Sarah said the tankard was her own. Her mother had given it her, and she
had had it for five years. It was to get the tankard out of pawn that
she had taken Kerrel's waistcoats, needing thirty shillings. The blood
on the handle was due to her having pricked a finger.
With this began the series of lies Sarah Malcolm put up in her defence.
She was hauled into the watchman's box and more thoroughly searched. A
green silk purse containing twenty-one guineas was found in the bosom of
her dress. This purse Sarah declared she had found in the street, and as
an excuse for its cleanliness, unlikely with the streets as foul as they
were at that age and time of year, said she had washed it. Both bundles
of linen were bloodstained. There was some doubt as to the identity of
the green purse. Mrs Rhymer, who, as we have seen, was likelier than
anyone to recognize it, would not swear it was the green purse that had
been in Mrs Duncomb's black box. There was, however, no doubt at all
about the tankard. It had the initials "C. D." engraved upon it, and
was at once identified as Mrs Duncomb's. The linen which Sarah had
been handling in Mr Kerrel's drawer was said to be darned in a way
recognizable as Mrs Duncomb's. It had lain beside the tankard and the
money in the black box.
IV
There was, it will be seen, but very little doubt of Sarah Malcolm's
guilt. According to the reports of her trial, however, she fought
fiercely for her life, questioning the witnesses closely. Some of them,
such as could remember small points against her, but who failed in
recollection of the colour of her dress or of the exact number of the
coins said to be lost, she vehemently denounced.
One of the Newgate turnkeys told how some of the missing money was
discovered. Being brought from the Compter to Newgate, Sarah happened to
see a room in which debtors were confined. She asked the turnkey, Roger
Johnson, if she could be kept there. Johnson replied that it would cost
her a guinea, but that from her appearance it did not look to him as if
she could afford so much. Sarah seems to have bragged then, saying that
if the charge was twice or thrice as much she could send for a friend
who would pay it. Her attitude probably made the turnkey suspicious.
At any rate, after Sarah had mixed for some time with the felons in the
prison taproom, Johnson called her out and, lighting the way by use of a
link, led her to an empty room.
"Child," he said, "there is reason to suspect that you are guilty of
this murder, and therefore I have orders to search you." He had, he
admitted, no such orders. He felt under her arms; whereupon she started
and threw back her head. Johnson clapped his hand on her head and felt
something hard. He pulled off her cap, and found a bag of money in her
hair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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