"Finding me invincible in this respect, he invited me to his cottage,
which was hard by. I repelled him at first with impatience and anger,
but he was not to be discouraged or intimidated. To elude his
persuasions I was obliged to comply. My strength was gone, and the vital
fabric was crumbling into pieces. A fever raged in my veins, and I was
consoled by reflecting that my life was at once assailed by famine and
disease.

"Meanwhile, my gloomy meditations experienced no respite. I incessantly
ruminated on the events of my past life. The long series of my crimes
arose daily and afresh to my imagination. The image of Lodi was
recalled, his expiring looks and the directions which were mutually
given respecting his sister's and his property.

"As I perpetually revolved these incidents, they assumed new forms, and
were linked with new associations. The volume written by his father, and
transferred to me by tokens which were now remembered to be more
emphatic than the nature of the composition seemed to justify, was
likewise remembered. It came attended by recollections respecting a
volume which I filled, when a youth, with extracts from the Roman and
Greek poets. Besides this literary purpose, I likewise used to preserve
in it the bank-bills with the keeping or carriage of which I chanced to
be entrusted. This image led me back to the leather case containing
Lodi's property, which was put into my hands at the same time with the
volume.

"These images now gave birth to a third conception, which darted on my
benighted understanding like an electrical flash. Was it not possible
that part of Lodi's property might be enclosed within the leaves of this
volume? In hastily turning it over, I recollected to have noticed leaves
whose edges by accident or design adhered to each other. Lodi, in
speaking of the sale of his father's West-India property, mentioned that
the sum obtained for it was forty thousand dollars. Half only of this
sum had been discovered by me. How had the remainder been appropriated?
Surely this volume contained it.

"The influence of this thought was like the infusion of a new soul into
my frame. From torpid and desperate, from inflexible aversion to
medicine and food, I was changed in a moment into vivacity and hope,
into ravenous avidity for whatever could contribute to my restoration to
health.

"I was not without pungent regrets and racking fears. That this volume
would be ravished away by creditors or