I will not trouble you with an account of kindness with which my sister and her husband received me. We breakfasted together; and I be (illegible text) it might be about eleven o’clock in the ⟨forenoon⟩ when, standing at the door, my brother-in-law ⟨being⟩ at my side, we saw three horsemen galloping ⟨towards⟩ us. As soon as they came up, they stopped, one of them alighting, suddenly seized my coat crying, "You are the Queen’s prisoner." I ⟨desired⟩ to know my crime; he said I should know that soon as I came to Deal, where I must go immediately with them. One of them told my brother ⟨that⟩ the night before I had committed a robbery and ⟨a⟩ murder.
Judge, O reader, of my painful situation. ⟨You⟩ are aware of my innocence; but how was I to ⟨prove⟩ this satisfactorily to the minds of those who had ⟨arrested⟩ me, and to those who were to be my judge. Circumstances were completely against me. ⟨Would⟩ they believe my story of having received the ⟨knife⟩ from my bedfellow? If I swear I am totally ⟨ignorant⟩ what has become of him, will they believe ⟨me?⟩ These, and a thousand other things, rushed into ⟨my⟩ mind at the moment of my apprehension. But ⟨what⟩ was to be done in this emergency? they would ⟨be⟩ satisfied with nothing but my person; and to ⟨offer⟩ security for my appearance at trial, even if I ⟨could⟩ have procured friends to become surety for my doing,—the sum, if sum they would have taken, I was charged with murder, would have been great, that even here I would have failed. There was no course left, therefore, but to commit myself into the hands of an all-seeing Providence, trusting he would so order the course of his events as would clearly shew my innocence.
Resistance, therefore, would have proved as vain ⟨as⟩ my tears and protestations of my innocence. In ⟨a⟩ word, a warrant was produced, and I was carried back to Deal by the three men; my brother, with another
