As he spoke, his earnest eyes, fixed on me, seemed to read my very soul:  my heart, my savage revengeful heart, felt the influence of sweet benignity sink upon it; while his thrilling voice, like sweetest melody, awoke a mute echo within me, stirring to its depths the life-blood in my frame.  I desired to reply, to acknowledge his goodness, accept his proffered friendship; but words, fitting words, were not afforded to the rough mountaineer; I would have held out my hand, but its guilty stain restrained me.  Adrian took pity on my faltering mien:  “Come with me,” he said, “I have much to say to you; come home with me—­you know who I am?”

“Yes,” I exclaimed, “I do believe that I now know you, and that you will pardon my mistakes—­my crime.”

Adrian smiled gently; and after giving his orders to the gamekeepers, he came up to me; putting his arm in mine, we walked together to the mansion.

It was not his rank—­after all that I have said, surely it will not be suspected that it was Adrian’s rank, that, from the first, subdued my heart of hearts, and laid my entire spirit prostrate before him.  Nor was it I alone who felt thus intimately his perfections.  His sensibility and courtesy fascinated every one.  His vivacity, intelligence, and active spirit of benevolence, completed the conquest.  Even at this early age, he was deep read and imbued with the spirit of high philosophy.  This spirit gave a tone of irresistible persuasion to his intercourse with others, so that he seemed like an inspired musician, who struck, with unerring skill, the “lyre of mind,” and produced thence divine harmony.  In person, he hardly appeared of this world; his slight frame was overinformed by the soul that dwelt within; he was all mind; “Man but a rush against” his breast, and it would have conquered his strength; but the might of his smile would have tamed an hungry lion, or caused a legion of armed men to lay their weapons at his feet.

I spent the day with him.  At first he did not recur to the past, or indeed to any personal occurrences.  He wished probably to inspire me with confidence, and give me time to gather together my scattered thoughts.  He talked of general subjects, and gave me ideas I had never before conceived.  We sat in his library, and he spoke of the old Greek sages, and of the power which they had acquired over the minds of men, through the force of love and wisdom only.  The room was decorated with the busts of many of them, and he described their characters to me.  As he spoke, I felt subject to him; and all my boasted pride and strength were subdued by the honeyed accents of this blue-eyed boy.  The trim and paled demesne of civilization, which I had before regarded from my wild jungle as inaccessible, had its wicket opened by him; I stepped within, and felt, as I entered, that I trod my native soil.