ABSTRACT
I made it a point to seek out Cloudesley immediately after my arrival. I had been led, as it should seem by accident merely, into an attentive observation of his character. I had remarked his devoted attachment to his master. At the same time I had heard, principally from my own servant, his blunt and unmeasured professions of misanthropy. His motto was something like the declaration of Ancient Pistol in the play, Why then, the world’s mine oyster, Which I with sword will open: a / with this variation, that Cloudesley did not profess the design, to be one of ‘Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon,’ and to carve his way among men by dint of plain violence; but rather to employ the superiority of his wit, and so to render others tools to his purposes. b Having remarked these things in the man, I judged him peculiarly well qualified to enter into my schemes.
