As truly as the loadstone draws iron towards it, so he,
lying at the bottom of his grave, could draw me near him when he would.
Was that fancy? Did I like to go there, or did I strive and wrestle with
the power that forced me?'
The blind man shrugged his shoulders, and smiled incredulously. The
prisoner again resumed his old attitude, and for a long time both were
mute.
'I suppose then,' said his visitor, at length breaking silence, 'that
you are penitent and resigned; that you desire to make peace with
everybody (in particular, with your wife who has brought you to this);
and that you ask no greater favour than to be carried to Tyburn as soon
as possible? That being the case, I had better take my leave. I am not
good enough to be company for you.'
'Have I not told you,' said the other fiercely, 'that I have striven
and wrestled with the power that brought me here? Has my whole life, for
eight-and-twenty years, been one perpetual struggle and resistance, and
do you think I want to lie down and die? Do all men shrink from death--I
most of all!'
'That's better said. That's better spoken, Rudge--but I'll not call you
that again--than anything you have said yet,' returned the blind man,
speaking more familiarly, and laying his hands upon his arm.
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