as credibly
reported he did business in another family: that he pretended to have
a squeamish stomach, and could not eat at table with the rest of the
servants, though this was but a pretence to provide some nice bit
for himself; that he refused to dine upon salt fish, only to have an
opportunity to eat a calf's head (his favourite dish) in private; that
for all his tender stomach, when he was got by himself, he could devour
capons, turkeys, and sirloins of beef, like a cormorant.

Two other witnesses gave the following evidence: That in his officious
attendance upon his mistress, he had tried to slip a powder into her
drink, and that he was once caught endeavouring to stifle her with a
pillow as she was asleep; that he and Ptschirnsooker were often in close
conference, and that they used to drink together at the "Rose," where it
seems he was well enough known by his true name of Jack.

The prisoner had little to say in his defence; he endeavoured to prove
himself alibi, so that the trial turned upon this single question,
whether the said Timothy Trim and Jack were the same person; which was
proved by such plain tokens, and particularly by a mole under the
left pap, that there was no withstanding the evidence; therefore the
worshipful Mr. Justice committed him, in order to his trial.

CHAPTER XII. How Jack's friends came to visit him in prison, and what
advice they gave him.

Jack hitherto had passed in the world for a poor, simple, well-meaning,
half-witted, crack-brained fellow. People were strangely surprised to
find him in such a roguery--that he should disguise himself under a
false name, hire himself out for a servant to an old gentlewoman, only
for an opportunity to poison her. They said that it was more generous to
profess open enmity than under a profound dissimulation to be guilty
of such a scandalous breach of trust, and of the sacred rights of
hospitality; in short, the action was universally condemned by his best
friends. They told him in plain terms that this was come as a judgment
upon him for his loose life, his gluttony, drunkenness, and avarice;
for laying aside his father's will in an old mouldy trunk, and turning
stock-jobber, newsmonger, and busybody, meddling with other people's
affairs, shaking off his old serious friends, and keeping company with
buffoons and pickpockets, his father's sworn enemies; that he had
best throw himself upon the mercy of the court, repent, and change
his manners