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ment, which, as I am now situated, forms the ne plus ultra of my ambition.
To resume my narrative: finding from these disheartening failures, that I had nothing to hope for but a continuance of suffering and, bodily fatigue, far above my strength, for many succeeding years, perhaps for the remainder of my life; surely no dispassionate reader will pronounce me culpable, or consider that I deviated from the resolutions I had formed, to act correctly while I lived, if I listened with eagerness to an offer of assistance in effecting my escape from a state of bondage which became every day more irksome and galling, in proportion as I reflected that my inoffensive conduct fairly entitled me to a share of that favour and indulgence I every day saw extended to objects I knew less worthy than myself. In fact, a person belonging to the Earl Spencer, Indiaman, then on the point of sailing for Ceylon and Bombay, did, in the month of January, 1814, from motives of pure and disinterested compassion, propose that I should conceal myself, with his assistance, on board that ship, and promised me every support in his power. I accepted with joy and gratitude this unexpected offer, and, without any difficulty, got on board, and, as I thought, effectually concealed, on the night of the Queen’s birth-day. I lay close and undiscovered, for four days, and on the fifth had the pleasure to hear that the ship would that day
