out a mother's spirit, love, and disinterested kindness, is carried out of the still chamber and put into an earthly grave, then a man cries; and a man cries at another time, but he does not cry often; oh, no! for if he did, that would take away the solemnity which surrounds the tear of a

man.

Now, Biddulph's tears had this solemnity about them; for he had not cried since he was a child, and now it was because the whole object of his living was fully and finally accomplished.

As he lay upon the ground the little children came about him, and saw the blood which was upon the tombstone, which made them take an interest in the scene, but the living man did not see the children, or hear their conversation one to another. One of the little ones had a dog, a mere plaything of a dog, which said dog went up and began lapping the blood of the murdered man, when Biddulph arose, caught it by the throat, and dashed it against the tombstone which was beside him. Then the children cried, and went away to tell their parents, for they were not awake to the horible deed which had been done in killing a man, but their ideas were called into action when their favourite was stunned into eternity.

Biddulph took no further notice of the children, but sat again by the side of his victim, and looked at the whole scene, when he dreamt again, and felt all the horrors which attend the murderer, independent of the rope which is to finish his career; for the rope is but a human judgment, whilst beyond it lies the judgment of a hereafter-a vast, ay, an interminable and inexplicable hereafter.

As the man thus dreamt, he imagined he saw an old and withered face on the top of an aged body-a face which he well remembered in childhood, and yet another face by the side of it, which beamed with love and charity towards the whole of those who travelled upon the surface of the world. There was some dreaming, but gradually there was reality about the matter, for the aged man and the young woman having to cross this churchyard on their way from the Union, came right up to the scene of blood, and into the presence of the murderer, when Jerico's face was the colour of a scarlet ribbon, and the old bone put on his well-worn spectacles, so that he might penetrate what was then to his old eyes a perfect mystery.

When, however, the old bone had penetrated the mystery, he sprang right away from his age, as well as his manifold infirmities, and stood there and then a very youth in activity of mind and strength of

purpose.

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Jerico, Jerico" he began. "Jerico, Jerico," he continued, petulantly; but he might have saved himself the trouble, for Jerico was seated upon the ground with the dead man's head upon her lap, and her own face as white as that which represents death upon a horse in a picture.

Soon the old man saw what she was about, and finding that her holy purpose of ministering to a dying man was frustrated by the strong arm of death before, he set about bringing the murderer into a state of reanimated kindness, in words of love and kindling philanthropy. "Man! man! man!" He raised his voice as he repeated man for the third time. 66 'Man, what deed is this you have been guilty of?"

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Why, don't you see?—a deed of blood, to be sure," replied Biddulph, languidly.

"I see, I see; but why did you do it, eh?"

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Why ? answered the man, as though he had been on his oath. "Why? Why? Because he was my schoolmaster!"

"But what made you, my dear man, kill your schoolmaster, eh?" "Why?-because he taught me; he told me to do it."

"Told you, man, to kill him, eh?"

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Ay, sir, his rod told me, and his cane told me, and his laugh told me, and his sneer told me-ay, it was that sardonic laugh which he flogged with that told me to kill him."

"Man," said the old bone, with interest, "tell me your history, will you, eh?"

"Yes, father, that I will."

Then Biddulph went over his early childhood, and as he continued his story, he watched the effect it had upon the aged man.

"Ay, ay, then you were left by your mother? Well?"

"Yes, a kind man took me out of the street, and placed me in a public school, so that I might receive a Christian education."

"Well, go on, eh?" put in the old bone, as a light began to gleam upon the picture. Well, go on, eh?"

"In the school I was flogged by this very arm, and this head dictated it," he said, as he took the one after the other out of the lap of Jerico, and let them drop again. "I was virtuous, and he made me not so; I was a well-disposed boy, and he turned me upon the world a perfect and well-educated devil."

"Well, go on, will you-eh?"

"Why, in a word, father, I was placed in that school by a holy-disposed man, whose name was Howard, and they turned my nature first, and then expelled me; they did. by"

“Ask him what his name is, Jerico! ask him what his name is.” “ Yes, daddy. What is your name, young man ? ''

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"Why, as to that," he replied, carelessly; why, as to that, my name is Richard Biddulph, and your name, old man, is Howard."

6.

“. Right, right, man, for once; you are right-isn't he, Jerico ? " "Yes, daddy, yes."

"Yes," mused the old bone, as he looked at his middle finger steadfastly, and then at the next finger, when he took hold of the first and called it Richard, and of the second and called it Jerico, when he continued, in an audible reverie,

"So, so, Richard was a child and I placed him in a public school, when he was flogged first, and expelled afterwards, and he has turned out a reprobate as well as murderer; whilst you, Jerico, the daughter of a common strumpet and a beggar, have been nurtured by the kind Mrs. Harty, and you are a young and pleasing image to look upon and to think about, now I am going step by step into my grave."

The old fellow here could not continue his reverie any longer, because of his feelings; so that he looked at Jerico, and contrasted her charitable expression with the morose, turbulent, and passionate features of the grown-up school-boy, and when he had done so he took out his handkerchief, and tried to squeeze out a tear or two from his aged foun tain, but it was as dry as the shanks which supported his miserable

body. Such a demonstration of real feeling quite overcame Biddulph, worn and hackneyed as he was, but he was quite as far away from crying now as even the old bone himself, although Jerico made up for the two in such a profusion of globular tears that if any good comes from watering the cheeks, why she surely had the benefit of it.

Now, all this did not take a long time to be enacted, although I have little doubt the theatrical chaps would take an eternity of ages to portray such feeling upon the stage; but then, it must be remembered that tragedians, as well as dancers upon the backs of running horses, are not particularly natural, and so it must be insisted upon that it did not take many minutes to go through the whole of it in the churchyard. Still, in spite of Jerico's tears-which ought to have been retained in a bottle, because of the nature which was about them-still, in spite of Jerico's tears, the old bone made her active in a moment by calling her to his side, when they raised Biddulph into a kneeling posture, and forcibly placed his hands one against the other, and also raised his eyes towards the sky, when the old man said,

"Now then, why don't you pray-eh?"

"No, no, sir, I can't.

"But I say you can, and, Jerico, tell him so-tell him so."

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There, don't you hear, young man, what daddy says; and if he says so, you may depend upon its truth, you may-yes, that you may." "Ay, ay, it's all very well for you two to talk of praying, but I can't; besides He," the man faltered, as the very monosyllabic title of the Father of us all escaped his lips; "besides, He will not hear me; no, no, He will not listen to a murderer."

"Tell me, young man, tell me," the old bone asked, as though whole mercies depended upon his answer; "tell me, do you repent the deed you have done?

"Why, as to that, if I had not done it, I should still want, and would-yes, yes, I still would do it-I would by—”

As the man said this, the others were so perfectly paralyzed that one after the other they allowed his hands to fall down upon the corpse, where they flinched again and again, when the old bone and Jerico, by a mutual sign which they understood, in an instant put themselves upon their knees at the very threshold of mercy, and asked the Almighty Father and dispenser of mercy to shower down a portion upon the hardened reprobate, so that Richard Biddulph's heart might be made like unto the heart of a Christian; and as they thus prayed, the old man's lips moving, and the spectacled eyes raised towards heaven, with the pure maiden whose lips had the blossom as well as the perfume of the rose upon them-ay, as they thus prayed there came several sturdy men up to the spot, with handcuffs and ropes, in order that the ends of human justice might be fully accomplished. They came up, and after binding Biddulph, the old bone cried out,

"Bind me too, for I did it."

"No, no, masters, it was I who killed that dead schoolmaster," said Biddulph, composedly as well as firmly.

"Ay, but it was I who placed him in the school, so I brought it about."

Jerico said something, and the old bone said something more, but it

was of little service, for the hardy men conveyed both the murderer as well as the murdered away, so that a coroner's inquest might sit upon the body, and puzzle about the why and the wherefore, as well as the whereabouts.

Well, then, if it suits the reader, it may be understood that the coroner did hold his visitation, and after viewing the corpse, the jury agreed upon a verdict, when the committal paper was duly made out, and the prisoner was forthwith posted to the goal of Newgate, so that another jury might say ay or no, guilty or not guilty.

Now, don't be in a hurry, but wait patiently, my dear reader, when you will find-but stop; it is not my intention to write a modern playbill.

CHAPTER L.

NOW IS TO BE RECORDED A CRIMINAL TRIAL, THE SPEECH OF AN IRISH BARRISTER, AND ALSO THE SOLILOQUY OF A LORD CHIEF BARON'S BLACK CAP.

With the rapidity of thought or lightning the whole matter of the murder was made known to the world through the medium of those singularly quick young gentlemen called penny-a-liners' reports to the newspapers, who not only attended the coroner's inquest, but actually went to the very churchyard where the tragedy was enacted, so that their "particulars" might be more particular than was actually necessary. Every little point or circumstance was magnified into the length of a column, in consequence of the interest which the public took in anything appertaining to the murdered as well as the murderer.

These young gentlemen, these quick-sighted reporters, put down notes upon the subject in short-hand, then they wrote a novel upon twelve slips at a time, by means of their manifold writers, which slips were distributed to the various newspapers, and were printed accordingly. Some of the editors headed the report with "Diabolical murder," some of the editors called it "an outrageous murder," and some styled it a singularly outrageous murder."

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Then followed a life of Dr. Frampton, which life was rather that of a saint than of a schoolmaster; and there was also a life of Biddulph, which made him out to be a wretch of so horrible a character that the lowest depths of a certain place were far too cold to receive his demoniacal heart. Yes, there were many lives of Biddulph, but there was not one of them which told about the origin of that character, as to how it was created, and by whom the venom was generated. No; and thus it is with the world, or rather that large portion of it who take a railroad glance of a murderer's character, but never by any chance break the shell of the egg, so as to scrutinise its contents.

Thank God, however, there are some holy personages who would blush to see their names printed in this history, although the beauty of their characters is reflected by the stars in the firmament of heaven. Thank God there are some holy persons who go right within the egg itself, and analyze the yolk of it, so as to give evidence before committees of the House of Commons, when they are called upon to do so -ay, they go right into the clammy walls of prisons, and sit down by the side of murderers, in order that the origin may be traced, if there be

one; and it is found that in nine cases out of ten that the diabolical murderer has been previously murdered by the laws or usages of society, and the mere body which remained could not appreciate the criminality, or see the horror in the same way that the horror ought to be seen. Sometimes the torch which was, and is always, in the body was lighted by these kindly-disposed persons, when the callous and demoniacal murderer went back again to his very originality, and cried as he was wont to do before he was murdered by the world.*

Well, leaving these angels from heaven to visit the charnel houses, let it be understood that the newspapers were chock full of the murder as well as the murderer-the colour of his hair, the twist of his lip, as to what he drank yesterday, and as to what he ate to-day. There were particulars and further particulars, and then again even further particulars still, which claimed to be the latest; and so the mind of the public was simply a vast sheet of paper with the whole subject-as far as the aforesaid reporters knew about-written upon it, over and over again.

Now, it must be remembered that if any one of these gentlemen could have caught a glimpse of my MS. his fortune would have been made speedily. I should have been most happy to have let them had the benefit of it, if they had applied, but somehow or other they thought the public were more interested with the bare fact of the murder rather than the tracing of its cause, and the origin of its determination; and to write the truth-as it would be impudent not to do-and to write the truth, these young gentlemen were right; only what I complain of is, that there should be so much hurry in getting rid of a criminal, simply for the purpose of satisfying a craving after vengeance, or blood, or executions. Would it not be better to let the furor cool down a little, and then try the man for the simple crime which he has committed, and allow something for circumstances, and something for atonement, and something for the minds of the educational generation? Would it not be better? but come, come to the business.

Well, the court was crowded to suffocation, and I don't know how many dukes as well as aldermen sat upon the bench by the side of the Lord Chief Baron, who had another judge by his right hand, as well as the two Sheriffs of London. There was a place in the court set apart for the reporters, and every seat appropriated for the counsel was pressed by a piece of stuff in the shape of a gown. Then the rest of the mirky place was crammed full of young gentlemen as well as old gentlemen, who had paid so much each to the doorkeepers as they entered into the court of justice.

The counsel had their briefs all ready cut and dry, and it was singularly perceptible as to which was a leader, and which again was a poor unpaid junior, because of the loud coughing of the one, and because of the stifled sneeze of the other.

Now, of course the judges entered into the court with solemnity as well as with dignity, and the counsel put on their wigs before they

Mrs. Fry's death allows me to say that her heart was with the success of this work; its cause may have been her cause, and after all one half of the pleasures of authorship arises from knowing that the fight is a good one. But I ought to say something about the departed. Well, then I will. From letters and from conversation-in mind she was a man, in heart she was a woman. In educating her many children she never struck one of them,