Old Bailey Ballads.

(At No. 1, Newgate. Favored by Mr. Wontner.)

O Mary, I believed you true,

And I was blest in so believing;

But till this hour I never knew —

That you were taken up for thieving!

Oh! when I snatch’d a tender kiss,

Or some such trifle when I courted,

You said, indeed, that love was bliss,

But never owned you were transported!

But then to gaze on that fair face —

It would have been an unfair feeling

To dream that you had pilfered lace —

And Flint’s had suffered from your stealing!

Or when my suit I first preferred,

To bring your coldness to repentance,

Before I hammer’d out a word,

How could I dream you heard a sentence!

Or when with all the warmth of youth

I strove to prove my love no fiction,

How could I guess I urged a truth

On one already past conviction!

How could I dream that ivory part,

Your hand — where I have look’d and linger’d,

Altho’ it stole away my heart,

Had been held up as one light-fingered!

In melting verse your charms I drew,

The charms in which my muse delighted ............