Some years ago an unfortunate man, who had made war against society, and had to suffer death for it in front of the old Debtors’ door, Newgate, took leave of his wife and daughters not many hours before execution, in presence of the ‘Reverend Ordinary,’ Mr. Cotton, and a young officer in the prison, who has since attained to eminence and corresponding responsibility in the gloomy service to which he is devoted. The scene of separation was heartrending to all but the doomed man, who was calm, and even smiled once or twice, in order to cheer, if he could, the poor creatures whom he had rendered cheerless for ever. When the ordinary and the prison officer were left alone, the reverend gentleman remarked--‘Well, H----, what do you think of the way in which the prisoner went through _that_?’ ‘Wonderfully, sir,’ answered H----, ‘considering the circumstances.’ ‘Wonderfully!’ replied Mr. Cotton, ‘yes; but not in your sense, my friend.’ ‘In what sense, then, sir?’ asked H----. ‘You said “wonderfully.” I know very well, wherefore--because you saw him smile; and because he smiled, you thought he did not feel his condition as his wife and daughters did.’ ‘I confess that is the case,’ said the young officer. ‘Ah! H----,’ exclaimed Mr. Cotton, ‘you are new to this sort of thing. You looked in the man’s face, and thought he was bold. I had my eye on his back, and I saw that it gave his face the lie. It showed that he was suffering mortal agony.’ H---- looked inquiringly at the chaplain, who answered the look by saying, ‘Listen to me, H----. You are young. Some day you will rise to a post that will require you to sit in the dock, behind the prisoners who are tried on capital charges. On one of those occasions, you will see what is common enough--a prisoner who is saucy and defiant, and who laughs in the judge’s face as he puts on the black cap, and while he is condemning him. Well, H----, if you want to know what that prisoner really feels, don’t look at his face--look at his back. All along and about the spine, you will find it boiling, heaving, surging, like volcanic matter. Keep your eye upon it, H----; and when you see the irrepressible emotion in the back suddenly subsiding, open wide your arms, my boy, for the seemingly saucy fellow is about to tumble into them, in a dead faint. All the “sauce,” Mr. H----, will be out of him at once, and perhaps for ever, unless he be exceptionally constituted.’