me measure the heartless part of
Hatfield's conduct which drew upon him his ruin; for _the Cumberland
jury_, as I have been told, _declared their unwillingness to hang him
for having forged a frank_; and both they, and _those who refused to
aid his escape when first apprehended_, were reconciled to this
harshness entirely by what they heard of his conduct _to their injured
young fellow-countrywoman_."--P. 201.

Hatfield was not "easily intercepted from flight." Sir Frederick Vane
granted a warrant to apprehend him on the charge of forcing franks.
Hatfield ordered dinner at the Queen's Head, Keswick, to be ready at three;
took a boat, and did not return. This was on October 6: he was married to
Mary on the 2nd. In November he was apprehended near Brecknock, in Wales:
so those who refused to aid his escape, if such there were, were not
"reconciled to the hardship by what they heard of his conduct to their
young fellow-countrywoman." The "startling of the thunderclap" was preceded
by an ordinary proclamation, describing the offender, and offering a reward
of 50l. for his apprehension. He was not "hurried away to Carlisle," but
deliberately taken to London on December 12; examined at Bow Street,
remanded three times, and finally committed; and sent to Carlisle, where he
was tried on August 15, 1803.

Three indictments were preferred against him: the first for forging a bill
of exchange for 20l., drawn by Alexander Augustus Hope on John Crump,
payable to George Wood; the second for a similar bill for 30l.; and the
third for counterfeiting Colonel Hope's handwriting to defraud the
Post-office.

The Cumberland jury did not "declare their unwillingness to hang him for
forging a frank," that not being a capital offence. I infer, also, that it
was one for which he was not tried. He was convicted on the first
indictment; the court rose immediately after the jury had given their
verdict; and the prisoner was called up for judgment at eight the next
morning. Trying a man under sentence of death for a transportable felony,
is contrary to all practice. Hatfield was executed at Carlisle on September
3, 1803.

Mary's misfortunes induced the sympathising public to convert her into a
minor heroine. She seems to have been a common-place person, with small
claims to the title of "The Beauty of Buttermere." A cotemporary account
says, "she is rather gap-toothed and somewhat pock-marked." And Mr. De
Quincey, after