[Mdarad-toolbox-devs] To corrupt my servants, and enter my house un

[Amass <mot...@bh...>]

Iolence, with the great main object of preserving the Old Bailey in all
its purity, and the gallows in all its pristine usefulness and moral
grandeur, it would perhaps be going too far to assert that Mr Dennis had
ever distinctly contemplated and foreseen this happy state of things. He
rather looked upon it as one of those beautiful dispensations which are
inscrutably brought about for the behoof and advantage of good men. He
felt, as it were, personally referred to, in this prosperous ripening
for the gibbet; and had never considered himself so much the pet and
favourite child of Destiny, or loved that lady so well or with such a
calm and virtuous reliance, in all his life. As to being taken up,
himself, for a rioter, and punished with the rest, Mr Dennis dismissed
that possibility from his thoughts as an idle chimera; arguing that the
line of conduct he had adopted at Newgate, and the service he had
rendered that day, would be more than a set-off against any evidence
which might identify him as a member of the crowd. That any charge of
companionship which might be made against him by those who were
themselves in danger, would certainly go for nought. And that if any
trivial indiscretion on his part should unluckily come out, the uncommon
usefulness of his office, at present, and the great demand for the
exercise of its functions, would certainly cause it to be winked at, and
passed over. In a word, he had played his cards throughout, with great
care; had changed sides at the very nick of time; had delivered up two
of the most notorious rioters, and a distinguished felon to boot; and
was quite at his ease. Saving--for there is a reservation; and even Mr
Dennis was not perfectly happy--saving for one circumstance; to wit, the
forcible detention of Dolly and Miss Haredale, in a house almost
adjoining his own. This was a stumbling-block; for if they were
discovered and released, they could, by the testimony they had it in
their power to give, place him in a situation of great jeopardy; and to
set them at liberty, first extorting from them an oath of secrecy and
silence, was a thing not to be thought of. It was more, perhaps, with an
eye to the danger which lurked in this quarter, than from his abstract
love of conv