tive of an ancient family reside in affluence; but where ambition led him proudly but vainly to imagine that he might live in splendour and in happiness if his victim were removed. That the greatness of the offence had been caused by the greatness of the fortune, was his, the Judge's, full and firm conviction. So that avarice was the motive, and hypocrisy at once the instrument and the veil. That a doubt as to the prisoner's guilt could not for a moment exist even in the minds of the most scrupulous, or of those of the meanest capacity. The traces of murder were ever pointed out by the hands of Providence, therefore all the care and the foresight of the most cunning and the coolest offenders could not guard against some token, some unthought of circumstance, which should open a door to discovery, that the assassin had conceived to have been effectually barred. In the case of the prisoner, his misrepresentations to Sir William Wheler, his endeavours to prevent a full inquiry and discovery of the truth of the case; the strange conversations which he had held at different times; and, above all, the circumstance of rinsing out the bottle, left his guilt beyond the shadow of a doubt. This crime, which in the lowliest serf would be truly horrible, was in the prisoner's case, in his situation in society, and from the education he had received, rendered of a much deeper cast, and was one that called for deep contrition-sound, unfeigned, and substantial repentance. After invoking the Almighty Being to grant him that contrition and repentance of mind, the learned Judge concluded, by sentencing the prisoner to undergo the extreme penalty of the law.

Donellan suffered, pursuant to his doom, on the 1st of April, 1781, at Warwick; and he died with perfect resignation.

By the decease of Sir Theodosius, the baronetcy re

verted to his cousin and male heir, Edward Boughton, Esq., who pulled down the mansion of Lawford Hall, the scene of the fearful event to which the trial refers, and sold the estates in the counties of Warwick and Leicester. He never married, and was succeeded in the title by his brother, Sir Charles William Boughton-Rouse, of Rouse Lench, co. Worcester, whose son and heir is the present Sir William Edward Rouse Boughton, Bart., of Downton Hall, co. Salop.

Mrs. Donellan, who inherited a portion of her brother, Sir Theodosius's property, married for her second husband, Sir Egerton Leigh, Bart., and by him was mother of an only daughter, Theodosia de Malmsburgh, married in 1811 to John Ward, Esq., who in consequence assumed the additional surnames of Boughton and Leigh. Lady Leigh's third husband was the celebrated Barry O'Meara, author of a "Voice from St. Helena."

THE APPARITION OF SIR GEORGE VILLIERS.

THE death of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, is stated to have been announced to a dependent of the family, by the apparition of Sir George Villiers, his Grace's father. The story runs as follows:

"There was an officer in the king's wardrobe in Windsor Castle, of a good reputation for honesty and discretion, and then about the age of fifty years or more.

"This man had in his youth been bred in a school in the parish where Sir George Villiers, the father of the Duke, lived, and had been much cherished and obliged in that season of his age by the said Sir George, whom afterwards he never saw.

"About six months before the miserable end of the Duke of Buckingham, about midnight, this man being in his bed at Windsor, where his office was, and in very good health, there appeared to him on the side of his bed, a man of a very venerable aspect, who drew the curtains of his bed, and fixing his eyes upon him, asked him if he knew him.

"The poor man, half dead with fear and apprehension, being asked a second time, whether he remembered him, and having in that time called to his memory the presence of Sir George Villiers, and the very clothes he used to wear, in which at that time he seemed

to be habited, he answered him, That he thought him. to be that person;' he replied, 'He was in the right, that he was the same, and that he expected a service from him, which was—that he should go from him to his son, the Duke of Buckingham, and tell him, if he did not somewhat to ingratiate himself to the people, or at least to abate the extreme malice which they had against him, he would be suffered to live but a short time.'

"After this discourse he disappeared, and the poor man (if he had been at all waking) slept very well till morning, when he believed all this to be a dream, and considered it no otherwise.

"The next night, or shortly after, the same person appeared to him again, in the same place, and about the same time of the night, with an aspect a little more severe than before, and asked him, Whether he had done as he had required of him?' and perceiving he had not, gave him very severe reprehensions, and told him he expected more compliance from him, and that if he did not perform his commands, he should enjoy no peace of mind; but should always be pursued by him: upon which, he promised to obey. But the next morning, waking out of a good sleep, though he was exceedingly perplexed with the lively representation of all particulars to his memory, he was willing still to persuade himself that he had only dreamed, and considered that he was a person at such a distance from the Duke, that he knew not how to find out any admission to his presence, much less had any hope to be believed in what he should say; so with great trouble and unquietness he spent some time in thinking what he should do; and in the end resolved to do nothing in the matter.

"The same person appeared to him the third time, with a terrible countenance, and bitterly reproaching

him for not performing what he had promised to do. The poor man had, by this time, recovered the courage to tell him, that in truth he had deferred the execution of his commands, upon considering how difficult a thing it would be for him to get any access to the Duke, having acquaintance with no person about him; and if he should obtain admission to him, he should never be able to persuade him that he was sent in such a manner; that he should at least be thought to be mad, or to be set on and employed by his own, or the malice of other men to abuse the Duke; and so he should sure to be undone.

"The person replied, as he had done before, that he should never find rest till he should perform what he had required, and therefore it were better to dispatch it; that the access to his son was known to be very easy, and that few men waited long for him; and for the gaining him credit, he would tell him two or three particulars, which he charged him never to mention to any person living but to the Duke himself; and he should no sooner hear them but he should believe all the rest he should say; and so, repeating his threats, he left him.

"In the morning, the poor man, more confirmed by the last appearance, made his journey to London, where the court then was; he was very well known to Sir Ralph Freeman, one of the masters of requests, who had married a lady that was nearly allied to the Duke, and was himself well received by him: to him this man went, and though he did not acquaint him with all the particulars, he said enough to let him know there was something extraordinary in it; and the knowledge he had of the sobriety and discretion of the man, made the more impression on him: he desired that by his means he might be brought to the Duke in such a place