University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.

Having ascertained my purpose, it was requisite
to search out the means by which I might effect it.
These were not clearly or readily suggested. The more I
contemplated my project, the more numerous and arduous
its difficulties appeared. I had no associates in my undertaking.
A due regard to my safety and the unextinguished
sense of honour deterred me from seeking auxiliaries and coagents.
The esteem of mankind was the spring of all my
activity, the parent of all my virtue and all my vice. To
preserve this, it was necessary that my guilty projects should
have neither witness nor partaker

I quickly discovered that to execute this scheme demanded
time, application and money, none of which my present situation
would permit me to devote to it. At first, it appeared
that an attainable degree of skill and circumspection would
enable me to arrive, by means of counterfeit bills, to the
pinnacle of affluence and honour. My error was detected
by a closer scrutiny, and I, finally, saw nothing in this path
but enormous perils and insurmountable impediments.

Yet what alternative was offered me. To maintain myself
by the labour of my hands, to perform any toilsome or prescribed
task, was incompatible with my nature. My habits
debarred me from country occupations. My pride regarded
as vile and ignominous drudgery any employment which the

town could afford. Meanwhile, my wants were as urgent as
ever and my funds were exhausted.

There are few, perhaps, whose external situation resembled
mine, who would have found in it any thing but incitements
to industry and invention. A thousand methods of
subsistence, honest but laborious, were at my command, but
to these I entertained an irreconcilable aversion. Ease and
the respect attendant upon opulence I was willing to purchase
at the price of ever-wakeful suspicion and eternal remorse;
but, even at this price, the purchase was impossible.

The desparateness of my condition became hourly more
apparent. The further I extended my view, the darker grew
the clouds which hung over futurity. Anguish and infamy
appeared to be the inseparable conditions of my existence.
There was one mode of evading the evils that impended. To
free myself from self-upbraiding and to shun the persecutions
of my fortune was possible only by shaking off life itself.

One evening, as I traversed the bank of the creek, these
dismal meditations were uncommonly intense. They at
length terminated in a resolution to throw myself into the
stream. The first impulse was to rush instantly to my death,
but the remembrance of papers, lying at my lodgings, which
might unfold more than I desired to the curiosity of survivors,
induced me to postpone this catastrophe till the next
morning.

My purpose being formed, I found my heart lightened of
its usual weight. By you it will be thought strange, but it
is nevertheless true, that I derived from this new prospect,
not only tranquility but cheerfulness. I hastened home.
As soon as I entered, my land-lord informed me that a person
had been searching for me in my absence. This was an
unexampled incident and forboded me no good. I was
strongly persuaded that my visitant had been led hither not
by friendly, but hostile purposes. This persuasion was confirmed
by the description of the stranger's guize and demeanour
given by my land-lord. My fears instantly recognized

the image of Watson, the man by whom I had been so eminently
benefitted, and whose kindness I had compensated by
the ruin of his sister and the confusion of his family.

An interview with this man was less to be endured than to
look upon the face of an avenging deity. I was determined to
avoid this interview, and for this end, to execute my fatal
purpose within the hour. My papers were collected with a
tremulous hand, and consigned to the flames. I then bade my
land-lord inform all visitants that I should not return till the
next day, and once more hastened towards the river.

My way led past the Inn where one of the stages from
Baltimore was accustomed to stop. I was not unaware that
Watson had possibly been brought in the coach which had
recently arrived, and which now stood before the door of the
Inn. The danger of my being descried or encountered by
him as I passed did not fail to occur. This was to be eluded
by deviating from the main street.

Scarcely had I turned a corner for this purpose when I
was accested by a young man whom I knew to be an inhabi
tant of the town, but with whom I had hitherto had no
intercourse but what consisted in a trausient salutation. He
apologized for the liberty of addressing me, and, at the same
time, inquired if I understood the French language.

Being answered in the affirmative, he proceeded to tell me,
that in the stage, just arrived, had come a passenger, a youth
who appeared to be French, who was wholly unacquainted
with our language, and who had been seized with a violent
disease.

My informant had felt compassion for the forlorn condition
of the stranger, and had just been seeking me at my lodgings,
in hope that my knowledge of French would enable me to
converse with the sick man, and obtain from him a knowledge
of his situation and views.

The apprehensions I had precipitately formed, were thus
removed and I readily consented to perform this service.
The youth was, indeed, in a deplorable condition. Besides

the pains of his disease, he was overpowered by dejection.
The inn-keeper, was extremely anxious for the removal of
his guest. He was by no means willing to sustain the trouble
and expense of a sick or a dying man, for which it was,
scarcely probable that he should ever be reimbursed. The
traveller had no baggage and his dress betokened the pressure
of many wants.

My compassion for this stranger was powerfully awakened.
I was in possession of a suitable apartment, for which I had
no power to pay the rent that was accruing, but my inability
in this respect was unknown, and I might enjoy my lodgings
unmolested for some weeks. The fate of this youth would
be speedily decided, and I should be left at liberty to execute
my first intentions before my embarrassments should be visibly
increased.

After a moment's pause, I conducted the stranger to my
home, placed him in my own bed, and became his nurse.
His malady was such as is known in the tropical islands, by
the name of the Yellow or Malignant Fever, and the physician
who was called, speedily pronounced his case desperate.

It was my duty to warn him of the death that was hastening,
and to promise the fulfillment of any of his wishes, not
inconsistent with my present situation. He received my
intelligence with fortitude, and appeared anxious to communicate
some information respecting his own state. His pangs
and his weakness scarcely allowed him to be intelligible.
From his feeble efforts and broken narrative I collected thus
much concerning his family and fortune.

His father's name was Vincentio Lodi. From a Merchant
at Leghorn, he had changed himself into a planter in the
Island of Guadaloupe. His Son, had been sent, at an early
age, for the benefits of education to Europe. The young
Vincentio was, at length, informed by his father, that, being
weary of his present mode of existence, he had determined
to sell his property, and transport himself to the United States.
The son was directed to hasten home, that he might embark,
with his father, on this voyage.

The summons was cheerfully obeyed. The youth on his
arrival at the Island found preparation making for the funeral
of his father. It appeared that the elder Lodi had flattered
one of his slaves with the prospect of his freedom, but had,
nevertheless, included this slave in the sale that he had made
of his estate. Actuated by revenge, the slave assassinated
Lodi in the open street and resigned himself, without a struggle,
to the punishment which the law had provided for such a
deed.

The property had been recently transferred, and the price
was now presented to young Vincentio by the purchaser.
He was, by no means, inclined to adopt his father's project,
and was impatient, to return with his inheritance, to France.
Before this could be done, the conduct of his father had rendered
a voyage to the continent indispensable.

Lodi had a daughter, whom, a few weeks previous to his
death, he had intrusted to an American Captain, for whom, he
had contracted a friendship. The vessel was bound to Philadelphia,
but the conduct she was to pursue, and the abode
she was to select, on her arrival, were known only to the
father, whose untimely death involved the son in considerable
uncertainty, with regard to his sister's fate. His anxiety on
this account induced him to seize the first conveyance that
offered. In a short time he landed at Baltimore.

As soon as he recovered from the fatigues of his voyage,
he prepared to go to Philadelphia. Thither his baggage
was immediately sent under the protection of a passenger
and countryman. His money consisted in Portuguese gold,
which, in pursuance of advice, he had changed into Bank-notes.
He besought me, in pathetic terms, to search out
his sister, whose youth and poverty and ignorance of the
language and manners of the country might expose her to
innumerable hardships. At the same time, he put a pocket-book
and small volume into my hand, indicating, by his
countenance and gestures, his desire that I would deliver
them to his sister.

His obsequies being decently performed, I had leisure to
reflect upon the change in my condition which this incident
had produced. In the pocket-book were found bills to the
amount of twenty thousand dollars. The volume proved to
be a manuscript, written by the elder Lodi in Italian, and
contained memoirs of the Ducal house of Visconti, from
whom the writer believed himself to have lineally descended.

Thus had I arrived, by an avenue so much beyond my
foresight, at the possession of wealth. The evil which impelled
me to the brink of suicide, and which was the source,
though not of all, yet of the larger portion of my anguish, was
now removed. What claims to honour or to ease were consequent
on riches, were, by an extraordinary fortune, now
conferred upon me.

Such, for a time, were my new born but transitory raptures.
I forgot that this money was not mine. That it had been
received under every sanction of fidelity, for another's use.
To retain it was equivalent to robbery. The sister of the
deceased was the rightful claimant: it was my duty to search
her out, and perform my tacit, but sacred obligations, by puting
the whole into her possession.

This conclusion was too adverse to my wishes, not to be
strenuously combatted. I asked, what it was that gave man
the power of ascertaining the successor to his property? During
his life, he might transfer the actual possession, but if
vacant at his death, he, into whose hands accident should
cast it, was the genuine proprietor. It is true, that the law
had sometimes otherwise decreed, but in law, there was no
validity, further than it was able by investigation and punishment,
to enforce its decrees; But would the law extort
this money from me?

It was rather by gesture than by words that the will of
Lodi was imparted. It was the topic of remote inferences
and vague conjecture rather than of explicit and unerring
declarations. Besides if the lady were found, would not
prudence dictate the reservation of her fortune to be administered

by me, for her benefit? Of this her age and education
had disqualified herself. It was sufficient for the maintenance
of both. She would regard me as her benefactor and
protector. By supplying all her wants and watching over her
safety without apprizing her of the means, by which I shall
be enabled to do this, I shall lay irresistible claims to her love
and her gratitude.

Such were the sophistries by which reason was seduced
and my integrity annihilated. I hastened away from my
present abode. I easily traced the baggage of the deceased
to an inn, and gained possession of it. It contained nothing
but clothes and books. I then instituted the most diligent
search after the young lady. For a time, my exertions were
fruitless.

Meanwhile, the possessor of this house thought proper to
embark with his family for Europe. The sum which he
demanded for his furniture, though enormous, was precipitately
paid by me. His servants were continued in their former
stations, and in the day, at which he relinquished the
mansion, I entered on possession.

There was no difficulty in persuading the world that Welbeck
was a personage of opulence and rank. My birth and
previous adventures it was proper to conceal. The facility
with which mankind are misled in their estimate of characters,
their proneness to multiply inferences and conjectures
will not be readily conceived by one destitute of my experience.
My sudden appearance on the stage, my stately
reserve, my splendid habitation and my circumspect deportment
were sufficient to intitle me to homage. The artifices
that were used to unveil the truth, and the guesses that were
current respecting me, were adapted to gratify my ruling
passion.

I did not remit my diligence to discover the retreat of
Mademoiselle Lodi, I found her, at length, in the family of
a kinsman of the Captain under whose care she had came to
America. Her situation was irksome and perilous. She had

already experienced the evils of being protectorless and indigent,
and my seasonable interference snatched her from impending
and less supportable ills.

I could safely unfold all that I knew of her brother's history,
except the legacy which he had left. I ascribed the
diligence with which I had sought her to his death-bed
injunctions, and prevailed upon her to accept from me the
treatment which she would have received from her brother,
if he had continued to live, and if his power to benefit had
been equal to my own.

Though less can be said in praise of the understanding,
than of the sensibilities of this woman, she is one, whom, no
one could refrain from loving, though placed in situations
far less favourable to the generation of that sentiment, than
mine. In habits of domestic and incessant intercourse, in
the perpetual contemplation of features animated by boundless
gratitude and ineffable sympathies, it could not be expected
that either she or I should escape enchantment.

The poison was too sweet not to be swallowed with avidity
by me. Too late I remembered that I was already
enslaved by inextricable obligations. It was easy to have
hidden this impediment from the eyes of my companion, but
here my integrity refused to yield. I can, indeed, lay claim
to little merit on account of this forbearance. If there had
been no alternative between deceit and the frustration of my
hopes, I should doubtless have dissembled the truth with as
little scruple on this, as on a different occasion, but I could
not be blind to the weakness of her with whom I had to
contend.