第35章 A MODEL FOR MR HOGARTH(8)

Having regard to the period in which this confession was made, and considering the not too savoury reputations of Mary Tracey and the brothers Alexander, we can believe that those three may well have thought themselves lucky to escape from the mesh of lies Sarah tried to weaveabout them.It was not to be doubted on all the evidence that she alone committed that cruel triple murder, and that she alone stole the money which was found hidden in her hair.The bulk of the stolen clothing was found in her possession, bloodstained.A white-handled case-knife, presumably that used to cut Nanny Price's throat, was seen on a table by the three women who, with Sarah herself, were first on the scene of the murder.It disappeared later, and it is to be surmised that Sarah Malcolm managed to get it out of the room unseen.But to the last moment possible Sarah tried to get her three friends involved with her.Say, which is not at all unlikely, that Tracey and the Alexanders may have first suggested the robbery to her, and her vindictive maneouvring may be understood.

On more than one hand the crime is ascribed to Sarah's desire to secure one of the Alexanders in marriage.

It is said that when she heard that Tracey and the Alexanders had been taken she was highly pleased.She smiled, and said that she could now die happy, since the real murderers had been seized.Even when the three were brought face to face with her for identification she did not lack brazenness.Ay,'' she said, these are the persons who committed the murder.'' You know this to be true,'' she said to Tracey.See, Mary, what you have brought me to.It is through you and the two Alexanders that I am brought to this shame, and must die for it.You all promised me you would do no murder, but, to my great surprise, I found the contrary.''

She was, you will perceive, a determined liar.Condemned, she behaved with no fortitude.I am a dead woman!'' she cried, when brought back to Newgate.She wept and prayed, lied still more, pretended illness, and had fits of hysteria.They put her in the old condemned hold with a constant guard over her, for fear that she would attempt suicide The idlers of the town crowded to the prison to see her, for in the time of his Blessed Majesty King George II Newgate, with the condemned hold and its content, composed one of the fashionable spectacles.Young Mr Hogarth, the painter, was one of those who found occasionto visit Newgate to view the notorious murderess.He evenpainted her portrait.It is said that Sarah dressed specially for him in a red dress, but that copy--one which belonged to Horace Walpole--which is now in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, shows her in a grey gown, with a white cap and apron.Seated to the left, she leans her folded hands on a table on which a rosary and a crucifix lie.Behind her is a dark grey wall, with a heavy grating over a dark door to the right.There are varied mezzotints of this picture by Hogarth himself still extant, and there is a pen-and-wash drawing of Sarah by Samuel Wale in the British Museum.

The stories regarding the last days in life of Sarah Malcolm would occupy more pages than this book can afford to spend on them.To the last she hoped for a reprieve.After the dead warrant'' had arrived, to account for a paroxysm of terror that seized her, she said that it was from shame at the idea that, instead of going to Tyburn, she was to be hanged in Fleet Street among all the people that knew her, she having just heard the news in chapel.This too was one of her lies.She had heard the news hours before.A turnkey, pointing out the lie to her, urged her to confess for the easing of her mind.

One account I have of the Tanfield Court murders speaks of the custom there was at this time of the bellman of St Sepulchre's appearing outside the gratings of the condemned hold just after midnight on the morning of executions.This performance was provided for by bequest from one Robert Dove, or Dow, a merchant- tailor.Having rung his bell to draw the attention of the condemned (who, it may be gathered, were not supposed to be at all in want of sleep), the bellman recited these verses:

All you that in the condemned hold do lie, Prepare you, for to- morrow you shall die.Watch all and pray; the hour is drawing near That you before th' Almighty must appear.

Examine well yourselves, in time repent, That you may not t'eternal flames be sent: And when St 'Pulchre's bell to-morrow tolls, The Lord above have mercy on your souls! Past twelve o'clock!

It was once done by the parish priest.(Stowe's Survey ofLondon, p.195, fourth edition, 1618.)

The bequest of Dove appears to have provided for a further pious admonition to the condemned while on the way to execution.It was delivered by the sexton of St Sepulchre's from the steps of that church, a halt being made by the procession for the purpose.This admonition, however, was in fair prose.

A fellow-prisoner or a keeper bade Sarah Malcolm heed what the bellman said, urging her to take it to heart.Sarah said she did, and threw the bellman down a shilling with which to buy himself a pint of wine.

Sarah, as we have seen, was denied the honour of procession to Tyburn.Her sentence was that she was to be hanged in Fleet Street, opposite the Mitre Court, on the 7th of March, 1733.And hanged she was accordingly.She fainted in the tumbril, and took some time to recover.Her last words were exemplary in their piety, but in the face of her vindictive lying, unretracted to the last, it were hardly exemplary to repeat them.

She was buried in the churchyard of St Sepulchre's.