“At the sessions at Doncaster (October, 20, 1854), Peace (who was undefended) said that a watchmaker named Bethley in Division-street, had kept his sister (Niel) for some years, and she had had three children by him. Bethley, not having given her any money lately, sent the jewellery and a bundle of wearing apparel by him to her, instead of money. Peace was sentenced to four years’ penal servitude, and the female prisoners each to six months’ imprisonment.
“Peace was described in the calendar at that time as being twenty-two years of age. The mention of Bethley’s name will remind our readers that he was the person who instructed Peace in the art of violin playing, and Mrs. Niel’s connection with the case does not shed much lustre on the family annals. She died we may add by way of completing her history, on the 2nd April, 1859, age 33.
CHAPTER CLXX.
PEACE’S EXTRAORDINARY CAREER.
“There is an old Yorkshire saying, ‘When it is dangerous to speak the truth, it is wisdom to say nothing,’ and that would appear to have been the motto which Charles Peace adopted during the last four or five years of his life.
“We are enabled to continue the narrative, not for the guidance of any who may read it, but as a warning The fact that Peace has now to answer the capital charge is of itself sufficient evidence of the gradations downwards which the pursuit of crime involves.
“The singular episodes in the career of the criminal are stranger even than many a highly imaginative novelist could have portrayed.
“The police have been acquainted with many of them for months, and have been puzzled by them.
“The narratives are obtained from a private source of a perfectly reliable character, and are given accordingly.
“In the course of recent inquiries allusion has been made to certain letters which were addressed to Mrs. Dyson by the prisoner. These letters had upon them the Hamburg postmark, showing they had been posted there.