Her sister knows of her innocence, as she communicated to her that she was betrayed by a villain .-- O that high Heaven Would put in every honest hand a whip, To scourge me such a villain through the world! "I write distractedly--But this girl--this Jeanie Deans, is a peevish puritan, superstitious and scrupulous after the manner of her sect; and I pray your honour, for so my phrase must go, to press upon her, that her sister's life depends upon her testimony.

But though she should remain silent, do not dare to think that the young woman is guilty--far less to permit her execution.

Remember the death of Wilson was fearfully avenged; and those yet live who can compel you to drink the dregs of your poisoned chalice .-- I say, remember Porteous, and say that you had good counsel from "One of his Slayers." The magistrate read over this extraordinary letter twice or thrice.

At first he was tempted to throw it aside as the production of a madman, so little did "the scraps from play-books," as he termed the poetical quotation, resemble the correspondence of a rational being.

On a re-perusal, however, he thought that, amid its incoherence, he could discover something like a tone of awakened passion, though expressed in a manner quaint and unusual.
"It is a cruelly severe statute," said the magistrate to his assistant, "and I wish the girl could be taken from under the letter of it.