[Jack Sheppard by William Harrison Ainsworth]@TWC D-Link book
Jack Sheppard

CHAPTER XXX
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CHAPTER XXX.
How Jonathan Wild's House was burnt down.
The day appointed for the execution was now close at hand, and the prisoner, who seemed to have abandoned all hopes of escape, turned his thoughts entirely from worldly considerations.
On Sunday, he was conveyed to the chapel, through which he had passed on the occasion of his great escape, and once more took his seat in the Condemned Pew.

The Rev.Mr.Purney, the ordinary, who had latterly conceived a great regard for Jack, addressed him in a discourse, which, while it tended to keep alive his feelings of penitence, was calculated to afford him much consolation.

The chapel was crowded to excess.

But here,--even here, the demon was suffered to intrude, and Jack's thoughts were distracted by Jonathan Wild, who stood at a little distance from him, and kept his bloodthirsty eyes fixed on him during the whole of the service.
On that night, an extraordinary event occurred, which convinced the authorities that every precaution must be taken in conducting Jack to Tyburn,--a fact of which they had been previously made aware, though scarcely to the same extent, by the riotous proceedings near Westminster Hall.

About nine o'clock, an immense mob collected before the Lodge at Newgate.


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