WORSE AND WORSE--IF OUT OF GAOL, IT WILL BE TO GO OUT OF THE WORLD--I AM
RESOLVED TO TAKE MY SECRET WITH ME.
The handcuffs were now put on without resistance on my part, and I was
led away to Hounslow by the two constables, while the others returned to
secure the wounded man. On my arrival I was thrust into the clink, or
lockup house, as the magistrates would not meet that evening, and there
I was left to my reflections. Previously, however, to this, I was
searched, and my money, amounting, as I before stated, to upwards of
twenty pounds, taken from me by the constables; and what I had quite
forgotten, a diamond solitaire ring, which I had intended to have left
with my other bijouterie for Timothy, but in my hurry, when I left
London, I had allowed to remain upon my finger. The gaol was a square
building, with two unglazed windows secured with thick iron bars, and
the rain having beat in, it was more like a pound for cattle, for it was
not even paved, and the ground was three or four inches deep in mud.
There was no seat in it, and there I was the whole of the night walking
up and down shivering in my wet clothes, in a state of mind almost
bordering upon insanity. Reflect upon what was likely to happen, I
could not. I only ran over the past. I remembered what I had been, and
felt cruelly the situation I then was in. Had I deserved it? I thought
not. "Oh! father--father!" exclaimed I, bitterly, "see to what your son
is brought--handcuffed as a felon! God have mercy on my brain, for I
feel that it is wandering. Father, father--alas, I have none!--had you
left me at the asylum, without any clue, or hopes of a clue, to my
hereafter being reclaimed, it would have been a kindness; I should then
have been happy and contented in some obscure situation; but you raised
hopes only to prostrate them--and imaginings which have led to my
destruction. Sacred is the duty of a parent, and heavy must be the
account of those who desert their children, and are required by Heaven
to render up an account of the important trust. Couldst thou, oh,
father, but now behold thy son! God Almighty!--but I will not curse
you, father! No, no--" and I burst into tears, as I leant against the
damp walls of the prison.
The day at last broke, and the sun rose, and poured his beaming rays
through the barred windows. I looked at myself, and was shocked at my
appearance; my smock-frock was covered with black mud, my clothes were
equally disfigured. I had lost my hat when in the water, and I felt the
dry mud cracking on my cheeks. I put my hands up to my head, and I
pulled a quantity of duck-weed out of my matted and tangled hair. I
thought of the appearance I should make when summoned before the
magistrates, and how much it would go against me. "Good God!" thought
I, "who, of all the world of fashion--who, of all those who once caught
my salutation so eagerly--who, of all those worldly-minded girls, who
smiled upon me but one short twelve months since, would imagine, or
believe, that Japhet Newland could ever have sunk so low--and how has he
so fallen? Alas! because he would be honest, and had strength of mind
enough to adhere to his resolution. Well, well, God's will be done; I
care not for life; but still an ignominious death--to go out of the
world like a dog, and that too without finding out who is my father."
And I put my fettered hands up and pressed my burning brow, and remained
in a sort of apathetic sullen mood, until I was startled by the opening
of the door, and the appearance of the constables. They led me out
among the crowd, through which, with difficulty, they could force their
way; and followed by the majority of the population of Hounslow, who
made their complimentary remarks upon the _footpad_, I was brought
before the magistrates. The large stout man was then called up to give
his evidence, and deposed as follows:--
"That he was walking to Hounslow from Brentford, whither he had been to
purchase some clothes, when he was accosted by two fellows in
smock-frocks, one of whom carried a bundle in his left hand. They asked
him what o'clock it was; and he took out his watch to tell them, when he
received a blow from the one with the bundle, (this one, sir, said he,
pointing to me,) on the back of his head; at the same time the other
(the wounded man who was now in custody) snatched his watch. That at
the time he had purchased his clothes at Brentford, he had also bought a
bag of shot, fourteen pounds' weight, which he had, for the convenience
of carrying, tied up with the clothes in the bundle; and perceiving that
he was about to be robbed, he had swung his bundle round his head, and
with the weight of the shot, had knocked down the man who had snatched
at his watch. He then turned to the other (me), who backed from him,
and struck at him with his stick. (The stick was here produced; and
when I cast my eye on it, I was horrified to perceive that it was the
very stick which I had bought of the Jew, for three-pence, to carry my
bundle on.) He had closed in with me, and was wresting the stick out of
my hand, when the other man, who had recovered his legs, again attacked
him with another stick. In the scuffle he had obtained my stick, and I
had wrested from him his bundle, with which, as soon as he had knocked
down my partner, I ran off. That he beat my partner until he was
insensible, and then found that I had left my own bundle, which in the
affray I had thrown on one side. He then made the best of his way to
Hounslow to give the information." His return and finding me with the
other man is already known to the readers.
The next evidence who came forward was the Jew, from whom I had bought
the clothes and sold my own. He narrated all that had occurred, and
swore to the clothes in the bundle left by the footpad, and to the stick
which he had sold to me. The constable then produced the money found
about my person and the diamond solitaire ring, stating my attempt to
escape when I was seized. The magistrate then asked me whether I had
anything to say in my defence, cautioning me not to commit myself.
I replied, that I was innocent; that it was true that I had sold my own
clothes, and had purchased those of the Jew, as well as the stick: that
I had been asked to hold the horse of a gentleman when sitting on a
bench opposite a public-house, and that someone had stolen my bundle and
my stick. That I had walked on towards Hounslow, and, in assisting a
fellow-creature, whom I certainly had considered as having been attacked
by others, I had merely yielded to the common feelings of humanity--that
I was seized when performing that duty, and should willingly have
accompanied them to the magistrate's, had not they attempted to put on
handcuffs, at which my feelings were roused, and I knocked the constable
down, and made my attempt to escape.
"Certainly, a very ingenious defence," observed one of the magistrates;
"pray where--" At this moment the door opened, and in came the very
gentleman, the magistrate at Bow Street, whose horse I had held. "Good
morning, Mr Norman; you have just come in time to render us your
assistance. We have a very deep hand to deal with here, or else a very
injured person, I cannot tell which. Do us the favour to look over
these informations and the defence of the prisoner, previous to our
asking him any more questions."
The Bow Street magistrate complied, and then turned to me, but I was so
disguised with mud, that he could not recognise me.
"You are the gentleman, sir, who asked me to hold your horse," said I.
"I call you to witness, that that part of my assertion is true."
"I do now recollect that you are the person," replied he, "and you may
recollect the observation I made, relative to your hands, when you
stated that you were a poor countryman."
"I do, sir, perfectly," replied I.
"Perhaps then you will inform us by what means a diamond-ring and twenty
pounds in money came into your possession?"
"Honestly, sir," replied I.
"Will you state, as you are a poor countryman, with whom you worked
last--what parish you belong to--and whom you can bring forward in proof
of good character?"
"I certainly shall not answer those questions," replied I: "if I chose I
might so do, and satisfactorily."
"What is your name?"
"I cannot answer that question either, sir," replied I.
"I told you yesterday that we had met before; was it not at Bow Street?"
"I am surprised at your asking a question, sir, from the bench, to
which, if I answered, the reply might affect me considerably. I am here
in a false position, and cannot well help myself. I have no friends
that I choose to call, for I should blush that they should see me in
such a state, and under such imputations."
"Your relations, young man, would certainly not be backward. Who is
your father?"
"My father!" exclaimed I, raising up my hands and eyes. "My father!
Merciful God!--if he could only see me here--see to what he has reduced
his unhappy son," and I covered my face and sobbed convulsively.