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the convicts pardoned or reprieved ject. Pity is due to individuals, and

by my interpofition paffed before me, all of them loaded with new crimes, and followed by numbers of people they had robbed, murdered, or ruined, and many more they had enfnared into destruction, fince my fatal indulgence, who, with one voice, curfed me, as the cause of their misfortunes, and called loudly for vengeance against the author of their miferies, I could hardly fupport the fight of the tragic fcene.

This dismal proceffion was followed by virtue and justice, with their faces muffled up, as if afhamed to be feen. I knew the aweful Spectres, but could not behold them without terror. The genius faw my diforder, and waving his rod the aweful pageant vanished, leaving me fo confounded, that I could not utter a word, and ready to fink with reflecting on the mischief I fancied I had brought upon my country.

The old man faw my concern, and affuming a milder afpect, than he had worn during his laft interview, faid, "Be of good cheer, my fun, the evils that opprefs you are paft redress; thou art not to with the compaffion in thy nature eradicated: it fweetens humanity, and foftens the rigours of focial life; it only wants to be regulated by reafon, and directed to its proper ob,

compaffion even to the perfons of the most guilty criminals. But there is alfo a compaffion due to the public, that muft fuperfede every private motion of the heart. This compaffion, and virtue, are the only offspring of true humanity. The laws of your country are far from being fevere, they are founded on juftice, and tempered with mercy. Let not then a foolish compaffion for individuals intercept the public good; but let every man in his ftation, fhew his good nature and benevolence to the public and mankind, by bringing to light the guilty actions of individuals, and fuffering juftice to have its courfe. Then will all the dreadful train of want, mifery, and wretchedness which thou haft feep, vanish at once, virtue will once more raife her head, trade and induftry flourish, and the honeft heart be no longer a stranger to joy and gladnefs." On finishing his speech he poured a liquid into my mouth, which recovered my fainting fpirits, and opened my eyes to the force of reafon. I was fo overjoyed at finding my tranqui lity reftored, that I leaped for joy; and in my hurry to pay my ac knowledgments to the good genius,. ftruck my fhin against the table, which awaked me from the pleafing illufion,.

Some Account of the Murder of John Beddingfield.

OHN Beddingfield was a farmer 1761, fomewhat more than a year of

Suffolk. He was a young man, fcarce 24 years old: when he was about 20, he married a young woman fcarce 17: about Michaelmas

vants, Richard Ringe and Elizabeth Cleobold, a nurfe maid, they having then two children living, one of whom was not more than three

months

:

months old there alfo lived with them, at that time, Elizabeth Riches, William Masterfon, a lad about.14, and John Nunn, a boy of ten years old.

'Till this time the young couple had lived very happily together; but it happened, unfortunately, that Mrs. Beddingfield took a liking to Ringe, then about 19, and from that time he behaved with lefs kindlefs to her husband, and they were frequently displeased with each other, though they do not appear to have lived together upon what the world calls "ill terms."

But at whatever times Mrs. Beddingfield first conceived an inclination for Ringe, fhe did not difcover it till he had lived in the family fix months, and from this time they feem to have taken little pains to conceal is from others; both the maid fervants had feen him kifs her, had found her fitting in his lap, knew that they were often alone to gether, and fometimes in her chamber; fuch, indeed, was Mrs. Beddingfield's unaccountable indifcretion, that the frequently fet one of the maids to give notice of her mafter's coming when the and Richard were alone in his abfence: the alfo wrote letters to him, though in the fame houfe, and fent them by the maids. Their criminal intimacy, however, had not been carried to the last excefs, if Ringe's dying declaration is to be believed; but Mrs. Beddingfield's mind being more and more alienated from her husband, she became impatient to get him out of the way, that the great obftacle to her connection with Ringe might be removed. She at length went fo far as to tell Ringe, that the could not be eafy till her

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husband was dead, that he might marry him. To this, he faid, he paid little regard for fome time, but it being often repeated to him, he at laft liftened with too much attention, and it was agreed between them that Beddingfield fhould be murdered. .

After this refolution had been taken, Mrs. Beddingfield was weak enough to throw out intimations that fomebody in the house would die; that it would happen foon, and that he thought it would be her husband and one day being putting on her cap in her camber, and Cleobold, the nurse maid, coming in, the defired her to put in her ear-rings for her, faying, "It would not be long before the fhould want black ones. In the mean time Ringe was taking ineafures to accomplish thefe predictions, but was under the fame infatuation with his mistress: as he was one night fitting up for his mafter with Elizabeth Riches, his miftrefs being gone to bed, he took the ftrange refolution of telling her, that he had procured fome poifon to poifon his mafter, and urged her to administer it, by putting it into the rum and milk that he drank for breakfaft. The girl refufed; but he continued his follicitations, faying, "He would be a friend to her as long as he lived, and that nobody would know it." The girl honeftly and fenfibly replied, "That if it was hidden in this world, it would not be hidden in the world to come;" and refused to concur in his horrid propofal fo firmly and warmly that he urged it no more. The girl, however, not fenfible of the gilt she would incur by concealing a defign to commit a murder from the perfon against

whom

whom it was formed, nor ftruck with a fenfe of the expediency of fo doing, to prevent the murder from being actually committed, took no notice of what had paffed.

Ringe, finding that he could not get Riches to adminifter the poison, refolved to take fome opportunity of administering it himself. While he was watching for fuch opportunity it happened that his mafter, being flightly out of order, took a vomit; and the water, with which he was to work it off, being made too hot, Ringe was fent to the pond to get fome cold water to mix with it into this water, as he was bringing it from the pond, he put fome arfenic, which he had bought of an apothecary at Aldeburgh; and being mixed with the hot water, fome of it was given to his mafter; but his master obferving fomewhat at the bottom of the cup, refused to drink it, though without the leaft fufpicion that it was poifon; and fo for that time efcaped the danger.

:

From this time the murderers feem to have given over all thoughts of effecting their defign by poifon, and to have formed the project of ftrangling Beddingfield in his bed.

The house feems to have had two rooms on the ground-floor, befides what was called a back-houfe; one of these rooms was a kitchen, the other a parlour, over these there were two chambers, the first from the landing place was called the kitchenchamber, being over the kitchen, and out of this was a door that went into the other chamber, which being over the parlour was called the parlour-chamber, and could only be entered through this door: on the other fide of the landing place July, 1763.

was a chamber, called the backhoufe chamber, because it was over the back-houfe; and joining to that, but divided from it by a partition of lath and plaifter, was another chamber; which was alfo over the back houfe, and to which fome backftairs led from below, it having no communication above stairs with the rest of the house. Beddingfield and his wife ufually lay in the parlour-chamber; the kitchen-chamber feems to have been a spare room. Cleobold and Riches, the two maids, lay in the back-house chamber, and Ringe and the two lads, Masterfon and Nun, in the chamber joining to it, the lads in one bed, and Ringe in the other.

In order to give Ringe an opportunity of killing his mafter in the night, when they fhould think circumftances moft favoured his defign, Mrs. Beddingfield found some pretence for laying alone in the kitchen-chamber, and he lay in the parlour-chamber.

On the 27th of July laft, Beddingfield had been bufy in the harveft-field, and had pitched a load of wheat; he had alfo fold a beast to one Scarlet a butcher, whom he brought home with him early in the evening; with Scarlet he drank part of two bowls of punch, freely, but not to be fuddled. Mrs. Beddingfield left him over his liquor about ten o'clock, and went to bed in the kitchen-chamber, but as he had given fome intimation that he would not lie alone that night, and as he was, notwithstanding, deter mined he should not lie with her, the ordered Cleobold to come to bed' to her, which he did; Riches, the other maid, was left to fit up till her mafter went to bed. In

A a a

about

determined that he should wake no more.

about half an hour Scarlet went away, and Riches lighted her mafter up ftairs; when he came into the kitchen chamber, and perceived that Cleobold was in bed with his wife in that room, and as he could not go to bed to her there, as he intended, he defired her to go into bed in the parlour-chamber with him; this she refused, and he went into the parlour-chamber and got his cap; then he came back again, and endeavoured to perfuade his wife to come to him, which fhe ftill re-fufing, they parted, and tho' with fome difcontent on his part, yet without anger, for they wifhed one another a good night. When Beddingfield went into the parlourchamber to bed, Riches retired to her own room, the back houfechamber: Ringe and the boys had been in bed an hour, and every thing was filent in a short time.

But Ringe, though he had retired about ten o'clock, and pretended to go to bed, had taken off only his coat, waistcoat, and fhoes, and lay down with his breeches and stock ings on.

He had obferved that his mafter drank freely in the evening with Scarlet, and thinking he would go to bed fuddled, fuppofed he fhould attack him with advantage, and therefore determined to make his attempt that night as foon as he fhould be fallen into his firft Яleep.

Having this in his mind, he lay awake, watching to hear his mafter come to bed; he did accordingly hear him come up, and go into the chamber, and having waited half an hour after that, and finding the houfe in a profound filence, he concluded that he was fallen afleep, and

He had given no intimation to his mistress of his having determined to commit the murder that night, nor did he know but that as his mafter lay alone in the parlourchamber, the lay alone in the kitchenchamber: however, he got out of bed, and, without putting on his coat or waistcoat, he went into the kitchen-chamber where his mistress lay, and finding the door into the parlour-chamber open, he went into that, and coming up to his master's bed-fide, found him afleep. He ftood, he faid, by the bed-fide, almoft a quarter of an hour, doubting and irrefolute, before he could lay hold of him; but at last he threw himself upon him, catched hold of the fore-part of his throat, and endeavoured to ftrangle him: he ftruggled very much, and, in ftriving together, both fell off the bed, and in their fall broke down the curtain-rod: in their fall, alfo, Ringe loft his hold, but immediately recovering it again in the fame place, and gripping him hard, he foon killed him.

In the mean time the wife of this unhappy man was awaked by the noife, and, in her firft fright, waked Cleobold the maid, who was in bed with her, and who having been up all night before, was so fast afleep that the noife did not awake her: the immediately heard a groaning as if fome body was in an agony, and, being extremely frightened, begged her miftrefs to get up; but her miftrefs, having by this time recollected the horrid bufiness that was doing, faid, "they had better lie ftill." In about two minutes the noile ceafed, and Ringe, coming in

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66

to their room, and standing on that
fide of the bed where his miftrefs
lay, he said, "I have done for him;"
to which fire replied, "then I am
eafy." Clegbold, in her confufion,
ftarted up in the bed, and thinking
it was Beddingfield, called, "Maf-
Maf-
ter!" Ringe, who imagined his mif-
trefs had been in bed alone, cried
out, hold your tongue ;" and
Speaking again to his mistress, faid,
"Does any body know it but you
two?" to which the answered,
“No.” Cleobold now knew it was
Richard, and faid, "how came you
here?" his confcience referred the
question to what he had been doing,
and he answered, "I was forced to
it." The women immediately be-
gan to get their cloaths on, while
Ringe ftaid in the room, and having
fome of them on, and the reft in
hands. Ringe, knowing that Cleo-
bold was now privy to the murder,
faid he would go to his own cham-
ber to be called up, and accordingly
went down stairs. Soon after, Mrs.
Beddingfield having conjured Cleo-
bold not to discover, went with her
into the back house-chamber to the
other maid, Elizabeth Riches; and
pretending to be very much frighted,
faid, "Betty, go and call up Richard,"
meaning Ringe, "fomething is the
matter with your master." Riches,
whofe chamber lay partly behind the
kitchen-chamber, and partly behind
the parlour-chamber, one end of it
coming against the partition which
divided thofe chambers from each
other, had been alarmed already by
the noife, which the defcribed to be
like the crying of children; fhe
therefore rofe, and called Ringe
haftily he had again flipped into
bed with his breeches and stockings
on, and when Riches called him,

and

he pretended to be half furprized half angry, and cried out, "What the devil's the matter now!" but did not immediately rife. Riches therefore went into his room, and called him again, begging him to get up, and come away. He then rofe, and it appears by the trial, that he got a tinder,box, and went into Riches's chamber and ftruck a light: this is a strange particular, for it looks as if this whole dreadful tranfaction paffed in the dark. Cleobold being afked, faid, there was no candle in the room where the and her miftrefs was in bed, when Ringe came in after he had committed the murder. It no where appears that Ringe had a light when he went into his mafter's room, nor is there any reason to fuppofe that a candle was left burning there, but the contrary, as Riches, who lighted him up, feems to have ftaid till he went to bed, merely to take the candle away, that he might go to bed by it herfelf. Neither does it at all appear where the children lay, or who lay with them, though as they were very young, they could not be left alone; nor, indeed, could those who were with them be conveniently without a light however, a light being ftruck, and a candle lighted, Ringe was ordered by his mistress to go into the parlour-chamber, for the believed, the faid, fomething was the matter with his mafter he accordingly went, leaving his mistress, with both the maids, in the backhoufe chamber, and in a very few minutes returned, with much feeming furprife, and faid, his matter was dead. Riches cried out, No, fure! and immediately went to fee; Ringe went with her, and the found Aaaz

him

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