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

There is a pathetic narrative, under the preceding title and motto in "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine," of the present month, (April, 1827.) It is scarcely possible to abridge or extract from it, and be just to its writer. Perhaps the following specimen may induce curiosity to the perusal of the entire paper in the journal just named.

"I have been hanged, and am alive," says the narrator. "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 thisnot 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 a-day 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 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 very 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 charge-as 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-I dreamed of it even in my sleep; and I never entered our counting-house of a morning, or saw my master take up the cash-book 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

6

me.'

speed

"The whole business of my trial and sentence passed over as coolly and formally as I would have calculated a question of interest, 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 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, gentlemanlylooking man-stated the case against meas 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 temperatelybut 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 orderly, 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 destructionseemed 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 à 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 any thing, 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 '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.-There was but one person then in all the world that seemed to belong to me; and that one was Elizabeth Clare! And, when I thought of her, the idea of all that was to happen to myself was forgotten-I covered my face with my hands, and cast myself on the ground; and I wept, for I was in desperation.-She had gone wild as soon as she had heard the news of my apprehensionnever thought of herself, but confessed her acquaintance with me. The result was, she was dismissed from her employmentand it was her only means of livelihood.

"She had been every where-to my master-to the judge that tried me to the magistrates-to the sheriffs-to the aldermen-she had made her way even to the secretary of state! My heart did misgive me at the thought of death; but, in despite of myself, I forgot fear when I missed her usual time of coming, and gathered from the people about me how she was employed. I had no thought about the success or failure of her attempt. All my thoughts were that she was a young girl, and beautiful-hardly in her senses, and quite unprotected-without money to help, or a friend to advise her-pleading to strangers

humbling herself perhaps to menials, who would think her very despair and helpless condition, a challenge to infamy and insult. Well, it mattered little! The thing was no worse, because I was alive to see and suffer from it. Two days more, and all would be over; the demons that fed on human wretchedness would have their prey. She would be homeless-pennyless-friendless-she would have been the companion of a forger and a felon; it needed no witchcraft to guess the termination.-

"We hear curiously, and read every day, of the visits of friends and relatives to wretched criminals condemned to die. Those who read and hear of these things the most curiously, have little impression

of the sadness of the reality. It was six days after my first apprehension, when Elizabeth Clare came, for the last time, to visit me in prison! In only these short six days her beauty, health, strength-all were gone; years upon years of toil and sickness could not have left a more wornout wreck. Death-as plainly as ever death spoke-sat in her countenance-she was broken-hearted. When she came, I had not seen her for two days. I could not speak, and there was an officer of the prison with us too: I was the property of the law now; and my mother, if she had lived, could not have blest, or wept for me, without a third person, and that a stranger, being present. I sat down by her on my bedstead, which was the only place to sit on in my cell, and wrapped her shawl close round her, for it was very cold weather, and I was allowed no fire; and we sat so for almost an hour without exchanging a word.

"She was got away, on the pretence that she might make one more effort to save me, with a promise that she should return again at night. The master was an elderly man, who had daughters of his own; and he promised—for he saw I knew how the matter was-to see Elizabeth safe through the crowd of wretches among whom she must pass to quit the prison. She went, and I knew that she was going for ever. As she turned back to speak as the door was closing, I knew that I had seen her for the last time. The door of my cell closed. We were to meet no more on earth. I fell upon my knees-I clasped my hands-my tears burst out afresh-and I called on God to bless her."

The mental and bodily sufferings of the condemned man in his cell, his waking dreams, and his dead sleep till the morning of execution, though of intense interest in the narrative, are omitted here that the reader may at once accompany the criminal to the place of execution

"I remember beginning to move forward through the long arched passages which led from the press-room to the scaffold. I saw the lamps that were still burn ing for the daylight never entered here: I heard the quick tolling of the bell, and the deep voice of the chaplain reading as he walked before us

'I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, shall live. And

though after my skin worms destroy

this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God!'

"It was the funeral service-the order

for the grave-the office for those that were senseless and dead-over us, the quick and the living

"I felt once more-and saw! I felt the

transition from these dim, close, hot, lamplighted subterranean passages, to the open platform and steps at the foot of the scaffold, and to day. I saw the immense crowd blackening the whole area of the street below me. The windows of the story, choked with gazers. shops and houses opposite, to the fourth I saw St. Sepulchre's church through the yellow fog in the distance, and heard the pealing of its bell. I recollect the cloudy, misty morning; the wet that lay upon the scaf prison itself, that rose beside, and seemed fold-the huge dark mass of building, the

to cast a shadow over us-the cold, fresh breeze, that, as I emerged from it, broke upon my face. I see it all now-the whole horrible landscape is before me. The scaffold-the rain-the faces of the multitude-the people clinging to the house-tops -the smoke that beat heavily downwards from the chimneys-the waggons filled with women, staring in the inn-yards oppositethe hoarse low roar that ran through the gathered crowd as we appeared. I never saw so many objects at once so plainly and distinctly in all my life as at that one glance; but it lasted only for an instant.

"From that look, and from that instant, all that followed is a blank

To what accident the narrator owes his existence is of little consequence, compared with the moral to be derived from the sad story." The words are soon spoken, and the act is soon done, which dooms a wretched creature to an untimely death; but bitter are the pangs-and the sufferings of the body are among the least of them--that he must go through before he

arrives at it!"

In the narrative there is more than seems to be expressed. By all who advocate or oppose capital punishment-by every being with a human heart, and reasoning powers

it should be read complete in the pages of "Blackwood."