The train being brought to a standstill, a surprising announcement was made by the guard.
“Peace has jumped out,” cried that official. The statement was for the moment treated by the crowd as a hoax, and meant as a “blind” in order to get the platform cleared; but when, instead of Peace, a sword, a bag, and a rug belonging to one of his warders were handed over by the guard to Inspector Bird, it was generally believed that Peace had really escaped, and that the warders were on his track.
It was rumoured at the station that Peace had escaped through the railway carriage window, and had succeeded in making off; but several of the more incredulous, however, would have it that he had been taken out of the train at Darnall, and would be from there quietly conveyed in a cart to Sheffield. Many persons lingered on the platform in order to satisfy themselves of his non-arrival.
At the Sheffield Police-court the few persons who had taken their seats in court by a quarter-past nine o’clock were astonished when, a few minutes subsequently, the chief constable entered, in a state of considerable excitement.
Addressing his audience from the bench, Mr. Jackson said he was sorry to tell them that they had put themselves to inconvenience in attending thus early in the day, all to no account.
“In short,” he exclaimed, “Peace has escaped from the warders; at least, that is what I hear.”
Meanwhile, the court very slowly filled, and a minute or two before ten o’clock the witnesses for the prosecution were admitted from the magisterial entrance.
Mrs. Dyson, it was noted, looked wonderfully well, and even more collected in her demeanour on Friday last, notwithstanding the fact that she was to undergo the ordeal of a special examination.
She again wore a black hat and feather, but eschewed the veil which before she persisted in keeping drawn close down over her features, and the thick waterproof, with which she formerly enveloped her figure, had given place to a mantle of a lighter description.
Punctually at ten, the stipendiary, Mr. Welby, took his seat. Mr. Pollard and Mr. W. E. Clegg, the prosecuting and defending solicitors, were also in their places, but the dock remained untenanted.