displeasure, my fall should be irreparable? Did you not tell me that,
though I should prepare in that case a tale however plausible or however
true, you would take care that the whole world should execrate me as an
impostor? Were not those your very words? Did you not add, that my
innocence should be of no service to me, and that you laughed at so
feeble a defence? I ask you further,--Did you not receive a letter from
me the morning of the day on which I departed, requesting your consent
to my departure? Should I have done that if my flight had been that of a
thief? I challenge any man to reconcile the expressions of that letter
with this accusation. Should I have begun with stating that I had
conceived a desire to quit your service, if my desire and the reasons
for it, had been of the nature that is now alleged? Should I have dared
to ask for what reason I was thus subjected to an eternal penance?"

Saying this, I took out a copy of my letter, and laid it open upon the
table.

Mr. Falkland returned no immediate answer to my interrogations. Mr.
Forester turned to him, and said.

"Well, sir, what is your reply to this challenge of your servant?"

Mr. Falkland answered, "Such a mode of defence scarcely calls for a
reply. But I answer, I held no such conversation; I never used such
words; I received no such letter. Surely it is no sufficient refutation
of a criminal charge, that the criminal repels what is alleged against
him with volubility of speech, and intrepidity of manner."

Mr. Forester then turned to me: "If," said he, "you trust your
vindication to the plausibility of your tale, you must take care to