“All this would be very good sense, if addressed to another,” replied Raymond, moodily, “con the lesson yourself, and you, the first peer of the land, may become its sovereign.  You the good, the wise, the just, may rule all hearts.  But I perceive, too soon for my own happiness, too late for England’s good, that I undertook a task to which I am unequal.  I cannot rule myself.  My passions are my masters; my smallest impulse my tyrant.  Do you think that I renounced the Protectorate (and I have renounced it) in a fit of spleen?  By the God that lives, I swear never to take up that bauble again; never again to burthen myself with the weight of care and misery, of which that is the visible sign.

“Once I desired to be a king.  It was in the hey-day of youth, in the pride of boyish folly.  I knew myself when I renounced it.  I renounced it to gain —­no matter what—­for that also I have lost.  For many months I have submitted to this mock majesty—­this solemn jest.  I am its dupe no longer.  I will be free.

“I have lost that which adorned and dignified my life; that which linked me to other men.  Again I am a solitary man; and I will become again, as in my early years, a wanderer, a soldier of fortune.  My friends, for Verney, I feel that you are my friend, do not endeavour to shake my resolve.  Perdita, wedded to an imagination, careless of what is behind the veil, whose charactery is in truth faulty and vile, Perdita has renounced me.  With her it was pretty enough to play a sovereign’s part; and, as in the recesses of your beloved forest we acted masques, and imagined ourselves Arcadian shepherds, to please the fancy of the moment—­so was I content, more for Perdita’s sake than my own, to take on me the character of one of the great ones of the earth; to lead her behind the scenes of grandeur, to vary her life with a short act of magnificence and power.  This was to be the colour; love and confidence the substance of our existence.  But we must live, and not act our lives; pursuing the shadow, I lost the reality—­now I renounce both.

“Adrian, I am about to return to Greece, to become again a soldier, perhaps a conqueror.  Will you accompany me?  You will behold new scenes; see a new people; witness the mighty struggle there going forward between civilization and barbarism; behold, and perhaps direct the efforts of a young and vigorous population, for liberty and order.  Come with me.  I have expected you.  I waited for this moment; all is prepared;—­will you accompany me?”

“I will,” replied Adrian.  “Immediately?”

“To-morrow if you will.”

“Reflect!” I cried.

“Wherefore?” asked Raymond—­“My dear fellow, I have done nothing else than reflect on this step the live-long summer; and be assured that Adrian has condensed an age of reflection into this little moment.  Do not talk of reflection; from this moment I abjure it; this is my only happy moment during a long interval of time.  I must go, Lionel—­the Gods will it; and I must.  Do not endeavour to deprive me of my companion, the out-cast’s friend.