uld
never even have attempted to do so--but for what I had done. The jury
had found me guilty, but strongly recommended me to mercy on the ground,
as they said, that I had been deceived by my agent. The conviction was
very general that no sentence of imprisonment would be inflicted.

I was never a moment in doubt. I knew I was going to gaol from the
moment Rebecca Jarrett broke down in the witness-box. This may be said
to be nothing extraordinary; but what was extraordinary was that I had
the most absolute conviction that I was going to gaol for two months. I
was told by those who considered themselves in a position to speak with
authority that I was perfectly safe, that I should not be imprisoned,
and that I should make preparations to go abroad for a holiday as soon
as the trial was over.

To all such representations I always replied by asserting with the most
implicit confidence that I was certain to go to gaol, and that my
sentence would be two months. When, however, on November, 10th, 1885, I
stood in the dock to receive sentence, and received from the judge a
sentence of three months, I was very considerably taken aback. I
remember distinctly that I had to remember where I was in order to
restrain the almost irresistible impulse to interrupt the judge and say,
"I beg your pardon, my lord, you have made a mistake, the sentence ought
to have been _two_ months." But mark what followed. When I had been
duly confined in Coldbath-on-the-Fields Prison, I looked at the little
card which is fastened on the door of every cell giving the name of the
prisoner, his offence, and the duration of his sentence. I found to my
great relief that my presentiment had not been wrong after all. I had,
it is true, been sentenced to three months' imprisonment, but the
sentence was dated from the first day of the sessions. Our trial had
been a very long one, and there had been other cases before it. The
consequence was that the judge's sentence was as near two months as he
possibly could have passed. My actual sojourn in gaol was two months and
seven days. Had he sentenced me to two months' imprisonment I should
only have been in gaol one month and seven days.

These three presentiments were quite unmistakable, and were not in the
least to be confounded with the ordinary uneasy forebodings which come
and go like clouds in a summer sky. Of the premonitions which still
remain unfulfilled I will say nothing, excepting that they govern my
ac