Without vouchsafing a reply, the two strangers pushed forward, and, though the clerk made a desperate effort to prevent them entering the sanctum of his master, they soon found themselves in the presence of the banker. "You are Mr. Henry Fauntleroy?" "I am!" "I hold a warrant for your apprehension on the charge of forgery," exclaimed the Bow Street runner. A deadly pallor passed over the face of the banker; his knees trembled under him, and he seemed ready to sink to the ground. "Good God, cannot this matter be settled?" he hurriedly exclaimed. Without replying, Plank's companion took handcuffs from under his arm, and securing his prisoner, led him to a hackneycoach waiting outside. They proceeded to the residence of Mr. Conant, the magistrate; and after an interview of the prisoner with one of his clerks, Mr. Freshfield, solicitor to the Bank of England, accompanied by Plank, proceeded to the banking house of Marsh and Co. to search the papers. The search was successful, in so far as documents unparalleled in the history of crime were discovered. It was found that Henry Fauntleroy had kept, among his other books, a regular and minute account of the forgeries he had committed, amounting to above £300,000.

At the bottom of the list was the following extraordinary acknowledgment, written in a clear, bold hand:-" In order to keep up the credit of our house, I have forged powers of attorney, and have, thereupon, sold out all these sums, without the knowledge of any of my partners. I have given credit in the accounts for the interest when it became due.-Henry Fauntleroy."

On the 30th of October, 1824, Henry Fauntleroy was arraigned at the Old Bailey for forging a power of attorney and other documents. The trial excited an intense interest among all classes of the community. "Hardly anything else," says a paper of the day, "is talked about." The banker's name was in every mouth; his portrait in every shop window. Henry Fauntleroy behaved with great bravery, if not insolence, at the trial, declaring that his crime had not been committed out of motives of personal gain, but from a "feeling of honour." It was not to save himself, but the bank in which he was a partner that he had become a forger. Singularly enough, there were not a few persons who sympathised with the criminal in his position, and looked upon him almost as a hero. Among these were some men of wealth and influence, who made desperate efforts to save Henry Fauntleroy from

the doom of the gallows. Class interest, or class prejudice, was stirred up-it seemed so dreadful to hang a banker. However, all these efforts availed nothing. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and forgery encountering then the highest penalty of the law-he was led to execution on the 30th of November, 1824. Never was there such a crowd seen at the foot of Newgate as on this cold autumn morning. More than a hundred thousand people occupied the ground, to the very roof of the houses, from Ludgate Hill to the farthest corner of Smithfield. The multitude, always doubting the fact that there is but one law for the rich as for the poor, evidently wished to make quite sure of a banker being executed for forgery; and the question asked from mouth to mouth was whether it was really the guilty great man who was led to the scaffold. There could be no doubt the doomed man was really and truly Henry Fauntleroy, the banker. But he seemed dead already when led under the fatal drop. Guided, or carried, by two clergymen, one taking each arm, the unhappy man was scarcely able to drag himself to the fatal spot-his lips moved convulsively, his whole frame trembled; till in a few minutes justice was done upon earth.

The death on the scaffold of Henry Fauntleroy had the force of a public event, and while it produced a lasting sensation, undermined, to a considerable extent, the faith in private banking.

XVIII. A TRIO OF BILL-BROKERS.

JUST before joint-stock banks came to overpower the trade of private banking, a small house in the eastern counties gave birth to a new financial organization, the growth of which, for a time, was almost more gigantic than that of joint-stock banking. It was in Norwich that arose the world-famous firm of Overend and Co., the oldest house in existence that attempted bill-brokering in its present form. The firm was a direct offshoot of the Norwich Bank, established by Mr. Henry Gurney in the year 1770. The founder of the bank was succeeded by his son, Mr. Bartlett Gurney, who, in the year 1803, took into partnership his cousin, Mr. John Gurney, and several other members of the family. Mr. John Gurney had previously been a woolstapler and spinner of worsted yarn. In this occupation he became acquainted with Mr. Joseph Smith, a most active and energetic man, chiefly engaged in the woollen trade, but giving

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