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signal to cast off some covering, or shift his position. It was, at length, morning. With a feeling that he should go mad if he remained any longer in bed, he rose, and paced his chamber. The air refreshed him. He threw himself on the floor; the cold crept over his senses, and he slept.

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LE REVENANT.

"There are but two classes of persons in the world-those who are hanged, and those who are not hanged; and it has been my lot to belong to the former."

THERE are few men, perhaps, who have not a hundred times in the course of life, felt a curiosity to know what their sensations would be if they were compelled to lay life down. The very impossibility, in all ordinary cases, of cbtaining any approach to this knowledge, is an incessant spur pressing on the fancy in its endeavours to arrive at it. Thus poets and painters have ever made the estate of a man condemned to die, one of their favourite themes of comment or description. Footboys and 'prentices hang themselves almost every other day, conclusively-missing their arrangement for slipping the knot half way-out of a seeming instinct to try the secrets of that - fate, which-less in jest than earnest-they feel an inward monition may become their own. And thousands of men, in early life, are uneasy until they have mounted a breach, or fought a duel, merely because they wish to know, experimentally, that their nerves are capable of carrying them through that peculiar ordeal. Now I am in a situation to speak, from experience, upon that very interesting question-the sensations attendant upon a passage from life to death. I have been HANGED, and am ALIVE-perhaps there are not three other men, at this moment, in Europe, who can make the same declaration. Before this statement meets the public eye, I shall have quitted England for ever; therefore I have no advantage to gain from its publication. And, for the vanity of knowing, when I shall be a sojourner in a far country, that my name-for good or ill-is talked about in this,—such fame would scarcely do even my pride much good, when I dare not lay claim to its identity. But the cause which excites me to write is this-My greatest pleasure, through life, has been the perusal of any extraordinary narratives of fact. An account of a shipwreck in which hundreds have perished; of a plague which has depopulated towns or cities; anecdotes and inquiries connected with the regulation of prisons, hospitals, or lunatic receptacles! nay, the very police reports of a common newspaper-as relative to matters of reality; have always excited a degree of interest in my mind, which cannot be produced by the best invented tale of fiction. Because I believe, therefore, that, to persons of a temper like my own, the reading that which I have to relate will afford very high gratification; and because I know also, that what I describe can do mischief to no one, while it may

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prevent the symptoms and details of a very rare consummation from being lost;-for these reasons I am desirous, as far as a very limited education will permit me, to write a plain history of the strange fortunes and miseries to which, during the last twelve months, I have been subjected.

I have stated already, that I have been hanged and am alive. I can gain nothing now by misrepresentation-I was GUILTY of the act for which I suffered. There are individuals of respectability whom my conduct already has disgraced, and I will not revive their shame and grief by publishing my name. But it stands in the list of capital convictions in the Old Bailey Calendar for the Winter Sessions, 1826; and this reference, coupled with a few of the facts which follow, will be sufficient to guide any persons who are doubtful, to the proof that my statement is a true one. In the year 1824, I was a clerk in a Russia broker's house, and fagged between Broad Street Buildings and Batson's Coffeehouse, and the London Docks, from nine in the morning to six in the evening for a salary of fifty pounds a-year. I did this-not contentedly-but I endured it; living sparingly in a little lodging at Islington for two years; till I fell in love with a poor, but very beautiful girl, who was honest where it was very hard to be honest; and worked twelve hours aday at sewing and millinery, in a mercer's shop in Cheapside, for half a guinea a-week. To make short of a long tale-this girl did not know how poor I was; and in about six months, I committed seven or eight forgeries, to the amount of near two hundred pounds. I was seized one morning-I expected it for weeks-as regularly as I awoke every morning: and carried, after a few questions, for examination before the Lord Mayor. At the Mansion-House I had nothing to plead. Fortunately my motions had not been watched; and so no one but myself was implicated in the chargeas no one else was really guilty. A sort of instinct, to try the last hope, made me listen to the magistrate's caution, and remain silent; or else, for any chance of escape I had, I might as well have confessed the whole truth at once. The examination lasted about half an hour; when I was fully committed for trial, and sent away to Newgate.

The shock of my first arrest was very slight indeed; indeed I almost question if it was not a relief, rather than a shock, to me. For months, I had known perfectly that my eventual discovery was certain. I tried to shake the thought of this off; but it was of no use-1 dreamed of it even in my sleep; and I never entered our counting-house of a morning, or saw my master take up the cashbook in the course of the day, that my heart was not up in my mouth, and my hand shook so that I could not hold the pen-for

twenty minutes, afterwards, I was sure to do nothing but blunder. Until, at last, when I saw our chief clerk walk into the room, on New Year's morning, with a police officer, I was as ready for what followed, as if I had had six hours' conversation about it. I do not believe I showed-for I am sure I did not feel it either surprise or alarm. My "fortune," however, as the officer called it, was soon told. I was apprehended on the 1st of January; and the Sessions being then just begun, my time came rapidly round. On the 4th of the same month, the London Grand Jury found three Bills against me for forgery; and, on the evening of the 5th, the Judge exhorted me to " prepare for death;" for "there was no hope, that, in this world, mercy could be extended to me."

The whole business of my trial and sentence, passed over as coolly and formally, as I would have calculated a question of inter'est, or summed up an underwriting account. I had never, though I lived in London, witnessed the proceedings of a Criminal Court before; and I could hardly believe the composure, and indifference --and yet civility-for there was no show of anger or ill temper→ with which I was treated; together with the apparent perfect insensibility of all the parties round me, while I was rolling on-with a speed which nothing could check, and which increased every moment to my ruin! I was called suddenly up from the dock, when my turn for trial came, and placed at the bar: and the Judge asked in a tone which had neither severity about it, nor compassion-nor carelessness, nor anxiety-nor any character or expression whatever that could be distinguished-"If there was any counsel appeared for the prosecution?" A barrister then, who seemed to have some consideration-a middle aged, gentlemanly looking man— stated the case against me-as he said he would do―very "fairly and forbearingly;" but, as soon as he read the facts from his brief, that only I heard an officer of the gaol, who stood behind me, say -"put the rope about my neck." My master then was called to give his evidence; which he did very temperately—but it was conclusive; a young gentleman, who was my counsel, asked a few questions in cross-examination, after he had carefully looked over the indictment; but there was nothing to cross-examine upon-I knew that well enough-though I was thankful for the interest he seemed to take in my case. The Judge then told me, I thought more gravely than he had spoken before,-"That it was time for me to speak in my defence, if I had any thing to say. I had nothing to say. I thought one moment to drop down upon my knees, and beg for mercy;—but, again-I thought it would only make me look ridiculous; and I only answered-as well as I could-"That I would not trouble the Court with any defence."-Upon this, the Judge

turned round, with a more serious air still, to the Jury, who stood up all to listen to him as he spoke. And I listened too--or tried to listen attentively-as hard as I could; and yet-with all I could do-I could not keep my thoughts from wandering! For the sight of the Court -all so soberly, and regular, and composed, and formal, and well satisfied spectators and all-while I was running on with the speed of wheels upon smooth soil downhill, to destruction-seemed as if the whole trial were a dream, and not a thing in earnest! The barristers sat round the table, silent, but utterly unconcerned, and two were looking over their briefs, and another was reading a newspaper; and the spectators in the galleries looked on and listened as pleasantly, as though it were a matter not of death going on, but of pastime or amusement; and one very fat man, who seemed to be the clerk of the Court, stopped his writing when the Judge began, but leaned back in his chair with his hands in his breeches' pockets, except once or twice that he took a snuff; and not one living soul seemed to take notice-they did not seem to know the fact that there was a poor, desperate, helpless, creature-whose days were fast running out-whose hours of life were even with the last grains in the bottom of the sand glass-among them! I lost the whole of the Judge's charge-thinking of I know not what-in a sort of dream-unable to steady my mind to anything, and only biting the stalk of a piece of rosemary that lay by me. But I heard the low, distinct whisper of the Foreman of the Jury, as he brought in the verdict-" GUILTY,"-and the last words of the Judge, saying -"that I should be hanged by the neck until I was dead:" and bidding me 66 prepare myself for the next life, for that my crime was one that admitted of no mercy in this." The gaoler then, who had stood close by me all the while, put his hand quickly upon my shoulder, in an under voice, telling me, to "Come along!" Going down the hall steps, two other officers met me; and, placing me between them, without saying a word, hurried me across the yard in the direction back to the prison. As the door of the court closed behind us, I saw the Judge fold up his papers, and the Jury being sworn in the next case. Two other culprits were brought up out of the dock; and the crier called out for "The prosecutor and witnesses against James Hawkins, and Joseph Sanderson, for burglary!"

I had no friends, if any in such a case could have been of use to me-no relatives but two; by whom-I could not complain of them-I was at once disowned. On the day after my trial, my master came to me in person, and told me, that "he had recommended me to mercy, and should try to obtain a mitigation of my sentence." I don't think I seemed very grateful for this assurance

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