CHAP II.] Cotick^s Second Trial, a7id Letters. 71 



started in hot pursuit of the sham legal adviser. It was 

 not long before he ran into his fox. The first public- 

 house in the adjoining village was where be had gone to 

 ground, and soon after the name of ^^ Harry Couch '^ was 

 on the list of prisoners awaiting trial at the ensuing 

 Quarter Sessions for the county of Northampton. 

 Greatly to the surprise and disappointment of a crowded 

 court, the prisoner pleaded guilty, and he received the 

 sharp, but not too severe sentence of '^ seven years 

 transportation.'^ But even at this apparently final stage 

 in his career, the reader has not heard quite the last of liim. 

 As one of the county-magistrates, it was the duty of 

 the wricer of this history, in company with a brother 

 justice, to visit the convict in gaol, and to inform him 

 that he would shortly be transferred to the government 

 prison at Wakefield. Nothing occurred at the interview 

 beyond the fact that the writer remonstrated with his 

 companion on hearing him address the prisoner as *^ Mr. 

 Couch.''^ Not Ions: after this the mao-isterial remonstrant 



o o 



received a letter bearing on the outside the ofiicial mark 

 of *^ Wakefield Prison. ^^ On opening it, he proceeded to 

 read as follows : — 



'' 168 C. Register 5558. 

 " My dear Harry, — ^^ I trust that you will not consider 

 that my neglect in not writing to give you the opportunity 

 of going to Northampton to take a farewell of me, in- 

 volved a breach of that friendship which for the last six: 

 years existed between us. The fact is, that it was not 

 until within two hours of the time that I found myself 

 speeding away by express train that I knew that the 

 hour of my departure was at hand. Had I, however, been 

 aware of the fact in time to have written, I do not know 



