The appearance of Thistlewood at this time was wretched in the extreme. When in custody with Watson, Preston, and Hooper, on the charge for high treason, he was a stout, active, cheerful-looking man, with something of a fearless and determined cast of features. His deportment at that time was free and unembarassed, with much of the air of a sea-faring man. Within the six months previous to the present arrest, his appearance had, in every respect, undergone a total change; he had been seen constantly in the streets, dressed in a shabby manner; his countenance squalid and emaciated, and his whole dress and the expression of his features, denoting a man who was reduced to a state of extreme indigence. He was generally observed walking or running through the streets with eager impetuosity, and his shoes and an old surtout coat, which he generally wore, bearing all the marks of the poverty and distressed circumstances of the wearer.
When before the Privy-Council, his dress was an old black coat and waistcoat, which were thread-bare, corduroy breeches very much worn, and old worsted stockings. His general appearance indicated great distress; his limbs were slender, and his countenance squalid and somewhat dejected. There was nothing of agitation in his manner. He sat with his eyes chiefly fixed on the ground, except when he occasionally raised them to survey Members of the Privy-Council, as they passed through the hall on their way to the Council-room.
The following Privy-Councillors were present at his examination:—The Duke of Wellington, the Earls of Harrowby, Liverpool, and Westmoreland, Lords Sidmouth, Castlereagh, and Melville, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Canning, Mr. Wellesley Pole, Sir William Scott, the Chief Baron of Scotland, the ex-Attorney-general, (Sir S. Shepherd), Mr. Bragge Bathurst, and other members of the cabinet.
It is impossible to describe the anxiety and horror which pervaded the countenances of thousands of persons who went to view the scene of action the day after the arrest. Through the whole of the day, and till very late in the evening, several persons of the highest consideration in the country visited the place. A man no way authorized, took possession of the place, and imposed on the public by demanding a shilling from each person for admission.
The alarm in the neighbourhood, on hearing the report of fire-arms, and the noise of contest on premises which they considered untenanted, may be more easily conceived than described. It was heightened by every circumstance of terror that the imagination could form to itself. The house was surrounded with soldiers and police-officers—fighting was heard within—officers were obscurely seen scaling a ladder and entering the scene of battle, while their fate and the cause of the combat were entirely unknown. Some of the persons belonging to the public-house adjoining, after running to the spot, fled in dismay when they heard the balls whistling about their ears.
Several of the inhabitants of Cato-street had observed, since the preceding Monday, strange-looking men coming about the empty premises. On the morning of Wednesday, (the day of the arrest) they saw Davidson, the man of colour, and three others, watching at different ends of the street, while some of their associates were heard nailing up the windows within the loft. Before dusk Davidson again made his appearance, with a sack on his back, which the neighbours at the time supposed to contain carpenters’ tools for repairing or new-modelling the interior of the building, but which had in fact conveyed the arms with which they were to equip themselves for their daring enterprise. After the arsenal was formed, the band arrived; and the people in the public-house were surprised, if not alarmed, to see upwards of twenty persons, entire strangers to the place, hovering about their premises, and at last entering the den. Still they had no suspicion of what was going forward, and no presentiment of what was in a short time to occur. The police soon arrived, and the murderous struggle took place which we have already described.
The body of Smithers, who was murdered, was removed to the Horse and Groom public-house, opposite. He must have died instantly, and without convulsion. He received only one wound, about an inch below his right breast, and about an inch in width. His body was exposed in a room on the first floor of the public-house, above-mentioned, in the dress in which he was killed. His breast and neck were covered with blood, but his countenance was as placid, and his features as composed, as if their expression had been arrested, and life extinguished, during a tranquil sleep. On his death being mentioned to Lord Sidmouth, his Lordship expressed great regret at the event, and sympathy for his surviving widow; saying, with great humanity, that, as he could not, restore to her her husband, he would take care that she should not want his assistance in a pecuniary point of view. The unfortunate man’s sister, from Putney, was one of the first to view the dead body of her brother, and deeply affected the spectators with the poignancy of her sorrow.
The sword with which the murder of Smithers was perpetrated is of foreign manufacture, and nearly a foot longer than those which we are ordinarily in the habit of seeing.
A lady, of the name of Northmore, who lives in a street immediately adjoining that in which the conspirators assembled, found a sabre in her yard, which had been thrown away by one of the gang, in his flight. This also is a weapon of foreign manufacture, and, from its appearance, had evidently been ground within a day or two. It was perfectly sharp on both sides, and, in addition to its brass hilt, there was attached to it a handkerchief, so disposed as to afford a sort of guard for the arm. Mrs. Northmore, on finding the weapon, sent for a friend, who advised her to transmit it to Bow-street. This was accordingly done; and, extraordinary to relate, it was recognised by an active member of that establishment as exactly representing one of two sabres, of which a description had been given at the office, and which were known to have been lately taken to a cutler, for the purpose of grinding.
The hand-grenades found in the loft, and produced in the examination, are about the size of a large orange, made of cast-iron, filled with combustibles; they have a round hole, in which is placed a fuse, which, on being set fire to, is thrown by the hand, and when it falls it explodes: the splinters caused by the explosion spread in all directions, and one of them has been known to kill ten or twelve persons. It was intended to explode these horrible instruments at the Earl of Harrowby’s house.