as

had acted too bitterly, the Revenge! he soothed his maddened heart to quietness, and again resumed his defence, and for a few minutes in a doubly artificial serenity. The tone in which he wished that he had died in battle, reminded me of Kean's farewell to the pomp of war in Othello-and the following consequence of such a death, was grandly delivered by Thurtell as it was possible to be! "Then my father and my family, though they would have mourned my loss, would have blessed my name; and shame would not have rolled its burning fires over my memory!" Such a performance, for a studied performance it assuredly was, has seldom been seen on the stage, and certainly never off. Thus to act in the very teeth of death, demands a nerve, which not one man in a thousand ever possesses. When Hunt was now called upon for his defence (Thurtell's poor group of five witnesses having been examined) his feeble voice and shrinking manner were doubly apparent, from the overwrought energy which his companion had manifested. He complained of his agitation and fatigue, and requested that a paper which he held in his hand might be read for him: and the clerk of the arraigns read it according to his request in a very feeling manner. It was prudently and advisedly composed; but Mr. Harmer is no novice at murderers' defences. Reliance was placed on the magistrates' promise, and certainly Mr. Noel did not come brightly out of Hunt's statement.

When the paper was concluded, Hunt read a few words on a part of Probert's evidence, in a poor dejeeted voice, and then leant his wretched head upon his hand. He was evidently wasting away minute by minute. His neckcloth had got quite loose, and his neck looked gaunt and wretched.

Mr. Justice Park summed up at great length, and Thurtell with an untired spirit superintended the whole explanation of the evidence; interrupting the Judge, respectfully but firmly, when he apprehended any omission, or conceived any amendment capable of being made. The charge to the Jury occupied several hours-and the Jury then requested leave to withdraw. Hunt at this

period became much agitated, and as he saw them about to quit the box, he intreated leave to address them,but on his counsel learning and communicating to the Judge what the prisoner had to say, the Jury were directed to proceed to the consideration of their verdict.

During their absence, Thurtell conversed unalarmed with persons beneath and around him: Hunt stood up in the deepest misery and weakness. Twenty minutes elapsed; and the return of the Jury was announced!

Whilst way was making through the throng, Hunt leant over the dock, and searched with an agonized eye for the faces of his dooms-men! As they, one by one, passed beneath him, he looked at their countenances with the most hungry agony: he would have devoured their verdict from their very eyes! Thurtell maintained his steadiness.

The foreman delivered the verdict of "guilty" in tears, and in a tone which seemed to say, we have felt the defence-we have tried to find him innocent-but the evidence is too true!"-respecting Thurtell, he uttered with a subdued sigh " He is guilty!"

A legal objection was taken to the day of trial, but it failed.

Thurtell shook not to the last: Hunt was broken down,--gone! when asked why sentence of death should not be passed; the latter said nothing, so sunk was he in grief; but Thurtell stood respectfully up, inclining over the dock towards the judge, requesting his merciful postponement of his death from the Friday to Monday; not for himself, but for his friends! Having pressed this on the judge in a calm yet impressive tone, he stood silently waiting his doom.

The judge had put on his black hat-the hat of death, before this appeal; he heard it—and then gave the signal to the crier; who spoke out to the breathless court, those formal yet awful words: "Be silent in the court, while sentence of death is passed upon the prisoners!" His own voice being the only sound that broke the silence.

The sentence was passed. The prisoners were doomed. The world was no longer for them!

"Hunt sobbed aloud in the wildness of his distress; his faculties seemed thrown down. Thurtell, whose hours were numbered, bore his fate with an unbroken spirit. While the very directions for his body's dissection were being uttered, he consumed the pinch of snuff which had to that moment been pausing in his fingers! He then shook hands with a friend under the dock, and desired to be remembered to others! Almost immediately the sentence was passed, Wilson handcuffed both the prisoners: and in a few minutes they were removed.

I

I confess I myself was shaken. was cold and sick. I looked with tumultuous feelings at that desperate man, thus meeting death, as though it were an ordinary circumstance of his life; and when he went through the dark door, he seemed to me gone to his fate. It struck me that death then took him! I never saw him more. There is the trial, as I saw it. You know that Thurtell on the drop met his death as he met his trial, without a tremor.* His life had been one long vice, but he had iron nerves and a sullen low love of fame, even black fame,-which stimulated him to be a hero, though but of the gallows. He had learned his defence by heart,† and often boasted of the effect it would have: To Peirce Egan, indeed, he rehearsed it a month before he played his part in public, and he thought that, with a gentlemanly dress and a pathetic manner, it would bring him through, or, at least, insure him a gloomy immortality. His ordinary discourse was slang and blasphemy; but he chained up his oaths in court. The result of all this masquerading, for a short time, has been public sorrow for his fate, and particularly among women! The re-action is, however, again coming round, and although it is impossible not to admire this man's courage and his intellect; it is also as impossible not to rejoice in the death of so much revenge, cruelty, and bloody power! Hunt may yet be punished with a pardon: How must he envy Thurtell now, whose death is over!

The trial, after all, I believe, has left the public mind much dissatisfied, and in doubt; and certainly the general opinion is, that Probert, the worst and the most dastardly of the gang, has improperly escaped. That he merited death, who can deny? That he knew all at Tetsall's, who disbelieves? I have already carried this letter to an unexampled length, but I cannot close it, without putting down the result of a very careful consideration of, and inquiry into, the matter. And seeing how unsatisfactorily the accounts and con fessions before and at the trial dovetail with each other, I cannot resist hazarding a supposition that the fol lowing may be nearer the truth of the particulars of this horrible trans

action.

Thurtell, with a person resembling Weare, in a gig drawn by a roan horse, is seen by Wilson, the horse patrol, driving fast on the wrong side of the road, between the fifth and sixth mile-stone, about twenty mi nutes before seven. At a very little before seven, Richard Bingham, the ostler of the White Lion, at Edgeware, sees him and his victim. Then about a mile further on, (nine miles from town) Clarke, the landlord of the inn, sees Thurtell pass with another in a gig, in which was also a parcel or bag. The last time the murderer and Weare are seen, is in Gill's-hilllane, near Probert's cottage, by James Freeman. They were then waiting, probably for the arrival of Probert and Hunt, but the sight of Freeman disturbed Thurtell, and he drove down the lane to the place where the crime was perpetrated. This was a little before eight o'clock.

It should seem that the hour appointed for the murder, was eight o'clock; all the circumstances conspire to prove it. This accounts for the rapid pace of Thurtell down the Edgeware road, he supposing himself late; and the waiting about of Probert, who thought himself beforehand. Thurtell passed Probert unawares in Edgeware.

The first time Probert and Hunt are seen, after leaving London, is at the Red Lion at the Hyde about six o'clock, and Probert seems to have wished to impress on the landlord's (Harding's) mind who he was, for he said, "You forget me, my name is Probert." Hunt next got down before Probert reached the Bald Faced Stag, where the latter was familiarly known; here Probert told the hostler to make haste as he had to take up a Lady. They are next recognised at the White Lion at Edgeware about seven o'clock, to which place Clarke had just returned, having seen Thurtell. The horse of Probert, which is a very fine one, and capable of going eleven or twelve miles an hour with ease, was quite cool and fresh. This both Clarke and Bingham well remember. Probert and Hunt drank brandy and water here in the gig, and Hunt then jumped out and proposed a second glass each, to which Probert consented, saying "I don't care, but damn it, make haste!" Hunt here looked up at the clock as though to mark the time: at this period Clarke is sure that it was not later than a quarter past seven. The White Lion is three miles only from the Artichoke at Elstree. And it was nearly twenty minutes after eight when Probert and Hunt arrived thereProbert's fine horse very much distressed and bathed in sweat. Thus one hour is consumed in going the three miles! And the horse experiences such distress in travelling them! How is this to be accounted for? Let me try to explain it :-And now I must come to the place of murder.

About five minutes before the report of the pistol in the lane, a gig was heard by some cottagers, of the name of Hunt, passing rapidly by their house towards Gill's-hill-lane. Other cottagers, named Clarke and Broughall, who live on the straight road, beyond the turning into Gill's-hilllane, heard no gig pass, so it must have gone into the lane. About five minutes after this gig was heard to go by, Mr. Smith, the farmer, his wife and nurse, who were about three hundred yards from the spot in another lane, heard the pistol; and Smith himself had indeed heard the wheels of a gig coming in the direc

tion from Hunt's Cottage. They all listened and heard groans, but no shrieking or singing out. Mr. Smith indeed heard voices as in contention before the groans. The nurse also now heard voices distinctly of two or three persons, though the groans had ceased! All then became still-And a gig was afterwards heard rattling off.

The supposed track of the wheels, as described by Mrs. Smith, ran into the high road between Radlett and Elstree. It is not impossible for a gig to have gone a considerable way towards Elstree, then to have turned and taken a circuit by Aldenham Common, and so turning again to the left round the Red Lion at Elstree, to have reached the Artichoke with the appearance of coming from London.

Of course the party would only be seen at Elstree once,-it was possible therefore for a gig to have gone to Gill's-hill-lane through Stanmore, over Stanmore Common, Calldecott Hill, by Hill Field Lodge, and so on to Battler's Green. Probert was not seen at Elstree until nearly twenty minutes after eight. The return must have been rapid, and the appearance of the horse, who was cool at Edgeware and could trot ten or eleven miles an hour easily, bears it out. In confirmation of the supposed route by Aldenham Common back to Elstree, a poor woman of the name of Mary Hale, says she heard a gig " tearing by," in front of her cottage, the horse apparently galloping. This she says was between eight and nine.

From this statement I should say all three were at Gill's-hill-lane on the fatal night and at the fatal hour of eight o'clock. The confessions rendered all attempts at proving an alibi needless; although this seems to have been the object in view.

You must by this time be as tired of the Murderers as I am, and I therefore abruptly close here, praying that it may be long before the English character is again cursed with such blights upon it as Thurtell, Probert and Hunt!

Yours truly,

EDWARD HERBERT,