What made the peddler think that he had indeed fallen into a rattrap?

After stealing the crofter’s money, peddler realized that first of all he dare not to continue to walk on the public highway as he felt that it is not safe. So, he turned off the road and went into the woods i.e., forest. After sometimes in a day he realized that it was a big and confusing forest which he had gotten into. He tried, to be sure, to walk in a definite direction, but the paths twisted back and forth so strangely. He walked and walked without coming to the end of the wood, and finally, he realized that he had only been walking around in the same part of the forest. All at once he recalled his thoughts about the world and the rattrap and now he found himself fallen into a rattrap. The rattrap peddler thus realized that he had fallen into the rattrap from which he might not be able to escape.