Here the language of the confession becomes
too absurdly unnatural to be true:â??â??

"'Nonsense,' was," Hunt said, "Probert's
reply, 'nonsense. You have never been guilty
of a thing of that kind, John Thurtell? If you
have, and near my cottage, my character and
my family are ruined for ever. But I cannot
believe you have been guilty of so rash an act.
Here, Hunt, take in that loin of pork, and
desire the cook to get it dressed immediately.'"
By-and-by they drank a glass of brandy, and
ate two pork chops each. About four o'clock
in the morning, Hunt continued, Thurtell went
with the horse, and dragged the body into the
horse-pond.

Thurtell, Probert, and Hunt, were arraigned
at Hertford, December 4, before Mr. Justice
Park and Mr. Justice Holroyd. Thurtell, who
was the son of the Mayor of Norwich, and of
respectable connexions, appeared at the bar dressed
in a plum-coloured frock-coat, white neckcloth,
a drab waistcoat with gilt buttons, and white
corded breeches. He had a fierce Satanic face,
long upper lip, a bony knotted forehead,
and deeply buried eyes. His mouth was
sensual, sullen, and dogged. His right
eyebrow was nearly straight, while the left rose
in a high pointed arch. His frame was athletic
and powerful, and he had a peculiar stoop in
his shoulders. Hunt, small, sallow, with
unmeaning eyes, and hair foppishly disordered to
express grief, was dressed in black, with a white
cravat. Probert was a coarse unwieldy man,
with a receding forehead, grizzly black hair,
small head and legs, blubber lips, eyes like
those of "a vicious horse," and a deceitful,
thievish expression.

Probert was admitted king's evidence, told
a much more natural story than Hunt, and
revealed more details of the horrible and coldly
premeditated crime. On the Thursday when he
met Thurtell, the prisoner asked him for five
pounds, and told him, if he did not get it,
he should be three hundred pounds out of
pocket. He was going down to Gill's Hill, if a
certain friend met him at the Paddington-gate
at five, and said: "If I have an opportunity, I
mean to do him, for he is a man that has robbed
me of several hundreds. I have told Hunt where
to stop. I shall want him about a mile and a
half beyond Elstree. If you don't go, give
Hunt a pound." On their way down, at about
four miles from London, he and Hunt passed
Thurtell. Hunt said: "It's all right, Jack
has got him; there they are; drive by, and
take no notice." At Elstree they stopped three-
quarters of an hour, waiting for Thurtell, but
somehow or other he had passed them without
their knowing it, before reaching Edgeware.
Beyond Elstree, Hunt got out and waited for
Thurtell. When Probert met Thurtell on the
road, he asked for Hunt, but said:

"Oh, I don't want him now. I've done the
trick. I've killed the man I brought down, and
rid the country of a villain."

When they went to look for the body,
Thurtell kicked about the leaves to find the pistol and
knife, but without success. He (Probert) then
promised to look for them in the morning; the
body was lying with the head in a shawl.
Thurtell searched the pockets, and took out a
pocket-book with fifteen pounds in notes, a
memorandum-book, and some silver; a purse of
sovereigns and a watch he had before removed,
he said, when he killed him. They then put
the body head-foremost in a sack, and tied it
round the knees. Then continued Probert,

Thurtell said: "When I first shot him, he
jumped out of the gig and ran like the devil,
singing out that he would pay back all he had
won of me if I would only spare his life. I
jumped out of the gig and ran after him. I got
him down, and began to cut his throat, as I
thought, close to the jugular vein; but I could
not stop his singing out. I then jammed the
pistol into his head, and gave it a turn round;
then I knew I had done him. (Turning to Hunt)
Joe, you ought to have been with me, for I
thought at one time he would have got the
better of me." Thurtell said that, but for Hunt's
mistake, they should have killed Weare in the
other lane, and then have gone to London and
inquired of his friends why he had not kept
his appointment. Thurtell and Hunt went
out to bring the body, but found it too heavy,
and left it. He (Probert) and Thurtell then
went and brought the body on the horse, and
put it in the pond with some stones in the sack.
On Sunday, Hunt put on the clothes of deceased,
and Thurtell walked to the pond, asked if the
body had risen, and said it would lie there safe
for months.

On his return from Mr. Nicholls's, and telling
what had occurred, Thurtell said: "Then I'm
baked, but they could do nothing to him"
(Probert). That night Thurtell and Hunt went to
dig a grave, but. the dogs were barking, and
they were afraid some one was about. On.
Monday, while Hunt was talking to Mrs.
Probert, he and Thurtell got the body up, and cut
off the clothes. They then all three carried it
to the garden gate, and put it into the gig. On
the Friday night, Thurtell said, "I mean to have
Barber Beaumont and Woods." The former was
a director of the County Fire Office, who had
brought the charge of conspiracy against the
Thurtells; Woods was Thurtell's rival for the
hand of Miss Noyes. A grave half dug was
found in Probert's garden; but the soil was flinty
clay, and it is supposed that Thurtell and Hunt
were afraid of the noise pickaxes would make.

Some of the incidents of the trial were
appalling; others ludicrous. A constable
carefully unfolded the pistol from a white paper.
It was a small blue-barrelled pistol, smeared
black with gunpowder, and dingy red with
blood. A piece of tow was thrust into the
muzzle to keep in its horrid contentsâ??the
murdered man's brains. The short, curled
hairs which had been literally dug from the
victim's head were firmly glued to the back
of the pan with crusted blood. This fearful
instrument of murder made all shudder except
the murderers, who were equally callous during
the production of Weare's gun, his carpet bag,
the shooting-jacket with the dog-whistle hanging