Page:Pathetic history of George Barnwell the London apprentice.pdf/23

 the messenger, exclaiming: Tis fit I die, indeed, but not by you.—I will this instant throw myself into the hands of justice; for death is all I wish. But thy ingratitude tears my wounded soul, 'tis worse ten thousand times than death with torture!" 'I care not,' said Milwood: "I am willing to live, and live secure, which nothing but your death can warrant." The servant, with two officers, now entered the room. 'Sir,' said she to one of them, 'take this youth into your custody; I accuse him of murder, and will appear to make good my charge;' Barnwell was seized and hurried to prison. His master had been informed by Milwood's female servant of his mistress's diabolical proceedings, and went to the lodgings of the monster Milwood, and upbraided her for the villainy of her conduct. Milwood tried to extenuate her guilt: 'Well may I,' says she, to Barnwell's master, curse your sex, who robbed me of reputation ere I knew its worth, then left me, to count its value by its loss. What are your laws, of which you make your boast, but the fool's wisdom, and the coward's valour, the instrument and screen of all your villanies? By them you punish in others what you act yourselves, or would have acted, had you been in their circumstances. The Judge who condemns the poor man for being a thief, had been a thief himself, had he been poor.'