Twenty paces from the outpost sentinel, I saw the first bridge rising.

I shuddered, as I watched those terrible horns, sinister and fatal augury of the inevitable lot which that moment was opening for me."[21] In manhood when we have the resource of our own will to fall back upon, we underestimate the unsurpassed horror and anguish of such moments as this in youth, when we know only the will of others, and that this will is inexorable against us.

Rousseau dared not expose himself to the fulfilment of his master's menace, and he ran away (1728).

But for this, wrote the unhappy man long years after, "I should have passed, in the bosom of my religion, of my native land, of my family, and my friends, a mild and peaceful life, such as my character required, in the uniformity of work which suited my taste, and of a society after my heart.

I should have been a good Christian, good citizen, good father of a family, good friend, good craftsman, good man in all.