Bird, a turner, on to which he might drop, but he deemed the leap too dangerous, and coolly resolved to retrace his steps to the prison chamber, from whence he had so laboriously issued, and secure his blanket. Having accomplished this risky service, he returned to the leads, made fast his blanket, slid down it, entered the turner’s house by a garret window, and eventually, after some delay and no little danger of detection, got away down into the street. Mr. Austin, the Newgate turnkey, who was specially in charge of Sheppard, and who, on unbolting the castle strong room next morning found that his prisoner was gone, was amazed beyond measure. The whole of the prison warders ran up, and at sight of the cartloads of rubbish and débris “stood like men deprived of their senses.” After their first surprise they got their keys to open the neighbouring strong rooms, hoping that he might not have got clean and entirely away. It was not difficult to follow his track. Six great doors, one of which it was said had not been opened for seven years, had been forced, and their massive locks, screws, and bolts lay broken in pieces and scattered about the gaol. Last of all they came to the blanket hanging pendant from the leads, and it was plain that Sheppard was already far beyond pursuit. It may be interesting to mention here that he was recaptured, mainly through his own negligence and drunkenness, within a fortnight of his escape. In the interval, after ridding himself of his irons, he had committed several fresh robberies, the most successful being a burglary at a pawnbroker’s, where he furnished himself with the fine suit, sword, and snuff-box he possessed at the time of his arrest. “When he was brought back to the jail,” says a contemporary account, “he was very drunk, carry’d himself insolently, defy’d the keepers to hold him with all their irons, art, and skill.” He was by this time quite a notorious personage. “Nothing contributes so much to the entertainment of the town at present,” says another journal of the time, “as the adventures of the house-breaker and gaol-breaker, John Sheppard. ’Tis thought the keepers of Newgate have got above £200 already by the crowds who daily flock to see him.” “On Wednesday several noblemen visited him.” He sat for his portrait to Sir James Thornhill, the eminent painter,[136] and the likeness was reproduced in a mezzotint which had a large circulation. Seven different histories or narratives of his adventures were published and illustrated with numerous engravings. His importance was further increased by the special instructions issued to the Attorney-General to bring him to immediate trial. A letter from the Duke of Newcastle, then Secretary of State, is preserved in the Hardwicke MSS., wherein that great official condescends to convey the king’s commands to Sir Philip Yorke that Sheppard, having made two very extraordinary escapes, and being a very dangerous person, should be forthwith brought to trial, “to