I must owe my safety to his own suggestions.

Whatever purpose brought him hither, he had changed it.

Why then did he remain?
His resolutions might fluctuate, and the pause of a few minutes restore to him his first resolutions.
Yet was not this the man whom we had treated with unwearied kindness?
Whose society was endeared to us by his intellectual elevation and accomplishments?
Who had a thousand times expatiated on the usefulness and beauty of virtue?
Why should such a one be dreaded?
If I could have forgotten the circumstances in which our interview had taken place, I might have treated his words as jests.

Presently, he resumed: "Fear me not: the space that severs us is small, and all visible succour is distant.

You believe yourself completely in my power; that you stand upon the brink of ruin.