Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 4).djvu/93

 Without any disguise I freely told my place of abode, and that hunger had driven me to make application there.

"This story was related to the Lord of the Castle, and I was ordered to attend him. He was a venerable old man, two youths, his sons, were with him. Without telling my name, or assigning my motives, I briefly said, misfortunes had deprived me of my fortune, and driven me from my country.

"The old Lord blamed me for seeking an abode among the mountains, told me that a young and active mind ought not to indulge in solitude and idleness, that there were other countries, and many situations, in which a young man might be useful to society, and creditable to himself.—He was certainly right, but I felt no inclination to seek my fortune, without a name I dared avow, or recommendations to give me consequence.

"I liked the solitary rambling life I had led for some time, an habitual indolence, perhaps an unsocial temper, and I acknow-