Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are

isathree volume novel published in 1794. A humble young man enters service with the wealthy Ferdinando Falkland, whose volatile temperament con ceals a dark secret. When Caleb's curiosity leads him to uncover his master's guilt in a past murder, he becomes trapped in a desperate game of pursuit andpersecution. This gripping tale exposes how power and institutions de stroy innocent lives, offering a scathing critique of tyrannical justice in God win's England i passed along the lane I have described, without perceiving or being ob served by a human being. The doors were shut, the window-shutters closed, and all was still as night. I reached the extremity of the lane unmo lested. My pursuers, if they immediately followed, would know that the likelihood was small, of myhavingintheintervalfoundshelterinthisplace; and would proceed without hesitation, as I on my part was obliged to do, from the end nearest to the prison to its furthest termination. The face of the country, in the spot to which I had thus opened myself a passage, was rude and uncultivated. It was overgrown with brushwood and furze; thesoilwasforthemostpartofaloosesand;andthesurfaceextremely irregular. I climbedasmalleminence,andcouldperceive,notveryremotein thedistance,afewcottagesthinlyscattered. Thisprospectdidnotaltogether please me; I conceived that my safety would, for the present, be extremely assisted, by keeping myself from the view of any human being. I therefore came down again into the valley, anduponacarefulexamination perceivedthat it wasinterspersedwithcavities, somedeeperthanothers,but all of them so shallow, as neither to be capable of hiding a man, nor of excit ing suspicion as places of possible concealment.