In 1802 he came to the surface under the assumed name of Colonel the Hon. Alexander Augustus Hope, brother to Lord Hopetoun, and member for Linlithgow. Hatfield was staying in the Lake district, at the Queen's Hotel, Keswick, and near here, at Buttermere, he met a village beauty, Mary Robinson, whose parents owned an hotel on the shores of the lake. He was not long in winning her affections. But the double-faced scoundrel at this moment was paying attention to another young lady, the rich ward [Illustration: "MARY OF BUTTERMERE." (_Drawn from Life by J. Gillray._)] of an Irish gentleman, Mr. Murphy, who, with his family, was resident in the same hotel. This suit prospered. Hatfield's proposal was accepted, and communications were opened with Lord Hopetoun. The villain allowed none of the letters to reach their destination. The day was even fixed for the marriage. At the last moment the bridegroom did not appear, but Mr. Murphy received a letter from him at Buttermere, under his name of Colonel Hope, asking him to cash a cheque or draft which he enclosed, drawn on a Liverpool banker. The money was obtained, and sent to Buttermere, but Colonel Hope continued to be missing, until the news arrived that he had run off with Mary Robinson. It never transpired why he preferred this sweet girl, whose charms were afterwards sung by Wordsworth, to his other well-dowered _partie_. Some do him the credit of saying that he really loved Mary Robinson; others that, already fearing detection and exposure, he thought it wise to disappear. Exposure was, indeed, close at hand. Mr. Murphy wrote direct to Lord Hopetoun, and soon heard that the supposed Colonel Hope was an impostor. The draft on the Liverpool bankers also proved to be a forgery, and many letters fraudulently franked by Hatfield as an M.P. were brought up against him. After his marriage with Mary Robinson he had gone to Scotland, but had cut short his wedding trip to return to Buttermere, where he was arrested on several charges. Hatfield dexterously made his escape from the constable who took him, and was long lost sight of. At last, after many wanderings, he was captured in the neighbourhood of Swansea, and sent to the gaol of Brecon. He tried to pass off as one Tudor Henry, but was easily identified, and on his removal to Carlisle was tried for his life. Sentence of death was passed upon him, and he suffered on the 3rd of September, 1803. "Notwithstanding his various and complicated enormities," says a contemporary chronicle, "his untimely end excited considerable commiseration. His manners were extremely polished and insinuating, and he was possessed of qualities which might have rendered him an ornament to society." COLLET.