usiness connected with the neighbourhood, I felt no
surprise, and forthwith departed in company with the officer. The
demeanour of the man upon the way struck me as somewhat singular. I had
frequently spoken to him before, and had always found him civil and
respectful, but he was now reserved and sullen, and replied to two or
three questions which I put to him in anything but a courteous manner.
On arriving at the place where the magistrates were sitting--an inn at a
small town about two miles distant--I found a more than usual number of
people assembled, who appeared to be conversing with considerable
eagerness. At sight of me they became silent, but crowded after me as I
followed the man into the magistrates' room. There I found the tradesman
to whom I had paid the note for the furniture, at the town fifteen miles
off, in attendance, accompanied by an agent of the Bank of England; the
former, it seems, had paid the note into a provincial bank, the
proprietors of which, discovering it to be a forgery, had forthwith
written up to the Bank of England, who had sent down their agent to
investigate the matter. A third individual stood beside them--the person
in my own immediate neighbourhood to whom I had paid the second note;
this, by some means or other, before the coming down of the agent, had
found its way to the same provincial bank, and also being pronounced a
forgery, it had speedily been traced to the person to whom I had paid it.
It was owing to the apparition of this second note that the agent had
determined, without further inquiry, to cause me to be summoned before
the rural tribunal.

'In a few words the magistrates' clerk gave me to understand the state of
the case. I was filled with surprise and consternation. I knew myself
to be perfectly innocent of any fraudulent intention, but at the time of
which I am speaking it was a matter fraught with the greatest danger to
be mixed up, however innocently, with the passing of false money. The
law with respect to forgery was terribly severe, and the innocent as well
as the guily occasionally suffered. Of this I was not altogether
ignorant; unfortunately, however, in my transactions with the stranger,
the idea of false notes being offered to me, and my being brought into
trouble by means of them, never entered my mind. Recovering myself a
little, I stated that the notes in question were two of three notes which
I had received at Horncastle, for a pair of horse