Yes, indeed, how changed! He had occupied a high position in community, enjoying the confidence of every one; and had been elected to places of honor and trust by his fellow-citizens, before his appointment to this office by the general Government. What was he now? What would he be when it should be known everywhere that the exemplary Mr. F. had been guilty of a felon's crimes, and was likely to meet with a felon's doom? How could he ever face again his children, already deprived of one parent by death, and about to lose another by that which is worse than death? Ah! if crime presented the same aspect before its perpetration that it does afterward, how vast would be the diminution of human guilt! The District-Attorney and Sheriff having purposely retired for a few moments, I took occasion to represent to F., in as strong a light as possible, the disappointments and distress which his unprincipled course had occasioned among the pupils of the academy, at the same time urging him, if he had not destroyed their letters, to produce them at once, that they might be forwarded to their rightful owners. He did not deny that he was the author of all the mischief; and stated that the letters he had taken had been destroyed, but that the money--several hundred dollars--was invested in real estate, and could be restored. After I had ascertained these important facts, I consigned the criminal to the Sheriff's hands, in virtue of the warrant which had before been made out, as I have already mentioned. The Sheriff returned to the house with him, to allow him to make some preparation for a night's ride, and as they issued from the dwelling, I noticed that F. had on the identical Quaker coat, which had been to him what the robe of Nessus was to Hercules,--a garment bringing unforeseen destruction to its wearer. The trial of the prisoner was held in due time, and its result furnished no exception to the truth of the Scriptural declaration respecting the way of transgressors. Before closing this narrative, I should mention that measures were taken to secure the restoration of their money to those who had been defrauded by this man's dishonesty. It was, however, a slower process to heal the wounded feelings, to re-establish the broken friendships, and to reproduce the lost confidence, of which he had been the guilty cause. Whether he ever regained his lost reputation, I am unable to say. A long course of upright conduct may and ought to obliterate the memory of former crime, but the commission of such crimes ordinarily raises additional barriers in the way of a virtuous life; and too often it were as hopeful a task to collect the fragments of a diamond which has just been dashed upon the pavement, and attempt to reconstruct it in its original beauty, as to gather up the remains of a ruined character, and endeavor to restore it to its former lustre. CHAPTER II.