of mine, and as good a lawyer as any on the Bench, for I have taken him up a dozen times at least."

"You shall not take me up, I promise you."

"Lord love you! I an't going to take you up

you can't get that bit of fun at Dead-Man's Corner out of your head. Ay, ay, you see I know all about it, Squire. It was I who took Bill Skulker before the magistrate when he went to peach against you."

"Did he so ?" I exclaimed.

1

"To be sure he did. But the magistrate only laughed, and said he would give you shooting in the day-time to prevent your catching cold, and ordered Billy back to be kept comfortable till next market day. Billy, however, had no fancy for the cat, and kicked up as much dust as if he had never walked behind a cart in his life; and so, says he, 'If you'll let me off this time, I'll peach a murder.' This, to be sure, was another story, and so we made a bargain with him, and e'cod! he sold us his best friend Jem Smasher, for murdering Mark Simmons."

"Is the Smasher taken up?"

"Ay, ay-safe enough. He showed no more fight than a lamb, and talks of hanging as if it was going to last for a week. Lord, Squire, with our new drops, and two or three good fellows to pull your legs, it's no more than a flea-bite."

The man's professional indifference to blood made me shudder; and, in the dreadful fate which was impending over my late associate, I entirely lost sight of the dangers of my own implication. I made myself master of all the circumstances, and found that I was subponded to give the wretch a character. Alas! had it been in my power to give him a character, I felt that it was necessary to obtain one myself before I could hope to be believed-I who had listened with applause to the tale of the hayloft-I who had stood side by side in midnight depredations by a proved and half-acknowledged murderer. The rational thought which had been denied to every action of my past life pealed upon my brain like accumulated thunders all at once, and the terrors for the consequences of what I had done dwindled into mere infantine chimeras when I turned to

all that I might have done. I begged my visiter to say no more of Dead-Man's Corner, and, adding a cogent reason from my purse, signified that if he had nothing further to communicate, I did not wish to detain him.

I need not describe my state of mind till the assizes took place. The case of the Smasher was to be brought forward on the last day, and early in the morning I entered the county town, amidst the largest crowd I had ever witnessed. With considerable difficulty I obtained admission to the Court, and hid myself in a corner as well as I could, panting with anxiety, and wondering what I was to do now I had got there. Alas! there was no one to whom I could apply for information. I scarcely knew a gentleman in the world-certainly not one in the Court-and my raw, wild-beast-like shyness was an effectual bar to my conversing with strangers. The only persons I knew were those whom I wished to avoid - gentlemen of the fancy, (amongst whom I have before stated the Smasher to have been a prominent character,) poachers, pickpockets, and thieves of every gradation, who hovered round me like demons in a nightmare.

As soon as order was obtained, and some preliminaries adjusted, the judge called for the prisoner, and immediately the clank of irons announced his approach. I shall never forget the effect which his pale, staring visage pros duced upon me. His courage was gone, his mind seemed confused almost to idiotcy, and, when the business of the trial required that he should speak, his voice laboured forth in a deep guttural tone, which appeared the very soul of agony. I had never before seen nature in its utter extremity, and the sight of it frightened me. I scarcely know what passed in the early part of the proceedings. There was a long energetic speech from one of the counsel, which at times appeared to strike every decent per són present with horror, but there was an internal buzzing of my ears which prevented me from following him. The first thing which I particularly remarked, and the first which made any impression on the prisoner, was the en trance of the Skulker. He was dragged in by a constable, and looked round him to see if there were no means of escape. In his way to the witness-box he had to pass

close by the

Smasher.

I saw the latter clench his fists firmly, and his betrayer saw it likewise, for he sprang on one side like the jackall from the crouch of the tiger. His testimony was a shuffling equivocating account of the tale of the hayloft, to which he had scarce breath to give utterance. Every now and then it was broken by long pauses, which perhaps were equally resorted to for the accession of courage and the invention of a lie.

༥་

The account which was dragged out of him of his thievings and his whippings very materially shook his credit; and, to the satisfaction of the whole court, he was at last convicted of a palpable falsehood, for which the judge ordered him to be immediately whipped through the town. The wretch dropped upon his knees and screamed for mercy, but in less than a quarter of an hour he was heard yelling very audibly on his march, amidst the hootings of the mob. This circumstance, however, produced but little advantage to the prisoner. The testimony of the other witnesses was too strong for him, and a case was made out but too conclusive. He was now called upon for

ཇ།