Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 4).djvu/233

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OLD MORTALITY.
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self-possession. A third attempt at a spot more carefully and judiciously selected, succeeded better than the former, and placed the horse and his rider in safety upon the further bank of the Clyde.

"But whither," said Morton, in the bitterness of his heart, "am I now to direct my course? or rather, what does it signify to which point of the compass a wretch forlorn betakes himself? I would to God, could the wish be without a sin, that these dark waters had flowed over me, and drowned my recollection of that which was, and that which is."

The sense of impatience, which the disturbed state of his feelings had occasioned, scarcely had vented itself in these violent expressions, ere he was struck with shame at having given way to such a paroxysm. He remembered how marvellously the life, which he now held so lightly in the bitterness of his disappointment, had been preserved through the almost