h 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 uncommon in houses so old as that of Mr. Falkland, and which
had perhaps served as a refuge from persecution, 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 unaccountably
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 horse-path on the outside.

I could scarcely believe my good fortune in having thus far executed my
design without interruption. The terrible images Mr. Falkland's menaces
had suggested 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 imperiously
pronounced, to think it necessary to take precautions 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 experi