Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1800* edition. Excerpt: ... last few hours. He had shortened the life of the man whose daughter he had already driven to destruction, --he had rendered miserable a peaceful family of love--had made his name hateful to the whole connexion--he had brought a poor, honest, hard-working woman into trouble and embarrassment--he had shewn a fear of death--and evinced a consequent consciousness of guilt--had violated the confidence reposed in him by those who had afforded him every consistent accommodation, and had postponed for a few hours the fate for which his mind had been infinitely better prepared the day before than it was at the present moment. To these reflections were added the galling weight of the irons, the hard floor of the cell in which darkness was onlv visible, and the absence of the chaplain, who was gone out of the town to an agreeable dinner-party, from which, after taking his cheerful glass in the circle of his affectionate friends, he would quietly return to his house, go to rest, rise to-morrow, and dine somewhere else, while Henry, poor wretch, would pine in the depths of sorrow tillwhen? That was the question; and very shortly was it answered. The sheriff had fixed twelve o'clock the following day for the execution; but, instead of visiting the prisoner, as he had kindly and considerately done before, he sent the undersheriff, who gave the gaoler the strictest orders as to the necessary degree of restraint to be imposed upon his charge; to which the gaoler, whose feelings were hurt by the dishonourable conduct of a man who could be so extremely ungentlemanly as to attempt to escape hanging, after such civil treatment as he had received at his hands, took care to adhere most rigidly; and when he locked up my hero for the night, he deposited within..