quiries that had been set on
foot, by the benevolence of Mr. Falkland, or the insatiable malice of
Mr. Tyrrel, had been insufficient to discover him. The first thing that
had led to the detection was a parcel of clothes covered with blood,
that were found in a ditch, and that, when drawn out, were known by the
people of the village to belong to this man. The murder of Mr. Tyrrel
was not a circumstance that could be unknown, and suspicion was
immediately roused. A diligent search being made, the rusty handle, with
part of the blade of a knife, was found thrown in a corner of his
lodging, which, being applied to a piece of the point of a knife that
had been broken in the wound, appeared exactly to correspond. Upon
further enquiry two rustics, who had been accidentally on the spot,
remembered to have seen Hawkins and his son in the town that very
evening and to have called after them, and received no answer, though
they were sure of their persons. Upon this accumulated evidence both
Hawkins and his son were tried, condemned, and afterwards executed. In
the interval between the sentence and execution Hawkins confessed his
guilt with many marks of compunction; though there are persons by whom
this is denied; but I have taken some pains to enquire into the fact,
and am persuaded that their disbelief is precipitate and groundless.

"The cruel injustice that this man had suffered from his village-tyrant
was not forgotten upon the present occasion. It was by a strange
fatality that the barbarous proceedings of Mr. Tyrrel seemed never to
fall short of their completion; and even his death served eventually to
consummate the ruin of a man he hated; a circumstance which, if it could
have come to his knowledge, would perhaps have in some measure consoled
him for his untimely end. This poor Hawkins was surely entitled to some
pity, since his being finally urged to desperation, and brought,
together with his son, to an ignominious fate, was originally owing to
the sturdiness of his virtue and independence. But the compassion of the
public was in a great measure shut against him, as they thought it a
piece of barbarous and unpardonable selfishness, that he had not rather
come boldly forward to meet the consequences of his own conduct, than
suffer a man of so much public worth as Mr. Falkland, and who had been
so desirous of doing him good, to be exposed to the risk of being tried
for a murder that he had committed.

"From this time to