inferior in strength, and I believe in courage, he did not dare to confront me with my guilt, for fear of worse bodily consequences which might happen to him. He repaired therefore immediately to the vice-chancellor, and upon swearing to the robbery, and to the circumstances of it, very easily obtained a warrant against one who had now so bad a cha racter through the whole university.

"Luckily for me, I lay out of the college the next evening; for that day I attended a young lady in a chaise to Whitney, where we staid all night; and in our return, the next morning, to Oxford, I met one of my cronies, who acquainted me with sufficient news concerning myself to make me turn my horse another way."

Pray, sir, did he mention any thing of the warrant?' said Partridge. But Jones begged the gen tleman to proceed without regarding any impertinent questions; which he did as follows:

"Having now abandoned all thoughts of returning to Oxford, the next thing which offered itself was a journey to London. I imparted this intention to my female companion, who at first remonstrated against it; but upon producing my wealth, she immediately consented. We then struck across the country into the great Cirencester road, and made such haste, that we spent the next evening save one in London.

"When you consider the place where I now was, and the company with whom I was, you will, I fancy, conceive that a very short time brought me to an end of that sum of which I had so iniquitously possessed myself.

"I was now reduced to a much higher degree of distress than before: the necessaries of life began to be numbered among my wants; and what made my case still the more grievous was, that my paramour, of whom I was now grown immoderately fond, shared the same distresses with myself. To see a

woman you love in distress; to be unable to relieve her, and at the same time to reflect that you have brought her into this situation, is perhaps a curse of which no imagination can represent the horrors to those who have not felt it."I believe it from my soul,' cries Jones; and I pity you from the 'bottom of my heart:' he then took two or three disorderly turns about the room, and at last begged pardon, and flung himself into his chair, crying, I thank heaven, I have escaped that.'

"This circumstance," continued the gentleman, "so severely aggravated the horrors of my present situation, that they became absolutely intolerable. I could with less pain endure the raging of my own natural unsatisfied appetites, even hunger or thirst, than I could submit to leave ungratified the most whimsical desires of a woman on whom I so extravagantly doated, that, though I knew she had been the mistress of half my acquaintance, I firmly intended to marry her. But the good creature was unwilling to consent to an action which the world might think so much to my disadvantage. And as, possibly, she compassionated the daily anxieties which she must have perceived me to suffer on her account, she resolved to put an end to my distress. She soon, indeed, found means to relieve me from my troublesome and perplexed situation; for while I was distracted with various inventions to supply her with pleasures, she very kindly-betrayed me to one of her former lovers at Oxford, by whose care and diligence I was immediately apprehended and committed to gaol.

"Here I first began seriously to reflect on the miscarriages of my former life; on the errors I had been guilty of; on the misfortunes which I had brought on myself; and on the grief which I must have occasioned to one of the best of fathers. When I added to all these the perfidy of my mistress, such was the horror of my mind, that life, instead of be

ing longer desirable, grew the object of my abhorrence; and I could have gladly embraced death as my dearest friend, if it had offered itself to my choice unattended by shame.

"The time of the assizes soon came, and I was removed by habeas-corpus to Oxford, where I expected certain conviction and condemnation; but, to my great surprise, none appeared against me, and I was, at the end of the sessions, discharged for want of prosecution. In short, my chum had left Oxford, and whether from indolence, or from what other motive, I am ignorant, had declined concerning himself any further in the affair.'

Perhaps,' cries Partridge, he did not care to have your blood upon his hands; and he was in the right on't. If any person was to be hanged upon my evidence, I should never be able to lie * alone afterwards, for fear of seeing his ghost.'

I shall shortly doubt, Partridge,' says Jones, whether thou art more brave or wise.'-You may laugh at me, sir, if you please,' answered Partridge; but if you will hear a very short story which I can tell, and which is most certainly true, perhaps you may change your opinion. In the parish where I was born Here Jones would have silenced him; but the stranger interceded that he might be permitted to tell his story, and in the mean time promised to recollect the remainder of his own.

Partridge then proceeded thus: In the parish where I was born, there lived a farmer whose name was Bridle, and he had a son named Francis, a good hopeful young fellow: I was at the grammar'school with him, where I remember he was got into Ovid's Epistles, and he could construe you three lines together sometimes without looking into a dictionary. Besides all this, he was a very good lad, never missed church o' Sundays, and was reckoned one of the best psalm-singers in the

whole parish. He would indeed now and then take a cup too much, and that was the only fault he had.''Well, but come to the ghost,' cries Jones. Never fear, sir; I shall come to him soon enough,' answered Partridge. You must know, then, that farmer Bridle lost a mare, a sorrel one, 'to the best of my remembrance; and so it fell out that this young Francis shortly afterward being at a fair at Hindon, and as I think it was on I can't remember the day; and being as he was, what should he happen to meet but a man upon his father's mare. Frank called out presently, stop 'thief; and it being in the middle of the fair, it was impossible, you know, for the man to make his escape. So they apprehended him, and carried him before the justice: I remember it was justice Willoughby of Noyle, a very worthy good gentle'man; and he committed him to prison, and bound Frank in a recognisance, I think they call it,-a hard word compounded of re and cognosco; but it differs in its meaning from the use of the simple, as many other compounds do. Well, at last down. 'came my lord justice Page to hold the assizes; and 'so the fellow was had up, and Frank was had up for 'a witness. To be sure, I shall never forget the face ' of the judge, when he began to ask him what he had to say against the prisoner. He made poor Frank tremble and shake in his shoes. Well, you fellow, says my lord, what have you to say? Don't stand humming and hawing, but speak out. But, how'ever, he soon turned altogether as civil to Frank, ' and began to thunder at the fellow; and when he ' asked him, if he had any thing to say for himself? 'the fellow said, He had found the horse. Ay! answered the judge; thou art a lucky fellow: I have travelled the circuit these forty years, and never found a horse in my life: but I'll tell thee "what, friend, thou wast more lucky than thou didst know of; for thou didst not only find a horse, but

a halter too, I promise thee. To be sure, I shall 'never forget the word. Upon which every body fell a laughing, as how could they help it? Nay, ' and twenty other jests he made, which I can't re'member now. There was something about his skill in horse-flesh, which made all the folks laugh. To be certain, the judge must have been a very ' brave man, as well as a man of much learning. It ' is indeed charming sport to hear trials upon life and death. One thing I own I thought a little hard, that the prisoner's counsel was not suffered to speak for him, though he desired only to be 'heard one very short word; but my lord would 'not hearken to him, though he suffered a counsel'lor to talk against him for above half an hour. I thought it hard, I own, that there should be so many of them; my lord, and the court, and the jury, and the counsellors, and the witnesses, all upon one poor man, and he too in chains. Well, 'the fellow was hanged, as to be sure it could be ' no otherwise, and poor Frank could never be easy ' about it. He never was in the dark alone, but he 'fancied he saw the fellow's spirit.'—'Well, and is this thy story?' cries Jones. 'No, no,' answered Partridge. Ŏ Lord have mercy upon me! I am just now coming to the matter; for one night, coming from the alehouse, in a long, narrow, dark Ilane, there he ran directly up against him; and the spirit was all in white, and fell upon Frank; and Frank, who is a sturdy lad, fell upon the spirit again, and there they had a tussel together, and poor Frank was dreadfully beat: indeed he made < a shift at last to crawl home; but what with the beating, and what with the fright, he lay ill above a fortnight; and all this is most certainly true, and the whole parish will bear witness to it.'

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The stranger smiled at this story, and Jones burst into a loud fit of laughter; upon which Partridge cried,' Ay, you may laugh, sir; and so did some