He advanced to the end of this recess, and sat down on a projecting crag; there, for the first time since his escape, he had leisure to think and to calculate on his future movements: the earliest fruit of those reflections was gratitude to that Almighty Being whose hand had thus conducted him in safety; the next emotion was tender remembrance of Gaspar and Kara Aziek, but while he believed that he was hastening from the latter never to see her again, joy brightened regret, for he was returning to Donna Gonsalva. Never before had Sebastian been sensible to such a sudden translation from misery to transport: Freedom, man’s greatest blessing, the air he is destined to breathe and to live by, and without which he dies--Freedom, that pure element, which is scarcely felt while it surrounds us, and seldom known but in its privation,--was now his own again; it throbbed in all his pulses, spoke to his senses from every outward object and inward feeling, new-strung his nerves, and turned hopes into certainties. What bright visions of future happiness, transcending all he had ever yet known, now animated him--in his own person he had acquired a keener relish for the blessings of home and liberty, and he had learned such important lessons as would make him respect those blessings in the persons of others. Thankful even for captivity, since it had ameliorated his character, he gave no check to sanguine thought: yet thirty leagues of African ground still lay between him and security. Finding himself faint for want of refreshment, he ate sparingly of his few provisions, and quenched his thirst with the water of a neighbouring spring, then commending himself to the protection of his tutelary saints, laid down to rest. When Sebastian awoke, he found the day far spent: he had of late abridged his sleep so much, and been so continually anxious, that this first repose, in a scene of comparative freedom, lasted longer than he wished; however, he awoke with renovated strength, and quitting the dell, resumed his former track. He had not proceeded far, when he came abruptly upon a flock of goats, with a couple of stout Moorish boys watching them; not allowing them an instant to note his dress or face, he darted down a side declivity and flew along, till seeing the hills opening in several directions, he chose one path at a venture, and soon lost himself among thickets and precipices.--At first he heard the boys voices mixed with those of men; but shortly they ceased to reach him, and he then concluded they were seeking him in a different path.