could. I tried to conceal the fact as well as I
could, giving sometimes one reason for her
absence, and sometimes another."

The prisoner delivered the address written for
him in a diffident, distrustful way, and in a whining,
canting voice. He at first attempted to
recite it, but failed; he stammered over several
words, and confused the sentences in an
ignorant manner. He occasionally fixed his eyes
on the jury to try and discover if he had made
any effect. The reading took about twenty-five
minutes. The jury were absent about half an
hour, and returned with the verdict of Guilty.

During the judge's address to the jury, the
countenance of the prisoner repeatedly changed
colour, from a deep red flush to a pallid hue;
he betrayed a very feverish anxiety as to the
result of the trial, and appeared to be suffering
much mental torture. Occasionally there was a
convulsive motion of the lower part of his face;
his lips were parched, and he sighed deeply.
Towards the conclusion of the trial he rested
his head against a pillar in the felons' dock, and
closed his eyes.

On hearing the sentence, the murderer sank
down in a state of intense agony. Seeming
inclined to faint, he was removed into a small cell
behind the dock. There he let fall his handker-
chief on a table, pressed his face down upon it,
and then, with his arms folded round his head,
remained in a state of syncope. A more miserable
picture of guilt and despair, without any real
penitence for the crime, poor humanity had never
surely presented.

In prison, Corder slept soundly. In the jail
chapel, when he first entered the condemned
pew, he wept convulsively for the first time,
He still refused to make a full confession.

"The sermons," said he, " which have been
put into my hands since I came into this place
have convinced me that all confession which it
is necessary for me to make is a confession to
my God of the transgressions of my life;
confession to man can be of no good to my soul;
I do not like it, and I will not make it, as it
savours strongly of popedom." To another
person he said, " Why should I disgrace my
family by confessing all the follies and
transgressions of my youth; they are, indeed,
manifold; the confession would hurt their feelings,
and would do me no good."

He refused to see any Methodist preacher. It
was only after great difficulty that Mr. Orridge,
the governor of the jail, persuaded Corder to
make a confession, and not let Maria Marten's
memory be stained by the accusation of her
having committed suicide. A little before
midnight he suddenly said to the governor, " I am
a guilty man!" but he would not enter into any
full detail. The following was the confession:

"Bury Jail, Aug. 10, 1828. Condemned Cell,

Sunday Evening, half-past eleven.

"I acknowledge being guilty of the death
of poor Maria Marten, by shooting her with a
pistol. The particulars are as follows: When
we left her father's house, we began quarrelling
about the burial of the child, she apprehending
that the place wherein it was deposited would
be found out. The quarrel continued for
about three-quarters of an hour upon this and
about other subjects. A scuffle ensued, and
during the scuffle, and at the time I think that
she had hold of me, I took the pistol from the
side-pocket of my velveteen jacket and fired.
She fell, and died in an instant. I never saw
even a struggle. I was overwhelmed with
agitation and dismay. The body fell near the front
doors on the floor of the barn. Avast quantity
of blood issued from the wound, and ran on to
the floor and through the crevices. Having
determined to bury the body in the barn (about
two hours after she was dead), I went and
borrowed the spade of Mrs. Stow; but before I
went there, I dragged the body from the barn
into the chaff-house, and locked up the barn. I
returned again into the barn and began to dig
the hole; but the spade being a bad one, and the
earth firm and- hard, I was obliged to go home
for a pickaxe and a better spade, with which I
dug the hole, and then buried the body. I think
I dragged the body by the handkerchief that
was tied round her neck. It was dark when
I finished covering up the body. I went the
next day, and washed the blood from off the
barn-floor. I declare to Almighty God I had
no sharp instrument about me, and that no other
wound but the one made by the pistol was
inflicted by me. I have been guilty of great
idleness, and at times led a dissolute life, but I hope
through the mercy of God to be forgiven.

"W. CORDER."

Corder that night again slept soundly.

This murder had excited great and marked
interest in Suffolk. The streets had been full
of puppet-shows representing the scene of the
crime. A Methodist preacher had held forth to
five thousand persons in the neighbourhood of
the barn. Ou the Monday of the execution all
the workmen in Bury struck work in order to
see the execution. As early as nine o'clock
upwards of a thousand persons assembled;
before twelve, seven thousand had collected.
When Corder stood on the scaffold, Mr.
Orridge approached the wretch and spoke to him.
He (the governor) then advanced to the front
of the scaffold, and cried to the people:

"He acknowledges the justice of his
sentence, and dies at peace with all mankind."

A magisterial order caused Corder's skeleton
to be preserved in the museum of the County
Hospital. Shortly before his execution, Corder
wrote the following letter to his wife:

"My life's loved Companion. I am now
a-going to the fatal scaffold, and I have a lively
hope of obtaining mercy and pardon for my
numerous offences. May Heaven bless and
protect you through this transitory vale of
misery, and which, when we meet again, may it
be in the regions of everlasting bliss. Adieu,
my love, for ever adieu; in less than two hours
I hope to be in heaven. My last prayer is,
that God will indue you with patience, fortitude,