Both Broome and King rapidly recovered from the effects of their battle, Broome being able to visit Aldershot, on the Thursday, with Alec Keene. He was also present at the deposit for the Championship, which took place on Thursday, when he received some substantial recompense for his gamely contested fight.
The stakes were given up to King on the ensuing Tuesday, at Joe Phelps’s, the “Blakeney’s Head,” High Street, Islington, when a few admirers of Tom King ventured to lay evens on their pet for the great event in perspective; though 5 and even 6 to 4 was the price in the east as in the west.
King trained for the great encounter at Hastings, Mace near Norwich; the latter coming to town to be present at the fight between Bob Brettle and Jack Rooke, on the 31st December, 1861, for £200 a side and a bet of £300 even,[41] the moderate sum of £1,000 being dependent on the issue.
“Time and tide speed on their course, and wait for no man,” and the month of January, 1862, had reached its 28th day, when, on as cheerless and miserable a winter’s morning as combined damp, drizzle, mizzle, snow, sleet, and marrow searching cold could mix up, our bold aspiring young sailor met the practised and scientific Norwich boxer. How his “greenness,” despite his gameness, fell before superior skill, tact, and experience, may be found fully set forth in the preceding chapter.
As we have already said, there was one person, and that one a most important factor in the question, who thought he was beaten by an accident—his name was Tom King. Tom maintained, without any intention of disparaging for one moment the credit due to Mace for his skill and also his courage, that he felt convinced, if his friends would stand to him, he should be able to reverse the first verdict, or, at any rate, he would then acknowledge that Mace was the better man.
After the long and undecided battle between Joe Goss and Ryall, Goss was brought forward by his Wolverhampton backers, as a competitor with Mace for the belt. In April also, “the Benicia Boy” arrived from America, bringing with him a brother “Jem,” who was said by some Yankee paragraphists to have come “to pick up the belt.” We have already noted, in our life of Mace, that Heenan repudiated this newspaper bounce; and here, to avoid repetition, the reader is referred to the memoir of Mace for the circumstances under which the second match between King and Mace was brought about and carried to a conclusion.
Mace, at the time the articles were signed, was making hay after the manner of Tom Sayers, in travelling with an equestrian circus—that being the only ring in which he appeared to have a chance of a job. This employment he kept up for some time after the match was made. King, too, for a few weeks was tempted to “do the mountebank” with a travelling company; but Tom did not take kindly to the business of “busking,” and threw it up, returning to his London patrons.
As the time drew on, each man found it expedient to mingle more decidedly in sporting circles, and thus create a greater interest than had heretofore been exhibited, and this wise discrimination gradually had the desired effect. The match began to be talked about in all quarters, flocks of admirers followed the rival champions on every race course, or at any place of public resort, and soon the discussion of their respective merits led to a comparison of their deeds and their appearances with those of the heroes of the old ring.
The nearer the time approached the mystery observed as to the actual “where” tended not a little to foster anxiety, many of the intending spectators being kept in a ferment of funk lest they should be thrown over at the last. It was known it must be either at the end of November or the beginning of December, and as the fights between Hicks and Gollagher and Dillon and Reardon, both for high stakes, were fixed for about the same time, the chance of being put on a wrong scent, and arriving at the wrong ring side, redoubled the fears of the fidgety. The men themselves even were not made acquainted with the actual day until within a week of the time, and so well was the secret kept, that, until the previous Monday, we believe the number of persons “fly” to the arrangements might be numbered upon the fingers of the two hands.
Both Mace and King being sober, steady fellows in their habits, and both being pretty well in their prime, and accustomed to hard work, there was no inconvenience felt by either in their training in consequence of the uncertainty as to the day of milling—both being well up to the mark, and, indeed, almost fit to fight before they went into training, which they did some seven weeks before the eventful Wednesday; Mace at Newmarket, at the old training quarters of Tom Sayers, under the care of Howard, the Bradford jumper; and King at the “Baldfaced Stag,” near Woodford, Essex, under Harry Harris. It is creditable to the respective mentors of the men, that nothing was left undone which could ensure the respective champions being in a meet state for the arduous task they had set themselves.