him his life. When he found that there was no hope of his recovery, he sent to Mr. Sayer, earnestly requesting to see him but Mrs. Sayer, who judged what he wanted, said that her husband had not had the small pox, and such a visit might cost him his life: she therefore insisted that her husband should not go; and the passive man tamely submitted to this injunction, though his wife daily sent a footman to enquire after the clergyman, who died without being visited by Mr. Sayer. This gentleman had not long been dead before his place was supplied by an officer of the guards; but he was soon dismissed in favour of a man of great distinction, who presented her with some valuable china, which she pretended was won at Astrop Wells. About this time Mr. Sayer found his affairs considerably deranged by his wife's extravagance; on which a gentleman recommended to him Mr. Richard Noble (the subject of our present consideration,) as a man capable of being very serviceable to him. His father kept a very reputable coffee house at Bath, and his mother was so virtuous a woman, that when Noble afterwards went to her house with Mrs. Sayer, in a coach and six, she shut the door against him. He had been well educated, and articled to an attorney of eminence in New Inn, in which he afterwards took chambers for himself; but he had not been in any considerable degree of practice when he was introduced to Mr. Sayer. Soon after his introduction into Mr. Sayer's family he became too intimate with Mrs. Sayer, and, if report said true, with her mother likewise. However these abandoned women had other matters in prospect besides mere gallantry, and considering Noble as a man of the world as well as a lover, they concerted a scheme to deprive Mr. Sayer of a considerable part of his estate. The unhappy gentleman, being perpetually teazed by the women, at length consented to execute a deed of separation, in which he assigned some lands in Buckinghamshire, to the amount of one hundred and fifty pounds a year, to his wife, exclusive of fifty pounds a year for pin-money; and by this deed he likewise covenanted that Mrs. Sayer might live with whom she pleased, and that he would never molest any person on account of harbouring her. Mr. Sayer was even so weak as to sign this deed without having counsel of his own to examine it. Not long after this Mrs. Sayer was delivered of a child at Bath : but that the husband might not take alarm at this circumstance, Noble sent him a letter, acquainting him that he was to be pricked down for high sheriff of Buckinghamshire; and Mrs. Salisbury urged him to go to Holland to be out of the way, and supplied him with money on the occasion. It does not seem probable that Sayer had any suspicion of Noble's criminal intercourse with his wife, for, the night before he set out, he presented him with a pair of saddle pistols and furniture worth above forty pounds. Soon after he was gone, Mrs. Sayer's maid speaking of the danger her master might be in at sea, Mrs. Sayer said, "She should be sorry his man James, a poor innocent fellow, should come to any harm; but she should be glad, and earnestly wished that Mr. Sayer might sink to the bottom of the sea, and that the bottom might come out." Not long after the husband was gone abroad, Noble began to give himself airs of greater consequence than he had hitherto done. He was solicitor in a cause in the court of chancery, in which Mr. Sayer was plaintiff, and having obtained a decree, he obliged the trustees nominated in the marriage articles to relinquish, and assumed the authority of a sole trustee. Mr. Sayer remained in Holland near a year, during which Noble publicly cohabited with his wife; and when her husband returned she refused to live with him; but having robbed him of above two thousand pounds, in exchequer bills, and other effects, she went to private apartments

with Noble, and was shortly after delivered of another child. After Mrs. Sayer had thus eloped from her husband, he caused an advertisement to be inserted in the newspapers, of which the following is a copy:

"Whereas Mary, the wife of John Sayer, Esq. late of Lisle-street, St. Anne's, went away from her dwelling-house, on or about the 23rd of May last, in company with Elizabeth Nevil, sister to the said Mary, and hath carried away near one thousand pounds in money, besides other things of a considerable value, and is supposed to go by some other name: he desires all tradesmen and others not to give her any credit, for that he will not pay the

same."

While Mrs. Sayer cohabited with Noble he was constantly supplied with money; but he was not her only associate at that time, for, during his occasional absence, she received the visits of other lovers. Noble now procured an order from the court of chancery to take Mr. Sayer in an execution for four hundred pounds, at the suit of Mrs. Salisbury, the consequence of a judgment confessed by him, for form's sake, to protect his goods from his creditors while he was in Holland. Mr. Sayer declared that the real debt. was not more than seventy pounds, though artful management and legal expenses had swelled it to the above-mentioned sum. Hereupon Sayer took refuge within the rules of the Fleet Prison, and exhibited his bill in chancery for relief against these suits, and the deed of separation, which he obtained. In the meantime Mrs. Sayer yet finding herself liable to be exposed by the advertisement her husband had caused to be inserted in the newspapers, she, with her mother, and Noble, took apartments in the Mint, Southwark, which was at that time a place of refuge for great numbers of persons of desperate circumstances and abandoned characters. Mr. Sayer being informed of this, wrote several letters to her, promising he would forgive all her crimes if she would return to her duty; but she treated his letters with as much contempt as she had done his person. Hereupon he determined to seize upon her by force, presuming that he should recover some of his effects if he could get her into his custody. He therefore obtained the warrant of a justice of the peace, and taking with him two constables, and six assistants, went to the house of George Twyford in the Mint; the constables intimating that they had a warrant to search for a suspected person; for if it had been thought that they were bailiffs, their lives would have been in danger. Having entered the house, they went to a back room, where Noble, Mrs. Sayer, and Mrs. Salisbury were at dinner; the door was no sooner open than Noble drew his sword, and stabbing Sayer in the left breast, he died on the spot. The constables immediately apprehended the murderer and the two women; but the latter were so abandoned, that while the peace-officers were conveying them to the house of a magistrate, they did little else than lament the fate of Noble. Apprehensive that the mob would rise, from a supposition that the prisoners were debtors, a constable was directed to carry the bloody sword before them, in testimony that murder had been committed, which produced the wished-for effect by keeping perfect peace. The prisoners wished to send for counsel; which being granted, Noble was committed for trial, after an examination of two hours; but the counsel urged so many arguments in favour of the women, that it was ten o'clock at night before they were committed. Soon afterwards, this worthless mother and daughter applied to the Court of King's Bench, to be admitted to bail, which was refused them. The coroner's inquest having viewed Mr. Sayer's body, it was removed to his apartments within the rules of the Fleet, in order for interment; and three days afterwards they gave a

verdict, finding Noble guilty of wilful murder, and the women of aiding and assisting him in that murder. On the evening of the 12th of March, 1713, they were put to the bar at Kingston, in Surrey, and having been arraigned on the several indictments, to which they pleaded not guilty, they were told to prepare for their trials by six o'clock on the following morning. Being brought down for trial at the appointed time, they moved the court that their trials might be deferred till the afternoon, on the plea that some material witnesses were absent: but the court not believing their allegations, refused to comply with their request. It was imagined that this motion to put off their trials was founded in the expectation that when the business at the nisi prius bar was despatched, many of the jurymen might go home, so that when the prisoners had made their challenges, there might not be a number left sufficient to try them, by which they might escape till the next assizes, by which time they hoped some circumstances would happen in their favour. It being ordered that the trials should commence, Mr. Noble and Mrs. Salisbury each challenged twenty of the jury, and Mrs. Sayer challenged thirtyfive. Here it should be observed, that all persons indicted for felony have a right to challenge twenty jurors, and those indicted for petit-treason thirtyfive; which may be done without alleging any cause. Happily, however, the sheriff had summoned so great a number of jurors, that the ends of public justice were not, for the present, defeated. Noble's counsel urged that some of the persons who broke into the house might have murdered Mr. Sayer, or, if they had not, the provocation he had received might be such as would warrant the jury in bringing him in guilty of manslaughter only. As the court had sat from six o'clock in the morning, till one o'clock the next morning, the jury were indulged with some refreshment before they left the bar; and after being out nine hours, they gave their verdict that Mr. Noble was Guilty," and Mrs. Salisbury and Mrs. Sayer were "Not guilty." When Mr. Noble was brought to the bar to receive sentence, he addressed the court in the following words :

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My Lord, I am soon to appear and render an account of my sins to God Almighty. If your lordship should think me guilty of those crimes I have been accused, and convicted of by my jury, I am then sure your lordship will think that I stand in need of such a reparation, such a humiliation for my great offences, such an abhorrence of my past life, to give me hopes of a future one, that I am not without hopes that it will be a motive to your lordship's goodness, that after you have judged and sentenced my body to execution, you will charitably assist me with a little time for the preservation of my soul. If I had nothing to answer for but killing Mr. Sayer with precedent malice, I should have no need to address myself to your lordship in this manner. It is now too late to take advantage by denying it to your lordship, and too near my end to dissemble it before God. I knew, my lord, the danger, the hell, that I should plunge myself headlong into; I know I shall soon have to answer for the truth I am now about to say, before a higher tribunal, and a more discerning judge than your lordship, which is only in heaven I did not take the advantage to kill Mr. Sayer, by the thought or apprehension that I could do it under the umbrage of the laws, or with impunity; nothing was more distant from my thoughts, than to remove him out of the world to enjoy his wife (as was suggested) without molestation. Nor could any one have greater reluctance or remorse, from the time of the fact to the hour of my trial, than I have had, though the prosecutors reported to the contrary, for which I heartily forgive them. My counsel obliged me to say

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on my trial, that I heard Mr. Sayer's voice before he broke open the door; I told them as I now tell your lordship, that I did not know it was him, till he was breaking in at the door, and then, and not before, was my sword drawn, and the wound given, which wound, as Dr. Garth informed me, was so very slight, that it was a thousand to one that he died of it. When I gave the wound, I insensibly quitted the sword, by which means I left myself open for him to have done what was proved he attempted, and was so likely for him to have effected, viz. to have stabbed me; and his failure in the attempt has not a little excited my surprise. When I heard the company run up stairs, I was alarmed, and in fear; the landlord telling me instantly thereupon, that the house was beset, either for me or himself, added to my confusion. then never thought or intended to do mischief, but first bolted the fore door, and then bolted and padlocked the back door, which was glazed, and began to fasten the shutters belonging to it, designing only to screen myself from the violence of the tumult. When he broke open the door, and not till then, I perceived and knew he was present: and his former threats and attempts, which I so fully proved on my trial, and could have proved much fuller, had not Mrs. Salisbury's evidence been taken from me, made my fear so great, and the apprehension of my danger so near, that what I did was the natural motion of self defence, and was too sudden to be the result of precedent malice: and I solemnly declare, that I did not hear or know from Twyford the landlord, or otherwise, that any constable attended the deceased, till after the misfortune happened. It was my misfortune, that what I said as to hearing the deceased's voice was turned to my disadvantage by the counsel against me, and that I was not entitled to any assistance of counsel to enforce the evidence, given for me, or to remark upon the evidence given against me; which I do not doubt would have fully satisfied your lordship and the jury, that what happened was more my misfortune, than my design or intention. If I had been able, under the concern, to remark upon the evidence against me, that Mr. Sayer was but the tenth part of a minute in breaking open the door, it could not then well be supposed by the jury, that I was preparing myself, or putting myself in order to do mischief, which are acts of fore thought and consideration; which require much more time than is pretended I could have had from the time I discovered Mr. Sayer; for even from his entry into the house, to the time of the accident, did not amount, as I am informed, to more than the space of three minutes. But I did not discover him before the door gave way. I wish it had been my good fortune, that the jury had applied that to me which your lordship remarked in favour of the ladies, that the matter was so very sudden, so very accidental and unexpected, that it was impossible to be a contrivance and confederacy, and unlikely that they could come to a resolution in so short a time. I do not remember that your lordship distinguished my case, as to that particular, to be different from theirs, nor was there room for it; for it is impossible for your lordship to believe that I dreamt of Mr. Sayer's coming there at that time, but on the contrary I fully proved to your lordship, that I went there upon another occasion, that was lawful and beneficial to the deceased; and I had no more time to think or contrive, than the ladies had to agree or consent. If any thing could be construed favourably on the behalf of such an unfortunate wretch as myself, I think the design I had sometime before began, and was about finishing that day, might have taken away all suspicion of malice against Mr. Sayer.-Must it be thought, my lord, that I only am such a sinner that I cannot repent and make reparation to the persons I have injured? It was denied; but I strongly solicited

a reconciliation between Mr. Sayer and his lady, and if this had tended to procure me an easier access to Mrs. Sayer, it would have been such a matter of aggravation to me, that it could not have escaped the remark of the counsel against me, nor the sharpness of the prosecutors present in court; with both I transacted, and to both I appealed, particularly to Mr. Nott, to whom, but the day before this accident, I manifested my desire of having them live together again, and therefore, my lord, it should be presumed I laboured to be reconciled to, and not to revenge myself on Mr. Sayer. Your lordship, I hope, will observe thus much in my favour, that it was so far from being a clear fact in the opinion of the jury, that they sat up all night, and believing there was no malice at that time, told your lordship they intended, and were inclined to find it manslaughter, and, doubting the legality of the warrant, to find it special. I hope this will touch your lordship's heart so far as not to think me so bad a man as to deserve (what the best of Christians are taught to pray against) a sudden death!-I confess I am unprepared; the hopes of my being able to make a legal defence, and my endeavours therein having taken up my time, which I wish I had better employed: I beg leave to assure your lordship, upon the words of a dying man, that as none of the indirect practices to get or suppress evidence were proved upon me, so they never sprang from me and I can safely say, that my blood in a great measure will lie at their door that did, because it drew me under an ill imputation of defending myself by subornation of perjury. I would be willing to do my duty towards my neighbour, as well as to God, before I die I have many papers and concerns (by reason of my profession) of my clients in my hands, and who will suffer if they are not put into some order; and nothing but these two considerations could make life desirable, under this heavy load of irons, and restless remorse of conscience for my sins. A short reprieve for these purposes I hope will be agreeable to your lordship's humanity and Christian virtue, whereupon your lordship's name shall be blest with my last breath, for giving me an opportunity of making peace with my conscience and God Almighty."

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The last request that Noble made was granted he was allowed some time to settle his spiritual and temporal concerns, and at length suffered at Kingston, on the 29th of March, 1713, exhibiting marks of genuine repentance. As to the ladies, they were no sooner acquitted than they set out for London, taking one of the turnkeys with them, to protect them from the assaults of the populace, who were incensed in the highest degree at the singular enormity of their crimes.

TURKISH ENTHUSIASM.

There are in Turkey two kinds of Monks, very different from each other, but equally remarkable. The difference between them proceeds from the sort of regulation that their founder has imposed respectively upon them; that of the Mewliach Dervise is to turn round like a totum, to the sound of a tolerably soft music, and to acquire a holy intoxication from the vertigos, which are the natural consequences of this strange exercise, if habit did not prevent that effect, which, however, they generally make up for at the tavern. The custom of the other monks, called Tacta-tepen, is more doleful, and more savage. It consists in gravely marching one after another round their chapel, and pronouncing the name of God with a loud voice, which they