We must now, in our turn, set forth in search of Mr. Brodie; and as to
his doings after leaving Edinburgh we have the evidence of his own
letter to Michael Henderson. He writes--“Were I to write you all that
has happened to me, and the hair-breadth escapes I made from a
well-scented pack of bloodhounds, it would make a small volume. I
arrived in London on Wednesday, 12th March, where I remained snug and
safe in the house of an old female friend until Sunday, 23rd March
(whose care for me I shall never forget, and only wish I may ever have
it in my power to reward her sufficiently), within five hundred yards of
Bow Street. I did not keep the house all this time, but so altered,
excepting the scar under my eye, I think you could not have rapt [swore]
to me. I saw Mr. Williamson twice; but although countrymen commonly
shake hands when they meet from home, yet I did not choose to make so
free with him notwithstanding he brought a letter to me. He is a clever
man, and I give him credit for his conduct. My female gave me great
uneasiness by introducing a flash man to me, but she assured me he was a
true man, and he proved himself so, notwithstanding the great reward,
and was useful to me. I saw my picture [his description in the
newspapers] six hours before, exhibited to public view, and my
intelligence of what was doing at Bow Street Office was as good as ever
I had in Edinburgh. I make no doubt but that designing villain Brown is
now in high favour with Mr. Cockburn [the Sheriff], for I can see some
strokes of his pencil in my portrait. May God forgive him for all his
crimes and falsehoods.” It is evident that the impartial terms of this
description were unpalatable to its subject.
The scar to which the Deacon here alludes was a souvenir of his
membership of the club in the Fleshmarket Close, and the occasion of his
receiving it is thus referred to in the answers of Hamilton, the master
sweep, in the process before mentioned--“Mr. Brodie, in all his innocent
amusements, never met with any person who, after having been fleeced of
money to the amount of a hundred pounds, and detected of the vile and
dishonest methods by which it had been abstracted from him, received, as
a return for his moral rectitude, a very handsome incision on the
eye--never he, indeed! He never was in such company, nor ever met with
such an accident--not he!” This scar may be observed in the portraits of
the Deacon by Kay.
Deacon Brodie had brought with him to London an introduction from his
cousin to Mr. William Walker, attorney in the Adelphi, who busied
himself in the fugitive’s affairs, lent him twelve guineas, and
arranged to have him shipped safely off to the Continent so soon as the
coast was sufficiently clear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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