The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 337: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE SECRET CHAMBER 311 to lose no time in executing his project of atonement. He had accordingly proceeded at once, with old Mother Franklin, to Mrs. Young’s abode, and to this woman did he repeat all that he had just been saying to Mother Franklin. Mrs. Young, fearful of being considered an accessory to the crime if she were to conceal her knowledge of it, now that in all its particulars it was fully made known to her, urged the Buttoner to accompany her without delay to Larry Sampson’s house in Long Acre, and thither did they accord- ingly proceed together. On arriving at the officer’s dwelling, they learned that he was not at home, but would return shortly. Mrs. Young thereupon asked Dame Margery, Mr. Sampson’s housekeeper, to furnish them with writing materials, and this being done, Mrs. Young penned a hasty but explicit narrative, containing the requisite particulars, and also a statement to the effect that the Buttoner would remain at her house, ready to surrender himself up whenever Sampson might choose to come and fetch him. To this document she made the Buttoner append his name, and having sealed it, she left it with Dame Margery, to be given to Mr. Sampson the instant he should return home. This being done, the Buttoner felt somewhat more easy in his mind; and as he accompanied Mrs. Young back to her abode at Bermondsey, he did not once appear to regret the step he had taken. On reaching the house, Mother Franklin, as already described, hurried out into the passage to give them the whispered intimation that Daniel Coffin was in the parlour, and that he evidently suspected what was going on. Therefore was it that when the Hangman endeavoured to escape abruptly from the place, the But- toner opposed his departure, and then followed the conflict in the passage which we have already described. The public executioner managed to get clear off, but before he thus fled, he committed sad havoc amongst his assailants. Old Mother Franklin was so severely trampled under his feet that she was subsequently carried, in a dying state, up to the attic which she occupied; and the Buttoner had received so severe a, blow on the head from the iron heel of Daniel Coffin’s great thick boot that he also was left in a very dangerous predica- ment. Mrs. Young had an arm broken by the poker which she herself had first taken as a weapon of attack, but which the Hangman had wrenched from her hands. Two of the frail (C(O) nn) (C OOO) nn <Si