hlets and chap-books that he brought into use. Take such
an episode as that of Schening and Harlin, two young German women, one
of whom pretended to have murdered her infant in the presence of the
other because she madly supposed that this would secure them bread--and
they were starving. The trial, the scene at the execution, the
confession on the scaffold of the misguided but innocent girl, the
respite, and then the execution--these make up as thrilling a narrative
as is contained in the pages of fiction. Assuredly Borrow did not spare
himself in that race round the bookstalls of London to find the material
which the grasping Sir Richard Phillips required from him. He found, for
example, Sir Herbert Croft's volume, _Love and Madness_, the supposed
correspondence of Parson Hackman and Martha Reay, whom he murdered. That
correspondence is now known to be an invention of Croft's. Borrow
accepted it as genuine, and incorporated the whole of it in his story of
the Hackman trial.

But after all, the trial which we read with greatest interest in these
six volumes is that of John Thurtell, because Borrow had known Thurtell
in his youth, and gives us more than one glimpse of him in _Lavengro_
and _The Romany Rye_. We recall, for example, Lavengro's interview with
the magistrate when a visitor is announced:

'In what can I oblige you, sir?' said the magistrate.

'Well, sir; the soul of wit is brevity; we want a place for an
approaching combat between my friend here and a brave from
town. Passing by your broad acres this fine morning we saw a
pightle, which we deemed would suit. Lend us that pightle, and
receive our thanks; 'twould be a favour, though not much to
grant: we neither ask for Stonehenge nor for Tempe.'

My friend looked somewhat perplexed; after a moment, however,
he said, with a firm but gentlemanly air, 'Sir, I am sorry that
I cannot comply with your request.'

'Not comply!' said the man, his brow becoming dark as midnight;
and with a hoarse and savage tone, 'Not comply! why not?'

'It is impossible, sir--utterly impossible!'

'Why so?'

'I am not compelled to give my reasons to you, sir, nor to any
man.'

'Let me beg of you to alter your decision,' said the man, in a
tone of profound respect.

'Utterly impossible, sir; I am a magistrate.'

'Magistrate! then fare-ye-well, for a green-coated buffer and a