Still,
we must do the landlord the justice to say that he had no such passion
for bloodshed as characterized his companion.
"Why strike again!" was the response of Rivers. "You talk like a child.
Would you have had him live to blab? Saw you not that he knew us both?
Are you so green as to think, if suffered to escape, his tongue or hands
would have been idle? You should know better. But the fact is, he could
not have lived. The first blow was fatal; and, if I had deliberated for
an instant, I should have followed the suggestions of your humanity--I
should have withheld the second, which merely terminated his agony."
"It was a rash and bloody deed, and I would we had made sure of your man
before blindly rushing into these unnecessary risks. It is owing to your
insane love of blood, that you so frequently blunder in your object"
"Your scruples and complainings, Wat, remind me of that farmyard
philosopher, who always locked the door of his stable after the steed
had been stolen.
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