Duty- The gang of highway robbers that Mountain eventually joins sees stealing money as a duty: “we were soon convinced that he had cash in plenty, and that ‘it was our duty to get it’;” (295).  Mountain feels a real sense of duty to his highway robbery gang, and in fact sticks with them from England to France.  He never discredits them by blaming them for the crime that he is eventually executed for.

Guilt-  Interestingly, the crime for which Mountain is executed takes up only a few paragraphs of this relatively long narrative: he is very concerned with making himself a guilty character more than guilty of one specific crime.  We get a long explanation of the robberies and petty thefts that he commits, the short periods of time in which he is legally employed, and only a mention of the supposed rape that ends his life.  Although he argues that he didn’t really rape the girl, he says that the court was kind and lenient (despite quickly convicting him and sentencing him to death), probably because he sees himself as a guilty man in general, and thus deserving any punishment. 

list – throughout the entire register there is a recollection of the crimes that each individual has committed. These lists appear to be given as a way to boost up notoriety and fame.

love of money – putting the value of money over the value of anything else that may matter to a person. For example the convict who is a pirate is guilty of murdering a man due to his love of money. In effect the pirate’s desire to marry his girlfriend was overrun by the love of money and in a fit of rage he murdered a man, because he felt that he could not control his mischeivous nature.

trial – The actual proceedings of the court has not yet entered much into our considerations of the course , aside from the all powerful death sentences that are sure to come, but here we are privy to a few new elements of the judicial system. Within this narrative we are first introduced to the concept of hiring representation to argue your case. We are also shown the criminal mind as unwilling to admit to their crimes as a means of avoiding the gallows, due to this craftiness and his team of legal minds rosencrantz was able to be acquitted of his crime before ultimately falling victim to the same lusts for money that originally endangered his life.

accomplice – Unlike a few of the narratives prior, i.e. Fly, Rosencrantz does not seem to have any qualms with ratting out the people with which he did his dirt. Although during the course of the narrative we are only given fragments of his associates at the conclusion we are given a comprehensive list that points the finger every which way as his last act. Rosencrantz does not employ the same sense of criminal pride that others have shown by openly stating in their final words that they would not betray those they used to be tied to in their criminal endeavors.

Conscience- Buchanan says that at the ti me of the killing “I was instantly struck with the horror of conscience”, one of the earliest mentions we’ve seen of the conscience in these narratives (223). Interestingly, this mention of conscience has nothing to do with God and is also for a man who the murderers do not even know.

Warning- Buchanan, Ross, and Brooks conclude their account with the usual warning to youths of how to avoid becoming an executed criminal. They should “avoid bad company, excessive drinking, profane cursing and swearing, shameful debaucheries, disobedience to parents” (224). The three criminals, despite the fact that their narrative is very different from the ones that we have read up to this point, still conclude with the typical repentance, religious talk, and warning to the youth that we have come to expect.