mysterious was from the servant s description nick named had been sufficiently clever to the bank the house in was searched but mr had deserted it and not a of a single of was to be seen all that could be obtained was some little knowledge of old patch s proceedings it appeared that he carried on bis paper entirely by himself his only waa francis s history of the bank of england bank note his mistress he was his own he even made his own ink he liis own paper with a private press he worked his own notes and the of the completely but these discoveries had no ef feet for it became evident that mr patch had set up a press elsewhere although his secret continued as impenetrable his notes became as plentiful as ever five years of unbounded prosperity ought to have him � but it did not success seemed to pall him his genius was of that order which demands new and a constant of new flights the following paragraph from a newspaper of relates to the same individual � on the th of december ten pounds was paid into the bank for which the clerk as usual gave a ticket to receive a bank note of equal value this ticket ought to have been carried immediately to the instead of which the l took it home and curiously added an to the original sum and returning presented it so altered to the for which he received a note of one hundred pounds in the evening the clerks found a deficiency in the accounts and on examining the tickets of the day not only that but two others were discovered to have been obtained in the same manner in one the figure was altered to and in another to by which the artist received upon the whole nearly one thousand pounds to that old patch as will be seen in the added smaller which one would think were far beneath his notice except to convince himself and his mistress of the unbounded facility of his genius for fraud at that period the public were with a tax on plate and many experiments were made to it among others one was invented by a mr charles price a stock and office keeper which for a time puzzled the mr charles price lived in great style gave splendid dinners and did everything on the scale yet mr charles price had no plate the authorities could not find so much as a silver tooth pick on his magnificent premises in truth what he was too cunning to possess he for one of his he hired the plate of a in and left the value in bank notes as security for its safe return one of these notes having proved a was traced to mr charles price and mr charles price was not to be found at that particular juncture although this excited no surprise � for he was often an from his office for short periods � yet in due course and as a formal matter of business an officer was sent to find him and to ask his explanation regarding the false notes after tracing a man whom he had a strong notion was mr charles price through countless lodgings and innumerable the officer to use his own expression mr charles price but as mr observed his prisoner and his prisoner s lady were even then too many for him for although he lost not a moment in trying to secure the implements after he had discovered that mr charles price and mr and old patch were all concentrated in the person of his prisoner he found the lady had destroyed every trace of evidence not a of the factory was left not the point of a graver nor a single spot of ink nor a of silver paper nor a scrap of anybody s handwriting was to be met with despite however this of evidence to him mr charles price had not the courage to face a jury and he saved the and the much trouble aiid expense by hanging himself in bank note the success of mr charles price has never been surpassed and even after the darkest era in the history of bank � which dates from the of cash in february and which will be treated of in the succeeding chapter � old patch was still remembered as the caesar of chapter ii in the history of crime as in all other histories there is one great epoch by which minor dates are arranged and defined in a list of remarkable events one remarkable event more remarkable than the last is the standard around which all smaller circumstances are whatever happens in annals is set down as having occurred so many years after the flight of the prophet in the records of london commerce a great fraud or a great failure is mentioned as having come to light so many months after the flight of sporting men date from remarkable struggles for the prize and refer to as s year the of old dated from dick s last appearance on the fatal stage at in like manner the standard epoch in the annals of bank note is the year when on the th of february one pound notes were put into circulation instead of golden guineas or to use the city cash were suspended at that time the bank of england note was no better in appearance � had not improved as a work of art � since the days of and old patch it was just as easily and the chances of the successful circulation of were increased a thousand fold bank note up to no notes had been issued even for sums so small as five pounds consequently all the bank paper then in use passed through the hands and under the eyes of the and educated who could more readily 