the question, for in his
present garb he was sure to be recognised. When night fell, he crept
into the town of Tottenham. As he passed along the main thoroughfare, he
heard his own name pronounced, and found that it was a hawker, crying a
penny history of his escapes. A crowd was collected round the fellow,
who was rapidly disposing of his stock.

"Here's the full, true, and particular account of Jack Sheppard's last
astonishing and never-to-be-forgotten escape from the Castle of
Newgate," bawled the hawker, "with a print of him taken from the life,
showing the manner, how he was shackled and handcuffed. Only one
penny--two copies--two pence--thank you, Sir. Here's the----"

"Let me have one," cried a servant maid, running across the street, and
in her haste forgetting to shut the door,--"here's the money. Master and
missis have been talking all day long about Jack Sheppard, and I'm dying
to read his life."

"Here you have it, my dear," returned the hawker. "Sold again!"

"If you don't get back quickly, Lucy," observed a bystander, "Jack
Sheppard will be in the house before you."

This sally occasioned a general laugh.

"If Jack would come to my house, I'd contrive to hide him," remarked a
buxom dame. "Poor fellow! I'm glad he has escaped."

"Jack seems to be a great favourite with the fair sex," observed a
smirking grocer's apprentice.

"Of course," rejoined the bystander, who had just spoken, and who was of
a cynical turn,--"the greater the rascal, the better they like him."

"Here's a particular account of Jack's many robberies and escapes,"
roared the hawker,--"how he broke into the house of his master, Mr.
Wood, at Dollis Hill--"

"Let me have one," said a carpenter, who was passing by at the
moment,--"Mr. Wood was an old friend of mine--and I recollect seeing
Jack when he was bound 'prentice to him."

"A penny, if you please, Sir," said the hawker.--"Sold again! Here you
have the full, true, and particular account of the barbarous murder
committed by Jack Sheppard and his associate, Joseph Blake, _alias_
Blueskin, upon the body of Mrs. Wood--"

"That's false!" cried a voice behind him.

The man turned at the exclamation, and so did several of the bystanders;
but they could not make out who had uttered it.

Jack, who had been lingering near the group, now walked on.

In the middle of the little town stood the shop of a Jew dealer in old
clothes. The owner was at the door unhooking a few articles o