A.—A lapsus linguae, my Lord.
Brodie again insisted upon the oaths; but the Judge told him that all they wanted was to be satisfied, which they were from what Mr Duncan and Mr Groves had signed, and partly from a confession of his own.
He was told he should set off as that day; and it was settled at four in the afternoon.
The Judge told me I should have a guide, who would procure the means of conveyance, &c. I took my leave of them with thanks, &c.; waited on Mr Rich; at four was sent for to the Stadthouse, where there was a prodigious crowd; two carriages and four guides, with four horses in each carriage; and the prisoner, being properly secured, we put him into one, and got to Helvoet without much interruption next day at one o’clock; packet sailed at five.
N.B. I had wrote a letter to Sir James Harris on the Saturday, requesting the packet to be detained, who informed me by Mr. Rich, with whom I dined on the Monday, that it should be detained to the last moment.
Brodie was watched two hours alternately on board by the ship’s crew; his hands and arms confined, and his meat cut for him, &c.
On Thursday night, eleven o’clock, we arrived at Harwich—supped—set off immediately, and arrived next day at noon at Sir Sampson Wright’s, before whom, and Mr Langlands, Brodie confessed he was the person advertised.
APPENDIX XIII.
Copies of two Autograph Letters of Deacon Brodie, hitherto
Unpublished.
[From Dr. David Laing’s MSS. in the University Library,
Edinburgh.]