when a terrible
adventure vividly recalled them, and taught me how fierce and untamable
are the instincts of hate and revenge in a certain class of minds.

A robbery of plate had been committed in Portman-square, with an
ingenuity and boldness which left no doubt that it had been effected by
clever and practiced hands. The detective officers first employed having
failed to discover the offenders, the threads of the imperfect and
broken clew were placed in my hands, to see if my somewhat renowned
dexterity, or luck, as many of my brother officers preferred calling it,
would enable me to piece them out to a satisfactory conclusion. By the
description obtained of a man who had been seen lurking about the house
a few days previous to the burglary, it had been concluded by my
predecessors in the investigation that one Martin, a fellow with
half-a-dozen _aliases_, and a well-known traveler on the road to the
hulks, was concerned in the affair; and by their advice a reward of
fifty pounds had been offered for his apprehension and conviction. I
prosecuted the inquiry with my usual energy and watchfulness, without
alighting upon any new fact or intimation of importance. I could not
discover that a single article of the missing property had been either
pawned or offered for sale, and little doubt remained that the crucible
had fatally diminished the chances of detection. The only hope was, that
an increased reward might induce one of the gang to betray his
confederates; and as the property was of large value, this was done, and
one hundred guineas was promised for the required information. I had
been to the printer's to order the placards announcing the increased
recompense; and after indulging in a long gossip with the foreman of the
establishment, whom I knew well, was passing at about a quarter past ten
o'clock through Ryder's-court, Newport-market, where a tall man met and
passed me swiftly, holding a handkerchief to his face. There was nothing
remarkable in that, as the weather was bitterly cold and sleety; and I
walked unheedingly on. I was just in the act of passing out of the court
toward Leicester-square, when swift steps sounded suddenly behind me. I
instinctively turned; and as I did so, received a violent blow on the
left shoulder--intended, I doubted not, for the nape of my neck--from
the tall individual who had passed me a minute previously. As he still
held the handkerchief to his face, I did not catch even a moment