The following particulars of a subsequent interview will be read with interest at this time:—
“At twenty minutes past six on Wednesday evening (November 29th), ‘a thin, grey-haired, insignificant-looking man’ presented himself at the front door of Eccleshall Vicarage. He rang the bell and announced himself as Peace, stating to the servant that he desired to see Mr. Newman.
“When Mr. Newman saw him Peace at once produced what he called his ‘proofs’ of the statements he had made about the Dysons on his first visit. He represented himself as a very respectable man—indeed, taken at his own estimate he was about as near perfection as he could get, and he attributed all the troubles and wickednesses into which he had fallen to the people he has now so fearfully revenged himself upon.
“He said he had come to Mr. Newman ‘to make a confession—a clean breast of all his wickedness.’ Mr. Newman tried to turn his thoughts to the only source of forgiveness, but Peace would have none of his counsel. He was determined to confess to Mr. Newman, and then began a narrative, which, in the abundance of the abominable, is beyond belief.
“His allegations were not only wicked, but most extravagantly wicked. Peace put himself forward as having been all that was right and proper until Mr. Dyson became jealous of him.
“He told Mr. Newman that he said to Mrs. Dyson, ‘That they had better give him (meaning her husband) something to talk about,’ and that from that day commenced all his trouble.
“Peace produced to Mr. Newman a vast number of letters, photographs, cards, and other things, and was eager in pressing them upon the vicar, adding that he could bring any number of the same sort. His great grievance against the Dysons appeared to be the issuing of the warrant against him.
“Owing to that he had to break up his house and become a fugitive in the land. He consulted a solicitor, who advised him that he was liable to four actions if he did not make himself scarce. So he was obliged to ‘dodge’ the authorities.
“This trouble seems to have made him almost mad, and the mere recollection of it roused his wrath as nothing else could. He spoke in words of forgiveness—forgive the word!—of Mrs. Dyson; but nothing could exceed his hatred of her husband, the person whom, if his own story was to be believed, he had most deeply wronged. He said he was determined that wherever the Dysons went he would follow them. He had quarrelled with his own wife, and would never go back to her again.
“Peace added that he had come to Sheffield that morning with his daughter to see a relative, and having a little time on his hands he thought he would go up to Mr. Newman’s with the proofs he had promised. On his way up he said he had ascertained—as he had ways and means of doing—that Mr. and Mrs. Dyson were at home, and he knew how they were (making another charge against him).