d
generous devotion, the number of these diminished as he grew older, and,
by the casualties of the world, he lived to fancy himself the last of a
bygone generation far superior in every gift and attribute to that which
succeeded it.

When arrested, and charged with the crime of wilful murder, so far
from experiencing the indignant astonishment such an allegation might
naturally lead to, he only accepted it as another instance of the
unrelenting hate with which the Government, or, as he styled it, "the
Castle," had, through his life long, pursued him.

"Who is it," cried he, with sarcastic bitterness, "that I have
murdered?"

"You are charged with being accessory to the death of Mr. Barry
Rutledge, sir," said the other.

"Barry Rutledge!--the Court-jester, the Castle-mimic, the tale-bearer
of the Viceroy's household, the hireling scoffer at honest men, and
the cringing supplicant of bad ones. The man who crushed such a reptile
would have deserved well of his country, if it were not that the breed
is too large to be extirpated."

"Take care what you say, Mr. Curtis," said the other, respectfully;
"your words may be used to your disadvantage."

"Take care what I say! Who are you speaking to, sirrah? Is the caution
given to Joe Curtis? Is it to the man that has braved your power and
laughed at your Acts of Parliament these fifty years? Are you going to
teach me discretion now? Hark ye, my man, tell your employers not to
puzzle their heads with plots and schemes about a conviction; they need
neither bribe a witness, corrupt a judge, nor pack a jury. Familiar as
such good actions are to them, their task will still be easier here.
Tell them this; and tell them also that the score they must one day be
prepared to settle would be lighter if Joe Curtis was the last man they
had sent innocently to the scaffold."

As though he had disburdened his mind by this bitter speech, Curtis
never again adverted to the dreadful accusation against him. He was
committed to Newgate; and while treated with a certain deference to his
position in life, he never relaxed in the stern and unbending resolve
neither to accept any favor, nor even avail himself of the ordinary
means of legal defence.

"Prison diet and a straw mattress!" cried he; "such you cannot deny me;
and they will be the extent of the favors I'll receive at your hands."

As the day fixed for the trial approached, the popular excitement rose
to a high degree. Curtis was n