The Author’s Return to His Father-land, and the End of the Fifth Monarchy.

Although perfectly sensible, my limbs were entirely benumbed; and I lay helpless for a long time. Meanwhile I ruminated on my singular course. The events of the past years rose one after another with clearness in my mind; particularly those of my exaltation and fame. Here was I, the late founder of the splendid fifth monarchy, metamorphosed to a poor and hungry bachelor-of-arts; a change so terrible and unprecedented, that it might well have disturbed the strongest brain. I seriously examined my present circumstances — were they real? or did I dream? Alas? the tremors of terror and uncertainty only gave place to the pangs of sorrow and regret.

“Almighty Father!” I exclaimed, and towards heaven

Stretched my trembling hands, “what sin provoked thy vengeance,

That all thy thunders crash upon my head?

Where am I? whence came I? how shall I escape

Thy anger.”

Truly! should one look over the journals of all times, he will neither in ancient nor modern history find a parallel to so great a fall; with the single exception of that of Nebuchadnezzar, who from the greatest of kings was changed to a dumb beast.

I began to descend the mountain by the path which leads to Sandvig. When about half way down, I observed some boys, whom I beckoned towards me, repeating the words: Jeru pikal salim, which in the Quamitic language signify: show me the way. The lads, however, were apparently frightened at seeing a man in a strange dress, and with a hat on his head glittering with golden rays; for they rushed down the mountain in great haste, arriving at Sandvig an hour before me. The rumor of the strange appearance on the mountain was spread about and caused terror throughout the town; the notion was, that the shoemaker of Jerusalem wandered among the mountains. This impression arose thus: the boys on being questioned by the townsmen, replied that I had told them who I was. I afterwards learnt that my words, Jeru pikal salim, had been interpreted by sound, and that this clew, acted upon by fear and superstition, had been developed into the strangest of fables. This story was unquestioned by this simple people, inasmuch as the adventures of the travelling shoemaker were then newly reported, and it had been asserted that he had been seen a short time before in Hamburg.

When, towards evening, I entered Sandvig, I observed that the inhabitants were collected in large flocks, to gaze at me. As I approached them and spoke, they all took to flight, except one old man: him I addressed, and begged of him to give me lodging at his house. He asked me, “where I was born, whence I came, &c.” I answered him, with a sigh: “When I come to your house, I will relate events that will seem incredible to you, and whose equals you will not find in any history.” The old man then took me by the hand and led me to his house. When there I demanded drink; he gave me a glass of beer. When I recovered my breath, after this draught, I addressed the old man thus: “You see before you a human being, who has been a bolt for the changing winds of fortune; one, who has been pursued by a fatality more controlling and more unhappy than was ever experienced by mortal.”

“Moral and physical revolutions may be effected in a moment, without surprising men; but what has befallen me is beyond the reach of human imagination!”

“It is the traveller’s fate;” my landlord answered; “many strange events and changes might happen on a voyage of sixteen hundred years.”

I did not understand this, and requested him............