Part 2
"The night before this melancholy accident, I came home, to be sure not entirely sober: where not finding my wife, I went directly to her mother's, where I found her very drunk. It being night, her mother said it would not be proper to attempt taking her home in that condition; and therefore advised me to lie there that night, while she and her girl would go and sleep at my lodging. We did so.
"Being now come to the unlucky day of my wife's death, I propose to be as particular in all my actions that day as recollection will enable me.
"In the morning, after my wife's mother came back, we all breakfasted together at her lodgings. After breakfast, I went to Mr. _Clark_, Timber Merchant, in _St. Mary Axe_, to solicit for some _India Company's_ work: from whence I went to the _Mansion House_ alehouse, and drank a pint of beer. I then intended to go to work at Mr. _Perry's_ in _Noble-street_, but it being near dinner time, I stopped at the _Bell_, opposite his house, for another pint of beer, where meeting some acquaintance eating beef-stakes, I dined with them. As I was eating, in came my wife and her mother; she at first abused me for being at the alehouse, but they afterward, in great seeming good humour, drank with me, and as they wanted money, I gave my wife two shillings, and lent her mother a six and ninepenny piece, which I had just received in change for half a guinea, from the master of the public house. As the day was now far spent, and as I was pleased with the prospect of working for the _East-India Company_, I thought it not worth while to begin a day's work so late. I therefore went to _Smithfield_, to see how the horse-market went. From thence I went to _Warwick-lane_, to see for a young man, whom I had promised to get to work for the company also. I took him to Mr. _Clark_, in _St. Mary Axe_; and afterward went with him to two or three places more, the last place was the _Nagg's Head_ in _Hounsditch_; and about half an hour after nine o'clock went home.
"When I came there, I went in at the back door, which is under the gateway; and which used to be only on a single latch, for the conveniency of my lodgers: I went up to my room door, but finding it fast, came down stairs again. There was then some disturbance over the way in _Aldersgate-street_, which I walked over to see the meaning of, imagining my wife might chance to be engaged in it. Not finding her in the croud, I returned, and went up stairs again; while I was on the stairs, I heard my wife cough, by which I knew she was at home. Finding my door still fast, I knocked and called again; still she would not answer. I then said "_Sally_, I know you are at home, and I desire you would open the door, if you will not I will burst it open." Nobody yet answering, I set my back against the door, and forced it open. Upon this she jumped out of bed; I immediately began to undress me, by slipping off my coat and waistcoat, saying at the same time "_Sally_, what makes you use me so? you follow me wherever I go to abuse me, and then lock me out of my lodging; I never serve you so." On this she flew upon me, called me a scoundrel dog, said she supposed I had been with some of my whores; and so saying, tore my shirt down from the bosom: on this, I pushed her down. She then ran to the chimney corner, and snatched up several things, which I successively wrested from her: in the skuffle a table and a screen tumbled down. At length she struck me several blows with a hand-brush; and while I was struggling to get it from her, she cried out several times----"Indeed, indeed, I will do so no more."----When I got the brush from her, which I did with some difficulty, I gave her a blow with it, and then concluded she would be easy. She sat down on the floor by the cupboard door, tearing her shift from her back, which had been rent in the skirmish; I sat down on the opposite side of the bed, with my back towards her, preparing to go into it; and seeing her fling the remnants of her shift about in so mad a manner, I said, '_Sally_, you are a silly girl, why don't you be easy?' On that she suddenly rose up, and with something gave me a blow on the head, which struck me down. I fell on the bedstead with my head against the folding doors of it. I imagine she was then afraid she had killed me, for I heard her cry two or three times----_O save me, save me, save me!_ How she went out of the window it is impossible for me to say, in the condition she left me in; but from her cries I supposed her gone that way; and in my consternation when I rose, I ran down one pair of stairs, where, not knowing how to behave, I went up again, and sat me down on the bed from whence I rose. In this position Mr. _Clark_, the constable, and the numbers who followed him, found me. He said, _Daniels you have stabbed your wife, and flung her out of the window_. I replied, _No, Mr. Clark, I have not, she threw herself out_. Mr. _Clark_ took a candle, and examined all the room in search of blood, but found none; and lucky it was for me that neither of our noses happened to bleed in the fray, though mine was subject to bleed on any trifling occasion. He then went to the window, where he found a broken piece of a saucer, and asked what it was? I said, I did not know; but recollected afterward, that it was what I fed my squirrel in; though I know not how it came broke; it was whole that day.
"From thence I was taken to the _Compter_, and the public are already acquainted with the proceedings on my trial: when I was condemned for the supposed fact.
"I am informed that the next morning they found a pair of small watchmaker's plyers bloody in the window, which were then considered as a great proof of my guilt. These plyers were what I have mended my squirrel's chain with whenever he broke loose, which was sometimes the case. How they should be bloody, as God is my Saviour, I cannot answer; but as no wound was perceived on the body, they were not produced as evidence against me. However, when my wife was brought up from the street, it is said she was blooded, and that the bason was put in the window where these plyers were found. It is therefore possible that, in such confusion, a drop or two might accidentally be spilt upon them; more especially when we consider the tumult of a morning's exhibition of the dead body, for penny gratuities, by the unprincipled mother of it.
"In the course of my trial, the coroner laid some stress on the absence of _Charles Hilliard_, the lodger under my room; but Mr. _Hilliard_ appeared however before the sessions were concluded, to save his recognizances: he then deposed before the judges, all he knew relative to the accident; which being materially the same with the evidence he gave at the coroner's inquest, and as I have no reason to wish it suppressed, I made it my business to request Mr. _Hilliard_ to recollect the whole of it, which he was kind enough to give me in writing; and here it is.
"_Charles Hilliard_ gave evidence before the coroner as follows.
"That Mrs. _Daniels_ came into his apartment about eight o'clock in the evening to light her candle, and then went up to bed: that about ten Mr. _Daniels_ came home, and knocked at the door, calling _Sally_, two or three times: that not being admitted, he broke the door open: that then he thought he heard a knocking to make good the breach, after which some words ensued between the parties, and blows followed: that he heard Mrs. _Daniels_ ask forgiveness, saying, she would never do the like again: that _Daniels_ should say--_Damn my breeches, what do you shut me out for? don't I pay my rent?_ after which he heard a rumbling in the room, but did not distinguish any thing more, to the best of his knowledge, till Mrs. _Daniels_ fell from the window.
"I lived in Mr. _Daniel's_ apartment but little time, in which I heard many quarrels and debates between them, which frequently happened by her aggravation and ill-treatment of him."
"I was sentenced to be executed on _Monday, September 21_; the coronation-day was to be the day following, which led some persons into a conjecture, that this august solemnity was the cause of the first respite, which made way for my pardon. This however was a mistaken opinion, for I owed the redemption from my hard fate entirely to the kind Christian offices of my friends who, from a persuasion of my innocence, applied to the worthy magistrates of _London_; from whom, the circumstances of my situation were represented to his Majesty. The gracious condescension of this best of Kings, in attending to the representations made to him on my account, will never be forgotten, while I enjoy that remnant of life I now owe to his goodness!
"I was condemned on the _Friday_; on the _Saturday_ I was comforted with the news of a respite until the _Friday_ following: I then heard of a farther respite, and was appointed to die with _Campbel_ and _Gurnet_; before the execution of whom, I was again granted a longer time: and then my execution was to be forborn until farther orders. I received my pardon on _Thursday, October 28_, and was discharged from confinement _Sunday, November 1_.
"From the time of receiving sentence, to the time of my receiving a full pardon was six weeks close confinement in the cells of _Newgate_; where, by the terms of sentence, I was to be subsisted on bread and water only. I can however affirm with truth, that, conscious of my own integrity, not all the terrors of so ignominious a death, and the stamp of infamy attending it, ever could depress my spirits from the first to the last. I relied on the justice of God, who could penetrate beyond the ken of short-sighted man; and with the utmost reverence would I acknowledge the extension of his providence toward me, in protecting me in this life, from the consequences of premature judgment. I have been frail in common with the rest of mankind; and I have severely suffered. However, as my misfortunes in marriage drove me into carelessness and excesses, which, together with them, have been the ruin of me; I hope that so remarkable a deliverance from the brink of the precipice of eternity, has called home my scattered thoughts, and will make me more sober and industrious than I have heretofore been. I now conclude this narrative with the most thankful acknowledgments to all whose kindness has been instrumental in my deliverance, from the awful fate from which I so hardly escaped."
The reader has now seen what the poor fellow had to offer for his own justification. It may not be improper just to add a few remarks, first, on the probabilities and improbabilities of the alledged fact, and then to compare the fair result of such examination with the tenor of the depositions on his trial; these will tend greatly to clear our conceptions with regard to the man.
The window of _Daniels's_ room has two casements folding against each other, with garden pots before them. One of these casements only, used to be opened; the other being in general kept shut. These casements were each about sixteen or seventeen inches wide, and the window was about a yard and a quarter high. When this accident happened, one casement was open, the other shut, as usual; consequently the opening _then_ through the window, was about sixteen or seventeen inches wide, and a yard and quarter high. Through this space a man was to thrust a woman nearly as strong as himself! If such a thing had been attempted, the following consequences must be incontestably allowed to ensue.
I. The woman would resist the attempt.
II. When persons struggle to avoid imminent danger, and are driven to despair, they are capable of a surprising degree of exertion, beyond their ordinary abilities.
III. This woman would therefore have continued in so narrow a gap a very considerable while before she could have been forced through, and would all that time have uttered cries, intreaties, and exclamations, too expressive of her situation to have been mistaken by the neighbours and spectators.
IV. Her resistance would have overturned the before-mentioned garden-pots, and would have shattered the glass of the casement that was shut, and even forced open, or broke the casement itself, which obstructed her passage.
V. In breaking the glass of the window, her skin must have been greatly scratched and torn, and her limbs, naked as she was, have been otherwise greatly maimed and bruised.
VI. The man who undertook to force her out, as he must have been greatly agitated himself by his passions; as he was very closely employed, on no very easy job; and as the actions of the suffering party cannot be supposed to be meerly defensive through the whole course of the fray; he must probably have been observed by some of the spectators at the instant of his effecting his purpose; and must positively have borne some very conspicuous marks of his helpmate's reciprocal assaults.
The two first of these propositions will be universally granted.
The third is contradicted by all the evidence on the trial, who unanimously agree, that the moment the woman was seen, she came through the window? and was only then heard to use expressions which _Daniels_ accounts for better than any one else.
In reply to the fourth, the pots were not discomposed, nor the window broke, except one pane; and it does not appear that even that pane might not have been broke before.
In answer to the fifth; the body, by the evidence of the surgeon, did not appear to have received any other damage than the natural consequences of so great a fall.
As to the last; the man was not seen at the window at all: and as to any wounds or bruises sustained by him, the constable, when asked, whether he saw the blow on his head, which he affirmed to be given him by his wife? declared he did not. But he was not asked whether he looked for it; a question, it may be presumed, he would have answered in the negative. In such a situation, it is to be concluded, the poor fellow was little heard and less regarded, concerning whatever he might alledge in his own behalf. A man may be stunned by a blow that might not perhaps exhibit any remarkable appearance; and had it been seen, his account of it would have weighed but little.
It is not even probable, had he knocked this woman on the head first, that he could have sent the body through the window so compleatly, as either by fright, or design, she accomplished, herself. But that she came there living, is past doubt.
To conclude: The evidence against this unfortunate man, was only presumptive at most; and upon clear scrutiny is really presumptive of _nothing_: so that as he is discharged by royal authority, so has he also a just claim to an acquittal in the minds of all judicious and candid people.
_FINIS._