The ruffians had leagued to
murder me. Whom had I offended? Who was there, with whom I had
ever maintained intercourse, who was capable of harboring such
atrocious purposes?
My temper was the reverse of cruel and imperious. My heart was
touched with sympathy for the children of misfortune. But this
sympathy was not a barren sentiment. My purse, scanty as it was,
was ever open, and my hands ever active, to relieve distress. Many
were the wretches whom my personal exertions had extricated from
want and disease, and who rewarded me with their gratitude. There
was no face which lowered at my approach, and no lips which uttered
imprecations in my hearing. On the contrary, there was none, over
whose fate I had exerted any influence or to whom I was known by
reputation, who did not greet me with smiles and dismiss me with
proofs of veneration: yet did not my senses assure me that a plot
was laid against my life?
I am not destitute of courage. I have shown myself deliberative
and calm in the midst of peril. I have hazarded my own life for
the preservation of another; but now was I confused and panic-
struck.
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