Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
I certainly retired to my bed, having ordered the ostler to get my horse
ready by three o'clock; but no rest did I obtain. For the first time in my
life, I now learned what it was to go to bed without being able to go to
sleep; for two long hours, I tossed and turned about a thousand times, but
deep had flown from my eyes. I heard the quarters strike, and the watchman
go his lonely round; my thoughts were all at home, and I was wretched till
I threw myself at my poor distressed father's feet, to claim with a
certainty of receiving his blessing and forgiveness. I, who, but a few
hours before, expected and intended to bid farewell to my native land, and
to leave behind me all that was dear and valuable to me in this world; I,
who was prepared to sail the next morning, almost without regret, and had
thoughtlessly undertaken to become one of those who were the most horrid
and most unnatural of all unnatural and horrid thieves and murderers; I,
who should have gone to bed and slept as sound as a rock under such
circumstances till I was called in the morning, could not, now I was about
to return to my kindest friends, and to make myself and my father happy, I
could not sleep one moment. Gracious God! upon what a precipice had I
stood! from what a world of misery was I rescued, by the kind hand of
Providence! for if I had gone upon such an errand, and if I had been
instrumental in robbing one _human being or fellow creature_ of his life,
or of what was more valuable to him--his LIBERTY, it would afterwards have
been to me a source of never-failing misery. Thank God! I was saved from
that pang. Had my father's messenger come twelve hours later, I should
have been sailed, and in all probability have been a participator in such
crimes as I should never have forgiven myself, for having joined in
committing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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