ncapable of motion much less of resistance, and could only gaze in my
face in dumb affright and horror.

"Give me the key of the recess up stairs, which you carry in your breast
pocket. In your sleep, unhappy man, you have revealed every thing."

An inarticulate shriek of terror replied to me. I was silent; and
presently he gasped: "Wha--at, what have I said?"

"That Mr. Hursley's plate is buried in the garden by the lilac-tree;
that you have received a thousand pounds belonging to the man you tried
to poison; that you netted four hundred and fifty pounds by the plate
stolen at Salisbury; that you dexterously contrived, to slip the
sulphuric acid into the tea unseen by Henry Rogers's wife."

The shriek or scream was repeated, and he was for several moments
speechless with consternation. A ray of hope gleamed suddenly in his
flaming eyes. "It is true--it is true!" he hurriedly ejaculated;
"useless--useless--useless to deny it. But you are alone, and poor,
poor, no doubt. A thousand pounds!--more, more than that: _two_ thousand
pounds in gold--gold, all in gold--I will give you to spare me, to let
me escape!"

"Where did you hide the soap on the day when you confess you tried to
poison Henry Rogers?"

"In the recess you spoke of. But think! Two thousand pounds in gold--all
in gold--"

As he spoke, I suddenly grasped the villain's hands, pressed them
together, and in another instant the snapping of a handcuff pronounced
my answer. A yell of anguish burst from the miserable man, so loud and
piercing, that the constables outside hurried to the outer-door, and
knocked hastily for admittance. They were let in by the servant-woman;
and in half an hour afterwards the three prisoners--Jackson, his wife,
and Jane Riddet--were safe in Farnham prison.

A few sentences will conclude this narrative. Mary Rogers was brought up
on the following day, and, on my evidence, discharged. Her husband, I
have heard, has since proved a better and a wiser man. Jackson was
convicted at the Guilford assize of guiltily receiving the Hursley
plate, and sentenced to transportation for life. This being so, the
graver charge of attempting to poison was not pressed. There was no
moral doubt of his guilt; but the legal proof of it rested solely on his
own hurried confession, which counsel would no doubt have contended
ought not to be received. His wife and the servant were leniently dealt
with.

Sarah Purday was convicted, and sentenced to tran