s, there
will be good-sense and good-feeling enough in the city to do us
justice.'

There was sound sense and much consolation in this reasoning: the
obvious probabilities of the case were in favour of the fulfilment of
the locksmith's expectations. But a scene of trial and excitement--of
prolonged agony and hope deferred--lay before him, the extent of
which it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for him then
to have foreseen. Toiled in the search, the directors of the bank
sent one of their body to negotiate with Amos--to offer him a large
sum of money, and a guarantee from further molestation, if he would
confess, restore the property, and give up his accomplices, if any
there were. It was in vain that he protested his innocence, and
avowed his abhorrence of the crime. The banker rallied him on his
assumed composure, and threatened him with consequences; until the
locksmith, who had been unaccustomed to dialogues founded on the
presumption that he was a villain, ordered his tormentor out of his
shop, with the spirit of a man who, though poor, was resolved to
preserve his self-respect, and protect the sanctity of his dwelling
from impertinent and insulting intrusion.

The banker retired, baffled, and threatening vengeance. A
consultation was held, and it was finally determined to arrest Sparks
and commit him to prison, in the hope that, by shutting him up, and
separating him from his family and accomplices, he would be less upon
his guard against the collection of evidence necessary to a
conviction, and perhaps be frightened into terms, or induced to make
a full confession. This was a severe blow to his family. The
privations forced upon them by the want of the locksmith's earnings
were borne without a murmur--and out of the little that could be
mustered, a portion was always reserved to buy some trifling but
unexpected comfort or luxury to carry to the prisoner.

Some months having passed without Sparks having made any confession,
or the discovery of any new fact whereby his guilt might be
established, his prosecutors found themselves reluctantly compelled
to bring him to trial. They had not a tittle of evidence, except some
strange locks and implements found in the shop, and which proved the
talent, but not the guilt, of the mechanic. But these were so
various, and executed with such elaborate art, and such an evident
expenditure of labour, that but few, even of the judges, jury, or
spectators, could b