knowledge, all tending to illustrate the extreme danger and destructive effect of the electric fluid. In a squall at sea nothing is heard but relations of shipwrecked vessels and drowning crews. Let the prevalence of any epidemic or other such heavy visitation be announced, and the instances of death by that particular disease seem to multiply with the cause that has thus arisen for their enumeration. So it was with me and my fellow-traveller; the time and place were apt for deeds of plunder and violence-it was just then the one subject most unwelcome to our minds, and consequently we could, or rather would, speak of nothing else. For a full hour did we vie with each other in our succeeding details of this particular species of crime, until, at a sudden turn of the road, we came upon the full view of that most appropriate spectacle for such a moment, yclept a gibbet, the sight of which gained for my ears the following singular story, which, be it credible or incredible to others, I now note down; as regards the matter, simply as it was told to me —but, as regards the manner, after a fashion of my own.

“ About fifty years ago, during the reign of King Charles the Second, there lurked about these parts a most daring and dangerous villain, who had, from his youth upwards, lived a lawless life of plunder and outrage. His parents, poor but honest folk, perhaps unfortunately for him, but certainly most fortunately for them, died while he was yet a mere boy; but, young as he was, he had already discovered talents of no common order for that turn of life which alone his evil mind led him to look on with pleasure. Learning of every description was his particular aversion, and the only evidences on record of his being aware that there was in the village such a building as a church were the many attempts which he made to pilfer from it the few valuables it contained. He was as ugly in his person as he was deformed in his mind; and his swarthy complexion, and dark, shaggy hair and eyebrows, had gained for him from his earliest years the nickname of Black Tom.'

At a fair held at Donnington Cross, the place we had just passed, and to which he had when about fifteen years old gone in the hope of there exercising to some profit his petty larceny propensities, there chanced to come an old woman not a little celebrated throughout Berkshire for her skill in fortune-telling, and whose peculiar dwelling-place had obtained for her the familiar appellation of the Witch of the Wood. Between this person and Tom there existed, from what original cause is not known, a settled enmity and continued warfare. Two of a trade, they say, can seldom agree; and it may be supposed that on more than one occasion this pair of practitioners in the art of abstraction had interfered professionally one with the other.

“ With the true cunning of her art, she of whom we speak, on arriving at the present scene of action, of course promised more or less prosperity in the world to her youthful customers accordingly as they varied in the amount of the retaining-fee offered at the shrine of her mystical knowledge. Tom, who had, unobserved, for some time stood by in sullen silence, at length caught her eye, and, seeing that she changed the expression of her features the moment they rested on his, he cried out, with a mixture of spite and banter

“Now, mother, don't you know your favourite son ?'

Ay, that do I, and much better, too, than he thinks or likes,' was the ready reply:

“A titter, which ran through the surrounding crowd of half and full grown urchins, did not seem to increase Tom's small stock of good humour, and, with his teeth set, and his fist clenched, he blustered up to the old woman; the juvenile bystanders, to whom his prowess in the fight was most fully known, making at the first moment most respectful way for him. For an instant there seemed to be some doubt in the mind of the sybil as to whether her divine art might prove sufficient defence against this flesh and blood assault; but her confidence in it being suddenly restored by the appearance of the parish beadle, she mustered up her forces, and, putting on her most imposing air, she exclaimed— Never swell nor swagger here: I am not a chicken in farmer Grouse's hen-roost to be fluttered at you, stretching out your felon forepaw. This little allusion to one of Tom's well-known pastimes was only making bad worse, and there is no saying to what extent of violence that, and the loud laugh which it caused, might have driven him, had he not just then caught sight of the great parish authority before alluded to; the only human being, indeed, for whom Tom had ever been known to be guilty of the smallest signs of respect. In a moment, changing his scowl into a bitter smile, he said,

“Well done, mother! I forgot that on my last visit to weighbour Grouse you were my helpmate; and yet I might have remembered it too, for by the same token I well recollect who it was that eat the chickenbroth, barley, bones, and all! But, come, I bear you no grudge for it, and, if you will answer me one civil question, we'll part friends as usual.'

“ The old woman looked at bim a moment, and, then, as if impatient to hear what he evidently intended should be a poser, she exclaimed

"Out with it then in a breath, and don't make as many mouthfuls

your words as you did of the oatcake you stole this morning out of Nelly Jones's corner cupboard.'

“What! peaching again?' said Tom, with great coolness; for he had, by this time, recovered himself sufficiently to be a match, as he thought, for all the chattering old women in the country; ' now, I tell you what, mother, from this time you and I dissolve partnership. I am not going to run whole risks for half profits; at any rate, I won't again be such a fool for one who can't keep her tongue between her teeth; so answer my question, and then good bye.'

“Out with it, I say again, limb of the Devil!' «« So I will, hag of h- -!'

“ The remainder of the compliment was lost in the loud cry wlrich was at this moment uttered on the sudden coming in contact of the beadle's staff with the speaker's sconce; but this was caused more by surprise than by suffering, for to the latter he was tolerably hardened, and in a few moments, looking round at the burly functionary, who was, with all his wonted dignity of office, motioning him to withdraw from the scene of action, he muttered out, " Well! let her answer my question and I will.' The gold-laced hat was observed to move in token of compliance, and Tom, gathering up his scattered powers, darted on the object of his inquiry one of his most hideous scowls, and then said —

of

""Tell me this: when will you be ordered your first whipping at Donnington Cross ?

“ The look was returned with interest, and with cool and slow delivery this answer was given

“ The same day that you get your second hanging on Donnington gibbet.'

This strange reply evidently had its effect, both on him to whom it was addressed, and on the bystanders, for it caused even the great staffofficer himself to open his eyes, and to raise their brows in wonderment; nay, he actually went so far as to break through the proud silence which he was wont to observe whenever he was clothed in his gilded robes of state; and something of ' second hanging--umph!--first generallyumph!-quite sufficient-umph!' actually escaped his lips; but, perceiving, at this moment, that his unusual loquacity was causing his astonished hearers to approach his person with far too much of familiarity, he gave a most awful clearing of the throat, struck his ponderous mace with violence against the ground, and was in a moment himself again.

“Tom had kept strictly to the articles of agreement, for, whether he liked not the old woman's reply, or from whatever other cause, he was by this time nearly clear of the crowd, and mingled no more with it that day. But, although the actual scene was thus brief, the concluding words of it were long remembered by those present, who used, in afteryears, while sitting in their chimney-corners, to recur to them with the same wonder as to their fulfilment, as was excited as to their meaning when first they heard them.

“I could go on for an hour detailing to you various minor events of Black Tom's lawless life, but time, and the fear of tiring you, equally forbid it; I shall, therefore, content myself with a recital of the singular circumstances which put the final close to his criminal career, and which were of such a nature as to bear out, in many people's minds, the strange prophecy uttered concerning him ten years before by the Witch of the Wood.

“A very extensive robbery took place in this immediate neighbourhood. It had been planned by London practitioners in the art of plunder; but, as they were in want of some important local information for a due execution of the project, they naturally addressed themselves to Tom, who, for the promise of a sufficient share in the booty, undertook to be their pilot. This proved an unlucky job for him; for one of the gang, being afterwards taken, and carried before the magistracy there, compromised for the sparing of his own life by denouncing Tom, of whose part in the crime till then no suspicion had existed. The evidence, however, was so clear, and the feeling so strong against bim, that his trial was a mere ceremony; at the close of which, sentence of death was passed upon him, and he was condemned to be executed, and afterwards hanged in chains, the shortest time the law then allowed being given to him for preparation. The gibbet was erected at Donnington Cross, on a spot ever since called Gallows Corner; and to this the unfortunate malefactor was led early on the day appointed for his execution.

“Such a spectacle being then, happily, of rare occurrence in these parts, vast crowds were attracted to the spot by that strange curiosity common to common minds, which can find excitement alike in scenes of mourning or of merriment. At the eleventh hour, however, a difliculty, as unexpected as it was unwelcome, arose; for it was necessary that the iron hoops, which were to encircle the body immediately after death should have taken place, should, for that purpose, be fitted on during life; and the smith (the only one in that part of the country), proving but a bungler at his trade, had, it seemed, wofully mistaken his measure, so that on the day of execution, when this tailor of death brought home his client's “last suit,” merely basted, it were, together, to be tried on, it was found to be, in some instances, as much too ample as in others it was too scanty. The ceremony was, therefore, delayed while the knight of the iron goose endeavoured to alter and adjust his work; but, so inexperienced was he in this new branch of his calling, and so completely were the few wits which he at cooler moments possessed now scattered by the novelty and responsibility of his situation, that hour after hour passed away, and still found and left the last work of the law unfinished. Towards evening the spectators, who had long been murmuring at the inconvenient delay thus occasioned, began to vent their dissatisfaction more audibly and more palpably, both in word and in deed. Hisses, and groans, and sticks, and stones, were heard and felt, and the rising storm was, for a short time, hushed only by the following occurrence :

“ Just as the evening sun was sinking hehind the neighbouring hills, there appeared suddenly upon the ground a lengthened shadow, which ran along it, stretching on to the fatal gallows-tree, and there terminating on the very face of the condemned, whose glazed eye that instant feli on the gaunt figure of the Witch of the Wood. For the moment a cold tremor seized him as he recollected her last parting words to him; but, as if ashamed of quailing before her, of all people, he, almost in the same breath, called for a glass of strong liquor, which, being supplied him, he tossed it off to her health, and then, with a bitter jocularity, he thus addressed her:

“ “Now, mother of darkness, what do you there, standing between Heaven's sun and your own, to make us believe we have seen each other for the last time ?—and how is this? I thought you promised me a treat in this world before I left it. Keep you not your word, false hag? Where is the whipping you were to have the day that I got my hanging ?'

“ All faces were directly turned toward the new comer, who, after remaining portentously silent for a few moments, thus slowly answered:

« « The mother of darkness can cast nothing but shade; but that matters little to eyes like yours, that never yet could bear to look on the light of truth; and, for the whipping-if your sore fright at going out of the world can let you remember anything that took place in it, look back to my words of ten years since. I promised you then that Donnington Cross should hear me ordered my first whipping the day that Donnington gibbet should see you get your second hanging; and, as sure as hemp shall make the cat that shall almost flourish over me, and the noose that shall quite strangle you, so sure shall my words come true.'

“ With the conclusion of this mysterious sentence, she strode from the spot, and the impatience of the multitude, being only increased by this momentary check to its expression, now burst forth with more than renewed rigour, and soon, the violence swelling into open tumult, the civil authorities were attacked and dispersed, and Jack Ketch himself, with his friend the iron smith, were glad to compound for their personal safety by the abandonment of the latter's handiwork, and by the hurried and half complete performance of the former's.

“ The fast coming darkness of the night hid from the view of almost all the assembly the agonized face of the victim, as to the last he struggled for life itself, while the noise and confusion of many tongues drowned his single cry for mercy. In a few moments all was over, or, at least, was thought to be so, for the cause and object of the affray having given what was believed to be his last convulsive movement, those to whom he had but just before been everything, now turning their thoughts to some more substantial excitement, as by universal consent, dispersed over the face of the country. This was done with so much of haste, that where there had lately been but noise and life, there now remained but silence and death. The first sound that broke upon the stillness of the scene, was that of a solitary pair of wheels, and there soon arrived upon the spot the light cart of a market-gardener and his son. On their way home from a distant employment, they had fallen in with some of the retiring multitude, and, to the great regret of the younger of the two, found they had arrived just in time to be too late. Increasing their speed, however, they made for the gallows, and, driving straight to its foot, they sat some time looking up in a sort of stupid wonderment at that, which as Macbeth says, "might appal the devil.'

“ The night breeze was just then rising, and, as it sighed through the branches of the neighbouring trees, and slightly stirred their fading leaves, both sight and sound gave such solemnity to the scene, that by degrees, a natural awe came over the minds of these rude sons of the soil, who had at first regarded the breathless corpse only as they would have looked on a withered cabbage. This new feeling once aroused, grew on them with a rapidity knowo only to those that have but impulse to guide them; and, when it is remembered how strong is the effect produced by the contemplation of the lifeless, soulless body upon all reflective minds, that ever pause in their maddest gaiety, to think that 'to this complexion they must come at last,' it cannot be matter of wonder that to these children of ignorance such a spectacle acted as a perfect bewilderment of all understanding. Each turned his eyes ever and anon from the dreadful object to seek in the other some look of encouragement, some gesture of animation; but the mutual hope was, as a matter of course, a mutual failure. Whether market-gardeners, like modern ladies, have or have not those troublesome appendages called nerves, I cannot take upon me to decide; but this I know, that in a very short

of time the unfortunate pair, of whom I am speaking, were in such a state of highly wrought excitement, that to their sight the body actually moved. It might now be truly said of them that their eyes were made the fools of the other senses, or else were worth them all,' and they were worth them all, for the body did move; not as it had already done in one mass, slowly swinging in the breeze, but by parts and portions: now a hand, now a foot, and now both at once! They nearly fell from their vehicle with horror and affright, when, at that moment, to crown all, a moan came upon their ears. They stared and stood aghast—they looked and listened. It might be the wind along the summer grass, or through the hawthorn hedge. No, it was neither, for a second came—a clear,