ot, which, on their passing, cried out:

"Peapot, pretty lady, be not too bold,
Or your red blood will soon run cold."

And the blood of the adventurous women did "run cold" when on opening
one of the room doors they found it nearly full of the bodies of
murdered persons, chiefly women. And when, too, on looking out of the
window they saw "Bloody Baker" and his servant bringing in the body of
a lady, paralysed with fear they concealed themselves in a recess
under the staircase, and, as the murderers with their ghastly burden
passed by, the hand of the murdered lady hung in the baluster of the
stairs, which, on Baker chopping it off with an oath, fell into the
lap of one of the concealed ladies. They quickly made their escape
with the dead hand, on one of the fingers of which was a ring.
Reaching home, they told the story, and in proof of it displayed the
ring. Families in the neighbourhood who had lost friends or relatives
mysteriously were told of this "blood chamber of horrors," and it was
arranged to ask Baker to a party, apparently in a friendly manner, but
to have constables concealed ready to take him into custody. He
accepted the invitation, and then the lady, pretending it was a dream,
told him all she had seen.

"Fair lady," said he, "dreams are nothing; they are but fables."

"They may be fables," she replied, "but is this a fable?" And she
produced the hand and ring, upon which the constables appeared on the
scene, and took Baker into custody. The tradition adds that he was
found guilty, and was burnt, notwithstanding that Queen Mary tried to
save him on account of his holding the Roman Catholic religion.[24]

This tradition, of course, must not be taken too seriously; the red
hand in the armorial bearings having led, it has been suggested, to
the supposition of some sanguinary business in the records of the
family. Among the monuments in Cranbrook Church, Kent, there is one
erected to Sir Richard Baker--the gauntlet, red gloves, helmet, and
spurs, having been suspended over the tomb. On one occasion, a visitor
being attracted by the colour of the gloves, was accosted by an old
woman, who remarked, "Aye, Miss, those are Bloody Baker's gloves;
their red colour comes from the blood he shed." But the red hand is
only the Ulster badge of baronetcy, and there is scarcely a family
bearing it of which some tale of murder and punishment has not been
told.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] Andrew's "History of Grea