plans of offence, and I made use of it with all the brute impetuosity I
derived from my active mode of life. I proposed the enterprize of poaching
on his demesne to my few remaining comrades, who were the most determined
and lawless of the crew; but they all shrunk from the peril; so I was left
to achieve my revenge myself. At first my exploits were unperceived; I
increased in daring; footsteps on the dewy grass, torn boughs, and marks of
slaughter, at length betrayed me to the game-keepers. They kept better
watch; I was taken, and sent to prison. I entered its gloomy walls in a fit
of triumphant extasy: "He feels me now," I cried, "and shall, again and
again!"--I passed but one day in confinement; in the evening I was
liberated, as I was told, by the order of the Earl himself. This news
precipitated me from my self-raised pinnacle of honour. He despises me, I
thought; but he shall learn that I despise him, and hold in equal contempt
his punishments and his clemency. On the second night after my release, I
was again taken by the gamekeepers--again imprisoned, and again released;
and again, such was my pertinacity, did the fourth night find me in the
forbidden park. The gamekeepers were more enraged than their lord by my
obstinacy. They had received orders that if I were again taken, I should be
brought to the Earl; and his lenity made them expect a conclusion which
they considered ill befitting my crime. One of them, who had been from the
first the leader among those who had seized me, resolved to satisfy his own
resentment, before he made me over to the higher powers.

The late setting of the moon, and the extreme caution I was obliged to use
in this my third expedition, consumed so much time, that something like a
qualm of fear came over me when I perceived dark night yield to twilight. I
crept along by the fern, on my hands and knees, seeking the shadowy coverts
of the underwood, while the birds awoke with unwelcome song above, and the
fresh morning wind, playing among the boughs, made me suspect a footfall at
each turn. My heart beat quick as I approached the palings; my hand was on