impression on the feelings of the youthful offender. Just as they
reached the eastern outlet of the churchyard--where the tall elms cast a
pleasant shade over the rustic graves--a momentary stoppage took place.
At this gate two paths meet. Down that on the right the young culprit
was dragged--along that on the left a fainting woman was borne in the
arms of several females. It was his mother, and as he gazed on her
pallid features and motionless frame, Jack's heart severely smote him.
He urged his conductors to a quicker pace to get out of sight of the
distressing spectacle, and even felt relieved when he was shut out from
it and the execrations of the mob by the walls of the little prison.

The cage at Willesden was, and is--for it is still standing--a small
round building about eight feet high, with a pointed tiled roof, to
which a number of boards, inscribed with the names of the parish
officers, and charged with a multitude of admonitory notices to vagrants
and other disorderly persons, are attached. Over these boards the two
arms of a guide-post serve to direct the way-farer--on the right hand to
the neighbouring villages of Neasdon and Kingsbury, and on the left to
the Edgeware Road and the healthy heights of Hampstead. The cage has a
strong door, with an iron grating at the top, and further secured by a
stout bolt and padlock. It is picturesquely situated beneath a tree on
the high road, not far from the little hostel before mentioned, and at
no great distance from the church.

For some time after he was locked up in this prison Jack continued in a
very dejected state. Deserted by his older companion in iniquity, and
instigator to crime, he did not know what might become of him; nor, as
we have observed, was the sad spectacle he had just witnessed, without
effect. Though within the last two days he had committed several heinous
offences, and one of a darker dye than any with which the reader has
been made acquainted, his breast was not yet so callous as to be wholly
insensible to the stings of conscience. Wearied at length with thinking
on the past, and terrified by the prospect of the future, he threw
himself on the straw with which the cage was littered, and endeavoured
to compose himself to slumber. When he awoke, it was late in the day;
but though he heard voices outside, and now and then caught a glimpse of
a face peeping at him through the iron grating over the door, no one
entered the prison, or held any c