h, and a
bottle-screw. And that being taken by the Hue and Cry, and had before
Justice de Veil then sitting at the Sun Tavern in Bow Street, I should
have been committed to Newgate, tried, and most likely have swung for
the robbery, but for the strong intercession of my Captain, who was a
friend of the Gentleman robbed. That I was indeed enlarged, but was not
suffered to go scot-free, inasmuch as, being tried by court-martial for
absence without leave on the night of the gentleman's misfortune, I was
sentenced to receive three hundred lashes at the halberts. Infamous and
Absurd calumnies!

Behold me, then, in the beginning of the year 1747 in the Service of his
Sacred Majesty King George the Second. Behold me, further, installed in
no common Barrack, mean Guard-house, or paltry Garrison Town, but in one
of the most famous of his Majesty's Royal Fortresses:--a place that had
been at once and for centuries (ever since the days of Julius Caesar, as
I am told) a Palace, a Citadel, and a Prison. In good sooth, I was one
of the King's Warders, and the place where I was stationed was the
Ancient and Honourable Tower of London.

Whether I had ever worn the King's uniform before, either in scarlet as
a Soldier in his armies, or of blue and tarpaulin as a Sailor in his
Fleets, or of brown as a Riding Officer in his customs,--under which
guise a man may often have doughty encounters with smugglers that are
trying to run their contraband cargoes, or to hide their goods in
farmers' houses,--or of green, as a Keeper in one of the Royal
Chases,--I absolutely refuse to say. Here I am, or rather here I was, a
Warder and in the Tower.

I was bravely accoutred. A doublet of crimson cloth, with the crown, the
Royal Cipher G. R., and a wreath of laurel embroidered in gold, both on
its back and front; a linen ruff, well plaited, round my neck, sleeves
puffed with black velvet, trunk-hose of scarlet, rosettes in my slashed
shoes, and a flat hat with a border of the red and white roses of York
and Lancaster in satin ribbon,--these made up my costume. There were
forty of us in the Tower, mounting guard with drawn swords at the
portcullis gate and at the entrances to the lodgings of such as were in
hold, and otherwise attending upon unfortunate noblemen and gentlemen
who were in trouble. On state occasions, when taking prisoners by water
from the Tower to Westminster, and in preceding the Lieutenant to the
outward port, we carried Halberts or