a
certain Justice of the Peace for making a full discovery of all his
accomplices, which might at that time have contributed very much to the
public advantage; but in the interim some person had talked thereof too
openly, it came to the ears of one who collected news for a daily paper.
This man thereupon went to Bellamy, making the poor fellow believe that
he came to him by the direction of some persons in power (a thing not at
all unlikely, considering that a proclamation had been issued but very
little before for the better encouraging the discovery of and bringing
first offenders to justice). And having by this means drawn the poor
fellow into a confession of several robberies and burglaries, he
digested it, or got somebody to do it for him, into proper paragraphs
which were inserted the next day in a newspaper and gave thereby an
opportunity to the persons impeached, of making their escape. This
rogue, therefore defeated Bellamy of all hopes of pardon and hindered
the public from receiving any benefit from his confession. All which
enormous villainies were perhaps perpetrated for the sake of a poor
crown, the utmost that could be expected by the collector for procuring
this extraordinary passage big with so much mischief, and which in its
consequences produced little better than a murder, since it is possible
that Bellamy's life might have been saved if a right use had been made
of his confession.

At his trial he behaved with great impudence and during the time he lay
under sentence continued to affect that gaiety which amongst persons of
his profession is too often mistaken for bravery and true courage. But
when the fatal day approached he, as is common with most of them, sank
much in his spirits and had a great deal to do to recover himself so as
to be able to read the following paper, which he had written for that
purpose and brought with him to the tree, which, as the words of a dying
man, I publish verbatim:

A Copy of the paper read by Martin Bellamy at the Place of Execution

Gentlemen, I am brought here to suffer an ignominious death for my
having wilfully transgressed against the known laws of God and my
country. I fear there are too many here present who come to be
witnesses of my untimely end rather out of curiosity than from a
sincere intention to take warning by my unhappy fate. You see me
here in the very prime of my youth, cut off like an untimely flower
in the rig