Читать книгу John Law of Lauriston. Financier and Statesman, Founder of the Bank of France, Originator of the Mississippi Scheme, Etc онлайн

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With Wilson, Law had a serious difference, in which a Mrs. Lawrence, according to one account, and according to another Miss Elizabeth Villiers, afterwards Countess of Orkney, was concerned, and satisfaction could only be obtained by resorting to a duel. They met at midday on 9th April, in 1699, in Bloomsbury Square, and Wilson receiving a fatal wound, Law was arrested on a charge of having “of his malice aforethought and assault premeditated, made an assault upon Edward Wilson with a certain sword made of iron and steel of the value of five shillings, with which he inflicted one mortal wound of the breath of two inches, and of the depth of five inches, of which mortal wound the said Edward Wilson then and there instantly died.” Law was tried on the 18th, and two following days of the same month at the Old Bailey, before the King’s and Queen’s Commissioners, but notwithstanding the most skilful defence, was found guilty of murder, and condemned to be hanged.

His popularity with persons of rank now stood him in good stead at this critical juncture. The acquaintanceships he had assiduously cultivated during his brief stay in London were not without their value, and enabled him to draw upon their influence to serviceable purpose. The King’s mercy was invoked, and pardon was extended to the condemned man. His release, however, was not to bring him absolute freedom. An appeal was immediately made by Wilson’s brother to the Court of King’s Bench to have this apparently wrongful exercise of royal clemency cancelled. So general was the impression that justice had been flagrantly abused, that Law was again arrested and thrown into prison during the dependence of the appeal. Numerous technical objections were taken to the grounds of the charge, but all without success, and fortune seemed at last to have handed him over to the doom already pronounced against him. But expedients for escape had not been all exhausted. With the assistance of his friends he contrived, two days before his execution, to regain his liberty, and place his recapture beyond possibility. After overcoming his guard by the use of an opiate, and removing the irons with which he had been fettered by means of files surreptitiously conveyed to him, he climbed the high wall encircling the prison buildings, and, in the company of sympathetic associates, succeeded in reaching the Sussex coast, where a boat had been held in readiness to convey him over to France. The authorities made no serious effort to prevent his flight. Rather does it appear that, under the influence which formerly secured his pardon, they connived at his escape. Strength is given to this hypothesis by the misleading description of Law in the announcement offering a reward for the capture of the fugitive, which appeared in the London Gazette of 7th January, 1695, to the effect that “Captain John Lawe, a Scotchman, lately a prisoner in the King’s Bench for murther, aged 26, a very tall, black, lean, man, well shaped, above six foot high, large pock-holes in his face, big high nosed, speaks broad and loud, made his escape from the said prison. Whoever secures him, so as he may be delivered at the said prison, shall have fifty pounds paid immediately by the Marshall of the King’s Bench.”