The passage referred to is the once-famous description of the condemned Felon in the “Letter” on Prisons. Macaulay had, as we know, his “heightened way of putting things,” but the narrative which he cites, as foil to one of Robert Montgomery’s borrowings, deserves the praise. It shows Crabbe’s descriptive power at its best, and his rare power and insight into the workings of the heart and mind. He has to trace the sequence of thoughts and feelings in the condemned criminal during the days between his sentence and its execution; the dreams of happier days that haunt his pillow—days when he wandered with his sweetheart or his sister through their village meadows:—
“Yes! all are with him now, and
all the while
Life’s early prospects and his Fanny’s
smile.
Then come his sister and his village friend,
And he will now the sweetest moments spend
Life has to yield,—No! never
will he find
Again on earth such pleasure in his mind
He goes through shrubby walks these friends
among,
Love in their looks and honour on the
tongue.
Nay, there’s a charm beyond what
nature shows,
The bloom is softer and more sweetly glows;
Pierced by no crime and urged by no desire
For more than true and honest hearts require,
They feel the calm delight, and thus proceed
Through the green lane,—then
linger in the mead,—
Stray o’er the heath in all its
purple bloom,—
And pluck the blossom where the wild bees
hum;
Then through the broomy bound with ease
they pass,
And press the sandy sheep-walk’s
slender grass,
Whore dwarfish flowers among the grass