"That he was walking to Hounslow from Brentford, whither he had been
to purchase some clothes, when he was accosted by two fellows in
smock-frocks, one of whom carried a bundle in his left hand. They
asked him what o'clock it was; and he took out his watch to tell them,
when he received a blow from the one with the bundle (this one, sir,
said he, pointing to me), on the back of his head; at the same time
the other (the wounded man who was now in custody) snatched his
watch.--That at the time he had purchased his clothes at Brentford,
he had also bought a bag of shot, fourteen pounds weight, which he
had, for the convenience of carrying, tied up with the clothes in the
bundle, and perceiving that he was about to be robbed, he had swung his
bundle round his head, and with the weight of the shot, had knocked
down the man who had snatched at his watch. He then turned to the other
(me) who backed from him, and struck at him with his stick. (The stick
was here produced, and when I cast my eye on it, I was horrified to
perceive that it was the very stick which I had bought of the Jew, for
three-pence, to carry my bundle on.) He had closed in with me, and was
wresting the stick out of my hand, when the other man, who had recovered
his legs, again attacked him with another stick. In the scuffle he had
obtained my stick, and I had wrested from him his bundle, with which,
as soon as he had knocked down my partner, I ran off. That he beat my
partner until he was insensible, and then found that I had left my own
bundle, which in the affray I had thrown on one side." He then made the
best of his way to Hounslow to give the information. His return and
finding me with the other man is already known to the readers.
The next evidence who came forward was the Jew, from whom I had bought
the clothes and sold my own. He narrated all that had occurred, and
swore to the clothes in the bundle left by the footpad, and to the stick
which he had sold to me. The constable then produced the money found
about my person and the diamond solitaire ring, stating my attempt to
escape when I was seized. The magistrate then asked me whether I had
anything to say in my defence, cautioning me not to commit myself.
I replied, that I was innocent; that it was true that I had sold my own
clothes, and had purchased those of the Jew, as well as the stick: that
I had been asked to hold the horse of a gentleman when sitting on a
bench opposite a public-house, and that some one had stolen my bundle
and my stick. That I had walked on towards Hounslow, and, in assisting
a fellow-creature, whom I certainly had considered as having been
attacked by others, I had merely yielded to the common feelings of
humanity--that I was seized when performing that duty, and should
willingly have accompanied them to the magistrate's, had not they
attempted to put on handcuffs, at which my feelings were roused, and I
knocked the constable down, and made my attempt to escape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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