 
and  turned  loose,  to  wander  a  desolate  and  perturbed 
spectre  through  the  world.  My  manual  labours  were 
now  at  an  end ;  my  dungeon  was  searched  every 
night,  and  every  kind  of  tool  carefully  kept  from  me. 
The  straw,  which  had  been  hitherto  allowed  me,  was 
removed,  under  pretence  that  it  was  adapted  for  con- 
cealment ;  and  the  only  conveniences  with  which  I  was 
indulged,  were  a  chair  and  a  blanket. 

A  prospect  of  some  alleviation  in  no  long  time 
opened  upon  me ;  but  this  my  usual  ill  fortune  ren- 
dered abortive.  The  keeper  once  more  made  his  ap- 
pearance, and  with  his  former  constitutional  and  am- 
biguous humanity.  He  pretended  to  be  surprised  at 
my  want  of  every  accommodation.  He  reprehended 
in  strong  terms  my  attempt  to  escape,  and  observed, 
that  there  must  be  an  end  of  civility  from  people  in  his 
situation,  if  gentlemen,  after  all,  would  not  know  when 
they  were  well.  It  was  necessary,  in  cases  the  like  of 
this,  to  let  the  law  take  its  course ;  and  it  would  be 
ridiculous  in  me  to  complain,  if,  after  a  regular  trial, 
things  should  go  hard  with  me.  He  was  desirous  of 
being  in  every  respect  my  friend,  if  I  would  let  him. 
In  the  midst  of  this  circumlocution  and  preamble,  he 
was  called  away  from  me,  for  something  relating  to 
the  business  of  his  office.  In  the  mean  time  I  rumi- 
nated upon  his  overtures ;  and,  detesting  as  I  did,  the 
source  from  which  I  conceived  them  to  flow,  I  could 
not  help  reflecting  how  far  it  would  be  possible  to  ex- 
tract from  them  the  means  of  escape.  But  my  medi- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  275 

tations  in  this  case  were  vain.  The  keeper  returned  no 
more  during  the  remainder  of  that  day,  and,  on  the  next, 
an  incident  occurred  which  put  an  end  to  all  expect- 
ations from  his  kindness. 

An  active  mind,  which  has  once  been  forced  into 
any  particular  train,  can  scarcely  be  persuaded  to 
desert  it  as  hopeless.  I  had  studied  my  chains,  during 
the  extreme  anguish  that  I  endured  from  the  pressure 
of  the  fetter  upon  the  ankle  which  had  been  sprained ; 
and  though,  from  the  swelling  and  acute  sensibility  of 
the  part,  I  had  found  all  attempts  at  relief,  in  that  in- 
stance, impracticable,  I  obtained,  from  the  coolness  of 
my  investigation,  another  and  apparently  superior  ad- 
vantage. During  the  night,  my  dungeon  was  in  a 
complete  state  of  darkness ;  but,  when  the  door  was 
open,  the  case  was  somewhat  different.  The  passage 
indeed  into  which  it  opened,  was  so  narrow,  and  the 
opposite  dead  wall  so  near,  that  it  was  but  a  glim- 
mering and  melancholy  light  that  entered  my  apart- 
ment, even  at  full  noon,  and  when  the  door  was  at  its 
widest  extent.  But  my  eyes,  after  a  practice  of  two 
or  three  weeks,  accommodated  themselves  to  this  cir- 
cumstance, and  I  learned  to  distinguish  the  minutest 
object.  One  day,  as  I  was  alternately  meditating  and 
examining  the  objects  around  me,  I  chanced  to  observe 
a  nail  trodden  into  the  mud-floor  at  no  great  distance 
from  me.  I  immediately  conceived  the  desire  of  pos- 
sessing myself  of  this  implement;  but,  for  fear  of 
surprise,  people  passing  perpetually  to  and  fro,  I  con- 
tented myself,  for  the  present,  with  remarking  its  situ- 
ation so  accurately,  that  I  might  easily  find  it  again  in  the 
dark.  Accordingly,  as  soon  as  my  door  was  shut,  I 
seized  upon  this  new  treasure,  and,  having  contrived  to 
fashion  it  to  my  purpose,  found  that  I  could  unlock 
with  it  the  padlock  that  fastened  me  to  the  staple  in 
T  2 


276  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

the  floor.  This  I  regarded  as  no  inconsiderable  ad- 
vantage, separately  from  the  use  I  might  derive  from 
it  in  relation  to  my  principal  object.  My  chain  per- 
mitted me  to  move  only  about  eighteen  inches  to  the 
right  or  left ;  and,  having  borne  this  confinement  for 
several  weeks,  my  very  heart  leaped  at  the  pitiful  con- 
solation of  being  able  to  range,  without  constraint,  the 
miserable  coop  in  which  I  was  immured.  This,  incident 
had  occurred  several  days  previously  to  the  last  visit 
of  my  keeper. 

From  this  time  it  had  been  my  constant  practice 
to  liberate  myself  every  night,  and  not  to  replace 
things  in  their  former  situation  till  I  awoke  in  the 
morning,  and  expected  shortly  to  perceive  the  entrance 
of  the  turnkey.  Security  breeds  negligence.  On  the 
morning  succeeding  my  conference  with  the  jailor,  it 
so  happened,  whether  I  overslept  myself,  or  the  turnkey 
went  his  round  earlier  than  usual,  that  I  was  roused 
from  my  sleep  by  the  noise  he  made  in  opening  the  cell 
next  to  my  own ;  and  though  I  exerted  the  utmost 
diligence,  yet  having  to  grope  for  my  materials  in  the 
dark,  I  was  unable  to  fasten  the  chain  to  the  staple, 
before  he  entered,  as  usual,  with  his  lantern.  He  was 
extremely  surprised  to  find  me  disengaged,  and  imme- 
diately summoned  the  principal  keeper.  I  was  ques- 
tioned respecting  my  method  of  proceeding ;  and,  as  I 
believed  concealment  could  lead  to  nothing  but  a  se- 
verer search,  and  a  more  accurate  watch,  I  readily  ac- 
quainted them  with  the  exact  truth.  The  illustrious 
personage,  whose  functions  it  was  to  control  the  inha- 
bitants of  these  walls,  was,  by  this  last  instance,  com- 
pletely exasperated  against  me.  Artifice  and  fair 
speaking  were  at  an  end.  His  eyes  sparkled  with  fury ; 
he  exclaimed,  that  he  was  now  convinced  of  the  folly 
of  showing  kindness  to  rascals,  the  scum  of  the  earth, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  277 

such  as  I  was ;  and,  damn  him,  if  any  body  should 
catch  him  at  that  again  towards  any  one.  I  had  cured 
him  effectually  !  He  was  astonished  that  the  laws  had 
not  provided  some  terrible  retaliation  for  thieves  that 
attempted  to  deceive  their  jailors.  Hanging  was  a 
thousand  times  too  good  for  me  ! 

Having  vented  his  indignation,  he  proceeded  to  give 
such  orders  as  the  united  instigations  of  anger  and 
alarm  suggested  to  his  mind.  My  apartment  was 
changed.  I  was  conducted  to  a  room  called  the  strong 
room,  the  door  of  which  opened  into  the  middle  cell  of 
the  range  of  dungeons.  It  was  under-ground,  as  they 
were,  and  had  also  the  day-room  for  felons,  already 
described,  immediately  over  it.  It  was  spacious  and 
dreary.  The  door  had  not  been  opened  for  years ;  the 
air  was  putrid ;  and  the  walls  hung  round  with  damps 
and  mildew.  The  fetters,  the  padlock,  and  the  staple, 
were  employed,  as  in  the  former  case,  in  addition  to 
which  they  put  on  me  a  pair  of  handcuffs.  For  my 
first  provision,  the  keeper  sent  me  nothing  but  a  bit  of 
bread,  mouldy  and  black,  and  some  dirty  and  stinking 
water.  I  know  not  indeed  whether  this  is  to  be 
regarded  as  gratuitous  tyranny  on  the  part  of  the  jailor; 
the  law  having  providently  directed,  in  certain  cases, 
that  the  water  to  be  administered  to  the  prisoners  shall 
be  taken  from  "  the  next  sink  or  puddle  nearest  to  the 
jail."  *  It  was  further  ordered,  that  one  of  the  turn- 
keys should  sleep  in  the  cell  that  formed  a  son  of  anti- 
chamber  to  my  apartment.  Though  every  convenience 
was  provided,  to  render  this  chamber  fit  for  the  reception 
of  a  personage  of  a  dignity  so  superior  to  the  felon  he 
was  appointed  to  guard,  he  expressed  much  dissatis- 
faction at  the  mandate :  but  there  was  no  alternative. 

•  In  the  caw  of  the  peme  forte  et  dure.     See  State  Trials, 
VoL  I.  anno  1615. 

T  3 


278  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

The  situation  to  which  I  was  thus  removed  was, 
apparently,  the  most  undesirable  that  could  be  imagined; 
but  I  was  not  discouraged ;  I  had  for  some  time  learned 
not  to  judge  by  appearances.  The  apartment  was 
dark  and  unwholesome ;  but  I  had  acquired  the  secret 
of  counteracting  these  influences.  My  door  was  kept 
continually  shut,  and  the  other  prisoners  were  debarred 
access  to  me ;  but  if  the  intercourse  of  our  fellow-men 
has  its  pleasure,  solitude,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not 
without  its  advantages.  In  solitude  we  can  pursue  our 
own  thoughts  undisturbed ;  and  I  was  able  to  call  up  at 
will  the  most  pleasing  avocations.  Besides  which,  to 
one  who  meditated  such  designs  as  now  filled  my  mind, 
solitude  had  peculiar  recommendations.  I  was  scarcely 
left  to  myself,  before  I  tried  an  experiment,  the  idea 
of  which  I  conceived,  while  they  were  fixing  my  hand- 
cuffs ;  and,  with  my  teeth  only,  disengaged  myself  from 
this  restraint.  The  hours  at  which  I  was  visited  by 
the  keepers  were  regular,  and  I  took  care  to  be  pro- 
vided for  them.  Add  to  which,  I  had  a  narrow  grated 
window  near  the  ceiling,  about  nine  inches  in  perpen- 
dicular, and  a  foot  and  a  half  horizontally,  which,  though 
small,  admitted  a  much  stronger  light  than  that  to 
which  I  had  been  accustomed  for  several  weeks.  Thus 
circumstanced,  I  scarcely  ever  found  myself  in  total 
darkness,  and  was  better  provided  against  surprises 
than  I  had  been  in  my  preceding  situation.  Such  were 
the  sentiments  which  this  change  of  abode  immediately 
suggested. 

I  had  been  a  very  little  time  removed,  when  I  received 
an  unexpected  visit  from  Thomas,  Mr.  Falkland's  foot- 
man, whom  I  have  already  mentioned  in  the  course  of 
my  narrative.  A  servant  of  Mr.  Forester  happened  to 
come  to  the  town  where  I  was  imprisoned,  a  few  weeks 
before,  while  I  was  confined  with  the  hurt  in  my  ankle, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  279 

and  had  called  in  to  see  me.  The  account  he  gave  of 
what  he  observed  had  been  the  source  of  many  an 
uneasy  sensation  to  Thomas.  The  former  visit  was  a 
matter  of  mere  curiosity ;  but  Thomas  was  of  the  better 
order  of  servants.  He  was  considerably  struck  at  the 
sight  of  me.  Though  my  mind  was  now  serene,  and 
my  health  sufficiently  good,  yet  the  floridness  of  my 
complexion  was  gone,  and  there  was  a  rudeness  in  my 
physiognomy,  the  consequence  of  hardship  and  forti- 
tude, extremely  unlike  the  sleekness  of  my  better  days. 
Thomas  looked  alternately  in  my  face,  at  my  hands,  and 
my  feet ;  and  then  fetched  a  deep  sigh.  After  a  pause, 

"  Lord  bless  us ! "  said  he,  in  a  voice  in  which  com- 
miseration was  sufficiently  perceptible,  "  is  this  you?" 

«  Why  not,  Thomas?  You  knew  I  was  sent  to 
prison,  did  not  you?" 

"  Prison !  and  must  people  in  prison  be  sliackled 
and  bound  of  that  fashion? — and  where  do  you  lay  of 
nights?" 

"Here." 

«  Here  ?    Why  there  is  no  bed ! " 

"  No,  Thomas,  I  am  not  allowed  a  bed.  I  had  straw 
formerly,  but  that  is  taken  away." 

••  And  do  they  take  off  them  there  things  of  nights  ?" 

"  No ;  I  am  expected  to  sleep  just  as  you  see." 

"  Sleep !  Why  I  thought  this  was  a  Christian 
country ;  but  this  usage  is  too  bad  for  a  dog." 

"  You  must  not  say  so,  Thomas ;  it  is  what  the  wisdom 
of  government  has  thought  fit  to  provide." 

"  Zounds,  how  I  have  been  deceived !  They  told 
me  what  a  fine  thing  it  was  to  be  an  Englishman,  and 
about  liberty  and  property,  and  all  that  there ;  and  I 
find  it  is  all  a  flam.  Lord,  what  fools  we  be !  Things 
are  done  under  our  very  noses,  and  we  know  nothing  of 
the  matter ;  and  a  parcel  of  fellows  with  grave  face* 
T  4 


280  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

swear  to  us,  that  such  things  never  happen  but  in 
France,  andother  countries  the  like  of  that.  Why,  you 
ha'n't  been  tried,  ha'  you?" 

«  No." 

"  And  what  signifies  being  tried,  when  they  do  worse 
than  hang  a  man,  and  all  beforehand?  Well,  master 
Williams,  you  have  been  very  wicked  to  be  sure,  and 
I  thought  it  would  have  done  me  good  to  see  you 
hanged.  But,  I  do  not  know  how  it  is,  one's  heart 
melts,  and  pity  comes  over  one,  if  we  take  time  to  cool. 
I  know  that  ought  not  to  be;  but,  damn  it,  when  I 
talked  of  your  being  hanged,  I  did  not  think  of  your 
suffering  all  this  into  the  bargain." 

Soon  after  this  conversation  Thomas  left  me.  The 
idea  of  the  long  connection  of  our  families  rushed  upon 
his  memory,  and  he  felt  more  for  my  sufferings,  at  the 
moment,  than  I  did  for  myself.  In  the  afternoon  I  was 
surprised  to  see  him  again.  He  said  that  he  could  not 
get  the  thought  of  me  out  of  his  mind,  and  therefore 
he  hoped  I  would  not  be  displeased  at  his  coming  once 
more  to  take  leave  of  me.  I  could  perceive  that  he  had 
something  upon  his  mind,  which  he  did  not  know  how 
to  discharge.  One  of  the  turnkeys  had  each  time  come 
into  the  room  with  him,  and  continued  as  long  as  he 
staid.  Upon  some  avocation  however — a  noise,  I  be- 
lieve, in  the  passage  —  the  turnkey  went  as  far  as  the 
door  to  satisfy  his  curiosity ;  and  Thomas,  watching  the 
opportunity,  slipped  into  my  hand  a  chisel,  a  file,  and 
a  saw,  exclaiming  at  the  same  time  with  a  sorrowful 
tone,  "  I  know  I  am  doing  wrong ;  but,  if  they  hang 
me  too,  I  cannot  help  it ;  I  cannot  do  no  other.  For 
Christ's  sake,  get  out  of  this  place ;  I  cannot  bear  the 
thoughts  of  it ! "  I  received  the  implements  with  great 
joy,  and  thrust  them  into  my  bosom ;  and,  as  soon  as 
he  was  gone,  concealed  them  in  the  rushes  of  my  chair. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  281 

For  himself  he  had  accomplished  the  object  for  which 
he  came,  and  presently  after  bade  me  farewell. 

The  next  day,  the  keepers,  I  know  not  for  what 
reason,  were  more  than  usually  industrious  in  their 
search,  saying,  though  without  assigning  any  ground 
for  their  suspicion,  that  they  were  sure  I  had  some  tool 
in  my  possession  that  I  ought  not ;  but  the  depository 
I  had  chosen  escaped  them. 

I  waited  from  this  time  the  greater  part  of  a  week, 
that  I  might  have  the  benefit  of  a  bright  moonlight. 
It  was  necessary  that  I  should  work  in  the  night; 
it  was  necessary  that  my  operations  should  be  per- 
formed between  the  last  visit  of  the  keepers  at  night 
and  their  first  in  the  morning,  that  is,  between  nine 
in  the  evening  and  seven.  In  my  dungeon,  as  I  have 
already  said,  I  passed  fourteen  or  sixteen  hours  of  the 
four-and-twenty  undisturbed ;  but  since  I  had  acquired 
a  character  for  mechanical  ingenuity,  a  particular  ex- 
ception with  respect  to  me  was  made  from  the  general 
rules  of  the  prison. 

It  was  ten  o'clock  when  I  entered  on  my  undertaking. 
The  room  in  which  I  was  confined  was  secured  with  a 
double  door.  This  was  totally  superfluous  for  the  pur- 
pose of  my  detention,  since  there  was  a  sentinel  planted 
on  the  outside.  But  it  was  very  fortunate  for  my  plan ; 
because  these  doors  prevented  the  easy  communication 
of  sound,  and  afforded  me  tolerable  satisfaction  that, 
with  a  little  care  in  my  mode  of  proceeding,  I  might 
be  secure  against  the  danger  of  being  overheard.  I 
first  took  off  my  hand-cuffs.  I  then  filed  through  my 
fetters ;  and  next  performed  the  same  service  to  three 
of  the  iron  bars  that  secured  my  window,  to  which  I 
climbed,  partly  by  the  assistance  of  my  chair,  and  partly 
by  means  of  certain  irregularities  in  the  wall.  All  this 
was  the  work  of  more  than  two  hours.  When  the  bars 


282  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

were  filed  through,  I  easily  forced  them  a  little  from 
the  perpendicular,  and  then  drew  them,  one  by  one, 
out  of  the  wall,  into  which  they  were  sunk  about  three 
inches  perfectly  straight,  and  without  any  precaution 
to  prevent  their  being  removed.  But  the  space  thus 
obtained  was  by  no  means  wide  enough  to  admit 
the  passing  of  my  body.  I  therefore  applied  myself, 
partly  with  my  chisel,  and  partly  with  one  of  the  iron 
bars,  to  the  loosening  the  brick-work ;  and  when  I  had 
thus  disengaged  four  or  five  bricks,  I  got  down  and 
piled  them  upon  the  floor.  This  operation.  I  repeated 
three  or  four  times.  The  space  was  now  sufficient  for 
my  purpose ;  and,  having  crept  through  the  opening,  I 
stepped  upon  a  shed  on  the  outside. 

I  was  now  in  a  kind  of  rude  area  between  two  dead 
walls,  that  south  of  the  felons'  day-room  (the  windows 
of  which  were  at  the  east  end)  and  the  wall  of  the 
prison.  But  I  had  not,  as  formerly,  any  instruments 
to  assist  me  in  scaling  the  wall,  which  was  of  consider- 
able height.  There  was,  of  consequence,  no  resource 
for  me  but  that  of  effecting  a  practicable  breach  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  wall,  which  was  of  no  contemptible 
strength,  being  of  stone  on  the  outside,  with  a  facing 
of  brick  within.  The  rooms  for  the  debtors  were  at 
right  angles  with  the  building  from  which  I  had  just 
escaped ;  and,  as  the  night  was  extremely  bright,  I  was 
in  momentary  danger,  particularly  in  case  of  the  least 
noise,  of  being  discovered  by  them,  several  of  their 
windows  commanding  this  area.  Thus  circumstanced, 
I  determined  to  make  the  shed  answer  the  purpose  of 
concealment.  It  was  locked;  but,  with  the  broken 
link  of  my  fetters,  which  I  had  had  the  precaution  to 
bring  with  me,  I  found  no  great  difficulty  in  opening 
the  lock.  I  had  now  got  a  sufficient  means  of  hiding 
my  person  while  I  proceeded  in  my  work,  attended 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  283 

with  no  other  disadvantage  than  that  of  being  obliged 
to  leave  the  door,  through  which  I  had  thus  broken,  a 
little  open  for  the  sake  of  light.  After  some  time,  I 
had  removed  a  considerable  part  of  the  brick-work  of 
the  outer  wall ;  but,  when  I  came  to  the  stone,  I  found 
the  undertaking  infinitely  more  difficult.  The  mortar 
which  bound  together  the  building  was,  by  length  of 
time,  nearly  petrified,  and  appeared  to  my  first  efforts 
one  solid  rock  of  the  hardest  adamant.  I  had  now 
been  six  hours  incessantly  engaged  in  incredible  labour: 
my  chisel  broke  in  the  first  attempt  upon  this  new  ob- 
stacle ;  and  between  fatigue  already  endured,  and  the 
seemingly  invincible  difficulty  before  me,  I  concluded 
that  I  must  remain  where  I  was,  and  gave  up  the  idea 
of  further  effort  as  useless.  At  the  same  time  the  moon, 
whose  light  had  till  now  been  of  the  greatest  use  to 
me,  set,  and  I  was  left  in  total  darkness. 

After  a  respite  of  ten  minutes  however,  I  returned 
to  the  attack  with  new  vigour.  It  could  not  be  less 
than  two  hours  before  the  first  stone  was  loosened  from 
the  edifice.  In  one  hour  more,  the  space  was  sufficient 
to  admit  of  my  escape.  The  pile  of  bricks  I  had  left 
in  the  strong  room  was  considerable.  But  it  was  a 
mole-hill  compared  with  the  ruins  I  had  forced  from 
the  outer  wall.  I  am  fully  assured  that  the  work  I  had 
thus  performed  would  have  been  to  a  common  labourer, 
with  every  advantage  of  tools,  the  business  of  two  or 
three  days. 

But  my  difficulties,  instead  of  being  ended,  seemed 
to  be  only  begun.  The  day  broke,  before  I  had  com- 
pleted the  opening,  and  in  ten  minutes  more  the 
keepers  would  probably  enter  my  apartment,  and  per- 
ceive the  devastation  I  had  left.  The  lane,  which 
connected  the  side  of  the  prison  through  which  I  had 
escaped  with  the  adjacent  country,  was  formed  chiefly 


284?  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

by  two  dead  walls,  with  here  and  there  a  stable,  a  few 
warehouses,  and  some  mean  habitations,  tenanted  by 
the  lower  order  of  people.  My  best  security  lay  in 
clearing  the  town  as  soon  as  possible,  and  depending 
upon  the  open  country  for  protection.  My  arms  were 
intolerably  swelled  and  bruised  with  my  labour,  and  my 
strength  seemed  wholly  exhausted  with  fatigue.  Speed 
I  was  nearly  unable  to  exert  for  any  continuance ;  and, 
if  I  could,  with  the  enemy  so  close  at  my  heels,  speed 
would  too  probably  have  been  useless.  It  appeared 
as  if  I  were  now  in  almost  the  same  situation  as  that 
in  which  I  had  been  placed  five  or  six  weeks  before,  in 
which,  after  having  completed  my  escape,  I  was  obliged 
to  yield  myself  up,  without  resistance,  to  my  pursuers. 
I  was  not  however  disabled  as  then ;  I  was  capable  of 
exertion,  to  what  precise  extent  I  could  not  ascertain ; 
and  I  was  well  aware,  that  every  instance  in  which  I 
should  fail  of  my  purpose  would  contribute  to  enhance 
the  difficulty  of  any  future  attempt.  Such  were  the 
considerations  that  presented  themselves  in  relation  to 
my  escape ;  and,  even  if  that  were  effected,  I  had  to 
reckon  among  my  difficulties,  that,  at  the  time  I  quitted 
my  prison,  I  was  destitute  of  every  resource,  and  had 
not  a  shilling  remaining  in  the  world. 


END   OF    THE    SECOND    VOLUME. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  285 


VOLUME    THE    THIRD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

I  PASSED  along  the  lane  I  have  described,  without 
perceiving  or  being  observed  by  a  human  being.  The 
doors  were  shut,  the  window-shutters  closed,  and  all 
was  still  as  night.  I  reached  the  extremity  of  the 
lane  unmolested.  My  pursuers,  if  they  immediately 
followed,  would  know  that  the  likelihood  was  small,  of 
my  having  in  the  interval  found  shelter  in  this  place ; 
and  would  proceed  without  hesitation,  as  I  on  my  part 
was  obliged  to  do,  from  the  end  nearest  to  the  prison 
to  its  furthest  termination. 

The  face  of  the  country,  in  the  spot  to  which  I  had 
thus  opened  myself  a  passage,  was  rude  and  uncul- 
tivated. It  was  overgrown  with  brushwood  and  furze ; 
the  soil  was  for  the  most  part  of  a  loose  sand ;  and  the 
surface  extremely  irregular.  I  climbed  a  small  emi- 
nence, and  could  perceive,  not  very  remote  in  the 
distance,  a  few  cottages  thinly  scattered.  This  prospect 
did  not  altogether  please  me;  I  conceived  that  my 
safety  would,  for  the  present,  be  extremely  assisted,  by 
keeping  myself  from  the  view  of  any  human  being. 

I  therefore  came  down  again  into  the  valley,  and 
upon  a  careful  examination  perceived  that  it  was  in- 
terspersed with  cavities,  some  deeper  than  others,  but 
all  of  them  so  shallow,  as  neither  to  be  capable  of 
hiding  a  man,  nor  of  exciting  suspicion  as  places  of 
possible  concealment.  Meanwhile  the  day  had  but 
just  begun  to  dawn ;  the  morning  was  lowring  and 


286  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

drizzly ;  and,  though  the  depth  of  these  caverns  was 
of  course  well  known  to  the  neighbouring  inhabitants, 
the  shadows  they  cast  were  so  black  and  impenetrable, 
as  might  well  have  produced  wider  expectations  in  the 
mind  of  a  stranger.  Poor  therefore  as  was  the  pro- 
tection they  were  able  to  afford,  I  thought  it  right  to 
have  recourse  to  it  for  the  moment,  as  the  best  the 
emergency  would  supply.  It  was  for  my  life  ;  and,  the 
greater  was  the  jeopardy  to  which  it  was  exposed,  the 
more  dear  did  that  life  seem  to  become  to  my  affections. 
The  recess  I  chose,  as  most  secure,  was  within  little 
more  than  a  hundred  yards  of  the  end  of  the  lane,  and 
the  extreme  buildings  of  the  town. 

I  had  not  stood  up  in  this  manner  two  minutes, 
before  I  heard  the  sound  of  feet,  and  presently  saw  the 
ordinary  turnkey  and  another  pass  the  place  of  my 
retreat.  They  were  so  close  to  me  that,  if  I  had 
stretched  out  my  hand,  I  believe  I  could  have  caught 
hold  of  their  clothes,  without  so  much  as  changing  my 
posture.  As  no  part  of  the  overhanging  earth  in- 
tervened between  me  and  them,  I  could  see  them 
entire,  though  the  deepness  of  the  shade  rendered  me 
almost  completely  invisible.  I  heard  them  say  to  each 
other,  in  tones  of  vehement  asperity,  "Curse  the  rascal  I 
which  way  can  he  be  gone  ?"  The  reply  was,  "  Damn 
him  I  I  wish  we  had  him  but  safe  once  again !" — "  Never 
fear  !"  rejoined  the  first;  "he  cannot  have  above  half  a 
mile  the  start  of  us."  They  were  presently  out  of 
hearing  ;  for,  as  to  sight,  I  dared  not  advance  my  body, 
so  much  as  an  inch,  to  look  after  them,  lest  I  should  be 
discovered  by  my  pursuers  in  some  other  direction. 
From  the  very  short  time  that  elapsed,  between  my 
escape  and  the  appearance  of  these  men,  I  concluded 
that  they  had  made  their  way  through  the  same  outlet 
as  I  had  done,  it  being  impossible  that  they  could  have 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  287 

had  time  to  come,  from  the  gate  of  the  prison,  and  so 
round  a  considerable  part  of  the  town,  as  they  must 
otherwise  have  done. 

I  was  so  alarmed  at  this  instance  of  diligence  on  the 
part  of  the  enemy,  that,  for  some  time,  I  scarcely 
ventured  to  proceed  an  inch  from  my  place  of  conceal- 
ment, or  almost  to  change  my  posture.  The  morning, 
which  had  been  bleak  and  drizzly,  was  succeeded  by  a 
day  of  heavy  and  incessant  rain  ;  and  the  gloomy  state 
of  the  air  and  surrounding  objects,  together  with  the 
extreme  nearness  of  my  prison,  and  a  total  want  of 
food,  caused  me  to  pass  the  hours  in  no  very  agreeable 
sensations.  This  inclemency  of  the  weather  however, 
which  generated  a  feeling  of  stillness  and  solitude, 
encouraged  me  by  degrees  to  change  my  retreat,  for 
another  of  the  same  nature,  but  of  somewhat  greater 
security.  I  hovered  with  little  variation  about  a  single 
spot,  as  long  as  the  sun  continued  above  the  horizon. 

Towards  evening,  the  clouds  began  to  disperse,  and 
the  moon  shone,  as  on  the  preceding  night,  in  full 
brightness.  I  had  perceived  no  human  creature  during 
the  whole  day,  except  in  the  instance  already  men- 
tioned. This  had  perhaps  been  owing  to  the  nature 
of  the  day ;  at  all  events  I  considered  it  as  too  hazardous 
an  experiment,  to  venture  from  my  hiding-place  in  so 
clear  and  fine  a  night.  I  was  therefore  obliged  to 
wait  for  the  setting  of  this  luminary,  which  was  not  till 
near  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  My  only  relief  during 
this  interval  was  to  allow  myself  to  sink  to  the  bottom 
of  my  cavern,  it  being  scarcely  possible  for  me  to 
continue  any  longer  on  my  feet.  Here  I  fell  into  an 
interrupted  and  unrefreshing  doze,  the  consequence  of 
a  laborious  night,  and  a  tedious,  melancholy  day ; 
though  I  rather  sought  to  avoid  sleep,  which,  co- 


288  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

operating  with  the  coldness  of  the  season,  would  tend 
more  to  injury  than  advantage. 

The  period  of  darkness,  which  I  had  determined  to 
use  for  the  purpose  of  removing  to  a  greater  distance 
from  my  prison,  was,  in  its  whole  duration,  something 
less  than  three  hours.  When  I  rose  from  my  seat,  I 
was  weak  with  hunger  and  fatigue,  and,  which  was 
worse,  I  seemed,  between  the  dampness  of  the  pre- 
ceding day  and  the  sharp,  clear  frost  of  the  night,  to 
have  lost  the  command  of  my  limbs.  I  stood  up  and 
shook  myself;  I  leaned  against  the  side  of  the  hill, 
impelling  in  different  directions  the  muscles  of  the 
extremities ;  and  at  length  recovered  in  some  degree 
the  sense  of  feeling.  This  operation  was  attended  with 
an  incredible  aching  pain,  and  required  no  common 
share  of  resolution  to  encounter  and  prosecute  it. 
Having  quitted  my  retreat,  I  at  first  advanced  with  weak 
and  tottering  steps  ;  but,  as  I  proceeded,  increased  my 
pace.  The  barren  heath,  which  reached  to  the  edge  of 
the  town,  was,  at  least  on  this  side,  without  a  path  ;  but 
the  stars  shone,  and,  guiding  myself  by  them,  I  deter- 
mined to  steer  as  far  as  possible  from  the  hateful  scene 
where  I  had  been  so  long  confined.  The  line  I  pursued 
was  of  irregular  surface,  sometimes  obliging  me  to 
climb  a  steep  ascent,  and  at  others  to  go  down  into  a 
dark  and  impenetrable  dell.  I  was  often  compelled,  by 
the  dangerousness  of  the  way,  to  deviate  considerably 
from  the  direction  I  wished  to  pursue.  In  the  mean 
time  I  advanced  with  as  much  rapidity  as  these  and 
similar  obstacles  would  permit  me  to  do.  The  swiftness 
of  the  motion,  and  the  thinness  of  the  air,  restored  to 
me  my  alacrity.  I  forgot  the  inconveniences  under 
which  I  laboured,  and  my  mind  became  lively,  spirited, 
and  enthusiastic. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  289 

I  had  now  reached  the  border  of  the  heath,  and 
entered  upon  what  is  usually  termed  the  forest.  Strange 
as  it  may  seem,  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that,  in  this 
conjuncture,  exhausted  with  hunger,  destitute  of  all 
provision  for  the  future,  and  surrounded  with  the 
most  alarming  dangers,  my  mind  suddenly  became 
glowing,  animated,  and  cheerful.  I  thought  that,  by 
this  time,  the  most  formidable  difficulties  of  my  un- 
dertaking were  surmounted ;  and  I  could  not  believe 
that,  after  having  effected  so  much,  I  should  find  any 
thing  invincible  in  what  remained  to  be  done.  I  re- 
collected the  confinement  I  had  undergone,  and  the 
fate  that  had  impended  over  me,  with  horror.  Never 
did  man  feel  more  vividly,  than  I  felt  at  that  moment, 
the  sweets  of  liberty.  Never  did  man  more  stren- 
uously prefer  poverty  with  independence,  to  the 
artificial  allurements  of  a  life  of  slavery.  ^  I  stretched 
forth  my  arms  with  rapture;  I  clapped  my  hands 
one  upon  the  other,  and  exclaimed,  ••  Ah,  this  is 
indeed  to  be  a  man !  These  wrists  were  lately  galled 
with  fetters ;  all  my  motions,  whether  I  rose  up  or  sat 
down,  were  echoed  to  with  the  clanking  of  chains  ;  I 
was  tied  down  like  a  wild  beast,  and  could  not  move 
but  in  a  circle  of  a  few  feet  in  circumference.  Now  I 
can  run  fleet  as  a  greyhound,  and  leap  like  a  young 
roe  upon  the  mountains.  Oh,  God  I  (if  God  there  be 
that  condescends  to  record  the  lonely  beatings  of  an 
anxious  heart)  thou  only  canst  tell  with  what  delight  a 
prisoner,  just  broke  forth  from  his  dungeon,  hugs  the 
blessings  of  new-found  liberty !  Sacred  and  indescribable 
moment,  when  man  regains  his  rights !  But  lately  I 
held  my  life  in  jeopardy,  because  one  man  was  un- 
principled enough  to  assert  what  he  knew  to  be  false  ; 
I  was  destined  to  suffer  an  early  and  inexorable  death 
from  the  hands  of  others,  because  none  of  them 
u 


290  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

had  penetration  enough  to  distinguish  from  falsehood, 
what  I  uttered  with  the  entire  conviction  of  a  full- 
fraught  heart!  Strange,  that  men,  from  age  to  age, 
should  consent  to  hold  their  lives  at  the  breath  of 
another,  merely  that  each  in  his  turn  may  have  a  power 
of  acting  the  tyrant  according  to  law  !  Oh,  God !  give 
me  poverty  !  shower  upon  me  all  the  imaginary  hard- 
ships of  human  life  !  I  will  receive  them  all  with  thank- 
fulness. Turn  me  a  prey  to  the  wild  beasts  of  the 
desert,  so  I  be  never  again  the  victim  of  man,  dressed 
in  the  gore-dripping  robes  of  authority  I  Suffer  me  at 
least  to  call  life,  and  the  pursuits  of  life,  my  own  !  Let 
me  hold  it  at  the  mercy  of  the  elements,  of  the  hunger 
of  beasts,  or  the  revenge  of  barbarians,  but  not  of  the 
cold-blooded  prudence  of  monopolists  and  kings!" — 
How  enviable  was  the  enthusiasm  which  could  thus 
furnish  me  with  energy,  in  the  midst  of  hunger, 
poverty,  and  universal  desertion  ! 

I  had  now  walked  at  least  six  miles.  At  first  I  care- 
fully avoided  the  habitations  that  lay  in  my  way,  and 
feared  to  be  seen  by  any  of  the  persons  to  whom  they 
belonged,  lest  it  should  in  any  degree  furnish  a  clue  to 
the  researches  of  my  pursuers.  As  I  went  forward,  I 
conceived  it  might  be  proper  to  relax  a  part  of  my 
precaution.  At  this  time  I  perceived  several  persons 
coming  out  of  a  thicket  close  to  me.  I  immediately 
considered  this  circumstance  as  rather  favourable  than 
the  contrary.  It  was  necessary  for  me  to  avoid  enter- 
ing any  of  the  towns  and  villages  in  the  vicinity.  It 
was  however  full  time  that  I  should  procure  for  myself 
some  species  of  refreshment,  and  by  no  means  im- 
probable that  these  men  might  be  in  some  way  assist- 
ing to  me  in  that  respect.  In  my  situation  it  appeared 
to  me  indifferent  what  might  be  their  employment  or 
profession.  I  had  little  to  apprehend  from  thieves, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  291 

and  I  believed  that  they,  as  well  as  honest  men,  could 
not  fail  to  have  some  compassion  for  a  person  under 
my  fircum-nuicTs.  J  thuvfore  rather  threw  myself  in 
their  way  than  avoided  them. 

They  were  thieves.  One  of  the  company  cried  out, 
"  Who  goes  there  ?  stand  ! "  I  accosted  them  ;  "Gentle- 
men," said  I,  "  I  am  a  poor  traveller,  almost  " 

While  I  spoke,  they  came  round  me;  and  he  that 
had  first  hailed  me,  said,  "  Damn  me,  tip  us  none  of 
your  palaver;  we  have  heard  that  story  of  a  poor 
traveller  any  time  these  five  years.  Come,  down 
with  your  dust !  let  us  see  what  you  have  got !  "— - 
u  Sir,"  I  replied,  "  I  have  not  a  shilling  in  the  world, 
and  am  more  than  half  starved  beside." —  "  Not  a 
shilling  ! "  answered  my  assailant,  "  what,  I  suppose 
you  are  as  poor  as  a  thief?  But,  if  you  have  not 
money,  you  have  clothes,  and  those  you  must  resign.'* 

44  My  clothes  I"  rejoined  I  with  indignation,  "  you 
cannot  desire  such  a  thing.  Is  it  not  enough  that  I 
am  pennyless  ?  I  have  been  all  night  upon  the  open 
heath.  It  is  now  the  second  day  that  I  have  not  eaten 
a  morsel  of  bread.  Would  you  strip  me  naked  to  the 
weather  in  the  midst  of  this  depopulated  forest  ?  No, 
no,  you  are  men  I  The  same  hatred  of  oppression, 
that  arms  you  against  the  insolence  of  wealth,  will 
teach  you  to  relieve  those  who  are  perishing  like  me. 
For  God's  sake,  give  me  food  I  do  not  strip  me  of  the 
comforts  I  still  possess  I " 

While  I  uttered  this  apostrophe,  the  unpremeditated 
eloquence  of  sentiment,  I  could  perceive  by  their  ges- 
tures, though  the  day  had  not  yet  begun  to  dawn,  that 
the  feelings  of  one  or  two  of  the  company  appeared 
to  take  my  part.  The  man,  who  had  already  under- 
taken to  be  their  spokesman,  perceived  the  same  thing ; 
and,  excited  either  by  the  brutality  of  his  temper  or  the 
u  2 


292  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

love  of  command,  hastened  to  anticipate  the  disgrace 
of  a  defeat.  He  brushed  suddenly  up  to  me,  and  by 
main  force  pushed  me  several  feet  from  the  place 
where  I  stood.  The  shock  I  received  drove  me 
upon  a  second  of  the  gang,  not  one  of  those  who 
had  listened  to  my  expostulation ;  and  he  repeated 
the  brutality.  My  indignation  was  strongly  excited 
by  this  treatment ;  and,  after  being  thrust  backward 
and  forward  two  or  three  times  in  this  manner,  I  broke 
through  my  assailants,  and  turned  round  to  defend 
myself.  The  first  that  advanced  within  my  reach, 
was  my  original  enemy.  In  the  present  moment  I 
listened  to  nothing  but  the  dictates  of  passion,  and  I 
iaid  him  at  his  length  on  the  earth.  I  was  imme- 
diately assailed  with  sticks  and  bludgeons  on  all  sides, 
and  presently  received  a  blow  that  almost  deprived  me 
of  my  senses.  The  man  I  had  knocked  down  was 
now  upon  his  feet  again,  and  aimed  a  stroke  at  me 
with  a  cutlass  as  I  fell,  which  took  place  in  a  deep 
wound  upon  my  neck  and  shoulder.  He  was  going 
to  repeat  his  blow.  The  two  who  had  seemed  to 
waver  at  first  in  their  animosity,  afterwards  appeared 
to  me  to  join  in  the  attack,  urged  either  by  animal 
sympathy  or  the  spirit  of  imitation.  One  of  them 
however,  as  I  afterwards,  understood,  seized  the  arm 
of  the  man  who  was  going  to  strike  me  a  second 
time  with  his  cutlass,  and  who  would  otherwise  pro- 
bably have  put  an  end  to  my  existence.  I  could 
hear  the  words,  "  Damn  it,  enough,  enough !  that 
is  too  bad,  Gines  ! " —  "  How  so  ?  "  replied  a  second 
voice ;  "  he  will  but  pine  here  upon  the  forest,  and 
die  by  inches :  it  will  be  an  act  of  charity  to  put 
him  out  of  his  pain." —  It  will  be  imagined  that  I  was 
not  uninterested  in  this  sort  of  debate.  I  made  an 
effort  to  speak ;  my  voice  failed  me.  I  stretched  out 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  293 

one  hand  with  a  gesture  of  entreaty.  "  You  shall 
not  strike,  by  God  ! "  said  one  of  the  voices  ;  "  why 
should  we  be  murderers  ?  '* —  The  side  of  forbearance 
at  length  prevailed.  They  therefore  contented  them- 
selves with  stripping  me  of  my  coat  and  waistcoat, 
and  rolling  me  into  a  dry  ditch.  They  then  left  me 
totally  regardless  of  my  distressed  condition,  and  the 
plentiful  effusion  of  blood,  which  streamed  from  my 
wound. 


CHAPTER  II. 

IN  this  woeful  situation,  though  extremely  weak,  I  was 
not  deprived  of  sense.  I  tore  my  shirt  from  my  naked 
body,  and  endeavoured,  with  some  success,  to  make  of 
it  a  bandage  to  staunch  the  flowing  of  the  blood.  I 
then  exerted  myself  to  crawl  up  the  side  of  the  ditch. 
I  had  scarcely  effected  the  latter,  when,  with  equal 
surprise  and  joy,  I  perceived  a  man  advancing  at  no 
great  distance.  I  called  for  help  as  well  as  I  could. 
The  man  came  towards  me  with  evident  signs  of  com- 
passion, and  the  appearance  I  exhibited  was  indeed 
sufficiently  calculated  to  excite  it.  I  had  no  hat.  My 
hair  was  dishevelled,  and  the  ends  of  the  locks  clotted 
with  blood.  My  shirt  was  wrapped  about  my  neck  and 
shoulders,  and  was  plentifully  stained  with  red.  My 
body,  which  was  naked  to  my  middle,  was  variegated 
with  streams  of  blood ;  nor  had  my  lower  garments, 
which  were  white,  by  any  means  escaped. 

"  For  God's  sake,  my  good  fellow ! "  said  he,  with  a 
tone  of  the  greatest  imaginable  kindness,  "  how  came 
you  thus  ? "  and,  saying  this,  he  lifted  me  up,  and  set 
me  on  my  feet.  ••  Can  you  stand  ?  "  added  he,  doubt- 

u  3 


CALEB    WILLIAMS, 

fully.  «  Oh,  yes,  very  well,"  I  replied.  Having  re- 
ceived this  answer,  he  quitted  me,  and  began  to  take 
off  his  own  coat,  that  he  might  cover  me  from  the 
cold.  I  had  however  over-rated  my  strength,  and 
was  no  sooner  left  to  myself  than  I  reeled,  and  fell 
almost  at  my  length  upon  the  ground.  But  I  broke 
my  fall  by  stretching  out  my  sound  arm,  and  again 
raised  myself  upon  my  knees.  My  benefactor  now 
covered  me,  raised  me,  and,  bidding  me  lean  upon  him, 
told  me  he  would  presently  conduct  me  to  a  place 
where  I  should  be  taken  care  of.  Courage  is  a  capri- 
cious property;  and,  though  while  I  had  no  one  to 
depend  upon  but  myself,  I  possessed  a  mine  of  seem- 
ingly inexhaustible  fortitude,  yet  no  sooner  did  I  find 
this  unexpected  sympathy  on  the  part  of  another,  than 
my  resolution  appeared  to  give  way,  and  I  felt  ready 
to  faint.  My  charitable  conductor  perceived  this,  and 
every  now  and  then  encouraged  me,  in  a  manner  so 
cheerful,  so  good  humoured  and  benevolent,  equally 
free  from  the  torture  of  droning  expostulation,  and  the 
weakness  of  indulgence,  that  I  thought  myself  under 
the  conduct  of  an  angel  rather  than  a  man.  I  could 
perceive  that  his  behaviour  had  in  it  nothing  of  boor- 
ishness,  and  that  he  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
principles  of  affectionate  civility. 

We  walked  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile,  and  that 
not  towards  the  open,  but  the  most  uncouth  and  un- 
frequented part  of  the  forest.  We  crossed  a  place 
which  had  once  been  a  moat,  but  which  was  now  in 
some  parts  dry,  and  in  others  contained  a  little  muddy 
and  stagnated  water.  Within  the  enclosure  of  this 
moat,  I  could  only  discover  a  pile  of  ruins,  and  several 
walls,  the  upper  part  of  which  seemed  to  overhang 
their  foundations,  and  to  totter  to  their  ruin.  After 
having  entered  however  with  my  conductor  through 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  295 

an  archway,  and  passed  along  a  winding  passage  that 
\\a>  perfectly  dark,  we  came  to  a  stand. 

At  the  upper  end  of  this  passage  was  a  door,  which 
I  was  unable  to  perceive.  My  conductor  knocked  at 
the  door,  and  was  answered  by  a  voice  from  within, 
which,  for  body  and  force,  might  have  been  the  voice 
of  a  man,  but  with  a  sort  of  female  sharpness  and 
acidity,  enquiring,  "  Who  is  there  ?  "  Satisfaction  was 
DO  sooner  given  on  this  point,  than  I  heard  two  bolts 
pushed  back,  and  the  door  unlocked.  The  apartment 
opened,  and  we  entered.  The  interior  of  this  habit- 
ation by  no  means  corresponded  with  the  appearance 
of  my  protector,  but,  on  the  contrary,  wore  the  face  of 
discomfort,  carelessness,  and  dirt.  The  only  person  I 
saw  within  was  a  woman,  rather  advanced  in  life,  and 
whose  person  had  I  know  not  what  of  extraordinary 
and  loathsome.  Her  eyes  were  red  and  blood-shot; 
her  hair  was  pendent  in  matted  and  shaggy  tresses 
about  her  shoulders ;  her  complexion  swarthy,  and  of 
the  consistency  of  parchment ;  her  form  spare,  and  her 
whole  body,  her  arms  in  particular,  uncommonly  ri- 
gorous and  muscular.  Not  the  milk  of  human  kind* 
ness,  but  the  feverous  blood  of  savage  ferocity,  seemed 
to  flow  from  her  heart ;  and  her  whole  figure  suggested 
an  idea  of  unmitigable  energy,  and  an  appetite  gorged 
in  malevolence.  This  infernal  Thalestris  had  no  sooner 
cast  her  eyes  upon  us  as  we  entered,  than  she  ex- 
claimed in  a  discordant  and  discontented  voice,  "  What 
have  we  got  here  ?  this  is  not  one  of  our  people !"  My 
conductor,  without  answering  this  apostrophe,  bade  her 
push  an  easy  chair  which  stood  in  one  corner,  and  set 
it  directly  before  the  fire.  This  she  did  with  apparent 
reluctance,  murmuring,  "  Ah !  you  are  at  your  old 
tricks ;  I  wonder  what  such  folks  as  we  have  to  do  with 
charity !  It  will  be  the  ruin  of  us  at  last,  I  can  see 
u  4 


296  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

that ! " — "  Hold  your  tongue,  beldam  ! "  said  he,  with  a 
stern  significance  of  manner,  and  fetch  one  of  my  best 
shirts,  a  waistcoat,  and  some  dressings."  Saying  this, 
he  at  the  same  time  put  into  her  hand  a  small  bunch 
of  keys.  In  a  word,  he  treated  me  with  as  much  kind- 
ness as  if  he  had  been  my  father.  He  examined  my 
wound,  washed  and  dressed  it ;  at  the  same  time  that 
the  old  woman,  by  his  express  order,  prepared  for  me 
such  nourishment  as  he  thought  most  suitable  to  my 
weak  and  languid  condition. 

These  operations  were  no  sooner  completed  than 
my  benefactor  recommended  to  me  to  retire  to  rest, 
and  preparations  were  making  for  that  purpose,  when 
suddenly  a  trampling  of  feet  was  heard,  succeeded  by 
a  knock  at  the  door.  The  old  woman  opened  the  door 
with  the  same  precautions  as  had  been  employed  upon 
our  arrival,  and  immediately  six  or  seven  persons  tu- 
multuously  entered  the  apartment.  Their  appearance 
was  different,  some  having  the  air  of  mere  rustics,  and 
others  that  of  a  tarnished  sort  of  gentry.  All  had  a 
feature  of  boldness,  inquietude,  and  disorder,  extremely 
unlike  any  thing  I  had  before  observed  in  such  a  group. 
But  my  astonishment  was  still  increased,  when  upon  a 
second  glance  I  perceived  something  in  the  general 
air  of  several  of  them,  and  of  one  in  particular,  that 
persuaded  me  they  were  the  gang  from  which  I  had 
just  escaped,  and  this  one  the  antagonist  by  whose 
animosity  I  was  so  near  having  been  finally  destroyed. 
I  imagined  they  had  entered  the  hovel  with  a  hostile 
intention,  that  my  benefactor  was  upon  the  point  of 
being  robbed,  and  I  probably  murdered. 

This  suspicion  however  was  soon  removed.  They 
addressed  my  conductor  with  respect,  under  the  ap- 
pellation of  captain.  They  were  boisterous  and  noisy 
in  their  remarks  and  exclamations,  but  their  turbulence 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  297 

was  tempered  by  a  certain  deference  to  his  opinion 
and  authority.  I  could  observe  in  the  person  who  had 
been  my  active  opponent  some  awkwardness  and  irre- 
solution as  he  first  perceived  me,  which  he  dismissed 
with  a  sort  of  effort,  exclaiming,  "  Who  the  devil  is 
here  ?"  There  was  something  in  the  tone  of  this  apos- 
trophe that  roused  the  attention  of  my  protector.  He 
looked  at  the  speaker  with  a  fixed  and  penetrating 
glance,  and  then  said,  "  Nay,  Gines,  do  you  know  ?  Did 
you  ever  see  the  person  before?" — "  Curse  it,  Gines!'* 
interrupted  a  third,  "  you  are  damnably  out  of  luck. 
They  say  dead  men  walk,  and  you  see  there  is  some 
truth  in  it." — "  Truce  with  your  impertinence,  Jeckols  1" 
replied  my  protector :  "  this  is  no  proper  occasion  for 
a  joke.  Answer  me,  Gines,  were  you  the  cause  of  this 
young  man  being  left  naked  and  wounded  this  bitter 
morning  upon  the  forest  ?  " 

"  Mayhap  I  was.     What  then  ?  " 

••  What  provocation  could  induce  you  to  so  cruel  a 
treatment?" 

"  Provocation  enough.     He  had  no  money." 

"  What,  did  you  use  him  thus,  without  so  much  as 
being  irritated  by  any  resistance  on  his  part  ? " 

••  Yes,  he  did  resist.  I  only  hustled  him,  and  he  had 
the  impudence  to  strike  me." 

"  Gines  !  you  are  an  incorrigible  fellow." 

"  Pooh,  what  signifies  what  I  am  ?  You,  with  your 
compassion,  and  your  fine  feelings,  will  bring  us  all  to 
the  gallows." 

"  I  have  nothing  to  say  to  you ;  I  have  no  hopes  of 
you  !  Comrades,  it  is  for  you  to  decide  upon  the  con- 
duct of  this  man  as  you  think  proper.  You  know  how 
repeated  his  offences  have  been;  you  know  what  pains. 
I  have  taken  to  mend  him.  Our  profession  is  the  pro- 
fession of  justice."  [It  is  thus  that  the  prejudices  of 


298  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

men  universally  teach  them  to  colour  the  most  des- 
perate cause  to  which  they  have  determined  to  adhere.] 
"  We,  who  are  thieves  without  a  licence,  are  at  open  war 
with  another  set  of  men  who  are  thieves  according  to 
law.  With  such  a  cause  then  to  bear  us  out,  shall  we 
stain  it  with  cruelty,  malice,  and  revenge  ?  A  thief  is, 
of  course,  a  man  living  among  his  equals ;  I  do  not 
pretend  therefore  to  assume  any  authority  among 
you ;  act  as  you  think  proper ;  but,  so  far  as  relates  to 
myself,  I  vote  that  Gines  be  expelled  from  among  us 
as  a  disgrace  to  our  society." 

This  proposition  seemed  to  meet  the  general  sense. 
It  was  easy  to  perceive  that  the  opinion  of  the  rest 
coincided  with  that  of  their  leader;  notwithstanding 
which  a  few  of  them  hesitated  as  to  the  conduct  to  be 
pursued.  In  the  mean  time  Gines  muttered  some- 
thing in  a  surly  and  irresolute  way,  about  taking  care 
how  they  provoked  him.  This  insinuation  instantly 
roused  the  courage  of  my  protector,  and  his  eyes  flashed 
with  contempt. 

"  Rascal !  "  said  he,  "  do  you  menace  us  ?  Do  you 
think  we  will  be  your  slaves  ?  No,  no,  do  your  worst ! 
Go  to  the  next  justice  of  the  peace,  and  impeach  us ;  I 
can  easily  believe  you  are  capable  of  it.  Sir,  when  we 
entered  into  this  gang,  we  were  not  such  fools  as  not 
to  know  that  we  entered  upon  a  service  of  danger.  One 
of  its  dangers  consists  in  the  treachery  of  fellows  like 
you.  But  we  did  not  enter  at  first  to  flinch  now.  Did 
you  believe  that  we  would  live  in  hourly  fear  of  you, 
tremble  at  your  threats,  and  compromise,  whenever 
you  should  so  please,  with  your  insolence  ?  That  would 
be  a  blessed  life  indeed !  I  would  rather  see  my  flesh 
torn  piecemeal  from  my  bones !  Go,  sir !  I  defy  you  t 
You  dare  not  do  it !  You  dare  not  sacrifice  these 
gallant  fellows  to  your  rage,  and  publish  yourself  to  all 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  299 

the  world  a  traitor  and  a  scoundrel !  If  you  do,  you 
will  punish  yourself,  not  us !  Begone  I  " 

The  intrepidity  of  the  leader  communicated  itself  to 
the  rest  of  the  company.  Gines  easily  saw  that  there 
was  no  hope  of  bringing  them  over  to  a  contrary  senti- 
ment. After  a  short  pause,  he  answered,  "  I  did  not 
mean  —  No,  damn  it  I  I  will  not  snivel  neither.  I  was 
always  true  to  my  principles,  and  a  friend  to  you  all. 
But  since  you  are  resolved  to  turn  me  out,  why  — 
good  bye  to  you  I " 

The  expulsion  of  this  man  produced  a  remarkable 
improvement  in  the  whole  gang.  Those  who  were 
before  inclined  to  humanity,  assumed  new  energy  in 
proportion  as  they  saw  such  sentiments  likely  to  prevail. 
They  had  before  suffered  themselves  to  be  overborne 
by  the  boisterous  insolence  of  their  antagonist ;  but 
now  they  adopted,  and  with  success,  a  different  con- 
duct. Those  who  envied  the  ascendancy  of  their 
comrade,  and  therefore  imitated  his  conduct,  began 
to  hesitate  iji  their  career.  Stories  were  brought  for- 
ward of  the  cruelty  and  brutality  of  Gines  both  to  men 
and  animals,  which  had  never  before  reached  the  ear 
of  the  leader.  The  stories  I  shall  not  repeat.  They 
could  excite  only  emotions  of  abhorrence  and  disgust; 
and  some  of  them  argued  a  mind  of  such  a  stretch  of 
depravity,  as  to  many  readers  would  appear  utterly  in- 
credible ;  and  yet  this  man  had  his  virtues.  He  was 
enterprising,  persevering,  and  faithful 

His  removal  was  a  considerable  benefit  to  me.  It 
would  have  been  no  small  hardship  to  have  been  turned 
adrift  immediately  under  iny  unfavourable  circum- 
stances, with  the  additional  disadvantage  of  the  wound 
I  had  received;  and  yet  I  could  scarcely  have  ven- 
tured to  remain  under  the  same  roof  with  a  man,  to 
whom  my  appearance  was  as  a  guilty  conscience,  per- 


300  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

petually  reminding  him  of  his  own  offence,  and  the 
displeasure  of  his  leader.  His  profession  accustomed 
him  to  a  certain  degree  of  indifference  to  consequences, 
and  indulgence  to  the  sallies  of  passion ;  and  he  might 
easily  have  found  his  opportunity  to  insult  or  injure 
me,  when  I  should  have  had  nothing  but  my  own  de- 
bilitated exertions  to  protect  me. 

Freed  from  this  danger,  I  found  my  situation  suffi- 
ciently fortunate  for  a  man  under  my  circumstances. 
It  was  attended  with  all  the  advantages  for  conceal- 
ment my  fondest  imagination  could  have  hoped ;  and 
it  was  by  no  means  destitute  of  the  benefits  which 
arise  from  kindness  and  humanity.  Nothing  could  be 

more  unlike  than  the  thieves  I  had  seen  in jail, 

and  the  thieves  of  my  new  residence.  The  latter  were 
generally  full  of  cheerfulness  and  merriment.  They 
could  expatiate  freely  wherever  they  thought  proper. 
They  could  form  plans  and  execute  them.  They  con- 
sulted their  inclinations.  They  did  not  impose  upon 
themselves  the  task,  as  is  too  often  the  case  in  human 
society,  of  seeming  tacitly  to  approve  that  from  which 
they  suffered  most ;  or,  which  is  worst,  of  persuading 
themselves  that  all  the  wrongs  they  suffered  were  right; 
but  were  at  open  war  with  their  oppressors.  On  the 
contrary,  the  imprisoned  felons  I  had  lately  seen  were 
shut  up  like  wild  beasts  in  a  cage,  deprived  of  activity, 
and  palsied  with  indolence.  The  occasional  demon- 
strations that  still  remained  of  their  former  enter- 
prising life  were  the  starts  and  convulsions  of  disease, 
not  the  meditated  and  consistent  exertions  of  a  mind 
in  health.  They  had  no  more  of  hope,  of  project,  of 
golden  and  animated  dreams,  but  were  reserved  to  the 
most  dismal  prospects,  and  forbidden  to  think  upon  any 
other  topic.  It  is  true,  that  these  two  scenes  were 
parts  of  one  whole,  the  one  the  consummation,  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  301 

hourly  to  be  expected  successor  of  the  other.  But  the 
men  I  now  saw  were  wholly  inattentive  to  this,  and  in 
that  respect  appeared  to  hold  no  commerce  with  re- 
flection or  reason. 

I  might  in  one  view,  as  I  have  said,  congratulate 
myself  upon  my  present  residence  ;  it  answered  com- 
plrti'ly  the  purposes  of  concealment.  It  was  the  seat 
of  merriment  and  hilarity ;  but  the  hilarity  that  cha- 
racterised it  produced  no  correspondent  feelings  in  my 
bosom.  The  persons  who  composed  this  society  had 
each  of  them  cast  off  all  control  from  established  prin- 
ciple ;  their  trade  was  terror,  and  their  constant  object 
to  elude  the  vigilance  of  the  community.  The  influence 
of  these  circumstances  was  visible  in  their  character. 
I  found  among  them  benevolence  and  kindness :  they 
were  strongly  susceptible  of  emotions  of  generosity. 
But,  as  their  situation  was  precarious,  their  dispositions 
were  proportionably  fluctuating.  Inured  to  the  ani- 
mosity of  their  species,  they  were  irritable  and  pas- 
sionate. Accustomed  to  exercise  harshness  towards 
the  subject  of  their  depredations,  they  did  not  always 
confine  their  brutality  within  that  scope.  They  were 
habituated  to  consider  wounds  and  bludgeons  and 
stabbing  as  the  obvious  mode  of  surmounting  every 
difficulty.  Uninvolved  in  the  debilitating  routine  of 
human  affairs,  they  frequently  displayed  an  energy 
which,  from  every  impartial  observer,  would  have  ex- 
torted veneration.  Energy  is  perhaps  of  all  qualities 
the  most  valuable ;  and  a  just  political  system  would 
possess  the  means  of  extracting  from  it,  thus  circum- 
stanced, its  beneficial  qualities,  instead  of  consigning 
it,  as  now,  to  indiscriminate  destruction.  We  act  like 
the  chemist,  who  should  reject  the  finest  ore,  and  em- 
ploy none  but  what  was  sufficiently  debased  to  fit  it 
immediately  for  the  vilest  uses.  But  the  energy  of 


302  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

these  men,  such  as  I  beheld  it,  was  in  the  highest  degree 
misapplied,  unassisted  by  liberal  and  enlightened  views, 
and  directed  only  to  the  most  narrow  and  contemptible 
purposes. 

The  residence  I  have  been  describing  might  to  many 
persons  have  appeared  attended  with  intolerable  incon- 
veniences. But,  exclusively  of  its  advantages  as  a  field 
for  speculation,  it  was  Elysium,  compared  with  that 
from  which  I  had  just  escaped.  Displeasing  company, 
incommodious  apartments,  filthiness,  and  riot,  lost  the 
circumstance  by  which  they  could  most  effectually  dis- 
gust, when  I  was  not  compelled  to  remain  with  them. 
All  hardships  I  could  patiently  endure,  in  comparison 
with  the  menace  of  a  violent  and  untimely  death.  There 
was  no  suffering  that  I  could  not  persuade  myself  to 
consider  as  trivial,  except  that  which  flowed  from  the 
tyranny,  the  frigid  precaution,  or  the  inhuman  revenge 
of  my  own  species. 

My  recovery  advanced  in  the  most  favourable  man- 
ner. The  attention  and  kindness  of  my  protector  were 
incessant,  and  the  rest  caught  the  spirit  from  his  ex- 
ample. The  old  woman  who  superintended  the  house- 
hold still  retained  her  animosity.  She  considered  me  as 
the  cause  of  the  expulsion  of  Gines  from  the  fraternity. 
Gines  had  been  the  object  of  her  particular  partiality ; 
and,  zealous  as  she  was  for  the  public  concern,  she 
thought  an  old  and  experienced  sinner  for  a  raw  pro- 
bationer but  an  ill  exchange.  Add  to  which,  that  her 
habits  inclined  her  to  moroseness  and  discontent,  and 
that  persons  of  her  complexion  seem  unable  to  exist 
without  some  object  upon  which  to  pour  out  the  super- 
fluity of  their  gall.  She  lost  no  opportunity,  upon  the 
most  trifling  occasion,  of  displaying  her  animosity;  and 
ever  and  anon  eyed  me  with  a  furious  glance  of  canine 
hunger  for  my  destruction.  Nothing  was  more  evi- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

dently  mortifying  to  her,  than  the  procrastination  of  her 
malice ;  nor  could  she  bear  to  think  that  a  fierceness  so 
gigantic  and  uncontrollable  should  show  itself  in  nothing 
more  terrific  than  the  pigmy  spite  of  a  chambermaid! 
For  myself,  I  had  been  accustomed  to  the  warfare  of 
formidable  adversaries,  and  the  encounter  of  alarming 
dangers  ;  and  what  I  saw  of  her  spleen  had  not  power 
sufficient  to  disturb  my  tranquillity. 

As  I  recovered,  I  told  my  story,  except  so  far  as 
related  to  the  detection  of  Mr.  Falkland's  eventful 
secret,  to  my  protector.  That  particular  I  could  not, 
as  yet,  prevail  upon  myself  to  disclose,  even  in  a  situ- 
ation like  this,  which  seemed  to  preclude  the  possibility 
of  its  being  made  use  of  to  the  disadvantage  of  my  per- 
secutor. My  present  auditor  however,  whose  habits 
of  thinking  were  extremely  opposite  to  those  of  Mr. 
Forester,  did  not,  from  the  obscurity  which  flowed  from 
this  reserve,  deduce  any  unfavourable  conclusion.  His 
penetration  was  such,  as  to  afford  little  room  for  an  im- 
postor to  hope  to  mislead  him  by  a  fictitious  statement, 
and  he  confided  in  that  penetration.  So  confiding,  the 
simplicity  and  integrity  of  my  manner  carried  convic- 
tion to  his  mind,  and  insured  his  good  opinion  and 
friendship. 

He  listened  to  my  story  with  eagerness,  and  com- 
mented on  the  several  parts  as  I  related  them.  He 
said,  that  this  was  only  one  fresh  instance  of  the 
tyranny  and  perfidiousness  exercised  by  the  powerful 
members  of  the  community,  against  those  who  were 
less  privileged  than  themselves.  Nothing  could  be 
more  clear,  than  their  readiness  to  sacrifice  the  human 
species  at  large  to  their  meanest  interest  or  wildest 
caprice.  Who  that  saw  the  situation  in  its  true  light 
would  wait  till  their  oppressors  thought  fit  to  decree 
their  destruction,  and  not  take  arms  in  their  defence 


304?  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

while  it  was  yet  in  their  power  ?  Which  was  most 
meritorious,  the  unresisting  and  dastardly  submission 
of  a  slave,  or  the  enterprise  and  gallantry  of  the  man 
who  dared  to  assert  his  claims  ?  Since,  by  the  partial 
administration  of  our  laws,  innocence,  when  power  was 
armed  against  it,  had  nothing  better  to  hope  for  than 
guilt,  what  man  of  true  courage  would  fail  to  set  these 
laws  at  defiance,  and,  if  he  must  suffer  by  their  in- 
justice, at  least  take  care  that  he  had  first  shown  his 
contempt  of  their  yoke?  For  himself,  he  should  certainly 
never  have  embraced  his  present  calling,  had  he  not 
been  stimulated  to  it  by  these  cogent  and  irresistible 
reasons  ;  and  he  hoped,  as  experience  had  so  forcibly 
brought  a  conviction  of  this  sort  to  my  mind,  that  he 
should  for  the  future  have  the  happiness  to  associate 
me  to  his  pursuits. — It  will  presently  be  seen  with 
what  event  these  hopes  were  attended. 

Numerous  were  the  precautions  exercised  by  the 
gang  of  thieves  with  whom  I  now  resided,  to  elude  the 
vigilance  of  the  satellites  of  justice.  It  was  one  of 
their  rules  to  commit  no  depredations  but  at  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  the  place  of  their  residence  ; 
and  Gines  had  transgressed  this  regulation  in  the 
attack  to  which  I  was  indebted  for  my  present  asylum. 
After  having  possessed  themselves  of  any  booty,  they 
took  care,  in  the  sight  of  the  persons  whom  they  had 
robbed,  to  pursue  a  route  as  nearly  as  possible  opposite 
to  that  which  led  to  their  true  haunts.  The  appearance 
of  their  place  of  residence,  together  with  its  environs, 
was  peculiarly  desolate  and  forlorn,  and  it  had  the 
reputation  of  being  haunted.  The  old  woman  I  have 
described  had  long  been  its  inhabitant,  and  was  com- 
monly supposed  to  be  its  only  inhabitant ;  and  her 
person  well  accorded  with  the  rural  ideas  of  a  witch. 
Her  lodgers  never  went  out  or  came  in  but  with  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  305 

utmost  circumspection,  and  generally  by  night.  The 
lights  which  were  occasionally  seen  from  various  parts 
of  her  habitation,  were,  by  the  country  people,  regarded 
with  horror  as  supernatural ;  and  if  the  noise  of  revelry 
at  any  time  saluted  their  ears,  it  was  imagined  to 
proceed  from  a  carnival  of  devils.  With  all  these 
advantages,  the  thieves  did  not  venture  to  reside  here 
but  by  intervals :  they  frequently  absented  themselves 
for  months,  and  removed  to  a  different  part  of  the 
country.  The  old  woman  sometimes  attended  them  in 
these  transportations,  and  sometimes  remained  ;  but  in 
all  cases  her  decampment  took  place  either  sooner  or 
later  than  theirs,  so  that  the  nicest  observer  could 
scarcely  have  traced  any  connection  between  her  re- 
appearance, and  the  alarms  of  depredation  that  were 
frequently  given ;  and  the  festival  of  demons  seemed, 
to  the  terrified  rustics,  indifferently  to  take  place 
whether  she  were  present  or  absent. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ONE  day,  while  I  continued  in  this  situation,  a  cir- 
cumstance occurred  which  involuntarily  attracted  my 
attention.  Two  of  our  people  had  been  sent  to  a  town 
at  some  distance,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  us  the 
things  of  which  we  were  in  want.  After  having  de- 
livered these  to  our  landlady,  they  retired  to  one  corner 
of  the  room  ;  and,  one  of  them  pulling  a  printed  paper 
from  his  pocket,  they  mutually  occupied  themselves  in 
examining  its  contents.  I  was  sitting  in  an  easy  chair 
by  the  fire,  being  considerably  better  than  I  had  been, 
though  still  in  a  weak  and  languid  state.  Having  read 
for  a  considerable  time,  they  looked  at  me,  and  then  at 


306  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

the  paper,  and  then  at  me  again.  They  then  went  out 
of  the  room  together,  as  if  to  consult  without  in- 
terruption upon  something  which  that  paper  suggested 
to  them.  Some  time  after  they  returned ;  and  my 
protector,  who  had  been  absent  upon  the  former  oc- 
casion, entered  the  room  at  the  same  instant. 

"  Captain  !"  said  one  of  them  with  an  air  of  pleasure, 
"  look  here  !  we  have  found  a  prize  !  I  believe  it  is  as 
good  as. a  bank-note  of  a  hundred  guineas." 

Mr.  Raymond  (that  was  his  name)  took  the  paper, 
and  read.  He  paused  for  a  moment.  He  then  crushed 
the  paper  in  his  hand ;  and,  turning  to  the  person  from 
whom  he  had  received  it,  said,  with  the  tone  of  a  man 
confident  in  the  success  of  his  reasons,  — 

"  What  use  have  you  for  these  hundred  guineas  ? 
Are  you  in  want  ?  Are  you  in  distress  ?  Can  you  be 
contented  to  purchase  them  at  the  price  of  treachery — 
of  violating  the  laws  of  hospitality  ?  " 

"  Faith,  captain,  I  do  not  very  well  know.  After 
having  violated  other  laws,  I  do  not  see  why  we  should 
be  frightened  at  an  old  saw.  We  pretend  to  judge  for 
ourselves,  and  ought  to  be  above  shrinking  from  a 
bugbear  of  a  proverb.  Beside,  this  is  a  good  deed,  and 
I  should  think  no  more  harm  of  being  the  ruin  of  such 
a  thief  than  of  getting  my  dinner." 

"  A  thief!  You  talk  of  thieves  I" 

"  Not  so  fast,  captain.  God  defend  that  I  should 
say  a  word  against  thieving  as  a  general  occupation ! 
But  one  man  steals  in  one  way,  and  another  in  another. 
For  my  part,  I  go  upon  the  highway,  and  take  from 
any  stranger  I  meet  what,  it  is  a  hundred  to  one,  he  can 
very  well  spare.  I  see  nothing  to  be  found  fault  with 
in  that.  But  I  have  as  much  conscience  as  another 
man.  Because  I  laugh  at  assizes,  and  great  wigs,  and 
the  gallows,  and  because  I  will  not  be  frightened  from 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  307 

an  innocent  action  when  the  lawyers  say  me  nay, 
does  it  follow  that  I  am  to  have  a  fellow-feeling  for 
pilferers,  and  rascally  servants,  and  people  that  have 
neither  justice  nor  principle  ?  No ;  I  have  too  much 
respect  for  the  trade  not  to  be  a  foe  to  interlopers, 
and  people  that  so  much  the  more  deserve  my  hatred, 
because  the  world  calls  them  by  my  name." 

"  You  are  wrong,  Larkins  !  You  certainly  ought  not 
to  employ  against  people  that  you  hate,  supposing  your 
hatred  to  be  reasonable,  the  instrumentality  of  that 
law  which  in  your  practice  you  defy.  Be  consistent. 
Either  be  the  friend  of  the  law,  or  its  adversary. 
Depend  upon  it  that,  wherever  there  are  laws  at  all, 
there  will  be  laws  against  such  people  as  you  and  me. 
Either  therefore  we  all  of  us  deserve  the  vengeance  of 
the  law,  or  law  is  not  the  proper  instrument  for  correct- 
ing the  misdeeds  of  mankind.  I  tell  you  this,  because  I 
would  fain  have  you  aware,  that  an  informer  or  a  king's 
evidence,  a  man  who  takes  advantage  of  the  confidence 
of  another  in  order  to  betray  him,  who  sells  the  life  of 
his  neighbour  for  money,  or,  coward-like,  upon  any 
pretence  calls  in  the  law  to  do  that  for  him  which  he 
cannot  or  dares  not  do  for  himself,  is  the  vilest  of 
rascals.  But  in  the  present  case,  if  your  reasons  were 
the  best  in  the  world,  they  do  not  apply/1 

While  Mr.  Raymond  was  speaking,  the  rest  of  the 
gang  came  into  the  room.  He  immediately  turned  to 
them,  and  said, — 

"  My  friends,  here  is  a  piece  of  intelligence  that 
Larkins  has  just  brought  in  which,  with  his  leave,  I 
will  lay  before  you." 

Then  unfolding  the  paper  he  had  received,  he  con- 
tinued :  "This  is  the  description  of  a  felon,  with  the 
offer  of  a  hundred  guineas  for  his  apprehension.  Larkins 

picked  it  up  at .     By  the  time  and  other  circum- 

x  2 


308  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

stances,  but  particularly  by  the  minute  description  of 
his  person,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  the  object  of  it 
is  our  young  friend,  whose  life  I  was  a  while  ago  the 
instrument  of  saving.  He  is  charged  here  with  having 
taken  advantage  of  the  confidence  of  his  patron  and 
benefactor  to  rob  him  of  property  to  a  large  amount. 
Upon  this  charge  he  was  committed  to  the  county  jail, 
from  whence  he  made  his  escape  about  a  fortnight  ago, 
without  venturing  to  stand  his  trial ;  a  circumstance 
which  is  stated  by  the  advertiser  as  tantamount  to  a 
confession  of  his  guilt. 

"  My  friends,  I  was  acquainted  with  the  particulars 
of  this  story  some  time  before.  This  lad  let  me  into 
his  history,  at  a  time  that  he  could  not  possibly  foresee 
that  he  should  stand  in  need  of  that  precaution  as  an 
antidote  against  danger.  He  is  not  guilty  of  what  is 
laid  to  his  charge.  Which  of  you  is  so  ignorant  as  to 
suppose,  that  his  escape  is  any  confirmation  of  his 
guilt  ?  Who  ever  thinks,  when  he  is  apprehended  for 
trial,  of  his  innocence  or  guilt  as  being  at  all  material 
to  the  issue  ?  Who  ever  was  fool  enough  to  volunteer 
a  trial,  where  those  who  are  to  decide  think  more  of 
the  horror  of  the  thing  of  which  he  is  accused,  than 
whether  he  were  the  person  that  did  it ;  and  where  the 
nature  of  our  motives  is  to  be  collected  from  a  set  of 
ignorant  witnesses,  that  no  wise  man  would  trust  for  a 
fair  representation  of  the  most  indifferent  action  of 
his  life  ? 

"  The  poor  lad's  story  is  a  long  one,  and  I  will  not 
trouble  you  with  it  now.  But  from  that  story  it  is  as 
clear  as  the  day,  that,  because  he  wished  to  leave  the 
service  of  his  master,  because  he  had  been  perhaps 
a  little  too  inquisitive  in  his  master's  concerns,  and 
because,  as  I  suspect,  he  had  been  trusted  with  some 
important  secrets,  his  master  conceived  an  antipathy 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  309 

against  him.  The  antipathy  gradually  proceeded  to 
such  a  length,  as  to  induce  the  master  to  forge  this  vile 
accusation.  He  seemed  willing  to  hang  the  lad  out  of 
the  way,  rather  than  suffer  him  to  go  where  he  pleased, 
or  get  beyond  the  reach  of  his  power.  Williams  has 
told  me  the  story  with  such  ingenuousness,  that  I  am 
as  sure  that  he  is  guiltless  of  what  they  lay  to  his 
charge,  as  that  I  am  so  myself.  Nevertheless  the  man's 
servants  who  were  called  in  to  hear  the  accusation,  and 
his  relation,  who  as  justice  of  the  peace  made  out  the 
mittimus,  and  who  had  die  folly  to  think  he  could  be 
impartial,  gave  it  on  his  side  with  one  voice,  and  thug 
afforded  Williams  a  sample  of  what  he  had  to  expect 
in  the  sequel. 

«*  Larking,  who  when  he  received  this  paper  had  no 
previous  knowledge  of  particulars,  was  for  taking  ad- 
vantage of  it  for  the  purpose  of  earning  the  hundred 
guineas.  Are  you  of  that  mind  now  you  have  heard 
them  ?  Will  you  for  so  paltry  a  consideration  deliver 
up  the  lamb  into  the  jaws  of  the  wolf?  Will  you  abet 
the  purposes  of  this  sanguinary  rascal,  who,  not  con* 
tented  with  driving  his  late  dependent  from  house  and 
home,  depriving  him  of  character  and  all  the'  ordinary 
means  of  subsistence,  and  leaving  him  almost  without 
a  refuge,  still  thirsts  for  his  blood  ?  If  no  other  person 
have  the  courage  to  set  limits  to  the  tyranny  of  courts 
of  justice,  shall  not  we?  Shall  we,  who  earn  our 
livelihood  by  generous  daring,  be  indebted  for  a  penny 
to  the  vile  artifices  of  the  informer  ?  Shall  we,  against 
whom  the  whole  species  is  in  arms,  refuse  our  pro- 
tection to  an  individual,  more  exposed  to,  but  still  less 
deserving  of,  their  persecution  than  ourselves  ?  " 

The   representation   of   the    captain   produced  an 
instant  effect  upon  the  whole  company.     They  all  ex- 
claimed,  "  Betray  him  !    No,  not  for  worlds !   He  is 
x  3 


310  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

safe.  We  will  protect  him  at  the  hazard  of  our  lives. 
If  fidelity  and  honour  be  banished  from  thieves,  where 
shall  they  find  refuge  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  ?"* 
Larkins  in  particular  thanked  the  captain  for  his  in- 
terference, and  swore  that  he  would  rather  part  with 
his  right  hand  than  injure  so  worthy  a  lad  or  assist 
such  an  unheard-of  villainy.  Saying  this,  he  took  me 
by  the  hand  and  bade  me  fear  nothing.  Under  their 
roof  no  harm  should  ever  befal  me ;  and,  even  if  the 
understrappers  of  the  law  should  discover  my  retreat, 
they  would  to  a  man  die  in  my  defence,  sooner  than  a 
hair  of  my  head  should  be  hurt.  I  thanked  him  most 
sincerely  for  his  good-will ;  but  I  was  principally  struck 
with  the  fervent  benevolence  of  my  benefactor.  I  told 
them,  I  found  that  my  enemies  were  inexorable,  and 
would  never  be  appeased  but  with  my  blood ;  and  I 
assured  them  with  the  most  solemn  and  earnest  vera- 
city, that  I  had  done  nothing  to  deserve  the  persecution 
which  was  exercised  against  me. 

The  spirit  and  energy  of  Mr.  Raymond  had  been 
such  as  to  leave  no  part  for  me  to  perform  in  repelling 
this  unlooked-for  danger.  Nevertheless,  it  left  a  very 
serious  impression  upon  my  mind.  I  had  always  placed 
some  confidence  in  the  returning  equity  of  Mr.  Falkland. 
Though  he  persecuted  me  with  bitterness,  I  could  not 
help  believing  that  he  did  it  unwillingly,  and  I  was 
persuaded  it  would  not  be  for  ever.  A  man,  whose 
original  principles  had  been  so  full  of  rectitude  and 
honour,  could  not  fail  at  some  time  to  recollect  the  in- 
justice of  his  conduct,  and  to  remit  his  asperity.  This 
idea  had  been  always  present  to  me,  and  had  in  no  small 
degree  conspired  to  instigate  my  exertions.  I  said,  "  I 

*  This  seems  to  be  the  parody  of  a  celebrated  saying  of  John 
King  of  France,  who  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Black  Prince  at 
the  battle  of  Poitiers. 


'CALEB  WILLIAMS.  311 

will  convince  my  persecutor  that  I  am  of  more  value 
than  that  I  should  be  sacrificed  purely  by  way  of  pre- 
caution." These  expectations  on  my  part  had  been 
encouraged  by  Mr.  Falkland's  behaviour  upon  the 
question  of  my  imprisonment,  and  by  various  par- 
ticulars which  had  occurred  since. 

But  this  new  incident  gave  the  subject  a  totally 
different  appearance.  I  saw  him,  not  contented  with 
blasting  my  reputation,  confining  me  for  a  period  in 
jail,  and  reducing  me  to  the  situation  of  a  houseless 
vagabond,  still  continuing  his  pursuit  under  these 
forlorn  circumstances  with  unmitigable  cruelty.  In- 
dignation and  resentment  seemed  now  for  the  first 
time  to  penetrate  my  mind.  I  knew  his  misery  so 
well,  I  was  so  fully  acquainted  with  its  cause,  and 
strongly  impressed  with  the  idea  of  its  being  unmerited, 
that,  while  I  suffered  deeply,  I  still  continued  to  pity, 
rather  than  hate  my  persecutor.  But  this  incident 
introduced  some  change  into  my  feelings.  I  said, 
"  Surely  he  might  now  believe  that  he  had  sufficiently 
disarmed  me,  and  might  at  length  suffer  me  to  be  at 
peace.  At  least,  ought  he  not  to  be  contented  to 
leave  me  to  my  fate,  the  perilous  and  uncertain  con- 
dition of  an  escaped  felon,  instead  of  thus  whetting 
the  animosity  and  vigilance  of  my  countrymen  against 
me  ?  Were  his  interference  on  my  behalf  in  opposition 
to  the  stern  severity  of  Mr.  Forester,  and  his  various 
acts  of  kindness  since,  a  mere  part  that  he  played  in 
order  to  lull  me  into  patience?  Was  he  perpetually 
haunted  with  the  fear  of  an  ample  retaliation,  and  for 
that  purpose  did  he  personate  remorse,  at  the  very 
moment  that  he  was  secretly  keeping  every  engine  at 
play  that  could  secure  my  destruction?"  The  very 
suspicion  of  such  a  fact  filled  me  with  inexpressible 
x  4 


312  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

horror,  and  struck  a  sudden  chill  through  every  fibre 
of  my  frame. 

My  wound  was  by  this  time  completely  healed,  and 
it  became  absolutely  necessary  that  I  should  form 
some  determination  respecting  the  future.  My  habits 
of  thinking  were  such  as  gave  me  an  uncontrollable 
repugnance  to  the  vocation  of  my  hosts.  I  did  not 
indeed  feel  that  aversion  and  abhorrence  to  the  men 
which  are  commonly  entertained.  I  saw  and  respected 
their  good  qualities  and  their  virtues.  I  was  by  no 
means  inclined  to  believe  them  worse  men,  or  more 
hostile  in  their  dispositions  to  the  welfare  of  their 
species,  than  the  generality  of  those  that  look  down 
upon  them  with  most  censure.  But,  though  I  did  not 
cease  to'  love  them  as  individuals,  my  eyes  were  per- 
fectly open  to  their  mistakes.  If  I  should  otherwise 
have  been  in  danger  of  being  misled,  it  was  my  fortune 
to  have  studied  felons  in  a  jail  before  I  studied  them 
in  their  state  of  comparative  prosperity ;  and  this  was 
an  infallible  antidote  to  the  poison.  I  saw  that  in  this 
profession  were  exerted  uncommon  energy,  ingenuity, 
and  fortitude,  and  I  could  not  help  recollecting  how 
admirably  beneficial  such  qualities  might  be  made  in 
the  great  theatre  of  human  affairs;  while,  in  their 
present  direction,  they  were  thrown  away  upon  pur- 
poses diametrically  at  war  with  the  first  interests  of 
human  society.  Nor  were  their  proceedings  less  in- 
jurious to  their  own  interest  than  incompatible  with 
the  general  welfare.  The  man  who  risks  or  sacrifices 
his  life  for  the  public  cause,  is  rewarded  with  the 
testimony  of  an  approving  conscience;  but  persons 
who  wantonly  defy  the  necessary,  though  atrociously 
exaggerated  precautions  of  government  in  the  matter 
of  property,  at  the  same  time  that  they  commit  an 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  313 

alarming  hostility  against  the  whole,  are,  as  to  their 
own  concerns,  scarcely  less  absurd  and  self-neglectful 
than  the  man  who  should  set  himself  up  as  a  mark  for 
a  file  of  musqueteers  to  shoot  at. 

Viewing  the  subject  in  this  light,  I  not  only  deter- 
mined that  I  would  have  no  share  in  their  occupation 
myself,  but  thought  I  could  not  do  less,  in  return  for 
the  benefits  I  had  received  from  them,  than  endeavour 
to  dissuade  them  from  an  employment  in  which  they 
must  themselves  be  the  greatest  sufferers.  My  ex- 
postulation met  with  a  various  reception.  All  the 
persons  to  whom  it  was  addressed  had  been  tolerably 
successful  in  persuading  themselves  of  the  innocence 
of  their  calling ;  and  what  remained  of  doubt  in  their 
mind  was*  smothered,  and,  so  to  speak,  laboriously 
forgotten.  Some  of  them  laughed  at  my  arguments, 
as  a  ridiculous  piece  of  missionary  quixotism.  Others, 
and  particularly  our  captain,  repelled  them  with 
the  boldness  of  a  man  that  knows  he  has  got  the 
strongest  side.  But  this  sentiment  of  ease  and  self- 
satisfaction  did  not  long  remain.  They  had  been  used 
to  arguments  derived  from  religion  and  the  sacredness 
of  law.  They  had  long  ago  shaken  these  from  them 
as  so  many  prejudices.  But  my  view  of  the  subject 
appealed  to  principles  which  they  could  not  contest, 
and  had  by  no  means  the  air  of  that  customary  reproof 
which  is  for  ever  dinned  in  our  ears  without  finding 
one  responsive  chord  in  our  hearts.  Urged,  as  they 
now  were,  with  objections  unexpected  and  cogent, 
some  of  those  to  whom  I  addressed  them  began  to 
grow  peevish  and  impatient  of  the  intrusive  remon- 
strance. But  this  was  by  no  means  the  case  with  Mr. 
Raymond.  He  was  possessed  of  a  candour  that  I  have 
seldom  seen  equalled.  He  was  surprised  to  hear  ob- 
jections so  powerful  to  that  which,  as  a  matter  of 


314«  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

speculation,  he  believed  he  had  examined  on  all  sides. 
He  revolved  them  with  impartiality  and  care.  He 
admitted  them  slowly,  but  he  at  length  fully  admitted 
them.  He  had  now  but  one  rejoinder  in  reserve. 

"  Alas  !  Williams,"  said  he,  "  it  would  have  been 
fortunate  for  me  if  these  views  had  been  presented  to 
me,  previously  to  my  embracing  my  present  profession. 
It  is  now  too  late.  Those  very  laws  which,  by  a  per- 
ception of  their  iniquity,  drove  me  to  what  I  am,  pre- 
clude my  return.  God,  we  are  told,  judges  of  men 
by  what  they  are  at  the  period  of  arraignment,  and 
whatever  be  their  crimes,  if  they  have  seen  and  abjured 
the  folly  of  those  crimes,  receives  them  to  favour. 
But  the  institutions  of  countries  that  profess  to  worship 
this  God  admit  no  such  distinctions.  They  leave  no 
room  for  amendment,  and  seem  to  have  a  brutal  delight 
in  confounding  the  demerits  of  offenders.  It  signifies 
not  what  is  the  character  of  the  individual  at  the  hour 
of  trial.  How  changed,  how  spotless,  and  how  useful, 
avails  him  nothing.  If  they  discover  at  the  distance  of 
fourteen*  or  of  forty  years f  an  action  for  which  the 
law  ordains  that  his  life  shall  be  the  forfeit,  though  the 
interval  should  have  been  spent  with  the  purity  of  a 
saint  and  the  devotedness  of  a  patriot,  they  disdain  to 
enquire  into  it.  What  then  can  I  do?  Am  I  not 
compelled  to  go  on  in  folly,  having  once  begun  ?" 


CHAPTER  IV. 

I  WAS  extremely  affected  by  this  plea.     I  could  only 
answer,  that  Mr.  Raymond  must  himself  be  the  best 

*  Eugene  Aram.     See  Annual  Register  for  1759. 
f  William  Andrew  Home.     Ibid. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  315 

judge  of  the  course  it  became  him  to  hold ;  I  trusted 
the  case  was  not  so  desperate  as  he  imagined. 

This  subject  was  pursued  no  further,  and  was  in 
some  degree  driven  from  my  thoughts  by  an  incident 
of  a  very  extraordinary  nature. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  animosity  that  was 
entertained  against  me  by  the  infernal  portress  of  this 
solitary  mansion.  Gines,  the  expelled  member  of  the 
gang,  had  been  her  particular  favourite.  She  submitted 
to  his  exile  indeed,  because  her  genius  felt  subdued  by 
the  energy  and  inherent  superiority  of  Mr.  Raymond ; 
but  she  submitted  with  murmuring  and  discontent:  ' 
Not  daring  to  resent  the  conduct  of  the  principal  in 
this  affair,  she  collected  all  the  bitterness  of  her  spirit 
against  roe. 

To  the  unpardonable  offence  I  had  thus  committed 
in  the  first  instance,  were  added  the  reasonings  I  had 
lately  offered  against  the  profession  of  robbery.  Robbery 
was  a  fundamental  article  in  the  creed  of  this  hoary 
veteran,  and  she  listened  to  my  objections  with  the 
same  unaffected  astonishment  and  horror  that  an  old 
woman  of  other  habits  would  listen  to  one  who  ob- 
jected to  the  agonies  and  dissolution  of  the  Creator  of 
the  world,  or  to  the  garment  of  imputed  righteousness 
prepared  to  envelope  the  souls  of  the  elect.  Like  the 
religious  bigot,  she  was  sufficiently  disposed  to  avenge 
a  hostility  against  her  opinions  with  the  weapons  of 
sublunary  warfare. 

Meanwhile  I  had  smiled  at  the  impotence  of  her 
malice,  as  an  object  of  contempt  rather  than  alarm. 
She  perceived,  as  I  imagine,  the  slight  estimation  in 
which  I  held  her,  and  this  did  not  a  little  increase  the 
perturbation  of  her  thoughts. 

One  day  I  was  left  alone,  with  no  other  person  in 
the  house  than  this  swarthy  sybil.  The  thieves  had 


316  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

set  out  upon  an  expedition  about  two  hours  after 
sunset  on  the  preceding  evening,  and  had  not  returned, 
as  they  were  accustomed  to  do,  before  day-break  the 
next  morning.  This  was  a  circumstance  that  some- 
times occurred,  and  therefore  did  not  produce  any 
extraordinary  alarm.  At  one  time  the  scent  of  prey 
would  lead  them  beyond  the  bounds  they  had  pre- 
scribed themselves,  and  at  another  the  fear  of  pursuit : 
the  life  of  a  thief  is  always  uncertain.  The  old  woman 
had  been  preparing  during  the  night  for  the  meal  to 
which  they  would  expect  to  sit  down  as  soon  as  might 
be  after  their  return. 

For  myself,  I  had  learned  from  their  habits  to  be 
indifferent  to  the  regular  return  of  the  different  parts 
of  the  day,  and  in  some  degree  to  turn  day  into  night, 
and  night  into  day.  I  had  been  now  several  weeks  in 
this  residence,  and  the  season  was  considerably  ad- 
vanced. I  had  passed  some  hours  during  the  night 
in  ruminating  on  my  situation.  The  character  and 
manners  of  the  men  among  whom  I  lived  were  dis- 
gusting to  me.  Their  brutal  ignorance,  their  ferocious 
habits,  and  their  coarse  behaviour,  instead  of  becoming 
more  tolerable  by  custom,  hourly  added  force  to  my 
original  aversion.  The  uncommon  vigour  of  their  minds, 
and  acuteness  of  their  invention  in  the  business  they 
pursued,  compared  with  the  odiousness  of  that  business 
and  their  habitual  depravity,  awakened  in  me  sensations 
too  painful  to  be  endured.  Moral  disapprobation,  at 
least  in  a  mind  unsubdued  by  philosophy,  I  found  to 
be  one  of  the  most  fertile  sources  of  disquiet  and  un- 
easiness. From  this  pain  the  society  of  Mr.  Raymond 
by  no  means  relieved  me.  He  was  indeed  eminently 
superior  to  the  vices  of  the  rest ;  but  I  did  not  less 
exquisitely  feel  how  much  he  was  out  of  his  place,  how 
disproportionably  associated,  or  how  contemptibly  em- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  317 

ployed.  I  had  attempted  to  counteract  the  errors  under 
which  he  and  his  companions  laboured  ;  but  I  had  found 
the  obstacles  that  presented  themselves  greater  than  I 
had  imagined. 

What  was  I  to  do  ?  Was  I  to  wait  the  issue  of  this 
my  missionary  undertaking,  or  was  I  to  withdraw  myself 
immediately  ?  When  I  withdrew,  ought  that  to  be 
done  privately,  or  with  an  open  avowal  of  my  design, 
and  an  endeavour  to  supply  by  the  force  of  example 
what  was  deficient  in  my  arguments  ?  It  was  certainly 
improper,  as  I  declined  all  participation  in  the  pursuits 
of  these  men,  did  not  pay  my  contribution  of  hazard  to 
the  means  by  which  they  subsisted,  and  had  no  con- 
geniality with  their  habits,  that  I  should  continue  to 
reside  with  them  longer  than  was  absolutely  necessary. 
There  was  one  circumstance  that  rendered  this  deliber- 
ation particularly  pressing.  They  intended  in  a  few 
days  removing  from  their  present  habitation,  to  a  haunt 
to  which  they  were  accustomed,  in  a  distant  county. 
If  I  did  not  propose  to  continue  with  them,  it  would 
perhaps  be  wrong  to  accompany  them  in  this  removal. 
The  state  of  calamity  to  which  my  inexorable  prose- 
cutor  had  reduced  me,  had  made  the  encounter  even 
of  a  den  of  robbers  a  fortunate  adventure.  But  the 
time  that  had  since  elapsed,  had  probably  been  sufficient 
to  relax  the  keenness  of  the  quest  that  was  made  after 
me.  I  sighed  for  that  solitude  and  obscurity,  that 
retreat  from  the  vexations  of  the  world  and  the  voice 
even  of  common  fame,  which  I  had  proposed  to  myself 
when  I  broke  my  prison. 

Such  were  the  meditations  which  now  occupied  my 
mind.  At  length  I  grew  fatigued  with  continual  con- 
templation, and  to  relieve  myself  pulled  out  a  pocket 
Horace,  the  legacy  of  ray  beloved  Brightwel !  I  read 
with  avidity  the  epistle  in  which  he  so  beautifully  de- 


318  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

scribes  to  Fuscus,  the  grammarian,  the  pleasures  of 
rural  tranquillity  and  independence.  By  this  time  the 
sun  rose  from  behind  the  eastern  hills,  and  I  opened 
my  casement  to  contemplate  it.  The  day  commenced 
with  peculiar  brilliancy,  and  was  accompanied  with  all 
those  charms  which  the  poets  of  nature,  as  they  have 
been  styled,  have  so  much  delighted  to  describe.  There 
was  something  in  this  scene,  particularly  as  succeeding 
to  the  active  exertions  of  intellect,  that  soothed  the 
mind  to  composure.  Insensibly  a  confused  reverie 
invaded  my  faculties ;  I  withdrew  from  the  window, 
threw  myself  upon  the  bed,  and  fell  asleep. 

I  do  not  recollect  the  precise  images  which  in  this 
situation  passed  through  my  thoughts,  but  I  know  that 
they  concluded  with  the  idea  of  some  person,  the  agent 
of  Mr.  Falkland,  approaching  to  assassinate  me.  This 
thought  had  probably  been  suggested  by  the  project  I 
meditated  of  entering  once  again  into  the  world,  and 
throwing  myself  within  the  sphere  of  his  possible 
vengeance.  I  imagined  that  the  design  of  the  murderer 
was  to  come  upon  me  by  surprise,  that  I  was  aware  of 
his  design,  and  yet,  by  some  fascination,  had  no  thought 
of  evading  it.  I  heard  the  steps  of  the  murderer  as  he 
cautiously  approached.  I  seemed  to  listen  to  his  con- 
strained yet  audible  breathings.  He  came  up  to  the 
corner  where  I  was  placed,  and  then  stopped. 

The  idea  became  too  terrible ;  I  started,  opened  my 
eyes,  and  beheld  the  execrable  hag  before  mentioned 
standing  over  me  with  a  butcher's  cleaver.  I  shifted 
my  situation  with  a  speed  that  seemed  too  swift  for 
volition,  and  the  blow  already  aimed  at  my  skull  sunk 
impotent  upon  the  bed.  Before  she  could  wholly  re- 
cover her  posture,  I  sprung  upon  her,  seized  hold  of 
the  weapon,  and  had  nearly  wrested  it  from  her.  But 
in  a  moment  she  resumed  her  strength  and  her  desperate 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  319 

purpose,  and  we  had  a  furious  struggle — she  impelled 
by  inveterate  malice,  and  I  resisting  for  my  life.  Her 
vigour  was  truly  Amazonian,  and  at  no  time  had  I  ever 
occasion  to  contend  with  a  more  formidable  opponent. 
Her  glance  was  rapid  and  exact,  and  the  shock  with 
which  from  time  to  time  she  impelled  her  whole 
frame  inconceivably  vehement  At  length  I  was  victo- 
rious, took  from  her  the  instrument  of  death,  and  threw 
her  upon  the  ground.  Till  now  the  earnestness  of  her 
exertions  had  curbed  her  rage ;  but  now  she  gnashed 
with  her  teeth,  her  eyes  seemed  as  if  starting  from 
their  sockets,  and  her  body  heaved  with  uncontrollable 
insanity. 

"  Rascal!  devil  I"  she  exclaimed,  "  what  do  you 
mean  to  do  to  me  ?  " 

Till  now  the  scene  had  passed  uninterrupted  by  a 
single  word. 

"  Nothing,"  I  replied:  "  begone,  infernal  witch  !  and 
leave  me  to  myself." 

"  Leave  you !  No  :  I  will  thrust  my  fingers  through 
your  ribs,  and  drink  your  blood  I  —  You  conquer  me  ? 
— Ha,  ha!  — Yes,  yes;  you  shall!  — I  will  sit  upon 
you,  and  press  you  to  hell  I  I  will  roast  you  with  brim- 
stone, and  dash  your  entrails  into  your  eyes  !  Ha, 
ha!— ha!" 

Saying  this,  she  sprung  up,  and  prepared  to  attack 
me  with  redoubled  fury.  I  seized  her  hands,  and 
compelled  her  to  sit  upon  the  bed.  Thug  restrained, 
she  continued  to  express  the  tumult  of  her  thoughts 
by  grinning,  by  certain  furious  motions  of  her  head, 
and  by  occasional  vehement  efforts  to  disengage  her- 
self from  my  grasp.  These  contortions  and  starts 
were  of  the  nature  of  those  fits  in  which  the  patienU 
are  commonly  supposed  to  need  three  or  four  persons 
to  hold  them.  But  I  found  by  experience  that,  under 


320  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

the  circumstances  in  which  I  was  placed,  my  single 
strength  was  sufficient.  The  spectacle  of  her  emo- 
tions was  inconceivably  frightful.  Her  violence  at 
length  however  began  to  abate,  and  she  became  con- 
vinced of  the  hopelessness  of  the  contest. 

"  Let  me  go ! "  said  she.  "  Why  do  you  hold  me  ? 
I  will  not  be  held." 

"  1  wanted  you  gone  from  the  first,"  replied  I. 
"  Are  you  contented  to  go  now  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  tell  you,  misbegotten  villain !  Yes,  rascal ! " 

I  immediately  loosed  my  hold.  She  flew  to  the 
door,  and,  holding  it  in  her  hand,  said,  "  I  will  be  the 
death  of  you  yet :  you  shall  not  be  your  own  man 
twenty-four  hours  longer! "  With  these  words  she  shut 
the  door,  and  locked  it  upon  me.  An  action  so  totally 
unexpected  startled  me.  Whither  was  she  gone  ? 
What  was  it  she  intended  ?  To  perish  by  the  ma- 
chinations of  such  a  hag  as  this  was  a  thought  not  to 
be  endured.  Death  in  any  form  brought  upon  us  by 
surprise,  and  for  which  the  mind  has  had  no  time  to 
prepare,  is  inexpressibly  terrible.  My  thoughts  wan- 
dered in  breathless  horror  and  confusion,  and  all  within 
was  uproar.  I  endeavoured  to  break  the  door,  but  in 
vain.  I  went  round  the  room  in  search  of  some  tool 
to  assist  me.  At  length  I  rushed  against  it  with  a 
desperate  effort,  to  which  it  yielded,  and  had  nearly 
thrown  me  from  the  top  of  the  stairs  to  the  bottom. 

I  descended  with  all  possible  caution  and  vigilance. 
I  entered  the  room  which  served  us  for  a  kitchen,  but 
it  was  deserted.  I  searched  every  other  apartment  in 
vain.  I  went  out  among  the  ruins ;  still  I  discovered 
nothing  of  my  late  assailant.  It  was  extraordinary : 
what  could  be  become  of  her  ?  what  was  I  to  conclude 
from  her  disappearance  !  I  reflected  on  her  parting 
menace,  —  "I  should  not  be  my  own  man  twenty-four 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  321 

hours  longer.**    It  was  mysterious  !  it  did  not  seem  to 
be  the  menace  of  assassination. 

Suddenly  the  recollection  of  the  hand-bill  brought 
to  us  by  Lark  ins  rushed  upon  my  memory.  Was  it 
possible  that  she  alluded  to  that  in  her  parting  words? 
Would  she  set  out  upon  such  an  expedition  by  her- 
self? Was  it  not  dangerous  to  the  whole  fraternity, 
if,  without  the  smallest  precaution,  she  should  bring 
the  officers  of  justice  in  the  midst  of  them  ?  It  was 
perhaps  improbable  she  would  engage  in  an  under- 
taking thus  desperate.  It  was  not  however  easy  to 
answer  for  the  conduct  of  a  person  in  her  state  of 
mind.  Should  I  wait,  and  risk  the  preservation  of  my 
liberty  upon  the  issue  ? 

To  this  question  I  returned  an  immediate  negative. 
I  had  resolved  in  a  short  time  to  quit  my  present  situ- 
ation, and  the  difference  of  a  little  sooner  or  a  little 
later  could  not  be  very  material.  It  promised  to  be 
neither  agreeable  nor  prudent  for  me  to  remain  under 
the  same  roof  with  a  person  who  had  manifested  such 
a  fierce  and  inexpiable  hostility.  But  the  consider- 
ation which  had  inexpressibly  the  most  weight  with 
me,  belonged  to  the  ideas  of  imprisonment,  trial,  and 
death.  The  longer  they  had  formed  the  subject  of 
my  contemplation,  the  more  forcibly  was  I  impelled  to 
avoid  them.  I  had  entered  upon  a  system  of  action 
for  that  purpose  ;  I  had  already  made  many  sacrifices  ; 
and  I  believed  that  I  would  never  miscarry  in  this 
project  through  any  neglect  of  mine.  The  thought  of 
what  was  reserved  for  me  by  my  persecutors  sick- 
ened my  very  soul ;  and  the  more  intimately  I  was 
acquainted  with  oppression  and  injustice,  the  more 
deeply  was  I  penetrated  with  the  abhorrence  to  which 
they  arc  entitled. 

Such  were  the   reasons   that   determined  me   in- 


322  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

stantly,  abruptly,  without  leave-taking,  or  acknowledg- 
ment for  the  peculiar  and  repeated  favours  I  had 
received,  to  quit  a  habitation  to  which,  for  six  weeks, 
I  had  apparently  been  indebted  for  protection  from 
trial,  conviction,  and  an  ignominious  death.  I  had 
come  hither  pennyless ;  I  quitted  my  abode  with  the 
sum  of  a  few  guineas  in  my  possession,  Mr.  Raymond 
having  insisted  upon  my  taking  a  share  at  the  time 
that  each  man  received  his  dividend  from  the  common 
stock.  Though  I  had  reason  to  suppose  that  the  heat 
of  the  pursuit  against  me  would  be  somewhat  remitted 
by  the  time  that  had  elapsed,  the  magnitude  of  the 
mischief  that,  in  an  unfavourable  event,  might  fall  on 
me,  determined  me  to  neglect  no  imaginable  pre- 
caution. I  recollected  the  hand-bill  which  was  the 
source  of  my  present  alarm,  and  conceived  that  one  of 
the  principal  dangers  which  threatened  me  was  the 
recognition  of  my  person,  either  by  such  as  had  pre- 
viously known  me,  or  even  by  strangers.  It  seemed 
prudent  therefore  to  disguise  it  as  effectually  as  I 
could.  For  this  purpose  I  had  recourse  to  a  parcel  of 
tattered  garments,  that  lay  in  a  neglected  corner  of 
our  habitation.  The  disguise  I  chose  was  that  of  a 
beggar.  Upon  this  plan,  I  threw  off  my  shirt;  I  tied  a 
handkerchief  about  my  head,  with  which  I  took  care 
to  cover  one  of  my  eyes ;  over  this  I  drew  a  piece  of 
an  old  woollen  nightcap.  I  selected  the  worst  ap- 
parel I  could  find;  and  this  I  reduced  to  a  still  more 
deplorable  condition,  by  rents  that  I  purposely  made 
in  various  places.  Thus  equipped,  I  surveyed  myself 
in  a  looking-glass.  I  had  rendered  my  appearance 
complete ;  nor  would  any  one  have  suspected  that  I 
was  not  one  of  the  fraternity  to  which  I  assumed  to 
belong.  I  said,  "  This  is  the  form  in  which  tyranny 
and  injustice  oblige  me  to  seek  for  refuge:  but  better, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  323 

a  thousand  times  better  is  it,  thus  to  incur  contempt 
with  the  dregs  of  mankind,  than  trust  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  our  superiors ! " 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  only  rule  that  I  laid  down  to  myself  in  tra- 
versing the  forest,  was  to  take  a  direction  as  opposite 
as  possible  to  that  which  led  to  the  scene  of  my 
late  imprisonment.  After  about  two  hours  walking 
I  arrived  at  the  termination  of  this  ruder  scene,  and 
reached  that  pan  of  the  country  which  is  inclosed  and 
cultivated.  Here  I  sat  down  by  the  side  of  a  brook, 
and,  pulling  out  a  crust  of  bread  which  I  had  brought 
away  with  me,  rested  and  refreshed  myself.  While  I 
continued  in  this  place,  I  began  to  ruminate  upon  the 
plan  1  should  lay  down  for  my  future  proceedings ;  and 
my  propensity  now  led  me,  as  it  had  done  in  a  former 
instance,  to  fix  upon  the  capital,  which  I  believed, 
besides  its  other  recommendations,  would  prove  the 
safest  place  for  concealment.  During  these  thoughts 
I  saw  a  couple  of  peasants  passing  at  a  small  distance, 
and  enquired  of  them  respecting  the  London  road. 
By  their  description  I  understood  that  the  most  im- 
mediate way  would  be  to  repass  a  part  of  the  forest, 
and  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  approach  consider- 
ably nearer  to  the  county-town  than  I  was  at  the  spot 
which  1  had  at  present  reached.  I  did  not  imagine 
that  this  could  be  a  circumstance  of  considerable  im- 
portance. My  disguise  appeared  to  be  a  sufficient 
security  against  momentary  danger ;  and  I  therefore 
took  a  path,  though  not  the  most  direct  one,  which  led 
towards  the  point  they  suggested. 
y  2 


324"  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Some  of  the  occurrences  of  the  day  are  deserving 
to  be  mentioned.  As  I  passed  along  a  road  which  lay 
in  my  way  for  a  few  miles,  I  saw  a  carriage  advancing 
in  the  opposite  direction.  I  debated  with  myself  for 
a  moment,  whether  I  should  pass  it  without  notice,  or 
should  take  this  occasion,  by  voice  or  gesture,  of 
making  an  essay  of  my  trade.  This  idle  disquisition 
was  however  speedily  driven  from  my  mind  when  I 
perceived  that  the  carriage  was  Mr.  Falkland's.  The 
suddenness  of  the  encounter  struck  me  with  terror, 
though  perhaps  it  would  have  been  difficult  for  calm 
reflection  to  have  discovered  any  considerable  danger. 
I  withdrew  from  the  road,  and  skulked  behind  a  hedge 
till  it  should  have  completely  gone  by.  I  was  too  much 
occupied  with  my  own  feelings,  to  venture  to  examine 
whether  or  no  the  terrible  adversary  of  my  peace  were 
in  the  carriage.  I  persuaded  myself  that  he  was. 
I  looked  after  the  equipage,  and  exclaimed,  "  There 
you  may  see  the  luxurious  accommodations  and  ap- 
pendages of  guilt,  and  here  the  forlornness  that  awaits 
upon  innocence ! "  —  I  was  to  blame  to  imagine  that 
my  case  was  singular  in  that  respect.  I  only  mention 
it  to  show  how  the  most  trivial  circumstance  con- 
tributes to  embitter  the  cup  to  the  man  of  adversity. 
The  thought  however  was  a  transient  one.  I  had 
learned  this  lesson  from  my  sufferings,  not  to  indulge 
in  the  luxury  of  discontent.  As  my  mind  recovered 
its  tranquillity,  I  began  to  enquire  whether  the  phe- 
nomenon I  had  just  seen  could  have  any  relation  to 
myself.  But  though  my  mind  was  extremely  inquisi- 
tive and  versatile  in  this  respect,  I  could  discover  no 
sufficient  ground  upon  which  to  build  a  judgment. 

At  night  I  entered  a  little  public-house  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  a  village,  and,  seating  myself  in  a  corner 
of  the  kitchen,  asked  for  some  bread  and  cheese. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  .'i'_V> 

While  I  was  sitting  at  my  repast,  three  or  four  la- 
bourers came  in  for  a  little  refreshment  after  their 
work.  Ideas  respecting  the  inequality  of  rank  per- 
vade every  order  in  society ;  and,  as  my  appearance 
was  meaner  and  more  contemptible  than  theirs,  I 
found  it  expedient  to  give  way  to  these  gentry  of  a 
village  alehouse,  and  remove  to  an  obscurer  station. 
I  was  surprised,  and  not  a  little  startled,  to  find  them 
fall  almost  immediately  into  conversation  about  my  his- 
tory, whom,  with  a  slight  variation  of  circumstances, 
they  styled  the  notorious  housebreaker,  Kit  Williams. 

"  Damn  the  fellow,"  said  one  of  them,  "  one  never 
hears  of  any  thing  else.  O*  my  life,  I  think  he  makes 
talk  for  the  whole  country." 

"  That  is  very  true,"  replied  another.  "  I  was  at 
the  market-town  to-day  to  sell  some  oats  for  my 
master,  and  there  was  a  hue  and  cry,  some  of  them 
thought  they  had  got  him,  but  it  was  a  false  alarm." 

••  That  hundred  guineas  is  a  fine  thing,"  rejoined 
the  first.  "  I  should  be  glad  if  so  be  as  how  it  fell  in 
my  way." 

"  For  the  matter  of  that,"  said  his  companion,  "  I 
should  like  a  hundred  guineas  as  well  as  another.  But 
I  cannot  be  of  your  mind  for  all  that.  I  should  never 
think  money  would  do  me  any  good  that  had  been  the 
means  of  bringing  a  Christian  creature  to  the  gallows." 

••  Poh,  that  is  all  my  granny  !  Some  folks  must  be 
hanged,  to  keep  the  wheels  of  our  state-folks  a-going. 
Besides,  I  could  forgive  the  fellow  all  his  other  rob- 
beries, but  that  he  should  have  been  so  hardened  as 
to  break  the  house  of  his  own  master  at  last,  that  is 
too  bad." 

"  Lord !  lord !"  replied  the  other,  "  I  see  you  know 
nothing  of  the  matter !  I  will  tell  you  how  it  was,  as 
I  learned  it  at  the  town.  I  question  whether  he  ever 
Y  3 


326  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

robbed  his  master  at  all.  But,  hark  you !  you  must 
know  as  how  that  squire  Falkland  was  once  tried  for 
murder  " 

"  Yes,  yes,  we  know  that." 

"  Well,  he  was  as  innocent  as  the  child  unborn. 
But  I  supposes  as  how  he  is  a  little  soft  or  so.  And 
so  Kit  Williams  —  Kit  is  a  devilish  cunning  fellow,  you 
may  judge  that  from  his  breaking  prison  no  less  than 

five  times, so,  I  say,  he  threatened  to  bring  his 

master  to  trial  at  'size  all  over  again,  and  so  frightened 
him,  and  got  money  from  him  at  divers  times.  Till  at 
last  one  squire  Forester,  a  relation  of  t'  other,  found  it 
all  out.  And  he  made  the  hell  of  a  rumpus,  and  sent 
away  Kit  to  prison  in  a  twinky ;  and  I  believe  he  would 
have  been  hanged:  for  when  two  squires  lay  their 
heads  together,  they  do  not  much  matter  law,  you 
know  ;  or  else  they  twist  the  law  to  their  own  ends,  I 
cannot  exactly  say  which  ;  but  it  is  much  at  one  when 
the  poor  fellow's  breath  is  out  of  his  body." 

Though  this  story  was  very  circumstantially  told,  and 
with  a  sufficient  detail  of  particulars,  it  did  not  pass 
unquestioned.  Each  man  maintained  the  justness  of 
his  own  statement,  and  the  dispute  was  long  and  obsti- 
nately pursued.  Historians  and  commentators  at  length 
withdrew  together.  The  terrors  with  which  I  was 
seized  when  this  conversation  began,  were  extreme.  I 
stole  a  sidelong  glance  to  one  quarter  and  another,  to 
observe  if  any  man's  attention  was  turned  upon  me.  I 
trembled  as  if  in  an  ague-fit ;  and,  at  first,  felt  continual 
impulses  to  quit  the  house,  and  take  to  my  heels. 
I  drew  closer  to  my  corner,  held  aside  my  head,  and 
seemed  from  time  to  time  to  undergo  a  total  revolution 
of  the  animal  economy. 

At  length  the  tide  of  ideas  turned.  Perceiving  they 
paid  no  attention  to  me,  the  recollection  of  the  full 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  327 

security  my  disguise  afforded  recurred  strongly  to  my 
thoughts  ;  and  I  began  inwardly  to  exult,  though  I  did 
not  venture  to  obtrude  myself  to  examination.  By 
degrees  I  began  to  be  amused  at  the  absurdity  of  their 
tales,  and  the  variety  of  the  falsehoods  I  heard  asserted 
around  me.  My  soul  seemed  to  expand ;  I  felt  a  pride 
in  the  self-possession  and  lightness  of  heart  with  which 
I  could  listen  to  the  scene ;  and  I  determined  to  pro- 
long and  heighten  the  enjoyment.  Accordingly,  when 
they  were  withdrawn,  I  addressed  myself  to  our  hostess, 
a  buxom,  bluff,  good-humoured  widow,  and  asked  what 
sort  of  a  man  this  Kit  Williams  might  be  ?  She  replied 
that,  as  she  was  informed,  he  was  as  handsome,  likely 
a  lad,  as  any  in  four  counties  round ;  and  that  she  loved 
him  for  his  cleverness,  by  which  he  outwitted  all  the 
keepers  they  could  set  over  him,  and  made  his  way 
through  stone  walls  as  if  they  were  so  many  cobwebs. 
I  observed,  that  the  country  was  so  thoroughly  alarmed, 
that  I  did  not  think  it  possible  he  should  escape  the 
pursuit  that  was  set  up  after  him.  This  idea  excited  her 
immediate  indignation :  she  said,  she  hoped  he  was  far 
enough  away  by  this  time;  but  if  not,  she  wished  the 
curse  of  God  might  light  on  them  that  betrayed  so  noble 
a  fellow  to  an  ignominious  end! — Though  she  little 
thought  that  the  person  of  whom  she  spoke  was  so  near 
her,  yet  the  sincere  and  generous  warmth  with  which 
she  interested  herself  in  my  behalf  gave  me  consider- 
able pleasure.  With  this  sensation  to  sweeten  the 
fatigues  of  the  day  and  the  calamities  of  my  situation,  I 
retired  from  the  kitchen  to  a  neighbouring  barn,  laid  my- 
self down  upon  some  straw,  and  fell  into  a  profound  sleep. 
The  next  day  about  noon,  as  I  was  pursuing  my  jour- 
ney, I  was  overtaken  by  two  men  on  horseback,  who 
stopped  me,  to  enquire  respecting  a  person  that  they 
supposed  might  have  passed  along  that  road.  As  they 


328  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

proceeded  in  their  description,  Iperceived,  with  astonish- 
ment and  terror,  that  I  was  myself  the  person  to  whom 
their  questions  related.  They  entered  into  a  tolerably 
accurate  detail  of  the  various  .characteristics  by  which 
my  person  might  best  be  distinguished.  They  said, 
they  had  good  reason  to  believe  that  I  had  been  seen 
at  a  place  in  that  county  the  very  day  before.  While 
they  were  speaking  a  third  person,  who  had  fallen  be- 
hind, came  up;  and  my  alarm  was  greatly  increased 
upon  seeing  that  this  person  was  the  servant  of  Mr. 
Forester,  who  had  visited  me  in  prison  about  a  fortnight 
before  my  escape.  My  best  resource  in  this  crisis  was 
composure  and  apparent  indifference.  It  was  fortunate 
for  me  that  my  disguise  was  so  complete,  that  the  eye 
of  Mr.  Falkland  itself  could  scarcely  have  penetrated 
it.  I  had  been  aware  for  some  time  before  that  this 
was  a  refuge  which  events  might  make  necessary,  and 
had  endeavoured  to  arrange  and  methodise  my  ideas 
upon  the  subject.  From  my  youth  I  had  possessed  a 
considerable  facility  in  the  art  of  imitation  ;  and  when 
I  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  oppor- 
tunity 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  pro- 
portion 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  fel- 
low 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 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

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  expense  for  my  dis- 
covery  and  apprehension,  and  that  they  were  satisfied, 
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  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  execu- 
tioner, 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  de- 
termine 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  ap- 
peared 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  further  impediment  at  the  place 
from  which  I  intended  to  sail,  enquired  for  a  vessel, 
which  I  found  ready  to  put  to  sea  in  a  few  hours, 


330  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

agreed  with  the  captain  for  my  passage.  Ireland  had 
to  me  the  disadvantage  of  being  a  dependency  of  the 
British  government,  and  therefore  a  place  of  less  se- 
curity than  most  other  countries  which  are  divided 
from  it  by  the  ocean.  To  judge  from  the  diligence 
with  which  I  seemed  to  be  pursued  in  England,  it  was 
not  improbable  that  the  zeal  of  my  persecutors  might 
follow  me  to  the  other  side  of  the  channel.  It  was 
however  sufficiently  agreeable  to  my  mind,  that  I  was 
upon  the  point  of  being  removed  one  step  further  from 
the  danger  which  was  so  grievous  to  my  imagination. 
Could  there  be  any  peril  in  the  short  interval  that 
was  to  elapse,  before  the  vessel  was  to  weigh  anchor 
and  quit  the  English  shore?  Probably  not.  A  very 
short  time  had  intervened  between  my  determination 
for  the  sea  and  my  arrival  at  this  place ;  and  if  any 
new  alarm  had  been  given  to  my  prosecutors,  it  pro- 
ceeded from  the  old  woman  a  very  few  days  before. 
I  hoped  I  had  anticipated  their  diligence.  Mean- 
while, that  I  might  neglect  no  reasonable  precaution, 
I  went  instantly  on  board,  resolved  that  I  would  not 
unnecessarily,  by  walking  the  streets  of  the  town,  ex- 
pose myself  to  any  untoward  accident.  This  was  the 
first  time  I  had,  upon  any  occasion,  taken  leave  of  my 
native  country. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  time  was  now  nearly  elapsed  that  was  prescribed 
for  our  stay,  and  orders  for  weighing  anchor  were  every 
moment  expected,  when  we  were  hailed  by  a  boat  from 
the  shore,  with  two  other  men  in  it  besides  those  that 
rowed.  They  entered  our  vessel  in  an  instant.  They 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  331 

were  officers  of  justice.  The  passengers,  five  persons 
besides  myself,  were  ordered  upon  deck  for  examination. 
I  was  inexpressibly  disturbed  at  the  occurrence  of  such 
a  circumstance  in  so  unseasonable  a  moment  I  took 
it  for  granted  that  it  was  of  me  they  were  in  search. 
Was  it  possible  that,  by  any  unaccountable  accident, 
they  should  have  got  an  intimation  of  my  disguise  ?  It 
was  infinitely  more  distressing  to  encounter  them  upon 
this  narrow  stage,  and  under  these  pointed  circum- 
stances, than,  as  I  had  before  encountered  my  pur- 
suers, under  the  appearance  of  an  indifferent  person. 
My  recollection  however  did  not  forsake  me.  I  con- 
fided in  my  conscious  disguise  and  my  Irish  brogue,  as 
a  rock  of  dependence  against  all  accidents. 

No  sooner  did  we  appear  upon  deck  than,  to  my 
great  consternation,  I  could  observe  the  attention  of 
our  guests  principally  turned  upon  me.  They  asked  a 
few  frivolous  questions  of  such  of  my  fellow  passengers 
as  happened  to  be  nearest  to  them ;  and  then,  turning 
to  me,  enquired  my  name,  who  I  was,  whence  I  came, 
and  what  had  brought  me  there?  I  had  scarcely 
opened  my  mouth  to  reply,  when,  with  one  consent, 
they  laid  hold  of  me,  said  I  was  their  prisoner,  and 
declared  that  my  accent,  together  with  the  correspond- 
ence of  my  person,  would  be  sufficient  to  convict  me 
before  any  court  in  England.  I  was  hurried  out  of 
the  vessel  into  the  boat  in  which  they  came,  and  seated 
between  them,  as  if  by  way  of  precaution,  lest  I  should 
spring  overboard,  and  by  any  means  escape  them. 

I  now  took  it  for  granted  that  I  was  once  more  in 
the  power  of  Mr.  Falkland ;  and  the  idea  was  insup- 
rtortably  mortifying  and  oppressive  to  my  imagination. 
Escape  from  his  pursuit,  freedom  from  his  tyranny, 
were  objects  upon  which  my  whole  soul  was  bent. 
Could  no  human  ingenuity  and  exertion  effect  them  ? 


332  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Did  his  power  reach  through  all  space,  and  his  eye 
penetrate  every  concealment  ?  Was  he  like  that  mys- 
terious being,  to  protect  us  from  whose  fierce  revenge 
mountains  and  hills,  we  are  told,  might  fall  on  us  in 
vain  ?  No  idea  is  more  heart-sickening  and  tremendous 
than  this.  But,  in  my  case,  it  was  not  a  subject  of 
reasoning  or  of  faith ;  I  could  derive  no  comfort,  either 
directly  from  the  unbelief  which,  upon  religious  sub- 
jects, some  men  avow  to  their  own  minds ;  or  secretly 
from  the  remoteness  and  incomprehensibility  of  the 
conception :  it  was  an  affair  of  sense  ;  I  felt  the  fangs 
of  the  tiger  striking  deep  into  my  heart. 

But  though  this  impression  was  at  first  exceedingly 
strong,  and  accompanied  with  its  usual  attendants  of 
dejection  and  pusillanimity,  my  mind  soon  began,  as  it 
were  mechanically,  to  turn  upon  the  consideration  of 
the  distance  between  this  sea-port  and  my  county 
prison,  and  the  various  opportunities  of  escape  that 
might  offer  themselves  in  the  interval.  My  first  duty 
was  to  avoid  betraying  myself,  more  than  it  might 
afterwards  appear  I  was  betrayed  already.  It  was 
possible  that,  though  apprehended,  my  apprehension 
might  have  been  determined  on  upon  some  slight 
score,  and  that,  by  my  dexterity,  I  might  render  my 
dismission  as  sudden  as  my  arrest  had  been.  It  was 
even  possible  that  I  had  been  seized  through  a  mistake, 
and  that  the  present  measure  might  have  no  con- 
nection with  Mr.  Falkland's  affair.  Upon  every  sup- 
position, it  was  my  business  to  gain  information. '  In 
my  passage  from  the  ship  to  the  town  I  did  not  utter 
a  word.  My  conductors  commented  on  my  sulkiness ; 
but  remarked  that  it  would  avail  me  nothing  —  I  should 
infallibly  swing,  as  it  was  never  known  that  any  body 
got  off  who  was  tried  for  robbing  his  majesty's  mail. 
It  is  difficult  to  conceive  the  lightness  of  heart  which 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  S33 

was  communicated  to  me  by  these  words  :  I  persisted 
however  in  the  silence  I  had  meditated.  From  the 
rest  of  their  conversation,  which  was  sufficiently  volu- 
ble, I  learned  that  the  mail  from  Edinburgh  to  London 
had  been  robbed  about  ten  days  before  by  two  Irish- 
men, that  one  of  them  was  already  secured,  and  that  I 
was  taken  up  upon  suspicion  of  being  the  other.  They 
had  a  description  of  his  person,  which,  though,  as  I 
afterwards  found,  it  disagreed  from  mine  in  several 
material  articles,  appeared  to  them  to  tally  to  the 
minutest  tittle.  The  intelligence  that  the  whole  pro- 
ceeding against  me  was  founded  in  a  mistake,  took  an 
oppressive  load  from  my  mind.  I  believed  that  I  should 
immediately  be  able  to  establish  my  innocence,  to  the 
satisfaction  of  any  magistrate  in  the  kingdom ;  and 
though  crossed  in  my  plans,  and  thwarted  in  my 
design  of  quitting  the  island,  even  after  I  was  already 
at  sea,  this  was  but  a  trifling  inconvenience  compared 
with  what  I  had  had  but  too  much  reason  to  fear. 

As  soon  as  we  came  ashore,  I  was  conducted  to  the 
house  of  a  justice  of  peace,  a  man  who  had  formerly 
been  the  captain  of  a  collier,  but  who,  having  been 
successful  in  the  world,  had  quitted  this  wandering 
life,  and  for  some  years  had  had  the  honour  to  repre- 
sent his  majesty's  person.  We  were  detained  for 
some  time  in  a  sort  of  anti-room,  waiting  his  reve- 
rence's leisure.  The  persons  by  whom  I  had  been 
taken  up  were  experienced  in  their  trade,  and  insisted 
upon  employing  this  interval  in  searching  me,  in  pre- 
sence of  two  of  his  worship's  servants.  They  found 
upon  me  fifteen  guineas  and  some  silver.  They  re- 
quired me  to  strip  myself  perfectly  naked,  that  they 
might  examine  whether  I  had  bank-notes  concealed 
any  where  about  my  person.  They  took  up  the  de- 


334  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

tached  parcels  of  my  miserable  attire  as  I  threw  it 
from  me,  and  felt  them  one  by  one,  to  discover  whether 
the  articles  of  which  they  were  in  search  might  by 
any  device  be  sewn  up  in  them.  To  all  this  I  sub- 
mitted without  murmuring.  It  might  probably  come 
to  the  same  thing  at  last ;  and  summary  justice  was 
sufficiently  coincident  with  my  views,  my  principal 
object  being  to  get  as  soon  as  possible  out  of  the 
clutches  of  the  respectable  persons  who  now  had  me 
in  custody. 

This  operation  was  scarcely  completed,  before  we 
were  directed  to  be  ushered  into  his  worship's  apart- 
ment. My  accusers  opened  the  charge,  and  told  him 
they  had  been  ordered  to  this  town,  upon  an  inti- 
mation that  one  of  the  persons  who  robbed  the  Edin- 
burgh mail  was  to  be  found  here ;  and  that  they  had 
taken  me  on  board  a  vessel  which  was  by  this  time 
under  sail  for  Ireland.  "  Well,"  says  his  worship, 
"  that  is  your  story ;  now  let  us  hear  what  account  the 
gentleman  gives  of  himself.  What  is  your  name — ha, 
sirrah?  and  from  what  part  of  Tipperary  are  you 
pleased  to  come  ?"  I  had  already  taken  my  deter- 
mination upon  this  article;  and  the  moment  I  learned 
the  particulars  of  the  charge  against  me,  resolved,  for 
the  present  at  least,  to  lay  aside  my  Irish  accent,  and 
speak  my  native  tongue.  This  I  had  done  in  the  very 
few  words  I  had  spoken  to  my  conductors  in  the  anti- 
room  :  they  started  at  the  metamorphosis ;  but  they 
had  gone  too  far  for  it  to  be  possible  they  should  re- 
tract, in  consistence  with  their  honour.  I  now  told  the 
justice  that  I  was  no  Irishman,  nor  had  ever  been  in 
that  country  :  I  was  a  native  of  England.  This  occa- 
sioned a  consulting  of  the  deposition  in  which  my 
person  was  supposed  to  be  described,  and  which  my> 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  335 

conductors  had  brought  with  them  for  their  direction-. 
To  be  sure,  that  required  that  the  offender  should  be 
an  Irishman. 

Observing  his  worship  hesitate,  I  thought  this  was 
the  time  to  push  the  matter  a  little  further.  I  referred 
to  the  paper,  and  showed  that  the  description  neither 
tallied  as  to  height  nor  complexion.  But  then  it  did 
as  to  years  and  the  colour  of  the  hair ;  and  it  was  not 
this  gentleman's  habit,  as  he  informed  me,  to  squabble 
about  trifles,  or  to  let  a  man's  neck  out  of  the  halter 
for  a  pretended  flaw  of  a  few  inches  in  his  stature.  "  If 
a  man  were  too  short,"  he  said,  "  there  was  no  remedy 
like  a  little  stretching."  The  miscalculation  in  my  case 
happened  to  be  the  opposite  way,  but  his  reverence  did 
not  think  proper  to  lose  his  jest.  Upon  the  whole,  he 
was  somewhat  at  a  loss  how  to  proceed. 

My  conductors  observed  this,  and  began  to  tremble 
for  the  reward,  which,  two  hours  ago,  they  thought  as 
good  as  in  their  own  pocket.  To  retain  me  in  custody 
they  judged  to  be  a  safe  speculation  ;  if  it  turned  out 
a  mistake  at  last,  they  felt  little  apprehension  of  a  suit 
for  false  imprisonment  from  a  poor  man,  accoutred  as 
I  was,  in  rags.  They  therefore  urged  his  worship  to 
comply  with  their  views.  They  told  him  that  to  be 
sure  the  evidence  against  me  did  not  prove  so  strong 
at  for  their  part  they  heartily  wished  it  had,  but  that 
there  were  a  number  of  suspicious  circumstances  re- 
specting me.  When  I  was  brought  up  to  them  upon 
the  deck  of  the  vessel,  I  spoke  as  fine  an  Irish  brogue 
as  one  shall  hear  in  a  summer's  day  ;  and  now,  all  at 
once,  there  was  not  the  least  particle  of  it  left.  In 
searching  me  they  had  found  upon  me  fifteen  guineas, 
how  should  a  poor  beggar  lad,  such  as  I  appeared,  come 
honestly  by  fifteen  guineas  ?  Besides,  when  they  had 
stripped  me  naked,  though  my  dress  was  so  shabby; 


336  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

my  skin  had  all  the  sleekness  of  a  gentleman.  In  fine, 
for  what  purpose  could  a  poor  beggar,  who  had  never 
been  in  Ireland  in  his  life,  want  to  transport  himself  to 
that  country  ?  It  was  as  clear  as  the  sun  that  I  was  no 
better  than  I  should  be.  This  reasoning,  together  with 
some  significant  winks  and  gestures  between  the  justice 
and  the  plaintiffs,  brought  him  over  to  their  way  of 
thinking.  He  said,  I  must  go  to  Warwick,  where  it 
seems  the  other  robber  was  at  present  in  custody,  and 
be  confronted  with  him ;  and  if  then  every  thing  ap- 
peared fair  and  satisfactory,  I  should  be  discharged. 

No  intelligence  could  be  more  terrible  than  that 
which  was  contained  in  these  words.  That  I,  who  had 
found  the  whole  country  in  arms  against  me,  who  was 
exposed  to  a  pursuit  so  peculiarly  vigilant  and  pene- 
trating, should  now  be  dragged  to  the  very  centre  of 
the  kingdom,  without  power  of  accommodating  myself 
to  circumstances,  and  under  the  immediate  custody  of 
the  officers  of  justice,  seemed  to  my  ears  almost  the 
same  thing  as  if  he  had  pronounced  upon  me  a  sentence 
of  death !  I  strenuously  urged  the  injustice  of  this 
proceeding.  I  observed  to  the  magistrate,  that  it  was 
impossible  I  should  be  the  person  at  whom  the  de- 
scription pointed.  It  required  an  Irishman  ;  I  was  no 
Irishman.  It  described  a  person  shorter  than  I ;  a  cir- 
cumstance of  all  others  the  least  capable  of  being 
counterfeited.  There  was  not  the  slightest  reason  for 
detaining  me  in  custody.  I  had  been  already  disap- 
pointed of  my  voyage,  and  lost  the  money  I  had  paid 
down,  through  the  officiousness  of  these  gentlemen  in 
apprehending  me.  I  assured  his  worship,  that  every 
delay,  under  my  circumstances,  was  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance to  me.  It  was  impossible  to  devise  a  greater 
injury  to  be  inflicted  on  me,  than  the  proposal  that, 
instead  of  being  permitted  to  proceed  upon  my  voyage, 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  S:>7 

I  should  be  sent,  under  arrest,  into  the  heart  of  the 
kingdom. 

My  remonstrances  were  vain.  The  justice  was  by 
no  means  inclined  to  digest  the  being  expostulated 
with  in  this  manner  by  a  person  in  the  habiliments  of 
a  beggar.  In  the  midst  of  my  address  he  would  have 
silenced  me  for  my  impertinence,  but  that  I  spoke  with 
an  earnestness  with  which  he  was  wholly  unable  to 
contend.  When  I  had  finished,  he  told  me  it  was  all 
to  no  purpose,  and  that  it  might  have  been  better  for 
me,  if  I  had  shown  myself  less  insolent  It  was  clear 
that  I  was  a  vagabond  and  a  suspicious  person.  The 
more  earnest  1  showed  myself  to  get  off,  the  more 
reason  there  was  he  should  keep  me  fast.  Perhaps, 
after  all,  I  should  turn  out  to  be  the  felon  in  question. 
•  But,  if  I  was  not  that,  he  had  no  doubt  I  was  worse ; 
a  poacher,  or,  for  what  he  knew,  a  murderer.  He  had 
a  kind  of  a  notion  that  he  had  seen  my  face  before 
about  some  such  affair;  out  of  all  doubt  I  was  an  old 
offender.  He  had  it  in  his  choice  to  send  me  to  hard 
labour  as  a  vagrant,  upon  the  strength  of  my  appear- 
ance and  the  contradictions  in  my  story,  or  to  order  me 
to  Warwick ;  and,  out  of  the  spontaneous  goodness  of 
his  disposition,  he  chose  the  milder  side  of  the  alter- 
native. He  could  assure  me  I  should  not  slip  through 
his  fingers.  It  was  of  more  benefit  to  his  majesty's  go- 
vernment to  hang  one  such  fellow  as  he  suspected  me 
to  be,  than,  out  of  mistaken  tenderness,  to  concern 
one's  self  for  the  good  of  all  the  beggars  in  the  nation. 

Finding  it  was  impossible  to  work,  in  the  way  I  de- 
sired, on  a  man  so  fully  impressed  with  his  own  dignity 
and  importance  and  my  utter  insignificance,  I  claimed 
that,  at  least,  the  money  taken  from  my  person  should 
be  restored  to  me.  This  was  granted.  His  worship 
perhaps  suspected  that  he  had  stretched  a  point  in 


338  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

what  he  had  already  done,  and  was  therefore  the  less 
unwilling  to  relax  in  this  incidental  circumstance.  My 
conductors  did  not  oppose  themselves  to  this  indulg- 
ence, for  a  reason  that  will  appear  in  the  sequel.  The 
justice  however  enlarged  upon  his  clemency  in  this 
proceeding.  He  did  not  know  whether  he  was  not 
exceeding  the  spirit  of  his  commission  in  complying 
with  my  demand.  So  much  money  in  my  possession 
could  not  be  honestly  come  by.  But  it  was  his  temper 
to  soften,  as  far  as  could  be  done  with  propriety,  the 
strict  letter  of  the  law. 

There  were  cogent  reasons  why  the  gentlemen  who 
had  originally  taken  me  into  custody,  chose  that  I 
should  continue  in  their  custody  when  my  examination 
was  over.  Every  man  is,  in  his  different  mode,  sus- 
ceptible to  a  sense  of  honour ;  and  they  did  not  choose 
to  encounter  the  disgrace  that  would  accrue  to  them, 
if  justice  had  been  done.  Every  man  is  in  some 
degree  influenced  by  the  love  of  power ;  and  they 
were  willing  I  should  owe  any  benefit  I  received,  to 
their  sovereign  grace  and  benignity?  and  not  to  the 
mere  reason  of  the  case.  It  was  not  however  an  un- 
substantial honour  and  barren  power  that  formed  the 
objects  of  their  pursuit :  no,  their  views  were  deeper 
than  that.  In  a  word,  though  they  chose  that  I  should 
retire  from  the  seat  of  justice,  as  I  had  come  before 
it,  a  prisoner,  yet  the  tenor  of  my  examination  had 
obliged  them,  in  spite  of  themselves,  to  suspect  that  I 
was  innocent  of  the  charge  alleged  against  me.  Appre- 
hensive therefore  that  the  hundred  guineas  which  had 
been  offered  as  a  reward  for  taking  the  robber  was 
completely  out  of  the  question  in  the  present  busi- 
ness, they  were  contented  to  strike  at  smaller  game. 
Having  conducted  me  to  an  inn,  and  given  directions 
respecting  a  vehicle  for  the  journey,  they  took  me 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  339 

aside,  while  one  of  them  addressed  me  in  the  following 
manner :  — 

"  You  see,  my  lad,  how  the  case  stands  :  hey  for 
Warwick  is  the  word !  and  when  we  are  got  there, 
what  may  happen  then  I  will  not  pretend  for  to  say. 
Whether  you  are  innocent  or  no  is  no  business  of 
mine  ;  but  you  are  not  such  a  chicken  as  to  suppose,  if 
so  be  as  you  are  innocent,  that  that  will  make  your 
game  altogether  sure.  You  say  your  business  calls 
you  another  way,  and  as  how  you  are  in  haste  :  I  scorns 
to  cross  any  man  in  his  concerns,  if  I  can  help  it.  If 
therefore  you  will  give  us  them  there  fifteen  shiners, 
why  snug  is  the  word.  They  are  of  no  use  to  you  ;  a 
beggar,  you  know,  is  always  at  home.  For  the  matter 
of  that,  we  could  have  had  them  in  the  way  of  business, 
as  you  saw,  at  the  justice's.  But  I  am  a  man  of  prin- 
ciple ;  I  loves  to  do  things  above  board,  and  scorns  to 
extort  a  shilling  from  any  man." 

He  who  is  tinctured  with  principles  of  moral  discri- 
mination is  apt  upon  occasion  to  be  run  away  with  by 
his  feelings  in  that  respect,  and  to  forget  the  immediate 
interest  of  the  moment  I  confess,  that  the  first 
sentiment  excited  in  my  mind  by  this  overture  was 
that  of  indignation.  I  was  irresistibly  impelled  to  give 
utterance  to  this  feeling,  and  postpone  for  a  moment 
the  consideration  of  the  future.  I  replied  with  the 
severity  which  so  base  a  proceeding  appeared  to  de- 
serve. My  bear-leaders  were  considerably  surprised 
with  my  firmness,  but  seemed  to  think  it  beneath  them 
to  contest  with  me  the  principles  I  delivered.  He 
who  had  made  the  overture  contented  himself  with 
replying,  "  Well,  well,  my  lad,  do  as  you  will ;  you  are 
not  the  first  man  that  has  been  hanged  rather  than 
part  with  a  few  guineas."  His  words  did  not  pass  un- 
heeded by  me.  They  were  strikingly  applicable  to  my 
z  2 


34?0  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

situation,  and  I  was  determined  not  to  suffer  the  oc- 
casion to  escape  me  unimproved. 

The  pride  of  these  gentlemen  however  was  too 
great  to  admit  of  further  parley  for  the  present. 
They  left  me  abruptly ;  having  h'rst  ordered  an  old 
man,  the  father  of  the  landlady,  to  stay  in  the  room 
w  ith  me  while  they  were  absent.  The  old  man  they 
ordered,  for  security,  to  lock  the  door,  and  put  the  key 
in  his  pocket ;  at  the  same  time  mentioning  below 
stairs  the  station  in  which  they  had  left  me,  that  the 
people  of  the  house  might  have  an  eye  upon  what 
went  forward,  and  not  suffer  me  to  escape.  What  was 
the  intention  of  this  manoeuvre  I  am  unable  certainly 
to  pronounce.  Probably  it  was  a  sort  of  compromise 
between  their  pride  and  their  avarice ;  being  desirous, 
for  some  reason  or  other,  to  drop  me  as  soon  as 
convenient,  and  therefore  determining  to  wait  the 
result  of  my  private  meditations  on  the  proposal  they 
had  made. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THEY  were  no  sooner  withdrawn  than  I  cast  my  eye 
upon  the  old  man,  and  found  something  extremely 
venerable  and  interesting  in  his  appearance.  His  form 
was  above  the  middle  size.  It  indicated  that  his 
strength  had  been  once  considerable ;  nor  was  it  at 
this  time  by  any  means  annihilated.  His  hair  was  in 
considerable  quantity,  and  was  as  white  as  the  drifted 
snow.  His  complexion  was  healthful  and  ruddy,  at 
the  same  time  that  his  face  was  furrowed  with  wrinkles. 
In  his  eye  there  was  remarkable  vivacity,  and  his  whole 
countenance  was  strongly  expressive  of  good-nature. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  341 

The  boorishness  of  his  rank  in  society  was  lost  in  the 
cultivation  his  mind  had  derived  from  habits  of  sensi- 
bility and  benevolence. 

The  view  of  his  figure  immediately  introduced  a 
train  of  ideas  into  my  mind,  respecting  the  advantage 
to  be  drawn  from  the  presence  of  such  a  person.    The 
attempt  to  take  any  step  without  his  consent  was  hope- 
less ;  for,  though  I  should  succeed  with  regard  to  him, 
he  could  easily  give  the  alarm  to  other  persons,  who 
would,  no  doubt,  be  within  call.     Add  to  which,  I 
could  scarcely  have  prevailed  on  myself  to  offer  any 
offence  to  a  person  whose  first  appearance  so  strongly 
engaged  my  affection  and  esteem.  In  reality  my  thoughts 
were  turned  into  a  different  channel.    I  was  impressed 
with  an  ardent  wish  to  be  able  to  call  this  man  my 
benefactor.     Pursued  by  a  train  of  ill  fortune,  I  could 
no  longer  consider  myself  as  a  member  of  society.     I 
was  a  solitary  being,  cut  off  from  the  expectation  of 
sympathy,  kindness,  and  the  good-will  of  mankind.     I 
was  strongly  impelled,  by  the  situation  in  which  the 
present  moment  placed  me,  to  indulge  in  a  luxury 
which  my  destiny  seemed  to  have  denied.    I  could  not 
conceive  the  smallest  comparison  between  the  idea  of 
deriving  my  liberty  from  the  spontaneous  kindness  of 
a  worthy  and  excellent  mind,  and  that  of  being  in- 
debted for  it  to  the  selfishness  and  baseness  of  the 
worst  members  of  society.     It  was  thus  that  I  allowed 
myself  in  the  wantonness  of  refinement,  even  in  the 
midst  of  destruction. 

Guided  by  these  sentiments,  I  requested  his  attention 
to  the  circumstances  by  which  I  had  been  brought  into 
my  present  situation.  He  immediately  signified  his 
assent,  and  said  he  would  cheerfully  listen  to  any  thing 
I  thought  proper  to  communicate.  I  told  him,  the 
persons  who  had  just  left  me  in  charge  with  him  had 
z  3 


342  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

come  to  this  town  for  the  purpose  of  apprehending 
some  person  who  had  been  guilty  of  robbing  the  mail ; 
that  they  had  chosen  to  take  me  up  under  this 
warrant,  and  had  conducted  me  before  a  justice  of 
the  peace  ;  that  they  had  soon  detected  their  mistake, 
the  person  in  question  being  an  Irishman,  and  differ- 
ing from  me  both  in  country  and  stature  ;  but  that,  by 
collusion  between  them  and  the  justice,  they  were 
permitted  to  retain  me  in  custody,  and  pretended  to 
undertake  to  conduct  me  to  Warwick  to  confront  me 
with  my  accomplice ;  that,  in  searching  me  at  the 
justice's,  they  had  found  a  sum  of  money  in  my  pos- 
session which  excited  their  cupidity,  and  that  they  had 
just  been  proposing  to  me  to  give  me  my  liberty  upon 
condition  of  my  surrendering  this  sum  into  their  hands. 
Under  these  circumstances,  I  requested  him  to  con- 
sider, whether  he  would  wish  to  render  himself  the 
instrument  of  their  extortion.  I  put  myself  into  his 
hands,  and  solemnly  averred  the  truth  of  the  facts  I 
had  just  stated.  If  he  would  assist  me  in  my  escape, 
it  could  have  no  other  effect  than  to  disappoint  the 
base  passions  of  my  conductors.  I  would  upon  no 
account  expose  him  to  any  real  inconvenience  ;  but  I 
was  well  assured  that  the  same  generosity  that  should 
prompt  him  to  a  good  deed,  would  enable  him  effectu- 
ally to  vindicate  it  when  done ;  and  that  those  who 
detained  me,  when  they  had  lost  sight  of  their  prey, 
would  feel  covered  with  confusion,  and  not  dare  to 
take  another  step  in  the  affair. 

The  old  man  listened  to  what  I  related  with  curi- 
osity and  interest.  He  said  that  he  had  always  felt  an 
abhorrence  to  the  sort  of  people  who  had  me  in  their 
hands ;  that  he  had  an  aversion  to  the  task  they  had  just 
imposed  upon  him,  but  that  he  could  not  refuse  some 
little  disagreeable  offices  to  oblige  his  daughter  and 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  343 

son-in-law.  He  had  no  doubt,  from  my  countenance  and 
manner,  of  the  truth  of  what  I  had  asserted  to  him.  It 
was  an  extraordinary  request  I  had  made,  and  he  did 
not  know  what  had  induced  me  to  think  him  the  sort  of 
person  to  whom,  with  any  prospect  of  success,  it  might 
be  made.  In  reality  however  his  habits  of  thinking 
were  uncommon,  and  he  felt  more  than  half  inclined  to 
act  as  I  desired.  One  thing  at  least  he  would  ask  of 
me  in  return,  which  was  to  be  faithfully  informed  in 
some  degree  respecting  the  person  he  was  desired  to 
oblige.  What  was  my  name  ? 

The  question  came  upon  me  unprepared.  But,  what- 
ever might  be  the  consequence,  I  could  not  bear  to 
deceive  the  person  by  whom  it  was  put,  and  in  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  it  was  put.  The  practice  of 
perpetual  falsehood  is  too  painful  a  task.  I  replied,  that 
my  name  was  Williams. 

He  paused.  His  eye  was  fixed  upon  me.  I  saw  his 
complexion  alter  at  the  repetition  of  that  word.  He 
proceeded  with  visible  anxiety. 

My  Christian  name  ? 

Caleb. 

Good  God  !  it  could  not  be ?  He  conjured  me 

by  every  thing  that  was  sacred  to  answer  him  faith- 
fully to  one  question  more.  I  was  not  —  no,  it  was 
impossible  —  the  person  who  had  formerly  lived  servant 
with  Mr.  Falkland,  of ? 

I  told  him  that,  whatever  might  be  the  meaning  of 
his  question,  I  would  answer  him  truly.  I  was  the 
individual  he  mentioned. 

As  I  uttered  these  words  the  old  man  rose  from  his 
seat.  He  was  sorry  that  fortune  had  been  so  un- 
propitious  to  him,  as  for  him  ever  to  have  set  eyes 
upon  me !  I  was  a  monster  with  whom  the  very  earth 
groaned ! 


344  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

I  entreated  that  he  would  suffer  me  to  explain  this 
new  misapprehension,  as  he  had  done  in  the  former 
instance.  I  had  no  doubt  that  I  should  do  it  equally 
to  his  satisfaction. 

No  !  no !  no  !  he  would  upon  no  consideration  admit, 
that  his  ears  should  suffer  such  contamination.  This 
case  and  the  other  were  very  different.  There  was  no 
criminal  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  no  murderer,  half 
so  detestable  as  the  person  who  could  prevail  upon 
himself  to  utter  the  charges  I  had  done,  by  way  of 
recrimination,  against  so  generous  a  master.  —  The  old 
man  was  in  a  perfect  agony  with  the  recollection. 

At  length  he  calmed  himself  enough  to  say,  he  should 
never  cease  to  grieve  that  he  had  held  a  moment's 
parley  with  me.  He  did  not  know  what  was  the  con- 
duct severe  justice  required  of  him  ;  but,  since  he  had 
come  into  the  knowledge  of  who  I  was  only  by  my 
own  confession,  it  was  irreconcilably  repugnant  to  his 
feelings  to  make  use  of  that  knowledge  to  my  injury. 
Here  therefore  all  relation  between  us  ceased ;  as 
indeed  it  would  be  an  abuse  of  words  to  consider  me 
in  the  light  of  a  human  creature.  He  would  do  me  no 
mischief;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  would  not,  for  the 
world,  be  in  any  way  assisting  and  abetting  me. 

I  was  inexpressibly  affected  at  the  abhorrence  this 
good  and  benevolent  creature  expressed  against  me.  I 
could  not  be  silent ;  I  endeavoured  once  and  again  to 
prevail  upon  him  to  hear  me.  But  his  determination 
was  unalterable.  Our  contest  lasted  for  some  time, 
and  he  at  length  terminated  it  by  ringing  the  bell,  and 
calling  up  the  waiter.  A  very  little  while  after,  my 
conductors  entered,  and  the  other  persons  withdrew. 

It  was  a  part  of  the  singularity  of  my  fate  that  it 
hurried  me  from  one  species  of  anxiety  and  distress  to 
another,  too  rapidly  to  suffer  any  one  of  them  to  sink 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  34-5 

deeply  into  my  mind.  I  am  apt  to  believe,  in  the  retro- 
spect, that  half  the  calamities  I  was  destined  to  endure 
would  infallibly  have  overwhelmed  and  destroyed  me. 
But,  as  it  was,  I  had  no  leisure  to  chew  the  cud  upon  mis- 
fortunes as  they  befel  me,  but  was  under  the  necessity 
of  forgetting  them,  to  guard  against  peril  that  the  next 
moment  seemed  ready  to  crush  me. 

The  behaviour  of  this  incomparable  and  amiable  old 
man  cut  me  to  the  heart.  It  was  a  dreadful  prognostic 
for  all  my  future  life.  But,  as  I  have  just  observed, 
my  conductors  entered,  and  another  subject  called  im- 
periously upon  my  attention.  I  could  have  been  con- 
tent, mortified  as  I  was  at  this  instant,  to  have  been 
shut  up  in  some  impenetrable  solitude,  and  to  have 
wrapped  myself  in  inconsolable  misery.  But  the  grief 
I  endured  had  not  such  power  over  me  as  that  I  could 
be  content  to  risk  the  being  led  to  the  gallows.  The 
love  of  life,  and  still  more  a  hatred  against  oppression, 
steeled  my  heart  against  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  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  un- 
necessary 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  busi- 
ness ;  and,  after  some  chaffering,  they  agreed  to  accept 
eleven  guineas  as  the  price  of  my  freedom.  To  pre- 
serve 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 


346  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

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  inclin- 
ations. 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  diffe- 
rent 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,  amongst  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  parti- 
cular 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  to  the 
time  that  I  mistook,  or  at  least  was  aware  of  the  mis- 
take of  the  road,  the  sky  had  become  black  and  lowr- 
ing,  and  soon  after  the  clouds  burst  down  in  sheets  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  347 

rain.  I  was  in  the  midst  of  a  heath,  without  a  tree  or 
covering  of  any  sort  to  shelter  me.  I  was  thoroughly 
drenched  in  a  moment.  I  pushed  on  with  a  sort  of 
sullen  determination.  By  and  by  the  rain  gave  place 
to  a  storm  of  hail.  The  hail-stones  were  large  and 
frequent.  I  was  ill  defended  by  the  miserable  cover- 
ing I  wore,  and  they  seemed  to  cut  me  in  a  thousand 
directions.  The  hail-storm  subsided,  and  was  again 
succeeded  by  a  heavy  rain.  By  this  time  it  was  that 
I  had  perceived  I  was  wholly  out  of  my  road.  I  could 
discover  neither  man  nor  beast,  nor  habitation  of  any 
kind.  I  walked  on,  measuring  at  every  turn  the  path 
it  would  be  proper  to  pursue,  but  in  no  instance  finding 
a  sufficient  reason  to  reject  one  or  prefer  another. 
My  mind  was  bursting  with  depression  and  anguish. 
I  muttered  imprecations  and  murmuring  as  I  passed 
along.  I  was  lull  of  loathing  and  abhorrence  of  life, 
and  all  that  life  carries  in  its  train.  After  wandering 
without  any  certain  direction  for  two  hours,  I  was  over- 
taken by  the  night.  The  scene  was  nearly  pathless, 
and  it  was  vain  to  think  of  proceeding  any  farther. 

Here  I  was,  without  comfort,  without  shelter,  and 
without  food.  There  was  not  a  particle  of  my  cover- 
ing that  was  not  as  wet  as  if  it  had  been  fished  from 
the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  My  teeth  chattered.  I 
trembled  in  every  limb.  My  heart  burned  with  uni- 
versal fury.  At  one  moment  I  stumbled  and  fell  over 
some  unseen  obstacle ;  at  another  I  was  turned  back 
by  an  impediment  I  could  not  overcome. 

There  was  no  strict  connection  between  these  casual 
inconveniences  and  the  persecution  under  which  I 
laboured.  But  my  distempered  thoughts  confounded 
them  together.  I  cursed  the  whole  system  of  human 
existence.  I  said,  "  Here  I  am,  an  outcast,  destined 
to  perish  with  hunger  and  cold.  All  men  desert  me. 


348  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

All  men  hate  me.  I  am  driven  with  mortal  threats 
from  the  sources  of  comfort  and  existence.  Accursed 
world !  that  hates  without  a  cause,  that  overwhelms 
innocence  with  calamities  which  ought  to  be  spared 
even  to  guilt !  Accursed  world !  dead  to  every  manly 
sympathy;  with  eyes  of  horn,  and  hearts  of  steel ! 
Why  do  I  consent  to  live  any  longer  ?  Why  do  I  seek 
to  drag  on  an  existence,  which,  if  protracted,  must  be 
protracted  amidst  the  lairs  of  these  human  tigers?" 

This  paroxysm  at  length  exhausted  itself.  Pre- 
sently after,  I  discovered  a  solitary  shed,  which  I  was 
contented  to  resort  to  for  shelter.  In  a  corner  of  the 
shed  I  found  some  clean  straw.  I  threw  off  my  rags, 
placed  them  in  a  situation  where  they  would  best  be 
dried,  and  buried  myself  amidst  this  friendly  warmth. 
Here  I  forgot  by  degrees  the  anguish  that  had  racked 
me.  A  wholesome  shed  and  fresh  straw  may  seem  but 
scanty  benefits ;  but  they  offered  themselves  when 
least  expected,  and  my  whole  heart  was  lightened  by 
the  encounter.  Through  fatigue  of  mind  and  body,  it 
happened  in  this  instance,  though  in  general  my  repose 
was  remarkably  short,  that  I  slept  till  almost  noon  of 
the  next  day.  When  I  rose,  I  found  that  I  was  at  no 
great  distance  from  the  ferry,  which  I  crossed,  and 
entered  the  town  where  I  intended  to  have  rested  the 
preceding  night. 

It  was  market-day.  As  I  passed  near  the  cross, 
I  observed  two  people  look  at  me  with  great  earnest- 
ness :  after  which  one  of  them  exclaimed,  "  I  will  be 
damned  if  I  do  not  think  that  this  is  the  very  fellow 
those  men  were  enquiring  for  who  set  off  an  hour  ago 

by  the  coach  for  .     I  was  extremely  alarmed 

at  this  information ;  and,  quickening  my  pace,  turned 
sharp  down  a  narrow  lane.  The  moment  I  was  out  of 
sight  I  ran  with  all  the  speed  I  could  exert,  and  did 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  349 

not  think  myself  safe  till  I  was  several  miles  distant 
from  the  place  where  this  information  had  reached  my 
ears.  I  have  always  believed  that  the  men  to  whom 
it  related  were  the  very  persons  who  had  apprehended 
me  on  board  the  ship  in  which  I  had  embarked  for 
Ireland;  that,  by  some  accident,  they  had  met  with 
the  description  of  my  person  as  published  on  the  part 
of  Mr.  Falkland ;  and  that,  from  putting  together  the 
circumstances,  they  had  been  led  to  believe  that  this 
was  the  very  individual  who  had  lately  been  in  their 
custody.  Indeed  it  was  a  piece  of  infatuation  in  me, 
for  which  I  am  now  unable  to  account,  that,  after  the 
various  indications  which  had  occurred  in  that  affair, 
proving  to  them  that  I  was  a  man  in  critical  and  pe- 
culiar circumstances,  I  should  have  persisted  in  wear- 
ing the  same  disguise  without  the  smallest  alteration. 
My  escape  in  the  present  case  was  eminently  fortunate. 
If  I  had  not  lost  my  way  in  consequence  of  the  hail- 
storm on  the  preceding  night,  or  if  I  had  not  so  greatly 
overslept  myself  this  very  morning,  I  must  almost  in- 
fallibly have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  these  infernal 
blood-hunters. 

The  town  they  had  chosen  for  their  next  stage,  the 
name  of  which  I  had  thus  caught  in  the  market-place, 
was  the  town  to  which,  but  for  this  intimation,  I  should 
have  immediately  proceeded.  As  it  was,  I  determined 
to  take  a  road  as  wide  of  it  as  possible.  In  the  first 
place  to  which  I  came,  in  which  it  was  practicable  to 
do  so,  I  bought  a  great  coat,  which  I  drew  over  my 
beggar's  weeds,  and  a  better  hat.  The  hat  I  slouched 
over  my  face,  and  covered  one  of  my  eyes  with  a  green- 
silk  shade.  The  handkerchief,  which  I  had  hitherto 
worn  about  my  head,  I  now  tied  about  the  lower  part 
of  my  visage,  so  as  to  cover  my  mouth.  By  degrees 
I  discarded  every  part  of  my  former  dress,  and  wore 


350  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

for  my  upper  garment  a  kind  of  carman's  frock,  which, 
being  of  the  better  sort,  made  me  look  like  the  son  of 
a  reputable  farmer  of  the  lower  class.  Thus  equipped, 
I  proceeded  on  my  journey,  and,  after  a  thousand 
alarms,  precautions,  and  circuitous  deviations  from  the 
direct  path,  arrived  safely  in  London. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HERE  then  was  the  termination  of  an  immense  series 
of  labours,  upon  which  no  man  could  have  looked  back 
without  astonishment,  or  forward  without  a  sentiment 
bordering  on  despair.  It  was  at  a  price  which  defies 
estimation  that  I  had  purchased  this  resting-place ; 
whether  we  consider  the  efforts  it  had  cost  me  to  escape 
from  the  walls  of  my  prison,  or  the  dangers  and  anxie- 
ties to  which  I  had  been  a  prey,  from  that  hour  to  the 
present. 

But  why  do  I  call  the  point  at  which  I  was  now 
arrived  at  a  resting-place  ?  Alas,  it  was  diametrically 
the  reverse!  It  was  my  first  and  immediate  business 
to  review  all  the  projects  of  disguise  I  had  hitherto 
conceived,  to  derive  every  improvement  I  could  invent 
from  the  practice  to  which  I  had  been  subjected,  and 
to  manufacture  a  veil  of  concealment  more  impene- 
trable than  ever.  This  was  an  effort  to  which  I  could 
see  no  end.  In  ordinary  cases  the  hue  and  cry  after 
a  supposed  offender  is  a  matter  of  temporary  operation ; 
but  ordinary  cases  formed  no  standard  for  the  colossal 
intelligence  of  Mr.  Falkland.  For  the  same  reason, 
London,  which  appears  an  inexhaustible  reservoir  of 
concealment  to  the  majority  of  mankind,  brought  no 
such  consolatory  sentiment  to  my  mind.  Whether  life 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  351 

were  worth  accepting  on  such  terms  I  cannot  pro- 
nounce. I  only  know  that  I  persisted  in  this  exertion 
of  ray  faculties,  through  a  sort  of  parental  love  that 
men  are  accustomed  to  entertain  for  their  intellectual 
offspring ;  the  more  thought  I  had  expended  in  rearing 
it  to  its  present  perfection,  the  less  did  I  find  myself 
disposed  to  abandon  it.  Another  motive,  not  less  stre- 
nuously exciting  me  to  perseverance,  was  the  ever- 
growing repugnance  I  felt  to  injustice  and  arbitrary 
power. 

The  first  evening  of  my  arrival  in  town  I  slept  at 
an  obscure  inn  in  the  borough  of  Southwark,  choosing 
that  side  of  the  metropolis,  on  account  of  its  lying  en- 
tirely wide  of  the  part  of  England  from  which  I  came. 
I  entered  the  inn  in  the  evening  in  my  countryman's 
frock ;  and,  having  paid  for  my  lodging  before  I  went 
to  bed,  equipped  myself  next  morning  as  differently 
as  my  wardrobe  would  allow,  and  left  the  house  before 
day.  The  frock  I  made  up  into  a  small  packet,  and, 
having  carried  it  to  a  distance  as  great  as  I  thought 
necessary,  I  dropped  it  in  the  corner  of  an  alley 
through  which  I  passed.  My  next  care  was  to  furnish 
myself  with  another  suit  of  apparel,  totally  different 
from  any  to  which  I  had  hitherto  had  recourse.  The 
exterior  which  I  was  now  induced  to  assume  was  that 

of  a  Jew.     One  of  the  gang  of  thieves  upon  

forest,  had  been  of  that  race ;  and  by  the  talent  of 
mimicry,  which  I  have  already  stated  myself  to  pos- 
sess, I  could  copy  their  pronunciation  of  the  English 
language,  sufficiently  to  answer  such  occasions  as  were 
likely  to  present  themselves.  One  of  the  prelimi- 
naries I  adopted,  was  to  repair  to  a  quarter  of  the  town 
in  which  great  numbers  of  this  people  reside,  and 
study  their  complexion  and  countenance.  Having 
made  such  provision  as  my  prudence  suggested  to 


352  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

me,  I  retired  for  that  night  to  an  inn  in  the  midway 
between  Mile-end  and  Wapping.  Here  I  accoutred 
myself  in  my  new  habiliments ;  and,  having  employed 
the  same  precautions  as  before,  retired  from  my 
lodging  at  a  time  least  exposed  to  observation.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  describe  the  particulars  of  my  new 
equipage  ;  suffice  it  to  say,  that  one  of  my  cares  was 
to  discolour  my  complexion,  and  give  it  the  dun  and 
sallow  hue  which  is  in  most  instances  characteristic  of 
the  tribe  to  which  I  assumed  to  belong  ;  and  that 
when  my  metamorphosis  was  finished,  I  could  not, 
upon  the  strictest  examination,  conceive  that  any  one 
could  have  traced  out  the  person  of  Caleb  Williams  in 
this  new  disguise. 

Thus  far  advanced  in  the  execution  of  my  project, 
I  deemed  it  advisable  to  procure  a  lodging,  and  change 
my  late  wandering  life  for  a  stationary  one.  In  this 
lodging  I  constantly  secluded  myself  from  the  rising 
to  the  setting  of  the  sun ;  the  periods  I  allowed  for 
exercise  and  air  were  few,  and  those  few  by  night.  I 
was  even  cautious  of  so  much  as  approaching  the  win- 
dow of  my  apartment,  though  upon  the  attic  story ;  a 
principle  I  laid  down  to  myself  was,  not  wantonly  and 
unnecessarily  to  expose  myself  to  risk,  however  slight 
that  risk  might  appear. 

Here  let  me  pause  for  a  moment,  to  bring  before 
the  reader,  in  the  way  in  which  it  was  impressed 
upon  my  mind,  the  nature  of  my  situation.  I  was 
born  free :  I  was  born  healthy,  vigorous,  and  active, 
complete  in  all  the  lineaments  and  members  of  a 
human  body.  I  was  not  born  indeed  to  the  posses- 
sion of  hereditary  wealth  ;  but  I  had  a  better  inherit- 
ance, an  enterprising  mind,  an  inquisitive  spirit,  a 
liberal  ambition.  In  a  word,  I  accepted  my  lot  with 
willingness  and  content ;  I  did  not  fear  but  I  should 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  353 

make  ray  cause  good  in  the  lists  of  existence.  I  was 
satisfied  to  aim  at  small  things;  I  was  pleased 
to  play  at  first  for  a  slender  stake ;  I  was  more 
willing  to  grow  than  to  descend  in  my  individual 
significance. 

The  free  spirit  and  the  firm  heart  with  which  I 
commenced,  one  circumstance  was  sufficient  to  blast. 
I  was  ignorant  of  the  power  which  the  institutions  of 
society  give  to  one  man  over  others  ;  I  had  fallen  un- 
warily into  the  hands  of  a  person  who  held  it  as  his 
fondest  wish  to  oppress  and  destroy  me. 

I  found  myself  subjected,  undeservedly  on  my  part, 
to  all  the  disadvantages  which  mankind,  if  they  re- 
flected upon  them,  would  hesitate  to  impose  on  ac- 
knowledged guilt.  In  every  human  countenance  I 
feared  to  find  the  countenance  of  an  enemy.  I  shrunk 
from  the  vigilance  of  every  human  eye.  I  dared  not 
open  my  heart  to  the  best  affections  of  our  nature.  I 
was  shut  up,  a  deserted,  solitary  wretch,  in  the  midst 
of  my  species.  I  dared  not  look  for  the  consolations  of 
friendship ;  but,  instead  of  seeking  to  identify  myself 
with  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  others,  and  exchanging 
the  delicious  gifts  of  confidence  and  sympathy,  was 
compelled  to  centre  my  thoughts  and  my  vigilance  in 
myself.  My  life  was  all  a  lie.  I  had  a  counterfeit 
character  to  support.  I  had  counterfeit  manners  to 
assume.  My  gait,  my  gestures,  my  accents,  were  all 
of  them  to  be  studied.  I  was  not  free  to  indulge,  no 
not  one,  honest  sally  of  the  soul.  Attended  with  these 
disadvantages,  I  was  to  procure  myself  a  subsistence, 
a  subsistence  to  be  acquired  with  infinite  precautions, 
and  to  be  consumed  without  the  hope  of  enjoyment. 

This,  even  this,  I  was  determined  to  endure  ;  to  put 
my  shoulder  to  the  burthen,  and  support  it  with  un- 
shrinking firmness.  Let  it  not  however  be  supposed 

A  A 


354?  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

that  I  endured  it  without  repining  and  abhorrence.  My 
time  was  divided  between  the  terrors  of  an  animal 
that  skulks  from  its  pursuers,  the  obstinacy  of  un- 
shrinking firmness,  and  that  elastic  revulsion  that  from 
time  to  time  seems  to  shrivel  the  very  hearts  of  the 
miserable.  If  at  some  moments  I  fiercely  defied  all  the 
rigours  of  my  fate,  at  others,  and  those  of  frequent 
recurrence,  I  sunk  into  helpless  despondence.  I  looked 
forward  without  hope  through  the  series  of  my  ex- 
istence, tears  of  anguish  rushed  from  my  eyes,  my 
courage  became  extinct,  and  I  cursed  the  conscious 
life  that  was  reproduced  with  every  returning  day. 

"  Why,"  upon  such  occasions  I  was  accustomed  to 
exclaim,  "why  am  I  overwhelmed  with  the  load  of  ex- 
istence ?  Why  are  all  these  engines  at  work  to  torment 
me  ?  I  am  no  murderer ;  yet,  if  I  were,  what  worse 
could  I  be  fated  to  suffer  ?  How  vile,  squalid,  and  dis- 
graceful is  the  state  to  which  I  am  condemned  I  This 
is  not  my  place  in  the  roll  of  existence,  the  place  for 
which  either  my  temper  or  my  understanding  has 
prepared  me  !  To  what  purpose  serve  the  restless 
aspirations  of  my  soul,  but  to  make  me,  like  a  frighted 
bird,  beat  myself  in  vain  against  the  enclosure  of  my 
cage?  Nature,  barbarous  nature!  to  me  thou  hast 
proved  indeed  the  worst  of  step-mothers;  endowed 
me  with  wishes  insatiate,  and  sunk  me  in  never-ending 
degradation  ! " 

I  might  have  thought  myself  more  secure  if  I  had 
been  in  possession  of  money  upon  which  to  subsist. 
The  necessity  of  earmng  for  myself  the  means  of  exist- 
ence, evidently  tended  to  thwart  the  plan  of  secrecy  to 
which  I  was  condemned.  Whatever  labour  I  adopted,  or 
deemed  myself  qualified  to  discharge,  it  was  first  to  be 
considered  how  I  was  to  be  provided  with  employment, 
and  where  I  was  to  find  an  employer  or  purchaser  for 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  355 

my  commodities.  In  the  mean  time  I  had  no  alter- 
native. The  little  money  with  which  I  had  escaped 
from  the  blood- hunters  was  almost  expended. 

After  the  minutest  consideration  I  was  able  to  bestow 
upon  this  question,  I  determined  that  literature  should 
be  the  field  of  my  first  experiment.  I  had  read  of 
money  being  acquired  in  this  way,  and  of  prices  given 
by  the  speculators  in  this  sort  of  ware  to  its  proper 
manufacturers.  My  qualifications  I  esteemed  at  a 
slender  valuation.  I  was  not  without  a  conviction  that 
experience  and  practice  must  pave  the  way  to  excel- 
lent production.  But,  though  of  these  I  was  utterly 
destitute,  my  propensities  had  always  led  me  in  this 
direction  ;  and  my  early  thirst  of  knowledge  had  con- 
ducted me  to  a  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  books, 
than  could  perhaps  have  been  expected  under  my  cir- 
cumstances. If  my  literary  pretensions  were  slight, 
the  demand  I  intended  to  make  upon  them  was  not 
great.  All  I  asked  was  a  subsistence ;  and  I  was  per- 
suaded few  persons  could  subsist  upon  slenderer  means 
than  myself.  I  also  considered  this  as  a  temporary 
expedient,  and  hoped  that  accident  or  time  might 
hereafter  place  me  in  a  less  precarious  situation.  The 
reasons  that  principally  determined  my  choice  were, 
that  this  employment  called  upon  me  for  the  least  pre- 
paration, and  could,  as  I  thought,  be  exercised  with 
least  observation. 

There  was  a  solitary  woman,  of  middle  age,  who 
tenanted  a  chamber  in  this  house,  upon  the  same  floor 
with  my  own.  I  had  no  sooner  determined  upon  the 
destination  of  my  industry  than  I  cast  my  eye  upon  her 
as  the  possible  instrument  for  disposing  of  my  pro- 
ductions. Excluded  as  I  was  from  all  intercourse  with 
my  species  in  general,  I  found  pleasure  in  the  occa- 
sional exchange  of  a  few  words  with  this  inoffensive 
A  A2 


356  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

and  good-humoured  creature,  who  was  already  of  an 
age  to  preclude  scandal.  She  lived  upon  a  very  small 
annuity,  allowed  her  by  a  distant  relation,  a  woman  of 
quality,  who,  possessed  of  thousands  herself,  had  no 
other  anxiety  with  respect  to  this  person  than  that  she 
should  not  contaminate  her  alliance  by  the  exertion  of 
honest  industry.  This  humble  creature  was  of  a  uni- 
formly cheerful  and  active  disposition,  unacquainted 
alike  with  the  cares  of  wealth  and  the  pressure  of 
misfortune.  Though  her  pretensions  were  small,  and 
her  information  slender,  she  was  by  no  means  deficient 
in  penetration.  She  remarked  the  faults  and  follies  of 
mankind  with  no  contemptible  discernment ;  but  her 
temper  was  of  so  mild  and  forgiving  a  cast,  as  would 
have  induced  most  persons  to  believe  that  she  per- 
ceived nothing  of  the  matter.  Her  heart  overflowed 
with  the  milk  of  kindness.  She  was  sincere  and  ardent 
in  her  attachments,  and  never  did  she  omit  a  service 
which  she  perceived  herself  able  to  render  to  a  human 
being. 

Had  it  not  been  for  these  qualifications  of  temper,  I 
should  probably  have  found  that  my  appearance,  that 
of  a  deserted,  solitary  lad,  of  Jewish  extraction,  effec- 
tually precluded  my  demands  upon  her  kindness.  But 
I  speedily  perceived,  from  her  manner  of  receiving 
and  returning  civilities  of  an  indifferent  sort,  that  her 
heart  was  too  noble  to  have  its  effusions  checked  by 
any  base  and  unworthy  considerations.  Encouraged  by 
these  preliminaries,  I  determined  to  select  her  as  my 
agent.  I  found  her  willing  and  alert  in  the  business  I 
proposed  to  her.  That  I  might  anticipate  occasions  of 
suspicion,  I  frankly  told  her  that,  for  reasons  which  I 
wished  to  be  excused  from  relating,  but  which,  if  re- 
lated, I  was  sure  would  not  deprive  me  of  her  good 
opinion,  I  found  it  necessary,  for  the  present,  to  keep 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  357 

myself  private.  With  this  statement  she  readily  ac- 
quiesced, and  told  me  that  she  had  no  desire  for 
any  further  information  than  I  found  it  expedient  to 
give. 

My  first  productions  were  of  the  poetical  kind. 
After  having  finished  two  or  three,  I  directed  this 
generous  creature  to  take  them  to  the  office  of  a  news- 
paper ;  but  they  were  rejected  with  contempt  by  the 
Aristarchus  of  that  place,  who,  having  bestowed  on 
them  a  superficial  glance,  told  her  that  such  matters 
were  not  in  his  way.  I  cannot  help  mentioning  in  this 
place,  that  the  countenance  of  Mrs.  Marney  (this  was 
the  name  of  my  ambassadress)  was  in  all  cases  a 
perfect  indication  of  her  success,  and  rendered  ex- 
planation by  words  wholly  unnecessary.  She  interested 
herself  so  unreservedly  in  what  she  undertook,  that 
she  felt  either  miscarriage  or  good  fortune  much 
more  exquisitely  than  I  did.  I  had  an  unhesitating 
confidence  in  my  own  resources,  and,  occupied  as  I 
was  in  meditations  more  interesting  and  more  painful, 
I  regarded  these  matters  as  altogether  trivial. 

I  quietly  took  the  pieces  back,  and  laid  them  upon 
my  table.  Upon  revisal,  I  altered  and  transcribed  ono 
of  them,  and,  joining  it  with  two  others,  despatched 
them  together  to  the  editor  of  a  magazine.  He  desired 
they  might  be  left  with  him  till  the  'day  after  to- 
morrow. When  that  day  came  he  told  my  friend 
they  should  be  inserted  ;  but,  Mrs.  Marney  asking  re- 
specting the  price,  he  replied,  it  was  their  constant  rule 
to  give  nothing  for  poetical  compositions,  the  letter- 
box being  always  full  of  writings  of  that  sort ;  but  if 
the  gentleman  would  try  his  hand  in  prose,  a  short 
essay  or  a  tale,  he  would  see  what  he  could  do  for  him. 
With  the  requisition  of  my  literary  dictator  I  imme- 
diately complied.  I  attempted  a  paper  in  the  style  of 

A  A  3 


358  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Addison's  Spectators,  which  was  accepted.  In  a  short 
time  I  was  upon  an  established  footing  in  this  quarter. 
I  however  distrusted  my  resources  in  the  way  of  moral 
disquisition,  and  soon  turned  my  thoughts  to  his  other 
suggestion,  a  tale.  His  demands  upon  me  were  now 
frequent,  and,  to  facilitate  my  labours,  I  bethought 
myself  of  the  resource  of  translation.  I  had  scarcely 
any  convenience  with  respect  to  the  procuring  of  books  ; 
but,  as  my  memory  was  retentive,  I  frequently  trans- 
lated or  modelled  my  narrative  upon  a  reading  of  some 
years  before.  By  a  fatality,  for  which  I  did  not  exactly 
know  how  to  account,  my  thoughts  frequently  led  me 
to  the  histories  of  celebrated  robbers ;  and  I  related, 
from  time  to  time,  incidents  and  anecdotes  of  Car- 
touche, Gusman  d'Alfarache,  and  other  memorable 
worthies,  whose  career  was  terminated  upon  the  gallows 
or  the  scaffold. 

In  the  mean  time  a  retrospect  to  my  own  situation 
rendered  a  perseverance  even  in  this  industry  difficult 
to  be  maintained.  I  often  threw  down  my  pen  in  an 
ecstasy  of  despair.  Sometimes  for  whole  days  together 
I  was  incapable  of  action,  and  sunk  into  a  sort  of  partial 
stupor,  too  wretched  to  be  described.  Youth  and  health 
however  enabled  me,  from  time  to  time,  to  get  the 
better  of  my  dejection,  and  to  rouse  myself  to  some- 
thing like  a  gaiety,  which,  if  it  had  been  permanent, 
might  have  made  this  interval  of  my  story  tolerable  to 
my  reflections. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


WHILE  I  was  thus  endeavouring  to  occupy  and  pro- 
vide for  the  intermediate  period,  till  the  violence  of  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  359 

pursuit  after  me  might  be  abated,  a  new  source  of 
danger  opened  upon  me  of  which  I  had  no  previous 
suspicion. 

Ginee,  the  thief  who  had  been  expelled  from  Captain 
Raymond's  gang,  had  fluctuated,  during  the  last  years  of 
his  life,  between  the  two  professions  of  a  violator  of 
the  laws  and  a -retainer  to  their  administration.  He 
had  originally  devoted  himself  to  the  first ;  and  pro- 
bably his  initiation  in  the  mysteries  of  thieving  qua- 
lified him  to  be  peculiarly  expert  in  the  profession  of  a 
thief-taker  —  a  profession  he  had  adopted,  not  from 
choice,  but  necessity.  In  this  employmept  his  re- 
putation was  great,  though  perhaps  not  equal  to  his 
merits ;  for  it  happens  here  as  in  other  departments  of 
human  society,  that,  however  the  subalterns  may  fur- 
nish wisdom  and  skill,  the  principals  exclusively  pos- 
ae§«  the  eclat.  He  was  exercising  this  art  in  a  very 
prosperous  manner,  when  it  happened,  by  some  acci- 
dent, that  one  or  two  of  his  achievements  previous  to 
his  having  shaken  off  the  dregs  of  unlicensed  depre- 
dation were  in  danger  of  becoming  subjects  of  public 
attention.  Having  had  repeated  intimations  of  this,  he 
thought  it  prudent  to  decamp;  and  it  was  during  this 

period  of  his  retreat  that  he  entered  into  the  

gang. 

Such  was  the  history  of  this  man  antecedently  to 
his  being  placed  in  the  situation  in  which  I  had  first 
encountered  him.  At  the  time  of  that  encounter  he 
was  a  veteran  of  Captain  Raymond's  gang  ;  for  thieves 
being  a  short-lived  race,  the  character  of  veteran  costs 
the  less  time  in  acquiring.  Upon  his  expulsion  from 
this  community  he  returned  once  more  to  his  lawful 
profession,  and  by  his  old  comrades  was  received  with 
congratulation  as  a  lost  sheep.  In  the  vulgar  classes 
of  society  no  length  of  time  is  sufficient  to  expiate  a 

A  A  4 


360  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

crime ;  but  among  the  honourable  fraternity  of  thief- 
takers  it  is  a  rule  never  to  bring  one  of  their  own 
brethren  to  a  reckoning  when  it  can  with  any  de- 
cency be  avoided.  They  are  probably  reluctant  to 
fix  an  unnecessary  stain  upon  the  ermine  of  their  pro- 
fession. Another  rule  observed  by  those  who  have 
passed  through  the  same  gradation  as  Gines  had  done, 
and  which  was  adopted  by  Gines  himself,  is  always  to 
reserve  such  as  have  been  the  accomplices  of  their  de- 
predations to  the  last,  and  on  no  account  to  assail  them 
without  great  necessity  or  powerful  temptation.  For 
this  reason,  according  to  Gines's  system  of  tactics,  Cap- 
tain Raymond  and  his  confederates  were,  as  he  would 
have  termed  it,  safe  from  his  retaliation. 

But,  though  Gines  was,  in  this  sense  of  the  term,  a 
man  of  strict  honour,  my  case  unfortunately  did  not 
fall  within  the  laws  of  honour  he  acknowledged.  Mis- 
fortune had  overtaken  me,  and  I  was  on  all  sides  without 
protection  or  shelter.  The  persecution  to  which  I  was 
exposed  was  founded  upon  the  supposition  of  my 
having  committed  felony  to  an  immense  amount.  But 
in  this  Gines  had  had  no  participation ;  he  was  careless 
whether  the  supposition  were  true  or  false,  and  hated 
me  as  much  as  if  my  innocence  had  been  established 
beyond  the  reach  of  suspicion. 

The  blood-hunters  who  had  taken  me  into  custody 

at ,  related,  as  usual  among  their  fraternity,  a 

part  of  their  adventure,  and  told  of  the  reason  which 
inclined  them  to  suppose,  that  the  individual  who  had 
passed  through  their  custody,  was  the  very  Caleb 
Williams  for  whose  apprehension  a  reward  had  been 
offered  of  a  hundred  guineas.  Gines,  whose  acuteness 
was  eminent  in  the  way  of  his  profession,  by  comparing 
facts  and  dates,  was  induced  to  suspect  in  his  own 
mind,  that  Caleb  Williams  was  the  person  he  had 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  361 

hustled  and  wounded  upon forest.     Against  that 

person  he  entertained  the  bitterest  aversion.  I  had 
been  the  innocent  occasion  of  his  being  expelled  with 
disgrace  from  Captain  Raymond's  gang ;  and  Gines,  as 
I  afterwards  understood,  was  intimately  persuaded  that 
there  was  no  comparison  between  the  liberal  and  manly 
profession  of  a  robber  from  which  I  had  driven  him, 
and  the  sordid  and  mechanical  occupation  of  a  blood- 
hunter,  to  which  he  was  obliged  to  return.  He  no 
sooner  received  the  information  I  have  mentioned 
than  he  vowed  revenge.  He  determined  to  leave  all 
other  objects,  and  consecrate  every  faculty  of  his 
mind  to  the  unkennelling  me  from  my  hiding-place. 
The  offered  reward,  which  his  vanity  made  him  con- 
sider as  assuredly  his  own,  appeared  as  the  complete 
indemnification  of  his  labour  and  expense.  Thus  I 
had  to  encounter  the  sagacity  he  possessed  in  the  way 
of  his  profession,  whetted  and  stimulated  by  a  senti- 
ment of  vengeance,  in  a  mind  that  knew  no  restraint 
from  conscience  or  humanity. 

When  I  drew  to  myself  a  picture  of  my  situation 
goon  after  having  fixed  on  my  present  abode,  I  fool- 
ishly 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  oc- 
curred was  the  most  fearful  that  any  imagination  could 
have  devised.  Nothing  could  have  happened  more 
critically  hostile  to  my  future  peace,  than  my  fatal  en- 
counter 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  de- 
termined 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  tre- 


362  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

mendous,  that  hovered  about  my  goings,  and  perpe- 
tually 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  sea-port  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  ne- 
cessary 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  sup- 
posing that  there  was  no  private  house  to  which  I 
could  immediately  repair),  till  he  found,  by  the  de- 
scription he  gave,  and  the  recollections  he  excited,  that 
I  had  slept  for  one  night  in  the  borough  of  Southwark. 
But  he  could  get  no  further  information.  The  people 
of  the  inn  had  no  knowledge  what  had  become  of  me 
the  next  morning. 

This  however  did  but  render  him  more  eager  in  the 
pursuit.  The  describing  me  was  now  more  difficult,  on 
account  of  the  partial  change  of  dress  I  had  made  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  363 

second  day  of  my  being  in  town.    But  Gines  at  length 
overcame  the  obstacle  from  that  quarter. 

Having  traced  me  to  my  second  inn,  he  was  here 
furnished  with  a  more  copious  information.  I  had  been 
a  subject  of  speculation  for  the  leisure  hours  of  some  of 
the  persons  belonging  to  this  inn.  An  old  woman,  of 
a  most  curious  and  loquacious  disposrtion,  who  lived 
opposite  to  it,  and  who  that  morning  rose  early  to  her 
washing,  had  espied  me  from  her  window,  by  the  light 
of  a  large  lamp  which  hung  over  the  inn,  as  I  issued 
from  the  gate.  She  had  but  a  very  imperfect  view  of 
me,  but  she  thought  there  was  something  Jewish  in 
my  appearance.  She  was  accustomed  to  hold  a  con- 
ference every  morning  with  the  landlady  of  the  inn, 
some'of  the  waiters  and  chambermaids  occasionally  as- 
sisting at  it.  In  the  course  of  the  dialogue  of  this 
morning,  she  asked  some  questions  about  the  Jew  who 
had  slept  there  the  night  before.  No  Jew  had  slept 
there.  The  curiosity  of  the  landlady  was  excited  in 
her  turn.  By  the  time  of  the  morning  it  could  be  no 
other  but  me.  It  was  very  strange  !  They  compared 
notes  respecting  my  appearance  and  dress.  No  two 
things  could  J>e  more  dissimilar.  The  Jew  Christian, 
upon  any  dearth  of  subjects  of  intelligence,  repeatedly 
furnished  matter  for  their  discourse. 

The  information  thus  afforded  to  Gines  appeared 
exceedingly  material.  But  the  performance  did  not 
for  some  time  keep  pace  with  the  promise.  He  could 
not  enter  every  private  house  into  which  lodgers  were 
ever  admitted,  in  the  same  manner  that  he  had  treated 
the  inns.  He  walked  the  streets,  and  examined  with 
a  curious  and  inquisitive  eye  the  countenance  of  every 
Jew  about  my  stature ;  but  in  vain.  He  repaired  to 
Duke's  Place  and  the  synagogues.  It  was  not  here 
that  in  reality  he  could  calculate  upon  finding  me ;  but 


364  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

he  resorted  to  those  means  in  despair,  and  as  a  last 
hope.  He  was  more  than  once  upon  the  point  of  giving 
up  the  pursuit ;  but  he  was  recalled  to  it  by  an  insa- 
tiable and  restless  appetite  for  revenge. 

It  was  during  this  perturbed  and  fluctuating  state  of 
his  mind,  that  he  chanced  to  pay  a  visit  to  a  brother  of 
his,  who  was  the  head-workman  of  a  printing-office. 
There  was  little  intercourse  between  these  two  per- 
sons, their  dispositions  and  habits  of  life  being  ex- 
tremely dissimilar.  The  printer  was  industrious,  sober, 
inclined  to  methodism,  and  of  a  propensity  to  accumu- 
lation. He  was  extremely  dissatisfied  with  the  cha- 
racter and  pursuits  of  his  brother,  and  had  made  some 
ineffectual  attempts  to  reclaim  him.  But,  though  they 
by  no  means  agreed  in  their  habits  of  thinking,  they 
sometimes  saw  each  other.  Gines  loved  to  boast  of  as 
many  of  his  achievements  as  he  dared  venture  to  men- 
tion ;  and  his  brother  was  one  more  hearer,  in  addition 
to  the  set  of  his  usual  associates.  The  printer  was 
amused  with  the  blunt  sagacity  of  remark  and  novelty 
of  incident  that  characterised  Gines's  conversation. 
He  was  secretly  pleased,  in  spite  of  all  his  sober  and 
church-going  prejudices,  that  he  was  brother  to  a  man 
of  so  much  ingenuity  and  fortitude. 

After  having  listened  for  some  time  upon  this  occa- 
sion to  the  wonderful  stories  which  Gines,  in  his  rugged 
way,  condescended  to  tell,  the  printer  felt  an  ambition 
to  entertain  his  brother  in  his  turn.  He  began  to 
retail  some  of  my  stories  of  Cartouche  and  Gusman 
d' Alfarache.  The  attention  of  Gines  was  excited.  His 
first  emotion  was  wonder;  his  second  was  envy  and 
aversion.  Where  did  the  printer  get  these  stories? 
This  question  was  answered.  "I  will  tell  you  what," said 
the  printer,  "  we  none  of  us  know  what  to  make  of  the 
writer  of  these  articles.  He  writes  poetry,  and  mo- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  365 

rality,  and  history :  I  am  a  printer,  and  corrector  of  the 
press,  and  may  pretend  without  vanity  to  be  a  tolerably 
good  judge  of  these  matters:  he  writes  them  all  to  my 
mind  extremely  fine;  and  yet  he  is  no  more  than  a  Jew." 
[To  my  honest  printer  this  seemed  as  strange,  as  if 
they  had  been  written  by  a  Cherokee  chieftain  at  the 
(alls  of  the  Mississippi.] 

"  A  Jew !  How  do  you  know  ?  Did  you  ever  see 
him?" 

**  No ;  the  matter  is  always  brought  to  us  by  a 
woman.  But  my  master  hates  mysteries ;  he  likes  to 
gee  his  authors  himself.  So  he  plagues*  and  plagues 
the  old  woman  ;  but  he  can  never  get  any  thing  out 
of  her,  except  that  one  day  she  happened  to  drop  that 
the  young  gentleman  was  a  Jew." 

A  Jew!  a  young  gentleman!  a  person  who  did 
every  thing  by  proxy,  and  made  a  secret  of  all  his 
motions !  Here  was  abundant  matter  for  the  specu- 
lations and  suspicions  of  Gines.  He  was  confirmed  in 
them,  without  adverting  to  the  process  of  his  own 
mind,  by  the  subject  of  my  lucubrations, — men  who 
died  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner.  He  said  little 
more  to  his  brother,  except  asking,  as  if  casually,  what 
sort  of  an  old  woman  this  was  ?  of  what  age  she  might 
be?  and  whether  she  often  brought  him  materials  o€" 
this  kind  ?  and  soon  after  took  occasion  to  leave  him. 

It  was  with  vast  pleasure  that  Gines  had  listened  to 
this  unhoped-for  information.  Having  collected  from 
his  brother  sufficient  hints  relative  to  the  person  and 
appearance  of  Mrs.  Marney,  and  understanding  that 
he  expected  to  receive  something  from  me  the  next 
day,  Gines  took  his  stand  in  the  street  early,  that  he 
might  not  risk  miscarriage  by  negligence.  He  waited 
several  hours,  but  not  without  success.  Mrs.  Marney 
came;  he  watched  her  into  the  house;  and,  after 


366  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

about  twenty  minutes  delay,  saw  her  return.  He 
dogged  her  from  street  to  street ;  observed  her  finally 
enter  the  door  of  a  private  house  ;  and  congratulated 
himself  upon  having  at  length  arrived  at  the  consum- 
mation of  his  labours. 

The  house  she  entered  was  not  her  own  habitation. 
By  a  sort  of  miraculous  accident  she  had  observed 
Gines  following  her  in  the  street.     As  she  went  home 
she  saw  a  woman  who  had  fallen  down  in  a  fainting 
fit.     Moved  by  the  compassion  that  was  ever  alive  in 
her,  she  approached  her,  in  order  to  render  her  assist- 
ance.    Presently  a  crowd  collected  round  them.   Mrs. 
Marney,  having  done  what  she  was  able,  once  more 
proceeded  homewards.     Observing  the  crowd  round 
her,  the  idea  of  pickpockets  occurred  to  her  mind ; 
she  put  her  hands  to  her  sides,  and  at  the  same  time 
looked  round  upon  the  populace.     She  had  left  the 
circle  somewhat  abruptly ;  and  Gines,  who  had  been 
obliged  to  come  nearer,  lest  he  should  lose  her  in  the 
confusion,  was  at  that  moment  standing  exactly  oppo- 
site to  her.     His  visage  was  of  the  most  extraordinary 
kind ;  habit  had  written  the  characters  of  malignant 
cunning  and  dauntless  effrontery  in  every  line  of  his 
face  ;  and  Mrs.  Marney,  who  was  neither  philosopher 
nor  physiognomist,  was  nevertheless  struck.  This  good 
woman,  like  most  persons  of  her  notable  character, 
had  a  peculiar  way  of  going  home,  not  through  the  open 
streets,  but  by  narrow  lanes  and  alleys,  with  intricate 
insertions  and  sudden  turnings.     In  one  of  these,  by 
some  accident,  she  once  again  caught  a  glance  of  her 
pursuer.     This  circumstance,  together  with  the  singu- 
larity of  his  appearance,  awakened  her  conjectures. 
Could  he  be  following  her  ?     It  was  the  middle  of  the 
day,  and  she  could  have  no  fears  for  herself.     But 
could  this  circumstance  have  any  reference  to  me? 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  367 

She  recollected  the  precautions  and  secrecy  I  prac- 
tised, and  had  no  doubt  that  I  had  reasons  for  what  I 
did.  She  recollected  that  she  had  always  been  upon 
her  guard  respecting  me  ;  but  had  she  been  sufficiently 
so?  She  thought  that,  if  she  should  be  the  means  of 
any  mischief  to  me,  she  should  be  miserable  for  ever. 
She  determined  therefore,  by  way  of  precaution  in  case 
of  the  worst,  to  call  at  a  friend's  house,  and  send  me 
word  of  what  had  occurred.  Having  instructed  her 
friend,  she  went  out  immediately  upon  a  visit  to  a 
person  in  the  exactly  opposite  direction,  and  desired 
her  friend  to  proceed  upon  the  errand  to  me,  five 
minutes  after  she  left  the  house.  By  this  prudence 
she  completely  extricated  me  from  the  present  danger. 
Meantime  the  intelligence  that  was  brought  me  by 
no  means  ascertained  the  greatness  of  the  peril.  For 
any  thing  I  could  discover  in  it  the  circumstance 
might  be  perfectly  innocent,  and  the  fear  solely  pro- 
ceed from  the  over-caution  and  kindness  of  this  bene- 
volent and  excellent  woman.  Yet,  such  was  the  misery 
of  my  situation,  I  had  no  choice.  For  this  menace  or 
no  menace,  I  was  obliged  to  desert  my  habitation  at  a 
minute's  warning,  taking  with  me  nothing  but  what  I 
could  carry  in  my  hand  ;  to  see  my  generous  bene- 
factress no  more;  to  quit  my  little  arrangements  and 
provision;  and  to  seek  once  again,  in  some  forlorn 
retreat,  new  projects,  and,  if  of  that  I  could  h"ave  any 
rational  hope,  a  new  friend.  I  descended  into  the 
street  with  a  heavy,  not  an  irresolute  heart.  It  was 
broad  day.  I  said,  persons  are  at  this  moment  sup- 
posed to  be  roaming  the  street  in  search  of  me  :  I  must 
not  trust  to  the  chance  of  their  pursuing  one  direction, 
and  I  another.  I  traversed  half  a  dozen  streets,  and 
then  dropped  into  an  obscure  house  of  entertainment 
for  persons  of  small  expense.  In  this  house  I  took 


368  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

some  refreshment,  passed  several  hours  of  active  but 
melancholy  thinking,  and  at  last  procured  a  bed.  As 
soon  however  as  it  was  dark  I  went  out  (for  this  was 
indispensable)  to  purchase  the  materials  of  a  new  dis- 
guise. Having  adjusted  it  as  well  as  I  could  during 
the  night,  I  left  this  asylum,  with  the  same  precautions 
that  I  had  employed  in  former  instances. 


CHAPTER  X. 

I  PROCURED  a  new  lodging.  By  some  bias  of  the 
mind,  it  may  be,  gratifying  itself  with  images  of  peril, 
I  inclined  to  believe  that  Mrs.  Marney's  alarm  had  not 
been  without  foundation.  I  was  however  unable  to 
conjecture  through  what  means  danger  had  approached 
me  ;  and  had  therefore  only  the  unsatisfactory  remedy 
of  redoubling  my  watch  upon  all  my  actions.  Still  I 
had  the  joint  considerations  pressing  upon  me  of  se- 
curity and  subsistence.  I  had  some  small  remains  of 
the  produce  of  my  former  industry ;  but  this  was  but 
small,  for  my  employer  was  in  arrear  with  me,  and  I 
did  not  choose  in  any  method  to  apply  to  him  for 
payment.  The  anxieties  of  my  mind,  in  spite  of  all 
my  struggles,  preyed  upon  my  health.  I  did  not  con- 
sider myself  as  in  safety  for  an  instant.  My  appear- 
ance was  wasted  to  a  shadow  ;  and  I  started  at  every 
sound  that  was  unexpected.  Sometimes  I  was  half 
tempted  to  resign  myself  into  the  hands  of  the  law,  and 
brave  its  worst ;  but  resentment  and  indignation  at 
those  times  speedily  flowed  back  upon  my  mind,  and 
re-animated  my  perseverance. 

I  knew  no  better  resource  with  respect  to  subsistence 
than  that  I  had  employed  in  the  former  instance,  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  369 

seeking  some  third  person  to  stand  between  me  and 
the  disposal  of  my  industry.  I  might  find  an  individual 
iv.uly  to  undertake  this  office  in  my  behalf;  but  where 
should  I  find  the  benevolent  soul  of  Mrs.  Marney? 
The  person  I  fixed  upon  was  a  Mr.  Spurrel,  a  man  who 
took  in  work  from  the  watchmakers,  and  had  an  apart- 
ment upon  our  second  floor.  I  examined  .him  two  or 
three  times  with  irresolute  glances,  as  we  passed  upon 
the  stairs,  before  I  would  venture  to  accost  him.  He 
observed  this,  and  at  length  kindly  invited  me  into  his 
apartment. 

Being  seated,  he  condoled  with  me  upon  my  seeming 
bad  health,  and  the  solitary  mode  of  my  living,  and 
wished  to  know  whether  he  could  be  of  any  service  to 
me.  "  From  the  first  moment  he  saw  me,  he  had 
conceived  an  affection  for  me."  In  my  present  dis- 
guise I  appeared  twisted  and  deformed,  and  in  other 
respects  by  no  means  an  object  of  attraction.  But  it 
seemed  Mr.  Spurrel  had  lost  an  only  son  about  six 
months  before,  and  I  was  "  the  very  picture  of  him." 
If  I  had  put  off  my  counterfeited  ugliness,  I  should 
probably  have  lost  all  hold  upon  his  affections.  "  He 
was  now  an  old  man,"  as  he  observed,  "  just  dropping 
into  the  grave,  and  his  son  had  been  his  only  consola- 
tion. The  poor  lad  was  always  ailing,  but  he  had  been 
a  nurse  to  him ;  and  the  more  tending  he  required 
while  he  was  alive,  the  more  he  missed  him  now  he 
was  dead.  Now  he  had  not  a  friend,  nor  any  body 
that  cared  for  him,  in  the  whole  world.  If  I  pleased,  I 
should  be  instead  of  that  son  to  him,  and  he  would 
treat  me  in  all  respects  with  the  same  attention  and 
kindness/' 

I  expressed  my  sense  of  these  benevolent  offers, 
but  told  him  that  I  should  be  sorry  to  be  in  any  way 
burthensome  to  him.  "  My  ideas  at  present  led  me  to 
B  B 


370  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

a  private  and  solitary  life,  and  my  chief  difficulty  was 
to  reconcile  this  with  some  mode  of  earning  necessary 
subsistence.  If  he  would  condescend  to  lend  me  his. 
assistance  in  smoothing  this  difficulty,  it  would  be  the 
greatest  benefit  he  could  confer  on  me."  I  added,  that 
"my  mind  had  always  had  a  mechanical  and  industrious 
turn,  and  that  I  did  not  doubt  of  soon  mastering  any 
craft  to  which  I  seriously  applied  myself.  I  had  not 
been  brought  up  to  any  trade  ;  but,  if  he  would  favour 
me  with  his  instructions,  I  would  work  with  him  as  long 
as  he  pleased  for  a  bare  subsistence.  I  knew  that  I 
was  asking  of  him  an  extraordinary  kindness;  but  I  was 
urged  on  the  one  hand  by  the  most  extreme  necessity, 
and  encouraged  on  the  other  by  the  persuasiveness  of 
his  friendly  professions." 

The  old  man  dropped  some  tears  over  my  apparent 
distress,  and  readily  consented  to  every  thing  I  pro- 
posed. Our  agreement  was  soon  made,  and  I  entered 
upon  my  functions  accordingly.  My  new  friend  wa» 
a  man  of  a  singular  turn  of  mind.  Love  of  money, 
and  a  charitable  officiousness  of  demeanour,  were  his 
leading  characteristics.  He  lived  in  the  most  penurious 
manner,  and  denied  himself  every  indulgence.  I  en- 
titled myself  almost  immediately,  as  he  frankly  ac- 
knowledged, to  some  remuneration  for  my  labours, 
and  accordingly  he  insisted  upon  my  being  paid.  He 
did  not  however,  as  some  persons  would  have  done 
under  the  circumstance,  pay  me  the  whole  amount  of 
my  earnings,  but  professed  to  subtract  from  them 
twenty  per  cent,  as  an  equitable  consideration  for  in- 
struction, and  commission-money  in  procuring  me  a 
channel  for  my  industry.  Yet  he  frequently  shed 
tears  over  me,  was  uneasy  in  every  moment  of  our  in- 
dispensable separation,  and  exhibited  perpetual  tokens 
of  attachment  and  fondness.  I  found  him  a  man  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  371 

excellent  mechanical  contrivance,  and  received  Con- 
siderable pleasure  from  his  communications.  My  own 
sources  of  information  were  various  ;  and  he  frequently 
expressed  his  wonder  and  delight  in  the  contemplation 
of  my  powers,  as  well  of  amusement  as  exertion. 

Thus  I  appeared  to  have  attained  a  situation  not 
less  eligible  than  in  my  connection  with  Mrs.  Marney. 
I  wag  however  still  more  unhappy.  My  fits  of  de- 
spondence were  deeper,  and  of  more  frequent  recur- 
rence. My  health  every  day  grew  worse ;  and  Mr. 
Spurrel  was  not  without  apprehensions  that  he  should 
lose  me,  as  he  before  lost  his  only  son. 

I  had  not  been  long  however  in  this  new  situation, 
before  an  incident  occurred  which  filled  me  with 
greater  alarm  and  apprehension  than  ever.  I  was 
walking  out  one  evening,  after  a  long  visitation  of 
languor,  for  an  hour's  exercise  and  air,  when  my 
ears  were  struck  with  two  or  three  casual  sounds  from 
the  mouth  of'a  hawker  who  was  bawling  his  wares. 
I  stood  still  to  inform  myself  more  exactly,  when,  to 
my  utter  astonishment  and  confusion,  I  heard  him 
deliver  himself  nearly  in  these  words :  "  Here  you, 
have  the  MOST  WONDERFUL  AND  SURPRISING  HIS- 
TORY AND  MIRACULOUS  ADVENTURES  OF  CALEB 

WILLIAMS  :  you  are  informed  how  he  first  robbed, 
and  then  brought  false  accusations  against  his  master  ; 
a*  also  of  his  attempting  divers  times  to  break  out  of 
prison,  till  at  last  he  effected  his  escape  in  the  most 
loonderful  and  uncredible  manner ;  as  also  of  his  tra- 
velling the  kingdom  in  various  disguises,  and  the  rob- 
beries he  committed  until  a  most  desperate  and  daring 
gang  of  thieves ;  and  of  his  coming  up  to  London, 
where  it  is  supposed  he  nmo  lies  concealed  ;  with  a,  true 
OH*  faithful  copy  of  the  hue  and  cry  printed  and  pub- 
Jgjjfcgf  by  one  of  his  Majesty  s  most  principal  secretaries 

B  B   2 


372  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

of  stale,  offering  a  reward  of  one  hundred  guineas  for 
apprehending  him.  All  for  the  price  of  one  half  penny  T 
Petrified  as  I  was  at  these  amazing  and  dreadful 
sounds,  I  had  the  temerity  to  go  up  to  the  man  and 
purchase  one  of  his  papers.  I  was  desperately  re- 
solved to  know  the  exact  state  of  the  fact,  and  what  I 
had  to  depend  upon.  I  carried  it  with  me  a  little  way, 
till,  no  longer  able  to  endure  the  tumult  of  my  im- 
patience, I  contrived  to  make  out  the  chief  part  of  its 
contents,  by  the  help  of  a  lamp,  at  the  upper  end  of  a 
narrow  passage.  I  found  it  contain  a  greater  number  of 
circumstances  than  could  have  been  expected  in  this 
species  of  publication.  I  was  equalled  to  the  most 
notorious  housebreaker  in  the  art  of  penetrating 
through  walls  and  doors,  and  to  the  most  accom- 
plished swindler  in  plausibleness,  duplicity,  and  dis- 
guise. The  hand-bill  which  Larkins  had  first  brought 
to  us  upon  the  forest  was  printed  at  length.  All  my 
disguises,  previously  to  the  last  alarm  that  had  been 
given  me  by  the  providence  of  Mrs.  Marney,  were 
faithfully  enumerated  ;  and  the  public  were  warned  to 
be  upon  their  watch  against  a  person  of  an  uncouth 
and  extraordinary  appearance,  and  who  lived  in  a 
recluse  and  solitary  manner.  I  also  learned  from  this 
paper  that  my  former  lodgings  had  been  searched  on 
the  very  evening  of  my  escape,  and  that  Mrs.  Marney 
had  been  sent  to  Newgate,  upon  a  charge  of  misprision 
of  felony. — This  last  circumstance  affected  me  deeply. 
In  the  midst  of  my  own  sufferings  my  sympathies 
flowed  undiminished.  It  was  a  most  cruel  and  into- 
lerable idea,  if  I  were  not  only  myself  to  be  an  object 
of  unrelenting  persecution,  but  my  very  touch  were 
to  be  infectious,  and  every  one  that  succoured  me  was 
to  be  involved  in  the  common  ruin.  My  instant  feeling 
was  that  of  a  willingness  to  undergo  the  utmost  malice 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  373 

of  my  enemies,  could  I  by  that  means  have  saved  this 

excellent  woman  from  alarm  and  peril I  afterwards 

learned  that  Mrs.  Marney  was  delivered  from  confine- 
ment, by  the  interposition  of  her  noble  relation. 

My  sympathy  for  Mrs.  Marney  however  was  at  this 
moment  a  transient  one.  A  more  imperious  and  irre- 
sistible consideration  demanded  to  be  heard. 

With  what  sensations  did  I  ruminate  upon  this 
paper?  Every  word  of  it  carried  despair  to  my 
heart.  The  actual  apprehension  that  I  dreaded 
would  perhaps  have  been  less  horrible.  It  would 
have  put  an  end  to  that  lingering  terror  to  which  I 
was  a  prey.  Disguise  was  no  longer  of  use.  A 
numerous  class  of  individuals,  through  every  depart- 
ment, almost  every  house  of  the  metropolis,  would 
be  induced  to  look  with  a  suspicious  eye  upon  every 
stranger,  especially  every  solitary  stranger,  that  fell 
under  their  observation.  The  prize  of  one  hundred 
guineas  was  held  out  to  excite  their  avarice  and 
sharpen  their  penetration.  It  was  no  longer  Bow- 
street,  it  was  a  million  of  men  in  arms  against  me. 
Neither  had  I  the  refuge,  which  few  men  have  been 
so  miserable  as  to  want,  of  one  single  individual  with 
whom  to  repose  my  alarms,  and  who  might  shelter  me 
from  the  gaze  of  indiscriminate  curiosity. 

What  could  exceed  the  horrors  of  this  situation? 
My  heart  knocked  against  my  ribs,  my  bosom  heaved, 
I  gasped  and  panted  for  breath.  "  There  is  no  end 
then,"  said  I,  "  to  my  persecutors  !  My  unwearied  and 
long-continued  labours  lead  to  no  termination  I  Ter- 
mination !  No  ;  the  lapse  of  time,  that  cures  all  other 
things,  makes  my  case  more  desperate  !  Why  then," 
exclaimed  I,  a  new  train  of  thought  suddenly  rushing 
into  my  mind,  "  why  should  I  sustain  the  contest  any 
longer  ?  I  can  at  least  elude  my  persecutors  in  death. 

BBS 


374  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

I  can  bury  myself  and  the  traces  of  my  existence 
together  in  friendly  oblivion ;  and  thus  bequeath 
eternal  doubt,  and  ever  new  alarm,  to  those  who  have 
no  peace  but  in  pursuing  me  ! " 

In  the  midst  of  the  horrors  with  which  I  was  now 
impressed,  this  idea  gave  me  pleasure ;  and  I  hastened 
to  the  Thames  to  put  it  in  instant  execution.  Such 
was  the  paroxysm  of  my  mind  that  my  powers  of 
vision  became  partially  suspended.  I  was  no  longer 
conscious  to  the  feebleness  of  disease,  but  rushed  along 
with  fervent  impetuosity.  I  passed  from  street  to 
street  without  observing  what  direction  I  pursued. 
After  wandering  I  know  not  how  long,  I  arrived  at 
London  Bridge.  I  hastened  to  the  stairs,  and  saw  the 
river  covered  with  vessels. 

"No  human  being  must  see  me,"  said  I,  "  at  the  instant 
that  I  vanish  for  ever."  This  thought  required  some 
consideration.  A  portion  of  time  had  elapsed  since 
my  first  desperate  purpose.  My  understanding  began 
to  return.  The  sight  of  the  vessels  suggested  to  me 
the  idea  of  once  more  attempting  to  leave  my  native 
country. 

I  enquired,  and  speedily  found  that  the  cheapest 
passage  I  could  procure  was  in  a  vessel  moored  near 
the  Tower,  and  which  was  to  sail  in  a  few  days  for 
Middleburgh  in  Holland.  I  would  have  gone  instantly 
on  board,  and  have  endeavoured  to  prevail  with  the 
captain  to  let  me  remain  there  till  he  sailed;  but 
unfortunately  I  had  not  money  enough  in  my  pocket 
to  defray  my  passage. 

It  was  worse  than  this.  I  had  not  money  enough  in 
the  world.  I  however  paid  the  captain  half  his  de- 
mand, and  promised  to  return  with  the  rest.  I  knew 
not  in  what  manner  it  was  to  be  procured,  but  I  be- 
lieved that  I  should  not  fail  in  it.  I  had  some  idea 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  375 

of  applying  to  Mr.  Spurrel.  Surely  he  would  not 
refuse  me  ?  He  appeared  to  love  me  with  parental 
affection,  and  I  thought  I  might  trust  myself  for  a 
moment  in  his  hands. 

I  approached  ray  place  of  residence  with  a  heavy 
and  foreboding  heart.  Mr.  Spurrel  was  not  at  home  ; 
and  I  was  obliged  to  wait  for  his  return.  Worn  out 
with  fatigue,  disappointment,  and  the  ill  state  of  my 
health,  I  sunk  upon  a  chair.  Speedily  however  I 
recollected  myself.  I  had  work  of  Mr.  Spurrel's  in  my 
trunk,  which  had  been  delivered  out  to  me  that  very 
morning,  to  five  times  the  amount  I  wanted.  I  can- 
vassed for  a  moment  whether  I  should  make  use  of 
this  property  as  if  it  were  my  own ;  but  I  rejected  the 
idea  with  disdain.  I  had  never  in  the  smallest  de- 
gree merited  the  reproaches  that  were  cast  upon  me ; 
and  I  determined  I  never  would  merit  them.  I  sat 
gasping,  anxious,  full  of  the  blackest  forebodings.  My 
terrors  appeared,  even  to  my  own  mind,  greater  and 
more  importunate  than  the  circumstances  authorised. 

It  was  extraordinary  that  Mr.  Spurrel  should  be 
abroad  at  this  hour  ;  I  had  never  known  it  happen  be- 
fore. His  bed-time  was  between  nine  and  ten.  Ten 
o'clock  came,  eleven  o'clock,  but  not  Mr.  Spurrel.  At 
midnight  I  heard  his  knock  at  the  door.  Every  soul 
in  the  house  was  in  bed.  Mr.  Spurrel,  on  account  of 
his  regular  hours,  was  unprovided  with  a  key  to  open 
for  himself.  A  gleam,  a  sickly  gleam,  of  the  social 
spirit  came  over  my  heart.  I  flew  nimbly  down  stairs, 
and  opened  the  door. 

I  could  perceive,  by  the  little  taper  in  my  hand, 
something  extraordinary  in  his  countenance.  I  had 
not  time  to  speak,  before  I  saw  two  other  men  follow 
him.  At  the  first  glance  I  was  sufficiently  assured 
what  sort  of  persons  they  were.  At  the  second,  I 
BB  4 


376  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

perceived  that  one  of  them  was  no  other  than  Gines 
himself.  I  had  understood  formerly  that  he  had 
been  of  this  profession,  and  I  was  not  surprised  to 
find  him  in  it  again.  Though  I  had  for  three  hours 
endeavoured,  as  it  were,  to  prepare  myself  for  the 
unavoidable  necessity  of  falling  once  again  into  the 
hands  of  the  officers  of  law,  the  sensation  I  felt  at 
their  entrance  was  indescribably  agonising.  I  was 
besides  not  a  little  astonished  at  the  time  and  manner 
of  their  entrance;  and  I  felt  anxious  to  know  whether 
Mr.  Spurrel  could  be  base  enough  to  have  been  their 
introducer. 

I  was  not  long  held  in  perplexity.  He  no  sooner 
saw  his  followers  within  the  door,  than  he  exclaimed, 
with  convulsive  eagerness,  "  There,  there,  that  is  your 
man  !  thank  God  !  thank  God  I "  Gines  looked  eagerly 
in  my  face,  with  a  countenance  expressive  alternately 
of  hope  and  doubt,  and  answered,  "  By  God,  and  I  do 
not  know  whether  it  be  or  no  I  I  am  afraid  we  are  in 
the  wrong  box  I "  Then  recollecting  himself,  "  We  will 
go  into  the  house,  and  examine  further  however."  We 
all  went  up  stairs  into  Mr.  Spurrel's  room  ;  I  set  down 
the  candle  upon  the  table.  I  had  hitherto  been  silent ; 
but  I  determined  not  to  desert  myself,  and  was  a  little 
encouraged  to  exertion  by  the  scepticism  of  Gines. 
With  a  calm  and  deliberate  manner  therefore,  in  my 
feigned  voice,  one  of  the  characteristics  of  which  was 
lisping,  I  asked,  "  Pray,  gentlemen,  what  may  be  your 
pleasure  with  me  ?  " — "  Why,"  said  Gines,  "  our  errand 
is  with  one  Caleb  Williams,  and  a  precious  rascal  he 
is  !  I  ought  to  know  the  chap  well  enough  ;  but  they 
say  he  has  as  many  faces  as  there  are  days  in  the 
year.  So  you  please  to  pull  off  your  face  ;  or,  if  you 
cannot  do  that,  at  least  you  can  pull  off  your  clothes^ 
and  let  us  see  what  your  hump  is  made  of%" 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  377 

I  remonstrated,  but  in  vain.  I  stood  detected  in 
part  of  my  artifice ;  and  Gines,  though  still  uncertain, 
was  every  moment  more  and  more  confirmed  in  his 
suspicions.  Mr.  Spurrel  perfectly  gloated,  with  eyes 
that  seemed  ready  to  devour  every  thing  that  passed. 
As  my  imposture  gradually  appeared  more  palpable, 
he  repeated  his  exclamation,  "  Thank  God  !  thank 
God!"  At  last,  tired  with  this  scene  of  mummery, 
and  disgusted  beyond  measure  with  the  base  and 
hypocritical  figure  I  seemed  to  exhibit,  I  exclaimed, 
"  Well,  I  am  Caleb  Williams ;  conduct  me  wherever 

you  please!    And  now,  Mr.  Spurrel  !" He  gave 

a  violent  start.  The  instant  I  declared  myself  his 
transport  had  been  at  the  highest,  and  was,  to  any 
power  he  was  able  to  exert,  absolutely  uncontrollable. 
But  the  unexpectedness  of  my  address,  and  the  tone 
in  which  I  spoke,  electrified  him. "  Is  it  possi- 
ble," continued  I,  "  that  you  should  have  been  the 
wretch  to  betray  me  ?  What  have  I  done  to  deserve 
this  treatment  ?  Is  this  the  kindness  you  professed  ? 
the  affection  that  was  perpetually  in  your  mouth  ?  to 
be  the  death  of  me!" 

"  My  poor  boy  !  my  dear  creature  ! "  cried  Spurrel, 
whimpering,  and  in  a  tone  of  the  humblest  expostula- 
tion, "  indeed  I  could  not  help  it !  I  would  have  helped 
it,  if  I  could !  I  hope  they  will  not  hurt  my  darling ! 
I  am  sure  I  shall  die  if  they  do!" 

"  Miserable  driveller!"  interrupted  I,  with  a  stern 
voice,  "  do  you  betray  me  into  the  remorseless  fangs  of 
the  law,  and  then  talk  of  my  not  being  hurt  ?  I  know 
my  sentence,  and  am  prepared  to  meet  it !  You  have 
fixed  the  halter  upon  my  neck,  and  at  the  same  price 
would  have  done  so  to  your  only  son!  Go,  count 
your  accursed  guineas!  My  life  would  have  been 
gafer  in  the  hands  of  one  I  had  never  seen  than  in 


378  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

yours,  whose  mouth  and  whose  eyes  for  ever  ran  over 
with  crocodile  affection  ! " 

I  have  always  believed  that  my  sickness,  and,  as  he 
apprehended,  approaching  death,  contributed  its  part 
to  the  treachery  of  Mr.  Spurrel.  He  predicted  to  his 
own  mind  the  time  when  I  should  no  longer  be  able 
to  work.  He  recollected  with  agony  the  expense 
that  attended  his  son's  illness  and  death.  He  deter- 
mined to  afford  me  no  assistance  of  a  similar  kind.  He 
feared  however  the  reproach  of  deserting  me.  He 
feared  the  tenderness  of  his  nature.  He  felt  that  I 
was  growing  upon  his  affections,  and  that  in  a  short 
time  he  could  not  have  deserted  me.  He  was  driven 
by  a  sort  of  implicit  impulse,  for  the  sake  of  avoiding 
one  ungenerous  action,  to  take  refuge  in  another,  the 
basest  and  most  diabolical.  This  motive,  conjoining 
with  the  prospect  of  the  proffered  reward,  was  an 
incitement  too  powerful  for  him  to  resist. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

HAVING  given  vent  to  my  resentment,  I  left  Mr. 
Spurrel  motionless,  and  unable  to  utter  a  word.  Gines 
and  his  companion  attended  me.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
repeat  all  the  insolence  of  this  man.  He  alternately 
triumphed  in  the  completion  of  his  revenge,  and 
regretted  the  loss  of  the  reward  to  the  shrivelled  old 
curmudgeon  we  had  just  quitted,  whom  however  he 
swore  he  would  cheat  of  it  by  one  means  or  another. 
He  claimed  to  himself  the  ingenuity  of  having  devised 
the  halfpenny  legend,  the  thought  of  which  was  all  his 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  379 

o\vn.  and  was  an  expedient  that  was  impossible  to  fail. 
Tli ere  was  neither  law  nor  justice,  he  said,  to  be  had, 
it'  Hunks  who  had  done  nothing  were  permitted  to 
pocket  the  cash,  and  his  merit  were  left  undistinguished 
and  pennyless. 

I  paid  but  little  attention  to  his  story.  It  struck  upon 
my  sense,  and  I  was  able  to  recollect  it  at  my  nearest 
leisure,  though  I  thought  not  of  it  at  the  time.  For 
the  present  I  was  busily  employed,  reflecting  on  my 
ne.  v  situation,  and  the  conduct  to  be  observed  in  it. 
The  thought  of  suicide  had  twice,  in  moments  of 
uncommon  despair,  suggested  itself  to  my  mind ;  but  it 
was  far  from  my  habitual  meditations.  At  present,  and 
in  all  cases  where  death  was  immediately  threatened 
me  from  the  injustice  of  others,  I  felt  myself  disposed 
to  contend  to  die  last. 

My  prospects  were  indeed  sufficiently  gloomy  and 
discouraging.  How  much  labour  had  I  exerted,  first 
to  extricate  myself  from  prison,  and  next  to  evade  the 
diligence  of  my  pursuers ;  and  the  result  of  all,  to  be 
brought  back  to  the  point  from  which  I  began !  I  had 
gained  fame  indeed,  the  miserable  fame  to  have  my 
story  bawled  forth  by  hawkers  and  ballad-mongers,  to 
have  ray  praises  as  an  active  and  enterprising  villain 
celebrated  among  footmen  and  chambermaids ;  but  I 
was  neither  an  Erostratus  nor  an  Alexander,  to  die  con- 
tented with  that  species  of  eulogium.  With  respect  to 
all  that  was  solid,  what  chance  could  I  find  in  new 
exertions  of  a  similar  nature?  Never  was  a  human 
creature  pursued  by  enemies  more  inventive  or  enve- 
nomed. I  could  have  small  hope  that  they  would  ever 
cease  their  persecution,  or  that  my  future  attempts 
would  be  crowned  with  a  more  desirable  issue. 

They  were  considerations  like  these  that  dictated  my 
resolution.  My  mind  had  been  gradually  weaning  from 


380  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

Mr.  Falkland,  till  its  feeling  rose  to  something  like  abhor- 
rence. I  had  long  cherished  a  reverence  for  him,  which 
not  even  animosity  and  subornation  on  his  part  could 
utterly  destroy.  But  I  now  ascribed  a  character  so 
inhumanly  sanguinary  to  his  mind ;  I  saw  something  so 
fiend-like  in  the  thus  hunting  me  round  the  world,  and 
determining  to  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  my 
blood,  while  at  the  same  time  he  knew  my  innocence, 
my  indisposition  to  mischief,  nay,  I  might  add,  my 
virtues  ;  that  henceforth  I  trampled  reverence  and  the 
recollection  of  former  esteem  under  my  feet.  I  lost  all 
regard  to  his  intellectual  greatness,  and  all  pity  for  the 
agonies  of  his  soul.  I  also  would  abjure  forbearance. 
I  would  show  myself  bitter  and  inflexible  as  he  had 
done.  Was  it  wise  in  him  to  drive  me  into  extremity 
and  madness  ?  Had  he  no  fears  for  his  own  secret  and 
atrocious  offences  ? 

I  had  been  obliged  to  spend  the  remainder  of  the 
night  upon  which  I  had  been  apprehended,  in  prison. 
During  the  interval  I  had  thrown  off  every  vestige  of 
disguise,  and  appeared  the  next  morning  in  my  own 
person.  I  was  of  course  easily  identified;  and,  this 
being  the  whole  with  which  the  magistrates  before 
whom  I  now  stood  thought  themselves  concerned,  they 
were  proceeding  to  make  out  an  order  for  my  being 
conducted  back  to  my  own  county.  I  suspended  the 
despatch  of  this  measure  by  observing  that  I  had  some- 
thing to  disclose.  This  is  an  overture  to  which  men 
appointed  for  the  administration  of  criminal  justice 
never  fail  to  attend. 

I  went  before  the  magistrates,  to  whose  office  Gines 
and  his  comrade  conducted  me,  fully  determined  to 
publish  those  astonishing  secrets  of  which  I  had 
hitherto  been  the  faithful  depository ;  and,  once  for 
all,  to  turn  the  tables  upon  my  accuser.  It  was  time 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  381 

that  the  real  criminal  should  be  the  sufferer,  and  not 
that  innocence  should  for  ever  labour  under  the  op- 
pression of  guilt. 

I  said  that  "  I  had  always  protested  my  innocence, 
and  must  now  repeat  the  protest." 

"In  that  case,"  retorted  the  senior  magistrate  ab- 
ruptly, "  what  can  you  have  to  disclose  ?  If  you  are  in- 
nocent, that  is  no  business  of  ours  I  We  act  officially." 
"  I  always  declared,"  continued  I,  "  that  I  was  the 
perpetrator  of  no  guilt,  but  that  the  guilt  wholly  be- 
longed to  my  accuser.  He  privately  conveyed  these 
effects  among  my  property,  and  then  charged,  me  with 
the  robbery.  I  now  declare  more  than  that,  that  this 
man  is  a  murderer,  that  I  detected  his  criminality,  and 
that,  for  that  reason,  he  is  determined  to  deprive  me 
of  life.  I  presume,  gentlemen,  that  you  do  consider  it 
as  your  business  to  take  this  declaration.  I  am  per- 
suaded you  will  be  by  no  means  disposed,  actively  or 
passively,  to  contribute  to  the  atrocious  injustice  under 
which  I  suffer,  to  the  imprisonment  and  condemnation 
of  an  innocent  man,  in  order  that  a  murderer  may  go 
free.  I  suppressed  this  story  as  long  as  I  could.  I 
was  extremely  averse  to  be  the  author  of  the  unhappi- 
ness  or  the  death  of  a  human  being.  But  all  patience 
and  submission  have  their  limits." 

"  Give  me  leave,  sir,"  rejoined  the  magistrate,  with 
an  air  of  affected  moderation,  "  to  ask  you  two  questions. 
Were  you  any  way  aiding,  abetting,  or  contributing  to 
this  murder  ?  " 
«  No." 

"  And  pray,  sir,  who  is  this  Mr.  Falkland?  and  what 
may  have  been  the  nature  of  your  connection  with 

him?" 

"  Mr.  Falkland  is  a  gentleman  of  six  thousand  per 
annum.  ~~1  lived  with  him  as  his  secretary." 


382  CALEB    WILLIA]\rSV 

"  In  other  words,  you  were  his  servant  ?  " 

"  As  you  please." 

"  Very  well,  sir ;  that  is  quite  enough  for  me.  First, 
I  have  to  tell  you,  as  a  magistrate,  that  I  can  have 
nothing  to  do  with  your  declaration.  If  you  had  been 
concerned  in  the  murder  you  talk  of,  that  would  alter 
the  case.  But  it  is  out  of  all  reasonable  rule  for  a 
magistrate  to  take  an  information  from  a  felon,  except 
against  his  accomplices.  Next,  I  think  it  right  to 
observe  to  you,  in  my  own  proper  person,  that  you 
appear  to  me  to  be  the  most  impudent  rascal  I  ever 
saw.  Why,  are  you  such  an  ass  as  to  suppose,  that  the 
sort  of  story  you  have  been  telling,  can  be  of  any 
service  to  you,  either  here  or  at  the  assizes,  or  any 
where  else  ?  A  fine  time  of  it  indeed  it  would  be,  if, 
when  gentlemen  of  six  thousand  a  year  take  up  their 
servants  for  robbing  them,  those  servants  could  trump 
up  such  accusations  as  these,  and  could  get  any  ma- 
gistrate or  court  of  justice  to  listen  to  them  !  Whether 
or  no  the  felony  with  which  you  stand  charged  would 
have  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  wit- 
nesses have  you  of  the  murder  ?  " 

This  question  staggered  me. 

"  None.  But  I  believe  I  can  make  out  a  circum- 
stantial proof,  of  a  nature  to  force  attention  from  the 
most  indifferent  hearer." 

"  So  I  thought.  — Officers,  take  him  from  the  bar  !" 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  383 

Such  was  the  success  of  this  ultimate  resort  on 
my  part,  upon  which  I  had  built  with  such  undoubt- 
ing  confidence.  Till  now,  I  had  conceived  that  the 
unfavourable  situation  in  which  I  was  placed  was 
prolonged  by  my  own  forbearance ;  and  I  had  de- 
termined 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 
cheerfully  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  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  par- 
ticipator of  it  I  The  story  of  a  flagitious  murder  shall 
be  listened  to  with  indifference,  while  an  innocent  man 
is  hunted,  like  a  wild  beast,  to  the  furthest  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 


384  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

the  world,  as  my  youthful  fancy  had  once  induced  me 
to  do,  as  a  scene  in  which  to  hide  or  to, appear,  and  to 
exhibit  the  freaks  of  a  wanton  vivacity.  I  saw  my 
whole  species  as  ready,  in  one  mode  or  other,  to  be 
made  the  instruments  of  the  tyrant.  Hope  died  away 
in  the  bottom  of  my  heart.  Shut  up  for  the  first  night 
in  my  dungeon,  I  was  seized  at  intervals  with  tempo- 
rary frenzy.  From  time  to  time,  I  rent  the  universal 
silence  with  the  roarings  of  unsupportable  despair.  But 
this  was  a  transient  distraction.  I  soon  returned  to 
the  sober  recollection  of  myself  and  my  miseries. 

My  prospects  were  more  gloomy,  and  my  situation 
apparently  more  irremediable,  than  ever.  I  was  ex- 
posed again,  if  that  were  of  any  account,  to  the  inso- 
lence and  tyranny  that  are  uniformly  exercised  within 
those  walls.  Why  should  I  repeat  the  loathsome 
tale  of  all  that  was  endured  by  me,  and  is  endured  by 
every  man  who  is  unhappy  enough  to  fall  under  the 
government  of  these  consecrated  ministers  of  national 
jurisprudence?  The  sufferings  I  had  already  expe- 
rienced, my  anxieties,  my  flight,  the  perpetual  expect- 
ation of  being  discovered,  worse  than  the  discovery 
itself,  would  perhaps  have  been  enough  to  satisfy  the 
most  insensible  individual,  in  the  court  of  his  own  con- 
science, if  I  had  even  been  the  felon  I  was  pretended 
to  be.  But  the  law  has  neither  eyes,  nor  ears,  nor 
bowels  of  humanity ;  and  it  turns  into  marble  the  hearts 
of  all  those  that  are  nursed  in  its  principles. 

I  however  once  more  recovered  my  spirit  of  deter- 
mination. I  resolved  that,  while  I  had  life,  I  would 
never  be  deserted  by  this  spirit.  Oppressed,  annihi- 
lated I  might  be ;  but,  if  I  died,  I  would  die  resisting. 
What  use,  what  advantage,  what  pleasurable  sentiment, 
could  arise  from  a  tame  surrender  ?  There  is  no  man 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  385 

that  is  ignorant,  that  to  humble  yourself  at  the  feet  of 
the  law  is  a  bootless  task;  in  her  courts  there  is  no 
room  for  amendment  and  reformation. 

My  fortitude  may  to  some  persons  appear  above  the 
standard  of  human  nature.  But  if  I  draw  back  the 
veil  from  my  heart  they  will  readily  confess  their  mis- 
take. My  heart  bled  at  every  pore.  My  resolution 
was  not  the  calm  sentiment  of  philosophy  and  reason. 
It  was  a  gloomy  and  desperate  purpose ;  the  creature, 
not  of  hope,  but  of  a  mind  austerely  held  to  its  design, 
that  felt,  as  it  were,  satisfied  with  the  naked  effort,  and 
prepared  to  give  success  or  miscarriage  to  the  winds. 
It  was  to  this  miserable  condition,  which  might  awaken 
sympathy  in  the  most  hardened  bosom,  that  Mr.  Falk- 
land had  reduced  me. 

In  the  mean  time,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  here,  in 
prison,  subject  to  innumerable  hardships,  and  in  the 
assured  expectation  of  a  sentence  of  death,  I  recovered 
my  health*  I  ascribe  this  to  the  state  of  my  mind, 
which  was  now  changed,  from  perpetual  anxiety,  terror, 
and  alarm,  the  too  frequent  inmates  of  a  prison,  but 
which  I  upon  this  occasion  did  not  seem  to  bring 
along  with  me,  to  a  desperate  firmness. 

I  anticipated  the  event  of  my  trial.  I  determined 
once  more  to  escape  from  my  prison ;  nor  did  I  doubt  of 
my  ability  to  effect  at  least  this  first  step  towards  my 
future  preservation.  The  assizes  however  were  near, 
and  there  were  certain  considerations,  unnecessary  to 
be  detailed,  that  persuaded  me  there  might  be  benefit 
in  waiting  till  my  trial  should  actually  be  terminated, 
before  I  made  my  attempt. 

It  stood   upon  the  list  as  one  of  the  latest  to  be 

brought  forward.     I  was  therefore  extremely  surprised 

to  find  it  called  out  of  its  order,  early  on  the  morning  of 

the  second  day.     But,  if  this  were  unexpected,  how 

c  c 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

much  greater  was  my  astonishment,  when  my  prose- 
cutor was  called,  to  find  neither  Mr.  Falkland,  nor  Mr. 
Forester,  nor  a  single  individual  of  any  description,  ap- 
pear against  me !  The  recognizances  into  which  my 
prosecutors  had  entered  were  declared  to  be  forfeited ; 
and  I  was  dismissed  without  further  impediment  from 
the  bar. 

The  effect  which  this  incredible  reverse  produced 
upon  my  mind  it  is  impossible  to  express.  I,  who  had 
come  to  that  bar  with  the  sentence  of  death  already  in 
idea  ringing  in  my  ears,  to  be  told  that  I  was  free  to 
transport  myself  whithersoever  I  pleased !  Was  it  for 
this  that  I  had  broken  through  so  many  locks  and 
bolts,  and  the  adamantine  walls  of  my  prison ;  that  I 
had  passed  so  many  anxious  days,  and  sleepless,  spectre- 
haunted  nights;  that  I  had  racked  my  invention  for 
expedients  of  evasion  and  concealment ;  that  my  mind 
had  been  roused  to  an  energy  of  which  I  could  scarcely 
have  believed  it  capable ;  that  my  existence  had  been 
enthralled  to  an  ever-living  torment,  such  as  I  could 
scarcely  have  supposed  it  in  man  to  endure  ?  Great 
God !  what  is  man  ?  Is  he  thus  blind  to  the  future, 
thus  totally  unsuspecting  of  what  is  to  occur  in  the 
next  moment  of  his  existence?  I  have  somewhere 
read,  that  heaven  in  mercy  hides  from  us  the  future 
incidents  of  our  life.  My  own  experience  does  not 
well  accord  with  this  assertion.  In  this  instance  at 
least  I  should  have  been  saved  from  insupportable 
labour  and  undescribable  anguish,  could  I  have  foreseen 
the  catastrophe  of  this  most  interesting  transaction. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  387 


CHAPTER  XII. 

IT  was  not  long  before  I  took  my  everlasting  leave  of 
this  detested  and  miserable  scene.  My  heart  was  for 
the  present  too  full  of  astonishment  and  exultation  in 
my  unexpected  deliverance,  to  admit  of  anxiety  about 
the  future.  I  withdrew  from  the  town ;  I  rambled  with 
a  slow  and  thoughtful  pace,  now  bursting  with  exclam- 
ation, and  now  buried  in  profound  and  undefinable 
reverie.  Accident  led  me  towards  the  very  heath 
which  had  first  sheltered  me,  when,  upon  a  former 
occasion,  I  broke  out  of  my  prison.  I  wandered  among 
its  cavities  and  its  valleys.  It  was  a  forlorn  and  deso- 
late solitude.  I  continued  here  I  know  not  how  long. 
Night  at  length  overtook  me  unperceived,  and  I  pre- 
pared to  return  for  the  present  to  the  town  I  had 
quitted* 

It  was  now  perfectly  dark,  when  two  men,  whom  I 
had  not  previously  observed,  sprung  upon  me  from 
behind.  They  seized  me  by  the  arms,  and  threw  me 
upon  the  ground.  I  had  no  time  for  resistance  or 
recollection.  I  could  however  perceive  that  one  of 
them  was  the  diabolical  Gines.  They  blindfolded, 
gagged  me,  and  hurried  me  I  knew  not  whither.  As 
we  passed  along  in  silence,  I  endeavoured  to  con- 
jecture what  could  be  the  meaning  of  this  extraordi- 
nary violence.  I  was  strongly  impressed  with  the  idea, 
that,  after  the  event  of  this  morning,  the  most  severe 
and  painful  part  of  my  history  was  past;  and,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  I  could  not  persuade  myself  to  regard 
with  alarm  this  unexpected  attack.  It  might  how- 
ever be  some  new  project,  suggested  by  the  brutal 
temper  and  unrelenting  animosity  of  Gines. 
cc  2 


388  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

I  presently  found  that  we  were  returned  into  the 
town  I  had  just  quitted.  They  led  me  into  a  house, 
arid,  as  soon  as  they  had  taken  possession  of  a  room, 
freed  me  from  the  restraints  they  had  before  imposed 
Here  Gines  informed  me  with  a  malicious  grin  that 
no  harm  was  intended  me,  and  therefore  I  should  show 
most  sense  in  keeping  myself  quiet.  I  perceived  that 
we  were  in  an  inn  ;  I  overheard  company  in  a  room  at 
no  great  distance  from  us,  and  therefore  was  now  as 
thoroughly  aware  as  he  could  be,  that  there  was  at 
present  little  reason  to  stand  in  fear  of  any  species  of 
violence,  and  that  it  would  be  time  enough  to  resist, 
when  they  attempted  to  conduct  me  from  the  inn  in  the 
same  manner  that  they  had  brought  me  into1  it.  I  was 
not  without  some  curiosity  to  see  the  conclusion  that 
was  to  follow  upon  so  extraordinary  a  commencement. 

The  preliminaries  I  have  described  were  scarcely 
completed,  before  Mr.  Falkland  entered  the  room.  I 
remember  Collins,  when  he  first  communicated  to  me 
the  particulars  of  our  patron's  history,  observed  that  he 
was  totally  unlike  the  man  he  had  once  been.  I  had 
no  means  of  ascertaining  the  truth  of  that  observation. 
But  it  was  strikingly  applicable  to  the  spectacle  which 
now  presented  itself  to  my  eyes,  though,  when  I  last 
beheld  this  unhappy  man,  he  had  been  a  victim  to  the 
same  passions,  a  prey  to  the  same  undying  remorse,  as 
now.  Misery  was  at  that  time  inscribed  in  legible 
characters  upon  his  countenance.  But  now  he  appeared 
like  nothing  that  had  ever  been  visible  in  human  shape. 
His  visage  was  haggard,  emaciated,  and  fleshless.  His 
complexion  was  a  dun  and  tarnished  red,  the  colour 
uniform  through  every  region  of  the  face,  and  suggested 
the  idea  of  its  being  burnt  and  parched  by  the  eternal 
fire  that  burned  within  him.  His  eyes  were  red,  quick, 
wandering,  full  of  suspicion  and  rage.  His  hair  was 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  389 

neglected,  ragged,  and  floating.  His  whole  figure  was 
thin,  to  a  degree  that  suggested  the  idea  rather  of  a 
skeleton  than  a  person  actually  alive.  Life  seemed 
hardly  to  be  the  capable  inhabitant  of  so  woe-begone 
and  ghost-like  a  figure.  The  taper  of  wholesome  life 
was  expired ;  but  passion,  and  fierceness,  and  frenzy, 
were  able  for  the  present  to  supply  its  place. 

I  was  to  the  utmost  degree  astonished  and  shocked 
at  the  sight  of  him — He  sternly  commanded  my  con- 
ductors to  leave  the  room. 

"  Well,  sir,  I  have  this  day  successfully  exerted  my- 
self to  save  your  life  from  the  gallows.  A  fortnight 
ago  you  did  what  you  were  able  to  bring  my  life  to  that 
ignominious  close. 

"  Were  you  so  stupid  and  undistinguishing  as  not  to 
know  that  the  preservation  of  your  life  was  the  uniform 
object  of  my  exertions  ?  Did  not  I  maintain  you  in 
prison  ?  Did  not  I  endeavour  to  prevent  your  being 
sent  thither?  Could  you  mistake  the  bigoted  and 
obstinate  conduct  of  Forester,  in  offering  a  hundred 
guineas  for  your  apprehension,  for  mine  ? 

"  I  had  my  eye  upon  you  in  all  your  wanderings. 
You  have  taken  no  material  step  through  their  whole 
course  with  which  I  have  not  been  acquainted.  I  me- 
ditated to  do  you  good.  I  have  spilt  no  blood  but  that 
of  Tyrrel :  that  was  in  the  moment  of  passion ;  and  it 
has  been  the  subject  of  my  uninterrupted  and  hourly 
remorse.  I  have  connived  at  no  man's  fate  but  that 
of  the  Hawkinses :  they  could  no  otherwise  have  been 
saved,  than  by  my  acknowledging  myself  a  murderer. 
The  rest  of  my  life  has  been  spent  in  acts  of  bene- 
volence. 

"  I  meditated  to  do  you  good.  For  that  reason  I  was 
willing  to  prove  you.  You  pretended  to  act  towards 
me  with  consideration  and  forbearance.  If  you  had 
c  c  3 


390  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

persisted  in  that  to  the  end,  I  would  yet  have  found  a 
way  to  reward  you.  I  left  you  to  your  own  discretion. 
You  might  show  the  impotent  malignity  of  your  own 
heart ;  but,  in  the  circumstances  in  which  you  were 
then  placed,  I  knew  you  could  not  hurt  me.  Your 
forbearance  has  proved,  as  I  all  along  suspected,  empty 
and  treacherous.  You  have  attempted  to  blast  my 
reputation.  You  have  sought  to  disclose  the  select 
and  eternal  secret  of  my  soul.  Because  you  have  done 
that,  I  will  never  forgive  you.  I  will  remember  it  to 
my  latest  breath.  The  memory  shall  survive  me,  when 
my  existence  is  no  more.  Do  you  think  you  are  out 
of  the  reach  of  my  power,  because  a  court  of  justice 
has  acquitted  you  ?  " 

While  Mr.  Falkland  was  speaking  a  sudden  dis- 
temper came  over  his  countenance,  his  whole  frame 
was  shaken  by  an  instantaneous  convulsion,  and  he 
staggered  to  a  chair.  In  about  three  minutes  he  re- 
covered. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  I  am  still  alive.  I  shall  live  for 
days,  and  months,  and  years ;  the  power  that  made 
me,  of  whatever  kind  it  be,  can  only  determine  how 
long.  I  live  the  guardian  of  my  reputation.  That, 
and  to  endure  a  misery  such  as  man  never  endured, 
are  the  only  ends  to  which  I  live.  But,  when  I  am 
no  more,  my  fame  shall  still  survive.  My  character 
shall  be  revered  as  spotless  and  unimpeachable  by  all 
posterity,  as  long  as  the  name  of  Falkland  shall  be 
repeated  in  the  most  distant  regions  of  the  many- 
peopled  globe." 

Having  said  this,  he  returned  to  the  discourse  which 
more  immediately  related  to  my  future  condition  and 
happiness. 

"  There  is  one  condition,"  said  he,  "  upon  which  you 
may  obtain  some  mitigation  of  your  future  calamity. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  391 

At  is  ror  that  purpose  that  I  have  sent  for  you.  Listen 
to  my  proposal  with  deliberation  and  sobriety.  Re- 
member, that  the  insanity  is  not  less  to  trifle  with  the 
resolved  determination  of  my  soul,  than  it  would  be  to 
pull  a  mountain  upon  your  head  that  hung  trembling 
upon  the  edge  of  the  mighty  Apennine ! 

"  I  insist  then  upon  your  signing  a  paper,  declar- 
ing, in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that  I  am  innocent 
of  murder,  and  that  the  charge  you  alleged  at  the 
office  in  Bow-street  is  false,  malicious,  and  groundless. 
Perhaps  you  may  scruple  out  of  a  regard  to  truth.  Is 
truth  then  entitled  to  adoration  for  its  own  sake,  and 
not  for  the  sake  of  the  happiness  it  is  calculated  to 
produce  ?  Will  a  reasonable  man  sacrifice  to  barren 
truth,  when  benevolence,  humanity,  and  every  con- 
sideration that  is  dear  to  the  human  heart,  require 
that  it  should  be  superseded  ?  It  is  probable  that  I 
may  never  make  use  of  this  paper,  but  I  require  it,  as 
the  only  practicable  reparation  to  the  honour  you  have 
assailed.  This  is  what  I  had  to  propose.  I  expect 
your  answer/* 

"  Sir,"  answered  I,  "  I  have  heard  you  to  an  end, 
and  I  stand  in  need  of  no  deliberation  to  enable  me  to 
answer  you  in  the  negative.  You  took  me  up  a  raw 
and  inexperienced  boy,  capable  of  being  moulded  to 
any  form  you  pleased.  But  you  have  communicated 
to  me  volumes  of  experience  in  a  very  short  period. 
I  am  no  longer  irresolute  and  pliable.  What  is  the 
power  you  retain  over  my  fate  I  am  unable  to  discover. 
You  may  destroy  me;  but  you  cannot  make  me 
tremble.  I  am  not  concerned  to  enquire,  whether 
what  I  have  suffered  flowed  from  you  by  design  or 
otherwise;  whether  you  were  the  author  of  my  miseries, 
or  only  connived  at  them.  This  I  know,  that  I  have 
suffered  too  exquisitely  on  your  account,  for  me  to 
c  c  4 


392  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

feel  the  least  remaining  claim  on  your  part  to  my 
making  any  voluntary  sacrifice. 

"You  say  that  benevolence  and  humanity  require  this 
sacrifice  of  me.  No  ;  it  would  only  be  a  sacrifice  to 
your  mad  and  misguided  love  of  fame, — to  that  passion 
which  has  been  the  source  of  all  your  miseries,  of  the 
most  tragical  calamities  to  others,  and  of  every  mis- 
fortune that  has  happened  to  me.  I  have  no  forbear- 
ance to  exercise  towards  that  passion.  If  you  be  not 
yet  cured  of  this  tremendous  and  sanguinary  folly,  at 
least  I  will  do  nothing  to  cherish  it.  I  know  not 
whether  from  my  youth  I  was  destined  for  a  hero  ;  but 
I  may  thank  you  for  having  taught  me  a  lesson  of  in- 
surmountable fortitude. 

"  What  is  it  that  you  require  of  me  ?  that  I  should 
sign  away  my  own  reputation  for  the  better  maintain- 
ing of  yours.  Where  is  the  equality  of  that  ?  What  is 
it  that  casts  me  at  such  an  immense  distance  below 
you,  as  to  make  every  thing  that  relates  to  me  wholly 
unworthy  of  consideration  ?  You  have  been  educated 
in  the  prejudice  of  birth.  I  abhor  that  prejudice. 
You  have  made  me  desperate,  and  I  utter  what  that 
desperation  suggests. 

"  You  will  tell  me  perhaps  that  I  have  no  reputa- 
tion to  lose  ;  that,  while  you  are  esteemed  faultless 
and  unblemished,  I  am  universally  reputed  a  thief,  a 
suborner,  and  a  calumniator.  Be  it  so.  I  will  never 
do  any  thing  to  countenance  those  imputations.  The 
more  I  am  destitute  of  the  esteem  of  mankind,  the 
more  careful  I  will  be  to  preserve  my  own.  I  will 
never  from  fear,  or  any  other  mistaken  motive,  do  any 
thing  of  which  I  ought  to  be  ashamed. 

"  You  are  determined  to  be  for  ever  my  enemy.  I 
have  in  no  degree  deserved  this  eternal  abhorrence. 
I  have  always  esteemed  and  pitied  you.  For  a  con- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  393 

siderable  time  I  rather  chose  to  expose  myself  to  every 
kind  of  misfortune,  than  disclose  the  secret  that  was 
so  dear  to  you.  I  was  not  deterred  by  your  menaces— 
(what  could  you  make  me  suffer  more  than  I  actually 
suffered  ?) — but  by  die  humanity  of  my  own  heart ;  in 
which,  and  not  in  means  of  violence,  you  ought  to 
have  reposed  your  confidence.  What  is  the  mysterious 
vengeance  that  you  can  yet  execute  against  me  ?  You 
menaced  me  before ;  you  can  menace  no  worse  now. 
You  are  wearing  out  the  springs  of  terror.  Do  with 
me  as  you  please  ;  you  teach  me  to  hear  you  with  an 
unshrinking  and  desperate  firmness.  Recollect  your- 
self! I  did  not  proceed  to  the  step  with  which  you 
reproach  me,  till  I  was  apparently  urged  to  the  very 
last  extremity.  I  had  suffered  as  much  as  human 
nature  can  suffer ;  I  had  lived  in  the  midst  of  eternal 
alarm  and  unintermitted  watchfulness ;  I  had  twice 
been  driven  to  purposes  of  suicide.  I  am  now  sorry 
however,  that  the  step  of  which  you  complain  was 
ever  adopted.  But,  urged  to  exasperation  by  an  unin- 
tcrmitted  rigour,  I  had  no  time  to  cool  or  to  deliberate* 
Even  at  present  I  cherish  no  vengeance  against  you. 
All  that  is  reasonable,  all  that  can  really  contribute  to 
your  security,  I  will  readily  concede  ;  but  I  will  not 
be  driven  to  an  act  repugnant  to  all  reason,  integrity, 
and  justice/' 

Mr.  Falkland  listened  to  me  with  astonishment  and 
impatience.  He  had  entertained  no  previous  con- 
ception of  the  firmness  I  displayed.  Several  times 
he  was  convulsed  with  the  fury  that  laboured  in  his 
breast.  Once  and  again  he  betrayed  an  intention  to 
interrupt ;  but  he  was  restrained  by  the  collectedness 
of  my  manner,  and  perhaps  by  a  desire  to  be  acquainted 
with  the  entire  state  of  my  mind.  Finding  that  I  had 
concluded,  he  paused  for  a  moment;  his  passion 


394?  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

seemed  gradually  to  enlarge,  till  it  was  no  longer 
capable  of  control. 

"  It  is  well ! "  said  he,  gnashing  his  teeth,  and 
stamping  upon  the  ground.  "  You  refuse  the  com- 
position I  offer !  I  have  no  power  to  persuade  you 
to  compliance !  You  defy  me  !  At  least  I  have  a 
power  respecting  you,  and  that  power  I  will  exercise ; 
a  power  that  shall  grind  you  into  atoms.  I  con- 
descend to  no  more  expostulation.  I  know  what  I  am, 
and  what  I  can  be.  I  know  what  you  are,  and  what 
fate  is  reserved  for  you  !  " 

Saying  this  he  quitted  the  room. 

Such  were  the  particulars  of  this  memorable  scene. 
The  impression  it  has  left  upon  my  understanding  is 
indelible.  The  figure  and  appearance  of  Mr.  Falk- 
land, his  death-like  weakness  and  decay,  his  more 
than  mortal  energy  and  rage,  the  words  that  he 
spoke,  the  motives  that  animated  him,  produced  one 
compounded  effect  upon  my  mind  that  nothing  of  the 
same  nature  could  ever  parallel.  The  idea  of  his 
misery  thrilled  through  my  frame.  How  weak  in 
comparison  of  it  is  the  imaginary  hell,  which  the 
great  enemy  of  mankind  is  represented  as  carrying 
every  where  about  with  him  ! 

From  this  consideration,  my  mind  presently  turned 
to  the  menaces  he  had  vented  against  myself.  They 
were  all  mysterious  and  undefined.  He  had  talked  of 
power,  but  had  given  no  hint  from  which  I  could 
collect  in  what  he  imagined  it  to  consist.  He  had 
talked  of  misery,  but  had  not  dropped  a  syllable 
respecting  the  nature  of  the  misery  to  be  inflicted. 

I  sat  still  for  some  time,  ruminating  on  these  thoughts. 
Neither  Mr.  Falkland  nor  any  other  person  appeared 
to  disturb  my  meditations.  I  rose,  went  out  of  the 
room,  and  from  the  inn  into  the  street.  No  one  offered 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  395 

to  molest  me.  It  was  strange !  What  was  the  nature 
of  this  power,  from  which  I  was  to  apprehend  so 
much,  yet  which  seemed  to  leave  me  at  perfect 
liberty?  I  began  to  imagine  that  all  I  had  heard 
from  this  dreadful  adversary  was  mere  madness  and 
extravagance,  and  that  he  was  at  length  deprived 
of  the  use  of  reason,  which  had  long  served  him  only 
as  a  medium  of  torment.  Yet  was  it  likely  in  that 
case  that  he  should  be  able  to  employ  Gines  and 
his  associate,  who  had  just  been  his  instruments  of 
violence  upon  my  person  ? 

I  proceeded  along  the  streets  with  considerable 
caution.  I  looked  before  me  and  behind  me,  as  well  as 
the  darkness  would  allow  me  to  do,  that  I  might  not 
again  be  hunted  in  sight  by  some  men  of  stratagem  and 
violence  without  my  perceiving  it.  I  went  not,  as  be- 
fore, beyond  the  limits  of  the  town,  but  considered  the 
streets,  the  houses,  and  the  inhabitants,  as  affording 
some  degree  of  security.  I  was  still  walking  with  my 
mind  thus  full  of  suspicion  and  forecast,  when  I  dis- 
covered Thomas,  that  servant  of  Mr.  Falkland  whom  I 
have  already  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  mention. 
He  advanced  towards  me  with  an  air  so  blunt  and  di- 
rect, as  instantly  to  remove  from  me  the  idea  of  any 
thing  insidious  in  his  purpose;  besides  that  I  had  always 
felt  the  character  of  Thomas,  rustic  and  uncultivated 
as  it  was,  to  be  entitled  to  a  more  than  common  portion 
of  esteem. 

"  Thomas,"  said  I,  as  he  advanced,  "  I  hope  you  are 
willing  to  give  me  joy,  that  I  am  at  length  delivered 
from  the  dreadful  danger  which  for  many  months 
haunted  me  so  unmercifully." 

««  No,"  rejoined  Thomas,  roughly ;  "  I  be  not  at  all 
willing.  I  do  not  know  what  to  make  of  myself  in  this 
affair.  While  you  were  in  prison  in  that  miserable 


396  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

fashion,  I  felt  all  at  one  almost  as  if  I  loved  you :  and 
now  that  that  is  over,  and  you  are  turned  out  loose  in 
the  world  to  do  your  worst,  my  blood  rises  at  the  very 
sight  of  you.  To  look  at  you,  you  are  almost  that  very 
lad  Williams  for  whom  I  could  with  pleasure,  as  it  were, 
have  laid  down  my  life ;  and  yet,  behind  that  smiling 
face  there  lie  robbery,  and  lying,  and  every  thing  that 
is  ungrateful  and  murderous.  Your  last  action  was 
worse  than  all  the  rest.  How  could  you  find  in  your 
heart  to  revive  that  cruel  story  about  Mr.  Tyrrel,  which 
every  body  had  agreed,  out  of  regard  to  the  squire, 
never  to  mention  again,  and  of  which  I  know,  and  you 
know,  he  is  as  innocent  as  the  child  unborn  ?  There 
are  causes  and  reasons,  or  else  I  could  have  wished 
from  the  bottom  of  my  soul  never  to  have  set  eyes  on 
you  again." 

"  And  you  still  persist  in  your  hard  thoughts  of  me?  " 

"  Worse !  I  think  worse  of  you  than  ever  !  Before, 
I  thought  you  as  bad  as  man  could  be.  I  wonder 
from  my  soul  what  you  are  to  do  next.  But  you 
make  good  the  old  saying,  <  Needs  must  go,  that  the 
devil  drives.'  " 

"  And  so  there  is  never  to  be  an  end  of  my  mis- 
fortunes!  What  can  Mr.  Falkland  contrive  for  me 
worse  than  the  ill  opinion  and  enmity  of  all  man- 
kind?" 

"  Mr.  Falkland  contrive !  He  is  the  best  friend 
you  have  in  the  world,  though  you  are  the  basest 
traitor  to  him.  Poor  man  !  it  makes  one's  heart  ache 
to  look  at  him ;  he  is  the  very  image  of  grief.  And 
it  is  not  clear  to  me  that  it  is  not  all  owing  to  you. 
At  least  you  have  given  the  finishing  lift  to  the  mis- 
fortune that  was  already  destroying  him.  There  have 
been  the  devil  and  all  to  pay  between  him  and  squire 
Forester.  The  squire  is  right  raving  mad  with  my 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  397 

master,  for  having  outwitted  him  in  the  matter  of  the 
trial,  and  saved  your  life.  He  swears  that  you  shall 
be  taken  up  and  tried  all  over  again  at  the  next  assizes; 
but  my  master  is  resolute,  and  I  believe  will  carry  it 
his  own  way.  He  says  indeed  that  the  law  will  not 
allow  squire  Forester  to  have  his  will  in  this.  To  see 
him  ordering  every  thing  for  your  benefit,  and  taking 
all  your  maliciousness  as  mild  and  innocent  as  a  lamb, 
and  to  think  of  your  vile  proceedings  against  him,  is  a 
sight  one  shall  not  see  again,  go  all  the  world  over. 
For  God's  sake,  repent  of  your  reprobate  doings,  and 
make  what  little  reparation  is  in  your  power  !  Think 
of  your  poor  soul,  before  you  awake,  as  to  be  sure  one 
of  these  days  you  will,  in  fire  and  brimstone  everlast- 
ing!" 

Saying  this,  he  held  out  his  hand  and  took  hold  of 
mine.  The  action  seemed  strange;  but  I  at  first 
thought  it  the  unpremeditated  result  of  his  solemn 
and  well-intended  adjuration.  I  felt  however  that  he 
put  something  into  my  hand.  The  next  moment  he 
quitted  his  hold,  and  hastened  from  me  with  the  swift- 
ness of  an  arrow.  What  he  had  thus  given  me  was  a 
bank-note  of  twenty  pounds.  I  had  no  doubt  that  he 
had  been  charged  to  deliver  it  to  me  from  Mr.  Falk- 
land. 

What  was  I  to  infer  ?  what  light  did  it  throw  upon 
the  intentions  of  my  inexorable  persecutor  ?  his  ani- 
mosity against  me  was  as  great  as  ever ;  that  I  had 
just  had  confirmed  to  me  from  his  own  mouth.  Yet 
his  animosity  appeared  to  be  still  tempered  with  the 
remains  of  humanity.  He  prescribed  to  it  a  line,  wide 
enough  to  embrace  the  gratification  of  his  views,  and 
within  the  boundaries  of  that  line  it  stopped.  But 
this  discovery  carried  no  consolation  to  my  mind.  I 
knew  not  what  portion  of  calamity  I  was  fated  to 


898  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

endure,  before  his  jealousy  of  dishonour,  and  inor- 
dinate thirst  of  fame  would  deem  themselves  satisfied. 

Another  question  offered  itself.  Was  I  to  receive 
the  money  which  had  just  been  put  into  my  hands  ? 
the  money  of  a  man  who  had  inflicted  upon  me  injuries, 
less  than  those  which  he  had  entailed  upon  himself, 
but  the  greatest  that  one  man  can  inflict  upon  another? 
who  had  blasted  my  youth,  who  had  destroyed  my 
peace,  who  had  held  me  up  to  the  abhorrence  of  man- 
kind, and  rendered  me  an  outcast  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth  ?  who  had  forged  the  basest  and  most  atrocious 
falsehoods,  and  urged  them  with  a  seriousness  and 
perseverance  which  produced  universal  belief?  who, 
an  hour  before,  had  vowed  against  me  inexorable 
enmity,  and  sworn  to  entail  upon  me  misery  without 
end  ?  Would  not  this  conduct  on  my  part  betray  a 
base  and  abject  spirit,  that  crouched  under  tyranny, 
and  kissed  the  hands  that  were  imbrued  in  my  blood  ? 

If  these  reasons  appeared  strong,  neither  was  the 
other  side  without  reasons  in  reply.  I  wanted  the 
money :  not  for  any  purpose  of  vice  or  superfluity,  but 
for  those  purposes  without  which  life  cannot  subsist. 
Man  ought  to  be  able,  wherever  placed,  to  find  for 
himself  the  means  of  existence  ;  but  I  was  to  open  a 
new  scene  of  life,  to  remove  to  some  distant  spot,  to 
be  prepared  against  all  the  ill-will  of  mankind,  and  the 
unexplored  projects  of  hostility  of  a  most  accomplished 
foe.  The  actual  means  of  existence  are  the  property 
of  all.  What  should  hinder  me  from  taking  that  of 
which  I  was  really  in  want,  when,  in  taking  it,  I  risked 
no  vengeance,  and  perpetrated  no  violence?  The 
property  in  question  will  be  beneficial  to  me,  and  the 
voluntary  surrender  of  it  is  accompanied  with  no 
injury  to  its  late  proprietor ;  what  other  condition  can 
be  necessary  to  render  the  use  of  it  on  my  part  a  duty? 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  399 

He  that  lately  possessed  it  has  injured  me  ;  does  that 
alter  its  value  as  a  medium  of  exchange  ?  He  will 
boast  perhaps  of  the  imaginary  obligation  he  has  con- 
ferred on  me :  surely  to  shrink  from  a  thing  in  itself 
right  from  any  such  apprehension,  can  be  the  result 
only  of  pusillanimity  and  cowardice ! 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

INFLUENCED  by  these  reasonings,  I  determined  to  re- 
tain what  had  thus  been  put  into  my  hands.  My  next 
care  was  in  regard  to  the  scene  I  should  choose,  as  the 
retreat  of  that  life  which  I  had  just  saved  from  the 
grasp  of  the  executioner.  The  danger  to  which  I  was 
exposed  of  forcible  interruption  in  my  pursuits,  was 
probably,  in  some  respects,  less  now  than  it  had  been 
previously  to  this  crisis.  Besides,  that  I  was  consider- 
ably influenced  in  this  deliberation  by  the  strong 
loathing  I  conceived  for  the  situations  in  which  I  had 
lately  been  engaged.  I  knew  not  in  what  mode  Mr. 
Falkland  intended  to  exercise  his  vengeance  against 
me;  but  I  was  seized  with  so  unconquerable  an  aversion 
to  disguise,  and  the  idea  of  spending  my  life  in  person- 
ating a  fictitious  character,  that  I  could  not,  for  the 
present  at  least,  reconcile  my  mind  to  any  thing  of 
that  nature.  The  same  kind  of  disgust  I  had  conceived 
for  the  metropolis,  where  I  had  spent  so  many  hours 
of  artifice,  sadness,  and  terror.  I  therefore  decided  in 
favour  of  the  project  which  had  formerly  proved 
amusing  to  my  imagination,  of  withdrawing  to  some 
distant,  rural  scene,  a  scene  of  calmness  and  obscurity, 
where  for  a  few  years  at  least,  perhaps  during  the  life 
of  Mr.  Falkland,  I  might  be  hidden  from  the  world, 


400  CALEB   WILLIAMS. 

recover  the  wounds  my  mind  had  received  in  this  fatal 
connection,  methodise  and  improve  the  experience 
which  had  been  accumulated,  cultivate  the  faculties  I 
in  any  degree  possessed,  and  employ  the  intervals  of 
these  occupations  in  simple  industry,  and  the  inter- 
course of  guileless,  uneducated,  kind-intentioned  minds. 
The  menaces  of  my  persecutor  seemed  to  forebode  the 
inevitable  interruption  of  this  system.  But  I  deemed 
it  wise  to  put  these  menaces  out  of  my  consideration. 
I  compared  them  to  death,  which  must  infallibly  over- 
take us  we  know  not  when ;  but  the  possibility  of 
whose  arrival  next  year,  next  week,  to-morrow,  must 
be  left  out  of  the  calculation  of  him  who  would  enter 
upon  any  important  or  well-concerted  undertaking. 

Such  were  the  ideas  that  determined  my  choice. 
Thus  did  my  youthful  mind  delineate  the  system  of 
distant  years,  even  when  the  threats  of  instant  calamity 
still  sounded  in  my  ears.  I  was  inured  to  the  appre- 
hension of  mischief,  till  at  last  the  hoarse  roarings  of 
the  beginning  tempest  had  lost  their  power  of  annihi- 
lating my  peace.  I  however  thought  it  necessary,  wh:le 
I  was  most  palpably  within  the  sphere  of  the  enemy, 
to  exert  every  practicable  degree  of  vigilance.  I  was 
careful  not  to  incur  the  hazards  of  darkness  and  soli- 
tude. When  I  left  the  town  it  was  with  the  stage- 
coach, an  obvious  source  of  protection  against  glaring 
and  enormous  violence.  Meanwhile  I  found  myself  no 
more  exposed  to  molestation  in  my  progress,  than  the 
man  in  the  world  who  should  have  had  the  least  reason 
for  apprehensions  of  this  nature.  As  the  distance  in- 
creased, I  relaxed  something  in  my  precaution,  though 
still  awake  to  a  sense  of  danger,  and  constantly  pursued 
with  the  image  of  my  foe.  I  fixed  upon  an  obscure 
market-town  in  Wales  as  the  chosen  seat  of  my  ope- 
rations. This  place  recommended  itself  to  my  observ- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  401 

ation  as  I  was  wandering  in  quest  of  an  abode.  It  was 
clean,  cheerful,  and  of  great  simplicity  of  appearance. 
It  was  at  a  distance  from  any  public  and  frequented 
road,  and  had  nothing  which  could  deserve  the  name 
of  trade.  The  face  of  nature  around  it  was  agreeably 
diversified,  being  partly  wild  and  romantic,  and  partly 
rich  and  abundant  in  production. 

Here  I  solicited  employment  in  two  professions ;  the 
first,  that  of  a  watchmaker,  in  which  though  the  in- 
structions I  had  received  were  few,  they  were  eked 
out  and  assisted  by  a  mind  fruitful  in  mechanical  in- 
vention; the  other,  that  of  an  instructor  in  mathe- 
matics and  its  practical  application,  geography,  astro- 
nomy, land-surveying,  and  navigation.  Neither  of  these 
was  a  very  copious  source  of  emolument  in  the  obscure 
retreat  I  had  chosen  for  myself;  but,  if  my  receipts 
were  slender,  my  disbursements  were  still  fewer.  In 
this  little  town  I  became  acquainted  with  the  vicar,  the 
apothecary,  the  lawyer,  and  the  rest  of  the  persons 
who,  time  out  of  mind,  had  been  tegarded  as  the  top 
gentry  of  the  place.  Each  of  these  centred  in  himself 
a  variety  of  occupations.  There  was  little  in  the 
appearance  of  the  vicar  that  reminded  you  of  his  pro- 
fession, except  on  the  recurring  Sunday.  At  other 
times  he  condescended,  with  his  evangelical  hand  to 
guide  the  plough,  or  to  drive  the  cows  from  the  field 
to  the  farm-yard  for  the  milking.  The  apothecary 
occasionally  officiated  as  a  barber,  and  the  lawyer  was 
the  village  schoolmaster. 

By  all  these  persons  I  was  received  with  kindness 
and  hospitality.  Among  people  thus  remote  from  the 
bustle  of  human  life  there  is  an  open  spirit  of  con- 
fidence, by  means  of  which  a  stranger  easily  finds 
access  to  their  benevolence  and  good-will.  My  man- 
ners had  never  been  greatly  debauched  from  the  sim- 
D  D 


402  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

plicity  of  rural  life  by  the  scenes  through  which  I  had 
passed ;  and  the  hardships  I  had  endured  had  given 
additional  mildness  to  my  character.  In  the  theatre 
upon  which  I  was  now  placed  I  had  no  rival.  My 
mechanical  occupation  had  hitherto  been  a  non-re- 
sident ;  and  the  schoolmaster,  who  did  not  aspire  to  the 
sublime  heights  of  science  I  professed  to  communicate, 
was  willing  to  admit  me  as  a  partner  in  the  task  of 
civilising  the  unpolished  manners  of  the  inhabitants. 
For  the  parson,  civilisation  was  no  part  of  his  trade ; 
his  business  was  with  the  things  of  a  better  life,  not 
with  the  carnal  concerns  of  this  material  scene; -in  truth, 
his  thoughts  were  principally  occupied  with  his  oatmeal 
and  his  cows. 

These  however  were  not  the  only  companions  which 
this  remote  retirement  afforded  me.  There  was  a 
family  of  a  very  different  description,  of  which  I  gra- 
dually became  the  chosen  intimate.  The  father  was  a 
shrewd,  sensible,  rational  man,  but  who  had  turned  his 
principal  attention  to  subjects  of  agriculture.  His  wife 
was  a  truly  admirable  and  extraordinary  woman.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  a  Neapolitan  nobleman,  who,  after 
having  visited,  and  made  a  considerable  figure,  in  every 
country  in  Europe,  had  at  length  received  the  blow  of 
fate  in  this  village.  He  had  been  banished  his  country 
upon  suspicion  of  religious  and  political  heresy,  and 
his  estates  confiscated.  With  this  only  child,  like 
Prospero  in  the  Tempest,  he  had  withdrawn  himself  to 
one  of  the  most  obscure  and  uncultivated  regions  of  the 
world.  Very  soon  however  after  his  arrival  in  Wales 
he  had  been  seized  with  a  malignant  fever,  which  car- 
ried him  off  in  three  days.  He  died  possessed  of  no 
other  property  than  a  few  jewels,  and  a  bill  of  credit, 
to  no  considerable  amount,  upon  an  English  banker. 

Here  then  was  the  infant  Laura,  left  in  a  foreign 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  403 

country,  and  without  a  single  friend.  The  father  of 
her  present  husband  was  led  by  motives  of  pure  hu- 
manity to  seek  to  mitigate  the  misfortunes  of  the  dying 
Italian.  Though  a  plain  uninstructed  man,  with  no 
extraordinary  refinement  of  intellect,  there  was  some- 
thing in  his  countenance  that  determined  the  stranger 
in  his  present  forlorn  and  melancholy  situation,  to  make 
him  his  executor,  and  the  guardian  of  his  daughter 
The  Neapolitan  understood  enough  of  English  to  ex- 
plain his  wishes  to  this  friendly  attendant  of  his  death- 
bed. As  his  circumstances  were  narrow,  the  servants 
of  the  stranger,  two  Italians,  a  male  and  a  female,  were 
sent  back  to  their  own  country  soon  after  the  death  of 
their  master. 

Laura  was  at  this  time  eight  years  of  age.  At  these 
tender  years  she  had  been  susceptible  of  little  direct 
instruction ;  and,  as  she  grew  up,  even  the  memory  of 
her  father  became,  from  year  to  year,  more  vague  and 
indistinct  in  her  mind.  But  there  was  something  she 
derived  from  her  father,  whether  along  with  the  life 
he  bestowed,  or  as  the  consequence  of  his  instruction 
and  manners,  which  no  time  could  efface.  Every  added 
year  of  her  life  contributed  to  develop  the  fund  of  her 
accomplishments.  She  read,  she  observed,  she  re- 
flected. Without  instructors,  she  taught  herself  to 
draw,  to  sing,  and  to  understand  the  more  polite  Eu- 
ropean languages.  As  she  had  no  society  in  this  remote 
situation  but  that  of  peasants,  she  had  no  idea  of 
honour  or  superiority  to  be  derived  from  her  acquisi- 
tions ;  but  pursued  them  from  a  secret  taste,  and  as  the 
sources  of  personal  enjoyment. 

A  mutual  attachment  gradually  arose  between  her 

and  the  only  son  of  her  guardian.     His  father  led  him, 

from  early  youth,  to  the  labours  and  the  sports  of  the 

field,  and  there  was  little  congeniality  between  his  pur- 

D  D  2 


404  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

suits  and  those  of  Laura.  But  this  was  a  defect  that 
she  was  slow  to  discover.  She  had  never  been  accus- 
tomed to  society  in  her  chosen  amusements,  and  habit 
at  that  time  even  made  her  conceive,  that  they  were 
indebted  to  solitude  for  an  additional  relish.  The 
youthful  rustic  had  great  integrity,  great  kindness  of 
heart,  and  was  a  lad  of  excellent  sense.  He  was  florid, 
well-proportioned,  and  the  goodness  of  his  disposition 
made  his  manners  amiable.  Accomplishments  greater 
than  these  she  had  never  seen  in  human  form,  since 
the  death  of  her  father.  In  fact,  she  is  scarcely  to  be 
considered  as  a  sufferer  in  this  instance ;  since,  in  her 
forlorn  and  destitute  condition,  it  is  little  probable, 
when  we  consider  the  habits  and  notions  that  now  pre- 
vail, that  her  accomplishments,  unassisted  by  fortune, 
would  have  procured  her  an  equal  alliance  in  marriage. 

When  she  became  a  mother  her  heart  opened  to  a 
new  affection.  The  idea  now  presented  itself,  which 
had  never  occurred  before,  that  in  her  children  at  least 
she  might  find  the  partners  and  companions  of  her 
favourite  employments.  She  was,  at  the  time  of  my 
arrival,  mother  of  four,  the  eldest  of  which  was  a  son. 
To  all  of  them  she  had  been  a  most  assiduous  instructor. 
It  was  well  for  her  perhaps  that  she  obtained  this 
sphere  for  the  exercise  of  her  mind.  It  came  just  at 
the  period  when  the  charm  which  human  life  derives 
from  novelty  is  beginning  to  wear  off.  It  gave  her 
new  activity  and  animation.  It  is  perhaps  impossible 
that  the  refinements  of  which  human  nature  is  capable 
should  not,  after  a  time,  subside  into  sluggishness,  if 
they  be  not  aided  by  the  influence  of  society  and 
affection. 

The  son  of  the  Welch  farmer  by  this  admirable 
woman  was  about  seventeen  years  of  age  at  the  time 
of  my  settlement  in  their  neighbourhood.  His  eldest 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  4-05 

sister  was  one  year  younger  than  himself.  The  whole 
family  composed  a  group,  with  which  a  lover  of  tran- 
quillity and  virtue  would  have  delighted  to  associate  in 
any  situation.  It  is  easy  therefore  to  conceive  how 
much  I  rejoiced  in  their  friendship,  in  this  distant  re- 
tirement, and  suffering,  as  I  felt  myself,  from  the 
maltreatment  and  desertion  of  my  species.  The  amiable 
Laura  had  a  wonderful  quickness  of  eye,  and  rapidity 
of  apprehension ;  but  this  feature  in  her  countenance 
was  subdued  by  a  sweetness  of  disposition,  such  as  I 
never  in  any  other  instance  saw  expressed  in  the 
looks  of  a  human  being.  She  soon  distinguished  me 
by  her  kindness  and  friendship ;  for,  living  as  she  had 
done,  though  familiar  with  the  written  productions  of  a 
cultivated  intellect,  she  had  never  seen  the  thing  itself 
realised  in  a  living  being,  except  in  the  person  of  her 
father.  She  delighted  to  converse  with  me  upon  sub- 
jects of  literature  and  taste,  and  she  eagerly  invited  my 
assistance  in  the  education  of  her  children.  The  son, 
though  young,  had  been  so  happily  improved  and  in- 
structed by  his  mother,  that  I  found  in  him  nearly  all 
the  most  essential  qualities  we  require  in  a  friend. 
Engagement  and  inclination  equally  led  me  to  pass  a 
considerable  part  of  every  day  in  this  agreeable  society. 
Laura  treated  me  as  if  I  had  been  one  of  the  family ; 
and  I  sometimes  flattered  myself  that  I  might  one  day 
become  such  in  reality.  What  an  enviable  resting- 
place  for  me,  who  had  known  nothing  but  calamity,  and 
had  scarcely  dared  to  look  for  sympathy  and  kindness 
in  the  countenance  of  a  human  being ! 

The  sentiments  of  friendship  which  early  disclosed 
themselves  between  me  and  the  members  of  this  amiable 
family  daily  became  stronger.  At  every  interview, 
the  confidence  reposed  in  me  by  the  mother  increased. 
While  our  familiarity  gained  in  duration,  it  equally 

D  D   3 


406  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

gained  in  that  subtlety  of  communication  by  which  it 
seemed  to  shoot  forth  its  roots  in  every  direction.  There 
are  a  thousand  little  evanescent  touches  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  growing  friendship,  that  are  neither  thought 
of,  nor  would  be  understood,  between  common  acquaint- 
ances. I  honoured  and  esteemed  the  respectable  Laura 
like  a  mother ;  for,  though  the  difference  of  our  ages 
was  by  no  means  sufficient  to  authorise  the  sentiment, 
it  was  irresistibly  suggested  to  me  by  the  fact  of  her 
always  being  presented  to  my  observation  under  the 
maternal  character.  Her  son  was  a  lad  of  great  under- 
standing, generosity,  and  feeling,  and  of  no  contemptible 
acquirements ;  while  his  tender  years,  and  the  uncom- 
mon excellence  of  his  mother,  subtracted  something 
from  the  independence  of  his  judgment,  and  impressed 
him  with  a  sort  of  religious  deference  for  her  will.  In 
the  eldest  daughter  I  beheld  the  image  of  Laura ;  for 
that  I  felt  attached  to  her  for  the  present ;  and  I  some- 
times conceived  it  probable  that  hereafter  I  might  learn 
to  love  her  for  her  own  sake. — Alas,  it  was  thus  that 
I  amused  myself  with  the  visions  of  distant  years,  while 
I  stood  in  reality  on  the  brink  of  the  precipice  ! 

It  will  perhaps  be  thought  strange  that  I  never  once 
communicated  the  particulars  of  my  story  to  this  amiable 
matron,  or  to  my  young  friend,  for  such  I  may  also 
venture  to  call  him,  her  son.  But  in  truth  I  abhorred 
the  memory  of  this  story;  I  placed  all  my  hopes  of 
happiness  in  the  prospect  of  its  being  consigned  to 
oblivion.  I  fondly  flattered  myself  that  such  would  be 
the  event :  in  the  midst  of  my  unlooked-for  happiness, 
I  scarcely  recollected,  or,  recollecting,  was  disposed  to 
yield  but  a  small  degree  of  credit  to,  the  menaces  of 
Mr.  Falkland. 

One  day,  that  I  was  sitting  alone  with  the  accom- 
plished Laura,  she  repeated  his  all-dreadful  name.  I 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  407 

started  with  astonishment,  amazed  that  a  woman  like 
this,  who  knew  nobody,  who  lived  as  it  were  alone  in  a 
corner  of  the  universe,  who  had  never  in  a  single 
instance  entered  into  any  fashionable  circle,  this  ad- 
mirable and  fascinating  hermit,  should,  by  some  unac- 
countable accident,  have  become  acquainted  with  this 
fatal  and  tremendous  name.  Astonishment  however 
was  not  my  only  sensation.  I  became  pale  with  terror ; 
I  rose  from  my  seat ;  I  attempted  to  sit  down  again ;  I 
reeled  out  of  the  room,  and  hastened  to  bury  myself  in 
solitude.  The  unexpectedness  of  the  incident  took 
from  me  all  precaution,  and  overwhelmed  my  faculties. 
The  penetrating  Laura  observed  my  behaviour ;  but 
nothing  further  occurred  to  excite  her  attention  to  it  at 
that  time ;  and,  concluding  from  my  manner  that  enquiry 
would  be  painful  to  me,  she  humanely  suppressed  her 
curiosity. 

I  afterwards  found  that  Mr.  Falkland  had  been 
known  to  the  father  of  Laura ;  that  he  had  been  ac- 
quainted with  the  story  of  Count  Malvesi,  and  with  a 
number  of  other  transactions  redounding  in  the  highest 
degree  to  the  credit  of  the  gallant  Englishman.  The 
Neapolitan  had  left  letters  in  which  these  transactions 
were  recorded,  and  which  spoke  of  Mr.  Falkland  in  the 
highest  terms  of  panegyric.  Laura  had  been  used  to 
regard  every  little  relic  of  her  father  with  a  sort  of 
religious  veneration ;  and,  by  this  accident,  the  name 
of  Mr.  Falkland  was  connected  in  her  mind  with  the 
sentiments  of  unbounded  esteem. 

The  scene  by  which  I  was  surrounded  was  perhaps 
more  grateful  to  me,  than  it  would  have  been  to  most 
other  persons  with  my  degree  of  intellectual  cultiva- 
tion.. Sore  with  persecution  and  distress,  and  bleeding 
at  almost  every  vein,  there  was  nothing  I  so  much 
coveted  as  rest  and  tranquillity.  It  seemed  as  if  my 
D  D  4? 


408  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

faculties  were,  at  least  for  the  time,  exhausted  by  the 
late  preternatural  intensity  of  their  exertions,  and  that 
they  stood  indispensably  in  need  of  a  period  of  compa- 
rative suspension. 

This  was  however  but  a  temporary  feeling.  My 
mind  had  always  been  active,  and  I  was  probably  in- 
debted to  the  sufferings  I  had  endured,  and  the  exqui- 
site and  increased  susceptibility  they  produced,  for 
new  energies.  I  soon  felt  the  desire  of  some  additional 
and  vigorous  pursuit.  In  this  state  of  mind,  I  met  by 
accident,  in  a  neglected  corner  of  the  house  of  one  of 
my  neighbours,  with  a  general  dictionary  of  four  of 
the  northern  languages.  This  incident  gave  a  direction 
to  my  thoughts.  In  my  youth  I  had  not  been  inatten- 
tive to  languages.  I  determined  to  attempt,  at  least 
for  my  own  use,  an  etymological  analysis  of  the  English 
language.  I  easily  perceived,  that  this  pursuit  had  one 
advantage  to  a  person  in  my  situation,  and  that  a  small 
number  of  books,  consulted  with  this  view,  would  afford 
employment  for  a  considerable  time.  I  procured  other 
dictionaries.  In  my  incidental  reading,  I  noted  the 
manner  in  which  words  were  used,  and  applied  these 
remarks  to  the  illustration  of  my  general  enquiry.  I 
was  unintermitted  in  my  assiduity,  and  my  collections 
promised  to  accumulate.  Thus  I  was  provided  with 
sources  both  of  industry  and  recreation,  the  more  com- 
pletely to  divert  my  thoughts  from  the  recollection  of 
my  past  misfortunes. 

In  this  state,  so  grateful  to  my  feelings,  week  after 
week  glided  away  without  interruption  and  alarm. 
The  situation  in  which  I  was  now  placed  had  some 
resemblance  to  that  in  which  I  had  spent  my  earlier 
years,  with  the  advantage  of  a  more  attractive  society, 
and  a  riper  judgment.  I  began  to  look  back  upon  the 
intervening  period  as  upon  a  distempered  and  tor- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  4O9 

mcnting  dream ;  or  rather  perhaps  my  feelings  were 
like  those  of  a  man  recovered  from  an  interval  of 
raging  delirium,  from  ideas  of  horror,  confusion,  flight, 
persecution,  agony,  and  despair  I  When  I  recollected 
what  I  had  undergone,  it  was  not  without  satisfaction, 
as  the  recollection  of  a  thing  that  was  past ;  every  day 
augmented  my  hope  that  it  was  never  to  return.  Surely 
the  dark  and  terrific  menaces  of  Mr.  Falkland  were 
rather  the  perturbed  suggestions  of  his  angry  mind, 
than  the  final  result  of  a  deliberate  and  digested 
system  I  How  happy  should  I  feel,  beyond  the  ordi- 
nary lot  of  man,  if,  after  the  terrors  I  had  undergone, 
I  should  now  find  myself  unexpectedly  restored  to  the 
immunities  of  a  human  being ! 

While  I  was  thus  soothing  my  mind  with  fond  ima- 
ginations, it  happened  that  a  few  bricklayers  and  their 
labourers  came  over  from  a  distance  "of  five  or  six 
miles,  to  work  upon  some  additions  to  one  of  the  better 
sort  of  houses  in  the  town,  which  had  changed  its 
tenant.  No  incident  could  be  more  trivial  than  this, 
had  it  not  been  for  a  strange  coincidence  of  time  be- 
tween this  circumstance,  and  a  change  which  intro- 
duced itself  into  my  situation.  This  first  manifested 
itself  in  a  sort  of  shyness  with  which  I  was  treated, 
first  by  one  person,  and  then  another,  of  my  new-formed 
acquaintance.  They  were  backward  to  enter  into 
conversation  with  me,  and  answered  my  enquiries  with 
an  awkward  and  embarrassed  air.  W'hen  they  met 
me  in  the  street  or  the  field,  their  countenances  con- 
tracted a  cloud,  and  they  endeavoured  to  shun  me. 
My  scholars  quitted  me  one  after  another  ;  and  I  had 
no  longer  any  employment  in  my  mechanical  profes- 
sion. It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  sensations,  which 
the  gradual  but  uninterrupted  progress  of  this  revo- 
lution produced  in  my  mind.  It  seemed  as  if  I  had 


410  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

some  contagious  disease,  from  which  every  man  shrunk 
with  alarm,  and  left  me  to  perish  unassisted  and  alone. 
I  asked  one  man  and  another  to  explain  to  me  the 
meaning  of  these  appearances ;  but  every  one  avoided 
the  task,  and  answered  in  an  evasive  and  ambiguous 
manner.  I  sometimes  supposed  that  it  was  all  a  de- 
lusion of  the  imagination  ;  till  the  repetition  of  the 
sensation  brought  the  reality  too  painfully  home  to  my 
apprehension.  There  are  few  things  that  give  a  greater 
shock  to  the  mind,  than  a  phenomenon  in  the  conduct 
of  our  fellow  men,  of  great  importance  to  our  concerns, 
and  for  which  we  are  unable  to  assign  any  plausible 
reason.  At  times  I  was  half  inclined  to  believe  that 
the  change  was  not  in  other  men,  but  that  some  alien- 
ation of  my  own  understanding  generated  the  horrid 
vision.  I  endeavoured  to  awaken  from  my  dream,  and 
return  to  my  fifrmer  state  of  enjoyment  and  happiness  ; 
but  in  vain.  To  the  same  consideration  it  may  be 
ascribed,  that,  unacquainted  with  the  source  of  the 
evil,  observing  its  perpetual  increase,  and  finding  it,  so 
far  as  I  could  perceive,  entirely  arbitrary  in  its  nature, 
I  was  unable  to  ascertain  its  limits,  or  the  degree  in 
which  it  would  finally  overwhelm  me.  . 

In  the  midst  however  of  the  wonderful  and  seemingly 
inexplicable  nature  of  this  scene,  there  was  one  idea 
that  instantly  obtruded  itself,  and  that  I  could  never 
after  banish  from  my  mind.  It  is  Falkland !  In  vain 
I  struggled  against  the  seeming  improbability  of  the 
supposition.  In  vain  I  said,  "  Mr.  Falkland,  wise  as 
he  is,  and  pregnant  in  resources,  acts  by  human,  not  by 
supernatural  means.  He  may  overtake  me  by  sur- 
prise, and  in  a  manner  of  which  I  had  no  previous 
expectation ;  but  he  cannot  produce  a  great  and  no- 
torious effect  without  some  visible  agency,  however 
difficult  it  may  be  to  trace  that  agency  to  its  absolute 


CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

author.  He  cannot,  like  those  invisible  personages  who 
are  supposed  from  time  to  time  to  interfere  in  human 
affairs,  ride  in  the  whirlwind,  shroud  himself  in  clouds 
and  impenetrable  darkness,  and  scatter  destruction 
upon  the  earth  from  his  secret  habitation."  Thus  it 
was  that  I  bribed  my  imagination,  and  endeavoured  to 
persuade  myself  that  my  present  unhappiness  origin- 
ated in  a  different  source  from  my  former.  All  evils  ap- 
peared trivial  to  me,  in  comparison  with  the  recollection 
and  perpetuation  of  my  parent  misfortune.  I  felt  like 
a  man  distracted,  by  the  incoherence  of  my  ideas  to 
my  present  situation,  excluding  from  it  the  machina- 
tions of  Mr.  Falkland,  on  the  one  hand ;  and  on  the 
other,  by  the  horror  I  conceived  at  the  bare  possibility 
of  again  encountering  his  animosity,  after  a  suspension 
of  many  weeks,  a  suspension  as  I  had  hoped  for  ever. 
An  interval  like  this  was  an  age  to  a  person  in  the 
calamitous  situation  I  had  so  long  experienced.  But, 
in  spite  of  my  efforts,  I  could  not  banish  from  my  mind 
the  dreadful  idea.  My  original  conceptions  of  the 
genius  and  perseverance  of  Mr.  Falkland  had  been 
such,  that  I  could  with  difficulty  think  any  thing  im- 
possible to  him.  I  knew  not  how  to  set  up  my  own 
opinions  of  material  causes  and  the  powers  of  the  human 
mind,  as  the  limits  of  existence.  Mr.  Falkland  had 
always  been  to  my  imagination  an  object  of  wonder, 
and  that  which  excites  our  wonder  we  scarcely  suppose 
ourselves  competent  to  analyse. 

It  may  well  be  conceived,  that  one  of  the  first  persons 
to  whom  I  thought  of  applying  for  an  explanation  of 
this  dreadful  mystery  was  the  accomplished  Laura. 
My  disappointment  here  cut  me  to  the  heart.  I  was 
not  prepared  for  it.  I  recollected  the  ingenuousness  of 
her  nature,  the  frankness  of  her  manners,  the  partiality 
with  which  she  had  honoured  me.  If  I  were  mortified 


412  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

with  the  coldness,  the  ruggedness,  and  the  cruel  mis- 
take of  principles  with  which  the  village  inhabitants 
repelled  my  enquiries,  the  mortification  I  suffered,  only 
drove  me  more  impetuously  to  seek  the  cure  of  my 
griefs  from  this  object  of  my  admiration.  "  In  Laura," 
said  I,  "  I  am  secure  from  these  vulgar  prejudices.  I 
confide  in  her  justice.  I  am  sure  she  will  not  cast  me 
off  unheard,  nor  without  strictly  examining  a  question 
on  all  sides,  in  which  every  thing  that  is  valuable  to  a 
person  she  once  esteemed,  may  be  involved." 

Thus  encouraging  myself,  I  turned  my  steps  to  the 
place  of  her  residence.  As  I  passed  along  I  called  up 
all  my  recollection,  I  summoned  my  faculties.  "  I  may 
be  made  miserable,"  said  I,  "  but  it  shall  not  be  for  want 
of  any  exertion  of  mine,  that  promises  to  lead  to  happi- 
ness. I  will  be  clear,  collected,  simple  in  narrative, 
ingenuous  in  communication.  I  will  leave  nothing  un- 
said that  the  case  may  require.  I  will  not  volunteer 
any  thing  that  relates  to  my  former  transactions  with 
Mr.  Falkland  ;  but,  if  I  find  that  my  present  calamity 
is  connected  with  those  transactions,  I  will  not  fear  but 
that  by  an  honest  explanation  I  shall  remove  it." 

I  knocked  at  the  door.  A  servant  appeared,  and  told 
me  that  her  mistress  hoped  I  would  excuse  her ;  she 
must  really  beg  to  dispense  with  my  visit. 

I  was  thunderstruck.  I  was  rooted  to  the  spot.  I 
had  been  carefully  preparing  my  mind  for  every  thing 
that  I  supposed  likely  to  happen,  but  this  event  had  not 
entered  into  my  calculations.  I  roused  myself  in  a 
partial  degree,  and%  walked  away  without  uttering  a 
word. 

I  had  not  gone  far  before  I  perceived  one  of  the 
workmen  following  me,  who  put  into  my  hands  a  billet. 
The  contents  were  these:  — 


CALEB  WILLIAMS.  4-13 

"  MR.  WILLIAMS, 

"  Let  me  see  you  no  more.  I  have  a  right  at  least 
to  expect  your  compliance  with  this  requisition  ;  and, 
upon  that  condition,  I  pardon  the  enormous  impropri- 
ety and  guilt  with  which  you  have  conducted  yourself 
to  me  and  my  family. 

"  LAURA  DENISON." 

The  sensations  with  which  I  read  these  few  lines 
are  indescribable.  I  found  in  them  a  dreadful  con- 
firmation of  the  calamity  that  on  all  sides  invaded  me. 
But  what  I  felt  most  was  the  unmoved  coldness  with 
which  they  appeared  to  be  written.  This  coldness 
from  Laura,  my  comforter,  my  friend,  my  mother  1  To 
dismiss,  to  cast  me  off  for  ever,  without  one  thought  of 
compunction  ! 

I  determined  however,  in  spite  of  her  requisition, 
and  in  spite  of  her  coldness,  to  have  an  explanation 
with  her.  I  did  not  despair  of  conquering  the  antipa- 
thy she  harboured.  I  did  not  fear  that  I  would  rouse 
her  from  the  vulgar  and  unworthy  conception,  of  con- 
demning a  man,  in  points  the  most  material  to  his  hap- 
piness, without  stating  the  accusations  that  are  urged 
against  him,  and  without  hearing  him  in  reply. 

Though  I  had  no  doubt,  by  means  of  resolution,  of 
gaining  access  to  her  in  her  house,  yet  I  preferred 
taking  her  unprepared,  and  not  warmed  against  me  by 
any  previous  contention.  Accordingly,  the  next  morn- 
ing, at  the  time  she  usually  devoted  to  half  an  hour's 
air  and  exercise,  I  hastened  to  her  garden,  leaped  the 
paling,  and  concealed  myself  in  an" arbour.  Presently 
I  saw,  from  my  retreat,  the  younger  part  of  the  family 
strolling  through  the  garden,  and  from  thence  into  the 
fields ;  but  it  was  not  my  business  to  be  seen  by  them. 
I  looked  after  them  however  with  earnestness,  unob- 


414?  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

served  ;  and  I  could  not  help  asking  myself,  with  a  deep 
and  heartfelt  sigh,  whether  it  were  possible  that  I  saw 
them  now  for  the  last  time  ? 

They  had  not  advanced  far  into  the  fields,  before 
their  mother  made  her  appearance.  I  observed  in  her 
her  usual  serenity  and  sweetness  of  countenance.  I 
could  feel  my  heart  knocking  against  my  ribs.  My 
whole  frame  was  in  a  tumult.  I  stole  out  of  the 
arbour ;  and,  as  I  advanced  nearer,  my  pace  became 
quickened. 

"  For  God's  sake,  madam,"  exclaimed  I,  "  give  me  a 
hearing !  Do  not  avoid  me  I " 

She  stood  still.  "  No,  sir,"  she  replied,  "  I  shall  not 
avoid  you.  I  wished  you  to  dispense  with  this  meeting; 
but  since  I  cannot  obtain  that  —  I  am  conscious  of  no 
wrong ;  and  therefore,  though  the  meeting  gives  me 
pain,  it  inspires  me  with  no  fear." 

"  Oh,  madam,"  answered  I,  "  my  friend !  the  object 
of  all  my  reverence !  whom  I  once  ventured  to  call  my 
mother  I  can  you  wish  not  to  hear  me  ?  Can  you  have 
no  anxiety  for  my  justification,  whatever  may  be  the 
unfavourable  impression  you  may  have  received  against 
me?" 

"  Not  an  atom.  I  have  neither  wish  nor  inclination 
to  hear  you.  That  tale  which,  in  its  plain  and  un- 
adorned state,  is  destructive  of  the  character  of  him 
to  whom  it  relates,  no  colouring  can  make  an  honest 
one." 

"  Good  God  !  Can  you  think  of  condemning  a  man 
when  you  have  heard  only  one  side  of  his  story?" 

"  Indeed  I  can,"  replied  she  with  dignity.  "  The 
maxim  of  hearing  both  sides  may  be  very  well  in 
some  cases ;  but  it  would  be  ridiculous  to  suppose  that 
there  are  not  cases,  that,  at  the  first  mention,  are  too 
clear  to  admit  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  By  a  well-con* 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  415 

certed  defence  you  may  give  me  new  reasons  to  admire 
your  abilities;  but  I  am  acquainted  with  them  already. 
I  can  admire  your  abilities,  without  tolerating  your 
character." 

"  Madam!  Amiable,  exemplary  Laura !  whom,  in  the 
midst  of  all  your  harshness  and  inflexibility,  I  honour ! 
I  conjure  you,  by  every  thing  that  is  sacred,  to  tell  me 
what  it  is  that  has  filled  you  with  this  sudden  aversion 
to  me." 

**  No,  sir ;  that  you  shall  never  obtain  from  me.  I 
have  nothing  to  say  to  you.  I  stand  still  and  hear  you  ; 
because  virtue  disdains  to  appear  abashed  and  con- 
founded in  the  presence  of  vice.  Your  conduct  even  at 
this  moment,  in  my  opinion,  condemns  you.  True  virtue 
refuses  the  drudgery  of  explanation  and  apology.  True 
virtue  shines  by  its  own  light,  and  needs  no  art  to  set 
it  off.  You  have  the  first  principles  of  morality  as  yet 
to  learn." 

"  And  can  you  imagine,  that  the  most  upright  con- 
duct is  always  superior  to  the  danger  of  ambiguity?" 

"  Exactly  so.  Virtue,  sir,  consists  in  actions,  and 
not  in  words.  The  good  man  and  the  bad  are  cha- 
racters precisely  opposite,  not  characters  distinguished 
from  each  other  by  imperceptible  shades.  The  Provi- 
dence that  rules  us  all,  has  not  permitted  us  to  be  left 
without  a  clew  in  the  most  important  of  all  questions. 
Eloquence  may  seek  to  confound  it ;  but  it  shall  be  my 
care  to  avoid  its  deceptive  influence.  I  do  not  wish  to 
have  my  understanding  perverted,  and  all  the  differ- 
ences of  things  concealed  from  my  apprehension." 

««  Madam,  madam  !  it  would  be  impossible  for  you 
to  hold  this  language,  if  you  had  not  always  lived  in 
this  obscure  retreat,  if  you  had  ever  been  conversant 
with  the  passions  and  institutions  of  men." 

«  It  may  be  so.    And,  if  that  be  the  case,  I  have 


416  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

great  reason  to  be  thankful  to  my  God,  who  has  thus 
enabled  me  to  preserve  the  innocence  of  my  heart, 
and  the  integrity  of  my  understanding." 

"  Can  you  believe  then  that  ignorance  is  the  only, 
or  the  safest,  preservative  of  integrity?" 

"  Sir,  I  told  you  at  first,  and  I  repeat  to  you  again, 
that  all  your  declamation  is  in  vain.  I  wish  you  would 
have  saved  me  and  yourself  that  pain  which  is  the  only 
thing  that  can  possibly  result  from  it.  But  let  us  sup- 
pose that  virtue  could  ever  be  the  equivocal  thing  you 
would  have  me  believe.  Is  it  possible,  if  you  had 
been  honest,  that  you  would  not  have  acquainted 
me  with  your  story  ?  Is  it  possible,  that  you  would 
have  left  me  to  have  been  informed  of  it  by  a  mere 
accident,  and  with  all  the  shocking  aggravations  you 
well  knew  that  accident  would  give  it  ?  Is  it  possible 
you  should  have  violated  the  most  sacred  of  all  trusts, 
and  have  led  me  unknowingly  to  admit  to  the  inter- 
course of  my  children  a  character,  which  if,  as  you 
pretend,  it  is  substantially  honest,  you  cannot  deny  to 
be  blasted  and  branded  in  the  face  of  the  whole  world? 
Go,  sir ;  I  despise  you.  You  are  a  monster  -md  not  a 
man.  I  cannot  tell  whether  my  personal  situation 
misleads  me;  but,  to  my  thinking,  this  last  action  of 
yours  is  worse  than  all  the  rest.  Nature  has  constituted 
me  the  protector  of  my  children.  I  shall  always  re- 
member and  resent  the  indelible  injury  you  have  done 
them.  You  have  wounded  me  to  the  very  heart,  and 
have  taught  me  to  what  a  pitch  the  villainy  of  man  can 
extend." 

"  Madam,  I  can  be  silent  no  longer.  I  see  that  you 
have  by  some  means  come  to  a  hearing  of  the  story  of 
Mr.  Falkland." 

"  I  have.  I  am  astonished  you  have  the  effrontery 
to  pronounce  his  name.  That  name  has  been  a  deno- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  417 

miii;it ion.  as  far  back  as  my  memory  can  reach,  for  the 
most  exalted  of  mortals,  the  wisest  and  most  generous 
of  men." 

«  Madam,  I  owe  it  to  myself  to  set  you  right  on  this 
subject.  Mr.  Falkland " 

"  Mr.  Williams,  I  see  my  children  returning  from 
the  fields,  and  coming  this  way.  The  basest  action 
you  ever  did  was  the  obtruding  yourself  upon  them  as 
an  instructor.  I  insist  that  you  see  them  no  more.  I 
command  you  to  be  silent.  I  command  you  to  with- 
draw. If  you  persist  in  your  absurd  resolution  of  ex- 
postulating with  me,  you  must  take  some  other  time." 

I  could  continue  no  longer.  I  was  in  a  manner 
heart-broken  through  the  whole  of  this  dialogue.  I 
could  not  think  of  protracting  the  pain  of  this  ad- 
mirable woman,  upon  whom,  though  I  was  innocent  of 
the  crimes  she  imputed  to  me,  I  had  inflicted  so  much 
pain  already.  I  yielded  to  the  imperiousness  of  her 
commands,  and  withdrew. 

I  hastened,  without  knowing  why,  from  the  presence 
of  Laura  to  my  own  habitation.  Upon  entering  the 
house,  an  apartment  of  which  I  occupied,  I  found  it 
totally  deserted  of  its  usual  inhabitants.  The  woman 
and  her  children  were  gone  to  enjoy  the  freshness  of 
the  breeze.  The  husband  was  engaged  in  his  usual 
out-door  occupations.  The  doors  of  persons  of  the 
lower  order  in  this  part  of  the  country  are  secured,  in 
the  day-time,  only  with  a  latch.  I  entered,  and  went 
into  the  kitchen  of  the  family.  Here,  as  I  looked 
round,  my  eyes  accidentally  glanced  upon  a  paper 
Jying  in  one  corner,  which,  by  some  association  I  was 
unable  to  explain,  roused  in  me  a  strong  sensation  of 
suspicion  and  curiosity.  I  eagerly  went  towards  it, 
caught  it  up,  and  found  it  to  be  the  very  paper  of  the 

WONDERFUL    AND     SURPRISING     HISTORY   OF     CALEB 

E  E 


418  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

WILLIAMS,  the  discovery  of  which,  towards  the  close 
of  my  residence  in  London,  had  produced  in  me  such 
inexpressible  anguish. 

This  encounter  at  once  cleared  up  all  the  mystery 
that  hung  upon  my  late  transactions.  Abhorred  and 
intolerable  certainty  succeeded  to  the  doubts  which  had 
haunted  my  mind.  It  struck  me  with  the  rapidity  of 
lightning.  I  felt  a  sudden  torpor  and  sickness  that 
pervaded  every  fibre  of  my  frame. 

Was  there  no  hope  that  remained  for  me  ?  Was 
acquittal  useless  ?  Was  there  no  period,  past  or  in 
prospect,  that  could  give  relief  to  my  sufferings  ?  Was 
the  odious  and  atrocious  falsehood  that  had  been  in- 
vented against  me,  to  follow  me  wherever  I  went,  to 
strip  me  of  character,  to  deprive  me  of  the  sympathy 
and  good-will  of  mankind,  to  wrest  from  me  the  very 
bread  by  which  life  must  be  sustained  ? 

For  the  space  perhaps  of  half  an  hour  the  agony  I 
felt  from  this  termination  to  my  tranquillity,  and  the 
expectation  it  excited  of  the  enmity  which  would 
follow  me  through  every  retreat,  was  such  as  to  be- 
reave me  of  all  consistent  thinking,  much  more  of  the 
power  of  coming  to  any  resolution.  As  soon  as  this 
giddiness  and  horror  of  the  mind  subsided,  and  the 
deadly  calm  that  invaded  my  faculties  was  no  more, 
one  stiff  and  master  gale  gained  the  ascendancy,  and 
drove  me  to  an  instant  desertion  of  this  late  cherished 
retreat.  I  had  no  patience  to  enter  into  further  re- 
monstrance and  explanation  with  the  inhabitants  of  my 
present  residence.  I  believed  that  it  was  in  vain  to 
hope  to  recover  the  favourable  prepossession  and  tran- 
quillity I  had  lately  enjoyed.  In  encountering  the 
prejudices  that  were  thus  armed  against  me,  I  should 
have  to  deal  with  a  variety  of  dispositions,  and,  though 
I  might  succeed  with  some,  I  could  not  expect  to  sue- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  419 

ceed  with  all.  I  had  seen  too  much  of  the  reign  of 
triumphant  falsehood,  to  have  that  sanguine  confidence 
in  the  effects  of  my  innocence,  which  would  have  sug- 
gested  itself  to  the  mind  of  any  other  person  of  my 
propensities  and  my  age.  The  recent  instance  which 
had  occurred  in  my  conversation  with  Laura  might 
well  contribute  to  discourage  me.  I  could  not  endure 
the  thought  of  opposing  the  venom  that  was  thus 
scattered  against  me,  in  detail  and  through  its  minuter 
particles.  If  ever  it  should  be  necessary  to  encounter 
it.  if  I  were  pursued  like  a  wild  beast,  till  I  could  no 
longer  avoid  turning  upon  my  hunters,  I  would  then 
turn  upon  the  true  author  of  this  unprincipled  attack ; 
I  would  encounter  the  calumny  in  its  strong  hold ;  I 
would  rouse  myself  to  an  exertion  hitherto  unessayed  ; 
and,  by  the  firmness,  intrepidity,  and  unalterable  con- 
stancy I  should  display,  would  yet  compel  mankind  to 
believe  Mr.  Falkland  a  suborner  and  a  murderer ! 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

I  HASTEN  to  the  conclusion  of  my  melancholy  story.  I 
began  to  write  soon  after  the  period  to  which  I  have 
now  conducted  it.  This  was  another  resource  that  my 
mind,  ever  eager  in  inventing  means  to  escape  from 
my  misery,  suggested.  In  my  haste  to  withdraw  my- 
self from  the  retreat  in  Wales,  where  first  the  certainty 
of  Mr.  Falkland's  menaces  was  confirmed  to  me,  I  left 
behind  me  the  apparatus  of  my  etymological  enquiries, 
and  the  papers  I  had  written  upon  the  subject.  I  have 
never  been  able  to  persuade  myself  to  resume  this  pur- 
suit. It  is  always  discouraging,  to  begin  over  again  a 
1*2 


420  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

laborious  task,  and  exert  one's  self  to  recover  a  position 
we  had  already  occupied.  I  knew  not  how  soon  or 
how  abruptly  I  might  be  driven  from  any  new  situation ; 
the  appendages  of  the  study  in  which  I  had  engaged 
were  too  cumbrous  for  this  state  of  dependence  and 
uncertainty;  they  only  served  to  give  new  sharpness 
to  the  enmity  of  my  foe,  and  new  poignancy  to  my 
hourly-renewing  distress. 

But  what  was  of  greatest  importance,  and  made  the 
deepest  impression  upon  my  mind,  was  my  separation 
from  the  family  of  Laura.  Fool  that  I  was,  to  imagine 
that  there  was  any  room  for  me  in  the  abodes  of  friend- 
ship and  tranquillity  !  It  was  now  first,  that  I  felt,  with 
the  most  intolerable  acuteness,  how  completely  I  was 
cut  off  from  the  whole  human  species.  Other  con- 
nections I  had  gained,  comparatively  without  interest ; 
and  I  saw  them  dissolved  without  the  consummation  of 
agony.  I  had  never  experienced  the  purest  refine- 
ments of  friendship,  but  in  two  instances,  that  of 
Collins,  and  this  of  the  family  of  Laura.  Solitude, 
separation,  banishment!  These  are  words  often  in  the 
mouths  of  human  beings ;  but  few  men  except  myself 
have  felt  the  full  latitude  of  their  meaning.  The  pride  of 
philosophy  has  taught  us  to  treat  man  as  an  individual. 
He  is  no  such  thing.  He  holds  necessarily,  indis- 
pensably, to  his  species.  He  is  like  those  twin-births, 
that  have  two  heads  indeed,  and  four  hands ;  but,  if  you 
attempt  to  detach  them  from  each  other,  they  are 
inevitably  subjected  to  miserable  and  lingering  de- 
struction. 

It  was  this  circumstance,  more  than  all  the  rest, 
that  gradually  gorged  my  heart  with  abhorrence  of  Mr. 
Falkland.  I  could  not  think  of  his  name  but  with  a 
sickness  and  a  loathing,  that  seemed  more  than  human. 
It  was  by  his  means  that  I  suffered  the  loss  of  one 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  421 

consolation  after  another,  of  every  thing  that  was  hap- 
piness, or  that  had  the  resemblance  of  happiness. 

The  writing  of  these  memoirs  served  me  as  a  source 
of  avocation  for  several  years.  For  some  time  I  had  a 
melancholy  satisfaction  in  it.  I  was  better  pleased  to 
retrace  the  particulars  of  calamities  that  had  formerly 
afflicted  me,  than  to  look  forward,  as  at  other  times  I 
was  too  apt  to  do,  to  those  by  which  I  might  hereafter 
be  overtaken.  I  conceived  that  my  story,  faithfully 
digested,  would  carry  in  it  an  impression  of  truth  that 
few  men  would  be  able  to  resist ;  or,  at  worst,  that,  by 
leaving  it  behind  me  when  I  should  no  longer  continue 
to  exist,  posterity  might  be  induced  to  do  me  justice, 
and,  seeing  in  my  example  what  sort  of  evils  are  entailed 
upon  mankind  by  society  as  it  is  at  present  constituted, 
might  be  inclined  to  turn  their  attention  upon  the 
fountain  from  which  such  bitter  waters  have  been 
accustomed  to  flow.  But  these  motives  have  diminished 
in  their  influence.  I  have  contracted  a  disgust  for  life 
and  all  its  appendages.  Writing,  which  was  at  first  a 
pleasure,  is  changed  into  a  burthen.  I  shall  compress 
into  a  small  compass  what  remains  to  be  told. 

I  discovered,  not  long  after  the  period  of  which  I  am 
speaking,  the  precise  cause  of  the  reverse  I  had  ex- 
perienced in  my  residence  in  Wales,  and,  included  in 
that  cause,  what  it  was  I  had  to  look  for  in  my  future 
adventures.  Mr.  Falkland  had  taken  the  infernal  Gines 
into  his  pay,  a  man  critically  qualified  for  the  service 
in  which  he  was  now  engaged,  by  the  unfeeling  brutal- 
ity of  his  temper,  by  his  habits  of  mind  at  once  auda- 
cious and  artful,  and  by  the  peculiar  animosity  and" 
vengeance  he  had  conceived  against  me.  The  employ- 
ment to  which  this  man  was  hired,  was  that  of  follow- 
ing me  from  place  to  place,  blasting  my  reputation, 
and  preventing  me  from  the  chance,  by  continuing  long 
£  £  3 


422  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

in  one  residence,  of  acquiring  a  character  for  integrity, 
that  should  give  new  weight  to  any  accusation  I  might 
at  a  future  time  be  induced  to  prefer.  He  had  come 
to  the  seat  of  my  residence  with  the  bricklayers  and 
labourers  I  have  mentioned ;  and,  while  he  took  care 
to  keep  out  of  sight  so  far  as  related  to  me,  was  indus- 
trious in  disseminating  that  which,  in  the  eye  of  the 
world,  seemed  to  amount  to  a  demonstration  of  the  pro- 
fligacy and  detestableness  of  my  character.  It  was  no 
doubt  from  him  that  the  detested  scroll  had  been  pro- 
cured, which  I  had  found  in  my  habitation  immediately 
prior  to  my  quitting  it.  In  all  this  Mr.  Falkland, 
reasoning  upon  his  principles,  was  only  employing  a 
necessary  precaution.  There  was  something  in  the 
temper  of  his  mind,  that  impressed  him  with  aversion 
to  the  idea  of  violently  putting  an  end  to  my  existence ; 
at  the  same  time  that  unfortunately  he  could  never 
deem  himself  sufficiently  secured  against  my  recrimi- 
nation, so  long  as  I  remained  alive.  As  to  the  fact  of 
Gines  being  retained  by  him  for  this  tremendous  pur- 
pose, he  by  no  means  desired  that  it  should  become 
generally  known;  but  neither  did  he  look  upon  the 
possibility  of  its  being  known  with  terror.  It  was 
already  too  notorious  for  his  wishes,  that  I  had  ad- 
vanced the  most  odious  charges  against  him.  If  he 
regarded  me  with  abhorrence  as  the  adversary  of  his 
fame,  those  persons  who  had  had  occasion  to  be  in  any 
degree  acquainted  with  our  history,  did  not  entertain 
less  abhorrence  against  me  for  my  own  sake.  If  they 
should  at  any  time  know  the  pains  he  exerted  in  causing 
my  evil  reputation  to  follow  me,  they  would  consider 
it  as  an  act  of  impartial  justice,  perhaps  as  a  generous 
anxiety  to  prevent  other  men  from  being  imposed  upon 
and  injured,  as  he  had  been. 

What  expedient  was  I  to  employ  for  the  purpose  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  423 

counteracting  the  meditated  and  barbarous  prudence, 
>v  Inch  was  thus  destined,  in  all  changes  of  scene,  to 
deprive  me  of  the  benefits  and  consolations  of  human 
society  ?  There  was  one  expedient  against  which  I  was 
absolutely  determined — disguise.  I  had  experienced 
so  many  mortifications,  and  such  intolerable  restraint, 
when  I  formerly  had  recourse  to  it ;  it  was  associated  in 
my  memory  with  sensations  of  such  acute  anguish, 
that  my  mind  was  thus  far  entirely  convinced :  life  was 
not  worth  purchasing  at  so  high  a  price !  But,  though 
in  this  respect  I  was  wholly  resolved,  there  was  another 
point  that  did  not  appear  so  material,  and  in  which 
therefore  I  was  willing  to  accommodate  myself  to  cir- 
cumstances. I  was  contented,  if  that  would  insure  my 
peace,  to  submit  to  the  otherwise  unmanly  expedient 
of  passing  by  a  different  name. 

But  the  change  of  my  name,  the  abruptness  with 
which  I  removed  from  place  to  place,  the  remoteness 
and  the  obscurity  which  I  proposed  to  myself  in  the 
choice  of  my  abode,  were  all  insufficient  to  elude  the 
sagacity  of  Gines,  or  the  unrelenting  constancy  with 
which    Mr.  Falkland  incited  my  tormentor  to  pursue 
me.     Whithersoever  I  removed  myself,  it  was  not  long 
before  I  had  occasion  to  perceive  this  detested  adversary 
in  my  rear.     No  words  can  enable  me  to  do  justice  to 
the  sensations  which  this  circumstance  produced  in  me. 
It  waa  like  what  has  been  described  of  the  eye  of  Om- 
niscience, pursuing  the  guilty  sinner,  and  darting  a  ray 
that  awakens   him   to   new   sensibility,   at   the   very 
moment  that,  otherwise,  exhausted  nature  would  lull 
him  into  a  temporary  oblivion  of  the  reproaches  of  his 
conscience.     Sleep  fled  from  my  eyes.    No  walls  could 
hide  me  from  the  discernment  of  this  hated  foe.  Every 
where  his  industry  was  unwearied  to  create  for  me  new 
distress.     Rest  I  had  none ;  relief  I  had  none :  never 

EE  4* 


424?  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

could  I  count  upon  an  instant's  security  ;  never  could  I 
wrap  myself  in  the  shroud  of  oblivion.  The  minutes  in 
which  I  did  not  actually  perceive  him,  were  con- 
taminated and  blasted  with  the  certain  expectation  of 
his  speedy  interference.  In  my  first  retreat  I  had 
passed  a  few  weeks  of  delusive  tranquillity,  but  never 
after  was  I  happy  enough  to  attain  to  so  much  as  that 
shadowy  gratification.  I  spent  some  years  in  this  dread- 
ful vicissitude  of  pain.  My  sensations  at  certain  periods 
amounted  to  insanity. 

I  pursued  in  every  succeeding  instance  the  conduct 
I  had  adopted  at  first.  I  determined  never  to  enter 
into  a  contest  of  accusation  and  defence  with  the  exe- 
crable Gines.  If  I  could  have  submitted  to  it  in  other 
respects,  what  purpose  would  it  answer?  I  should 
have  but  an  imperfect  and  mutilated  story  to  tell.  This 
story  had  succeeded  with  persons  already  prepossessed 
in  my  favour  by  personal  intercourse ;  but  could  it 
succeed  with  strangers  ?  It  had  succeeded  so  long  as 
I  was  able  to  hide  myself  from  my  pursuers  ;  but  could 
it  succeed  now,  that  this  appeared  impracticable,  and 
that  they  proceeded  by  arming  against  me  a  whole 
vicinity  at  once  ? 

It  is  inconceivable  the  mischiefs  that  this  kind  of 
existence  included.  Why  should  I  insist  upon  such 
aggravations  as  hunger,  beggary,  and  external  wretch- 
edness? These  were  an  inevitable  consequence.  It 
was  by  the  desertion  of  mankind  that,  in  each  successive 
instance,  I  was  made  acquainted  with  my  fate.  Delay 
in  such  a  moment  served  but  to  increase  the  evil ;  and 
when  I  fled,  meagreness  and  penury  were  the  ordinary 
attendants  of  my  course.  But  this  was  a  small  con- 
sideration. Indignation  at  one  time,  and  unconquerable 
perseverance  at  another,  sustained  me,  where  humanity, 
left  to  itself,  would  probably  have  sunk. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  4-25 

It  has  already  appeared  that  I  was  not  of  a  temper 
to  endure  calamity,  without  endeavouring,  by  every 
means  I  could  devise,  to  elude  and  disarm  it.  Recol- 
lecting at  I  was  habituated  to  do,  the  various  projects 
by  which  my  situation  could  be  meliorated,  the  question 
occurred  to  me,  "  Why  should  I  be  harassed  by  the 
pursuits  of  this  Gines  ?  Why,  man  to  man,  may  I  not, 
by  the  powers  of  my  mind,  attain  the  ascendancy  over 
him  ?  At  present  he  appears  to  be  the  persecutor,  and 
I  the  persecuted:  is  not  this  difference  the  mere 
creature  of  the  imagination  ?  May  I  not  employ  my 
ingenuity  to  vex  him  with  difficulties,  and  laugh  at  the 
endless  labour  to  which  he  will  be  condemned?" 

Alas,  this  is  a  speculation  for  a  mind  at  ease  !  It  is 
not  the  persecution,  but  the  catastrophe  which  is 
annexed  to  it,  that  makes  the  difference  between  the 
tyrant  and  the  sufferer !  In  mere  corporal  exertion 
the  hunter  perhaps  is  upon  a  level  with  the  miserable 
animal  he  pursues !  But  could  it  be  forgotten  by  either 
of  us,  that  at  every  stage  Gines  was  to  gratify  his 
malignant  passions,  by  disseminating  charges  of  the 
most  infamous  nature,  and  exciting  against  me  the 
abhorrence  of  every  honest  bosom,  while  I  was  to  sus- 
tain the  still-repeated  annihilation  of  my  peace,  my 
character,  and  my  bread?  Could  I,  by  any  refinement 
of  reason,  convert  this  dreadful  series  into  sport  ?  I  had 
no  philosophy  that  qualified  me  for  so  extraordinary  an 
effort.  If,  under  other  circumstances,  I  could  even 
have  entertained  so  strange  an  imagination,  I  was  re- 
strained in  the  present  instance  by  the  necessity  of 
providing  for  myself  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  the 
fetters  which,  through  that  necessity,  the  forms  of 
human  society  imposed  upon  my  exertions. 

In  one  of  those  changes  of  residence,  to  which  my 
miserable  fate  repeatedly  compelled  me,  I  met,  upon  a 


426  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

road  which  I  was  obliged  to  traverse,  the  friend  of  my 
youth,  my  earliest  and  best  beloved  friend,  the  vene- 
rable Collins.  It  was  one  of  those  misfortunes  which 
served  to  accumulate  my  distress,  that  this  man  had 
quitted  the  island  of  Great  Britain  only  a  very  few 
weeks  before  that  fatal  reverse  of  fortune  which  had 
ever  since  pursued  me  with  unrelenting  eagerness.  Mr. 
Falkland,  in  addition  to  the  large  estate  he  possessed  in 
England,  had  a  very  valuable  plantation  in  the  West 
Indies.  This  property  had  been  greatly  mismanaged 
by  the  person  who  had  the  direction  of  it  on  the  spot ; 
and,  after  various  promises  and  evasions  on  his  part, 
which,  however  they  might  serve  to  beguile  the  patience 
of  Mr.  Falkland,  had  been  attended  with  no  salutary 
fruits,  it  was  resolved  that  Mr.  Collins  should  go  over 
in  person,  to  rectify  the  abuses  which  had  so  long  pre- 
vailed. There  had  even  been  some  idea  of  his  residing 
several  years,  if  not  settling  finally,  upon  the  plantation. 
From  that  hour  to  the  present  I  had  never  received  the 
smallest  intelligence  respecting  him. 

I  had  always  considered  the  circumstance  of  his  cri- 
tical absence  as  one  of  my  severest  misfortunes.  Mr. 
Collins  had  been  one  of  the  first  persons,  even  in  the 
period  of  my  infancy,  to  conceive  hopes  of  me,  as  of 
something  above  the  common  standard ;  and  had  con- 
tributed more  than  any  other  to  encourage  and  assist 
my  juvenile  studies.  He  had  been  the  executor  of  the 
little  property  of  my  father,  who  had  fixed  upon  him 
for  that  purpose  in  consideration  of  the  mutual  affection 
that  existed  between  us  ;  and  I  seemed,  on  every  ac- 
count, to  have  more  claim  upon  his  protection  than 
upon  that  of  any  other  human  being.  I  had  always 
believed  that,  had  he  been  present  in  the  crisis  of  my 
fortune,  he  would  have  felt  a  conviction  of  my  innocence ; 
and,  convinced  himself,  would,  by  means  of  the  vener- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  427 

ableness  and  energy  of  his  character,  have  interposed 
so  effectually,  as  to  have  saved  me  the  greater  part  of 
my  subsequent  misfortunes. 

There  was  yet  another  idea  in  my  mind  relative  to 
this  subject,  which  had  more  weight  with  me,  than 
even  the  substantial  exertions  of  friendship  I  should 
have  expected  from  him.  The  greatest  aggravation  of 
my  present  lot  was,  that  I  was  cut  off  from  the  friend- 
ship of  mankind.  I  can  safely  affirm,  that  poverty  and 
hunger,  that  endless  wanderings,  that  a  blasted  cha- 
racter and  the  curses  that  clung  to  my  name,  were  all 
of  them  slight  misfortunes  compared  to  this.  I  en- 
deavoured to  sustain  myself  by  the  sense  of  my  in- 
tegrity, but  the  voice  of  no  man  upon  earth  echoed  to 
the  voice  of  my  conscience.  "  I  called  aloud ;  but  there 
was  none  to  answer;  there  was  none  that  regarded." 
To  me  the  whole  world  was  unhearing  as  the  tempest, 
and  as  cold  as  the  torpedo.  Sympathy,  the  magnetic 
virtue,  the  hidden  essence  of  our  life,  was  extinct.  Nor 
was  this  the  sum  of  my  misery.  This  food,  so  essential 
to  an  intelligent  existence,  seemed  perpetually  renew- 
ing before  me  in  its  fairest  colours,  only  tin-  more 
effectually  to  elude  my  grasp,  and  to  mock  my  hunger. 
From  time  to  time  I  was  prompted  to  unfold  the  affec- 
tions of  my  soul,  only  to  be  repelled  with  the  greater 
anguish,  and  to  be  baffled  in  a  way  the  most  intolerably 
mortifying. 

No  sight  therefore  could  give  me  a  purer  delight 
than  that  which  now  presented  itself  to  my  eyes.  It 
was  some  time  however,  before  either  of  us  recognised 
the  person  of  the  other.  Ten  years  had  elapsed  since 
our  last  interview.  Mr.  Collins  looked  much  older  than 
he  had  done  at  that  period ;  in  addition  to  which,  he 
was,  in  his  present  appearance,  pale,  sickly,  and  thin. 
These  unfavourable  effects  had  been  produced  by  the 


428  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

change  of  climate,  particularly  trying  to  persons  in  an 
advanced  period  of  life.  Add  to  which,  I  supposed  him 
to  be  at  that  moment  in  the  West  Indies.  I  was  pro- 
bably as  much  altered  in  the  period  that  had  elapsed 
as  he  had  been.  I  was  the  first  to  recollect  him.  He 
was  on  horseback ;  I  on  foot.  I  had  suffered  him  to 
pass  me.  In  a  moment  the  full  idea  of  who  he  was 
rushed  upon  my  mind ;  I  ran ;  I  called  with  an  im- 
petuous voice ;  I  was  unable  to  restrain  the  vehemence 
of  my  emotions. 

The  ardour  of  my  feelings  disguised  my  usual  tone 
of  speaking,  which  otherwise  Mr.  Collins  would  in- 
fallibly have  recognised.  His  sight  was  already  dim ; 
he  pulled  up  his  horse  till  I  should  overtake  him ;  and 
then  said,  "  Who  are  you  ?  I  do  not  know  you." 

"  My  father ! "  exclaimed  I,  embracing  one  of  his 
knees  with  fervour  and  delight,  "  I  am  your  son  ;  once 
your  little  Caleb,  whom  you  a  thousand  times  loaded 
with  your  kindness  I " 

The  unexpected  repetition  of  my  name  gave  a  kind 
of  shuddering  emotion  to  my  friend,  which  was  how- 
ever checked  by  his  age,  and  the  calm  and  benevolent 
philosophy  that  formed  one  of  his  most  conspicuous 
habits. 

"  I  did  not  expect  to  see  you  1 "  replied  he  :  "  I  did 
not  wish  it ! " 

"  My  best,  my  oldest  friend ! "  answered  I,  respect 
blending  itself  with  my  impatience,  "  do  not  say  so ! 
I  have  not  a  friend  any  where  in  the  whole  world  but 
you!  In  you  at  least  let  me  find  sympathy  and  re- 
ciprocal affection  !  If  you  knew  how  anxiously  I  have 
thought  of  you  during  the  whole  period  of  your  ab- 
sence, you  would  not  thus  grievously  disappoint  me  in 
your  return ! " 

"  How  is  it,"  said  Mr.  Collins,  gravely,  "  that  you 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  429 

have  been  reduced  to  this  forlorn  condition  ?  Was  it 
not  the  inevitable  consequence  of  your  own  actions?" 

«  The 'actions  of  others,  not  mine !  Does  not  your 
heart  tell  you  that  I  am  innocent?" 

"  No.  My  observation  of  your  early  character  taught 
me  that  you  would  be  extraordinary ;  but,  unhappily, 
all  extraordinary  men  are  not  good  men :  that  seems 
to  be  a  lottery,  dependent  on  circumstances  apparently 
the  most  trivial." 

"  Will  you  hear  my  justification  ?  I  am  as  sure  as  I 
am  of  my  existence,  that  I  can  convince  you  of  my 
purity." 

"  Certainly,  if  you  require  it,  I  will  hear  you.  But 
that  must  not  be  just  now.  I  could  have  been  glad  to 
decline  it  wholly.  At  my  age  I  am  not  fit  for  the 
storm ;  and  I  am  not  so  sanguine  as  you  in  my  ex- 
pectation of  the  result.  Of  what  would  you  convince 
me?  That  Mr.  Falkland  is  a  suborner  and  mur- 
derer?" 

I  made  no  answer.  My  silence  was  an  affirmative  to 
the  question. 

"  And  what  benefit  will  result  from  this  conviction  ? 
I  have  known  you  a  promising  boy,  whose  character 
might  turn  to  one  side  or  the  other  as  events  should 
decide.  I  have  known  Mr.  Falkland  in  his  maturer 
years,  and  have  always  admired  him,  as  the  living 
model  of  liberality  and  goodness.  If  you  could  change 
all  my  ideas,  and  show  me  that  there  was  no  criterion 
by  which  vice  might  be  prevented  from  being  mistaken 
for  virtue,  what  benefit  would  arise  from  that?  I 
must  part  with  all  my  interior  consolation,  and  all  my 
external  connections.  And  for  what  ?  What  is  it  you 
propose  ?  The  death  of  Mr.  Falkland  by  the  hands  of 
the  hangman." 

"  No ;  I  will  not  hurt  a  hair  of  his  head,  unless  com- 


430  CALEB    WILLIAMS, 

pelled  to  it  by  a  principle  of  defence.     But  surely  you 
owe  me  justice?" 

"  What  justice  ?  The  justice  of  proclaiming  your 
innocence  ?  You  know  what  consequences  are  annexed 
to  that.  But  I  do  not  believe  I  shall  find  you  innocent. 
If  you  even  succeed  in  perplexing  my  understanding, 
you  will  not  succeed  in  enlightening  it.  Such  is  the 
state  of  mankind,  that  innocence,  when  involved  in 
circumstances  of  suspicion,  can  scarcely  ever  make 
out  a  demonstration  of  its  purity ;  and  guilt  can  often 
make  us  feel  an  insurmountable  reluctance  to  the  pro- 
nouncing it  guilt.  Meanwhile,  for  the  purchase  of  this 
uncertainty,  I  must  sacrifice  all  the  remaining  comforts 
of  my  life.  I  believe  Mr.  Falkland  to  be  virtuous ;  but 
I  know  him  to  be  prejudiced.  He  would  never  forgive 
me  even  this  accidental  parley,  if  by  any  means  he 
should  come  to  be  acquainted  with  it." 

"  Oh,  argue  not  the  consequences  that  are  possible 
to  result  I "  answered  I,  impatiently.  "  I  have  a  right  to 
your  kindness ;  I  have  a  right  to  your  assistance  I " 

"  You  have  them.  You  have  them  to  a  certain  de- 
gree; and  it  is  not  likely  that,  by  any  process  of 
examination,  you  can  have  them  entire.  You  know 
my  habits  of  thinking.  I  regard  you  as  vicious  ;  but  I 
do  not  consider  the  vicious  as  proper  objects  of  indig- 
nation and  scorn.  I  consider  you  as  a  machine ;  you 
are  not  constituted,  I  am  afraid,  to  be  greatly  useful  to 
your  fellow  men :  but  you  did  not  make  yourself;  you 
are  just  what  circumstances  irresistibly  compelled  you 
to  be.  I  am  sorry  for  your  ill  properties ;  but  I  enter- 
tain no  enmity  against  you,  nothing  but  benevolence. 
Considering  you  in  the  light  in  which  I  at  present  con- 
sider you,  I  am  ready  to  contribute  every  thing  in  my 
power  to  your  real  advantage,  and  would  gladly  assist 
you,  if  I  knew  how,  in  detecting  and  extirpating  the 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  431 

errors  that  have  misled  you.  You  have  disappointed 
me,  but  I  have  no  reproaches  to  utter:  it  is  more 
iK-ressary  for  me  to  feel  compassion  for  you,  than  that 
I  should  accumulate  your  misfortune  by  my  censures." 

What  could  I  say  to  such  a  man  as  this  ?  Amiable, 
incomparable  man  I  Never  was  my  mind  more  pain- 
fully divided  than  at  that  moment.  The  more  he  ex- 
cited my  admiration,  the  more  imperiously  did  my  heart 
command  me,  whatever  were  the  price  it  should  cost, 
to  extort  his  friendship.  I  was  persuaded  that  severe 
duty  required  of  him,  that  he  should  reject  all  personal 
considerations,  that  he  should  proceed  resolutely  to  the 
investigation  of  the  truth,  and  that,  if  he  found  the 
result  terminating  in  my  favour,  he  should  resign  all 
his  advantages,  and,  deserted  as  I  was  by  the  world, 
make  a  common  cause,  and  endeavour  to  compensate 
the  general  injustice.  But  was  it  for  me  to  force  this 
conduct  upon  him,  if,  now  in  his  declining  years,  his 
own  fortitude  shrank  from  it  ?  Alas,  neither  he  nor  I 
foresaw  the  dreadful  catastrophe  that  was  so  closely 
impending  I  Otherwise,  I  am  well  assured  that  no 
tenderness  for  his  remaining  tranquillity  would  have 
withheld  him  from  a  compliance  with  my  wishes  !  On 
the  other  hand,  could  I  pretend  to  know  what  evils 
might  result  to  him  from  his  declaring  himself  my  ad- 
vocate ?  Might  not  his  integrity  be  browbeaten  and  de- 
feated, as  mine  had  been?  Did  the  imbecility  of  his  grey 
hairs'afford  no  advantage  to  my  terrible  adversary  in  the 
contest  ?  Might  not  Mr.  Falkland  reduce  him  to  a  con- 
dition as  wretched  and  low  as  mine  ?  After  all,  was  it 
not  vice  in  me  to  desire  to  involve  another  man  in  my 
sufferings?  If  I  regarded  them  as  intolerable,  this  was 
still  an  additional  reason  why  I  should  bear  them  alone. 

Influenced  by  these  considerations,  I  assented  to  his 
views.  I  assented  to  be  thought  hardly  of  by  the  man 


432  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

in  the  world  whose  esteem  I  most  ardently  desired, 
rather  than  involve  him  in  possible  calamity.  I  assented 
to  the  resigning  what  appeared  to  me  at  that  moment 
as  the  last  practicable  comfort  of  my  life  ;  a  comfort, 
upon  the  thought  of  which,  while  I  surrendered  it,  my 
mind  dwelt  with  undescribable  longings.  Mr.  Collins 
was  deeply  affected  with  the  apparent  ingenuousness 
with  which  I  expressed  my  feelings.  The  secret 
struggle  of  his  mind  was,  "  Can  this  be  hypocrisy?  The 
individual  with  whom  I  am  conferring,  if  virtuous,  is 
one  of  the  most  disinterestedly  virtuous  persons  in  the 
world."  We  tore  ourselves  from  each  other.  Mr.  Collins 
promised,  as  far  as  he  was  able,  to  have  an  eye  upon 
my  vicissitudes,  and  to  assist  me,  in  every  respect  that 
was  consistent  with  a  just  recollection  of  consequences. 
Thus  I  parted  as  it  were  with  the  last  expiring  hope  of 
my  mind ;  and  voluntarily  consented,  thus  maimed  and 
forlorn,  to  encounter  all  the  evils  that  were  yet  in  store 
for  me. 

This  is  the  latest  event  which  at  present  I  think  it 
•  necessary  to  record.  I  shall  doubtless  hereafter  have 
further  occasion  to  take  up  the  pen.  Great  and  un- 
precedented as  my  sufferings  have  been,  I  feel  inti- 
mately persuaded  that  there  are  worse  sufferings  that 
await  me.  What  mysterious  cause  is  it  that  enables 
me  to  write  this,  and  not  to  perish  under  the  horrible 
apprehension  ! 


CHAPTER  XV. 

IT  is  as  I  foreboded.  The  presage  with  which  I  was 
visited  was  prophetic.  I  am  now  to  record  a  new  and 
terrible  revolution  of  my  fortune  and  my  mind. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  433 

Having  made  experiment  of  various  situations  with 
one  uniform  result,  I  at  length  determined  to  remove 
myself,  if  possible,  from  the  reach  of  my  persecutor, 
by  going  into  voluntary  banishment  from  my  native 
soil.  This  was  my  last  resource  for  tranquillity,  for 
honest  fame,  for  those  privileges  to  which  human  life  is 
indebted  for  the  whole  of  its  value.  "  In  some  distant 
climate,"  said  I,  "  surely  I  may  find  that  security  which 
is  necessary  to  persevering  pursuit;  surely  I  may  lift 
my  head  erect,  associate  with  men  upon  the  footing  of 
a  man,  acquire  connections,  and  preserve  them  ! "  It  is 
inconceivable  with  what  ardent  Teachings  of  the  soul 
I  aspired  to  this  termination. 

This  last  consolation  was  denied  me  by  the  inexorable 
Falkland. 

At  the  time  the  project  was  formed  I  was  at  no 
great  distance  from  the  east  coast  of  the  island,  and  I 
resolved  to  take  ship  at  Harwich,  and  pass  immediately 
into  Holland.  I  accordingly  repaired  to  that  place,  and 
went,  almost  as  soon  as  I  arrived,  to  the  port.  But 
there  was  no  vessel  perfectly  ready  to  sail.  I  left  the 
port,  and  withdrew  to  an  inn,  where,  after  some  time, 
I  retired  to  a  chamber.  I  was  scarcely  there  before 
the  door  of  the  room  was  opened,  and  the  man  whose 
countenance  was  the  most  hateful  to  my  eyes,  Gines, 
entered  the  apartment*  He  shut  the  door  as  soon  as 
he  entered. 

"  Youngster,"  said  he,  "  I  have  a  little  private  intel- 
ligence to  communicate  to  you.  I  come  as  a  friend, 
and  that  I  may  save  you  a  labour-in-vain  trouble.  If 
you  consider  what  I  have  to  say  in  that  light,  it  will  be 
the  better  for  you.  It  is  my  business  now,  do  you  see, 
for  want  of  a  better,  to  see  that  you  do  not  break  out 
of  bounds.  Not  that  I  much  matter  having  one  man 
for  my  employer,  or  dancing  attendance  after  another's 

F  F 


434  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

heels ;  but  I  have  special  kindness  for  you,  for  some 
good  turns  that  you  wot  of,  and  therefore  I  do  not  stand 
upon  ceremonies !  You  have  led  me  a  very  pretty  round 
already  ;  and,  out  of  the  love  I  bear  you,  you  shall  lead 
me  as  much  further,  if  you  will.  But  beware  the  salt 
seas  I  They  are  out  of  my  orders.  You  are  a  prisoner 
at  present,  and  I  believe  all  your  life  will  remain  so. 
Thanks  to  the  milk-and-water  softness  of  your  former 
master  I  If  I  had  the  ordering  of  these  things,  it 
should  go  with  you  in  another  fashion.  As  long  as  you 
think  proper,  you  are  a  prisoner  within  the  rules ;  and 
the  rules  with  which  the  soft-hearted  squire  indulges 
you,  are  all  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales.  But  you 
are  not  to  go  out  of  these  climates.  The  squire  is  de- 
termined you  shall  never  pass  the  reach  of  his  disposal. 
He  has  therefore  given  orders  that,  whenever  you 
attempt  so  to  do,  you  shall  be  converted  from  a  pri- 
soner at  large  to  a  prisoner  in  good  earnest.  A  friend 
of  mine  followed  you  just  now  to  the  harbour ;  I  was 
within  call ;  and,  if  there  had  been  any  appearance  of 
your  setting  your  foot  from  land,  we  should  have  been 
with  you  in  a  trice,  and  laid  you  fast  by  the  heels.  I 
would  advise  you,  for  the  future,  to  keep  at  a  proper 
distance  from  the  sea,  for  fear  of  the  worst.  You  see 
I  tell  you  all  this  for  your  good.  For  my  part,  I  should 
be  better  satisfied  if  you  were  in  limbo,  with  a  rope 
about  your  neck,  and  a  comfortable  bird's  eye  prospect 
to  the  gallows :  but  I  do  as  I  am  directed ;  and  so  good 
uight  to  you  I" 

The  intelligence  thus  conveyed  to  me  occasioned  an 
instantaneous  revolution  in  both  my  intellectual  and 
animal  system.  I  disdained  to  answer,  or  take  the 
smallest  notice  of  the  fiend  by  whom  it  was  delivered. 
It  is  now  three  days  since  I  received  it,  and  from  that 
moment  to  the  present  my  blood  has  been  in  a  per- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  4,33 

petual  ferment.  My  thoughts  wander  from  one  idea 
of  horror  to  another,  with  incredible  rapidity.  I  have 
had  no  sleep.  I  have  scarcely  remained  in  one  pos- 
ture for  a  minute  together.  It  has  been  with  the 
utmost  difficulty  that  I  have  been  able  to  command 
myself  far  enough  to  add  a  few  pages  to  my  story. 
But,  uncertain  as  I  am  of  the  events  of  each  succeed- 
ing hour,  I  determined  to  force  myself  to  the  per- 
formance of  this  task.  AH  is  not  right  within  me. 
How  it  will  terminate,  God  knows.  I  sometimes  fear 
that  I  shall  be  wholly  deserted  of  my  reason. 

What  —  dark,  mysterious,  unfeeling,  unrelenting 
tyrant !  —  is  it  come  to  this  ?  When  Nero  and  Caligula 
swayed  the  Roman  sceptre,  it  was  a  fearful  thing  to 
offend  these  bloody  rulers.  The  empire  had  already 
gpread  itself  from  climate  to  climate,  and  from  sea  to 
sea.  If  their  unhappy  victim  fled  to  the  rising  of  the 
sun,  where  the  luminary  of  day  seems  to  us  first  to 
ascend  from  the  waves  of  the  ocean,  the  power  of  the 
tyrant  was  still  behind  him.  If  he  withdrew  to  the 
west,  to  Hesperian  darkness,  and  the  shores  of  bar- 
barian Thule,  still  he  was  not  safe  from  his  gore- 
drenched  foe Falkland  I  art  thou  the  offspring,  in 

whom  the  lineaments  of  these  tyrants  are  faithfully 
preserved  ?  Was  the  world,  with  all  its  climates,  made 
in  vain  for  thy  helpless  unoffending  victim  ? 

Tremble  I 

Tyrants  have  trembled,  surrounded  with  whole  armies 
of  their  Janissaries!  What  should  make  thee  inac- 
cessible  to  my  fury  ?  No,  I  will  use  no  daggers  !  I 
will  unfold  a  tale !  —  I  will  show  thee  to  the  world 
for  what  thou  art ;  and  all  the  men  that  live,  shall  con- 
fess my  truth  !  —  Didst  thou  imagine  that  I  was  alto- 
gether passive,  a  mere  worm,  organised  to  feel  sens- 

PF2 


436  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

ations  of  pain,  but  no  emotion  of  resentment  ?  Didst 
thou  imagine  that  there  was  no  danger  in  inflicting  on 
me  pains  however  great,  miseries  however  dreadful? 
Didst  thou  believe  me  impotent,  imbecile,  and  idiot- 
like,  with  no  understanding  to  contrive  thy  ruin,  and 
no  energy  to  perpetrate  it? 

I  will  tell  a  tale  — !  The  justice  of  the  country 
shall  hear  me  !  The  elements  of  nature  in  universal 
uproar  shall  not  interrupt  me  I  I  will  speak  with  a 
voice  more  fearful  than  thunder  !  —  Why  should  I  be 
supposed  to  speak  from  any  dishonourable  motive?  I 
am  under  no  prosecution  now !  I  shall  not  now  appear 
to  be  endeavouring  to  remove  a  criminal  indictment 
from  myself,  by  throwing  it  back  on  its  author  I  — 
Shall  I  regret  the  ruin  that  will  overwhelm  thee? 
Too  long  have  I  been  tender-hearted  and  forbearing ! 
What  benefit  has  ever  resulted  from  my  mistaken 
clemency?  There  is  no  evil  thou  hast  scrupled  to 
accumulate  upon  me !  Neither  will  I  be  more  scrupu- 
lous 1  Thou  hast  shown  no  mercy ;  and  thou  shalt 
receive  none  !  —  I  must  be  calm  !  bold  as  a  lion,  yet 
collected ! 

This  is  a  moment  pregnant  with  fate.  I  know  —  I 
think  I  know  —  that  I  will  be  triumphant,  and  crush 
my  seemingly  omnipotent  foe.  But,  should  it  be  other- 
wise, at  least  he  shall  not  be  every  way  successful. 
His  fame  shall  not  be  immortal  as  he  thinks.  These 
papers  shall  preserve  the  truth ;  they  shall  one  day  be 
published,  and  then  the  world  shall  do  justice  on  us 
both.  Recollecting  that,  I  shall  not  die  wholly  without 
consolation.  It  is  not  to  be  endured  that  falsehood 
and  tyranny  should  reign  for  ever. 

How  impotent  are  the  precautions  of  man  against 
the  eternally  existing  laws  of  the  intellectual  world  ! 
This  Falkland  has  invented  against  me  every  species 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  437 

of  foul  accusation.  He  has  hunted  me  from  city  to 
city.  He  has  drawn  his  lines  of  circumvallation  round 
me  that  I  may  not  escape.  He  has  kept  his  scenters 
of  human  prey  for  ever  at  my  heels.  He  may  hunt 
me  out  of  the  world.  —  In  vain  I  With  this  engine, 
this  little  pen,  I  defeat  all  his  machinations;  I  stab 
him  in  the  very  point  he  was  most  solicitous  to  de- 
fend! 

Collins !  I  now  address  myself  to  you.  I  have  con- 
sented that  you  should  yield  me  no  assistance  in  my 
present  terrible  situation.  I  am  content  to  die  rather 
than  do  any  thing  injurious  to  your  tranquillity.  But 
remember,  you  are  my  father  still!  I  conjure  you, 
by  all  the  love  you  ever  bore  me,  by  the  benefits  you 
have  conferred  on  me,  by  the  forbearance  and  kindness 
towards  you  that  now  penetrates  my  soul,  by  my  inno- 
cence —  for,  if  these  be  the  last  words  I  shall  ever 
write,  I  die  protesting  my  innocence !  —  by  all  these, 
or  whatever  tie  more  sacred  has  influence  on  your  soul, 
I  conjure  you,  listen  to  my  last  request!  Preserve 
these  papers  from  destruction,  and  preserve  them  from 
Falkland !  It  is  all  I  ask !  I  have  taken  care  to  pro- 
vide a  safe  mode  of  conveying  them  into  your  posses- 
sion :  and  I  have  a  firm  confidence,  which  I  will  not 
suffer  to  depart  from  me,  that  they  will  one  day  find 
their  way  to  the  public ! 

The  pen  lingers  in  my  trembling  fingers !  Is  there 
any  thing  I  have  left  unsaid  ?  —  The  contents  of  the 
fatal  trunk,  from  which  all  my  misfortunes  originated, 
I  have  never  been  able  to  ascertain.  I  once  thought 
it  contained  some  murderous  instrument  or  relic  con- 
nected with  the  fate  of  the  unhappy  Tyrrel.  I  am 
now  persuaded  that  the  secret  it  encloses,  is  a  faithful 
narrative  of  that  and  its  concomitant  transactions, 
written  by  Mr.  Falkland,  and  reserved  in  case  of  the 
F  F  3 


438  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

worst,  that,  if  by  any  unforeseen  event  his  guilt  should 
come  to  be  fully  disclosed,  it  might  contribute  to  re- 
deem the  wreck  of  his  reputation.  But  the  truth  or 
the  falsehood  of  this  conjecture  is  of  little  moment. 
If  Falkland  shall  never  be  detected  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  world,  such  a  narrative  will  probably  never  see 
the  light.  In  that  case  this  story  of  mine  may  amply, 
severely  perhaps,  supply  its  place. 

I  know  not  what  it  is  that  renders  me  thus  solemn. 
I  have  a  secret  foreboding,  as  if  I  should  never  again 
be  master  of  myself.  If  I  succeed  in  what  I  now  me- 
ditate respecting  Falkland,  my  precaution  in  the  dis- 
posal of  these  papers  will  have  been  unnecessary ;  I 
shall  no  longer  be  reduced  to  artifice  and  evasion.  If 
I  fail,  the  precaution  will  appear  to  have  been  wisely 
chosen. 


POSTSCRIPT. 

ALL  is  over.  I  have  carried  into  execution  my  medi- 
tated attempt.  My  situation  is  totally  changed ;  I  now 
sit  down  to  give  an  account  of  it.  For  several  weeks 
after  the  completion  of  this  dreadful  business,  my  mind 
was  in  too  tumultuous  a  state  to  permit  me  to  write. 
I  think  I  shall  now  be  able  to  arrange  my  thoughts 
sufficiently  for  that  purpose.  Great  God !  how  won- 
drous, how  terrible  are  the  events  that  have  intervened 
since  I  was  last  employed  in  a  similar  manner  1  It  is 
no  wonder  that  my  thoughts  were  solemn,  and  my 
mind  filled  with  horrible  forebodings  ! 

Having  formed  my  resolution,  I  set  out  from  Har- 
wich, for  the  metropolitan  town  of  the  county  in  which 
Mr.  Falkland  resided.  Gines,  I  well  knew,  was  in  my 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  439 

rear.  That  was  of  no  consequence  to  me.  He  might 
wonder  at  the  direction  I  pursued,  but  he  could  not  tell 
with  what  purpose  I  pursued  it.  My  design  was  a 
secret,  carefully  locked  up  in  my  own  breast.  It  was 
not  without  a  sentiment  of  terror  that  I  entered  a  town 
which  had  been  the  scene  of  my  long  imprisonment. 
I  proceeded  to  the  house  of  the  chief  magistrate  the 
instant  I  arrived,  that  I  might  give  no  time  to  my  ad- 
rersary  to  counterwork  my  proceeding. 

I  told  him  who  I  was,  and  that  I  was  come  from  a 
distant  part  of  the  kingdom,  for  the  purpose  of  render- 
ing him  the  medium  of  a  charge  of  murder  against  my 
former  patron.  My  name  was  already  familiar  to  him. 
He  answered,  that  he  could  not  take  cognizance  of  my 
deposition ;  that  I  was  an  object  of  universal  execration 
in  that  part  of  the  world;  and  he  was  determined  upon 
no  account  to  be  the  vehicle  of  my  depravity. 

I  warned  him  to  consider  well  what  he  was  doing. 
I  called  upon  him  for  no  favour ;  I  only  applied  to  him 
in  the  regular  exercise  of  his  function.  Would  he  take 
upon  him  to  say  that  he  had  a  right,  at  his  pleasure  to 
suppress  a  charge  of  this  complicated  nature?  I  had 
to  accuse  Mr.  Falkland  of  repeated  murders.  The 
perpetrator  knew  that  I  was  in  possession  o"f  the  truth 
upon  the  subject ;  and,  knowing  that,  I  went  perpe- 
tually in  danger  of  my  life  from  his  malice  and  revenge. 
I  was  resolved  to  go  through  with  the  business,  if 
justice  were  to  be  obtained  from  any  court  in  England. 
Upon  what  pretence  did  he  refuse  my  deposition  ?  I 
was  in  every  respect  a  competent  witness.  I  was  of 
age  to  understand  the  nature  of  an  oath  ;  I  was  in  my 
perfect  senses;  I  was  untarnished  by  the  verdict  of 
any  jury,  or  the  sentence  of  any  judge.  His  private 
opinion  of  my  character  could  not  alter  the  law  of  the 
land.  I  demanded  to  be  confronted  with  Mr.  Falkland* 
F  F  4 


440  CALEB     WILLIAMS. 

and  I  was  well  assured  I  should  substantiate  the  charge 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  whole  world.  If  he  did  not 
think  proper  to  apprehend  him  upon  my  single  testi- 
mony, I  should  be  satisfied  if  he  only  sent  him  notice 
of  the  charge,  and  summoned  him  to  appear. 

The  magistrate,  finding  me  thus  resolute,  thought 
proper  a  little  to  lower  his  tone.  He  no  longer  abso- 
lutely refused  to  comply  with  my  requisition,  but  con- 
descended to  expostulate  with  me.  He  represented  to 
me  Mr.  Falkland's  health,  which  had  for  some  years 
been  exceedingly  indifferent;  his  having  been  once 
already  brought  to  the  most  solemn  examination  upon 
this  charge ;  the  diabolical  malice  in  which  alone  my 
proceeding  must  have  originated ;  and  the  ten-fold  ruin 
it  would  bring  down  upon  my  head.  To  all  these 
representations  my  answer  was  short.  "  I  was  deter- 
mined to  go  on,  and  would  abide  the  consequences." 
A  summons  was  at  length  granted,  and  notice  sent  to 
Mr.  Falkland  of  the  charge  preferred  against  him. 

Three  days  elapsed  before  any  further  step  could  be 
taken  in  this  business.  This  interval  in  no  degree  con- 
tributed to  tranquillise  my  mind.  The  thought  of  pre- 
ferring a  capital  accusation  against,  and  hastening  the 
death  of,  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Falkland,  was  by  no  means 
an  opiate  to  reflection.  At  one  time  I  commended  the 
action,  either  as  just  revenge  (for  the  benevolence  of 
my  nature  was  in  a  great  degree  turned  to  gall),  or  as 
necessary  self-defence,  or  as  that  which,  in  an  impartial 
and  philanthropical  estimate,  included  the  smallest  evil. 
At  another  time  I  was  haunted  with  doubts.  But,  in 
spite  of  these  variations  of  sentiment,  I  uniformly  deter- 
mined to  persist!  I  felt  as  if  impelled  by  a  tide  of 
unconquerable  impulse.  The  consequences  were  such 
as  might  well  appal  the  stoutest  heart.  Either  the 
ignominious  execution  of  a  man  whom  I  had  once  so 


CALEB   WILLIAMS.  441 

deeply  venerated,  and  whom  now  I  sometimes  sus- 
pected not  to  be  without  his  claims  to  veneration ;  or  a 
confirmation,  perhaps  an  increase,  of  the  calamities  I 
had  so  long  endured.  Yet  these  I  preferred  to  a  state 
of  uncertainty.  I  desired  to  know  the  worst ;  to  put 
an  end  to  the  hope,  however  faint,  which  had  been  so 
long  my  torment ;  and,  above  all,  to  exhaust  and  finish 
the  catalogue  of  expedients  that  were  at  my  disposition. 
My  mind  was  worked  up  to  a  state  little  short  of  frenzy. 
My  body  was  in  a  burning  fever  with  the  agitation  of 
my  thoughts.  When  I  laid  my  hand  upon  my  bosom 
or  my  head,  it  seemed  to  scorch  them  with  the  fer- 
vency of  its  heat.  I  could  not  sit  still  for  a  moment. 
I  panted  with  incessant  desire  that  the  dreadful  crisis 
I  had  so  eagerly  invoked,  were  come,  and  were  over. 

After  an  interval  of  three  days,  I  met  Mr.  Falkland 
in  the  presence  of  the  magistrate  to  whom  I  had  ap- 
plied upon  the  subject.  I  had  only  two  hours'  notice 
to  prepare  myself;  Mr.  Falkland  seeming  as  eager  as  I 
to  have  the  question  brought  to  a  crisis,  and  laid  at  rest 
for  ever.  I  had  an  opportunity,  before  the  examination, 
to  learn  that  Mr.  Forester  was  drawn  by  some  business 
on  an  excursion  on  the  continent ;  and  that  Collins, 
whose  health  when  I  saw  him  was  in  a  very  precarious 
state,  was  at  this  time  confined  with  an  alarming  illness. 
His  constitution  had  been  wholly  broken  by  his  West 
Indian  expedition.  The  audience  I  met  at  the  house 
of  the  magistrate  consisted  of  several  gentlemen  and 
others  selected  for  the  purpose ;  the  plan  being,  in  some 
respects,  as  in  the  former  instance,  to  find  a  medium 
between  the  suspicious  air  of  a  private  examination, 
and  the  indelicacy,  as  it  was  styled,  of  an  examination 
exposed  to  the  remark  of  every  casual  spectator. 

I  can  conceive  of  no  shock  greater  than  that  I  re- 
ceived from  the  sight  of  Mr.  Falkland.  His  appear- 


442  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

ance  on  the  last  occasion  on  which  we  met  had  been 
haggard,  ghost-like,  and  wild,  energy  in  his  gestures, 
and  frenzy  in  his  aspect.  It  was  now  the  appearance 
of  a  corpse.  He  was  brought  in  in  a  chair,  unable  to 
stand,  fatigued  and  almost  destroyed  by  the  journey  he 
had  just  taken.  His  visage  was  colourless ;  his  limbs 
destitute  of  motion,  almost  of  life.  His  head  reclined 
upon  his  bosom,  except  that  now  and  then  he  lifted  it 
up,  and  opened  his  eyes  with  a  languid  glance ;  imme- 
diately after  which  he  sunk  back  into  his  former  appa- 
rent insensibility.  He  seemed  not  to  have  three  hours 
to  live.  He  had  kept  his  chamber  for  several  weeks ; 
but  the  summons  of  the  magistrate  had  been  delivered 
to  him  at  his  bed-side,  his  orders  respecting  letters  and 
written  papers  being  so  peremptory  that  no  one  dared 
to  disobey  them.  Upon  reading  the  paper  he  was 
seized  with  a  very  dangerous  fit;  but,  as  soon  as  he 
recovered,  he  insisted  upon  being  conveyed,  with  all 
practicable  expedition,  to  the  place  of  appointment. 
Falkland,  in  the  most  helpless  state,  was  still  Falkland, 
firm  in  command,  and  capable  to  extort  obedience  from 
every  one  that  approached  him. 

What  a  sight  was  this  to  me !  Till  the  moment 
that  Falkland  was  presented  to  my  view,  my  breast 
was  steeled  to  pity.  I  thought  that  I  had  coolly  entered 
into  the  reason  of  the  case  (passion,  in  a  state  of 
solemn  and  omnipotent  vehemence,  always  appears  to 
be  coolness  to  him  in  whom  it  domineers),  and  that  I 
had  determined  impartially  and  justly.  I  believed 
that,  if  Mr.  Falkland  were  permitted  to  persist  in  his 
schemes,  we  must  both  of  us  be  completely  wretched' 
I  believed  that  it  was  in  my  power,  by  the  resolution  I 
had  formed,  to  throw  my  share  of  this  wretchedness 
from  me,  and  that  his  could  scarcely  be  increased.  It 
appeared  therefore  to  my  mind,  to  be  a  mere  piece  of 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  443 

equity  and  justice,  such  as  an  impartial  spectator  would 
desire,  that  one  person  should  be  miserable  in  pre- 
ference to  two;  that  one  person  rather  than  two  should 
be  incapacitated  from  acting  his  part,  and  contributing 
his  share  to  the  general  welfare.  I  thought  that  in 
this  business  I  had  risen  superior  to  personal  con- 
siderations, and  judged  with  a  total  neglect  of  the 
suggestions  of  self-regard.  It  is  true,  Mr.  Falkland  was 
mortal ;  but,  notwithstanding  his  apparent  decay,  he 
might  live  long.  Ought  I  to  submit  to  waste  the  best 
years  of  my  life  in  my  present  wretched  situation? 
He  had  declared  that  his  reputation  should  be  for  ever 
inviolate  ;  this  was  his  ruling  passion,  the  thought  that 
worked  his  soul  to  madness.  He  would  probably  there- 
fore leave  a  legacy  of  persecution  to  be  received  by 
me  from  the  hands  of  Gines,  or  some  other  villain 
equally  atrocious,  when  he  should  himself  be  no  more. 
Now  or  never  was  the  time  for  me  to  redeem  my 
future  life  from  endless  woe. 

But  all  these  fine-spun  reasonings  vanished  before 
the  object  that  was  now  presented  to  me.  "  Shall  I 
trample  upon  a  man  thus  dreadfully  reduced?  Shall  I 
point  my  animosity  against  one,  whom  the  system  of 
nature  has  brought  down  to  the  grave  ?  Shall  I  poison, 
with  sounds  the  most  intolerable  to  his  ears,  the  last 
moments  of  a  man  like  Falkland  ?  It  is  impossible. 
There  must  have  been  some  dreadful  mistake  in  the 
train  of  argument  that  persuaded  me  to  be  the  author 
of  this  hateful  scene.  There  must  have  been  a  better 
and  more  magnanimous  remedy  to  the  evils  under 
which  I  groaned." 

It  was  too  late :  the  mistake  I  had  committed  was 
now  gone  past  all  power  of  recall.  Here  was  Falkland, 
solemnly  brought  before  a  magistrate  to  answer  to  a 
charge  of  murder.  Here  I  stood,  having  already  de- 


444>  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

clared  myself  the  author  of  the  charge,  gravely  and 
sacredly  pledged  to  support  it.  This  was  my  situation ; 
and,  thus  situated,  I  was  called  upon  immediately  to 
act.  My  whole  frame  shook.  I  would  eagerly  have 
consented  that  that  moment  should  have  been  the  last 
of  my  existence.  I  however  believed,  that  the  conduct 
now  most  indispensably  incumbent  on  me  was  to  lay 
the  emotions  of  my  soul  naked  before  my  hearers.  I 
looked  first  at  Mr.  Falkland,  and  then  at  the  magistrate 
and  attendants,  and  then  at  Mr.  Falkland  again.  My 
voice  was  suffocated  with  agony.  I  began  :  — 

"  Why  cannot  I  recall  the  last  four  days  of  my  life? 
How  was  it  possible  for  me  to  be  so  eager,  so  obstinate, 
in  a  purpose  so  diabolical  ?  Oh,  that  I  had  listened  to 
the  expostulations  of  the  magistrate  that  hears  me,  or 
submitted  to  the  well-meant  despotism  of  his  authority  I 
Hitherto  I  have  been  only  miserable ;  henceforth  I 
shall  account  myself  base !  Hitherto,  though  hardly 
treated  by  mankind,  I  stood  acquitted  at  the  bar  of  my 
own  conscience.  I  had  not  filled  up  the  measure  of 
my  wretchedness  I 

"  Would  to  God  it  were  possible  for  me  to  retire 
from  this  scene  without  uttering  another  word !  I 
would  brave  the  consequences  —  I  would  submit  to  any 
imputation  of  cowardice,  falsehood,  and  profligacy, 
rather  than  add  to  the  weight  of  misfortune  with  which 
Mr.  Falkland  is  overwhelmed.  But  the  situation,  and 
the  demands  of  Mr.  Falkland  himself,  forbid  me.  He, 
in  compassion  for  whose  fallen  state  I  would  willingly 
forget  every  interest  of  my  own,  would  compel  me  to 
accuse,  that  he  might  enter  upon  his  justification.  I 
will  confess  every  sentiment  of  my  heart. 

"  No  penitence,  no  anguish,  can  expiate  the  folly 
and  the  cruelty  of  this  last  act  I  have  perpetrated. 
But  Mr.  Falkland  well  knows  —  I  affirm  it  in  his  pre- 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  445 

sence— how  unwillingly  I  have  proceeded  to  this  ex- 
tremity. I  have  reverenced  him;  he  was  worthy  of 
reverence :  I  have  loved  him ;  he  was  endowed  with 
qualities  that  partook  of  divine. 

"  From  the  first  moment  I  saw  him,  I  conceived  the 
most  ardent  admiration.  He  condescended  to  en- 
courage me ;  I  attached  myself  to  him  with  the  fulness 
of  my  affection.  He  was  unhappy  ;  I  exerted  myself 
with  youthful  curiosity  to  discover  the  secret  of  his 
woe.  This  was  the  beginning  of  misfortune. 

"What  shall  I  say? — He  was  indeed  the  murderer  of 
Tyrrel ;  he  suffered  the  Hawkinses  to  be  executed, 
knowing  that  they  were  innocent,  and  that  he  alone 
was  guilty.  After  successive  surmises,  after  various 
indiscretions  on  my  part,  and  indications  on  his,  he  at 
length  confided  to  me  at  full  the  fatal  tale  I 

"  Mr.  Falkland  !  I  most  solemnly  conjure  you  to  re- 
collect yourself!  Did  I  ever  prove  myself  unworthy 
of  your  confidence  ?  The  secret  was  a  most  painful 
burthen  to  me  ;  it  was  the  extremest  folly  that  led  me 
unthinkingly  to  gain  possession  of  it ;  but  I  would  have 
died  a  thousand  deaths  rather  than  betray  it.  It  was 
the  jealousy  of  your  own  thoughts,  and  the  weight  that 
hung  upon  your  mind,  that  led  you  to  watch  my  mo- 
tions, and  to  conceive  alarm  from  every  particle  of  my 
conduct. 

"You  began  in  confidence;  why  did  you  not  continue 
in  confidence?  The  evil  that  resulted  from  my 
original  imprudence  would  then  have  been  compar- 
atively little.  You  threatened  me :  did  I  then  betray 
you  ?  A  word  from  my  lips  at  that  time  would  have 
freed  me  from  your  threats  for  ever.  I  bore  them  for 
a  considerable  period,  and  at  Mast  quitted  your  service, 
and  threw  myself  a  fugitive  upon  the  world,  in  silence. 
Why  did  you  not  suffer  me  to  depart?  You  brought 


4-4-6  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

me  back  by  stratagem  and  violence,  and  wantonly 
accused  me  of  an  enormous  felony  !  Did  I  then  mention 
a  syllable  of  the  murder,  the  secret  of  which  was  in  my 
possession  ? 

"  Where  is  the  man  that  has  suffered  more  from  the 
injustice  of  society  than  I  have  done  ?  I  was  accused 
of  a  villainy  that  my  heart  abhorred.  I  was  sent  to 
jail.  I  will  not  enumerate  the  horrors  of  my  prison, 
the  lightest  of  which  would  make  the  heart  of  humanity 
shudder.  I  looked  forward  to  the  gallows  !  Young, 
ambitious,  fond  of  life,  innocent  as  the  child  unborn,  I 
looked  forward  to  the  gallows !  I  believed  that  one 
word  of  resolute  accusation  against  my  patron  would 
deliver  me ;  yet  I  was  silent,  I  armed  myself  with 
patience,  uncertain  whether  it  were  better  to  accuse  or 
to  die.  Did  this  show  me  a  man  unworthy  to  be 
trusted  ? 

"  I  determined  to  break  out  of  prison.  With  infinite 
difficulty,  and  repeated  miscarriages,  I  at  length  effected 
my  purpose.  Instantly  a  proclamation,  with  a  hundred 
guineas  reward,  was  issued  for  apprehending  me.  I 
was  obliged  to  take  shelter  among  the  refuse  of  man- 
kind, in  the  midst  of  a  gang  of  thieves.  I  encountered 
the  most  imminent  peril  of  my  life  when  I  entered 
this  retreat,  and  when  I  quitted  it.  Immediately  after, 
I  travelled  almost  the  whole  length  of  the  kingdom,  in 
poverty  and  distress,  in  hourly  danger  of  being  re-taken 
and  manacled  like  a  felon.  I  would  have  fled  my 
country ;  I  was  prevented.  I  had  recourse  to  various 
disguises ;  I  was  innocent,  and  yet  was  compelled  to  as 
many  arts  and  subterfuges  as  could  have  been  entailed 
on  the  worst  of  villains.  In  London  I  was  as  much 
harassed  and  as  repeatedly  alarmed  as  I  had  been  in 
my  flight  through  the  country.  Did  all  these  perse- 
cutions persuade  me  to  put  an  end  to  my  silence? 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  44-7 

No :  I  suffered  them  with  patience  and  submission  ;  I 
did  not  make  one  attempt  to  retort  them  upon  their 
author. 

I  fell  at  last  into  the  hands  of  the  miscreants  that  are 
nourished  with  human  blood.  In  this  terrible  situation 
I,  for  the  first  time,  attempted,  by  turning  informer,  to 
throw  the  weight  from  myself.  Happily  for  me,  the 
London  magistrate  listened  to  my  tale  with  insolent 
contempt. 

"  I  soon,  and  long,  repented  of  my  rashness,  and  re- 
joiced in  my  miscarriage. 

"  I  acknowledge  that,  in  various  ways,  Mr.  Falkland 
showed  humanity  towards  me  during  this  period.  He 
would  have  prevented  my  going  to  prison  at  first ;  he 
contributed  towards  my  subsistence  during  my  de- 
tention ;  he  had  no  share  in  the  pursuit  that  had  been 
set  on  foot  against  me  ;  he  at  length  procured  my  dis- 
charge, when  brought  forward  for  trial.  But  a  great 
part  of  his  forbearance  was  unknown  to  me  ;  I  sup- 
posed him  to  be  my  unrelenting  pursuer.  I  could  not 
forget  that,  whoever  heaped  calamities  on  me  in  the 
sequel,  they  all  originated  in  his  forged  accusation. 

"The  prosecution  against  me  for  felony  was  now  at 
an  end.  Why  were  not  my  sufferings  permitted  to 
terminate  then,  and  I  allowed  to  hide  my  weary  head 
in  some  obscure  yet  tranquil  retreat  ?  Had  I  not  suf- 
ficiently proved  my  constancy  and  fidelity  ?  Would  not 
a  compromise  in  this  situation  have  been  most  wise 
and  most  secure?  But  the  restless  and  jealous  anxiety 
of  Mr.  Falkland  would  not  permit  him  to  repose  the 
least  atom  of  confidence.  The  only  compromise  that 
he  proposed  was  that,  with  my  own  hand,  I  should 
sijm  myself  a  villain.  I  refused  this  proposal,  and  have 
ever  since  been  driven  from  place  to  place,  deprived  of 
peace,  of  honest  fame,  even  of  bread.  For  a  long  time 


448  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

I  persisted  in  the  resolution  that  no  emergency  should 
convert  me  into  the  assailant.  In  an  evil  hour  I  at 
last  listened  to  my  resentment  and  impatience,  and  the 
hateful  mistake  into  which  I  fell  has  produced  the 
present  scene. 

"  I  now  see  that  mistake  in  all  its  enormity.  I  am 
sure  that  if  I  had  .opened  my  heart  to  Mr.  Falkland, 
if  I  had  told  to  him  privately  the  tale  that  I  have  now 
been  telling,  he  could  not  have  resisted  my  reasonable 
demand.  After  all  his  precautions,  lie  must  ultimately 
have  depended  upon  my  forbearance.  Could  he  be 
sure  that,  if  I  were  at  last  worked  up  to  disclose  every 
thing  I  knew,  and  to  enforce  it  with]  all  the  energy  I 
could  exert,  I  should  obtain  no  credit  ?  If  he  must  in 
every  case  be  at  my  mercy,  in  which  mode  ought  he  to 
have  sought  his  safety,  in  conciliation,  or  in  inexorable 
cruelty  ? 

"  Mr.  Falkland  is  of  a  noble  nature.  Yes ;  in  spite  of 
the  catastrophe  of  Tyrrel,  of  the  miserable  end  of  the 
Hawkinses,  and  of  all  that  I  have  myself  suffered,  I 
affirm  that  he  has  qualities  of  the  most  admirable  kind. 
It  is  therefore  impossible  that  he  could  have  resisted 
a  frank  and  fervent  expostulation,  the  frankness  and 
the  fervour  in  which  the  whole  soul  is  poured  out. 
I  despaired,  while  it  was  yet  time  to  have  made  the 
just  experiment  ;  but  my  despair  was  criminal,  was 
treason  against  the  sovereignty  of  truth. 

"  I  have  told  a  plain  and  unadulterated  tale.  I  came 
hither  to  curse,  but  I  remain  to  bless.  I  came  to  ac- 
cuse, but  am  compelled  to  applaud.  I  proclaim  to  all 
the  world,  that  Mr.  Falkland  is  a  man  worthy  of  af- 
fection and  kindness,  and  that  I  am  myself  the  basest 
and  most  odious  of  mankind  !  Never  will  I  forgive  my- 
self the  iniquity  of  this  day.  The  memory  will  always 
haunt  me,  and  embitter  every  hour  of  my  existence. 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  44-9 

In  thus  acting  I  have  been  a  murderer  — a  cool,  de- 
liberate, unfeeling  murderer. — I  have  said  what  my 
accursed  precipitation  has  obliged  me  to  say.  Do  with 
me  as  you  please  !  I  ask  no  favour.  Death  would  be  a 
kindness,  compared  to  what  I  feel  J" 

Such  were  the  accents  dictated  by  my  remorse.  I 
poured  them  out  with  uncontrollable  impetuosity ;  for 
my  heart  was  pierced,  and  I  was  compelled  to  give 
vent  to  its  anguish.  Every  one  that  heard  me,  was 
petrified  with  astonishment.  Every  one  that  heard  me, 
Wit  melted  into  tears.  They  could  not  resist  the  ardour 
with  which  I  praised  the  great  qualities  of  Falkland ; 
they  manifested  their  sympathy  in  the  tokens  of  my 
penitence. 

How  xhall  I  describe  the  feelings  of  this  unfortunate 
man  ?  Before  I  began,  he  seemed  sunk  and  debilitated, 
incapable  of  any  strenuous  impression.  When  I  men- 
tioned the  murder,  I  could  perceive  in  him  an  involun- 
tary shuddering,  though  it  was  counteracted  partly  by 
the  feebleness  of  his  frame,  and  partly  by  the  energy 
of  his  mind.  This  was  an  allegation  he  expected,  and 
he  had  endeavoured  to  prepare  himself  for  it.  But 
there  was  much  of  what  I  said,  of  which  he  had  had  no 
previous  conception.  When  I  expressed  the  anguish 
of  my  mind,  he  seemed  at  first  startled  and  alarmed, 
lest  this  should  be  a  new  expedient  to  gain  credit  to 
my  tale.  His  indignation  against  me  was  great  for 
having  retained  all  my  resentment  towards  him,  thus, 
as  it  might  be,  to  the  last  hour  of  his  existence.  It  was 
increased  when  he  discovered  me,  as  he  supposed, 
using  a  pretence  of  liberality  and  sentiment  to  give 
new  edge  to  my  hostility.  But  as  I  went  on  he  could 
no  longer  resist.  He  saw  my  sincerity ;  he  was  pene- 
trated with  my  grief  and  compunction.  He  rose  from 
his  seat,  supported  by  the  attendants,  and  — to  my  in- 
finite astonishment  — threw  himself  into  my  arms  ! 
G  G 


4-50  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

"  Williams,"  said  he,  "  you  have  conquered  !  I  see 
too  late  the  greatness  and  elevation  of  your  mind.  I 
confess  that  it  is  to  my  fault  and  not  yours,  that  it  is 
to  the  excess  of  jealousy  that  was  ever  burning  in  my 
bosom,  that  I  owe  my  ruin.  I  could  have  resisted  any 
plan  of  malicious  accusation  you  might  have  brought 
against  me.  But  I  see  that  the  artless  and  manly 
story  you  have  told,  has  carried  conviction  to  every 
hearer.  All  my  prospects  are  concluded.  All  that  I 
most  ardently  desired,  is  for  ever  frustrated.  I  have 
spent  a  life  of  the  basest  cruelty,  to  cover  one  act  of 
momentary  vice,  and  to  protect  myself  against  the 
prejudices  of  my  species.  I  stand  now  completely  de- 
tected. My  name  will  be  consecrated  to  infamy,  while 
your  heroism,  your  patience,  and  your  virtues  will  be 
for  ever  admired.  You  have  inflicted  on  me  the  most 
fatal  of  all  mischiefs ;  but  I  bless  the  hand  that  wounds 
me.  And  now,"  —  turning  to  the  magistrate  —  "and 
now,  do  with  me  as  you  please.  I  am  prepared  to  suffer 
all  the  vengeance  of  the  law.  You  cannot  inflict  on  me 
more  than  I  deserve.  You  cannot  hate  me,  more  than 
I  hate  myself.  I  am  the  most  execrable  of  all  villains. 
I  have  for  many  years  (I  know  not  how  long)  dragged 
on  a  miserable  existence  in  insupportable  pain.  I  am 
at  last,  in  recompense  for  all  my  labours  and  my  crimes, 
dismissed  from  it  with  the  disappointment  of  my  only 
remaining  hope,  the  destruction  of  that  for  the  sake  of 
which  alone  I  consented  to  exist.  It  was  worthy  of 
such  a  life,  that  it  should  continue  just  long  enough  to 
witness  this  final  overthrow.  If  however  you  wish  to 
punish  me,  you  must  be  speedy  in  your  justice  ;  for,  as 
reputation  was  the  blood  that  warmed  my  heart,  so  I 
feel  that  death  and  infamy  must  seize  me  together." 

I  record  the  praises  bestowed  on  me  by  Falkland, 
not  because  I  deserved  them,  but  because  they  serve 
to  aggravate  the  baseness  of  my  cruelty.  He  survived 


CALEB    WILLIAMS.  451 

this  dreadful  scene  but  three  days.  I  have  been  his 
murderer.  It  was  fit  that  he  should  praise  my  patience, 
who  has  fallen  a  victim,  life  and  fame,  to  my  precipi- 
tation !  It  would  have  been  merciful  in  comparison,  if 
I  had  planted  a  dagger  in  his  heart.  He  would  have 
thanked  me  for  my  kindness.  But,  atrocious,  execrable 
wretch  that  I  have  been  I  I  wantonly  inflicted  on  him 
an  anguish  a  thousand  times  worse  than  death.  Mean- 
while I  endure  the  penalty  of  my  crime.  His  figure  is 
ever  in  imagination  before  me.  Waking  or  sleeping,  I 
still  behold  him.  He  seems  mildly  to  expostulate  with 
me  for  my  unfeeling  behaviour.  I  live  the  devoted 
victim  of  conscious  reproach.  Alas !  I  am  the  same 
Caleb  Williams  that,  so  short  a  time  ago,  boasted  that, 
however  great  were  the  calamities  I  endured,  I  was  still 
innocent. 

Such  has  been  the  result  of  a  project  I  formed,  for 
delivering  myself  from  the  evil  that  had  so  long  at- 
tended me.  I  thought  that,  if  Falkland  were  dead,  I 
should  return  once  again  to  all  that  makes  life  worth 
possessing.  I  thought  that,  if  the  guilt  of  Falkland 
were  established,  fortune  and  the  world  would  smile 
upon  my  efforts.  Both  these  events  are  accomplished ; 
and  it  is  now  only  that  I  am  truly  miserable. 

Why  should  my  reflections  perpetually  centre  upon 
myself? — self,  an  overweening  regard  to  which  has 
been  the  source  of  my  errors  !  Falkland,  I  will  think 
only  of  thee,  and  from  that  thought  will  draw  ever- 
fresh  nourishment  for  my  sorrows!  One  generous, 
one  disinterested  tear  I  will  consecrate  to  thy  ashes ! 
A  nobler  spirit  lived  not  among  the  sons  of  men.  Thy 
intellectual  powers  were  truly  sublime,  and  thy  bosom 
burned  with  a  godlike  ambition.  But  of  what  use  are 
talents  and  sentiments  in  the  corrupt  wilderness  of 
human  society?  It  is  a  rank  and  rotten  soil,  from 
which  every  finer  shrub  draws  poison  as  it  grows.  All 


452  CALEB    WILLIAMS. 

that,  in  a  happier  field  and  a  purer  air,  would  expand 
into  virtue  and  germinate  into  usefulness,  is  thus  con- 
verted into  henbane  and  deadly  nightshade. 

Falkland !  thou  enteredst  upon  thy  career  with  the 
purest  and  most  laudable  intentions.  But  thou  im- 
bibedst  the  poison  of  chivalry  with  thy  earliest  youth  ; 
and  the  base  and  low-minded  envy  that  met  thee  on 
thy  return  to  thy  native  seats,  operated  with  this  poison 
to  hurry  thee  into  madness.  Soon,  too  soon,  by  this 
fatal  coincidence,  were  the  blooming  hopes  of  thy 
youth  blasted  for  ever.  From  that  moment  thou  only 
continuedst  to  live  to  the  phantom  of  departed  honour. 
From  that  moment  thy  benevolence  was,  in  a  great 
part,  turned  into  rankling  jealousy  and  inexorable  pre- 
caution. Year  after  year  didst  thou  spend  in  this  mi- 
serable project  of  imposture  ;  and  only  at  last  con- 
tinuedst to  live,  long  enough  to  see,  by  my  misjudging 
and  abhorred  intervention,  thy  closing  hope  disap- 
pointed, and  thy  death  accompanied  with  the  foulest 
disgrace  ! 

I  began  these  memoirs  with  the  idea  of  vindicating 
my  character.  I  have  now  no  character  that  I  wish  to 
vindicate  :  but  I  will  finish  them  that  thy  story  may 
be  fully  understood ;  and  that,  if  those  errors  of  thy 
life  be  known  which  thou  so  ardently  desiredst  to 
conceal,  the  world  may  at  least  not  hear  and  repeat  a 
half-told  and  mangled  tale. 


THE    END. 


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