 He settled on Catherine Hayes, another eighteenth-century criminal, who was burned at the stake for murdering her husband in 1726.However, as he told his mother, Thackeray developed a "sneaking kindness" for his heroine, and the novel that was supposed to present criminals as totally vile, without any redeeming characteristics, instead made Catherine and her roguish companions seem rather appealing.Thackeray felt the result was a failure, and did not republish it in his lifetime.