Trying To Change A Sovereign.

money and garnish , * and how to raise coin to satisfy the hundred and one harpies who cluster round the condemned before the gallows , as the carrion crows shall swarm about his disjecta membra , on Ludgate or Traitor ' s tower on London Bridge , after body ancl soul have parted under the doomster ' s rope and dismembering chopper . I do not—Heaven forfend that I should—write " without book . " Here is

the simple record : f " The hangman , also , the day before his execution came to demand money that lie might be favourable to him at his death " ( the italics throughout are my own ) . " He " ( the condemned ) " asking what would satisfy him ? the hangman demanded keenly pounds I" ( fancy twenty pounds !—about eighty of our modern currency—of a poor Whitechapel hawker—weaver !) " But John Jamespleading povertyhe fell to ten pounds ; butin conclusion

, , , , told him if he would not give him five pounds he would torture him exceedingly . I to which John James said he must leave that to his mercy , for he had nothing to give him . "J But about the accessibility of the " Merry Monarch . " He was always a gentleman , you know . Yes ; Charles was a gentleman . Godly Master Peter Plaintextthe follower of John Foxone of . the Societof " Friends "—the

, , y people called " Quakers "—waits upon him—one of a deputation- —at Whitehall —Grinning Etherege combing his wig ; Sneering Seclley using his toothpick ; Cynical Buckingham contemplating his handsome features in a hand mirror ; are there—all , be sure , ridiculing the " put" with the hig h-crowned beaver which Peter makes no pretence of removing . The Monarch doffs his own sombrero . " Put on thine hatfriend Charles" says Broadbrimwith the

, , , benevolent intention of setting Royalty at its ease . " Your pardon , friend , " replies the swarthy sovereign , sweeping the ground with his plumed castor , " In this apartment it is usual for but one person to be covered at a time !"

Mrs . James has seen Squire Dun tie up her husband's thumbs ; has beheld him haled downstairs to the " condemned hold ; " has wandered wearily back to Whitechapel to her crying children and to her future—of washing and charing for Tower Hamlets' poverty-stricken housewives , to get bread for her babes ' ever-gaping mouths , for their chronically craving maws . Poor Mrs . James , I say , hears of her Monarch ' s affability , and determines to make one last supreme effort for the life of her and her little ones' bread-winner . " The king ' s face

should give grace , " you know , and this particular king ' s face is to be readil y enough gazed upon . So the poor despairing woman betakes herself to the foot of the stairs leading to the gallery off the parade ground in St . James ' s Park , aud now beholds her gracious sovereign lord , courtiers , pages , snarling spaniels , decolletee gay women , ogling lute players , copper captains , et hoc genus omne returning from their daily lounge . Poor East End widow , let her tell her

own sad story . " In the interval betwixt his " ( i . e ., John James ' s ) " casting and condemnation upon the fourth day of the week , in the evening , his wife , by the advice of some friends , endeavoured to make address to the king to acquaint him with her husband ' s innocency and the condition of those loose persons who had falsely accused him ; which she put in writing , lest she might either want an opportunity or not have courage enough to speafc to him " ( italics mine ) . " And , with some difficult y " ( I suppose in getting speech of him , the royal attendants conjecturing the poor woman ' s errand ; there never was any difficult y in