PROBLEM No. XXI.-BY MR. HARRWITZ.-White to move, and Checkmate in four Moves.

FRANK MEANWELL;

OR,

MISTAKEN PURPOSES.

CHAPTER X.

THE tide of events never pauses; it is an ever-flowing sea, marking great outlines -which men call time-on the boundless shores of eternity.

While the circumstances noted in the last chapter had been taking place, other matters of importance were proceeding elsewhere. The time for the trials of Mrs. Mallalieu, Barney, and the Jew approached. In the interval, Mr. Keen and Mr. Harvey had frequently seen Barney, and, finding the young man's contrition to be sincere, and that he never wavered in his good resolutions with regard to his difficult and obscure future, those gentlemen interested themselves in his behalf, and took care that the circumstances under which he had been led into an evil course of life, should be represented in the proper quarters, in the hope that the punishment of his crimes might be so mitigated, as not to place him beyond the reformatory influences to which the Irishman's heart was peculiarly alive. While engaged in this benevolent object like the discovery of a cleared avenue among the tangled branches of the primeval forests of the western world, or like the sudden parting of the curtain of dark clouds, which in folds voluminous and grey veil the autumnal sky-new hopes arose, fresh light fell on the felon's path, new opportunities appeared providentially to open before him.

It will be remembered that Mr. Wynne, the detective officer, had allowed the beggar to go at liberty, when Mr. Capel, the person at whose direction he had been apprehended, was made a prisoner. Indeed, against the beggar there had been no accusation brought, even by Mr. Capel himself, except that he had demanded alms from him in the street. The officer had learned from the man, that he was in possession of complete evidence against Barney, Mrs. Mallalieu, and the Jew; and therefore, regretted subsequently, that he had not either retained possession of his person, or adopted complete means to be informed of

VOL. III.-NO. XXXIV.

his whereabouts, whenever he might reIquire his evidence. Every effort was made to trace this mysterious person, but in vain. If, as upon more than one occasion the officers under Mr. Wynne's direction obtained a clue to his lodging, the stranger seemed to be aware of it, and was never seen in that locality again. The most careful and continued watch was kept in the district of Seven Dials, which the man had been wont to frequent, but all without avail. All traces of him seemed at last to be lost.

It was considered that, under these circumstances, there might be some difficulty in establishing legal proof against the Jew, though it was a moral certainty that he had been the planner and instigator of a fearful number of robberies and acts of violence. By affording facilities to thieves to dispose of their dishonestly gained property, he was a constant stimulant to crime, and deeper in guilt than those who were less fortunate in escaping the punishments of the law. The more intelligent of the magistrates, having been made cognisant of the importance of putting an end to the mischievous powers of this scoundrel, obtained an authority for the offer of free pardon to any person who should give such evidence as would lead to the conviction of the Jew of a systematic dealing in stolen goods, and the encouragement of theft. Of this opportunity Barney, who had been well aware of most of his proceedings for several years, was permitted to avail himself; and under the persuasions of Mr. Keen and Mr. Harvey, became "king's evidence." young Irishman had been also indicted for his connexion with the riot at Bamford's house, with the idea that before the trial came on, there would be further evidence of the man's guilt than the police had then obtained; but this charge it was agreed not to press, more especially as the gentlemen who had interfered in Barney's behalf had made themselves responsible for his employment and future good behaviour. From the statements of Barney, it appeared, that when he was about ten years old, he had been severely beaten by a drunken woman who called herself his mother, and that he had then left home, without daring to return. Meeting with Mrs. Mallalieu, the hag had offered him a pretended home; she afterwards taught him to pick pockets, and for many years forced him to continue this

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the manner in which that power might be exercised, absorbed every other consideration. The doubt grew greater each day, and involved the future in a thick obscurity. Hitherto the schemer had felt his ability to prepare plans for every conceivable diffi

of the mysterious beggar he had nothing to oppose. As helpless as the driven clouds, with which the winds of October played, or the thistle-down which was thrown upon the stream, was Mr. Josiah Capel.

dishonest calling, under the fear that she would give him into the hands of justice if he did not thus contribute to her support and his own. In his evidence he stated, moreover, that, ever since he could recollect, a regular dealing in stolen property had been carried on between the clothes-culty, but against this dreadful influence dealer and the proprietress of the Marine Store Shop; and that the former (the Jew) had generally laid the plans of robberies which he (Barney) had been afterwards induced to commit. Some singular corrobborative testimony to the truth of Barney's statement was produced unexpectedly at the trial, and the two criminals were sentenced to transportation for life. To transportation from the scenes of their wrong doing, where their polluting influences would be felt no more. To a land where the despairing outcasts of society accumulate together, and harden each other in their wickedness, and join their voices in cursing their native land, in which so much was done to detect and punish crime, but in which so little care was taken to prevent it, or reform the criminal, and where society conspires to make impossible a return to uprightness and virtue. When will man learn to forgive trespasses as he hopes to be forgiven! The Jew and his ugly accomplice had lost every tie to life. The light within them had been extinguished long ago, and no glimmering hope shed a ray over their future. Religon they knew not, and death was an immeasurable terror; and thus they dared not hope to die. The mistaken purpose of their lives had been to worship MAMMON; and the punishment of their error was, that their gaze was so concentrated upon their idol, that they became blind to all else: so, when the object of their worship was struck down, and they were doomed to a gainless existence and profitless labour, life became a burden they would fain have cast off if they had dared.

The visitor who had produced such a singular and fatal change in the broker's prospects, came at night, at the expiration of the time he had named at the previous interview. In his peculiar manner and husky voice, he requested that the books might be immediately produced, in accordance with the wish he had expressed before, and sat down in the office with the air of a man who was master of all that was in it. Mr. Capel treated the man, for several minutes, rather as an apparition than as a reality. The bony fingers of the disappointed schemer, slippery with the cold perspiration which bedewed his gaunt face and attenuated hands, were twisted and plaited together like wounded snakes writhing in their agony, as he muttered out something about "not having had time to prepare," and that "to require the books from Mr. Yardley so abruptly, was rather an unpleasant affair."

"Lawk! man, don't apologize," said the visitor in his thick voice, "I know all about it. You made up your mind that I should never see them. That was your play, and now it is my move.-You understand me. Don't apologize, because it is not of the smallest consequence. I didn't want to charge you more than my fair share in the partnership, but now I shall have what I want and what I choose, and I'll make you pay for it. That's my move, Capel. So now we can do without the books, if you like. But where's the wine? I hope you have got some better stuff than you had last week, old fellow."

The old sardonic smile, which used to rest upon the broker's face in his more secure days, at this moment stole over his leathern features, and twinkled in his black and yellow eyes, while he unlocked the cupboard and took out the wine. There was, nevertheless, a sickliness and a pallor

upon his countenance as he said, not with- gave his visitor his purse. The man opened out considerable effort, "I hope you will it, and, having satisfied himself that it conlike this better, though I am no judge my-tained upwards of the amount named, he