le 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 h