Oh! my Lord can you doubt this?—But I am overcome with the excess of your goodness; would to heaven it were in my power to prove the gratitude it inspires!
Talk not of goodness, said the Marquis; I will not pretend that my desire of serving you is unalloyed by any degree of self-interest: I will not affect to be more than man, and trust me those who do are less. It is in your power to testify your gratitude, and bind me to your interest for ever. He paused. Name but the means, cried La Motte,—name but the means, and if they are within the compass of possibility they shall be executed. The Marquis was still silent. Do you doubt my sincerity, my Lord, that you are yet silent? Do you fear to repose a confidence in the man whom you have already loaded with obligation? who lives by your mercy, and almost by your means! The Marquis looked earnestly at him, but did not speak. I have not deserved this of you, my Lord; speak, I entreat you.
There are certain prejudices attached to the human mind, said the Marquis in a slow and solemn voice, which it requires all our wisdom to keep from interfering with our happiness; certain set notions, acquired in infancy, and cherished involuntarily by age, which grow up and assume a gloss so plausible, that few minds, in what is called a civilized country, can afterwards overcome them. Truth is often perverted by education. While the refined Europeans boast a standard of honour and a sublimity of virtue which often leads them from pleasure to misery, and from nature to error, the simple uninformed American follows the impulse of his heart, and obeys the inspiration of wisdom. The Marquis paused, and La Motte continued to listen in eager expectation.
Nature, uncontaminated by false refinement, resumed the Marquis, every where acts alike in the great occurrences of life. The Indian discovers his friend to be perfidious, and he kills him; the wild Asiatic does the same: the Turk, when ambition fires or revenge provokes, gratifies his passion at the expense of life, and does not call it murder. Even the polished Italian, distracted by jealousy, or tempted by a strong circumstance of advantage, draws his stiletto, and accomplishes his purpose. It is the first proof of a superior mind to liberate itself from prejudices of country or of education. You are silent, La Motte: are you not of my opinion?
I am attending, my Lord, to your reasoning.
There are, I repeat it, said the Marquis, people of minds so weak, as to shrink from acts they have been accustomed to hold wrong, however advantageous; they never suffer themselves to be guided by circumstances, but fix for life upon a certain standard, from which they will on no account depart. Self-preservation is the great law of nature; when a reptile hurts us, or an animal of prey threatens us, we think no further, but endeavour to annihilate it. When my life, or what may be essential to my life, requires the sacrifice of another,—or even if some passion, wholly unconquerable, requires it,—I should be a madman to hesitate. La Motte, I think I may confide in you—there are ways of doing certain things—you understand me? There are times, and circumstances, and opportunities—you comprehend my meaning?
Explain yourself, my Lord.
Kind services that—in short, there are services which excite all our gratitude, and which we can never think repaid. It is in your power to place me in such a situation.
Indeed! my Lord, name the means.
I have already named them. This abbey well suits the purpose; it is shut up from the eye of observation; any transaction may be concealed within its walls; the hour of midnight may witness the deed, and the morn shall not dawn to disclose it; these woods tell no tales. Ah! La Motte am I right in trusting this business with you? may I believe you are desirous of serving me, and of preserving yourself? The Marquis paused, and looked steadfastly at La Motte, whose countenance was almost concealed by the gloom of evening.