His journey was on two accounts superfluous.

He whom he sought was dead.

The duty of ascertaining his condition I had assigned to myself.
I now perceived and deplored the error of which I had been guilty, in concealing my intended journey from my patron.

Ignorant of the part I had acted, he had rushed into the jaws of this pest, and endangered a life unspeakably valuable to his children and friends.

I should doubtless have obtained his grateful consent to the project which I had conceived; but my wretched policy had led me into this clandestine path.
Secrecy may seldom be a crime.