to spare the life of her only child. A burst of grief, and a violent

struggle, such as I hope I may never have to witness again, succeeded.

I knew that her heart was breaking from that hour; but I never once

heard complaint or murmur escape her lips. 'It was a piteous

spectacle to see that woman in the prison-yard from day to day,

eagerly and fervently attempting, by affection and entreaty, to soften

the hard heart of her obdurate son. It was in vain. He remained

moody, obstinate, and unmoved. Not even the unlooked-for

commutation of his sentence to transportation for fourteen years,

softened for an instant the sullen hardihood of his demeanour.

'But the spirit of resignation and endurance that had so long upheld

her, was unable to contend against bodily weakness and infirmity.

She fell sick. She dragged her tottering limbs from the bed to visit her

son once more, but her strength failed her, and she sank powerless on

the ground.

'And now the boasted coldness and indifference of the young man

were tested indeed; and the retribution that fell heavily upon him

nearly drove him mad. A day passed away and his mother was not

there; another flew by, and she came not near him; a third evening

arrived, and yet he had not seen her - , and in four- and-twenty hours

he was to be separated from her, perhaps for ever. Oh! how the long-

forgotten thoughts of former days rushed upon his mind, as he almost

ran up and down the narrow yard - as if intelligence would arrive the

sooner for his hurrying - and how bitterly a sense of his helplessness

and desolation rushed upon him, when he heard the truth! His

mother, the only parent he had ever known, lay ill - it might be, dying

within one mile of the ground he stood on; were he free and

unfettered, a few minutes would place him by her side. He rushed to

the gate, and grasping the iron rails with the energy of desperation,

shook it till it rang again, and threw himself against the thick wall as

if to force a passage through the stone; but the strong building

mocked his feeble efforts, and he beat his hands together and wept

like a child.

I bore the mother's forgiveness and blessing to her son in prison; and

I carried the solemn assurance of repentance, and his fervent

supplication for pardon, to her sick-bed. I heard, with pity and

compassion, the repentant man devise a thousand little plans for her

comfort and support when he returned; but I knew that many months

before he could reach his place of destination, his mother would be no

longer of this world. 'He was removed by night. A few weeks

afterwards the poor woman's soul took its flight, I confidently hope,

and solemnly believe, to a place of eternal happiness and rest. I

performed the burial service over her remains. She lies in our little

churchyard. There is no stone at her grave's head. Her sorrows were

known to man; her virtues to God. 'it had been arranged previously to

The Pickwick Papers