Lives and exploits of the most noted highwaymen, robbers and murderers of all nations: Drawn from the most authentic sources and brought down to the present timeWhitehead, Charles
History
Lives and exploits of the most noted highwaymen, robbers and murderers of all nations: Drawn from the most authentic sources and brought down to the present time
Whitehead, Charles
Brigands and robbers -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Murderers -- Great Britain
The discernment of the lawyer soon discovered the deception, and, to
exculpate and relieve himself, he candidly related the whole matter,
and the reason for which he was introduced into that place. But all was
in vain. The injured and enraged husband insisted that this was only a
feigned narrative to cover his villany, and nothing but his blood, or
an adequate remuneration, would assuage his fury. The cause was at last
referred to the arbitration of the kind stranger who had interfered,
and aided Madame in protecting the young lawyer. Five hundred pounds
were proposed as a proper recompense; but that was far beyond the
power of the lawyer to command. It was with no small difficulty agreed
that he should give a hundred pounds, rather than be found exposed to
the consequences of detection, in a situation where he was unable to
vindicate his innocence. He sent a note to a friend for that sum, the
confederates being careful to examine it before it was transmitted,
lest it should be for a constable, instead of a hundred pounds. Upon
the payment of that sum the lawyer was liberated, and went off with the
bitter reflection, that, instead of receiving a good fee for writing
a deed of settlement, he had paid a hundred pounds for a few minutes’
lodging in a closet; but, consoling himself with the hopes of seeing
this amiable widow speedily _exalted_ to merited honor.
The good wishes of the lawyer were in a very few years verified in
her history. Not long after this, Madame was apprehended, accused of
stealing a silver tankard at Covent Garden, and sent to Newgate. At
the next sessions she was tried, and transported to Jamaica; where,
however, she only remained two years, when she returned to England,
and appeared in the character of a great heiress. The result of this
artifice was, that she was speedily married to a rich apothecary,
whom she soon robbed of above three hundred pounds, and then left him
to resolve the question whether the loss of his money or the loss of
his wife was the greatest misfortune. Madame went next to lodge in
a house where the landlady, a watchmaker, herself, and her faithful
maid, composed the whole family. Having established her character for
sobriety and probity, she invited her landlady and the watchmaker to
the play, and treated them with tickets. They accepted the invitation,
and the maid remained at home, sole guardian of the garrison. But
during their absence, she broke open the locks, extracted about two
hundred pounds, and made free with about thirty watches; so that her
spoil amounted in all to six hundred pounds, which she carried to the
appointed place of rendezvous. Meanwhile, Madame, not satisfied with
treating the watchmaker and her good landlady with tickets to the
play, after it was over took them to a tavern to treat them to a small
collation, where she embraced an opportunity to decamp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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