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Page 71
Mrs. Heartfree thus ended her speech, having before delivered to
her husband the jewels which the count had robbed him of, and that
presented her by the African chief, which last was of immense
value. The good magistrate was sensibly touched at her narrative,
as well on the consideration of the sufferings she had herself
undergone as for those of her husband, which he had himself been
innocently the instrument of bringing upon him. That worthy man,
however, much rejoiced in what he had already done for his
preservation, and promised to labour with his utmost interest and
industry to procure the absolute pardon, rather of his sentence
than of his guilt, which he now plainly discovered was a barbarous
and false imputation.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE HISTORY RETURNS TO THE CONTEMPLATION OF GREATNESS.
But we have already, perhaps, detained our reader too long in this
relation from the consideration of our hero, who daily gave the
most exalted proofs of greatness in cajoling the prigs, and in
exactions on the debtors; which latter now grew so great, i. e.,
corrupted in their morals, that they spoke with the utmost
contempt of what the vulgar call honesty. The greatest character
among them was that of a pickpocket, or, in truer language, a
file; and the only censure was want of dexterity. As to virtue,
goodness, and such like, they were the objects of mirth and
derision, and all Newgate was a complete collection of prigs,
every man being desirous to pick his neighbour's pocket, and every
one was as sensible that his neighbour was as ready to pick his;
so that (which is almost incredible) as great roguery was daily
committed within the walls of Newgate as without.
The glory resulting from these actions of Wild probably animated
the envy of his enemies against him. The day of his trial now
approached; for which, as Socrates did, he prepared himself; but
not weakly and foolishly, like that philosopher, with patience and
resignation, but with a good number of false witnesses. However,
as success is not always proportioned to the wisdom of him who
endeavours to attain it, so are we more sorry than ashamed to
relate that our hero was, notwithstanding his utmost caution and
prudence, convicted, and sentenced to a death which, when we
consider not only the great men who have suffered it, but the much
larger number of those whose highest honour it hath been to merit
it, we cannot call otherwise than honourable. Indeed, those who
have unluckily missed it seem all their days to have laboured in
vain to attain an end which Fortune, for reasons only known to
herself, hath thought proper to deny them. Without any farther
preface then, our hero was sentenced to be hanged by the neck:
but, whatever was to be now his fate, he might console himself
that he had perpetrated what
---------Nec Judicis ira, nec ignis.
Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolera vetustas.
For my own part, I confess, I look on this death of hanging to be
as proper for a hero as any other; and I solemnly declare that had
Alexander the Great been hanged it would not in the least have
diminished my respect to his memory. Provided a hero in his life
doth but execute a sufficient quantity of mischief; provided he be
but well and heartily cursed by the widow, the orphan, the poor,
and the oppressed (the sole rewards, as many authors have bitterly
lamented both in prose and verse, of greatness, i. e., priggism),
I think it avails little of what nature his death be, whether it
be by the axe, the halter, or the sword. Such names will be always
sure of living to posterity, and of enjoying that fame which they
so gloriously and eagerly coveted; for, according to a GREAT
dramatic poet--
Fame
Not more survives from good than evil deeds.
Th' aspiring youth that fired th' Ephesian dome
Outlives in fame the pious fool who rais'd it
Our hero now suspected that the malice of his enemies would
overpower him. He therefore betook himself to that true support of
greatness in affliction, a bottle; by means of which he was
enabled to curse, swear, and bully, and brave his fate. Other
comfort indeed he had not much, for not a single friend ever came
near him. His wife, whose trial was deferred to the next sessions,
visited him but once, when she plagued, tormented, and upbraided
him so cruelly, that he forbad the keeper ever to admit her again.
The ordinary of Newgate had frequent conferences with him, and
greatly would it embellish our history could we record all which
that good man delivered on these occasions; but unhappily we could
procure only the substance of a single conference, which was taken
down in shorthand by one who overheard it. We shall transcribe it
therefore exactly in the same form and words we received it; nor
can we help regarding it as one of the most curious pieces which
either ancient or modern history hath recorded.
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