jailer and cruel official turned aside to conceal the tears
which would flow, at the thought that in a few moments that fine young
man, so handsome, so talented and so noble to look upon, would be
strangling and writhing with the tortures of the murderous rope, and
soon after cut down, a ghastly and disfigured corpse.

The Sheriff adjusted the rope, and there was an awful pause; a man was
tottering on the verge of eternity!

But oh, blessed pause--'twas ordained by the Almighty, to snatch that
innocent man from the jaws of death! At that critical moment, a confused
murmur was heard in the interior of the prison; the Sheriff, who had his
hand upon the fatal book, which alone intervened between the condemned
and eternity, was stopped from the performance of his deadly office, by
a loud shout that rent the air, as a crowd of citizens rushed into the
prison yard, exclaiming--

'Hold--stay the execution!'

The Mayor of the city, who was present, exchanged a few hurried words
with the foremost of the citizens who had thus interrupted the awful
ceremony; and instantly, with the concurrence of the Sheriff, ordered
Sydney to be taken from the gallows, and conducted back to his cell,
there to await the result of certain investigations, which it was
believed would procure his entire exoneration from the crime of which
he had been deemed guilty, and his consequent release from imprisonment.

It appeared that an officer connected with the ---- Insurance Company,
on opening the safe that morning at about half-past eleven o'clock,
discovered the dead body of the burglar, the money scattered about, and
the writing upon the door. The officer, who was an intelligent and
energetic man, instantly comprehended the state of affairs, and hastened
with a number of other citizens to the Tombs, in order to save an
innocent man from death. Had he arrived a few moments later, it might
have been too late; but as it was, he had the satisfaction of rescuing
poor Sydney from a dreadful fate, and the credit of saving the State
from the disgrace of committing a judicial murder.

A dispatch was immediately sent to the Governor, at Albany, apprising
him of these facts. The next day a letter was received from His
Excellency, in which he stated that he had just perused the evidence
which had produced the conviction of Mr. Sydney, and that evidence,
besides being merely circumstantial, was, to his mind, vague and
insufficient. The pressure of official