this quickly brought assistance. Long before
this time, Mullet had discovered in him the
pretended clergyman in the full-bottomed
wig; but on lights being brought, he being
then without his disguises, he recognised him
immediately as the man Bate, who had slept
there a twelvemonth before, and had been
suspected, with his companion, of the murder
of Dr. Graves.

His object in entering the room at night
was soon surmised. In his possession were
found a pocket-book, and a silver-gilt snuff-
box, both of which were subsequently found
to have belonged to Dr. Graves. They were
begrimed with smoke and soot, and had
evidently been just removed by him from a
ledge in the chimney, where he had, no doubt,
secreted them a twelvemonth before. But a
stronger evidence of guilt was discovered
against him in the fact that, in one compartment
of the pocket-book was found the very
letter which had induced the doctor to leave
his house on the night of the murder. It
purported to come from an acquaintance of a
woman whom the doctor once befriended, and
who was stated to be then lying dangerously
ill at a house in Barnard's Inn, whither it
was requested that he would come
immediately in a coach which would be waiting for
him. Though signed in a fictitious name,
and in a disguised hand, it was clearly
recognised for the writing of Bate, and it was
conjectured that, having removed the pocket-
book and box from the body of the murdered
man while his companion was busier urging
the coachman to drive quickly, and having
determined to keep them himself, and
conceal the fact from his partner in the
crime, he had hidden them in the chimney
before he had found an opportunity to
examine them; and, being suddenly
apprehended, had been prevented from taking them
away. The length of time which he had
suffered to escape was explained by the natural
supposition that, although anxious to
remove evidences of his guilt, he had not
dared to appear again at the Three Crowns
until the events we have related might be
supposed to be almost forgotten.

Springett was immediately after apprehended,
and hoping, perhaps, for some favour, by
throwing the guilt more completely on his
associate, he confessed his participation in the
crime. It was he who had hired the coach ;
and Bate, being a tall man, very much of
the doctor's figure, it had been resolved that
he should get into the coach while the driver
was gone with the letter ; so that, although
the doctor would find two men there, a
circumstance which they explained to him by
saying that they also had been sent for by the
sick woman, being relatives of her's, the
driver would be ignorant of the fact, and
would naturally suppose, when they alighted
in the dark, that Doctor Graves and Springett
had both left the vehicle. Springett admitted
that his arm was not so weak as he
pretended, and that he had removed the sling
before hiring the coach, and had endeavoured
to disguise his voice, but he denied that he
had actually assisted in the struggle. Bate,
he said, had suddenly attacked the doctor
when he (Springett) was urging the driver
to hasten; but he could not deny that they
had both expected to derive the benefit from
the doctor's death, and that they hereby
obtained full control over the trust money
which they had since employed in keeping a
gambling-house in Leicester Fields. As to the
time of their absence from the tavern, Springett
acknowledged that before calling the
attention of several persons to the time of their
return, he had taken an opportunity of
putting back the hands of the clock in the
room.

Bate, on the other hand, finding that the
denial was useless, and being enraged at the
conduct of Springett, declared that it was he
who had obtained the particulars of the
doctor's friendship for the woman, and had
conceived the idea of pretending that she had
come to live in Barnard's Inn and had fallen
sick there, which story he felt assured would
be sufficient to entrap Dr. Graves into their
snare. As to the murder, itself, he declared
that Springett had grasped the doctor's
wrists, and otherwise assisted him, and that
he had only looked out of the window, and
endeavoured to distract the attention of the
driver, when their victim was already too
weak to make further resistance. Springett
gained nothing by his accusation of Bate. He
was soon afterwards executed at Tyburn;
but Bate was found one morning, sometime
previously, self-strangled by a piece of cord,
which he had found means of obtaining.

Now ready, price Threepence, Stamped, Fourpence,
THE HOLLY-TREE INN.
Being the Christinas Number of HOUSEHOLD WORDS,
And containing the amount of One regular
Number and a Half.
Also, in Twenty-eight pages, stitched,
PRICE FOURPENCE,
HOUSEHOLD WORDS ALMANAC
FOR THE YEAR 1856.
Sold by all Booksellers, and at all Railway Stations.

About the middle of January, 1856, will be
published price Five Shillings and Sixpence, cloth boards,
THE TWELFTH VOLUME
OF
HOUSEHOLD WORDS,
Containing from No. 280 to No. 303 (both inclusive),
and the extra Christimas Number.
The Publication of the HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE
OF CURRENT EVENTS will be Discontinued at the end
of the present year.