“The landlord had just taken the money, receipted the bill, and was bowing to his customer, when the door opened, and a lad, dressed in a kind of grey livery, appeared, and informed the Quaker that the chaise was ready.  ‘Is that boy your servant?’ said the surgeon.  ‘He is, friend,’ said the Quaker.  ’Hast thou any reason for asking me that question?’ ‘And has he been long in your service?’ ‘Several years,’ replied the Quaker, ’I took him into my house out of compassion, he being an orphan, but as the chaise is waiting, I will bid thee farewell.’  ’I am afraid I must stop your journey for the present,’ said the surgeon; ’that boy has exactly the same blemish in the eye which a boy had who was in company with the man at Horncastle, from whom my friend received the forged notes, and who there passed for his son.’  ‘I know nothing about that,’ said the Quaker, ’but I am determined to be detained here no longer, after the satisfactory account which I have given as to the note’s coming into my possession.’  He then attempted to leave the room, but my friend detained him, a struggle ensued, during which a wig which the Quaker wore fell off, whereupon he instantly appeared to lose some twenty years of his age.  ’Knock the fellow down, father,’ said the boy, ‘I’ll help you.’

“And, forsooth, the pretended Quaker took the boy’s advice, and knocked my friend down in a twinkling.  The landlord, however, and waiter, seeing how matters stood, instantly laid hold of him; but there can be no doubt that he would have escaped from the whole three, had not certain guests who were in the house, hearing the noise, rushed in, and helped to secure him.  The boy was true to his word, assisting him to the best of his ability, flinging himself between the legs of his father’s assailants, causing several of them to stumble and fall.  At length, the fellow was secured, and led before a magistrate; the boy, to whom he was heard to say something which nobody understood, and to whom, after the man’s capture, no one paid much attention, was no more seen.

“The rest, as far as this man was concerned, may be told in a few words; nothing to criminate him was found on his person, but on his baggage being examined, a quantity of spurious notes were discovered.  Much of his hardihood now forsook him, and in the hope of saving his life he made some very important disclosures; amongst other things, he confessed that it was he who had given me the notes in exchange for the horses, and also the note to be changed.  He was subsequently tried on two indictments, in the second of which I appeared against him.  He was condemned to die; but, in consideration of the disclosures he had made, his sentence was commuted to perpetual transportation.

“My innocence was thus perfectly established before the eyes of the world, and all my friends hastened to congratulate me.  There was one who congratulated me more than all the rest—­it was my beloved one, but—­but—­she was dying—­”