what he, his wife, and Elizabeth Osborne had
heard in Gill's Hill-lane on the previous Friday
evening. The conversation then dropped.

The next day, early, Mr. Nicholls, the road-
surveyor, went to Watford, to the magistrates
then sitting at the Essex Arms Inn, and told them
the story of the pistol and knife, which he brought
with him. They instantly sent the pistol to Bow-
street, and requested an active officer to be sent
down. Two magistrates at once proceeded to
Mr. Nicholls's house, stopping in the lane by the
way to see the spot where the pistol had been
found. They discovered pools of blood under
the leaves in a wheel-rut and a gap in the bank
and hedge, where a body seemed to have been
dragged through into the ploughed field adjoining.
There was human hair sticking and tangled
in the lower boughs and hedge-stakes, and on
the field side of the hedge there seemed to have
been much trampling. "There has been a
murder here," said the magistrate at once, as he
looked up with a pale face. Finding that
Probert was to leave the next day, and that a caravan
loaded with goods was even then in his yard,
the magistrates and constables instantly went to
Gill's Hill, took Probert and Thomas Thurtell
into custody, and searched the house and
premises. The others had gone to London.

Thurtell was apprehended at the Coach and
Horses, in Conduit-street His coat, waistcoat,
shirt, and hat were stained with blood At
Hunt's lodgings there had been found a shooting-
jacket, a backgammon-board, a double-
barrelled Manton, and a carpet-bag containing
several shirts marked W.; the stable-boy
from Gill's Hill Cottage also deposed to
having found a shirt of Mr. Weare's under
a heap of dung in Probert's stable.
Rexworthy, a billiard-table keeper in Spring-
gardens, proved that on Thursday, the 22nd
of October, John Thurtell came in and
spoke to Weare at his house, and that when
Thurtell left, Mr. Weare informed witness that
he was going down to Hertfordshire on Friday
for a few days' shooting with Thurtell, and that
on Friday Mr. Weare called about three, and
told him he was on his way to meet Thurtell in
the Edgeware-road. Thurtell, being questioned
by the officers, said he knew Mr. Weare, but
had not seen him for eight days. He had not
met him on Friday in the Edgeware-road. The
pistol which was found in his pocket he had
picked up on Sunday at Gill's Hill.

Mr. Noel, a solicitor generally employed in
gambling-house cases, being present at the police-
office, said to Thurtell: "You tell us you found
this pistol near Probert's; what will you say
when I tell you I can produce the fellow to it
found within a few yards of the same spot?"

Thurtell replied: " I know nothing about
that." But his countenance changed in a
ghastly way.

Mr. Noel: I can tell you, Thurtell, that Mr.
Weare is not to be found.

Thurtell: I am sorry for it, but I know
nothing about him.

Mr. Noel then said to Hunt, in private:

"Mr. Hunt, for God's sake tell the
magistrates whatever you know of this murder, and
in all probability you will be admitted as
evidence. It is clear that Mr. Weare has been
murdered, we only want to find where the body
is; if you know, for God's sake tell us."

Hunt several times denied all knowledge of
the transaction, and resisted every importunity,
in spite of the magistrates warning him to
consider his perilous situation. He then was taken
into another room with Mr. Noel and Ruthven
and Upson, the Bow-street officers. He still
remained firm. Upson then said:

"Hunt, you have a mother?"

'Yes, I have."

"And a wife also?"

"Yes."

"And you love them dearly?"

"Yes, very dearly."

"Then don't risk hanging, but tell where the
body is, before Probert and the other peach, and
it is too late." Hunt then consented to become
a witness, and said he could point out the place
where the body was. Mr. Noel struck his hand
on the table, and, shaking Hunt's hand, said:

"That's all we want. Hunt, I am very glad
you have saved your own life."

He was then taken to the magistrates, asked
to sit down, and was given some brandy-and-
water.

At nine o'clock four men went with Hunt in
a hackney-coach to find the body. Hunt
remembered the place by a bridge on the Elstree
road. It was in a deep slough on the right-
hand side going from Elstree to Radlet, and
two miles from Gill's Hill. The body was
found in the centre of the pond, where the
water was four feet deep. It must have been
swung in by two men. It was naked, the head
and body in a sack, with flints under each arm-
pit, and a handkerchief full of stones tied to the
cord that fastened the sack. The jaw and left
temple were driven in, as if with a pistol-muzzle.
There was a shot-wound in the right cheek-bone,
there were two deep cuts half through the jugular
vein on the left side of the neck, behind the
ear, and there was another wound on the right
side. There was a red handkerchief tied round
the neck of the corpse, as if intended to
stanch the blood. Hunt would not look at
the body. Probert said: "I never saw that
corpse before. I declare to God I never did.
You may rely upon it, I never saw that unhappy
man before."

Hunt's confession to the magistrates was
a conglomerate of lies and truth. He said
that Thurtell told him that Weare and a man
named Lemon had robbed him, with false cards,
of three hundred pounds at blind-hookey.
"Sooner or later," said Thurtell to Hunt, "I
will be revenged." On the Friday he took a
walk with Thurtell, and bought a pair of pocket-
pistols. On his way down with Probert he had
eight glasses of brandy-and-water, five at the
Artichoke at Elstree. On arriving at Gill's Hill,
Thurtell took them into the garden, and said: "I
have settled that beggar that robbed me of three
hundred pounds. I've blown his brains out, and
he's behind a hedge in the lane."