celebrated for his skill and finesse as a cracksman, I became fearful of pursuing long that dangerous avocation. Besides, notwithstanding all my caution, I had already become noticed by the thief-takers, and more than suspected, and with Clifford attached myself to an extensive gang of swindlers that carried on a wholesale system of plunder upon the unwary. In this nefarious pursuit, my address and knowledge of the world, and dexterous disguises, enabled me to excel, and I soon found myself at the head of the gang, Clifford acting but a subordinate part. Our great difficulty consisted in steering clear of the criminal law or at least taking care to leave no evidence for our conviction. For many months I thus existed with others in a state of absolute splendour, until the treachery of an inferior accomplice turned evidence against us in a fraud, and Clifford, myself, and two others were suddenly seized and committed to prison on the charge of obtaining goods under false pretences.

On our trial, by the aid of some money and property that remained in our possession, we were enabled to secure the best legal assistance, as well as bribe a material evidence, by which means chiefly the prosecutors failed in bringing home that charge legally, of which there could be no moral doubt. Though liberated from prison, we were distressed and wretched in circumstances, but even more wary though not less desperate in our feelings than before. The system of swindling, however, by which we had duped] the credulous, had become completely exploded by our trial, and Clifford and myself—it was strange, but I had become attached to him in crime-determined upon endeavouring to discover some fresh El Dorado of wealth. I had indeed become intimately well acquainted by this time with the whole machinery, and all the extensive ramifications of guilt in the great metropolis, and had besides an extensive connec. tion with those wary "receivers " and " go betweens," who, frequently screened by wealth and apparent respectability, become absolutely indispensable in their agency to the successful commission of crime. Still, what to do for immediate support, Clifford and myself knew not; having just been liberated, our every movement was watched. One resource was only open; I had some arrears of my small allowance due, which my uncle's agent would, in the execution of his trust, pay only into my own hands. Having been in prison for two months, and having been tried under an assumed name, I was still in hopes that the circumstance had not transpired, and called upon my uncle's agent.

Walking up to his counting-house, he received me with a chilling sternness, and told me that his agency was concluded, and that he could possibly have nothing more to do with me.

Stung at this intelligence, my reckless audacity induced me to write a letter to my uncle, in which I claimed as a right the allowance he had only made conditionally, hinting, in case of refusal, that neither he nor his darling pet,

Mary Clifton, need be surprised to hear that his family name should be coupled with crime.

To this epistle, to the composition of which I was partly stimulated by Clifford, I received no reply, nor to a second which I sent, couched even in more threatening terms than the first. Enraged at the result, and more brutalized than ever by repeated fits of intoxication, I became wrought upon by the artful representations of the designing Clifford, and even entertained the idea of revenging myself by robbing my uncle's house. Although somewhat startled at the thought in the first instance, the idea soon became but too familiar, until I resolved at last, in conjunction with Clifford, and the man whom I had formerly met in his company, to perpetrate the crime.

Acquainted as I was with every passage and closet in the mansion, and knowing where the plate and jewels were kept, I had little or no doubt but that by means of skeleton keys, we should be easily enabled to possess ourselves of the property, and with little fear of detection. Having laid our plan, and obtained an advance of cash from a "fence," or receiver, with whom we had been but too frequently connected, Clifford and myself immediately proceeded by water to a small village on the coast, within a few miles of the spot, from whence we were to reconnoitre, and after having arranged the time we were to be joined on the night fixed upon by Smith Jemmy, and who was to drive down a light tax-cart, which was to carry ourselves and plunder up to the metropolis. The agency of this fellow burglar was indeed indispensable, but particularly in the opening of locks, for which, having early in life been apprenticed to a locksmith, he had subsequently become celebrated as a burglar. Taking our abode up in a small cottage in the village, kept by an old woman, I soon managed to learn from her every particular connected with my uncle's life. Within the last two or three years, in consequence, as my informant told me, of his nephew having turned out a very profligate character, the poor old gentleman had become immersed in grief and sadness. He had given up his dogs and horses, and become quite retired, being seldom seen, and then only in company with Miss Clifton, whom he had adopted as a daughter. She, my informant added, was in a deep consumption, and was given over as incurable by the doctors, though she still daily made a practice of visiting the poor and afflicted in the country for many miles round.

Hardened as I had become, I was touched at the picture which the woman had drawn, and with a feeling of bitterness reflected on the misery and affliction which I had occasioned to those whose only fault had been loving me but too well.

That same night, while Clifford went to amuse himself at a public-house, I took a lonely stroll towards my uncle's park. It was late when I reached it,

and, knowing that the keepers had gone their rounds, and that the inmates were most likely in bed, I climbed over the palings, and bent my steps towards the house. The night was melancholy and still, with the exception of a low wind that seemed to murmur mournfully along the lofty avenue of elms, in the shade of which I bent my way. I have said the wind was low, yet still a straggling scud under its influence sailed along the sky every other minute, obscuring the bright rays of a full moon that threw a melancholy charm over the scene. As I approached the old mansion, which was partially wrapt in the shade of some lofty elms, and gazed upon its venerable front, the thoughts of other days, ere guilt had quite seared my heart, stole one by one upon my reflections. When last I had trod that scene I was, comparatively speaking, innocent and happy, and but little dreamt of the deep and deadly guilt into which my passions were about to engulf me. I had loved poor Mary, at first, in innocence—at least, in unpremeditated guilt. I had repaid her for preserving my life by planting the sting of shame and degradation in her heart, and by sending her venerable parent prematurely to his grave. Thither also had I sent the early friend of my boyhood, for speaking the words of honour to my ears. The love and affection of an uncle I had likewise requited by meanness, falsehood, and duplicity; and, after a long tissue of infamy unexampled, I had at length come as a thief in the night-time, with my ruffian companions, to plunder him who had only been but too bountiful.

As these reflections passed through my mind, my bosom, hardened and impenitent as it usually was, felt overladen with the weight of my guilt, and I sunk at the foot of a tree, and, pondering over the dreadful past, wept like a child. Blessed tears! if those feelings had then but continued, I should have been saved some portion of that remorse which now bows my guilty head with despair to the dust. Smothering my feelings, I passed once or twice round the house, and gazed at a window where a light still exhibited itself. There poor Mary, I thought, is, in all probability, offering up her orisons, and praying in all the sincerity of a grief-stricken heart, and preparing for that approaching hour when the grave will close upon her sorrow and her shame-perhaps praying for me. My thoughts had grown agonising.

With slow and unequal steps I quitted the scene, determined in my own mind to forego this last act of premeditated infamy that had induced my visit to the country.

The sudden remorse of the wicked is generally short-liked. The badinage of my companion soon eradicated for the time the better feelings of the previous evening. Going out the following night to make an observation of the premises, he returned and spoke of the certain success of the project. He had learnt my uncle was in the habit of reading prayers to the servants on the Sabbath evening,

when nothing would be easier than for me to gain admittance, and secrete myself until the family had retired to rest.

Our plan being laid, Clifford immediately wrote to town, and gave notice to our accomplice to join us at a certain hour on the Sunday night, near a hamlet which he described to him. As the time approached, I felt a thousand anxious fears as to the result, which I had never experienced before, even in the most desperate undertakings.

At length the day arrived which we had named for the robbery. The evening came on dark and cloudy, and seemed to prognosticate an approaching storm. It was in every way favourable to our nefarious design. Outside of the hamlet we had appointed for a rendezvous with our third accomplice, whom we met in attendance with a light cart, expressly hired for the occasion, which we secreted under an old shed just outside of the park gates, and then proceeded on together towards the house, in the hope of my being enabled to gain an entrance, and conceal myself until all had retired to rest, when, knowing the fastenings of the door, I was to admit my confederates into the house. In case I failed in obtaining an immediate entrance, our plan was to retire to the barn, and drive a few miles beyond the village and wait for midnight, when Smith Jemmy was to use his skill in effecting an entrance through some of the doors of the domestic offices connected with the building.

As we approached the mansion under the cover of total darkness, the expected tempest came bursting over our heads. A heavy shower of rain, accompanied by a crash of thunder, as if the heavens had broken asunder, burst from over our heads, and for a moment shook my guilty soul. My companions were evidently in no better spirits than myself, as we halted for a moment facing the mansion. Nearly at the same moment the distant village clock struck eight, which, from the information gathered by Clifford, was the hour my uncle had accustomed himself of late to read prayers to his servants. Leaving Clifford to keep watch at a corner of the mansion, to give us notice, by imitating the cry of an owl, of any one's approach, Smith Jemmy and myself stole along the front of the house, but everything seemed buried in darkness. Listening at the door, we heard the faint murmur of voices from the intericr of the house, that convinced us of the true information acquired by Clifford, whom we now joined. Proceeding round to the back of the house, soaking with rain, Clifford went forward alone, and, after being absent for a minute or two, rejoined us with the intelligence that he had found a door ajar.

"Be resolute-be firm," he whispered, in a voice anything but calculated to

reassure me.

With a sinking heart I accompanied him to the spot, where a small postern door, that was chiefly used by the servants, had been left unbolted. Pushing it

gently open, I listened to the sound of a single voice, which I instantly recog nised for that of my uncle. It evidently issued from a large parlour on the right of the entrance, which he had formerly fitted up as an armoury.

"Now is your time-you know the passages," whispered Clifford.

As the solemn tones of the old man's voice smote my ear, my recent remorse at the undertaking was revived. I hesitated. The following moment, shame, and the fear of being thought weak and imbecile by those with whom I had enlisted at much trouble and expense in the undertaking, determined me. Hastily slipping off my boots, and telling Clifford to be punctual with his companion, I opened the door by a swift motion, to prevent it creaking, shut it by the same movement, and then with a noiseless step passed near the door that enclosed my uncle and family. I then stole up the grand staircase, intending to conceal myself in the drawing-room, which I had reason to believe was seldom used, and which, moreover, held one or two curiously-contrived closets that, in case of necessity, would sufficiently screen me. I had only just, however, reached the landing-place, when I heard the armoury-door open below, which was followed by the sound of feet on the stairs. Fearing that I had been overheard, I immediately opened the drawing-room door as noiselessly as I could, and stole into the room.

I had no sooner entered it than I beheld with alarm that it had been recently tenanted, as a fire still burnt on the hearth, while two chairs, as though only recently quitted, stood by a table, on which a lamp still burnt. Fearful of discovery, I would have passed out of the door again, and taken my chance of concealment in some of the upper rooms, but it was now too late: the sound of one or two persons' steps were evidently approaching the door when I reached the nearest of the two closets, one of which I pulled open and entered. Fearful of attempting to close the door, on account of the noise it would occasion, I had scarcely time to pull it nearly to, when, through the slight opening, I beheld my uncle enter the apartment, supporting on his arm the fading form of Mary Clifton. Time and grief, since I had seen them last, seemed, indeed, to have pressed them both with a withering touch. The once jolly, rubicund visage of my uncle had grown wan and more furrowed, and there was a restlessness in his grey eyes that indicated a mind ill at ease. When my glance rested upon the once-blooming and lovely Mary Clifton, as she sunk into a seat, I beheld a change indeed. Her form had wasted to a mere shadow, while her singularly bright eyes, and the hectic flush upon her wan, pale cheeks, gave a look of beauty and interest to her whole person of a nature too etherial for this world. Although trembling for the fear of discovery, my eyes became rivetted upon the pair, while a choking sensation of my present purpose appeared to rise in my throat. Mary had sunk with her head upon her hand, while the big tears coursed each other down her face.