for a season, and you see what the issue has been. You have given some
evil ones power over you, who long to devour you, both soul and body,
and it has required all my power and influence to save you. Had it not
been for my hand, you had been torn in pieces last night; but for once
I prevailed. We must leave this land forthwith, for here there is
neither peace, safety, nor comfort for us. Do you now and here pledge
yourself to one who has so often saved your life and has put his own at
stake to do so? Do you pledge yourself that you will henceforth be
guided by my counsel, and follow me whithersoever I choose to lead?"

"I have always been swayed by your counsel," said I, "and for your
sake, principally, am I sorry that all our measures have proved
abortive. But I hope still to be useful in my native isle, therefore
let me plead that your highness will abandon a poor despised and
outcast wretch to his fate, and betake you to your realms, where your
presence cannot but be greatly wanted."

"Would that I could do so!" said he woefully. "But to talk of that is
to talk of an impossibility. I am wedded to you so closely that I feel
as if I were the same person. Our essences are one, our bodies and
spirits being united, so that I am drawn towards you as by magnetism,
and, wherever you are, there must my presence be with you."

Perceiving how this assurance affected me, he began to chide me most
bitterly for my ingratitude; and then he assumed such looks that it was
impossible for me longer to bear them; therefore I staggered out of the
way, begging and beseeching of him to give me up to my fate, and hardly
knowing what I said; for it struck me that, with all his assumed
appearance of misery and wretchedness, there were traits of exultation
in his hideous countenance, manifesting a secret and inward joy at my
utter despair.

It was long before I durst look over my shoulder, but, when I did so, I
perceived this ruined and debased potentate coming slowly on the same
path, and I prayed that the Lord would hide me in the bowels of the
earth or depths of the sea. When I crossed the Tweed, I perceived him
still a little behind me; and, my despair being then at its height, I
cursed the time I first met with such a tormentor; though on a little
recollection it occurred that it was at that blessed time when I was
solemnly dedicated to the Lord, and assured of my final election, and
confirmation, by an eternal decree never to be ann