. But this sympathy was not
a barren sentiment. My purse, scanty as it was, was ever open, and my
hands ever active, to relieve distress. Many were the wretches whom
my personal exertions had extricated from want and disease, and who
rewarded me with their gratitude. There was no face which lowered at my
approach, and no lips which uttered imprecations in my hearing. On the
contrary, there was none, over whose fate I had exerted any influence,
or to whom I was known by reputation, who did not greet me with smiles,
and dismiss me with proofs of veneration; yet did not my senses assure
me that a plot was laid against my life?

I am not destitute of courage. I have shewn myself deliberative and calm
in the midst of peril. I have hazarded my own life, for the preservation
of another, but now was I confused and panic struck. I have not lived
so as to fear death, yet to perish by an unseen and secret stroke, to be
mangled by the knife of an assassin was a thought at which I shuddered;
what had I done to deserve to be made the victim of malignant passions?

But soft! was I not assured, that my life was safe in all places but
one? And why was the treason limited to take effect in this spot? I
was every where equally defenceless. My house and chamber were, at all
times, accessible. Danger still impended over me; the bloody purpose was
still entertained, but the hand that was to execute it, was powerless in
all places but one!

Here I had remained for the last four or five hours, without the means
of resistance or defence, yet I had not been attacked. A human being was
at hand, who was conscious of my presence, and warned me hereafter to
avoid this retreat. His voice was not absolutely new, but had I never
heard it but once before? But why did he prohibit me from relating
this incident to others, and what species of death will be awarded if I
disobey?

He talked of my father. He intimated, that disclosure would pull upon my
head, the same destruction. Was then the death of my father, portentous
and inexplicable as it was, the consequence of human machinations? It
should seem, that this being is apprised of the true nature of this
event, and is conscious of the means that led to it. Whether it shall
likewise fall upon me, depends upon the observance of silence. Was it
the infraction of a similar command, that brought so horrible a penalty
upon my father?

Such were the reflections that haunted me during the night, and which