[The puerility of the foregoing addrefs is fo glaring, that we do not think there can be any neceflity for inferting the answers to it. But we cannot help remarking with one of thefe anfwers, that thirty thousand of M. De La Condamine's countrymen are gone home to refute the charge of barbarifm againft us. We are more in pain for what the character of M. De La Condamine himfelf may fuffer from fo filly a performance, as we think that no other apology can be made for it, than that old adage of, Nemo mortalium omnibus boris fapit.]

Ringe, then about 19, and from that time he behaved with lefs c kindness to her husband, and they were frequently displeased with each other, though they do not appear to have lived together upon what the world calls "ill terms."

But at whatever time Mrs. Bed dingfield first conceived an inclination for Ringe, fhe did not difcover it till he had lived in the family fix months, and from this time they feem to have taken little pains to conceal it from others; both the maid fervants had feen him kiss her, and found her fitting in his lap, knew that they were often alone together, and fometimes in her chamber; fuch, indeed, was Mrs. Beddingfield's unaccountable indifcretion, that the frequently fet one of the maids to give notice of her mafter's coming when the and Richard were alone in his abfence:

Bedding field.

Suffolk. He was a young man, fcarce 24 years old. When he was about 20, he married a young woman fcarce : About Michaelmas 1761, fomewhat more than a year and a half ago, they hired two fervants, Richard Ringe, and Elizabeth Cleobold, a nurfc-maid, they having then two children living, one of which was not more than three months old. There alfo lived with them at that time Elizabeth Riches, William Materfon à Tad about 14, and John Nunn a boy of ten years old. 22 1962

Till this time the young couple had lived very happily together, but it happened, unfortunately, that Mrs. Biddingfied took a liking to

in the fame houfe, and fent them by the maids. Their criminal intimacy, however, had not been car

lait excels, if Ringe's

dying declaration is to be believed, but Mrs. Beddingfield's mind being more and more alienated from her hufband, fhe became impatient to get him out of the way, that the great obftacle to her connection with Ringe might be removed. She at length went fo far as to tell Ringe, that he could not be ealy till her husband was dead, that the might marry him. To this he faid he paid little regard for some time, but it being often repeated to him, he at laft liftened with too much attention, and it was agreed be tween them that Bedding field fhould be murdered.

After this refolution had been taken, Mrs. Beddingfield was week

enough

=enough to throw out intimations that fomebody in the houfe would die; =that it would happen foon, and that fhe thought it would be her hufband; and one day being putting on her cap in her chamber, and Cleobold the nurse-maid coming in, The defired her to put in her ear-rings, faying, It would not be long before she fhould want black ones. In the mean time Ringe was taking measures to accomplish these predictions, but was under the fame infatuation with, his miftrefs: As he was one night fitting up for his mafter with Eli zabeth Riches, his mistress being gone to bed, he took the ftrange refolution of telling her, that he had procured fome poison to poi fon his master, and urged her to administer it, by putting it into the rum and milk that he drank for breakfaft. The girl refufed; but he continued his follicitations, fay-. ing, He would be a friend to her as long as he lived, and that no-, body would know it.' The girl honeftly and fenfibly replied, That if it was hidden in this world, it would not be hidden in the world to come; and refused to concur in his horrid propofal fo firmly and warmly, that he urged it no more. The girl, however, not fenfible of the guilt fhe would incur by concealing a defign to commit a murder from the perfon against whom it was formed, nor ftruck with a fenfe of the expediency of fo doing, to prevent the murder from being actually committed, took no notice of what had paffed.

Ringe, finding that he could not get Riches to adminifter the poifon, refolv'd to take fome opportunity of adminiftering it himself; while he was watching for fuch opportunity it happened that his mafter

being flightly out of order took a vomit, and the water with which he was to work it off being made too hot, Ringe was fent to the pond to get fome cold water to mix with it; into this water, as her wast bringing it from the pond, he put fome arfenic, which he had bought of an apothecary at Aldeburgh, and being mixed with the hot water fome of it was given to his master; but his mafter obferving fomewhat at the bottom of the cup, refused to drink it, though without the least fufpicion that it was poison, and fo for that time efcaped the danger.

From this time the murderers feem to have given over all thoughts of effecting their defign by poifon, and to have formed the project of firangling Beddingfield in his bed.

The houfe feems to have had two rooms on the ground floor, befides what was called a back-house; one of thefe rooms was a kitchen, the other a parlour, over thefe there were two chambers, the first from the landing place was called the kitchen chamber, being over the kitchen, and out of this was a door that went into the other chamber, which being over the parlour was called the parlour chamber, and could only be entered through this door; on the other fide of the landing place was a chamber, called the back-house chamber, becaufe it was over the back-houfe, and joining to that, but divided from it by a partition of lath and, plaifter, was another chamber, which was alfo over the back-houfe, and to which fome back-fairs led from below, it having no communication. above ftairs with the reft of the houfe. Beddingfield and his wife

ufually

ber; the kitchen chamber feems to have been a spare room. Cleobold and Riches, the two maids, lay in the back-house chamber, and Ringe and the two lads, Masterion and Nunn, in the chamber joining to it, the lads in one bed, and Ringe in the other.

In order to give Ringe an opportunity of killing his mafter in the night, when he should think circumstances most favoured his defign, Mrs. Beddingfield found fome pretence for lying alone in the kitchen chamber, and he lay in the parlour chamber.

On the 27th of July laft, Beddingfield had been bufy in the harveft field, and had pitched a load of wheat; he had also fold a beast to one Scarlet a butcher, whom he brought home with him early in the evening; with Scarlet he drank part of two bowls of punch, freely, but not to be fuddled. Mrs. Beddingfield left him over his liquor about ten o'clock, and went to bed in the kitchen chamber, but as he had given fome intimation that he would not lie alone that night, and as fhe was, notwithstanding, determined he fhould not lie with her, she ordered Cleobold to come to bed to her, which he did; Riches, the other maid, was left to fit up till her mafter went to bed. In about half an hour Scarlet went away, and Riches lighted her mafter up stairs; when he came into the kitchen chamber, and perceived that Cleobold was in bed with his wife in that room, and as he could not go to bed to her there, as he intended, he defired her to go into bed in the parlour chamber with him; this the refufed, and he went into the parlour chamber

back again, and endeavoured to perinade his wife to come to him, which the til refufing they parted, and though with fome difcontent on his part, yet without anger; for they wifhed one another a good night. When Beddingfield went into the parlour chamber to bed, Riches retired to her own room, the back-houfe chamber; Ringe and the boys had been in bed an hour, and every thing was filent in a fhort time.

But Ringe, though he had retired about ten o'clock, and pretended to go to bed, had taken off only his coat, waistcoat, and fhoes, and lay down with his breeches and stockings on.

He had obferved that his master drank freely in the evening with Scarlet, and thinking he would go to bed fuddled, fuppofed he should attack him with advantage, and therefore determined to make his attempt that night as foon as he should be fallen into his first fleep.

1

Having this in his mind, he lay awake, watching to hear his matter come to bed; he did accordingly hear him come up, and go into the chamber, and having waited half an hour after that, and finding the house in a profound filence, he concluded that he was fallen afleep, and determined that he should wake no more.

He had given no intimation to his mifirefs of his having determined to commit the murder that night, nor did he know but that, as his mafter lay alone in the parlour chamber, the lay alone in the kitchen chamber: However, he got out of bed, and without putting on his coat or waistcoat, he

went into the kitchen chamber where his mistress lay, and finding the door into the parlour chamber open, he went into that, and coming up to his mafter's bed-fide, found him afleep. He flood, he faid, by the bed fide, almoft a quarter of an hour, doubting and irrefolate, before he could lay hold of him; but at last he threw himfelf upon him, catched hold of the fore part of his throat, and endeavoured to frangle him: he ftruggled very much, and, in ftriving together, both fell off the bed, and in their fall broke down the curtain rod in the fall, alfo, Ringe loft his hold, but immediately recovering it again in the fame place, and griping him hard, he foon killed him.

N

In the mean time the wife of this unhappy man was awaked by the noife, and, in her firft fright, awaked Cleobold the maid, who was in bed with her, and who, having been up all the night be fore, was fo faft afleep that the noife did not awake her: the immediately heard a groaning, as if fomebody was in an agony, and, being extremely frightened, begged her miftrefs to get up; but her mistress, having by this time recollected the horrid business that was doing, faid, They had better lie ftill. In about two minutes the noise ceased, and Ringe, coming into their room, and ftanding on that fide of the bed where his miftrefs lay, he faid, I have done for him; to which the replied, Then I am ecfy. Cleobold, in her confufion, ftarted up in the bed, and thinking it was Beddingfield, called Master! Ringe, who imagined his miftrefs had been in bed alone, cried, Hold your tongue; and, fpeaking again to his miltrefs

1

faid, Does any body know it but you two? to which the answered No. Cleobold now knew it was Richard, and faid, How came you here? His confcience referred the question to what he had been doing, and he anfwered, I was forced to it. The women immediately began to get their cloaths on, while Ringe ftaid in the room, and having fome of them on, and the rest in their hands, Ringe, knowing that Cleobold was now privy to the mur der, faid he would go to his own chamber to be called up, and accordingly went down ftairs. Soon after, Mrs. Beddingfield having conjured Clepbold not to difcover, went with her into the back-houfe chamber to the other maid, Elizabeth Riches; and, pretending to be very much frighted, faid, Betty, ga and call up Richard, meaning Kinge, Jomething is the matter with yours master. Riches, whofe chamber lay partly behind the kitchen chamber, and partly behind the parlour chamber, one ead of it coming against the partition which divided thofe chambers from each other, had been alarmed already by the noise, which the defcribed to be like the crying of children; the therefore rofe, and called Ringe haftily: He had again flipped into bed with his breeches and stockings on, and, when Riches called him, he pretended to be half furprifed and half angry," and cried out, What the devil's the matter now! but did not immediately rife. Riches therefore went into his room, and called him again, begging him to get up, and come away. He then rofe, and it appears by the trial, that he got a tinder box, and went into Riches's chamber and ftruck a light: This is a frage particular, for it looks

as