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Caleb Williams - Things as They Are by William Godwin
page 235 of 462 (50%)
and asked if my name were Williams.

This adventure, _while it had been passing_, expelled the gaiety of my
mind, and filled me with anxiety. The apprehension however that I felt,
appeared to me groundless: if I were pursued, I took it for granted it
would be by some of Mr. Falkland's people, and not by a stranger. The
darkness took from me some of the simplest expedients of precaution. I
determined at least to proceed to the inn, and make the necessary
enquiries.

I no sooner heard the sound of the horse as I entered the yard, and the
question proposed to me by the rider, than the dreadful certainty of
what I feared instantly took possession of my mind. Every incident
connected with my late abhorred situation was calculated to impress me
with the deepest alarm. My first thought was, to betake myself to the
fields, and trust to the swiftness of my flight for safety. But this was
scarcely practicable: I remarked that my enemy was alone; and I believed
that, man to man, I might reasonably hope to get the better of him,
either by the firmness of my determination, or the subtlety of my
invention.

Thus resolved, I replied in an impetuous and peremptory tone, that I was
the man he took me for; adding, "I guess your errand; but it is to no
purpose. You come to conduct me back to Falkland House; but no force
shall ever drag me to that place alive. I have not taken my resolution
without strong reasons; and all the world shall not persuade me to alter
it. I am an Englishman, and it is the privilege of an Englishman to be
sole judge and master of his own actions."

"You are in the devil of a hurry," replied the man, "to guess my
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