“The disappearance of Clarke of course created great excitement;--those whom he had over-reached had naturally an interest in discovering him. Some vague surmises that he might have been made away with, were rumoured abroad. Houseman and I, owing to some concurrence of circumstance, were examined,--not that suspicion attached to me before or after the examination. That ceremony ended in nothing. Houseman did not betray himself; and I, who from a boy had mastered my passions, could master also the nerves, which are the passions’ puppets: but I read in the face of the woman with whom I lodged, that I was suspected. Houseman told me that she had openly expressed her suspicion to him; nay, he entertained some design against her life, which he naturally abandoned on quitting the town. This he did soon afterwards. I did not linger long behind him. I dug up my jewels,--I concealed them about me, and departed on foot to Scotland. There I converted my booty into money. And now I was above want--was I at rest? Not yet. I felt urged on to wander--Cain’s curse descends to Cain’s children. I travelled for some considerable time,--I saw men and cities, and I opened a new volume in my kind. It was strange; but before the deed, I was as a child in the ways of the world, and a child, despite my knowledge, might have duped me. The moment after it, a light broke upon me,--it seemed as if my eyes were touched with a charm, and rendered capable of piercing the hearts of men! Yes, it was a charm--a new charm--it was Suspicion! I now practised myself in the use of arms,--they made my sole companions. Peaceful, as I seemed to the world, I felt there was that eternally within me with which the world was at war.