Detective and mystery stories, English; Police -- Fiction; Short stories
Some days after, that is, "on the twenty-second of March," (1758) we are
describing the scene in Mr. Bliss's own words--"I was sitting with my
wife by the fireside. The prisoner and the girl were sitting in the same
room--which was a small one--and although they whispered, I could
distinguish that Vaughan was very urgent to have something returned
which he had previously given to her. She refused, and Vaughan went away
in an angry mood. I then studied the girl's face, and saw that it
expressed much dissatisfaction. Presently a tear broke out. I then
spoke, and insisted on knowing the dispute. She refused to tell, and I
told her that until she did, I would not see her. The next day I asked
the same question of Vaughan--he hesitated. 'Oh' I said, 'I dare say it
is some ten or twelve pound matter--something to buy a wedding bauble
with.' He answered that it was much more than that--it was near three
hundred pounds! 'But why all this secrecy?' I said; and he answered that
it was not proper for people to know that he had so much money till his
certificate was signed. I then asked him to what intent he had left the
notes with the young lady? He said, as I had of late suspected him, he
designed to give her a proof of his affection and truth. I said, 'You
have demanded them in such a way that it must be construed as an
abatement of your affection towards her.'" Vaughan was again exceedingly
urgent in asking back the packet; but Bliss remembering his many
evasions, and supposing that this was a trick, declined advising his
niece to restore the parcel without proper consideration. The very next
day it was discovered that the notes were counterfeits.
This occasioned stricter inquiries into Vaughan's previous career. It
turned out that he bore the character in his native place of a
dissipated and not very scrupulous person. The intention of his mother
to assist him was an entire fabrication, and he had given Miss Bliss the
forged notes solely for the purpose of deceiving her on that matter.
Meanwhile the forgeries became known to the authorities, and he was
arrested. By what means, does not clearly appear. The "Annual Register"
says, that one of the engravers gave information; but we find nothing in
the newspapers of the time to support that statement; neither was it
corroborated at Vaughan's trial.
When Vaughan was arrested, he thrust a piece of paper into his mouth,
and began to chew it violently. It was, however, rescued, and proved to
be one of the forged notes; fourteen of them were found on his person,
and when his lodgings were searched twenty more were discovered.
Vaughan was tried at the Old Bailey on the seventh of April, before Lord
Mansfield. The manner of the forgery was detailed minutely at the
trial:--On the first of March, (about a week before he gave the twelve
notes to the young lady,) Vaughan called on Mr. John Corbould, an
engraver, and gave an order for a promissory note to be engraved with
these words:--
"No. ----.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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