would not allow him to retract, and he suffered himself to hope, rather
than expect, a favourable issue. But in this last event he was wounded
in the point that was nearest his heart. He had feared to have his son
contaminated and debased by a servile station, and he now saw him
transferred to the seminary of a gaol. He was even uncertain as to the
issue of his imprisonment, and trembled to think what the tyranny of
wealth might effect to blast his hopes for ever.

From this moment his heart died within him. He had trusted to
persevering industry and skill, to save the wreck of his little property
from the vulgar spite of his landlord. But he had now no longer any
spirit to exert those efforts which his situation more than ever
required. Mr. Tyrrel proceeded without remission in his machinations;
Hawkins's affairs every day grew more desperate, and the squire,
watching the occasion, took the earliest opportunity of seizing upon
his remaining property in the mode of a distress for rent.

It was precisely in this stage of the affair, that Mr. Falkland and Mr.
Tyrrel accidentally met, in a private road near the habitation of the
latter. They were on horseback, and Mr. Falkland was going to the house
of the unfortunate tenant, who seemed upon the point of perishing under
his landlord's malice. He had been just made acquainted with the tale of
this persecution. It had indeed been an additional aggravation of
Hawkins's calamity, that Mr. Falkland, whose interference might
otherwise have saved him, had been absent from the neighbourhood for a
considerable time. He had been three months in London, and from thence
had gone to visit his estates in another part of the island. The proud
and self-confident spirit of this poor fellow always disposed him to
depend, as long as possible, upon his own exertions. He had avoided
applying to Mr. Falkland, or indeed indulging himself in any manner in