Little remains to be told; he persisted to the last in this horrible confession.  He had no wish to live; and the avenging arm of retributive justice closed the world and its interests for ever on a wretch who had forfeited all claims to its protection—­cast out, and judged unworthy of a name and a place amongst his fellow-men.

FOOTNOTES: 

[48] Glazebrook’s Southport.

[Illustration:  THE BAR-GAIST.]

THE BAR-GAIST.

    “From hag-bred Merlin’s time have I
      Thus nightly revelled to and fro;
    And for my pranks men call me by
      The name of Robin Goodfellow. 
        Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,
        Who haunt the nightes,
    The hags and goblins do me know;
        And beldames old
        My feates have told—­
    So vale, vale; ho, ho, ho!”

—­BEN JONSON.

“In the northern parts of England,” says Brand, speaking of the popular superstitions, “ghost is pronounced gheist and guest.  Hence barguest or bargheist.  Many streets are haunted by a guest, who assumes many strange appearances, as a mastiff dog, &c.  It is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon [Illustration:  jart], spiritus, anima.”

Drake, in his Eboracum, says (p. 7, Appendix), “I have been so frightened with stories of the barguest when I was a child, that I cannot help throwing away an etymology upon it.  I suppose it comes from A.S. [Illustration:  bupp], a town, and [Illustration:  jart], a ghost, and so signifies a town sprite.  N.B. [Illustration:  jart] is in the Belgic and Teutonic softened into gheist and geyst.”

The boggart or bar-gaist of the following story resembles the German kobold, the Danish nis, and the Scotch brownie; but, above all, the Spanish duende, which signifies a spirit or sprite, supposed by the vulgar to haunt houses and highways, causing therein much terror and confusion.  “DUENDE. Espiritu que el vulgo cree que infesta las casas y travesea, causando en ellas ruidos y estruendos”—­LEMURES, LARVAE.  “To appear like a duende,” “to move like a duende” are modes of speaking by which it is meant that persons appear in places where they are least expected.  “To have a duende” signifies that a person’s imagination is disturbed.

The following curious Spanish “Moral,” the MS. of which has been kindly lent to the author by Mr Crofton Croker may not be deemed uninteresting as an illustration of the subject.  We have accompanied each stanza with a parallel translation of our own.

DUENDE ENEMIGO DEL JUEGO.

DUENDE AN ENEMY TO GAMING.

    Cuento Moral.

    A Moral Tale.

      Un Duende, grave Senor,
    Que estudio la astrologia,
    Se propuso la mania,
    De ser rico jugador.