The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
In this condition, without the smallest nourishment of any kind, the
wretched girl remained for three days and two nights, when having been
let loose, in order that she might go to bed, she crept up to the garret
in a state of the greatest exhaustion. On the fourth day she faltered in
her speech, but was nevertheless again conveyed to what was worse than
her condemned cell, and there, in the course of a very short time, she
expired, her body being suspended by the cords which had been again
placed round her person. The other girls, seeing that her whole weight
was thus supported, cried out that she did not move; and the younger
Metyard coming up, said, "If she does not move soon, I'll make her," and
immediately beat her on the head with the heel of a shoe; but finding
that in truth she was senseless, she sent for her mother to come and
assist her. The body was then released from its bonds, and efforts were
made to restore animation, but without effect; and Mrs. Metyard being
convinced that the child was dead, removed her remains into the garret.
On the return of the other children, who had been sent out of the way,
they were informed that the girl had been in a fit, but was perfectly
recovered; and it was added that she was now locked in a garret, in
order that she should not run away: and to strengthen the effect of this
story, a plate of meat was sent up to the room where the body lay in the
middle of the day for her dinner.
On the fourth day, a design was formed to follow up the tale which had
been related; and the body of the deceased having been locked in a box,
the garret-door and the street-door were left open, and one of the
apprentices was desired to call Nanny down to dinner, and to tell her
that if she would promise to behave well in future, she would be no
longer confined. Upon the return of the child, she said Nanny was not
above stairs; and after a great parade in searching every part of the
house, the Metyards reflected upon her as being of an untractable
disposition, and pretended that she had run away.
The sister of the deceased, who was apprenticed to the same mistress,
mentioned to a lodger in the house that she was persuaded her sister was
dead; observing, that it was not probable she had gone away, since her
shoes, shift, and other parts of her apparel still remained in the
garret; and the suspicions of this girl coming to the knowledge of the
inhuman wretches, they, with a view of preventing a discovery, cruelly
murdered her, and secreted the body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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