such a dubious-looking gentleman, through such a very questionable medium; but all my revolvings were unsatisfactory: yet was I determined to find it out, for I knew the danger to the young and inexperienced which has accrued from the romance wrapt round these picturesque mysteries of Pole and pickpocket.

"She

Some few mornings after, I arose at an earlier hour than usual to pack my carpet-bag for a railway-trip for a day or two, when, throwing up my window to give admittance to the sweet morning air, I beheld, though so very early, the old woman and her stall. "Curious," thought I. Rather early for customers, and for such wares! must sleep there," thought I," and I have never discovered it before!" My reverie was soon broken by the appearance of a servant-girl, who, gliding cautiously from the door of a neighbouring house, ran across the road to the old woman's stall. Her apron, which was rolled partly round her arm, soon yielded some small articles to the old woman's outstretched hands, who in return handed a letter to the giggling girl! Oh! oh!-Love's messenger, by all the powers of ugliness! A fruitful post-office, truly! She hurried back; but in a few minutes I saw another nymph of the dusting-brush tripping over to the mysterious matron, and yielding her offering here. No letter appeared, but much violent gesticulation from the maid, as if from some disappointment; after a long parley she returned sulkily to her work, and bestowed many savage blows upon the door-mats, much to their benefit in the expulsion of the dust. She was quickly succeeded by other earlyrising maids, who hung their little bits of carpet and door-mats on the rails, whilst they indulged in a short chat with the apparently general agent, popping across and across from street-doors and areas, like so many rabbits from their burrows. "There is danger in that coldeyed old woman," thought I, "or I am very much mistaken!" A casual glance from one of the laughing girls betrayed my watching gaze, and they all vanished like the aforesaid rabbits do at the approach of a poacher's lurcher.

The morning after my return from my trip, when I had nearly forgotten my old woman and my suspicions, the neighbourhood was alarmed by the account of the house at the corner of the field having been robbed of plate and money to a large amount. Upon inquiry, I found that the servant-girl had been discovered by the inmates bound and gagged in the kitchen. The alarm was given; the officers arrived, and after a minute search found that no forcible entry had been made from without by the burglars, which led to a suspicion that the girl was an accomplice; but the terrified creature fell on her knees, almost paralysed with horror at the situation into which her imprudence had placed her, and confessed that the truth was that a lover was in the case, who had written to her, through the old apple-woman at the corner, many letters of love and admiration; and, being flattered by which, she had often met him when sent on errands or messages.

The evening before he had told her that he was about to leave town for some time, and begged her to admit him after the family had retired, that he might have a better opportunity of laying his plans before her for their future marriage, which must be clandestine, on account of his family. She consulted with the old woman, who strongly urged her compliance, as it would be folly in her to throw away, through a little squeamishness so good an opportunity of settling herself, and she was sure he meant honourably, for "she never saw any young gentleman go on so about a girl in her life."

Urged by these motives, and the further eloquence of the old woman, she consented, and admitted her lover after the family had retired; he had hardly entered her kitchen when he threw a shawl over her head, and bound her to the dresser, them admitted an accomplice, who assisted in gagging her effectually.

Every one's suspicion immediately turned to the old woman. We looked out of the window, and discovered that the bird was flown. The officers, however, soon traced, through the information and fears of some of the neighbouring servants, her abode. Here some important lights were thrown upon the old woman's general usefulness and cunning ways in entrapping the foolish girls to her purpose. Parasols, boas, and flaunty dresses for them to wear on "their days out," which they dare not put on under the eyes of their mistresses, were stowed away in abundance in the wretched garret which seemed to have been made the 'tiring room of all the area beauties of the neighbourhood; but no trace of the old woman! The hearth was cold, and the people of the house knew nothing of her, except that she had a great many visitors of all sorts, and that they had supposed she was a fortuneteller; but it was no business of theirs; she paid her rent, which in such a neighbourhood was the highest guarantee of respectability.

A few weeks passed, when an Irish row of the usual kind, made up of serious blows and funny speeches, a bent poker or two, and heads tied up in pocket-handkerchiefs, brought some parties before the magistrates with their alarmingly long tails of witnesses to prove that both complainant and defendant were "kilt entirely." The defendant in the case attracted the attention of one of the officers, from her bearing so strong a resemblance to the description of the old apple-woman. He dispatched a messenger for the girl, who upon her arrival soon recognised her. The officer quietly awaited the conclusion of the case then on, which was decided by the magistrate in the only way such cases can be decided, by warning both parties to keep the peace, and a delicate hint at the treadmill to be administered all round if he saw any of their faces again in a like cause.

As the old woman turned to leave the bar, the officer arrested her progress, and stating to the magistrate the cause of her detention, produced the witness. Upon her appearance, the old woman hitched her shawl tightly round her shoulders; and pulled her scrap of a bonnet down over her forehead, upon the witness swearing positively to her, and stating her case, which was confirmed, as far as the identity of the party went, by the arrival of the master, and a host of friendsamong which I was one-to whom she had been known for months. Though the case appeared strongly against her she kept an unmoved countenance, bobbing curtseys to the magistrates with the most innocent look in the world, and when called upon to say what she had to answer to the charge, she burst out into a torrent of language, saying that "the whole faction of 'em would swear an ould woman's life away with as much aise as they'd pull a daisy, a stall she never had from her born day to the present writing. Look at my rags," said she; “do I look like a collogurer with burglars, and the like; or do they look as if they had had the gentleman's spoons in the pockets of 'em. Oh! it is not so miserable and poor I'd be if I wasn't as vartuous as the babe unborn! But I know what's putting the swearing on the ladies and gentleman,-it's the twin of me. Och, when I walked into this world of trouble, I came arm-in-arm with another young lady, who's gone astray, and bin the death of me all my life, for we're alike as my two

eyes, and it's transported or hung I'll be for not having a face I can call my own."

"Och, Biddy!" exclaimed a little round-headed Irishman, with half his head in a handkerchief, and the other covered, like Munchausen,

felt bound to come forward, and state all I knew of the case and hoth prisoners, which was final.

A few weeks brought the sessions and the trial. The prisoners were placed at the bar together. The old woman was much altered; a sickly hue overspread her countenance, which was shadowed by a scrupulously clean cap, and her eyes appeared more colourless than ever, which gave her a curious stolid look, which is seen only in the blind. Her young companion stepped up boldly to her side, and bowed elegantly to the court. He was shorn of his mustachios, which altered his appearance very much, but not sufficiently so to leave a doubt as to his identity. As he took his place beside her, a nervous feeling appeared to shake her frame, and her hand trembled over the herbs that laid strewed on the dock before them.

The facts of the case were so plain and simple that there appeared not the slightest doubt from the first of the verdict; and notwithstanding the ingenuity of their counsel, the verdict "Guilty” against both prisoners was given.

As the judge delivered his sentence her gaze was painfully acute, and her hand became clasped in that of her accomplice. As the sentence was uttered of "transportation for life" on both, she uttered a wail that vibrated through every person present, and seizing her fellow-prisoner round the neck, covered him with kisses amidst a storm of most endearing epithets. She clutched him with the fierceness of a tigress in her embrace, which no force could separate, and they were borne from the court together. You could hear her cries as she was borne through the subterraneous passages of the gaol. Her piercing shrieks echoed mournfully along the walls that would soon part her and her only child for ever, for such he was stated to be by the governor of the gaol.

I never pass the corner where the old woman used to be stationed without expecting to see her and her stall at their wonted place, and it will be a long while ere I forget the old woman and her child.

INDEX

TO THE EIGHTEENTH VOLUME.