on which they were taken into custody, with the servant maid, who was the principal evidence against them. At this time the waterman who carried Dromelius to Rotherhithe, and who knew him very well, appeared, and he likewise was taken into custody. The trial took place at the Old Bailey, on the 24th June, 1700. The prisoners had, according to the custom of English law, a jury of half Englishmen and half foreigners, and to that jury all the circumstances abovementioned appeared so striking, that they did not hesitate to find the prisoners guilty, who accordingly received sentence of death. After condemnation, and a short time before the day of execution, Dromelius assured the Ordinary of Newgate that the murder was committed by himself, and that it was preceded and followed by these circumstances, viz., Mr. Norris being very much in liquor, and desirous of going to his inn, Mr. Van Berghen directed him to attend him thither; soon after they left the house, Norris went into a broken building, where using opprobrious language to Dromelius, and attempting to draw his sword, he wrested it from his hand, and stabbed him with it in several places; that this being done, Norris groaned very much, and Dromelius hearing a watchman coming, and fearing a discovery, drew a knife, cut his throat, and thereby put an end to

his life. In answer to this it was said, that the story was altogether improbable: for, if Mr. Norris had been killed in the manner abovementioned, some blood would have been found on the spot, and there would have been holes in his clothes from the stabbing; neither of which was the case. Still, however, Dromelius persisted in his declaration, with a view to save the life of his mistress, whom, it is said, he secretly loved. Mr. and Mrs. Van Berghen were attended at the place of execution by some divines of their own country, as well as an English clergyman; and desired the prayers of them all. Mr. Van Berghen, unable to speak intelligibly in English, conversed in Latin; a circumstance from which may be inferred that he had been educated in a style superior to the rank of life which he had lately held. He said that the murder was not committed in his house, and that he knew no more of it, than that Dromelius came to him, while he lay in bed, informed him that he had wounded the gentleman, and begged him to aid his escape; but that when he knew Mr. Norris was murdered, he offered money to some persons to pursue the murderer : this circumstance, however, which might have been favourable to him, was not proved on his trial. Mrs. Van Berghen also solemnly declared, that she knew nothing of the murder till after it

was perpetrated, which was not in their house; that Dromelius coming into the chamber, and saying he had murdered the gentleman, she went for a hamper to hold the bloody clothes, and assisted Dromelius in his escape, a circumstance which would not be deemed criminal in her country. This, however, was not correct; for, in Holland, accessaries before or after the fact are accounted as principals. Dromelius, when at the place of execution, persisted in his former tale; but desired the prayers of the surrounding multitude, whom he warned to beware of the indulgence of violent passions, to which he then fell an untimely sacrifice. The three were executed on the 10th July, in the year 1700, near the Hartshorn brewhouse, East Smithfield, being the nearest convenient spot to the place where the murder was committed. The bodies of the men were hung in chains between Bow and Mile-end; but that of the woman was buried.

THE MANNINGS.-The last execution of man and wife, was one of very recent date—that of Mr. and Mrs. Manning, for the murder of one Patrick O'Connor, a Custom House gauger in the London Docks. This crime, in every bearing, was a brutal and horrible affair. The perpetrators of the deed and their victim were all sunk in vice and profligacy. The gauger, O'Connor, a

man of depraved habits, seems to have brought upon himself through his own conduct and the company he kept, the horrible doom that befel him. George Frederick Manning, the male delinquent, was an ordinary sort of stupid, savage ruffian, of the Old Bailey stamp, fit, not to lead, but to be an agent in any act of atrocity. Most probably, the great public interest which attached to this dreadful business, arose from the more striking and uncommon villainy of his wife, the Swiss female, Maria de Roux, subsequently Manning; a person of artful mind, dauntless courage, and commanding spirit; in fact, as many called her at the time, a kind of domestic Lady Macbeth. Maria de Roux had been a servant maid, and had acted in that capacity in the families of Sir Lawrence and Lady Palk, and of the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. In one of her Continental journeys, as a lady's-maid, she formed the acquaintance of O'Connor, who, struck with her appearance and manners, promised her marriage. The courtship lasted some time, when finding that he shrunk from keeping his word, she, out of spite, wedded another of her suitors, Manning, a fellow engaged in a low public-house trade, and already suspected of being concerned in more than one act of public dishonesty. When she was the wife of this man,

whom she soon came to hate, O'Connor renewed his acquaintance with her, and was introduced to her husband. This intimacy she no doubt encouraged, for the double purpose of revenge and plunder. She resolved to slay O'Connor for the wrongs he had done her, and to seize all he possessed, that she might live independent away from her own detested husband; she made this latter wretch the tool to effect her object. Of the actual murder, perhaps the account nearest the truth, is that given in the confession, after conviction, of Mr. Manning. He evidently endeavours to soften down his own participation in the crime, but in other respects he is probably correct. The confession runs thus::

"On or about the 15th of March, 1849, I left my residence, No. 41, Castle-street, Regent-street, for Jersey, and I remained there three weeks, and returned about the 5th of April; and during my absence, I found that my wife had engaged the house No. 3, Minver-place, Bermondsey. The landlord, Mr. Coleman, required a reference, and she referred him to Mr. O'Connor. On the Sunday night after entering upon the house, O'Connor slept there, and promised to return on the following night, with his boxes, but did not keep his promise. On the following Thursday he came and told her that he had altered his mind, as he