served sixteen months of his time he had given information by
which fifteen robberies had been committed. He, of course, had been
paid for his services, which soon made him disgusted with the sooty
business; and he made an agreement with the man who drew him into
crime, to leave his master's service, and to commit with him a robbery
on their private account before he left. The house fixed on was the
one above alluded to in Mark Lane. The premises had before been
surveyed, and deemed impregnable; that is to say, was considered too
well guarded to be robbed without detection. They, however, got
possession of the plate in the following manner:--The boy was a
favourite with the cook of the house, and she would have no other to
sweep her kitchen-chimney; a matter of business which was performed
the last Saturday in every month. It was concerted between the man and
the boy, that the former should dress himself in the character of a
sweep, and accompany the latter as his over-looker, or assistant. The
real sweep-over-looker, of course, must be kept out of the way; and
here laid all their difficulty. It cost the boy (to use his own
expression) six months' longer punishment as a sweep, and the man six
appearances, at an early hour of the morning, in the same character,
before the object could be carried, namely, to get rid of the real
sweep.

At length, one Saturday, by pretending to forget the job until all the
men were gone out about other work, the boy, affecting suddenly to
recollect it, persuaded the master to let him go alone, saying he
himself could perform the duty. It was five o'clock in the morning
when he and the disguised robber reached the house; the cook opened
the door, having nothing on save a blanket thrown over her shoulders.
The arch young rogue said, "It's only me and Harry; it's a very cold
morning; if you like to go to bed again, cookey, we will do it well,
and leave all clean, and shut the door fast after us." She went to
bed, and they went to the plate depository, which had been well noted
oft times before. They put the whole of its contents into the
soot-bag, and fearlessly walked through the streets with it on their
backs. The boy, a few hours afterwards, was so metamorphosed, being
dressed in the smartest manner, with cane in hand and fifty pounds in
his pocket, that he walked the streets in full confidence that not
even his master or his fellow-apprentices would know him.

_Pickpockets._

The qual