618 CRUSOE’S PROPOSAL TO HIS FRIEND.

castle at Moscow. However, it came into my thought, that I
might certainly be made an instrument to procure the escape of
this excellent person, and that whatever hazard I ran, I would
certainly try if I could carry him off. Upon this I took an occa-
sion one evening to tell him my thoughts: I represented to him
that it was very easy for me to carry him away, there being no
guard over him in the country, and as I was not going to Moscow,
but to Archangel, and that I went in the nature of a caravan, by
which I was not obliged to lie in the stationary towns in the
desert, but could encamp every night where I would, we might
easily pass uninterrupted to Archangel, where I would immediately
secure him on board an English or Dutch ship, and carry him off
safe along with me; and as to his subsistence, and other particulars,
it should be my care till he could better supply himself.

He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all
the while I spoke. Nay, I could see in his very face that .what I
‘said put his spirits into an exceeding ferment ; his colour frequently
changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, that it might
be even perceived in his countenance; nor could he immediately
answer me when I had done, and, as it were, expected what he would
say to it; but after he had paused a little he embraced me, and
said, “ How unhappy are we, unguarded creatures as we are, that even
our greatest acts of friendship are made snares to us, and we are
made tempters of one another! My dear friend,” said he, “ your
offer is so sincere, has such kindness in it, is so disinterested in
itself, and is so calculated for my advantage, that I must have very
little knowledge of the world, if I did not both wonder at it, and
acknowledge the obligation I have upon me to-you for it: but did
you believe I was sincere in what I have so often said to you of my
contempt of the world? Did you believe I spoke my very soul to
you, and that I had really obtained that degree of felicity here,
that had placed me above all that the world could give me, or do
for me? Did you believe I was sincere, when I told you I would
not go back, if I was recalled even to all that once I was in the
court, with the favour of the czar, my master? Did you believe
me, my friend, to be an honest man, or did you think me to bea
boasting hypocrite?” Here he stopped, as if he would hear what