Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/95

 observers? Is it possible to regard this person with disdain or with enmity? The crime originated in those limitations which nature has imposed upon human faculties: proofs of a just intention are all that are requisite to exempt us from blame. He is thus in consequence of a double mistake:—the light in which he views this event is erroneous; he judges wrong, and is therefore miserable.

How imperfect are the grounds of all our decisions! Was it of no use to superintend his childhood, to select his instructors and examples, to mark the operations of his principles, to see him emerging into youth, to follow him through various scenes and trying vicissitudes, and mark the uniformity of his integrity? Who would have predicted his future conduct? Who would not have affirmed the impossibility of an action like this?

How mysterious was the connection between the fate of Wiatte and his sister! By such circuitous and yet infallible means were the prediction of Mrs. Lorimer and the vengeance of her brother accomplished! In how many cases may it be said, as in this, that the prediction was the cause of its own fulfilment—that the very act which considerate observers, and even himself for a time, imagined to have utterly precluded the execution of Wiatte's menaces, should be that inevitably leading to it—that the execution should be assigned to him who, abounding in abhorrence, and in the act of self-defence, was the slayer of the menacer!

As the obstructor of his designs, Wiatte waylaid and assaulted Clithero: he perished in the attempt. Were his designs frustrated? No:—it was thus that he secured the gratification of his vengeance: his sister was cut off in the bloom of life and prosperity; by a refinement of good fortune, the voluntary minister of his malice had entailed upon himself exile without reprieve, and misery without end.

But what chiefly excited my wonder, was the connection of this tale with the destiny of Sarsefield. This was he whom I have frequently mentioned to you as my preceptor. About four years previous to this era, he appeared in this district without fortune or friend. He desired one evening