fortable position on a kitchen-chair.
The Murder is re-enacted in a vision, in dumb-show. The form
of MARIA appears in the tweed suit, and urges him to search
for her remains in the Red Barn._

_Old Martin_ (_awaking_). I have 'ad a fearful dream, and I am under
the impression that MARIA has been foully murdered in the Red Barn.

[_He calls the Comic Countryman to help him "to commence
a thorough investigation"--which he does, in a spirit of
rollicking fun befitting the occasion, as the Scene changes to
the Red Barn._

_Old M._ (_finding the spade_). What's this? A spade--and, by its
appearance, it 'as recently been used, for there are marks of blood
upon it! I now begin to be afraid my dream will come true.

[_Roars of laughter when the Comic C. discovers the body, and
implores it to "say summat!" Change of Scene. WILLIAM CORDER
discovered At Home, in a long perspective of pillars and
curtains, ending in a lawn and fountain._

_William_ (_moodily_). 'Tis now exactly twelve months since MARIA
MARTIN was done to death by these 'ands. Since then, I have married a
young, rich, and beautiful wife--and yet I am not 'appy.

[_Enter Old MARTIN, who, by the simple method of changing
his hat and coat, has now become a Bow-street Officer; he puts
questions to WILLIAM, who at once betrays himself, and has
to be searched. As a pair of pistols exactly resembling one
that was left in the Red Barn, are found in his coat-tail
pockets; his guilt is conclusively proved, and he is led away.
The next Scene shows him in the Condemned Cell, resolving to
sleep away his few remaining hours on a kitchen-chair. He has
a vision of MARIA in tweeds, who exhorts him to repent_.
Old MARTIN, _who is now either the Governor of the Gaol or the
Hangman, enters to conduct him to the scaffold, and on the way
he is met--to the joy of the Audience--by the Comic, C.,
who duns him for the ninepence. WILLIAM shakes his head
solemnly, points to the skies, and passes on. The Comic C.
then goes to sleep in a chair and has a vision on his own
account, in which he beholds the apotheosis of MARIA--still
in the suit of dittoes--and piloted by a couple of obviously
overweighted Angels; and also the last moments of WILLIAM
CORDER, who, as he stands under an enlarged "Punch"
gibbet, pronounces the following impressive farewell before
di