LONDON: 1862. [The right of translation is reserved.] 250 h. 13. DEDICATION To the Readers of this, not wholly imaginary, but somewhat hastily written tale, these pages are dedicated ; and if, during their perusal, it should occur to some, that zeal in a good cause may have outrun discretion, the Author can only hope that a thousand faults may be forgiven, in the name of the one virtue to which he has dared to link them. LONDON, March 8th, 1862. “RECOMMENDED TO MERCY.” CHAPTER I. * In life's last scene what prodigies surprise ; DR. JOHNSON. * For death looks ugly when the view is near.'—CRABBE. The sun shone from a cloudless summer sky on a darkened window of the Great City.' It was mid-day, and the hum of men was busy in the vast human hive: out on the wing were the toilers for the golden harvest : fluttering abroad were the sippers of summer sweets: but within that darkened chamber lay one whose work of life was nearly finished, and the last sands in whose glass were reduced to a few swiftly dropping grains. Let us look into the room. It is a sumptuous VOL. I. |