Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/330

310 I know not whether poor Mr. O'Reilley, who, it is well known, was murdered in his bed by his own servant, had been in the habit of sleeping with arms: one thing I apprehend is, that he did not take the necessary precaution of fastening his door: a slight bolt or the appearance of the least probability of resistance might, possibly, have saved his life; for the gradation betwixt temptation to crime and its commission is, unfortunately, too well known, so small, that, with persons of abandoned habits, they are seldom unconnected.

I am far from wishing to moralize on the execrable act to which I have alluded: my motive is to guard others from the possibility of exposing themselves to so dreadful a catastrophe: another suggestion which I would wish to offer is, that the act itself ought not, in fairness, to be argued as a proof of the general outrageous state of society amongst the people where it was perpetrated: less temptations, whether arising