Chapter CLXIII (1)

AFTER CONVICTION――PEACE AT ARMLEY GAOL――INTERVIEW WITH HIS RELATIVES――PEACIANA.

The accounts which appeared in the several papers of the condition of Charles Peace were at this time most conflicting. Some declared him to be in a sinking, desponding state, and hinted at his committing suicide if he was not carefully watched, while other journalists said he was perfectly resigned to his position, and was preparing, as best he could, to meet his doom with becoming fortitude.

Very much was made of the supposed letters which Peace dropped whilst running away from Bannercross on the night of the murder, and their supposed authorship by Mrs. Dyson.

They formed the subject of much of her cross-examination at the trial, and have been often referred to to show the terms of intimacy upon which she must have been with Peace. We are, therefore, glad to be able to say upon authority that the letters are not hers. That authority is none other than the statement of Mr. Dyson himself.

During the summer of 1876, when Mr. Dyson took out a peace warrant against Peace for threatening and annoying himself and family, he consulted Mr. Chambers, solicitor.

At that time the letters alleged to have been written by Mrs. Dyson to Peace were in existence, and had been seen by Mr. Dyson and other persons.

Mr. Dyson expressed to Mr. Chambers his full assurance that the letters were not his wife’s, but were forgeries concocted by Peace for purposes of annoyance. He was anxious that Peace should not be able to bring the letters into court, for he felt sure he would do so, if possible, for the sake of further annoyance and persecutions.

Peace’s step-son, accompanied by a friend, visited him in Armley Gaol. The cell was in a sort of cage within the cell, two sides made by the walls, and two composed of iron bars from floor to ceiling. Beyond this was the cell itself, into which no friends were allowed to pass.

The prisoner was dressed and sitting in a rail-backed arm chair, such as is common in old-fashioned public-houses. As the visitors entered his face was turned towards the door, and over his head, behind him, was a gas light.

Seated a little to the left, and looking him stedfastly in the face, was one warder; and behind him, a little to his right, was a second official――not lolling back in their chairs with folded arms, and endeavouring to make their irksome task as pleasant as possible. Nothing of the kind. They were all attention, ready to spring forward to the convict in an instant.

Willie asked his father how he was, and he replied, “I am a little better, but very weak.”

Dropping his head and breathing apparently with difficulty, he repeated, “I am really very weak.” He then looked at the friend as much as to say, “Who are you?”

Willie told his father that his friend was the gentleman to whom he referred on the previous day; and the convict nodded, as though gratified to see him. Peace asked respecting the witnesses who could be collected at Darnall.

“There are plenty of people there,” he said, “who can tell what sort of a woman Mrs. Dyson is, if you can only get them to come.”

Then becoming more animated and apparently wishful to get closer to the bars which separated him from his friends, he made a move as though he would stand up and draw his chair towards them.

Instantly the warders were at his side, and one of them said, “Don’t disturb yourself! We’ll move you!” Instead, however, of drawing him nearer to his son, they lifted the chair perhaps a foot further from the visitors, nearer to the wall, and more immediately under the gas.

A savage scowl came over his face, and he gave them a look that plainly said, “That was not what I wanted.”

An almost painful silence prevailed for a few moments, and then the convict looked at his son and said, “Do you know a house in Westbar, opposite to the top of Bower Spring? There is such a shop and such a shop (mentioning the business carried on in each), and then there is the house I mean.”

Willie asked him if he meant the “Little Tankard” or the “Old Tankard?”

The convict said he did not mean the singing-room. It was a little low house, with a shop front. Asked if it was opposite the “Shakespeare,” he answered, “Yes, it is opposite the ‘Shakespeare.’ It is a little beershop, with a passage up the side of it. The window of the snug looked into the passage. One day I was in the snug alone with Mrs. Dyson, and the landlord went out at the front door, down the passage, and peeped in at the window. I want you to get him to come to tell the jury what he saw. He will remember us; try and get him to come.”

Peace was then asked if anything occurred during the fortnight between his leaving Hull after the quarrel with his family, and the 29th of November, when Mr. Dyson was shot.

The convict replied, “I went from Hull to Manchester, and after stopping there three or four days, I went to Sheffield. Oh, yes; I went backwards and forwards to Sheffield several times. I saw Mrs. Dyson more than once,” and he repeated what he had said several times before, that on the evening of the 28th he was at the “Stag,” at Sharrow with her.

The convict was then asked where he went when he left Hull after the affair at Bannercross?

“I went from Hull to Cottingham, then to Beverley, and then to York. I there took train to London; but got out at a little station before I got to London, and went by the Underground to Paddington. From Paddington I went down to Didcot, from Didcot to Oxford, then to Bath, and on to Bristol. They will know that I was down there by this fact, that when going, I think it was from Didcot to Oxford, I travelled in the same compartment as a police-sergeant. He had been some where, and had apprehended a young woman for stealing £40, and he was bringing her to lock her up. I sat next to him, and talked to him nearly all the way, and he told me all about the case. He seemed a very smart chap; but not smart enough to know me. If you can find out the day an officer took a girl to Oxford that is the day I travelled there. I stopped in Bristol a few days and did a little ‘work,’ and then I left for Nottingham, and reached there, I remember, on the 9th January, or about six weeks after I had left Bannercross.”

Peace, apparently proud of the manner in which he had gone shoulder to shoulder with the police, went on to tell them how he once lodged at the house of a police-sergeant in Hull. He also entertained his friends with the story of his escape through the bars of the bedroom at Nottingham. It exactly corresponded with the version given more than a week before, and subsequently confirmed by Mrs. Thompson.

The convict seemed pleased to have someone to speak to, and he would laugh when he told them that he once threatened to report an officer for insulting him.

Willie asked him when that occurred.

The convict replied: In the summer after that affair at Bannercross I went down to York to see the races. The militia were up, and one day I found myself standing by the side of Mr. Cooke, who lived next door to us when we were on the Brocco. I think he was doing duty as a military policeman. I knew him, but he did not know me. A row broke out whilst I was there amongst a lot of the militiamen, who were drunk, and presently a mounted policeman rode up to help to quell it. He rode close past me, and his horse nearly knocked me down. I went after him, got hold of his horse’s bridle, and insisted on knowing his number. A superior officer came up and said, “Don’t stop him now, while the row is on. Come in the morning, if you have a complaint against him.” I replied “All right; I’ll be there; I’ll see if he is to knock people down like that.” Of course, said the convict, I did not go to pick him out. If you mention it to Cooke he will remember it.

On Monday Mrs. Bolsover, the daughter of the convict, with her little baby in her arms, and her husband, visited him. Peace, although dressed, was lying down in his little bed, and by his side were his two warders. The convict heard the visitors enter, and roused himself. Seeing his son-in-law, he said “How art thou, Billy?” The young man appeared overpowered, and he was unable to reply. Seeing his daughter, Peace then said, “Come forward, Jennie, and sit down.” She stepped forward, and sat on the little seat to the left of the door, but still within the barred enclosure.

“Have you” said he, “brought the baby with you?” The daughter replied that she had. “Then,” said he, “Let me look at it.” The mother held the child up to the bars, and Peace exclaimed with much earnestness, “God in heaven bless its little soul.” Peace asked how his wife was, and whether she fretted much. He was told that she was very poorly and in low spirits. “I should like to see her,” he said; “I should like to see her.” He then asked what efforts were being made for his defence, and if they remembered a row that took place one day at Darnall when Mrs. Dyson came out of her house with a “potato masher” and challenged any of the neighbours to fight. They did remember such an occurrence, and he asked that some who witnessed it might be called to speak to it.

Mr. Bolsover told him that Mr. Hutton’s little girl, who carried notes from Mrs. Dyson to Peace, was coming forward.

[Sidenote: No. 93.]

The Convict: I am very glad to hear that. Heaven bless her! I hope she will come.

Mr. Bolsover reminded him that two persons were in the ’bus with him and Mrs. Dyson when they rode up to the “Stag” at Sharrow on the night before the Bannercross affair, and told him that one of them would come forward and speak to that fact if he was asked.

The convict was pleased, and said, I hope you will tell Mr. Clegg all about that, and look after that witness.

The convict then alluded to the current version of the circumstances under which he jumped from the express train when on his way to Sheffield, and he said the warders stated that one of them caught him by the foot and held him head downwards for a distance of nearly two miles. Nothing of the sort, he said. Before he left London he made up his mind to jump from the train, and to kill himself if he could. When the train had passed Worksop, he stood up on the footwarmer, put his hands together, and sprang clean through the window. His heels struck the top of the window, and he fell head first on the footboard, and bounded away from the train. He did not remember anything that occurred after that until late in the afternoon. He declared the warder never had hold of his foot――otherwise he could have held him. He had not the slightest intention of escaping; he wanted to kill himself.

Mr. Bolsover told him he understood that the prosecution were going to bring down a gunsmith from London to prove that the bullets found at Blackheath and the bullet found in Mr. Dyson’s head were of the same size.

The convict replied that he had four revolvers――a little one that had five chambers, one that had six, one that had seven, and one that had ten chambers. The six-chambered one taken from him at Blackheath carried the same size bullet as the seven chamber. He did not attach much importance to evidence of that sort.

The convict then expressed the hope that Mr. Bolsover would take warning by what had befallen him; told them that he did not care who came forward against him if they only spoke the truth, and then asked to be allowed to shake hands with them. He was told that that could not be allowed; his friends withdrew, and the interview terminated.

Peace is said to have made an extraordinary statement respecting the murder. He stated that on the night Mr. Dyson was shot he was at Bannercross at the request of Mrs. Dyson, with whom he had an appointment. On reaching the house, he saw her go upstairs, and he alleged that she made signs to him signifying that Mr. Dyson was within, and that he (Peace) was not to enter the house. In consequence of these signs he remained outside, and, presently, Mrs. Dyson came into the yard with a lighted candle. She went into the closet and he followed her and remained talking to her for some time. At the time there was a warrant out against Peace, at the instance of the Dysons, and he asked Mrs. Dyson to get her husband to withdraw it. She replied, “I can’t do it; you know what an old devil he is for cash; he wants £40 to square the matter.” At this moment Mr. Dyson came out in the yard, and, according to Peace, a struggle took place between the deceased and his wife, in the course of which a pistol which Mrs. Dyson had in her hand went off. Peace then ran away.

PEACE’S EARLY CRIMES.

We now give some authentic particulars of Peace’s childhood and youth. It is said that when, having recovered from two years’ illness caused by an accident at Kelham Rolling Mills, he had been in the service of Mr. Edward Smith, and had after that become, under the tuition of one Bethley, a player on the violin at public-houses. There is a tradition that soon after this, having had a quarrel with his sister, he slept out, in an empty house, was caught, and got a month’s imprisonment therefor. Whether this be so or not, the next glimpse we get of him is making a highly promising commencement in his future profession. He was charged at the Sheffield Sessions on Saturday, Dec. 13, 1851, along with George Campbell, with breaking into the house of Mrs. Catherine Ward, Mount View, and stealing two pistols, a mahogany box, a bullet mould, and other articles. An entrance apparently had been effected by climbing upon the balcony and opening the bedroom window. The only property missed was a case containing Mrs. Ward’s jewels, a case containing a brace of rifle pistols, and a silk dress. The jewel case was found unopened on the balcony. The prisoners were afterwards found dealing with the pistols; Campbell was discharged, while Peace, who received a good character for honesty from his employer, got one month’s imprisonment. This robbery shows how closely Peace adhered through life to the _modus operandi_ adopted thus early, and it fixes his then age (19).

A CROP OF BURGLARIES IN 1854.

During the subsequent years 1852-3-4, he continued his musical services at public-houses, and became familiar with company no better than it should be. In the autumn of 1854 he carried on a daring game of house robbery, and it appeared, that on the 13th of October, 1854, Charles Peace, Mary Ann Niel, his sister, and Emma James were placed in the dock of the Town Hall to answer several charges of felony. James had offered a pair of boots in pledge at the shop of Messrs. Wright, Westbar, and on her being detained on suspicion, Peace came forward and claimed the boots, and was given into custody. In Peace’s mother’s house in Bailey-field, there were found a large quantity of jewellery and wearing apparel (including crape shawls, silk dresses, &c.), the proceeds of robberies effected at the residences of H. E. Hoole, Esq., Crookes Moor House; R. Stuart, Esq., Brincliffe Edge; Mr. G. F. Platt, Priory Villa, Sharrow-lane; and Mr. Brown, Broomhall-street. The houses of all these parties had been robbed by effecting an entrance through the bedroom windows in the evening before the windows were closed and fastened for the night. At Mr. Hoole’s the thief had climbed the portico, and from Mr. Stuart’s a good deal of jewellery had been stolen. The prisoners were clearly proved to have been in possession of this property. The defence raised did not place in a very amiable light the affection subsisting between the sister and that brother who used to avenge the wrongs she sustained at her husband’s hands. Each accused the other of being the culprit. At the sessions at Doncaster (October, 20, 1854), Peace (who was undefended) said that a watchmaker named Bethley, in Division-street, had kept his sister (Neil) for some years, and she had had three children by him. Bethley, not having given her any money lately, sent the jewellery and a bundle of wearing apparel by him to her, instead of money. Peace was sentenced to four years’ penal servitude, and the female prisoners each to six months’ imprisonment.

Peace was described in the calendar at that time as being 22 years of age. The mention of Bethley’s name will remind our readers that he was the person who instructed Peace in the art of violin-playing, and Mrs. Neil’s connection with the case does not shed much lustre on the family annals. She died we may add by way of completing her history, on the 2nd April, 1859, aged 33.

MARRIAGE AND SIX YEARS’ PENAL SERVITUDE.

The matrimonial alliance with Miss James was, of course, rudely interrupted by the sentence pronounced at Doncaster. The tender passion does not seem to have survived his four years of penal servitude. It is believed that Peace served his whole term of four years. This brings us to the October of 1858, and the term of imprisonment conflicts with Mrs. Peace’s statement, that she was married to him in July, 1858. On his liberation he resumed his strolling vocation of fiddling at public-houses and feasts. It was at one of these that he met Hannah Ward, a widow, with one son Willie, and she became his wife. He was then earning a fair livelihood, partly in the way mentioned and partly by hawking cutlery, but his ingrained fondness for entering the houses of others, and for appropriating goods that did not belong to him, had not been eradicated by his prison discipline, and it was not many months after her marriage that Mrs. Peace’s eyes were enlightened as to the extra-professional avocation of her husband by a police visit to her house. The police at Manchester, having discovered a quantity of stolen property in a place of concealment, set a watch, and caught, but not without a violent resistance, two men who came to remove the goods. One of the prisoners gave the name of George Parker, and they both hailed from Sheffield. Parker was really Charles Peace, the other being the keeper of a beershop in Spring-street. They were tried at Liverpool Assizes, August, 1859, when Parker (Peace) was sentenced to six years’ penal servitude, and his companion to fifteen months’ hard labour.

DARING ADVENTURE AT WAKEFIELD.

In serving his time Peace made the acquaintance of the prisons of Millbank, Chatham (where he was mixed up in a mutiny, for his share in which he was punished――flogged), and Gibraltar. His handiness caused him then, as at other times, to be employed as a sort of general utility man about the prisons, doing any odd jobs in which dexterity and tact were needed. It was this sort of work which enabled him to make that daring attempt to escape from Wakefield during one of his sojourns there. Perhaps it is worth while to tell the story in some detail. The repairs he was executing gave him an excuse for smuggling a short ladder into his cell, and an opportunity also of nicking for himself a sort of saw out of a piece of zinc or tin. Thus armed he cut through a beam in the ceiling, made a hole through the plaster, and got through on to the roof. He was just drawing the ladder after him when an official opened the cell door. As he attempted to seize the ladder Peace gave him a blow with it in the chest and knocked him down. Then running along the roof he got on to the prison wall and was making his way along it when, the bricks being loose, he fell. It was supposed that he had fallen outside, and there was a hue and cry after him, but he had really fallen inside, not far from where some servants were looking out from the door of the governor’s house. Their attention was, however, directed away from Peace, and with the cunning of a hunted fox he slipped quietly past them into the house, and ran upstairs. Stripping off his prison clothes, he appropriated a suit of the governor’s, and watched for an opportunity to escape. But none came; and after being in the bedroom for an hour and a half, he was found and recaptured.

THE PICTURE-FRAME BUSINESS.

At the end of November, 1859, not long after Peace’s enforced departure for penal quarters, his wife gave birth to a daughter――now Mrs. Bolsover. The lonely wife had sold up her home to provide the means of defence at his trial, and had afterwards begun to keep a shop――that little bow-windowed shop so well known in Kenyon-alley. Hither he came, one night in the summer of 1864, the returned convict, released on ticket-of-leave, after serving nearly five of his six years.

It was now that he commenced that picture-frame making, which was the ostensible business of the remainder of his life. And for a time he seems to have been industrious, and to have done well. It was in Kenyon-alley that he began this trade, and he worked for Close’s in Gibraltar-street. Afterwards he was manager at Peters’ in Westbar-green. Then he engaged a workshop at the end of Kenyon-alley, and found so much to do, that from having only a boy he employed two journeymen to help him. In this way he got a good business together, and the place being too small, he made the unfortunate venture of taking a shop in West-street, two doors from Rockingham-street. The moment he got there his luck seemed to turn, and the takings were not as great in a month as they had been in Kenyon-alley in a day.

EIGHT YEARS’ PENAL SERVITUDE.

In this state of things the West-street shop was given up, and Peace migrated with his family to Manchester. He took with him a stock of frames; but he had not been there a fortnight when he was once more in the hands of the officers of the law. “Doing a job” at a house in Lower Broughton, he was caught in the act, and his excuse for such clumsiness was that he, who was usually strictly temperate, had had nine glasses of whiskey, and did not know what he was doing. He was tried at the Manchester Assizes on the 3rd of December, 1866, under the name of George Barker, alias Alexander Mann, and he was sentenced to eight years’ penal servitude.

HIS LAST RETURN.

Upon that Mrs. Peace for a short time kept a little shop in Long Millgate, Manchester, but before long she came bak to Sheffield, and got employment in charing, and in the bottling department of a wine merchant. At first she lived in Trippet-lane, but afterwards in Orchard-street, where Peace’s mother also lived. In 1865, shortly before leaving Kenyon-alley, there had been a son――John Charles――born, but he did not live to see the return of his father, who, on the night of the 9th of August, 1872, re-appeared at home. His eight years’ sentence had been commuted to less than six.

Having provided himself with picture-frame making tools, Peace then took a house in Brocco, and lived a few doors from Inspector Twibell, and his family helped him in the business. Here Brahma fowls were kept, and Peace there, besides resuming his performances on the violin, attempted, but without much success, to instruct Willie in the art. The frame-making prospering, there was a removal to Scotland-street. The testimony is that Peace was really industrious at this time, and being particular in the execution of his work he got much custom. His children attended the day and Sunday-schools of the parish church in Queen-street, and he was very strict with them as to the companions and the hours they kept. For himself he had never been known to go to church. He was accustomed to profess his belief in the existence of a God and a Devil, but he declared that he feared neither one nor the other. But he wished his children, he said, to believe in God and to fear Him.

Peace left Scotland-street through a disagreement with his landlord, and removed to Darnall, in the beginning of 1875. The house he chose was a semi-detached one in Milton Villas, Britannia-road. Next door but one, with an unoccupied house intervening (a circumstance which explains one of the letters found in the field at Bannercross), lived Mr. Arthur Dyson and his wife. And these were the materials out of which has to be developed the tragic termination of Charles Peace’s career.

The Bannercross murder led to the performance of extraordinary feats in telegraphing. On the day that Mrs. Dyson was under examination in the corridor at the Sheffield Police-offices press messages numbering 180,000 words were telegraphed away. The number of words actually sent away from Leeds in one day, in connection with Peace’s trial, was 200,000. The number of words delivered to all papers exceeded 300,000. With respect to Sheffield two special wires were used solely for the local papers. Ten men were specially employed at that end in writing up the news, and at no time throughout the day were they above twenty words behind hand. The news was delivered almost sheet by sheet by special messengers.

SALE OF PEACE’S MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

The excitement which prevailed at Mr. Harvey’s auction mart, in Bank-street, during the sale of Peace’s violins, was only excelled by that manifested at the Sheffield Town-hall when the convict was first brought up for the murder of Mr. Dyson. For several days it had been publicly announced that those celebrated violins which had accompanied Peace in his wanderings would be sold by auction by Mr. Harvey; and on the afternoon, long before the hour fixed, the room was filled by persons who were either intent upon purchasing if possible, or having at least a sight of the instruments.

Scores who were unable to obtain admittance collected outside the premises, and it required the efforts of two policemen to prevent a disturbance amongst the crowd, as there were a great number of roughs, who frequently indulged in shouts and yells.

The proceedings were characterised by no little amusement, and when, in the first place, Mr. Harvey inquired whether there was anyone present “concerned” about the property to be disposed of, he was met by the felicitious rejoinder, “Do you mean concerned with Peace?” and much laughter was created. Mr. Harvey then proceeded to open the sale, and first offered a copy of the “Duke” fiddle.

He said a gentleman had come a distance of 225 miles to look at the fiddles, that he might be able to say he had had Peace’s fiddles in his hand. He had also received letters from gentlemen residing at Tunbridge Wells, Manchester, London, and other places, offering to purchase them by private treaty. They were capital instruments, and if Peace had stuck to his music, he would not have been in the position he was now. There was no doubt the man had good as well as bad qualities.

The instrument having been handed round, several tunes were played upon it, and the bidding commenced at £1, followed by offers of £5 and £10. An offer of eleven guineas was increased by steady bids of one guinea each, until a bid of 20½ guineas was made, and at that price the violin was knocked down to Mr. G. C. Millward, provision merchant, York. Mr. Harvey said that £50 had been offered for the fiddle before it was put up for auction, and he firmly believed it was worth quite that to any person. He declared that there was not a bit of pluck in Sheffield, or the fiddle would have sold for double the amount.

The “Kit” violin was next put up, Mr. Harvey assuring his audience that there was no want of genuineness about the original ownership of both instruments. They were first pledged, he said, to pay for the defence of Mrs. Peace, and they had recently been redeemed by Messrs. Clegg and Sons to be sold for the convict’s defence. The offer made was 5s., which was quickly followed by offers of £2 10s., £5, £5 10s., £6, £6 10s., £7 10s., £8, and £8 10s., and an offer of £8 15s. being refused, it was sold to Mr. Lofthouse, of the “George Hotel,” Bridlington, for £9 10s.

A “Short Grand” piano, formerly the property of Peace, was then offered. An offer of ten guineas was first made, and the bids rising by one guinea each to nineteen, 19½ was offered, the figure slowly rising, by three other bids, to 23 guineas. Half-guinea bids were made in rapid succession, till 24½ guineas were realised, the purchaser being a gentleman from Hull, who desired that his name should not be published.

A violin, made by Peace himself, twenty years ago, was next offered for sale. Bidders were now, however, very scarce, and, though the instrument was of infinitely better tone than the one first disposed of, it only realised about one-third the sum. Mr. Harvey said the violin was now the property of a person named Hewitt, better known by the name of “Little Teddy,” who told him that he and “Charley” had played upon the instrument many a time. Mr. John Stansfield, of the Music Hall of Varieties, Leeds, was the buyer, for £6 10s.

No small amount of surprise was expressed that the instruents should have been permitted to leave the town.

PEACE AND MRS. THOMPSON.

It was suggested that there was some secret behind Mrs. Thompson’s alleged potent influence over the convict Peace. He sometimes treated her with more partiality and kindness than he did his wife; but when Sue got drunk and pawned the proceeds of his robberies, which he had given to her, he would treat her with as much savage brutality as he ever did his wife, and for days after she would carry the marks of his violence.

Mrs. Thompson, it was stated, was never asked to help Peace to make away with the goods he had stolen; but Hannah was frequently called upon to share in the risk of removing them. In this selection of his tool, Peace knew perfectly well what he was about; and it furnished no proof of his partiality for Sue over his wife.

She was his paramour, and had she been detected in possession of his stolen property, she could have been indicted with him. His wife, as the trial at the Old Bailey proved, could not be punished for making away with such goods, as she was supposed to act under his influence and control.

On the day when Peace’s daughter, Mrs. Bolsover, her husband, and his other relatives visited him at Armley Gaol, they implored the condemned man not to see Mrs. Thompson, stating that if he did Mrs. Peace would not come over. When put to him in that way Peace promised not to see her.

Mrs. Thompson called at the gaol immediately after they were gone, in response to a letter she had received from Peace, dated Feb. 9th, saying she would be allowed to see him; but after waiting two hours she had to leave without seeing him. A second letter addressed to her by Peace was, however, read to her by the Governor. For some reason the Visiting Committee were also opposed to letting Mrs. Thompson see Peace.

On Wednesday Mrs. Hannah Peace, her son, Willie, and the nephew, anew importuned Peace not to see Mrs. Thompson, threatening they would not come again if he did so, and they obtained a promise from him that he would not see her. In addition to his promise, they relied on the position assumed towards the woman by the Leeds Visiting Committee, who were indisposed to allow a mistress to visit her paramour in gaol.

It is also inconceivable that, knowing the unenviable position in which she stood to Peace, and knowing that he does not wish to see her; that his friends were strongly opposed to the interview; and that the local authorities had repeatedly refused her admission; that she should still hang about the gaol and persist in her attempts to obtain admission to the cell of the condemned man.

The following is the letter above alluded to, that Mrs. Thompson received from Peace, the envelope being addressed, “On her Majesty’s service, Thompson――letter box General Post-office, Leeds, to be called for.”

“From Charles Peace, H.M.’s Prison, Leeds, Feb. 9, 1879.

“My poor Sue,――I receive your letter to-day and I have my
kind governor’s permission for you to come and see me at
once so come up to the prison and bring this letter with you
and you will get to see me I do wish particular to see
you it is my wish that you will obey me in this one thing
for you have obeyed me in many thing but do obey me in this
one Do not let this letter fall into the hands of the
press Hoping to see you at once I Remane your ever well
wisher
“CHARLES PEACE.”

The letter was written on the usual official paper. Mrs. Thompson took the original with her to Armley Gaol, and at Governor Keene’s request, give it to him. One of her friends, who went to the post-office for her, had, however, taken a copy of it. Had Mrs. Thompson gone with this letter at once, she would probably have seen Peace; but she delayed, and the permission to see him was delayed.

LETTERS TO PEACE’S FAMILY.

After the sentence of death had been passed upon Peace his wife and family were astonished at the interest taken in their welfare by people about whom they knew nothing. They received several letters expressing sympathy with them, and other people showed their regard for them by asking that some small article which the convict had used might be sent to them to keep in remembrance of him. It need hardly be stated that none of these modest requests were complied with. The following was one of the latest letters received:――

“Market Place, Middlesbro on Tees,
“Feb. 11, 1879.

“Mrs. Peace,――I Have Taken the Liberty of writing to you
under Your Painful Circumstances to ask if any think is
beeing done on behalf of Your Husband Charles Peace i mean
in the Ways of appealing to the Home Secretary for a Respite
for your Husband i have made an Appeal in his Behalf to Mr.
Cross the Secretary of State and the Reply is that it Shall
have their Carefull attention i hope Some one or at Least a
Large number will follow up in the Same line and urge for a
Respite of Course i know nothing of your Husband only from
the accounts of the Papers which i think as been most
erroneous and Must have damaged his case in the Mind of the
Public and i fear the Judge and Jury also it is upon this
head that i make my appeal for his life to be Spared and i
Should like to know if any other Effort is being Putt forth
Please write a few lines if You Can or Get Some one else to
do it for you and let me Know if you hear of any one that is
making any Effort for what is done Should be done quickly
and without delay and i hope God in his mercy will uphold
You and Yours under Your Most trying Circumstances and i
trust by the Mercy of God that Your Husband May not Come to
die by the hands of the Exicuitor but i hope his life may be
spared that he May depart at Last as is the way of all
flesh. i am only a Poor man and a stranger to you all but
never the Less i am doing all that i Can in this matter
hopeing you Pardon me for intrudeing upon you in the manner
i have done by writeing to you but i fell as tho i Should
like to know if any think is beeing done in the way of
Partitioning about where You live.――“Yours Respeffully

“E―――― W――――

“Please write by Return and let me know if any thing is
beeing done”

* * * * * * *

To the above letter the following reply was at once sent:――

“Darnall, Feb. 13, 1879.

“Mr. W――――

“Dear Sir,――I received your letter this morning, and on
behalf of my mother and family I heartily thank you for your
kind and sympathetic letter. In reference to the petition,
your letter is the first intimation we have had, and we are
not aware that anything is being done in that direction.

“I quite agree with your remarks about the public being
prejudiced against my father through the action of the
press; for many of the papers have published things that are
utterly untrue; but not too untrue or too romantic for the
public to believe. The blacker a paper has painted him, and
the more romance has been mixed with it, the more it has
suited the public appetite.

“With reference to the jury being prejudiced I can only say
they took a very short space of time in which to make up
their minds to return a verdict of guilty in such a serious
case. I thank you for your kind wishes towards us, and am
pleased to tell you that Mr. Peace is resigned to his fate,
and his state of mind is all that could be desired.

“Hoping you will not think it any intrusion if you wish to
write again, I remain,

“Yours respectfully,
“WILLIAM WARD.”

The following may be taken as a specimen of another class of letters that were received:――

“Dear Mrs. Peace,――I Hope you Will go and See your Husband
Mr. Pease In Reading The Papers I think Hee Is not aware
That It was Mrs. Tompson Thot Betraid Him ask Him If He Ever
Come To Nottinghamshir with Mrs. Tompson If Mrs. Pease Is Not
able To Goo I Hope Some of The Famely Will and Bee Shur and
ask Him I Hope God Will Pardon Is Sins Befor The Execusion
Takes Plais I Feel Sorry For You all But not For Those Two
Wimen I think They Have Led Him To Mor Then He might Hev
Don――Yours truly ―――― I will Right agoin to you.”

* * * * * * *

Charles Peace, while under sentence of death in Armley Gaol for the murder of Mr. Arthur Dyson, addressed the following letters to his son-in-law and son. They were written on one sheet of paper, the one letter following the other. Both the writing and the spelling were much better than in some previous letters received from the convict. The letters will speak for themselves; and will afford additional proof――if proof were needed――of the sort of man he was.

L. P.――C. 4. H. M. C. P. M. 12――73.
From Charles Peace.
“H.M. Prison, Leeds, 7th February, 1879

“My dear Son-in-law,――I hope this lettr will find you as
well as it can do i am Still very week and ill but a little
better then i have been. You will know well that i have been
perged (purjured) against by three persons in Darnall what I
wish to say to you is this do not attempt to avenge the
wrong that was done to me by Jim and his wife and Mrs.
Padmore, for under my Present feelings i feel no
imbetterness against no Person in this world, for if i must
be forgiven i must forgive. So, My Dear Son, do you Not
Commit yourself in either thought, word, or deed against any
of these Persons, but in Place of being in their Company do
all you Can to avoid them, and this will keep you from doing
anything at each other that will be offencive. I do Send you
a form of Prayer that I Compiled Myself before i left Pen
ton vile Prison.

O Lord, turn not Thy face from me, but have mercy. Good
Lord, have mercy on me. I need not to Confess my life to
thee, for thow knows what i have been and what i am. So O My
Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me,
and wash and cleanse me from all my Sins and Make Me Clean,
and save me from the danger of sin and from the Power of
Hell. O God do not despise me nor Cast me from thee, but
have mercy Good Lord have mercy upon me, and make me what
thou would have me to be, to enter into the Kingdom of
heaven, and then receive my Poor Soul at the last for Jesus
Christs his Sake. Amen. “The Lord have mercy upon me, Christ
have mercy upon me. Amen.”

“My Dear Son,――I have sent you this Prayer to Show you the
State of Mind that i do now feel myself to be in i do not
feel no trouble so great as i do my Sinful life against my
God i begin to feel that my God will have mercy upon me and
forgive me all my Sins and receive my Poor Soul into the
Kingdom of heaven i send my best love, thanks and Good
wishes to all friends that came up on my trial to Speak for
me i do want to see all my family as often as i can do
before i die you Can See me any week day but you will have
to bring this lettr with you and go the Leeds Town Hall and
enquire for Mr. John Thornton magistrates clerk and he will
give you every information yo require to see me you cannot
see me without an order from him So to Save time and trouble
go and see him before you Come to the Prison. I send my
Dearest love to my Dear, dear wife and all of you my loving
children.――I am Your Wrecthed Husband and Father,

“CHARLES PEACE.”

* * * * * * *

WILLIE’S LETTER.

The above letters are in answer to the following:――

“Darnall, Feb. 6, 1879.

“Dear Father,――We had hoped to have had a letter from you
this morning to tell us how you are. Will was in court on
Tuesday and heard your trial, and when he came home and told
us what the sentence was, it upset us all.

“We did all we could for you, and if there is anything more
that we can do, write and let us know. We cannot come to see
you as often as we could wish, but we hope you will write to
us, and let us know how you are getting on.――Your
affectionate son,
WILLIE.”

INTERVIEW WITH HIS RELATIVES.

On Monday, no fewer than thirteen of Peace’s relatives and friends went from Sheffield to Leeds to have an interview with the convict Peace in his condemned cell. There were eleven in the first group, but in their appeals to Mr. Thornton, the magistrates’ clerk, for tickets of admission, they were not all successful.

Only five of them――Mr. Daniel Peace (the convict’s brother), and his wife, and three of their children――were granted permission to see the condemned man. The others were refused. The second group consisted of Mrs. and Mr. Bolsover (Peace’s daughter and son-in-law), and they readily obtained the necessary authority to see him.

On their arriving at Armley, the governor (Mr. Keene) gave them very strict injunctions as to how they were to behave themselves when in the presence of the convict. They were to restrain their feelings, and on no account whatever was there to be any “scene.” They were also to be extremely careful what they said to him. Having been thus suitably admonished as to their conduct, they were taken in two parties by the governor to the condemned cell. It was the same that the convict has occupied from his arrival at Armley, and they were simply admitted within the barred-off portion of the cell. He was sitting in a chair, and on either side of him stood a warder, watching his every movement; He seemed very weak――much weaker than when he appeared in the Crown Court to take his trial. Indeed, those who had not seen him for some time were quite startled at his pale, shrunken, weak appearance.

Peace was asked by one of the party how he was, and he replied, in very feeble tones, “I am no better; my head is very bad.” From further remarks he made it appear that he was suffering very much from the effects of his jump from the train. He said the wound on his head had broken out afresh, and he was in much pain from concussion of the brain. Proceeding, he said, “I am sorry now that I made such a rash attempt upon my life; I would never do it again.”

The governor, seeing the condemned man was becoming somewhat excited, interposed, and urged him to keep himself calm, and not to talk too much. Peace thereupon became quiet, and said little more, except to express a wish to see his wife. The interview allowed to either party was of short duration. The impression they formed was that the convict was perfectly resigned to his sentence, and that we had given up all hope of having his life prolonged. He was wearing the spectacles which the Home Secretary had given instructions that he should be furnished with, and near him were three books, which he had been reading. When the time allowed for the interview had expired, the relatives were exceedingly desirous to shake hands with him, but that was not allowed. The culprit, as one after the other bade him “good-bye,” quite broke down, and his grief expressed itself in tears.

INTERVIEW WITH HIS WIFE.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Peace, Willie Ward, her son, and Thomas Neil, a nephew, went from Sheffield to Leeds to visit the condemned man in his cell at Armley.

They left Sheffield by the Midland 9.5 train, and arrived at Leeds at 10.20. After an interview at the Town Hall with the chairman of the visiting justices the necessary order was then given to them, and they went a circuitous route to Armley.

The governor then conducted them to the cell, and the interview with the condemned man lasted more than an hour-and-a-half. He was sitting up, and since Monday the bandages had again been placed on his head. He was exceedingly pleased to see them; and, though weak, he appeared in excellent spirits, and during the whole time the interview lasted he carried on a most animated conversation with them. He gave his wife minute instructions with respect to private matters, about which nothing further need now be said; and as a memento of her visit he took off and handed to her, with the case, the pair of gold-framed spectacles about which so much has been said and written.

Peace had had those spectacles for many years, and he had them on the night he was captured by Robinson. They were then taken from him under the impression that a burglar would not come by a pair of gold spectacles honestly, and that they were part of the proceeds of some robbery. While he was in Pentonville, he asked to be supplied with spectacles, as he could not without them see to read and write, and the pair of brass-framed spectacles which gave him such a grotesque appearance――and which it was assumed he had adopted with a view to better disguise himself――were supplied to him. In his leap from the express train when on his way to Sheffield he lost those spectacles, but others were supplied to him while he was in Armley. A few days previously he wrote to the Home Secretary, asking that his own spectacles might be forwarded to him, and they were sent carefully packed in a small box. He was much gratified to receive them, and as they were almost the only articles with which he could part, he took them off, put them in their steel-bound leather case, and handed them to his wife, asking her to keep them for his sake.

With Willie and the nephew Peace talked with equal freedom, and gave them much good advice. Mrs. Peace had not seen her husband for four months, and she could not but observe the change that had taken place in him. But although he appeared feeble in body――so feeble that he could not walk alone, yet his mind was as clear as ever it was in his life, and never did he talk more sensibly. He had in his cell a Bible and a Prayer-book, and a number of tracts and letters which had either been supplied to him by the chaplain, or sent to him by sympathising friends. In reading, writing, listening to the exhortations of the chaplain, praying, and in talking, the convict passed his time. He appeared to be not only perfectly resigned to his sentence, but to have no fear of death whatever. Indeed, he expressed a hope that he would have sufficient strength to walk firmly to the scaffold, not in a spirit of bravado, but to show that he was not afraid to die. He asked his wife to forgive him every wrong he had done her, admitting, that had he followed her advice he would not have been in his present terrible position. She freely forgave him. He then said he entertained feelings of ill-will towards no one; and he hoped to receive the forgiveness of everybody towards whom he had done wrong. He spoke in terms of gratitude of the kind treatment he received at the hands of the governor and all who had to do with him, and said he had nothing to wish for at their hands. Towards the end of the interview his remarks were of so kind and tender a character as to affect his relatives to tears, and when they were leaving he entreated them to visit him again, and they promised to do so.

The Central News special reporter, referring to the interview with his family, wrote:――“There was an affecting scene between Peace and his daughter, who carried her baby in her arms. The woman sobbed bitterly, and even Peace himself cried. He inquired in affectionate terms after her mother, and seemed disappointed at her not being among the party. Mrs. Bolsover told him that she would tell her mother of his desire to see her, and that she would visit him. Peace took a great deal of notice of the child, and hoped that God would bless it as well as all his relations and friends. Although he seemed depressed, still he chatted freely and showed no reluctance to talk on any subject. He complained that he had not received justice, and that several of the witnesses against him had perjured themselves. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bolsover reproved him for thinking any more about Mrs. Thompson, and when they learned that he had written to her again, they became quite angry. They begged him to have nothing further to do with her, as she had been the means of giving him much trouble. Peace reluctantly vowed he would have no more to say to her. After an interview of over an hour the party took an affectionate good-bye of him, some of them promising to come back again if they could get admission.”

MRS. THOMPSON AGAIN.

It seems that before leaving Leeds Mrs. Thompson wrote the following letter, and entrusted it to one of her friends to deliver:――

“7th February, 1879.
“To the Postmaster, Leeds.

“Please give the bearer any letters addressed ‘Mrs. S.
Thompson, Post-office, Leeds, to be called for,’ and oblige.

“S THOMPSON, OR BAILEY.”

On Monday morning an elderly woman, dressed very plainly, called at the Post-office, and got two letters for Mrs. Thompson, one of which, was, it was known, from the convict Peace. The party receiving the letters must have telegraphed for Mrs. Thompson, for she was seen to enter the gaol shortly after four o’clock. She said she came from London, having left that place early in the forenoon.