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the supplication, turned his head quite round, and fixed his eyes wistfully and mournfully upon me; but then, a spark of hope kindling within my bosom, I reiterated with tenfold earnestness, "God grant it! God grant it!" and I could utter no more.

But

At this instant he raised himself with greater force than he had ever done before; and reaching further with his hands towards the bottom of the bed, his brother grasped them in his own, and thus supported his whole weight in this extraordinary attitude. soon his head began to droop; his eyes were twisted almost out of their sockets; and his wife and daughter screaming aloud, and receiving him back again into their arms, he expired with a single but a terrible groan. He was dead, and his eyes were suffused with dimness; but they were wide open, and protruded far and horribly. Some one at a distance cried out, "Close them immediately!" Mrs. Marsden wrung her hands, and started back with a superstitious dread, and exclaimed fearfully, "I cannot do it!" The daughter had covered her face with her apron. The brother was standing with mingled amazement and doubt. I rose from my knees, and with my fingers pressed his eyelids downwards, until, at length, after two or three trials, they continued shut for ever. Then I said, falling again upon my knees, "Let us all pray to God, before it be too late, to give this unfortunate man pardon and rest; let us make no unmanly outcries whilst his soul is departing from his body; let us form no hasty judgment concerning the manner of his death; but let us lay our hands upon our own mouths, and ask grace for ourselves, that we may live well, and die happily."

A sufficient space having been allowed for this, I rose once more, and retired with haste; the darkness and silence of the night creating deeper and more awful reflections. But it was to no purpose. Nothing could now be undone; no step retraced. The tree had fallen, and so it must lie.

CHAPTER II.

JACOB BROCKBOURN.-WARNINGS.

§ 1.-Mrs. Martin, Mrs. Hudson, the Souths, &c. ONE afternoon, upon looking over my newspaper which had just arrived from the neighbouring town, I was surprised to see a circumstantial account of a murder reported to have been committed in my parish; and at first I was strongly inclined to doubt the truth of the whole matter, or at least to feel quite sure, that there was an error in the name. Not that my parish did not abound, like others, with persons who were capable of any wickedness; (which I lamented, but could not remedy by any human counsel hitherto devised;) but, when I took so much pains to be acquainted with all occurrences, and so many persons were always ready to communicate every thing extraordinary, and I myself was never out of the way, it seemed incredible that the news of a transaction, so horrible as a murder, should have travelled to the town, have got into the papers, and then come back to me, before it had reached me by any other channel. Besides, there were Brockbourns in the parish, and bad ones too; but I had never heard of any Jacob Brockbourn, as the murderer himself was called. Upon the whole, I trusted, that the pain and the disgrace of so heinous a deed were yet at a distance from us.

However, I sallied forth to make enquiries, and

was very soon disenchanted of my confidence. The story was too true; but it was supposed, that Jacob was a mistake for Joseph; because there was a Joseph Brockbourn, who had well entitled himself to the imputation of a murderer, by his general habits of drunkenness, and stealing, and other depravities. And such a man as Joseph was very likely to have taken up his abode in such a spot as that which was now mentioned to me as the scene of the murder. Thickly peopled as the parish was, yet there were parts of it that were solitary enough; at least, removed from all great roads, and exposed only to the observation of a few of the lowest cottagers. This was one of that description. Towards the remote corner of a wide, extensive, open field, traversed chiefly by foot-paths, there is a small cluster of wretched hovels, with some others detached, and scattered about at various distances. On a Sunday, as I had often been told, this place was usually the resort of the most profligate persons, who brought their liquor and their loose women with them, and pursued their debaucheries, unawed by the appearance of any decent respectable people, or by the fears of beadles and constables. The inhabitants had no communication with any of our hamlets, where the various shop-keepers are collected together; for they were much nearer to a very large village, or rather town, it might be called, in an adjoining parish, where all their daily wants were supplied equally well, and with less inconvenience. So, on the present occasion, the poor sufferer, Brockbourn's wife, was attended by a surgeon from thence, who sent her off, in a very few hours after the calamity, to the nearest hospital; the consequence of which was, that there

was no possibility of inviting me to visit her. I have no doubt but this would have been done under more favourable circumstances; for wicked as these people were, they never failed, if there was time enough, to summon me to the sick-bed; and I have very lately been there day after day, for a long period, to pray with a poor young married woman, who died at length of her lingering disease, after having received the sacrament from my hands. But neither a mournful event like this, nor others much more awful, which I shall, perhaps, have occasion to mention, seemed to have any effect in changing the character of the place. Through all the changes and chances of human affairs, and in spite of a frequent change of some of its inhabitants, it continued uniformly the The new-comers either brought with them, or soon acquired the manners of the oldest settlers; and now to crown the rest of their enormities, a husband had murdered his wife. So at least it was believed. The wife died in the hospital in about four and twenty hours; the inquest gave a verdict of wilful murder against the husband; and, in consequence, he was now in prison, awaiting the trial which was to decide upon his character and his life.

same.

This was the result of my first enquiries in my own immediate neighbourhood, and to my great sorrow a splendid opportunity of doing good appeared to be entirely lost. However, I thought it advisable to go, and see what impression had been made upon the rest of the people, and to endeavour to turn this calamity to their improvement. My curate, a young clergyman, zealous in his profession, and anxious for information and experience, together with some

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