I saw them depart. The mother of William
Lines accompanied them. By a letter received on Tuesday, I learnt that
they had not arrived in town till Monday morning at three o'clock; that
at about nine or ten they found out the office of Mr. Langdale; that, on
inquiring for him, they heard he was in the country, but that he would
be home at noon; that, finding he had not then arrived, they acquainted
his clerk with the nature of their business, and opened my letter to
show him the contents of it; that the clerk went with them to consult
some other person on the subject, when he conveyed them to the Old
Bailey; but that, on inquiring at the proper place about the
introduction of the witnesses, he learnt that the chief mate had been
brought to the bar in the morning, and, no person then appearing against
him, that he had been discharged by proclamation. Such was the end of
all my anxiety and labour in this affair. I was very ill when I received
the letter; but I saw the necessity of bearing up against the
disappointment, and I endeavoured to discharge the subject from my mind
with the following wish, that the narrow escape which the chief mate had
experienced, and which was entirely owing to the accidental
circumstances now explained, might have the effect, under Providence, of
producing in him a deep contrition for his offence, and of awakening him
to a serious attention to his future life[A].
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