McLevy by James McLevy Read Free Book Online Page A

better for you if you make a clean breast, and tell the truth. I can offer no promises. I am merely an officer of the
law; but, as I have said, I know it will be better for you to speak the truth.”
    “Well, then, sir,” she cried, while the sobbing interrupted every other word; “well, then, before God, whom I have offended, but who may yet have mercy upon a poor sinner left
to herself,—and, oh, sir, seduced by a wicked man,—I confess that I bore that child—but, sir, it was dead when it came into the world; and, stung by shame, and wild with pain, I
cut it into pieces, and put it down into the soil-pipe; and may the Lord Jesus look down upon me in pity!”
    “Well, Mary,” said I, as I lifted her up,—feeling the weight of a body almost dead,—and placed her again upon the chair; “you must calm yourself, and then go and
get your shawl and bonnet, for you must—”
    “Go with you to prison,” she cried, “and be hanged. Oh, did you not lead me to believe you would save me?”
    “No,” said I; “but I can safely tell you that, if what you have told me is true, that the child was still-born, you will not be hanged, you will only be confined for a little.
Come,” I continued, letting my voice down, “come, rise, and get your shawl and bonnet. Say nothing to any one, but come back to me.”
    But I had not an easy task here. She got wild again at the thought of prison, crying—
    “I am ruined. Oh, my poor mother! I can never look her in the face again; no, nor hold up my head among decent people.”
    “Softly, softly,” said I. “You must be calm, and obey; or see,” holding up a pair of handcuffs, “I will put these upon your wrists.”
    Again necessity came to my help. She rose deliberately—stood for a moment firm—looked into my face wistfully, yet mildly—then turned up her eyes, ejaculating, “Thy will,
O Lord, be done,”—and went out.
    I was afraid, notwithstanding, she might try to escape, for she seemed changeful; and a turn might come of frantic fear, which would carry her off, not knowing herself whither she went. I
therefore, watched in the lobby, to intercept her in use of such an emergency; but the poor girl was true to her purpose. I tied up the fatal parcel which had so well served my object, put it under
my arm, and quietly led her over to the office.
    Her confession was subsequently taken by the Crown officers, and she never swerved from it. I believe if I had not fallen upon this mode of extorting an admission, the proof would have failed,
for every vestige of mark had been carefully removed; while the deception she had practised on the people of the inn had been so adroit, that no one had the slightest suspicion of her. The other
parts of the child were not, I think, got; indeed it was scarcely necessary to search for them, confined as they were, probably, in the pipes. She was tried before the High Court; and, in the
absence of an evidence to show that the child had ever breathed,—which could only have been ascertained by examining some parts of the chest,—she was condemned upon the charge of
concealment, and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.

A Want Spoils Perfection
    ❖
    T he coming round of extremes, so as to meet and disappear in each other’s ends, is a thing which all must have noticed, and why not I among
the rest? I rather think that in my small way I couldn’t have done what I have done, if I hadn’t been a
thinker
, and so I have noticed the danger of overdoing things. Not only
do strong passions, though good, land in the slough of evil, but overstretched prudence, cold and calculating, leads to a pretty considerable combustion. Yes, our old mother says, “Walk in
the middle”—on the sides there are pitfalls; and yet we are never happy if we are not gaping over precipices, and talking of the picturesque and the sublime. No wonder a few topple
over, and thus add to the picturesque.
    When Mr C——, watchmaker in Arbroath,