Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/274

 the injustice of his treatment. It was easy for him to outreason his antagonist, and nothing but force could subdue his opposition. On me devolved the province of his gaoler and his tyrant; a province which required a heart more steeled by spectacles of suffering and the exercise of cruelty than mine had been.

Scarcely had we passed The Narrows, when the lunatic, being suffered to walk the deck, as no apprehensions were entertained of his escape in such circumstances, threw himself overboard, with a seeming intention to gain the shore. The boat was immediately manned—the fugitive was pursued; but at the moment when his flight was overtaken, he forced himself beneath the surface, and was seen no more.

With the life of this wretch, let our regrets and our forebodings terminate. He has saved himself from evils for which no time would have provided a remedy—from lingering for years in the noisome dungeon of an hospital. Having no reason to continue my voyage, I put myself on board a coasting sloop, and regained this city in a few hours. I persuade myself that my wife's indisposition will be temporary. It was impossible to hide from her the death of Clithero and its circumstances. May this be the last arrow in the quiver of Adversity!—Farewell!