orced upon me. I was not allowed to assist myself--my hands were
unbound to get on my coat; but a man held each arm while another pulled.
They seemed afraid I would do something desperate, and were as coarse
and cautious as if I had been a ferocious animal; yet I was passive from
excess of fear; and, although numbers were speaking, I was in such a
state that I could not collect the purport of their conversation.
Execrations sounded in my ears above the confusion of voices, and the
first sentence I made out was spoken by my landlady:--'Oh, the
bloody-minded young wretch!' she cried. 'Who would have thought it, to
look at him? But I hope they will hang him as high as Haman. And, after
all, to come into a lone widow's house to bring disgrace on it. Take him
away, sirs, as quick as you can, or I shall be an undone woman, and my
character entirely lost.'

"Astonished at what the woman said, I inquired what offence I had
committed--or where. O God! what was my horror to learn that I was
charged with murder!--that the bundle in my possession had been the
property of the victim of some ruthless villain--and that I was taken
for him! In vain I protested my innocence. The two men were present to
whom I had said, when they inquired, that the bundle was my own. I was
thus, by my own confession--if not a murderer--a convicted liar. No one,
for a moment, thought me innocent. So strong was their conviction of my
guilt, that had the laws not deterred them, they would have rejoiced to
have put me to death on the spot. Even this would have been kindness, in
a worldly sense, to what I was doomed to suffer.

"It was nearly eleven o'clock at night, but clear and bright; the moon
was nearly full; the air a little sharp, but not cold, when I was
placed, bound hand and foot, in a cart, and accompanied by the two men
and two officers. I thought my heart would have burst. I opened not my
mouth to speak in answer to their questions, cruel taunts, and
upbraidings. I saw I was an object of horror and loathing to them--and
deservedly so, had I been the guilty creature they had cause to think
me. I passed the melancholy time we were upon the road in tears, and
prayers that my innocence might be made manifest; but I knew not yet the
extent of my misery. At length the cart stopped at the door of the
public-house; my feet were loosened, and I was desired to come down, and
enter the same room where I had been in the afternoon. A crowd of
horrorstricken