I was filled with surprise and consternation.
I knew myself to be perfectly innocent of any fraudulent intention,
but at the time of which I am speaking it was a matter fraught with
the greatest danger to be mixed up, however innocently, with the
passing of false money. The law with respect to forgery was
terribly severe, and the innocent as well as the guilty
occasionally suffered. Of this I was not altogether ignorant;
unfortunately, however, in my transactions with the stranger, the
idea of false notes being offered to me, and my being brought into
trouble by means of them, never entered my mind. Recovering myself
a little, I stated that the notes in question were two of three
notes which I had received at Horncastle, for a pair of horses,
which it was well known I had carried thither.
"Thereupon, I produced from my pocket-book the third note, which
was forthwith pronounced a forgery. I had scarcely produced the
third note, when I remembered the one which I had changed for the
Horncastle dealer, and with the remembrance came the almost certain
conviction that it was also a forgery; I was tempted for a moment
to produce it, and to explain the circumstance--would to God I had
done so!--but shame at the idea of having been so wretchedly duped
prevented me, and the opportunity was lost.
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