Catherine: A Story

nstein; and he was often known to say, with much archness, and a proper feeling of gratitude to the Fate which had ordained things so, that the robbery was, in reality, one of the best things that

an excuse; and the Warwickshire conqueror got off with nothing, except a

e is not quite the same thing as to pay; and from the day of his winning the money until the day of his death the Warwickshire Squire did never, by a

ory method of whitewashing which the law has provided for gentlemen in his oppressed condition; and he had not been a week in London, when he fell in with, and overcame, or put to flight, Captain Wood, alias Brock, and immediately seized upon the remainder of his property

was not at that age at which tender passions are usually inspired-being sixty-and though she could not, like Mademoiselle Ninon de l'Enclos, then at Paris, boast of charms which defied the progress of time,-for Mrs. Silverkoop was as red as a boiled lobster, and as unwieldy as a porpoise; and although her mental attraction

usand pounds, laid the most desperate siege to her, and finished by causing her to capitulate; as I do believe, after

ny extant-now, by degrees, fell into a quiet submission towards his enormous Countess; who ordered him up and down as a lady orders her footman, who per

rst blow is, I believe, the decisive one in these cases, and the Countess had stricken it a week af

low her to her end, shall we in any degree allow her name to figure here. It is an awful thing to get a glimpse, as one sometimes does, when the time is past, of some little little wheel which works the whole mighty machinery of FATE, and see how our destinies turn on a minute's delay or advance, or on the turning of a street, or on somebody else's turning of a street, or on somebody else's doing of something else in Downing Street or in Timbuctoo, now or a thousand years ago. Thus, for instance, if Miss Poots, in the year 1695, had never been the lovely inmate of a Spielhaus at Amsterdam, Mr. Van Silverkoop would never have seen her; if the day had not been extraordinaril

ense!-no such thing! not for two or three and seventy pages or so,-w

and as that nobleman was in funds at the time (having had that success at play which we duly chronicled), he paid a sum of no less than twenty guineas, which was to be the yearly reward of the nurse into whose charge the boy was put. The woman grew fond of the brat; and when, after the first year, she had no further news or

ery soft and pitiful disposition, continued to bestow them upon him: because, she said, he was lonely and unprotected, and deserved them more than other children who had fathers and mothers to look after them. If, then, any difference was made between Tom's treatment and that of her own brood, it was considerably in favour of the former; to whom the large

love of fighting and stealing; both which amiable qualities he had many opportunities of exercising every day. He fought his little adoptive brothers and sisters; he kicked and cuffed his father and mother; he fought the cat, stamped upon the kittens, was worsted in a severe battle with the hen in the backyard; but, in revenge, nearly beat a little sucking-pig to death, whom he caught alone and rambling near his favourite haunt, the dung-hill. As for stealing, he stole the eggs, which he perforated and emptied; the butter, which he ate with or without bread, as he could find it; the sugar, which he cunningly secreted in the leaves of a "Baker's Chronicle," that nobody in the establishment could read; and thus from the pages of history he used to suck in all he knew-thieving and lying namely; in which, for his years, he made wonderful progress. If any followers of Miss Edgeworth and the philosophers are inclined to disbelieve this statement, or to set it down as overcharged and distorted, let them be assured that just this very picture was, of all the pictures in the world, taken from nature. I, Ikey Solomons, once had a dear little brother who could steal be

to join them one day, and have a mighty influence upon the fortunes of both. For, as it has often happened to the traveller in the York or the Exeter coach to fall snugly asleep in his corner, and on awaking suddenly to find himself sixty or seventy miles from the place where Somnus first visited him: as, we say, although you sit still, Time, poor wretch, keeps perp

ohn Hayes. The "Newgate Calendar" (to which excellent compilation we and the OTHER popular novelists of the day can never be sufficiently grateful) states that Hayes left his house three or four times during this period, and, urged by the restless humours of his wif

pursued,-or were pursuing, in their time. And so considerable were said to be Captain Wood's gains, that reports were abroad of his having somewhere a buried treasure; to which he might have added more, had not Fate suddenly cut short his career as a prig. He and the Ensign were-shame to say-transported for stealing three pewter-pots off a railing at Exeter; and not being known in the town, which they had only reached that morning, they

parents in the same county; and the two military gentlemen watching the progress and cultivation of the tobacco and cotton plant in the New World. All these things having passed

settle down in their seats again. "Porter, ale, ginger-beer, cider," comes round, squeezing through the legs of the gentlemen

oventry and Birmingham, drink, and what not-for, though a hard man, John Hayes had learned to spend his money pretty freely on himself and her-having had all her wishes gratified, it was natural that she should begin to find out some more; and the next whim she hit upon was to be restored to her child. It may be as well to state that she had ne

xcellent lady determines on a thing-a shawl, or an opera-box, or a new carriage, or twenty-four singing-lessons from Tamburini, or a night at the "Eagle Tavern," City Road, or a ride in a 'bus to Richmond and tea and brandy-and-water at "Rose Cottage Hotel"-

ll interfere (flectere si nequeo, etc.; but quotations are odious). And some hidden power w

y to wrong,-that we are the workers of our future sorrow or happiness. If we depend on our strength, what is it against mighty circumstance? If we look to ourselves, what hope have we? Look back at the whole of your life, and see how Fate has mastered you and it. Think of your disappointments and your successes. Has YOUR striving influenced one or the other? A fit of indigestion puts itself between you and honours and reputation; an apple plops on your nose and makes you a world's wonder and glory; a fit of poverty makes a rascal of you, who were, and are still, an honest man; cl

years had passed away, and she began to think that she should very much like to see her child once more. It was wri

, with red hair, a very prominent nose, and a faded military dress; while the other, an old weather-beaten, sober-looking personage, wore the costume of a civilian-both man and dress appearing to have reached the autumnal, or seedy state. However, the pair seemed, in spite of their apparent poverty, to be passably merry. The old gentleman

thered up, and was holding in his hand: it having been voted that the first blacksmith

ut him very much pleased, and sucking a flower. "I think thim green cornfields

seven years agone," responded the gentleman addressed as Major. "You rem

last Michaelmas?" said the

like a jackass, as you are, let him loose. Well, the woman was that Catherine that you've often heard me talk about. I like the wench, --

d the tall man; who, with his companion, h

to nurse. She was the wife of a blacksmith, one Billings: it won't be out of the way to get our horse shod at his house,

law, and the dirty one-eyed ruffian who sold me the parson's hat that had so nearly brought me into trouble. Oh but it was a rare rise we got out o

n only to the landlady and the gentlemen who banked with her; and in this place, Mr. Sicklop, the one-eyed man who had joined in the Hayes adventure, his comrade, and one or two of the topping prigs of the county, were free. Mr. Sicklop had been shot dead in a night attack near Bath: the landlady had been suddenly hanged, as an accomplice in another case of robbery; and when, on their return from Virginia, o

rials (consisting simply of a screwdriver and a crowbar); and it is hardly necessary to say that, when admission was granted to them, they opened the well-known door, and to their inexpressible satisfaction discovered, not their own peculiar savings exactly, for these had been appropriated instan

ed by tremendous roars issuing from the smithy. A small boy was held across the bellows, two or three children of smaller and larger growth were holding him down, and many others of the village were gazing in at the window, while a man, half-naked, was l

ood (for such was the name he adopted, and by such we shall call him to the end) wittily remarked that

in his old age. He'll come to the gallows, as sure as his name is Bill--never mind what his nam

is Bill?" said

began to wink), "and she's-she's gone now" (here he began fairly to blubber). "And d-- him, out of love for her, I kept him too, and the scoundrel is a liar and a thief. This blessed day, merely to vex me and my boys here, he sp

, and the bellows a-going; my horse wants shoe

ntor, his countenance assumed an expression which made Mr. Wood say, grasping hold of Macshane's arm, "It's

Mr. Macshane. "And pree,

ou fool!" an

honour, she has a mighty fin

acshane, taking the allusion, clapped his finger to his nose

ld whom Catherine Hall had brought into the world seven years since. Billings told him of all the virtues of his wife, and the manifold crimes of the lad: how he stole, and fought, and lied, and swore; a

uld fetch ten pieces in Vi

d give five for him," sa

e him?" said

Mr. Billings," said he, "you will be surprised, perhaps, to hear that I know everything regarding that poor lad's history.

ng, fair-haired man, who came here wi

, who, on the point of death,

boarding?" said Mr. Billings, who

d, sir, six hundred pounds in

our! I remember when he got into

red pounds he owes me: how was he to pay you? But he told me to take charge of this boy, if

prepared, as it seemed, for another castigation, his father, to his surprise, asked him if he w

won't be a good lad, and I'd rat

ers and sisters?" said Bil

ters-I hate 'em; and, bes

good mother, ha

ed for a

, "and you flog me, and

in a passion: "go thy ways for a graceless reprobate

party consisted of three: a little boy being mounted upon the bay horse, in addit

saddle-horse, sent the young gentleman very quickly to her arms. The village in which the Hayeses dwelt was but a very few miles out of the road from Bristol; whither, on the benevolent mission above, hinted at, our party of worthies were bound: and coming, towards the afternoon, in sig

hey rested, Wood made inquiries concerning the Hayes family; was informed of the death of the old couple, of the establishment of John Hayes and his wife in their place, and of the kind of life that these latter led together. When

y Macshane, Esquire; who alw

I'll tell you how. This Hayes i

Macshane. "By my secred honour, Meejor, there

gain, and pay for the finding of him, or else she has said nothing about him, and will pay us for being silent too: or, at any rate, Hayes himself will be ashamed at finding his wife

Hayes. On hearing, as she did in private interview with the ex-corporal the next morning, that her son was found, she was agitated by both of the passions which Wood attributed to her. She

mmended to her protection, and had confided him to the charge of a brother officer who was now in the country, and would speedily make his appearance; and, to put the story beyond a doubt, Mr. Wood wrote the letter from her brother stating all these particulars, and Ensign Macshane received full instructions how to perform the part of the

pe of this darling nephew. John Hayes received the news with anything but pleasure. He had never heard of any brother of Catherine's; she had been bred at the workhouse, and nobody ever hinted t

was heard in his courtyard, and a gentleman, of huge stature, descended from it, and strode into the shop. His fig

y? I was the most intimate frind, madam, of your laminted brother, who died in King Lewis's service, and whose last touching

yes's face almost, stretched likewise forward a little boy, grinning and sprawling in the air, and prevented onl

es, sidling up to her husband tenderly

the carpenter thought; but that night, and for man