ation, I
insinuate remorse--let me confess that I still do so with an
undeniable leaven of envy; envy at the lawless liberty I enjoyed, not
only with regard to my actions, but to my conscience; revelling in a
deficiency of forethought and blindness of consequences, as truly
delightful for the present, as overwhelming and deplorable for the
future.

I was not aware that "coming events cast their shadows before;" and,
alas! that past ones, leave them.

But there was one thing of which I was aware, and of which persons
rarely are, at the time,--I knew that I was happy; yet I deemed that
this ought not to be, so long as I remained subject to any trace of
palpable, or, as I then thought, irrational restraint.

In truth, like a good many other foolish fellows of that age, I began
to entertain no small opinion of myself. I now felt that it was
degrading to be shut in each night, like sheep within a fold, or to
peep through the grated windows like a felon, and that I would not
rest until I had freed myself from such restraints.

The impediments and risks opposed to my design were great, but my
fortune, or misfortune, carried me through them all.

On examining the different windows of the house with this intention, I
at last found one which I judged to offer greater facilities than any
other; but as it was in the room of two other boys, it became
necessary that I should intrust them with the matter. As, of course,
they were also to be participators in the benefits arising from the
success of our attempt, they were happy to join me.

It occupied but little time to make our preparations for the sortie.
The bars of this window were placed so widely apart, that by taking
off our coats and waistcoats, we could each squeeze through. We had,
then, only to subscribe the ropes of our trunks, and saw off the legs
of our chairs, and in a few minutes we possessed a lengthy
rope-ladder. We now went to bed, appointing three-o'clock in the
morning for the hour of our first sally. Notwithstanding the height
from the ground, and our suspicions of the weakness of our ropes, so
eager was each to be the first to descend, that we drew lots for the
precedence. This fell to Bush, who instantly commenced his descent,
and the next moment, the silence of night was dispersed by the awful
crashing and jingling of apparently a hundred panes of glass! Both
legs and half of his body had passed directly through the window
below. We had conjectured that