not. Mathison offered to reveal his secret of
forging the water-mark, if mercy were shown
to him; this was refused, and he suffered the
penalty of his crime.

Mathison was a genius in his criminal way,
but a greater than he appeared in 1786. In
that year perfection seemed to have been
reached. So considerable was the circulation
of spurious paper-money that it appeared
as if some unknown power had set up a
bank of its own. Notes were issued from
it, and readily passed current, in hundreds
and thousands. They were not to be
distinguished from the genuine paper of
Threadneedle Street. Indeed, when one was
presented there, in due course, so complete
were all its parts; so masterly the
engraving; so correct the signatures; so skilful
the watermark, that it was promptly
paid; and only discovered to be a forgery
when it reached a particular department.
From that period forged paper continued to
be presented, especially at the time of lottery
drawing. Consultations were held with the
police. Plans were laid to help detection.
Every effort was made to trace the forger.
Clarke, the best detective of his day, went,
like a sluth-hound, on the track; for in those
days the expressive word "blood-money" was
known. Up to a certain point there was
little difficulty; but beyond that, consummate
art defied the ingenuity of the officer.
In whatever way the notes came, the train of
discovery always paused at the lottery-offices.
Advertisements offering large rewards were
circulated; but the unknown forger baffled
detection.

While this base paper was in full
currency, there appeared an advertisement in
the Daily Advertiser for a servant. The
successful applicant was a young man, in the
employment of a musical-instrument maker:
who, some time after, was called upon by a
coachman, and informed that the advertiser
was waiting in a coach to see him. The young
man was desired to enter the conveyance,
where he beheld a person with something of
the appearance of a foreigner, sixty or seventy
years old, apparently troubled with the gout.
A camlet surtout was buttoned round his
mouth; a large patch was placed over his left
eye; and nearly every part of his face was
concealed. He affected much infirmity. He
had a faint hectic cough; and invariably
presented the patched side to the view of the
servant. After some conversation— in the
course of which he represented himself as
guardian to a young nobleman of great fortune
—the interview concluded with the engagement
of the applicant; and the new servant
was directed to call on Mr. Brank, at 29,
Titchfield Street, Oxford Street. At this
interview Brank inveighed against his
whimsical ward for his love of speculating in lottery
tickets; and told the servant that his
principal duty would be to purchase them.
After one or two meetings, at each of which
Brank kept his face muffled, he handed a
forty and twenty pound Bank note; told the
servant to be very careful not to lose them;
and directed him to buy lottery-tickets at
separate offices. The young man fulfilled
his instructions, and at the moment he
was returning, was suddenly called by his
employer from the other side of the street,
congratulated on his rapidity, and then told
to go to various other offices in the
neighbourhood of the Royal Exchange, and to
purchase more shares. Four hundred pounds
in Bank of England Notes were handed him,
and the wishes of the mysterious Mr. Brank
were satisfactorily effected. These scenes
were continually enacted. Notes to a large
amount were thus circulated; lottery-tickets
purchased; and Mr. Brank—always in a coach,
with his face studiously concealed—was ever
ready on the spot to receive them. The
surprise of the servant was somewhat excited;
but had he known that from the period he left
his master to purchase the tickets, one female
figure accompanied all his movements; that
when he entered the offices, it waited at the
door, peered cautiously in at the window,
hovered around him like a second shadow,
watched him carefully, and never left him
until once more he was in the company
of his employer—that surprise would have
been greatly increased.* Again and again
were these extraordinary scenes rehearsed.
At last the Bank obtained a clue, and the
servant was taken into custody. The directors
imagined that they had secured the
actor of so many parts; that the flood of
forged notes which had inundated that
establishment would at length be dammed up
at his source. Their hopes proved fallacious,
and it was found that "Old Patch," (as the
mysterious forger was, from the servant's
description, nick-named) had been sufficiently
clever to baffle the Bank directors. The
house in Titchfield Street was searched; but
Mr. Brank had deserted it, and not a trace of
a single implement of forgery was to be seen.
* Francis's History of the Bank of England.

All that could be obtained was some little
knowledge of " Old Patch's " proceedings.
It appeared that he carried on his paper coining
entirely by himself. His only confidant
was his mistress. He was his own engraver.
He even made his own ink. He manufactured
his own paper. With a private press
he worked his own notes; and counterfeited
the signatures of the cashiers, completely.
But these discoveries had no effect; for it
became evident that Mr. Patch had set up a
press elsewhere. Although his secret continued
as impenetrable, his notes became as
plentiful as ever. Five years of unbounded
prosperity ought to have satisfied him; but it
did not. Success seemed to pall him. His
genius was of that insatiable order which
demands new excitements, and a constant
succession of new flights. The following