f petty justice without
handcuffs, and uncollared by a constable; but people looked coldly and
suspiciously upon me. The first thing I did was to hasten to the house
of my beloved, in order to inform her of every circumstance attending the
transaction. I found her, but how? A malicious female individual had
hurried to her with a distorted tale, to the effect that I had been taken
up as an utterer of forged notes; that an immense number had been found
in my possession; that I was already committed, and that probably I
should be executed. My affianced one tenderly loved me, and her
constitution was delicate; fit succeeded fit; she broke a blood-vessel,
and I found her deluged in blood; the surgeon had been sent for; he came
and afforded her every possible relief. I was distracted; he bade me
have hope, but I observed he looked very grave.

"By the skill of the surgeon, the poor girl was saved in the first
instance from the arms of death, and for a few weeks she appeared to be
rapidly recovering; by degrees, however, she became melancholy; a worm
preyed upon her spirit; a slow fever took possession of her frame. I
subsequently learned that the same malicious female who had first carried
to her an exaggerated account of the affair, and who was a distant
relative of her own, frequently visited her, and did all in her power to
excite her fears with respect to its eventual termination. Time passed
on in a very wretched manner. Our friend the surgeon showing to us both
every mark of kindness and attention.

"It was owing to this excellent man that my innocence was eventually
established. Having been called to a town on the borders of Yorkshire to
a medical consultation, he chanced to be taking a glass of wine with the
landlord of the inn at which he stopped, when the waiter brought in a
note to be changed, saying 'That the Quaker gentleman, who had been for
some days in the house, and was about to depart, had sent it to be
changed, in order that he might pay his bill.' The landlord took the
note, and looked at it. 'A fifty-pound bill,' said he; 'I don't like
changing bills of that amount, lest they should prove bad ones; however,
as it comes from a Quaker gentleman, I suppose it is all right.' The
mention of a fifty-pound note aroused the attention of my friend, and he
requested to be permitted to look at it; he had scarcely seen it, when he
was convinced that it was one of the same description as those which had
b