“Slowly--absorbed in myself, and with my hat unconsciously slouched over my face, as if I wished to conceal myself from the eye of inanimate nature,--I had insensibly followed a narrow path, which led me through the deepest part of the thicket--when suddenly a rough imperious voice called to me, ‘stop.’ The voice was quite close; my abstraction and the slouched hat had prevented me from looking round. I raised my eyes and saw a wild man, armed with a great knotted club, approaching me. His figure was almost gigantic--at least my first surprise made me think so--and the colour of his skin was a yellow mulatto sort of black, with which the whiteness of a squinting eye stood in terrible contrast. Instead of a girdle he had a thick rope wound twice round a green woollen coat, in which were stuck a broad knife and a pistol. The cry was repeated, and a powerful arm held me fast. The sound of a man had frightened me, but the aspect of a villain gave me new heart. In my present situation, I had cause to tremble before every honest man, but none to tremble before a robber. “‘Who is there?’ said the apparition. “‘One like yourself,’ was my answer, ‘if you really correspond to your appearance.’ “‘That is not the way out? What are you looking for here?’ “‘What is that to you?’ retorted I, insolently. “The man considered me twice from top to toe. It seemed as though he wished to compare my figure with his own, and my answer with my figure. ‘You speak as rudely as a beggar,’ he said at last. “‘Perhaps so. I was a beggar yesterday.’ “The man laughed. ‘One could swear you did not want to pass for any thing better now.’ “‘For something worse then.’--I wished to proceed. “‘Softly friend, why in such a hurry? What time have you to lose?’ “I reflected for a moment. How the words came to my tongue I do not know. ‘Life is short,’ said I, slowly, ‘and hell lasts for ever!’ “He stared at me. ‘May I be d--d,’ he said at last, ‘if thou hast not brushed close by a gallows.’ “‘Very possibly. So good bye for the present, comrade!’