on the Thursday, and was to be executed on the Friday: but
considering that the letter would not come to his wife's hands till
Saturday, the day after execution, and being at that time more
scrupulous than ordinary in speaking exact truth, he formed his letter
rather according to the posture of his affairs when she should read it,
than as they stood when he sent it; though it must be confessed, there
is a certain perplexity in the style of it, which the reader will easily
pardon, considering his circumstances:

"DEAR WIFE,

"Hoping you are in good health, as I am at this present writing,
this is to let you know, that yesterday, between the hours of
eleven and twelve, I was hanged, drawn and quartered. I died very
penitently, and everybody thought my case very hard. Remember me
kindly to my poor fatherless children.

"Yours till death,
"W. B."

It so happened, that this honest fellow was relieved by a party of his
friends, and had the satisfaction to see all the rebels hanged who had
been his enemies. I must not omit a circumstance which exposed him to
raillery his whole life after. Before the arrival of the next post, that
would have set all things clear, his wife was married to a second
husband, who lived in the peaceful possession of her; and the corporal,
who was a man of plain understanding, did not care to stir in the
matter, as knowing that she had the news of his death under his own
hand, which she might have produced upon occasion.

[Footnote 234: This idea was carried out in 1725, when Charles Lillie
published, by Steele's permission, two volumes of "Original and genuine
Letters sent to the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_, during the time those
works were publishing. None of which have been before printed." See No.
110.]

[Footnote 235: See Nos. 117, 186, Advertisements.]

[Footnote 236: See No. 151.]

[Footnote 237: See No. 75.]

[Footnote 238: It would hardly be possible for a man of Bickerstaff's
age to acquire perfection in fencing after only a few months' practice.
See No. 173: "I first began to learn to push this last winter."]

No. 165. [ADDISON.

From _Thursday, April 27_, to _Saturday, April 29, 1710_.

* * * * *

_From my own Apartment, April 28._

It has always bee