SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO., 66, BROOK STREET, HANOVER SQUARE. 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. 3/ B |