nimate dust, thy very memory all but
forgotten, I will say a few words about thee, a few words soon also to be
forgotten. Thou wast the most extraordinary robber that ever lived
within the belt of Britain; Scotland rang with thy exploits, and England,
too, north of the Humber; strange deeds also didst thou achieve when,
fleeing from justice, thou didst find thyself in the sister Isle; busy
wast thou there in town and on curragh, at fair and race-course, and also
in the solitary place. Ireland thought thee her child, for who spoke her
brogue better than thyself?--she felt proud of thee, and said, 'Sure,
O'Hanlon is come again.' What might not have been thy fate in the far
west in America, whither thou hadst turned thine eye, saying, 'I will go
there, and become an honest man!' But thou wast not to go there,
David--the blood which thou hadst shed in Scotland was to be required of
thee; the avenger was at hand, the avenger of blood. Seized, manacled,
brought back to thy native land, condemned to die, thou wast left in thy
narrow cell, and told to make the most of thy time, for it was short; and
there, in thy narrow cell, and thy time so short, thou didst put the
crowning stone to thy strange deeds, by that strange history of thyself,
penned by thine own hand in the robber tongue. Thou mightest have been
better employed, David!--but the ruling passion was strong with thee,
even in the jaws of death. Thou mightest have been better employed!--but
peace be with thee, I repeat, and the Almighty's grace and pardon."

He makes the jockey speak in the same fashion of Thurtell whom he went to
see hanged, according to an old agreement:

"I arrived at H--- just in the nick of time. There was the ugly jail--the
scaffold--and there upon it stood the only friend I ever had in the
world. Driving my Punch, which was all in a foam, into the midst of the
crowd, which made way for me as if it knew what I came for, I stood up in
my gig, took off my hat, and shouted, 'God Almighty bless you, Jack!' The
dying man turned his pale grim face towards me--for his face was always
somewhat grim, do you see--nodded and said, or I thought I heard him say,
'All right, old chap.' The next moment . . . my eyes water. He had a
high heart, got into a scrape whilst in the Marines, lost his half-pay,
took to the turf, ring, gambling, and at last cut the throat of a villain
who had robbed him of nearly all he had. But he had good qualities, and
I k