DE SOWS TRIAL AND EXECUTION". 83 



dollars. The contract was signed, but, fortunately, the money was not yet paid, when 

 suspicion arose, from some inconsistencies in the pirates' account of themselves, and six 

 of them were arrested by the authorities. De Soto and one of the crew instantly disappeared 

 from Cadiz, and succeeded in arriving at the neutral ground before Gibraltar, and six 

 more made their escape to Caracas. 



De Soto's companion wisely kept to the neutral ground at Gibraltar, while he foolishly 

 ventured into the city, his object being to obtain money for a letter of credit he had 

 obtained at Cadiz. The former man was the only one of the whole gang who escaped 

 punishment. 



De Soto secured his admission into Gibraltar by a false pass, and took up his resi- 

 dence at a low tavern in one of the narrow lanes in which the place abounds. " The 

 appearance of this house," says the writer of the interesting letter from which this account 

 is derived, " was in grim harmony with the worthy Benito's life. I have occasion to pass 

 the door frequently at night, for our barrack, the casement, is but a few yards from it. 

 I never look out at the place without feeling an involuntary sensation of horror 



"In this den the villain remained for a few weeks, and during this time he seemed 

 to enjoy himself as if "he had never committed a murder. The story he told Bosso of 

 the circumstances was that he came to Gibraltar on his way from Cadiz to Malaga, and 

 was merely awaiting the arrival of a friend. 



"He dressed expensively, generally wore a white hat of the best English quality, 

 silk stockings, white trousers, and blue frock coat. His whiskers were large and bushy, 

 and his hair was black, profuse, long, and curled. He was deeply browned with the sun, 

 and had an air and gait expressive of his bold, enterprising, and desperate mind. Indeed, 

 when I saw him in his cell and at his trial, although his frame was attenuated almost to 

 a skeleton, the colour of his face a pale yellow, his eyes sunken, and his hair closely shorn, 

 he still exhibited strong traces of what he had been, still retained his erect and fearless 

 carriage, his quick, fiery, and malevolent eye, his hurried and concise speech, and his close 

 and pertinent style of remark. 1 " After he had been confronted in court with a dirk that 

 had belonged to one of his victims, a trunk and clothes taken from another, and the 

 pocket-book containing the handwriting of the Morning Star's ill-fated captain, and 

 which were proved to have been found in his room ; and when the maid-servant had proved 

 that she found the dirk under his pillow, and again when he was confronted by his own 

 black slave boy between two wax lights, the countenance of the villain appeared in its true 

 nature, not depressed or sorrowful, but diabolically ferocious; and when Sir George Don 

 passed the just sentence of the law upon him his face was a study of concentrated venom. 



The wretched man persisted up to the day of his execution in asserting his innocence ; 

 but the certainty of his doom seemed to make some impression on him, and he at last 

 made an unreserved confession of his crimes, giving up to the keeper a razor-blade which 

 he had secreted in his shoes for the avowed purpose of committing suicide. The narrator 

 of his life seems to have believed that he was really penitent. 



On the day of his execution he walked firmly at the tail of the fatal cart, gazing 

 alternately at the crucifix he held in his hand and at his coffin, and repeated the prayers 

 spoken in his ears by the attendant clergyman with apparent devotion. The gallows was 



