ABSTRACT
Meanwhile it was settled for the present between Catherine and myself that we should remain in the castle; and it became a question how we should dispose of our time so as to render its progress most agreeable, or its tediousness least annoying. We were cut off from the world; we had no outdoor amusements; no places of public resort to repair to; no neighbours with whom to maintain an inter-change of visits. We were restricted from even almost all excursions without the walls of the castle; for, with the terrors that hung over me, I never thought our privacy could be sufficiently complete. It was no matter that we / were placed in a remote corner of the world, where strangers sometimes did not approach within ken of us for weeks together. If one stranger approached us, and if many weeks elapsed even without that, yet that one might be the individual whose observation would be most fatal to my peace. And then of what avail might be my multiplied precautions and my endless restrictions? Such were the miserable anticipations of a man like me, who by one lawless act had placed all that he valued at the mercy of others.
