Within The Shadow Of The Shaft.

horseback " by reason of his lameness ; " so we have this little ray of light thrown on the darkness of the enquiry , that the soi disant incendiary was a cripple . The gaoler took him blindfolded from Newgate down to a part of Thames Street near the Tower . He then removed the bandage ancl called bis attention to the vast area of ruins and rubbish that extended for two good miles in a westerly direction before him ; but Hubert denied that he had kindled the conflagration

in that place ; he said it was further up the street , nearer the river , nearer the bridge foot , so they wended their way westerly , . keeper , convict , catchpolls , gobemouches , J . P . ' s , until they arrived at the foot of Pudding Lane . "Via , " says the Frenchman , ancl , being allowed to dismount , scrambles painfully over the rubbish until he comes to the site of Mr . Faryner ' s bakery , and then he points out how he set fire to that tradesman ' s establishment b

y means of ignited fire-balls at the end of a long pole thrust through the windows of a little outhouse where the good man kept his store of billets , faggots , and shavings . " I knew , " the poor baker had saicl before the committee , "that it was through no fault of mine the disaster arose , for there was but one fire left burning in my house that Saturday night , ancl that was on a brick bottom in my bakehouse , and I visited it and raked it all together the

last thing before I went to bed . " Poor frightened Faryner . They say that , though Hubert ledhis party straight to the site of the bmdangerie , the baker himself , like hundreds of other honest citizens , was unable to find the spot , where his shop had formerly stood . There exists a tradition that after the late transmogrification to form Charterhouse Street , the Holborn Circus , and the Viaduct , the Alderman of the Ward , coming home late one night , was found weeping , because he had lost the way to his OAvn street door in a neighbourhood where he had dwelt for sixt y years ; but then , probably his worship had been dining with his Company .

Well , they hanged poor Hubert . It Avas said that he intimated that he bad some very important disclosures he could make to the committee , ancl that the chairman had ordered the prisoner ' s attendance at the next sitting at noon , - but that " they "—who " they " were I haven ' t the slightest idea—caused the poor wretch to be hanged at nine o ' clock that morning , so that , when the committee proceeded to business at twelve , they found themselves in the disappointing situation of my Lord Tomnoddy , Lieutenant Tregoose , and likewise Sir Carnaby Jinks of the Blues . " Hullo ! I say , here ' s the deuce to pay ; The fellow ' s been cut down and taken away ;

What s to he done ? we ve lost all the fun . " etc . But perhaps the grimmest part of the whole sad story is that it appears to be incontestable that the poor demented creature actually didn't arrive in London from France until the Monday night , when the fire had been actually two whole days in full blaze . Those who have anything to do Avith the administration of the criminal law are familiar with the fact that for the perpetration of every great crime

some few poor half-witted , usually drunken , creatures will voluntarily offer themselves victims to justice . It amounts to a mania . But in these days these self accusations are suspected , tested , investigated , and the invariable result is the discharge of the prisoner with more or less of a warning . Only the other day , in that horrible cause celebre , which Avill be known in domestic history as the Richmond murder , an instance of the foll y I am expatiating

upon occurred . In Hubert ' s case , however , it is remarkable that although the judge who tried him looked upon the self-criminatory details as a cockand-bull story , expressed his opinion that the Frenchman had adopted the course he took as a self-regarded venial method of committing suicide , yet he took no steps to arrest the execution of the sentence of the law , and even seems composedly to have assisted the despairing man to attain his object . ( To be continued . )