DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0357
JOHN HATFIELD; THE SWINDLER, &C. 319
as little heard, and possessed as little a notion, of the
existence of the sort of wickedness practised by Hatfield,
as of the abominations of Tiberius at Capra?, What
motive (said they) could he have to marry poor Mary?—•
Would a sharper marry a poor girl without fortune or con-
nection .?—If he had married the Irish young lady, Miss D-—,
there would be something to say for it.” It was no doubt
delightful for the people of the Vales, that so great a man,
that a man so generous, so condescending, so affable, so
ve/y good, should have married one of their own class, and
that too a young woman who had been so long their pride,
and so much and so deservedly beloved by them.—But
our adventurer, in his flight from Keswick, leaving behind
him in his carriage a handsome dressing-box, after the
lapse of some days, an order was procured from a neigh-
bouring magistrate, the dressing-box was opened and
searched. It contained a pair of very elegant pistols, and
a complete assortment of toilet trinkets, all silver. The
whole value of the box could not be less than eighty pounds.
There were discovered only one letter, a cash-book, and
the list of several cities in Italy, with a couple of names
attached to each. From the cash-book nothing could be
learned, but that he had vested divers considerable sums
(some stated to be on his own account,) in the house of
Baron Dimsdale and Co.—But from the letter, aided by
the list of towns, a marvellous story was extracted.—The
letter was said to be from an Irish banditti, urging this
Colonel Hope to escape with all possible speed, informing
him that a price had been set upon his head, and stating
the writer’s eagerness to assist him, but that his wounds
confined him to his bed. It was concluded, therefore, by
the people, that this pretended Colonel Hope was a great
leader in the Irish rebellion; but this letter in fact was,
neither more or less, than a grateful epistle from .a-poor
exciseman at Glenarm, who had escaped with his life from
t t 2 an,
as little heard, and possessed as little a notion, of the
existence of the sort of wickedness practised by Hatfield,
as of the abominations of Tiberius at Capra?, What
motive (said they) could he have to marry poor Mary?—•
Would a sharper marry a poor girl without fortune or con-
nection .?—If he had married the Irish young lady, Miss D-—,
there would be something to say for it.” It was no doubt
delightful for the people of the Vales, that so great a man,
that a man so generous, so condescending, so affable, so
ve/y good, should have married one of their own class, and
that too a young woman who had been so long their pride,
and so much and so deservedly beloved by them.—But
our adventurer, in his flight from Keswick, leaving behind
him in his carriage a handsome dressing-box, after the
lapse of some days, an order was procured from a neigh-
bouring magistrate, the dressing-box was opened and
searched. It contained a pair of very elegant pistols, and
a complete assortment of toilet trinkets, all silver. The
whole value of the box could not be less than eighty pounds.
There were discovered only one letter, a cash-book, and
the list of several cities in Italy, with a couple of names
attached to each. From the cash-book nothing could be
learned, but that he had vested divers considerable sums
(some stated to be on his own account,) in the house of
Baron Dimsdale and Co.—But from the letter, aided by
the list of towns, a marvellous story was extracted.—The
letter was said to be from an Irish banditti, urging this
Colonel Hope to escape with all possible speed, informing
him that a price had been set upon his head, and stating
the writer’s eagerness to assist him, but that his wounds
confined him to his bed. It was concluded, therefore, by
the people, that this pretended Colonel Hope was a great
leader in the Irish rebellion; but this letter in fact was,
neither more or less, than a grateful epistle from .a-poor
exciseman at Glenarm, who had escaped with his life from
t t 2 an,