It came out in evidence during the trial, that the hour of meeting was
seven o'clock on Sunday morning, February 24th. Mr. Sparling and Captain
Colquitt arrived first at Park Chapel; on alighting the Captain carried
the pistol-case, and the two gentlemen went through a gate into a field
opposite, to the place of rendezvous. Soon after Dr. MacCartney and Mr.
Park, the surgeon, arrived in a carriage. Mr. Park had been induced to
accompany the Doctor on the representation that he was about to attend a
patient of some consequence, and required his (Mr. Park's) advice and
skill. Soon after Mr. Grayson arrived on foot, attended by his servant,
when, finding the two gentlemen in waiting, he pulled out his watch, and
remarked that he feared he was rather late, but that it was all his
servant's fault. Dr. MacCartney then took out the pistol-case from the
carriage (leaving Mr. Park in it, who had declined proceeding any
further), and with Mr. Grayson passed through the same gate as did Mr.
Sparling and the Captain. They then went down the field towards the
river, and soon afterwards a shot or shots were heard by Mr. Park, Mr.
Grayson's servant, and the post-boys. Mr. Grayson's servant ran into the
field, and met Mr. Sparling and Captain Colquitt hurrying up the
foot-road, the former asked him "what he wanted?" he told him who he was,
when Mr. Sparling informed him his master was severely wounded. The two
gentlemen then ran onward when they met Mr. Park, who had got out of the
carriage on seeing them coming towards the road in such a hurry. They
bade him "make haste, for Grayson was badly wounded." They then got into
their carriage and told the coachman to drive back to Liverpool. The
other driver asserted he heard Captain Colquitt say, "by G---, it has
done me good." The two gentlemen were driven first to Mr. Ralph Benson's
in Duke-street, to whom a message was sent up that Mr. Sparling "had been
in the country and was quite well." They next called on Mr. Stavert,
when Mr. Sparling said, "I have put a ball into Grayson this morning."
Mr. Stavert replied, "I hope he is not much hurt," when Mr. Sparling
exclaimed, "I think not, for he made too much noise for it to be of any
consequence." They were next driven to the Royal Hotel and thence to the
Pier Slip, where a boat was in waiting, in which they were rowed off.
Mr. Park, on hurrying forward to Knot's Hole, found Mr. Grayson supported
by his servant and Dr. MacCartney. His breeches were soaked with blood
at his right thigh. There appeared to be a shot-hole at the upper part
near the hip. He complained of being in acute pain, and that he had lost
the use of his limbs; he said he could no longer stand, but must be
allowed to sit down. The party, however, bore him to the carriage, and
got him home as soon as possible. Mr. Park attended him until he died.
The ball had perforated the thigh-bone, and was not extracted until after
death. It was produced in court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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