street which it would be difficult
to match in the worst neighbourhoods in London.

I also recollect an instance of the deliberate coolness of a man who was
tried and found guilty of the robbery and murder of a farmer; being
asked if he knew his accomplice, he observed "As to knowing him, M. le
President, that is more than I can say; you must be aware that it is
extremely difficult to _know_ a person, you may have seen a person
often, and even conversed with him for years, and yet never _know_ him."

"Are you acquainted with him," was the next question.

"As to that," continued the prisoner, "I am a man who has very few
acquaintances, being naturally of a reserved character and rather
diffident in my nature, I shrink from entering much into society; being
of a reflecting habit, I like often to pass my hours alone, having
rather an indifferent opinion of human nature."

How long he would have gone on in the same strain, it is impossible to
say, when he was imperatively demanded if he knew him by name, by sight,
and had talked, or walked, or ate, or drank with him.

"Really you put so many questions to me at once that you tax my memory
beyond its means; I never was celebrated for having a very retentive
memory, my mother used to say."

The court out of patience again interrupted him, but with all their
efforts could never elicit from him a direct answer; but the
circumstantial and testimonial evidence being perfectly convincing, he
and his accomplice were condemned to death. When he heard the sentence
he very coolly asked which would be guillotined first; he was answered
that the other would, and that it was to be hoped that the sight of his
companion's fate might bring him to some sense of his awful situation.
When the time arrived for their execution, he displayed the same
imperturbable audacity; as his accomplice was about to suffer, he
elbowed the person who was standing next to him, and pointing to his
fellow criminal, he smiled and said, "Look, poor wretch, he is afraid, I
declare he even trembles." When it came to his turn he mounted the
ladder with as cheerful an air as if he was merely going to his
breakfast, and to the last moment preserved the same sang-froid.

A brutal sort of fellow, who was once condemned for an assault, in an
instant snatched off his wooden shoes and threw them at the head of the
President, who it appears had a good eye for avoiding a shot, and
managed to escape the missiles.

Som