rned late from the alehouse, of the
sum of three shillings, swore positively to his person. The character of
the prisoner was such as has seldom been equalled. He had been ardent in
the pursuit of intellectual cultivation, and was accustomed to draw his
favourite amusement from the works of Virgil and Horace. The humbleness
of his situation, combined with his ardour for literature, only served
to give an inexpressible heightening to the interestingness of his
character. He was plain and unaffected; he assumed nothing; he was
capable, when occasion demanded, of firmness, but, in his ordinary
deportment, he seemed unarmed and unresisting, unsuspicious of guile in
others, as he was totally free from guile in himself. His integrity was
proverbially great. In one instance he had been intrusted by a lady to
convey a sum of a thousand pounds to a person at some miles distance: in
another, he was employed by a gentleman, during his absence, in the care
of his house and furniture, to the value of at least five times that
sum. His habits of thinking were strictly his own, full of justice,
simplicity, and wisdom. He from time to time earned money of his
officers, by his peculiar excellence in furbishing arms; but he declined
offers that had been made him to become a Serjeant or a corporal,
saying that he did not want money, and that in a new situation he should
have less leisure for study. He was equally constant in refusing
presents that were offered him by persons who had been struck with his
merit; not that he was under the influence of false delicacy and pride,
but that he had no inclination to accept that, the want of which he did
not feel to be an evil. This man died while I was in prison. I received
his last breath.[C]

[Footnote C: A story extremely similar to this is to be found in the
Newgate Calendar, vol. i. p. 382.]

The whole day I was obliged to spend in the company of these men, some
of them having really committed the actions laid to their charge, others
whom their ill fortune had rendered the victims of suspicion. The whole
was a scene of misery, such as nothing short of actual observation can
suggest to the mind. Some were noisy and obstreperous, endeavouring by a
false bravery to keep at bay the remembrance of their condition; while
others, incapable even of this effort, had the torment of their thoughts
aggravated by the perpetual noise and confusion that prevailed around
them. In the faces of those who assum