that he was the very fac-simile of the
great King of Prussia. The laureate made an ode upon him, which was set
to music; and the public learned, with tears of compassionate regret
at so romantic a circumstance, that pigeon-pies were sent daily to his
prison, made by the delicate hands of one of his former mistresses. Some
sensation, also, was excited by the circumstance of his poor wife (who
soon afterwards died of a broken heart) coming to him in prison, and
being with difficulty torn away; but then, conjugal affection is so very
commonplace, and there was something so engrossingly pathetic in the
anecdote of the pigeon-pies!

It must be confessed that Crauford displayed singular address and
ability upon his trial; and fighting every inch of ground, even to the
last, when so strong a phalanx of circumstances appeared against him
that no hope of a favourable verdict could for a moment have supported
him, he concluded the trial with a speech delivered by himself, so
impressive, so powerful, so dignified, yet so impassioned, that the
whole audience, hot as they were, dissolved into tears.

Sentence was passed,--Death! But such was the infatuation of the people
that every one expected that a pardon, for crime more complicated and
extensive than half the "Newgate Calendar" could equal, would of course
be obtained. Persons of the highest rank interested themselves in his
behalf; and up to the night before his execution, expectations, almost
amounting to certainty, were entertained by the criminal, his friends,
and the public. On that night was conveyed to Crauford the positive and
peremptory assurance that there was no hope. Let us now enter his cell,
and be the sole witnesses of his solitude.

Crauford was, as we have seen, a man in some respects of great moral
courage, of extraordinary daring in the formation of schemes, of
unwavering resolution in supporting them, and of a temper which rather
rejoiced in, than shunned, the braving of a distant danger for the sake
of an adequate reward. But this courage was supported and fed solely by
the self-persuasion of consummate genius, and his profound confidence
both in his good fortune and the inexhaustibility of his resources.
Physically he was a coward! immediate peril to be confronted by the
person, not the mind, had ever appalled him like a child. He had never
dared to back a spirited horse. He had been known to remain for days in
an obscure ale-house in the country, to whi