Broadsides; Chapbooks; Street literature -- Great Britain
Under this specious shew of friendship, Spicer was left for three or
four hours, when a man whose name is Patrick Bowman (who also stands
indicted, but is not yet taken) came to Spicer with a plausible apology
for Austin’s leaving him so long, and desired Spicer to go with him
to Austin, who had got him a lodging. This the credulous prosecutor
assented to, and Bowman took him to another public-house, where they
joined Austin, and from thence they all went out, as Spicer thought,
towards the lodging; but when he found himself in the middle of a
field, out of the high road, by the side of a ditch, no house near, nor
anything to be seen but the lights of some distant lamps, he observed
that it was a very comical place to look after a lodging; upon which
Austin retired a little, and Patrick Bowman drew a cutlass, with which
he kept chopping at the hands, wrists, arms, body, and head of the
prosecutor, and mangled him in a most shocking manner. Spicer resisted
this attack, and would have got the better of Bowman, if Austin had not
come up to Bowman’s assistance; for when the poor wretch, thinking he
had a firm friend in Austin, called out, “O John, won’t you come and
help me!” Austin immediately seized him by the collar with one hand the
inside of his handkerchief, and with the other caught hold of his legs,
and threw him down, when they rifled him of the things mentioned in the
indictment, Spicer crying out, “O John, I hope you won’t be against me.”
This cruel attack on the prosecutor happened to be overheard by one
James Story, a servant to Mr. Wells, a gardener, who rushing out to the
poor man’s assistance, Austin and Bowman made off, and Story ran after
to apprehend them, and overtook them, but Bowman and Austin facing
about, one with a stick, the other with a cutlass, in order to attack
him, he retreated to Spicer, whom he found in a most mangled condition,
and took him to his master, from whence he was sent to the hospital,
without hopes of recovery.
This was confirmed by Mr. Wells, who did everything in his power to
comfort, assist, and stop the bleeding and wounds. Early the next
morning, Story saw the prisoner coming towards the spot where this
brutal scene took place, and looking about him; Story asked him what
he was looking for, to which Austin replied, for some money that had
been lost there; upon which Story, who before had some suspicions,
apprehended Austin, and secured him in his master’s stables; he
was observed by Mr. Wells to secret a silk handkerchief and a pair
of stockings in the rack, which turned out to be the prosecutor’s
property, and on Austin being shown to Spicer, was fixed on by him.
This was the evidence, except the prisoner’s cloaths being wet with
blood when apprehended, which was proved by Story and Mr. Wells,
and one Yardly, a constable, proved that Bowman and Austin has been
companions on board the lighters together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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