ed him and told him he believed he had drunk too
much that morning; to which Neeves answered, _No indeed, Sir, I only
took a dram._ He then besought him that a Psalm might be sung, which
request of his being complied with, he yet could not forbear smiling
while they were singing.

[Illustration: AN EXECUTION IN SMITHFIELD MARKET

(_From the Newgate Calendar_)]

The father and wife of Mr. Nichols, the barber so often mentioned, got
into the cart and earnestly enquired whether the deposition he had given
against him was the truth or not. Neeves, thereupon, with tears in his
eyes owned that it was not, and thence fell into a greater agony than he
had ever been perceived in before, beseeching God to have mercy on him
for shedding innocent blood, into which he had been induced by the
persuasion of others, who represented it to him as a means for getting
money both for them and him, owning that he never saw Nichols in his
life before they were at the justices together. After this he cried two
or three times unto God to forgive him, and so was turned off with the
rest on the 27th of February, 1729, being then about twenty-eight years
of age.

FOOTNOTES:

[83] See page 445.

The Lives of HENRY GAHOGAN and ROBERT BLAKE, Coiners

Notwithstanding the number of those who have been executed for this
offence, yet of late years we have had frequent instances of persons who
rather than groan under the burden of poverty or labour hard to get an
honest livelihood, have chosen this method of supplying their
extravagances and consequently have run their heads into a halter.

Henry Gahogan, an Irishman of mean parents (who had however bestowed so
much education upon him that he attained writing a very fair hand), in
order to get his bread set up the business of a writing-master in that
part of Ireland, where there were few masters to strive against him.
Here he behaved for some time so well, that he got the reputation of
being an honest industrious young man; but whether business fell off, or
that his roving temper could no longer be kept within bounds, the papers
I have do not authorise me to determine.

He went upon his travels, and passed through a great part of Europe in
the quality, as may be conjectured, of a gentleman's servant, until two
or three years before his death, about which time he brought over the
art of coining into England, which he had been taught by a countryman of
his, as an easy and certain resou