charge of
perjury. This was an unspeakable relief both to me and to my anxious
wife and friends, who had witnessed the dreadful affair with the most
intense anxiety and alarm.

Some time after this horrible exhibition of baseness, my solicitor came
to me and told me that he had had an interview with the
Attorney-General, and that he had authorized him to say, that if I would
enter into bonds and give securities to keep the peace, he would not ask
me to plead guilty, but set me at liberty without more to do. He even
offered, at last, to accept my own recognizances to the small amount of
fifty pounds, without any other security. I refused the offer. To give
bonds to keep the peace seemed like an acknowledgment that I had
attempted or threatened to break it; and I had done no such thing. My
solicitor said the offer was a very generous one, and pressed me very
earnestly to accept it: my counsel did the same; but without effect. A
number of friends came round me and tried to remove my objections to the
measure: but all was vain. I was sorry to go against their advice, but
my feeling was, that to agree to the compromise proposed would be a
sacrifice of principle, and would entail dishonor on me, and be followed
by self-reproach and shame. At last, to obtain a little respite, and to
get out of the way of my importunate friends for a time, I told my
solicitor that I would lay the matter before my wife, and that whatever
she might advise, I would do. He agreed to this. He was satisfied that
there was not a woman in the country that would not advise her husband
to make a concession like that required of me, rather than see him run
the risk of two or three years' imprisonment.

My wife was at Southport just then, some eighteen miles away, and it was
too late for me to get to her that evening, so I had to spend the night
alone in Liverpool. I went to bed, but found it impossible to sleep. My
anxious mind kept turning over and over the proposal of the
Attorney-General, and trying to find some good reason for accepting it;
but all in vain. I had promised to be guided by my wife; but suppose she
should counsel me to give the required security, could I do so and be
happy? It seemed impossible. It struck twelve,--it struck
one--two--three, and I was still unsettled. At last I said, 'I will
explain my misgivings to my wife,--I will tell her that I feel as if I
should never be happy to consent to the compromise,--that I cannot get
rid o