mony be believed, in opposition to that
plausible exterior, and, perhaps, to that general integrity, which
Thetford has maintained? To myself it will not be unprofitable. It is a
lesson on the principles of human nature; on the delusiveness of
appearances; on the perviousness of fraud; and on the power with which
nature has invested human beings over the thoughts and actions of each
other.

Thetford and his frauds were dismissed from my thoughts, to give place
to considerations relative to Clemenza Lodi, and the money which chance
had thrown into my possession. Time had only confirmed my purpose to
restore these bills to the rightful proprietor, and heightened my
impatience to discover her retreat. I reflected, that the means of doing
this were more likely to suggest themselves at the place to which I was
going than elsewhere. I might, indeed, perish before my views, in this
respect, could be accomplished. Against these evils I had at present no
power to provide. While I lived, I would bear perpetually about me the
volume and its precious contents. If I died, a superior power must
direct the course of this as of all other events.

CHAPTER XV.

These meditations did not enfeeble my resolution, or slacken my pace. In
proportion as I drew near the city, the tokens of its calamitous
condition became more apparent. Every farm-house was filled with
supernumerary tenants, fugitives from home, and haunting the skirts of
the road, eager to detain every passenger with inquiries after news. The
passengers were numerous; for the tide of emigration was by no means
exhausted. Some were on foot, bearing in their countenances the tokens
of their recent terror, and filled with mournful reflections on the
forlornness of their state. Few had secured to themselves an asylum;
some were without the means of paying for victuals or lodging for the
coming night; others, who were not thus destitute, yet knew not whither
to apply for entertainment, every house being already overstocked with
inhabitants, or barring its inhospitable doors at their approach.

Families of weeping mothers and dismayed children, attended with a few
pieces of indispensable furniture, were carried in vehicles of every
form. The parent or husband had perished; and the price of some movable,
or the pittance handed forth by public charity, had been expended to
purchase the means of retiring from this theatre of disasters, though
uncertain and hopeless of accommo