ut he was removed from Maidstone gaol
to the county lunatic asylum, where he remained four years. In 1837 he
was released by Lord John Russell, who considered that he was
sufficiently recovered to be delivered up to the care of his friends.
They, however, failed to discharge their duty efficiently; and in
1838, Thom reappeared in Kent, conducting himself more extravagantly
than ever. The farmers and others supplied him with money, and he
moved about the county delivering inflammatory harangues in the towns
and villages--harangues in which he assured his auditors that if they
followed his advice they should have good living and large estates, as
he had great influence at court, and was to sit at her majesty's right
hand on the day of the coronation. He told the poor that they were
oppressed and down-trodden by the laws of the land, and invited them
to place themselves under his command, and he would procure them
redress. Moreover, he assured those whose religious convictions were
disturbed, that he was the Saviour of the world; and in order to
convince them, pointed to certain punctures in his hands, as those
inflicted by the nails of the cross, and to a scar on his side, as the
wound which had discharged blood and water. By these representations
he succeeded in attaching nearly a hundred people to himself.

On the 28th of May he set out at the head of his tatterdemalion band
from the village of Boughton, and proceeded to Fairbrook. Here a pole
was procured, and a flag of white and blue, representing a rampant
lion, was raised as the banner which was to lead them to victory.
From Fairbrook they marched in a kind of triumphal procession round
the neighbouring district, until a farmer of Bossenden, provoked by
having his men seduced from their employment by Thom's oratory, made
an application for his apprehension. A local constable named Mears,
assisted by two others, proceeded to arrest the crazy impostor. After
a brief parley, Thom asked which was the constable; and on being
informed by Mears that he held that position, produced a pistol, and
shot the unoffending representative of the law, afterwards stabbing
him with a dagger. The wounds were almost immediately fatal, and the
body was tossed into a ditch. The remaining constables fled to the
magistrates who had authorised them to make the capture, and reported
the state of affairs. When the intelligence of Mears's death spread
abroad, the general indignation and excitem