Kerrel refused, saying he could have no business with her that was
secret.
Sarah then confessed that she had pawned the missing waistcoats for two
guineas, and begged him not to be angry. Kerrel asked her why she had
not asked him for money. He could readily forgive her for pawning the
waistcoats, but, having heard her talk of Mrs Lydia Duncomb, he was
afraid she was concerned with the murder. A pair of earrings were found
in the drawers, and these Sarah claimed, putting them in her corsage. An
odd-looking bundle in the closet then attracted Kerrel's attention, and
he kicked it, and asked Sarah what it was. She said it was merely dirty
linen wrapped up in an old gown. She did not wish it exposed. Kerrel
made further search, and found that other things were missing. He told
the watch to take the woman and hold her strictly.
Sarah was led away. Kerrel, now thoroughly roused, continued his search,
and he found underneath his bed another bundle. He also came upon some
bloodstained linen in another place, and in a close-stool a silver
tankard, upon the handle of which was a lot of dried blood.
Kerrel's excitement passed to Gehagan, and the two of them went at
speed downstairs yelling for the watch. After a little the two watchmen
reappeared, but without Sarah. They had let her go, they said, because
they had found nothing on her, and, besides, she had not been charged
before a constable.
One here comes upon a recital by the watchmen which reveals the
extraordinary slackness in dealing with suspect persons that
characterized the guardians of the peace in London in those times. They
had let the woman go, but she had come back. Her home was in Shoreditch,
she said, and rather than walk all that way on a cold and boisterous
night she had wanted to sit up in the watch-house. The watchmen refused
to let her do this, but ordered her to "go about her business," advising
her sternly at the same time to turn up again by ten o'clock in the
morning. Sarah had given her word, and had gone away.
On hearing this story Kerrel became very angry, threatening the two
watchmen, Hughes and Mastreter, with Newgate if they did not pick her
up again immediately. Upon this the watchmen scurried off as quickly as
their age and the cumbrous nature of their clothing would let them.
They found Sarah in the company of two other watchmen at the gate of
the Temple. Hughes, as a means of persuading her to go with them more
easily, told her that Kerrel wanted to speak with her, and that he was
not angry any longer. Presently, in Tanfield Court, they came on the two
young men carrying the tankard and the bloodied linen. This time it was
Gehagan who did the talking. He accused Sarah furiously, showing her the
tankard. Sarah attempted to wipe the blood off the tankard handle with
her apron. Gehagan stopped her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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