kins mentioned it, that I ha of the offending, and that Ik complices in the business. An exceedingly reputable had made.

COULD

himself were ac

he head and front | he gits off from this scrape, I knows enough of other matters about him to bring him to a hemp crawat wery speedily. You've got the plunder, you old of persons I hag, and it's only fair as you should come down with the tin for the tramp."

vas gone.
en?"

"Well," said I, "if it's done it can't be helped, you know, and I'm off this night"" although I had not the most remote idea of where I was going.

"If I'd a known vere you vos," said Mr. Sooterkins, "I'd ha' blowed this here spot o' work afore. But step in here. I've a vord or two to say to you, for I s'pose there's very little dust at the bottom of your fob."

Mr. Sooterkins plunged downward into a dingy cellar, and I followed him very obediently.

The place into which I accompanied him was a filthy diving, or slap-bang shop, in which retreat was collected as motley an assemblage as the imagination of man can conceive. A long table extended from one end of the cellar to the other, covered with pewter mugs and dishes, cheap crockery ware, and knives and forks, which latter implements were chained to the table. A very satisfactory idea of the morals of the guests might be gathered from this circumstance; although, indeed, if that hint had been wanting, the variety of villany stamped upon the faces of the profligate crew which surrounded the table, gave proof satisfactory that they were not of that number who rank with the honest of this world. Mr. Sooterkins nodded to this amiable assembly upon entering, and I obeyed his example, inasmuch as I recognized among these gentlemen some very familiar acquaintances. We were received in a remarkably hilarious manner, and some of the most jovial of our friends pressed their regards rather closely, by playing off two or three practical jokes upon Mr. Sooterkins. The application of a quart pot to the head of the most forward of these wits sent him howling into a corner, and, to my unspeakable satisfaction, put a very sudden conclusion to the incipient merriment.

"Take that," growled Sooterkins, "and now, as you gen'l'mn seems to be so 'ighly delighted at this here cheerful occasion, you'll just 'ave the goodness to leave me and my pal to our Own cards for a brace of minnits. You see, Bill, ve must speak to Sal, and git posted up on this last score. Hollo! Sal! you old limb of Satan, move yer shanks this way, I tell ye!"

A withered crone, who seemed to be the mistress of the cellar, came hobbling forward, being thus politely conjured to appear.

"Wot!" said she, extending her wrinkled hand to me. "Gentleman Bill here! Here's a sight for sore eyes!"

"Dight your gab," interrupted Sooterkins. "Bill's here, but he'll be obliged to cut and run this darkey, for the beaks are a'ter him 'bout that job of Ikey's. Now he's got no stump, and the devil a mag have I, so you must fork over, for the purchase wot come in vos fairly vorth double as much nor you paid for it. Bill, and Ikey, and I, are all in fur the business, but the blackguard dare n't peach on me, 'cause if

"Ah, Gabe," said the old woman, " you will drive hard bargains with me. But I can't well refuse for the pretty face of him."

Singular as it may appear, I felt gratified by the compliment of the hag.

"Yes, mother," said I, "change of air is good for the constitution, and I'll cheat Jack Ketch of his fees in spite of fate for this bout."

"How much can you do vith?" queried Mr. Sooterkins, who had lighted a fragment of a clay pipe, and commenced to smoke most industriously.

"Ten pounds will carry me on to Portsmouth," said I, for the localities and resources of roguery were fast becoming familiar to me.

"Too much," grumbled the crone. Gabe was about to make a savage reply, when two females descended the ladder, and entered the cellar.

"By my forks!" whistled Gabe. "This 'ere is just wot I hoped vould n't 'appen; but these cussed gals is everlastin❜ly a riggin a man, till he trots over the Old Bailey valls on a vooden oss."

"Bill!" cried one of the females, recognizing and running to me. "Is it you, Bill? I've been over the whole of this blessed town after you, for I heard that Ikey Solomon had let all out, and I feared that you were caught. But, thank Heaven, you 're safeyou 're safe!"

With an hysterical burst of laughter, the girl threw her arms around me and embraced me tightly. Her laughter gradually ceased, and gave way to a violent fit of weeping.

Amazed at first, and not knowing what she could mean, the truth began to break upon me. Poor girl! The burglar's mistress! What a world of guilt and wo are in those words! Her face was handsome, but oh! how deadly pale, save on the summit of the cheek-bones, where the fire of the hectic blazed. Her large, dark orbs were sunken, and gleamed like the reflected glow of a furnace from their deep cavities. Her apparel, which was a shade or two better than that of her companion, and her language, which showed her to be superior to the wretched assemblage around us, told a tale of sorrow-which, although a common tale, struck deeply on my heart.

"Hang it, Bess," said Sooterkins, endeavoring to push the girl away, "vot dost mean, crying and sniveling about a chap ven his wery life hangs on his speed in gettin' out o'Lunnun? Stand aside, thou foolish jade, and let me have my say out vith him."

"Stand by, Bess dear," said I, "and I will speak with you directly."

The girl obeyed.

"Now then," said Sooterkins, "As I've vormed the ten pounds out o' Sal, all you've got to do is this. Be off now, d'rectly, and take all the by cuts till you're out o' town, snug in the fields. I've a friend as goes down on the mail in the morning, and mind,

give him this jark. He'll be down on the sly with | you, for my sake. Then pull for Common Hard, and off over the Channel, till this 'ere job blows by. Lose no time, the night's dark, and make forward like the wind."

"And Bess?" said I, for the girl's affection had interested me, and the emotions of my burglar friend began to quicken in my breast,

"I must speak to her before I go, Gabe,” I replied. "What she is, I have made her, and it would break my heart to leave her thus."

|

corner of a well lighted street. The view of that shop acted as a talisman. It recalled me to a due sense, and to a most painful recollection of the transactions of the preceding night, and of my rencontre in Hyde Park with the usurper of my rights. I recollected perfectly well that I had received an invitation to a grand gala at Lord Flannery's for this evening, of which I doubted not for an instant that my represen

"Pshaw!" said Sooterkins, "why canst not mind tative would avail himself. Julia, I also knew, had thine own affairs, and let the girl alone?" promised to be there. Curiosity, no less than jealousy, spurred me on. I felt a strong desire to see in what manner and to what advantage I should appear. I determined to make my way to his lordship's, forgetting that if the police laid eyes upon me, I should dangle most loftily from the front of Newgate or the Old Bailey.

"Speak, then, fool, and be spry about it." "Bess," said I, stealing my arm around the waist of the unfortunate girl, "I must be off for Portsmouth." "Are you going, Bill?" she said, in a low and tremulous voice, as she lifted her eyes anxiously to mine; and that expression cut me to the soul, keen as a knife, "I never shall see you again."

"Hush, dearest, you must not speak so. We shall see each other soon, and live as happy days as ever." The eyes of the young girl became suffused with

tears.

"Happy! No, Bill, I never shall know happiness again. I have been weak and ill of late. I'm dying. Bill, and I know it. Before you will dare to return here, I shall be laid, in the parish shell, cold enough in the grave of a pauper. Do you remember the little cottage near the Downs? Ah! those were my. happy days. Then I was innocent, but you-but I wont speak of that, dearest, for I would not distress you,"

Nay, Bess, compose yourself-”

Onward I strode until I reached Grosvenor Square, from near which point I had started on my morning peregrinations. It was past eleven o'clock. I stationed myself in front of Lord Flannery's mansion, where the glow of lights, crowds of liveried menials, and the sound of music indicated the commencement of the rout. Equipage after equipage rolled up, and depositing their inmates at the door, drove off in rapid succession. Crowds of fashionables swarmed the apartments. I waited for Julia's arrival until my patience was nearly exhausted, and I was upon the point of giving the matter up in despair, when a magnificent turn-out drove up to the door, and Flashington Highflier, Esquire, descended from the vehicle, attired in a most recherché evening dress, and handed out-proh pudor!—the Honorable Miss Julia Adeliza Dashleigh!

I was petrified with astonishment. There was the figure which had excited her laughter but the previous night, and which was evidently the present object of her favorable regard. As the pair passed me, the light from the hall shone strongly upon my features. My representative gave me, en passant, a most facetious dig in the small ribs with his elbow, and suddenly clapping his hands upon his pockets,

"In the sleep of death? There is no other composure for me. You are going, and the strings of my heart snap as I look upon you for the last time. Oh! through misery and crime, Bill-and we have been miserable and criminal-I have loved you, dearer than the light of heaven! But, dearest, if you do escape and return, quit this awful life, for the sake of her whom you once vowed never to abandon-exclaimed, quit this den of villainy, and for God's sake, oh, never enter it again!"

The tears gushed from my eyes at this appeal, and my whole frame was shaken.

I promise-I : swear it," whispered I. "Thank you, dearest. Take this little ring. You know its history. And now, for the last time, this kiss. Farewell!"

Her head sunk upon her breast. Bestowing an embrace upon her, I darted from her side, and sprang up the steps of the cellar. At the foot I paused for a moment. Bess had hidden her face in her lap, and the heaving of her breast, plainly perceptible through its thin covering, testified the agony of her spirit.

The labyrinths of the dark and dingy by-streets seemed familiar to me as the interior of my own house. In fact, I was becoming rapidly identified with the character, as well as with the person of the burglar. But as I sped on, the recollection of my former condition was forcibly recalled, as I came upon a tailor's shop, ostentatiously placed at the

"There are thieves here! I have lost my snuffbox and my handkerchief?"

"Dear Mr. Highflyer!" said Julia, with a winning glance.

"Secure this fellow," said the hateful scoundrel, for whose crimes I was penitently atoning, pointing to me. "He has a suspicious look. Bring him into the hall. Come, dearest Julia, I will attend you to the dressing-room, and will then return to examine this man."

Instantly I was pounced upon by a police officer, assisted by a dozen servants, and in spite of my cries and protestations of innocence, was dragged into the hall. Mr. Highflyer was not long in making his appearance.

"Search him, officer," said he, as he drew out his tooth-pick, and planted himself in a very Lara-like style, with his back to the banisters.

"You infernal, thieving, rope-cracking blackguard!" I roared, goaded to the very verge of insanity by these accumulated misadventures.

"Gag him," said my tormentor. "Have you found of tone peculiar to the clerks of all legal tribunals. any thing, officer?" During this process, to which I paid not the least at

"All right, sir," replied that functionary. "Is this tention, I espied a newspaper lying by the side of here vipe yours?"

Shocking to relate, the missing articles were found upon me!

the dock. I picked it up, and was vacantly pouring over the columns, unseen by my jailers, when my attention was riveted by the following paragraph,

"That handkerchief is mine, as well as the snuff-which filled my breast with horror and despair. box. I shall appear to prosecute. Off with him to Bow Street. A p-r-e-e-tt-y good-looking chap for a pickpocket," continued he, as he turned his head with a supercilious smile, and examined me through his eye-glass. The smile gave way to a sneer of the most diabolical description as he ascended the staircase. I had never thought myself so confoundedly ugly as I did at that moment.

"Married, by the Right Rev. Doctor Dumfungle, at St. Martin's in the Fields, Flashington Highflyer, Esq., to the Hon. Julia Adeliza, daughter of Sir Poins Dashleigh, Bart."

Of course I was dragged off to the police-office, upon the charge of robbing myself. All that I could say would be of no avail, therefore I kept a most stoical silence. Having arrived at our destination, I was walked in before the head of the police, who, after a long and scrutinizing survey of my person, whispered an officer, who went out. I was then desired, or rather commanded, to extend my wrists to another officer, who placed upon them a very ornamental, but not very agreeable appendage, in the shape of a pair of manacles. I had subsided into a dogged, sullen, almost unconscious state of mind, and was becoming, in fact, very careless as regarded consequences. Half an hour had elapsed, when the officer who had spoken with the chief of police, returned.

He whispered the presiding functionary, who grinned approvingly.

"Well, my kiddy," said he, "the Saffron-Hill job war n't enough for you, eh? But I've caged you now, bird, and you'll be made to sing plenty loud for that matter, outcepting this altogether."

The climax to my sorrows had then arrived. The whole man was quelled within me. Spectators, judge and jury were all forgotten, and the tide of my woes rushed irresistibly onward, overwhelming me in the vortex. The question was put in the usual form, "guilty or not guilty?" Life had cloyed with me. I longed to occupy a resting place where I should be secure from the scorn and the persecutions of the world. The grave offered this refuge, and I gladly embraced it.

1 therefore rose from my seat, and replied to the query of the clerk, "guilty."

My attorney fairly fell under the table with atonishment. The whole assemblage seemed utterly confounded at my audacity, and a voice was heard above the general buz of tongues, which I recognized as appertaining to my acquaintance, Mr. Sooterkins,

"Vell, by blazes, h'aint you gone and done it!" Of course I was sentenced to be hanged. Day after day dragged on its weary course, and as I gazed at the gray walls of my dungeon, my heart seemed to harden like the stone itself. In vain did the ministers of the gospel strive to arouse me from my apathy. All was cold and dead within me. The

"I never heerd the like of this lark," said the under-day before that which was fixed for my execution, strapper. "It's a rigler demeanin' of the trade. Here's to my extreme surprise, Mr. Flashington Highflyer one of your Jimmy burglary swells come down to entered my cell. a-sneak of a pickpocket!"

It would be a work of supererogation to detail the variety of insults and the tortures of mind that I was forced to undergo from my appearance before the magistrate the next morning, until my final trial at the Old Bailey upon the charge of burglary. I had heard nothing of my ingenious tyrant, who was evidently, at the time I saw him last, in a very fair way to lead my lady-love to the altar. Nor, indeed, had I any opportunity of hearing from him. I saw no persons save my keeper, and a little, seedy, Jew attorney, whom I discovered to be in pay of the gang of which I was a worthy member. After various consultations with this gentleman, who informed me that he would be able, in spite of the veracious testimony of the respectable Mr. Ikey Solomons, to produce a satisfactory alibi, it was decided that I was to put in the plea of Not Guilty.

The day of trial arrived, after a weary and solitary residence within the walls of my prison of a month. None of the gang came near me, and I could never learn any tidings of Bess. At the appointed time, I was escorted into the court, and being duly arraigned, the charge was read to me, in that agreeable nasality

For some time indignation chained up my tongue. I experienced a choking sensation as I stared furiously upon my visiter, whose countenance was drawn out into the most hypocritical length. This did not very long continue, for the solemn visage which he had chosen to exhibit at his entrance soon gave place to a most malicious and devilish sneer.

"Well," said he, with an odious chuckle, "my fine fellow, how d' ye like your bargain?"

"Avaunt, fiend!" I exclaimed. He certainly manifested no symptoms of departure, but lolling upon my bunk, produced a Havana from his motherof-pearl cigar-case, and igniting it by means of a Lucifer, commenced to smoke with great sang froid.

"Pretty pleasant lodgings, those of yours, my old chap, but your wardrobe was horridly low and vulgar. In fact, I was compelled to make a bonfire of all your old clothes, before I could manage to put it into tolerable order."

You infernal scoundrel!" I roared, goaded to madness by this last insult. "I told you that you should pay for your rascality, and, by heaven, you shall pay for it now!"

SUMMER'S BACCHANAL.

BY J. BAYARD TAYLOR.