Part 2

The detachment was then ordered to rush forward which they did, headed by their captain, who darted into a stall, and seized by the collar a fellow who was standing in it, and who grappled with him with one hand, while he attempted to fire a pistol at him with the other, which did not go off, the powder flashing in the pan. The miscreant still holding firmly by the coat, the captain called out to his men to disengage him. Two of them, James Revel and James Basey, immediately seized him, and he surrendered himself, saying, “Do not kill me, and I’ll tell you all.” This scene took place in the stable on the ground-floor. It was a three-stalled stable, with a hay-loft over it, with which it communicated by a ladder placed at one end. The detachment led by Captain Fitzclarence then mounted the ladder and into the loft, now filled with smoke, and only illuminated by the occasional flashes of the fire-arms of the conspirators.

In the confusion naturally occasioned by the contest, Thistlewood contrived to make his escape, almost unobserved, and the constables had by this time retired for the purpose of surrounding the house, and intercepting the flight of any others of the gang. On entering the loft, the military came in contact with the dead body of the murdered Smithers, (the constable), and a ruffian lying at his side all covered with the blood of the dead man. The fellow rose, and did not appear to have sustained any hurt or injury. Addressing himself to the soldiers, he said, “I hope they will make a difference between the innocent and the guilty.” Three others were next taken together; they were huddled in a corner among some shavings. One of them jumping out said, “I resign myself; there is no harm; I was brought in here innocent this afternoon.”

These four were all of them found by the soldiers in the room, making, with the man taken below in the stall, and the two outside, seven prisoners. The constables had previously taken two, one of whom made his escape down the street, but was pursued and re-taken. The moment he was caught he fired a pistol, which he had concealed on his person: it went off, but did no injury.

Muddock, one of the soldiers, when he entered the loft, in the midst of darkness, ran against something which he at the moment conceived to be a part of the building. He was, however, soon undeceived, by a wretch snapping a pistol at him, which happily missed fire. Failing in this detestable purpose, the miscreant threw himself on the ground, exclaiming, “_Use me honourably_,” and the gallant soldier contented himself with making him prisoner. When this was mentioned to Captain Fitzclarence, he asked Muddock why he had not stuck his opponent; the reply of the brave fellow was, “Why, your honour, I had him by the heels, and I took his pistol from him, and I wanted no more.” The pistol was loaded nearly to the muzzle.

It is impossible to give a minute detail of the desperate conflict which took place, or the numerous instances of personal daring manifested by the peace-officers and the military, thus brought into sudden contact with a band of assassins in their obscure den, and in utter darkness. Unfortunately, this darkness favoured the escape of many of the wretches, and the dreadful skirmish ended in the capture of only nine of them. The military, on searching the loft, found a great quantity of pistols, blunderbusses, swords, and pikes, about sixteen inches long, made to screw into a handle. They also found a great many common files, sharpened to a point at the ends, and made to be used as pikes: they also found a large quantity of ammunition, consisting of ball-cartridges, powder-flasks, slugs wrapt up in paper, and a sack full of hand-grenades. The military, accompanied by the constables, then withdrew, and proceeded to Bow-street-office with their prisoners.

The soldiers were laden with the arms and ammunition which they found in the stable; and having delivered their prisoners and booty, four of them were examined briefly by the Magistrates, _viz._, James Revel, James Basey, William Curtis, and John Muddock. They identified the prisoners who were then standing at the bar, as the persons whom they had taken in the stable. The fire-arms and ammunition were then shown to them, which they also identified. Captain Fitzclarence, with his detachment, then marched back to Portman-barracks, to which also they conveyed the arms and ammunition taken, and deposited them in the Captain’s room.

Shortly after the arrival of the cavalcade at the police-office, in Bow-street, Mr. Birnie, the Magistrate, arrived, and having taken his seat at the bench, the prisoners were placed at the bar in the following order:--

James Ings, a butcher, James Wilson, a tailor, Richard Bradburn, a carpenter, James Gilchrist, a shoemaker, Charles Cooper, a bootmaker, Richard Tidd, a bootmaker, John Monument, a shoemaker, John Shaw, a carpenter, and William Davidson, a cabinet-maker.

Davidson is a man of colour, and a worthy coadjutor of Messrs. Watson, Thistlewood, and Co., upon many occasions. At the meeting in Finsbury market-place, a few months ago, this fellow was one of the principal speakers, and advised the persons assembled to go armed to all public meetings; and was also the bearer of the black flag, with a death’s head, in the mob which attempted to excite a tumult in Covent-garden, during the election. When Ellis, the officer, was putting the handcuffs on him, he amused himself by vociferating passages from the popular air of “Scots wha ha’e wi’ Wallace bled,” and frequently exclaiming, “B--st and d--n the eyes of all those who would not die for liberty.”

Ings is a fierce ruffian, a short stout man, apparently between 30 and 40, but of most determined aspect. His hands were covered with blood; and as he stood at the bar, manacled to one of his wretched confederates, his large fiery eyes glared round upon the spectators with an expression truly horrible. The rest had nothing extraordinary in their appearance. They were for the most part men of short stature, mean exterior, and unmarked physiognomy.

The office was crowded with soldiers and officers, bringing in arms and ammunition of various kinds, which had been taken on the premises; muskets, carabines, broad-swords, pistols, blunderbusses, belts, and cartouch-boxes, ball cartridges, gunpowder, (found loose in the pockets of the prisoners), haversacks, and a large bundle of singularly-constructed stilettoes. These latter were about 18 inches long, and triangular in form: two of the sides being concave, and the other flat; the lower extremity having been flattened, and then wrung round spirally, so as to make a firm grip, and ending in a screw, as if to fit into the top of a staff. Several staves indeed were produced, fitted at one end with a screwed socket; and no doubt they were intended to receive this formidable weapon.

The depositions of a number of officers, most of them wounded, and several of the soldiers, having been taken, their evidence substantiating the foregoing narrative, the prisoners were asked whether they wished to say any thing? Cooper, and Davidson the black, were the only ones who replied, and they merely appealed to the officers and soldiers to say, whether they had not instantly surrendered themselves. Ellis, the patrol, who received the murdered body of his comrade Smithers in his arms, replied, that Davidson had made the most resistance. At the moment when the lights were extinguished, he had rushed out of the place, armed with a carbine, and wearing white cross-belts. Ellis pursued him a considerable distance along John-street; and, having caught him, they fell together, and in the deadly struggle which ensued, Davidson discharged his carbine, but without effect, and Ellis succeeded in securing him.

Captain Fitzclarence had seized and secured one or two of the prisoners with his own hands, and he was not only much bruised, but his uniform was almost torn to pieces.

We will here shortly digress, for the purpose of stating the immediate circumstances which led to the frustration of the sanguinary plot, and the arrest of its fiend-like authors.

It had been for some time well known to government, that Thistlewood, forgetful of his narrow escape on the former occasion of an indictment for High Treason[1], and, as it were, unconscious of the blessings of that constitution, which in the equal and upright administration of justice to all, gives to the accused party the advantage of the conscientious doubts of the jury, and which beneficent feature in the trial by a British Jury had alone saved him from condign punishment, had never ceased to pursue his disloyal and traitorous designs, but had still continued in darkness and obscurity, to hatch new plots, as preposterous as diabolical, and to entrap new agents, as weak as they were wicked, and as certain of being ultimately involved in the same sacrifice to public justice, as he himself seemed devoted to by a besotted perseverance in his horrid principles.

Conscious, however, as were the ministers that some dreadful scheme was perfecting, and that a tremendous blow was about to be struck, they were ignorant of the time or nature of the intended movement, until the very day destined for its consummation, when a communication was made to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by Lord Harrowby, who stated that he had that morning been stopped by a man, when riding in St James’s-park, who delivered to him a letter, the contents of which were, that a gang of assassins were to assassinate his Lordship and the rest of the cabinet ministers, when assembled at his house on the evening of that day at a cabinet dinner. His Lordship, although he did not know the man, listened to his representation, in addition to the contents of the letter, and afterwards consulted his brother ministers upon the subject; and they immediately determined to postpone the cabinet dinner.

The discovery, indeed, of the infamous wretches and their intended diabolical act is next to a miracle, and is only to be attributed to the determination and perseverance of the man who made the communication to the earl of Harrowby: he called at his lordship’s house, in Grosvenor-square, on Wednesday morning, (the 23d), between eleven and twelve o’clock, and inquired of the porter if the noble earl was at home? The porter replied in the negative. The man appeared very anxious to see his lordship, but the porter did not give him any hopes, as he refused to tell his business; the man, however, urged the necessity of seeing his lordship, without loss of time; and at length he observed, that if he did not see him, the porter would not be sitting in his chair in the hall to-morrow. This observation astonished the porter, and induced him to believe that the man really had something of a serious and alarming nature to communicate to the noble earl: he then told him that his lordship was riding on horseback in the park, directed him to that part in which he was most likely to find him, and described his groom and the livery he wore, _&c._ The man hastened to the Park, and discovered the groom, as described by the porter, hailed him, and asked him if the gentleman before was the earl of Harrowby? The groom replied in the affirmative. The man then told him, that he wanted and must speak with his lordship. The groom informed his noble master, who immediately stopped his horse. The man then presented a letter to him, which the earl opened and read. The man having informed him that he had a deal more to communicate, his lordship dismounted, and walked and talked with the man for some time; and the result of their interview was the communication to the secretary of state, of which we have just spoken.

Precautions were immediately taken at the secretary of state’s office, for the discovery and apprehension of the villains. The first intimation that was given of the affair at the office in Bow-street was at past seven o’clock, when it was made known that a number of officers, constables, and patrol, would be wanted. Ellis, who is a conductor of a party of patrol, was ordered to leave his division, and repair to the office with the men under his direction. The expedition upon which they were to be sent was kept a secret till they started, which was between half-past eight o’clock and nine. The place of rendezvous of the assassins was in Cato-street, John-street, in the Edgware-road, where the neighbours had become alarmed by a number of strange men assembling in a stable, and a loft over it, after dark; sacks being hung up on the inside of the windows to prevent detection.

In the course of the day inquiries had been made, and the result was, that some desperate act was expected to take place. The ministers’ servants were armed with pistols, and two officers or constables appointed to each residence. The Earl of Harrowby and Viscount Castlereagh dined with the Earl of Liverpool; and at nine o’clock they went to the secretary of state’s office for the home department, at which time all the cabinet ministers assembled. Mr. Birnie, the magistrate, was directed by Viscount Sidmouth to be in Cato-street, and in readiness to act in case of emergency. A party of the guards, under the command of Captain Fitzclarence, was ordered to march to Cato-street, to assist the police, if necessary. Unfortunately, however, they were not clearly directed, or they did not understand where the place was, as they were at the contrary end of the street when the assassins commenced their murderous attack upon the officers, and it was only by the discharge of pistols that they found out where the building was. When the police-officers arrived, they found two sentinels at the door, armed with guns and swords. These opposed their admittance without the pass-word. The officers, however, soon overpowered and secured them. They then gave an alarm, and the officers heard by the noise in the loft that several persons were up stairs. They ascended to the loft by a ladder which the conspirators themselves had used; when the contest, which we have already described, ending in the arrest of most of the conspirators, took place.

The same sources of information which led to the detection of the conspiracy enabled the magistrates to trace the hiding-place of Thistlewood. Instead of returning to his own lodgings in Stanhope-street, Clare-market, it was discovered that he had proceeded to an obscure house, No. 8, White-street, Little Moorfields. Thither, at nine o’clock on Thursday morning, the 24th of February, Lavender, Bishop, Ruthven, Salmon, and six of the patrol, were despatched. On arriving at the house, three of the latter were placed at the front, and three at the back door, to prevent escape. Bishop observed a room on the ground-floor, the door of which he tried to open, but found it locked. He called to a woman in the opposite apartment, whose name is Harris, to fetch him the key. She hesitated, but at last brought it. He then opened the door softly. The light was partially excluded, from the shutters being shut; but he perceived a bed in the corner, and advanced. At that instant a head was gently raised from under the blankets, and the countenance of Thistlewood was presented to his view. Bishop drew a pistol, and presenting it at him, exclaimed, “Mr. Thistlewood, I am a Bow-street officer; you are my prisoner:” and then, “to make assurance doubly sure,” he threw himself upon him. Thistlewood said, he would make no resistance. Lavender, Ruthven, and Salmon, were then called, and the prisoner was permitted to rise. He had his breeches and stockings on, and seemed much agitated. On being dressed, he was handcuffed; in his pockets were found some ball-cartridges and flints, the black girdle, or belt, which he was seen to wear in Cato-street, and a sort of military silk sash.

A hackney-coach was then sent for, and he was conveyed to Bow-street. In his way thither he was asked by Bishop, what he meant to do with the ball-cartridges; he declined answering any questions. He was followed by a crowd of persons, who repeatedly cried out, “Hang the villain! hang the assassin!” and used other exclamations of a similar nature.

When he arrived at Bow-street, he was first taken into the public office, but subsequently into a private room, where he was heard, unguardedly, to say, that “he knew he had killed one man, and he only hoped it was Stafford;” meaning Mr. Stafford, the chief clerk of the office, to whose unremitting exertions in the detection of public delinquents too much praise cannot be given.

Mr. Birnie, having taken a short examination of the prisoner, sent him to Whitehall to be examined by the Privy-Council. Here the crowd was as great as that which had been collected in Bow-street. Persons of the highest rank came pouring into the Home Office, to learn the

## particulars of what had transpired.

The arrest of Thistlewood was heard with infinite satisfaction; he was placed in a room on the ground-floor, and a vast number of persons were admitted in their turn to see him. His appearance was most forbidding. His countenance, at all times unfavourable, seemed now to have acquired an additional degree of malignity. His dark eye turned upon the spectators as they came in, as if he expected to see some of his companions in guilt, who he had heard were to be brought thither. He drank some porter that was handed to him, and occasionally asked questions, principally as to the names of the persons who came to look at him. Then he asked “to what gaol he should be sent?--he hoped not to Horsham.” (This was the place in which he was confined, in consequence of his conviction for sending a challenge to Lord Sidmouth.)

At two o’clock he was conducted before the Privy-Council. He was still handcuffed, but mounted the stairs with alacrity. On entering the council-chamber he was placed at the foot of the table. He was then addressed by the Lord Chancellor, who informed him that he stood charged with the twofold crime of treason and murder; and asked him whether he had anything to say for himself? He answered, that “he should decline saying any thing on that occasion.”

No persons were suffered to have access except those on business to the public offices at Whitehall, nor was any individual allowed to hold communication with the prisoner. About a dozen soldiers were in the hall and adjoining lodge; they formed a part of the military escort that accompanied the police-officers to the spot where Thistlewood and his companions were first discovered. The soldiers had with them the different articles and weapons found upon the party when taken, among which were two small pistols, one of them loaded, and a bundle of files, similar to those used in small brasswork. The points of such files are always sharp, and the part of the file which goes into the handle is necessarily pointed, to penetrate the hole made in the wood for its reception; some of the files appeared, however, to have had the handle-points brightened, and the ends made more fine, as if by being whetted upon a stone. There were also in the hall two or three bags, containing three bayonets and some ammunition, made up in both small and large cartridges. The soldiers who had seized those articles were examined before the Privy-Council. After his examination, Thistlewood was taken back to the room in which he had been previously placed; his commitment to Coldbath-fields was made out, and he was conveyed to that prison under the care of six officers. There was a partial shouting and groaning, as the carriage in which he was placed drove off.

The appearance of Thistlewood at this time was wretched in the extreme. When in custody with Watson, Preston, and Hooper, on the charge for high treason, he was a stout, active, cheerful-looking man, with something of a fearless and determined cast of features. His deportment at that time was free and unembarassed, with much of the air of a sea-faring man. Within the six months previous to the present arrest, his appearance had, in every respect, undergone a total change; he had been seen constantly in the streets, dressed in a shabby manner; his countenance squalid and emaciated, and his whole dress and the expression of his features, denoting a man who was reduced to a state of extreme indigence. He was generally observed walking or running through the streets with eager impetuosity, and his shoes and an old surtout coat, which he generally wore, bearing all the marks of the poverty and distressed circumstances of the wearer.

When before the Privy-Council, his dress was an old black coat and waistcoat, which were thread-bare, corduroy breeches very much worn, and old worsted stockings. His general appearance indicated great distress; his limbs were slender, and his countenance squalid and somewhat dejected. There was nothing of agitation in his manner. He sat with his eyes chiefly fixed on the ground, except when he occasionally raised them to survey Members of the Privy-Council, as they passed through the hall on their way to the Council-room.

The following Privy-Councillors were present at his examination:--The Duke of Wellington, the Earls of Harrowby, Liverpool, and Westmoreland, Lords Sidmouth, Castlereagh, and Melville, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Canning, Mr. Wellesley Pole, Sir William Scott, the Chief Baron of Scotland, the ex-Attorney-general, (Sir S. Shepherd), Mr. Bragge Bathurst, and other members of the cabinet.

It is impossible to describe the anxiety and horror which pervaded the countenances of thousands of persons who went to view the scene of

## action the day after the arrest. Through the whole of the day, and till

very late in the evening, several persons of the highest consideration in the country visited the place. A man no way authorized, took possession of the place, and imposed on the public by demanding a shilling from each person for admission.

The alarm in the neighbourhood, on hearing the report of fire-arms, and the noise of contest on premises which they considered untenanted, may be more easily conceived than described. It was heightened by every circumstance of terror that the imagination could form to itself. The house was surrounded with soldiers and police-officers--fighting was heard within--officers were obscurely seen scaling a ladder and entering the scene of battle, while their fate and the cause of the combat were entirely unknown. Some of the persons belonging to the public-house adjoining, after running to the spot, fled in dismay when they heard the balls whistling about their ears.