.

The trial proceeded; Armstrong was the principal evidence. To my person
he would not swear. The Jew proved my selling my clothes, purchasing
those found in the bundle, and the stick, of which Armstrong possessed
himself. The clothes I had on at the time of my capture were produced
in court. As for Ogle, his case was decisive. We were then called upon
for our defence. Ogle's was very short. "He had been accustomed to
fits all his life--was walking to Hounslow, and had fallen down in a
fit. It must have been somebody else who had committed the robbery and
had made off, and he had been picked up in a mistake." This defence
appeared to make no other impression than ridicule, and indignation at
the barefaced assertion. I was then called on for mine.

"My lord," said I, "I have no defence to make except that which I
asserted before the magistrates, that I was performing an act of charity
towards a fellow-creature, and was, through that, supposed to be an
accomplice. Arraigned before so many upon a charge, at the bare
accusation of which my blood revolts, I cannot and will not allow those
who might prove what my life has been, and the circumstances which
induced me to take up the disguise in which I was taken, to appear in my
behalf. I am unfortunate, but not guilty. One only chance appears to
be open to me, which is, in the candour of the party who now stands by
me. If he will say to the court that he ever saw me before, I will
submit without murmur to my sentence."

"I'm sorry that you've put that question, my boy," replied the man, "for
I have seen you before;" and the wretch chuckled with repressed
laughter.

I was so astonished, so thunderstruck with this assertion, that I held
down my head, and made no reply. The judge then summed up the evidence
to the jury, pointing out to them that of Ogle's guilt there could be no
doubt, and of mine, he was sorry to say, but little. Still they must
bear in mind that the witness Armstrong could not swear to my person.
The jury, without leaving the box, consulted together a short time, and
brought in a verdict of guilty against Benjamin Ogle and Philip Maddox.
I heard no more--the judge sentenced us both to execution: he lamented
that so young and prepossessing a person as myself should be about to
suffer for such an offence: he pointed out the necessity of condign
punishment, and gave us no hopes of pardon or clemency. But I heard him
not--I did not fall, but I