the Kent-road, and that, having paid the post-
boy, they then walked off towards Surrey-square.

So much notice was taken of the men at
the Rose Hotel, and at the places where they
stopped to change horses and take refreshment
on the road to town, that a description
of their persons was procured, and the
police communicated with. On hearing the
description, the police at once considered that
it implicated one Tom Partridge, and one of his
associates, who had been concerned in most of
the coach robberies which had recently been
committed; and private information having been
obtained that these were really the men who had
violated the mail, warrants were obtained, and
Tom Partridge was "wanted." After a search
of many weeks Tom Partridge was apprehended,
and, on the examination which he underwent at
Bow-street, was distinctly identified as one of the
persons who booked an outside place at Dover
by the mail of the evening in question, and as
one of the men who were seen on the same
evening at the Rose Hotel, examining letters
and packets which lay open before them. On
this evidence Mr. Tom Partridge was fully committed
for trial.

From March till August, Mr. Tom Partridge
lay in prison: immediately on his committal,
he had strongly denied his guilt, and
had made application to be admitted to bail;
but his request was refused. On the 21st of
August, 1827, the assizes for the Home Circuit
being then held in Maidstone, there was more
than usual excitement round the old courthouse
of that town. Very many witnesses were
to be examined on the part of the crown, among
them some French gentlemen, clerks in the
Paris Post-office, and officers of the packet, who
had been staying at the principal hotel of Maidstone
for some days, and, at the expense of the
prosecution: who had lived very freely, and had
winked at the cherry-cheeked Kentish damsels
in a manner which had caused some of those
young girls to clench their fists and hint at
giving " furriners" that dread blow known as a
"smack o' th' face." And above all else productive
of interest was the prevalent belief that the
whole case was one of extraordinary circumstantial
evidence; that it would turn upon the
nicest question of personal identity; and that the
prisoner intended bringing forward undeniable
proofs of his innocence.

So the cramped little court was crowded
from floor to ceiling when the learned judge
took his seat on the bench. Immediately below
him sat the Post-office solicitor, outwardly bland,
but inwardly anxious: betraying his anxiety when
there seemed any hitch in his case, by repeated
application to a massive gold snuff-box. From
time to time he conferred with the crown
counsel on his right hand, and occasionally
answered questions put to him by two old gentlemen
on his left, London merchants and bankers.
More than the average number of counsel (none
appearing for the prisoner though) at the little
green table appropriated to them, and though
sitting with wigs cocked awry and employing
themselves generally in the mastication of quill
pens, yet paying more than usual attention to a
case in which they were not concerned. All
round the court, wherever permissible, stood
the eager public, stout broad-shouldered yeomen,
buxom women, ostlers, and inn-yard loiterers,
with occasionally among them the thin sallow
face of a London "professional," probably a
friend of the prisoner, contrasting strongly with
the acres of broad healthy red cheeks by which it
was surrounded. The prisoner himself in the
dock fronting my lord the judge, a middle-sized
stoutly-built man, with a queer humorous face,
lighted by a twinkling arch blue eye. Not a bit
daunted, but apparently rather pleased by the
universal gaze, he stood leaning over the front
of the dock, playing with the bits of herbs which
custom still retained there, keenly observant of
all that transpired, but apparently fully trusting
in his own resources.

The judge settled himself in his seat, the
usher demanded "Silence" at a moment when a
pin might have been heard to drop, each juryman
threw every scrap of intellect at his command
into his countenance, the Post-office solicitor
took an enormous pinch of snuff, and Mr.
Serjeant Strongbow, retained on behalf of the
crown, rose to address the court. He told the
story briefly, pretty much as it has been here
stated, and proceeded to call his witnesses. First
came the French gentlemen. M. Etienne Bonheur,
comptroller at the foreign office of the General
Post-office, Paris, proved that he made up
the mail for London on the evening of Friday,
the 26th of January, that there was an Italian
bag, that he handed them to M. Avier to despatch.
M. Avier, M. Gustave d'Ortell, postmaster of
Calais, Captain Margot, of the Henri Quatre
steamer, John Nash, the Custom-house officer at
Dover, and Sir T. Coates, the packet agent,
all deposed to the despatch and receipt of the
mail in due course. Rather dull work this. So
the judge thought, leaning back and biting his
nails; so the jury thought, listening in bucolic
wonder to the translation of the French witnesses'
evidence by the interpreter, but bored
when it came out in English a mere matter
of formal routine connected with the transmission
of a mail; so the prisoner thought, as
he shifted from leg to leg, and smiled slightly
once or twice, looking on with great unconcern.
Booking-office keeper at Dover, mail
coachman, coach proprietor at Canterbury,
waiter and chambermaid at the Rose Hotel,
waiters and ostlers all along the road, up they
came one after the other, kissed the book,
looked at the prisoner in the dock, and declared
that he was the man who figured in
their recollection as connected with the events
of the night of the 28th of January. At the conclusion
of this evidence, the court adjourns for
refreshment, judge goes out at a side-door,
prisoner wipes his forehead, and sits down by
his guardian turnkey, Post-office solicitor takes
a pinch of snuff and receives congratulations of
London bankers on manner in which evidence