xt parlour, which the company were about to leave, being then
paying their reckoning. Merchant, not satisfied with this answer, rushed
into the room, and was followed by his companions. He then petulantly
placed himself between the company and the fire, and soon after kicked
down the table. This produced a quarrel, swords were drawn on both
sides, and one Mr. James Sinclair was killed. Savage, having likewise
wounded a maid that held him, forced his way, with Merchant, out of the
house; but being intimidated and confused, without resolution either to
fly or stay, they were taken in a back court by one of the company, and
some soldiers, whom he had called to his assistance. Being secured
and guarded that night, they were in the morning carried before three
justices, who committed them to the Gatehouse, from whence, upon the
death of Mr. Sinclair, which happened the same day, they were removed
in the night to Newgate, where they were, however, treated with some
distinction, exempted from the ignominy of chains, and confined, not
among the common criminals, but in the Press yard.

When the day of trial came, the court was crowded in a very unusual
manner, and the public appeared to interest itself as in a cause of
general concern. The witnesses against Mr. Savage and his friends were,
the woman who kept the house, which was a house of ill-fame, and her
maid, the men who were in the room with Mr. Sinclair, and a woman of
the town, who had been drinking with them, and with whom one of them had
been seen. They swore in general, that Merchant gave the provocation,
which Savage and Gregory drew their swords to justify; that Savage drew
first, and that he stabbed Sinclair when he was not in a posture of
defence, or while Gregory commanded his sword; that after he had given
the thrust he turned pale, and would have retired, but the maid clung
round him, and one of the company endeavoured to detain him, from whom
he broke by cutting the maid on the head, but was afterwards taken in a
court. There was some difference in their depositions; one did not see
Savage give the wound, another saw it given when Sinclair held his point
towards the ground; and the woman of the town asserted that she did not
see Sinclair's sword at all. This difference, however, was very far
from amounting to inconsistency; but it was sufficient to show, that the
hurry of the dispute was such that it was not easy to discover the
truth with relation to particula